#i'll try to get more confident with posting more fanfics i've made

[aceofspaces16]

a stranger on a couch - a kollok fanfic

chapter 1 - "a strange man"

summery - when a strange man suddenly appers on mallory's couch, the kollok radar doesn't know what to do about him or someone kicked the driver out of the driver seat and now he is apart of the story he was telling

word count: 1144

This isn’t supposed to be happening 

Something is wrong 

The story is wrong 

What happened 

“Hey you awake yet '' Billy said looking down at the strange man lying down on the couch. He had tried snapping his fingers in front of the man but he was still asleep. He walked around the living room frantically wondering what he was supposed to do. 

“So none of you guys know who he is, isn’t he what, special like you guys” malloys voice can be heard from the far end of the room, scared at the strange man who just appeared on his couch. 

“No he’s not … not every random person has powers like us” mickey said sitting down opposite to the man, she had to go home soon her dad might be worried. 

Billy once again snapped his fingers rapidly in front of the man hoping for some kind of response but nothing came. 

The man had short blond hair that was brushed to the side and a trimmed beard, he wore a simple black suit with a white shirt and a black tie, his facial features were scarcely similar to Billy's, a bystander would think they were related. He looked to be around his late 20s to early 30s. He was barely alive, but his breathing was irregular. 

“What am I supposed to do? I don't have room for one more person” Malloy said, his voice getting shaker with every word said. 

“We’ll figure it out” Mickey said, attempting to comfort Malloy, he’s the one that's going to have to deal with it. 

“I’m gonna start shaking him!” Billy said walking back towards the man and his hands moving towards his shoulders, micky without missing a second ran up to Billy to hold him back. “Please, how else is he going to wake up” 

“I don’t think shaking him would work” “No, I agree with Billy, we need answers and he will probably give it to us,” Malloy added, wanting to see some results. 

Micey, fighting a losing battle, calmly let go of Billy as he rushed towards the man, lifting him up and rapidly shaking him. As Billy kept shaking him, the man's eyes slowly opened up until Billy was satisfied and dropped the man back onto the couch. The man is now fully awake. 

“See, I knew it would work,” Billy said, turning towards Mickey with pride in his voice. 

The man slowly sat up looking around him, rubbing the back of his head. He glanced at everyone present in the room until his focus was on Billy baker. 

“What did you do?” he said, his voice shaking, almost scared towards Billy.  

“Hey I didn’t do anything, your the one who just appeared on Malloys couch” billy said defensively 

“Roll- '' the man's mouth moved to reply but he stopped himself from saying anything. He moved into a more comfortable position as he wrapped his arms around his body while looking down at the floor as his mouth curled in on itself. 

“So um hey, I’m Malloy Jenkins you might have heard of my dad, you seemed to have appeared on my couch” Malloy moved slowly closer towards the man hiding his fear within his voice. 

The man kept looking at the floor and back to the people in the room and back at the floor, making no attempts to continue the conversation. He kept trying to move his body back, trying to hide from the curious eyes of the group. 

“So … um what's your name?” Malloy continued talking. 

Hearing the direct question, the man quickly looked at Malloy, looking surprised at the question. His mouth slowly opened but closed as quickly as it opened. 

“I- don’t know” was all the words the man could muster. 

“Do you know who you are?” Billy asked, wanting to contribute 

“I do but…” the man stopped himself from saying more. 

“Man this is too weird, I mean a guy just appeared in my living room” Malloy walked backwards visibly showing how scared he was of the man. 

“I got it, what if we give you a name” Billy interjected, killing the silence. This idea had gotten the man’s attention as he looked surprised at Billy's comment. 

“I do not need another name billy baker” the last part slipped out of his mouth, as now Malloy’s full attention was back at the man and Billy took a few steps away from the man. 

“How do you know my name?” realising his mistake, he looked back down onto the floor struggling to speak.

“It's hard to explain, but I know more then you would think” 

“How!?” 

“I can’t explain it” 

“Don’t worry i’ll believe you” the man's eyebrow raised at Billy's response, curious about Billy's reaction. 

Billy has seen a lot of stuff. If anyone was going to believe this strange man it would be Billy or anyone apart of the kollok radar, there was stuff he had never considered to exist until the radar was formed.  

“I know what you have been through, all of you, Malloy, MickEy, Embeth, Laura, I am not someone you should be afraid of, I know your story Billy Baker” his words came out like fiction, the group didn’t know what to think, if he was even telling the truth or not. They weren't expecting the man to know their names, Billy took a few steps back and Mickey moved to be next to Billy hovering over him.  

“And why should we believe you?” Mickey chimed in, confronting the man in a defensive state, she moved closer to the man almost towering over him, as if Billy and Malloy left the room.  

“I understand how you wouldn’t believe me, but please, something is wrong and I need your help” the man begged, he begged to the group. The previous fear from the group changed to confusion, as micky gave the man some room to breath   

“Well you came to the right place sir, the Kollok radar is the best help you can get” Malloy said with pride, not understanding how serious this situation is. 

“Guys we shouldn’t trust him, not yet” Mickey said, turning towards Malloy, slightly forgetting the man was still in the room.   

“I understand how you wouldn’t trust me but please I need help. I don't know who else to go to” the man said with a hint of disgust like the sentence itself was unknown to him, he looked back down at the ground feeling his mouth with his hand. 

At this moment Malloy moved towards the man and Mickey took a few steps back, they were speechless. They gave each other a look as micky mumbled something under her breath and pointed to the hallway. 

“Excuse us for a moment” Mickey said, the man didn’t have time to respond as they all ran down the hallway.

A.N i had this fanfic in my docs for a while and now that i see that people are actually interested in kollok stuff, why not post it, its not beta read cause we die like men in this house, anyways so the chapter list might be all over the place so please don't mind that i have no idea what i am doing, anyways i will try my best to keep this upload regural but i will try

[clearwillow]

Do you intend to stop writing Inuyasha fanfics and focus solely on that anime called Bastard!!?

I am sorry that I was trying to find ways to make writing fun for me again, anon. I am sorry for not posting consistently on all of my published fics all at once. I am sorry for not catering to every reader's preferences in every one of those fics. I am sorry for finding another fandom to write for that has made me just as happy to create for as Inuyasha has, because this has clearly cut into someone's enjoyment. I'm really not trying to be angry, because this question has happened more than once, and it hurts.

I am sorry that you also caught me on a very bad day.

You see I've been in a world of pain for more than a week. I haven't written anything because I can't focus. It's been hard enough to draw. But that's irrelevant because the important thing here is not how I'm doing but will I continue to push out updates.

So to answer, no I don't intend to stop writing for Inuyasha...but just yesterday I was lamenting to a friend about if I should stop writing for Bastard. And that sucks, because I enjoy writing in that world. My family even noticed a difference in me, and they don't know I write fanfic.

It's amazing how I write just two stories in a different fandom and your first assumption is that I'm dropping my other work. That's not the case; I lost my confidence in my writing in the fandom. Things within the fandom have taken the joy out of writing as well. But as I was telling my friend yesterday, it doesn't feel like I'm capable of doing much in my writing beyond one or two things, no matter how much I try. That's been made apparent.

My current posting story for Bastard is finished. It's all the buffer I have, so I'm posting it in the off chance that someone gives it a chance. But rest assured, I'll get back to writing for Inuyasha. I'll start it this weekend, no matter how bad I feel because the important thing is that there's updates. They will be worked on, I promise.

[tiffany-chan123]

Tiffany's Fancuries For Your Consideration

Hey there folks! This is actually the fourth Fancuries that I'll be participating in, and my second "For Your Consideration" post that I've made during my time as not just a pretty cure fanseries creator but as a pretty cure fan.

Over the past couple of years, my cures and by extension fanseries tend to change a LOT, I have been trying to experiment with Kisekae and my drawn art more and I am planning on getting back into writing fanfiction and my fanseries (In fact I'm currently writing episode one of the main fanseries I'll be talking about in this very post)

~~~

Deep within the reaches of cyberspace, there is a secret world known simply as Arcadia, a place where all video game characters around can travel to their own games freely. However, the land of Arcadia was soon under attack by the villainous "Dark Network" and their army of monstrous glitches wanting to take over their world. However, a sneaky and speedy rabbit named Riki and a fairy named Aruna end up making their way to the human world and end up running into a girl named Mariko Asoda, but with Riki and Aruna on the run from the Baguras, Riki hands Mariko a Pixel Curesette and she then transforms into the heroine of exciting Action, Cure Action! Filled with determination to save the gaming world of Arcadia as well as her own, Cure Action's truly wild adventure is about to begin. Now! Pretty Cure Game Start!

The main themes of this series deal with stuff like technology, cyberspace, and reality and fiction, while motifs include stuff like video games, pixels, and 90's aesthetics. I plan on releasing this fanseries on a few fanfic sites (AO3, Quotev, even Wattpad) and I do have a wiki for it, if you are wondering about what I used to make the cures and other characters, it's Kisekae a pretty well-known dollmaker software (It can be pretty NSFW though just keep that in mind, though there is an SFW version if I remember correctly), though two characters have been made with picrew, but enough about that let's get into...

~~~

The Cures!

From Left to Right: Nene Kanemitsu, Mariko Asoda, Kayla Coleman, Aruna Yushi

Mariko Asoda / Cure Action (Pink)

A fourteen-year-old student council member with a soft spot for video games, a big daydreamer, and a selfless escapist who just wants to help people like the video game heroes she loves, but has a big sense of righteousness about her, loves to over indulge in her hobbies and always expects gratitude from others. Has a bit of a habit of saying "Level Up!". Becoming Cure Action, she is themed after action games and platformers and has fire powers.

