#Don't tell me to write it I have literally hundreds and hundreds of writing wips and drawing wips LOL

[xhanisai]

Oh! So imagine, after Le Papillion, Ladybug and Chat Noir made their appearance, everyone suddenly found a giant "0" tattooed on their backs.

And everytime someone dies (and disappears and whatever) by an akuma and is brought back to life by the cleansing light, that number on their back goes up by (1).

So the more often you've died and have been brought back, the higher the number gets. No one is granted an exception.

Imagine Adrien's surprise when he accidentally gets a glimpse of Marinette's back cos the wind made her flowy top rise or something...

And he sees the number 25,913...

[mypoisonedvine]

🎢🍆👀😅⛔️ for the asks!

(Sorry if that’s too many lol)

not too many at all!! sorry for the slow reply lol I had a busy night

🎢 Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

I guess that depends on what you think is wild! if anything I might have to say my very dark marvel fic seven against one-- it's got so much going on (I mean it's literally seven men and one woman), you never really know what to expect, and it's insanely twisted and kinky. that was a long time ago so I'm not necessarily saying it's any good, but it's probably my "wildest" fic by a certain standard. I don't think I have the patience to write something like that now lol

🍆 Do you write the spicy stuffs? If so, what's your most popular nsfw fic?

well it's safe to say I write nsfw 😂 probably hundreds of fics on here by now and there are easily less than 10 that don't have smut. I thought my most popular fic was my first ever eddie munson fic, but it's actually this dilf!steve harrington request by just a few hundred notes. I never expected that one to blow up like it did!

👀 Tell me about an up and coming wip please!

I'm working on something for Zemo inspired by the look Daniel had in the zookeeper's wife-- cause that character is not it but the styling is so sexy 😭 it's dark with some very fun power dynamics!

😅 What's a story or scene you've created that you're a smidge embarrassed exists?

I'm not sure about outright embarrassed, but I do reread old stuff and think I could do it better if I did it now. I won't name names but I went through a really old series of mine and thought the whole thing was just sort of bland and rushed. things happened faster than I could explain the emotions and reasoning behind them. I think part of why I used to write that way is because I always imagined my fics as movies, and movies take place through action and not internal thought. so while I still am a very "visual" writer, I'm a lot better at actually describing how people are feeling and why they're doing what they're doing.

⛔ Do you have a fic you started, but scrapped?

about a billion... I have multiple abandoned series, most of which I never even discussed on here, with over 10k already written. and they'll never see the light of day!

thank you for asking these!!

[fabbyf1]

💥

💥 How do you feel about criticism?

bruhhhhhhh. This is a heavy one.

First and foremost, I'd like to make it very clear that I don't expect everyone to like my fics, or my writing style, or my sense of humor... or anything about the content I create.

I understand everyone has their preferences and what they look for/want out of a fic.

That being said... criticism on fics, especially in comments or through anon messages, seems a bit unnecessary. Like... you could just, idk, NOT read the fic.

You could hit the back button. You could go somewhere else. You could sit down. You could learn to bake bread. You could look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, "How would I feel if someone said this to me?"

If you're just commenting to be rude, hurtful, or anything that's not 100% kind... you're an asshole. Plain and simple. All you're doing is hurting someone who spent many hours working on something (FOR FREE) when you could just... not be a dick.

I'm also very iffy when it comes to constructive criticism as a whole.

Did the author ask for it? Is your "constructive criticism" necessary? Is the story a WIP? Because if it's completed and published... babe, please just don't bother. (There are exceptions to this rule. I think we all know what they are. If something could be seen as hurtful, problematic, hateful to a group of people... you could gently bring that up to the author. but that's not what we're discussing here, so let's move on.)

If you really feel you have to bring up your "constructive criticism" to the author, I'd suggest you dm them (NOT on anon. If you're criticizing on anon, you're a pussy. Don't be a pussy. The author doesn't get to be anon, you shouldn't get to hate on anon. Say what you want to say with your username attached if you actually think it's 100% necessary the author sees it.)

I don't think criticism of any kind, constructive or just plain douchebaggery, belongs in the public comment section. And that goes for any fic I read, not just mine. I fucking HATE when I come across somebody being a dick in Ao3 comments, and I will usually go full 32yo Angry Mom/Karen Mode and insert myself in their thread like "HELLO, DICKHEAD. I'M KATE. NICE TO MEET YOU. LET ME SAY WHAT THE AUTHOR WON'T."

Now, if the author ASKED for criticism... that is different. (Also fucking brave of them.) If they asked for it, I'd still advise you to 1. make sure it's actually necessary they hear it, and 2. say it fucking nicely.

Tell them everything you loved about their fic. Tell them how it made you feel. Tell them the lines that made you sob or laugh or smile. Then (and only then) VERY NICELY AND GENTLY, offer them your advice. And know that it's 100% not up to the author to acknowledge your criticism and/or respond to it.

Because again, babes, we do this for free.

Also? I'm fucking soft. I cry over literally everything. I put my whole kateussy into my fanfics, and if someone says something rude about them, I will cry actual tears. I'd really rather you just NOT read my fics, you know?

I've been reading and writing fanfics since I was 12 years old (that was 2002, children). I have read hundreds of fanfics I didn't think were great. I've read hundreds of fanfics that sucked. Not ONCE have I ever told the author that. And I never would. It's not my place in the world.

At the end of the day, anon, I think it's important to ask yourself: "Does this person need to hear what I'm about to say?" the answer is usually no. This can apply to so many situations in life.

Please be nice to each other. The world is a shitty, terrible place. Our little safe corner of the world (AO3/Tumblr) doesn't have to be terrible or shitty.

Let's just... be fucking nice to each other, please.

Just my two cents 🙂

Anyway, back to the PWP.................

