#yknow sometimes i ask myself if i'd read what i wrote and the answer is a sad 'no.'

[hurting-fictional-people]

I adore your stories firstly! Their simply wonderful and so captivating to read :)

Secondly, I have a bit of a question do you have an tips on how to stop one's self from Info dumping.. I find I always get so caught up in descriptions it becomes pointless drabble basically... I've read some tips on Google but I'm just not really getting it you know?

Aww thank you so much! 🥺🥺💙

Hmm yeah I have that problem too, I really get you Anon

What I usually do is dump all that information in the first draft. Every single thing, even when I immediately go “uh maybe that’s not relevant”, I just put it there, just in case. When I’m done, I go back to reread it once, to catch a few mistakes and maybe some unnecessary info, but that doesn’t usually happen this fast. Now here’s my secret weapon: I leave it alone for a while. Usually for a day before I come back to it, so when I reread what I wrote, it’s with a fresh pair of eyes. That’s usually when I catch the info that doesn’t need to be there. The longer you give yourself, the more info dump you are likely to catch in my experience, because it’s more time you’ve spent not immersed in what you wrote. Even if it is a continuous story, just go on to the next chapter and leave the last one to reread later, and you’ll catch a lot of stuff then. Just take yourself off the writer's shoes when you come back to it, imagine you’ve never read that piece before and if you’d be interested in the details if that world weren’t yours, and you’ll probably see what feels like too much and what needs to stay.

Oh, also, sometimes I have to rewrite stuff. Betrayal Story for example, I usually write each part twice (some even more) before I’m happy with it, because sometimes there’s just so much info that I simply cannot clean it up and need to start over. If you are doing that (which is a great tip that I actually found on pinterest), try to reread the original chapter once to remember what it is about and your favorite scenes, and then write it from memory. You are likely to leave the unimportant stuff aside and the writing might flow better. Or, if you like what you have but know something feels a little dull, copy the piece into another document and change the new one until you’re happy with it, knowing that the original is still there if all the moving things around doesn’t work. I find that sometimes, I’m hesitant to delete entire paragraphs or entire scenes even because I’m like “but what if I need this later? What if it doesn’t make sense without it??” so for me at least, having the original document one click away makes it easier to cut stuff off and change all that doesn’t belong there.

TL;DR: write your piece and then leave it alone. When you come back to it, look at your work as a reader and cold-bloodedly ask yourself if you'd want to read it if you weren’t the writer. If the answer is no, it is editing time and you probably should cut some stuff off or try to rewrite it. And if that doesn’t work either, take some more time away and when you read it again you'll spot info dumps you hadn't before

Okay this is all I can think of right now, but please keep in mind that I’m talking about things that I found work for me specifically and I’m just writing for fun :) I think that spotting unnecessary info dumps comes with time, so just don’t stop writing, and it’ll get easier! And read! It’s when I read other people’s works that I find what makes me get bored and stop reading or be desperate for more, and know what to include and what to avoid when I’m writing. Anyway, I hope something here helps you, Anon <3

[beloved-child-of-the-house]

Fic Writer Questions! (you can find me here on AO3 if you're interested!)

tagged by dear @theburialofstrawberries mwah!

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

112 yowza!

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

750,421 kinda tempted to go delete one word so it can be 750420 which is a far more Pleasing number

3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

12ish but some of them overlap: BBCS/Sherlock Holmes/ACD (these are all different bc my bbcs fics are not the same as my own modern fem Sherlock Holmes adaptation are not the same as my ACD Holmes fic; Good Omens; Harry Potter/The Werewolf Draco Malfoy Cinematic Universe; Captive Prince; The Hobbit; Fleabag (it was a crossover with BBCS but Fleabag is the perspective character so it still counts as a separate fandom imo); Doctor Who; The Office; Parks and Rec; Broad City (one a piece for those last 5 but I AM going to write a Parks and Rec polycule fic for @gaykagome)

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

They're all Good Omens fics from the 2019 Summer of Good Omens! Susceptible to Summer, Fragments Shored Against My Ruin, Something So Magic, Enter Serpent, and Anything We Like

All of those have over 2k except the last one, but average engagement for me is like 400 kudos or so

5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try! It depends on what's going on with me. Sometimes I just don't have the energy, and I figure people would rather I spend my brain power on writing new fics than on writing replies to comments. Wish I had a fave button tho so I could let people know I read and reread comments, because I do!

