#but!! i wrote another scene for the longfic today!

[serenescribe]

Day 5 of ficlet requests~

Do you like time travel shenanigans? I hope you do because uh oh! General Vanrouge is in the present!

What’s that? His friends child is here, at NRC? Weird. Baul has a HALF HUMAN GRANDCHILD? Weirder. There’s himself with a *human* who he’s speaking to so casually and kindly? UNACCEPTABLEEEEE

[✐] ficlet frenzy

As of a week ago, all NRC students have been barred from entering the woods behind campus. All except a select few, at least — namely a select number of students from Diasomnia, of which the group includes its housewarden, vice-housewarden, and a few others.

The reason for this? Well, it was astoundingly obvious to anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear with. A week ago, there had been quite the explosive commotion, a spell gone horribly wrong. And what had entailed but utter chaos, and the sight of a much-younger Lilia Vanrouge rampaging around campus grounds?

Any attempts to quell the man’s panic and rage fell utterly flat, his scathing words striking fear into the hearts of countless students — from the meek and introverted of Ignihyde, venturing out to survey the commotion, to the bold and brash of Savanaclaw, who’d actively picked a fight with what they perceived as an easy target.

That, in the words of the older Lilia Vanrouge, his ancient age now revealed to the students around him, was “a horrible, senseless idea.”

“Are you sure you’d like me to accompany you today, Father?” Silver cannot help but voice his concerns as he trails after Lilia, the two of them winding through campus grounds, making a beeline for the throng of woodland behind the school.

“Why do you say that, hm?”

His brows knit together. “It’s just… the General—” as he’d learnt to call him, a way to differentiate the two, “—does not seem fond of me in the slightest. Would it not be more prudent for Lord Malleus to follow, given how he is the only one he can tolerate?”

At that, his father merely laughs. “Well he’s going to have to get used to you someday, dear!”

There’s a fire going in the woods, contained by a thick circle of magic, constantly crackling and never growing nor dissipating. The figure seated near it glances up as the two of them approach, and Silver feels his throat dry at the sight of those cold eyes, the same crimson of his father yet lacking the warmth that has been there throughout all of Silver’s life. Not for the first time, he wonders what must have gone on in the past to warrant such callous coolness from his father’s younger self. To a similar extent, Silver wonders what must have occurred to mellow him out into the man he is today; together, they are like night and day.

“Good day, little me!” Lilia greets, beaming cheerily even as his younger self’s lips curl into a frown. Dumping the basket that has been swaying from his arm onto the ground, Silver’s father rests his hands on his hips, merry as ever as the General eyes the basket warily. “It’s merely a peace offering,” he explains, when still regarded with suspicion. Lilia arches an eyebrow. “Do I truly look like the kind of person to poison my younger self?”

“If you feel anything like I do towards you, you would.”

Silver grimaces, but Lilia only laughs. “Oh, you! I do forget how serious I acted back then…” Still, he gestures at the basket, at the cloth covering it. “Why not take a gander, hm? I guarantee you that you’re certain to enjoy what I’ve brought.”

Different as the General may be — cold and dismissive towards Silver, outright startled and disbelieving towards Sebek’s entire existence, constantly annoyed and frustrated by his older self, and only ever satiated by being around Malleus — there certainly are some things that remain the same. Silver recognises this well when the General slowly pulls off the cloth covering to reveal, to Silver’s utter horror, a heaping pile of rodents and lizards.

“See?” Lilia preens, smug and satisfied at the sight of his gobsmacked younger self. “I told you you’d enjoy it!”

Abruptly, Silver turns to shuffle away, to escape from this forested clearing where the General has made his home before he can get roped into this.

If there was anything else he wishes changed over hundreds of years… it would definitely have to be his father’s… acquired taste in what he considers food.

[i-did-not-mean-to]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Ah, my dear @cilil has tagged me, and I'll try to do at least one Tumblr thing today. I had hoped that I'd have more time this weekend!!! This week was madness...I swear!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

391 (and yes, I am one of those who put between 7 and 133 different ficlets into one work to keep the number of individual works down).

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

1,800,713 (this does not include 2 longfics I've orphaned and several fics I've posted anonymously)

(but I've been writing since July 2021)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Tolkien, roles played by Richard Armitage, roles played by Adam Brown, the odd Dean O'Gorman fic for @laurfilijames, 1 Lucifer fic...)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Tumblr Imagines (it's a collection of ficlets from when I started and has over 200k)

October 2022 Ficlet run (Yeah, as I said, I don't post all my fics separately)

Black (Local folkore meets The Hobbit retelling

Silm imagines and ficlets (Again, a 50k+ collection)

"The only way is up" or "thrice stuck" (Smutty dream sequence with Thorin)

These are mostly my first writings which had had time to amass some few kudos :D

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

Always!

It takes me a while sometimes, but I need people to know how much I love and appreciate their support! I love every comment, and I truly wish I was a little better at expressing myself when it comes to these things <3

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I honestly do not remember...Probably, Love letter to the man you've never got to be.

I usually don't do much angst 😇

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

Very hard to say because I don't finish too many of my long fics lol. I'd want to say Sticks and stones (Christmas Hallmark story)...it's just that kind of story.

My TRSBs are usually "Happy End given the circumstances" rather than all-out Happy End...lol

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Thus far, no.

I am not relevant or known enough to attract that kind of attention!

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

Me? No...(There have been spicy scenes in long fics, spicy fics, outrageous ficlets, Kinktober, Dead Dove December, MSV...Ok yeah, I do...and I do all of it. M/F, F/F, M/M, M/F/M...from vanilla to whips. You choose, I write)

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

I am an AU bitch. I've done a HP drabble once...Les Mis/LOTR for last year's Christmas event...it happens...

Right now? Twilight Crack parody for a good friend :D

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't think so? Who would steal trash?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nobody has ever approached me...

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

Yes...Once for last year's S&D, I am doing it now for the Calendar fic...I love collaboration, what can I say?

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Ship-ship? Russingon.

OC ship? Ori x OC

Rarepair? Nerdanel x Anairë

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

Black - It's one of my first fics...and I've never written that last chapter.

I am also known for having written chapters and chapters of other longfics but just...never posting them lol

16. What are your writing strengths?

I am fast, I am versatile, and I am willing to write almost any character, dynamic, ship, and genre. From tooth-rotting fluff to noncon. From very vanilla M/F meet-cute to kinky sex.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I am bad at punctuation. I rarely have an outline, I just write. I do not plan, I do not come up with complicated worldbuilding, I have exactly 0 HC documents.

I just write whatever comes to mind.

Moreover, I have a real problem with posting. I write A LOT more than I post...because I just can't motivate myself to reread LOL

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

I avoid even Tolkien's languages for fear of getting something wrong. I am fluent in at least 3 other languages, but I am not entirely sure whether there would ever be a place for them.

If I did that, I am afraid that it would become incomprehensible as the only one I wouldn't use is my mother tongue. It would sound a bit...magniloquent...

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Tolkien. Only fandom thus far...

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

I don't know. Every so often, I write something I don't hate, but I can't remember right now loool

Open tag for everyone who hasn't done this yet :D

Tell me something about yourselves!

[maebird-melody]

Fic Stats Game

Rules: Give us the links to your fics with the most hits, second most kudos, third most bookmarks, fourth most comments, fifth most words, and your fic with the least amount of words.

Thank you so much @aowyn for tagging me! I’ve seen this one going around and it seems fun!

First most hits: The Last Time

After settling into his new anonymous life, Peter picks up a new coffee habit. But is it really just for the sake of routine, or is it an excuse to see his old friends? Peter resolves that today is the last time, and then he will truly cut ties with his past. After all, that's what he wanted, wasn't it?

You may not know this about me, but Spider-Man is my oldest and deepest obsession. I didn't like how No Way Home ended. I didn’t want to rewrite canon or anything, but I did want to explore how Peter (especially MCU Peter) would do a terrible job at staying away from his friends. Most likely this fic only has such a high hit count because the fandom is massive.

I wrote the first chapter of this fic as a oneshot, but it’s become a multi-chapter slow burn identity reveal fic now and I am atrocious at updating with any semblance of a reliable schedule. I’m trying to get a lot of it outlined and several chapters written before I start posting again.

Second most kudos: Glockwork

Sometimes, the answer is violence. In which Clockwork rescues Danny from the Guys in White in a more conventional manner.

Joining fandom events (especially for Danny Phantom) has resulted in several one-off crack fic ideas. This is one of them. My second-longest obsession after the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films has got to be Danny Phantom. I somehow managed to avoid phandom participation for nearly 20 years. And honestly, y’all are insane, but in a good way I think.

