#i was rereading some comments and several people have been like

[abluescarfonwaston]

Is my writing style actually that strange?

[aettuddae]

hole in one — extras : 1.

⌕ synopsis: at one of the most prestigious universities in the country, where everyone is battling to be the center of attention, yu jimin is just a regular. people want her because of her beauty, but all she cares about is sharing her freaky stuff with her friends and passing her subjects. although there's one thing that might push her out of her comfort zone, revenge. when nakamura kazuha, one of the richest and most well-known students of NCU, starts to spread gossip about her for thousands of followers to see, jimin decides to get back by taking away the thing kazuha cares about the most: her perfect girlfriend, the young golf star, kwon haru.

masterlist | chapter 1

[half written chapter]

her elbows resting on the bistro counter, her eyes scanning the menu. the girl with long brown hair looked confused, still unfamiliar with the place after having only been there for two weeks. it was the first time that she approached one of the several options that the club offered for eating. she didn't want anything too heavy, but the light dishes that she had in front of her eyes didn't appeal to her at all. she had been reading and rereading the sheet that had been given to her for a couple of minutes, without reaching any resolution.

“oh! you have to try the pajeon they make here.” a boy's voice came from behind her.

when she turned to see who was talking, she found two people, both dressed in sports clothes, a tall boy with black hair and a girl who accompanied him. she looked familiar, somewhere she had seen that face of hers. the moment she laid eyes on her she couldn't help but find her beautiful. her eyes were big and she found light there, as if she had stars in them, and a smile rested on her lips, she seemed to be a genuinely radiant person.

the boy… he was there.

“the bibimbap here is also good.” added her.

“if she's going to order something to eat, it should be something really good, not bibimbap.” her friend complained, carefully hitting her shoulder to nag her.

"if she chose to eat here she clearly doesn't want anything highly produced, otherwise she would have gone to the restaurant.” she hit him back.

“ask for the pajeon, i know what i'm talking about.” the boy turned his attention back to the chestnut haired. “by the way, i’m lee minhyuk.” he held out his hand for her to shake. “keep the name in mind, it will help you if you need anything.”

“in case you need, you know, a lawyer…” his company continued. “or a cellmate.” she joked, making her laugh. “kwon haru.” she presented her hand for her to take as well, which she did after letting go of minhyuk.

she now remembered where she knew that face with angelic features. kwon haru. of course the name rang a bell in her brain. in front of her was the new promise of korean golf, the new discovery of the sport. if you liked and followed this hobby, then you had heard of haru. with her hawklike vision and precision in her swing, at 21 she had already earned a place among the country's future sports stars.

“i know that name.” she said shyly. “i'm nakamura…” she paused unconsciously, usually her last name was enough to get a reaction. “kazuha.” she finished, laughing at the awkwardness with which she said that.

"you are rich!" the taller one pointed his index finger at her and exclaimed.

"i imagine that you too." she replied simply, assuming that if you had made it into rottary, you must come from a well-off family.

“her parents are well-known businessmen.” he commented to the girl.

“i’ve heard the last name.” she nodded, but didn't seem to care too much. "are you new here? we don’t see many people our age around.”

“i've only been here for two weeks.” she informed, intimidated, for some reason, with kwon's attention.

"hello!" minhyuk greeted the cashier, who seemed to know him well. “two servings of samgyeopsal and…” he turned his head to look at the new girl and wait for her response.

“oh…” the sudden pressure took her by surprise. “a bibimbap.” she asked, finally, directing her gaze to haru, who smiled upon hearing that she took her recommendation.

“a bibimbap.” the boy added as he rolled his eyes. “you're missing it.” he shook his head.

the employee wrote down the group's order and gave them an approximate time the food would be ready, suggested they choose a table, and then walked away.

“will you sit with us?” the black haired man proposed.

“actually, i wanted to eat quickly and continue training.” she rejected him, lowering her head.

“oh, don't worry, it's okay.” he patted her shoulder reassuringly, earning a sideways glance from the girl, causing him to cut contact quickly.

“we will be seeing each other around.” haru gave her a kind expression. “look for us if you need anything.” she added. “it was a pleasure meeting you, nakamura…” she paused for a moment as she began walking towards the tables with her friend. “kazuha.” she finished, causing the named one to laugh, turning on their heel to leave.

“she doesn't like me.” minhyuk whispered towards haru once they were far from her.

"i don't think so." she dismissed him. “you're just being paranoid.” she rubbed his back with her hand to calm him down.

“i'm sorry, haru,” the brunette spoke after seeing her ball land in the distance. “but i think i'm about to win this match.”

“after this, there is still one more hole, zuha." she replied confidently as she approached the tee. “i wouldn't claim victory yet.” she bent down to place her ball in the teeing area.

“i have fewer hits than you.” she recalled, following the girl's movements.

“and i am the next golf superstar.” she stood up and gave her a teasing smile.

kazuha opened her eyes in surprise and let out a dry laugh as she put her hand on her chest, pretending to be offended by haru's sudden ego. she lifted her club into the air, joking that she was going to attack her with it, to which the older girl ran off with the brunette chasing behind. kazuha dropped the object and concentrated on catching kwon, who was further ahead, eventually managing to close the distance enough to reach her sweater and pull it, making her stop running, and then jump on her back. haru held her thighs with her hands so she had something to lean on, and she wrapped her arms around her neck for support.

“i could hit it while carrying you." she assured with plenty of attitude.

“haru, i can see your legs shaking from here.” she contradicted her.

“i'm just nervous in the presence of a pretty girl." she lied with a flirtatious tone. “it's not that i don't have strength.”

"how shameless." she shook her head.

haru approached her club bag, still carrying kazuha on her back with some difficulty, and took out a driver from it. she didn't have much strength, but she had great pride that was forcing her to show that she could make a good tee shot even in that situation. trying to keep the girl in place and not fall, she approached the tee box and got into position. kazuha's leg was in the way when lifting the club, but she still did her best to carry it high and not hurt her during the swing, managing to hit the ball with force and precision without touching the girl, and more importantly, without dropping her.

once she saw the small white object flying through the air, she collapsed, falling to the ground on her knees, unable to support the weight of a human on her back anymore, and being pushed flat when kazuha's body collided on top of her. leaving them both on the ground, they began to laugh at the event that had just happened.

“wow, you're really good at this." spoke nakamura, who was now lying on haru's back.

“it's my vocation." the oldest answered in a low voice due to the little air that was reaching her lungs, with her head on her side, her cheek against the grass.

kazuha let her head fall forward of her, her stare remaining directly on haru's profile. she looked at her for a moment, appreciating her features from up close, forgetting the position they were in. she leaned down and placed her forehead on the girl's temple, closing her eyes and holding them there for a moment while her game partner caught her breath.

she rolled her body to her side, getting off of the girl and facing the sky, enjoying the warm weather and sunny day for a second. she stood up, sitting on the grass, then looked to where haru was still lying, with the hand closest to her, she adjusted her hair, then gave short, soft caresses on her cheek, to finally bent down to leave a kiss on it.

“and that?” haru asked, surprised after the sudden display of affection.

“nothing." she replied simply. “it's just that you made me feel very happy just now and i wanted to thank you.”

haru raised, remaining in the same position as her, wiping the lawn off her clothes. she gave her a tender look and smiled sideways. “it makes me happy that you are happy.” her smile expanded, showing her teeth and causing her eyes to disappear, causing a mirror reaction in the brunette.

kazuha couldn't contain the emotion that haru generated within her. in those months since she had met her and they had become close, her smile had turned into her favorite thing in the world. she was all the time searching for it, telling the girl the best jokes, doing stupid things that she wouldn't do for anyone else just to see it. she couldn't contain the need to shower her with affection all the time, to show her how much someone could adore her.

with her hands against the earth, she pushed herself, landing on her knees and launching herself towards her older one, who hugged her around the waist. kazuha surrounded her shoulders and, since she was thus taller like that, she looked at her from above, meeting her eyes with her own, the shine that haru carried in them was reflected in kazuha's everytime they made optical contact, and in the way the brunette admired her with her eyes, you could tell who her world really was.

