#it is also the most kudos'd fic i've ever written

[jonathanbiers]

my silly little fic about steddie and snow cones just hit 666 kudos 😈

[thecouchsofa]

2023 ao3 wrapped / fic review / whatever else I'm putting here

@oflights, the human, the myth, the legend, has made me go look at my stats and now you have to look at them too. Tagging @jtimu @elskanellis @sillywives @sleepstxtic @maesterchill @peachydreamxx @hoko-onchi-writes @starquestingfordrarry @rainstormradish @apricitydays-lazynights @annanother-thing @uncannycerulean @drarrymyheart @mallstars so they can also feel this sweet, sweet pain (if they want).

First up, some stats!

Fics posted: 7 public, 1 currently hidden, 1 awaiting submission date + 3 tumblr microfics

Fics started (and maybe finished): 18 + 3 tumblr microfics

Word count of fics posted: 414,013

Total word count written: 513,953

Sorry, but what the actual fuck do you mean I've written over 500k words since April? Put me in restraints, truly.

My favourite fic I wrote this year: The Brightest Constellations of Our Souls

My most kudos'd fic of this year: Driving me crazy (but I'm into it)

I've also read, like, a fucking horrendous amount of fics this year. More than I think I read back when I was deep in the One Direction trenches as a teen. Getting back into writing has given me a fresh appreciation for everyone's work; it's so fucking hard to write well and everyone who puts themselves out there and does that gets an online hug from me.

After Erised reveals I'll be posting a ridiculously long list of my favourite fics that were posted in 2023. It is ... exhaustive. I should probably be embarrassed by how long it is.

But without further ado, a recap of my fics from this year.

May

Driving me crazy (but I'm into it) (8k, E) (Draco/Harry)

Draco’s fucked a lot of people. He’s fucked models, Quidditch players, members of the Wizengamot, even a Muggle actor, but none of them come quite as prettily as Harry Potter.

September

A Walk in the Woods (48k, E) (Draco/Harry)

After ending up in the Spell Damage Ward at St Mungo’s, Harry is put on mandatory holiday leave.

The catch: he has to spend it with Malfoy at his cottage deep in the woods. Harry has no idea why Malfoy agreed to host him, considering he avoided ever being alone in a room with Harry before he left for his sabbatical a year ago.

To complicate things, Harry’s enormous longstanding crush hasn’t waned at all in Malfoy’s absence.

For: HP Cottagecore Fest

The Brightest Constellations of Our Souls (256k, E) (Draco/Harry)

Harry doesn’t know how to cope after the War. The only things that make him feel even remotely normal again are taking risks while flying and fighting with Malfoy. It’s not likely to end well.

Or,

Draco becomes obsessed with ‘Wonderwall’, reads Muggle books, and drives a campervan, while Harry slowly falls in love with Draco. A story about travelling around the British Isles in the late 90s while healing deep scars.

October

Capillaries (3.6k, M) (Draco/Harry)

Draco’s Sectumsempra scars have never fully healed. He says that it’s not Harry’s fault, that he doesn’t blame him for it. Harry hears him, but he’s not sure that he believes it.

Evergreen (23k, T) (Harry/George)

“You’d better hurry up, mate, or all the good ones will have gone.” Fred leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest, clearly thinking that he’d now exceeded his allowance of brotherly wisdom for the day.

“Who are you going with then?” Harry asked suddenly. He looked between Fred and George, a thoughtful expression on his face.

Harry asks George to the Yule Ball because it’ll be a laugh and he’s in dire need of one of those. If George can continue to keep his crush under wraps it should all go swimmingly.

For: HP Rarepair Fest IV

Celestial (paint me like one of your starscapes) (30k, E) (Draco/Harry)

Draco needs a partner for an art project. The only catch is, they have to be magically compatible with him for the paints to work properly. He’s fairly certain that he knows who his partner will need to be, he’s just not sure that he wants to admit it.

For: H/D Sudsfest Lite 2023

November

November Flush (5k, E) (Draco/Harry)

Draco Malfoy might be an absolute raging arsehole, but he gives Harry exactly what he needs.

Microfics (all Draco/Harry)

From one to another, for the prompt 'follow': tumblr link

Til resentment do us part, for the prompt 'keep': tumblr link

Satiate, for the prompt 'indulge': tumblr link

Thoughts / feeling / goals for next year

Pride, slight embarrassment, love, appreciation.

For the coming year I'm excited to get stuck into writing even more. I've got so many ideas that I'm excited to work through and a fantastic community to do that with. I will need to be bullied into not signing up for more fests in the new year, so please give me a nudge if my blogging starts to look stressed. Also never be nervous to send me a message about random shit if you're on the fence!

If you have read this far, have read even a single sentence I've written this year, or have thought my Squirtle pic looks cool, I love you, I appreciate you, and I support you.

The motto for 2024? Bedcurtains. One word, not two.

Thanks for being here! ❤️

[losersroom]

twenty questions for fic writers

tagged by @tetrapod7! thanks man, this was a fun one.

1. how many works do you have on ao3? 17 on my current account. there's more on my old one and obviously that doesn't count everything i published on other platforms (livejournal, ff.net) in the ancient days, lol

2. what's your total ao3 wordcount? again just on the wolfspider account, 168,153. i cant tell if that feels low or high to me

3. what fandoms do you write for? right now, just wild hrpf. in the past it's been mostly anime and various cartoons.

4. top five fics by kudos: i'm hitting the skip button on this because like. wrt my own work i think it's not a very good metric of EITHER how popular those stories actually were OR the quality of them; they're mostly the TUA ones and im chalking that up to that fandom being Huge when i was active. my most kudos'd fic of all time is still how much was mine to keep, though, and i think that one holds up.

5. do you respond to comments? i try to now. i went through a long phase of not engaging with comments due to Social Anxiety and also being kind of fed up with the hyper-combative culture in the fandoms i was in. like i wanted to just yeet my work out there and be done with it. in hrpf fandom i'm actually interested in the community aspect though so ive been trying to get over myself and respond as best i can.

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? the brodsfabes time loop fic, hands down. it's weird because as a reader i am um. not very into unhappy endings or unconsummated angst but every once in a while when i'm writing i'll get into a Mood and write something viscerally upsetting. anyway that one was pretty clearly me processing some grief that was happening in my real life, lol.

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? probably entangled, from my spiderverse days. ngl i kind of hate it now though so let's move on from this. i think most of my fic has happy or at least ambiguously-positive endings, though.

8. do you get hate on fics? only one time ever and it was someone complaining that a ship i tagged for wasn't present in the story after One Chapter so. we're discounting that one. i've been pretty lucky!

9. do you write smut? yeah. my relationship with writing pornography ebbs and flows, like. sometimes i'll be really into it but sometimes i'll just stick a sex scene into a story where i feel like it's the least interesting thing that happens because people expect it and aren't going to read a romance that isn't leading up to that. i'm a horrible pervert and building up to a sex scene is an easy way to give your story a climax (...in multiple senses of the word) though so. why not.

