#and now i'm working through the last of svsss

[benevolenterrancy]

alright folks, I'll probably finish SVSSS v4 by this weekend (pray for me) and then I'll be done all of MXTX's books and I have no idea which series to try next... So!! I'm going to pose the question to people that might have more experience in the genre! These are ones I've either incidentally acquired or been recommended

[veliseraptor]

genuine qn!! can you tell us more about mxtx and her preoccupations thematically and including character types and and relationship dynamics, so interesting

oh man so we'll see how long it takes me to answer this ask because I could probably write a whole goddamn essay for this. with footnotes and everything. am I tempted, yes, but the last time I did that it took me like a year and a half and I'm pretty sure nobody cared

anyway, yeah! mxtx is definitely a writer where I feel like I can see the throughlines in a lot of her work pretty clearly. some of these are probably generic and I'm only somewhat equipped to recognize those (being yet a novice in the world of danmei specifically and cnovels more generally), so I can't be certain all of this is mxtx and not just the generic milieu she's working within. but I tried to parse it out based on what I've noticed.

I focused on thematics because that's what I personally find most interesting (and easiest to elaborate on, since some of the relationship dynamics are less specific to MXTX than they are romance conventions, a genre I am less familiar with).

this is necessarily an incomplete list because I haven't reread in a hot minute and also I am, again, not writing a complete essay for this (right now)

Justice/injustice. This one recurs across all three novels, both in terms of the desire for justice and the ways in which injustice is woven into the fabric of society and sometimes, it seems, almost inevitable. There's something deeply pessimistic, for instance, about the way that MDZS deals with this question, or at least a certain ambivalence, but in general I would say it's a theme of MXTX's work that people don't get what they "deserve", and what is or would be just is at best a difficult and often an unanswerable question.

Cycles of revenge/violence. Relatedly: MXTX seems to me very concerned with cycles of revenge and violence and what comes of them - namely, nothing. In SVSSS you see it with Shen Jiu and PIDW!Luo Binghe in particular, and how Shen Yuan's cutting of that violent cycle transforms not just Luo Binghe but the fate of the world as a whole. In MDZS you see it most clearly with the Nie Mingjue/Jin Guangyao/Nie Huaisang situation, which ultimately ends with nobody winning, but also in Jin Ling's explicit rejection of revenge at the end of the novel. In TGCF you can see it in Black Water Arc, where - again - nobody wins, but you can also see it with Xie Lian and Jun Wu. This further relates to:

Disinterest in/distrust of punitive impulses. This is the one I wrote a whole essay about! But in general I think that MXTX is...skeptical...of the impulse to punishment/retaliation, because of the stance she seems to take that violence only ever begets violence and never makes anything better. Again this threads back to the aforementioned "nobody gets what they deserve" thing - because if nobody gets what they deserve, who decides what anyone deserves?

Ambivalence about the "fixability" of society at large. This also kind of goes back to the first point on this list, and specifically I think is illustrated through the fact that two of three of her main pairings retreat from the world at large at the end of their stories. They aren't completely removed from society, but they are distanced from it - in both cases, I would argue, out of some disillusionment with its functioning and/or their place within it. There is a certain feeling in MXTX's work that society is, if not irreparably broken, fundamentally unjust in a way that is difficult to change. (I think TGCF is an interesting outlier in this way, actually.)

Class/status dynamics. I'm not saying that MXTX is, like, writing about class or status, but I am saying that she seems to be interested in the role that it plays in shaping/defining a character, given how often it turns up as a factor - in Shen Jiu, in Luo Binghe, in Jin Guangyao, in Wei Wuxian, in Mu Qing, in Hua Cheng, even in Xie Lian's crash from the heights of wealth to the depths of poverty.

The fickleness of the crowd. This also has to do with the importance of rumor and reputation, but what it often seems to come down to in terms of impact is how quickly people at large change their minds and bend to the beliefs of the people around them; how much attitude toward a person is informed by, and defined by, public opinion - regardless of that opinion's basis in truth. Often, explicitly, in spite of the opinion's basis in lies.

[bloopitynoot]

Reading TGCF: Chapter 67

For those who don't know, I am reading TGCF for the first time and sharing my thoughts!

If you have not read it, there will be spoilers! Consider this a warning.

Also- if you want to follow along, I am aiming to post updates daily. You can find all the posts in the tag Bloopitynoot reads TGCF. You can also check out the intro post for context on my read BUT if you followed along with my SVSSS read, the rules and vibe are the same.

Today's drink of choice is hot water. I am going to the farmers market this morning and I need to be on my A game LOL.

Charlie update things for anyone interested (totally feel free to skip);

So we got a call from the vet quite late last night and totally expected the worst. BUT some good news- it is not lymphoma! We were really worried (and out vet as well) that it might have been lymphoma.

Instead they found that he has Neutrophilia (elevated white blood cells) and that paired with other tests left him with the diagnosis of a bacterial infection in his liver (or hepatitis) BUT the treatment is the same.

Our little guy has a slew of meds but we are hopeful he is on the mend. We were even told his blood work from yesterday showed his liver markers decreasing with the liver support medication he has been on as a precaution the last two weeks (he is no longer in liver failure!) though he is still yellow as hell.

This is much better news than we though <3 it'll be a lot of care work but the vet is hopeful he will get better.

okay now that I have shared the good good news; let's go chapter 67!

