#I was surprised at the reception for my gift exchange stuff so maybe I’ll post art here more often :)

[mercurymoths]

This was a quick sketch lineup I did back in march in preparation for the gift exchange, but I like how it turned out so I’m posting it :)

[lethesomething]

2017 fic roundup

So I blatantly stole this meme from @themorninglark​. Feel free to make one for yourself, you writey people. I found it pretty helpful.

Because it's as good a time as any for some retrospective, and honestly, my writing can probably use some reflection.

my 2017 in fic writing

Total year-long word count: 287,599 Word count by fandom: Haikyuu!!: 241,726 Kuroko no Basket: 4,181 Boku no Hero Academia: 43,790 Original: 960

Fics completed: (I’m not going to do all of them, but these are notable)

The Lock, the Key and the Sacrifice (138,040 words): Haikyuu!!, a sprawling urban fantasy story and my first big fic (started in 2016, last third finished in 2017, but I’m counting the whole thing)

Monsters (45,038 words): Haikyuu!!, a rarepair TenSuga romance in a Vampire Yakuza Urban Goth Coffeeshop au. Because I can.

Chocolate Hearts (42,308 words): BNHA. A slow burn romance for Aizawa x Reader.

A Fairy-tale Haikyuu: Flash fic edition (497 words): The first time I tried my hand at flash fiction. Made for HQBrofest.

On villains and trust (888 words): BNHA. A serious attempt  to start a rarepair by writing fluff for Tokoyami x Shinsou

Thirst (596 words): BNHA. Poetic naked Aizawa.

Putting the rest under a cut for length

 Works-in-progress: My Girlfriend is a Goddess?!: Haikyuu!!, a gift for the Fantasy Exchange, which got out of hand completely. (we’re currently 52,280 words in)

 This year I wrote and posted: 10 fics

 Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted? Absolutely. Somewhere around August, I became Extremely Wordy, and now everything I write takes up way more space than anticipated. I'm still not sure what happened, but all those long ones up there, apart from The lock, the key and the sacrifice, were all written in the last half of the year.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January? Tokoyami x Shinsou came out of nowhere and started out as a sort of joke with @leeva-z-kai​. I also never thought I'd be writing Aizawa reader inserts, but here we are. Considering my tastes in fictional characters, I should have probably seen that coming.

What’s your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest? I'm going to have to say The lock, the key and the sacrifice, for the sheer amount of time and effort I put into that, and for the immense sense of relief and satisfaction upon completing my first big project. I wrote a friggin book. That is a thing I did and I'm pretty proud of that.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? I try to do new things to challenge myself with everything I write. I think the biggest risk I took, from a… fandom type side, is Monsters, because I knew from the very start that it definitely wouldn't be popular. It literally started as a way to prove to the world that you can dump several au's together, and then why not add a rarepair and lots of gore for good measure.

Your best story of this year: It's kinda hard to discern here between huge, enormous fics and the little ones, but, um, let's go with Thirst, because while that is very short, I like every single sentence in it.

Your most popular story of this year: Without a doubt Chocolate hearts. Still kinda reeling from the popularity of that one. I don't know if it was the timing, or the fact that the Aizawa is strong in the fandom, but it seems to have really hit a nerve.

Story of yours most under-appreciated by the universe, in your opinion: That which was not broken is one of the most personal stories I've ever written, which probably clouds my judgement. To a regular person I assume it's a cloying, angsty, almost teenager sentimental rarepair, and that's… fair. But it's currently sitting at 66 views and that's mildly disappointing.

Most fun story to write: Intersectional feminist mermaids. For the rather simple reason that I don't remember writing most of it. It's one of those 'chat lodged a story idea in my head' moments that I quickly typed out. I found the story months after initially writing it and then just finished it.

Story with the single sexiest moment: I've written surprisingly little smut this year. For some reason, my sexiest moments are mostly Aizawa, and he is just a lot better in soft, fluffy touches and understated movements and just… subtext than as straight up porn. So that whole scene with the hair in Thirst is Peak Sexy to me.

