#it's not a multichapter so it's totally allowed

[starfall-spirit]

Nyx is such a helpful boy

There they were, right where she guessed they’d be, her wonderful mate and four-year-old sprawled out on a sheet of plastic, various brushes scattered around them. “Tomorrow we do Mama’s.”

“Alright, little star. We’ll ask tomorrow.”

“Do you think she’ll like it?” Nyx asked, brow scrunched as he sloppily dragged his paintbrush across Rhys’ tattooed forearm.

“I know she will,” he promised, raising his eyes to where she stood in the doorway. “Won’t you, darling?”

Nyx sprung to his feet, green paint splattering  against Rhys’ shirt as their son flung to brush to the floor and scrambled to Feyre’s side. She suppressed her wince as his paint-covered hands smeared against her skirt. Nothing a little magic couldn’t fix. Hopefully. “Mama, we were painting, see?”

“I see that! You did a beautiful job on Daddy’s tattoo.”

[darcylewisbingohq]

2024 Darcy Lewis Bingo Headquarters

Welcome back to Darcy Lewis Bingo Headquarters, friends and Darcy fans, and to the beginning of our 2024 bingo round! We’re looking forward to seeing our bingo friends from rounds past return again and we’re delighted to welcome new Darcy Lewis Bingo creators, too!

We’re trying some new things this year, beginning with our Darcy Bingo creator card for writers and artists and fannish creators of all sorts. After a successful soft-launch of a new prompt format during our Halloween bingo event last year, we’ve decided to go all in for 2024 on this new format for our Darcy Lewis Bingo 2024 creator cards. We’ll explain more about the exciting changes to the creator bingo card in the all new bingo guidelines below, but rest assured, friends, you’ll still have several fun ways to curate your prompts and creator bingo card this round. Only the method has changed to streamline and deliver curated prompts into your hands faster than we’ve ever been able to before. 

We’re also introducing our first ever Darcy Lewis Bingo HQ Reader Bingo Event. Reader Bingo Guidelines will arrive here on our tumblr blog in just a few days. For now, let’s take a look at the new bingo guidelines, the 2024 bingo card, and talk about curating prompts for your bingo card, Darcy creators…

2024 Darcy Lewis Bingo Guidelines for Creators

Brand new format!—NEW for 2024, DLBHQ creator cards got streamlined for this round thanks to a successful experiment with the new this-or-that prompt format we trialed on our 2023 mini bingo Halloween event cards. Our new creator bingo card allows you to curate your card at a glance just to start, no need to request prompt changes before you can begin creating fanworks because every square on your card already begins with 2 prompt choices so you can curate your own ideal bingo card as soon as you finish reading these guidelines.

Squares—Your creator bingo card still has just 25 squares, now with 2 prompts on every square for you to choose from. The center square on your card also now features 2 prompts to choose from—FREE SPACE or AVENGERS ASSEMBLE. The choice of which to use and how to use them is yours. Any version of Avengers Assemble fills the prompt if you use it in a fannish work. You can still use the center square as a free space, but if that doesn’t inspire you to use it, you can use the 2nd prompt in that square, Avengers Assemble, like any other prompt on your card to inspire a new fanwork or new update to a fanwork.

Prompts—Prompts on the new creator card are all Darcy-centric to begin the round, meaning they’re derived from Dr. Darcy Lewis’ appearances in the MCU, many recent, but with familiar throwbacks to her early appearances, too. You need not have seen the newest films or shows featuring Darcy to use any of the prompts or to participate in this bingo. Prompts are only intended to inspire new fanworks. You are welcome to use them to write stories about everyone living in the tower or go all the way back to Puente Antiguo and the beginning of Darcy’s MCU journey. Or create entirely new AUs! It’s up to you. Note: Every bingo creator card bears 50 total Darcy-centric prompt options now, allowing you to curate your creator bingo card hundreds of different ways even before our curated prompt request form opens for this round. You can use the Darcy Bingo creator card attached at the end of this post to start writing today.

