#ficcing is srs bzness

[zjofierose]

talesofgirls19, i am kissing you on the mouth. you are my new favorite person. we stan a repeat reader!!! and after so long!!

look, internet, this is how you do it. this is how you make an author’s entire gd day.

[shamelesslymkp]

REC: FANDOM IS SRS BZNESS

LINK: https://ift.tt/34fqZOq So then, because he’s Hardison, he created a fandom. (Wordcount: 1,103) !fic, site:archiveofourown, fandom:leverage, rating:general.audiences, ao3_tag:meta, ao3_tag:black.character, ao3_tag:chromatic.character, ~author:dhobikikutti

[zjofierose]

tagged by the ever-lovely @kianspo, thank you, darling 😘

rules: give us the links to your fics with the most hits, second most kudos, third most comments, fourth most bookmarks, fifth most words, and fic with the fewest words.

so, the formatting of this makes the instructions a little unclear, but i’ve chosen to interpret it (and provide answers) as follows:

1: fic with the most hits: Holding Your Own Weight (Teen Wolf, Sterek), at 44,615 hits. because of course it is, LOL. i have not reread this in years, i have no idea how it holds up, but it’s definitely the most popular thing i’ve ever written.

2: fic with the second most kudos: Well I Don’t Know Why I Came Here Tonight (Teen Wolf, Sterek), with 1,244 kudos. honestly, i’m not surprised it’s a TW fic (i may end up a little surprised if not all of these are TW fics, tbh, that fandom was and is so huge it skews all my results), but i am a bit surprised it’s this fic! this one’s from 2021, which was well after the TW heyday, so i was always surprised it got as much traction as it did.

3: fic with the third most comments: Like They Do In Babylon (Voltron, Sheith), with 91 comment threads. oh ho! a non-teen-wolf fic makes it onto the list!! (technically Holding Your Own Weight also has 91 comment threads, but we already used it, so whatever). this one’s interesting to me, because i felt like it really kinda flopped when i posted it if i’m honest? but i guess the people who did read it left comments on it, so that’s nice. i liked this one, i should write more dance AUs.

4: fic with the fourth most bookmarks: Well I Don’t Know Why I Came Here Tonight again, lol whoops. 248 bookmarks.

5: fic with the fifth most words: Spark, Flame, Burn (Teen Wolf, Sterek), but excitingly, this is my most diverse list yet - i’ve got four different fandoms represented in my five longest fics, so in this case it’s just coincidence that it’s a TW fic. and actually, once i finally finish my accursed post-posting edits, it’ll be Flowers in the Window (1D RPF) instead.

6: fic with the fewest words: Circulation, a very early Star Trek RPF fic, which is quite frankly terrible LOL idk what the hell i was doing. pour one out for zjo of 2010 who was just discovering the concept of fanfic, bless. 393 words.

tagging @sequencefairy @onlythebravest @zanniscaramouche @commodorecliche @semperama @homosociallyyours and @lululawrence

[zjofierose]

because i am a crazy person and also procrastinating, i have begun the process of moving my WIP spreadsheet from google sheets into Notion. it's got 19 columns, hundreds of rows, and is color coded. but it's so satisfying!

[zjofierose]

TIS THE SEASON to get your holiday read on!! just a reminder that i have An Assortment of holiday fics AVAILABLE HERE for all your winter reading needs. enjoy responsibly (and if it’s from before about 2015, sorry not sorry :P)

[zjofierose]

12 and 13 for the fic writing behind the scenes?

ooh! good ones!!

12: Is there a trope you haven’t written yet but really want to?

uhhhhmmm i’m intrigued by the world-building possibilities of a/b/o, but i’ve never found the plot that made me want to commit to doing it? so idk that i’d say i “really want to”, but i’d like to, and i probably will eventually. oh! and sentinel!fic. but again - haven’t found the plot yet where i was like, “oh yes, this”

13: Is there a trope you wouldn’t write if it was the last trope on earth?

are zombies a trope? fuckin’ hate zombies, 10/10 will never write them. also super bored with vampires. uhhh plot tropes, “office romance” fics that involve a manager and a subordinate and/or fucking around on work property make me super uncomfortable, probably as a direct result of all the time i’ve spent watching manager anti-harassment videos, LOL. so yeah, not gonna write that. 

ask me questions!!