“do you know how else you can make me very happy?” she inquired, the excitement generated by the girl's simple existence painted in her tone.

haru nodded, the euphoria impossible to hide on her face, and she moved her body forward to the level where she could touch her mouth with hers, and therefore capture her lips to share their first kiss.

"love." haru called from inside her apartment, walking towards the balcony, where kazuha was seated in a chair looking at the seoul skyline. “it's merely a job, you're not tied to this guy for the rest of your life.” she took a seat beside her.

“but i don't like him.” she took a couple of grapes from the bunch that haru had just brought in a bowl.

“you never like anyone.” she brought a unit of the fruit to her mouth. “there must be three people in total that you stand.” she gave her a scrutinizing look.

“the only thing that matters to me is that i like you.” the brunette leaned to her side to plant a chaste kiss on her girlfriend's cheek.

“and i like you.” this one responded straightforwardly. “but you need to learn to be more patient.” she advised.

“i'll attempt, but i don't guarantee anything.” she shrugged, to which haru replied with a knowing smile. “i was thinking we could got out for dinner tonight.” she changed the subject.

"sorry, love." she ate another grape. “the boy minhyuk met at the gym dumped him, so we'll go console him.”

“minhyuk gets dumped every week.” she sulked.

“it's not his fault he chooses the most idiotic men.” she defended her friend.

“i'm very certain that if the pattern recurs so frequently the issue must be him.” she reasoned.

“see that you detest everyone?” she remarked, but kazuha just rolled her eyes.

“why did he get broken up with this time? it seemed like this one it was real."

“the man told him he was going too fast.” she informed, making a displeased expression. “like, just say that you don't want any commitment and don't raise the poor boy's hopes.” she spoke with irritation.

"right?" her girlfriend agreed with her. “you wouldn't do that to me, would you?” she changed to a serious tone.

"love." she gave her an incredulous grimace.

“what does that ‘love’ mean?” she raised an eyebrow, interrogating her. “have you imagined a future with me? because i do." she confessed, and haru was silent momentarily. “baby, we're not marrying tomorrow, i just want to know if you see me in your future.”

“clearly i do.” she nodded. “every time i wake up beside you i think that is what i would like for my whole life.” her gaze was filled with tenderness.

“that's the response i was expecting.” she approved with a firm tone and brought another grape to her mouth.

"that's your answer?" haru shouted indignantly. “i admit to you that i wish you to be part of my day to day eternally and you say that?”

"you already know that my universe is you.” she mentioned laughing at haru's reaction.

“forget it, after that reaction i'm not so sure.” she lifted her hand, placing it between them and obstructing her face from looking at her.

"baby." she seized her girlfriend's arm and pulled it down. “you know how in love with you i am.” she slid her palm down kwon's forearm until they intertwined fingers. “you know my dream is to live with you, drive to the club with you every day, kiss you goodnight every night, get married… do you remember where i would like our wedding to be?” she looked at her with furrowed brows.

"in spain." she replied, smiling without realizing it when she heard her girlfriend.

"exactly." she rested her head on her partner's shoulder. “move to a house with a lovely yard, have a daughter, and fight about whether we'll give her a japanese name or not.” they both chuckled. “you know i can't envision a future without you, i didn't think i had to remind you.”

"i love you." haru expressed and then planted a kiss on her head. “the future i dream with is exactly what you just described.” she assured. “i don't wanna grow older without your head on my shoulder.”

"that will not happen." she vowed. “you will listen to me complain about minhyuk until i have to wear dentures.” kazuha envisioned making haru burst into laughter. “and i love you too, by the way.” she kissed her face.

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

10 Jikook Fanfictions Part 1

I said I'd make a list before the end of the year and I kept my promise. Now, it's difficult to choose, especially when I have more than 300 bookmarks and unfortunately I also started doing that some year and a half ago. Safe to say, there's probably plenty of good fics I read that are now lost. Anyway, enough with the boring chit chat, here's 10 random jikook fics in no particular order and most likely, several other parts will follow, probably next year 😉

1. Dead in the Water

It's been a couple of years since I read this and honestly, I barely remember much, but what I do know it's that it had an impact on me. Usually fics that have death as a central theme end up resonating with me, but perhaps it's because I've always been attracted to more darker fiction. This one is gritty and there's a lot of pain and I must have cried a lot (those tend to stick in my head)

2. we're holding hands beneath the silver screen

I think this story is taking place in the 90s (you'll see that a lot of the fics I recommend are taking place in the past). I think I ended up reading everything ChimneyCricket wrote, but this one remained a favorite. Coming of age during a summer in Jeju in the 90s. Apart from the theme, it's the writing that made me stick with it.

I'm not the biggest fan of young adult stories. Or better yet, it's not something that I'd go to as a preference. When I do, it's more of an indulgence and thankfully, I found some writers (like this one) who can do a really good job with the genre.

3. Stockwell

Another writer that I've become a big fan of after reading one fic of theirs. And I think it might have been Stockwell that did it for me. I like that it's fanfiction with adult themes for an adult audience. And I also resonate with a lot of the cultural references and themes. I will also admit that this fic leaning into the enemies to lovers trope was a selling point because I'm a sucker for it. I can't help myself.

4. Burn for You

This is a complete self indulgence for me and I embrace it. Just like watching Bridgerton is a guilty pleasure for which I don't actually feel guilty (and the inspo for this fic). This story has everything and I must say the combination of lust, fear of revealing feelings, rumors, proper behavior and hidden romance is a lethal combination!

5. Light of a century

I might have recommended this story before, but it being inspired by Up on Poppy Hill is not just due to the plot, but the writing is able to evoke that studio Ghibli mood. This fic is to be read on a hot weekend afternoon.

6. Map of the Soul

This might be one of the most complex fanfictions I read due to the amount of research needed, but also in the depiction of political contexts and identity politics. Most of all, I like it because as much as relationships are a vital part of the story, there is an entire world surrounding the main characters. Events and other people that have also room to develop and not just remain props that advance the story.

7. Proceed with Caution

I don't know what snatchim did with this fic, but it's the only one I ever reread multiple times and I'll probably do it again in the future. I don't even reread books from my library, let alone fanfics. But Proceed with Caution did it for me. Perhaps it's because of the process of Jungkook inevitably falling for Jimin and even though it's a bad thing considering the context, it's so good. Maybe it's the image of Jimin with a bellybutton ring or maybe because the picture of hot Californian days in the 70s is so vivid, it feels like a nostalgic Paul Thomas Anderson movie.

8. Dishwater World They Said Was Lemonade

The description does not do this story justice because it's so much more than that. It's a canon compliant thriller with really complicated and complex characters and once again, a story meant for adults who understand that it's fiction. Unfortunately, judging by the comment section, a lot of people cannot distinguish betweem real people and characters. For those of you who might be fans of Korean thrillers, this story might be the one for you. It's also one of my favorite jikook fics as well.

9. souvlaki

Need I say more, considering the description? This is a self indulgence as well, but of a different kind. If I happily read tropey fics, I also like the ones that can sound like a uni course. Set during the 1997 FMI crisis in SK, any reader will get familiar with a socioeconomic and political perspective of that time through the eyes of the main characters. If you're only looking for romance, this one is not for you.

