#finished this chapter at 3 AM and told myself i'll edit and post when i wake up

[occult-roommates]

Kim is a WHAT?!

It’s been one week since Dawud and Rudi moved to their new apartment. In the mean time, not much had happened. Except renovating one of the bedroom to accomdate the growing amount of people under that roof. Which means they just bought the cheapest bunk beds avalaible and Charlie kept her bedroom to herself. Hey, she’s the one who has been living there for a decade, all the other showed up in the last two years. She can’t share a room with any of them, what if they tried to kill her in her sleep? Other than that, Dawud mostly worked, meaning he barely got to interact with his new roommates, and Rudi finally got some piercings. They’d always wanted one, but their mom never let them. Sure, they were 22, but for as long as they lived under her roof, no piercings allowed.

All of this to say that one morning, Dawud was cooking himself breakfast. He had never been a good cook, but he’s trying to get better. Key word being trying.

Kino: Is this healthy, Dawud? You have to eat healthy, as you are with child. Dawud: Wh-What?? Are you insulting my weight? Kino: Why would I do that? I’m just concerned, I saw you throw up yesterday morning, which is common while expecting, so I assumed. Dawud: I threw up because I bought gas station sushi and they gave me food poisoning. Charlie: Look, let’s just rip the bandaid. I don’t know why it took an entire week to reveal it, but here’s the truth. Yes, Dawud, aliens are real, and Kim is one. Which is why they are...like that. Kino: Also Kim Graff is not my name. My actual name is Kino Gurafee. Dawud: Ok that’s funny that you spent the last week pretending to be from German cause Kino means movie in German...wait a minute.

This reveal was so surreal, told so casually in spite of it being a massive deal, Dawud hadn’t completely processed it. It’s only after pointing out the meaning of Kino’s name that it hit him. An alien, really??? Rudi, sitting nearby in the living room, was equally shocked...To be fair, they should have suspected something when they tried having a conversation in German with “Kim” and they couldn’t understand a word, which they pretended was caused by an audio processing disorder.

Kino: You see, I struggle to tell Earthlings’ genders apart. Everyone here tried to explain it to me, they all still look the same to me, male, female, cis, trans, nonbinary, intersex. I actually didn’t know Earthlings had many genders and sexes before coming to Earth, which is why when I created this form, I gave myself a mix of male and female characteristic.  Rudi: Honestly, I just thought you were nonbinary, especially since everyone refered to you in gender neutral term. Kino: I mean, by human standard I might as well be. Akva: You see Kino, I’ll give you a little trick. People who can get pregnant are the one who haves boobs, and those who don’t have boobs can’t. Kino: Oh, this makes sense, my species, the Sixaming, only have swollen mammaries while with child. Dawud: This might be the worst sentence I have ever heard in my life. Kino: So are you with child then, you do have a developed chest. Dawud: Now you’re just trying to make me feel bad about myself. Daniele: Look everyone, let’s not make fun of Kino ok. They’re an alien, from a species which only has one sex that’s able to both impregnante and get pregnant. Of course it’s going to be confusing for them that for us, reproduction is...split in two I guess? And then we assign each others arbitrary roles based on our reproductive capacity, roles which vary culture by culture by the way, but then nothing is also truly absolute. Like there are men with boobs and women with a beard, and let’s not forget trans people. No wonder they get confused!

This is the one time a year Daniele is the voice of reason. You see, he gets smarter with his glasses off, as a way of breaking stereotypes.

In the end of all of this, Kino thought it was time to reveal their true appearance. As they morphed from an attractive dark-skinned woman to a blue, still very curvy alien, though with a obviously different facial structure. Dawud had to admit, the completely black eyes were a bit off putting at first, hopefully he’ll get used to it. Then he realized...

He had to tell Audrey about this, now.

Prev (mild nsfw) - Next

[argisthebulwark]

Ao3 20 Questions

thank you @kagedbird for the tag!! <3<3 i will tag some friends @daedrabait @miraakswhore @somethingscarlet13 @queerbashir if u wanna participate <3

How many works do you currently have on ao3? Currently 25. holy shit, i thought it was more than that lol

What's your total ao3 word count? 98,336. Used to be like 200k before i cleaned out some old works i didn't care for anymore.

What fandoms do you write for? Skyrim and Star Trek TOS & AOS

What are your top five fics by kudos? Sorry Lass, Make Me Feel Mortal, Don't Shut Me Out, Fascinating, and Destroy Rebuild

Do you respond to comments? Sometimes! Honestly it depends on whether or not i'm online and see them. if i don't respond right away it feels rude to respond weeks after the fact, but for repeat commenters or usernames i recognize i try to!