[iloveyou-writers]

I'm a writer. I've technically been a writer for a long time, but I stopped around 2019 and have recently decided to get back into writing because there were a few artists/writers who inspired me so much that I wanted to write a story. As I'm sitting here and typing out this ask, I have not only gained the confidence to upload my story out to the world, but I have a full timeline based around that story that I want to eventually share with everyone on Tumblr and the website where I upload my story.

However..., when I uploaded my more recent chapters, I started to feel...kind of jealous. Don't get me wrong, I love the people who take the time to read each of my chapters (and I know who some of my true followers are and I love them to death), but sometimes..., it gets hard for me to see other artists/writers to get hundreds and thousands of likes on any their stuff while I'm lucky to get a comment/like on my work.

So I wanted to ask you how do/did you get through it? How do/did you get through those though days where you see other artists/writers getting popular each and every day while you feel like you're putting all your effort into something and no one bats an eye?

I'm sorry this is a long ask, but this has been something that's been on my mind for a while that I wanted to ask. I saw some posts you made when you were sourpatch-encouragement and seeing those words of encouragement meant (and still mean) so much to me. I can't tell you how many times I teared up reading your posts cause it's such so nice to hear those positive words of encouragement during the tough days.

Thank you for everything. :) Your positivity, your encouragement, no matter what it is, I (as well as a few other people I bet) love everything you do to help encourage writers and artists. Thank you for being you. ❤️

First of all, thank you for the last part. Even the encourager needs encouragement that what they're doing and saying is helpful and making an impact sometimes, so thank you <3

Okay, so now to get into the question...

Honestly, I've been being asked "how do you/did you do this" a lot lately, mostly by my husband who's dealing with the death of a parent for the first time...

And I truly don't know. I just... do? I think I've just built such a hardened shell of stubbornness that even when I'm feeling discouraged, I just push through it? I've also got to be honest, I've restarted tumblr a lot. I've had many blogs.

Sometimes just getting a fresh start could really help because I could recurate my blog into whatever I wanted and sometimes having that freedom was enough to restart my brain in a way and allow me to give my all and learn from what did and didn't catch people's attention.

I'm also not a person that really cares about numbers. I mean, I do and I don't. I write because I adore the process of writing. Writing has literally saved me on so many occasions, so to me the act of writing itself is fulfilling enough not to need all the excess attention.

But you want my little secret that REALLY helped me?

It's friends. Having friends that I knew loved my writing, whose writing I loved. Having friends I could roleplay with when I was feeling discouraged about my WIPs... having friends that could reignite my fire when it was fizzling out... friends are a HUGE part of what has kept my fire burning for writing, especially at the beginning. :)

I do still get envious sometimes. No, I don't put all of my stock into stats but sometimes when you write paragraphs and paragraphs of writing, put in so much heart and effort into something and only get a few responses but then someone writes like one or two vague sentences and it blows up, it can be disheartening. But that's my problem. For me, it's a matter of "if I'm getting jealous, then I need to step back and reevaluate where my values really lie with this. Am I really doing this out of passion for it or do I want it to get attention."

I've done a lot of research on "marketing onesself." I actually have bought a few books on it, one that I'm passionately in love with... and that's also helped with my confidence, because I know if what I want IS for my writing to get seen and fire people up about it, I have tools to do so :)

--

So long story short: it's really hard. There are a lot of things I've had to do in response to these kinds of feelings. I think all writers deal with them on some level. But just know that your writing is still wonderful and still matters and makes a difference to those silent readers who may just be nervous and shy to interact with your works (and realizing that has been immensely helpful to me too with relaxing over the note jealousy).

Hope my prattling helps 😅

[punch-love]

🤭👀⛔ ? :)

🤭 Do you have a favorite tag to use when posting your works?

I mean, I am a sucker for enemies to friends to lovers. I also bump up the humiliation and watersports pages of any fandom I'm in.

👀 Tell me about an up and coming wip please!

I'm working on one called "sowilo" where Mobius watches Loki get a rune reading that predicts his life in the TVA, his meeting/relationship with Mobius, and his inevitable ascent in the vaguest way possible several hundred years before their paths cross. It's about faith, the occult, love as a religion, and the aftermath of losing your god. All the readings for it were cast with my set of runes, so divination very literally directs the direction the story takes.

⛔ Do you have a fic you started, but scrapped?

I really wanted to write one for the podcast The Bright Sessions where Damien becomes a sheepherder in Scotland and Mark stays at his Airbnb on accident during a photography trip. I don't think I'll ever actually write about it, but I do think about it sometimes.

[neaverse]

literally all of your wips have enticed me but please tell me about the curious mind of a killer and a love for the novels (the sun and the stars) !!

Oh my god, thank you🥺 The curious mind of a killer is a drarry fic that has been living rent-free in my mind for quite some time now. Draco works in the DMLE as a forensic pathologist and has a year of Auror theory (law) under his belt. A lot of mysterious deaths are happening and the killer is untraceable. Robards (the head Auror) asks— read demands— Draco to come work for him on the case. Help him track the bastard down.

Draco and Harry are already dating in this fic and they both work in the DMLE. Harry is an Auror (I usually don't like this occupation for Harry but it's needed for this fic) and he works with Draco on this case.

The worst part is that the killer doesn't seem to go for the same type of victim twice. They're all different ages, genders etc— so there seem to be no motives behind these murders. There are no magical traces, no fingerprints or footprints, no clues— nothing. This fic is gory, violent and it's fucking with my mind— I don't know what else to say about it.

Excerpt:

On the morning of April 26th, two witches in their mid-twenties are found murdered in their home just outside of London, with string-like wounds around their necks and hearts on the floor beside them.