Kayla Coleman / Cure Puzzle (Green)

A fifteen-year-old foreign exchange student originally from Brooklyn, New York, and despite her quiet disposition she is very much a crafty inventor type who has a love for crafting new ideas, despite that confident mask she wears, she is a massive introvert with some slight confidence issues, with a love for sarcasm and darker topics and just wants to be accepted and loved by others for the games she creates and codes. When she becomes Cure Puzzle, she gains the powers of the earth via stones and tetrominoes, and is themed after puzzle games.

Nene Kanemitsu / Cure Song (Yellow)

The daughter of the creator of the famous game mascot Riki the Rabbit, Nene is well-known as a passionate and competitive professional gamer who is a regular at the Skyblue arcade center, especially when it comes to rhythm games. Nene essentially acts as the mood maker of the group, going through life with a rather positive and takes life and everyday situations through good humor and optimism, but has a big obsession with idols and isn't afraid to talk about her hyper fixations for a long time, can be a bit careless, short-tempered, boisterous, and is not good with money at all. As Cure Song, she is themed after Rhythm Games and has the power of sound.

Aruna / Aru Yuushi / Cure Hero (Blue)

Originally known as the fairy priestess Aruna, a character that originated from the video game RPG Valianta Quest X, she made her home in the Pixel Pocket (Basically the transformation items of the season) after she was saved by Riki, who always wanted to become a knight out of the want to truly help out her kingdom, she eventually transformed into a human via learning a spell. A very defensive girl with a hard shell and tries to convey a heroic and yet cool image, but is a way more sensitive person underneath it all. As Cure Hero, she is themed after Adventure games and RPG's, and wields the power of light via the Bravery Sword, instead of the Virtual Sticks the cures normally use.

Allies

Riki

The protagonist of a popular platformer game series that Mariko is a big fan of. Riki can move at super fast speeds and pick things up with his ears, who is adventurous, lively, and a bit of an adrenaline junkie.

Princess Dahlia

The fair and sweet ruler of the Bloomfield kingdom, and despite her dainty and cutesy appearance, she is actually the leader of the resistance fighting against the “Dark Network” in Arcadia, in which she comes from the popular puzzle game “Puzzle De Puyo”.

Fumio Kanemitsu

Nene’s father and the man who created Riki the Rabbit, and currently works as a programmer for the video game company Kurotaki, moody, fickle, changeable, and obviously weirded out by the fact his creation is real, he ends up becoming a big ally to the team, mainly due to his knowledge about programming.

The Dark Network Fuguerror A mysterious glitchy being hidden within dark depths of cyberspace, he is a cruel, cunning, and yet oddly playful being, and is the one the Dark Network are trying to essentially complete, and summon him mainly via collecting Digi Data.

Belladonna

Leader of the generals and the one who founded the Dark Network group in the first place after discovering Fuguerror, a rather seductive and devious enchantress who is known for her self centered-ness, her love of making her presence known, and getting a kick out of seeing people enraged and essentially teasing her enemies, she's also known for her love of making very odd smelling (And toxic!) "perfume". Belladonna comes from the medieval beat em up game "Radira Fight Knights"

Doctor Serpentine

Riki the Rabbit's number one adversary and a rather dastardly mad scientist taking the form of a snake, he mostly tries to take down foes with the many robotic suits he builds, and he loves flaunting his intelligence skill in robotics, despite his aggressive way of speaking to others. Nikto

A rather cunning if rather short wizard. Nikto acts as a mediator between the villainous group and tends to try and take Belladonna down the peg a little, he's also very skilled at magic, especially when it comes to illusions and trickery which he often tries to take advantage of to his own benefits, and really doesn't like it when people make fun of his height. He is the main villain of the famous RPG "Valianta Quest V". Adalram