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Idk i used to like to emotionally beat up Jim a lot, so probably one of the short stories where i explore all his traumas

What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Probably Sorry, Lass. I originally wrote it in 2015 and i'm fairly certain it ends with a mushy marriage scene.

Do you get hate on fics? Surprisingly, no. I think i got a few rude comments back when i first started, but honestly everyone's been too kind to me.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Hell yeah brother that's what i do!! I love angsty, emotionally charged smut. my personal favorite to write is angry, hatefuck type of stuff. or when they're using it to avoid talking about feelings.

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? Not that i've ever posted lmao. I don't usually post non canon compliant fics for whatever fandom i'm working in.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Kinda. a few years ago someone let me know that my work had been reposted to a fic site i don't use and one quick message got them to take it down. Also, i once posted a fic as a one off, forgot that i'd done that, and used the same scene much later in a larger story - and some nice commenter on the original let me know that someone had stolen my idea lmao

Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope, never had anyone request that and don't want to do so incorrectly.

Have you ever cowritten a fic? Kind of? an old friend and i used to write separate chapters of our self insert marvel fics and mush them together into one story lol. never posted it anywhere, it was just shared emails and google docs.

What's your all time favorite ship? God, that's hard. probably McKirk. as i've gotten older and unlearned all the internal shame about self inserts it's gotten easier to do a self insert story instead of an established pair.

What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Every few weeks i pluck away at my regency au Miraak fic. i don't think i'll ever actually finish it because it's just so big in my head it's hard to get on paper, but i hope i do someday.

What are your writing strengths? I'm very comfortable writing sex scenes. I think that often when the author is uncomfortable about writing explicit sex the reader can really feel it in the story and i put in a lot of work to get over those mental hurdles. i've been told i'm good at characterization, which is awesome! i love getting in a character's head!

What are your writing weaknesses? Very often i find myself bogged down with the need to describe every little scene. it's a major reason i haven't posted a longfic in a while - i want to write these big stories but find myself getting lost in the little details. i also have a terrible habit of editing myself while i'm writing, which just gets me stuck in an unproductive loop.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? Since i'm only fluent in English, this isn't something i am confident in. i've written in a few fictional languages for fics before but would probably reach out or suggest another author if a reader wanted something that heavily involved this.

First fandom you wrote for? Twilight babey!!! self insert oc to smooch Edward Cullen when i was a little middle schooler!!! i didn't know what fanfiction was but i knew i had a big ol crush on him.

Favorite fic you've written? not to be cringe on main, but most of my favorites are things that never got published. they're the little things still hanging out in my google docs that i go back to over and over. i rewrote all of star trek into darkness word for word just to make bones and jim kiss, i made a self insert just to smooch skurge after hyperfixating on thor ragnarok, and the weird time a few months ago where i wrote like 40k words of a cowboy romance. i read them often and wish that i'd written more on many of them but i do not read my published works.

thanks to anyone who read my rambling lmao. love you all sososo much, thank you for reading my silly little stories and caring about them. <3<3<3

[artsycrow46-writing]

Hiiiii~made myself an writing blog for EVERYTHING I write.

I am @artsycrow46, an artist and writer. Please don't judge me.

I might just comment silly things and accept different asks and comisions for something anyone would want for me to put in a story or to explain. Not many posts. Also I mainly write on Wattpad, still figuring out how to write on AO3. If you know any other writing app where I can post, tell me.

But here are going to be a bunch of links.

@interstelarempire is a blog I specifically made to put all the books from a series, Interstellar Empire. There are the links, already posted, so I WON'T put them here again (it's torture to keep getting the links)

The Dream Train - My first attempt at writing some kind of Horror story, literally got the idea for it 5 minutes ago.

Lost Souls (old version) - Undertale Fanfic, still a wip, loving it, updating it(NOT ANYMORE :D ). You should give it a try, this one is so much better, and my third attempt at a book! (DON'T DO IT, BETTER CHECK THE NEW VERSION)

Lost Souls (new version) - The newer and better imagined version of the previous. Please check it out, idk how I'll get back my 100+ reads on the old one TwT

Fallen Wings - Basically a Hazbin Hotel Fanfic, I stoppen working on it. If you read it and you like it, tell me to keep working on it because I won't without being told, I personally think it's trash (attempt at making something spicy. I suck), if you try to read it, please survive trough the cringe of the first 2-3 chapters. I promise it will get better. EDIT! Fallen Wings got deleted, I decided that I might rewrite it when I finish Lost Souls.

I am open to CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. You can say I'm trash how much you want, I'm one step ahead of you, look at the cover for The Dream Train.

[fimproda]

Anotha question

Whats a fond memory you have from your time as a writer, either this Acotar fics or the previous ones? Has there been any reader comment you liked specially? Can you name some top 5 good experiences?

