#foibles is writing fanfic

[foibles-fables]

Hey Foibs! This might be a little random because it's been hours and I definitely should be asleep but I'm still thinking about it and I'm curious--is there a passage you'd be willing to share (posted/WIP) where you honed your words until they were just right (...I mean, that probably goes for all of them) and elaborate on why you settled for the words/sentences you chose in the end? Or just a bit you're very proud of because you consciously decided on something for a very specific effect?

Please consider this my writing juice tax: 🥤🥤🥤(appalling there's beer, whiskey and cereal but no proper juice in this list. The cheese sortiment is also lacking.) Hope you're having a great night!

HELLO and HMMM, I can totally do that! Like you said, the honing is definitely the case with all of the words--I know your process is super similar to mine, creating prose with pruning shears and scraping at your own patience, that whole thing. But, speaking in terms of recency, this passage from if you held yourself up to the light definitely illustrates the way I approach committing to an effect.

For a moment, Talanah blinks hard and grimaces, still not accustomed to the new visual dimension of the Focus’s simulacrum. When she coaxes her eyes to open, they catch Elisabet’s light and flare with it. There’s that sharp-sweet ache in Aloy’s backbone again and suddenly, without knowing why, she thinks of how she should have shared an image of Elisabet smiling instead.

Then she realizes: she doesn’t have one. She’s only seen Elisabet smiling—really smiling—before waking up alone and soaked in clammy sweat, clawing at her own chest, trying to wrench something else out of the tough old knots tucked under her sternum.

Skin prickling all over, Aloy turns away. Stares down at her right hand as it strains into a fist against the bedcover and tastes her heart (whose heart?) at the back of her throat.

What are you so afraid of, Aloy? What hurts you more? That you’ll have to answer, or that she’s going to ask?

Because to Talanah, Aloy’s never been an outcast, or a holy savior, or a useful tool in a grand and desperate plan. She’s only been Aloy. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else—intact around her center, significant unto herself. A rare trace of comfort when so many seem determined to lie sprawling at her feet, calling out her name in worship or mounting her jewel-hewn likeness aloft or insisting in you, all things are—

And it’s more exhausting than she’d admit, to not let herself bend back for anything that’s made her feel less othered. It’s hard not to fight tooth and nail against the thought of it slipping away. But Talanah’s impression is based on a false pretense—a half-told story that sits sore at the base of Aloy’s skull.

Now the rest shines before them, blinding out this long-forgotten space. Tell her, Aloy, who and what you’re formed from. Tell her why. You, the catastrophic conception, the here-again, the unbelievable thing made.

Aloy, the ripple after—Aloy, the lesser tremor. Elisabet Sobeck, Alpha Prime, and the catch in her voice every single time she claims it.

I spent...an inordinate amount of time on this particular excerpt, hah. I was trying to get at a couple different layers of substance and wrestled for a while with the framing of each of them. I think I ended up achieving the desired effect pretty well:

Pointing out my main thesis statement about the dynamic between these two--communicated through Aloy's own blunt and simply-stated perception/undoubted awareness of it. You know she notices everything, and Talanah continuing to remember and purposefully use "Aloy despite the Nora" would be something she takes to heart in the midst of...well, everything else.

Close close introspection on the decision (and the indecision) to tell her friends about Elisabet. That concept really deserved a whole lot more than just an exposition speech, as given to Varl in the prologue of HFW, almost to the point that it's physically painful.

Indulging in some purposeful weird-ass POV stuff, to underscore the identity issues we were also kind of robbed of in the text of HFW. I wanted fallout from her regularly invoking Elisabet's name in reference to her own actions, damn it!!!

But on a purely surface level these were also just uhhh. Words that I liked?? Also seeing Talanah (or ANY of them, really) have to adjust to using a Focus would have taken over my entire life. Probably a lot more difficult than it looks.

Hope this answers to a somewhat satisfactory degree! I am uno reversing the good vibes juice back at ya 🧃🧃🧃🧃🧃

[shinelikethunder]

it'd be interesting to see a version of that Beloathed Fanfic Terminology poll that skips all the general clumsy-writing foibles and focuses on shibboleths specific to fic culture (esp LJ/AO3 "house style"). blown pupils. toeing off shoes. italicized "oh." huffing a laugh. "fisted" as a synonym for "grabbed," often in contexts where The Author Should Damn Well Know That Raises Awkward Disambiguation Issues. entire clusters of statistically-improbable dialogue tags that i can't think up examples of offhand, but would absolutely clock if i saw them in the wild. scent X, scent Y, and something uniquely him. fill in your own; i'm sure there are tons more.

some of them i find kinda charming, and most of the ones above don't really bother me except that they sometimes ring a bit cliché, and/or are so jarringly fanfic-specific that they can interfere with a narrative voice that's less so. but my stupid-ass hill to die on is that "blown pupils" drives me NUTS. I Have Never Fucking Noticed Someone's Eyes Doing That, let alone doing that from being turned on. let alone so dramatically as to be understood shorthand for "turned on," rather than "concussed" or "on the way back from the ophthalmologist's office" or "on So Many Drugs" or "having a fucking stroke." and if i - with an existing pet peeve about this phrase in fanfic - have never taken time out of a makeout session to note the relative pupil dilation of the person i'm sucking face with, i guaran-fuckin'-tee you that Emotional Constipation McManlyMan from your slash fics would not fucking say that even in internal narration, and definitely would not have that exact wording on hand as a stock turn of phrase. come the fuck on.