[zjofierose]

10, 11, 19, 20, and one question of your choosing please

10: Top three favourite fic tropes. mmm arranged marriage; period/historical; slow-burn. all three in one is my holy grail :D (which, now that i think about it, i did kinda write that in It Is Before That, and Colder, though idk if that truly counts as a slow-burn.)

11: Three tropes that are fine but overrated. Coffee shop: it's fine, but not every pairing needs one. Similarly, office aus. Annnnd miscommunication, which is used waaay too much. LOL i'm such a grinch.

19: Share a snippet from a wip without giving any context for it.

“I need assistance.”

Laura looked up from the books she was sorting onto the returns cart. The man in front of her was on the younger side, maybe in his late twenties or early thirties. He was handsome, in a somewhat average way, and he had his elbows on her glass counter. 

“How can I help you?” She kept her voice calm and friendly, even as she raised an eyebrow at his elbows. He didn’t take the hint, sighing gustily instead, his fingers spinning a battered-looking phone between his hands. 

“My manager’s gone and quit with no notice, the asshole. I need help making some bookings.”

Laura blinked. 

“Oh,” she said, “well, the public computers are over there.” She gestured toward the bank of screens against the far wall, currently occupied by a cluster of students, two retirees, and one college student who had better not be looking up porn again. “The log-in info is on the laminated cards taped to the top of each monitor. Please make sure to log out of any personal accounts when you’re finished, and please know that the library has a zero tolerance policy on NSFW content on the public machines.”

Turning back to the shelving cart, she picked up the next book and glanced at the spine. Linguistics.

20: Do you work on a single project or many at the same time? How does that work for you? a dear friend of mine used to describe my writing process as being 'all of the freeways in LA at rush hour' - there are thousands of cars, all going different places. some are at a standstill, some are moving along at a steady pace, and some idiot's always tearing recklessly through traffic. yes, i work on many projects at once, LOL. it works for me well enough, i suppose? i don't think i could do it any other way, tbh, so it's kind of irrelevant how it does or doesn't work, lol.

and dealer's choice gives me 34: Do you write to improve? Or is that not a concern for you? i do try to improve my writing as i do more of it. i wouldn't say that improvement is my only goal, or that i work all that hard on it in every story - heaven knows there are things i could do to work on things more (writing classes, reading books about it, etc) that i am 100% not interested in doing. but i love telling stories, and i want to tell good stories, and that means i am in a general way always trying to figure out how to tell better stories that connect to the audience even more strongly.

[zjofierose]

18, 20, 24!

18: First, second, or third person? generally i use third for writing, but i have written a couple things in second person and a couple things in first! in fact, i think one of the best short stories i've ever written was in second person. for reading, i prefer third, unless the source material is in first person (like hunger games fic, for example) or if it's a diary/letter/something like this. 20: Which work of yours have you reread the most? definitely sweat, tears, or the sea, LOL. i don't reread any of my stuff that often? when i do, it's usually because i've gotten a comment and i'm trying to remember what they're talking about, lol. but that's one of the few of my own fics that i will reread just for my own pleasure. 24: Did you write any gifts this year? you know, i don't think i did? i don't often write fic as gifts, really, because i feel like it's too hard to get it right. sweat, tears, and the sea was an exception to that, lol. (blows a kiss at @srarahcha)

[zjofierose]

48, 49, 50?

48. Do you prefer to write skimpy drafts and flesh them out later, or write too much and cut it back?

well, i don’t intentionally write skimpy drafts? but the editing process for me is almost always additive - i’m always realizing there was something more i wanted to include, or more that i had to say about something, or additional details that will improve things! so yeah, definitely the first option, lol.