10. you wouldn't remember

I think littleflumes might be currently my favorite writer of canon compliant jikook. I think the author really captured their dynamic in its essence and the room left for fiction perfectly fills in the holes left in the last 2 years and up until the present. But what did it for me, not only with this story, but the others in the series as well, is that it's concentrated almost entirely on the two main characters, almost living in a bubble of their own in which their relationship can be explored.

[magpiefngrl]

hey! curious new writer here. which fix of yours were the easiest to write and which were the hardest? in what way?

Hello anon! Thanks for an interesting ask.

OK I'll start with the disclaimer that every fic has its difficulties as well as moments when it flows, but there have definitely been some that poured out of me with great ease than others which were a constant struggle.

The Miseducation of Draco Malfoy, my first drarry, was written at the height of my obsession and it poured out of me. I wrote like a fiend all day and would go to bed at night and reread what I wrote. I breathed that fic day and night for the weeks it took me to write it. It was also the most fun I had writing, prob because I was a complete unknown and there were zero expectations from me. Similarly, The Full Monty, written just after TMODM, was an easy fic to write. I remember I read the prompt and was immediately assaulted by images and started laughing on my own and was like, OK I need to claim this, the fic is writing itself.

Similarly but in a more tortuous way, dirtynumbangelboy poured out of me too. More tortuous because it took me ages to find the right beginning, and by then I was behind with my deadlines and got stressed. Also, I wrote it in a sort of dread of the Erised fest, because it had some amazing writers that year and I was intimidated. I remember my goal was to "at least not embarrass myself" .

But, aside from the doubts and stress, dnab itself flowed like nothing else. There are passages that I really love, even now years later, and they are exactly as they came out the first time. I did very little editing (compared to other works).

With The Boy Who Died I made a fun post on tumblr about a mdzs AU of drarry and then the idea wouldn't let me go so I had to sit and write it. Luckily it was summer and I didn't work and I could spend my days writing it. There were moments I got stumped but it mostly came out easily.

Finally, a lot of my short fics poured out of me in one go and came out almost perfectly formed. The Dare, A Perfectly Normal Reaction, and my MCD The Death You Carry are good examples.

Fics that took ages at first:

so my thing is that I have to find the right opening to begin the story, otherwise I can't proceed. I don't plan; the first scene/chapter is my plan. And sometimes I get stuck for yonks. With The Unquiet Grave I began with a Draco POV, him being a politician and Harry his bodyguard, had an interesting first scene and then---nothing. It's like I hit a wall. Zero words come. When I have this feeling, I know I need to go back and revise. Long story short, it was when I changed the POV to Harry that somehow the whole gothic mood came about and I felt the auspicious click: I got it. That's what the story is. A gothic romance. After that, it was easier.

The same thing happened with Hush, darling. I rewrote a first scene fruitlessly several times until a random bit of inspiration fell into my hands: the visual of a card game. I began with it and I let it guide me and the whole plot/stakes/cast fell into place.

Fics that needed a LOT of work and had to be dragged into existence:

The Gift is the first that comes to mind. First couple of chapters were pretty easy and then I was stumped. Writing it felt like dragging myself up a slope, step by step and also not being happy with anything, so that was fun. :/

The other is 9 ½ Days, which took actual years to finish. In that case the middle part was the hard one. I wrote the beginning fairly easily and the last chapters, the plotty ones, also flowed. But the middle. Zeus almighty. It took me years and I thought and thought and thought about it a lot. Finishing this fic was an immense relief but also a source of pride, especially because I really liked the result, and judging by the comments I get, people seem to love it too.

Thanks for an unusual ask! It was good to ponder about my fics and my writing process. The same issues seem to crop up with my original works too, and it's helpful to remind myself that I got over those issues before and I can get over them again.

[savagewildnerness]

Well, my first re-read of Memnoch The Devil in a long time is complete (I must have read it several times as a teenager. Otherwise my old copy of the book would be with the Vampire Chronicles I only read once, and it isn't there - my old copy is hidden somewhere, meaning I must have reread it and mislaid it when I did so.)

It took me a long time to read it - partly because I knew that as a teenager, after The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned it was my favourite book... and I was very afraid that I might hate it now... and partly with S2 of the TV show and so Memnoch was put aside... And partly as some bits are very long bits of just talking!

But now I have finished.

And what I think is that... well... I can't speak for teenaged me and what I thought then.

But me now finds that Memnoch has something which isn't that common in The Vampire Chronicles - a beautifully resonant and perfectly tragically satisfying, almost Shakespearian ending.

Anne Rice is wonderful at creating these worlds and especially the characters and conveying their emotion and experience and internal philosophy and existential quests... but sometimes books trail off at the end a little into a "...get ready for something coming in the future..." or even into comparative mundanity... Which is fine as it's not about the ending for them... but not Memnoch. What a wonderful ending Memnoch has. Which I won't talk about as it isn't to be talked about, just to be read.

But I will say - Memnoch's letter. The way Memnoch is so Lestattian in his own character, and so you could imagine in part he was just conjured by Lestat's broken mind... The sadness of the ending and the horror of it and all that it is made clear is happening, which which Lestat doesn't fully describe.

I love how it harkens back to Nicolas and Claudia and The Witches Place and I am back in The Vampire Lestat in a way I haven't been since The Vampire Lestat in the last parts of this book. I love the tenderness of Louis. I love the confused horror. The realness of Hell so you feel like you are there.

I wouldn't say I adored the whole book.... Roger's story is LONG. Memnoch really does go ON (it's interesting... but it's long!)

But the last 1/3 of the book, oh yes - I loved it. I wish all of the Vampire Chronicles had endings as powerful and meaningful as Memnoch does.

Well, just my brief thoughts. Is Memnoch a polarising book?

[bookishfeylin]

this was a while ago (a couple months at this point i think) so i might be misremembering, but once in the comment section of an acotar critical video a commenter kept claiming that tamlin was never retconned (which... im not sure what else youd call one of his defining traits in acotar- being observant- suddenly disappearing due to trauma when he was still observant post-amarantha at the end of tar, or some of his values and opinions suddenly also changing in maf, but alright) because throughout the first book he was, according to them, manipulating feyre- specifically lovebombing her. they never specified which events led them to believe this, just that it happened. thoughts?

*sighs*

This argument is one that, unfortunately, I've heard many, many, many times over by now, and have made several posts about in the past. Because, truth be told, it's the best rebuttal they have when you point out direct retcons. The problem is that Tamlin manipulating Feyre, or even lying about his values, is disproven both in the book and in the sequels that follow, and this is because a lot of Tamlin's characterization is based on Feyre's observations of Tamlin, especially at times when he's not aware she's observing him (in contrast to Rhysand telling Feyre what to think about him every other page in ACOMAF).

A very good example of this was with the dying Summer Court faerie. Tamlin and Feyre care for the faerie as it passes away babies, and this scene is viewed by many as a good character moment for Feyre that establishes her kindness under a gruff exterior, but the same is not said for her other half, likely because all the Feysands who reread ACOTAR view all of Tamlin's actions as inherently manipulative. The problem here is that Feyre was never supposed to be present. Feyre was supposed to be asleep in her bedroom on another floor of the manor when Tamlin returned with the fae, and it's only through coincidence--her having a nightmare about killing Andras that wakes her up--that she's present to see Tamlin extend kindness and try to help the faerie in the first place. Ergo, Tamlin's action here can't have been an attempt to manipulate Feyre because Tamlin never expected Feyre to be present, and the kindness shown to lesser fae, and by extension, what that says about how Tamlin views individuals in lower socioeconomic classes than him, is a genuine facet of his character.

There's also a lot of background established about Tamlin that simply can't have been done on purpose by him to manipulate Feyre. What, did he start taking in refugees from other courts like Alis and her nephews because 50 years prior he had a psychic dream about Feyre and he wanted to make himself look really appealing to her? Did he treat them well solely so Alis could make him sound good to Feyre to convince Feyre to go UTM?