A week later, the body of a middle-aged wizard is found in an alley a few blocks away from the Leaky Cauldron with the exact same wounds.

Then, in late May, three young men are found dead in three separate rooms at the Three Broomsticks. With the same wounds.

“Another one,” Robards grumbles as he shoves a case file across the desk.

Draco looks down at the file in front of him, then he reaches for it. He skims through the case— they are all the same so far— and then he shuts it. “This is the sixth,” Draco notes, gaze landing on Robards. “How have you not caught this bastard yet?”

A love for the novels is a fic I started writing last year. Idk how to properly explain it tbh.

After taking the killing curse to his chest, James wakes up in a room and sees Regulus waiting for him. They walk through the halls, and get to see a glimpse of how their lives could've been, had they chosen differently. It's a lot of missed opportunities, both emotional and happy and just. Idk, a lot?

They see themselves getting married and have children in one. They see Regulus surviving and mourning James in another. They see themselves growing old, travel the world, James joining Voldemort for Regulus, Regulus joining the order etc.

Each life plays out and we see it exactly how it would've happened if they made different choices, however big or small. But no matter what they choose, Regulus and James happen. They always find each other. In every life, in every universe— it's them. Always them.

And most of the lives they see are very very lovely<3

Excerpt 1:

In a different lifetime, Regulus Black and James Potter might have made it. The poets would say it's a tragedy what happened to the two young lovers, one forced into the dark and the other fighting a battle that should not have happened. Perhaps their story will end up making it into romance novels; two star-crossed lovers and a hundred different lifetimes worth of disaster and deaths. Perhaps, in another lifetime– an alternate universe– they returned from Troy hand in hand. Or maybe, there was no war at all. Just life and a thousand little moments filled with love and chaos and joy. Perhaps it's just them, the way it all could've happened if they had chosen differently.

Excerpt 2:

There are pictures of him and all of his friends. His found family. James knows he's dead already, and he halts in front of the picture of Sirius and Remus, the two of them holding hands as Remus leans in to whisper something in Sirius’ ear, which makes Sirius go all red.

“I'm sorry,” James mumbles at the moving frame. “Take care of Harry and Lily for me, will you?”

[dreaming-marchling]

Candle rollerskate juicebox dice mushroom planet candy tooth icecream tomato bug flower

on a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you enjoy editing? why is that?

I think I'd have to go 5. Dead center because I really love the first like 15 times I read something lol. I re-read my writing a LOT in preparation for posting. So that initial edit when it's all really fresh and then later when I'm making it all cohesive to make sure it matches with the way the story flows is great. Then it gets really miserable and tedious. The final read through before I post is like dragging myself through mud.

describe your latest wip with five emojis

🌿🐻🐍🔒🌧️

share some personal lore you never posted about before

I don't talk about books much but I'm a huge reader outside of fics too. Like I own hundreds of books.

what stops you from writing more in your free time?

I have a hard time focusing. Fighting the "I feel emotionally blah, I'm just going to mindlessly scroll" thing is a battle some days.

share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

I've not written it (yet) but I have kind of endless daydreams about Magnus using Pandemonium as an informal court for the warlocks (or just Downworlders in general but technically it's meant for the warlocks he leads) to bring him issues/requests. And then on nights when Alec is with him, this powerful Shadowhunter just drapes himself on Magnus, sits in his lap, sitting on the floor at his feet and laying his head on Magnus' leg... just not having to put on his Leader face and letting himself be Magnus' instead. Maybe only on Downworld night? And the Downworlders are unsure of how to take this but Magnus is very "he's surprisingly cuddly *shrug*" about it

name three good things going on in your life right now

I have two wonderful cats who make my home happier, I finally bought a new mattress (it's glorious) and though I'm dealing with some crap at work I do have a job that is not bad and allows me financial stability

post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character

I think this was the popular opinion and then the tide has since turned but I continue to loathe Nesta from the Court of Thorns and Roses series. The main justification after all those pages was like "you can't hate her, she hates herself" but like no, I can totally continue to hate her.

share some personal wisdom or a life hack you swear on

Steam a cut up head of cauliflower, slowly roast 5 to however many garlic cloves as you want in a few tablespoons of butter (or oil), combine, season, thin with a little water (especially pasta water if going on pasta) and then blend in a food processor for like a decade. Literally walk away and start cleaning up your kitchen. Blend until you worry for the motor. It'll transform into the fluffiest creamiest garlicky "alfredo" sauce that won't break and get all greasy when you reheat later. Great for batch cooking that requires reheating.

name three good things about a character you hate

Jonathan in Shadowhunters: It wasn't his fault really, he loved Clary, his little move while he was activating Clary and Jace's runes was super smooth

give yourself some constructive criticism on your own writing

I need to understand and internalize the difference between lay and lie. I can't forever go off what sounds right in my head and defying spellcheck. I'm sure some reader is like BITCH YES PLEASE lol

add 50 words to your current wip and share the paragraph here

“I will.” She promised. He hated dumping so much on her. Lying to the police, having to take care of Brian in the aftermath of something so major without him, calling everyone and having to tell their family and the team what had gone down… This was a lot to ask anyone.

They had no choice. Dom trusted her. He trusted her so fucking much.

do you have any pets? if you do, post some pictures of them

Unfortunately I am a weirdo who likes to keep all photographic evidence of my life off the internet but I do have 2 awesome cats. A tortie girl and a black boy who are littermates. They're 3 now. She never shuts up and he squeaks. She demands I wiggle the string constantly, he's literally got an anxiety disorder that in the last year has really let up its grip on him and he's like blossoming. They're great little monsters.

Thank you for asking!

[plothooksinc]

good time zone! ♻️?

