#i have so many wips but like. i have like an entire multichapter arc of this fic written in my mind

[anistarrose]

what if I wrote an Eighth Bird Kravitz AU but there wasn't a single scene from the Stolen Century that featured into it, and instead it mostly focused on music theory/bardic studies professor Kravitz and arcana/science professor Barry at the same college, accidentally becoming best friends again by bonding over both being academically burnt out nervous wrecks

[constelationprize]

📚and✍️ for the fanfic questions!

📚 Is there a fanfic or fanfic writer you recommend?

Oh. Several.

I love all of @dayurno's fics, the patron saint of Kevin Day POVs. This is also the place where I admit to not having finished the name of the game yet despite it being one of the fics that convinced me to come back into the fandom, because something about it made me sad and I take. Absurdly long to finish things that make me sad. I also cleaned the 388 open tabs I had on my phone and forgot where exactly I had stopped. But Im going back there!!!! Someday. Also dayurno is so sweet and their blog is just a very fun place to hang out in.

@knickknacksandallthat A Falling Star series was literally the joy of my life the latter half of 2023 and knowing there was going to be a new chapter every friday helped me through some of the harshest weeks in college (and there were. A lot of them). I have reread the last chapter of Darkest Before Dawn many many many times because it is rare that miscommunication angst hits THAT good.

sunset, like survival by @jaywalkers is one of my favorite fics, ever, let alone in this fandom. Baltimore is my favorite part of the trilogy because of the emotional punch it packs and the way this fic takes that and turns it aaaaaall the way up in all three of the POVs is nothing short of masterful. It even makes me like the ending of that arc a little bit. Also the author just finished their other kandreil multichapter fic and it's the first thing on my reading list for my Carnaval break from work because you bet I'm gonna use all the time I can get to savour it.

I have the absolute privilege of betaing @queer-lovebot's fic Good to Go (Going Nowhere Fast) and it's just. So good. It's a WIP and there's two chapters out as of today and I think everyone in the entire world should read it maybe. Go check it out while it's still fresh so you can brag to your friends that you were here first!!!!!! (This is only a slight exaggeration. Fame is a construct but you should read it NOW anyway. Live dangerously go read a WIP).

Edit because I almost forgot: Have you heard the word of our lord and savior The Later Parade? I thought I liked Kevjean before I read this. I was wrong. This fic unlocked potentials of kevjean-loving within me only comparable to an anime villain revealing their final form. Like my bookmark on ao3 says, "this is the greatest thing I have ever read. goodbye".

✍️ What's your ideal writing set up?

At home, on my notebook in my desk, ceiling fan ON, with the biggest cup of passionfruit juice I can find, and wathever ambient noise my brain likes most at the time on repeat. (It can very from any song to rain sounds to those playlists of classical music. I once wrote 50k words to the repeated playlist of Brian David Gilbert's AAAAAAAAAH!BBA. Good times.)

[rose-of-pollux]

Questions for Fic Writers

Tagged by @knickynoo, thanks!

(Tagging @belphegor1982, @threephantomrey, and @radarsteddybear and anyone else who wants to do this!)

How many works do you have on AO3? Including the selection of ancient fics I just brought over from a dying FFN, 527.

What's your total AO3 word count? 1,836,538 words

What fandoms do you write for? Currently, my main fandoms are 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and Back to the Future, with some Haunted Mansion, Hogan's Heroes, Hades, Pokémon, Super Mario, and Legend of Zelda thrown in. And I've dabbled in other fandoms, as well.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

“Heroic Resolve” (Man from U.N.C.L.E., light slash)

“A Devil Put Aside for Me” (Super Smash Bros, gen)

“If Wishes Were Cats” (MFU, light slash)

“Desperate Times” (MFU, light slash)

"Some Things are That Simple" (Super Smash Bros, gen)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I try to, but between real life and my ADHD, I don't often get to them as quickly as I'd like to. Also FFN has completely stopped sending notifications in the last several months, so I genuinely have no clue if anyone has left a comment there. :/

What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? ...I haven't written it yet, but one of my future 13 Ghosts fics is going to be an angsty semi-resolved resolution that carries over to the next fic. Currently, however, the angstiest ending is probably “All Dead, All Dead” (Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild/Super Smash Bros)–it’s about BOTW Link realizing that the events of World of Light in Smash Ultimate makes this the second time that he failed to prevent a disaster, that he’s lost more this time than last time during the Calamity, and is now carrying even more survivor’s guilt as a result.  I normally don’t write such angsty fics with no resolution, but as this is World of Light, and everyone’s restoration is a foregone conclusion if you’ve played the game, I felt it was fine as is.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Most of my fics have happy endings, but the happiest is probably "O, Brave New World" (13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo)--just that ending scene of everyone hugging in the rain after Daphne casts her first successful spell during her magic training... Yeah.

Do you get hate on fics? Not really, but I do get people who either complain that the fic makes no sense after admitting they jumped in the middle of a multichapter fic without any context, or I get someone who does not understand dramatic irony and wonders why Marty is acting the way he is when he's extremely stressed and not thinking things through as a result.

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? Love them! Craziest one is probably the MFU/Haunted Mansion crossover I did earlier this year ("The Grim Grinning Ghosts Affair"), but the BTTF/Hogan's Heroes one I'm planning is going to be right up there.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Yes, one of my Super Mario fics was stolen along with other writers' on FFN back in 2020; thankfully a friend of mine in the fandom AND a kind stranger both alerted me to it, and I and the other victims reported the thief and got the stolen fics removed.

Have you ever had a fic translated? No, but I have had one transcribed as a Podfic by someone else–“You Can’t Judge a Book” (Hogan’s Heroes, Gen).

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes, once, on LiveJournal a long time ago; it was a Hogan’s Heroes fic with an otherworldly spin; I’m not entirely sure if it still exists.

