bicaddyheron

[bicaddyheron]

i ended up using it quite a while ago, and credited you in the notes!

(see me reviving this blog just for this haha)

“People are going to start spreading rumours if you keep greeting me like this.”

Though you were attempting to sound serious, the smile on your face made your gentle scolding entirely useless. The effect was only ruined further as you failed to hold in a delighted laugh as they playfully spun you, catching you effortlessly when you stumbled, before continuing to twirl around with you in a playful spontaneous dance to music only they could hear.

Your companions smile only grew wider and cheekier in response to your words, their sudden spins and dips becoming more and more complex as you danced on. In the early days of your friendship, such actions had often left you stiff and giggling out of nerves, rather than joy, but as time had passed and the two of you had grown closer, you’d learnt to enjoy their playful antics, knowing that you could trust them to always be there if you fell.

“Too late for that dearie~! They already whisper rumours and look at us in suspicion.”

They cheerfully reminded you, abruptly dipping you yet again and giggling in delight at the startled sound you made in response.

Huffing, you rolled your eyes with a smile, relaxing yourself into their quick and familiar pace as you studiously ignored how inappropriate your location was. It wasn’t exactly like that was particularly unusual either. Neither of you had ever been too fussed about social norms. 

“Yes, but at this rate, everyone is going to think it’s true.” You responded dryly.

Instead of continuing your silly back and forth banter as you had expected, your companion came to a very sudden stop, catching you easily as you stumbled in surprise. Something about the change in their smile and the slight tightening of their grip, made you focus on them even more intently than before, your heart beginning to pound as you finally allowed yourself to register just how close they were holding you.

Despite knowing that whatever they were about to say was something they were genuinely serious about, you could never have anticipated the words that actually came out of their mouth.

“…..And if I wanted them to be true?”

[bicaddyheron]

hi! i’m moving all my activity (fandom, writing, funny shit, etc) onto my one main blog @micro-bi-ologist

[bicaddyheron]

Reblog if you have made a friend online that you would love to hang with, but they live far away.

[bicaddyheron]

just for tonight

Rated: M

Words: 1.8k

Chapter: 1/1

–

Summary:

In her defense, the guys in the line for the party smelled weird.

That’s what Leighton tells herself when she informs the group that she left her phone behind and needs to head out.

She does have to head out. Just not for her phone. She stalks around the corner of Theta’s house, making brief eye contact with her brother, ignoring the questioning look in his eyes and swallowing hard. It’s not any of his business.

She loves Nico. But this is for her.

Just this once. Something will be for her.

(Or, Leighton’s perspective on the latter half of the first episode.)

[read it on ao3]

[bicaddyheron]

i flipping hate ao3's layout there's too many goddamn words

[bicaddyheron]

Congrats to Kyle and Erika!!!

[bicaddyheron]

Hiya! Are you looking for a server for In the Heights? Looking for folks to chat with? Well, if you’d like, hit that link! We’d love to have you!

Our features include organized channel categories, fun roles, spots for art and fanfiction, fun bots, and we’re system friendly!

Hope to see you there!

[bicaddyheron]

i was thinking this morning about how i categorize fanfic authors that i enjoy like AKC breeds and decided to share my rubric with you:

the specialist: this author has a favorite kink or trope and has written 80% of the content in that tag. you know exactly what you’re getting. they have A Brand™️. no matter what other traits they display, dedicated rare pair authors belong here.

the chocolate box: essentially the exact opposite. this author will try anything once. they have 80+ works in the fandom with no discernible pattern. the shortest one is 268 words and the longest is well over 100k. this breed of author may or may not be related to:

the renaissance fan: they’ve written three things in your fandom: your favorite fic, your notp, and a bizarre crossover with a show you’ve never heard of. you hit “expand fandoms list” on their author page and have to scroll down twice to reach the bottom. whenever you curse the fact that you can’t legally commission fic writers, this is the author you’re thinking about.