[melrosing]

I just find so much of the whole Lyanna Rhaegar thing so interesting. And its something I've explored more in my fanfics (that I've not really posted). But it's really weird to me that so many people's take away was that they were starcrossed lovers when... Rhaegar was like 23 (idk, an adult), married with a kid and Lyanna was a 15 yo. regardless of many factors, Rhaegar was still in the wrong in kidnapping her (no matter how willing of a victim she was). I totally buy that they thought their love story was that of starcrossed lovers.

also I love Ned having a complicated relationship with Brandon. I'm a sucker for Ned/Cat, and it's always strange to think that had things gone right she would've married Brandon. Like, it must be weird to look at the family you love and know you wouldn't have any of it if your brother (and to some extent sister) hadn't died.

Anyways, love the ending of season 1! I've found the whole thing super fun!

Yeah, I talked a bit about how I see Rhaegar and Lyanna here - like I'm sure they felt like star-crossed lovers, and GRRM the Shakespeare fanatic has certainly incorporated a handful of Romeo & Juliet tropes into their story. But they're also a lot more complicated than that. I can't disregard Lyanna's age, I can't disregard Rhaegar's obsession with prophecy and how that may have played a part in his pursuit of Lyanna (and his pursuit of a child from her body), and I can't disregard how he treats Elia and their children.

And people do minimise the affront to Elia which is really irritating to me, like as you can see per my sparknotes thing I don't believe that Elia ever came to love Rhaegar - I think at best she may have thought in the early days she was lucky to have such a worthy match, but that there's otherwise no suggestion they were close or even had any especial rapport. So, fine - it was a political match and not a love match - so if either of them privately committed adultery, that would be one thing.

But humiliating Elia in front of virtually all of Westeros by making a show of disregarding her, when she is either pregnant with his child or has just given birth to his child... and then later leaving her and their two young children in the charge of a teenager and a pyromaniac??? like sorry no i'm just not having it babes. it's not on

And yeah I definitely like the idea of Brandon and Ned having a kind of spiky relationship! I think Ned loved his brother but I can imagine there were things he disliked about him. And that Brandon could be quite callous towards Ned, treating him a bit like a doormat, condescending to him etc, and not even realising he's doing it because Ned's feelings hardly register with him.

It would kind of make Ned's close friendship with Robert more interesting, because I think Brandon was probably a lot like Robert - but here's a version of his brother who has time for him and jokes with him and confides in him etc etc. So it was easier to look past Robert's foibles and failings.

But then obviously Ned would feel a lot of guilt for having resented his brother once Brandon is gone (and Brandon dies proving how much he truly values his family), and for having inherited everything he was meant to have. It makes me think again of Jon as like a twisted outlet of penance for Ned. like he would always have cared for and protected Jon for Lyanna, yet part of him thinks he deserves Catelyn's resentment and the judgement of society that comes with Jon, but for own private guilt.

anyway thanks so much for reading they're really fun to write! working on plotting out the next bunch tonight....

[focusontheheart]

Meet the Team Lead - Foibs

Who could the Lead for the Talanah route possibly be? Of course, it's the ever-talented @foibles-fables! You can also find them on AO3 as foibles_fables!

Howdy and hello, I’m Foibs! You might already know me as that clown who’s always crying over Talanah. Well, get ready for more tears, FOTH-style! My first exposure to the Horizon series was scrolling Twitter, seeing the reveal trailer for Forbidden West, and thinking, “This seems relevant to my interests.” I proved myself right when I started playing in late 2020 and fell in love with Aloy’s incredible world. Since then, I’ve churned out an embarrassing amount of fanfic (overwhelmingly Hawk and Thrush), become a lore connoisseur, and formed lifelong relationships with amazing folks in the fandom. I’ve written fanfiction on and off for—well, most of my life! My inspiration usually comes from epic sci-fi/fantasy and modern poetry, so game script writing has been a fun and rewarding challenge already.

Q&A with Foibs under the cut!

What is a favorite piece of work you've done (completed/ working on/ in-concept)?

True story: I came into my Horizon fixation thinking I wouldn’t write any fic for the series. Then I met the (future) Sunhawk, and all bets were off. This is a tough choice—I’m proud of everything I’ve created for the series—but lately I’ve been feeling soft for rest like you belong here., my first ever Aloy/Talanah fic. It was compelling and fulfilling to explore Aloy’s manifold struggles with vulnerability in a Zero Dawn missing scene.

What are some of your favorite tropes (to read/ write/ draw)?

I tend to gravitate towards capturing and developing those unseen, in-between moments of canon. I’m also a huge fan of diving into a character’s psyche with introspective studies—usually of the romantic variety. Beyond that, I’m a huge sucker for writing pining (mutual or otherwise), friends to lovers, and emotional/physical hurt/comfort.

What is an unexpected thing or fun fact about you?

Outside of fandom-adjacent activities, my hobbies include picking up heavy things and putting them back down. My heart is big, but my deadlift number is bigger.

What has been your favorite thing about working on this project so far?

Definitely the profound spirit of enthusiastic collaboration between all of these fabulous creators. It’s been utterly inspiring to put together a project of this scale and complexity with folks I might never have gotten to work with or befriend otherwise! I’m also very excited to get to explore the development of Talanah and Aloy’s relationship after the events of Forbidden West in this new and interesting way!

[bubbles-zine]

Now, we’ll be introducing our wonderful contributors, starting with our talented writers!

foibs, writer

twt and ao3: foibles_fables tumblr: @foibles-fables

"Hi, I’m Foibs! As a longtime fanfic writer, I love exploring character dynamics and moments of quiet but significant internality. I’m very excited to contribute to this zine and its vital, worthy cause!"

