#i've had this post unfinished in drafts for almost a year

[heritageposts]

What does life in North Korea look like outside of Pyongyang? 🇰🇵

Hey, I'm back again with a very scary "tankie" post that asks you to think of North Koreans as people, and to consider their country not as a cartoonish dystopia, but as a nation that, like any other place on earth, has culture, traditions, and history.

Below is a collection of pictures from various cities and places in North Korea, along with a brief dive into some of the historical events that informs life in the so-called "hermit kingdom."

Warning: very long post

Kaesong, the historic city

Beginning this post with Kaesong, one of the oldest cities in Korea. It's also one of the few major cities in the DPRK (i.e. "North Korea") that was not completely destroyed during the Korean war.

Every single city you'll see from this point on were victims of intense aerial bombardments from the U.S. and its allies, and had to be either partially or completely rebuilt after the war.

From 1951 to 1953, during what has now become known as the "forgotten war" in the West, the U.S. dropped 635,000 tons of bombs over Korea — most of it in the North, and on civilian population centers. An additional 32,000 tons of napalm was also deployed, engulfing whole cities in fire and inflicting people with horrific burns:

For such a simple thing to make, napalm had horrific human consequences. A bit of liquid fire, a sort of jellied gasoline, napalm clung to human skin on contact and melted off the flesh. Witnesses to napalm's impact described eyelids so burned they could not be shut and flesh that looked like "swollen, raw meat." - PBS

Ever wondered why North Koreans seem to hate the U.S so much? Well...

Keep in mind that only a few years prior to this, the U.S. had, as the first and only country in the world, used the atomic bomb as a weapon of war. Consider, too, the proximity between Japan and Korea — both geographically and as an "Other" in the Western imagination.

As the war dragged on, and it became clear the U.S. and its allies would not "win" in any conventional sense, the fear that the U.S. would resort to nuclear weapons again loomed large, adding another frightening dimension to the war that can probably go a long way in explaining the DPRK's later obsession with acquiring their own nuclear bomb.

But even without the use of nuclear weapons, the indiscriminate attack on civilians, particularly from U.S. saturation bombings, was still horrific:

"The number of Korean dead, injured or missing by war’s end approached three million, ten percent of the overall population. The majority of those killed were in the North, which had half of the population of the South; although the DPRK does not have official figures, possibly twelve to fifteen percent of the population was killed in the war, a figure close to or surpassing the proportion of Soviet citizens killed in World War II" - Charles K. Armstrong

On top of the loss of life, there's also the material damage. By the end of the war, the U.S. Air Force had, by its own estimations, destroyed somewhere around 85% of all buildings in the DPRK, leaving most cities in complete ruin. There are even stories of U.S. bombers dropping their loads into the ocean because they couldn't find any visible targets to bomb.

What you'll see below of Kaesong, then, provides both a rare glimpse of what life in North Korea looked like before the war, and a reminder of what was destroyed.

Kaesong's main street, pictured below.

Due the stifling sanctions imposed on the DPRK—which has, in various forms and intensities, been in effect since the 1950s—car ownership is still low throughout the country, with most people getting around either by walking or biking, or by bus or train for longer distances.

Kaesong, which is regarded as an educational center, is also notable for its many Koryŏ-era monuments. A group of twelve such sites were granted UNESCO world heritage status in 2013.

Included is the Hyonjongnung Royal Tomb, a 14th-century mausoleum located just outside the city of Kaesong.

One of the statues guarding the tomb.

Before moving on the other cities, I also wanted to showcase one more of the DPRK's historical sites: Pohyonsa, a thousand-year-old Buddhist temple complex located in the Myohyang Mountains.

Like many of DPRK's historic sites, the temple complex suffered extensive damage during the Korean war, with the U.S. led bombings destroying over half of its 24 pre-war buildings.

The complex has since been restored and is in use today both as a residence for Buddhist monks, and as a historic site open to visitors.

Hamhung, the second largest city in the DPRK.

A coastal city located in the South Hamgyŏng Province. It has long served as a major industrial hub in the DPRK, and has one of the largest and busiest ports in the country.

Hamhung, like most of the coastal cities in the DPRK, was hit particularly hard during the war. Through relentless aerial bombardments, the US and its allies destroyed somewhere around 80-90% percent of all buildings, roads, and other infrastructure in the city.

Now, more than seventy years later, unexploded bombs, mortars and pieces of live ammunition are still being unearthed by the thousands in the area. As recently as 2016, one of North Korea's bomb squads—there's one in every province, faced with the same cleanup task—retrieved 370 unexploded mortar rounds... from an elementary school playground.

Experts in the DPRK estimate it will probably take over a hundred years to clean up all the unexploded ordnance—and that's just in and around Hamhung.

Hamhung's fertilizer plant, the biggest in North Korea.

When the war broke out, Hamhung was home to the largest nitrogen fertilizer plant in Asia. Since its product could be used in the creation of explosives, the existence of the plant is considered to have made Hamhung a target for U.S. aggression (though it's worth repeating that the U.S. carried out saturation bombings of most population centers in the country, irrespective of any so-called 'military value').

The plant was immediately rebuilt after the war, and—beyond its practical use—serves now as a monument of resistance to U.S. imperialism, and as a functional and symbolic site of self-reliance.

Chongjin, the third largest city in the DPRK.

Another coastal city and industrial hub. It underwent a massive development prior to the Korean war, housing around 300,000 people by the time the war broke out.

By 1953, the U.S. had destroyed most of Chongjin's industry, bombed its harbors, and killed one third of the population.

Wonsan, a rebuilt seaside city.

The city of Wonsan is a vital link between the DPRK's east and west coasts, and acts today as both a popular holiday destination for North Koreans, and as a central location for the country's growing tourism industry.

Considered a strategically important location during the war, Wonsan is notable for having endured one of the longest naval blockades in modern history, lasting a total of 861 days.

By the end of the war, the U.S. estimated that they had destroyed around 80% of the city.

Masikryong Ski Resort, located close to Wonsan. It opened to the public in 2014 and is the first, I believe, that was built with foreign tourists in mind.

Sariwon, another rebuilt city

One of the worst hit cities during the Korean War, with an estimated destruction level of 95%.

I've written about its Wikipedia page here before, which used to mockingly describe its 'folk customs street'—a project built to preserve old Korean traditions and customs—as an "inaccurate romanticized recreation of an ancient Korean street."

No mention, of course, of the destruction caused by the US-led aerial bombings, or any historical context at all that could possibly even hint at why the preservation of old traditions might be particularly important for the city.

Life outside of the towns and cities

In the rural parts of the DPRK, life primarily revolves around agriculture. As the sanctions they're under make it difficult to acquire fuel, farming in the DPRK relies heavily on manual labour, which again, to avoid food shortages, requires that a large portion of the labour force resides in the countryside.

Unlike what many may think, the reliance on manual labour in farming is a relatively "new" development. Up until the crisis of the 1990s, the DPRK was a highly industrialized nation, with a modernized agricultural system and a high urbanization rate. But, as the access to cheap fuel from the USSR and China disappeared, and the sanctions placed upon them by Western nations heavily restricted their ability to import fuel from other sources, having a fuel-dependent agricultural industry became a recipe for disaster, and required an immediate and brutal restructuring.

For a more detailed breakdown of what lead to the crisis in the 90s, and how it reshaped the DPRKs approach to agriculture, check out this article by Zhun Xu.

Some typical newly built rural housing, surrounded by farmland.

Tumblr only allows 20 pictures per post, but if you want to see more pictures of life outside Pyongyang, check out this imgur album.

[hermitknut]

20 Questions for Fic Writers Tag Game

@birdylion tagged me :D

1. how many works do you have on AO3?

56.

2. what’s your total AO3 word count?

440,219

3. what fandoms do you write for?

There've been quite a few over the years. Currently Goblin Emperor (slightly on the back burner while I unkink my writer's block) and Hands of the Emperor (just started dabbling, nothing posted yet). Before that Merlin, Green Rider, Realm of the Elderlings, Doctor Who, and Harry Potter predominantly, with little dips into Discworld, Sherlock, Sweep, Supernatural, Percy Jackson, Lady Trent, Life on Mars, Old Kingdom, Life on Mars, and MASH. I have some Narnia stuff kicking about in my drafts somewhere, and while I've never posted it I've been writing Animorphs fanfic for years.