Glockwork isn’t even my joke. I just couldn’t think of a better pun than the meme this was based on. I am glad to have contributed any small part to fandom lore. Also, Clockwork with a gun is hilarious. The original art that inspired this fic was drawn by @ravenatural-art

Third most bookmarks: Waypoints

When an unnatural cold settles over Casper High, the trio know that something more than they can see must be going on. But their search for answers yields more than they bargained for. Ghosts are haunting Amity Park with their shattered memories. Only by reliving those memories can they free the mortal realm from ghostly influence, restore the broken cores, and ultimately, help the ghosts pass on. Yet there is a sinister force at work behind the scenes. Someone…or something…caused this. Who is pulling the strings? Why? And how do they make sure none of this happens again?

Another Danny Phantom fic! This is the piece I’m writing for Invisovang (yes, writing, as in present tense—I didn’t finish by the deadline it’s fine). My longest fic by far, it’s amazing what actually planning out your story will do for you.

Probably has so many bookmarks since I'm still actively updating it, and many people prefer to read completed longfics. Also, there are just so many Danny Phantom fics out there. If you want a fic that doesn't involve dissection, maybe this one's for you.

Fourth most comments: Geduldh’s Fate

In which Heisshitze learns of the consequences of his meddling in Ferdinand's affairs. SPOILERS FOR PART 4 VOLUME 8 It is the first Interduchy Tournament since Ferdinand left for Ahrensbach, and Heisshitze is feeling very pleased with himself for having orchestrated Lord Ferdinand's freedom from Ehrenfest. But as he is about to learn, no good deed goes unpunished.

My current obsession, Ascendance of a Bookworm! It’s a slice of life turned high fantasy political thriller light novel series. I highly recommend it. Let’s just say, I was unhappy with the turn of events in Part 4 Volume 8, so I wrote something to deal with that. Ironically, a lot of what I’d written and wanted to happen actually came to pass, if not in exactly the same way. This was also written at the turning point where I stopped waiting for the paperbacks and ended up reading all the way up through pre-pub. I haven't quite gone so far as to read to web novel.

Fifth most words: The Long and Winding Road

While traveling the West Road, Alistair becomes the unwitting guard of a merchant caravan. When he leaves camp later that evening to gather firewood, he meets a strange, enigmatic elf who is lost in the forest. They spend a brief time together before their paths diverge once again.

This was written for a Dragon Age event! It was a fic exchange in which people requested either romantic or platonic pairings with Solas. I picked the Solas & Alistair platonic pairing. I have them sharing a camp together for the night. It’s a very moody, contemplative piece, I like it.

Least words: Uthenera: Fen’Harel Ver Na

"I lay in dark and dreaming sleep while countless wars and ages past." This song blends the Lost Elf Theme and the Thedas Love Theme, and also introduces a new theme of my own devising which can be heard in the opening bars of the piece. This is a programmatic piece, which means that each part of the song represents an unfolding story. For program notes, see the end of this page.

Feels like cheating though cause it’s not words at all. It’s music. Dragon Age inspired music (though I did lift part of a theme whole cloth for this piece, it was too pretty to deconstruct).

Fic with the fewest words that is actually a fic would be A Terrible Bedside Manner.

By the power of fan fiction, the laws of time and space have been broken to bring us this little nugget: what if Richard Maxwell was working for Regis when he first came to Odyssey? This tiny bit of chaos was incredibly fun to write. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

It’s Adventures in Odyssey crack fic based on the two most compelling characters in the series, who also happen to be the villains (in a series that Did Not Need Any Villains).

I feel like most of y'all have already played by now. Well, if you've already done it, please feel free to ignore the tag! Or instead, share a fic of yours that you think is underrated and doesn't get the attention it deserves. :)

Tagging @imakemywings @seaglass-skies @the-oaken-muse @bibliophilea @sailorpunksenshi @theelibugs

[farfromdaylight]

20 questions for fic writers

tagged by @anneapocalypse! i'm lazy (and should be working on nano oops) so i'm not tagging today, but take it if you want.

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

37. (Add 16 if you want to count my old account.)

2. what’s your total ao3 word count?

302,601. (Add 37k for my old account.)

I have written approximately 500,000 words of fic that has never seen the light of day. Maybe one day it will.

3. what fandoms do you write for?

Final Fantasy, primarily, with a focus on XIV and VII these days. I've written sparsely for other fandoms.

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

catching sunbeams - Miraculous Ladybug, Marinette/Adrien

remember me when i die (for you) - FFXIV, Crystal Exarch

forget-me-(not) - FFXIV, Warrior of Light &/ Crystal Exarch

the miniskirt - FFXIV, Warrior of Light/Crystal Exarch (NSFW)

roaming sheep - FFXIV, Warrior of Light/G'raha Tia (NSFW)

It's kind of nice for almost all of my most-kudos'd fic to be in my current fandom. It helps, of course, that I write the most popular ship in it. The highest-kudos'd fics were posted near the height of their respective fandoms, so.

I'm also very pleased roaming sheep has done this well! In my experience, oneshots do better than longfic with regard to kudos.

This got long so here's a cut...

5. do you respond to comments?

Yep! I try to reply to all of them, though if someone leaves multiple comments at a time on a chaptered fic I might just reply to the last one. I'm sure I've missed some along the way but I'm always thrilled to get a comment.

6. what’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Angst isn't really the right word, but dead end (FFVII, Cid & Vincent) has a very deliberate ending. I tried to write it like a horror movie, where the ending is sometimes ambiguous or otherwise inconclusive.

Or, well. I suppose roaming sheep has an exceptionally angsty ending, LOL.

7. what’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

It's gotta be the oath, which is literally wedding fic.

8. do you get hate on fics?

Nope, never.

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

Any kind, though I'm pretty inexperienced with F/F fics -- I love many F/F couples but I've never been driven to write fic about them, so I'm lacking in that regard.

These days, if I want to write NSFW fic on its own, it's less likely I'll publish it. I'll write it, but I'll keep it to myself. (I wrote a 15k fic earlier this year in this vein.) I've gotten to the point that I generally want the porn to be part of the plot. That said, I do have some ideas for oneshots, so you never know.

10. do you write crossovers? what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

The Fallout/Final Fantasy VII one is the big one. The total fic is almost 350k. I have posted 10k of it. Maybe one day I'll be able to revise it.

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope.

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope.

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

Not fic, but I've posted some RP before. This was generally not the best idea as it's rare for a RP thread to reach completion, and interests change, etc.

I guess actually blinded by light (FFXIV, WoL/Exarch) counts for this to a degree, because a good chunk of Mel's dialogue was written by @shepherdtostars; I just turned it into fic.

14. what’s your all-time favorite ship?

My OCs, who I've loved for 20 years. They're married, in love, and I have written approximately 2 million words about them.

I don't have a favorite fandom ship.

15. what’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

stares at beyond the vault... i love you but you're such a behemoth, why did i do this to myself

16. what are your writing strengths?

Dialogue! I can write banter all day long.

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

Description. I see the scene in my head like a movie, so I forget... that not everyone does... and I have to write the scene I'm seeing LMAO. I'm working on it.

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

This is an oddball question. Just write it? Like, either write "they said in (language)" or get an accurate translation of what you want to say.

19. first fandom you wrote for?

Sailor Moon, probably. Or Digimon.

20. favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Waffling between dead end and blinded by light. dead end was a real stretch for me in a lot of ways and I'm still very proud of it all these years later. blinded by light is just fun, I really like rereading it. heaven can wait (FFXIV, WoL/Exarch, NSFW) falls in this category too, I'm so happy with it.

[mundrakan]

Writers' Ask

Thank you so much for the ping @tracingpatternswrites, I am happy you thought of me :)

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

Stand today 272, but taking part in Kinktober means, tomorrow it will be one more.

2. What's your total ao3 word count?

1,635,079. I am secretly embarrassed about it.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

My two mains are Harry Potter and Witcher, but I have tried out several fandoms by now and am myself wondering what will stick.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I died but I got better (Old Guard AU longfic with a lovely mute Nicky)

Opposites attract (Harry Potter: Harry/Regulus post-war, the "other" 8th year fic)

The Spin (Harry Potter: Harry/Theo A soft dom Theo AU, that would not have been finished without the encouragement of a fandom friend)

Half a Soul (Harry Potter: James/Tom Soulmate AU)

Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen (Harry Potter: Sirius/Harry, a festfic for the HP incest fest of last year)

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

Yes, often before the ink is dry. I love giving and receiving comments and I know how happy I am to chat with authors, so I give my readers the same chance. Not to mention that I have found fandom friends that way.