Fills—Aesthetics, drabbles, one-shots, multichaptered fics, series, drawings, paintings, sculptures, social media AUs, gif edits, video edits, moodboards, coloring pages, playlists, new additions to pre-existing series, and new updates to pre-existing fanworks are all accepted fills.

Truly, ANY CREATION inspired by your prompt counts.

Cosplay as Darcy, make it fit your prompt somehow, and take a selfie for the fill—we’ll count that, too. We’d also love to see you Darcybounding irl.

(A little fannish history sidenote on character-bounding: With the rise of popularity in cosplaying the past 10-15 years, the practice of guest cosplaying is no longer permitted or politely ignored within Disney Parks in order to add an extra layer of protection for impressionable children who can’t tell the difference between professional face character actors and adult guests in heroic cosplay. When cosplay in the parks was ‘outlawed’ for adults, Disneybounding was born to fill a certain fannish niche without breaking Disney’s park rules or getting frogmarched out of the parks. Or worse—banned from them forever. Character-bounding, or the generally more popular, Disneybounding, is a type of character dress-up that’s like cosplay, but you don’t literally dress up as the character in a costume identical to theirs as worn on screen. Character-bounding is similar to cosplay, but it’s more like a character dressed in modern street clothes that can’t be accidentally mistaken for a face character actor at a Disney Park playing a mythical princess or famous hero.

If you’re curious about the practice of Disneybounding or want to try your hand at Darcybounding some of your bingo fills this round, we recommend checking out the popular #disneybound , #disneybounding , #marvelbound , #marvelbounding , and #characterbounding tags on Instagram sometime. The fan creativity in the character-bounding community is off the charts!)

Back to fills!—To mark a square complete:

You must fill at least one of the two prompts in each square, unless you swap in one of your own curated prompts or swap curated prompts with another player (see Bingo Card Curation and Additional Bingo Card Prompt Swaps for more info)

Fill requirements differ based on the type of fanwork you create (see Fanwork Fill Requirements for a complete list).

There Can Be Only One!—Every creator begins this round with the same DLBHQ creator card—no exceptions! (Keep reading to find out how to curate your new creator card with our curated prompts request form!)

Bingo Card Curation

Fill out our 2024 DLBHQ Curated Prompts Request Form to request up to 10 curated prompts based on your favorite fanwork genres and other types of prompts.

You get a list of prompts—You will receive a list of curated prompts by email if you fill out the curated bingo prompts request form.

Curated prompts are for swapping squares—These curated prompts can be used anytime during this round as swaps for squares you’re not vibing with on your base creator bingo card. The only squares that can’t be swapped out on the base creator card are the four corner squares if you plan to complete our Four Corners Bingo Bang Challenge (we’ll explain more about that in a bit).

Player prompt trades—Your curated, requested prompts are the only prompts that can be traded with other players to use as square swaps for squares on your base creator card and theirs.

To be as clear as possible: the curated prompt request form is not a form to fill out for a second bingo card or a one-of-a-kind, custom bingo card as we’ve done in previous rounds. You are only requesting a list of 10 prompts curated for you to use as instant swaps wherever you want on the base Darcy Lewis creator bingo card anytime during the 2024 round.

We recommend the Chrome browser—We strongly recommend opening the curated prompts request form in a Google Chrome browser to complete it, if possible. (One of our beta-testers had trouble submitting the form in Safari after filling out the whole form.)

Curated prompt requests are limited to a maximum of 10 requested prompts. We strongly recommend maxing out and requesting all 10 curated prompts on your curated prompt request form when you submit it.

Each player may only fill out the curated prompt request form once during the 2024 round. So make it count. 😉

Though the option to request these additional curated prompts is available to all creators, creators participating in Darcy Bingo are not required to request curated prompts to supplement their bingo creator card if they like the base creator card just the way it appears.

The only curated prompts that can be replaced by Mods this round after you complete the prompt request form are those you’ve been sent as a result of your prompt request form that accidentally include something on your Omissions/Do Not Want list. Your DNW list should be clear and concise. Please don’t send us a lengthy essay on your dislikes. If you feel you would need to write an essay-length response about your dislikes to get just 10 prompts that you’re okay with writing, you may be better off (and we would strongly recommend) letting us know you’d prefer one-word prompts-only because one-word prompts are less likely to include or impinge on your lengthy and specific dislikes.