4. what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Stairs Beneath the Heart: Goblin Emperor, a series of vignettes that runs parallel to the canon that I posted through the start of the pandemic and really enjoyed. It was the first time in ages I'd had a regular posting schedule, and the first time ever I'd had that much fandom attention on something I was writing - everyone was so lovely <3.

Take These Tower Stones: Goblin Emperor, the sequel to the above, a much more coherent and consistent story which everyone was again really supportive of <3

What Friends Are For: Discworld; Angua gives Vetinari the shovel talk. There's a big disparity in the stats between the previous two fics and the rest, so these last three were a surprise to me! I'm glad people liked them though :)

Fire in the Night: Merlin, somewhat angsty nightmare/comfort oneshot. Again, surprised to see this one so near the top, but pleasantly so.

The Michen Emperor: Goblin Emperor again, currently the bane of my existence because I can't seem to finish it (I will eventually, just need to unstick my brain). Really appreciate all the love people have shown it. Basically, what if canon but with smol!Maia.

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

Probably either Take These Towers Stones, or Red Sky (which is a tiny little snippet of fluff).

8. do you get hate on fics?

I've had a few shitty comments, and mostly I've just deleted them. I've never had any extended hate campaigns or anything, just people who mistakenly thought their dislike was worth expressing.

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

Occasionally; usually though not always queer, normally pretty tame. I read smut usually without worrying about the warnings, but I'm a bit too shy to comment on it, and I think that extends to my writing, haha. Maybe I'll get the hang of it some day :)

10. do you write crossovers?

Nah, for some reason they don't work for me at all - almost a squick, I don't read them either. The closest I got was considering a fic where the characters from Green Rider had diplomatic contact with the characters from the Chronicles of Ixia series, but I never ended up getting there.

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I don't think so - I should probably put in my Ao3 that people are welcome to if they like, I keep forgetting. I'd be honoured if anyone wanted to.

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

Nope; I'm very picky and not good at compromise, though it's something I'd like to work on one day. It'd have to be very low stakes and with someone very patient!

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

Lines of Silver and Gold (Realm of the Elderlings) is probably my oldest fic that is both posted and unfinished, and I have no current plans to work on it. I'm hoping that one day I'll be able to come back to it, but that book series was my thesis topic and unfortunately I rather burnt myself out on it, so it might be a long while.

The Queen Rider series was originally going to have two more fics, but those have been scrapped; fortunately it resolves quite nicely as is. Maybe I will put up a little misc fic with what I do have of the rest some day.

And on a more positive note, my Animorphs fic - it was originaly going to be a full written-through story spanning a considerable post-canon period, but unfortunately I lost the original in a harddrive failure and while I rewrote some of it I rather lost my enthusiasm for it. However, I have been reconsidering lately and might post what exists as a series of loosely connected vignettes; we'll see.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue is what I find easy and what I've received the most compliments on; I think this is because a lot of my fic is drafted "out loud" before I get anywhere near setting it to page, so the first iteration is often predominantly speech. I'm also often told I'm good at mimicking the tone of the canon, if I'm writing for a book fandom.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Research (I'll do it if it's something that will otherwise potentially hurt people, but other than that I have neither the effort nor the inclination), and making things messy - that is, I tend to tidy things up a lot and I'm not good at letting my characters get things wrong/communicate badly/etc. Good for fix-its, less good for creating challenges in the story.

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

I am depressingly monolingual so I don't do it in my fics; as to what everyone else does I think they should have fun and do whatever they like, I suppose. Not enough knowledge to have more of an opinion than that.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter was my gateway fandom.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Ohhhh tough one. I'm immensely proud of the Keystone series (The Stairs Beneath the Heart and Take These Tower Stones), so they're solid candidates, but I also really like The Shadow of the Mountains (Lady Trent) and Miracles (Realm of the Elderlings), the latter of which contains possibly my favourite line of prose I've written.

I'm tagging @the-tao-of-fandom, @pipuhattar, @alittlefellowinawideworld, @nonasuch, and anyone else who'd like to answer!

[thunderous-wolf]

L.O.V.E#

Installment 3 of my series of "Thoughtz"

Note: "Thoughtz" is a compilation of drafts of fanfic that I've had in my notes for a while. They're unedited and most are unfinished. Since I do not feel motivated enough to finish them, I'm posting them all for you to read. Enjoy~

Pairing: Rock singer Minho × fem!reader (no relationship as of yet). Strangers to Lovers trope

Plot: Your friend drags you to a concert of some stupid band that you've never heard of - except, it's not so stupid if the lead singer is hot...

Warnings: none

Word count: I don't know, but probably somewhere between 500-1k

a/n: I lost interest in this story pretty quick, so it stops early on. HOWEVER, if this gets enough attention, I may be persuaded to complete it.

And as always, feel free to comment.

Please DO NOT copy, translate, or steal my works.

It was the last few weeks before school started up again, and you wanted to enjoy every last bit of it. You were planning to go out of state and visit some old friends since 1: you haven't seen them in what feels like forever, and 2: you're single, so there's nobody (other than you're friends who were almost all on vacation somewhere) holding you back from going anywhere. You had this all planned out and were already preparing for the trip when Jennie, you're one friend who is not on vacation, texts you.

Jennie: Hey! I need a favor...

You: What did you do?

Jennie: I didn't do anything this time, I swear! I just need you to come with me to the VENOM concert at JYPark next Saturday. Everyone else is on vacation, and I don't want to go alone! You HAVE to come with, I don't know what could happen if I went alone!

You: I was planning on leaving to go out of state next week to visit some friends. I don't think I'll be back by next Saturday. Plus, I don't even listen to VENOM's music, or know who they are

Jennie: It doesn't matter, I just need someone with meee! PLEASE come with! I'll owe you a favor!

You: ...

You: Fine.

Jennie has been your friend since you could remember. You had to admit, she did have a somewhat selfish side, but she'd been with you through the thick and thin, and you've developed a soft spot for her. You hastily texted your friends that you'd have to cut the trip a little short because something popped up. They understood and were happy that they'd atleast get to see you.

~TIME SKIP~

You arrived back home the Thursday before the concert. You spent the next days until the concert unpacking, relaxing, and getting settled back in to your schedule. Jennie was filling you in on some basic info about VENOM over texts, and you could tell she was very passionate about them. From what you've gathered, VENOM is a rock band boy group with four members. Chan, the eldest, was the bass player. He apparently had an accent that was "super sexy". Minho was the main singer and keyboardist with "amazing dancing skills that aways captured your attention like a magnet". Changbin was the drummer and was "absolutely stunning and totally kissable" as Jennie had said. Last but not least was Hyunjin, the youngest, who was their guitarist and a "complete heartthrob".

You didn't know exactly how accurate Jennie's descriptions were, but atleast you knew some names. They started the band a couple years ago - was it 2? 3? You hadn't really cared enough to remember - and they've been playing at bars, parties, and small festivals ever since then. They weren't outstandingly popular, but they did have enough popularity to have all of their concerts packed. Their music had to be pretty good then, right?

When the day of the concert came, Jennie excitedly appeared at your door at 8 am. She was already dressed up in as flamboyant of a outfit that you have ever seen. You could tell she took her time on her look. She must have woke up early, but she certainly didn't show it. She had more energy than you.

"You look like you just slept for two days in the luggage compartment of an airplane! Go grab a cup of coffee to wake you up and quickly get back here! We need to get you ready to go by 11!" She said, almost talking a mile a minute. It was hard for your half asleep brain to keep up with her.

"11 o'clock?! The concert isn't until 2!" You said, alarmed. She shooed you into the kitchen towards the coffee machine.

"We're going to the sound check, dummy." She said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Instead of replying, you directed all of your focus (and energy) to making that cup of coffee.

When you came back to your room with the mug in your hand, you found her ruffling through your closet with one hand while the other held an array of clothing.

"Ah, there you are. Are you feeling more green or purple...?" She said, more to herself than to you as she held the clothes up at you. After looking between you and the clothes for what felt like an hour (it was really only a minute), she nodded her head with a huff and got back to ruffling through your closet.

Seeing as she's distracted, you go find your phone to see if you got any messages from your friends. Almost as if sensing your presence, your phone dings from a notification. You pick it up to see that Felix, who also like Jennie, has been your friend since childhood. You used to hang out with him all of the time before you and Jennie went to a different school/college than the rest of your friends.