What's your all-time favorite ship? Napoleon Solo/Illya Kuryakin!

What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? Most of all, the Monkeesfic I left hanging, because it was the literal final installment of the arc I was writing.

What are your writing strengths? Characterizations, or so I’ve been told–I can jump from fandom to fandom, and have everyone remain perfectly in-character. Also, dialogues. My writing has always been dialogue-driven.

What are your writing weaknesses? Descriptions. As improved as I am when compared to 2008 when I started posting stories online (and you can tell by looking at some of those that I brought over from FFN to AO3), I yearn for the ability to pull off the whole “Show, don’t Tell” as good as certain people I could mention (Vincent Price and Paul Frees, mainly).

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? It can be tricky depending on the language, but rewarding if it all works out.  In Hogan’s Heroes, LeBeau switching between French and English happens nearly once per episode, so I endeavor to do that (with plenty of help from Bel, I will admit). For Illya speaking Russian or Ukrainian in MFU, I throw it into Google Translate and pray it comes out coherent.  His dialogues are the most challenging by far since I’m on my own. For Flim-Flam speaking Nepali in 13 Ghosts, I have a much easier time since Nepali is similar enough to Hindi (which I am decently fluent in).

First fandom you wrote for? Pokémon, way back in 1999 (though those fics will never see the light of the internet, ever).

Favorite fic you've ever written? Going to do this for my main three fandoms–

Man from U.N.C.L.E. -- the aforementioned Haunted Mansion crossover, "The Grim Grinning Ghosts Affair" (mostly gen, but established Napollya bickering and canonical Hatbox Ghost/Beating Heart Bride going on in the background); The Ghost Host and Madame Leota draw Napoleon and Illya to the Mansion under admittedly false pretenses in the hopes that the mortal duo can help the Hatbox Ghost wrangle the mad spirit of Constance Hatchaway.

13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo -- "Class Reunion" (gen); Vincent brings the gang to his school reunion, and as Daphne, who's been learning magic from Vincent, is determined to prove herself to the assembled witches and warlocks, there is trouble brewing as a nefarious plot involving the Forbidden Arts underway.

Back to the Future– “‘Cause I Might Not Make It Back” (Gen).  Marty is pursued by a renegade scientist to be used as leverage against Doc, resulting in him getting stranded in 1932, stricken with amnesia.  As 1986 Doc searches for Marty, the ripple effect fails to kick in as his 1932 counterpart finds him, and is tasked with trying to figure out how to get Marty’s memory back, as well as keep him out of the clutches of his renegade pursuer.

[mari-lair]

I have this wip of an au I wanted to write and I want your thoughts, it's an AoiKane au where Akane is a full supernatural and one day when he stopped the big clocks time (causing the school's time to stop) to look at Aoi she doesn't stop and instead sees him and at first he excited but than realizes that this is because of her short lifespan and soon the severance will happen so we will go off from the actual manga but changing the story to fit the characters new roles, Nene is still Hanako's assistant clock keeper arc still happened ect except it's been altered and I wanted to do this and give a more angsty ending where Aoi doesn't make it back like in the current but Akane still wanders the far shore for her or something? thoughts? advice?

I love full supernatural Akane! And I haven’t seen one for Aoikane, so I’m intrigued. People rarely talk about the big clock that controls the school’s time despite it being No.1’s rumor so is cool to play with this concept too!

As for advice, it depends on your plans.

If you want a relatively short fic, one to three chapters, I recommend focusing on specific scenes you want to write (like Akane lingering when Aoi is already gone, and his grief, or the moment Aoi sees Akane and he realizes she will die) and build up to those scenes, like mentioning a short scene of Akane lingering by the school gate to show he has always been bad at letting her go, or something. No need to try to explain role changes, or expand much on how canon changes or anything, leave things unanswered, just work on making a scene pack a punch.

If you want a multichapter story to explore this idea in more detail, it’s more tricky, cause too much information is hard to juggle around without contradicting yourself eventually and people have different ways that work well for them, so I can only give you advice by how it personally works for me:  If you’re stuck for details, or feel like a plot point come out forced, try the ‘butterfly effect’ and go from there, because it’s a pretty fun way to mess with canon, but still have some kind of structure.

Let me give an example where you can apply the butterfly effect and go as deep or lightly with it as you want:  You said the clock keeper arc still happens and nene is still Hanako's assistant, so Akane knows Nene, likely even before Hanako knew her, since he is attached to Aoi and Nene would easily be her best friend without a human Akane. You can make them chat from time to time like canon but more comedic since nene would ‘talk to air’ when she talks to Akane, keep it as charming but not that important to the overall fic, or you can create an entirely new dynamic from it, since nene is a way to ‘directly’ interact and communicate with aoi even when she could not see him.

The can even be new arcs from such a small difference: Nenes could absently talk about Akane to Aoi, like she does about hanako, and make her aware of Akane before even seeing him. It can be anything! The fun of it is that you can make your imagination run wild. How close will akane get with aoi? Will she still want to ‘discard’ Akane on the reapers arc since they don't have as much 'history' together? is Aoi herself a different person since Akane wasn’t part of her life? Does stopping the school clock have any consequences for Akane?

Just ask questions and go crazy, a lot of times you can reach where you want by a different means from canon entirely.

(I just realized i have been assuming Akane is a full supernatural that haven’t met aoi while alive, but even if that’s not the case, there is still many questions to be asked.)

[bluejayblueskies]

Hi, I hope I'm not too late to ask some Weird Writer Questions cause they sound fun! Number 24, 19, 13, and 17 (that last one for whisky would be cool but all your WIPS are lovely so pick whichever you want!) hope you have a nice day Jay!!

weird questions for writers!