Additional Bingo Card Prompt Swaps

Trade curated prompts with Darcy Bingo friends—one curated prompt swap with another Darcy Lewis Bingo creator is allowed per month. Contact a mod to notify us if you and a friend have both chosen to swap one each of your curated bingo prompts with one another.

2024 creator bingo base card prompts are not tradable with other creators because everyone begins with the same creator bingo card prompts this round.

Monthly adoptables.—A fresh list of monthly adoptables will be posted at the beginning of each month, starting in July. Anyone can adopt a monthly adoptable at any time during the month. To adopt it, you must complete and publish the creation by the end of the month to use it as a completed fill for a square on your bingo card.

The Darcy Lewis Bingo Weekly Challenge continues in the DLBHQ Discord with a fresh prompt every Sunday.—New weekly prompts can be found on our Discord anytime once you join us there! Click this link for your invite to the DLBHQ Discord. The weekly challenge is very similar to monthly adoptables, but the time period allowed is much shorter—just one week to plan, create, and post your fanwork before the week’s 5:00 pm Sunday (New York) deadline.

Publishing Bingo Creations

Tag—@darcylewisbingohq in the A/N and use the tag #dlbingohq (all one word!) in the first five tags when posting your new creations on tumblr if you want your work reblogged. If we can’t find it, we can’t reblog it.

Each published creation should include an outline of the folllowing…

• the square filled

• trigger warnings for content consumers

• word count (for fics, descriptions for the visually impaired, and other wordy works)

• pairings/polycules/main characters

Please include appropriate warnings when you publish your creations.—If warnings are spoilers, put a warning in the tags that spoilers are in the end notes and then actually include the spoilers in the end notes.

Share your fanworks with other creators.—You may also post your fills in the appropriate fill channels on the Darcy Lewis Bingo Headquarters Discord to share your works with other creators and readers for our new reader bingo challenge. Posting your fills in our fill channels helps other readers find them to complete our new reader bingo. (We’ll post about that in a few days!)

A new Darcy Lewis Bingo 2024 Collection will be appearing soon on the Archive.—Please add your works to this collection as you upload them to make them easier for readers to find (especially those playing Darcy Reader Bingo!).

Please use the ‘read more’ feature on tumblr when possible to abbreviate the length of your fills if you’d like them reblogged by the Darcy Lewis Bingo HQ account.—There’s a shortcut on mobile now that makes it so much easier. It’s in the toolbar at the bottom of every post you create. It’ll look like two stacked em dashes with a squiggly line between them.

Fanwork Fill Requirements

• 100 words for written works or word art, with the exception of poetry with independent formatting rules (such as haikus).

• 1 image for artwork or handcrafts of any kind and a description for the visually impaired of the medium used and what it represents.

• 1 image for cosplay or character-bounding and a description for the visually impaired of cosplay or clothing and any other fashion influences incorporated into the costume or clothing (be descriptive! talk about fabrics and colors, tone and texture! describe the emotions the colors you used evoke in you as the creator!)

• 9 elements for moodboards (background, images, texts, ephemera) and a description for the visually impaired of the moodboard and what it represents.

• 6 images for social media AUs and a description for the visually impaired of the creation and what it represents.

• 10 songs for playlists and a text list of artists and songs to give credit to the original artists, plus a description for the visually impaired of what the playlist represents and how it relates to Darcy.

Still not sure if your creation will meet the minimum prompt fill requirements? @ a mod! we’ll create new requirements based on new types of creator fanwork submissions, as needed.

Deadlines & Masterposts

Deadlines—We have no deadlines. Really. We mean it. We’re not joking. There’s just a form to fill out when you’re done with the current card, completed your bingo, your blackout, completed all the badges you’re interested in, whatever. Set your own goals and fill out the creator bingo award badge request form whenever you’re ready to reap the rewards of your fanwork efforts.