10. craziest crossover: i don't write crossovers but if i did it would be the insane one ive been thinking about lately where the minnesota wild are stuck in the dungeon from dungeon meshi

11. have you ever had a fic stolen? not to a degree that i can prove it but part of the reason i left TUA fandom was somebody, in my opinion, ripped off large chunks of one of my fics and did just enough massaging of the language to make it defensible as Not Plagiarism. ruined the whole experience for me though.

12. have you ever had a fic translated? no, i think that would be one of the highest honors i could receive as a writer though. i wish i knew enough of a second language to translate my own work, but i'm still at like a kindergarten level in japanese so that will. Not happen.

13. have you ever co-written a fic before? tried to once with someone i am no longer friends with, it was a disaster. never gonna do that again. i am just too much of a control freak to relinquish any amount of creative decisionmaking i think.

14. all time favorite ship? don't have one! i tend to like hyperfixate on one ship for anywhere from one month to a year and a half and then when the brain juice runs out im Done and i never want to think about this concept again. im giving check please jackparse a point for being a ship i can read about post-fixation without getting bored but other than that. right now it's 725, in the future, who can say.

15. what's a wip you want to finish but never will? [stares at my overflowing gdocs draft folder. stares at the camera] i do not see it

16. what are your writing strengths? i like my prose, most of the time, and i think i'm pretty good at descriptive writing and like, internal character voice. sometimes i can accidentally stumble into excellent pacing

17. what are your writing weaknesses? INTENTIONALLY good pacing. writing dialogue that sounds like a human said it and not a sitcom character. i'm decent at line-by-line editing but awful at structural editing. recently ive become aware that i tend to subconsciously reuse certain plot beats a lot.

18. thoughts on dialogue in another language? like anything else, there's a way to do this that's fine and interesting and a way to do it that's insultingly terrible and it all depends on intent and execution. like if you're peppering in phrases in a second language just to show off that a character Is Foreign, don't do that. try to do it in a way that's realistic for how people talk. do it purposefully, i suppose

19. first fandom you wrote in? god dude i do NOT remember this was literally 21 years ago but probably either naruto or fullmetal alchemist.

20. favorite fic you've written? probably one of the unpublishable ones tbh. or the time loop one again. honestly i really like all my hrpf work, ive been putting out some bangers lately. it's nice to feel like ive been growing as an ~artist~ or whatever.

[voylitscope]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @somanywords and @zenaidamacrouras1 💞 Thank you both for the tag! 💞

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

34.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

438,009

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Primarily MCU (17). I've also got Original Work (12), and there are a few fandoms I wrote one/two fics for.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

All Stucky:

1. There Are Strangers I Have Yet to Become 

2. We Set a Precedent, and Now I’m Living With It

3. I Held You in Gloved Hands (And I’m Not Letting Go)

4. There’s a Light (I Find It at Your Side) 

5. If I Could Stop the Clock With You Tonight  (Technically, this isn't true. There is a fic I wrote in 2015 that is my Fic That Blew Up fic. It is my all-time most kudos'd fic by quite a lot. It's a one-shot I wrote in about four hours. It is in pretty small fandom. This fic is, to do this day, one of the top fics when you sort by kudos both for this ship and in the fandom in general. I still get kudos on this fic all the time. I got 5 overnight last night. So, unless I write something else that completely blows up, nothing will ever catch this fic. There's no chance. It will always actually be my number one most kudos'd.

There are two other older fics of mine that would slot into my top five by kudos -- one would actually be two all-time currently. But in the case of those two, that's largely because they've got time on their side.)

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

Always! Sometimes it takes me a little while, but I always do. I love comments.

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

I was going to say I didn't really have fics with angsty endings, but that's a lie. I forgot about these two pre-war, unreliable-narrator-Bucky one-shots: But You Can Hold Me (Only 'Cause It's a Cold Night in Brooklyn)  You're a Gem but Not a Saint

And thinking about it, I guess Darling, Let's Take Our Time (While It's Still Ours To Take) is probably also pretty angsty, just because of the circumstances.

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

I think some of my fics are just really happy overall, tone-wise, so the ending hits happy, too. Most of all We Set a Precedent, and Now I’m Living With It, I think? And i feel like the ending of I Held You in Gloved Hands (And I’m Not Letting Go) really cements the rom-com vibes there. Also, in my original stuff, people seem to really like the ending of Secretly, I’m Hoping for the Dare Again, and I completely get that. It's a very happily-ever-after sort of ending. So, I'd say those three.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I don't. I occasionally get comments that make me uncomfortable, but nothing I'd call hate at all.

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

I very much do. As for kind, I use the porn with feelings tag a lot, if that counts as a kind, ha. I think. I do get a lot of comments about my smut being sweet, or romantic, or sometimes even oddly wholesome, ha. I mean, like I said, Secretly, I’m Hoping for the Dare Again, has one of my very happiest endings, and I wrote that as a gift fic for the 2022 BDSM exchange. So, that probably says something about my smut style? I think?

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

I haven't. Unless you count putting characters into other universes as a crossover, even if they don't interact with that universe's characters? But I feel like that's more just an AU than a crossover.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not one that's on my currently being-used AO3, but yes.

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

Yes, a few times, but not in years.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Honestly, it's Stucky.

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

I hate to say never on anything, but there are several things sitting in my drafts that I haven't touched in so long. It's probably equally unlikely I'll ever finish any of them.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Tone/mood-setting and character voice, probably?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I find describing some actions so difficult, especially when specific things need to happen for plot purposes. Like, any sort of action sequence/confrontation/athletic event/etc sequence is a struggle. It's harder when there are more people involved. Transitioning in and out of scenes is also Not My Favorite.

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

I've done it, most heavily in Will You Keep a Candle Burning? (Will You Let Me Come and Stay?)  and its prequel one-shot. Although, there were also several more Wanda lines in my earliest draft of I Held You in Gloved Hands (And I’m Not Letting Go) but I think only... one? two? of those ended up in the final version. I enjoy including it, and I think it can really add a lot for characters/characterization.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

This was a question on a similar meme months ago, and I honestly didn't remember. I've Wayback Machined myself since then, and my very first fic ever up on fanfiction.net (in November of 2006, apparently) was a Harry Potter fic. I'm not positive it's the first thing I ever wrote, but it is the first fic I ever put up online, so.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

This is so difficult! I am always tempted to just say that Will You Keep a Candle Burning? (Will You Let Me Come and Stay?)  is my favorite/the best thing that I've written. It's 116k! There is a lot of plot! There is so much character development! It's also the story I wrote and liked so much that it pushed me to get back on AO3/sharing my writing on line. Because I just wanted someone else to read it. So it's hard to separate it from the way writing it has impacted my life over the past couple of years.

But there are a few others I do like. For two that aren't in my top five by kudos or mentioned anywhere else in this post so far -- I'm so fond of the Steve and Bucky in We Were Strangers for Far Too Long, and I loved writing this one. I also really like this The Secret Garden fic I wrote for an exchange: So I Could Blend in With the Sky.

No pressure tags for @dharmasharks @sparkagrace @dontcallmebree @musette22 and @thisonesatellite

[runawaymarbles]

20 questions for fic writers!

tagged by @chubsthehamster- thanks!