Wait, all the ghosts are affected? p273

I feel bad for Guzi going through it this entire time. This kid is going to be so traumatized and confused. p274

WAIT WAIT WAIT I HAVE SEEN THIS ART (points to cover dramatically). AH p276

Yeah, sure, it's the spiritual power, "Maybe it was because Hua Cheng's spiritual power was too potent, but Xie Lian felt filled to bursting by the warmth flowing down his throat, through his chest, and all the way in to his stomach" p277

I would argue that the altar is still a place to worship the divine- [points to cover art] exhibit A. No take backs, I am not wrong. ^-^ p278

My heart! One page Xie Lian is admitting his feelings for Hua Cheng to himself, the next page he is not truthful to Hua Cheng about what happened :( pp278-279

Oh damn. That's what that mountain means. p280

Feng Xin and Mu Qing fighting again. I have grown to love these two so much. The speed in which I will be reading their enemies to lovers/miscommunications fics when I am done reading this series will break the sound barrier. p281

I'm so damn annoyed. How did everyone Xie Lian apprehend (all the very dangerous ghosts) escape. When did this happen? Why is Jun Wu just telling them all now. Seems like a security issue. SO suspicious! pp282-283

I have my eye on Jun Wu

This guys seems suspicious as fuck. He's supposed to be the one in charge but he's done absolutely nothing and doesn't even seem to care about this security threat. VERY suspicious that 1. he didn't tell anyone these people escaped when they did or 2. that they all escaped under his watch at ONCE and he was so casual about it.

BUT ALSO I have lost track and need to know how many times in the past 48 hours these tow have made out but still believe it's unrequited.

[ro-ren31]

I need a crack fic of SVSSS and Total Drama Island

All of the competitors would be characters from svsss, except for a few who would be either ocs, characters from TDI, or even characters from other MXTX works.

Chris McLean does as he does and throws the wildest challenges at them,

Luo Binghe and Liu Qingge are both a little feral and would do the wildest things to win, I don't think either of them really care about the money, they're just competitive.

Zhuzhi-lang came here because Tianlang-Jun told him he needed to socialize more, Shen Yuan was nice to him on the first day, and now ZZL follows him like a lost puppy.

Shang Qinghua is in TDI, hates absolutely everything about the place except for Shen Yuan, and that one large hot guy (Mobei), but he is desperate for the money and so is actually pretty good at the game.

Shen Yuan is there because Shang Qinghua had dared him to send an audition and didn't think either if them would get in. When they did Shen Yuan decided to just go with the flow, he hates some things, loves others, and doesn't care much about the money prize.

(Shen Yuan also becomes part Disney princess, because TDI is full of feral forest animals and somehow Shen Yuan tamed them all, )

Because TDI has the characters in teams, Team 1 would be Shen Yuan's suitors. Essentially, anyone who has liked Shen Yuan at some point, while team 2 would be Shen Yuan and his platonic group (Ning Yingying, Ming Fan, Qi Qingqi, Liu Mingyan, Shang Qinghua) anyone who hast liked him romantically. (It will probably be filled with mostly girls, and yes, Liu Mingyan is there because Chris McLean would absolutely put a pair of siblings in the show just to pit them on different teams.) (Actually I'm pretty sure he did that once)

The teams will be evened out by the third-party characters. Throughout the challenges of TDI, all of the suitors will fall for Shen Yuan in some way, and Shen Yuan's team members each have a favorite. They also help their favorites in battles of affection, while sabotaging the other suitors, in exchange for help in some of the challenges of course.

Nobody outside of the suitors really get why they all love Shen Yuan so much. Sure, he can be cute and he is as vicious as he is kind, but the guys gaining over him could all do better. Even the audience who watch the interactions between the different suitors and Shen Yuan only understand it a little.

In one of the late challenges, like last 6 or something, the contestants all have to do something in a certain amount of time that will shock the judges. Some decide to go absolutely wild, others decide to do something completely dangerous. Shen Yuan instead plotted.

Shen Yuan finds out that Chris will be inviting one of the investors as a guest judge, finds said investor, (with the help of some intern friends and maybe Chef) and convinces them to let Shen Yuan Judge in their place, the investor is all for it.

Shen Yuan goes through the things he brought and got a few favors from enough different people and interns for no one to truly know what he was doing, then he changed his glasses for contacts, fixed his hair, put on an expensive outfit and make up. He grabbed a fan from the bottom of his luggage that he hadn't needed for anything and planned to use it as a cover for his face, then he had one of the inters tell Chris that the Investor had to go for an emergency and sent someone to judge in their place. And with all of that happening, on the day of the competition Shen Yuan simply walked to the judges table and looked st everyone coldly, he didn't speak and just judged. When Chris called for Shen Yuan to come out on stage and present their shocking object, Shen Yuan simply snapped the fan and put it down before smiling.

----BONUS

Tianlang-Jun was the investor. He saw son wanted to join TDI, convinced his nephew to also join. And then he threw money at Chris to keep up with the drama and dangerous stunts. He finds the show absolutely hilarious.

[magpiefngrl]

halfway through 2024 book review

June isn't over yet but I'm looking at a couple of very busy weeks so it's unlikely I'll read a gazillion new books or something by end of month. So we do this now!

books I enjoyed so far

Aliette de Bodard's Dominion of the Fallen series, set in a post-apocalyptic Paris with fallen angels and magic and dragons in the Seine. I didn't quite love the three main novels, but I enjoyed how unique the world-building was. However, I REALLY loved the last two novellas about Asmodeus and his husband Thuan, who are a delicious pairing. The novellas are: Of Charms, Ghosts and Grievances and Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders.