49: Favorite fictional world?

of all time? gosh, that’s hard!! ummm i’m gonna say it’s a three-way toss-up between star trek (because SPACE), anne mccaffrey’s Pern (because DRAGONS), and jacquelin carey’s Terre D’Ange universe (because i am a massive nerd for religion, linguistics, and history, and what she does in her world building is HOT, and that’s before you even get to the smut).

50. Do you share your rough drafts or do you wait until everything is all polished?

i share drafts. i would share more drafts, if i had more people who were interested, LOL. i am a very communal writer - i benefit from cheerleading, and i write best when i feel like other people are invested in what i’m doing, which makes writing some of the rare-pairs i write… hard. but i also try not to be annoyingly needy, so i mostly only share drafts when i’m being actively beta’d by someone.

[zjofierose]

Fanfic writer ask game: 👽 ✍🏽 😮

👽 Strangest fic you ever written? well, that'd probably be the voltron polyam omorashi fic, tbh. yes, i did. no, i don't know either. did i start a prequel to it? maybe. what do you want from me.

✍🏽 How much do you plan your fics beforehand? it really depends? the bigger the fic, the more i outline, but sometimes my best writing comes when i'm just moved by the spirit, if you will, and start typing shit out. but that's not sustainable past about 10k, really. at that point, i neeeed some structure.

😮 Anything you included in your fic that you didn’t expect people to like? well, there are the ones with death in them, i don't expect a ton of people to like that. and also the ones with religion in them, that doesn't always go over the best, either. oh, and incest, that, too. but honestly, i tag *very* thoroughly, so i've never had much trouble with people getting unhappy with me, thank goodness.

[zjofierose]

trick or treat!

here's a secret: my sterek holiday fics are some of my favorites, and someday i really want to do some more of them, but i always struggle to find the right ideas! i love holiday fics, but there's *so* many of them, and they're (obviously) deadlined, so they stress me out a bit. but! if i can find a good prompt, maybe i'll do one this year...

ask box trick or treat!

[zjofierose]

my brain: all i want to do is write! tell stories! share feelings with the world!

my sorry ass: does literally everything but that

[zjofierose]

21 and 32 for the writing ask meme?

21: Can you accurately predict how long your fics are going to be? If you can, what's your secret?

mmmm mostly? i mean, i can't say like, "this will definitely be exactly 6k", but i think i generally know pretty well whether something will be small, medium, or large. it's just a sense of like, how much investment i'll need to tell the story i want to tell. but i think it helps that i'm not a pantser? i mostly always know at least the beats i'm going to hit for beginning/middle/end, and that lets me know roughly how much building will come between those sections.

32: is there a word or phrase that you use a lot?

oh, i'm sure there is, LOL, but i try not to be repetitive, so i'm not sure what it is. if anyone who reads my fics knows what it is, i'd love to hear about it!

[zjofierose]

jakdjdjsa you’re good! Thanks for being so polite to some stranger who just sent you numbers loool

It was some fanfic author questions post? I do not remember the exact titles but idk it was funny

I THINK I FOUND IT

8: What is an AU you are doing right now? Do you hate them?

I write...mostly AUs, LOL. I looooove AUs! I love to read about them, I love to write them, I love to tumble them around in my brain until they're all shiny and smooth.

Right now, I am writing a lot of AUs, but depending on what fandom you're in, you may be interested in my Sheith AU where Shiro is "just" a regular astronaut, but gets lost in space for 5 years and then comes home and has to re-integrate into the life that had give him up for dead. Or you might like my Sterek pandemic AU where there's a virus that only affects humans, and Stiles is stuck in a house with the wolves until they can make sure it's safe for him to go home. Or maybe you want to hear about my circus arts YoI AU where Victor and Yuri are trapeze artists and Yuuri is a lyra performer?

3: How many times a day do you whisper "Why am I doing this?"

Many. But they mostly don't have to do with writing, if I'm honest. XP

(thank you for coming back!! i love when people talk to me <3)