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

32, unless you count the book covers. I've got 106 book covers

2. What’s your total ao3 word count?

487,170

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Whatever I get stuck on at any given moment. My most recent ones are 9-1-1, Inception, ATS and Hawkeye, but my repeat fandoms are Spn, X-Men, The Old Guard and Black Sails.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

I'm copying chubs and doing my personal favorites, because my top four kudos'd fic are all for the same fandom (The Old Guard) and written within like three weeks of each other.

The Scroll of Saint Barnabas (9-1-1, Buddie, 15k): recency bias, but I had a lot of fun with this one. I also probably drove my girlfriend*and cousin insane during the writing process. Sorry about that. The basic premise is: we all know how time loop fics go, but what if after the loop is broken the character has PTSD from all the things that nobody else remembers? And also what if you get a knotted dildo hooked onto your permanent retainer? *though we've now established consent and parameters for whether we can have sex if one of us is stuck in a time loop. It's always important to have these conversations in advance!!!

What The Moon Was Saying (Spn, destiel, 16k.) It's about Dean rescuing Cas from the Empty, technically, but it's also about Dean working through things he refuses to think about directly, and it's also about the perspective of dead characters who aren't all-knowing and have no clue what happened after they died, and it's also about Inanna's Descent into the Underworld and how many jokes about Sumerian mythology I could fit in there that probably nobody else is going to think are funny but I think are funny, and it's also about what issues Orpheus would have had if he'd succeeded. The central thesis statement is that Margaritaville is thee Dean Winchester Mental State song.

The Mixtape, Or: Six Things You Learn in Thursday School (Spn, destiel, 6k.) I always had this idea that I was going to write a fantasy book of some kind, where the first part would be about the founding of a religion and then the following parts would jump ahead a few hundred years and see how that religion and that original story change in the telling. Instead of writing that book I wrote 6,000 words about a post-apocalyptic religion whose foundational text was the Winchester Gospels, except they don't actually have the Winchester Gospels, so they're relying on collected ephemera and thirdhand accounts. It is also about both academic and online discourse.

The House on Graymalkin Lane (X-Men, background cherik, 92k.) My nice little outsider-POV x-men haunted house fic. It started out as "the x-mansion would be a bonkers haunted house" and then it turned into a love letter to the original timeline (we barely knew ye). It's about the mortifying ordeal of being in high school and also about how all my grandparents died at once and I had a lot of complicated feelings about that.

The Ill-Made Knight (X-Men, cherik, 1.5k) OK so you know that trope that's like "if anyone is going to kill me I want it to be you"?? it's that, but instead of being used as a statement of everlasting love and devotion, it's being used as psychological warfare. And also kind of a statement of everlasting love. But in a fucked up sort of way. Because Cherik.

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

Yes! I didn't used to but I do now because I always like it when people reply to mine. Sometimes I miss them and respond years later but like... I got there eventually?

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

the whole estate of mortal man. (Black Sails, silverflint, 40k.) Silver is immortal but has a very impermanent self. Flint is mortal and has a very permanent self. There was only one way that was ever going to end and I stand by it.

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

Of recent ones, I guess The Most Fun A Girl Can Have? (Kate/Yelena, 8k.) They're having a pretty good time for most of it.

8. Do you get hate on fic?

Not since like, high school.

9. Do you write smut?

Nope. Hats off to smut writers, you're doing God's work. It's very difficult.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I haven't, unless you count every Marvel fic being a crossover. And Good Omens show/book. But that seems like a cop-out.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not as far as I know.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! Some very kind people translated The Punishment of Sisyphus (Black Sails crackfic) and Antebellum (Black Sails, Anne & Eleanor fic) into Russian, Stalefish (Old Guard, Nile-centric) into Polish, and Kidnapping for Dummies (Old Guard, Joe shenanigans) into Spanish. I can only read the Spanish one.

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

Yessss. The #ImmortalHusbands Conspiracy (The Old Guard social media fic) with @phoenix-acid. That was very fun.

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

Why would you ask me this. This is cruel. I can barely pick a top 5.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but probably won’t?

The Marvel pirate AU, probably. It's almost a complete story on its own as it stands. There's about half a next chapter written and I could probably us that to tie things up, if I cut out a bunch of things, but I'd have to reread all my research. I did way too much research for that.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Character voices? I hope it's character voices. I watch a lot of youtube compilations before writing anyone to try and get a handle on how they talk.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

The actual romance part of a romance. What do you mean they have to get together after I've set everything up so that they get together? Ridiculous.

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

I've never done it before, but I respect people who can pull it off. I do really hate that trope though where a multilingual character calls their love interest pet names in their mother-tongue, when they are never shown using it that way (or mixing that language and English in a conversation) in canon.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

....percy jackson and the olympians.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Since I listed five favorites up there I'm switching this with the kudos question. Fic with the most kudos is Kidnapping for Dummies (The Old Guard, 3.5k)

Tagging @monstrous-femme @thegeminisage @bomberqueen17 @ellelans @annerbhp @significanceofmoths and anyone else who wants to do it. say i tagged you. nobody will ever check to find out.

[dharmasharks]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @voylitscope, thank youuu 💙💙💙! I love reading everyone's answers because I am nosy as heck and you all are very interesting.

1.How many works do you have posted on ao3?

8.

2. What's your total ao3 wordcount?

129,639. I worked really hard to make time for all of 'em, so woop woop for passing 100k this year.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

My reading habits are all over the place but for writing it's still all stucky all the time.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The more things change (Wartime, E)

Lonesome no more (Wakanda, E)

You are here (Civil War, M)

In the deepest night (Pre-war, E)

Well-worn (Pre-war 5+1, T)

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

Absolutely. Probably with too much enthusiasm. Posting fic is not always my favorite, but I love talking about stucky in the comments, so it balances out. Sometimes it takes me forever if I'm on a writing roll or if I have to like, work and hang with my family and stuff.

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

I wouldn't call them unhappy endings by any means, but both of my most kudos'd fic have a little twist of pain there at the end, just by the nature of being canon compliant and by engaging with the tragedy looming around the edges of the story. Lonesome no more probably takes the cake, though.

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

Till there were no more wolves in the West, my western/historical AU, has the most unequivocally happy ending I've ever written. The lows are low and the highs are high, I'd say.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Thankfully, no, because I'm sensitive and would probably flee to the woods. Why do this? Don't be mean!

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

The big feelings, character study kind! But really, my top tags are Angst + Blow Jobs, so there you go. I like writing emotional sex in which closed off, lonely people get to (or have to!) be vulnerable and tender. I've also written non-explicit smut for You are here and Wolves in the West and like it very much, too.

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

I don't. Not to say that I wouldn't, there are just so many toys I still haven't played with yet in the MCU sandbox.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Jeez, I sure hope not.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

The more things change has been translated into Russian, which is neat.

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

No, but that sounds really fun!

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

SteveBucky, Steve and Bucky, Bucky and Steve. I consume a lot of content and tip my hat appreciatively to a lot of ships, but I don't know, man. There's something about those guys. It has been years! They make me insane every day! What is that!