Pacat's Dark Heir, which I enjoyed so much that I went back to reread Dark Rise and then again, Dark Heir. I liked the second novel a lot more than the first (and I actually ended up appreciating the first novel more on my reread). Needless to say, I am very, very impatient about the end of the series.

A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel. KJC has done it again. The sequel to her Doomsday Books series is fantastic, with a vivid cast, an excellent main pairing, and superb pacing. Couldn't put it down. A great historical m/m romance.

The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold. I'd heard a lot about Miles and it was fun seeing him bullshit his way across the galaxy.

The Mountains of Mourning by Lois McMaster Bujold. A novella in the Vorkosigan saga. Very touching and emotional and a great character study of Miles. Really loved this.

Newcomer by Keigo Higashino. This dude is seriously amazing at crafting unusual murder mysteries. This one is structured as vignettes of shop-owners in a Tokyo neighbourhood and, as the stories progress, more light is shed on the mystery of a strangled woman.

Faithful Place and The Secret Place by Tana French. Fantastic prose, absorbing murder mysteries that are more like deep character studies as well as an incisive portrait of contemporary Ireland.

The Lady of the Lake by Andrzej Sapkowski. This is pretty grim at times, ngl, but it has a daring structure with lots of POVs, switching between numerous timelines, a frame device, lots of found materials (essays and chapters from fictional books). All that worked for me very well. I love some experimentation with craft. I wouldn't say it was my fave read, but I'm happy that I finally reached the end; completing a series always gives me a dopamine rush so yay

progress on my reading goals

A reminder that my two goals for the year are:

to read (some or all of) the Vorkosigan saga

to read less or no US authors

I'm doing pretty well on those two scores. Read a few installments of the Vorkosigan saga, and (besides Bujold and a poetry anthology by Maggie Smith) have read no other US-based authors. My intention was to diversify my reading and, indeed, so far, I've read French, Japanese, Polish, UK, Australian, Irish, and currently reading a Ukrainian author.

fics I loved

I've not read as many books as I normally do so far, esp in the last couple of months, but I read a lot more fic than recent years. I've read some fab stuff in a variety of fandoms. The fics I'm going to rec below are the longer ones that I read on my ereader:

Tarnished Gold by Prim_the_Amazing (bingqiu/svsss, M, 118k) Inventive premise. Couldn't put it down.

Memory (T, 23k) and Out of the Dead Land (M, 62k), both stucky, both orphaned by one of my top authors ever. The second one gave me the worst fic hangover I had in ages. I had to go and rewatch Captain America.

contrapasso by damagecontrol (jegulus, E, 41k) Very horny. I like that.

Fire Burn and Caldron Bubble by pastapug (jegulus, E, 40k) Lush language, fascinating setting.

Beholden by Faith Wood (faithwood) (drarry, E, 123k) Gave me all the drarry feels.

Shout out to @hoko-onchi-writes's WIP: To Hold You in the Earth's Unholy Din, which I am loving <3

That's all, folks. Here's hoping for more wonderful reads till December!

[mxtxfanatic]

Hello, new danmei fan here. I'm really late into danmei, just started last year (so I missed the hype). Just when I confused which blog to follow, I found your blog. Thanks so much for this blog of yours, it really helped me to understand more of the stories. I just finished MDZS, TGCG, SVSSS and now I'm reading 2Ha.

For this ask game, can I ask MDZS or SVSSS?

Before I start reading, many people said that SVSSS is inferior to other MXTX works, after finishing the books, I disagree, because I enjoy them all the same....

I mean, if starting last year is considered "late," then I'm also behind, because I only started reading things a few years ago lmao! But it's never too late when fandoms are still booming (for better or worse). So I see we're finishing out the mxtx novels.

MDZS

Favorite Character: Wei Wuxian

Favorite Arc: all Drunk Lan Wangji encounters!

Character I Think is Underrated: Lan Wangji, if i have to hear “he’s boring” from people who can’t read one more time…

Character I Think is Overrated: all of the antagonists and villains. Jiang Cheng is not "single mother!jiujiu," he is just a bitchless Wen Chao. Jin Guangyao is not "poor little Meng Yao forced to do things against his will," he is a a calculating murderer who will scheme against, betray, and kill anyone who stands between him and ultimate power. Madam Yu is not a "girlboss" (unless we accept the real meaning of that word, which is a woman who gains power by ingratiating herself into oppressive systems as the female alternative to corrupt male leaders), she is a domestic abuser who made every single person in her family and husband's clan miserable.

Favorite Ship/Pairing: Wangxian

Something I Love About the Book: I love the way this book is adamant about good always eventually being rewarded. That even if the outcome of doing good was terrible, that does not make the effort wasted or useless. Lan Wangji protecting Wei Wuxian at Nightless City was worth it even if he was almost killed for it, because it made sure that the yin tiger tally did not end up in the Jin Clan's hands as a completed weapon. Wei Wuxian saving the Wen was worth it even though he was killed for it, because A-Yuan got to live. Wen Qing and Wen Ning saving Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian was worth it even though Jiang Cheng betrayed them in the end, because their clan still got to live through its last descendant. None of their actions were met with immediate rewards, but the larger implications of them led to better outcomes than had they just kept to themselves and the status quo of corruption, as everyone else had.

SVSSS (my favorite of the three 🤗)

Favorite Character: Luo Binghe, hands down

Favorite Arc: Holy Mausoleum Arc, cause y'all (Shen Qingqiu 😒) gonna stop falsey accusing my baby, today!

