#also sorry for literally writing a full-length novel in the tags lmao

[happyvalkyrieofdoom]

I think my trusty MP4 player that I’ve been using on an almost daily basis for about a decade is preparing for a happy retirement

[retrauxpunk]

tagged by the oh-so-talented @itsevidentvery merci beaucoup x

1) how many works do you have on ao3?

five. a literal handful

2) what is your total ao3 word count?

19,675

3) how many fandoms have you written for, and what are they?

silicon valley and THAT IS IT. on AO3, at least. i’ve got a little sliver of evervale (eli x victor) from VE Schwab’s Villains trilogy going but that’s not on AO3 on account of it not being finished...

4) what are your top 5 fics by Kudos.

LOL i mean i have only 5 works and 1 of them’s an illustration but here are the fics by kudos:

Embers — jared is in love with richard. gilfoyle’s noticed; it’s only a matter of time that everyone else does. // slow burn comedy angst fluff jarrich fic that i’m halfway through OH GOD one day i’ll update it, i have it roughly planned out but need to get back into the groove............... sorry to anyone who cares about this fic ahhhhh

Bad Dreams — one-shot hurt/comfort with jared waking from a nightmare, G-rated but obv i’m a jarrich girl so you’re totally welcome to read it in a romantic light

Home Truths — one-shot G-rated-but-definitely-readable-as-romantic-if-you-want dinfoyle fic. prompted by a tumblr anon ask: “Dinesh and Gilfoyle are always fighting, but one day one of Gilfoyle's insults cuts too deep.”

Strings — technically the first chapter of a multi-chapter fic that’s a rock band AU. richard (a guitarist) meets jared (a singer) at a concert. really enjoyed this but have no solid plans to revisit it ... but hey. i think it’s still good.

5) do you respond to comments?

absolutely, i love comments ;_;

6) what's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

HAHAH none of these have proper angsty endings because i like happy endings goddamnit. but both Bad Dreams and Home Truths end with tinges of angst i suppose.

7) What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

hmm. once again, both Bad Dreams and Home Truths end on a hopeful/happy note (but with a tinge of angst). Strings and Embers are still WIPs soooooo

8) do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you've ever written?

i haven’t written a crossover yet but i have done a drawing of fem!richard and jared as veronica and jd from the heathers musical :D

9) have you ever received hate on a fic?

nope! perks of writing for small fandoms ;)

10) Do you write smut? What kind?

the kind that virgin teenagers who’ve developed their sense of morality purely from tumblr fandom culture would haaaaaaate i.e. kinky shit (not that i’ve posted any though...)

11) have you ever had a fic stolen?

i mean. I HOPE NOT lmao

12) have you ever had a fic translated?

no, but hit me up if you wanna!

13) have you ever co-written a fic before.

my favourite member of pink floyd is roger waters. i am a creative control freak. AND am pretty erratic with fic-writing habits. you do not want to co-write a fic with me.

14) whats your favourite ship?

jarrich FOR SURE. also shoutout to veronica/jd from the west end heathers musical, and the aforementioned evervale.

15) whats a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

look. Embers. I want to finish it. I think i totally can. will it happen? maybe. look i promise if i ever make it full-time freelance as an artist, i’ll finish this fic within 2 months of that happening.

16) What are your writing strengths.

i reckon dialogue/banter, crushes, and if my commenters are to be believed, accurate silicon valley characterisation. i think i’m decent at describing pain/anguish too

17) what are your writing weaknesses?

mainly the fact that i don’t do much of it. ...also, plots/storylines over a novel-length-type work.

18) what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in fic?

hmm. haven’t thought about it much but i reckon it’s fine if it serves the story and adds to it rather than detracting from it; whether it does though is a matter of the author’s skill and the particulars of the piece in question.

19) what was the first fandom you wrote for.

SILICON VALLLEYYYYYYY

20) what's your favourite fic you've ever written?

perhaps Embers because i think i’m doing a good job and people seem to like it and i have at least one (1) non-sv friend who read all 14k of the WIP and liked it too so!!

tagging @sardoniyx and @raymondshieldsofficial and anyone who wants to do this :D

[rongasm]

hiiii idk why i'm so nervous but i really really wanna start writing fanfiction. ljke full out "woah this makes me feel stuff" fanfiction and i thought you'd be the best place to come for pointers because you're literally amazing but anyways do ylu have any suggestions as to 1. where to write it 2. starting tips 3. what not to do?? thanks!! i really really want to but i'm little scared to

OOOH, I WAS RECENTLY GIVING THE SAME ADVICE TO MEG BONNEY ON TWITTER. Okay, here we go. Let’s do this. 

How To Start Writing Fanfic for Beginners: 

Okay, so, the first thing we usually do is have a beta reader-- someone who looks over stories and checks for writing flow, typos, and, most importantly in the case of fanfiction, characterization. You find one before you start writing so that you have a cheerleader who can talk about ideas with you and push you through when you feel like you wanna quit. This is a formality, though, and can be skipped. My one-shots usually are in the 20k+ range so I like to have three or four people look over them, but if I'm writing a 6k one shot, for example, I only have one beta reader.

I’m actually pretty sure that the origination of this practice actually came from everyone trying to figure out how to make friends in fandom. If you're the beta reader on someone's story, you're automatically buddies. Google docs has made this way easier, though-- it used to be long email chains. *shudders*

Step two, decide which host sites you're going to post your fic on. Different fandoms are more popular on different fic sites. The most popular fanfic sites are http://fanfiction.net , http://archiveofourown.org (AO3, we call it), and sometimes tumblr, depending on the length of the fic! 