A Mysterious Swordsman with a wide set of tools, and a man who is a rather flirty soul who likes to use his wit and charm to recruit other villains to Dark Network's cause, but he is dedicated to protecting the other members, namely Miss Belladonna. He comes from the popular adventure game series "Secret Sword".

~~~ And do you think this is the only fanseries I have...No, I have another, a Ninja, family and Japanese mythology-based fanseries, that being... Doron! Kunoichi Precure!

I haven't made a logo for the fanseries yet and I don't have a lot of designs for it (Only the cures have been designed so far), so please bear with me.

For nineteen generations, the Kaminarimon school of ninjas have been protecting both Earth and the Celestial Plains from the Kagemashu Army of yokai, creatures who emerge from the shadowy depths of the underworld to cause fear and terror to those around them. But when it seemed that the nineteenth generation of ninja had finally sealed Nurarihyon and his army for good, one yokai ended up breaking the seal years later with the Kagemashu beginning their attacks again, with the current head of the Kaminarimon household Shosuke, and his daughter Tomoe beginning a plan to recruit some new legendary ninja to combat the new threat. And when a compassionate middle school girl named Shinobu Fuuno ends up stumbling upon a scroll hidden within the back of a shrine near the Kaminarimon household, and she ends up summoning five friendly spirits but ends up running into Nopperabo and the Kagemashu’s deadly monsters the Maganoke, however with the help of the Doron Commune she transforms into the legendary ninja of the wind, Cure Shippu! Protecting the Earth from evil, hiding deep within the shadows, now change! Precure let’s ninja GO!

Cures!

From left to right: Tomoe Kaminarimon, Fujiko Takayama, Shinobu Fuuno, Hiyori Hinomiya, Kozue Kobayashi

Shinobu Fuuno / Cure Shippu (Pink)

An airy girl with a love for Japanese Traditions as well as Samurai and Ninja Dramas (with her father being an actor in these drama’s himself in the past), she prefers not standing out among her classmates though can't help but run her mouth when she feels like it, but wants to find out what happened to her mother. Has the habit of saying “Feel the wind!” and as Cure Shippu, she wields the power of the wind.

Kozue Kobayashi / Cure Shinrin (Green)

A sensible, tall, reliable, and yet traditional girl akin to a Yamato Nadeshiko, Kozue is good at giving advice to others and is a geisha in training aside from her pretty cure duties and has a love for familiarity and making wagashi…However, she is a massive party animal and is terrible with technology, and such her fellow piers at her geisha training look down upon her because of it, and as Cure Shinrin, she wields the power of wood.

Hiyori Hinomiya / Cure Rekka (Red)

A Shrine Maiden working at a local shrine with a bit of a hot-blooded and passionate flair, she is skilled at archery and is very action-oriented, and can be a bit prideful and impulsive despite her being a bit responsible and mature. Is a bit jealous of Shinobu being the leader and has a habit of setting high standards for herself, mainly due to the fact she was chosen because her sister (Who was going to become a cure) had fallen ill at the time, and as Cure Rekka, she wields the power of fire.

Fujiko Takayama / Cure Gunzan (Blue)

A very emotional yet secretive and sensitive girl who is rather knowledgeable though with a bit of a hard shell, but can have her moments where she can get more than a bit dramatic, mainly because of her theater-loving background and has a soft spot for folklore, especially spirits, and yokai, and as Cure Gunzan she wields the power of the earth.

Tomoe Kaminarimon / Cure Raitei (Yellow)

The future head of the Kaminarimon household and a woman who acts as the mentor to the cures, and while she does have a rather cold and strict exterior, she actually has a rather adventurous and even unpredictable and spontaneous side to her, akin to that of lightning, which she wields as Cure Raitei.

Unfortunately, I only have basic ideas for the other characters currently. I'm planning on the mascots essentially being small spirit gods from the Celestial Plains which are ruled by the big good Amaterasu (Yes, the Shinto Sun Goddess herself). The villains I do have more ideas for, with them basically being a sort of criminal organization of Yokai with each general being based on one (The Nine-Tailed Fox, Tengu, Oni, etc.) with the big bad being Nurarihyon. But Aside from the cures I haven't designed em. ~~~ And that's all I have been mainly working on so far in terms of Fanseries, really hope you all have enjoyed reading this post, as much as I had fun making it.

See you later guys, gals, and enby pals alike!

[d1ana-m0nd]

Lately, I've noticing an influx on the number of notes and my follower count that I am receiving, because of my fanfiction series called "The Servant". Its most likely because of the release TUA S4, most of you guys probably came across my work due to chance or the 'algorithm' (I have no idea how Tumblr works 😅). I am very thankful for your support of the fanfic series and to my blog.

However, I have come to be the bearer of bad news. I will not continue writing "The Servant", it is officially discontinued.

I'm discontinuing the fanfic because as much as I love TUA S1-S3, S4 left a bad taste in my mouth. The way it was written and how the subplots were handled pissed me off, it didn't help either that most of the characters (Besides Allison, Klaus, Viktor / Victor) were butchered in my eyes because of how mishandled the writing was.

Now, I can probably tell what your gonna say. 'Why not just write your own season 4? ' or 'Why not just write S1-S3 then for S4 focus on writing about Five and Y/N's relationship? '

Here's the thing, I am not confident in my own writing to be that good, that it makes everyone say 'Yeah, they would definitely do this.'

I understand that writing is purely subjective, it can be interpreted in different ways by different people; we all have different headcanons and perceive a character differently. So, at the end of the day, not everyone will be satisfied with what I wrote.

The thing is, I'm just more comfortable with writing a character who I can understand, relate to, and research on. Right now, the Five Hargreeves I watched on S4 feels like a different person, and I hate how short that season was, because I genuinely cannot fathom: how, what, why, and where, this Five Hargreeves came from. In addition, my hatred for cheaters most likely hindered my interest on the series, thus leading me to back away. 🤷‍♀️

I'm trying to practice to not be so methodical with my writing, and how I try to delve deeper into the story to understand the character. Unfortunately, that won't be happening on this fanfic because I'll be applying it on my other fics.

Moreover, it doesn't help that season 4 completely obliterated my fixation on the series. I am not satisfied with the ending. I hate how this specific season alone was written. I hate how I can't see the characters the same way ever again after that shit show. I hate how I can't even see the media that I once loved the same way ever again. In conclusion, TUA S4 made me lose interest on TUA and I don't plan on writing for it at this point. 😭

I sincerely apologize if you were looking forward to me updating "The Servant". I'm only letting you guys know because I don't want to get new readers hopes up, and you guys have every right to know if I planned to finish the fanfic or not. Doesn't help either that I feel guilty over the fact that a lot of people are following me, most of them most likely don't know that I don't intend on continuing the series. I also had to share my final verdict on whether the fanfic series was officially discontinued or not, so this announcement post was inevitable. 🥹

[shallanigans]

So, you want to write fanfiction? Here's some advice from someone who spends too much time on ao3, Part 1:

Hey everyone! This is a bit of a deviation from my usual shitposts. I was looking at the "#writers on tumblr" tag today, and I got inspired to post this after some interesting discussions. I'm someone who has read a lot (and I mean A LOT) of fanfic, as well as written some myself... so I thought I'd make this little (no, I lied, it's Very Long) post with some writing tips that I find personally meaningful for those of you who may be getting started or want to try something new.

My qualifications? Honestly, because I said so. This is just my opinion. Feel free to ignore, disagree, hate, ask questions, whatever. I'll be discussing some common fanfic writing advice and what I think about it, as well as giving some general pointers.

Disclaimer: What is "good writing?"

Good writing is effective writing. There is no one way in which everyone should write. Effective writing compels the reader; it makes them interested in your story, keeps them turning the pages, makes them click that "next chapter" button and stay up all night to finish your 500k epic. Some people achieve this through flowery, descriptive prose. Others do so with their quick wit and snappy dialogue. Others write all their fanfictions in second person epistolary format only and make you cry harder than you ever have. The first thing to know is that 1) tastes vary and 2) confidence matters. Find your voice, and be proud of it. If you feel that what you are doing is working for you, and you love it, then keep at it. Someone has already made every "writing mistake" and made it well. Don't fall into the trap of getting bogged down with 674835 contradictory tips and being too terrified to write at all. The only real writing sin is being boring.

Furthermore, this post is for fanfiction specifically. A lot of this advice might be useful for traditional fiction, but it's not a 1:1 carryover. A lot of fanfic advice will be irrelevant for traditional fiction, and vice versa.

That's all fine and dandy, but what do I do?

Good question. First, let's break down what makes a fanfiction effective. Most people searching ao3 for a story probably want:

A compelling premise

With in-character characters

Good spelling, formatting, grammar, and syntax

Stylistically strong writing

A coherent plot

With a certain degree of wish-fulfillment sprinkled in (this is fanfic, after all)

In this series, I will be mostly discussing elements 2-6. Number 1, unfortunately, comes down to "don't be boring," and I can't tell you how to come up with an idea that's going to hook your reader. However, assuming that you already have The Coolest Idea Ever, and you only need the reader to see that, then here's what you can do:

Effective Summaries

No, seriously. Tell people what your fucking story is about. One of my favorite stories on ao3 has the worst, vaguest one-liner of a summary I've ever seen. It is a gem, and if it hadn't been for a friend's recommendation, I would have never read it. You may think that your epic out of context quote from the paragraph you spent hours perfecting will make people care, but it will probably just confuse them. This is likely to be the most controversial thing I say today, so I'm starting off strong.

When I say effective summary, I mean a summary that will tell people the basic premise of the plot while also making them want to learn more. I don't mean something fancy. I mean something like:

When Blorbo started his new tech development job at Tumblr, he never expected to have Blorbette for a boss. She is smart, cold, calculating - and, to his horror, totally irresistible. In order to win her heart, he decides to make her jealous by fake-dating his colleague and frenemy, Blorbinson. But he soon finds that there is more to his mysterious friend than meets the eye. Could it be that the real Tumblr sexyman has been next to him all along?

That's a pretty standard summary for a relatively long fic. It's nothing fancy, but it tells the reader what the story's about. Now this same summary, in the hands of someone who refuses to inform the reader about the premise of the story, would probably say something like:

His eyes are the color of spring.

You can get away with that kind of stuff more often in a one-shot, but best practice is always to tell your reader what the story is about. Say to your reader:

Blorbinson's eyes are too easy to get lost in. Blorbo cannot find his way out.

If you MUST include a quote from your story, then do it alongside your informative summary, in the much-loved format below:

"What do you mean Welcome to Nightvale is winning the contest?" --- In which things get heated at Tumblr dot com, and Blorbinson's the one making Blorbo get all sweaty.

I can already hear you arguing. You say to me, "But there are people who choose quotes that are both pretty AND informative! But writing anything is better than writing nothing in the summary!"

True. My response to the first point is this: if you had mastered that skill, you wouldn't be here. A simple, to-the-point-summary is almost never going to make the interested reader scroll past your story. You know what will? An out-of-context block of text about how much Sans Undertale loves the player from chapter 3, paragraph six.

To the second point, I say: obviously. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't seek to improve. No one is perfect. I'm certainly not. But you're doing yourself a disservice by spending so much time and effort on the content of your story and then fumbling it on the home stretch. If you take pride in your work (and I'm assuming you do, because you posted this story for a reason), then make like a chef at a five-star restaurant and start caring about presentation. It goes without saying that there shouldn't be any typos in the summary.

A note on tagging: I will make a separate post on tagging your stories appropriately. This is a writing-related rant.

Now, onto characterization:

If you're one of those people who thinks that there's no such thing as "too OOC," congratulations. May you enjoy fanfiction free from the shackles of the narrative. Tag appropriately and have fun. If you're like the rest of us haters, you probably want to keep your characters as faithful to canon as possible. Yes, even in an AU.

