#LOL i've had a version of this fic in the drafts for years

[declawedwildcat]

ooh! curious about touch starved Haru v2.

You both asked the same one within seconds of each other haha, combining them here!

My previous stories and the current state of my blog will make it look like I'm lying lol, but this fic has nothing to do with Touchstarved the visual novel and is actually the oldest doc in the bunch. According to the file history I started it back in October.

It's a fic that I've wanted to write ever since getting back into Free, but I just can't get it to form correctly - as the v2 implies I had a draft of it that I started, and for the first time ever the vibes were so wrong that I scrapped it and went back to square one. That helped some and I got about twice as far, but now I'm back to being dissatisfied with the tone/direction on the page not conveying the story I actually wanted to write and haven't even poked at it in months. Despite being the WIP I was the most passionate about, it's also the one I'm the least confident of ever finishing enough to warrant posting.

Content-wise it's a canon compliant rinharu fic told from Haru's POV and meant to be a character-study-esque look at the intersection of touch aversion and touch starvation, the confusing and frustrating sensation of craving physical contact from one emotionally significant person yet being unable to accept it from almost anyone else. It's hopelessly self-indulgent, projection central, and it would be nice to complete it someday when the block lifts and I'm able to get back in a writing routine. I've shared a few lines of it in Word Game Wednesdays and the like, but I'll tack on a snippet that may or may not make it into future versions:

Before now Haru had never really considered himself as living alone. He did, obviously, on an objective level, but it didn’t feel alone in that way. It had been years since he lived with his parents, and his friends visited semi-regularly, so it wasn’t a conscious way of life so much as the default state that both he and the house existed in. He just lived, period. It didn’t feel like that anymore.

{WIP Ask Game}

[merionettes]

rubicon ask!!

first off I'm so so delighted that I picked up FE3H last summer and that it led me to finding your writing & especially this fic. what an amazing experience, what a treat with every update, I have all these fun memories now of places I was when I got the update email (and screamed internally every time). a little collection of sense memories colored in.

as for the actual question: very curious about your process. did you have an outline going in? I have to imagine yes (or else you're braver than black friday shoppers). how did you go about structuring this, ie did you have a series of Moments in your head that you wrote around and connected, or did you try to build scenes to fit the arcs you had in mind, or a mix of the two? anything and everything you want to share, I'm 🤲

you're killing me!!! man, thanks so much, seriously. 

as for the actual question, indeed. hahaha. ha. i delayed answering this for so long because it kept devolving into an essay about the emotional experience of writing a novel for the first time. well i give up. this is now two posts. one is the actual answer to your question, only ten times longer than it needs to be. the other is an essay about the emotional experience of writing a novel for the first time. so… caveat lector. 

first part under the cut. ← not kidding about the caveat!!!!!!

i've talked a little about the process before, so i'll piggyback on that post and dig a little more into the differences between the original idea and the finished product, including spoilers i couldn't get into when i'd only posted 55k. ("only." god.)

technically this did start with an outline. technically because at the time i was brand-new to fe3h and hadn't written anything but a few friend-ficlets in about 8 years. thought "skating au!!", spent a fevered weekend outlining all the major scenes, started in on the writing, and…. very quickly realized that i was nowhere near competent enough to actually. write it. "intensely frustrating" does not even scratch the surface, lmao, of what it felt like to have this thing in my head and only be able to produce what felt like the worst clumsiest tritest version of it. very apropos for skating, actually. 

looking back on that outline, it had almost nothing to do with the finished product, especially on felix's side. it didn't have the nationals flounce, the timeskip, training in vancouver, the lake, the nhk trophy sports anime climax, the backstory reveal meltdown. (it did have the redemptive healing free skate.) what, critically, it did have was sylvain's personal arc—burned out, desperate to quit, wants to go to college. it ended at exactly the same place as the actual story, with sylvain and dorothea's final skate together. the last line was one of the earliest things i wrote. 

in other words, even though almost everything between the first and last scene changed WILDLY in the process of writing, i always knew exactly what i was working towards and that was invaluable. 

insert two year timeskip here! during which i would occasionally reopen the skating doc, take a stab at another scene, feel this ominous sense of foreboding, and give up lol. you can thank the 2022 winter olympics for making me get serious, specifically 1) yuzuru hanyu going out in a blaze of bittersweet doomed quad axel glory 2) shoma uno losing to some eighteen year old. i believe my exact words were (consults notes) "anyway time to go back to my fic where i control the narrative and i decide who wins." idk what made this attempt different than any of the others—right time, right inspiration, right circumstances—but this time it caught fire. in uh. in a big way. 

so that's when i wrote what i refer to in that post as a skeleton draft and what i've since come to think of as a storyboard on steroids. this is when felix's arc really took shape, beyond "he is sad… he is mad… he is perfectly positioned to see right through sylvain." the fallout from nationals crystallizing, in particular, was one of the things that snapped felix into place and helped determine the tone and focus of the story overall. (that initial outline had much more of a romcom/classic fwb-to-lovers feel.)

the other thing that did this, of course, was sylvain's narrative voice. when i committed to "burnout who is controlling every single word of every thought to avoid admitting that he is burned out" was when this story became what it is. the voice dictated every single scene, the tone, the shape, what was revealed, what was implied, what was never making it on the page. it led me places i didn't anticipate. it made the cuts for me! cute scene you've got in that outline lol sylvain would never. 

i see past me in that post dancing around the length, lmao. well the ""storyboard"", the skeleton, whatever you want to call it, was over 100k. and yet even then, EVEN WITH 100K ON PAPER, there was still so much i had no fucking clue was coming! felix pushing sylvain on what he wants was there, but sylvain never explained what happened. my oc jm gautier (thanks for nothing, three hopes!!!) was an ominous presence, but he wasn't the final boss. there was no memory of the first time sylvain and dorothea met. (<- insane.) there was no glenn skate. i had to write to discover all of that.

so like—i cannot emphasize how much i grew as a writer through the experience of writing this story. prose, structure, character arcs, thematic arcs. i was harder on myself than i've ever been. and if i hadn't had that end goal in sight i don't know if i would have made it through all those iterations—storyboarding, drafting, rewriting, editing. wanting to deliver that moment powered me through any amount of frustration/exhaustion/bewilderment.

wow this post sounds almost normal. nothing about this experience was normal. which is why you're getting a part 2.

[lemonisntreal]

heyo! Just found your blog and I was scrolling through your stuff and noticed your AU tone deaf. And I haven't found anything about what it is or what your idea is behind it. So I wanted to ask if you could give me an introduction to your AU!

Oh! And I absolutely love your artstyle and how you draw Buster! Anyway, hope you drink enough water and have a good day/night! ;)

Dear god this has been in my drafts for a while-

Hiya! Sorry for that lack of info lol, I'd been inactive for a long time, and the time that I actually WAS posting consistently was back when things were still being sorta fleshed out. But I've got a pretty good idea of how every single part moves at this point, so sure :D I'll give a not-so-brief summary lol [under a cut because I couldn't not dump multiple paragraphs teehee ~_~]

--------------

Tone Deaf is like a dystopian version of Sing, if I were to put it super duper simply. One where Buster's issues get more emotional focus, and we get actual bonds with the cast because the movie forgot to do that.