These asks are getting better and better, this is so interesting!

I have many, many fond memories of my time as a writer. Let me give a top 5 on this topic as well, and then I'll list my best experiences with readers.

It was the Year of the Lord 2020, November 5th if I recall correctly. I had started my first year of university on September 30th, and for my very first semester, the only subjects I had were General and Inorganic Chemistry I, General and Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, and Maths I. It was a Wednesday. Usually, we would've had two hours of GenChem in the morning and two hours of Maths in the afternoon, but the professors had decided to switch for that day, so our lesson of GenChem started at 3 PM and should've gone on until 5 PM. Now, our GenChem professor was quite old and nearing retirement, and it had already happened that he'd cut lessons short because he'd gotten tired. That day, he ended the lesson after only one hour had passed, and I found myself staring at my computer screen at 4 in the afternoon without nothing to do. I don't know what drove me to open a document and type 4k words in one sitting, but I did it. I finished House of Cards that day, one year and a half since my latest update.

Speaking of House of Cards, I won the 2019 Wattys with that story. I remember that I was doing my homework, around 3 or 4 PM, and I either got an email from Wattpad or a message from one of my acquantainces that I'd met on Wattpad (I don't recall which one of these happened first) telling me that I'd won. I just smiled, texted my friends, told my readers and followers, and got back to my homework. The Wattys had never been a great deal for me, to be honest, but I dare anyone not to be happy when you've won something.

In 2022, watching Bridgerton season 2 and reading Tower of Dawn inspired me a great deal to write Daisy, chapter... 4? 5? Let's see if @zoyalannister has a clearer memory; I believe it was chapter 4.

Speaking of Zoya, I wrote from scratch a huge chunk of one chapter of her story How (not) to end a feud, which I was only supposed to edit. It was either chapter 6 or 7 (or maybe even 5, I truly don't recall), and I worked on it from the afternoon all the way into the night, until like 3 AM. Everyone who knows me well, including Zoya, knows that I am not a night owl by any means and I'm usually asleep by 11 PM, so me being awake at that late hour was quite unique, and in fact hasn't happened since.

Last year, I watched the last episode of Queen Charlotte, cried, and wrote a good 70% of Constellations, chapter 3 all at once.

And now for the reader experiences:

Let's start with House of Cards again. During my time on Wattpad, my friends bore witness to the many, many, truly dumb comments and/or reviews I got on my story. We were so used to it that, when the time came that I finally got a decent one, we full-on celebrated. If I had to number the actually good reviews I received, I'd say 5: one from Caterina, one from Rebecca, one from Elisa F., one from Elisa S. (who is one of my best friends now), and one from Giulia. Their comments and reviews are my Roman Empire; I think about them every day.

My grandma read all my old stories, the ones I wrote in Italian, and we used to have hour-long conversations about them. I don't know what else to say about this, I think it's enough. Pity that she doesn't know a single English word; it's been too long since I heard her opinion on one of my works.

The second comment I got on Hydrangea, soon after posting it on AO3: survivegladers said "A very well written story! I was able to really feel and understand Grace's feeling through the events! It's indeed an incredibly deep narrative that was handled in an assertive way." @zoyalannister and I were shitting ourselves in fear over that story, so when we got this comment, we were able to finally release the breath we'd been holding for days.

Literally every comment I got on In the shadow of a dream. I'd written it without much care or thought, in no more than 3/4 hours, when barely a day had passed since its conception. I was not expecting the overwhelming (and overwhelmingly positive) response from the public, and I'll always be grateful to the ACoTaR fandom for being so active and engaging.

Again, literally every comment on Constellations, chapter 3. I took a gigantic leap of faith with that chapter, choosing to voice some thoughts and ideas that I knew much of the fandom would consider wrong or at least controversial. I remember I'd just returned home from pilates when I got the first comment, which was a simple "Wow", and I couldn't bring myself to read it in a positive light: I kept thinking it meant something like "Wow, this is a load of bullshit". Thanfully, that reader then did me the favor to write something more and elaborate, and it did end up being a positive opinion. Another reader then kept answering my answers to her comments, so we struck up a conversation in the comment section. But to be fair, all my Constellations readers are wonderful people, @panaryn and @generalnesta above all others.

[i-can-even-burn-salad]

WIP Wednesday

I was tagged by @winterandwords to uh... talk about a WIP I guess? :D

I'll pass on this tag toooo... @starlit-hopes-and-dreams (as always <3) but I'm not sure who else, so if you feel like talking about a WIP, consider this an open tag.

Oh boy, which to pick. There are currently only 2 projects where the P in WIP actually stands for "progress" (for the others it stands for "procrastination".)