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

I have a pretty extensive graveyard on my gdrive and I'm pretty okay with that. If I've abandoned it, it's because it stopped being fun and if it stops being fun then it's time to work on something else. I do have a 1920s AU that I don't think I'll finish, but that's only because it morphed into something else that I like better.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Characterization, tension, emotions. I think I have a restrained style that works well for the kinds of quiet moments I like to write about.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Being the slowest of the slowpokes, ugh. But technically speaking, plotty stuff is hard. Dialogue also takes me a while. I think I've gotten a lot better, but sometimes I'll read something (stucky, obviously) with just the snappiest, most gut punchy exchanges and want to throw my computer out the window.

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

Oh gosh, that intimidates me. I've dropped one-word phrases here and there, but I only speak English fluently and would be so embarrassed if I used some google translate gibberish. (Although, apparently that's good enough for Marvel, so maybe my standards are too high.)

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I had a semi-functional desktop computer in my room growing up that wasn't connected to the Internet, so the world will never know how much hurt/comfort Animorphs fic was happening in there. I also wrote a lot of original fiction for most of my young adult life. Stucky is the first fandom I ever posted stuff for, though.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Wolves in the West is my most favorite thing. I dug so deep on those characters and went so far out of my comfort zone. I quit and un-quit about 5 times. It's my favorite 'verse to hang out in when I'm washing dishes or bored in a meeting, which explains why I'm writing a porn-with-feelings addition...instead of the fic I'm supposed to be working on that has an actual deadline. (*sweats*)

Tagging in @hipsterdiva @dontcallmebree @xoxobuckybarnes @sparkagrace and anyone else who hasn't gone yet but wants to!

[amazing-spiderling]

For the fic writer asks,

🌿how does creating make you feel?

💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

💥find your least kudos'd fic - say something wonderful about it.

🧿what steps do you take to not take things personally if a fic doesn't do well, or if your writing/posting/sharing experience isn't going how you'd like it to?

<3

🌿how does creating make you feel?

Ahh... wow... well, sometimes during, a little stressed, ngl. That's probably why I enjoy working on projects with friends and sharing things so much- having someone to bounce ideas off of and work with helps take some of the pressure off, but I also don't want to let them down, so it keeps me engaged even when things get challenging. Then after a project gets shared/posted, there's an immediate sense of relief- like whew! I can take it easy for a day. (Or the, "nobody ever ask me for anything ever again" feeling haha). And over time, that relief turns to satisfaction, especially as I look back after a long time and thing, "Wow, yeah. I did that."

💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

I wrote a fic for a recent Metal Gear Solid zine called, "Dance Like You Want to Win", (an Evangelion reference I've been dying to use in an MGS fic for years). It was based on an idea I had for a story that was over a decade old, and I actually found part of my original draft collecting dust in the bottom of my google docs. I hadn't written for the fandom in a LONG time, and I was really worried about my characterization, the world-building, and having to write *action* scenes in a mission fic, neither of which are my forte. I was really worried people were going to read it and think I'd lost my touch.

But in the end, people liked it! I actually got compliments on the banter and overall, way more love than I was expecting, even some comments when I finally posted it to AO3. It felt like old times, and that really warmed my heart. <3

💥find your least kudos'd fic - say something wonderful about it.

The story in question is "Kind of Cool" which is a mashup of sorts of two webcomics by Kieran Thompson, "This is the Worst Idea You've Ever Had" and "Cuanta Vida" which was a TF2 fancomic. I had to read over it, because I'd forgotten what it was about, honestly. XD

The TLDR is that two characters in TITWIYEH (a modern magic story) had a few familiar faces from Cuanta Vida (with names! and much happier fates), so I had two characters discussing their non-serious theory that linguistics professor Jordi Betrand was actually a French spy- the joke being that the man is so softspoken and gentle, he's clearly nothing of the sort. I did get a chuckle from myself at this

The young man shook his head again, running weary fingers through his shaggy blonde hair. "Nicole, Professor Jordi Bertrand has got to be the most unassuming and boring man on the entire planet. I doubt he's ever experienced anything more exciting than a birthday party in his entire life- and not even a surprise party! Like a regular one with invitations where everyone knows when and where to go."

A lot of the humor in this fic is reliant on people having read both comics... which explains why it has a whopping 2 kudos, but even after a decade, the easter eggs are still pinging in my brain, so I guess that means I hid some good ones. XD

🧿what steps do you take to not take things personally if a fic doesn't do well, or if your writing/posting/sharing experience isn't going how you'd like it to?

Oh, gosh. Hm. Sometimes, I'm a big believer in "being the change you want to see in the world" when it comes to fandom and creative works. If you can't find the thing you want, make it- and that includes your own hype. If I want a story to get a little more attention, I might do some artwork for it (or commission some if I'm able) to hopefully pique people's interest. I might also do stuff like record podfics or something. But usually, the "next step" is to just move on to the next project and hope it gets a warmer reception.

I've found that trying to work too hard to cater to other people's wants just to get the reception I want doesn't always go to plan- or worse, I might get lots of comments and kudos, but it feels hollow because I feel like I'm being told, "you're really good at knowing what we will like" instead of "you are really good at writing and expressing this idea"- so over time, I've gotten a lot more comfortable making things for me. That way I'm guaranteed at least one person will like it, in the end. And even my "weird" fics are eventually found by people who appreciate them- and that really means a lot.

[sapphosewrites]

It's time again for my one true love... an ask game. Thank you for the tag @o0anapher0o! This is one I have done before and I am sure as hell not going to let that stop me from talking about myself.

How many works do you have on AO3?

143! The next big milestone will be 150 if I ever post again lol

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

436,802 holy cow that is a lot of words.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

It's DS9 all day over here right now! I have also written for Good Omens, Queen's Thief, Tales of Symphonia, and Next Gen and Lower Decks.

4. Top 5 Fics By Kudos

I'm always interested in if the answer to this has changed, because sometimes it does in unexpected ways. Confess Nothing always tops the list, but this time it's only ahead by 2 with All's Fair in Love, War, and Show Business close behind. I'm really surprised to see Personnel Review in third place, because Garak doesn't even personally show up in that one and I always got the sense TNG was much less popular. Fourth place is Lost in Translation, which is not at all surprising. But fifth place does surprise me: It Isn't Perfect (But It's Ours)! Those Good Omens fics really snuck up there while I wasn't looking. (I think Season 2 release, even if I haven't posted anything new, did drive a spike in that fandom.)

5. Do you respond to comments?

I try to and I want to but there are 200 unread comments in my inbox right now and I simply have too much ADHD to deal with that, and then I don't respond to new ones because it's overwhelming and the problem is self-perpetuating. I've read them all in my email notifications, and they've made me smile and laugh and experience great joy! But I am overwhelmed about the idea of trying to reply.

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

Last time I answered this I hadn't ever written something with an angsty ending, but now with certainty I can say it's Like a pain, the truth is mine in the Terok Nor AU, which is all about Garak's developing addiction to the wire and exploration of self-harm to trigger it. Second place goes to I'd Like to Give Up Now and When All Kindness Has Gone. The interesting thing about all of these, though, is that they exist within the larger framework of what the reader already knows will happen next in canon, which is Garak will survive and make connections with others on the station and it isn't the end of the world that it feels like for him. So does that still count?