Ara, writer

twt: @meihuara ig: @xxara_n

"A queer full time uni student that loves to write about the things they enjoy!"

tian, writer

twitter: @silvesbian

"Hiii I’m Tian I’ll be participating as a writer and writing a short story about Mizu’s childhood! I’m very grateful to be able to create for Blue Eye Samurai and for it to be going towards a good cause! 📷"

yuri, writer

tiktok: leshy_apologist instagram: @iodine_v1

"Hello, I am Yuri and I am a writer. My writing has always been from the heart, my rawest form of work. But I’ve always craved to share it with others. I want them to be completely knocked out, dazzled and even slightly intimidated by my work, so that I can feel like I’ve reached my goal of making my writing a vivid depiction of what it is to be a human. I want to make something so intensely saturated with emotion, one cannot help but relate. But I’m still working towards that, and this is the first step :)"

lisa, writer

tumblr: @merksmow

"Hi! I’m Lisa, and I’ve got a passion for writing emphatic, melancholic fiction! I’m super excited to be contributing my own work for such a fantastic charity project!"

[askweisswolf]

Fanfic Writer Questions

Thank you for the tag @foibles-fables!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

19!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

Currently at 89,257.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Oh man, uh. I think it would be better to say what fandoms I don’t write for at this stage, it’s still crazy to me to think it’ll be twenty years this year that I started writing fanfic. Currently I’d say Baldur’s Gate 3 has me by the throat, with a little bit of the DCAU (specifically, Justice League/Unlimited) and the occasional dash of Fallen Hero and Dragon Age that I post to Discord servers. I’ve also got a few Mass Effect short pieces floating around. I really need to post to my AO3 more.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I’m going to mess with this one a bit and go off of my top five finished fics by fandom and stick to the ones I wrote solo, that way it’s a bit of a mix. I apologize in advance since a lot of these are years old at this point, but it definitely goes back to what I said before about writing in multiple fandoms, ha.

Rest for the Weary (Frozen) Flare (SPOP) The Same Big Sky (Fire Emblem: Three Houses) Skin Deep (Dragon Age: Origins) At The Door (Baldur's Gate 3) 5. Do you respond to comments?

I try to! I’m not always the best at it but I genuinely appreciate everyone who takes the time to comment on one of my fics, it means the world to me and I always love hearing everyone’s feedback and thoughts, it makes me so excited for my own writing.

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

If we’re going purely by just what’s on AO3… hm. For stuff that’s a bit older, easily The Silence Is Your Answer (Fire Emblem: Three Houses). For something I wrote more recently, Few Finer Torments (Baldur’s Gate 3) because I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about Shadowheart in Act 2 specifically.

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

… Most of them. Oh my God I’m mainly a fluff writer, like I knew this about myself but to actually realize it so starkly is something else. Of my most recent stuff I’d probably say A Little Slice (Justice League Unlimited) has possibly the softest ending I’ve written in awhile.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Thankfully not.

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

Not often but I do sometimes! All of it so far has been for f/f ships, mostly with a lot more focus on like… the thinking and the feeling aspect of it and not so much the physical aspect, if that makes sense? I just like using sex as a way to explore the characters, when I’m in the mood to write it.

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

Oh, man, okay. I have written a few crossovers over the years, but my favorite is still one I co-wrote with a friend of mine for the Beast’s Lair fan forum back in the day that was just a complete off the walls one-shot crack crossover with Fate/Stay Night, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, and I think we had a dash of Highschool of the Dead right at the end. It was insane, we wrote it on a Skype call in a matter of hours.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not as far as I know, thankfully.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have not! When I was more active on FIMFiction.net though I did have a few people who did live readings of my fics, those were always neat.

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

Yes! I’ve co-written with him a lot before, but Pen Pals (Frozen) was co-written with Moczo. Just a heads up that I think he has it set that you can only read it if you’re logged in, if you want to check it out.

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

… I don’t think I can only pick one, man. I really don’t. If I have to, my brain always comes back to Shayera/John or Raven/Terra.

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

I feel like I owe everyone who started reading my The 100 fic or my Black Widow fic an apology at this point.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue, emotional payoff, character study (I guess?). I have one friend who told me I write very good Catholic guilt.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Sex and fight scenes are the absolute bane of my existence, for as much as I enjoy the character potential of the former in particular. I’m also slow as hell, I’ve been working on this one Shayera/John fic now for like a year trying to finish it before I post it and ugh.

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

If it fit the context of the fic I would, yes! I’d double check it with someone else who knows the language first, though.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Like, ever? Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers to my old Fanfiction.net account when I was 13. I had a bunch of old stuff saved to floppy discs that I never posted, though.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

This changes on a nigh daily basis, but currently I’m having an absolute blast with my The Beast Whisperer series focusing on my Tav who romances Shadowheart, so I’ll leave the link for it here.

Going to gently tag @optiwashere, @kittlesandbugs, @antigonick, @miabicicletta if you guys want to participate, no pressure! And of course anyone who sees this is free to respond as well.

[sssammich]

fanfic writer questions

Thanks for the tag, @foibles-fables

1- How many works do you have on AO3?

i'm at 122 right now (wahoo!)

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

794,634 (i am on a mission to 1 million in the next couple of years)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

well i've been around many a fandom block, but i'd say for current brainrot:

supergirl (mostly supercorp, but i have a smattering of rare pairs because women, amirite?)

swan queen

bumbleby (i also still have so many rosebird dreams i'll get there someday)

makayuro (with a smattering of rare pairs also because women, amirite?)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

well unsurprisingly, ever since plopping down on supercorp fandom, the numbers have been from there. but shoutout to my victorious fic from 2012 holding strong lol

evergreen, closest i get, not for nothing, you've got mail, and one way or another

5. Do you respond to comments?

yes yes absolutely!! sometimes i am late and sometimes i just leave it in there so i can have it stay unread but anyway i try to respond and i appreciate everyone who sends them to me. i have historically been a oneshot writer so it's been nice also to get comments on wips!