I think I'm gonna pick Till Death. It is the one I am currently obsessed with, and the only one I am writing, not editing.

Here's the blurb:

Finnian is a wandering healer down on his luck. When one of his patients dies, the village turns against him, beating him half to death and leaving him for thirst and scavengers to finish what they started.

Eilis lives deep in the forest, hiding from the world. When she finds him, impaled on a tree and barely alive, she can‘t leave him to his fate, even if it means upending the peaceful life she has built for herself.

As Finnian slowly recovers, days filled with quiet companionship make the prospect of him staying less daunting than either of them had expected. But he carries too many scars, and Eilis too many secrets, threatening to destroy their fragile relationship as the shadows of the past draw closer. When everything falls apart, will they save each other, or will the price be too high?

You see, in April I finished the last chapter of all my ongoing stories, which left me in a very weird mood. For 1,5 years I always had something to work on, and suddenly, there was nothing started. Sure, I had a few outlines, but nothing really called to me, with the added problem that for those, I have to figure out bullshit like politics. I needed something new. New chars I didn't know yet, a fresh story - and 🌟violence🌟 :)

I've been talking about wanting more gore with happy end, but sadly, existing OCs are so fragile, I can't even break all their bones without them dying 🙄 So it was time to fuck up another healer.

For a few weeks, I threw concepts against a wall like cooked spaghetti, grabbed whatever stuck, and then I just started. It's the first time in a year that I actually write a story without posting as I go. I can leave a little note "this sounds weird, fix later" or remember "shit, I forgot this injury" or change a name halfway in. I know. That's how a draft is supposed to work 😅

I'm at over 60k words, and it's looking good. There's a few 'first times' for me, a lot of things I love and a lot of things I am excited about. I have a rough outline of events still to happen that leaves me enough freedom to go wild. And wild I go; half of the scenes are gratuitous pain and suffering, and there will be more - but it's also a story of love and finding a place to belong. Which brings me to the next point:

I'm tired. Tired of feeling like I don't belong anywhere. Of having no genre and being "just whump" because it fits nowhere else. Of being "not enough whump" while still finding myself on every squick list.

So this one's written for a target audience of some very close friends - a target audience for which I don't have to write CWs at the top of each chapter, a target audience who doesn't grow bored at the first calm moment, a target audience who will call me a bitch while asking for more pain.

I love you, pocket friends 💜

Here's the start of the book (unedited, rip):

Finnian hated dealing with sick people.

Considering the fact that he earned his money with healing, that was rather unfortunate. If he didn’t want to starve to death, he had to grit his teeth and ignore the stench of sweat and blood while taking care of coughs and aches and fever.

Sometimes, he wished he had learned something else after it had become clear that this wasn’t the right profession for him. Then he wouldn’t be sitting here, explaining to a grown ass woman that when he had told her to keep the wound clean, that included keeping the bandages away from dirty water. And that yes, it fucking hurt, because now it was infected, and if she didn’t plan on losing a finger or two, she’d better keep her hand dry and clean this time. And that perhaps, just perhaps, that was a bit more important than cleaning the windows.

Unfortunately, he had not learned anything else, so he left the house half an hour later with barely enough coins in his pocket to make up for the supplies he had used. Most roots and herbs he could gather himself, but bandages and tinctures didn’t grow on trees.

[trickster-shi]

WIP Updates

Been a while since I did one of these, and I should honestly be trying to sleep so this damn sore throat/respiratory crap goes away, but I just can't breathe when I lay down >_< however, I'm feeling a bit better than a couple days ago so I'll do this update and see if I can concentrate long enough to get some words in on at least one of these projects.

Project Zander:

I finished chapter five last night and sent it off to the beta readers. That one took a while to really come together to my satisfaction, especially the past scene. I had over 10k words on this chapter at one point before figuring out what it needed and cutting it down to 6500.

I am now working on outlining the next five chapters before I dive into chapter six.

Untitled Original Project:

I decided to scavenge some parts from Teenage Vigilante Witch and build an original story out of it. So far I like what I've got, which is about 4k words and needs a lot of outlining. Still keeping the found family aspect, but I'm doing a lot of world building and outlining to ensure it's a very different story from Teenage Viginate Witch. Looking back on it now, there was a lot of stuff I wish I'd explored in that first story, but it was written very fast and thrown up on archive to prove to myself that I could still write. I never intend to go back and edit or rewrite any of it, so I'm going to take the potential it had and put it into another story and take it a couple jogs to the left. Mostly, I'm going to be exploring that guilty/vigilante mindset with a spell amnesia twist that slowly pulls back to reveal a truth better left forgotten with a different take on found family. Still working out a lot of the details but I'm excited for it.