Felix: Thank you once again for visiting us! The cookies we baked together are already gone... I've got to keep Jisung from eating them all ;) Is everything going alright with you, Sunflower? I know you had to leave early but, I just never got to ask why.

You: I told you you should've hid them from Jisung! I'm doing all right. I had to with Jennie to some concert - she's just being high maintenance as usual, lol

Felix: That's sounds like her. Whose concert is it?

You: Some band called VENOM apparently. I've never heard of them before.

Felix: VENOM? From what I've heard, they're pretty good. My sister went to one of their concerts once with her friends. She actually enjoyed it and she doesn't even like rock music

You: They must be pretty good then

You found yourself saying that quite a bit lately. You didn't know how much faith you had in Jennie's words, but Felix's comforting texts made you feel a little better. He had an incredible skill for soothing people, and that was what you missed most during your school here, along with his warm smile that seemed to light up the whole room. Jennie's voice broke you from your reverie.

"You took a shower last night, right? Well, just put the clothes on that I laid out on your bed and use that perfume I gave you. Be quick too! It's already 8:15 and I have to have enough time to perfect your makeup!" She shouted from presumably the bathroom, where all of your makeup was kept.

She picked out quite the outfit for you. It had a mix of greens and black with silver accents and it gave off the "single and ready to mingle" vibe. It was surprising how she pulled it together, as it was definitely not your style and your clothes closet reflected that. Reluctantly, you put it on and once you looked in the mirror, you had to admit, you did look pretty hot in it.

Jennie was already waiting for you when you made it to the bathroom. She had the counter set up as her workplace, with an assortment of products placed about. She looked at you with your hairbrush in one hand and curling iron in the other.

"Are you just going to stand there and stare like a goldfish or what? Get over here." She said and immediately got to work.

After quite some time, she finally let you look at your final look on the mirror. You were very shocked. You didn't quite look like you, but you looked good - and you liked it. Your now slightly wavy hair framed your face perfectly, and your eyeshadow perfectly complemented your outfit. It was a job well done by Jennie.

"Watcha think?" She said, a smirk tugging at her lips.

"I can't even... wow, just wow. You're incredible, you know that?" You respond, still in awe.

"Oh, I know. You'll thank me later." She said. "Now we've got to go, it's 11:05."

Before you could respond, she hurriedly walked down the hallway to your door and put her shoes on. You followed her and did the same. You felt a little sick to the stomach and you couldn't tell if it was from nervousness or excitement.

Having finally made it to JYPark, you see why she insisted on leaving an hour early. The traffic to get here was out of this world, and the park was crowded with VENOM fans - known as "Oddinary" or "Odds" for short, according to Jennie. *She's got that right. They all are odd. * You thought to yourself. Gazing out at the crowd that surrounded the stage, there was what felt like hundreds of people, each adorned with some piece of VENOM merch paired with brightly colored hair or makeup. For a rock group, their fans looked more like modern pop stars gone wrong.

The concert was set at a plaza in the middle of the park, with trees and well taken care of flowers circling the plaza as far as you could see. Above you was the large expanse of sky that had to be breathtaking at night. Despite the rowdy crowd and stage lights, it felt peaceful here, putting your mind at ease. That peace was short lived.

A commotion broke you out of your stupor, drawing your attention - like many other's- to the stage once more. By the screaming of the fans closer to the stage, you could infer that the band was going on stage for their sound check, whatever that was. You had no clue why Jennie insisted on coming early for it when she was already going to their two and a half hour long concert, but you were just along for the ride.

One by one, four figures appeared on stage. The first crossed to the back of the stage and went up a ramp that led to a higher platform which held the drum set. You tell from here that he was no stranger to the gym. You could see why Jennie called him "absolutely stunning and totally kissable". By the way her face lit up, you figured she had a thing for this drummer. While he was adjusting the drum set, the next figure crossed to the far right of the stage. He picked up the bass that was sitting on its stand behind him and plugged it into the machine on the floor infront of him that held an array of buttons and pedals that did who knows what. The next person caught your eye the moment he came on stage. It wasn't because he had outrageously dyed hair, or an overly bedazzled outfit, but his stage presence seemed to allure you. He had a confidence that made it seem as if he'd been doing this his whole life - and maybe he has. Jennie didn't give you much background information on them, so you had no clue. He truly looked like a professional up there, with each movement purposeful and graceful. He had this charm about him that you couldn't quite put your finger on.

You were so enraptured with him that you didn't notice the fourth member get on stage. His hair drew your attention from - what was his name, Min.. Minho? The guitarist's hair was blonde, much like Felix's, and you suddenly felt keenly aware of how much you missed your good friend. He used to take you to all sorts of new places around town, and it feels almost wrong not to have him here with you even though it's been several years since you had an outing with him. Just the two of you, in a sea of new faces, facing it together. It made you miss your carefree middle school days (even though they may have been embarrassing) where you would explore the city together, sometimes getting in trouble, but never truly facing many repercussions.

[celinamarniss]

Year in Review

In 2023 I posted 4 fics at 58,153 words.

Previous years:

2022: 4 fics at 45,096 words.

2021: 3 fics posted, 55,788 words.

2020: 7 or 10 fics posted, 125,738 words.

2019: 7 fics posted, 72,149 words.

2018: 7 fics posted, 87,752 words

2016: 9 fics posted, 51,643 words

2017: 9 fics posted, 115,336 words

2016: 9 fics posted, 51,653 words

In total, 49 fics posted to Ao3.

We Can't Keep Meeting Like This

34,355 words, gen, Din/Luke/Mara

The Din/Luke/Mara fic I told myself I wasn't going to write! As these things tend to do, it expanded into a much longer fic than I expected. The "five things (plus one)" structure helped to keep it from spiraling even further, but those individual chapters ended up being much longer than I expected and took much longer to write. At first, I serialized the first couple of chapters in smaller excerpts for WIP Weds on tumblr. It was fun to get a little feedback and the weekly deadline compelled me to write those chapters quickly. But when engagement dropped to basically nothing I stopped posting updates and waited to post each chapter to ao3 when it was done. My progress slowed down considerably, but the chapters got longer. I had fun, most of the time.

The Girl Who Traveled the Ways Between the Walls

4,938 words, gen, Animalis verse

Written for the 5k AU fic challenge. Luminous Creatures begins with Mara and Luke's daemons settling, and I regretted never writing a story with an unsettled daemon character. I wanted to write a fic with a fairy-tale vibe and I wanted to explore the weirdness of the Imperial Palace. The Palace becomes a fairy tale wood, and Mara sets off on a quest in which she encounters strange people who aid her or demand aid. Does she learn the right lesson in the end? Perhaps not.

Echo, Revenant, Targeter, Phoenix

15,431 words, gen, Winter Retrac character study

I wrote this one for the Star Wars Big Bang, an experience that ended up being so stressful that I dropped out. I still finished the fic on time and posted it. The fic attracted a modest number of readers (unsurprising given Winter has been basically forgotten these days), but their enthusiasm was very gratifying. I've always liked Winter and I wanted to give her a chance to shine.

However, while I love the worldbuilding and individual scenes and images in this fic, as a whole I don't think it's very gracefully written and I've never been very happy with it.

Cascade

3,429 words, mature, Luke/Mara

I wanted to include A Non-Zero-Sum Game in Vol II of my printed fic collection, but the series felt unfinished without the fourth and final story that I planned to write after Tether. So five years later, I finally wrote it. It was interesting to go back to those old fics and try to write a story that fit the series. I wanted to post it before the new year broke so that I could count it in the 2023 list, and I rushed to get it out. It could probably still use some work.

As the year went on, I failed to meet a lot of the arbitrary deadlines I set myself, and that made writing frustrating and unfulfilling. I don't want it to be like that! I want fic to be fun.

However, I have a lot of non-fandom projects coming up in 2024, and I'm going to have to shift my focus away from fic, at least a little bit.

GOALS FOR 2024

(almost exactly the same as the goals for 2023)

Triumvirate Finale! (explicit, very) The big finale of the Triumvirate series, in which the trio returns to Coruscant to face the Emperor. Doesn’t have a proper title yet. Progress so far: three chapters drafted, 15,410 words.

A Smuggler’s Guide to Joining the Rebellion (gen) The sequel to The Things You Find on Tatooine. Progress: the first chapter finished, 2,241 words.