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

oh shoot angstiest ending?? well i think i would say my supercorptober ficlet about memory loss of sorts might tick that (it ends kinda idk open but not bad, i will say)

but then there's also this one old soccer RPF i wrote that's more, idk, poetry than any real fic about one of them leaving lmao

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

the happiest ending? i mean all of them, i reckon. if they end up together or have a promise of together then they count lmao

8. Do you get hate on fics?

uhhh none that i've seen? i mean if it's in the comments, no? but if it's elsewhere, then also no? i have been fortunate in that way

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

OMG YES I AM FINALLY IN MY SMUT ERA

uh i reckon comedy smut for now (read DickFic here) but the day is young and my doc is empty so who's to say

but i have dreams for some sad smut because i'd like to develop the range LMAO

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

surprisingly, i do not. what i instead do is just little spin through five fandoms at any given time and just confuse myself that way

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

unfortunately yes. twice now. once was for my victorious fic that was used for a 5th harmony RPF lmaooo

and then on thanksgiving weekend, the first chapter of Crepe AU was posted by an anonymous for a The Wilds ship (but my friends rallied to get it taken down so i didn't have to send a takedown form to ao3 while i was traveling home)

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

nope but that would be totally rad

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

i love fic writing group work so yes! i have a series of sad angsty women that i have with my best friend in my revue starlight fandom, and then, of course, @sideguitars and i have 'humans in the storeroom' (that reminds me it's my turn to write the next part smh)

i also like jumping into writing sprints or writing exercises with folks (like a round robin)

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

let's not do this, i shan't pick amongst my children

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

so far all my wips are things i wanna finish and will do my best to finish. i have a couple of retired wips that will just sit in my ao3 forever and i have made peace with them, though.

16. What are your writing strengths?

i wanna say characterization, pacing, emotional resonance, and a simple and natural writing style maybe

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

action?? plot??? proper AUs lmao

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

i do not because i find i butcher it and also then i cringe lmao

19. First fandom you wrote for?

oh written for but never posted? hermione/ginny

posted for? god probably All My Children (bianca and maggie) when i was like a teenager hahahahaha

20. Favorite fic you've written?

sorry no can do i love them all because i wrote them and there are so many things i enjoy about them. but i will say that the writing events circuit i've done this past year (supercorp bigbang, bumbleby big bang, and swan queen winter solstice) are born out of a lot of labor of love and i'm really proud of the work i've done for them.

and not for a writing event, but i am also extremely proud of re:live for mayakuro fandom-- that one makes me think that if i never wrote for that fandom again, that that's a really good fic to end on)

No-pressure tags, of course: @sideguitars, @eqt-95, @fazedlight, @luthordamnvers, @vox-ex, and @waytooinvested

(yall have probably done this before but here it just in case!)

[retrowhatever]

All the Horizon Fanfic Stats You Never Knew You Needed

So I did some data analysis. More graphs and lots of rambling below the cut.

I love graphs. And spreadsheets. And making my hobbies unnecessarily complicated. So obviously once I discovered that there's an unofficial ao3 api, I had to learn a new programming language so I could throw some math at my Horizon hyperfixation and make some graphs about fanfics. This post is the result of that rabbit hole, I hope you enjoy it!

Before we get started, I want to make one thing explicitly clear: this post is a celebration. It's a celebration of fanfic, authors, and the fandom in general. If you have something mean to say about a ship, a writer, or a fic, this ain't the place. I made these graphs and wrote this post as a love letter to a game I'm obsessed with and the incredible people who make the fan content that is my main form of sustenance these days lol, so let's keep the discussion positive.

One last thing: I generated these graphs from data that I pulled on Aug 4, 2022. Anything published after that won't be reflected here. Alright, here we go! Let's see some graphs!

Fanfic by Length

The first thing I wondered is what the average length of fic was. I did not include any fics below 100 words, assuming they were either art or placeholders, neither of which provide any useful information regarding number of words.

I defined the categories as follows:

Ficlet - less than 2000 words

Short Story - 2K-10K words

Novella - 10K-50K words

Novel - 50K-100K works

Behemoth (pun fully intended) - 100K+ words

Obviously, there's some blurriness at the category edges, but it's pretty clear most fics tend to be relatively short. I'm genuinely surprised by how many huge, sprawling works there are though - I definitely expected there to be a single-digit number of behemoth fics. Mad props to the folks writing those monstrosities for the rest of us to enjoy!

Fanfic by # of Chapters

This graph kind of underscores the point about most fics being relatively short. There are almost twice as many single chapter fics than all other fics put together.

A thing I think is relatively unique to fanfic as a medium though, is that a fair number of those single chapter fics are novella or even novel length. You're not often going to find a book at a bookstore that's tens of thousands of words and has no chapter divisions, but that's not unusual in fanfic.

Fanfic by Author

Okay, the first thing you need to understand about this graph is the following numbers:

1

2.6

Those are the median and mean fics published per author in the Horizon fandom, respectively. In case you slept through your stats class, what that means is most fanfic writers have written one or two Horizon fanfics. Now go back and look at the graph.

...yeah. We as fanfic lovers owe a lot to these folks. Most of them are on tumblr, so even if you don't have an ao3 account (same, babe, same) you have no excuse not to go show them some love!

Serie11 is @valaloy

SoupAndChaos is @soupandchaos

mythicait is @mythicaitt

DragonRose35 I couldn't find a tumblr for

Kittleskittle is @kittleskittle

VidalsQueen is @sun-and-shadow-aloy

NorthernGhost is @thatsgonnabeanogho

sunspot (unavoidedcrisis) is @sunspott

januarys I couldn't find a tumblr for

foibles_fables is @foibles-fables

unstable_grad I couldn't find a tumblr for

Pikapeppa is @pikapeppa

YoGrossDude is @yogrossdude

bioluminesce is @owlswatch

wandereringray is @wandereringray

escafiils is @chloefraazers

Fanfic by Rating

Okay, now things are getting spicy! First of all, if I'd had to guess the most popular rating, it probably wouldn't have been Teen. But, given how popular the "fluff" tag is (foreshadowing for the tag graph later in this post), I guess it shouldn't be that surprising.