(you're absolutely not too late--thank you for messaging! i hope you have a nice day as well 🥰)

24. How much prep work do you put into your stories? What does that look like for you? Do you enjoy this part or do you just want to get on with it?

for prep work, i used to (pre-tma and a little bit into the beginning of writing for tma) jump right into multichapter stories with a vague premise and no clue of the actual plot or ending, but i found it's easier to actually complete multichapter stuff if i have an outline and an idea of where i want the story to go, lol who knew? so my prep work now consists of, at minimum, a rough outline of the entire story arc from beginning to end, but usually a chapter-by-chapter outline of major story beats, approximate scenes, etc.. for whisky, i jumped in with a rough story arc and then made the chapter-by-chapter outline around chapter three when i started to get bogged down in 'what scene should i do next?' details. i usually don't do any prep at all for one-shots, since they're typically 1-2 scenes, but for longer ones i may throw together a quick bullet list of where i want the story to go

and i do not like outlining alkdsgjsag. it's probably my least favorite part of the writing process. (i'm currently for example avoiding fixing my whisky outline, which i need to change the last chapter for slightly due to a piece of lore i added contradicting my current ending.) i think it's because outlining requires the most decision-making about my story and the most critical thinking about, 'okay, what do i actually want to say and when do i want to say it.' i'm always much happier when i have the outline because it's so much better to write with one, but the process of making it? detestable lol.

(more below the cut because i got predictably long-winded with this)

19. Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?

this answer got very long, so buckle in and bear with me lol:

i started writing very young (perhaps second or first grade?) partly because my father is a copywriter and thus encouraged it and partly because i read so many books as a child. my elementary school had this anthology that you could submit to starting in third grade, and i remember writing short stories for it (that always ended up being too long--turns out i had chronic 'can't shut up' disease even at the tender age of 8).

getting into middle school, i started to write longer things. it's hard for me to remember exact dates, but i know i finished my first novel-length story around ... 7th grade? it is Extremely Bad by virtue of being written by somebody who had only experienced the world for ~12 years, but it's also probably one of the most out-there things i've ever written in terms of plot so i still give it a solid 5/10. (i can elaborate on it if people are interested! an in-depth discussion of it is just a bit beyond the scope of this particular question lol).

(i also wrote several stories that could best be described as uh. RPF between me & my best friends and their middle school crushes. including a whole entire trilogy with novella-length stories. but we're not going to talk about those XD)

i started and did not finish uhhh probably 20-30 other original stories between the years of 2011 - 2017, most of which are also not very good but that taught me a lot about creating characters, worldbuilding, writing styles and SPAG, and other things that helped me develop as a writer. there are a few that i do genuinely want to pick back up someday, but it's hard to get motivated to write original stuff and is much easier to simply write an AU and stick my blorbos in as characters. i think 2017 is the last time i can really truly say i actively worked on original stuff, since i fell into writing mostly fic after i graduated high school.

i wrote fic in high school too--mostly supernatural, sherlock, and doctor who stuff, because i was very much into superwholock--and most of it is still on my ao3. occasionally, people will jumpscare me by commenting on one of my old spn fics because i genuinely forget that people still might read them lol. i started my fic publishing journey on quotev though, and a little bit on wattpad and ff.net, before moving to ao3 in 2015 and never looking back. my stance on my old writing is that even though i've generally moved on with my life and cringe a bit when i look at it, i did write it once upon a time and liked it then, so i won't take it down and/or disown it. i'm sure in 10 years i'll look back on the stuff i wrote now and cringe too. so it goes.

i took a break from writing for ~ 3 years when i went to college, with the exception of the one (1) voltron fic i wrote that i am still quite proud of. (a multichapter fic i finished without making anything remotely close to an outline! wow!). tma will always be so incredibly dear to me because it reignited my desire to write (like. with a blowtorch. i have written over 610k words since summer 2020 when i started listening to tma, which 12-year-old me would have gone nuts over), and so far, i'm still going strong!

i think i have much better writing habits than i had when i was younger. i try to make an effort to do it every day, even when i'm tired or not really feeling it, even if the words are absolute garbage, even if it's nothing related to my current projects, rather than just riding the tide of motivation. i'm hoping that that means i won't be giving it up anytime soon (i certainly have many more plans for malevolent fics in the future including at least one more involved multichapter fic riffing off episode 20 👀) and i'm also hoping that i can jump back into original stuff with a fresh perspective and new ideas. who knows!

13. What is a subject matter that is incredibly difficult for you write about? What is easy?

the subject matter i have the most difficulty with is, funnily enough, romance arcs. i understand point A (characters meet and become friends) and i understand point B (characters are dating) but the stuff that comes in between??? it's a black box for me alskdjga. something happens there, but i (aro) could not tell you what it is. as such, i always feel like any romance arc i attempt in a multichapter fic has terrible pacing, where the characters are falling in love too quickly, deciding to declare their feelings too abruptly, etc.. i'm struggling with this a lot right now in ten thousand flowers in spring, and i'm glad people are leaving positive comments on the most recent chapter because i feel like the romantic pacing is all over the place but i genuinely do not know how to fix it. whisky doesn't suffer from the same issues for some reason. i think because both arthur and john are arospec, so i'm not technically writing a romance? john is very much in romantic love with arthur, but arthur is not--though as in canon, john is Arthur's Person Who He Cares About So Much. idk, i think their canon relationship is so intricate and complicated that i'm just going *shrug* about the whole thing and not worrying about it.

in terms of what's easy, i have a really easy time with fantasy--and, if that's too broad to be considered subject matter, then specifically the worldbuilding involved with fantasy. so i guess that would be fantastical environments? basically, i like a lot that there's no rules other than the ones that i create for myself, so i can do whatever the hell i want and it's correct because that's just how it is in this world! (see, again, ten thousand flowers in spring). of course, i still do research and think about what i want my world to look like, because going 'that's just how it is!' isn't a replacement for that and i don't want to be a lazy writer, but the flexibility is soooo nice. (i, for example, am not looking forward to researching how gangs actually work for whisky and will thus likely just. make some stuff up and hand-wave it away as being 'yeah that's just how the memphis gangs work, don't worry about it,' though i will also make an effort to learn the general structure of stuff.)

