#with irl stuff mixed in for bittersweet fun

[statisticalcats2]

I know Ahkmenrah speaking Hun is just a throwaway joke that doesn't have any logic or thought put into it, but I've kind of ended up with this idea that because of the type of being Ahkmenrah is, connected to death as he is, that he has an inherent understanding of dead languages.

It's not just humans who die, it's not just living beings that die. Languages die and are killed. And that counts for something in the universe.

After he starts pretending to be just a person working at the museum in it's new night hours, he gets to meet and hear a lot of different people from all over the world. He doesn't always understand their languages. Some of them he understands through the normal ways of learning. But sometimes he'll meet someone speaking a language that... isn't completely understandable but is... teetering at the edge, small sparks of recognition in him, almost understanding. And it's a very bittersweet thing to encounter once he realizes what's happening.

[dearreaders-things]

this was a lovely list of questions, and i enjoyed looking back over my works! if nothing else for me, this year was great for fic writing at least :D

i published 13, worked on about 11 other wips. woah

i worked on a chapter of a collab fic, which i've never done before!

probably chicago pd inspired me most this year (it falls perfectly in that area of the characters being brilliant yet trapped in source media that's good but flawed)

8 different fandoms

upstead! i went Through some stuff with this ship this year my lord. (also the sylki obsession + reylo obsession that never seems to die)

julian devorak Captured My Heart. i didn't expect to like his character that much when i started playing the arcana but i absolutely fell for him <3

both of the above were new for me this year!

ooh it's difficult to choose but love languages meant the most to me. (also, honourable mention to the as yet unpublished, unfinished, untitled upstead wip i have on the backburner. that one is really close to my heart.)

bittersweet made me the happiest, i had SO much fun writing it i could not shut up the whole time. i made my irls read the fic, i was that happy with it

this one's easy - ice cube was the most satisfying to finish. it was an idea i had in the wip folder for a long time, and also, it gave me a chance to revisit a ship/fandom i fell off writing for years ago, which was nice

most difficult would probably also be love languages just because of the format. (i wanted it to be a 5 + 1 things fic but ran out of time so 5 things it is.) time period, chapter titles, pov, so many decisions to make! plus it's the longest thing i've written so far.

hmm easiest to write might be dip of every neck. (maybe because it was largely inspired by a scene in another fic that i love)

shortest: my chapter of i <3 u, a collab work where each chapter had a 127 character limit (37 words). longest: love languages (8600 words).

ooh i listened to a bunch of music so if i start listing it'll just turn into spotify wrapped, but i listened to a lot of hozier (ofc), chance peña has good writing songs, and also billie eilish's new album was so good

MAN i went through so many terrible title ideas for balanced dualism

can i get one conversation at least is my favourite title, i mean it's a lyric but i love it. it was inspired by an upstead edit i saw on tiktok with that song, ugh it was great

“Jay holds it together shockingly well, once the crime lab rolls in.” - can i get one conversation at least

“Jay watches her silhouette leave. Sweet dreams, he thinks, hoping it’ll at least be true for Hailey.” - penance (wip but that's the last published line)

“Do you have any idea, Julian… how many times you asked me to do things to you? Even before you knew what I am. How many times have you offered up your neck for my teeth?” - bittersweet (aka the dialogue that gave me enough brainworms to write a whole fic)

“I do have one good arm left.”

“Right,” she corrects, and he snorts when the joke lands. “Your right arm is your good one. Don’t start mixing those up on me now, Detective.” - penance

ooh i mean i never expected to continue writing canon x oc fic this year and yet here i am!

as well as microsoft word, i discovered 4thewords this year (i liked its gamification). i write by hand when i have snippets that pop into my head randomly

finishing my fics for the all ships ship week!

i don't do a whole lot to celebrate finishing a fic per se, but after i've published them i always give them about a week to marinate before rereading them

nothing gives you the motivation to write more than reading more! fic and novels both. (also scrolling lists of prompts forever but-)

nah, writing it is for me

2 events: the aforementioned collab fic and the aforementioned ship week

oooh i would thank firstly my irl friends for putting up with me rambling about characters and fic, and occasionally reading my work. for that matter, thank you to everyone who's ever read and enjoyed my work, especially if you leave a comment, it makes my day <3 and also thanks to every author of all the many many fics i've read that made me go !!!!

wips watch out i Will be working on you these holidays

next year brings whumpuary which i might do 👀 and in general i just want to keep writing a bunch more, and be as self-indulgent as i want, all that good stuff <3

A slightly revised version of last year's questions! Two ways to play: Reblog and have your followers send you numbers, or answer the whole list!