Secondly, I'm clearly not the only one who struggles to understand what exactly the Mature rating is for, considering it's the least-used rating by a fair margin.

Fanfic by Ship

The most popular ships, colour-coded based on orientation. From left to right: mlm, straight, wlw, poly, machines(?????), unknown

I want to reiterate here that I made this post to celebrate the awesome Horizon fandom, so if you're thinking of using this graph to argue that one ship is better/more correct than another... just don't, k? Good.

I also combined similar tags, so if someone used all three of the tags "Aloy/Erend", "Aloy/Erend (Horizon: Zero Dawn)", and "Aloy (Horizon: Zero Dawn)/Erend (Horizon: Zero Dawn)" for the same fic, that's actually going to count as three fics in the Aloy/Erend column. I'll probably end up redoing this graph eventually with a less naive counting algorithm, but for now this is what we've got.

Now that we've got methodology out of the way, let's talk about some cool things this graph shows!

First, Kotaloy shippers obviously have a lot of things to say. Unlike the other five most popular ships, Aloy/Kotallo is the only one involving a character that wasn't in the first game. And it's the second most popular ship! Y'all are rabid and I love it.

Second, of the wlw ships, the second and third most popular ships involve a character from the DLC and a character who dies immediately after you meet her, respectively. You guys are out here making meals from crumbs and I am impressed. Also, though, why don't Petra and Vanasha get more love??? I'm unsurprised that Talanah and her favourite Thrush are the #1 ship, but I (a clueless straight, to be fair) loved both Petra and Vanasha and definitely expected to see more fic involving them.

Third, I love the variety here. This graph only includes ships with at least 10 fics, and there are so many different ships represented! There were tons more that had 5-10 fics too, and it honestly made me so happy to see that there were multiple fic options for almost any pairing in the game.

Fanfic by Tag

Y'all. Look at all the fluff. People always joke about making their blorbos go through it in their fanfic, but like. There is SO MUCH FLUFF. We all really just looked at these characters and went "well, they deserve nice things for a change", huh? I also love how popular canon divergence is - anecdotally, I usually see that tag on fics that are like "well, what if that shitty thing didn't happen?"

That's not to say it's all sunshine and rainbows. The next two most popular tropes are "angst" and "hurt/comfort", and as an enthusiastic consumer of both, I'm not surprised. But again, anecdotally I see a fair number of fics tagged with one or both of those and a "fluff" tag.

Going back to the ratings graph, where we learned that the most popular fic rating is Teen & Up, it shouldn't be surprising that both "First Kiss" and "First Time" are more popular tags than any of the more explicit sex ones. Also, given that Aloy grew up an outcast, I think the popularity of those tags speaks to how fun it is for both writers and readers to delve into what that means for her when it comes to sex and relationships.

Finally, the most-used content warning tags will surprise exactly no one, I think. Canon-typical violence (because duh), PTSD (growing up a literal outcast before finding out you're a clone made by an AI so you can save the entire world from extinction will do that to ya, not to mention all the shit Aloy's friends/lovers have been through in their own lives), and canonical character death (glares at GEMINI) are all pretty obvious choices.

Conclusion

Because I have zero impulse control, I'm already working on a part two for this post, where I will address such pressing questions as "Which ship has the most verbose authors?" and "Who's the gayest Horizon character?" as well as recklessly use the powers vested in me by the math and algorithm gods to find some hidden gem fics that you might not have read yet.

In the meantime, I would love to hear some more opinions on these graphs! I've commented on some of the things I found interesting, but there's lots more to address here, so feel free to reblog this post or snag any graph you find interesting to use in a post of your own. I only ask that you tag me if you do - because I want to read what you have to say!!

Also, if there's any stats or questions about Horizon fanfic that you're particularly curious about, let me know. I'm limited by the information available on ao3, but I will do my best to find you answers and include them in the next post.

Lastly, one final reminder that we're here to celebrate the awesomeness of Horizon fanfic, the fanfic authors, and the fandom in general. I will humbly accept all constructive criticism about my (somewhat questionable) statistical methods and data interpretation, but ask that you keep comments about ships, tags, authors, etc positive and productive. Remember these are real people creating free content for the rest of us, and don't yuck someone else's yum.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you found this half as interesting as I did!

[catty-words]

Part of why we're so thirsty in your ask is because it is complicated to talk about the sexual tension and how Ben and Devi have sexual chemistry in the fandom without people going 🤨. I personally don't get why we shouldn't? Is pretty clear they both feel it too, Devi went to Ben to have sex because she wanted to (and talk with her friends about having sex w him again after their 1st time) and Ben thought about her like that (oops dream making canon he likes to be the one following orders made canon like so much fanfics) so that's why I love coming to your blog and reading all this people talking about it so freely, knowing you're going to possibly give us an honest opinion or like even tell us what you think

Sorry if this is too long, but like THANKS

aww, well, it does genuinely warm my heart that you - and the people of my askbox at large - find me a welcoming, safe sounding board for your thirstiness. i've said it before, but fandom was the safe space for teenage me to express my sexuality, and that simply wouldn't have been possible if not for the beautiful fics written by people older and more experienced than me. love being a part of that cycle.

that said, my writing and publishing explicit material for you guys to (potentially) get off on is a little different than people sending me explicit asks. there are a few check-points of consent inherent to me releasing a fic into the world for you to consume in privacy in your own time that don't exist when one drops an explicit ask in my inbox without warning.

and yeah, i could just delete and ignore these, but haven't been BECAUSE i don't want to make you guys feel shame for wanting to talk about this stuff. so i guess what i'm asking for is more consideration for the fact that a) writing smut takes a long time if you want it to be as well-crafted as the stuff i have been publishing and i can't just churn it out so i'm not going to write, like, 99% of what you guys have been sending me and b) i am a human with my own sexual hangups and foibles and i'm decidedly not rearing to engage with these sexually explicit asks at the drop of a hat; they're tipping into A Lot territory. i think in large part because of tone. i'm starting to feel like a sex line operator. so just, like, engage with me like i'm a person, please, not a smut-dispenser. this is all i ask.