I also take issue with people arguing that Tamlin was love-bombing Feyre. It was already discussed before here by someone who's pro-Feysand who also picked up on this (and this ask is already getting longer lol so I'll just link it here and reblog it later) but the TLDR is that Tamlin demonstrably does not want to manipulate Feyre per another conversation she listens in on, and he decidedly chose to abandon the goal of making her love him when he sent her home. Every single "Tamlin never really love Feyre he was just love-bombing her and manipulating her" argument forgets that fact for some reason??? Like he sent her home before she could even do what she was supposed to. He sacrificed himself and his people to eternal damnation for her, without ever expecting to see her ever again. He offered himself to the woman he's known since childhood to shield Feyre from harm. So if you want to argue that, like the beast character he was based on, Tamlin originally brought Feyre to his manor for the purpose off making her fall for him to break his curse, then fine, but it's impossible to argue that throughout their relationship and by the end he was manipulating her and had no genuine love for her.

TLDR: it's a stupid argument that relies on selective reading and I hate it.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

Hi

I need some book recommendations

I want to get back into reading but I’m finding it hard since my dyspraxia and ADD diagnoses

I want to read more fiction as I usually read non fiction

So first, I read a lot of thriller books. Adventure thriller, murder thriller, legal thriller. I'm not really into women's fiction as much as I used to be, but I do read them from time to time. (I hope some people will jump in the comments with recommendations for that genre since I'm not very current.) I do like a good historical fiction or a dystopian/alternative reality book.

I'll do series first, in case that's your speed, and then individual recommendations.

Series/Authors

Dan Brown, Lee Child, James Patterson - I'm specifically suggesting these because they have short chapters. A friend of mine with ADHD (which I know is different from ADD) swears by authors with short chapters or short stories because it's easier to find a natural stopping point when her ADHD acts up and she can't stay focused. (I also like them too; Dan Brown more than the others. Digital Fortress and Deception Point are my favorites; the Robert Langston series is ok but I've never picked up those books again. I reread Digital Fortress and Deception Point almost every year.)

Marcia Clark has two series, one about a prosecutor and one about a defense attorney. Both are enjoyable, and one of them (I can't remember the title but it's part of the prosecutor series) is essentially a retelling of the OJ case. (Marcia is one of the prosecutors from the OJ trial.)

Stacey Abrams is a compelling legal fiction writer (she doesn't get into politics in her fiction books) and I like her Avery Keene series (I can't vouch for the books she wrote under her pen name).

Meg Cabot for more lighthearted reads. She has two series that are my go-tos whenever I need something light and quick.

Heather Wells. Heather is a former pop star (think Britney) who is a dorm advisor in NYC and her landlord is a private investigator that she has the hots for...who also happens to be the older brother of her ex-boyfriend, who is also a pop star. It's rom com + mystery.

The Boy series - these are epistolary novels, where everything is happening in emails, text messages, voicemails, newspaper articles.

Recently I've been reading Alex Michaelides and Eric La Salle. Both are thrillers/adventure-type books. I will warn you now; Eric's series deals with the Catholic Church abuse scandal, which I know is touchy for a lot of people for many different reasons. (Though that said, there is a twist in Eric's Laws of Depravity that I did not see coming at all, and usually I can suss these out.)

Always a good read is the Maggie Hope series, by Susan Elia MacNeal. She's a WW2 spy and gets into shenanigans. There are some dark parts of the series but overall, it's fun.

Individual Books

Thirteen by Steve Cavanaugh blew my mind. A serial killer sits on a jury, and that's all I'm going to tell you.

Gameboard of the Gods by Richelle Mead. I've recommended it a few times here on tumblr. It's about a utopian society that regulates religion. It's part of an incomplete trilogy (the publisher cancelled the series for poor sales). The first book (this one) is better than the second.

Murdle. It's like Wordle or Quordle but with mysteries. It's a puzzle book but each puzzle is like a short story.

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn. WW2 spy novel that takes place at Bletchley Park. Kate's grandmother makes an appearance. :)

Several People are Typing by Calvin Kasulke. An epistolary novel that takes place over IM/DM. It's a little weird but a bit silly. A very light and easy read.

The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart. Part sci-fi, part crime thriller. The Paradox Hotel sits at the "end of earth" next to a port for time travel. January is an employee at the hotel who must make sure that the time travellers don't bring anything back they're not supposed to. It's like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel + the Loki series + Doctor Who.

The Company of the Dead by David Kowalsky. Time travelers save the Titanic and the ripple effect through history. It's some heady shit, but it's a really interesting theory about what today would be like if the Titanic (and its shipload of rich people - that's important to remember) never sank.

If anyone else wants to add to these book recommendations, please do! Submit in the comments or asks. I'll use the tag #reading list for all of these.

[mentallhealthmatters]

Hey im in situation with a Person on TikTok and I don’t want to give them wrong information, I forgot most of what the other responses to Wilbur was when they said they also went through his abuse apparently. I want to reply to show them I’m not backing down, show from that comment they made I want to have a strong argument on that matter that will tell them why I support him and some other content creators on the matter.

Yes I can argue that Nikki went through stuff and she was only 18-19 at the time when he came into her life, if I’m getting my information right. Yes you can make the argument “we don’t know what it was like off camera.” Which is very true and valid. We are an audience, and we don’t know about there personal lives fully and down to the T, for they can say/do stuff they want to put out on the internet or one can just dig up old stuff cause the internet never forgets.

I just want to give information and not a backhand response and be like “Well they are all horrible and we’re just using him for clout.” Or “Well Shubble was stupid for showing it on camera, and could have gone to police but she had to make it public and that’s why many people are saying they were also a victim to get clout.” I don’t want the response to be poor and make them twist my words. Because that has happened and I don’t want that again so I’m reaching out for some information, I did say that she is many things which are true (not the insult type of way). But now they are asking about others, the whole Alice situation was debunked and proven false but the others around that did stuff/with him to like Freddie, Billzo, Asmiey, Tubbo, and there were other Women as well that worked with him that came out I think a trumpeter, and probably two other women who I cannot remember.

I’m sorry this is long but I want to say what I thought and the information that I would need cleared up to give to this individual. I am asking anonymously for i don’t want my main out in the public.

Have a nice day and it’s ok if you don’t respond or give enough information I just want to break it down and show that I stand by my opinion, and tell them an answer that will show multiple people have spoke on to make my word also valid and not just a random output of how I personally feel/false information on the matter, for the people who Wilbur interacted with and said something about him and being bad to them and there friends publicly.

-musicliver

Im reread this several times over and am still not sure if im even processing this infomation correctly or what do with it exactly.

Im grasping at there is a request for infomation, but im no sure which info would even be best because i dont know the other persons arguements.

There is also a lot of info mentioned im sure is true but is talked about so less than shelby that much info on those specific subjects isnt evenbrought properly to light.

Example: i dont think and am not aware anything happened with Tubbo, or i heard Alice's story has been debunked but ive yet see info on this and dont focus on it because of it. Ever. I only try and focus on things i have evidence for or soldid argument in logic for.

The only thing i can think happened to Tubbo is the horrid story shafting or the "Miles 'Tails' Prowers" effect in terms of his character on the DSMP. In which more attention and focus was placed onto Tommy's character, because Dream focused more on Tommy, so Wilbur swooped in to pretray him as an underdog, often ignoring Tubbo or writing him off as Tommy's sidekick, ignoring the fact that its because of Tubbo that they were able to one up Dream during the pre-lmanberg disc wars. Legitimately we wouldnt have the DSMP we have now if it wasnt for Tubbo. Not Wilbur.