Buster is, also, a lot more unhinged, fair warning. This fic's gonna contain violence and tackle some darker subjects [adjacent to grief and denial more specifically] so if it feels like I jumped a lot of sharks, it's because I 100% did.

It kinda started with me noticing how, in the actual movies btw, smaller characters like Buster and Mike had more difficulty getting around places. This led me to ask myself about how species differences could lead to struggles for certain animals since the city just isn't built for everyone [this is NOT Zootopia]. Ash's quills, and Meena's towering size were things I noticed too that would be massive problems, realistically. So after a lot of pondering, now we're here.

The world of Tone Deaf in present day is in a post-war period that's lasted about 50 years now [Crawly is actually a veteran from this war- which was more like complete and total anarchy if I'm being real, since there weren't really any sides until near the end...]

Long story short, the wealthy capitalized off of the war and taking people prisoner- so they purposefully kept it going. A resistance ended up forming to stand against this [Miss Crawly being one of the generals, with that classic missing eye] and after their army stormed the unsuspecting stronghold, the war finally began to conclude. It still took around a year after that to release all of the prisoners of war, and by the end of it all, the damage that had been done to some races was permanent. Even extinction-level in some cases- some animals just straight up don't exist anymore because of it.

Back to Calatonia. Laws that are in place to protect animals from tearing eachother apart are still relatively new, and the criminal underbelly of Calatonia is kinda out of control. Animals get kidnapped/poached, smaller animals are at a huge disadvantage and have basically no power [politically or otherwise], endangered species are a very real thing, poverty is a huge issue for most of the population- and in the middle of all this is Buster Moon.

He's gonna be the main perspective. And the story will also serve as a slight character study on him, mixed with my own grittier and batshit insane changes/headcanons/alternate universe ideas on his backstory. He's a ray of sunshine with a lot of bottled-up feelings that will kinda really take control of the story.

Buster has been arrested multiple times. He's been put in unsuccessful therapy. He's still grieving his dad. He's committing crime and compulsively lying about those illegal actions too. He has emotional difficulties that he hasn't dared try touching on in years, and he has issues with letting go- which, is kinda how all of his new problems come to be.

The threat of his theater being repossessed if his show isn't a success gets a LOT more emphasis too.

But on top of that is the added threat of Buster getting sent out of the city if he can't get his business up and running. Remember how I mentioned endangered animals?? Well Koalas are one of them. One of the big ones, actually. He's the only Koala in a city of almost five hundred thousand, and it's been that way for almost half a decade now. It's been causing issues for the people in charge for half a decade now. Koalas have government-protected settlements far away from here due to their numbers being so few, so if Buster loses the theater? That's the next step for him.

But, to help this poor dude through all the stress of life is the found-family he develops with the cast he hired. He helps them for a lot of the first act, and then they give back his kindness in the second. They connect through their similar experiences, as well as their shared passion for music and performance. And by the end, maybe Buster's okay. Or maybe he's had a complete downward spiral [not gonna speak of act three 🥰]

Other characters have also had a shift in their dynamics. Things in the story have changed. Like for instance- Gunter already knew Buster and was a close friend of him and Eddie before the show, Judith is now the mayor and a main character, Pete has been put in place of the banker in charge of Buster's accounts, Buster unfortunately gets involved in politics, Mike actually gets to bond with the cast- actually the cast gets to bond with the cast point blank period [idc what you say, this just straight up doesn't happen in the canon movies], and to top it all of is a generous helping of angst with a few acts of violence sprinkled in 🤭

The actual Act I summary is this right now:

Buster had been in tight situations before-- suffocating situations, even. He’d been in every kind of trouble imaginable, he thought. With family, friends, local businesses, the law. But he'd always wormed his way out, either through loopholes or by charm. Or usually just by stacking another lie on top of his already crumbling facade. But this time it's gonna take more than a cover-up to fix this. ‏‏‎ Buster’s dishonesty takes him too far once again, a simple typo causing him to unintentionally land himself in a wager that could cost his very life. He has two months to fix this- to ACTUALLY fix this. And the worst part is that he hadn't even meant to lie this time. ‏‏‎ The First Act of Tone Deaf.

TLDR; Buster learns to love again after experiencing the horrors of animalkind firsthand and being healed by theater kids LMFAO

[ladytauria]

I need to know more about Neither a Bang Nor a Whimper!!!!

-@bi-bats (ughghghgh sideblog laws sorry for the anon)

So, njw's Where's My Goddamn Dinosaur? was one of the first Jaytim fics I ever read, & immediately left me wanting more time travel fics (which, time travel fix-its & the like were already a favorite genre of mine lol). I also read a lot of gen time travel & dimension travel, and. Anyway. That led to "Neither a Bang Nor a Whimper."

It's gone through a few different changes since I first started planning it / writing it. The first version had future!Tim being sent back in time, in his younger body, and I wrote the first two chapters that way. Then I decided I liked future!Tim being sent there as himself better, mostly because in addition to Jaytim I want to explore what Tim's interactions with his younger self might be like. I have also been considering a version where Jason and Tim are sent back to the past, together (for the same reasons as previous). I may make that an entirely separate fic, lol.

But! At least in the current draft, it's 17-year-old Tim sent back in time a few days before Jason died. The title is a reference to the catalyst of the time travel being the end of the world, similar to Where's My Goddamn Dinosaur--though not with the branching timelines~

It's also one of the first fics I started writing, and I've learned a lot more about canon vs fanon & my preferences re: those things since xD So what I do have needs some heavy rewrites, again :P

But have this snippet anyway~

The world as he knew it... is gone. The invasion saw to that. One by one, all of Tim's loved ones had dropped like flies—from the Teen Titans, to Batman himself, to Alfred. this was his only way forward, now—even if it meant, for all intents and purposes, going backward.

The only question is… when?

Six months ago, when this all started? He, and the rest of Earth's heroes, could stop it, especially with the data that Tim had collected over the last six months. That was the logical choice. Tim's life, as he knew it, would go on, exactly as it was before.

But...

Tim looks at the chronometer, turning it over in his hands, watching the light play on the silver. This is his one chance to go back. He should choose carefully. Weigh his choices, make the right one. the best one.

He has no idea exactly how it works. If he goes back to a time he exists, will there be two of him? Or will his consciousness replace his former self?

He doesn't know.

If its the latter, his choices narrow. He can't save Dick's parents—not from the body of a four year old. Tim bites his lip.

He flips the watch open.

If he’s being honest... there's always been one particular date he's been drawn to. One thing he wanted to change, more than anything else. Maybe it's selfish of him, to narrow down to that particular point—to ignore every other tragedy, every other pivotal moment in his life, in his family's lives.

But if you can't be selfish at the end of the world... when can you be?