It is an excellent time zone! I'm in the future, I have all your lottery numbers--

♻️A scrapped idea for your current WIP

This is EXTREMELY HARD TO ANSWER because I have many WIPs but most of them are absolutely in the beginning stages, and the one that is not is kind of a huge spoiler as to how the rest of the story will go. Literally "I was going to end it this way but now I'm going to end it this way just so I finish writing it before the year 2056." (Lookin' at you, Snowblind.) And by and large, I do not have a lot of ideas I end up scrapping for my WIPs! It's just not how I roll.

So instead, I will mention the bits for NRFTW that ended up on the cutting room floor. There were a lot of ways that the end could go re: Leo being as hurt as he was and not having access to medical care, all of them being pretty urgent. They all revolved around Draxum making a sacrifice to ensure he survived; as simple a one as Draxum offering himself up to Bishop in exchange for full hospital treatment and then freedom for Leo and his fam, which got scrapped because Bishop was going to offer that anyway. He's an asshole, but he does have some morals and a sense of some kind of "shit I owe you", so there you go. But the other idea was tapping into the earlier scene with Draxum and Mikey where Draxum told Mikey outright, "Healing has far too high a price," because to my worldbuilding healing magic couldn't spontaneously heal someone without extracting an equal price of lifeforce. When someone's on death's door you can't exactly extract more from them to fix their injuries, so the healer would have to pay up.

In short, to stop Leo from expiring in the warehouse, Draxum was gonna very much make that sacrifice - the goat's hundreds of years old, what's a year or two - and then basically go "if you tell him I will never forgive you B|", which sets up for him finding out in the sequel. (Yeah, he's gonna find out.)

Anyway, that also got scrapped for a couple reasons. Mainly, the warehouse scene was high stakes and tension enough as it was, and with lung injuries either Leo would last minutes or he would last hours, and well. I wanted him to last more than minutes. :/ I'm not that mean. So then I was like "hmm okay, well, I can still do that after the warehouse."

And I could. But. Pacing. We were winding down. The climax had come and gone. I just didn't have it in me to go "oh yeah and another thing" because it would be ridiculous at that point, and thus Leo just woke up an amount of time later after some touch and go health issues, and it gave me a window to quietly play with later.

BUT. ALSO.

My beta @shadowbends was very disappointed I didn't get to go through with it because she loved the idea (and so did I, I just didn't have space for it) and thus she wrote Don't Pay My Ransom, which is a fic that takes place during that recovery time, and thus I got to have my cake and eat it too. (And be thrilled reading Pi's writing all over again because she'd been gone from writing so long :c )

In short, I have very little that ends up on the cutting room floor! Often because any outlines I write are broad strokes; NRFTW's outline was more defined than any I've done because I'd been out of writing for so long and wasn't sure if I could do it without a solid direction to go, so it's more an exception in this case. <3

Thank you for the question!

Procrastination ask meme here.

[grimeysociety]

20 questions for fic writers

technically my sideblog @youthereader was tagged by @indulgence-be-thy-name - thanks bb ❤️; and like Em I'll be answering for both accounts

How many works do you have on ao3? youthereader - 4 grimeysociety - 171

What's your total ao3 wordcount? youthereader - 17,245 grimeysociety - 2,299,669

What fandoms do you write for? MCU - almost exclusively Darcyland, a teeny bit of Stranger Things and RPF (Cillian Murphy characters mostly...I've barely begun though)

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? I can only answer this from grimey so... The Comeback Kid Among Wolves Damn, I'm In It I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm Heart to Break

Do you respond to comments? Why/why not? I always reply to comments unless they're the rare dickish one (I delete those, that's always fun). I reply to everything to thank people for interacting in the first place. I like it when I get a reply from authors, too. I'm very grateful.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I think it was one with Shieldshock and hacking, post-Infinity War, so everyone was dusted except for Steve and Darcy. It was kind of Schrödinger's ending because it might have been happy? I left it open (and I won't ever tell the 'real' ending).

What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Most of mine do. I can't help it. Especially since the 'happy ending' tends to be because of sex. I mean...

Do you get hate on fics? A couple times but it was really insignificant and swiftly deleted.

Do you write smut? If so, what kinds? I write it all. Kinktober was kind of my 'thing' for a few years, as in, some followers looked forward to it each October. I rarely don't have some form of smut in a fic. The filth is fun, and so is the intimate erotica type of stuff. The fluff is great, but I have actually written one that had no response whatsoever and I think it went a little too far for my regular readers.

Do you write crossovers? I think some of my Darcy fic count so I'm going to say yes. I've written her with most Chris Evans characters, like Ransom Drysdale to name one. It counts, right?

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Yes and it's still up lol

Have you ever had a fic translated? I've had a couple translated into Russian but can't recall which, it's been a few years.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? I had someone ask me to ghostwrite their fic ending and then when they weren't happy with what I'd written they said 'no thanks' and haven't spoken to me since, does that count?

What’s your all time favorite ship? I will never be able to decide this, sorry. It's been years and I can never pinpoint it. Literally hundreds of thousands of words written over the three particular ships I'm thinking of and there's no way. There's just no way.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? The Americans. It's been nearly 2 years since I updated and I think it's been forgotten about anyway, so that's me off the hook.

What are your writing strengths? I can't answer that. I have no idea.

What are your writing weaknesses? My pacing is the worst. I repeat myself. I don't think I'm consistent in any way. I get impatient and hardly edit sometimes, which bites me in the ass later. I am bad at a lot of things.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I've done it and it's fine. It's my average high school level French, but it's passable. Literally I passed high school French.

First fandom you wrote for? Kingdom Hearts

Favorite fic you’ve written? The Comeback Kid because it seems to be everyone else's favourite, too.