Legitimately if Tubbo didnt side with Tommy or join the server at all, Tommy might have lost the battle before he got a chance to win the war. And Wilbur may not have had as juicy of a story to get ahold off and spin into the underdog story we know and love today. Wilbur didnt make Tommy. Nor did Dream. Tubbo. Made. Tommy. No disc war means no DSMP. No DSMP means Tommy wouldnt have the same flavor of fame he has now, or may have dropped off a lot sooner then he will eventually. (He will eventually retire, jes not dropped off yet)

Wilbur overlooked that fact. And so did Dream. But other than that, i dont think or know if Wilbur actually did anything to Tubbo.

I support wilbur.

I also dont think even if he did the things he did and allegtations are even semi true, they are true to the degree that they are.

And Schlatts right there. People canceled him flr years. Wasted breath and effort. To the point he leaned into it and scary maybe abusive sexist man for a while. It was his stique, his gimick. To such a point people leget thought he was abusive, like people claim Wilbur is. Even Minx tried to accuse him of abusing her legitimately.

Like there are tons of clips where Schlatt seemingly is geneuinely scaring. Humiliating. Threatening or abusing his friends. Like it straight up looks like its not a joke or gimmick.

Yet Tommy looked up to him and still does. Jaiden makes videos with him. Etc. Etc. Its hypocrisy. If schlatt was to come out as geneuinely being abusive, no one would bat an eye. But no does because thats just how he is. Yknow?

[you-remind-me-of-the-babe]

Ten Questions for Writers

Thanks for the tags @run-for-chamo-miles @artsyunderstudy @youarenevertooold @emeryhall @monbons

@shrekgogurt @facewithoutheart

I’ve definitely done this before but it’s been a while so here we go!

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 26

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 356,978 but that includes several collabs. So I think it’s closer to 300k.

3. What fandoms do you write for? Carry On. That’s it. Nothing has ever grabbed me like this before.

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I do! Comments mean so much to me, and I want to express my gratitude to the person and hopefully let them know how meaningful it was. I know leaving a comment can be intimidating or folks might not be sure what to say, but I promise, writers hold on to those gems. So I always feel like, if I reply, I’m validating their effort and maybe encouraging them to do it more. Plus! We have a VERY wonderful comment culture in this fandom and I think the more we cultivate that skill, the more conversations and connections we can make. And in those deeper conversations I always learn more about my writing from how the reader viewed it and, as someone who still feels very new to writing, I get a lot of value from it.

5. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of. But I’m not checking other sites so 🤷🏼‍♀️ This question is so interesting to me because most people are answering no, but does this happen a lot in other fandoms? So curious…

6. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes! I participated in the round Robin for Birthday Man and co-wrote two other fics, one with @fatalfangirl and one with @whatevertheweather . Plus the Star Trek: Redemption series for @raenestee. They were all a ton of fun. The creativity really gets flowing bouncing ideas off of each other and getting to open a draft that’s already started or has moved a chunk without your doing is amazing. It can also be challenging but it’s a good kind of challenge.

7. What’s your all time favorite ship? Snowbaz, obvi. Wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t.

8. What are your writing strengths? I’m always terrible at this question because after 3 years of writing I still feel like a novice and I always turn to others to tell me what’s working well. But, ok. What do I think is a strength? I think I come up with interesting concepts, and can dream up slightly more complex plots. I can do the inner thoughts or monologues pretty well. Following the emotional thread of a scene. Sometimes when I reread my writing I will find myself smiling or laughing or making a 🥺 face so that’s good.

9. What are your writing weaknesses? Grammar, punctuation, mechanics, word rules. Did I pay attention in English class? Apparently not. Sometimes I word things in overly complicated ways. Bless my betas for quietly and steadfastly fixing all of these things for me. I’m sure it gets tedious but I appreciate it! Especially since I don’t seem to learn to do it right even after they fix it 100 times. 😬

10. First fandom you wrote for? Carry On. Although, if I dug up some very old school work, I’m pretty sure there’s a short story from 6th grade that probably reads like a Wrinkle in Time fic.

Throwing some no pressure tags if there’s anyone else who’d like to do this. If you already did and I missed it, apologies! @whatevertheweather @fatalfangirl @moodandmist @mooncello @valeffelees

@bookish-bogwitch @cutestkilla @thewholelemon @skeedelvee @angelsfalling16

[yellowocaballero]

i know it's been an age since you've been involved with the tma fandom but i was rereading some of your web!jon fics and was wondering what your opinion was on web-martin and/or annabelle cane in general

Oh wow interesting question. Disclaimer to say that I never finished S5 so whatever was up with Annabelle at the end I have, like, no idea.

I...think I would have more developed and interesting opinions on this if you had asked me a few years ago, lol. I think there's a lot of interesting conversations you could have (and that were had!) about what makes somebody an Avatar in the first place. I do think fundamental to somebody becoming an Avatar is one of several things: a) the Entity victimizing you as a child or adult (Mike Crew, Michael and Helen), b) needing the Entity as fuel for your own sins and worst instincts (Daisy, Jude), or c) loving the Entity (Jane Prentiss).

I think Martin leaned on the Web-related stuff in his lying and everything but I don't think he ever got addicted to it, or needed it. In a lot of ways he rejected it, and in a lot of other ways he's a very honest person, even as he does lie and manipulate a bit when he finds it necessary. But of course this is a really interesting possibility to explore with him and definitely wouldn't be against who he fundamentally is.

Personally, I was never interested because I found it too easy? I was more interested in, "How the fuck does JON, of all people, be a Web avatar". Or, "Martin as Avatar of the Slaughter is both so incongruent but also makes so much sense and is so so funny". I liked freestyling with TMA, since the amorphous nature of the worldbuilding meant that you could do basically whatever. Entities are like the Force: a complete handwave so you can just do what you want.

Annabelle Cane...I remember liking her a lot! I definitely thought she was very different from the other Avatars, and that she seemed to be thinking more big picture and was less rabid than them. Also less monologing. I was definitely interested enough to make her a major character twice over, and as a villain I think she's far more interesting than Jonah because her motives could be a lot more complicated. I always write her as symbolic of a lot (neoliberalism or allonormativity or etc). Don't remember exactly why though...I think...I just thought she was cool...?

Sorry, it's been a while and this is all off the cuff, don't hold me to any of this lol. Glad people are still reading the TMA stuff though. And still leaving me 'wow this is like a fever dream' comments on Fahrenheit 101. Where did I LOSE YOU.

[forestdeath1]

The Prank

I promised to respond to a comment on this post regarding the portrayal of canon and fanon Sirius and Remus.

I wrote that the Prank is shown in fandom in a very negative light, and fanon’s reaction of Remus to the Prank flips his character 180 degrees:

"Fanon Remus reacts like a true drama queen, being offended for six months and punishing bad-bad Sirius."

Comment by @sylviaplathenthusiast (hey :) :

"while yes i might agree with a lot of the points here i feel like theres a way to merge canon and fanon because we see remus mostly compartmentalise and sirius lash out.

and when it comes to the prank i think honestly the term "drama queen" is very harmful because this is not a situation in which the silent treatment in question would be an overreaction. lets not overly victimise sirius"

True, it's fandom, and you can merge whatever you want. But there’s this thing in fandom where something becomes very popular and is accepted as canon, as the only right version. Just because I'm talking about it doesn’t mean I'm forbidding anyone from building their fanon worlds and portraying the Prank exactly that way. I'm just pointing out that there's another angle. Many people can't see The Prank any other way, they've fallen in love with a portrayal by several fanfic authors, and it snowballs through the fandom as the established truth.

"and when it comes to the prank i think honestly the term "drama queen" is very harmful because this is not a situation in which the silent treatment in question would be an overreacting."