Masterposts—Masterposts are due whenever you’re done with this bingo card creatively and have achieved whatever goals you’ve set for yourself. We recommend posting your masterpost before the next bingo round goes live, but it’s really up to you. We’re not your mom and this isn’t homework. No deadlines or due dates, we swear.

Creator Bingo Award Badges

You Tried Badge—fill any 5 squares anywhere on your DLBHQ creator bingo card.

Creator Bingo, Truly, a Classic Achievement—fill 5 squares in a row, column, or diagonally on your DLBHQ creator bingo card.

2024 Creator Mini Bingo Brownout Challenge—Complete 9 fills in a perfect 3x3 grid pattern anywhere within your Darcy creator bingo card to complete this challenge. (This badge may just be a giant poop emoji the size of a 3x3 mini card. Who knows? Certainly not us. 💩)

2024 Creator Bingo Blackout Badge—NAIL IT! Complete 25 fills on your DLBHQ creator bingo card and blackout all 25 squares for the ultimate 2024 bingo achievement award badge.

Four Corners Creator Bingo Bang—Looking for a ludicrous bingo challenge? Not feeling challenged enough? Bring it on. 😈 We’ve got a real one for you now, a bang within a bingo. Complete a minimum four-chapter story using one prompt each from all four of our bingo creator card’s corner squares (absolutely no curated prompt swaps permitted to be used to complete this badge challenge—you must choose from and use only the prompts as they appear in the four corner squares of the bingo creator card). Your Four Corners Bingo Bang creation must be at least 6,000 words in length to qualify for this bingo bang badge.

Creator Bingo Award Badge Request Form

Please direct any remaining questions to #ask-the-mods or @mod on our Discord if you have bingo questions you can’t find answers to in the bingo guidelines for creators above. If you’re on tumblr, drop us a DM with whatever questions you have or click that invite link in the guidelines above and come join us on Discord to ask your questions there or check to see if your question has already been answered!

The 2024 Darcy Lewis Bingo card for creators is attached below. Have fun creating new Darcy fannish works!

—The Darcy Lewis Bingo Headquarters Mod Team,

@chrissihr & @ibelieveinturtles

[kasienda]

Fanfiction Year in Review 2023

I fill this out every year. It’s become a bit of a tradition for me. Allows me to reflect on everything that I’ve written and kinda think about where I want to go next. And I like it better from the ask games because I don’t have to wait for asks to come in and can compare my answers from one year to the next. ^_^

1 List of fics completed this year in the order they were finished:

Displaced (Ladrien oneshot)

No Regrets (Ladynoir oneshot - smut)

You Don’t Have To Pretend With Me (Platonic Adrino oneshot)

Representation Reveal (S5 Adrinette oneshot)

Kisses in the Rain (S5 AU Love Square - technically multichapter, but it’s shorter than many of my one-shots)

Would Trust You With Everything (Adrino multichapter)

Just An Ordinary Girl (Marichat oneshot)

Love Remains (Ladynoir multichapter)

Spin the Bottle (OT4 with cour four - technically oneshot, but it’s longer than Kisses and has more kisses in it. Haha!)

2 Number of words written: 

Written: 166,114 words

Published: 151,018 words (more than twice 2022’s number!! Go me!!) 

Those numbers are incredibly close together because I haven’t been redrafting as much. Those numbers include six one shots, three completed multi chapters. And another four multi chapter WIPs saw at least one update.

And in another fun milestone! I broke a million words published on Ao3 just this last week!! (I've been writing fic since 2003 and everything I've ever written is on Ao3!)

3 Your most popular fic:

Not Part of the Plan - I suspect that this is mostly because being a teen pregnancy fic, it’s my most tropiest story this year. Haha! 

4 Your personal fav:

Aftermath - This story has usurped Right Behind You as my favorite. I’ve been able to connect to the raw hurt and grief in this story, and there’s something very raw and human about it that others seem to be able to connect to as well. I think it’s some of my best work, and that is also thanks to an amazing beta in @ladyofthenoodle who has lent her expertise in more than one way in making this one more true to lived experience. 