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Uh... Ah... Angstiest? That's really hard to tell, because I am a very angsty writer, but I'd say, there's a tie between Window of Opportunity and Guilt and Shame, the latter contains more death and destruction, but it's labeled Shakesperean tragedy, so you kind of expect it. The former... hits harder.

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

I'll go with Wisdom of the Beast, because it's one of very few of my fics that's not just "good enough" but "all is well"

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Surprisingly little. I write some wretched stuff, but it seems, people have come to expect that, so I generally have readers who like it.

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

Yes. Very much. Often D/s, many kinks, sometimes funny, but never just by itself. I always have to say something with it. Just the mechanics are boring.

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

The closest I have come to a crossover is my Criminal Triad AU, where I borrowed the world of Blacklist for my Harry Potter characters.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Twice by now. I have two unauthorized translations out there, one in Russian, one in Spanish. And there is nothing I can do about it.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

See above.

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

Not yet. I plan one, a big one, but... our time constraints make it difficult.

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

Snack. Enemies to lovers on speed. Though lately I savour a good Fenrir/Sirius as well.

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

SO MANY. But the most pressing is an original I have about 70 percent written. The parts I have are good, but.... will I ever fill the gaps?

16. What are your writing strengths?

Description, dialogue, destruction ;)

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Fighting scenes and (those who know, know) punctuation.

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

I use it occasionally. I am fluent in 2 languages and know snippets of a few more, but I would never do it without a native to help.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Depends. If you count RPG summaries it's Star Wars. In my teens my group created their own canon so far from what it is now, it was practically a whole new world. Officially "The Old Guard". It brought me to English writing and to AO3

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Oh... that's a hard choice. I lean towards When in doubt, because it has an important topic, I did a lot of research and work for it and it turned out beautiful. Wolfstar lovers will hate it though... :(

Without pressure I ping @whataboutthefish, @kazuza-art, @metalomagnetic

[nebulousfishgills]

writing asks!

5, 6, 9 [crimson, bright, or under], 25, 26, 48, 57, 63 [His Tenebris Moenibus], 72, 77

Thanks! Sorry, I would have answered this sooner, but I spent most of today doing training modules for work and my brain is friiiiied.

Anyways, let's see what we have here...

5 - How many WIPs do you have? What fandoms/pairings are they for?

All my current WIPs are under the Stranger Things and/or Twilight umbrella.

Necrosis: Diplopia's sequel, a more freeform fic based on the many (...many) wonderful fics I've read. The fic deals primarily with... I'll call it Emily's Involuntary Character Development by Phoenix Wright-Related Means. Posted chapters: 5/?

The Weirdo From St. Valentina's: I know this one was originally a one shot, but someone in the comments flattered me by saying it should be a longfic, and I have more ideas, go figure. So I have another chapter partially drafted and maybe a few more after that? Posted chapters: 1/? (Three or four maybe)

Stranger Things One-Shots: I have a few one-shots I have already written and a few I want to finish/write. As of now I have a total of I think 4 that I have yet to publish, three are done and one I need to finish.

Twilight One-Shots: There are fewer of these, in fact right now I only have one that's in the works, however given that my top priority is the Twilight longfic and I have some of those later chapters done for when I get to them, it evens out. There also miiiiiight be one in the future that doesn't involve Emily at all...

So I don't know how those totals work out. A lot, it's a lot of WIPs.

6 - What is the last line you wrote?

"Lead the way."

Context: Emily says this to a character that she's gonna take a walk with to a location after a very... we'll call it an introspective conversation. I can't say much for spoilers' sake, but this is one of those "later Necrosis chapters."

(I know I posted a one-shot called The Third Rule to celebrate Stranger Things 4's one year anniversary, but technically that was one of those one shots I wrote a while ago, so none of those lines were 'the most recent line.')

9 - Does [word chosen by asker] appear in a WIP?

Crimson - Surprisingly, no lol

Bright - She had just the prettiest, brightest hazel eyes, I could practically see every color imaginable in them.

(That counts, right?)

Under - He hasn't had a singer in 305 years, not since 1593. It's amusing how the humans are still under the impression that the poor man was killed in a bar fight. That's what Chelsea told me, at least.

Dang, those are from the same WIP lol, again, one of my Necrosis chapter drafts (although this one is gonna be on deck soon).

Also I should note the italics are indicating that this is a quote someone is reading. This is a scene of someone reading someone else's writing.

25 - What is your favorite part of the writing process?

Honestly, it depends on my mood. But in general I really like developing characters. Their traits, their relationships, all that fun stuff. It fits together like a nice puzzle and I just get to be creative. Writing aside but in a similar vein, I also like coming up with character concept sketches and making character playlists. Both of those things can be a massive help to the writing side of the equation as well.

26 - What is your least favorite part of the writing process?

...can I say the actual writing part? I mean, I don't hate it, sometimes the act of writing is a huge stress reliever, but the problem arises when I either a) have the motivation but not the time or b) the desire to write but the inability to actually execute the process for any number of reasons. I need to plan more, I don't wanna type, I'm tired and would just rather daydream about the fic... the list goes on lmao.

48 - Who is your favorite character to write for? Has this changed since you've started writing for that fandom?

This is an interesting question since I love writing for all the characters I write for. Some more than others, sure. I mean, obviously I love writing stories about Emily, else I wouldn't keep doing it. But like Emily, I'm very attached to both of her long term boyfriends and love getting to write for both of them. Although I thiiiiiink Henry takes the edge.

It really just comes down to how creative I feel like being on that day. When I'm in the mood to be more creative I like writing for the Twilight characters more since... there's very little canon material to work with, forcing me to fill in the gaps. Giving more depth to characters like Jane or Sulpicia is such a joy, even if it's born of annoyance.

57 - How conscious are you about adding symbolism or foreshadowing in your fics?

Incredibly. I try to make every single thing in my fics very intentional, down to using specific words in simple sentences or dialogue. For example, this excerpt from Diplopia:

If you know, you know, and you know this will be important later... and that it is not gonna be pretty. Foreshadowing is one of my favorite tropes because it gives a fic re-read value to go back and look for hints.

63 - What was the hardest part of writing His Tenebris Moenibus?

Many little things, but it all boils down to balance. Balancing Emily's shitty personality to still make her a somewhat likeable character that you want to keep engaging with. Balancing content and information in the show with keeping the story fresh (i.e. Henry telling Emily his backstory in a different way than he presents it in Episode 7 while still getting the same information across... admittedly in retrospect writing out his entire monologue when we eventually get to the massacre might have been unecessary, but I did it anyways cause I love and adore that scene, sue me). Balancing out how Emily interracts with people like Eddie so her presence in that part of the story doesn't seem forced or weird.

72 - What's your favorite writing compliment you've gotten?

I appreciate and adore every compliment I've ever gotten on my writing since they're all very special to me. Obviously the analysis comments you give me and I get stronger with every "good characterization" comment (I might be able to fight god soon). I even got compliments on Necrosis from someone whos fics I have not only read multiple times but have gone absolutely feral over... It's like publishing a short horror story and Stephen King telling you he felt creeped out reading it.

But I think the greatest compliments I've gotten are from people who've told me my writing changed their outlooks and minds on characters, Henry specifically. You've said this once or twice and I actually got @ohitshoneybee on the full blown Henry hype train... arguably initially because I put him through an emotional ringer with Diplopia and she felt bad for him, but still. This is a character I care about very much, more than I ever expected to, and it gives me a sense of pride that I can essentially make people somewhat see him the way I see him.

77 - Why do you enjoy writing fanfiction?

Oh, many reasons. Putting my own creative spin on my favorite fandoms, exploring ideas and adding extra dimensions to pre-existing lore... and making people have emotional breakdowns. Are you really a fanfic writer if at some point you haven't gone full Helmo?

I think the most recent example is the fact that it's allowed me to take my childhood nemesis franchise, Twilight, and give it my own three-dimensional makeover. I basically started with Mopey, Angry, and Creepy with their (remaining) wives, Druggie One and Druggie Two. I put some thought and work into it and now instead of two dimensional, one trick ponies, I have full characters I can mold and play with.

Stephenie Meyer, if you're ever reading this, call me and I can have an entire guidebook whipped up to give your characters a full revamp (no pun intended).

I take cash, checks, or Venmo.