Character I Think is Underrated: Bing-mei version of Luo Binghe, not because he's "unpopular," per se, but because mainstream fandom's perception of him seems to be that he is just Bing-ge who cries, and this is a complete mischaracterization of his character based on popular fanon. I see too much hate for him in this fandom because of it

Character I Think is Overrated: Shen Jiu. The man was a child abuser and died to one of his victims because he chose to be a child abuser. There is nothing tragic or unfair about that. Leave that man in the ether where he'll hopefully never have a chance to harm another person again.

Favorite Ship/Pairing: Bingqiu

Something I Love About the Book: Shen Qingqiu. The man is trying his damndest to do right in what he considers a doomed narrative, but the moment he realizes that his efforts have actually made things worse, he immediately pivots his actions. He never tries to justify himself, deflect from criticism, or misplace responsibility. He has one goal in mind, and that is to make as many people's lives as he possibly can better than what they originally ended up as.

[neonghostcat]

Brain Overflow

You know how in my last 'state of the author' post I said I could feel the urge to write coming back?

Oh, it has.

It's terribly inconvenient too. I'm going to tell you a little about some of the things I've been thinking of and then whine/wibble a tiny bit if you click through to behind the cut. (You don't have to read the last bit!)

I've written down three different SVSSS (LiuShen) ideas in the last couple of weeks, added a few thoughts to older ideas, made a mental note of possible Cultivate extras, and just refused to write down others so as not to encourage rampant plot bunny breeding.

But let me tell you about a few of them because I'm hoping it reduces the urge to work on them better than just typing up notes.

The Lady Blackbird fusion Not sure what Lady Blackbird is? Well, it's a free tabletop rpg that you can download here. But the TL;DR is, "Sort of like steampunk Star Wars: A New Hope + Firefly + potential Jane Austen novel, if you want." I'll just C&P the pitch here: Lady Blackbird is an Imperial noble fleeing from an arranged marriage to be with her secret lover, the pirate king Uriah Flint. To reunite with him, she has hired a notorious smuggler and the crew of his skyship, The Owl. However, The Owl has been captured by an Imperial cruiser. How will Lady Blackbird and the others escape? What dangers lie in their path on the way to the pirate king’s lair? Can you see where this is going? (Actually, probably not your first thought, no.) We start with Shen Yuan transmigrated in a xianxia-by-way-of-steampunk gown, sitting in a jail cell with several men, a teenage boy, and a veiled teenage girl. System helpfully informs him that he is now "Lady" Blackbird, on the run to end up in the arms of Pirate King Mobei-Jun. His cell-mates are, as follows: Smuggler Captain Liu Qingge, Lady Blackbird's personal bodyguard Liu Mingyan who suggested her brother when LB said she wanted to escape, the ship's mechanic Shang Qinghua, the ship's doctor Mu Qingfang (or they pick him up later, I haven't decided), and "a goblin named BingBing". While SY is busy freaking out that System can't fool him - that's the Protagonist, Luo Binghe!!! wtf!!! System says "later, loser" and more-or-less abandons him (though still employing an OOC ban). So now you can probably see where this is going, lol. It involves at least a brief period where SY has to crossdress and pretend to be one of Binghe's future wives - a fiancée/wife of Mobei-Jun as Liu Qingge gets very conflicted feelings about his troublesome passenger. Featuring lots of Cumplane friendship, sassy MQF (as a treat), teenage smirking (likely aided and abetted by the adults), and space whales (naturally). I have not yet fully decided if the story Shen Yuan read was PIDW and now he has to figure out how the infiltration of "space with gears on it" into his xianxia has fucked up what he and Airplane know, or if the story was something like "Proud Immortal Starlit Way" and it was always like that. (Thoughts?) ---

The "SY Bodysnatches MQF" idea What it says on the tin... SY accidentally ends up in MQF's body instead of SQQ's. Only MQF isn't gone - he remains. This occurs directly before the Demonic Invasion and double qi deviation part of the plot and they rush back to the sect to deal with that. Then things get messy while they conspire to get SY his own body. Featuring: An extremely confused Liu Qingge, eventual Shenbros, and aro-ace MQF being very bemused at all times. ---

The "LQG Gets De-Aged/Age-Regressed" idea As you can guess: LQG gets age-regressed. This happens in Lingxi Caves instead of his death-by-deviation. He latches onto SY-SQQ and SY-SQQ is helpless to do anything but take the cute kid in. Featuring: BingLiu friendship, possibly Bing-other disciples friendship, but mostly establishing bro-code that makes Binghe switch his infatuation with SY-SQQ into family feelings as soon as LQG regains his adult body and it becomes clear that LiuShen is happening. ----

This is along with: Joint Custody (LiuShen), my SJ-SQQ second-chance redemption fic (LiuShen and LiuJiu, but different LQGs), a peak lords ascension fic using Cultivate's backstory (LiuJiu), a LiuShen timeloop fic, and at least another half a dozen fic ideas sitting in the hopper that aren't nearly as developed/that I am not burning to write yet.

I'd love to know which ideas you guys are most interested in. ;) Joint Custody is still next regardless and I'll probably not be working on either of the LiuJiu fics in the near future because they are definitely 100k+ territory and I'm still not ready for that. But knowing people are hype for something keeps me hype. ;3

I'll probably be in this fandom awhile, y'all. Please send help.

Sadly, I can't work on any of them yet, because I have over 2,600 messages in my inbox waiting for me to respond to. (This is not a humble brag - this is thousand-yard-stare territory. It was somewhere over 3000 for awhile until I started making a list of people who generally only left emojis or thanks and let them know that I was going to just thank them for all of them in one email so they didn't peppered by replies in kind.)