How many fics have you worked on since January?

What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year?

What piece of media inspired you the most? (This can be the fandom you wrote the most for, the one that spawned the most ideas, the one you thought about the most, etc.)

How many fandoms did you write for this year?

What ships captured your heart?

What characters captured your heart?

Did you write for any new fandoms or ships this year?

What fic meant the most to you to write?

What fic made you feel the happiest to work on?

What fic was the most satisfying to finish writing?

What fic was the most difficult to write?

What fic was the easiest to write?

What were your shortest and longest fics posted this year?

What were your go-to writing songs?

What was the hardest fic to title?

What's your favorite title of the year?

Share your favorite opening line

Share your favorite ending line

Share your favorite piece of dialogue

Share your funniest line

What's something that surprised you while you were working on a fic? Did it change the story?

What writing programs did you use? Did you write by hand?

If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year?

Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic?

How did you recharge between fics?

Did you create fanworks other than fic?

How many events did you take part in? (bangs, exchanges, ship weeks, zines, prompt memes, they all count!)

If this were an awards show, who would you thank?

What's left on your to-do list for 2024?

What would you like to write next year?

[random-jot]

First Law Ask Meme

Tagged by @books-and-doodles !! ty!!

Favourite First Law Book: ooooh how could you make me choose! I think I might have to say Before They Are Hanged

Why: ok so I'm saying BTAH because while I enjoyed Blade Itself a lot, it was whilst reading BTAH that I truly got hooked on the series, the dynamics that emerge between the main POV characters, the conclusion to Bayaz'a quest, just so many good characters and moments. This book was the one where I knew this series was gonna be something extra-special

Top 5 Favourite Characters: Jezal, Logen, Monza, Shivers, Rikke

Jezal ohhhhh this boy's humility arc, we love to see it. Despite his flaws - and they are many - can't help but love him (which tbh is a sentiment that applies to every TFL character lmao)

Logen just a greatly written character, gotta love his grim sense of humour and his occasional glints of sage advice. His whole 'better to do a thing than live with the fear of it' philosophy has genuinely helped me get through some anxiety stuff irl

Monza this girl's got conviction, dude. Is her obsession over a streak of vengeance fuelled killings admirable behaviour? Not necessarily. But is she a complete and total badass regardless? Hell yes.

Shivers my boy!!! my lad. The North's no.1 sadboy to badboy arc. When he first showed up in LAOK I remember thinking it'd be kind of cool to get a POV from him, see his personal thoughts on the whole Logen situation, so when we got that in BSC I was delighted - and then through The Heroes, RC and the Age Of Madness books he just kept getting better, I love the arc he goes on, he is absolutely my favourite overall First Law character

Ferro just another absolute badass, love how much insight she has into the other characters she's travelling with, very cool to read her POV chapters

Top 5 Least Favourite Characters (and why): Oh I don't really know. Well, Bayaz and Yoru for what I suppose are obvious reasons, Stour Nightfall not just because he's a bad guy but because I don't think there was that much development to his character, and then I think I'd have to say Sworbreck after the stuff he pulled in Wisdom Of Crowds and finally maybe Arch Lector Sult I guess, he's a bad egg

Favourite ship: I gotta actually agree on Jexal x Ardee, they are not good for each other, but they do have a lot of sweet scenes, Jezal's mixed obliviousness and complete smitten-ness is always fun to read, and the bittersweet way that things end up between them just makes for a good story

Favourite region in the First Law series: hmm. I'm gonna say, just 'cause I really like the descriptions, all the abandoned places that Bayaz's crew travel through in BTAH, like I love the detail that in that one place there's no life, so the trees are dead but perfectly preserved because even rot is a kind of life, plus it all leans into your classic high-fantasy questing tropes, which I'm a sucker for

Top 3 Favourite Scenes: hmm, I think I'm gonna say a) the scene in LAOK where The Bloody Nine takes over Logen, b) the battle sequence for Carleon in Wisdom Of Crowds, and c) for the third one I think I've gotta say the 'interaction' that West has with Ladisla shortly after he earns his "Furious" nickname

How Were You Introduced To The Books? At university I would often peruse the Scifi/Fantasy/Horror section of Newcastle's local Waterstones - I remember i was looking specifically for fantasy stuff that had not been adapted into anything yet, and I remember picking up The Blade Itself, seeing the name 'Logen Ninefingers' on the back and thinking 'damn this sounds kinda cool.' I eventually bought said book and whaddya know, it was cool, and a couple years later, boom, First Law became my favourite fantasy series

Share A Quote Or Quotes You Love: as I mentioned above, "Better to do the thing than live with the fear of it" is such a resonant quote, and tbh all of Logen's little catchphrases are great, I also really love a lot of Cosca's cynical tidbids, in Best Served Cold I believe he says something about how 'most men will bend or break their morals at the first problem, or even inconvience' (I'm paraphrasing bc I can't find the exact quote, but Nicomo Cosca is just a well of great quotes)

Tagging: @autoapocrypha @xillionart @myu2k2 AND anyone else in the First Law fandom who wants to do it, just go ahead and say I tagged you!