[we-return-in-waves]

10, 15, 20, 29 for ao3 wrapped o.o

sdfhfdkgh i wish i knew who you were my beloved anon <3

answers below the cut xoxo

10. What work was the quickest to write?

spoken words by a landslide. i've talked about this before, but that fic, start to finish, maybe took me 5 - 6 hours at most. i had exactly one scene marinating in my head with no contect for a month ("Lee comes to Sunagakure, and Gaara comes to him in the dead of night." and associated like... four lines) and i was like hey uh brain what do with this? then one sunday i brained the summary text, took a nap, woke back up, and wrote the entire fic in one go. what you see on the archive is essentially it, i sat on it for two days looking for edits and just didn't feel like it needed any. one and done babey!

15. What WIP are you taking into next year with you?

god there's SO MANY HELP. but with exclusively wips i've actually done work for, here's the list: from these bones, untethered, my insidious au, sing a song of sleeptide, a fluffy 5+1 things about sleeping together, The Grapes of Debauchery, another explicit comedy fic about drunken shenanigans, if it's the last night of your life, a one-night-stand-has-results fic, and my untitled enemies to lovers longfic based on the video game ghost of tsushima.

20. Which work of yours have you reread the most?

skfhdkgh We Don't Talk About Fight Club for sheer volume of editing, i think. there was a point where it's the only wip i looked at, every single day, for months. i probably put more work into that fic than i did my master's thesis. i've probably read it over a hundred times and that's not an exaggeration, i can probably recite parts of it. i still reread it occasionally, i'm very proud it (plus like. art. pls, how can u not just keep looking???)

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

how dare u ask me to Pick One. i cannot do this, instead u are getting several of my faves. rekt

from spoken words:

Lee is brave. But Lee is not fearless.

no ok so like there's a LOT of lines in spoken words that i think smash it out of the ballpark and deserve line-of-the-year status, but this one is special because it beautifully encapsulates lee's entire character in under 10 words. the brevity! i will never be so concise ever again

from sailing stones

“You – you do not find me unattractive, like this?” Lee whispered. I have never once thought you anything but beautiful, Gaara thought to himself. For a moment, they remained, suspended in time, the world blurring to nothing around them. Gaara brushed his lips over Lee’s, once. Twice. Chakra crackled, electric in the space between them. “Gaara…?” And Lee, the paragon of formality, breathed his name with no honorific, so low Gaara wondered if he’d imagined it on an exhale, and the moment was so intimate it bordered on painful, tipping them both over a precipice across which there would never be any return.

ok so this was one of those bits where i wrote that last line, looked at it, announced out loud, "fuck yeah, i wrote that," then proceeded to treat myself to oreos. i fully stand by this today. sailing stones my first child, i love u dearly and will edit u soon, but this piece won't be touched. i feel like it captures the feeling of the whole fic exactly how i wanted it to.

from We Don't Talk About Fight Club (length warning but it's all short lines)

“So… you did fuck,” Naruto said gleefully. “Who topped?” “Naruto!” Sakura stage-whispered, appalled. “What? I always thought Bushy Brow kinda had like, bottom energy, ya know?” Sai’s face went suddenly curious, and he pulled out a notebook from seemingly nowhere in an action that reminded Kankurō creepily of Lee. He asked, weirdly polite, “Is this ‘bottom energy’ a mutually recognisable feeling between those with a proclivity towards that position? Because Sasuke is always the penetrating partner when you two fuck, Naruto.” Hot damn. The table went eerily silent again. Naruto inhaled his water and came up sputtering. “That… how the fuck do you—no. No. We’re talking about Gaara and Bushy Brow right now! Anyway, Gaara?” “That…” Gaara said sedately, returning to his lunch, his sand silent, all his composure returned, “is not your business.” Kankurō filed away that tidbit of information to snicker at later, returning to focus on his brother. Gaara wasn’t tall enough to bone someone on a kitchen table comfortably, and now that he thought about it, that crater on Lee’s kitchen table looked a lot like a handprint… “Please at least tell me you were responsible and used protection,” Temari asked, one hand rubbing her temple like she was in pain. … Gaara had been walking slow all day, had barely moved in his seat, and he’d definitely winced at least once this morning… The answering silence told everyone far, far too much. …oh man… “Gaara!” Temari scolded. …his little brother… “I mean, does it matter? Sai confirmed they both have dicks, they probably can’t knock each other up,” Naruto said, still laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes now. …Gaara of the Desert… “You can still. Get. Herpes!” Sakura shrieked. …the Kazekage of Sunagakure… Naruto looked at her, skeptical. “If Bushy Brow has herpes, I’ll eat Gaara’s Kage hat. You think he’s actually piped anyone before?” …had let a foreign ninja… Temari choked on her tea. …had let fucking Rock Lee… “Oh my gods, Naruto, I’m making you sit through Sex Ed again, did you learn nothing!?” …green jumpsuit enthusiast Rock Lee… “Hey, at least the lube we gave him for his last birthday would have come in handy!” Naruto chortled, completely ignoring his teammate. …bowlcut Rock Lee… Sakura sighed. “I’m sorry to ask this,” she said to Gaara, “but as a medic… please tell me whatever lubricant you used was sealed in a white tube with a yellow label? If it was, that’s the one we got him , and it wouldn’t be expired, since that was only a few months ago.” …who wore orange fucking legwarmers... Gaara nodded to her. She nodded back, as pink as her hair. …rail him over a kitchen table. That was so fucking funny he was going to shit—

ok so this passage i think is the absolute most Chaotic Stupid piece in the whole megadong anime crackfic extravaganza and that's exactly the energy i wanted to convey. i loved writing from kankuro's pov because i basically use him to write from My POV so it's just dumbass hours all day, plus naruto is just an absolute meme in this fic and i love it. bonus points to me for including 1(one) brooklyn99 reference. i will never be this funny again i wasted all my life savings of comedy on this one fkcmdngnldgjd fic

and finally, from in the space between:

Pressed between their bodies in Gaara’s coat pocket, a pale jade ring, inlaid with a delicate, winding ribbon of Gaara’s chakra-infused sand, burns like a star.

not only does this line out me as have fiance fever because i was thinking about the ring im shopping around for when i wrote it, but also SOMFT, and i think it's the most stunning ending line i've written for it's simplicity, though in context it answers multiple questions and completely changes what the scene means when you read it again. and i will use it to end my really long answers! hope u enjoyed thank u for enabling me xoxo

ask me things, ao3 wrapped style

[vinyls-and-valentines]

Whooo, nearly got the first part of my writing wip done

[danpuff-ao3]

Ask Game! F, P, U

Thanks for the ask! Sorry for the lateness of my reply! Life has been busy and exhausting recently!

F: Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

Dialogue scenes, hmmmm...

Probably a lot of the really filthy dirty talk in the Yes, Daddy series 😂 But I'm not sharing any of that on Tumblr.

Though I'm proud of a lot of the dialogue in Collateral Damage.

“And you’re poor!” Draco throws out. Now Ron shifts on his feet, hands on hips, eyes narrowing. “And you don’t even appreciate a good wine. I don’t know why I bothered digging through the cellar today. Potter’s gulping it down like two sickle beer, and it’s not as if you’d know the difference.”

“Is this why you came? To insult me?” Ron shouts.

“No! You just drive me to it!” Draco shouts back. “Look at you! You make the stupidest faces, did you know? And you say the stupidest things! You never make any sense! You just sputter like a buffoon! And you work in a bloody joke shop! How am I supposed to bring you home to mother like this?”

That whole scene is a mess in the best of ways! It's funny and ridiculous and rude and moving all at once. It was a blast to write and I've gotten a lot of feedback about how much others enjoyed that part. This is just a portion of it, too, it gets even better. 😂

Another bit from that story that I love, and how I came up with the title, is this:

“You’ll have the Gryffindor ‘honor’ and ‘loyalty’ to contend with,” she eventually said. “But they do love a bit of excitement and adventure, don’t they? What could be more fun than hate-fucking between enemies?”

“Potter is my enemy,” Draco sniffed. “Weasley is collateral.”

I'll tell you, as soon as I wrote that bit and came up with the title, I felt like a friggin' genius. 😂

Then this bit from Loverboy at Play:

“Detention, Mr. Potter. I believe Professor Firenze can use your questionable skills this evening.”

“Why not punish me yourself? Sir.” ...."You’ve been pawning me off on everyone else this year. Don’t you want to torture me yourself? Sir.”

Just a portion, but this is another fic where I enjoyed a lot of the dialogue. Especially when it's Harry being a nuisance, and when they're heated and confronting one another. Hot, hot, hot. But that's how I love my boys, just pushing each other's buttons endlessly. 😂

P: Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an “architect” or a “gardener”? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?)

Definitely an architect! Even with my small little one shots, I generally know exactly where things are going before I start. I, in fact, struggle to even start at all if I don't know where it's headed.