Lando Calrissian and the Jewel of Andara (gen) The Lando and Mara heist romcom I’ve been promising forever. Progress: three chapters drafted, but in need of heavy revision, 6757 words.

Other fics on the backburner:

Courtship remix

Experiments

Daughter of the Rain and Snow

More daemon fic! 

[francesthetraveller]

Watch me go ham about the art book!!! (in a positive manner)

Lately from January to this month I've gotten REALLY into B.O.O. due to a false rumour going around that resulted in me drawing my first OC for it and I spent the eventual first half of my year trying my best to research EVERYTHING I could about the movie, even if some of them were scarce at best or non-existent at worst. But in April of this year, an early copy of the art book itself got leaked online, and I was so ECSTATIC about it that I spent almost an entire school day trying to look through the art and read through the script of it inorder to peice together what the movie was completely about. I was originally going to save it earlier, however they took it off of The Wayback Machine, and I was only able to screenshot a few images before doing so. HOWEVER!! They did infact also save it onto a Mega file, and so I spent an entire friday afternoon downloading both the art book and the guide-book/pitch bible onto my computer incase I would need it for either my art, writing or for research (I am,,, normal,,, about this movie,,,) It's not actually that hard to find it's both on The Lost Media page for it and also for The Cancelled Movie wiki page. Although you do have to download them first because they're both zip-files. Regardless of the fact, I'm going to dwelve into parts of the art book that particularly caught my interest (I plan to do the guide-book for another post). This might take me more than one post to do but I'll try my best.

The Art Book Itself

Since it is pretty much an unfinished version of what would've been the final product (the date underneath each pages say that this was worked on around September 30th of 2014), text from every page had the HTTYD2 art book text added in as a temporary placeholder. The actual text itself is within another file that you have to open separately.

It's also important to note that some of the images haven't been completely added in yet as of the time this early draft was created, so it is mainly left to interpretation on what was originally going to be added there.

The Worldbuilding

Ever since clips of the movie surfaced around, some people were speculating on where the movie itself was going to take place (aside from the cosmic realm). And We've actually got an answer for that right here! The town where most of the hauntings happen is called Gateway, which is somewhere around Illinois.

I very much love the whole vibe of the town, as it looks almost like an early, dreamworkish version of the New York City shown in Soul (oh no,, the afterlife hyperfixations clash !!).

The mixture between the different architecture from both the past and the current era really shows how much this town changed overtime and emphasizes a reason to feel close towards it. It also gives more meaning towards its name (while also tying into the whole ghost plot)

The Character Designs (For the humans, that is)

Although not that visible within the rendered animated models, it was actually intended that humans and ghosts would have followed the teardrop theory way of character design, with humans being wider from below while ghosts were more wider from above to showcase how ghosts are more lighter since their forms aren't actually corporeal.

(I actually followed this when doing the second designs for my OCs!)

[cometcactus]

greetings once again: a little update... now where are my soccer fans at? ⚽👀

hey y'all, nia here, it's been months since i posted... would you like to hear a story? not sure if this is going to last but i may be a soccer/football fan now... or at the very least feeling nostalgic for it. it's quite funny because i was never interested in soccer myself, but i do have fond memories of experiencing the world cup hype where i live, and i remember having a few soccer fans in my neighborhood. part of this story has something to do my growing interest in german culture over the past few years. i'll tell you about that as well in another time. so, i was 10 years old when germany won the world cup last time, and while i wasn't actively following the games, i did remember the 7-1 semifinal becoming a meme and hearing götze's name every so often in the news back then... (10-year-old me had almost no idea why he was in the news, lol) also, i remembered seeing those winner group photos where the all the goalkeepers wore that one (ugly but catchy) shade of green. fast forward to this year and a couple months ago i had the chance to watch the euros with my german friends. it was my first soccer watch party in years and it was my first time watching soccer with my close friends :) so as i was watching the games i noticed that along a bunch of new names in germany's team, there were a few familiar names from 10 years ago: müller and kroos (and that time i had no idea and i certainly didn't think for once that this would be their last tournament as a team) but one name stood out to me more than others: manuel neuer. 🧤 i guess my friends were all nostalgic for him since they would occasionally talk about him and recall his many achievements, joke about him a lot so that he became a bit of a meme among my friend circle, and at that point he instantly became my favorite goalkeeper. (plus, he looks super cute too...🥺)

yeah i have to admit, for a moment i may have gone crazy for him (he certainly looks older now but i kid you not, i would yell his name every time he appeared on camera during the euros, silly me) here comes the sad part though: 10 years is quite a long time in a soccer player's career, and it seems a lot of them have retired or are retiring due to their age, so it may come as a surprise for some that some of the old gang from the world cup 10 years ago were still playing in the euros. with the last players from back then - including the lovely keeper neuer himself - having announced their retirement from the german team by the time i started writing this post, the days of the world cup winners are pretty much over. god, i feel old every time i see photos of germany's world cup team this year's euros have left me with some beautiful memories, and made me a new soccer fan who's also nostalgic for the world cup champions. so, as a homage to this goalkeeper and the Weltmeister of 2014 i started a new tumblr blog where i would mostly repost german soccer stuff from the past years and maybe throw in some original content as well. @neuerstalgia - come check it out if you want ^_^ and, i said i would bring more content to my main, but i have to admit i wasn't being very productive these days. and it's not like i don't have anything to show - rather the opposite - i have been making stuff for my page but i often leave them unfinished, to the point where i just have too many drafts lying around. but i'll be a responsible citizen and finish them all 'cause i sure do have a lot of things and ideas i'd like to show to you. 💛 in other words, i'll try to spend more of my time publishing content to my blog. i've got a list of what i'd like to post here, but i don't want to spoil the surprise. but i'll tell you, it's going to be interesting :D so, i end the day by listening to a german song. look forward to more posts, doodles and reblogs from me and hope you all have a pleasant evening.

[captain-grammar]

Tagged by the AMAZING and double-y talented @goldheartedsky to participate in this writer's ask:

1) How many works do you have on AO3? 22. Because I'm excellent at thinking up ideas and then scaring myself out of writing them. 2) What’s your total AO3 word count? 89,347. Again, I'm AMAZING at psyching myself out of projects.

3) What fandoms do you write for? The bulk of my paltry number of fics are The Old Guard focussed, but I have an ANCIENT, unfinished Stargate: Atlantis fic on there and a snippet of a LOTR/LOTRO piece that will never be completed.

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Codeword Blue, For The First Time, The Slowest Burn, Lost in Translation and Close. Which is kind of amazing because the ship-focus for these is, arguably, not necessarily 'mainstream' in the TOG fan space so I massively appreciate that people rate them!

5) Do you respond to comments? I do! Or I used to, back when I posted something new/regularly. I haven't posted anything for a VERY long time now, and so actively avoid reading any new comments because then I'll feel guilty for not writing, or feel like a fraud.

6) What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I don't really go for angsty, because I tend to just want happy endings for all. I have an unsatisfying cliff-hanger ending to what was supposed to be a two-parter fic (Homewrecker) so I supposed in a parallel universe where people are dying for me to finish it, the fact that it's resolutely NOT complete might be causing some angst?

7) What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? They all have happy endings in one form or another but I think the one that might have the most "aaawwh" factor is maybe I Won't Let You Sink. Any excuse for my boy Booker to get a hug, really.

8) Do you get hate on fics? I don't think so? At least none that I'm aware of! Nobody's leaving me comments or hitting up my DMs, put it that way.

9) Do you write smut? I do. With varying degrees of success, admittedly, but still...

10) Do you write crossovers? If so, what’s the craziest one you’ve written? Many moons ago, perhaps, on a long-forgotten fanfiction.net account but nothing I can remember!

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen? Darling, I don't want my fics half the time. Why the hell would anyone else?!

12) have you ever had a fic translated? I have not!

13) have you ever cowritten a fic before? I think I've made plans to with a few people but not followed through. I'm scared of not living up to the hype and letting them down!

14) What’s your all time favorite ship? Honestly? The Ongoing LOTRO Fic I'll Never Finish, featuring my OC and Lothrandir. That Ranger needs a hug, a break and therapy in that order and my elf will give him that.

15) What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? BITCH, THROW A DART AT ANY OF THE 40-ODD DRAFTS IN MY FOLDER AND YOU'RE A WINNER.