So… with only a split second of hesitation, Tim keys in the date—and presses the button. There’s a soft chime, and then—

The world warps around him, bending and twisting, blurring together like some awful fevered haze.

And then the floor drops out beneath him, and he is falling, falling, falling—

[pinktom]

hi! you've mentioned a few times that the current version of Lover's Spit is a re-write of a previous version. Sadly I wasn't around for said previous version so I can't tell how much has changed (though, rest assured, I absolutely adore the fic as it is)

So what I was wondering is how did you go about writing it again? I have a couple unpublished fics that I'm not happy with in their current forms (my writing style has changed, I've learnt about writing tricks to make it flow better, learnt proper dialogue punctuation...) but I find re-writing to be a very difficult and tedious exercise which puts me off doing it. I'm guessing that I just haven't found a good way to do it, which is a shame because the fics are good, they just need to be made better before I can be comfortable publishing them.

So I wanted to know, how did you completely re-write what you had already written? Please be as detailed as you want in your answer, I love this type of stuff lol

I can't wait for the next installment of Lover's Spit, and I hope your writing is going well xx

First of all, I’m honored you’d ask for my humble opinion here, and I wish you all the best of luck with your rewrites. ❤️

I also cannot tell you how uncanny your question is. A few months ago, I toyed with the idea of re-posting the original Lover’s Spit for exactly this purpose—so that other fic writers could read it, instructively, as I used so very many fics over the years. (I'm still on the fence about whether it's a stupid idea, lol.)

Reflecting back on the experience, I think I have some potentially useful tips.

Writing is a masochistic hobby. The first four chapters of Lover’s Spit threatened all three of my brain cells, and it wasn’t really very fun for me to write them. Having a ‘big picture’ is, paradoxically, what kept me grounded during that time, and this is my first piece of advice.

I’d recommend looking at a single unfinished piece you wrote, and deciding, from a bird’s eye view, what the point of the story is. What is your objective, really? Then look at how you can reframe all of the existing scenes into a cohesive picture. 

This way your attention is probably less focused on flexing all of the new techniques (still, slay & flaunt it 💅🏻) and more on telling an entertaining story with heart.

When we drafted the original story, there was no intentional objective. It was just for fun. This go around, I did go in with a very specific objective: to explore how real life intersects with the internet. 

So every time I rewrote certain scenes, I wasn’t just retelling the scene with better words. I was attempting to focus the scene (via imagery, dialogue, diction) on that clear, concise objective. For example, the current version of Lover’s Spit begins slower, and lingers more, really to emphasize how boring normal life can be. The internet scenes, by contrast, are shorter, whippier, and don’t take up much real estate. I also include more descriptive lines about the town, throughout the story, and spend far more time in Harry’s head, chewing kind of tediously through his character development. I wanted to intentionally set an ultra high contrast on IRL and internet life, and many scenes look completely different because of it.

Along those lines: You may feel more enthusiastic if you add one or two more details that are new and refreshing, that really excite you. It doesn’t need to be ultra tangible either. For the Lover’s Spit rewrite, I challenged myself to add more mystery and anticipation, particularly where it concerns what’s going on in Tom’s head. This made rewriting certain scenes tricky, but more fun, because I had to be more inventive but I also got to indulge in the character-building aspect of it, which I enjoy.

And also, I learned how to embrace bitter work, to grin and bear it, because the payoff is worth it. I can look at forty word passages that took me an entire Saturday afternoon. I'm a grown woman, I work full-time, I like to party. That shit hurts! But because I have an objective—a point to get across, to share with people—I really feel it's worth it to sacrifice the time and endure the tedium.

But all that said, I will also say there's no shame in leaving projects on the back burner. If it's not fun for you to write, it may not be the best investment of your time, or perhaps not the right time to tell the story. I was actually about your age when I wrote the first Lover's Spit (I was 22), and I'm glad I took my time to return, because I wasn't mature enough to tell the story I knew deep down I wanted to tell.

[jetgirl1832]

20 Questions More

This is a deeper and more detailed version of the 20 questions for AO3 fanfic writers. @nottawriter hit me with a tag, I have been attacked lol.

1) How do you keep getting ideas for your ship / fandom? A dash of shower thoughts, with a pinch of I watched a movie and couldn't help but think... Yes, that will work. They often feel like the come from nowhere.

2) Which authors inspire you in your fandom, and why are they so freakishly good? That's not fair how dare you ask me this!!!! Uhhh I'm mostly reading Supercorp stuff these days sooo... @jazzfordshire, @mycatismyeditor, @fazedlight, @innamorament0, @scribblingpunk, @fyonahmacnally to name a few. AAAAND my co-author and a vast array of things @tomatopudding! Why? Idk, I just get drawn a lot to these works and think they're lovely, and I love their depictions of these characters I love.... with @tomatopudding we just vibe very well, sharing the same five brain cells helps.

3) Aside from the characters of your main ship, who are the characters you love to write? If we're talking Supergirl... That's so hard, but I might have to say Brainy and Nia if really pressed... and Alex. I really enjoy Alex.

Otherwise, my other faves include all of the Les Amis from Les Miserables (if you know you know), specifically Courfeyrac and Marius and their hilarious dynamic. Other faves include Eliza Schuyler-Hamilton, Eponine Thenardier and... This could go on for a very long time, are you sure you have time?

4) Are there pairings or tropes you know for sure you’d never write about? Which ones? Not putting Kara and Lena together just makes me sad... So Supercorp ftw all the way, they are my top (I am a lot more amenable in other fandoms I've written for)

Tropes... I'm unlikely to do Omega-verse, I haven't done it and I can't see myself starting even if I sometimes read it.

5) What is your writing process and why is it cursed?

When I worked in retail I wrote on stupid little scraps and probably lost about 75% of them. Sometimes the method is hand writing, and then typing and making edits during that process as well. The handwritten can vary drastically from the typed draft lol.

I tend to fly by the seat of my pants unless someone is keeping me in line. I'm pretty darn chaotic.

I doubt myself a lot, so I always think whatever I write is garbage no matter how much proof there is that's not true. Also, sometimes I get burnt out, or my muse dies and then I feel terrible. Yay.

6) What is your favorite part of your writing process? Falling down rabbit holes, looking into fun topics. Likely ending up on a government watch list for the stuff I've searched up over the years

7) What’s the weirdest thing you’ve had to research for a fic? Uhhh.... hmm. I have no idea what the weirdest is lol. Cause it's on my mind, probably looking up what types of wood are easiest to chop, and why. (There is definitely weirder, but I don't remember right now).

8) Is there a particular writing rule you struggle with (grammar, spelling, tense, reality in general)? Commas. They hate me, and I hate them.

9) What was your hardest scene to write so far and why? Oof. Uhhh... This is so hard! Honestly there is a lot of stuff in my co-written very long series Hamilton Family Album that was *a lot* between research and feels.

Especially when you're co-author hits you with unexpected feels out of nowhere that you weren't anticipating (YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID).