But even with my few longer fics (The Best Kept Secrets for Harry Potter, and the How To series for the Marvel fandom), I had them all fully outlined and plotted out before even starting. I attribute that to how quickly I flew through writing those stories. And I fully intend to have a very thorough outline ready to go for future longfics!

I'm the sort of person even in everyday life where I like to have a plan for things and at the very least having an idea of what to do and how to do it. 😊

U: Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.

ONLY THREE???? This is the rudest question I've ever encountered. I've been in fandom for 18 - 19 years....I've read thousands upon thousands of fanfics....and I'm supposed to narrow down to 3 writers??? 3 of many outstanding writers???? Are you kidding me?????

Okay, ahem, I can do this, I can totally do this.

(Also just so we're clear, I'm not a very eloquent person at all so please forgive me for not doing these very skilled writers justice at all with my commentary. I run on emotion and excitement y'all. 🙈)

@perverse-idyll for sure. I've not encountered any of their writing that didn't totally captivate me. Prose? GORGEOUS. Characterizations? Real, human, flawed, stunning. Storytelling? Clever, intriguing, beautiful. There is a reason I've read and reread their work countless times over the years!

eldritcher is a newer one for me, but WOW. Their work is so unique both in writing style and also the stories themselves! Their work is so clever and draws from so many incredible sources! Their writing itself is very poetic and strange and lovely. Their work is so unlike anything else and I always do a little jig when I see they've posted something new!

@foxconfessorandthewolf gotta be! Their work always speaks to me and strikes deep in the heart. The dirty, real, ugly humanity of it all. And to write such rawness in such gorgeous words truly boggles the mind! Their work makes me want to sit and the floor and cry because not only am I feeling things, but I'm also struck by the beauty of their wordcrafting!

Honestly those 3, all of their work blows me away every time. 💛

Fanfic Ask Game

[princip1914]

A few thoughts on writing longfic

I’ve had this post brewing for a while and I figured since today is a Friday I might as well let it out into the wild. 

First off, this is not writing advice. I don’t feel qualified to give writing advice. This is a few observations I’ve made over the course of trying to write something that feels, well, long. Fandom is full of excellent authors writing long chaptered fic, but I don’t see a lot of people talking about how they go about producing such fics. I remember feeling like long fic was really out of reach for me when I started writing again in the summer of 2019 after not writing for years and years and I wanted to talk a bit about how that changed for me. Of course, this post comes with all the caveats that there is no need to ever write long fic if you’re not feeling it. Some of my favorite authors write mostly or only oneshots! But, if you are interested, here’s my lengthy, self indulgent, and entirely personal take on ~the longfic process~ below the cut. 

First, to get this out of the way: long fic is anything that feels long or complicated to you, the author. “I’m working on my long fic” can mean that you’re branching out from microfiction to write something that’s 2k long, or it can mean you’ve got a multi-part 800k epic. There’s no objective measure of if something is “long fic,” Your own personal definitions can also change as you grow in confidence or change your focus as a writer (a little over a year ago when I finished Doubt Thou the Stars are Fire topping out at 31k, that felt very very long to me. Now it feels….still long, but not very very long.) 

Here are a few specific things that helped me write something long. I don’t know if they will be interesting for anyone else, but at the very least writing these down has been a fun way for me to reflect on my own process. 

Practice exercises. Ok, this is going to sound exceedingly obvious, but writing one shots prepares you for writing chaptered fic. Here’s what I mean more specifically: if you know you want to write (as a totally hypothetical example) a chaptered fic set in America in the summer that relies heavily on a nature metaphors, is written out of chronological order, and features a melancholy tone--it helps to write a few one shots like that before you embark on the Big Fic. Just like artists tend to do sketches before starting a big piece, it’s very helpful to write something small that gives you a feel for the ~vibe~ of what you’re trying to do in the long fic. It’s helpful for all the usual reasons--you get to know a specific version of the characters which helps plan out a character driven plot for the long fic--but it’s also helpful because you will learn if the tone and mood of the fic has enough staying power to capture your interest for the long haul. For instance, I have a few unfinished chaptered fics that have a humorous tone. I wish I had done more short humorous fics before starting them, because I would have realized that I don’t currently have the mental stamina to hold up a humorous tone for the length of a chaptered fic (hopefully that will change and I will finish Last Days some time this century!). 

Plan it out ahead of time. I used google sheets for The False and the Fair. I do not think God intended google sheets to be used for fiction, but that was not going to stop me. On a more serious note, I think the best tool for planning fiction is the one you’re the most comfortable with--the notes app in your phone, handwriting, word, google drive, sheets, chalk board, summoning circle, the blood of your enemies, etc. The reason I chose to use sheets is that I knew from the very beginning that I wanted certain things to happen at specific places in the story--for instance, I wanted the first kiss to happen at the end of the first third of the story and I wanted the “reveal” about the mine accident to happen at the end of the second third of the story. But, I didn’t know what was supposed to go in between those elements. A traditional outline for a story at this point in development might have looked like: 

Meet cute

Kiss

Reveal 

Ending 

But, what my brain needed was to preserve the blank spaces in between these story elements, and specifically to preserve the right amount of blank space between these story elements so that it didn’t end up, for instance, that the first kiss was halfway through rather than a third of the way through. In this way, I found google sheets an invaluable tool for pacing in the early parts of the planning process. I simply made 30 rows assuming 30 chapters, and started plugging in the elements I knew I wanted in the locations I wanted them. Then I filled in the blank spaces by asking myself “how do we get from X plot element to Y plot element in Z amount of chapters.” I’m not a mountain climber, but I’ve often thought about the first things that go into the spreadsheet in terms of mountain climbing terminology.  In climbing, a crux move, which can be anywhere along the route, is the most difficult move of the route: if you can’t do it, you can’t do the route. I think of the first things that go into the planning spreadsheet as the crux moves of the story, the most important pieces around which everything else turns. It was not an accident that those were also all the first scenes of the fic that I wrote; if I couldn’t do those scenes, I couldn’t do the story the way I planned it so I wanted to know early on if I needed to make changes.

Make changes if you have to: even though it helps to have things planned in advance, don’t resist the story if it tries to change on you while you’re writing it. Usually the feeling that you have to make changes stems from having a plot that is not entirely character driven. As you write the story, the characters reveal themselves and sometimes the plot has to change to change with the characters’ motivations. Here’s an area where fanfic writers have a leg up on everyone else: if you write fic, you already know the characters really well. That means, (in my experience anyway) it’s less likely that you’ll have a surprise character development which leads to a rethinking of the whole plot. Less likely, but not completely unlikely, unfortunately.

Lie to yourself: The False and the Fair was supposed to be 90k words. I thought that sounded reasonable, a little less than 3x the longest fic I had ever written. Now it's 161k and will probably top out a little over 170k. Ooops. But I never would have set out to write something that long. I wouldn’t have thought I could do it, even though anyone more experienced looking at my plans for the fic probably would have laughed at the idea I could cover all those plot points in 90k. Ignorance is bliss. Protect your ignorance.

Scrivener: Long fic for me means “fic that is long enough you can’t hold all the parts of it in your head at once.” That’s where Scrivener comes in (or another app if you’d rather, but I really like Scrivener for the ability to see the project either linearly or as condensed notecards). You can put together an organizational scaffold in Scrivener that allows you to move back and forth between the forest and the trees. So, for instance, you might be going for a jog and come up with the perfect line of dialogue for chapter 27 when you’re only up to chapter 5 in terms of writing progress. With Scrivener, you can go home, and put that dialogue in the “bucket”/index card/whatever for chapter 27 without compromising your ability to see chapter 5 clearly or muddying up your google doc. You can then use the fact that you’ve started writing bits and pieces of the later chapters in conjunction with the tool of lying to yourself that, actually, you’ve written a lot more of the fic than you realize and that when you get to chapter 27 it won’t be as hard as chapter 5 because you’ve put in the groundwork already. In my experience, this lie turns out to be true about 50% of the time, which is better than 0% of the time.

Digestible mini arcs: The False and the Fair was originally broken up into thirds. I thought it would be 90k and 30k was the longest I had written, so thirds seemed to make sense. Also, 3 is a nice, time honored storytelling number. I think it’s good to give yourself seemingly achievable milestones along the way to completion. These milestones (for me anyway) lined up well with the “crux moments” I’ve described. If you’re someone who likes to write out of order, writing your way to an already written milestone can feel like sailing to an island where you get to rest for a bit from the stormy seas before setting out for the next island in the archipelago.