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

hghhh the forbidden whisky lore 👀 there's a lot i can't say for fear of spoilers, but there is some stuff that probably won't make it into the story that isn't spoilery!

John was born on December 26, 1981 and is as of the most current whisky chapter 41 years old

Arthur was born on April 2, 1986 and is of the most current whisky chapter 37 years old

Arthur began touring around 2004 when he was 18 years old (he was recruited straight out of college/sixth form). However, he didn't begin composing professionally until 2005 and likely didn't get major movie gigs until closer to 2008. He was classically trained on the piano from a young age, though never on a university level, and his compositional and performance style has both popular and classical influences.

Arthur was born in the UK, recruited from the UK, and moved to LA as part of his contract. He met Bella in LA (so in this AU, Bella is American), and Faroe was born on November 13, 2006.

John started his pre-club career in 2002 at age 20, and quit that job and purchased the club around September 2016 at age 34.

Arthur wasn't lying in chapter one when he said that he comes to the club because he likes the wallpaper :) and John was not lying in chapter two when he said the club doesn't have wallpaper :) [this bit will make it into the fic, but i wanted to include it here anyway]

i also have a diagram of john's club that i keep forgetting to include in the end notes:

[ID: A sketched diagram of John's club. It is a square building with a front door on the bottom right side and a door to the basement on the upper right side. Along the left from bottom to top are John's office, the kitchen/food storage area, and the bathrooms. The backstage area lines the entire back wall, and in front of it is the stage, with doors on either side to access the backstage, a grand piano on the stage, and curtains separating the stage from the backstage. There are tables scattered across the main floor, and a wall with archway cutouts separates the main floor from the kitchen and John's office. Along the front wall is the bar, with seating in an L shape that leaves hallway space for John to access his office. The seat closest to John's office is labeled 'Arthur's seat.' A coat closet is in the bottom right corner. /End ID]

is this acoustically sound? don't ask me, i haven't finished that class yet alsdkjgsag. john has acoustic panels in the back to adjust the absorption of the room, i've made it canon XD

in terms of history, i genuinely don't remember where i got the idea for whisky from--i think i was just rotating piano player arthur in my mind one day, went 'hey what about famous arthur?', then went 'well what is john doing?', remembered how much i love small music clubs, and the rest is history. the entire second half of this fic (approx. ch. 8 onward) as well as john's backstory was not part of the initial concept at all, and i very much fleshed it out as i went while writing the first ~3 chapters. i think it's all fully fleshed out now though (excepting the little bit from the last chapter that i have to fix) and i am very excited for chapter 9 in particular :3

there is a scene that i really want to write that won't make it into the main story because it a) will only work from arthur's pov, and i want to keep whisky strictly john's pov, and b) because arthur is a smart dude and even though the scene would be very cool, it would 100% clue arthur in on some crucial things too early on. so alas, it will probably remain as an unrelated oneshot should i choose to write it in the future. (though it's also a scene that works better if the audience doesn't know what's going on either,,,,, but that could spoil them for things too soon as well because you all are also smart cookies, so,,,, much to consider)

aaaand for fun, here's an excerpt from the next chapter:

Buy him flowers, Lilly had said. Right, okay—which fucking ones? Does it matter? John feels like it matters, but he doesn’t have the first clue as to why or what the right choice would be. Is it weird to buy somebody flowers when they’re standing right next to you? That feels like something you get beforehand and then bring as a gift. Should he have planned ahead? Why is his heart beating so fucking loud in his ears?

[myaekingheart]

20 [Fanfic Writer] Questions Game

Thank you so much for tagging me, @lemony-snickers! This is tons of fun, I love answering these kinds of big questionnaires 😂💕 Also putting mine under a cut because there’s a lot of questions and I like to ramble. 

Also gonna go ahead and just tag whoever wants to do this! 😅💕

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

As of August 27, 2021, I have a total of 77 works on my AO3! 

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

Funny enough, I was just looking at this, specifically, earlier today and kind of laughing about it. Right now, my total word count across all my works is 1,148,941 😬 

3. How many fandoms have you written for, and what are they?

Apparently 12, but some of them I don’t really consider “big” in my fandom repertoire. Naruto is my greatest fandom with a total of 60 fics so far, followed by The Chronicles of Narnia and Rise of the Guardians. The rest are ones I either did crossover fics with or just did one-off little pieces with--The Incredibles, Tangled, Brave, How to Train Your Dragon, Arthurian Mythology, Disney Princesses, Fairy Tales and Related Fandoms, Back to the Future, and Frozen. 

4. What are your Top Five fics by kudos?

The Scarecrow and The Bell (Naruto) - 470 kudos The Day Kakashi’s Mask Slipped (Naruto) - 139 kudos Sunflowers (Naruto) - 92 kudos Sakumo the House Husband (Naruto) - 81 kudos Someone to Lean On (Naruto) - 67 kudos

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

I always try to respond to comments, because I like to acknowledge when people respond to my work. I cherish comments like nobody’s business, especially when they’re kind and reactionary. I just really love seeing/hearing what people think of the way a story is progressing, or what they thought of a one-shot. Comments keep me going especially when it comes to longfic so I want to be able to let readers know that I do in fact see their comments, that I’m acknowledging what they’re saying, and that I appreciate them. Plus, it can be kind of fun to tease upcoming events in a fic through responses to people’s comments, too. Because I’m mean. 