16) What are your writing strengths? I'm almost annoyingly descriptive. I can't draw for shit so I'll use words to try and conjure up an image that I could never in a million years manage with a paintbrush.

17) what are your writing weaknesses? My lack of self-belief...

18) thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I'm for it! As I'm not fluent in any other language, I'll keep it to short little snippets, italicised, that I'm confident aren't terrible and won't cause an international incident! I think it can be a nice nod to a character's past, who they are and their heritage.

19) First fandom you wrote for? Again, MANY moons ago and long-forgotten, but Stargate: SG-1 when I was maybe 13?

20) Favorite fic you’ve written? Probably Bloom. I just really like the idea that Booker and Joe's relationship is deep and probably has evolved and developed and fluctuated a LOT over the years and had fun exploring that! (And Goldie's art for it was just phenomenal!)

TAGGING: I honestly don't know who else may have been tagged in something like this already so hey, if you write fic and want to participate, by all means fill your boots!

[blinkaftermidnight]

i would love to hear more about some of the unfinished The Wilds fics

Buckle up. There's a lot of stuff dying in my hard drive. Maybe, when I get the time, I should try to finish some of it up/patch it up/post random snippets (if anyone would be interested?).

So here's the thing, I have my drive separated into two types of fics for The Wilds: there are fics I consider potentially still in play and fics I've scrapped altogether. Two different folders. I'll make you a list under the cut and tell you what I consider each to be. And I'll probably give too much commentary about each.

If you want to know more or get a snippet of any of them, please send follow up asks. I would love to share. Or I'd love to hear what, if I were to pick back up with writing, you'd want to read the most. No guarantees, but I'll think about it.

I posted the snippet for i'll be waiting on you forever from Fatin's POV in another ask. Not very far into that, but I also haven't moved it to the scrapped folder. I think my problem with that kind of fic is it doesn't feel fresh enough - it's hard to make it feel new when we already know where it's headed. I've done it before, but it's hard.

I started a second Star Wars AU that's unrelated to the first where Leah's a Jedi Padawan and Fatin is a senator - literally Anakin and Padme in Attack of the Clones. Didn't get very far but didn't scrap it.

I have one that I'm still hoping to finish that's placeholder titled "Leah loses her mind" rightfully or wrongfully, I don't know. It explores her season two on island hallucinations and how that affects her and the group. It's 6.5k and unfinished, but I'm planning to take a look at it and see what can be done.

There are so many post island fics that are just snippets and doing nothing on my drive. I kept trying to experiment with writing all of the season two POVs post island and that shit is hard. Probably a sign not to expand too far away from Leatin because apparently I can only care so much lmao. But I haven't bothered to scrap them.

There's one where I attempted to write Leachel but that shit was also hard apparently. Really I was trying to write all different pairings and didn't get very far. Not scrapped and I have considered trying again more than once.

I started a no experiment AU where it was just an actual plane crash. I have 5k of that and no memory of writing it. Not scrapped. Not sure if I'd ever finish that.

The season 3 fic outline I mentioned in another ask but didn't link because I was on mobile, so that's here if you missed it. Not scrapped, but unfortunately I think outlining it made me feel like I told the entire story even though I never wrote more than 2-3 chapters. That's the problem with outlining, but only sometimes, because I outlined the exes fic/we're falling apart still we hold together, and that was fine.

I started a road trip AU back in 2021. Wrote 7k. Outlined the entire thing and same problem as above. Got stuck. I think I was trying to force word counts on myself for each chapter and it wasn't working. Not scrapped but very unlikely I'll touch it.

I have one just called "waterfall 5" that has five moments spent at the waterfall, and I almost finished it. I think I still have some hope of finishing it, since it's a quick thing.

I've talked about it before, probably two/three years ago at this point jfc, but I don't remember what I've disclosed about this fic. It's the one I mentioned in another ask about it not feeling right, so I didn't put it out, and it's something like 50k words and had a massive plot hole that I had to try to fix, and I was going to do a whole rewrite and maybe put it out. This one haunts me. There's a chance I'll throw the entire draft out one day without editing or fixing any issues. Or maybe I'll take another stab at it, since it's all there. Truly, this one haunts me. For once, I had a perfect title and nothing to show for it. There's probably snippets of it in asks on my blog somewhere from back when The Wilds wasn't cancelled and I was insane about it.

I scrapped the Grey's Anatomy AU. Just gave up on it.

I wrote 239 words of something vaguely Dotin and scrapped that too.

I have a first draft of the fake dating AU i don't belong to you (but you're wrong) that I scrapped. I took it in an entirely different direction and scrapped 10k of this other thing. I think I salvaged some of it for the posted fic, but it started going the wrong way.

Also have a scrapped draft of the last chapter of the soulmate AU i said i wouldn't let you in. That first draft of that chapter was BAD.

I scrapped 14k of everyone else's perception of what was happening with Leatin on the island. Like Leatin through every other character's eyes, and I don't remember why it didn't work or what I didn't like about it.

I'm not gonna lie, some of this stuff I'm looking at...even I don't know what it is anymore.

I scrapped a document called "untitled" and this is literally all that's in it:

"She sees her on the first day of school, sitting with the kid that supposedly led the FBI to Gretchen. Leah smiles slightly as Fatin crosses the lawn, and the kid – Ian – turns to look where Leah’s looking, and Fatin just tilts her head in acknowledgment and keeps walking. There’s nothing more for her to do."

I don't know what that is.

There's STILL a lot more documents I haven't touched on because I haven't bothered to open them and find out what they are (and my placeholder titles don't tell me much all the time). But I feel like this is a good start lmao.

Sorry for writing a novel, but you did ask. If you want more, let me know and I will make time over the weekend to post some stuff.

[captainsphinxart]

1ST UNFINISHED DRAFT :

Alright I mentioned I wanted to write a Hogwarts Legacy fanfic for my MC with the lore I've been posting about, so here's a little taste of what's to come.

I would love to hear what you guys think of it please!!! And please don't hesitate to tell me if I made any mistake, I'm a bit tired.

My Heart's in the Highlands

A Hogwarts Legacy FanFic, 10 years later.

Chapter One : Paperwork

Amelia was hard at work in the Auror's office on this beautiful sunny monday morning. She was busy writing a report on her last investigation. Yet the young Auror was struggling to remember the date of the day she needed to write on it. Her mind was simply elsewhere, thinking of how she could be enjoying a nice walk in the countryside as she felt the warmth of the sun caressing her face through the window. Although she had the chance to travel the country with her work and often explore the countryside to hunt dark wizards, she missed her blithesome days at Hogwarts. At that time of her life she had the freedom and time to roam the Highlands and discover their secrets, of enjoying a sunny afternoon laying in the grass with the ones she loved. Flashes of tender teenage memories crossed Amelia's mind, and the need of writing the date on her report was now a distant memory.

That is when a familiar voice, which at first she thought was coming from her memories, brought her back to reality. “Amelia? Would you like a coffee?”, Sebastian pronounced softly as he delicately put his hand on her shoulder, obviously understanding she was daydreaming. The grey-haired witch jumped slightly, however part of her was still away. As, indeed, Sebastian's voice was already part of the memories she was reminiscing about, before he even pronounced these words. After a few seconds, Amelia got a grip on herself and her gaze crossed his. She realised her day inside wasn't that dull in fact, with him by her side, almost everyday was a sunny day. “I'm sorry dear, it seems my mind did not want to be here. I would love a coffee, please.”, observed the young witch, smiling tenderly to her lover. “I didn't realise it was pause time already”, she murmured, almost to herself. “Alright then, I'll go make some coffee.” Sebastian said ending his sentence with a soft kiss on her head. “You should go for a small walk, even inside, it'll wake you up.” he concluded. With these words, Amelia got up fastly from her chair, as if to finally put an end to her state of half-sleep. A caring chuckle escaped the young man's mouth while seeing this scene. He then walked away to make coffee, with a grin on his face. He was probably trying to come up with something to tease her a bit, as he always did. As for Amelia, she sighed as she remember all the work she had to do after the pause. She brushed her skirt with a swift and expert motion of her hands, she pulled a little the ends of her brown velvety vest to put it back in place, and she brought her loose hair behind her back. Having a respectable appearance while walking through the office corridors was utterly important to Amelia. Anyone would agree this was very Ravenclaw of her. Feeling satisfied with her looks, she walked to the door of their office.