10) Have your characters ever done something you didn’t expect, changing your plot completely? Of course, they have. It happens all the time.

11) If you could converse with any of the characters, who would it be and why? Ohhh... Hands down Kara and Lena, I wish they could be my friends and we could hang out. Why? I think that they are absolutely incredible, wonderful and I could just sing their praises for ever.

12) What are some of the tropes or themes that you find yourself returning to in your writing? Oooo, I'm a sucker for fluffy romances, and I've been dabbling in smut recently. Other themes for me can be like found family is a really popular one for me.

Since I've written both a lot of Les Mis and Hamilton stuff (among other similar things) I've done a lot of "Modern AU's" as well, which are uhhh varied to say the least. If I can treat anything they way the treat most Shakespeare pieces these days I do it.

13) What’s your most important resource as a writer? Asking for help! Soundboarding with other writers, I love doing it. It helps me make sense of my ideas... Or decide they're maybe too out there (almost never lol)

14) Can you share some of your strategies for editing and revising your work? Reading it out loud, I have a hard time noticing errors otherwise. Asking someone you trust to look it over as well, take your time and double and triple check if you're unsure about something.

15) Which is worse: making the summary, picking the tags, or the anxiety when you post your fic? D. All of the Above

16) How do you define success for your fanfic - hits? Kudos? Comments? Bookmarks? Or just if you like it? I try to just write for myself, usually because I haven't seen something like it and think it should exist. I do really enjoy getting comments if only because I'm always curious to hear what readers think about my work.

17) Do you have a playlist for your favorite character / ship? I don't, and if I did it would be odd... I'm the most massive theater nerd. I do have songs that I think fit the vibes, and some shows I listen to have more apt things than others. Or if it's Les Mis it's the whole dang album lol.

Supercorp things if anyone is curious (and wondering how odd it could get): Mercury Rising from Lizzie, Come Home With Me, Anyway the Wind Blows, Wait for Me and Wedding Song from Hadestown, In A Crowd of Thousands from Anastasia, Origin of Love from Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Maybe I introduced you to something fun today.

18) If fan art was going to be made from your work, which fic would you pick and which fan artist would you like to create it? Oh dear... I don't know. The thing I'd love to see art for isn't up yet and I just think it would be fun but it will be called What Was I Made For... And we're gonna leave at that for now.

19) How many WIPs do you currently have? I'm finishing up You've Got New Followers (One chapter left!), I think three other WIP's (two more plotted than others) and my WIP for May-Hem... So five?

20) What’s your advice to new fanfic writers? Don't be afraid just because you've never done it before. That's why fanfic is amazing. You can do what you want and in reality no one can stop you, just make sure you're having fun.

My fics: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JetGirl1832/works?page=1

Tagging but no pressure: @tomatopudding and @innamorament0

[thelaundrybitch]

You ask, I deliver! 🧊,🍀 and 🧠 for Sunny, please 💛💛

AHHHH!!!! THANK YOU FOR THIS ASK!

Gosh sorry it's so long. I hadn't realized how much had been put into Sunny's character until you asked these questions, and I really want to thank you for that. I had to do a bit of soul searching for these answers 😂💖

Sunshine Alisabet Meadows

🧊  - Is their current design the first one?

Kind of.

What I mean by kind of, is that Sunshine has always been "the laundry bitch".

And I will come back to this later.

So, I'm gonna start this off by telling you that instead of using y/n in my reader x turt fics, I like to use pet names. Sunshine is one of those pet names.

And actually the pet name originally stemmed from Tethered - which has been being written for I feel like YEARS at this point, but has yet to see the light of day - whomp.

Sunshine is what Donatello calls his significant other, as a pet name in said series.

And actually, now that I think of it, I first used it in LBH BY Donatello, and I think it just kind of stuck after that.

Because we all know, I do love me some DonDon.

Then, Sunshine really came about next, through means of my one-shot Sniped.

She was dropped into an apocalyptic au through human trafficking and saved by Donnie. Later she moved in with the turtles on base and met Mona Lisa - courtesy of the wonderful @tmnt-tychou 💕

Her most current version that you all know and love, was restructured to fit in a Tactical Turtles (Rise) AU, where she met a hot ass mechanic - Axel 💖

🍀  - What originally inspired the OC?

Weirdly enough, a dream. I dream in turtle occasionally. And Donatello's pet name for me, was Sunshine.

Great, I've outed myself

A N Y W A Y S

The person really responsible for helping start Sunshine on her OC journey, however, was TyChou 🫶🏻

Mona was Sunshine's first girlfriend.

That's right folks, you heard it here first. MonaShine was and sometimes still is a thing. Because Sunny also loves herself a lizard girlfriend 😂☀️🦎💕

Sunshine continued her journey into what we'll call a group writing exercise started by the incredible @morning-sun-brah 💖 and in an au created by the equally amazing @donathan 🤩

She got a little resizing, if you will, to become a self insert character for said writing exercise.

And then she just sort of found a voice of her own as time went on. She does indeed resemble me in many ways, but she is very much *her own person* now.

🧠  - What do you like most about the OC?

Her girlfriend, Axel. 

LOL KIDDING

No but, really, I love everything about Sunshine. Girlfriend has been through A LOT. And put ME through A LOT.

Including springing the fact that she has an identical twin - Buttercup. Who I also love dearly, but that's a story for another ask.

Sunny is my most frequently written OC, although you'd never know it because most of her stories remain in my drafts, and unpublished 😅

Which is a crime because she's a friggin riot.

I love that she is sassy and sarcastic. She has such a wonderful sense of humor and a heart of gold. She is warm and welcoming, and she is equal parts safety and laundry. She is the epitome of Shenanigans Supreme® and if you ever looked up Little Shit™ in the dictionary,  you'd see her staring back at you.

She holds a very special place in my heart and is my favorite out of all my OCs.

Just don't tell her. It'll go straight to her head 😑🙄😂

And honestly, she's my OG laundry bitch, how could I not love her the most 🫶🏻☀️

And since we're here, and I'm writing about her character development, I want to give a huge shout out, and thanks to all of you who have helped me create and develop her. Especially @shiftandshade ❤️🥰

~tags~

@leosgirl82 @sharpwindow @post-apocalyptic-daydream @scholastic-dragon @m1dnyt3-w0lf @eveandtheturtles @raphsmuneca @happymoonangel @miss-andromeda @tinkabelle19

[zeldaelmo]

20 Questions For Fic Writers

Tagged by my wonderful friend @bahbahhh.

__

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

77

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

484,215

My goal for 2023 was to hit the 500,000 and I'm positive I'll reach it.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Legend of Zelda, all games apart from Zelda I, II, and Minish Cap (because I haven't played them so far)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

How to name a royal child

Stolen Kisses

Strangers in the Night

It's in his Kiss

Flour, water, salt, yeast, love

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Uh... in theory, I do. I love getting comments but I often feel stupid saying ten times 'thank you' in a row, so I end up answering mostly when I have something to say.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

That would be Lonely at the Top. I don't really write angsty endings, but this one is hurt/no comfort as it tackles Link visiting the Light Dragon who doesn't even react to him.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hm...I'm not too fond of the fanfic version of the perfect happy ending, namely, proposal, sappy wedding, and omg, twins!, mainly because I love the nuance life teaches us. What a happy ending for a fic and a character is, is so often much more different than the fairy tale version.