Home Across the Universe #10:

It's a little over 3k at the moment but I have notes and scenes in my email that I need to get and stitch together in the draft, so it's likely closer to 5k. Also, I already have the ending outlined and I'm excited to get to that since it's a cliffhanger I'm gonna get yelled at over. Looking forward to that. I may poke at this one today and see if I can get some more written on it.

Rabbit Come Home part 4:

Also a little over 3k written, I'm still outlining the scenes to make sure I include everything I need to so it's a satisfying ending. I'm shooting for this to be the end of the series and there are a lot of threads to tie off.

Into the Black, Episode 3:

Also sitting at 3k, this has a couple of chunk sitting in my email I need to stitch in as well. I haven't worked on it in a couple weeks and need to sit down and outline my scenes to figure out where it needs to go. I have a vague idea but not enough to work on, especially today with my mind being fried from sickness.

Untitled Sequel to the supposed Jurassic World/Teen Wolf Oneshot:

I told myself it was a one shot and I believed it for a while, but a plot bunny bit me after a recent rewatch of Fallen Kingdom and I now have...5,515 words of a sequel. It goes a bit AU from Fallen Kingdom because I had high hopes for the promises that movie set up for Dominion that Dominion just did not deliver for me. I'm still let down about that, apparently. I'm aiming to keep the story small in scale, but it was fun pitting Stiles against dinosaurs the first time and this sequel has him showcasing some more of his smarts while injured and a little delirious from pain meds, so it should be entertaining.

Aaand, that's all I've been working on lately. Hoping to get the next Home Across the Universe oneshot finished and posted first, though I'm not making any promises or predictions on when that will be. Hopefully I can scrape together enough brain cells to work on it today and get it closer to the end scene.

[greypetrel]

WIP (almost) Wednesday!

Tagged by @shivunin (thank you! <3), I could wait a hour to post it and make it a WIP Wednesday but I'm bound from here to finish another prompt, SO.

Tagging @melisusthewee (beating you on time for once) and @star--nymph. Again, don't worry if you want to ignore this! And if you're not tagged but would love to: say Friends and enter (and consider yourself tagged).

So, it's been a hectic week work-wise and I don't have much new to show, so I'll go for the list as well...

Dragon Age:

- Home Was Never on the Ground: AKA the Monster Fic. I'm slowly making my way up Chapter 26, I'm being slower because this is following an idea that got discarded by the writers but that I found cool. I just need to cause an explosion and convince Aisling to please wait before pestering Solas with much overdued questions, and maybe I could edit and post it.

- DadWolf AU: I'm writing here and there, but I'm containing myself if not for prompts. I would really like to make this more structured than not Monster fic, and before starting I want to have the full picture outlined. The thing that I'm still mulling over is the villain: I'd love to just... Keep Corypheus away and make it more a "Mages vs Non-Mages" thing as in DA2. I just need to settle all the pieces of the puzzles together and it's where we're getting quite different from the game. Solas is in the open with people close to him (Varric knows he's the DreadWolf, Aisling and Dorian got told when they got big enough, Malcolm knew as well and I suppose the other Hawkes too), the main issue will be the Venatori trying to get their hands on Fen'Harel Orb. Again, I still need to pin point some things but we're getting there, I have a rough outline.

- DA2: I've been pondering over whether to make an anthological AO3 collection of DA2 ficlets. Which may even bring me to write more about it without prompts, but take this with a grain of salt. I add below a stamp of a WIP I've been working on and I am stressing over. Following @ndostairlyrium (tag! You're it! AH!) suggestions over colouring and trying to put it into practice. Picture me screaming internally and I may or may not have done the shading twice. (and using too many levels forgive me Ali for my colouring loco)

Originals:

- The Last Bacchae: It's been THE YEAR since September, but I'm finally -hopefully- getting my shit together and going forward with Chapter 6. It's an urban fantasy, main character Seren litterally stumbled over Dionysos (THE Dionysos) and got a contract as an intern Bacchae. Her family may not be entirely happy about it. Chapter 6: we're camping at Hephaistos' house, he's of course extremely happy to have 4 of his siblings around and 2 mortal teens there (he's the only one who cooks, go figure). Right now Seren is making friends with him on being two grumpy introverts, good at their passions enough to result annoying for all the family. You could read it here if you're curious: @thelastbacchae

- Till Queendom Come: I blocked myself writing a chapter which was honestly more than I could chew. I have primary sources I'm following, but between the crippling doubt over whether I'm reading them good and the extreme unpleasantness of this particular bunch of research... I'm kinda blocked. I'm slowly making my way up and I miss 5 pages to end this chapter. Still I'm quite tearing my hair off over it and crying because half of the time I feel like I'm the wrong person to write this story, the other half I'm quite in love with it and want to go on. Busy period doesn't help. I'll get there... Slowly.