6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Oh I wrote this ficlet series called A Chemical Defect about John and Sherlock's relationship in s3 of BBCS, and it's WILDLY unpopular. People don't read my fic to cry sad tears I guess! John and Sherlock are having an affair in the story, and it ends with the implication that their relationship is unsustainable and that Mary knows about it anyway. I intended to come back to it after s4 and write a more optimistic ending but LOL! Didn't have the heart.

7) What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

I know this answer is kinda up my own ass, but like. I think stories that feel true to life sort of feel like they end on a beginning if you know what I mean? You don't really consider a chapter of your life closed until you look back on it from the next? SO that said, I think I'd have to say that it's my big BBCS serial The Only One in the World. I spent 2 years writing it, and it ends with John retiring from medicine to solve crimes and write books full time.

Could also be my WDMCU (werewolf Draco Malfoy cinematic universe) series Moonrise, which starts with Draco isolated in his abusive mother's house, trying to cope with lycanthropy essentially alone and ends with him in love and surrounded by found family in a cozy cottage in Hogsmeade, having gotten some lycanthrope rights legislation passed after working at it for years and talking to Harry about whether they want to have kids. Oh man I feel warm and fuzzy just thinking about it

8) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I have written one crossover. It's BBCS/Fleabag, because me and @loudest-subtext-in-tv were laughing about how John seems like one of the horrible guys Fleabag sleeps with basically out of self loathing, so I wrote this fic to make Nattie laugh, and you should read it bc it's so good and so underrated.

9) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not really, but people don't seem to know that authors can read bookmark tags unless you private the bookmark, and someone once put in the bookmark tag on one of my fics 'writing was meh but it was okay.' Okay so why bookmark it then??

10) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Fuck yes! I'm not sure what 'what kind?' means? People fucking? Sloppy, silly, and awkward, with lots of laughing. I also really like writing afterglow scenes which are even sillier and gigglier and often involve one character cooking for another. Food as love language is a very distinct pattern of mine tbh

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of, but occasionally I'll write a post on here where I make some elaborate head canon, and I'll see people in the tags talking about how they want to write fic of it, and it makes me breathe fire out of my nose like a dragon like PLEASE DON'T. The WDMCU came out of a ficlet post I made on here like a year before I actually wrote the 60k series so like!!! Please don't do that!

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! To Russian and I believe Chinese. Not my entire oeuvre but a handful of BBCS and Good Omens fics

13) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, but I wrote a fic inspired by an RP I did with my gf right around when we met (actually now that I think about it, it's two fics), and I waaaaaaanna do a WDMCU collab with my beloved Sally @clytemenestras at some point if he has time bc he inspired me to even write werewolf draco with his original lesbian werewolf story

14) What’s your all time favorite ship?

favorites are hard for me? I always think I'm currently doing my best writing lol so I'll say drarry

15) What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I don't post fics unless theyre finished, so I don't have any WIP up on AO3, but I did intend to continue with my fem Sherlock Holmes series, Your Many Tendencies. I just haven't been in a Holmes mood for a long time. Maybe I'll come back to it idk. This particular series is honestly very unpopular? People will just straight up say they don't read femslash, and it hurts a lot. This series feels really personal too, bc it's about a Black autistic nonbinary lesbian, so it does hurt my feelings that no one seems to care, yknow? I mean the people who read it are extremely kind and thoughtful in their engagement with it, but it has vastly less engagement than my m/m fic, and that's painful. It gets literally 1/10 the attention my fics usually get.