[mehoymalloy]

fanfic writer questions

Thanks for the tag, @foibles-fables!

1- How many works do you have on AO3?

29!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

286,054!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Most frequently, Critical Role, though I still have a few WIPs in Horizon and Stray Gods that I absolutely intend to get back to eventually.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I'm fudging this question a bit, because the lower three are all the same series from back when I first started writing two years ago. Unsurprisingly, Sing for Me (SG, Rated E) and Prometheus Bound (HFW, Rated M) are the heavy hitters, followed by the Tilda POV series with a slightly more modest kudos count. After that comes Through Eyes of Grace (SG, Rated T) and Mutually Assured Destruction (HFW, Rated E).

5. Do you respond to comments?

I do! I think the only fic I didn't respond to most comments was When the Darkness Comes, since it was 30 chapters posted all at once. It somehow felt like skewing the stats (which I realize is silly; I'll likely respond to all comments on any on-going long-fics, after all). But yeah, I like to lavish love and gratitude and enthusiasm onto commenters, since they go out of their way to do the same for my stories~

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

Prometheus Bound BY FAR.

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

Probably my entry for the Horizon Rare-Pair Round Up event: Radiance.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not to my face or in my fic comments. Or even out in the wild very much, to my knowledge.

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

Yep! Enemies to enemies who FUC- I mean, lovers. A lot of focus on zoomed in physicality details and hard feelings from characters who would rather do anything than acknowledge their feelings (like idk hate fuck it out). I joke but I also have some softer smut for Stray Gods and my Moon Moms AU.

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

I never have!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Also not that I know of.

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

Not yet, but my lovely friend @inomakani and I now have multiple fic ideas/drafts we like to scream at each other about, and we'll write them together as well, one day~

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

Do I even have to say it? I mean, I will happily shout it from the rooftops: IMOGEN/OTOHAN!

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

Hmmm... There's an old draft called "Aloy is ticklish" that was a fluffy lil Aloy and the GAIA Gang+Talanah one-shot that I likely won't dust off ever again for no particular reason.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Succinct-ish but evocative setting description, I like to think. Internal feelings, and how they're expressed externally through small details in body language. And Tension, of course.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Dialogue; "would they say that??" is a recurring question for me.

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

I would do so if needed for characterization purposes!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Horizon! Specifically, Horizon Forbidden West!

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Oh wow that's a hard one... Since I'm in the midst of plotting (and now writing!) its sequel, I'll say Let Me Lay Waste to Thee. It's my first (well, thee first) Imogen/Otohan fic that kicked off my love for this beautifully fucked up ship :3

It's a free for all tag, folks! So feel free to snag and tag me~

[meg-noel-art]

Tagged by @foibles-fables to do the fanfic writer trend!!

Idk a lot of my writing mutuals so please feel free to tag yourself via me!

[threewaysdivided]

🦈and 🦋 for the ask game?

(Fanfic Writer Ask Game)

🦈 Which character is the toughest to write?

Back when I was writing Arc I of Deathly Weapons, I used to say Robin but, now that I've moved to writing the whole Team more, I think that wooden spoon of dubious honour has passed to Conner.

The thing that makes Conner challenging for me to work with is that he just doesn't have as much starting material as the others. We shall set aside the unrelated YJ Comics, where Kon is a very different character with a very strong and distinct personality. He's a bit of a blank, which makes perfect sense in-universe because he's very new. He only has about 6 months of lived experience by the finale and that means he hasn't had time to build up the layers of in-universe history and memories that can be mined for nuance, call-backs, behavioral tics and personality foibles yet. Which is tricky for a writer like me, since I like to lean into that nitty-gritty granularity of canonically-supported character specifics to help distinguish everyone.

Deathly Weapons also takes place at a point where Conner's still in the process of growing from an archetype into a fully-realised individual, and something that makes it extra tricky is that his starting archetype is "Strong, Silent and Broody". Where other Literally-Born-Yesterday characters might be written as childishly talkative/ curious/ naive about the world, Superboy tends to be taciturn with a dash of impatient directness. He's not antisocial but he is socially inexperienced - he often participates by silently observing unless he has questions/ observations, and he tends to withdraw into himself when processing emotions (unless he loses his temper). That's a challenge to integrate into a written medium because it could be in-character for him to go a whole group-conversation without saying or doing anything, but if I don't do something to depict him then he starts to fade out of the story.

Part of that is finding stuff for him to do, which is also tricky because of his power-set. Physically, Conner is a super-strong damage-resistant close-quarters brawler (with some secondary reconnaissance abilities thanks to his super-senses): i.e. a tank build. The problem is, super-strong tanks are well-suited for the strategic niche of threat management and demolitions, but Deathly Weapons leans hard into the more spy/investigative type of mission storytelling - conditions where open combat and large-scale destruction are undesirable. If your stealth-squad is routinely toppling buildings or drawing the kind of heavy fire that it helps to have a tank "pulling aggro" for, then something is probably going wrong. It makes it hard to find a balance because the more competent the Team is at being a black-ops unit, the more they avoid the kinds of combat scenarios that play to Conner's unique strengths. Which, again, means I have to keep a closer eye on him during field-work scenes to make sure he doesn't fade out of the story or end up saddled with endless grunt jobs just to give him something to do.

I like Superboy a lot, and I hope I've got enough planned to pay him his dues in DW, but it is a challenge to balance a character who is interesting in non-verbal ways and best suited to open combat in a written-medium stealth story where he's not the central focus. He's a gem who takes a bit more work to foil for this setting.

🦋 Which character is your favorite to write?