[fangeek-girl]

Fic Tag Game

Thank you @wibzenadarksiderwithasoftheart for the tag

How many works do you have on Ao3?

Works: 12 Fics: 11 One of my works is original fiction

2. What's your Ao3 word count?

242,814 (including 2 unfinished fics)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

At the moment Star Wars only, but when the mood strikes Roswell New Mexico as well.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Fix You (Star Wars, Obianidala)

Three Makes a Family (RNM, Malex)

One Love (RNM, Malex)

Halves of a Whole (Star Wars, Skywalker Dyad part 1)

Treacherous (RNM, Malexa)

5. Do you respond to comments?

When people actually comment, yes! I always feel my responses are superfluous, but I love when people take the time to comment.

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

Probably Last Kiss, considering it ends with Padmé's death...

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

Three Makes a Family, but it's been in edits for over a year so nobody gets to see how wholesome it ends because I haven't been able to put myself back into the RNM writing mood 😭

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I did in the RNM fandom because some people can't handle polyamory.

9. Do you write smut? What kind?

Not much. I usually default to fluffy smut. The closest I've come to actual smut in published fics is Treacherous, and it's focused on their feelings rather than the action.

10. Do you write cross-overs?

I tend to stay in one fandom at a time when writing.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope. And I'm not sure I'd like it. I would be too worried about whether they got the tone right.

12. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Once, when I was in the TVD fandom, years ago. The other two cowriters just stopped participating after like 3 chapters and told me I could do whatever, then got mad at me for taking the whole thing down.

13. What WIP you would like to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Ouch. Three Makes a Family is technically written, just not edited. So it's kinda finished...? But I haven't fallen back into the RNM mood, and the shitshow that was s4 made it very hard.

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

Ships come and go with my special interests, so ask me every few months and the answer will be different. Right now, I'm leaning toward Obikin/Anidala equally.

15. What are your writing strengths?

Writing out feelings and lyrical prose. (What is this, an interview? 😅)

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Continuity in a long arc. My brain goes too fast and gets stuck on subplots. Halfway through a long project I usually have to rethink my idea for the ending (if I even knew where I was going in the first place) because I strayed so far from the original plot lol

On the bright side I am slowly learning to actually outline my fics 😂

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

For real languages, it needs to be grammatically correct. I say this as a native French speaker who read way too many published novels where there's dialogue in French and it's absolutely awful.

For fandoms languages, have fun I guess! A translation in the notes or between parenthesis always helps tho.

18. First fandom you wrote for?

Either HP or Buffy, back when we posted on fanfiction.net. I read those fandoms a lot as a teen, but I can't remember if I wrote much back then.

19. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Treacherous maybe? I really love how it turned out.

20. What fic would you want to rewrite one day?

None. When I post a fic it's done in my head. If I start thinking about how it could be better, I'll never stop editing and rewriting it. And then no one would get to read it. My fics are by no means perfect, and there's always something bugging me about them when I reread them, but they represent my writing at that moment.

Tagging @bisexualalienss, @maeglinthebold, @burntblueberrywaffles, @palfriendpatine66 and @somethingsteff and anyone else who wants to do it. Feel free to ignore me 😉

[tessabennet]

20 Questions For Fic Writers

Thanks to both @somanywords and @zenaidamacrouras1 for tagging me 💛

I'm gonna put my answers under a cut, lest this post becomes a nuisance on other people's dash lol

I don't know who already did this in my very small circle of fic writer friends here, so for any writers who see this and want to do it too, you are hereby officially tagged 🤗

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

I currently have 7 works on AO3, two translations and 5 that I've actually written. I kind of think of those 5 as one fic though, bc it's one series, and on my laptop it's all one big document

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

493,817 (I can already say though that by the time my series will be fully posted, that number will be much higher, possibly even doubled)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Marve (more specifically the MCU), and exclusively Stucky

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

These City Walls

Carried the Cross

The Hand of a Devil

Still Running

Loosened Chains

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

I always try to respond to every comment I get. If I ever don't respond to one, it's absolutely by accident. I want to encourage people to leave comments as much as I can, and I want to give back the appreciation I receive

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

Uhm. All of them? I stick with canon, which is pretty much only angst, and I can't exactly make it better by filling the gaps realistically.

If I had to pick one though, I feel like Carried the Cross is the angstiest, given that everyone knows what comes next and that it'll be awful

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

The one with the happiest happy ending is currently in the making. The others that I've posted and/or finished writing, while certainly having happy moments, still end more or less angstily

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I had a few anons a while back that called me a copycat and plagiarist. They told me to take down my work bc it was a ripoff of another famous stucky series with the same premise. It's the one I did those translations for in fact.