“It's all part of the process”: I’m categorically incapable of describing things without resorting to running metaphors, and so I apologize in advance, but I am now going to do the insufferable thing of comparing writing a long fic to running a marathon. Here’s the thing with a marathon. You are not going to feel good every step of the way. We all know this. It’s a marathon, it’s supposed to hurt a little bit, especially at the end. In the same way you literally cannot write something novel length or even novella or long short story length without, at least at some point, feeling bad about yourself and your writing. But you also can’t run a marathon if the whole thing is agony, and for most people, it’s not--your meat sack shuffling along the course is subjected to the slings and arrows of all sorts of weird body chemistry that only happens when you push it to its limits. So, you’ll be in agony and then the endorphins will kick in for a while and you’ll be thinking “this isn’t nearly as bad as everyone said,” and then you’ll drink some water at a rest stop and feel like a God for half a mile before you crash and you’re in agony again until that one perfect song comes up on the playlist...and you get the idea. Writing something long, for me at least, is a bit like that. There are massive ups and downs. The key for me is to just understand it’s all part of the process, a necessary step on the way to the finish line. If the fic is 10 chapters long, at some point you have to write chapter 5. Just like you have to write chapter 5, at some point you also have to go through a bit of despair before reaching the end. It is unfortunately non-optional. In fact, despairing is something you can check off your list each time you’ve done it. Cut dialogue tags, check. Feel awful about my writing for thirty minutes, check. Write ending section, check. Often I feel that the stress and shame and fear that come with bad emotions while writing are worse than the bad emotions themselves. It really helps me to remember these emotions are all part of the process and nothing to worry about. If I didn’t have them, then I would worry! 

I certainly have plenty more to say about writing, but this ramble has gone on long enough. If you’re interested in any of this stuff, please feel free to send me an ask. 

I would also love to know more about everyone else’s writing processes, so feel free to pop into my ask box to talk about your own approach too! I am very interested in this stuff! 

[etoilesombre]

1, 3, 4 <3

1 - favorite fic you wrote this year? i mean yeah, its my baby, longfic ie The Salt and the Sea. the giant gapfiller no one asked for. it is the central project of my life right now, and i am inordinately proud of it. in terms of one shot stuff... it might actually be my project for upcoming ficfest, which i cant talk about yet, but which believe it or not has zero porn and will make you CRY.

4 - total number of words you wrote this year? 84,801 posted. probably about 115k if you count WIPs too?

3 - favorite line/scene you wrote this year? at the moment i'm very fond of the intro to @piratecaptainraven's birthday present, a 3.10 with kisses fic. I sort of decided to just see what happened if i leaned into all of the silly images and over the top drama and it turns out that Flint is a tiger maybe who the fuck knows? I'm going to put it here below a cut in case anybody wants a preview. [it's not smutty or anything, it's all leadup.]

“So to whatever extent you may be concerned that someday we will clash, worried that though today we be friends, someday you will have no choice but to be my end...I wouldn't worry too much.”

Flint is cast in a hundred shades of glowing orange in the firelight, and the predatory way he grins makes Silver realize just how isolated they are. As much as he believes that power has shifted between them, he is keenly aware that, had they been discussing something so simple as mere death, in this moment there would be no contest. Flint could kill him with his bare hands and not even break a sweat, could bury him next to the cache of gems here in the depths of the jungle, and neither would ever be found.

It’s been a long time since Silver has thought of Flint in those terms, since he’s remembered the extent of his real vulnerability here. That in itself is an insane kind of trust, given what he’s seen Flint do. Given where they started just months ago. Silver thinks of lands as far east as he’s ever traveled, where rich young fools keep tigers as pets. He imagines they must forget their danger as well, though probably the tigers never do, and the forgetting is only made possible by their grace.

He takes another pull of the rum. Of course Flint isn’t his pet, nothing like. But they’ve lived in such proximity recently that Flint has grown familiar, and familiarity breeds… something. Certainly not contempt. Friends, that’s the word that’s been bandied about this evening, half a joke, a reference to a different time Flint fixed him with that predatory grin. We might be friends by then. But friendship is the wrong word and Silver knows it, both too much and too little to describe what they are to each other.

What they are to each other. There have been moments, more than a few, which have given him pause. Moments when the air between them turns electric, when Silver becomes too aware of how close they are, how easy it would be to close the gap; when Flint’s rough voice wraps around him like the most intimate caress. Silver has written it off as part of Flint’s magnetism; all great, charismatic men are also beautiful, aren’t they? And Flint is stunning. He looks to be cut from marble, all hard angles and high cheekbones, face carved by his sorrows until he has been pared down to his bare essence, burning with intensity. The way he glows now is only fitting, the burnished coppers and golds of reflected flame revealing his true nature, not a creature of the sea after all but a god of fire and vengeance, so beautiful and terrible that it hurts Silver to look at him.

The smile fades slowly from Flint’s face, and silence stretches between them, rich with the thrumming and rustling sounds of the living jungle around them. Flint grabs the bottle back, pulls the cork out with his teeth. “Just fucking ask,” he says around it, then spits it out and knocks back some of the rum as if he’s bracing himself for something. Something less pleasant than the conversation they’ve just had.

“Ask what?” Silver says, part stalling for time and part seeking confirmation, although of course he knows, at least in a general sense. And whatever trust he has extended to Flint by assuming he is safe here, even as he makes what sound from a certain limited perspective a lot like threats, Flint is more than reciprocating by opening himself to this.

“Whatever it is that’s making you look at me like that.” Another drink. “I suppose it was too much to hope it wouldn’t change your opinion of me.”

“It's not that,” Silver says quickly. He can’t bear to have Flint think he would judge. But he undermines his own purpose with the too-ready denial, and Flint just looks at him, expression closing.

“I---I thought I was imagining it.”

The dangerous glint returns to Flint’s eyes, and in an instant he has regained the upper hand. “Hm. And what exactly is it that you have imagined?” There’s a slight edge to the last word, and Flint’s voice is a low, rumbling growl.

Silver is caught, and he knows it. Knows that he put himself here. If he’s honest he knew that he would find a way to put himself here as soon as he had registered what Flint told him. He’s not wrong. He thinks back over their association and knows he’s not wrong. It makes sense now.

Still, as he steels himself to say it, he feels afraid for the first time all night. Then he realizes he has absolutely no words for this. It doesn’t matter, because Flint’s gaze is locked on his and he can’t breathe, can’t look away as everything that he’s barely dared name is pulled forth and made plain between them with merely a look.

“Is that what you think?” It's an accusation, and Flint’s eyes have turned stormy, his words bitter. “I tell you about my dead lover, and that’s what you take from it?”

Silver flinches. But he has enough experience being the cause of men’s anger to recognize when he is not, and Flint isn’t angry at Silver for making the assertion. He’s angry at himself because it’s true.

“Tell me I’m wrong.” Silver says very softly, with a smile that’s not the charming, clever one he keeps for others; instead it's a sad acknowledgment of the nightmare they’ve been living together since he last said those words. They’re both in on the joke, and it’s a terrible fucking joke.

Flint sags, his outrage draining away. He rests his forearms on wide spread thighs and stares down at his hands, twisting the rings on his fingers. His voice is quiet when he finally speaks, tired and defeated.

“You’re not wrong.”

[sunfoxfic]

Fanfiction Year in Review - 2021

thank you @kasienda for the tag!!

1. List of fics completed this year in the order they were finished

I am not going to give all of my fics that were completed this year because that's over 30 and that's a lot (though the vast majority of them were one-shots), so here's a highlight reel.

the fear was real - post-Sandboy Lukanette

However Ungrateful - AU where Gabriel Agreste is the mayor, as well as some other funky stuff

wage war on gravity - a Nooroo character study

i want the secrets your secrets haven't found - DJWifi, Animan missing scene

Butterfly Nest - post-Optigami conversation between Alya and Chloé

Atlas Telamon - Sentimonster Gabriel Agreste AU, longfic

Chat Noir's Amended Guide to Internet Safety - A homorous Ladynoir one-shot

25,913 - post-Wishmaker Luka character study

stained glass variation of the truth - Ladrien/Adrinette Optigami AU

i'm guessing that i've grown horns - post-Mega Leech Chloé and Adrien

i could run from it all (but i'd only get lost) - sentiAdrien, Adrien and Félix

the harder i try / only keeps my eyes closed - a little bit of Chat Blanc, a little bit of Ephemeral

Paris in White - post-reveal hurt/comfort

it's hard to be brave (when you're alone in the dark) - post-Shanghai Special Fei and Marinette quality bonding time (and hurt/comfort)

2. Number of words written

On AO3: 155,058

Unique words on AO3 (because I. may have posted Atlas Telamon twice due to Reasons): 127,373

Actual word count (estimate): 217,373

That's. A lot. That's a lot of words. The bulk of it is about 80k to the fic I wrote for the ML Big Bang which I will start getting to share with all of you on January 4th. There's some one-shots and unfinished fics here and there that I didn't post, so I added on another 10k, which is honestly probably an underestimate.