7. What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Not coincidentally, I'd probably say it's my two most kudos'd DS9 fics, Confess Nothing and Lost in Translation.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

The closest I've ever come to hate is someone commenting that I had a major tonal shift in the middle of a piece of writing, and they were correct. I have found the fandom to be incredibly kind, supportive, and generous.

9. Do you write smut?

SO once upon a time the answer to this was no but now we are inching our way towards a yes. I made a sock puppet account where I could experiment with writing more explicitly (it's lovely to have so many user subscriptions but also feels like a lot of pressure) and what I've found is there's simply not much more explicit that I'll go, but I'm trying.

10. Craziest crossover

The entirety of Thief Space 9, and of those specifically probably Spaceships and Gods.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. Again, lovely fandom, beautiful people! I also have a standing policy that my works are a sandbox anyone can play in, so I have had remixes and things inspired by my work, but that's done with full permission and people bringing their own creative twists.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, that's the last thing outstanding on my 'bucket list', so to speak! My dreams were to have my fic inspire art, other fic, podfic, and translation, and we've achieved all but the last.

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

Yes and I'm a very bad co-author because there's a fic that's sat unfinished for actual literal years now and I'm not doing my part to finish it.

14. All time favorite ship?

I think I have an all-time favorite ship dynamic, which is any ship where one character could with both deep love and complete sincerity say to the other "I hate you, you're the worst person I know" as a form of foreplay.

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

I fear we're living in a world where I never finish anything ever again, but in particular there's one fic I posted to aforementioned sock puppet account specifically because I thought it might get permanently abandoned and I didn't want people knowing it was me if that happened because I am a coward

16. What are your writing strengths?

You know, the answer to this has changed! It used to just be dialogue, but now I'd like to think it's also my willingness to experiment with form/format and use even little moments to poke at big questions.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Look, I'm never going to be a writer of lush descriptions. We've come a long way, but settings are actually the worst.

18. Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

Hasn't changed- translate it if your POV character would understand it, leave it untranslated if they wouldn't. The point of how you write is to communicate information and convey emotion and whatever else to your audience, not to show off your conlang abilities.

19. First fandom you wrote in?

I think I've shared this before, but I wrote a self-insert ship fic with Shadow the Hedgehog for my older sibling for Sonic Adventure 2 Battle when I was far too young.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

I can't answer this. This is a cruel question. Um, at this exact moment in time, possibly Comparative Literature?

Well, there's more information than anyone wanted or needed, but now you have it! You all should do it too so I look slightly less narcissistic. @hellostuffedtiger @ectogeo-rebubbles @ernmark but also you know, anyone who wants to! Whenever I have to tag I immediately forget every single person who exists on this website.

[anghraine]

I was just thinking about the fact that the fic of mine that has attracted the most over the top, vitriolic responses over the years is also my most kudos'd fic by a long ways.

It's only over the last few years that it's accumulated most of those kudos—I initially wrote Season of Courtship in 2005/2006, but it didn't start outpacing my other fics until much more recently, and I never found out why it happened. But those vitriolic reviews were from long before that point. (IIRC, my most popular fic when they were posted was the kind of batshit Subsequent Connections, which never attracted the same level of indignation.)

Like. One person said they'd read all the P&P fic/sequel-type things out there, and Season of Courtship was easily the worst. I still don't know why they thought so, since I stopped reading once the reviewer went off about the impossibility of Elizabeth being a woman of color (I hadn't actually written her as one, but this person was very determined to be racist). But I never forgot the part I did read, for sure.

Another person linked to the ff.net version from a ranting community on livejournal. It's relevant that it was the ff.net version because that one had continuity errors that were a pain to fix and I just hadn't bothered, which annoyed the ranter.

Some people have had fits about Season of Courtship's Darcy being blond or fairly inexperienced sexually. Some people didn't like the extremely flawed extended Fitzwilliam family, at least once they became major players in the story. Some people liked the original version of the Fitzwilliams but not the revised one. Et cetera. And while some people were perfectly reasonable about these things, sometimes I'd be on the receiving end of these towering temper tantrums over them. I don't remember all of the occasions tbh, just that it attracted more of that sort of thing than anything else I've written.

I don't know what changed, but it is kind of weird that what to me was a fun but fluffy and harmless engagement interquel fic provoked both the most furious and the most favorable responses I've ever gotten, at different times. I don't really have a takeaway from all this, just ... you never know, I guess.

[metaldeads]

self rec game :^)

tagged by @stargyles !!

rules: recommend three of your own fics (1 most popular, two hidden gems) then tag some people!

most popular:

open up your lovin' arms (i want some, want some).

pairing: steddie / rating: general audience / words: 7,312 / summary: Dustin's concerned Steve's going to die alone. Steve's concerned Dustin won't ever understand the concept of boundaries. Or: Dustin attempts to save Steve's love-life.

in terms of most popular, this is my (currently) most kudos'd fic. i have a soft spot for it, 'coz it was my first ST fic. i'm fairly certain i was the 200th completed fic for steddie :^) !!

hidden gems:

i wheely like you.

pairing: ronance / rating: teen & up / words: 12,023 / summary: Robin comes out. So does Will. This leads to a snowball effect of revelations so major that Robin has no choice but to take matters into her own hands. Someone’s going to have to show Will how to romance a Wheeler, and it sure as shit won’t be Steve.

this isn't my first ronance, but it is my favourite. i had a blast writing will & robin interactions, copious stobin as always, and less-of-a-disaster robin. plus, the wonderful @yuputkas drew the most insanely beautiful art EVER.

four puffs of farrah fawcett spray (and a mouthful of UD pollen)

pairing: steddie / rating: teen & up / words: 17,444 / summary: Steve cops a faceful of Upside Down flower pollen in the tunnels, hours after Billy Hargrove tries to punch Steve's brain out the back of his head... (cut for length) OR: Steve Harrington can take a hit. He can take many hits. In fact, thanks to the Upside Down, there isn't a hit Steve can't take.

this is the silliest thing i've ever written. crack treated FAR too seriously. i wrote it in the span of 17 hours, beginning to end, after blacking out at the stupid concept of 'steve with powers tied to his hair except his head was always shaved so the lab figured he was a dud and tossed him into hawkins' ... i present to you, tangled!rapunzel fusion steve ... set in canon and remarkably goofy (but also insanely serious? btw it fits SHOCKINGLY well in-canon). despite how the concept was born, this fict doesn't have anything to do w the lab, though. just keep that in mind!

you might also know a few of my other works! (STRIKE TEN, paradise by the dashboard light, this is your home. these are your people, and so on!!!)

you can view them all here, through my masterlist :^D

i've been back on tumblr for all of seven minutes so literally whoever wants to do this, consider yourself tagged. don't feel shy to mention me in ur post; i like seeing other authors!! <3

[highdefinitions]

💥💝💞

hiii gloom

💥find your least kudos'd fic - say something wonderful about it.