I will tag @sarahbeniel & @aimmyarrowshigh

[ehlnofay]

writer asks... 🥺🛒🤡✨🎶🎨👀

🥺 Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels? I think that something that always gets me is when the interaction is nice and good and lovely, and it could continue to be nice and good and lovely, but there are underlying circumstances that will not let it be and even now the cracks are starting to show. I love it when you can see the painful dissolution of a relationship long before it actually comes to fruition. it's so hhhhh and I write it a fair bit with characters like arabella and j'zargo, torr and astrid, pax and martin, and so forth

🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc. the thing that draws me most to writing is the characters; I think most of my writing is in some form a character study. I'm perpetually fascinated by how people react to difficulty, how they relate to one another, how their experiences inform their actions. so I think most of the themes that crop up often relate to that. I like using a lot of images and motifs, as well, but I can't think of any that are ubiquitous, though most of my characters have one or two specifically assigned to them that I like to reference

🤡 What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh? hmm... I'll be honest almost anything with efri has at least one thing in it that is extremely funny to me. she just says things. I'm looking through her document to give an example and there's just so much in here. in her first meeting with savos she asks him how old he is and then raps her stick on the ground and says "you're dead," before he can finish answering. she announces to the group of vampires she's sitting around a campfire with that she isn't sure how she feels about her choice to free them, you know, ethically speaking. she refers to the eye of magnus exclusively as "the ball" and when mirabelle informs her what they've been calling it she says "huh. that's a weird name" (she does not know who magnus is)

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉 I'm genuinely really happy with where my writing is right now. I'm proud of how much improvement I can see over the last few years in how I portray scenes, atmosphere and dialogue, and I see a lot of potential for growth which I find really exciting! since I was a little kid I've wanted to be a published author and I feel like that's actually in the cards for me at some point in the not-too-distant future (assuming, you know, I actually write a book)

🎶 Do you listen to music while you write? What song have you been playing on loop lately? I cannot play music or listen to literally anything when I'm writing. I close the door and the windows and ask my siblings to turn down their youtube videos or else I Cannot Focus An Inch. however I do love to listen to music to help me think through my stories and characters... it helps me get into a Mood and I've gotten a lot of ideas that way. most recent song I've begun to associate with a character is the amazing devil's the calling. it's pax (ish) at a very specific story beat

🎨 How do you feel about fan art of your stories? LOVE IT FOREVER. I still regularly look at art fight attacks and go AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. I want to give each of them a turn as my profile picture but I keep forgetting :(

👀 Tell me about an up and coming wip please! the Ludicrously Big Project.... if I keep the other sections to a similar length it will end up over a hundred thousand words, which is ABSURD. if I don't, the first bit will feel like such an insane outlier. I guess we'll see... I don't want to go into too much detail since I am only about a quarter of the way in (ridiculous) and I might trim the section I've written down a Bunch, so I don't want to like. jinx it. or say anything that ends up not being true. I will say that each main part focuses on the same story from the perspective of a different character and it is an exercise in not writing in little scenes pieced together (the reasons it is SO STUPID LONG methinks... if it was just the one character in vignettes it would have ten thousand words cut out and it would be done already) and that none of the characters in it are mine. unless you count the ones I made up expressly for this story. also it is pretty dark... which isn't super uncommon for my longer stuff it seems. I guess the more intense topics demand more space to resolve themselves. but there are parts that might be hard to read (definitely will be hard to write). whenever I post it in fifty years I will be sure to include comprehensive content warnings

[actuallyitsstar]

🌵, 🕯️, 🛼,🦷, 🪲 (if this one is stressful do please skip!) for writer's truth or dare?

✨ writer's truth or dare! ✨

🌵⇢ share the link to a playlist you love.

when i am writing, i can't listen to my ~regular~ music (unless it's a character vibes playlist but even then that's very rare for me lol) because the lyrics are just too distracting lol. i can't hear words i mostly know and/or connect with and also write other words bc idk- i don't have that many brain channels i don't think lol! as such, while writing i typically listen to either an instrumental playlist or something in a different language. recently what i have been listening to literally every time i sit down to write has been this specific 1980s japanese city pop playlist. something about the ~elegant~ vibes are like. soft and idk. it's perfect for background sound that is pleasant but not at all distracting.

🕯️⇢ on a scale from 1-10, how much do you enjoy editing? why?

i'll give editing like a 7. it's better, a lot of the time, than the initial draft, for me, (which i'd give like a 5) because it's not until i feel like all the details are starting to make sense and connect that i convince myself i don't hate what i've just written lol. once i start polishing it up i start to appreciate it. however, it's SO time consuming and full of so much second guessing and so much changing around the same paragraph 800 times and doing cntrl + f in the document for this one word you are SURE u used and need to replace but now u can't find it. it's so tedious. it's exhausting but very rewarding lol.

🛼 ⇢ describe your latest wip with five emojis.

🫡 🫠 👨🏻‍👦🏻💛🫂

🦷 ⇢ share some personal wisdom or a life hack you swear on.

this is tough because i don't feel like i have too much wisdom lol. i guess for me a big thing has been pushing myself to write something even when i am not at my most inspired. i can still write something to be proud of on just a regular day, and even if it's only a few hundred words, i'd rather feel like i accomplished something. i used to wait and wait for the right moment to write something and find that nothing ever got done. i'm still a very slow author, don't get me wrong, but learning to just get some words, any words, down on paper has helped immensely in my process.

🪲 ⇢ add 50 words to your wip and share the paragraph here.

ok, ok, speaking of the above paragraph, lol- u got me! here ya go ;)

Bradley just nods, reaching across the table to tap on the paper envelope, capturing Mav’s attention. When their eyes meet, Bradley tells himself that Phoenix is right, that he knows how to do this, even though he isn’t so sure that he does. “Well, you could’ve fooled me,” he says lightly. “I was telling all my friends in study hall you were the coolest person in the world. And that you knew everything.”