And that's something I sometimes think myself, so it's not like I don't see their point. But the messages were written so rudely that I deleted them rather than open a whole can of worms of discourse about that

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

I did/do write smut, yes, but none of that is in the fics I posted so far. And the way I write it is definitely very tame, compared to what's out there. But I think the way I write it fits the style I established for the series, and it fits the vibe I'm going for. Maybe when I'll get to editing those chapters I'll make it more explicit, but for now it's pretty mild

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

I don't, given that I'm doing canon-verse fic. It would probably be fun to give it a try, and maybe one day I will, but right now I'm planning on taking a break from fic writing as soon as I'm done with the series, so idk if or when that's gonna be in the cards

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

If so, I don't know about it. I hope not

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Sadly not. I'd love that though, I would be so so so excited to get translations or fanart, and especially a podfic version made from my series

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

Also no. I don't know if I'm cut out for that tbh, I'm very particular about the way I want things to be written. So I'm not really sure if I'm the most pleasant person to work with in that respect

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Stucky. Duh

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

I am not writing 90k+ wips only to not finish and publish them. Everything I've worked on so far will be published, if it's the last thing I ever do

16. What are your writing strengths?

From the feedback I've received, I'd say it's digging into the deep, complex emotional states of my characters. I've also been told that the way I'm writing them all is very authentic and in character, and that I'm doing a good job with fleshing them out. Which is important for what I'm trying to do with the series, so that's also something I'm proud of

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I am way way too wordy sometimes. I constantly have to cut down my sentences and try to turn them into several shorter ones, bc they get too long or too repetitive. I'm also not entirely sure about the way I handle dialogue, which is kind of a shame since the whole project started with me wanting to practice doing that

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

Yes yes yes!! I love it. I loved being able to bring in my native language (german). But even more than that, I like including languages I can kind of understand. I did some French, and luckily I had help with not just getting the meaning across but making it sound like actual native speakers would say it. With Spanish, which I don't speak at all, I asked a friend who's a native speaker, though that was only two lines or so. Also, when I was working on the series and the post-CATFA parts were coming up, I started doing some Russian on duolingo, to drop some phrases here and there. I do have some help there too, but not by a native speaker in this case. Still, it helps to have a second opinion of someone who actually learned this stuff in school

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Stucky is my one and only so far

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Like I said, I kind of think of them all as one big fic, so it's hard to judge. I'm proudest of the one that I'm publishing atm, Loosened Chains, simply bc it's my own post-CATWS fic and those are my personal favourite to read. Skill-wise, I think the best I did is one I haven't published yet, so I'll withhold that information for now

So... there you go! Thanks again for tagging me, guys, I really enjoyed this 🥰✌️

[blocksruinedme]

Actual fic deadlines/priorities

Now till September 2 - My three hermitshipping bang fics are due, in a complete "can post if you got hit by a bus" version. Last possible extensions till September 8. I don't know if I'll get all three done. If I don't, I can't predict whether I'll put it down for awhile or try to get through it. If I want to wait to post, I can still possibly get the "doodle tier" of art and can add it to the collection, which is just so chill and cool of them, everything is chill and cool

September 3-18 - The burning man fics, god, I really want to post them during my (partial) top surgery and recovery. The current plan is to post chapter of three stories a day, that line up with time periods. (Like the first posting day covers approximately noon-2pm, etc). The current plan is for the final story to be posted on the final day. This means for anyone who pops in at the beginning, they can have three kinds of cliffhangers! I personally think it's super cool

September 19-late September - Recovering from surgery! If anyone has any tips, please let me know! I'm very excited! And I've had a "6 days inpatient three months recovery" surgery, so it's really about the detail of a different surgery recovery.

Late september-deceber: God, first my wips, my poor beautiful wips, along with the larper au (which might top out at three fics, we'll see... and immediately on writing that i got possessed with a flower husbands idea, very well! NO PROMISES). I'll also be editing my hermitshipping bang fics, which are allowed to be totally expanded on, including adding B plots, so... I might go off the rails there.

Onwards: If life goes to plan, sometime in 2024, probably late spring or later, I will have WAY less free time, and while I am very excited about the reason, it might stop fic entirely for awhile. @that-tall-queer-bassist has offered to help me (including up to cleaning up my speech to text into something like real notes or maybe prose). Part of why I push so hard to write is because my time having this much time is limited.

Crucial note about how I write: Sometimes what I need to work on fic is to go work on a different fic, and sometimes even publish it. I had a huge drought after limited life when i told myself I couldn't publish anything else, until i let myself do Driving After Dark and, well, I've published about 44k in 2.5 months. Sometimes I get stuck and all I can do is take a break. I now refuse to push myself hard enough on a fic that I burn out.