6. What fic have you written with the angstiest ending?

Definitely Hothouse (Rise of the Guardians/The Incredibles; Jack Frost x Violet Parr; American Horror Story AU). This was the first multi-chaptered fic I ever wrote to completion and I honestly cringe when I remember it exists both because it’s so poorly organized (and full of nasty plot holes) and because I just went ham on the gore factor. It definitely has a really bittersweet and heartbreaking ending to it, too. 

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

I think I’ll definitely have to say Temptation. The story itself was kind of a ride, and it’s only the first installment in a series, but it follows the plot of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe but remixed due to the presence of an original character, but the ending is still roughly the same as the original: they defeat the evil, the Pevensies are all crowned kings and queens, happy days. Reading the last few paragraphs of the last chapter honestly still gets me all up in my feelings. 

8. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I used to be more of a crossover writer due to one of my main ships being a crossover ship. They weren’t super crazy, though, because they were both CGI-animated films. The craziest crossover I’ve ever written is an in-progress/unfinished multichapter piece, Kakashi, Enchanted, that sees our favorite Copy Ninja get kamui’d into the Disney princess dimension and has to help the likes of Snow White, Cinderella, and Rapunzel on his journey to find a way back to his own world. It’s a super weird premise but definitely one of my more lighthearted works and fun to revisit when I need to decompress. 

9. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I don’t think I’ve ever received hate so much as I’ve received criticism. The closest I ever got to hate on a fic, I think, was someone left an overly personal and mentally disturbed comment on a chapter of my main fic that made me convinced they needed to seek therapy and deal with their own personal issues rather than take it out on a fanfic about animated ninjas. 

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

Maybe 👀 I’m super vanilla when it comes to smut, though. I think the wildest thing I’ve ever written in smut is breeding kink. 

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of, and I hope I never will. 

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not yet! I had someone ask to translate a one-shot of mine in Russian but I never got a response back when I laid out my terms and conditions. 

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

I have not! I used to do paragraph-style roleplay which was kind of like cowriting fanfiction but writing is so personal and sacred to me that I don’t know if I could ever actually cowrite a fic with someone. I like brainstorming with other people, but writing for me is more of a deeply personal and independent endeavour. 

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

Oh god, this is a tricky question because it depends on fandom. I absolutely love New Dream (Rapunzel x Eugene, Tangled) and have for the past ten years, and my love for them as only grown since watching Tangled: The Series/Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure. I don’t write or even really read a ton of fanfiction for them, though. I’m also still highly dedicated to my favorite crossover crackship, Frostfield (Jack Frost x Violet Parr, Rise of the Guardians/The Incredibles) and to this day, if you search for that ship on AO3, I am the sole provider of every single fic about them so far. I’m not as active with them as I used to be, but they got me through some really rough times back in the day and still mean so much to me. A lot of my favorite ships across fandoms, though, are honestly canon x OC ships of mine because I am a self-indulgent bitch who needs to project. So Peter Pevensie x Eilonwy (The Chronicles of Narnia) and Kakashi Hatake x Rei Natsuki (Naruto) are really important to me and I’ve poured so much of myself specifically into their stories. I think it’s safe to say Kakashi and Rei is my all-time favorite ship across all fandoms, though, just because of how much their story means to me. The Scarecrow and The Bell is my magnum opus, my pride and joy, and I’m sure it will be my biggest fandom footprint of my entire life. I’ve dedicated the past three years to this story and these characters and I intend to continue doing it until it no longer brings me joy (which I hope it always will). There’s just so much I could say about this story and Kakashi and Rei’s relationship but I don’t think we have enough time or space in this post for that 😅 Just know that they mean the world to me and I will always hold them in the highest regard as a beautifully messy, flawed, passionate, soulmate-y ship that I love with all of my heart 🥺

EDIT: I also feel obligated to tack on some of my absolute favorite Naruto ships because I may not have written for all of them (yet) but they still make me unbelievably happy or I find them really compelling and enjoy the idea of exploring them: 

Naruhina is precious happy sunshine and The Last honestly felt like a wonderful Disney princess movie to me, it was so cute and the romance was so on-point, Naruhina just makes me so incredibly happy and I love them with all my heart. 

MinaKushi also gets me all up in my feels and I adore them with every fiber of my being. Their romance also gave me Disney princess movie vibes which I love, their story is just so damn sweet as is their character dynamic and I am still so heartbroken that they never got to be a happy family with Naruto because you know what? It’s what they deserved!

SasuSaku is so compelling to me and I really feel like we were cheated out of seeing their relationship develop and evolve postwar in the same way The Last did for Naruhina. They’re my favorite angst ship and while I don’t think they were written that well in canon, I love the possibility and potential of them together and am excited to explore them more in-depth in my own writing. 

NejiTen is just too cute, I really love the way Neji and Tenten’s personalities compliment each other? I don’t have much else to say about them except that I really love them together and think they have so much untapped potential that I also can’t wait to explore in more depth in my own writing. 

15. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Paper Hearts and Impromptu Bookmarks, probably. I love the premise of this story a lot and I have so many interesting ideas for it but at the same time, it also feels kind of cheap and cringey to me, in a way? It takes all of these ideas I probably would have had if I had been into Naruto when I was a kid and kind of compiles them all into one big story. Kakashi and Aiko’s relationship and story is still really important to me and I want to continue it someday but for right now, I just haven’t had the motivation or desire to write any more of it. I think I’m just so overwhelmingly preoccupied with writing Kakashi and Rei’s story that I can’t imagine writing any other Kakashi x OC fics right now. 