so my least kudos'd fic is that little dial drunk thing i wrote for YOU that i just randomly decided to throw up on ao3. it's a short and sweet little diddy full of raindrop angst based on a noah kahan song. i love all those things—raindrop, noah kahan, angst. i didn't think it was bad. i'm also at a loss for saying something Wonderful about it. i liked that it was for a friend :) i sort of wish this one hadn't been asked because now i have to think about how the last four fics i posted are also my four least kudos'd fics..no fault to you gloom

💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

i would have to say you're gonna go far, i think. even though it's my second least kudos'd fic i didn't really expect ANYONE to interact with it or even care about it. i know there were some hockey fics before mine, but i also took a different route with mine, obviously (there's not a whole lot of hatefucking and a whole lot of angst and gameplay) but i was pleasantly surprised to get a lot comments that said something along the lines of "i don't really know anything about hockey, or i've never really cared about hockey before, but i'm really enjoying this story!!" i think that's really nice

💞what's the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language

am i allowed to say all of it is really important to me..? i really care about creating a good plot because i want to keep people entertained and i obviously want them to be interested by what i'm writing. characters are really important to me because i also really believe that if you have cut and dry, cardboard characters, that doesn't really make a good story, no matter how interesting the plot is. you know me, gloom, you know how much i love to worldbuild. i love to create my own little world in a fic. technical stuff is also huge for me too. i'm a disgusting grammar nerd, and it's sometimes a huge turn-off for me when writing doesn't use proper grammar, so if i feel that way, i'm certain others do too. i think bad grammar takes away from what you're trying to write, as harsh as that may sound (editing makes a WORLD of difference. it's something i never ever used to do but recently i've gotten someone else to look at what i've written or just gone back the next day to look with fresh eyes) and i love a good metaphor in my writing, a good foreshadowing moment, a good full circle thing. it's all very fun, playing with words

[stitchkiss]

hey, love! can u answer all of them?

WHAT DO YOU MEAN ALL OF THEM!!!!! okay i will do it but only because you asked and i love you very much

✨What's a fic you've posted you wish you could breathe life into again and have people talking about it? (or simply a fic you wish got more credit)

well i only have 5 fics posted but probably this one because it’s my longest fic but i didn’t really expect a lot of recognition anyway because it’s a rare pair from a show that not many ppl like. it's not the best writing but worked hard on it and i’m proud of it and that’s really all i can ask for.

💫what is your favorite kind of comment/feedback?

i really love when ppl point out sentences/situations and other things they like.

🌈is there a fic that you worked *really fucking hard on* that no one would ever know? maybe a scene/theme you struggled with?

i struggled really hard with my first thiam fic. the responses are all amazing but i found it so difficult to write something so vulnerable

🌻what makes you want to give up on writing? what makes you keep going?

something that makes me want to give up is the fear that i wont be able to write how i want. what keeps me going is all the lovely cheerleaders in my corner<333

🌿how does creating make you feel?

happy. i love getting my ideas out there and i like practicing writing

🍉in what ways has writing helped you process trauma and/or navigate through your own life?

tbh what i've written so far have all been fantasies. i haven't explored issues i face through writing yet but i do have ideas. i think my thiam stargazing fic was a kind of reflection of how i felt in a moment

🎀give yourself a compliment about your own writing

im funny sometimes

🎈describe your style as a writer; is it fixed? does it change?

there are literally year long gaps between my fics so yes they def have changed. i feel like im more sure of myself and my writing each time i post and hopefully my writing gets better every time too!

🎉how often do you celebrate completing & posting a work? how often do you give yourself the credit/ validation that you seek from others when you post? (if you don't, you should!)

every time. i love treating myself. i try to hype myself up by reading what i wrote and it works sometimes.

💞what's the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language

all of these ofc but i think characters because they're the driving force of all my writing amd im scared i dont write them correctly or they dont come off in the way i want to. i also feel like specific word choices and phrases really make or break a fic.

💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

the thiam stargazing one. you guys went nuts over it fr so thanks

🤍what's one fic of yours you think people didn't "get"?

i havent written anything really profound but i will say that there is a lot in my 18k caswen fic that i wish ppl would acknowledge.

🕯️I was there a fic that was really hard on you to write, or took you to a place you didn't think it would take you?

thiam stargazing ofc. when i wrote it i felt like i was bigger than myself. idk how to explain it

💥find your least kudos'd fic - say something wonderful about it.

ohhh my anne/winnie fic! i will say that this was very bold of me to write because this pair is rare. so rare in fact that my fic was the first posted on a03 for that ship! pretty girlboss of me

🍭why did you start writing?

because i had ideas in my head and i needed to get them out.

💎why is writing important to you?

i think it's important to me because this is a way for me to take a break from my life by writing others'

🪄what is your post-writing/sharing aftercare? How do you take care of yourself or celebrate yourself when you've finished a fic?

every single time i've posted a work i eat chinese food then take a phat nap to distract myself.

🎙️which one of your fics would you like someone to make a pod-fic of?

probably the thiam cod one bc it's funny

🤲what do YOU get out of writing?

i like contributing to fandoms and ships and if i get praised along the way then that's alright with me too

💋when you leave comments on a fic, do you want to hear back from the writer?

ur comments on my comment. did i understand it? did you think what i said ab x thing was funny? idk everything. im a social butterfly i thrive off communication

☯️how do you think engaging with each other through tumblr, twitter, comments, kudos, creates healthy fandom experiences? How do you deal with that if you're not a social person/experience social anxiety?

encouragement literally creates art. and friendships! i literally made so many friends by commenting on their fics and interacting with them in general. fr this has been a very fun two months for me inthe teen wolf/thiam fandom. im thriving here in a way i didnt in other fandoms because i actually took a chance and talked to ppl. i have aniety but i love talking to ppl so it worked out

🦕(i can’t find the stupid blue emoji thing so ur getting a dinosaur) what steps do you take to not take things personally if a fic doesn't do well, or if your writing/ posting/sharing experience isn't going how you'd like it to?

if my fic doesnt do well then that's not my business. ppl like what they like and yeah it's a dick move to not tell a creator/artist you like their stuff whether through comments or kudos bc its so east to click one little button before swiping out of the tab but! the real ones have my back and i know it. i dont expect a lot when i post for thiam because the show ended literally five years ago and this ship is relatively small compared to others so i dont think much of it. if my fic doesnt do well its not on me because i know i did good

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

mmm okay i know i posted a wip game last week but i only did half so i'll drop the other half here (this is a treat specifically for you jaque).

cuddle monster liam: liam is a leech and he clings to theo when they sleep. theo's a little confused but accepts it anyway. i have this scene i want to write and it's one of the first times liam cuccled with him and it the basic part of it is liam just nudges his head under theos arm like a puppy and nuzzles his face into theo's chest bc he's cold.

look you: this is more of a concept than anything but basically theo and liam have thing thing where they say "look, you" or some kind of variation of that when the other is being a little shit or self depreciating.

tfw you do a 30 day relationship challenge when ur not even in a relationship: so corey and mason do a 30 day relationship challenge and they rope theo and liam into doing it too. i got the challenge off some website and i was like yes. there's gonna be 31 parts in theory but they wont be super long i think. i need all the creative juices going for this one.

getting shot with an arrow had never been this fun: theo and liam are complete idiots and they manage to get impaled with the SAME arrow and are stuck together for Reasons. it's shenanigan city up in here as they navigate how to get help. the important thing is that they have fun !

the morey split: mason and corey break up (or take a break or just arent talking i havent decided yet) and its up to theo and liam to get to the bottom of this and get them back together! they are terrible at it.

okay i think im done now

[chromatic-lamina]

🎈💥🎀

They're so bright and pretty! Hello, lovely giraffe 🦒

🎈describe your style as a writer; is it fixed? does it change?