[demonfox38]

Fanfic writer asks - 3, 4, 15, 16, 20? If five isn't too much. Hell, just pick what you want to answer of those, I couldn't narrow it down.

Gonna put this behind a cut because dang, did I go on!

name three favoritewriters

H. G. Wells, Stephen King, and Douglas Adams. While I couldtear my hair out every time I read an H. G. Wells story (in terms offormatting), I appreciate his contributions to science fiction as a whole, and that’susually enough to get me through his work. With Stephen King, it’s definitelymore of a trashy interest, but his short story “All That You Love Will BeCarried Away” is particularly resonant. That, and B-movies were formative to ourdevelopment. Finally, it’s kind of hard not to be in love with the way DouglasAdams decides to veer off topic for entire chapters just to detail random crap.I could do without his thirty pages of professing his love for Macintoshcomputers in the first Dirk Gently book, but it’s hard not to like a guy whodecides to say “Fuck it. This chapter’s from the POV of a whale randomlymaterialized in the air falling to its death. Have fun!”

I think most of the authors I like can be classified intothe “blasted out a lot of stuff; has a couple of admirable traits” category,though.  Like, Phillip K. Dick and EdgarAllen Poe could easily make this list, if I could remember more than a handfulof their works. I might be on board with Jules Verne or Victor Hugo, if I getaround to reading their works. However, I think more of my writing style comesless out of literature and more out of pulp films/80s cartoons/questionablytranslated 90s video games/pieces of mythology or fairy tales.

For a final laugh—Hans Christian Anderson and I share abirthday. It may make the mermaid fascination a little clearer.

name three authorsthat were influential to your work and tell why

I’ve got a copy of Stephen King’s “On Writing” sitting in myoffice, so that should be pretty telling. But, by the same standard, E. B.White should be just as influential. I also have Christopher Vogler’s “TheWriter’s Journey” in my bedroom, but I think that may be along the same line ascrediting TVTropes for a writing influencer.

Although, if we’re talking about authors who genuinelytaught me a lesson—Peter S. Beagle is the first author I’ve come across that wrotebittersweet endings in a palatable way. I’m genuinely upset that it took meuntil I was an adult to read “The Last Unicorn” because of how well its endingmixed victory and loss. Helped mature me considerably, both as an author and aperson.

hardest verse towrite/ easiest verse to write

I’m going to combine this question because intentionallywriting poetry is a difficult task for me, all around. Despite having had somepractice with this in college/high school, I can’t help but shake the feelingthat any poetry I write sounds just like my grandmother’s rhyming Christmas letters.(That is, to say, cringy and amateur.)

I tend to respond better and write better if I can visualizewhat I’m writing as something intended to be played like a musical piece. So,formal verse tends to be easier since I can get a set of rules. Having saidthat, iambic pentameter really bothers me. I think it’s because I want it to beoctameter instead? Something easily divisible by four. Also, I think my enunciationIRL is off what other people say, so I get hung up on what is supposed to be astressed syllable or not.

I think I’ve written onewhole poem on Tumblr, so it’s clear how often I like to dip into thatterritory.

favorite character towrite

Arikado Genya, at the moment. (Specifically Arikado and notAlucard, but that’s slicing hairs.) I think he has enough roots from othercharacters that I like that it’s just easy to throw him at a problem and seehow it goes. Though, there are a fair amount of characters that I like that overlapwith him. At a sharper focus, “Tales of Symphonia”’s Regal Bryant. Fuzzier,perhaps the Engineer, Sniper, or Spy from “Team Fortress 2.” Maybe even “TeenageMutant Ninja Turtles”’s Splinter, but TMNT characters are usually bare bonesenough that you can get away with a lot of interpretations.

Though, I think I do a pretty damn good job in trying towrite for ladies in whatever fandom I’m active in at the moment. At the veryleast, I try to push forward characters that others would either ignore orwrite off (particularly, Mina Hakuba, Annette and Maria Renard from “Castlevania”and Miss Pauling or the Scout’s mom from “Team Fortress 2.”) I’ve always got aninternal battle going between the second and third wave feminists in my head,but I try to bring the latter out more when I can.