the horn dog: they’re here for one thing and one thing only. if someone’s dick is not in another character’s mouth within 500 words, they apologize for it in the author’s notes. they have one (1) g-rated fic.

the rookie: this writer is usually young, new to fandom, or just got a beta-reader for the first time. their fics are a little all over the place, quality-wise, but you’re excited whenever their name pops up because their unique voice gets stronger every time. you feel a personal investment in their development, like you’re an old man reading the local high school sports page and saying “this kid’s the one to watch.”

the live streamer: the most prolific author in the fandom. their works are all over the front page when you sort by kudos. you have no idea how they generate this much work, and have seriously wondered if they have access to an extra-dimensional time portal. their stories are usually un-beta’d and the characterization varies wildly, but their best works are inspired and you’ve read them 30 times.

the cryptid: this one comes out of nowhere every two years, drops the best fanfic you’ve ever read, and disappears. fifteen months after you left a three paragraph comment about how they changed your life, you get a message in your inbox that just says “thanks.”

the novelist: we talk about “filing off the serial numbers” when someone reworks their most popular story to pitch it as an original novel; this author somehow does the reverse. their fics are excellent, usually long-reaching multi-chapter AUs that have almost nothing to do with the on-screen characters except their names. i’d like to extend my personal thanks to this breed of author because it’s the closest i get to reading an actual book.

the reunion tour: this author wrote some of the most popular works in the fandom, but either moved on to k-pop or burned out when canon took a turn for the worse. they put out one new thing a year, often an old draft that’s been haunting them from under the floorboards. their last six author’s notes all say they never thought they’d write this pairing again and “this will probably be the last time.”

who did i miss?

[bicaddyheron]

No one admits is but everyone’s REAL favorite ship dynamic is just

Person A: Character you can project onto

Person B: Your type

[bicaddyheron]

[bicaddyheron]

thoughts?

[bicaddyheron]

How to recover an unsaved draft on Microsoft Word

 This literally saved my ass a few minutes ago. Yes, you can recover those files that you accidentally closed and thought you couldnt get back. 

Right after that happens, open Microsoft Word again and click File - Info - Manage Versions - Recover Unsaved Documents.

It is literally that simple.

[bicaddyheron]

to all my fellow asians, i hope you’re doing alright mentally and that you’re physically safe. if you need it, there’s a post with good info about asian therapists, and a toolkit for dealing with racial trauma. please take care of yourself <3 to everyone else (especially white people), please support us during this traumatic time, and refrain from doing insensitive things. support links:

here is an active ever updating twitter donation thread https://stopaapihate.org/ https://www.gofundme.com/c/act/stop-aapi-hate https://www.advancingjustice-atlanta.org/ https://nymag.com/strategist/article/where-to-donate-to-help-asian-communities-2021.html https://anti-asianviolenceresources.carrd.co/ https://stopasianhate.carrd.co/ https://www.aarcatl.org/

[bicaddyheron]

The em dash is rich with power. But you’ll lose yourself.

[bicaddyheron]

THE MISCONCEPTION ABOUT COMMENTING ON FIC

I’ve read all kinds of posts both from writers and readers lamenting about comments on fic. Authors are upset when they don’t get any, readers don’t know what kinds of comments to leave, etc. And it finally clicked in my brain why I think a lot of people don’t bother writing comments. 

And this is what it boils down to:

Writers do not want praise.  We just want to talk about our story. 

I can’t speak for everyone obviously - but I think the majority of writers don’t care so much for the “omg you’re a brilliant writer!!” comments as much as we just want to hear your thoughts on the story. Even if it’s just your thoughts as you’re reading of “oooh x happened! I can’t believe y said this! What’s going to happen now that z has happened?!” We literally just want to talk about what we’ve written like you would with a friend about a tv show. We’re not out here demanding praise like some entitled narcissist. 

While praising our writing skills or writing style is appreciated, it doesn’t need to be said on every fic and every chapter that you read. If you regularly comment on someone’s work that’s telling enough that you like our technique. Readers shouldn’t feel pressured to have to praise a writer’s abilities every time they want to comment. 