Not that I'm complaining about them, because I missed replying to comments so much (it's genuinely one of my favorite parts about writing fanfic), but it's still a lot and even if I could manage 100 replies a day (which for mental health reasons, I really can't), it's going to take awhile.

RIP.

More importantly - I hope you are well! 🌼

[thebeingofeverything]

Get to know me tag game

Tagged by @mikkeneko and @philosophicalparadox and sorry it took forever it has been a hellasciously crazy last few weeks 😩

Last Song: "Pet" by a perfect circle

Favorite Color: definitely changes but currently it's a forest or olive green

Last Book: "Golden Terrace" by cang wu bin bai. I did a book swap with my coworker, she got little mushroom(which I Love) and traded for gt since we'd both only bought those lololol I'm enjoying it so far but it is a bit of a slow read so it's taking me longer than usual.

Last Movie: Sinners. I was really happy to learn about a vampire movie set in the past with Blues and folklore mixed into the premise. It's one of the first original concepts this year that wasn't just another sequel or live action remake of something, so I really enjoyed it. It also reminded me tone wise of Old gods of Appalachia, which is my favorite podcast. I would say tho that in like the last third of the movie things rapidly stop making sense and while it was a really cool ending, it just had me going like?? About the world building and how the vampires worked.

Last TV Show: I just blitzed through Solo Leveling with my brother. It's really cool animation and I love seeing a manhwa make it into animated form, but the characters just don't do it for me. I'm much more excited for orv and sclasses. Also planning on watching apothecary diaries at some point.

Sweet/Spicy/Savory: I'm a huge sweets person, but mostly like pastries or dairy, not pure sugar like candy, and chocolate can be too rich for me so I don't eat a lot at once. I love all foods tho and savory is a close second lol

Relationship Status: been seeing a guy since last Nov and hopefully it'll go somewhere?

Last Thing I Googled: Golden Terrace bc I didn't know the author's name 😔✌️

Current Obsession: it was aoex from like 2018-2024 but I'm bouncing between svsss and MDZS currently, and I've got a few fics coming out for some zines I'm in for both 🙌

Looking Forward To: A big cousins Japan trip I've been planning for a year now coming up soon! I'm psyched bc there's an aoex pop up cafe happening at the same time I'll be there so I'll get to check that out 😄

Tagging @johannfaust-v @athgalla @bururaven and whoever else wants to do this! 💪

[savrenim]

I visited your tumble to try and find the (hopefully still) spoilery post you warn about in ANs for the unfinihed fic, We Raise It Up, because I fell in love with the story and I would love to see more and your plans for it (even if you did write farther past your original plans reached, I'm sure it would still be fascinating or fun to read)

Except I got lost in the Scum Villain posts (my fav!!!!!) And all your reblogs, and I completely forgot what I came here for and it's been over an hour and I only just remembered that I was looking for more with your TMA Time Travel Fix-it fic (it feels very hope-punk to me and I love it!!)

Tumblr is playing very mean with my phone (as always) and the search is. Not working great. ...I actually clicked on the "Send Ask" option about 10 minutes before this window popped up, and I've been searching between now and then, so- tumblr, what are you doing???

...anyways, just in your inbox to say I love your fics and your taste in reblogs! And that hopefully I'll find more stuff about your story, soon! Keep being awesome!!

aaaah thank you so much!!

I am like 99% sure that the post you are looking for is this one , which was the post that I originally made of "I WANT TO WRITE A TMA FIC THIS IS APPROXIMATELY WHAT IT WOULD BE" that then outlined The Whole Idea Beginning To End. so it does cover more than what is published in the fic.

it is........ very interesting to look back on because there are, like.... maybe one-to-three major spoilers still in there but scattered amongst twenty red herrings that have totally changed as my plans for the fic changed / I actually filled out my outline and adjusted bits and pieces or realized that [x] would work better than [y] etc etc etc so like. if you decide to look at it you will probably be able to tell comparing it to The Actual Fic that some serious things have changed already but that just like. fully applies through the end. so it remains a read at your own risk! there is the original conception of the ending in there, that the actual ending has been refined from.

gods I've got about half the remaining stuff actually written it's on my list to sit down and write the rest of it because goddamnit I want my writing to exist in the world not just on my computer but that will happen when it happens

in good news I'm pretty sure tonight is the last of my edits to my newest fic a svsss fic never told you what I do for a living that, to give a quick preview/ the current planned summary is

【 The System was successfully activated! Bound Role: Wu Yanzi, Demonic Cultivator and Master of— 】 {} Not his body. He remembered dying. An undeniable System, before it had bugged out. Okay. Okay, he could handle this. Transmigration. Demonic cultivator. Named… Fuck, he hadn't actually caught what he was supposed to be named. …..There was only one piece of media he was familiar with that was about demonic cultivators.

expected post time tomorrow evening???? very excited about that

[nyoomerr]

How do you always pop out banger fics? I feel like everyone and their mothers in the fandom adore your fics and not one of your stuff has ever been a flop! Seriously, what's your secret??

djkhfg but more seriously, there have definitely been fics i've posted that i personally wasn't happy with at the time i posted them, or that i was really proud of but have indeed "flopped" when i posted them**

**recognizing that all success is relative, and considering a "flop" to be a lack in response compared to my other svsss fics from a similar time period

overall though, i have indeed been extremely lucky with how kindly this fandom has treated me and how much support my work gets... but mostly i do think that really is just luck 😅

if you just meant for this to be a very sweet compliment about how you like my stuff a lot, thank you so much, and feel free to stop reading here!! if you were genuine in asking "seriously, what's your secret," though, i do have some tips for fic writing!