So, for example, the Percy Jackson fandom is really really into http://fanfiction.net (or at least was when I was writing for it?) That's where you get the most reviews/comments and the most hits for that fandom. In the case of Teen Wolf/Stydia the most popular site is AO3, easily. But if the piece you wrote is a drabble (in the 1k range), you can also plop it on tumblr. If it's in the 2k range, it's acceptable to put it on tumblr under a "read more."

For all these sites, you need an account, but AO3 is technically in beta mode (idk why; it's been like that for multiple years?) and therefore you sign up and then have to wait for an invite. But it's worth it because once you have an account, you can view the history of the fics you've read, bookmark faves, leave comments, and, of course, publish fics.

Unlike ffnet, AO3 also categorizes fics into fandoms, which is really really helpful if you write for multiple fandoms. Their sorting system is really good and really specific, which is why people use it. I think that, at this point, AO3 is undoubtedly the most diversely enjoyed site.

Here's some things you definitely need to know about posting on AO3: 

(This is SUPER important), it's considered REAL bad manners to tag characters/ships that aren't the centric pairing. So, the fic is gonna ask you for characters and the ship. If you're writing a fic where Stiles and Lydia are the centric pairing, you're gonna fill in Lydia Martin, Stiles Stilinski, and then Lydia Martin/Stiles Stilinski. But say your story also has a few scenes with Scott? Either don't mention Scott, or do "Scott McCall- Side.”

The reader should be able to clearly tell what type of fic it is by your tags. (Unless you don’t want them to know). You can create your own tags or you can use the site's already established ones. AO3 tags can get slightly obnoxious but nobody’s going to call you out for that so enjoy. 

If your fic takes place within the bounds of the series, you tag it "Canon Compliant." If it not only fits with the plot of the series but also takes place literally during the series, tag it "Missing Moments." If it diverges from the plot line of the series, you tag it "Canon Divergent." If it is after the series is over, tag it "Post-Canon." 

If it’s AU, tag the kind of AU it is. “Coffee Shop AU” “AU-- The Hunger Games” “AU-- Everyone Lives” “AU-- Stiles is Olaf from Frozen and gets it on with Anna who is Lydia.” (Spoilers for my next fic.) (Just kidding.) 

ALSO when you're posting, it's a huge struggle because AO3 either requires HTML coded stuff (for italics, etc) or rich text. My suggestion would be either putting your fic on tumblr and copy and pasting the rich text from the finished post, or getting an account on ffnet and using their document uploader to c+p your fic into, then save it and copy and paste it into the rich text part of the fic loader on AO3

So now, ratings. 

Here's what you've got: G,T, M, E. 

 G is like... no swearing, no mention of sex, you could read it as a bed time story to a 6 year old.

T is swearing, acknowledgment that sex exists, maybe some kissing (but you're getting to shaky territory as soon as you venture anywhere remotely past second base) light, non-descriptive violence (there's also a tag for violence under "archive warnings" because some people get triggered by it.)

M is lighter sex scenes (I would say anything that doesn't describe genitalia? Idk, this is a real fine line. I think you’ll feel it in your bones. Or, bone, in the case of smut. 

Nailed that joke. 

HA GEDDIT. I did it again.

E is like, you're going to hell for writing this, enjoy hanging out with satan in the fiery pits, I hope it's worth it.

If you post on tumblr, tag appropriately. Tumblr tagging is different from ao3-- you just tag to sort things, and so that the right people see your work. So, like, if you wrote a Stydia fic, obviously don't tag it Sterek or Sciles because you'll get hate, lmao. You can tag character names, but I would suggest you don't tag "Stiles Stilinski" or "Lydia Martin" because the Sterk/Mrrish/Stlia shippers tend to attack you. Also, only the first five tags count.

And now, the Don’ts of fanfiction***

Make sure your spacing doesn’t look awful. 

It makes people not wanna read it 

You should know what regular spacing looks like. If you’re able to correct it so that there’s not eons of space between paragraphs, I would do that. 

Don’t say “Sorry for the bad summary I promise it’s better than it sounds” in your summary. 

“Their tongues battle for dominance” or other equally cliche dialogue

Original characters as main characters

Fandom crossovers are almost always rolled their eyes at in the fic community. Like, you can thrust your characters into a different universe, but normally, you can’t use the original characters. So by all means, write a Percy Jackson AU, but don’t make Fitzwilliam Darcy best friends with Annabeth Chase. 

POV SWITCHING IN YOUR FIC

Okay this is really delicate because some people can do it really well and some people can’t

Switching back and forth between character point of view within one section of your fic is really hard for the reader to keep up with and it tends to look clumsy. It’s a no-no. 

If you have divides between sections, that’s where you can switch POV. 

However, I tend to write almost all of my fics with just one POV. I pick Character 1 or Character 2 no matter how long it is. It’s cleaner that way. 

NEVER USE FIRST PERSON IN FANFICTION, IT IS UNIVERSALLY LOATHED. 

I need to remember this one-- don’t describe clothes too much. You’ll sound like a cheesy YA novel. (I’m a hypocrite, okay?) 

Titles matter. Work hard on picking a title. I s2g it actually makes a big difference. Idk why. Titles. 

***Side note: All writing rules are all allowed to be broken. There is truly no such thing as a steadfast writing rule. The more comfortable you get with writing, the more comfortable you could be with breaking these rules. Does that make sense?