That being said, I'd still go with Strangers in the Night, just because the two worked so damn hard for their happy ending.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Hate is a big word, but I get negative comments and sometimes they are even personal, yes. Most people are lacking reading competence and/or don't understand how stories work. I mostly ignore those. Sometimes I complain on discord if it's very annoying. If someone insults me, I block.

I don't think that has to do so much with me, though. I have 1,346 comment threads on my stories. Of course, there are some idiots among them, that's life.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes, occasionally. I think ten of 77 fics are explicit. Look, the thing is, I'm a story teller. So if the smut doesn't add to the story, I don't tell it. Rule of thumb is, that I keep it to a T-rating if possible to make the story accessible to most people. I only go for explicit stuff if I want to deliver some part of the character development/plot with the intimacy (or the lack of lol) that the smut offers.

Does that get me the most Kudos? No. But I'm not here for that or I wouldn't bother writing for 30 years old games. I'm here to tell a good story and have fun. :)

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

No. If you've read so far, I can tell you a secret as a reward: I find crossovers pointless. Ooops.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I am aware of!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I am aware of! But I'd love to! Big fan of accessibility!

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

No. I've seen a few writing collabs end in fandom drama or otherwise go awry, so I decided that I only collab with artists. I might try with something short one day, but nothing novel-length.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Take a guess.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Ah, so I have a half-written novel in my drafts. A story about writer!Zelda and fanartist!Link who are also princess and beloathed bodyguard. I'm very determined to go back to that one after I finished The Promise, but I'm a little scared. The story is complicated and my thoughts are chaotic. I already asked @mistresslrigtar to help me work it out next year, so I hope we'll manage.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue and showing what's going on in the character's head who's not the POV character.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I struggle with simplicity sometimes, mainly because of the language barrier. I write something that's horribly complicated and I just know there must be a better way to put it, but I can't figure it out. Grammar is hard, lads.

I also have a weird relationship with descriptions. I love having characters interact with their environment but I loath big chunks of description. I plan to work on this during my traditional holiday self-study break.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

This is a weirdly specific question, but ok.

If you don't happen to write a book that's supposed to teach beginners the other language, then don't. You might end up othering the person who's speaking and that's something you don't want to dabble with lightly.

I already talked about accessibility: You will exclude people from your writing and you don't want that just to sound cool. If you must for plot reasons, make otherwise sure everyone is on board. Slightly different case if you actively hide something from your readers (and other characters), but that's probably not the most common case.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

LoZ

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

I refuse to answer this. 77 fics are too much to choose from. I love most of them.

_

tagging: @mistresslrigtar, @airplanned, @jenseits-der-sterne, @silentprincess17, @deiliamedlini, @skyyknights

[huntingteeth]

hey, a thing, i love a thing, thanks @dafuq-lyrehc, i love doing things

last song/album:

für immer frühling - akustik version by soffie this place will become your tomb - sleep token

but also i made a playlist on spotify that i've been slowly adding songs to that's all women softly singing about being angry that's called 'and a rage, simmering' and it's only four songs long right now but it's scratching an itch for me

favorite color:

like a forest green. a hunter green. my comforter is a hunter green and it really does it for me

spicy, sweet, or savory:

mmm, probably savory. or like sour-savory, like the tom yum soup i had last night for dinner. like a good kosher dill pickle. maybe a little spicy

last tv show:

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, does dimension 20 count because if dimension 20 counts, then either fantasy high: junior year or the unsleeping city 2. if that doesn't count, idk because i'm not out here watching tv that often. maybe letterkenny because that's a comfort show lmao or drunk history because that's also a comfort show lmao. or, i did just watch the most recent episode of mystery files from watcher, does that count as a tv show?

last film

the last movie i watched for me was the fear street trilogy last year lmao. the last movie i played in my classroom was the grinch (2018) which is coincidentally the last film i saw in theaters because i actually hate going to the theater. i really don't watch movies lmao. i'm wayyyyyy more likely to watch ending explained videos for horror movies i'm never going to watch

last thing i googled:

"time change 2024" uh because thinking about the time change makes my head want to explode. google tried to be helpful but my brain can't math the math so i had to ask my friends about it instead of looking at google and boy was it a trial but we eventually got there, kind of

relationship status:

single, head of household; uninterested in dating/being in a relationship

current obsession:

i hate to break this to you guys but i'm two hours and ten minutes into two hour and half hour deep dive video (part one) of teen wolf from a person whose opinions on teen wolf i do not agree with even if i, an intellectual who has written 33 fics in the teen wolf fandom, know that it's objectively not a great show lol so i guess it's that because it kind of makes me want to watch teen wolf again

or maybe sleep token is my obsession since the fic is nearing almost 50k! that's wild to me tbh. i take it back my obsession is building out the lore on this fic lol. i mean i have a draft with all my commentary on the fic lined up for when the fic finishes so i can share it with you all which is wild and maybe more indicative of an obsession lol

uh @branches-in-a-flood @shatterthefragments @vamprlestat @unfoldingsky uhh if you wanna, no pressure

[pan-de-queer]

20 Questions Game

Tagged by @jadedloverart! for once, i've finished work early and am free to write fic and answer tag games today hahaha thanks for the tag!!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

31 lmao, feeling a lil fandom old or whatever haha

2. Total AO3 word count

157,459 ??? wild considering i mostly post one-shots hahaha

3. Fandoms you write for

for the past few years it's been supercorp but you can also find bechloe, junksen/embry, some choices (the cyoa game), and les mis sprinkled in my ao3. all wlw too

4. Top 5 fics by kudos -

ruined nights make for perfect first dates (bechloe)

'cause you know all of my secrets (supercorp)

maybe i matter (because i knew you) (bechloe)

love tastes like spring and blood (bechloe)

kept my face to the sun (you drive away my shadows) (supercorp)

most interesting thing for me abt this is that ruined nights is the shortest one out of all five of these??? love that ppl liked it so much tho

5. Do you respond to comments?

as much as possible yeah! which reminds me that i haven't replied to @jadedloverart's comment on my fic. and other comments. i should do that hahaha

6. Fic w/ Angstiest Ending -

i don't end with angst haha i'm angst with a happy ending or bust lmao BUT the closest to angst would probably be love tastes bc the issue isn't solved until the very end

7. Happiest ending? -

all of them 💕 but if i had to choose then probabbbly cause you know

8. Do you get hate on fics?

not that i'm aware of!