16. What are your writing strengths?

I want to say that I’m really good at capturing complex emotion? I don’t know, I write a lot of angst and mental upheaval in my fics which can be really difficult to try and capture, but I think I do a decent enough job of it? And just writing difficult subjects in general. I think it’s really important to address difficult topics such as mental illness and relationship difficulties and everything but I also want to try and write those topics in a way that is both authentic to the experience while also still tasteful. I don’t want to drive readers away with heavy subject matter but rather present a situation that feels real and authentic while also still being digestible. I may not be doing a very good job of that during the current arc of my fic that I’m working on, but I’m trying haha

EDIT 2: I also want to add onto this to say that I’m really proud of my organizational techniques for writing longfic. It’s not necessarily a strength in terms of the prose itself but it’s something that’s taken me years to really get a grasp on and find a method that works perfectly for me and so far, it’s been extremely helpful and beneficial to me. I don’t know where I would be now as a writer without these essential tools in my pocket. 

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I feel like I do a really bad job of the “show, don’t tell” thing. It can be really hard to balance descriptive prose with straightforward writing that moves things along. I don’t want to dwell on mental dialogue to the point where you lose track of what’s going on, but I also don’t want my stuff to read like “Character A did xyz. Character B said abc. They went to 123″, whatever. Another thing I struggle with is sentence variation. I always fall into the same patterns when I’m writing prose and I get really self-conscious about it because I don’t want to sound repetitive or disrupt the flow of the writing. One of my favorite things about prose is focusing on the cadence of the words, I think it’s one of the most beautiful things about writing in general, but it can just be really difficult to get a good grip on that. I’ve been told in the past that I apparently have a really good grasp/control of the language or whatever but sometimes I just find that really hard to believe when I look at my work with such scrutiny. I think one of my biggest pet peeves with my own writing, too, is feeling like I start all of my sentences the same five different ways. I’ll read other people’s works and they’ll write sentences like “Glass-blue water lapped against the shores of a deserted beach as a lonely woman gazed off into the distance” and I can just never figure out how to realistically write sentences that start like that in the context of my prose and it drives me fucking crazy, like I’m definitely jealous  😅

18. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I’ve never really thought much about it before, but I think there are pros and cons! For bilingual/multilingual readers, I think it can be a really enriching reading experience because they know what’s being said in both languages. For people who only know one language, however, unless a translation is provided, I feel like it can be really alienating. I think the best use of that for both worlds is using it as a means for miscommunication humor. Other than that, I think it can be a slippery slope that depends on what kind of reader you are and how it’s written. 

19. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

The Chronicles of Narnia! My very first fanfiction was a Narnia fanfic that I barely remember except that it laid the basis for Temptation and my Narnia fanfic series as a whole. I never posted this first iteration anyway, but I remember it was 2008/2009 and I wrote a solid 80 pages (which was wild for me at the time) and had gotten halfway through remixing the events of Prince Caspian when my computer crashed and I lost absolutely everything. I’m still heartbroken that it’s gone forever, not because I’d want to go back and read it necessarily (since I’m sure it was actually hot garbage) but at least for nostalgia’s sake. Either way, like I said, this long-lost fic laid the basis for the very first fanfiction I ever posted, the first published (and never finished) iteration of Temptation back in 2011 on deviantART and the since-defunct Figment. I fell out of the fandom around 2012/2013 and left the story alone for a while before ultimately deciding to completely redux and rewrite the story when the fixation swung back around again between 2016 and 2018. 

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Despite the fact that it’s still in-progress, definitely The Scarecrow and The Bell. This fic just genuinely means so damn much to me and I will cherish it for the rest of my life because of how much it’s given me, how much love and passion and time and even parts of myself that I have poured into this, and also just how expansive of a story this is. Not only does it touch on some very dark and heavy topics, but I’ve also created so much of my own characters and meta for this story that it’s almost an entire universe in and of itself. I’ve just contributed so much additional world-building and created so many new OCs to fill important roles in this story and in Rei’s life, and they’ve all become so deeply important to me as they’ve developed further over the years. I’ve come up with so many interesting ideas for everyone and their lives, which are all slowly becoming so rich and varied. Not to mention that it’s my most popular fic to date as well as my longest fic at 632k and counting. I’ve really just genuinely poured so much of my heart and soul into this story, it’s my absolute favorite thing I’ve ever done and I really mean it when I say that I will cherish it for the rest of my life. 

[daisylincs]

Author Interview Tag

Tagged By: so, long story short... these tags happened right as I was getting super busy with end-of-the-year-craziness, and I completely didn't see them until I was re-scrolling through all my mentions on Tumblr recently. So the people who initially tagged me have probably forgotten they even did (🤣😬🤦‍♀️) but my my count, they would be: @loved-the-stars-too-fondly, @libbyweasley, @aleksandrachaev, and @everythingirl44. Thank you very much indeed, all of you!! This looks like an absolutely amazing challenge, late as I may be to it.

Name: Lily

Fandom(s): Agents of SHIELD (TV) and Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)

Where You Post: AO3, and the occasional drabble/prompt fill to Tumblr - which, upon consideration, I should probably collect on AO3 🤔

Most Popular Oneshot: for Spideychelle, and overall too, apparently it's my, my, just how much I missed you, my surprisingly angsty (but with a hopeful ending) ten-years-post-FFH fic for Day 4 of Spideychelle Week.

For AoS, it's time can break your heart, have you begging please which, to be entirely 100% honest with you, I completely forgot I wrote in the first place 🤣🙈 It's post-7x10 angst on... that 7x10 and very spoilery death, with some Dousy hurt/comfort. Apparently, Dousy hurt/comfort is the rage, so... that's cool, I suppose.

Most Popular Multichapter Fic: just a few weeks ago, I would have responded with something like, "multichap? Me? As if 😳😅" But now... well, I'm actually posting my first multi-chapter fic later today, so we'll see how that goes!!