I genuinely have 20 wips that I want to publish. I acknowledge this is unlikely but they are all my weird little children. Things may appear in wip wednesday and never make it.

What does that note mean for you: Do not EVER pressure me to finish a fic. You may ALWAYS express enthusiasm for specific fic, and it may get it higher up the queue. Asking about timing is tricky. "i was wondering if you know when you might be publishing this one" - in practice has not upset me. "(affectionately) what happened to posting the next chapter in november?" - ruined my fucking day. Had to stop myself from a mean spirited essay about all the reasons it hadn't happened. I can not tell you how to ask this correctly. You now have this schedule here, and you can ask about how it's going (perhaps in an ask) if it's in a chill manner! I'll totally answer, including if any of the bang fics have been officially dropped from the bang (and thus i can tell you my neat ideas! all i'll say is there's some very me things and at least on surprise that might keep people from guessing it's me!)

Anyway follow @burningmanau for fun burning man pictures and fic stuff!

[lostmykeysie]

➶*✧*⤪･*✧*2022 FIC GOALS*✧*･⤪*✧*➶

first up, thanks to @theonlywolfpants and @wolfstarhaven for being generally all round amazing, but also for tagging me in this

1. finish Trust is Earned

so this is a two in one, because i need to finish this, but i also need to learn from it: never plan a beginning and an ending for a fic and then just dive in. i need structure!! i need plot!! and yet here i am, without either!! as much as i love writing fluff i cannot write multi chap fluff, i am directionless. but i will finish it!!! i originally told myself i'd do it in time for christmas, but that's not going to happen. 2022 it is.

2. finish and publish my regulus black redemption fic

so this one i am excited about. i have learned from past mistakes and have planned the entire thing, every single chapter, but it means so much to me that i'm worried i'll be writing and re-writing and editing forever and just never post. i've never read anything reg focused/centric and it's all very new but i already love it so much and i'm hoping it'll be my best so far. just need to take the plunge! i have decided i will do it today. promise.

3. read non-wolfstar fic

so my issue is that i have a lot of problems with focusing and attention. i love fanfiction! it completely made my life during lockdown when i was in a situation (that i'm unfortunately still in) where i can't watch any tv or films because my mind just can't focus for long enough. imagine lockdown but without netflix or disney+ or anything - that was basically me. subscriptions to every streaming service out there but no brain that will let me watch, i was genuinely just lying in bed every day staring at the ceiling lol. then something or other got me onto ao3 and i've always been a wolfstar fan in concept but never in practice but next thing i know i'm hooked, and i've finally found entertainment my brain is happy with!!! but now i'm seeing all these talented writers with so much to give and i really want to branch out and read something else so i can appreciate them fully but i need a good introduction to trick my brain into caring about something other than wolfstar. i would really love some fic recommendations for non-wolfstar HP ships (and preferably not remus or sirius because wolfstar are endgame) fic that is short/semi short that you think showcases the characters or pairing and could kickstart my interest - please please please!!!!!!!

4. interact more

i honestly think i've only had tumblr for about a month which is insane. i had it when i was a teenager (makes me sound so old, i am still in my 20s ok leave me alone) - this super angsty depressing black and white blog. i'd love to find it but i can't remember my url and i don't have access to my old email :( but anyway, i've not hopped on here for long, but i am so glad i did, because it's great, but i am so out of the loop. so my plan for 2022 is to interact more and get to know everyone (lame)

5. write more!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Meeting With a Stranger is honest to god the first thing i've ever written. it all started after many bottles of wine with two of my greatest friends. we were talking about ff and how we'd love to write, but didn't have the stones to/didn't have anything to say. (they're completely different fandoms - V is all about supernatural (destiel!) and L is a huge k-pop fan (loves BTS)) and i was saying how i'd love to beta work but could never write because my brain was empty of plot. then it got me thinking, and then the first MWaS scene with remus and james came into my mind, and then i would think of some stupid/funny line and be like haha sounds like something remus would do, and then boom, i'm writing a whole ass fic, and the rest is history.

i have a doc with prompts and inspos and scenes that i would to build on, mostly oneshots (i love writing fluffy oneshots so much) including a christmas wolfstar that i'm going to try and write next week and my reggie redemption fic eek! so i think this one will be my easiest goal only because now i've started, i canny stop

6. beta fics

i want to beta fics!!!!!!! in reality i want to live out my secret dream job of being an editor. i've never beta'd a fic and i'm not sure what the level of involvement is but it's something i really want to start in '22 so... if anyone is in need of a beta hit me up in 2022 :D

sorry this ended up really long, i am apparently an oversharer. all my mutuals have already been tagged and posted their 22 goals which tells me i need to get cracking on #4 asap!