Maverick bites back a smile that’s fond, as much as it has a self-deprecating little edge to it. “I was a lot younger than you when I figured out that I didn’t,” he says quietly.

Bradley doesn’t feel equipped to properly unpack the meaning of the sentence, and he isn’t so sure that Mav had meant to let it weigh so much.

[inscrutable-shadow]

Mediwhump May Day 4 - Pain

@mediwhumpmay

This is canon-compatible with the current version of the ieiunus-verse (the current name of the universe in which my vampire stories take place) and therefore uses the main WIP tag. Thanatos is, obviously, a vampire. Born in Athens in 421 BC, he is currently working as a therapist in a modern-day city while living with his lover, the physical manifestation of Reality itself. The Archfey just thinks he's cute, and the vampire sex is a plus, too. The only content warning is I guess skip this one if you don't want to see PG-13 flirting, lol.

Thanatos was used to waking up and wishing he hadn’t. This was usually due to laziness. He would never have purported to be a hardworking sort of man, and immortality had not inspired in him any sort of work ethic. He preferred to spend his days either reading philosophy, writing his own essays, or systematically destroying the worldviews of his therapy clients, none of which he considered “work“, but rather entertainment. Today, however, he’d be unable to do any of those things. Getting out of bed was a challenge when his curse ached like this.

As much as most vampires would like you to forget it, vampirism is, in fact, a curse. Since Lord Cain Umbra had forged his contract with the Shadow on a distant planet tens of thousands of years ago, each vampire has been forced to abide by the terms of not only his original agreement, but their own contract: offer up blood and death to the Shadow in exchange for power and eternal life.

Well. Not life exactly. A vampire wasn’t technically dead, only mostly so, the natural ties that bound the soul to the body replaced by threads of dark magic. It felt just as if someone had taken real thread and stitched it throughout your body, and the pain never went away. It wasn’t as bad after four thousand years as it had been when he’d freshly turned, with the wounds on his soul just as fresh as the memory of life without pain, but it was still known to flare up from time to time. 

Why today of all days? It wasn’t as if he’d been derelict in his duty to the Shadow. He’d just hunted two days ago, and he was barely hungry. Nor could he recall any contact with high levels of light magic such as a seraph or a revenant would be able to wield: his life had been rather peaceful of late. He couldn’t ponder it any further, though, distracted as he was by the Archfey materialising under the covers next to him. It was so strange how ae did that.

“Good afternoon, slug-a-bed, if you have no pressing work to drag you from your sheets, perhaps you will consider pressing something else...?” ae whispered in his ear, and he realised ae wasn’t wearing aer robes, the coolness of aer skin granting him the smallest relief from his curse. 

As much as he wanted to make love to aer, with aer eyes like the sun and smile like the hearth, the thought of doing that much exercise made him want to lock himself into a coffin and not come out for a few hundred years. “Forgive me, my love,��� his voice was faint and strained with effort. “I don’t think I’ll have the energy today…”

The Archfey’s forehead wrinkled as ae rested aer chin on his shoulder. “Are you unwell, Thanatos? Tell me what ails you. Shall I conjure blood for you? Or is the house too cool? Have you grown tired of the wallpaper or the carpeting? I can change-“

“No, my dear heart, you needn’t change the furniture. The curse is quite painful today, is all.” He wanted nothing less than for the Archfey to conjure blood for him. Even after the thousands of years they’d spent together, ae was still as bad as it as ae’d been when they met. He cupped aer cheek affectionately, trying not to focus on the edges of his soul burning. 

Ae thought for a moment, leaning into his touch. “Would... drinking my magic help?”

Thanatos shook his head. If anything, that would probably make it worse: it had just occurred to him that his close proximity to the literal manifestation of reality, a being composed of pure magic, likely disagreed with his soul stitching and caused these flares to begin with. “I just need to rest, Rea. Don’t fret over me.”

The Archfey seemed to have come to a decision. “Yes. You can drink your fill later.” Flirting with him? Now? Ae kissed him on the cheek and teleported away, leaving him to wonder what ae was up to.

Than had just started trying to go back to sleep when his lover returned clothed and bearing a tray, upon which sat a bowl of hot water and some towels. “I watched mortals do this recently. A ‘warm compress’ relieves muscle tightness and reduces pain. This will help you.” He didn’t think it would, but he thought the whole thing was adorable, so he didn’t argue.

To his surprise, as the Archfey packed the hot cloths around him, the pain receded slightly. Even if, by the end, he looked like a mummy and was just as immobile as when they’d started, he felt much better. He groaned as he relaxed into the pillows, letting the heat sink into his bones. It wasn’t as if his vampiric body was producing much of its own. 

“How is that, darling? Any better?”

“Mhm,” he mumbled with his eyes shut, already dropping off again. The Archfey smiled and tucked aerself in next to him.

Perhaps the curse wasn’t so bad after all.

Tagging @albatris because we are vampire mutuals now :) lmk if you'd rather not get tagged in ieiunusverse content!

[dearestones]

Hey!!!! I hope we can still do that ask game from a sec ago :) 🤔📌💡🗑

Hey, Devin here!

🤔 What’s one genre you’ve never written that you’d like to try?

Oh gosh, I think I would like to write horror! I mean, yeah you could argue yandere is horror, but the way I write it, it's more... psychological thriller? If I do write horror, I think I would like to write about ghostly hauntings... or maybe even a slasher!

I would also like to try my hand at adventure type stories! Like the cast of characters going on a quest or something to that effect.

📌 If all your fics/WIPs fell off a ship and were drowning (go with it), and you could only save one, which would it be?