Wally. Wall-meister. Wall-man. Mister Meep-Meep. World's dumbest smart person and most brilliant fool. A boy who admired his uncle so much he reversed-engineered a chemical formula and blew himself up with it to get superpowers.

100% Wally is the most fun character for me to write. He has a really entertaining narrative "voice" and it's one I can find quite easily, even in early drafts (possibly because - as someone who was also a teenage STEM-idiot - I read a lot of his sixteen-year-old bullsh*t as being similar to my own tweens-to-twenties bullsh*t.)

I've called Wally my "free entertainment" character before, because whenever I need to add levity to a scene I just drop Wally in there, let his leash out a little and leave him to amuse himself. He's a lot like Sokka from ATLA: the way he talks, thinks and engages with his environment and other characters is naturally endearing and charming to me. So many of my favorite incidental lines from the published and planned Deathly Weapons chapters are just descriptions of Wally doing, saying or thinking something:

"So?" Kid Flash seemed amused by the idea, "Throw in a couple of glares and hang him off a roof as usual. Problem solved."

Wally made a disgusted noise and was promptly ignored.

“Wasn’t he tied to a table?” “Yeah, and?” the speedster gave a magnificent shrug.  “He still is.”

“Nope.  Guy was out of it.  Besides,” Kid Flash shrugged the item on experimentally, colour eye-watering against his stealth-suit, “you know me: moves like a shadow.” The archer and the detective shared a look. “Sure thing, mister ‘ninja-boyfriend’.” He shot a wink her way.  “You know it.”

Wally put on his best skeptical face.

He so didn’t want to do this. Well, okay, that wasn’t true.  Part of him didn’t want to do this.  Another - louder, guiltier - part very insistently did.  The rest… mostly just wanted to find a hole to curl up and feel stupid in for a while.

The stupid-hole was looking better and better.

Wally, meanwhile, had returned with a long-handled spoon.  He twirled it in a hand, sizing the plate up with a speculative look.

“Souveni-” “No.” “Oh come on, look at the little guy!”

The thing I like about my favourite iterations of Wally is that he's an earnestly good person. When you peel back the layers of insecurity and class-clownery and teenage nonsense he's someone who cares... and sometimes his flaws come from caring too much about the wrong things. He doesn't always come off looking the best (especially in DW's Flashpoints-Equilbrium set, where we're going to be unpacking some of his roughest character traits) but to me he's someone who genuinely wants to do right by people, even if he puts his foot in things a lot along the way.

He's also just... really funny about it.

Thanks for playing!

[sword-dad-fukuzawa]

aurie! :] i want to know about your takeuchi mars red headcanons (if you have any)! also, i know about the "This is my brother and I need a shovel to love him" inspiration for This is No Cultivated Heaven, but do you have any other fics where there was some specific noteworthy literary influence (a poem that had the same vibes, a book that inspired you, etc.) ?

Fanfic Writer Friday

!! Sparrow!! Yes!! Love this ask! It's gonna be hella long!

Takeuchi headcanons:

He has a favorite lab coat that he embroidered flowers onto. This is because he seems like the type of guy to have at least tried crochet/macrame/embroidery/knitting on account of being functionally immortal. Like, poisonous flowers, because he thinks they're cool and has tried infusing them into blood candy to see if it improves the taste.

He has, on occasion, wondered if there's a way to generate immortality in humans without making them vampires. Just wait till he finds out about telomeres.

Speaking of modern science inventions, he absolutely keeps abreast of them by subscribing to every scientific publication he can get his grubby hands on. He does miss his government funding, though.

You know how he wears yellow socks in the anime? He's got one of every primary color and switches them out depending on his mood.

He wears Birkenstocks when he's not in the lab (no open toed shoes in the lab space!! It's a lab safety violation that got him vampire-d and he's not about to risk it again!!)

In that vein, if Takeuchi ever taught a high school class, he has mandated goggle wear on pain of getting kicked out of the class. They all think he's a little strange for avoiding sunlight but his sunscreen means he's been able to beat the vampire allegations. For now. (I want to write this fic btw)

He can't drive. By which I mean he can drive, but he insists on modding his cars until they're probably illegal and make weird noises. He did get his Chevy to fly for a bit, though.

He enjoys splashing around in shallow ponds. They're never deep enough that he'll drown, but splooshing shallow water is fun.

Every year, on the anniversary of the Great Tokyo Earthquake, he visits Yamagami's military grave and the makeshift one for Maeda that the surviving members of Code Zero made with his kids.

Even though Code Zero is scattered throughout the world now, they keep in touch via postcards.

Okay, short answer is I don't have any fics that are as heavily influenced as "This is No Cultivated Heaven" was. I had intense Cain and Abel brainrot that day and I think I went a little nuts. But! There are definitely some others.

For example, "No Longer a Puppet." The title is a terrible No Longer Human reference and it's a fic about humanity, achieving it when one finds themselves feeling inhuman, and doubles as a commentary on the faults and foibles of people in general. It's heavily inspired by the concept of feeling inhuman (thanks Dazai), the concept of commenting on humanity as an outsider (thanks Natsume, re: I Am a Cat), and it also was kinda influenced by "Thou Shalt Not Die" (thanks, Yosano) because it's also a fic about war, and wanting so badly to prevent your loved ones from going off to the battlefield. It's a very BSD-colored fic in that I was really thinking about those three while writing it, despite being about a Genshin character. It's one of my favorite fics.

There's also "The Wind Rises," my Genshin longfic that I have a very love-hate relationship with. I stole the title off of the Ghibli movie by the same name and I feel like it took on the tone of the movie, and maybe even the main message, as I was writing it. Which is, in and of itself, a reference to the poem "The Graveyard by the Sea," as its opening lines are:

Le vent se lève! Il faut tenter de vivre. / The wind is rising! We must try to live.