Okay, I'll double-barrel here: I think that if you ever came across anything anon that I might have written, you'd pretty quickly know it was me, or have an inkling, because I don't do much to hide my style. Most I write past tense, but there are a few present tense stories among those I've uploaded, and that's always a different way of reading and writing. Gotta stay on your toes, and really keep your tenses all lined up with present tense. Bepo's got his own particular voice (he writes fanfiction), and I've written drabbles in first person before (can't remember whose 1st person though!). Writing Doffy is always a ball of fun, and very different from writing Law, etc. I like the News Coo reports in Overlooked and Underpaid (Chopper and Bepo strike for higher bounties), and I also used both a news report chapter, and an autopsy report in A few drops of holy cuckold (very dark fic, so no link), so it was fun to get the right tone. I've got a few outsider perspectives too, and the outsider is say a marine in G5, in Punk Hazrd, or the reporter in Cuckold, and I think I write them well enough to keep the attention on the canon characters without them seeming to be random narrative devices. I think I can be brutal, sweet, funny, etc. but I don't know that that involves a change in writing style. I hope that it changes to match the premise and people, and that I occasionally shake myself up (had a poem that somehow did okay in terms of interaction! That one was a total surprise).

💥find your least kudos'd fic - say something wonderful about it.

Aw, this is kinda unfair, cos I just uploaded the other day. However, it is an excerpt from a longer piece, and has Law, Aokiji, and Bleat the goat (Sengoku's goat) all going for a bicycle ride along an Aokiji-frozen river, so I don't think it's gonna have the readers charging in with their kudos and hits! So, here it is: Riding Along on my Pushbike, Honey (You Look so Pretty) 79 hits, 5 kudos, 1 bookmark 🐐 🚲 🐯

🎀give yourself a compliment about your own writing

I get the job done.

I like reading what I've written when I have the final, final, final (to infinity) draft.

Thank you for the ask!

I've answered ✨ 💫 📡 , 🤲 , 🌈 , ☯️ , 🎈💥 🎀 The ask is here if anyone else wants to ask!

[crestfallercanyon]

Fic Qs for you!

10. Is there a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

15. How do you come up with titles for your fics/chapters?

22. Do you know how your fic will end before you start writing?

Enjoy :)

Hello!! Thank you so much for asking! (Also I love your icon, I adore Mick Rory so freaking much).

These are neat questions, I'm excited to jump in.

10. A fic that got a different response that I expected, hmmm Lullabies for Little Criminals is definitely the one I think of first. It's a coldflash kid fic; due to Snart's messing with his own timeline trying to do the Emerald heist for his father in Legends of Tomorrow, he ends up back in 2016 with a child that's just ended up in foster care. This was written for the Coldflash Gift Exchange in 2021 and I was given a series of prompts by a wonderful giftee, and I was surprised by myself that I picked the kid fic prompt. Because, in all honesty, I don't love kid fics -- I think I can count on one hand how many I have actually read (Nothing wrong with them! just not my cup of tea), and it's my understanding that many people are like me in that way. And even in the comments on this fic, I get people who say "I don't like kid fics, but..." and they talk to me about they enjoy this fic which is touching. It's launched up to I think be the most high-kudos'd fic I've written for coldflash (or maybe top three). But I was stunned. And I'm glad! It was a fun fic to write, but I was genuinely surprised that it ended up being one of my most read coldflash fics.

15. How do I come up with my titles and chapters?

Most of the time, luckily, it takes only a few tries and they come to me. Those are my favorite ones, too. I like poetic sounding titles, I write poetry too, so usually I try to work something together. I know the tone of the story or the theme and find a rhythm of words I like together and that fit the fic and choose that.

Sometimes it’ll be from songs, and sometimes I’m glad they are (When I Say You Are Killing Me, for example, I’m glad I went with the song for that) or I’ll even have a song that genuinely inspired the fic and thus it fits (Rinse Me Down); however sometimes I truly regret using songs for title (all the chapters in to build a home are from random songs and if I ever finish the fic I’m going back and changing all of them). So sometimes the songs work! Sometimes though I do kind of regret it.

Sometimes there’s a facet to the story though where I am getting titles from a particular source (The Last Eye to Open it was computer programming phrases, Conflicts of Interest it was the US Federal Rules of Evidence)

So it depends! But most of the time I try to just kind of piece them together and make something I like that sounds good, if that makes sense, which I get doesn’t really all that technical but it’s what I’ve got 😂😅

22. Do I know where a fic is going to end when I start?

Ideally... yes. Usually I do have a precise end in mind.

On occasion, when I just kind of knock out a fic from nowhere, then the end is discovered just as I’m writing (a devil, a whiteboard, a bottle of wine went this way because that was just a blitz of a writing session that banged out that fic).

Often when things suddenly stall it’s because I’m rethinking the ending, and that’s when things go off the rails (Leonard Snart’s famous quote here lol)

But yeah, IDEALLY I know where I’m going. If not with a scene I can see in my mind to come to a close, then a general “this happens, the end” at least.

Thank you SO MUCH for asking! These were a lot of fun and hopefully the answers were satisfactory ❤️

[farfromdaylight]

20 questions for fic writers

tagged by @anneapocalypse! i'm lazy (and should be working on nano oops) so i'm not tagging today, but take it if you want.

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

37. (Add 16 if you want to count my old account.)

2. what’s your total ao3 word count?

302,601. (Add 37k for my old account.)

I have written approximately 500,000 words of fic that has never seen the light of day. Maybe one day it will.

3. what fandoms do you write for?

Final Fantasy, primarily, with a focus on XIV and VII these days. I've written sparsely for other fandoms.

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

catching sunbeams - Miraculous Ladybug, Marinette/Adrien

remember me when i die (for you) - FFXIV, Crystal Exarch

forget-me-(not) - FFXIV, Warrior of Light &/ Crystal Exarch

the miniskirt - FFXIV, Warrior of Light/Crystal Exarch (NSFW)

roaming sheep - FFXIV, Warrior of Light/G'raha Tia (NSFW)

It's kind of nice for almost all of my most-kudos'd fic to be in my current fandom. It helps, of course, that I write the most popular ship in it. The highest-kudos'd fics were posted near the height of their respective fandoms, so.

I'm also very pleased roaming sheep has done this well! In my experience, oneshots do better than longfic with regard to kudos.

This got long so here's a cut...

5. do you respond to comments?