3. Your most popular fic

In hits, (Preparation for) A Night to Remember. In kudos, Chat Noir's Amended Guide for Internet Safety. (It's only 2 kudos more, but still.)

4. Your personal fav:

That I published? Ahh that one's hard. Probably stained glass variation of the truth? But I love all of them ;-;

5. Your fav scene:

It is days like today where I wish my big bang fic was out already, because the answer would definitely be the pineapple scene, but noooOOOooo. I think I have to say i could run from it all (but i'd only get lost). It only has one scene, so it's very easy to pinpoint which scene from it is my favorite.

6. A scene or fic that challenged you

The big climactic scene in Atlas Telamon in chapter nine actually reads as a lot of smaller scenes because I cut it up for the organization of the chapter, but it's technically one scene, and I wrote it as such. It was very difficult to write, because the entire thing was teetering on the edge of too much information vs. not enough -- how much do I reveal about the Butterfly? How much do I reveal about Gabriel? Whose perspective should this part of the story be in? That, on top of the fact that I generally struggle with action, made that scene so difficult, but I did love it.

7. A line of writing you're proud of

Again, I want to say the pineapple scene in my big bang fic, but I'm not allowed to. God I can't wait until I can share the pineapple scene.

But aside from that, I love this line from 25,913:

[Luka's] voice had to be like the gentle waves of the sea, moving from motion to motion but indescribable in any movement and indiscernible from what it’d been doing just a moment before.

I don't consider myself one much for poetry but the use of the letter "m," -- motion, motion, movement, moment -- makes the sentence sound very musical. (Is that a pun? If so, unintended but appreciated.) It's a sentence that sounds the way it's describing, and I just love that line. (Would you believe that I wrote it on the road, and that it was entirely coincidental?)

8. A comment that touched you

This one, which was later revealed to be from the lovely Nameless Anon <3

9. Something that inspired your writing

This one I can answer even though it's about my big bang fic, thank God!! So, I love AJR, and when OK Orchestra came out I was listening to it on repeat. 3 O'Clock Things is 100% the inspiration for my big bang fic (which also has a title now, Strangely Familiar).

Please bear in mind that my URL used to be "animatics-ill-never-make."

So I was listening to the song and I was basically like, "Okay, this is a song about the vulnerability of a conversation at 3 AM and how revealing it can be to be honest. What if it was about Marichat and Ladrien? What if it was like about them visiting each other and slowly getting more stressed with the weight of the secrets they're carrying?"

So the earliest conceptions of my big bang fic looked nothing like what it looks like today. It was an animatic about Ladrien and Marichat.

But I got to thinking more specifically about what the animatic would be: what the scenes would be, who would say what, etc. (I do this with essentially all of the animatics I'll never make.) And when it came time to answer who's saying which verse, it became very clear that none of the verses really matched either Marichat or Ladrien.

But they did match Alya and Nino. (I can elaborate on that in another post.)

It spiraled from there. The question became, "Why do they not know each other's identity?" The answer: They didn't go to school together, so they never dated. Okay, how do they know each other? Well, post-Hawk Moth defeat, Adrien and Marinette introduce them; first they're introduced as superhero partners, then several years later they're introduced as civilians. So on and so forth until I got a DJWifi roommates AU, and then I took my chances biting off probably more than I could chew to write it for the ML big bang. As far as I know, I only have the second longest fic at just under 80k currently (and I still have one, maybe 2 more scenes to write). I am not at liberty to say how long the longest fic is but there's a significant gap.

And, great news everyone! 3 O'Clock Things by AJR was my top song of the year on Spotify. So thank them for my AJR.

I can also say with certainty that next year's big bang fic will be a whole lot less of a commitment.

10. Your proudest accomplishment

The big bang fic. It's, to my knowledge, the longest DJWifi fic on AO3 (though I could be wrong about that which is another rant). It's also the first time I've written something like this since 2018, when I finished my second original novel, and it is longer than almost anything I've written with the exception of a 100k unfinished ML fic.

11. Any writing goals for the next year?

Keep it up, mostly? Don't turn a "30k max" fic into an 80k commitment for a collaborative project? Next year is probably gonna be my busiest yet. I'm moving for the first time ever (not technically but realistically, yes, this is the first time I'm moving) and then it's off to university, so I'm not sure I can commit myself to too much right now.

[mira--mira]

Question from an aspiring writer:

How do you stay motivated on one project for such a long time?

I personally have the attention span of a goldfish, and whenever I have an idea I either have to write down everything my brain can spew immediately or have it be lost in the void for eternity.

Never mind going back and turning my outline into a fic or gasp editing.

Do you have any tips and/or tricks you use?

Ok, I got completely carried away with this just fyi, but hopefully I ended up answering your actual question 😂 tl;dr at the bottom.

To be honest, staying motivated is a tricky thing, one that I feel I'm still learning how to do even now and varies a bit between shortfics/oneshots and multi-chaptered fics/longfics. For a bit of background, I've been writing fanfic for about a year and a half, but I've been writing original fiction since I was seven, over a decade and a half, and I still wrestle with it. It's definitely a learning process.

One thing I wish someone would have told me when I was starting out was the power of ~scenes~ in either multi-chapters or one-shots. All writing is ultimately made up of scenes, but if you're struggling to put things together, focusing on an individual scene, or multiple short scenes, might help you focus on getting something completed, and it's something that eventually can be applied to longer works as well. Writing has been a snowball process for me and once I started getting anything completed, I felt more secure in knowing what I could write comfortably and what was out of my comfort zone, eventually getting to the point where I felt comfortable tackling bigger and longer projects and knowing I could stay with them.

OoT's interlude chapters and the snippet series are both good examples of scenes because I wrote them with that intention...even if most of them are actually two or three scenes combined. "Gai meets Hashirama and Madara", "Hashirama gets revenge on Kakashi", "Tatsuki and Hashirama pick flowers for Madara, then give them to him" etc. were all my starting points.

If you're first starting out and feel comfortable with outlines of some sort before you start writing I would encourage you to try and write down a bullet point list of your scene(s) and what you know you want to happen in it.

"Gai meets Hashirama and Madara"

* Hashirama meets Gai first, mistakes him for Lee.

* Madara is shopping for a gift for Hashirama

* Madara finds Gai and Hashirama, they spar, Gai kicks his ass, both of them love him.

This is how my initial outline looked for the first interlude chapter, technically each one of these "points" are their own scenes stuck together. Outlining is different for everyone, some people like super specific points, others even less detail than this. For me this is a nice middle that gives me a roadmap for the chapter, but allows plenty of room to naturally diverge and add detail. Play around with outlines and see what you're comfortable with/what gives you the best results.

I'm not sure of your individual situation, but if you're struggling to put together fics in general something like this might help. Doing this process again and again personally helps me stay on track and gives me a sense of progress.

This sense of progress is ultimately key and why I think motivation differs slightly between one-shots/short fics and longfics. If you confine the individual scene to a one-shot, that might give you the motivation to complete it. Even if you start writing and you get interrupted/can't finish having in one setting, bullet points sometimes help inspire me to finish because I'm not starting from scratch when I return to writing. The whole "eat an elephant one piece at a time" thing was difficult for me to learn, but ultimately proved true. Learning to chip away at something bit by bit is going to be the only (healthy) way to write longer projects you can't complete in one sitting.

For longer projects, it's a similar beast just on bigger levels and with an added dimension. I would actually suggest something similar to OoT for a starting project because it is ultimately broken up into arcs that you know and can reference, instead of making a lot of og content for a fan setting. Maybe not go into it thinking, 'I'll do a complete rewrite' but once you feel like you're ready for a longer project 30K+ or so, the rough outline method and the ability to follow arcs was what got me started when I eventually decided to make the fic multi-chaptered. Try writing one arc and keep yourself contained in that. Now the added dimension aspect in general for longfics is that you eventually want to plot individual chapters in a multi-chaptered longfic and individual arcs (character, plot, etc). This comes with practice. I honestly don't think there's a way to get around that. It's something that I'm still trying to work on and I can look back at my early work and see how I've improved, how I can recognize where things didn't go well in certain places, and how I would change them if I was writing today. That's a good thing to be able to do, it means you've grown! The other thing I find that helps with staying motivated week after week for longer projects is to roughly know where you're going and to try to be excited about a plot point/scene/chapter/etc that you're going to write. Really try to hype yourself up. For me, it's a moment that comes at the very end of the chunin arc and I start grinning even thinking about it because I know it's going to be awesome. It's always what gets me through the rough days, imagining the moment I'll get to actually write that scene in its entirety (it's definitely already outlined and I mentally play it out at least twice a week lol) and is a big motivating drive.