9. Do you write smut/what kind?

nope! never been interested in writing it mostly bc my brain sees it as "action with even more emotions" and i have a hard enough time with action as it is lol

10. Do you write crossovers?

used to! and if you count the mcu+comics!marvel crossover i only posted a tidbit of, then yes, i still do

11. Ever had a fic stolen?

again, not that i know of

12. Ever had a fic translated?

yeah! can't remember for what tho but someone very kindly asked and i said ofc!! and then they sent the link but i can't remember where lmao

13. Ever cowritten a fic?

a long long time ago haha, wouldn't be opposed to doing it again though!

14. Favorite ship?

it's been supercorp since the pandemic! but who knows where the winds of my silly lil whims might take me?

15. A wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

all of them 💕 lmao jk jk but seriously i have a LOT of wips and i put them all under ONE file so it's like wading through a garbage dump trying to see what i'll do next and that's just for supercorp, i have separate untouched wips for allll my other old fandoms too lmao (some wips i doubt i'll ever finish for sc though are the undercover fake lovers one, the coastal cleanup one even though it SHOULD be easy in theory, the hanahaki au that's lena's version instead of kara's, and the one based off of emily the song by jeremy zucker)

16. Writing strengths?

anything descriptive! i can go in depth about shit forevveeerrrr

17. Writing weaknesses?

dialogue. like i can WRITE it and i can even write it WELL but that dialogue came from the bloodbath of thousands of drafts so

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in a different language?

many thoughts! number one being that if you don't know it, get someone who's above average fluent to help you if you feel like the language is needed in the story! and if the language is fake (like using kryptonian) then make the inclusion of it make sense! other thoughts are for my thinking only 💕 (and my unfortunate friends who have to listen to me lecture)

19. First Fandom you wrote for?

MAYBE ranger's apprentice or percy jackson

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

i can't pick favorite for my babies but i'm hella proud of all my supercorp fics rn! it had been so long since i joined a new fandom that i felt suuupppeerrr awkward posting at first! but it's been a nice experience shifting fandoms ever since :)))

for the no pressure tags! @nostradamus0 @sssammich @ridiculously-over-obsessed @tiny-maus-boots and anyone else who wants to join!

[ectogeo-rebubbles]

for the 2023 in review ask game

1, 18, 23

Yay, thanks for the ask!! <3 (2023 in review ask game)

one. What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year? How did it turn out and would you do it again?

I never thought I'd write about Garak dying in a fic because it makes me too sad to even consider, so that was a new thing for sure. As for how it turned out, the fic ended up amazing tbh (Julian goes full mad scientist and brings him back to life). <3 But I also don't plan to write that particular scenario again lmao. Anyway, the fic in question is save me from the dark (The Wire AU).

In terms of craft rather than content, in nothing to hide (holo!siskarak OMB AU) I used the format of switching back and forth between a series of flashbacks and a conversation about the events in those flashbacks to great effect. I managed to avoid writing all of the tedious descriptions of how characters got from point A to point B, as well as the rehashings of an episode everyone knows by heart, and ALSO skip over the gaps in the dialogue I didn't know how to bridge seamlessly. Felt like such a lifehack when I realized I could structure the fic that way. It won't work for everything, but I really am gonna try to apply what I learned from that experience to writing future fics.

18. What was the hardest fic to title?

home is wherever I’m with you (post-Second Skin garak exile angst + garashir first time). Pretty sure that I had that fic written and postable like weeks to a month before I had a title for it, like, that was the ONLY hold up. And I'm still not fully satisfied with that title tbh, but it's Fine.

23. Share the final version of a sentence or paragraph you struggled with. What about it was challenging? Are you happy with how it turned out?

Hmm. One kind and helpful thing that my brain does for me is that I immediately forget all the details of the parts that I struggled to write and/or was not happy with, once I've posted the fic. XD

(I just went back into a fic to try to quickly find a part I struggled with and ended up making minor wording tweaks and typo fixes throughout the whole fic, so at least I can definitively answer the "Are you happy with how it turned out?" part of this question with a resounding "ALMOST, but not entirely," which is basically applicable to every sentence I've ever written+posted lol!)

Anyway, here's some sentences from a section of the world will never take my heart (In Purgatory's Shadow/By Inferno's Light whumpy hurt/comfort) that I def struggled with:

Julian presses his cheek hard against Garak’s shoulder and greasy tufts of his hair brush the side of Garak’s chin. Under the sharp smell of his blood, there’s an additional sourness that makes it clear that Julian hasn’t had a chance to wash up since his stint in solitary, but Garak doesn’t even consider pulling away.

This bit in the first draft was originally much more focused on Garak enjoying the feeling of having Julian in his arms but I changed that (upon your excellent and much appreciated suggestions, stuffedtiger! <3) in order to better fit the tone that I was going for. I do think it still reads romantic but at least now the romance is not the focus, the focus is more towards the horrible situation they're in.

[wordspin-shares]

20 Questions for Writers

Thank you so much for the tag, @thecharmedburrowspn-files!

How many works do you have on AO3?

18, although one is the unfinished draft of the previous version of my LotR fic, which I uploaded simply to have it exist somewhere (and to remind me how far I've come).

What is your total AO3 word count?

Barring the aforementioned archived draft, 49,981.

What fandoms do you write for?

Right now, The Vampire Diaries (TV-verse), The Grishaverse (bookverse) and The Lord of the Rings (bookverse).

What are your top five fics by kudos?

My TVD fic From the Sidelines; my LotR fic Edged in Silver; my Silmarillion gapfiller Hallowed Waters; my multi-age Tolkien-verse gapfiller The Wings of Blue Butterflies; and my LotR gapfiller The Fifth Day.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I always respond to comments, because I want to interact with my readers. They took the time to let me know what they thought of my work, and I want them to know I appreciate that. Plus, this kind of interaction can lead to interesting discussions.

What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hallowed Waters, I guess, because it's a gapfiller focusing on the story of Beren and Lúthien, and that by itself is angsty.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I wouldn't say happy, but rather optimistic, there's-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel ending. The Fifth Day and The Sails are Set fit that description.

Do you get hate on your fic?

I did get a couple of odd comments on a previous version of Edged in Silver, but no hate.

Do you write smut?

Not really. I can do it, but it just doesn't have a purpose in my stories, so I don't see the point of writing smut for smut's sake.

Do you write crossovers?

No, but I wouldn't be averse to it if it made sense.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope.

Have you ever co-written a fic?

Yes, years ago, when I was in the X-Men fandom, and it made me realise that I'm too much of a control freak to attempt it again.

What's your all-time favorite ship?

Howl/Sophie from Diana Wynne Jones' Howl's Moving Castle series. It's just such a beautiful ship, they fit so wonderfully together.

What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Honestly, I don't know.

What are your writing strengths?

Creating vivid visuals without using too much description, I think.

What are your writing weaknesses?

The biggest one is definitely lack of focus.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I'm already doing it for the whole narrative, not just dialogue. English isn't my first language. lol Jokes aside, if it has to be done because it lends gravity to the scene, I will definitely do it if it's a language I'm comfortable writing snippets in. Otherwise, I'll find another way to handle said gravity.

First fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter.