I've included this wonderful addition because entryn17 said it better than I ever could have. There's difference of interpretation, and then there's Severus Snape deciding that James Potter was actually just misunderstood.

Being "in-character" is an elusive ideal that we all strive for, but no one can quite tell you what it means except for "the vibes." The way I like to define it is this: If you asked yourself the question "Would He Fucking Say That/Do That/Feel That?" and the answer is "yes, absolutely," then it's in-character. If the answer is "absolutely not," then it's out of character. If the answer is "maybe?" then your goal is to move that needle firmly into the Yes camp.

To do this, you must first determine what is making you unsure. Is it the dialogue? Is your stuffy Edwardian speaking like a Gen Alpha well-versed in Cocomelonese? Is your overconfident flirt stammering and stuttering through a conversation? Often, the content of what a character is saying agrees perfectly with the source material, but the how doesn't match it. Beta readers can help with this, as can going back to the source material to study a character's speech patterns in canon. You don't have to get it perfect. Just make sure it doesn't stand out. Would Snape perhaps say "Come over here!" in a much wordier, snarkier manner? Maybe. Maybe not. But he sure as hell wouldn't say, "Yo! bring your ass over and check this out!"

Actions and feelings are a bit trickier. There's always some leeway in personal interpretation here, and most of the time your reader won't question this very much so long as the rest of the story keeps them engaged. One OOC action or thought is easy to brush off. Ten, not so much. Read up on the wiki pages for whatever you're writing, go back to the source material, and maybe get the opinion of a willing beta reader. Ultimately, if your characters start feeling like featureless puppets subject to your whims rather than people with established personalities, you might want to go back and revisit what made them stand out to you in the first place.

Keep things consistent within your story. Especially in AUs and canon divergence fics, there are certain character traits that are malleable. Maybe Draco Malfoy wouldn't have been such a dickhead if he'd had caring adult mentors in his life. So, justify that within your story. You don't necessarily need to keep the characterization faithful to the canon, but you do need to convince the reader that their beloved character has a reason for their behavior. Keep things consistent. Whenever a character deviates from their canon behavior, make sure there's a valid explanation for it in your narrative.

Don't fall for the trap of confusing canon and fanon. Fandom is like a game of telephone. Someone writes one story of Blorbo adopting a cat, and suddenly he's the biggest cat person in the universe. The poor author who posts about Blorbo's canonical love of dogs gets trashed for writing OOC. You can't prevent people getting mad at you, but you can always grin smugly and go to bed happy with the knowledge that you were right. Someone will love you for it.

SPAG

Ew! It sounds like something your dog spit up. Spelling and Grammar might be boring, but they're necessary. You shouldn't break the rules until you know the rules. One day, you will write a run-on postmodern epic to rival the worst of Wallace's page-long sentences. Today is not that day. No one wants to open a story only to be greeted by a massive block of text, a lack of punctuation, and a heretofore undiscovered form of there/they're/their.

In the modern age, we have many tools at our disposal to clarify our SPAG doubts. Dictionaries! Spellcheck! The weirdos on those Substack forums! Oh, my. If you wrote your story at 3AM directly onto the ao3 editor, perhaps take a moment to run it through some kind of spellchecker before posting. Microsoft Word has a pretty good one, but Grammarly and other such software can help you if that's not available. There's also nothing quite like a beta reader. There are people in this world who love picking apart every comma, period, and quotation mark, and they'll be happy to do it for you. I am one of them, and I volunteer. There are many of us.

Here are some SPAG mistakes common in fanfiction.

1.Your/you're, they're/their/there, "could of," and "lie" vs "lay."

"YOUR" means that something is yours. You possess that thing. YOUR story is going to be great if you fix the grammar. "YOU'RE" is a contracted form of "YOU ARE." If you fix your grammar, YOU'RE going to be a great writer.

They're: Shortened form of "they are." They're going to the beach. They're very nice people.

Their: They possess a thing. A thing belongs to them. They're going to the beach in THEIR car.

There: Related to a place. You are going to be THERE. THERE are many pretty horses in the field.

"Could of" does not exist. It is an incorrect way of writing "could've," the shortened form of "could have."

The verbs lie and lay are tricky ones. You (a person) LIE down on your bed. You LAY an object down on a surface. However, the past tense of LIE is LAY. I know! Who invented English, am I right? Blorbo LIES on his bed in the present tense. He LAY on his bed in the past.

The past tense of "lay" is "laid." Blorbo LAID down his water bottle.

2. Run-on sentences.

Sometimes, when we're writing, we get a little excited. We have so many thoughts and we never know how to end them. You might think the solution here is to just keep throwing down commas, but you'd be wrong.

Run-on sentences can be effective if used intentionally, but a lot of the time, they're not. The period isn't your enemy. In general, you want to make sure your sentences have a subject, a verb, and an object, and that they end when you've finished your thought.

Blorbo was the most beautiful of all the tumblr sexymen. He really liked to show off his sick gains at the gym. He had a hot wife and an even hotter side piece.

This writing isn't very exciting, but it's correct. Contrast that with:

Blorbo was the most beautiful of all the tumblr sexymen, he really liked to show off his sick gains at the gym, he had a hot wife and an even hotter side piece.

Finish your thoughts. There are ways to connect independent clauses (a group of words that can work on its own as a sentence) correctly, like the semicolon; the semicolon is a great piece of punctuation. There is also the em-dash. Sometimes, you really need to add clarification to a thought — you really want to emphasize the second part of what you're saying. Em-dashes also work like a cooler version of parentheses — because who uses those, am I right? — and can help you seem like a chic and seasoned writer. Don't overuse them, though. I know you want to. And no, I don't heed my own advice here.

Look, these rules aren't intuitive. I can't possibly go through all of them in a way that's easy and digestible. There are smarter people than me who have written all about it, and I use incorrect punctuation all the time. Misplacing a comma isn't going to be the end of the world for your story, but at least give it a once-over with a beta or spellchecker to fix the worst of it. At the very least, make the reader think that run-on sentence was totally on purpose.

3. Paragraphs

Make sure your paragraphs stick to a single theme or thought. Fanfiction writers love to have one-sentence paragraphs for the impact, but you don't need to do that. Just keep them coherent. For example, if you're writing about Blorbo's weekend, you might say,

Blorbo loved Saturdays. On Saturdays, the world seemed to sparkle and sing with the whole of the city's shared happiness over not having to work. He would wake up on those mornings and leap out of bed while singing a jaunty little tune. Then, he'd text Blorbinson a string of heart emojis and plan to meet up for their weekly ice cream date. But Sundays — oh, how he hated Sundays! Sundays were the day before Monday, and he'd always spend so long worrying about going back to the office that, by the time he decided to do something, it would be dark outside already.

Each of the paragraphs above, clumsy as they are, have a clear idea that starts and ends within the same paragraph. If you talk about Blorbo's Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday all within one paragraph, your reader will be confused!

On the other hand, if you make every single paragraph one line, your reader is going to resent you. You have unwittingly made them take part in a bad action thriller. One-line paragraphs are supposed to be impactful and create suspense. When writing, a good tip is to consider the word "impactful" a synonym of "sparing." See below:

Blorbo loved Saturdays. On Saturdays, the world seemed to sparkle and sing with the whole of the city's shared happiness over not having to work. He would wake up on those mornings and leap out of bed while singing a jaunty little tune. Then, he'd text Blorbinson a string of heart emojis and plan to meet up for their weekly ice cream date.

Doesn't it suck? Not to mention all that scrolling!

3. Dialogue

Right off the bat, I'll say that the best way to learn how to format dialogue is by reading books. Not fanfiction. BOOKS. They have been checked by an editor, so you know you're getting the real deal. Generally, well-formatted dialogue achieves an engaging and seamless conversation between your characters. Poorly-formatted dialogue forces your reader into a game of Who's Who?

See for, instance, the following abomination:

"I can't believe you cheated on me with Blorbette!" Blorbo had been crying about it for a week. His tears would soon erode a riverbank down his cheeks. Blorbinson sneered at him, "I can't believe you ever thought this was real." "I was only with you for the tax benefits." No! How could you? Blorbo said. Blorbinson laughed a wicked laugh and looked at him. "My heart is shattered into a million tiny pieces. Love isn't real!"

Did you follow that? Because I sure didn't. Generally, here are the rules of dialogue:

Start a new line for each character that speaks, and keep a single character's dialogue within the same paragraph.*

Use dialogue tags to CLARIFY who is speaking. Note: I said clarify. If it's redundant take it out. I will write more about good (not merely correct) dialogue in a follow-up post.

Put a period after or before an ACTION tag in dialogue, but a comma before a SPEECH tag. The reason you do this is that ["Here is an example line of dialogue," he said] is a complete sentence, but ["Here is an example line of dialogue." He looked at his watch.] is TWO sentences. The quotation marks are merely to indicate speech. Whether or not something is a sentence is determined by the content of what the writing actually says, not by any punctuation it may have.

Use quotation marks to indicate speech. If you want to quote something within quotation marks (in American English), you put it in single quotes, like so: "And then he called me 'a lost cause who's doomed to be single forever.' Can you believe that?"

By following these rules, we get the much nicer:

"I can't believe you cheated on me with Blorbette!" Blorbo had been crying about it for a week. His tears would soon erode a riverbank down his cheeks. Blorbinson sneered at him. "I can't believe you ever thought this was real. I was only with you for the tax benefits." "No! How could you?" Blorbinson only laughed a wicked laugh. "My heart is shattered into a million tiny pieces. Love isn't real!" Blorbo said.

Obviously that's still pretty bad, but now it's readable. Formatting your dialogue properly will fix a lot of problems with your story, make it clear who is talking, and make the reading experience much nicer for everyone.

* An Important addendum: sometimes, characters will speak for a long time, and you'll want to split up their dialogue into paragraphs. To do that, you start the dialogue in quotation marks, but you leave them open until the character is done speaking, like so:

"My favorite thing about Blorbinson was that he always knew just what to say. He had this magical ability to always tell when I was sad, and he showed up with ice cream every single time. It always made me feel better," Blorbo said. "I can't believe our relationship is over now. I should probably tell you all about how that happened. "I walked into my house one day to find another pair of shoes by the door, where Blorbinson's usually are. I knew Blorbinson would never wear those shoes, because his style is more boho-inspired. Anyway, my worst fear was confirmed when I walked into the bedroom and found him there with Blorbette! My two loves, betraying me so callously!"

This is common in fantasy stories where you need to impart some deep lore knowledge on the reader, or for characters who like to talk a lot.

4. Verb tenses (edited after posting, in true fanfic writer fashion)

Us writers tend to have very strong opinions about verbs. You could even say things get a little bit... tense sometimes. Ok, but seriously; whether you write in past or present doesn't matter. What matters is that you keep things consistent.

Nothing takes the reader out of a fanfic faster than abrupt tense switches in the middle of the narrative. If you are writing in a specific verb tense, stick with it.

Don't say:

Blorbo is never sure what Blorbinson is thinking. He watched him chew his pencil from across the office, that beautiful face scrunched in concentration as he stares at his computer. Blorbo knows he's in love the minute Blorbinson looks back.

DO say:

Blorbo was never sure what Blorbinson was thinking. He watched him chew his pencil from across the office, that beautiful face scrunched in concentration as he stared at his computer. Blorbo knew he was in love the minute Blorbinson looked back. or Blorbo is never sure what Blorbinson is thinking. He watches him chew his pencil from across the office, that beautiful face scrunched in concentration as he stares at his computer. Blorbo knows he's in love the minute Blorbinson looks back.