It's a movie (and poem) about grief (war too, for the movie), and the idea that life gets really difficult and overwhelming but it's necessary for us to keep trying to live. Genshin, I feel like, is a game that's heavily colored by old grief that was never processed. I know you haven't played it but many, if not all, significant plot points draw on the fact that the people of the present have lost things irrevocably--people, homelands, lives, etc.

And my fic is this pre-canon rewrite of some characters' backstories in an attempt to make them happier, and less colored by grief--but there's an unavoidable sense of loss that creeps in whenever I write about Genshin characters anyway. So it's also about them learning to live when the world disappoints them.

Plus, you know, heavy references to the wind because it's Mondstadt-centric, and that's the city that houses the god of the wind. And the idea that Genshin is fundamentally about a world that is recovering from a war, and yet there's still a shadow war going on at the same time...Genshin's not an inherently sad game, but it is so viscerally about grief that you can't help but touch on it when you write in that world.

Some of the chapters also feature literary references, too. Chapter 14 is heavily inspired by, to the point of including, the Jewish story of the Golem (very good read, and Jacob Geller has a super intriguing youtube video about it). At least one chapter features FMA references, one is a promare reference, one is a reference to Snow White with the Red Hair (my favorite shoujo), references to Mo Dao Zu Shi...oh, and it quotes Dazai's The Setting Sun at one point.

As a last thing, I'll say that "Eat the Apple," my horror FyoGol fic, was inspired by a couple Naruto fics! The writing braincell will latch onto absolutely anything, literary or otherwise.

[hyperphonic]

29 & 32 for the ask game!

fanfic author asks

29. What part of the writing process do you enjoy the most? (Brainstorming, outlining, writing, editing, etc) 

ooooh i actually think outlining. i really like getting to see all of the thematic elements, plot lines, beats, scenes etc start to weave together. it's also the phase of writing that takes me the longest. once i've got a good outline set i can bang out a piece troublingly fast, so there's like some ~* satisfaction *~ to the outlining process too lmao

32. What story do you think showcases your signature style the most? 

foible for sure. it's easily the most highly evolved form of my writing in terms of dialogue, comedy, and smut. it's a filthy little romp but i'm very proud of it lmao

[galactic-pirates]

Yet Another Ask Meme: 4, 18, 36

Thanks for the ask!! :) :)

4) Do you have any OCs? Do you have a story for them? Oh sure lots. One's I'll admit to? Actually this is me and I have no shame about it so also many haha. I don't generally write OC's. They get such a bad rap that I save those particular imaginings for the stories I tell myself when I can't sleep, rather than ones I type up and post.

However, there is one exception that I just could not resist. I gave Jenkins a boyfriend in my and the Sins of Atlantis fic. Mordred. I don't know why maybe I just didn't like him having been lonely for two thousand years. I tried not to write it but I had such feelings about it. I... ok one day there will be (hopefully) a novel series written by me as a Camelot retelling. I have over 50k written towards it already (none of which was in that fanfic). I know, I know, Camelot has been done to death but hey there's a reason the Arthurian myth has been around for hundreds of years, it captures the imagination. If I want to write my take on Arthur's heroic death, and the uncrowned King Mordred and the Knight who would have ruled by his side, if Galahad's father hadn't broken the kingdom, then why not?

Admitting to sources of inspiration is probably not wise but I find OC's aren't a bad starting point for creating original works. Mind you the same can be said for fanfic "what if" as well. So long as pretty much everything about it changes in some form before the final version - well inspiration has to come from somewhere.

18) First, second, or third person? Third, always and forever. I have attempted to write first in exercises but it's not how I naturally think. From day one when I started writing it was always in third. I mostly only read third too. I will read first as I don't discriminate when I pick books up. However, I think I'm probably more likely to DNF a book written in first. I think I'm less forgiving or less used to it's foibles I don't know.

36) How do you come up with fic titles? What's the one you're most proud of? Answered here

(in recompense for not answering have another one. I was tempted to ask "Describe a fic that almost happened, but then it didn't." for you but oh merlin so so many and how to choose which to ramble about? I'd be here all week...)

20) Do you work on a single project or many at the same time? How does that work for you? Back in the day I used to have several WIP's going at once. Even then that wasn't the wisest as I got discouraged by what felt like slow progress (as my progress was split across projects rather than concentrated).

These days I have less spoons and I'm not really even mentally capable of doing more than one thing in a day. I would love to be able to write and draw in the same day but I can't seem to make it happen.

Anyway, I find I can't swap and change at all really now. So I focus on projects one at a time. For example I'm doing the Librarians gift exchange and I've had the assignment for weeks and weeks but I only started it last Monday. I spent March focusing on my novel and I regret all my life choices for that because an exchange deserves a quality product that takes ages to make (because I've had weeks to work on it) and I'm terrified it won't be done in time for the deadline. But I had to choose and I started drafting in January so the novel kinda came first. Anyway, I haven't touched the draft since I finished it, and I won't until the art is done.

It really is sad I can't balance better :/

[kiaxet]

🦋🏷🌻

🦋 Which character is your favorite to write?

For Rise? Definitely Donnie. I need a reminder for his cadence and his specific foibles every once in a while, but man is it nice not to have to tailor my word choice while I'm writing narration. The English degree does have its uses. 8Db

In terms of my own stuff? It's easiest to get into Ryo's head, but man Orion is fun. Dude just says exactly what he's thinking half the time, and the other half is straight-up social manipulation. High charisma score, intelligence dump stat.

🏷 Is there a tag you like to search for when looking for fanfics to read?

I actually don't search tags! I tend to get recs, see what else the authors of the stuff I like have written, and hop into their bookmarks and repeat the process.

🌻 How often do you read your own fics?

All the time! Sometimes it's to pick tone back up or do a review before I start writing again, and sometimes it's just "I love this story! Really wish she'd update, though."

Thanks for the ask! The meme, for those who want it