Favorite fic you've ever written?

I'd say my one-shot The Wings of Blue Butterflies. I'm rather fond of that one.

Tagging: @themaradwrites, @moustache-bonnet, @come-along-pond, @asirensrage, @darthnell, @foxesandmagic, @mariedemedicis, @bisexualterror, @anqelwiithhxrns, @arrthurpendragon, @mabonetsamhain, @bluebell-winter, @theblueelfling, @bobfloydsbabe, and anyone who wants to join!

[missgryffin]

Hi missgryffin! Firstly I’m such a huge fan and avid reader of your works, especially ES which is an absolutely beautiful story! I know you’re taking some time rewriting etc to update to your current style and I obsess over every snippet haha. My question is, after publishing work how do you feel like a story is finished to your liking? I know I struggle with feeling like things I produce are ever properly finished and I can only assume rewrites on ES is such a massive undertaking, what prompted you to revisit the older chapters? Secondary to that, would you ever consider putting the old version up along with the new one? Obviously it’s your artistic choice and you’re rewriting for a reason but I personally would be so interested to read and compare the two, especially because I adore your snippets and it’s crazy to think you could upgrade a story I already love so much haha. I hope that’s not overstepping! I wouldn’t want to offend! Anyway, I love you’re writing and I hope you have a great day!

Hey! Ahh thank you so much!! 🥰 Under the cut for length 🫶

Oh this is such a good question and honestly there's no easy answer. In the short term, whether a chapter/story feels finished really is just a feeling. I've become more of a plotter over the years, so I am better about knowing what needs to happen to close the arcs of the story and have it feel resolved. (Or, if it's just a chapter, have it feel like it's propelling the story forwards.) Also, when I'm first starting a fic, I have a pretty good idea of the mood and imagery I'm wanting to evoke with that story. (And I love making moodboards for myself for this purpose.) So something I look for when I'm rereading what I've written is whether what I see when I read matches what I'd imagined in my head.

In the long term, I think a sense of completion comes from time. The wonderful thing about fic is that you can always update works if you catch a mistake or spot something you want to fix. (I usually find at least one small thing I could change every time I reread something of mine, lol.) But whether it's "finished to your liking" is really a measure of, when you reread it a year or two later, are you still happy with it? And where you're at in your writing journey (/how much your writing may have improved or changed over time) will bear on that.

For example, when I reread for the hope of it all earlier this summer, I found some typo mistakes and edited some phrasing here and there, but it really did feel like I was just doing a proofread with fresh eyes. The story itself felt complete; I didn't want to change a thing, and I was so proud reading it.

By contrast, when I reread Eternal Summer earlier this year, the document became unrecognizable from how much I marked it up. Once, that draft felt complete to me, but this time (two years later), I felt like I was reading an early draft I'd outgrown. For one, ES was written in past tense, and I've now been writing almost exclusively in present tense. For another, I felt like I'd crammed too much into my chapters, resulting in scenes feeling rushed or overlooked simply from the sheer volume of stuff happening. I wanted to tease certain things out more and pace things differently so that everything got its ~moment~. In the first go-around, I had veered significantly off my original outline as a reaction to reader feedback/pressure at the time, which resulted in me getting myself very, very stuck. This time, the experience of writing these characters for 2+ straight years allowed me to think about the plot and the character development more holistically. I have a better understanding of how to "show not tell" in terms of relevant backstory and Jily's respective head spaces. I took prior times where readers were confused into account, and I knew how I could address/resolve them in the new narrative. I still very much loved the ES world and the plot I'd created—and there were so many scenes I felt so proud of (and many I'd forgotten that I loved!) —but the overall feeling was, I can elevate this story. I can tell this better. Knowing I wanted to continue ES into the rest of their seventh year and beyond, I simply couldn't continue writing without addressing all these thoughts I had about it. (And believe me, I tried 😅)

As for whether I'd put up the old version with the new one…I haven't thought about it much, but my initial reaction is leaning no. Idk, I'm open to hearing thoughts on it, and it's a ways away anyway. I just don't want people getting confused by what's "true" and what's not anymore if they're looking at the old version.

[hms-no-fun]

apologies if you’ve written this somewhere before, but in a couple of these #sarahposts you refer to a retcon you made in gf1, what was the change?

oh yeah! i don't think i've really extensively documented this anywhere, so i might as well do so here. let's start with the boring shit and cover the history, then i'll give you the full breakdown of what changed.

so when i wrote gf1, i had no sense that i would ever want to go beyond the realm of this one fic. but i DID have this idea of "the ultimate ultimate self," an entity that contains all selves which is never mentioned in homestuck. funny that THAT’S my first big canon divergence, rooted so deep in the philosophical. obviously the big existential kick of gf1 is this idea that retcon is somehow eroding john's connection to that ultimate ultimate self, or at least to his ultimate self generally. the extent to which this is TRUE remains to be seen, john/june is never an objective arbiter of their own subjective existence, but it is an important idea for the series nevertheless.

the other key ingredient is that for a long time i planned on doing my own audio drama adaptation of godfeels (as i mentioned at the end of this video). obviously i never got around to doing this myself and eventually abdicated responsibility to the far more capable hands of the podfeels team, but i did get as far as adapting godfeels 1 for a podfic (which is what they used for podfeels 1). so i took that opportunity to modify a few things to bring gf1 more in line with how the series’ cosmology had evolved.

RIGHT SO, what are the differences? well, they're almost if not entirely exclusive to the narration. and right from the start, we have a big addition:

[left is my original draft, right is the published version]

when i wrote gf1 i put ZERO thought into how long after homestuck proper it took place. remember that i wrote and released this before the epilogues came out, so it was only later that i adopted the timeline and framework of the epilogues. if anything i wrote gf1 thinking they were closer to *my* age at the time, meaning like 27-28, which might have caused me problems down the line. but this addition is also important because (as i rant about in this recent post) i think it's easier to swallow questionably in-character dialogue when you know that this is six years and change after homestuck. i still don't think the overall timeline gets emphasized enough throughout... honestly ALL of godfeels before chapter 8 lmao. looking back i was shockingly negligent in this respect.

what else?

lol ok sure

this was a pretty substantial addition owing to the fact that back then i really wasn't interested in writing anyone but the betas, and even then i mostly just wanted to write about june and jade. obviously that changed, so i wanted to do a better job of setting up dirk's murky relationship with june. ditto with june and terezi's murky romantic tensions.

this is The Big One. i’m not even sure i could tell you the precise significance of every change here, beyond the obvious one. would you believe that this was before i thought of X as a distinct character? but i still had the sense that the antagonism of the third person narration here was rooted perspectivally, and it’s my opinion that john at the pits of his worst depression is closest to X, the part of himself that judges his every action against the assumed perfection of all his friends. after june comes out and takes charge of her identity and Things Happen, i see X as reflexively turning their judgment outwards (though still with a core of self-resentment), which is how we eventually get the circus egotistica.

big changes here obv

some simplification of text here plus some additions. is the narration here describing jade’s voice breaking through john’s dissociation, or is it something more cosmic? either could be true...

minor alterations here, plus a probably too-cute stinger banging the drum that This Is An Ongoing Series Now Actually

and as far as i can tell, that’s it! very minor changes for the most part, but it’s the little details that get you every time :)

[bluestar22x]

BlueStar's Year In Review

Thought I might make a blog review post of sorts this year cause it seemed fun.