When we write in past tense and we want to talk about events that happened prior to the narrative, we use the past perfect. When we write in present, we can use either simple past or past perfect. This one's kind of iffy. As you write more, you'll get a sense of what "sounds correct."

Ultimately, your choice of verb tense is personal opinion and what you feel best fits your story. Just make sure that you keep whatever you choose consistent. A beta reader can help you with this.

And that's it for Part 1!

This post dealt with some technical, basic things about fanfic that will mostly be useful to new writers. I will be going more in depth about making your prose stronger at the sentence level in Part 2, where #4 is getting an entire post. It'll probably be even longer than this one. I hope it was able to help someone!

[musing-and-music]

Royai week 2023 fic recs

In honor of Royai week in the Fruits & Roots server, I chose to highlight some of my favorite Royai fics I gathered these past years (not many years, since I've been on AO3 for 2 years and a half only). Each day, I'll recommend a few fics in a particular setting

Day 7: Happy Royai Day! Free for all - On-going fics

To end this series of fanfic recs, here is a list of a few on-going fanfictions that I love and think about sometimes. Go give them some love, because they all deserve it! And don't hesitate to comment, because you know what? Comments are the writer's fuel

Another point: this post is not here for you to pressure the authors to update their fics, but to give you things to give love to!

one single thread of gold tied me to you by fullmetallizard

Roy is a single father who is carrying a torch (terrible pun for the flame alchemist, I know) for his best friend, Riza Hawkeye. Is she carrying a torch of her own? Yes. Will they get together as a cute little modge podge family? Proabably.

One of my earliest bookmarks, it's fluffy, it's so good!

to heal by priscilladm, vadeofspades / @priscilla-dm @mayfieldarc

In the aftermath of the Promised Day, Roy Mustang ponders two things: how to ensure the wellbeing of Riza Hawkeye, and how to follow through on an offer made to him by the Xingese princess who saved Riza's life.

I love this one a lot!

Humanity hangs on a blood-iron cross by blackinkpen / @blackinkpen

Berthold Hawkeye built the first jaeger, an uncontrollable nuclear heart meant to take out the seven Kaiju. Alone, brutal—the first and last of the pilots to try maneuvering the giants on their own. Sins, they were named, coming in waves... Lust and Envy, Gluttony, with its bulging stomach and Pride, faster than the rest of them. Sloth slumbered until near the end, taking down three Jaegers at once... but we're not here to talk about them. Not yet, anyways. Berthold's work is commandeered by the military. Iron Prophet, the first of the Jaegers to rise, and the first to fall. A monster slices right through his heart, sending nuclear clouds shattering across the sky. Berthold makes it through that day... but not many more, as he hides the cough and blood and pain from radiation poisoning. Years later, Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye pilot his final work.

FMAxPacRim? I say yes! Filled with angst but also hope, I keep this fic close to my heart

memento amare by firewoodfigs / @firewoodfigs

Riza pays a hefty price when she’s forced to open the Gate in Roy’s stead.

Actually, my first bookmark. Angst for Roy, hope for Riza, slow burn for both

a study in reformation by firewoodfigs / @firewoodfigs

She doesn’t like him, doesn’t like his hair, doesn’t like his face, doesn’t like his conceited attitude and the way he’s looking at her like she’s wasting his time (and not the other way round). Roy doesn’t care. - or the college au where Roy is still a pain in the ass, a thorn in the flesh and the bane of Riza's existence

Does it show that there's authors I love? And their fics as well?

The flicker by Beryllium_Astatine / @beryllium--astatine

I'll sing of the years you will spend getting sadder and older Oh love, and the cold, the oncoming cold Riza spends a few of her young years with someone she didn't want to.

Young Royai, depicted with rich and poetic writing

Unexpectedly by waddiwasiwitch / @waddiwasiwitch

Riza discovers she is pregnant and confides in her best friend, Roy, who has got some secrets of his own.

I want to lock those two idiots in the same room until they've confessed their feelings. It's so good to read this one!

Five Times (series) by 13IceAngel13

Five times Colonel Mustang didn't kiss Lieutenant Hawkeye. One time Roy kissed Riza.

&

Five times Hawkeye didn't kiss Mustang and one time Riza kissed Roy. Companion piece to Five Times Mustang didn't kiss Hawkeye and one time Roy kissed Riza.

Mutual pining at its best, and 5+1 things!

Voices of the Court by Quietshade / @qs63

A meeting gone south spirals into a full investigation of one of East Area's most powerful Generals.

I love how Royai work together here, and the way the themes are approached

Show me a hero by GelatoSushi / @gelatosushix

As the Ishvalan conflict still casts a shadow over Central even six years after the Promised Day, Mustang and Hawekey are violently separated hours before Mustang is meant to be finally named Fuhrer. Now, Hawkeye is desperately searching for a man she's not sure is still alive, while Mustang still waits for a woman he's been told is dead.

Heavy plot and angst!

~~

Thank you to all the people who reblogged and liked these fic rec lists for the past week! I hope I gave you good recommendations!

[practically-an-x-man]

1, 10, 13 and 24 for the ask game? (hope you had fun at round two of Deadpool & Wolverine!)

Thank you so much!! (and I did!! it's just as good the second time around!)

Since you mentioned the movie, I'll answer for the Deadpool/X-Men fandom :D

Choose Violence Ask Game

the character everyone gets wrong

This is less about the character and more about how fanfic authors write him, but... Deadpool himself. I get that he's tough to write, and it's hard to do fourth-wall breaks and have them come across as funny rather than cringey, but it's just... I don't know how to describe it, it's just not quite right. It just comes across as super heavyhanded rather than playful and cheeky. Even when people manage to get his characterization decently accurate (though that's also rare - as is typical of fanfic, he gets smoothed out and softened a lot), there's something about his style of humor that just never seems to land in the fanfics I've read.

Maybe it's just that his humor translates more to a visual-forward media like comics or movies, and it doesn't quite work in pure prose, but it just irks me either way.

10. worst part of fanon

The X-Men of course is a super found-family-heavy franchise, and I love that in canon... but people get so weird about it in fanon. It's the same pitfall you see in found family tropes a lot, where people try to ascribe these nuclear family dynamics onto the characters regardless of whether it fits, and it grinds my gears so much. Yes, these people love each other like family! No, that does not make Charles and Erik the dads and Logan the grumpy uncle and Kurt the baby brother or whatever! They don't have to have an assigned "role" in this found family dynamic, and their dynamics in canon are way too complex to even fit those roles without chopping away massive pieces of their characterizations.

13. worst blorboficiation

RAVEN FUCKING DARKHOLME!! Look. I love her. I really really do. But oh my god she needs to stop being people's blorbos. It's a mix between people who have only seen the movies turning her into this sweet, monogamous, never-does-wrong hero character, and people who have actually read the comics getting rightfully pissed off at that characterization.

I don't think Jennifer Lawrence made a bad Raven, and I think it works for her as a young Raven still trying to find herself, before she has the confidence that will lead to her being the bisexual, morally-flexible antihero we see in the comics, but I also think that people get way too devoted to that depiction of her and brush away all those sharper sides.

24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

Anything ship-related, especially when it relates to Scott, Jean, Ororo, Logan, or some combination of the four of them. I hate shipping discourse as a whole, but there's something about those four characters that just send people into this absolute frenzy over what the "right" ship is.

I've only seen it kicking back up again, first with X-Men '97 and now with the Honda Odyssey scene in Deadpool and Wolverine. Y'all. It's fiction. All of your ships can coexist, it's not like the fictional characters are going to seek out a divorce lawyer because you posted some rarepair fanart.

[uhhhyaenbyjade]

@mimbotomy tagged me in a fun tag game for fanfic writers, so here's my answers!!!!

How many works do you have on AO3? I have 62 total works, and I am so disappointed in a lot of them 😅

What's your total AO3 word count? 339,839 words!

What fandoms do you write for? Lately I've been working a lot on fics with AC: Odyssey, Monsterverse, and VicTORIous. However, I did recently do a fic for Mean Girls (2024) and I used to write a lot for BNHA/MHA, when I was very big on that fandom, but all those fics are really bad and cringe so I try to pretend they don't exist. I also have some batfamily fics, and a few for Dynasty. A few oneshots here and there with that fic being my only work in the fandom. And how could I forget, Horizon!

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Confidence - What a Hero Needs - this annoys me so much, it was my first fic, EVER. I wrote it 4 years ago, and it's still my most popular, I've written much better stuff. I've even REWRITTEN THIS ONE AND THE OG IS STILL MORE POPULARR GKHDGHJHWJHK Apects Unknown - or are they? - a fun batfamily and wonderbat based fic off of my own mini-universe. Very cute, and very proud of this fic Perseverance - What a Hero Needs - the immediate follow up to Confidence. Again, I've written a lot better stuff "What? I like hero merch!" - My favorite crack fic I've written. Also BNHA/MHA based, but this was just fun and cute Among (Us) the Villains - yet another BNHA/MHA fic, but this time it's based about Izuku being friends with the LoV. And gaming with them. Made around the time of Among Us, hence the title

Do you respond to comments? I try, especially once I post something new. But honestly, a lot of my responses end up being just hearts or "thank you's" and it personally makes me feel like I'm being disingenuine when i respond with them too much

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I suppose Kumandra's Heart? But that was more sad than angst, I think?

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Pretty Girls, my Mean Girls (2024) fic!!!! I love this one so much, it's one of the few I go back and reread often! Basically a rewrite of the movie to be a lot gayer.

Do you get hate on fics? Oh yeah, there was this one marvel fic I did, and this one commenter was really mad that I wasn't going exactly as canon dictated. Because of course

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? I have a few fics with smut, and it's mainly kink-based. Definitely love involved too, but very kink-based.

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? Yes! I enjoy it a lot! My craziest one would probably have to be the one I'm currently writing, combining the Assassin's Creed universe and Legendary's Monsterverse. It's called Ancients Risen Anew, and based on Kassandra joining MONARCH after the G-Day event in 2014!

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not to my knowledge! I made all my fics available only to registered users for the purpose of keeping them as safe as I can while still sharing them.

Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope! Would love to see it happen though!

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Nope! It sounds interesting to do though!

What's your all time favorite ship? I would have to say Jade West/Tori Vega. The good old classic gay couple from Nickelodeon, as much as we hate how that era of TV was behind the scenes. A close second would probably be Aloy/Seyka, from Horizon. I just love them so much, they're my little blorbos (i think i used that term right :D)

What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I have a few, but I'll talk about Cascade for now. It's the marvel fic I mentioned earlier, and I kinda lost all interest in marvel recently. The last media I saw was The Marvels, and I enjoyed it a lot, but I kinda got oversaturated with too much Marvel stuff, and not enough of it was as amazing like Shang-Chi was to make me wanna stay interested. Will definitely watch the stuff I'm interested in though (anything with Kate Bishop and Yelena)

What are your writing strengths? Hmmmm, tough one. I would say lore. I love writing lore and explaining lore. I am also very good at writing outlines.

What are your writing weaknesses? Fight scenes. Especially fast paced ones. I love the choreography in movies, but how am I supposed to translate the fast-paced combat into writing in a way that feels natural????

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I have done this for a short story! Please go check it out, its non-fandom related so it didn't get traction, but oh my god i did so much research for it and I love it. It's called Children of Níðhǫggr!

First fandom you wrote for? Boku no Hero Academia / My Hero Academia. Please, end me

Favorite fic you've written? How the fuck am I supposed to choose just one?!??!?! I'll limit myself to five, to keep this short, lol Ink & Sparks - which is my favorite Jade West/Tori Vega fic. I rewrote it several times, and the version linked is the best one I've done. Please check it out, I love it so much! There's More To Life Than Surviving! - Honestly, this one is a contender for top fic. A crack fic, but for Ninjago! Loved it a lot The Titan of the Pearl - A very nice fic I wrote combining the Pirates of the Caribbean and Godzilla. Because I can Kumandra's Heart - A slight ending rewrite of Raya, the Last Dragon, which is my personal favorite Disney Princess movie Pretty Girls - the Mean Girls (2024) fic I mentioned earlier. I love this one so much, and like I said, I keep going back to reread it, that's how much I enjoy it Going to tag @aeide, @hartlesshart, @foibles-fables, and @spectres-n-knights for this! And if anyone else wants to, please go ahead!