[an-eldritch-peredhel]

Tagged by @thalion71 thank you!

most hits: Dear Ecthelion (letters are hard to write in your head), with 336! I don't check my stats very often so that's crazy to me. It's probably because it's the only one I have written for LotR, not just the Silmarilion lol. It was my second? I think? Work I posted to be longer than 2000 words. I wrote it for SecretlyThranduil for TSS21 and I'm still pretty proud of it and how it got me thinking about Glorfindel, Ecthelion, and Erestor. I didn't actually get the chance to use most of the headcanons I came up with...

most kudos: Also Dear Ecthelion lol, for the suspected same reason as above. Behind it is I will go as seems good to me which is the start to an "Aredhel becomes a ghost and casually haunts Gondolin" AU that I have written very little about but continuously gives me brainworms. I am very very proud of the style of this one, I wrote it for Tolkien Gen Week 21 and it has haunted (ha) me ever since.

most comments: Remember, All, Listen, All, easily. Written for TRSB last year, my only (completed) multi-chap, and the 2nd longest. Far and away the fic I am proudest of. Perfectly suited to my interests, just enough of a challenge to test me, self-indulgent worldbuilding details, some light conlanging, and absolutely GORGEOUS prompt art by catadromously. Sticking exclusively to Dior's perspective of his fairy-tale parents was really fun and I think gave a pretty unique flavor, and I've been so, so, so gratified with all the positive feedback saying that they could feel and believe the relationships. If you only read/kudos/comment on one of these, this is the one I recommend.

most bookmarks: Calómë (dusk-light), a prompt fill for jaz-the-bard. Writing this was like polishing away a stone to reveal the heart of how I want to characterize Maeglin. Still working on how/if this fits into my personal Arda, and I know the Gondolin OT3 isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I did a lot in here that I'm very happy with, and it took me so long to work out a variation on both Lomion and Maeglin that I was pleased with, didn't have Implications, was gender neutral, and also translated easily and cleanly into both Sindarin and Quenya, so I'm definitely keeping Calómë.

most words: The Goddess and the Weaver, beating out Remember, All by a cool 600. Ironically, this is my other (unfinished) multi-chap. Two-shot? The second half is quietly languishing in my drafts but it is Not forgotten, and will be written if nothing else than for the sake of 3 (three) scenes that I have in extreme clarity in my head. I have So many Miriel thoughts about her and her relationships to life and Vairë and Finwë and Indis and her son... There is a Story behind this fic, which I don't have the space for here but is detailed in the author's note at the beginning, but even though it has fought me every step of the way I am content to let it rest now as is for a while before battling again. Also I did some funky formatting for Vairë's speech and pronouns which was a lot of work but very very cool imo.

least words: This is a Forest, at 547. I usually post short one-shots because I know that I can get them done even when I have almost no inspiration or energy, but this is short even for me. Written for a class as fanfic with the serial numbers filed off and posted in its natural habitat, this is purely self indulgent Doriath As Fey Eldritch Horror Entity With Beren Dealing purple prose. Is it my best technical work? No, but I had so much fun with it, and I think I got across the vibes I wanted to. Also Quick shout outs to the least word runner-ups: A Cruel Forest (630) which is the same Doriath As Entity premise but with a completely different style and Elured and Elurin as Eldritch Maiarin Entities Twisted, and the prince is dead (661) in which Fingon has an existential crisis about his name and the kingship after his father rides out to face Morgoth. Both also written for Gen Week 21. I had so much time that year.

Tagging: @yellow-faerie @tilions @jaz-the-bard @amethysttribble @starspray @swanmaids @arofili if y'all feel like it! Any other writers who see this and want to self-promo, count this as me tagging you to show off your stuff.

[booksandabeer]

Thank you so much for the tag @tessabennet 😘

Last song: "Slow Hands" by Azealia Banks (Interpol cover)

Song stuck in my head: "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler

Currently watching: Finished Loki and am all over the place with my feelings about That Ending. Slow Horses season 2.

Favourite colours: cobalt blue

Currently craving: any kind of hot beverage

Last movie: Renfield. It was terrible. I had a fantastic time watching it.

Sweet, spicy, or savoury: yes please.

Relationship status: Yeah, no. Not talking about that on here.

Current obsession: Other than the usual, nothing much. I'm about to start watching Fellow Travelers though, so I guess ask me again in a week. ;)

Last thing I googled: art print sizes american standard (I've finally arrived at the stage where I'm hanging pictures (finishing touches, baby!) in the new apartment. I got these beautiful art prints at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston a while back and now I had to find out that of course US and European print standards are different. So now I have to order custom frames and passepartouts. Yay.

Three favourite foods: Thai food. All of it. Any kind of uncooked seafood (ceviche, sushi, oysters). Also, and I know this is going to make a lot of people go ewwwww, but I love beef tongue. Sorry.

Dream trip: I miss Thailand. I used to travel there almost every year before the pandemic and even lived there for a few months in 2019. I miss it a lot. :( But a place that I've never been? The Southern US. And New Zealand would be nice.

Anything you want right now: Time. More hours in the day please. I'm so behind on everything. I have 4 unfinished rec lists in my drafts and I really want to post one this month. Will that actually happen? I don't know! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm declaring this an OPEN TAG. (I promise to subject myself to the excruciating experience of of tagging people again in the next round)

[greyias]

Fic writers' end-of-year roundup: 2022 edition!

Tagged by @elveny -- thank you for the tag! Tagging @queen-scribbles, @keldae, @storyknitter, and anyone who wants to grab it!

I would say 2022 was a mixed year as far as productivity goes! I was actually actively writing most of the year (with pockets of "too tired" draining me every now and then), but a lot of it was on a longfic that I waited until I had finished the first draft to start posting. But I think it was successful overall, as I was able to

Words written (published or not, WIPs included!): I'm probably just going to count published, as I have been working on some WIPs in the background, but that requires more math and thinking than I have in me right now, so we'll go with a little over 43k published, although it's a bit higher with some WIPs and other behind the scenes stuff.

Smut scenes: None published this year

New things I tried: Chance Encounters, which was my big experiment in a different method outlining/prewriting for long form fic. It took me a long time to get it into finished form, but considering the massiveness of the fic and the fact that it's complete, I think is a success in itself.

Fic I spent the most time on:  Without a doubt, Chance Encounters, my little 36k novella (that for some reason I thought would only be 10k 🤷‍♀️)

Fic I spent the least time on: I think this little ficlet, that was basically me bashing out a musing/headcanon in like maybe an afternoon.

Favourite thing I wrote: Once again, almost by default of taking up most of my year Chance Encounters, although I did have a lot of fun writing it. It's rather self-indulgent, and a fun, mostly lighthearted adventure. I think runner up is the Outlander!Theron fic I've picked back up on in the past week or so, considering I keep having to tell myself "No, you can't start posting yet. You haven't proofread anything beyond maybe the first chapter. You don't even have a title"

Favourite thing I read: @storyknitter's Medieval AU, which I have adored every little entry into. So much so, I slid into her DMs to see if she could get me a compiled version to load on my Kindle for a day at jury duty that got rescheduled for 2023. I wound up re-reading the whole thing in a couple of days.

Writing goals for next year: Finish the Outlander!Theron fic, and finally exorcise that beast from my mind. I've also got some other long, lingering WIPs that I'd like to try and tackle. I'm having enough fun with this pre-writing/writing I'm doing on the Outlander!Theron fic, that I'm hoping I can bottle that energy up and use it on some of my other unfinished babies. I also really want to write more in the Chancesverse, because I love that little AU so much. Also, I want to try to find a way to write more consistently, which is more driven by my energy levels. I also have this crazy urge to try and write on some original stuff, but we'll see where that lands. If I can get a good enough handle on fic progress, maybe I can bottle a genie and spread that magic to something I can get published.