Let's start with the fact that "silent treatment" is not the most constructive reaction if Remus stays within the Marauders. It objectively is a poor conflict resolution method, implying development of a "victim-aggressor-savior" triangle.

Moreover, canon Remus wouldn’t resort to conflict and such behavior just to teach Sirius a lesson. He might withdraw a bit from Sirius, throw some sarcastic remarks as in SWM, but overall, as he himself said, he wouldn’t want to lose his friends. He understood well that James would always side with Sirius (contrary to the strange claim for me that James saw everyone as equally important, bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh, and that Sirius's 'betrayal' was on a biblical level. That’s drama out of nowhere. James doesn’t dramatize anything; he's the least prone to drama among all the Marauders). Moreover, Remus genuinely enjoyed their company, even full moons became somewhat enjoyable for him.

Instead, fandom suggests that Remus takes offense and broods, trying to punish Sirius. James tries to punish Sirius too. Everyone is punishing Sirius, who becomes the scapegoat of their group because he acted immorally.

By the way why is it, according to fandom, not immoral for Remus to agree to study at a school being a werewolf and roam under the moon? The guy is literally dangerous once a month, and some shack is not the most reliable way to protect Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. Remus shouldn't have been studying there before the potion, it’s not "kindness" from Dumbledore, it's another of his reckless decisions. Just imagine if Moony had escaped and bitten the whole of Hogsmeade. There's your "kindness". Yes, Remus isn’t at fault for his lycanthropy, but acting, knowing your lycanthropy, is your responsibility. I'm not at fault for being infected with some dangerous disease, but not exposing others to it is now my responsibility.

Remus is not a saint. He's just a boy who wants to study at school with his friends. And in short, Remus has no right to assess "the moral state of Sirius's action."

Another angle Remus might react to is to take the Prank as personal betrayal, as if Sirius really wanted to use Remus as a weapon to kill Snape.

I've reread the canon many times, and all I noticed was Sirius getting annoyed at Snape for poking into their business, including "Remus's secret", irritably joked about it, and was pleased with how things turned out - Snape backed off and left Remus alone.

Where did you read that Sirius used Remus as a weapon against Snape out of personal vendetta against him? Sirius was annoyed that Snape was snooping on their secrets, he didn’t want to give up Remus. Sirius has a sharp humor, he was 16 at the time, a teenager on the verge of running away with a heavy family situation, someone who says something leaving the responsibility for action on another. If I suspect a bottle contains poison, and my enemy says "drink it to make sure, I'll show you how to open it", and I drink it, who's the idiot? Me or my enemy? Who's at fault?

Sirius probably didn’t think through the meaning and implications of his statement, it was just on the level of "back off, idiot", definitely not deliberate as portrayed in fanfics: "we have a bloody werewolf!". Sirius? He's not the most empathetic person, but this?

Essentially, Remus has nothing to be offended about. I understand that Sirius might have put Remus in a bad position. But Sirius didn't intend to deliberately harm Remus. And the situation turned out to be a plus for everyone. Snape finally backed off from them. James, being more empathetic, realized in time that Snape would indeed go there and saved him. Remus is safe, and Remus's reaction in canon is very psychologically natural for someone like Remus.

Under such circumstances, to give the silent treatment for six months is indeed being a drama queen and overreacting, because Sirius didn't intend to deliberately harm Remus. Moreover, this reaction of Remus in fandom often accompanies his subconscious desire for Sirius to affirm Remus's importance to him, which is also manipulative. I don’t like it when characters are broken for the sake of plot.

Putting Sirius in a situation where he realizes his feelings for Remus under ostracism and moving the plot forward with this is poor taste (even for fanon portrayals of Sirius and Remus).

What actions could Remus have taken to make the fanon Prank look better, considering our fanon Remus is all serious and a proper boy with the right notions?

If you're all about being proper and serious, act it through, not like a five-year-old boy whose mom made him an egg sandwich instead of jam for breakfast.

Talk! Hear Sirius's point of view and either agree or disagree.

That's it. If he agrees, he can, of course, not open up right away again, but he shouldn’t sit like a gloomy wolf in the common company, making everyone uncomfortable and constantly reminding by his existence how deeply he was hurt. You talked, you agreed. Accepted the other person's point of view. Stop dramatizing.

If he disagrees with Sirius's point of view, he leaves the company. Yes, him. Because their whole company is held by Sirius and James. It's his right. No one can take away his right not to forgive Sirius for stupid jokes, not accepting his point of view, and exclude him from his life.

In the canonical dynamics of the Marauders, it would be Remus who would distance himself, not Sirius. Sirius wouldn’t go anywhere. There are no Marauders without Sirius and James, it's an absurd assertion that the dynamics in their group were equal. They were never equals. Everyone loved James, James also loved everyone, but number one for him was and will always be Sirius. James is not a saintly hero who just loves all the downtrodden and oppressed, he genuinely likes Sirius with all his flaws. James even wanted to be somewhat like Sirius at times. Sirius is the "bad boy"; James plays the role of the "bad boy", but he's not Jesus, who for the sake of "biblical level drama" will stop communicating with Sirius, realizing he still loves him but can't forgive him yet. It's not in his character. At all.

James would still interact with Remus, but when one falls out of common activities, he inevitably drifts apart.

But yes, these two reactions would have been entirely adequate. Talk - accept or not accept - make your move. To remain silent for six months, supposedly in "one company", hoping Sirius will finally realize something is being dramatic and manipulative in the worst sense of the word.

(Only what is Sirius supposed to realize? What dumb jokes does he have? What a moral scoundrel he is? A bad person? A bad friend? His family already tells him he's bad, it's not news to him. Show him he can be good, as James did. Fanon Remus reactualizes Sirius's trauma about his unworthiness, literally breaking the character and making him repent.)

But no. In fandom, Remus wants to change Sirius. Punish him. Show how bad he feels so that Sirius stops being Sirius and becomes a convenient loving boyfriend for Remus.

The fanon Prank works, it even looks realistic, considering the fanon character traits, but it's just cliché, boring, and makes interesting characters into flat TV show heroes. Moreover, it presents breaking our beloved characters as a norm for plot development.

The canonical Prank in a few lines reveals much more interesting details and plot nuances and adds a lot to the character portrayal.

[a-shakespearean-in-paris]

Fic authors self rec

Thanks for the tag @myreia!!!

When I graduated with degree a few years ago I honestly thought it would be all downhill and things would just move slowly without any excitement or milestones. Well, last year and this year have completely proved me wrong. This year alone, my grandpa passed away and I dealt with some bad family drama after that, I went to New York with my best friend, I turned thirty, I got a yellow lab, I made it to the one year mark at my editorial job, I’m getting ready for two major trips in the late summer/fall, and i also think i had a major glow up and never looked hotter. However, it hasn’t been a big writing year after last year was *so* good. Maybe writing about my last stuff will help with that!

In no order:

1. The Sweetest Sorrow

Rdr2, Arthur and Charlotte. This is *probably* my best fic overall if we’re just going by what internet experts say “good writing is.” Plot doesn’t meander much, development is solid, I think the characters make sense for their time period, and I just think it’s neat. The setting of the story also made me appreciate the hill country area near my hometown too. I also love that I didn’t overly rely on love scenes for the main relationship. Which I still love, but the older I get the more I recognize some stories don’t have that “vibe” that call for overly explicit love scenes, and this was one of them.

2. In waking dreams

DAI, Cullen and quiz.

I find this to be less of a story and more of an exploration of my life immediately after getting my undergrad and not knowing what the flaming hell I was going to do, and then an exploration of my life as I was finishing getting my graduate degree and *trying and failing* to secure a teaching job. Writing quality is certainly better in the back half, and I would kind of love to try rewriting this to see what I would do different, (I can think of several things) but as it is I am very proud of this.