Favourite Story You've Written So Far: oh, gosh, that's a really, really hard one!! I've really, really enjoyed almost everything I've written, so picking is going to be very tough cookies xD

For AoS, I think I'm going to go for take my hand, take my whole life too, which is one of the first few things I wrote, but still holds a very special place in my heart, because I felt that it was a fic I could really be proud of, you know? Plus, it made me feel ridiculously soft and shippy-happy throughout the writing process. Plus plus, it has an absolutely stunning banner created by the amazing @ughfitz, which still touches me a lot, because I'd never had such a beautiful banner made before and askjgddfshhdhh it's just perfect.

I'm also very partial to july second, the birthday fic I wrote for @doctorofaos - because Hunter's point of view, it turns out, is ridiculously fun to write, and I had an absolute ball. The whole arc - a surprise birthday party for Daisy, and some team bonding/family fluff - just really works for me, too.

Another one that has to go on this list is hold out your hand, 'cause friends will be friends, my DaisyMack Soulmates BroTP, because that one is my amazing wife @aleksandrachaev's favourite, and it melts my heart so much to hear how much she likes it. 💜

Then lastly, for Spideychelle, my favourite thing I've written is quintessential spideychelle, no contest - it's a Roommates AU and my birthday gift for @eowima, and all the bonding those two dorks do over Lucifer and fandom in general brings me endless delight.

My Aladdin AU, now when did you last let your heart decide, will also always hold a special place in my heart, because it's the first really long thing I wrote. I put a ton of effort into it, and, well, I still think it's kinda fab.

(also I'm so sorry for the relentless self-plug that turned into, oh my God, apparently I'm just that indecisive and love talking that much. I apologise once again)

Fic You Were Nervous To Post: Aubrey, high-five! Because one of the things I was definitely the most freaked out for was that is good, my first-ever Quakerider fic and birthday gift for @acerobbiereyes. The response to that turned out to be overwhelmingly positive, though, and I have even made promises to venture into Quakerider-land again 🥰

I was also a little stressed for we love you, we love you, and we hope you love we too, which was my first-ever polyship fic - Fitzskimmons and cute notes for the fluff bingo - and something I also dedicated to the amazing @bobbimorseisbisexual. Also the formatting for this thing was HELL, and computers and I do not get along, so I was in cold sweats that it wouldn't work and fail on me completely... but, no, it worked, and the wonderful response to it too, very much melted my heart 🥺💖

How You Choose Your Titles: song lyrics. Almost always song lyrics. And if it's not song lyrics, it's a quote of some kind - it just works for me, and I actually find it fun to go hunt for something that works. Maybe I'm weird, but I actually do love it xD

Do You Outline? absolutely, yes - in fact, a great many of the things in my WIPs folder are solely outlines, or even just the beginnings of outlines. I find that outlines are a really good way to save your ideas if you don't have time to write them out properly, so you can come back months later and be all, "what the hell I'm actually so clever." (or, y'know, occasionally, "what the hell can the earth come swallow me up." But let's go with the cleverness 🤣👌)

In Progress:

... I think it's better that we don't talk about my WIPs folder, which, as most people who know anything about me can tell you, is an utter mess, and more than a little insane. (If you don't believe me, check it out here - I bet you do now, right?)

Out of that monstrosity, I'm currently working on numbers 20, 64, 192 and 174, which would be my Skimmons Hallmark Rom-Com, and fics for my three Secret Santas - Spideychelle, Fitzsimmons, and then one for the AoS Secret Santa whose pairing is, in delightfully SHIELD style, classified until the 24th of December.

Then in the very background, I'm also writing some Pipsy, Fitzsimmons and plat!Diper for the fluff bingo yes which I have still not finished I'm awful I know, and I'm going to make my lateness a liiiitle better by passing them of as gifts for my friends. I do love my friends very much, though, so that's more than fair I think 🥺💜

My Complete AO3: ta!

Do You Accept Prompts? yes, always! I have this plan in the back of my mind of gathering up all the prompt lists I've got saved to my drafts and doing like a masterpost/mass prompt request thing, but I'll leave that for a little later yet, because goodness knows I have enough to finish 🙈 In the meantime, though, if there's anything you'd really like to see me write, I'd be just thrilled to do it for you! It'll definitely take me a couple of months to actually get to it, but if you don't mind the wait, then yes, absolutely, I'm your girl! 💖

Upcoming Work That You're Most Excited About: oooooof, another tough one, but I'm very much looking forward to posting the first chapter of my Skimmons Hallmark Rom-Com, which I'm going to do later today!!

Then there's also my three Secret Santas - though I'm not particularly religious, the idea of a gift fic exchange brings me endless glee and I cannot wait to see what my giftees think! I also can't wait to get my own gifts, too, of course... ;) Oh, it's just going to be so much FUN!!

Tagging: well, everyone did this a couple of weeks months ago, so I'm not actually going to tag anyone - but if you see this and think it's cool, by all means go ahead and say I tagged you! 😍 Also, have a very big virtual hug, all of you, and thank you so much for reading through all my blathering!! 💜💖

[ljandersen]

Writer game. 21, 22, 23, and 24.

Thanks for the ask! I love writing questions. 

21. What’s your favorite writing advice to share? 

My advice would be to actively seek advice on writing. I'm a big fan of studying writing as a craft. I've learned so much just reading books on writing. Incorporating what I learn into my own writing has improved it by leaps and bounds. Of course, that said, it's important to collect a multitude of perspectives, recognize advice isn't the law, and find what works for your own style. 