Why would you make me choose??? Like... I've got literal hundreds of fics under my belt at this point! I'm not proud of all of them, but they're all my babies!

That said, I would have to go with Caged Birds! Seriously, I'm spending so much time and effort into it and not only that, I'm projecting that it's going to take months, maybe even years before I finish. You bet I'm saving this wip!

💡 What’s the weirdest thing you’ve been inspired by?

Oooohhhhh! Good question! I think I get inspired by character interactions or the lack thereof. I like putting various elements like world buidling, characters, or plot ideas into a blender and seeing how the similarities and/or differences balance each other out or enable each other. You can see this a lot if you were to look at my old fics that are crossovers! It's amazing what you can do to put two seemingly different fandoms together!

🗑 What is one fic idea that you loved at first but then scrapped?

Once upon a time, I was going to write an oc-centric story for Obey Me! The main premise of the story is that the MC who I was going to call Bitty actually disobeyed Lucifer's orders from the very first few chapters, met Belphegor, and then admitted it to Lucifer. Lucifer, who is probably questioning his judgment, allows Bitty to continue visiting Belphegor so long as they don't tell the other brothers. His reasoning was that Belphegor (who he is very secretly fond of since that's his baby brother) needed enrichment and what better way to do that than to have him understand and bond with one of the humans he claims to detest so much.

The story was going to be mainly focused on the relationship between Belphegor and Bitty, with plenty of side plots and shenanigans with the other brothers. Also, Bitty is very against the idea of enslaving anyone to their will, even if it will serve them greatly in the future. Because of that, they refuse to make pacts with the brothers. This causes Belphegor and them to have arguments, but eventually, Bitty explains that maybe they can reason with Lucifer to let Belphegor out.

It takes months, but eventually, Belphegor gets released and in a moment where he feels like he can finally exact revenge, he realizes that Bitty is one simple human. He can't really achieve anything with that other than to halt the exchange program momentarily.

There's tension, but eventually, Belphegor reintegrates with the rest of the Devildom and eventually, both Bitty and Belphegor become best friends (possibly lovers???) without the possibility of death and hidden resentment from Belphegor.

A few notes: The both of them bond over how idealistic and absurd the exchange program is, how much they dont' like Diavolo, and how they enjoy card games.

Another note: Bitty's full name is Bituin Perez. Take that as you will :D

Thank you so much for the questions and I hope that you have a wonderful day! :D

Feel free to ask more!

[blondiest]

Can you imagine an easily flustered, shy mello or Near? Who's harder to picture with this personality.

hahaha, i have to say neither of them are particularly easy to picture this way,,, mostly bc i don't actually think Near would fluster that easy (i can more easily see him getting slightly overly enthused / overwhelmed if that makes sense??) and Mello defaults to getting A Little Mad About It whenever confronted with an unfamiliar / uncomfortable emotion (some exceptions for this ofc).

overall i think it's easier for me to imagine Near getting a bit more flustered, esp in a situation in which they're already involved with one another, since i think perhaps in that case he'd feel less of a need to hide his reactions to things?? i'm gonna be totally real right now, it's pretty late here so i reserve the right to clarify / retract some of this tomorrow when i'm more coherent hfhfhggfhfgfgh.

all this being said i'll add that i personally enjoy writing Mello getting flustered more. in his own way, though. TO THE EXCERPTS, FOR CLARIFICATION.

oh. first. special treat for you, since you specifically asked about them being shy. unpublished bit of a WIP that i currently am not actually working on, linked here ❣️

okay. aside from that. literally the entirety of there's nothing i hate more than what i can't have falls into the "mello falling apart" category, but here's a bit i like particularly well:

Near pokes his head in the door, and Mello is hit with the smell of burnt bread. To his great dissatisfaction, the white-haired boy’s eyes don’t stray from Mello’s face for even an instant.

“I burned it the first two times,” Near says. “But I’m trying again.”

“Okay,” Mello says, shifting slightly to let the shirt— Near’s shirt, which by all logic should make it even sexier— fall open a bit more.

Near doesn’t react. The blonde finds himself almost wanting to scream, but instead runs a hand through his hair and looks at Near through half-lidded eyes. It’s a move that, to date, has had a one-hundred percent success rate in getting the attention of potential sex partners.

“I have white grape juice if you would like any,” Near informs him blandly. He is not giving Mello do-me eyes, or any other sign of being affected.

“I’ll pass,” Mello says, trying to sound like he isn’t edging into hysteria.

okay spoilers below this for two other fics lol

from chapter 5 of hot soup on a cold day:

A high-pitched beeping sound pulls Near from slumber a distressingly short period of time later. His head aches slightly from too little sleep, but he hits the “off” button and silences the alarm. Beside him, Mello stirs, blinking blearily up at Near for a few seconds before seemingly waking up all at once. Near watches with dread as the blonde’s face shifts from sleepy relaxation to embarrassment to panic.

“What—!” Mello stammers, mostly failing to muster up a glare. “What the hell are you doing in my bed?!”

The acting is not Mello’s best, to say the least, but he is clearly having a crisis of some kind.

chapter 2 of what doesn't kill me makes me want you more:

Near tilts her head. “You didn’t complain before, when you were kissing me.”

It’s as if a rod is slipped into the other girl’s spine; she goes rigid, then sneers. “That’s because I feel bad for you.”

Near bites back a question— is it common practice for you to kiss people you consider charity cases?— because it’s pointed enough that it could only worsen the situation. “Mello has a kind heart,” she says instead.

That doesn’t go over well, though, anyway.

“Don’t fucking mock me,” Mello spits. “You’re the one who has— you’re the one who’s obsessed with me. I was just taking pity on you.”

uuhhhhh. yeah. anyhow. thank you for the ask!! hopefully this made some kind of sense? it's genuinely hard for me to tell when it's this late in the day jhjgjghfhhhfhh (<- temporarily a european timezone girlie) but it was fun to answer anyways!