16) What are your writing strengths?

Almost all of my writing is romance, but I tend to write concurrently about recovery and found family, and I think I'm very good at doing that in a way that connects with my audience. I once had someone ask if they could use my words in their wedding vows, and I've had people tell me they started doing things with their spouse that my characters do with their partners in order to express love. I think about that all the time. My Impact. It makes me feel like I have a real duty to my audience yknow?

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

This question is hard for me like I've been writing so long and so much that I'm literally always happy with my final draft! It's always exactly to my taste, yknow? I suppose I could say that my fics tend not to be terribly plotty but so WHAT? That's beside the fuckn point for me. Plot who? I don't know Her. Also honestly like. Stories feel more True to me when they aren't ruthlessly devoted to plot bc like life isn't like that yknow?

18) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

If you're not fluent in that language, get a beta who is!!!!! That said, I have written scraps of very simple dialogue in French using mostly Google Translate (sometimes I check w Sally bc he speaks French but I am usually too impatient), and I am perfectly well aware that I take my life in my hands each time!!! Also don't do that bullshit thing where it's in italics? That shit is weird and exoticizing. Just write it in quotation marks like normal dialogue.

19) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

BBCS babey back in 2012. Ended a 5 year dry spell for me after I got my writing degree.

20) What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Hmmmm I think it's probably gonna be the fic I'm working on now that I haven't posted yet, but I know it's called Names for a House, and here's a tiny bit of it

Thanks again Shreya for asking me to do this bc I really love talking about myself. I tag @the-moon-loves-the-sea, @clytemenestras, @tomiano, @gaykagome and @totallysilvergirl

No pressure <3

[allthingskakashi]

1, 13, 14, 19 for the ask game!!

Aaah i did this to get myself more into fanfic writer mode lol tysm for the ask!! 🥺

1) what's your favourite genre to read/write?

Okay so for writing.. i primarily liked to write fluff bc of the comfort and fuzzy feels it gave but lately I'm finding myself a lil tired of it so ig now I'm leaning towards smth w more... gravitas? Idk how to describe it lol like not angst per se although i do like writing angst even if i struggle to find ideas sometimes but just like, deeper and stuff w perhaps a greater range of emotions other than just happiness. And coming to reading, i like everything lmao just depends on what I'm in the mood for

13) which fic of yours do you think deserves more recognition?

I'm so fkn ecstatic about every like i get but uhhh I'd say....the home (Kakashis pov) fic. It's just cause i struggle so much to write short stuff and it was the one time i wrote smth short and it was also sorta accidental in the sense that i wasn't planning on writing anything and the words just flowed which is so rare bur i really liked the outcome. i personally felt pretty good about it and was kinda proud of it cause it felt deep and emotional and everything but it didn't do quite as well as some of my other less favourite fics sooo ig that lol

14) what is something you refuse to write?

Age gap and teacher/student relationships defo. Never gonna write any of that, obviously. And just in general ooc stuff. If anything feels too ooc I'm not gonna write it. Also kinks, i just donno how to write smth I won't personally have a liking towards

19) what's something you so desperately want to write, but you haven't gotten around to it yet?

Okay so I've always desperately wanted to write a multi chap fic yknow?? I've seen so many of them and it feels like you can really engage the readers and make such an immersive and compelling story that way but i never get any ideas and it seems too difficult lol. I did write one fic- the birthday boy one but that was just 3 chaps and what I want is to like have a proper long fic w at least 10 chaps or smth with a killer plot and banging ending. Only in my dreams ig.

Oh and there's this other fic I've wanted to write forever to the lyrics of "say you won't let go" by james arthur. It was gonna be a super sad fic and everything and i started writing it two or three times but it never turned out the way i wanted so i left it smh

Sorry for this long blabbering lmfao but it was really fun to answer, thanks so much again 🥺