In the grand scheme of things, talking about the fic/chapter is actually more helpful to us writers instead of spewing praise. It’s the same with artwork. As nice as it is that people tell me “wow your art is so pretty!” it’s a LOT more useful to me to get comments like “I love their expressions!” or “the lighting on this is gorgeous!” because then I know WHAT people are liking about it. If no one ever comments on my backgrounds, I now know what to improve. If most people comment on liking the expressions, I now know the strong points of my art and can use it to my advantage to make even better art in the future. 

The same goes for fic. If multiple people tell me they liked a certain part of the story I now know that things similar to that are a hit. It’s feedback I can use to improve the story and give my readers more of what they want. Without that I have no idea what they like about the fic.

Talking with a writer about their story also gives them inspiration!! Nothing gets us more in the mood to work on a fic than to have people wanting to talk about it. A lot of times just talking about one of my fics with someone will give me that push to continue working on it. Getting a comment that just says “great chapter” or “you’re a great writer” doesn’t do much to motivate us to continue that particular fic. But if you talk about the story and the characters it gives us motivation to continue working on it, may even give us ideas for future chapters. I would hope that those of you with “comment anxiety” find this approach so much easier than trying to praise the writer every time you read.

So that fic the author hasn’t updated in forever that you’re dying to read? Talk to them about the fic and the elements of the story! It will make the writer want to talk to you about it and will get their mind thinking about it, hopefully inspiring them to continue where they left off. Fics that are left in silence are more likely to be abandoned or even deleted because nothing feels worse than putting your heart into a story to have no one say anything about it. 

TLDR; Writers do not want praise, we just want to talk with our readers about the story itself, and these are the kinds of comments that inspire us to keep writing more. 

[bicaddyheron]

[Image description in Alt Text.] [ID: Red, block text on a transparent background. The text reads: ‘Fanfic Author PSA’. The dark red Archive of Our Own logo is depicted on either side of the lettering. End ID.]

Many people who read fanfiction also require the assistance of text-to-speech or audio description software. Blind and visually impaired people are very much present in the fanfiction and fandom communities, but are so frequently disregarded or forgotten about.

If you are writing a work and like to utilise paragraph breaks, please do not use combinations such as the following:

[Image description in Alt Text. I have used an image to avoid what I will describe below.] [ID: Four examples of punctuation and icons that are disruptive when used as line breakers. The first line is a series of O letters. The second is a series of asterisks. The third is a series of dots, circles and stars. The last is a series of tildes. End ID.]

The software will read these combinations out loud letter for letter or symbol for symbol. For example; it would read to the user the word ‘asterisk’ six times in a row, or the word ‘tilde’ five times in a row.

This is unpleasant, confusing and often irritating for blind or visually impaired readers. If you would like a similar sample of what it would sound like, enter one of the above combinations into Google Translate and use the audio button.

Here is a post by @ao3commentoftheday​ that also details this difficulty and provides links to downloadable audio transcribers and fanfiction audio readers. These are also helpful for if you simply wish to listen to fanfiction but can’t find a podfic of the work.

Screen Reader Friendly and Screen Reader Compatible are AO3 tags that help visually impaired readers track and access fanfiction that is consciously created with their needs in mind. Please consider adding these tags to your works in order to expand the range of works that visually impaired readers can safely and confidently access.

Alternatives to these are:

Utilise HTML or embedded line break functions where possible, such as the feature on the Archive’s editing functions. Most screen readers should be equipped to understand these.

[Line breaker] can also be read by most screen readers. While not as aesthetic, it’s still functional.

Use an image divider/breaker and utilise the Alt Text or [ ] descriptor functions to label it as a line breaker.

Reminder: ‘liking’ this post does not spread awareness.

[bicaddyheron]

People making typos in groupchats and then getting whaled on is extremely funny unless I am the one making the typo, in which case you guys are not funny and being very immature