Yep! I try to reply to all of them, though if someone leaves multiple comments at a time on a chaptered fic I might just reply to the last one. I'm sure I've missed some along the way but I'm always thrilled to get a comment.

6. what’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Angst isn't really the right word, but dead end (FFVII, Cid & Vincent) has a very deliberate ending. I tried to write it like a horror movie, where the ending is sometimes ambiguous or otherwise inconclusive.

Or, well. I suppose roaming sheep has an exceptionally angsty ending, LOL.

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

It's gotta be the oath, which is literally wedding fic.

8. do you get hate on fics?

Nope, never.

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

Any kind, though I'm pretty inexperienced with F/F fics -- I love many F/F couples but I've never been driven to write fic about them, so I'm lacking in that regard.

These days, if I want to write NSFW fic on its own, it's less likely I'll publish it. I'll write it, but I'll keep it to myself. (I wrote a 15k fic earlier this year in this vein.) I've gotten to the point that I generally want the porn to be part of the plot. That said, I do have some ideas for oneshots, so you never know.

10. do you write crossovers? what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

The Fallout/Final Fantasy VII one is the big one. The total fic is almost 350k. I have posted 10k of it. Maybe one day I'll be able to revise it.

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope.

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope.

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

Not fic, but I've posted some RP before. This was generally not the best idea as it's rare for a RP thread to reach completion, and interests change, etc.

I guess actually blinded by light (FFXIV, WoL/Exarch) counts for this to a degree, because a good chunk of Mel's dialogue was written by @shepherdtostars; I just turned it into fic.

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

My OCs, who I've loved for 20 years. They're married, in love, and I have written approximately 2 million words about them.

I don't have a favorite fandom ship.

15. what’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

stares at beyond the vault... i love you but you're such a behemoth, why did i do this to myself

16. what are your writing strengths?

Dialogue! I can write banter all day long.

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

Description. I see the scene in my head like a movie, so I forget... that not everyone does... and I have to write the scene I'm seeing LMAO. I'm working on it.

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

This is an oddball question. Just write it? Like, either write "they said in (language)" or get an accurate translation of what you want to say.

19. first fandom you wrote for?

Sailor Moon, probably. Or Digimon.

20. favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Waffling between dead end and blinded by light. dead end was a real stretch for me in a lot of ways and I'm still very proud of it all these years later. blinded by light is just fun, I really like rereading it. heaven can wait (FFXIV, WoL/Exarch, NSFW) falls in this category too, I'm so happy with it.

[moonspirit]

Oh, another writer ask game, I'm in! I'm glad you rb it :3 💫🌈🦋🌿🍉🎀(yep, again, because your writing is amazin!)🎈💝🤍💥🎙️💋💌

OMG WAIT, I SCHEDULED THIS SOMETIME LAST WEEK TO POST LATER BUT THEN THERE WAS THAT OTHER ASK GAME AND I FORGOT TO DELETE THIS ONE WEOFIHWEIFUHWEIJ-

GODDAMNIT. aNYWAYS. Now I can't delete it #_#

💫what is your favorite kind of comment/feedback? Any and all comments, really! I'm a crumb person and easy to please, you can send me a heart and I will have enough motivation to write the next chapter xD However I do especially like it when people find the symbolism or thematic relevances that I incorporate :3 Makes me feel like "yeah, I did good this time. good job me."

🌈is there a fic that you worked *really fucking hard on* that no one would ever know? maybe a scene/theme you struggled with? Recently I've posted everything I've written, so... there's nothing nobody won't know. However I did struggle with that whole bonfire dancing scene in TFLM.

🦋what are you most insecure about when you post a fic? Since I'm currently only writing AruAni, I feel like making Armin smart is a really fucking hard job xD For his character development, I need him to use his stellar brains, but that means I gotta make him use his stellar brains... and... T^T yeah, I worry a lot that readers will find what ultimately happens sounds silly/not clever enough.

🌿how does creating make you feel? VERY satisfied! Incredibly so! Makes me happy to write and post and share what I've created with people :3

🍉in what ways has writing helped you process trauma and/or navigate through your own life? My fics are all a representation of things I want in my life, both the big and small. For example, in Chap 3 of VBEOW, Armin and Annie share hot chocolate in the kitchen in the early hours of the morning; that kind of comfortable intimacy and quiet shared space is something I also crave. Another example is in the very first part of the series where Annie gets Armin to cry and grieve - it's a reflection of the fact that I too want to care for someone in that kind of way. xD This is prolly TMI xD Sorry xD

🎀give yourself a compliment about your own writing Hmmm. Okay Moon, so, I'm very glad you started this series, tho it wasn't planned, it has made you very happy and you're managing to fill canon timeskips with something that is hopefully, making readers happy too.

🎈describe your style as a writer; is it fixed? does it change? I'm really not sure xD I think it's mostly consistent thus far (?)

💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting? I believe Falling into Neptune was received better than I expected. I hadn't written anything that intense in a very long time, so I was pleasantly surprised when it got a hotter reaction than I was expecting. It made me realize I can create tension without making the characters take off their clothes -- a fact I am a bit proud of T^T Sorry.

🤍what's one fic of yours you think people didn't "get"? Hmmm. So Time Falls like Moonlight is a mammoth of a story to get through, but I put a whole lot of thematic depiction in this (it literally has 10+ scenes) and maybe it is the fact that it's very long and also that it's got a sequel already going on, so it feels like people have glossed over it. But oh well xD I'm happy with the reactions I have received :3

💥find your least kudos'd fic - say something wonderful about it. The Lamplighter, Tokyo Ghoul. A fic about the relationship between Amon and his foster father Donato, with a slightly supernatural/fantasy twist, but still remains true to canon. It has very little kudos or interaction but I expected that, because people usually come to read romantic pairing fics and this is strictly a father-son fic. I still really like it though, it's probably badly written for the me of today's POV, but it's got a special place in my heart xD

🎙️which one of your fics would you like someone to make a pod-fic of? O_O Oh.. uh...that's a thing? xD I totally didn't know! But what works for a pod-fic tho? Dialogue heavy fics? Action/emotional monologue heavy fics? Maybe everything works? In which case... anything really T_T I'd be over the moon (pun intended)

💋when you leave comments on a fic, do you want to hear back from the writer? If they want to reply back, sure! Most of them do these days, tho there are fics I've left comments on recently which were written one or two years ago, and the authors are prolly busy with their lives. But I'm always happy to read their replies, no matter when that is :3!

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited! Oh, okay! Chapter 5 of VBEOW spoilers:

When done, she glances at Pieck who's still sitting on her stool, motionless and staring off into space, wet hair sticking to her back and shoulders, and a handful of shampoo resting on her knee, facing palm up.  "Pieck?"  "Hm?" "Are you not feeling… uh, want to go back?" "No," Pieck hums softly. She raises her cupped palm up. "Need to shampoo my hair but I'm feeling a little too tired." Annie lets her eyes roam over her deflated frame. Pieck, always buoyant and carefree, now limp and lifeless, and she’s never seen her like this before.

Thanks for the ask, tho this was completely an accident post #_#