3. Our immortal Longings

DBH, Connor x original character

Wasn’t going to include this, I don’t think the game aged well, and I honestly wonder if it was even good to begin with (graphics still are great though, and I do appreciate how many choices there are) but someone commented recently on it and it made me revisit the fic, and I have to admit this is a solid story and I really appreciate how batshit crazy I was for the actress and robot pairing. The world needs more robot love stories.

This fic just felt different to write. Not in a bad way, but in the way that really made me think I was transforming as a creative.

4. Let’s get away for a while

Leon and Ada, resident evil.

So I have a few Aeon fics but I am plugging this as my favorite—I like the fact that I did not shy away from making Leon a bit of a dick at the beginning. I mean I don’t blame him he’s tired of this thing between him and his woman being a situationship. Man is built for commitment.

In all seriousness I wrote this and felt myself level up. I also just love writing about what people do when they’re on vacation/ traveling, something that soon after became very near and dear to me, as well as relevant to my life experiences.

5. Stains of Red

dragon age, Cullen x inquisitor

So this is a cute little one shot about Lydia basking in the “oh my god we just got together!” Glow and sneaking in some kisses with her commander. I like the imagery and details of this fic, and I think it captures that honeymoon excitement. I reread it and I actually blushed.

Tagging @thevikingwoman @galadrieljones @laelior @wintersongstress and anyone else!!!

[mirjam-writes]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @suavissimapenna <3 Sorry it took so long!

How many works do you have on ao3?

7 for Sherlock and 23 Good Omens that are completely mine. 6 collaborative fics I have either partly written, or just made art for. So, 36.

What's your total ao3 word count?

380,863

What fandoms do you write for?

Good Omens! I used to write for Sherlock too, but that's now in the past.

Top five fics by kudos:

Truth Or Dare (E, 6.5K words), my first proper smut ever! Post s1 gettig together story.

Angel Of Justice (T, 9.5K), my first ever Good Omens fanfic. Post S1 from Michael POV, A/C as a background couple.

!False (It's funny because it's true) (E, 5.4k), an office romance human AU set in software company.

A Stable Relationship (E, 9.9k), horse rider AU with trans Aziraphale. Friends with benefits becoming a romantic relationship.

Girls Just Wanna Have Sun (G, 1.7k), outsider pov scene about Robin's day at the beach, where she meets two weird gentlemen who have never been to a beach before.

Do you respond to comments?

YES I DO! Slowly, possibly, but yes I do, and I read and reread them!

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Uhhh... angsty ending? What is that? Technically Be Still My Soul: The Rift, but does that count if it's a middle part of a trilogy? That's definitely my angstiest fic of all time BUT I tried to write the happiest ending possible to it. But also, yeah, people died in the war (just not A or C), so maybe I'll count that story.

Edit: WAIT NO! To Love Somebody, a story from Shadwell pov about how he fell in love both Aziraphale and Crowley, and how that changed him. That's sort of angsty and the ending is bittersweet!

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

Hmmmmmm. I have so many. I can't compare. Maybe Watching You (Watching Me), it's the porniest porn i have ever written, and it has...uh... several happy endings :D

Do you get hate on fics?

Not so far!

Do you write smut?

Yessss. I'm in my porn writer era at the moment :D

Craziest crossover:

I did some super weird anime crossovers as a teen (I hope those are long lost) but haven't dabbled on that since apart from very vague blink-and-you-miss-it references.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

One of my Sherlock fics was translated into french in 2018!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Only for one round robin event, which produced four stories! Not sure if that really counts as collaborating since we weren't allowed to talk about it when we did it, we just got the fic, read it, and added 600 words and gave it to the next one! It was super fun though.

All time favorite ship?

Aziraphale and Crowley. No competition there.

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

I don't usually start posting unless I'm 100% confident I'll finish the story, so I don't have public wips.

I had one pretty cool Sherlock post-apocalypse story idea, which I'd love to talk about if someone is interested, but writing it? Hmm probably not. But it's not really a wip, if I have only like two bullets in a doc?

What are your writing strengths?

I think I write pretty good bickerflirting and humour even in dark situations. And, uh... historical research.

What are your writing weaknesses?

LONG ASS SENTENCES. I need to cut them down. Chop chop chop. Also, I over-use commas and em-dashes.

Also, not being a native english speaker, but I think I've got a lot more fluent during the past years, so maybe that's not my biggest weakness anymore.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I have done it myself, in a situation when my pov character wasn't supposed to understand what was being discussed, but I did only a couple of lines.

My languages (apart from english) are finnish, very rough swedish, and teeny tiny bit of german, but many fics I've read that have used another language in dialogue, use French or Spanish (which are popular languages for English speakers to learn in school!), and with those I'm woefully lost!

But honestly, i don't need to understand every fic under the sun! You do you, I bet there are people who can understand whichever languages you'd like to mix in your story, and that will be amazing for them!

First fandom you wrote in?

The Book Series That Must Not Be Named. I projected so much of my teenage angst into wizard school drama.

Favorite fic you've written?

You monster! Making me choose. Uh.

Okay, fair. It's easy. Be Still My Soul, hands down. @be-still-my-soul-fanfic

No pressure tagging: @hkblack, @ambrasue, @tawnyontumblr , @ack-emma and @zehwulf and anyone else who wants to answer!

[zepskies]

Hi Zep! Buckle up because I have a number of picks for your ask game! How about 2, 10, 17, 40, 48, 55 and 70?

Hey Michelle! Hope you're having a lovely Sunday. ☀️💜

Omg these are amazing questions!!

Lmfao this is hilarious to me, but I actually had to think hard about this one. My pre-writing/outlining process is pretty methodical. However, I think the biggest time the narrative hijacked my hands was in Smoke Eater (firefighter!Dean x reader).

I had several scenes in the original outline that just weren't fitting right when I got to the drafting stage, to the point where I had to chuck them out entirely. Also, the whole murder mystery that's central to the narrative was complex to tease out, but that also took me by surprise when I was outlining!

I wasn't intending to go that route at first, but when I thought of including John Winchester and Cas as homicide detectives (drawing from my childhood obsession with Law & Order), it kind of just started coming to me.

So I usually have the premise of the idea before the title. It's gotten easier as I've become more experienced as a writer, but sometimes I just put a placeholder title that kind of encapsulates the idea before I come up with something better, then I start outlining/researching.

Often I get placeholder titles from songs/lyrics of what will likely give me inspiration for the story, and sometimes those titles stick!

Ooh another great question. 😂 Funnily enough, the ones that come to me off the top of my head are mostly from Break Me Down:

M.M. scoffed, with a subtle shake of his head.  “Nah, man,” he said ruefully. “That’s true motherfuckin’ love.”

And a fun one:

“Alert the media,” you said. “We’ve got the ultimate weapon against Soldier Boy: a slow ride on his dick.”

😂 This one also sticks out in my mind from the Midnight Espresso-verse - Devour Me (Part 2), as a playful one I was weirdly proud of lol:

“Question: do you consider yourself more of a tits or ass man?” you ask him. You’re half teasing, but still curious. Dean snorts at the question.  “More of a connoisseur,” he replies, smirking.  “Ah.” You nod sagely, and you point between him and yourself. “So this is like a ‘sample the menu’ situation.” Dean’s smirk deepens. “Sweetheart, you’re a goddamn buffet.”