Most “Holy crap, that’s wrong, even for you" story: Yeah… Monsters. It has like… people-to-food factories and stuff. There’s a lot of weirdness in there.

Story that shifted your own perceptions of the characters: On Villains and Trust was a lot of fun, because I wrote it almost on a dare and I'd never considered those characters in that setting. The thing with writing rarepair is that if you do it well enough, those two characters suddenly look like they're made for each other. So that happened…

Hardest story to write: I struggled a lot with Monsters, but I think I'm currently struggling more with My Girlfriend is a Goddess!?, so I'll pick that because it's fresh in my mind. It has something to do with how hard I find it to focus on a specific set of characters, and to find the balance between telling too much of their mundane life, and telling too little.

Biggest surprise: Considering Chocolate Hearts was mostly written in a fever dream, a random flash of inspiration that pushed actual, planned fics out of the way, I wasn't really expecting it to go down as well as it did. The near daily feedback and the full blast of emotions from the people in the comments was incredible.

Biggest disappointment: This is gonna sound stupid. But after having one fic that was really warmly welcomed, the gap that came after Chocolate Hearts was… difficult. Like, I'm used to fics getting a hundred or a couple hundred views, and a few comments from friends and the occasional wanderer. But after seeing what Could Be, it was hard to go back to life as normal. So while I realize that because of the timing, or the fandom, or the subject matter, I shouldn't expect too much from some fics, the reception of Monsters, and especially My Girlfriend is a Goddess?! has been… disappointing.

Most unintentionally telling story: I suppose That which was not broken was an intentionally telling story. So let's go with A man walks into a bar, because I never realized how big my personal need is to write a ridiculous space opera.

Favorite opening line(s): He drinks his coffee black.  (from Monsters)

Favorite closing line(s): It had been two years, but Akaashi still painted any new men he met with the same brush, only to find that the picture wasn’t as beautiful as Kuroo’s. (from That which was not broken)

It holds promises of friendly conversation and creativity and maybe, just a little bit, of adventure.(from The lock, the key and the sacrifice)

Favorite 5 line(s) from anywhere:

Cheese crackers, also, because everyone likes those, even mermaids. (from A fairytale)

Tortugan native beer was only 'beer’ because they changed the definition of the word for marketing purposes. The tortugans didn’t so much brew, as drink rocks. Literally. They dissolved minerals into water to get high. Unsurprisingly, it tasted like dirt. (from A man walks into a bar)

« He nodded and said 'I understand', » he went on. « And then we agreed that he doesn't ask questions and I don't tell him things that could cause an existential crisis for an experimental physicist. »(from My Girlfriend is a Goddess?!)

His skin is flushed, heat turning it a shade darker than normal, and the low light raises up his scars, turning them into islands of gold in a pool of vermilion.(from Thirst)

Semi Eita, 1,8 metres of undiluted sex appeal, folds his arms and looks around the coffee shop with a small pout.(from Monsters)

Top 5 scenes from anywhere you would choose to have illustrated:

Kageyama Tobio on the world's creepiest beach, being a badass (in The lock, the key and the sacrifice)

The elaborate, alt Venetian feast, full of gaudily costumed people twirling around to music, like cogs in an overstuffed clock, would make a pretty picture, I think. (from The Golden God)

The flashback scene to Aizawa's graduation party, partly because of the sheer cringiness, and partly because hey, it’s a party under fairy lights. (in Chocolate Hearts)

Tendou fighting Iwaizumi in an abandoned homeless camp is one scene I wrote almost exclusively for the visual (in Monsters)

Bokuto and Akaashi at work in a mirrored attic feels like it would look really cool (in My Girlfriend is a Goddess?!)

 Fic-writing goals for next year:

I’m trying very hard to understand my own fic writing. I've written a lot this year, like a LOT, (probably too much, if I’m honest, not even counting the meta and the analyses and stuff) and I can feel myself evolving, but I have no idea where I’m going and why certain things work, and other things don't. So that’s something to figure out.

My main goal, I think, is to start writing slower again. I feel like I’m just more pleased with works that have been given the time to ripen, to stew a bit. Pacing, if you will.