22. Care to share any future WIP ideas you have lined up? 

My main and only WIP is my fShenko fic "Somewhere From Home." It's plot-driven action/adventure/romance, which is my favorite type to write. I'll likely divide it into a serial, since it's grown pretty large and has definite minor arcs within the larger plot. Since it is so plot-heavy, it's important to me to finish the entire serial and edit with the whole picture. To me, it's the only best way to incorporate foreshadowing and set up a cohesive plot. I trim details and subplots that don't end up going anywhere. I clarify and develop the story's theme and each character's arc as a whole. I pace the plot twists and revelations in a digestible way. 

23. Most memorable review/comment on a fic? 

This one's hard, because I've had so many kind and generous comments. I feel bad highlighting any individual one, because they all mean so much to me. There are a few general types of comments I especially love. I'm incredibly flattered anytime my writing becomes part of someone's headcanon now. That's a huge. Another meaningful comment is when someone can't put my story down, stayed up all night, or aren't getting anything done because they want to read just one more chapter. Writing something that pulls readers that strongly into the story means a lot. 

24. What future fics/events can we expect to see? 

I'm two chapters/weeks away from posting the last chapter of "About Mars . . ." After that, I don't have any WIP in the pipeline other than my long fic "Someplace Like Home." I have considered writing a one-shot with the soul mates AU trope or possibly incorporating as many tropes as possible, almost tongue in cheek, into a small multichapter story. They'd be fShenko, of course. I do have a one-shot involving Shepard driving the mako off a cliff and hanging by a thread in a lava tube. Kaidan and Garrus are the unfortunate passengers. I was never sure how to end it, though, so it's sat unfinished for going on a year. For the most part now, I'm just trying to bear down on finishing my long fic WIP. Again, thanks for the ask! Your support and friendship mean so much! :)

[bronanlynch]

writer rec meme

tagged by @girlfriendsofthegalaxy thank u friend!!

1. A fic you are proud of?

so I wrote my youth is yours (friends at the table: spring in hieron; benjamin/blue j) for secret samol this year during a time when I was. not having a good time and also had lots of essay deadlines and I was behind on my penumbra minibang fic so I. started working on it really late and barely finished it in time to not miss the posting period and I was so worried abt it and then somehow wrote the entire 5.3k thing in a few days and it turned out well?? people liked it??? so I’m proud of myself for somehow managing that

(side note looking back at it now is funny bc u can tell I wrote it before I fell completely into ephrim/throndir since the background ship is still throndir/red jack. although like. throndir has 2 hands and should kiss both of them tbh)

2. A fic you are excited about?

of the things that I’ve posted so far, I’m still really happy abt lend me your heart and I’ll just let you fall (julius caesar; brutus/cassius) which is. incredibly silly and self-indulgent like. is it my best work? probably not! did I have a very fun time writing it? yes I did! it’s caesar but In Space and the worldbuilding is a mess of things stolen from various other sci-fi franchises and I’m so glad it exists in the world

a slightly more serious answer is I’m gonna love and give it a name (transformers comics; bumblebee/starscream) which I like bc. ok. there’s not much beescream fic and I’m super picky abt it and I like being able to reread this and get hit w exactly the emotions I want from this ship. I think the beginning could’ve used just a lil more editing but the whole second half makes me emo so

I don’t. do multichapter fic so I can’t really rec any wips which I feel like this is actually asking abt lmao. my main wips are the friends at the table thing I need to hurry up and post before the next episode drops, and the g*me of thr*nes fix-it/rewrite of most of canon bc it’s bad that I’ve been picking away at for. literally three (3) years now including when I lost all of it when my hard drive died in fall 2017 and I learned a valuable lesson abt backing up my shit. someday I’ll finish that fic and then I’ll be free of the hold that mess of a series has on my brain

3. A fic that was challenging to write?

when the sun comes (try not to hate the light) (the penumbra podcast; juno/nureyev + sasha/rita) was my penumbra minibang fic and it was. also written while I was having a hard time, I struggled w the deadline, and I’d never tried to write fic that long or plot-y before (I also ended up cutting basically the entire ~plot that was in my outline and just focusing on the emotional arcs and the vampire tropes which is. valid of me)

4. A fic that was something you hadn’t tried before?

bringing the heat and the word is out (friends at the table: counter/weight; diego/augustus) which I wrote for the fatt rarepair swap was the first time I tried to do something non-chronological and I was also balancing 3 point of view characters when I usually stick to one or two but I really like how it turned out, figuring out how to arrange the different sections was really fun

(also that’s a fic that I would rec even if u know nothing abt the fandom bc it’s minor side characters and has very little to do w the main storyline but it’s good and fun and up until the penumbra mini-bang I considered it the best thing I’d ever written)

5. If you had to choose one fic above all to share, what would it be?

tbh probably when the sun comes, bc it’s the most ambitious fic I’ve written and it’s recent so it’s prob a pretty good representation of me as a writer, but since I wanna. share something different for this question so

I could be violet sky (friends at the table: spring in hieron; samothes/hadrian/samot) is one of my absolute favorites tbh, I’m not sure how much sense it makes if u don’t have at least a little knowledge of hieron lore but I’m kinda tempted to say just read it anyway. there are divorced gods who are still in love and also both probably into someone who’s kind of the paladin of both of them. there’s clothes sharing and also dream sharing

sorry I know I was supposed to pick one and also that I’ve recced so many fatt fics even though probably only like 5 of you care abt that but I reread made of nebulas and novas and night sky (friends at the table: counter/weight; sokrates/integrity; written for the fatt nb swap last summer) for the first time since I posted it while looking through my ao3 for this meme and hey? it’s good actually?? do you like estranged siblings learning to get along again and someone realizing they’re basically married to the alien ai who shares their mind + body (think venom but they’re both a little less of a disaster)? then I have the fic for you! (can also probably be read without much background knowledge bc they’re fairly minor characters and also Imo u should read it anyway bc I think it’s p good)

oh man Idk who to tag for this, if you write things and you wanna do the thing, consider yourself tagged