It's been a very fun year for me on here. I joined tumblr for the gifs, and for fan talk, back in 2015. I mainly focused on the Dominion, 12 Monkeys, and Supernatural shows. All of which have been off air for a while now but I've continued to find fandoms to latch onto, the latest being the Pedro Pascal character fandom.

I've only had good experiences with this fandom since I joined in, starting around July 2022 after finally watching The Mandalorian. I'd seen Pedro in other shows before, but that was the first role I really noticed him in (shame on my younger self for not paying more attention to Marcus Pike before).

Finding out Pedro was going to play Joel Miller in an HBO show that same month, after having discovered/watched the TLOU games in May/June 2022 and being a newfound fan of game Joel, it kinda felt like fate. And then going through most of Pedro's major movies and shows before and during the time The Last of Us show aired solidified my want to be part of the fandom.

This year has seen a shift in my blog in major ways in large part to the Pedro Pascal characters and fandom. It's still very much for reblogging gifs of my favorite characters/shows/movies, but I've now shifted to also being a very fanfic heavy blog, where before I was only posting and reading fics on fanfiction net.

I started writing fanfic for the first time in years because of Din in 2022, but it wasn't until Pedro's version of Joel in January that I started reading fanfic again (since SPN ended) and eventually started writing for other Pedro Pascal characters.

Through reading fanfic about these characters and writing for them I've truly immersed myself in a fandom again and it's been a wonderful distraction, especially with how stressful real life has been in recent years trying to find a job I can live with, and dealing with not liking where I am in life (I thought I'd have more by this age - my own house, family, etc.).

I'm really grateful for those who have had discussions with me and who have read my fics; those who reblogged and left comments and reaction gifs that made me smile (reaction gifs are so fun). While I do write for myself first, every note has given me a serotonin boost, and it has lead to me having my first ever post with 100 notes! (And it's for one of my favorite fics I've written Sweet Summer). Notes aren't everything, but they're worth celebrating! They make me feel like I'm a part of something and not just in the background. I like contributing.

Here's the link to my Tumblr Stats

Notable Stats:

I've posted so much more this year than the rest before; it's insane

Obviously the notes have gone up since I now write

I haven't even hit 400 original posts yet since 2015! lol

Top 5 Posts:

1. July - Ch2 of my Sweet Summer Series

2. Sweet Summer Masterlist

3. Colors - My Joel Miller x blind!reader oneshot (a surprise honestly, but it goes to show how much reblogs make a difference)

4. June - Ch1 of my Sweet Summer Series

5. The Rockford Files Masterlist

It makes me sooo happy Rockford's in the top 5 cause that fic was very demanding and challenging for me. Not only did it have more plot than my typical fics (which took ages to straighten out), but it also had very LONG chapters because of the case by case nature of the fic. I find it hard to commit to long chapters like that - I have a somewhat short attention span and I'm impatient. It's only 3 chapters yet has almost enough words to be a novel! (over 40,000 words)

My Favorite Fanfics I've Written:

The Rockford Files (the finished product was worth it)

Sweet Summer Series (including New Year's Promise!)

The Journey Series

Fanfics I Wish Got More Love:

Second Chances Series (Love underrated Marcus M)

The Writing Contest Series (it's still early though)

My Masterlist

My Fanfic Plans:

I've got a lot of WIPs written out in my drafts. Right now I'm going to be focusing on Baby Fever and The Writing Contest (the latter which will have the most chapters of any fic I've written in a long time) but I have several one shots I'm itching to write between their chapters, including another Sweet Summer oneshot sequel called The Weekend which will feature Steve, Connie, and Chucho - not sure how I've avoided writing them for so long when I loved them in show. It will also be based around one of my favorite things to write besides smut. Take a guess.

After Baby Fever is completed I'll be looking to start writing another series, this time for Dieter called Unknown which will share a bit of plot and humor with that Disney movie The Game Plan (hopefully - I don't write humor much) but Dieter-fied. It'll feature less sports and more romance and angst. My two greatest loves.

Tumblr Wishes For 2024:

That I catch up on my WIP list (unlikely)

That I don't run out of ideas for fics (I just don't want as much ha)

That I make close friends in the fandom - I've talked to some lovely people fairly often, but I don't have anyone yet that I talk to regularly as I did in previous fandoms

That I have more discussions about the characters/fics/ask games I'm interested in - my ask box is open!

Anyway, that's all for now. Happy New Year everyone! :)

[selfship-shenanigans]

SELFSHIP ASK GAME WOOO

🔎 (something f/o related in your room)

💌 (a snippet of a conversation you had)

🎁 (for a gift)

Ayyy ty for the ask!! <3

🔎 - oh boy, where do I even start? I have many, many things related to him!! Mostly stickers and art prints on my walls, but also an amiibo figurine and a couple of keyrings. If clothing counts then I have several tshirts of him, and he's also my phone and laptop wallpaper :3

💌 - I've written a ton about him and Ray, mostly in the form of Ganondorf x reader fanfics because I find it easier to imagine myself as my S/I if it's written in second person. But none of them are really meant for other people to read, so they're just very basic drafts and not proper fics. Anyway, here's a snippet of one of my favourite conversations between them, not too long after their first meeting:

"You are perhaps the most unusual Hylian I've ever met," [he says] "Not that you've met very many Hylians." [He raises an eyebrow at your attitude] "What?" [He scoffs] "Although it is true that the vast majority of my duties require me to remain here, that hardly means that I have no contact with the rest of Hyrule.” “I know, I’ve just never seen you, or any Gerudo, in Castle Town. Or anywhere, for that matter. You really do keep to yourselves a lot. Anyway, what do you mean—why am I so unusual?” “You don’t seem to be afraid of me, for starters.” “I was at first. When I got caught the first time and you came to question me.” [you meet his eyes] “I thought for sure I was going to die there. But I’m not scared anymore.” “Because I let you go.” [you nod] “Three times. And then you invited me back.” […] “You’re very confident in your perception of me.” "Is that a bad thing?" "I find it amusing that you think you know me so well after so little time." “Well… I guess I’ll just have to spend some more time with you then. That way I can get to know you better.”

(I hope that wasn't too painful to read LOL. I can also give a bit more context if anyone is interested.)

🎁 - gift giving is very much my love language, so I'd probably give him stuff all the time. But I headcanon that he really likes jewellery (I mean just look at the TOTK version of him), so I think his favourite of all the gifts that Ray has given him over the years was a pair of ruby earrings quite early in their relationship. He made a point of wearing that specific pair around Ray for a long time afterwards, plus all the other bits of jewellery that they later ended up giving him too.