[slytherinshua]

How long does it usually take you to write fics ? I feel like whenever I try to write one it takes months to even get an idea 😭 Do you have any tips on how to work on motivations ? It’s like I’ve had writer’s block for the last 2 years.

anon 😭 i feel honored that you wanted to ask me for advice 😭 so i'll try my best 😭 for me it really depends on the fic. usually if i get an idea for a fic or i get a request that i really really like, i'll rush to write the fic immediately. sometimes i'll finish a fic in one or two sittings (a couple hours of writing probably depending on the length), and sometimes i'll write a bit for the fic and then sort of abandon it because i've lost motivation. i have around 50 or more unfinished fics in my drafts, some of which will probably never get finished??

writer's block rly is the worst and whenever i'm struggling with it even for a day, it feels like weeks of not being able to write. sometimes its because none of the ideas i have are inspiring me, and i guess sometimes its just cause the words aren't coming out easily. but when this happens i try to think of something to small to write, like a timestamp for example. the task of writing a couple hundred words vs a couple thousand is a lot more doable when you're already struggling with writing. so i would definitely suggest starting small.

for inspiration or ideas for fics, i get a lot of them just by looking at pictures of who i'm writing for. if i really really want to write a soobin fic for example, but i don't have an idea, i'll almost always go to pinterest and just look. a lot of the time an idea will come from just looking at a particular photo.

another thing that helps is trying to write a new trope or au. having the loose plot or basis of a fic can help you think of how to write it. lets say i found this picture on pinterest of soobin:

and this picture gave me the idea to write a royalty au for him. so now we know we're going to do a royal setting. the next thing i would think about is whether i want it to be modern or more medieval, and for now i'm going to pick medieval. so let's say soobin is the personal guard for the princess (y/n) and we'll add in forbidden love as a trope to add conflict. so now we have the basis of the fic and the setting the trope to include etc etc, so now we can start writing.

using this process is really really helpful for me. start out with a photo, find an idea you like based on that photo and build it up from there. it can be really simple and small as well, it doesn't have to be as complicated as an entire royalty au with soobin lol

another thing i will say is the fics i post are so varied. for example yesterday i posted 3 fics: jeonghan, woojin, and sejun.

the jeonghan fic was from a request i had gotten recently and i only just started writing it and finished it in one sitting. it was a shorter fic and was just short and fluffy.

the woojin fic wasn't from a request, it was just something i wanted to write for myself. it ended up being longer and even though i started and finished it in one sitting, there was ideas i pulled from a lot of different places. the basis of the fic was inspired by woojin's song purple sky, the beginning part was slightly inspired by true beauty, and the ending came to me while writing. i think once you start writing, the fic can sometimes just come to you and flow easily until you finish it.

lastly the sejun fic was from an old request. like months old request if i remember correctly. it was half written and i had kinda abandoned it for a while, waiting for when i would get motivation to write it again. and sometimes you just have to wait until you are ready to write a certain fic again. sometimes trying to force out the words doesn't work and you end up with a result that you really hate and are frustrated with (this has happened to me a lot).

i know this was really long, but i hope it helped you even just a bit (idk whether i was actually giving solid advice or just bullshitting my way through this????) but ig the main takeaways are:

it's normal for some fics to take a long time to finish, it really just depends on the fic

start out small when you are struggling with writer's block as you are more likely to end up with a fic you are happy with (and finishing a fic and being proud of what you've written can snowball into more writing motivation!!)

if you are struggling for inspiration, try to find ideas from photos or just anything around you

it might seem like all these blogs are so active and have no problem producing fic after fic *cough yena/fairyhaos how tf do u do it cough*, but we all have our struggles and we ALL experience writer's block and have to overcome it. so don't give up and power through it, anon 🫶

[fountainpenguin]

Fanfic meme: 8, 16, 20

[Current Ask game]

8. What’s the oldest (longest since last update) fic you most want to continue (unfinished or no)?

I made a significant amount of progress on both The Beatin' Path and Lions Under Palm Trees before I faded from writing Total Drama, and some of my favorite scenes I've ever written are in those 'fics, but were never posted. I delayed mainly because writing those meant skipping past my unfinished 'fic The Lyin' Queen, which came chronologically earlier but which I was struggling with.

I like Staci as a character. I think she's goofy and confident. She was fun to write, but I was going to do this big twist reveal where you find out at the end that she has short term memory loss, and the entire story was written so that you just thought she was a little spacy until then. I wrote the prequel to Lyin' Queen (Life of a Loser) in two months or less, so I was young and ambitious and wasn't prepared for how much work Lyin' Queen was... and it only grew more difficult as I continued through school.

I'd like to get back to these stories though because sincerely they have some of my all-time favorite scenes and I still think about them a lot. Leonard is like, my all-time favorite Total Drama character and he was eliminated second in Pakithew and first in Ridonculous Race, which means it's Leonard time ALL the time and he's the best.

Will there be an audience for these stories almost 10 years after I stopped writing them? Idk, maybe not... but when I think about how Leonard is fantastic, and how many scenes I never shared with the world, I am filled with love... (for Leonard).

Throwback to 2015-2016 when I was still posting mainly on dA and I used to type with the manual italics:

Also to this day, Topher is still hands-down one of the best examples of a manipulative slimeball character I have ever seen in my life and I love him too <3

16. Have you ever stopped writing a fic/for a fandom because it wasn’t receiving enough attention?

I don't think I'd put it all on not receiving attention, but I did put No Anesthetic aside partly because it wasn't getting as much positive feedback as I hoped and partly because of criticism I received (not in the visible reviews portal, but elsewhere) that kind of hurt.

Honestly Youngblood is the only part of Danny Phantom that truly captivates me (though I do have a fondness for a few of the other ghosts), and I just didn't have the drive to carry that story through a wave of criticism when I had the alt option of writing for Fairly OddParents in a fandom that was much more welcoming to my ideas.

I don't want to make it sound like that's the only reason I stopped on this 'fic. There are a lot of scenes in No Anesthetic that are kind of info-dumpy and drag on, since Youngblood is learning about the Ghost Zone for the first time. I was juggling school, life, and other 'fics and the info-dumpy nature of this story made it more of a chore to write. It just didn't feel worth it because it was more work than my other stories, I didn't feel like anyone was enjoying it, and it was one extra thing I had on my plate, so I stopped.

Now that it's been 6 years, I'd like to rewatch Danny Phantom and maybe go back to this story someday to see if it sparks something in me. I like my worldbuilding ideas for the Ghost Zone, and like the TD 'fics above, I had a lot written. Here's one of my favorite WIP scenes:

But also, my draft has a lot of missing scenes, and the story hangs in fragments because it doesn't really "go anywhere" and the plot is just a found family story without a lot of direction, so it would take a lot of revisions to make it less info-dumpy and flesh it into something with proper story beats. I might go back to it someday, but probably not any time soon. Or if I do go back to it, I might cut a lot of the plans I initially had and turn it into a shorter piece with just a few chapters instead. We'll see.

20. Have/Would you ever rewrite a fic? If yes, would you take the original down?

When I'm finished with Origin of the Pixies and Frayed Knots, I'd like to go back and clean them up a little. There are little lines here and there that bother me, and I used to spell out large numbers instead of typing them as numerals, there are info-dumpy moments, stuff like that. I force myself to keep moving forward because I'm worried that if I get nitpicky, I'll never finish, so just remember that you're reading stuff I started in 2016 and it is technically in a draft state /shrug.

I've not rewritten a 'fic before, but I do have some pieces from 10 years ago that I'd like to write with more sensitivity knowing what I know now. As one example, there's a 'fic I wrote that I never moved from dA to FFN because the relationship between those characters moved from platonic to romantic after one forced the other into a kiss. I didn't understand consent back then and media had shown me that people often liked surprise kisses and enjoyed platonic relationships that suddenly became romantic.

I played with those characters for a while before I discovered the concept of asexuality and realized that I headcanoned this character as ace. I no longer wanted that forced kiss to be associated with my storyline, so it still exists on dA because I don't like deleting 'fics, but I didn't move it to FFN with the others.

There's also another 'fic I wrote where it's pretty obvious that I didn't understand how the legal system works, so I didn't move that one over either because I don't think it's very good. I also have other 'fics on a site that's not AO3, FFN, or dA, but I posted under a different name back then and while they were fun, they were populated with OCs and I don't want to unbury them.

I have no interest in rewriting those old 'fics, but the general idea of "There are sensitive topics I didn't treat in the most sensitive way 10+ years ago" and "I really didn't understand how the adult world works" remains. I'm glad I've been writing for so long, but I do hope I never end up in a situation where someone wants to hold up my old stories as an example of what I believe now, because I was young and have a lot of old stuff I don't want to delete because this is my writer's journey and I don't want to throw it away /shrug.

This is the last Ask for this Ask game that I have in my inbox, so I'll wrap up the questions here unless anyone wants to send in more tonight. Thanks for the interest!