[jittyjames]

so late to this, but! for the ask game!! 5, 13 (bc i need to read more fics in both hamilton and jcs lmao), and 16!

5. i think my writing has improved a lot since i first posted mine to subdue. i think i've grown more confident with knowing what i want to say and how i want to say it. i might be wrong, but i think i've developed a style that is consistent which i'm very proud of. i basically improved on the smoothness of writing, too, i think (i could be so wrong). i basically improved all of this just by working nonstop, and writing every chance i get. i do want to write different things every now and again. i feel like my works can get repetitive very quickly, and often that's what stops me from posting if i think a fic is too similar to something i've already done, or someone else has written something under the same premise. so that's kind of what i'm working on. i want to be able to bring something fresh and unique, so i'm trying to work on expanding my vocabulary a bit more and think of new ideas.

13. oooo this is so good. first and foremost i will say, i believe fic writers (And fan artists naturally) are what keep fandoms and my fixations on them alive, so these fics have greatly impacted me in that way, and the excellence of them inspires me to keep writing and keep going. for hamilton, i have read the fics for years. i've been on ao3, fanfiction.net, and wattpad since practically the beginning. i remember when there was <100 posted on ao3. like it goes so far back. sons of libertea by fihli was my favorite fic when i was thirteen and what really got me into reading hardcore for hamilton. i haven't read it in a long time so i don't know if it holds up, but i'm sure it does. so that one is really iconic for me, and i know it was really popular at the time. i've talked about it before but the monticello furlough was a game changer for me. anything by holograms is brilliant and i die every time. and it's not just bc y'all are my pallys and kiddos, but @youreverydaydemikid @cecescomposition @fireballdance, the fics y'all write literally have me dropping whatever i'm doing to read what you post. it's so so good. like it's genuinely consistently good work that i squeal over every time. also @binch-i-might-be is an absolute icon that has kept the fandom fed for a good few years. there have also been numerous fanfics that have been deleted over the years that i adored, so we will have a moment of silence for them, but alas, it's the price i have to pay for being in a fandom that became "cringe culture" and made everyone delete their work even if it was really good.

NOW FOR JCS. it is such a small fandom, but that does not mean there is any lack of wonderful content. OBVIOUSLY, i will start by recommending anything by @solarflicker. their work is genuinely jaw dropping and i die every time. their characterizations are so good, and their stories are so well written. i could not recommend them enough. if i had to choose one, though, it would have to be judecca. like that one is one i reread practically every week. but as i said, all of them are so good. you would be doing yourself a disfavor by skipping any of them. @ohsoldier is so so good too. their good omens au is chef's kiss. picking up the palm fronds by @hobgoblinns is also very very good. beserk's jcs fics are also golden little au's that are so so good!! they have like a reincarnation au that i adore. another good reincarnation au that i love is that's what you had (but you don't have it anymore) by zartbitterpoetin. this one is so unique and well written. like it's so creativeeee. those are all a bit angsty BUT there's a really cute coffee shop fic (i think it has smut in it so be careful youngins) but it's the fic that all the people not in the fandom find and it blows their minds that people ship jesus/judas lmaooo. but it's called i'm falling for brew by framblebee. NOW I'VE RAMBLED ON THIS QUESTION FOR FAR TOO LONG SO I'LL LEAVE YOU WITH ONE MORE. you have to have an account to view it, but it is the 2012 revival fic (once again i think it had a tad bit of smut so watch for that) but so tonight that i might see by altzfic is amazing. like honestly there are so many good fics out there. it's crazy how talented people are in both of these fandoms. i could go on for ages, but i will end the rant here.

(i could genuinely make a long post of just fic recommendations for both fandoms and it would be longer that this. it's just so good.) (lemme know if y'all want that. it would take a while to collect all the links, but i would gladly boost the fics i love)

16. the worst writing advice i've ever been given was to delete everything and start over if you get stuck. my storage might hate me, but i've learned i regret very much if i delete my work. even if i don't use something in the fic i originally wrote it for, i could always use it somewhere else or expand on it and make it it's own thing. another bad piece of advice i got was never use flowery language. i resent that. i loathe that. i am a writing maximalist, my dears. i will make my writing as longwinded and drawn out as possible.

[okaylikeschaewon]

Silly question but do you think you’re not motivated to write Twice because the story so far seems more smut driven than plot driven?

Reply ended up being longer than anticipated, TLDR: I don't really know why I'm not as motivated nowadays.

Not a silly question at all. The Private Manager story started very smut driven, it's my first piece of work and I literally started writing because I was horny for them after their last tour. As the story went on, I started having fun implementing some more depth (well, trying to at least), and that made it really fun!

My plans for Book 2 (a split I partially made because I felt like my writing changed so much over time that I needed a separation) involved a lot more "plot", even if that plot is just silly romance without too much substance - don't think too hard, it's still just fanfic after all, my goal isn't to make convoluted plots with twists and all.

Smut is still something I enjoy, I almost never write a chapter or fic that is completely void of at least one smutty scene. Frankly, the reason I write is still partially (mostly?) as an outlet for my horniness. There's still a balance though, and writing more fluffiness/plot is a tricky thing for me to do. I'm still not particularly confident in my writing ability when it comes to the more fluffy bits, but improvement is gradual!

Who knows why I find it difficult to write for them. Maybe it's just because I'm having more fun writing for LE SSERAFIM, maybe it's because I like the low-commitment of writing for groups/artists who I'm not as invested in (Blackpink, Aespa, IU, etc.). Maybe I have some self-imposed pressure when it comes to Twice because I like them so much?

Perhaps it's just because when I look at my Twice story I see all the low quality (in my opinion) mistakes I've made. Maybe it's in part due to Twice being so busy with their tour that we're not getting the content that made me love the group. Maybe it's because I didn't really love their music from this year.

I've mentioned it before, but I literally have a document of plot points I'd like to eventually hit for my Twice story. Again, don't expect them to be some groundbreaking major box office success level plots, but they're just little frameworks for me to do what I like: set up some smut scenes and develop the characters I've written. I have easily 20-30 chapters worth of ideas.

Last thing I'll say is that I haven't entirely stopped writing Twice. I don't think I've ever posted about this, only a few people who have DM'd me directly know, but I actually have a few pieces written for Twice that I just haven't released yet (like the Itzy cameo). Either because they're not 100% finished, or because I'm not 100% happy with them. I've even laid out what I wanted to write for the first 5 or 6 chapters of Book 3 (I had a real high after seeing them live again, had to get stuff written down!).

This ended up basically being a whole fic with how lengthy the reply was... but thank you for this question. It was a nice way for me to try and reflect. I hope this gave some insight to anyone who was curious on my thought process, and for those of you are just here to enjoy smut: I hope what I am still releasing is enjoyable still! <3

[jess-the-vampire]

Hey I just recently finished your fanfic "Story Re-Writtwn" and I gotta say, it's the best fanfic I've read reallly! I'm just wondering if you still do gumceline stuffs? Seriously after 1 and a half month of reading it I just can't get enough of it lol.. looking forward to your reply, greetings!

Oof, i made that fic so long ago, but i am happy my old writing made someone happy even now.

i'll admit, i haven't done as much for them as i used to, not really because i don't WANT to per say, it's more that my relationship with the adventure time community is...complicated to say the least.

I joined when i was around 13-14 (A little over a decade ago, oof), so i was pretty young and was not familiar with the internet around that time, and at the time i was just...having fun, i was a fan of rare pairs and crackships and i really wanted to be in on that fun!

but y'know, lack of internet awareness, so i got really harassed by other shippers, especially people who shipped bubbline and it was a nightmare.

You know how people made ill judgements on the internet nowadays for some of the ships and characters people like? yeah, imagine 14 year old me being insulted as a horrible "homophobe" because i was having fun with a ship i knew pretty much was never gonna happen from the getgo and had really no ill will towards any of the canon ships. I was on blocklists, people made posts mocking me, it was pretty bad and while people did defend me at times, yeah i felt kinda isolated in that fanspace.

and that's not getting into other stuff that happened at the time with friends that i don't know if i wanna talk about....

the whole thing got so bad it kinda removed some of love for the show, i actually can't like bubbline as a ship anymore because it brings back some of those memories.

10 years later, i still worry about touching the community cause i expect it to happen all over again, even though realistically that's probably not true. I just try not to draw too much attention to myself whenever i do draw anything for them.

so....whether i touch the ship again like i once did is up in the air atm, if you want some content i still have the old ask blog.

I don't regret making it, i had to get my start somewhere and drawing a crackship i thought was fun wasn't all bad, i did make some friends that were genuinely sweet and some still are around....

(Guess you can say it's quite common for me in any fandom i join to be invested in more uncommon things in the fan space)

but for now i do not know what the future holds for me and future content for them and AT in general

But i am happy you enjoyed it! Maybe someday i'll feel confident enough to mess with it someday

[nightmarevore]

hi! i'm getting into writing safe vore oneshots and i was inspired by a few of your works and reblogs. for years i was really discontent with my writing, but when i revisited some of your stories today, i noticed how similar your writing style is to mine, and the fact that people enjoy your content made me confident enough to complete a draft and plan a new story. i wanted to know if you make drafts and revise them? do you just publish the first draft? do you get help writing or editing them? 1☆

WAAAAAAAAAAAAH I;M SOBBING THIS WAS SUCH A NICE SERIES OF ASKS TO COME TO YOU'RE SO NICE TO MEEEEEEEE omg gomgo gomgomgomgklgkgfkjngfjbjdk i've never been complimented LIKE THIS or asked extensively for my process, this is new to me!!! you're wonderful and kind and i appreciate you.

i'm gonna have to make a readmore here as to not clutter up everyone's dashes to tell you my process/thoughts so HERE WE GO!!!!

i actually have only one fic i get edited and it's a non-vore fic, a very close friend of mine edits a fn.a f fanfic i'm writing based on w/illi.am a/f.to/n. i don't ask them to edit my vore stuff, but they do know i'm into vore. i actually write all my fics in a google doc!

i'll typically actually write as i go entirely. i have a rough idea of how i want the fic to go (who's in what, who does what, an event i need to happen, etc) and write along that rough guideline in my head. i write completely in order, or else i can't make it flow well together. sometimes i'll write what else may need to get done or else i may forget.

i'll consider things i decide to change as i go along "the first draft," since i went with something entirely different. for example, in one of my drafts for a wip fic, i chose to have luke, in the serial killer, panic and size-shift to half size and have the fic end with a half-size hurt/comfort vore from luke and rowan. instead, i changed it so luke is dazed but has time remain his current size and pull rowan out of his pred instincts taking over and have cuddles afterwards and vore when they got home, luke still the same size.

though adhd and autism get in the way at times—executive dysfunction is a bitch. a lot of things i have written, like a luke and rowan serial killer fic, as well a a fugue state william fic have been a WIP since February of this year—literally when i BROKE MY FOOT and was stuck in a reclining chair for a month. i keep telling myself i need to get to them, but then i see ffxiv and hanging out with friends and just decide that's a better way to spend my time at the moment. i've been in a huuuuge brain fog for a few months bc of this, the recent one shot i posted was actually made because i was speaking vore feelings i had with medli.