[svartalfhild]

Summer Reading/Writing/Arting Tag

Tagged by @late-nite-scholar to complete this "get to know the author" tag game. Thank you~!

Tagging: @wayfaring-rune, @celamity, @boxingcleverrr, @mxphanes

1) Describe one creative WIP project you’re planning to work on over the summer.

Just one? Well shit, that's tough. I have so many ideas percolating in my noodle, both in terms of writing and art.

Let's see...aside from my current ongoing march of ESO fic which is very likely to continue through the rest of the year, I do have a cyberpunk novel I've been wanting to continue working on. It's currently titled Ars Voltaica, and it's set in Detroit about a hundred years from now. It's about a young woman fresh out of college who gets into a corporate sponsored debt relief program in which she has to sign a contract to work in the data entry department of said corporation for five years and also live entirely on their campus. While she's there, she becomes privy to some information she shouldn't know and oops! suddenly she has to flee for her life. And that's just the beginning! There's a lot of stuff to do with androids in there. One of the central characters, the personal assistant of the corporate boss, is an android, and he's got wild shit going on with him. A lot of my motivation for this story comes out of me being mightily salty about how bad Detroit: Become Human is lol.

Anyway! In terms of art, the main thing on the docket is doing the final player character portrait for my DnD group. He's a Fallen Aasimar Conquest Paladin who's getting his holy power from Bane but doesn't realize it yet. He's played by my friend Jim.

2) Rec a book!

Aw shit I'm not the reader I used to be, and unfortunately I've disliked more of the books I've read lately than I've liked. I can always go back to reccing the Starlight & Shadows trilogy by Elaine Cunningham for the DnD novel inclined who want to read about a drow other than Drizzt or Jarlaxle who is also a lady. The story actually explains why drow magic works on the surface when it didn't used to. Also a good series if you're a fan of fancy wizard/scruffy barbarian romances.

3) Rec a fic! (outside your character tag)

Once again, I'm not the reader I used to be, but every now and again, when I'm thinking about my love for Perc'ahlia from Campaign 1 of Critical Role, I remember AFK: a critrole MMO AU and how fucking good it was, both in concept and execution. The premise is that the characters are living in the modern world and all know each other through playing an MMO together.

4) Rec music!

Kill the Alarm's album Fire Away is nothing but bangers (especially the title song) and tastes of distilled 2008 to me. Been listening to those songs for a looooong time.

Eva Under Fire's cover of Separate Ways fucking slaps and it's been in heavy rotation lately.

5) Share one piece of advice!

Let me share a writing secret from your friendly neighbourhood linguist: in fiction, grammar is your bitch, and anyone who tells you different is trying to sell something. Obviously it's good to know grammar rules, and a certain amount of obeying those rules is necessary for coherent and clear communication, but everything after that is fair game. You can have your characters speak in run-on sentences, because people do that all the time in real life, and it doesn't even always sound awkward. You. Can. Put. Periods. In. Improper. Places. You know why? Because bending and breaking the rules can convey something that following the rules can't. Think of the way people convey tone and cadence in their posts online or in texts. You can totally do some of those tricks in your writing to get the vibe you want, especially in dialogue.

Related: "don't split your infinitives" and "never end a sentence with a preposition" are fake rules literally made up by some asshole scholars during the Renaissance because they thought English needed to be more like Latin. Don't pay any mind to that shit. You can quote me on that.

[rains-inky-mind]

Happy wbw! (I actually completely forgot it was Wednesday until I got your ask lol.) So first: how are you doing? Are you doing NaNo this year? How's planning going/writing in general?

And my actual wbw question: tell me about your world's history. Do you have a creation story or any myths the people have come up with? Legends and stories people talk about? Real history stuff vs what the characters think they know?

Hiya, Library! ♡ Happy (belated) WBW!

I'm doing okay, still trying to heal from my surgery. Over the last few days my body decided that I'm in pain again. So I'm just here trying to figure out if it's healing pain, fibro pain, or the thing I'm trying not to think about.

I am doing NaNoWriMo this year! It'll be my first time participating!

I had originally thought that I was going to just continue writing TWFA instead of starting a new WIP for NaNo, but now I'm considering starting the prequel... I don't want to finish TWFA before I meet the 50k words, but at the same time, I think this book has more than 50k left—I think it's going to be a long book.

I don't know! Either way, I'm considering just starting the prequel for NaNo instead. But then, is it too late to start planning???

As far as my writing in general... I've only written when I've gotten asks. However, I've been able to find words more easily when I only ask myself to write a hundred words at a time—so that's good!

This is a lot, Library, my dude. Very much question. Let me try to answer.

World's History:

The literal world for TWFA is Earth on the other side of The Gate. It was created when Earth was created, its inhabitants when Earth's were created. However, the difference is that as Earth processed and grew smarter and created and built and began to take nature for granted, choosing tech and towers over trees and closeness with nature—Ambition was on the other side. They chose nature. They chose simplicity and thus preserved the Heart (magic) of their land.

The myth that some Inhabitants believe is that their ancestors did not start out on their side of The Gate. The belief is that they came from the other side, the Earth side. This it a myth that the Southern Queen and Western Queen have tried to hide as they believe it to be true. They want to prove that they're superior to humans, which can't be so if they are human. Neither of these things are true...

No one really remembers the Great War. Both the Five and the leaders on Earth have made sure it was forgotten to time. But some families have passed down stories of the War.

This isn't everything, but this is all my brain will give me right now...

Words added: 126

Total WC from asks: 2,084

I would've responded yesterday, but I couldn't find the time to write my 100 words yesterday. :(