[Current Ask game]

[giigil]

how did you start to write? kinda curious to know your trajectory

story time! (really happy you asked, hehe.) note: if anyone's interested in going through my past writings, let me know and i'll probably make a google drive folder lol.

I've been addicted to gaming ever since I was younger and I've always had hyperfixations that would come and go. Middle school was when I realized I had a love for reading books (mainly young adult, romance, fiction + manga) and I used to always spend my time in the school library during my lunch breaks.

2012: I was 13 and almost graduated from middle school. I adored Zelda/Link as a ship so much that I Googled 'Zelda x Link' to look for cute art, only to stumble across a website: Fanfiction.net. Yep. That site.

I read through a couple of stories and found myself hooked. I made an account, and I decided to start writing my own stories.

Super Smash Brothers Brawl had a huge impact on my life and holds a special place in my heart. It was all I'd ever written and thought about when I first started.

( putting a read more to elaborate further on my writing journey. )

Around 2013, though, someone put a wrench on my Fanfiction.net journey by reporting my story -- it wasn't anything horrible, it was just a cringe Truth or Dare fanfiction that someone and their group said was "against" Fanfiction.net rules. That story got deleted, and out of impulse and feeling depressed, I deleted every single fanfiction I'd ever posted on my account.

I deeply regret doing so, because there were so many ideas that I can't look back on because my memory isn't able to recall a whole lot of them.

At least a few weeks after, though, I got onto Tumblr and got into Tumblr roleplaying! Fairy Tail was my next huge fixation and I made a roleplay blog focused on Edo-Cana from the Edolas arc (after I spoke with an Edo-Lucy blog). After I lost my inspiration for Edo-Cana, I moved on to Evergreen, and then Lucy Heartfilia.

I believe I lost interest in roleplaying on Tumblr around 2014.

2014: I was still writing on Fanfiction.net, but as usual, I would delete my fics when they didn't satisfy me. I wrote for a couple of other fandoms ranging from Big Hero Six, Rise of the Guardians/Young Justice, and more. I'd also joined websites like Quotev and Wattpad.

2015: In my junior year of high school, I made a friend who also had an interest in roleplaying. She introduced me to this one roleplaying website which allowed me to continue with writing.

However, as you can probably see, I have the absolutely terrible habit of losing interest in things quickly. I ended up quitting roleplaying due to that.

I also joined Archiveofourown. I don't remember if I'd ever posted anything around the time of joining. This is the one year I don't remember much for.

I also continued to post on Fanfiction.net:

As per usual, it lasted for *almost* a year.

November 10th, 2016 was the last time I ever posted on my Fanfiction.net account.

I had a dry spell when it came to writing for a good year and a half from 2016-2017.

April 21 2017: I played Final Fantasy XV and (it's what I hyperfixated on for a good 2 years). Around April 27-28, I already had a hankering for wanting to write fanfiction for it. I have so many ideas that haven't seen the light of day, and probably never will.

There's so many drafts, mostly unfinished, just sitting in my Google Drive.

August 2018: I posted a Prompto Argentum x Reader fic on archiveofourown, but eventually orphaned it and everything else I had posted.

October 2018: My hyperfixation for Red Dead Redemption 2 started. I thought up of ideas, plotlines, etc.

February 2019: I posted 3 Arthur Morgan x Reader fics. Which, you can probably already guess what the fuck happened to those. *orphaned. woooow.*

March 2019: I swore off writing anything else for my old Fanfiction.net account, and have left all of my fanfiction saved there.

2020-2021: Once more, I stopped writing and focused on trying to get through day by day life considering it was the COVID outbreak and I was only ever working. I never stopped reading fanfiction though. It's what's kept my writing decent -- at least, that's what I feel like. 2020 was when my hyperfixation on Final Fantasy 7/Remake started. I would think up of things.

March 23, 2022: (Not a writing thing, but I like to make note of it.) The start of my hyperfixation on Jujutsu Kaisen and Gojo!

December 2022: I finally posted a fic after so long. Haven't deleted it, and I swear I won't.

January 2023: Wrote my first ever M rated fic for Nero the Sable from Final Fantasy 7 Remake x Reader, and told myself I'd go back to writing. I haven't posted anything else on AO3 since then.

August 11, 2023: I learned of and created an account on character.ai!

September 18, 2023: I started making character.ai bots!

TL;DR:

As you can see, I'm an inconsistent person and have occasional moments of inspiration and eventually get tired of things. There will be times when I need a break from writing, so I apologize if it takes me a bit to get through all of my requests.

[thunderous-wolf]

Drunk Dazed

Installment 2 of my series of "Thoughtz"

Note: "Thoughtz" is a compilation of drafts of fanfic that I've had in my notes for a while. They're unedited and most are unfinished. Since I do not feel motivated enough to finish them, I'm posting them all for you to read. Enjoy~

Midnight Escapade

Part 1 of 3

Pairing: no relationship, but features Bangchan and fem!reader.

Plot: You find yourself in a strange world...

Warnings: its supposed to be a little confusing, violence, guns and shooting, death, an implied "not-so-kind" man

a/n: This was a goofy project inspired by a friend that consists of three separate stories tied together. Just like a dream, they don't have a clear plot and are strictly for fun.

Please DO NOT copy, translate or steal my works.

You woke up to find yourself standing behind your best friend, Lisha, in a unfamilliar hallway somewhere. You can hear music coming from the room at the end of the hallway, and the door was slightly ajar. From what you've gathered, it looks like a dance practice room.

After coming closer, you recognize that Red Lights is playing. You stopped right where you were. No way were you gonna watch that, you'd die from blushing as red as a beet. But Lisha, with unknown strength, pulled you along with her. We walked - or rather, dragged - along the hallway until we came to the door.

You were about to open the door when suddenly the ground beneath you gave way, and you were plunged into darkness.

You fell on something slightly soft. You jumped up, thinking it was Lisha, and after some examination, it was just a couch. Lisha had vanished into thin air without a trace.

A spotlight above you flickered on, revealing three doors infront of you. There were no other exits in the room, leading you to believe you had to go into one of the three doors to escape.

The first door was an old wood door (some might even go as far as saying it's mahogany). There was a small gap between the door and the floor, and you could feel a crisp night's breeze seeping in from it.

The second door was lit up with neon signs. It looked like it belonged to a night club. It was very dark tinted glass, and if you got close enough you could barely make out dancing lights from within. You could feel the vibrations on the door that were caused by the thumping music from within.

The third door - and by far the most odd one - was made of steel. It was painted stark white, and the paint was chipping off from the years of usage. One piece of paint in particular was getting on your nerves. You reached out to pick it off and immediately drew your hand back. The door was so cold it almost shocked your hand. Unlike the first door, it didn't have cold air flowing from it.

You stepped back. How were you supposed to know which one would lead you home? Although, you could just poke your head in each one and see which one looked most promising. So that's what you did.

However, your plans didn't factor the possibility of you being sucked into the atmosphere. Literally.

You had chosen the first door (as result of a game of eeny meeny miny moe) and were immediately thrown into the inside when you opened the door wide enough for you to fit through.

Beyond the door, you had stumbled upon an alley. It was late at night, the moon was already high in the sky. Looking up at it, you see that it's a full moon. However, it was the weirdest full moon you've ever seen. The clouds surrounding it were purple, making it cast purple rays of light onto the ground.

You hear shuffling coming from behind you, and you turn around to see a figure walking towards you.

As it came closer, you could see it was a man, in his mid forties, who was certainly not a sight for sore eyes.

"Hey there, pretty lady. Why don't you come with me and we can have some fun~"

"Dang it." You whisper to yourself. "Umm, thank you for the offer but I'm not interested." You say as politely as you can. You don't need to offend him since that could make it worse.

You slowly back away, but he mirrors your movements. His strides are bigger than yours and he's gaining on you. You were about to turn around and run when you suddenly hear a gunshot. You whip your head around to see where the shot came from.

On one of the rooftops above you, stood a younger man standing with his back to the moon, holding a really cool looking gun. There was a painful thud behind you and you whip your head around yet again to see that the man following you fell to the ground with a bullet hole in his chest. Blood was around around him and you stepped back to avoid getting any blood on you. You looked back to see if the young man was still there, but just as your head turned, he jumped off the roof. He quickly disappeared in the endless streets without a sound. Soon, you found yourself alone once more.

Part 2