first thing is for me to say that it is 100% the most important for you to personally be the #1 fan of your own stuff.

it's super fun that so many people like my fics! but it's mostly fun because it feels like i'm holding up a rock and screaming and everyone screams along with me - it would be a lot less exciting if i was holding up a rock and watching in silent indifference as everyone screamed at it, lol. writing stuff just because it's interesting to you will also help you avoid writing + fandom burnout, and people who read it will always be able to tell when you love what you're writing about.

i also personally think it's really important to see the things you like to completion, which includes either posting it somewhere or saving it alongside your finished works, whatever you personally do to metaphorically put a finished piece "on the fridge."

it is a wildly common experience for creatives to begin disliking their own work partway through the creative process, or to dislike it after it's done. but if you're creating something because you're personally excited about some aspect of it, then you theoretically enjoyed something about that work at some point in time. and, with enough time and distance from it, you'll probably end up liking it again in the future!

if you've made sure to put that work "on the fridge" somewhere it's safe and marked as 'done' in your own mind, then you'll get the chance to create that time and distance. it's not sitting in some guilt-ridden folder of abandoned wips, or discarded because you were never able to write or edit it to your satisfaction - it's just 'done.' i can't count how many times i've come back to a piece i disliked at the time of finishing it and, months later, decided it was actually pretty good.

so - put your work on the fridge, even if you're not satisfied with it! and when your brain is able to let it go, reread it. find the parts that made you write it in the first place, the stuff that got you really excited, and let them excite you again, and inspire you to write even more!!

okok so that's a) write what you like and b) don't give up on your hard work. now i'll address the last bit that touches on fandom reception of your work... 💦💦

... i really do think it's mostly luck 😅

the very first fic i posted on this ao3 account is, without doubt, still my most popular one. i could talk about how i feel about that for a whole separate essay post lmao, but it is a good example of how fic "popularity" often works.

i was still on twitter at the time that i made it, which was where most of the mxtx fans were at. a promo post i made got retweeted by a handful of people with big followings, and that combined with the fact that there were way less binggeyuan fics at the time meant that it kinda hit it big. and since so many people sort by kudos or bookmarks, fics that are already popular just end up more popular...

i think a lot of popular fics are like this to some degree. they use the right tags and post at the right time to get seen by just the right audience, or there's a promo tweet/post somewhere that lands on just the right number of dashes, and their popularity snowballs. of course, these popular fics are also often absolutely fucking incredible and worthy of their popularity, but i've also read fics with very very little "popularity" that are just as good or better than some of the top kudosed or bookmarked fics in the tag.

the only thing i have ever (personally) noticed as something you can control that affects popularity is fic length - from what i've seen in both my fics and those others write, multichaptered fics that update semi regularly and stretch on for multiple months have a tendency to drum up more excitement the longer they go. people start to get more excited for each update + they talk about that on socmed, and that combined with consistently bumping the fic to the top of the tag when sorted by recently updated gives it more and more chances for it to hit that lucky combo of "seen by the right people."

so, that's all to say, actually my advice for this section is also "just write what you like," because you can't control whether or not the people who will also like it will see it when you post it, so make sure there's at least one reader enjoying the ride (you).

...and then of course for more generic "how do you write """well""" advice, just keep practicing, and take note of the things you like in other people's writing and how they accomplish it!

sorry if that was like. way more than what you were really expecting as an answer for this 🙈🙈 i really am truly very grateful for all the super kind feedback i get on my work, but i'm really out here just writing whatever i want in whatever ways i want and then throwing it up "on the fridge" before i can chicken out dkfjh

i hope you (or whoever else bothered to read this far) can also be really satisfied and excited about what you're making, and my fingers are crossed for your luck in the "everyone in the fandom likes this thing" lottery 🤞🤞

[datastate]

i'm reading svsss simply out of curiosity (saw art that piqued my interest, and a cursory look around didn't give me a very satisfying idea of what the story was about, so last night i felt compelled to read it just to have a basis of context. i am now on volume 3) and i. cannot believe i inadvertently finally got around to reading mxtx's work through this one. out of all of them. i didn't even know this one existed!!

[fictionalcreator]

WIP folder tag game!

Rules: make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Tag as many people as you have WIPs. People can send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, then post a little snippet/preview or tell them something about it!

tagged by @lbhslefttiddie teehee thank you, Lucien!!

And, uh, yeah, I also do not have a WIP folder so I'm just going through my pages files. Alphabetical order baby let's goooo

Also, I, uh, do not have a habit of naming all of my WIPs, so, um, good luck! (also please feel free to ask about more than one hehe)

I won't be including abandoned works/works I intend to completely rewrite, but I will be including originals, along with collections of notes and scripts (all of which are incomplete lmao)

Absolutely do not perceive me

Alchemist-left-behind-notes (The Alchemist Left Something Behind)

Ascent-Infernal-notes copy (The Ascent of the Infernal) (not just notes actually)

AsterKnights-notes

BingJiu_maybe_somft

BingJiu-Shadows (Bear No Light and Seek No Truth on ao3)

BingQiu_RiverMonster

Blank Black 5

Blank Black 9

Blank Black 12

Can’t find a title

The Coliseum of Gods

Curse of the White Angel (notes)

Curse of the White Angel (script)

Gershwé's Project (notes)

Gershwé's Project (script)

It’s a Long Way Home

kyoukai-no-kanata-dabble

Little scene

NPC_Capture_Target-notes

Omori-diary-fic

Pillar world ideas

Svsss-identify reveal

The Protagonists’ Day Out

The White-Clothed Calamity Sheds the Last Tear

The_Aviary_notes

Time-loop-vs-demon-lord_notes

WhoIsTheDemonKing_notes

Yet another bingjiu

And last but not least,

30. Ideas

This is where I dump all of my "hey this sounds cool" stuff. The seeds of future WIPs, I guess? Along with some notes for current WIPs. But feel free to ask for "ideas" plus a random number from 1 to 286 (current page count) and see what comes up!