i definitely have an easier time writing when i'm specifically fixated on vore, luke and rowan, william, mike, etc.

i'll write when i'm hyperfixated, and my brain pushes me to write more when i'm at work rather than at home, because adhd classifies work as something i need a distraction from, and home as chill time. i'll write on my breaks or when i have a moment to myself to sit and hide.

i'll tell you right now, i get SOOO many ideas and have at least 10+ wips, including f./n/a,f, luke and rowan, and ffxiv characters.

when i write, i'm mostly writing from my heart. exactly what i'd expect to think, feel, and hear. i put myself into the perspective/mind of the characters i'm writing and can get deep into these fics as i write them. i get so interpersonally connected to my writing as i'm writing that i physically feel my character's emotions, and see them in my head exactly how they play out.

honestly, i'm not too sure about tips on how to get out of making yourself write when you don't feel like it. i've gotten frustrated with myself for staring at my documents for too long and not being able to write anything. i imagine the scenario in perfect detail, and then i'll sit down, stare at my work, and i'm like ....???????????????????

i'm actually trying to open up to my therapist about getting medicated so i can have an easier time writing/creating for you guys! hopefully soon.

i hope this kind of gives you some insight to my process, please go forth and create and never be afraid to share. <333

this ask means a lot to me!

[loregoddess]

2, 3, 8, and 19 for the fandom game, for any fandom(s) you feel like talking about :)

(for 3, fic and/or meta posts, can't actually remember if you've posted straight up fic before haha)

2. My favorite fic from the fandom that I’ve read

I haven't read a ton of fic sadly (although I haven't read a lot in general the last few years due to college making me read So Many academic papers and books that I got burnt out and haven't quite recovered my love of reading. Yet). Although, my friend @lookerdewitt has written literally some of the best fic I have ever read, so I would probably say one of their fics.

3. My favorite fic from the fandom that I’ve written myself

I have actually sort of written fanfic (both legit fanfic, and also a few "thinly veiled technically fanfic if you changed the names" for a fiction writing class that I had to write several stories for and wanted to see if I could get away with it), but I haven't actually. Shared those fics with anyone? Partly bc I have historically almost never finished any fiction writing project that I have started, ever, and partly bc I'm just shy about sharing my writing in general.

I have been working on a LoZ fancomic idea for the past uhhhh four or five years (technically last decade since I first came up with the idea in late high school and then had it sit in the back of my head for several years bc all I had was a setting and a handful of characters), and I have never in my life stuck with a project this long, so I guess that would be my favorite from my personal works bc it's apparently something I care about enough to not abandon entirely. I've actually made a decent amount of progress on my "detailed outline" recently, so here's hoping I can stick it out and actually get to the script and then to drawing pages one day.

For meta posts I think my favorite is actually my analysis of the Octopath 1 cast and how the major antagonists in each of their stories acts as a mirror and foil to each character. I really enjoy analyzing stories in general, but I so rarely write it out, so I was happy to actually do so for once. Gave me a lot of confidence for all the other meta and headcanon posts that I wrote afterwards.

There's also a Legend of Dragoon meta post sitting partly-finished in my drafts where I analyze themes surrounding each dragoon spirit and its wielders, which I haven't finished bc I only remember to work on it when I'm doing my yearly replay of LoD, and also bc it started looking like it might need to be a series of posts due to uh....length. Like I make a lot of lengthy posts, but each dragoon spirit's analysis was about a short essay's worth of words, and there are eight spirits soooo....hopefully I'll finish that one day, bc it's an analysis I've spent years thinking about.

8. Is there anything I wish people would write more about in fics? (A dynamic, an exploration of an arc, just a character that doesn’t get much screentime, etc)

I'm always a sucker for post-canon healing/recovery/rebuilding arcs. Can't get enough of them honestly (when I have the motivation to read). There's something so fascinating about looking at a character who Went Through Some Stuff, but the main narrative didn't look at the effects of that, and so a dedicated writer took up the challenge of trying to explore what comes after.

Most of my favorite characters are weird side characters who don't get a lot of love from the writers of canon or fans, so I'm always glad to see stuff for them as well.

19. Favorite headcanon

Oh hmmm, there's a lot and it depends on which media we're talking about, so if you're curious about a specific game let me know. Off the top of my head though hmm...

Okay I have this headcanon that Milo TriStrat snorts when she laughs genuinely. Like sure she's got the ladylike proper, cute laugh that's part of her spy job and totally fake, but when she is being fully honest and laughing for real, she snorts.

[lost-girl-2021]

🤗

What advice would you give to new fanfic writers that are just getting started?

I actually really wanted someone to ask this question. I'll answer from two different POVs, a reader and a writer.

As a reader, something that turns me away from fics is punctuation/spacing. Something I learned in school was that every paragraph should be around 5-7 sentences. Obviously, with fiction writing, it's a little looser but try to steer clear from page-long paragraphs. They can be hard to keep up with, sometimes.

Usually, as long as it's nothing crazy, I look past spelling errors and stuff, but I personally use Grammarly (the free version) and just have it enabled on my laptop (it's also great for school papers if you're still in school, FYI). I honestly don't look over my writing more than once most of the time, but the big stuff is marked in red and I can usually catch it before posting.

Also, if you don't feel comfortable/don't want to swear in your work, just don't. I've seen some other people say similar things (and I don't see it nearly as often anymore) but when people use "#%@*(" instead of swearing it pulls me out of the fic. There's non-swears you can use as alternatives and they flow better in my opinion.

As a writer, I'd say don't force yourself to write things sequentially. A lot of the time when I get the initial idea for something, I write a scene and work my way around it. For Days Into Decades, I wrote my beginning, then wrote some nonsensical scene that'll end up as my ending, and did some big scenes scattered throughout as my middle. Now, I go back through my doc and reread what I've written to pick and choose what I want/don't want to use.

Also, don't write on social media when you're creating a post. What I mean, is use something like Google Docs, which saves automatically, in case your device crashes or lags and deletes everything. The amount of times I've flat-out rage quitted something because I've lost like 2k of thoughts is uncountable.

I really like Google Docs and work pretty much exclusively on there when working on my drafts. I'm bad at labeling my docs, but trying to work on it more given the sheer amount of 'untilted documents' I have to search through when I'm looking for a specific old project. It also just works well with what I'm using, because I have a Chromebook (mostly because it's the closest I could get to a Nokia-level of durability).

At the end of the day, what really helps is keeping with it. I cringe at the thought of this, but my OG fanfic was a PJO x Avengers Tower AU with my own OC named "Paxton, but everyone calls me Pax". It had clipart and I used Pic Collage and I had a linked Instagram filled with Batman memes. No part of it made sense and because I wrote on my (barely functioning) 2015 Samsung (in 2017) it was riddled with spelling errors and every other sentence was an Author's Note filled with random emoji's.

My writing compared to then, even compared to a year ago, has completely changed. I've probably written at least five pages a week since I was thirteen. Now, almost twenty, I feel really confident about my writing style and the things I publish. I also usually ask for comments so I can get feedback on what I've written (and because I really like talking).

If anyone has any specific questions or wants me to check out their work (doesn't have to even be fanfiction, or it can be for a fandom I've never even heard of) feel free to DM me. I'd be happy to check it out when I'm free.

[jaimehwatson]

1, 2, 10, 11, 15, 19!

Thanks Syb! <3

1.What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year? How did it turn out and would you do it again?

I wrote erotica involving a trans character for the first time in A Proper Apology! (Well, technically he's not actually human and wasn't really assigned any gender at birth, but you know, basically I wrote him like he's trans.) As someone who's still in the process of figuring out a transmasculine identity myself, I often prefer to read and write fics where the characters are all cisgender because it's like, I'm here to have fun, I don't even want to deal with thinking about all that complicated stuff that affects my real life right now. But I'm happy to have given something different a try with this fic, and I hope it's something I'll be able to do more in the future as I get more confident in who I am. Shout-out to @glitterarygetsit for beta-reading that one and helping polish it!

2. How many fics did you work on this year? (They don’t have to be finished or published!)

Apparently I've published 16 (most of which are pretty short), and I also have my Yuletide fic about to be revealed and bring it up to 17! Then in my unfinished drafts I have at least 5 more, all of which are for Our Flag Means Death. The new season gave me so many ideas that I didn't finish all of them, but maybe I'll revisit some in the new year!

10. What fic made you feel the happiest to work on?

Probably my magnum opus, Tonight on Ring of Revenge! It's my longest fanfic and probably in my top 5 longest works of fiction I've completed in general, and it was really fun and satisfying to be able to gradually make a wild idea I had while watching wrestling work out. I'm really proud of it and it feels very unique to me - like plenty of other people are also great at writing the kind of horny one-shots I do a lot of, but no one else made the pirate wrestling AU, that's a Jaime Special

15. Rec a fic you wrote or posted in 2023

I'll do the same one I just answered - Tonight on Ring of Revenge! It loosely follows the overall plot of season 1 of OFMD but set in the modern era with the characters as pro wrestlers instead of pirates. Is that an extremely silly idea? Yes! Does it also actually suit the themes and characterization of the show really well? You bet! Are there ridiculous campy wrestling plots and choreographed fake violence and also sex? Hell yeah! I had a lot of fun doing research for it and I think there are plenty of details in there that wrestling fans will appreciate, but I also added plenty of author's notes explaining things for readers who are less familiar with wrestling. It's about 26k words and has a cute happy ending! Enjoy!

19. Share your favorite opening line

I think I have to go with this one from When You Like And Where You Like!

"We have three years of the past to discuss. Let that suffice until half-past nine, when we start upon the notable adventure of the empty house." As Sherlock Holmes leaned casually against the desk in my study, a self-satisfied smile on his pale and aquiline face, I was seized with a momentary urge to leap from my chair and throttle him.

The first line of dialogue is directly out of "The Adventure of the Empty House," and if I remember correctly, it precedes a bit of a timeskip to the story picking up later that night. The second line is me starting a little missing scene! I really enjoy writing stuff like this that follows canon closely and could arguably have happened in between without necessarily contradicting anything, and I think it's a solid opening in terms of how much it establishes in those first two sentences: if you've read this story you'll probably recognize that line and know immediately at what point in canon this is set, and you'll understand why Watson is angry and why this is something that deserves a missing scene to get into his reaction to what's going on more!

2023 in Review Fic Writer Asks

[the-enby-bird]

I see you reblogged an ask thingy, so if you're up to answering (I know I'm including a lot, feel free to only answer a few), I shall ask:

"🥺 Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?"

"🤡 What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh?"

"✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉"

"🎶 Do you listen to music while you write? What song have you been playing on loop lately?"

"🙋‍♀️ Do any irl people know you write fanfic?"

"🌞 Do you have a preferred time of day to write?"

"💖 What made you start writing?"

"❌ What's a trope you will never write?"

"🎯 Have any of your readers accurately guessed major plot points? Care to share which?"

"🤗 What advice would you give to new fanfic writers that are just getting started?"

"💞 Who's your comfort character[s]?"

"🧠 Pick a character, and I'll tell you my favorite headcanon for them."

"😬 Which of your fics would you be most horrified for friends, family, or coworkers to stumble upon?"

"📚 Would you ever want to turn writing into a career?"

Forgot I reblogged this post lmao

Sorry this took so long I never got the notification for this