So far I think this is pretty standard stuff if you're an outliner and you've been writing for a few years, but the other thing motivational-wise for me is having a schedule. From reading this message alone, I would not suggest it for you right away. Get comfortable finishing small things and feeling confident that if you let an idea sit for a week or two, you can pick it back up and continue. But if you eventually dip your toes into longfics (and don't plan to pre-write everything before you publish) that routine and rhythm really helps keep me going. I've made a commitment, I've posted it online, I'm going to stick to it. No one is going to jump down my throat if I fail to keep it (this is still a hobby and having fun is the most important thing) but in my mind I should commit to it unless something irl prevents me from doing so. Don't put a tight deadline on yourself, I'd start with once a month or if you write shorter chapters every three weeks. This also would help you build up and get a readership, interaction being another big motivational key.

Also, it's important to accept that sometimes you bite off more than you can chew, and when you feel completely demotivated from a fanfic project...it's okay to drop it. It's okay to take a step back and work on something else. Maybe you'll come back to it, maybe you won't. If you can, try to pinpoint what it was about that project that made you demotivated, were you pushing yourself too much and you got burnt out, was it an ongoing series and your interest for canon lagged and so did the fic, was it just too stressful to keep juggling plotpoints, etc. and keep that in mind moving forward. Every experience can be a learning one and eventually make you a better writer that can eventually tackle those bigger projects. Don't be afraid to take on big aspirational projects, but don't walk into them blind either. Above all, and this is repeated a lot because it's true, enjoy what you write. Some days you might not. That's true with anything, but any project you take on the good should outweigh the bad.

This is my wrap up of the motivational section but I also wanted to throw my two-cents in about editing because "oh no editing" is a perspective I've seen from a lot of writers, and used to have myself, but I think is going to stifle your progress in the long run.

Here's the thing: you need to look forward to editing.

You don't have to be jumping for joy, but editing, imo, should be a positive thing. You have all these great ideas, you made it into a fic, something you wrote, and now you get to go back and make it even better! This is a tough attitude to adopt. I'm not going to pretend otherwise. It took me a long time to unlearn the negative attitude and even then sometimes I still wish the editing was already done once I type in the last period. But I've learned to at least appreciate what editing does and I try to think to myself as I'm going through and making changes things like "wow, this suddenly became so much better. X plot point that I thought of ten pages from now is suddenly being hinted at and doesn't come out of left field. The transition points are a lot cleaner, it's not so jarring anymore. I bet the readers are going to love this little detail. Here's some foreshadowing that I hope someone picks up bc it's going to come back in like 5 chapters from now" it's hard, especially when you start, but this is something you made, and now are actively making better and that's something to celebrate.

I hope this helps anon! I know it's a lot and I'm by no means an expert but I've been doing this for more than a decade because I love it and I want to help others get into writing to! I have no problem answering any writing questions you may have if you find this helpful!

tl;dr

-motivation is slightly different between short/long fics.

-starting out, learn to outline by scenes and focus on finishing small projects and getting to a point where you feel like you can put something down and come back and pick it up again in a week. Completion is key and will help you feel satisfied/know your limits.

-long projects also can work on the scene-to-scene outline but now with individual chapters and individual arcs. It's tough to balance both but comes with practice. Bit-by-bit is key, as is having 'one moment you can't wait to write', possibly a schedule if it works for you, and reader feedback are all huge long-term motivational points.

-editing is tough but learn to look forward to it instead of dreading it.

edited: added a bit more/few typos fixed

[thetpot]

happy ffwf!! today is a two for one: what's one of your wips that you are excited to share, and what's one wip of another author that you are excited to see? why? (these wips can be posting-in-progress, drafted but unpublished, barely brainstormed, or anything in-between! feel free to give as much or as little detail as you like) (- thinkingisadangerouspastime)

happy ffwf, amy. thank you for the great questions! :)

when i initially wrote and posted pocketful of stones, i didn't intend for it be anything more than a standalone piece. but i honestly can't get the implications of its conclusion out of my mind, and i may end up writing a follow-up to that. since after the flame, a pause was a post-canon fic with an older zuko and aang, i find myself refreshed at the prospect of writing within the canon timeline with younger characters. it presents the challenge of:

finding interesting points within canon to insert certain scenes

a more fraught and uncertain dynamic to explore between these two characters

writing something that doesn't ignore the age difference between zuko and aang. since that's something that takes me out of my comfort zone in a different way than atfap, i'm super excited to dig into this oneshot.

i'm not sure how quickly it's going to be written since i'm currently in the brainstorming phase for this, but i'm in no rush.

a wip that i am super excited to see is @praetorqueenreyna's dark zukaang longfic. i am an absolute sucker for dark zukaang. it's so fascinating because of zuko's motives through like 80% of the show, and offers such. good. food! plus i recently read her maiaang fic you steal the air out of my lungs, and it was such a thoroughly enjoyable longfic with such creative and faithful characterization that i'm thriled to see what she writes for zukaang.

[blissfulnightrain]

SoKai Week Day 4: AU Day

Another one in the books for @sokaiweek! This one...is an emotional one

I didn’t write my own piece for today but instead collabed with my girl @paintedwithapalette, who wrote an upcoming scene from her wonderful AU longfic Memories of You. I’m actually not allowed to read the scene because apparently it’s very spoilery, but considering the thrill of that, you totally should! 

Feels can be found here 

[amjustagirl]

hELLU NIKKI JIE i finally cleared that last midterm earlier today and i just read ch 5 of when the sun loves the moon (as my reward aksjdj HAHAHAH) and im v full of emotion rn

askfjsks this was such a rollercoaster aaaa meeting the stalker asfkfjsk i was ready to hate her but she turned out to be a kid and i dont even know how to feel skdjskdn reader was so very kind and sweet for talking to her the way that she did; and then READERS MOM askdjskds im feeling v soft i adore how you portrayed her mum and their relationship aaa ANDANDAND YOU WROTE IN KUROKEN FRIENDSHIP ASKDJKDJS I WAS SMILING SOOO WIDE hELP i did not see that coming it was a v pleasant surprise skdskjd (maybe im in love w this cuz of this one longfic platonic nekoma fic i read that just made me want to befriend the whole nekoma team🥺) i absolutely adore how you wrote kuroo and kenma here, kuroo dragging them both out, how kenma was so chill in giving her a job HAHA, how kenma looked out for her, even offering her a bodyguard aaaa that was honestly soso sweet and i love that you write all these things in a platonic sense cuz i feel like little acts of kindness like these are usually shown as hints that someone has a crush on reader or wtv but theyre things that good friends would do for each other too

okay wait back to bokuto HAHAHAH ahh my heart was damn pain askfjsk he seems so miserable and desperate and my heart is ACHING for him, but i really dont think he has any right to call reader 'baby' and 'sweetheart' rn much less grab her when she obviously feels uncomfortable with him doing that aaaaaa 😭💔 im really soso sad for him and it breaks my heart into a million pieces seeing him so sad but i think aside from showing that he wants to talk to reader again, he should wait for her to want to give him a chance too; but im glad to see reader is starting to soften up abit and contemplating giving him another chance (and aaaa that fruit stalls analogy reader used with her mum askfjsk i love how her mum was able to turn it around to make her understand the underlying issues other than her fruit seller selling her bad fruit and that whole convo made my heart swell 🥺)

eep this turned out alot longer than i expected askfksjlks SORRY ill put the rest of my ramblings in another ask HAHAH ~ann:>

Hello Ann meimei! Congrats on your midterms ending!

I definitely wanted the reader to see herself in yuki, and realise that she's just a kid in need of help herself. And she's been hurt sm she just doesn't wanna perpetuate that cycle of hurt and pain, if that makes sense?

Then the scenes w kenma and kuroo are a blast, they're really loads of fun hehe. I do adore the entire nekoma team, their interactions, and I headcanon that they're all good, kind ppl who'll look out for each other (and I think kuroo defo has his own ulterior motives in looking out for the reader, cos at least he can make sure shes somewhere safe, at least for his friends sake? If you get what I mean!).

Bokuto and the reader... Theres so much to unpack and bokuto defo went abt it the absolute worst way! The reader already has all her walls up and she's prickly as hell, tho her mama did help soften her up 😉