Uhh, oh shoot, so I tag 30 people now? Um, I'm probably not going to do that many because reasons but I can tag some folks that will hopefully enjoy this? I think? Maybe? (at the very least if you guys have WiPs I wanna see em!!)

@buqbite, @kkomaism, @prayerith, @wife-beam, @kukuandkookie, @milkbreadtoast, @tls12lessthan3, @hehearse, @alur-chip, @sewi-li-suwi, @kukuandkookie, @yuyu-finale, @vampirefaun, @kitschlet

Sorry if any of y'all have been tagged before! No pressure to participate! Be freeeee

[bloopitynoot]

Reading TGCF: Chapter 31

For those who don't know, I am reading TGCF for the first time and sharing my thoughts!

If you have not read it, there will be spoilers! Consider this a warning.

Also- if you want to follow along, I am aiming to post updates daily. You can find all the posts in the tag Bloopitynoot reads TGCF. You can also check out the intro post for context on my read BUT if you followed along with my SVSSS read, the rules and vibe are the same.

Every Friday I get myself a little treat (boba) and I have been slowly working through my tea shops menu. Last week I got myself an oolong, and let me tell you, that shit was delicious. Since then, I have been all over my oolong tea.

So today, we have some oolong!

let's go chapter 31:

That would be so rough, being immortal and watching your family age without you. p46

His parents bickering is actually so cute though; I love them! p47

I know they're not saying it in a sweet way, but I love every mention of Xie Lian- Princess. p48

I'm now convinced every child with bandages is that specific child. The fact that he's been putting real fresh flowers at the shrine is so dang sweet. p53

Jeeze. This kid just cant' catch a break. Being bullied by his peers & guardians. p58

"Then live for me" I don't know why but this is making me come back to the theory that this boy is Hua Cheng (do not tell me otherwise). p61.

I am so glad this chapter lightened

The past few chapters had been rough, this was heavy in a different way but at least it brought some joy. I loved that Xie Lian was among the people, that sweet moment with the umbrella. The rain even was a reprieve.

[englishsub]

9 questions for 9 people!

i don't have 9 people to tag, but yue @yuebings tagged me. thanks yue :)

last song: malenia, blade of miquella - yuka kitamura. i'm listening to it right now. track of all time for mother!

currently watching: 一念关山 a journey to love which is so so so so so so good. easily my cdrama of the year. and elden ring build videos from fextralife

three ships: REN RUYI/NING YUANZHOU: they're the exact flavor i love - people who are in step with each other from the very beginning while they search desperately for purpose and meaning following a life of horror and bloodshed. godwyn/ranni: god they are so soooo so so so fucked up LMAO cair and i were struck by the genius of this ship at the same time and we've been atomically changed ever since. i know they were fucking nasty. I KNOW THEY WERE FUCKING NASTY. and then she killed him. OOOOOOOOHHHH man i know because marika literally told me. also, cloud/tifa, 77 DAYS TILL FF7 REBIRTH.

favorite color: aquamarine is my always girl but phthalo green has had me by the balls this year

currently consuming: grapes!

first ship: ........................................................................sun wukong/tang sanzang.....................................................listen........some of you merely adopted shizunfucking via svsss.........i was born in it, molded by it....

relationship status: in love with all of my beautiful friends

last movie: talk to me (2022) and the exorcist (1973), with fey

currently working on: writing: an experimental elden ring fic where millicent survives the end of her questline and gallivants across the lands between, post-age of the duskborn-ending, seeking out ways to resurrect malenia. and original work, as always.

trying to get through crumbling farum azula right now with limited success. reading nicholas eames KINGS OF THE WYLD with marginally more success.

tagging @vinelark @mammutblog @megafaunatic @cairoscene @tigerjpg :~)

[arwainian]

Reading This Week 2024 #26

blah (having a slow morning because i drank a lot of wine with a friend last night)

Finished:

the road to heaven, as paved by bad intentions by ineffmoth on ao3 i enjoyed this svsss porn-y modern au way more than i think i had any right to, but i think it was exactly the amount of Being Weird About It that I was seeking in my tag dive

A Transmigrator and a Time Traveler Walk Into the Bamboo House by VeryCharismaticDragon on ao3 as established in my notes last week, I think the first half of this is better than the second half, but I still had enough fun to finished it

"The Mermaid" by Kathleen Jowitt, narrated by Heather Rose Jones, aired on the Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast

"Talking to Ghosts" by Caitlin Flavell, narrated by Heather Rose Jones, aired on the Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast further historical lesbian short fiction that i get to listen to through a cool podcast I like. these little bites will simply keep showing up in my weekly recaps until I run out of backlog

"Historicizing Unreliable Narration: Unreliability and Cultural Discourse in Narrative Fiction" by Bruno Zerweck really interesting article about how "reliability" is culturally defined, and so the like label for a unreliable narrator comes out of differentiating it in a time where the narrator of a novel was not expected to be a character/expected to be objective, but now after like postmodernism took hold, "unreliability" in narration- ie. the representation of events within a text being from a particular perspective that lacks omniscient information and which is informed by the opinions of the protagonist, where we commonly understand that we likely wont get the full picture or a perfect recounting of events- is the norm

"The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto" by Sandy Stone you saw me post an extended quotation from this, you know I liked it!