Finally, this one from the imagine "You are Dean's one exception":

Oh man, that's very tough. I've been blessed to get some amazing feedback from you and others, and believe it or not, I do go back and reread comments and reblogs. It puts a smile on my face whether I'm having a bad day, or want to continue smiling on a good one. 💖

I think one of the best compliments I can receive, however, is that a story touched someone on an emotional level and somehow got them through a difficult time in their life, or is one of their "comfort stories." That's happened a few times, and it almost makes me cry every time. 🥲

I can also say that you, @chernayawidow, and @waynes-multiverse have given me some of the best feedback I've ever gotten on stories. Not just because the other two have made me cheese grin/nearly cry of laughter, but also because all of you are writers and have been able to tell me narratively (or on a character development level) what you liked about what I was doing in a story. As a writer, that kind of feedback is amazing as well. 💖💖

Also, some of my favorite feedback of all time has been on Midnight Espresso -- whether it's been people thanking me for the representation of the Hispanic/Latin culture, or sharing experiences with being plus-sized and how that's viewed in society. 💗

😬😬 Ahh guilty, lol. At the risk of sounding prideful, I think if you're doing it right, you should be writing the stories you want to write. So it stands to reason that you should be able to enjoy reading your own work. 💜

None on Tumblr, but unfortunately I do have a few on FF.net, which I don't even post on anymore, and maybe one or two on Ao3. Sometimes you just lose the drive to write for that fandom, especially if engagement is down. Sometimes you just move on to other things.

I'm a voracious editor. I believe good writing is also good editing -- that's just part of the process. So yes I guess I can be self-critical. lol

Sometimes I'll be rereading something, and I'll go in and edit it after it's already been posted for months, whether it's a typo, or a line that doesn't sound quite right for the character, or part of a scene that I think needs smoothing out. I guess I'm a bit of a perfectionist that way. 😅

Again, thank you so much for these questions, my friend!! I'm going to be sending you some too very soon. 😘

[lindwurmkai]

a while back, i reblogged a post on here that said something along the lines of "it's ok if you don't know a lot about your interests" (it was a bit more elaborate than that) and for some reason i made the mistake to read the comments the next time i saw it.

frustratingly, a lot of people - some of them well-intentioned, even! - expressed the opinion that not knowing much about something automatically meant you were only a casual enjoyer of it. the well-intentioned ones would say things like "yeah, there's nothing wrong with being a casual fan."

(why does that even need to be said? lmao. autism website bias)

this assumption uses the exact same logic as a parent telling you, accusingly, "you wouldn't have forgotten if it was important to you." or the cheerful but no less frustrating version, in response to the child expressing that they forgot what they were going to say: "well, since you forgot, it can't have been important." argh!!

as someone who literally rereads the same damn wikipedia articles multiple times per year because none of the information will stick, i resent the implication that i am in any way "less interested" in those subjects than someone who reads them only once or twice total and then just ... knows that stuff. or that me forgetting details about my favourite media makes me a casual fan. where's the acknowledgement that people with memory problems can still feel the same amount of passion as people who are walking encyclopedias?

well, that's what that post was supposed to be for.

and yeah, to a degree this is absolutely a niche problem: encyclopedic knowledge about one's hobbies is not the norm. but i've had multiple friends - and as far as i'm aware, they weren't even autistic - who made me feel inferior for not knowing as much about our shared interests as they did. one of them also made me feel like a horrible person for not remembering random facts she'd told me, so for a while i literally took notes during all of our phone calls. normal human behaviour!

20 years have passed since then and now my memory problems are much worse. i've been unlearning this ... pressure to "prove my level of interest" for almost a decade, to accept that it's totally fine and cool to in fact just reread the same wikipedia article multiple times per year. i mean, as long as i'm having fun, right??

my inability to memorise facts or even keep them in my head for an hour does limit how much fun i can have, though. you can't really understand advanced texts if you don't remember the basics. i've tried to combat this by literally studying things as if i were back in school, highlighting the important points in physical books i owned and making flashcards ... but that's boring. the only reason i've managed to make it work with language learning is that i have several interests taking turns reinforcing each other.

then again, the language i am technically the most interested in is one i haven't been able to learn much of because i don't have that cycle of reinforcement going on with it and there are fewer learning resources available. intensity of interest is just not the deciding factor.

[sweetmariihs2]

Recently I've been encountering a lot of "antis" and "haters" of Cedric on various apps, and I even made two posts talking about it because it's been very annoying. The STF fandom is already very small, we already have people who support C*dfia, so there is a wall between us and that part of the fandom (for good reason), which makes our group much smaller, and if every time that I go search about my hyperfocus and find people everywhere wanting to make fun of Cedric's fans "because they like popular characters and I don't because I'm smarter", I'm gonna go crazy

For context: Usually my hyperfocuses are my comfort place, if I'm having difficult moments I try to focus on them as much as possible, then I relax and feel better. Tumblr is the best place for this because it revolves around personal interests, and there are fandoms for everything. And with this terrible week I'm having, I'm coming here quite often, but it's been hell every now and then when I come in and there's someone annoying this part of the fandom. At the beginning (in January) there were none, and now there are (March, April), and it's not being nice. I'm used to being in some big fandoms who have antis, the problem is that here we didn't had those people some time ago, and I just want to relax in peace

I was having a horrible day (week) and I thought it was just another one of those people using the hashtag to bother others who are minding their stuff. As this happened several times and no one said anything about it, I decided to complain in the hope that it would reach these people, because it is already at an unbearable level. The first post I made was calmer, I spoke in a more friendly way and I thought that making that post would make the fandom a better place (it's small, everything that is posted here, the other members see), but well,

Some days ago I was scrolling through tumblr and found a post roasting Cedric for no reason, and like I said, spending a horrible day being overstimulated and going on Tumblr to relax and coming across those usual annoying comments (which I thought had decreased) was extremely frustrating.

So I didn't want to get involved in fights and didn't wanted to write a giant answer (bad decision, if I had written it all this wouldn't have happened), but I wanted to say what I think, so I made a post with simple sentences, but trying (failing) to say "if you're in a fandom, you have to understand that there are people who don't agree with you, and you have to respect that. For example, I don't like the characters you like, but I don't go around complaining about them" and I linked the old post I made responting to those people in a friendly way, you know what I'm talking about!

Well, not wanting to start a fight (but responding in the same rude tone I THOUGHT the post was using), I tried to be direct so as not to waste time writing too much, but it turned out that it was not possible to understand what I wanted to say without using context.

To make matters worse, the post had nothing to do with those annoying people, in fact it was just someone saying that they weren't attracted to Cedric, which is completely understandable because at first I thought he was ugly too (I changed my mind, but I understand where you're coming from).

To summarize: I didn't understand what the person really meant with that post and I misinterpreted it as someone mocking us and posting it on Cedric's hashtag again, I was having a really bad day and was trying to distract myself on Tumblr looking for Cedric stuff , there were a lot of noises and people shouting around me so I couldn't read properly (I'm autistic)

And I can read in English but sometimes the words get confused in my mind and I don't understand the meaning of what I'm reading. I believe it's because I was overstimulated at the time, but who knows, maybe my English sucks

So I wanted to apologize to you @slushimart , because after I reread it and paid attention to what you (and other people) werw saying and it had nothing to do with what I thought, I got very embarrassed and I deleted my reblog. Even though I did this, I saw that other people also saw what I did and I was still embarrassed because I'm friends with almost everyone who is more active in the STF fandom on Tumblr, and I looked like a stupid child who can't bear to see people on the internet saying that my fave is ugly, even though I got everything totally wrong

I'm really embarassed 😭 I considered not even making this apology post, but I couldn't stop thinking about it and I'm very ashamed about my misunderstanding and that post that made me look like an idiot, even more so because your post had nothing to do with what I thought it had. Gosh I'm so stupid I'm sorry (help)

I hope you're not mad at me, because we've known each other and interacted for a while now, I don't want to make enemies with people who share my interests and interact with my stuff and my friends sometimes

So I'm really sorry! Again! :(

@midnightrealness @aquicat