~~~

🥺 Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?

That moment when a character who's trying to be strong and confident, or convince others that they're okay, loses the ability to do that. It's not something that shows up a lot in my published work, more in the top secret angst fics/drabbles, so, but it's always jdladhlshflsjf to read and right, y'know? Also when a character just fucking collapses for any reason and the other one just,,,, picks em up in a bridal carry and is just over there like,,,,, "you're okay babe" and I. *Sob bing*

🤡 What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh?

So it's a really old scene, and it only made me laugh cause I was kinda high on anesthetic, but there's this one scene in the old version of Destined that has,,,, Horror and somebody else? Joking around with Cross as a form of comfort, I thought it was funny at the time. Looking back it's kind of. Um. Cringy, for lack of a better word, but in my defense I was 13

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉

Um. So this is really something that shows up in my shorter fics, the ones that I don't publish, (generally cause they're vent fics lmao) but sometimes my writing is like,,, really poetic, and I think it's nice. Also, just. For someone my age, and who's been writing as long as I have, I'm. Not terrible. I've improved, and I love that.

🎶 Do you listen to music while you write? What song have you been playing on loop lately?

I listen to music 24/7 and the song that's on repeat really depends on my current mood and interest-- there's not really any right now that I can think of, but I'm sure my poor Spotify has things to say about my constant listening to Poor Man's Poison

🙋‍♀️ Do any irl people know you write fanfic?

Yeah, a ton of people! Just none of them write Undertale, or at least not the same kind of Undertale, as I. Their writing is fabulous anyways, and it's nice to have people irl who I don't need to fear judgement from! <3

🌞 Do you have a preferred time of day to write?

I love writing late at night, and frankly inspiration oft fails to flow when it's not night. However, since school generally stops me from writing late at night- I need my beauty sleep- I also enjoy evenings and early mornings.

💖 What made you start writing?

Frankly, I haven't the slightest! That was so long ago that I have no clue anymore. My guess is it was a combination of my childhood love of reading and my overactive imagination; and a desire to put my thoughts somewhere solid. I've been "writing" since I was a toddler, but I truly got into it when I was 11/12. Far too long for me to remember.

❌ What's a trope you will never write?

I don't much like enemies to lovers, but not enough to never ever write it. So, I guess there's not too many? To be honest, I don't really feel like I've explored different genres and tropes enough to give this one an answer.

🎯 Have any of your readers accurately guessed major plot points? Care to share which?

Not that I remember? I'm usually not much for long fics or heavy foreshadowing so they haven't had many chances.

🤗 What advice would you give to new fanfic writers that are just getting started?

Just keep writing. But- don't force yourself to write something if it's not making you happy to write. Most importantly: just keep going. It doesn't matter if it's good, or if it takes you months to write 100 words-- just keep going. If it's something that makes you happy, it doesn't matter if it's good. It just needs to be. Go tell your stories, babes, anyone who judges you is just a dick and not worth listening to anyways <3

💞 Who's your comfort character[s]?

Ough this list is so long. Um. Horror, Cross, Dust, Blue, Swap Papyrus, Fell Papyrus, Toriel, Dream and NM, my little oc Ash who I never talk about cause they're just a lump of self indulgent bs, and Lust

There's more but I'm too lazy to list em all

😬 Which of your fics would you be most horrified for friends, family, or coworkers to stumble upon?

All of em? Mostly the older ones, but honestly I think I'd have an easier time listing which ones I wouldn't be too horrified about. (There's like. 3)

📚 Would you ever want to turn writing into a career?

Nah, it's just not my vibe. It's. Hard to explain, and there's a lot of reasons, but it can all just be summarized in no.

My dream careers rn are as a psychiatrist, psychologist, therapist, baker or veterinarian!