"The Rise of Fictionality" by Catherine Gallagher a good read in combination with the Zerweck article above, telling a history of the rise of novels as fiction: texts that are neither true histories, nor fully fanastical stories that aren't mean to be taken as truth, defining fiction in the novel sense as stories told to be realistic and believable, but which the reader is still not meant to be tricked into taking as fact

"The Right Language for Rape" by Nina Philadelphoff-Puren like a linguistic analysis of how victims of acquaintance/date rape defined their experiences in the moment and afterwards, coining the term "discourse maintenance" to describe the ways victims chose to act as if they were not about to be or being sexually assaulted in an attempt to resist the transformation of their situation from "bad date" into "sexual assault". i have a lot of notes on this one. i'm not sure i agree with some of the conclusions in its final paragraphs but the body of the text I think was really well argued/explained and gave me a lot of thoughts to work with, primarily the way testimony obliterates that transformation, reading the discourse of rape backwards over the original discourse of romance, rather than demonstrating the temporal shift between them. i'd recommend it?

Frequency by cryptocism on ao3 and now for something completely different! finally finished reading this longfic about comic book characters that I don't know much about, but that's okay because the end notes of every chapter literally cite every comic event that it is referencing and building the canon of this Inertia redemption arc around. it was very good

Started/Ongoing:

We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian this is All Vibes. not extremely compelling to me, but I do enjoy a Cat Sebastian romance so I am reading it at the pace that feels right for it, which isn't too fast

Reading Plans: pretty much the same plans as last week: articles, queer lit book club pick, stuff i need to grab from the library hold shelf in the next two days, etc but I'm also going to make an attempt to read through the fanfic tabs I have had open on my phone for way too long this week, which I already made some progress on with Frequency?

[aphel1on]

tag someone you want to get to know better

tagged by @woobifiedvillain a few days ago and finally remembered to do it!!

Favorite color: Yellow, but not an overwhelming yellow, like that soft warm yellow? I love it. People tend to not expect this answer, I think I give off more of a blue or grey vibe. Honestly a pretty grey/silver is probably my second favorite color, but a buttery yellow is just so good for the soul.

Last song: You Give Love a Bad Name by Bon Jovi. Danced to it in the kitchen, got consumed by the guitar riffs, nearly knocked a chair over. Before this morning it would've been the Genshin OST... I've been listening to it a lot while I write or do chores recently.

Last movie: An exceedingly mediocre romcom on Netflix that I watched with my sick mom to be nice. Genuinely couldn't tell you the title or more than like, two or three plot points. Last movie that I watched bc I wanted to was the Barbie movie, which was genuinely better than I expected. Enjoyable but would still give it, like, a mixed review. I'm not getting into two months' ago Barbie Movie Discourse on this post

Currently watching: I'M STILL TRYING TO FINISH THE UNTAMED!!!! woobifiedvillain i'm speaking directly to you and quoting you: i too am "chronically incapable of paying attention to visual media, even the good shit" and when i try to explain this to people irl they act like i am insane!!! I haven't watched Good Omens season 2 yet even tho I am reblogging posts about it rn. I think it's mostly adhd, or really just a part of the larger Neurodivergence Soup (tm) that makes it nearly impossible for me to learn something from a YouTube video. I mean, sometimes for a hands-on task a video is essential, but can't there be a written list of instructions to go with it too, bc that sticks in my mind way better sobs... ANYWAY i'm currently on episode 43 of The Untamed, so I should be able to finish it by, like. The end of the year at least lol?

Currently reading: I started reading SVSSS recently because, like. The mxtx mania is in full throttle. I just got here a little later than most people lmao. I'm also currently "reading" like seven different books that I bought or pirated this year and have on hold. One of my Unfortunate Skills is bingereading like 200 pages of something in 1-2 days and then not finishing the rest of it for 8 months.

Currently working on: Keep My Shadow Alive, my big xue yang-centric fix it fic!!! Well, more like a fix it, and then break it more, and then eventually actually fix it fic. Starting from the canon divergence of "Add Pre-Teen Xue Yang to the Burial Mounds Fam" and going from there. I read every fic like that that's on ao3 and was still being eaten alive by the brainworms so I started writing my own take on it and ~6 months later it's the longest fic I've ever written and only 25% of the way through its outline???? So. Who knows if it will get finished (my track record is admittedly not great)- but I've had such a blast writing it so far. Xue Yang is just SO fun to write. Yes it has a plot and character arcs and I could even go full English Major* and start telling you about its Themes, but also it's just an excuse to write Xue Yang interacting with every member of the MDZS cast. Going to STOP talking now bc I fully am the type of writer who will get carried away talking about their wips.

*i am not an english major, but spiritually i am an english major.

Current obsession: Yeah uh, MDZS. My friend convinced me to finally read it in January of this year, and the hyperfixation train has simply not stopped since then. Genshin Impact also dragged me back in with the Fontaine update and I've been having a lot of fun playing it. But MDZS is still mostly the thing that's eating up my RAM. Particularly the Yi City crew, but 3zun is rotating in there too. Sometimes even The Man WWX Himself, i talk about him less but i do love him a lot also lol

Tagging: I'm honestly too shy to do this!!! But thank you for tagging me anyway<3