5 Your fav scene:

It’s so hard to pick a favorite!! I narrowed it down to my three favorites in no particular order. 

The last scene in Ch 5 Love Remains - Chat Noir give amnesiac Ladybug a geography lesson from space. It’s got Whole New World vibes, and I just loved the imagery of it.

Ch 4 of Aftermath - I’m particularly proud of Marinette’s panic attack when Adrien tells her she doesn’t have to keep coming over. Like it feels like it comes out of nowhere, but it just totally makes sense. And how it manifests and how she soothes herself (it’s not healthy, but it’s so GOOD!)

Ch 7 of Would Trust You With Everything - The scene where Chat Noir tries to tell Nino who he is, but inevitably doesn’t. And how Nino reassures him through all that. This scene feels so raw, but so heartwarming in light of Adrien’s fears. And I don’t know - it’s beautiful to me.

6 A fic or scene that challenged you:

I really struggled with Right Behind You this year, though it wasn’t for lack of trying! I had started out the year hoping to go back to an update a month here and I only updated it three times throughout 2023. 

This was incredibly frustrating because the initial drafts of scenes would come pretty easily, but I couldn’t seem to make them pop the way the earlier chapters did. The good news is I think I figured out what the issue was. Most of my writing this year has been speed writing. And a big part of that is just where I’ve been emotionally. I’m very very out of practice in editing and redrafting, which this story and Aftermath both definitely need. 

I’ve only been able to edit Aftermath because I’ve had a ton of help. (Thanks Noodles!) Sadly, it’s harder to find betas for rarepairs, but I have succeeded! (Thanks@coffeebanana!)

7 A line of writing you’re proud of: 

“She wanted to be there to see it. To see him.”

This line is way better in context, but I’ve made myself cry about three times with it. And I refuse to explain it because that would give its power away. Guess you’ll just have to go read Aftermath. 

8 A comment that touched you: 

I can never answer this question without mentioning several!! 

Would Trust You With Everything - this story had a ton of enthusiastic followers - way more than rarepair work usually gets, and I wrote this story right after my life fell apart and all the commenters here made throwing this story together just that much more joyful during a time when I REALLY needed it. (I'm looking at you, @bittersweetresilience, @bbutterflies @flightfoot @coffeebanana and so many others that I don't know your tumblr name!!!) Not Part of the Plan Comments - I added sex ed lessons to the end of each chapter here because there’s so much about fertility and pregnancy that people don’t know if typical pregnancy fics are anything to go by, and this seemed to inspire so many people to share their pregnancy stories!!! And these have been so cool because I’ve learned that these stories just don’t often have an opportunity to be shared. And it’s neat that this story with its accompanying lessons could create a space for that!! Aftermath comments - lots of people who have really struggled with moderate to severe depression have apparently felt very seen by this fic. And that a story that is essentially about two characters who feel very alone and like no one can understand can help people feel LESS alone and MORE understood is simply amazing!! I love this story so much!! AHH!! Here's one from @neurovascular-entrapta that meant a lot to me.

9 Something that inspired your writing:

Grief and the need to feel things in a distant abstract-these-are-story-book-characters kind of way so I don’t have to feel my actual feelings as closely every moment of the day really kept me writing the whole year long.

10 Your proudest accomplishment (that one scene; finally finishing that one fic; posting your first fic; etc):

My writing has been really raw and messy this year, and I can’t keep tenses straight to save my life. But there’s something powerful about the rawness that I really like even as all the grammatical errors and the lack of effort on the technical side of most of my stories has driven me nuts. 

I am proud of myself for being able to get back into the big projects in these last few months after not being able to face them from April to October. And I’ve started participating in a few writing events here and there again in addition to working on my own pet projects. 

11 Do you have any writing goals for the next year?

Well, I wanted to finish Not Part of the Plan in 2023, which didn’t happen only barely! So hoping the last chapter and the epilogue make it out within the next month. Once that’s done I think I want to try and make Aftermath and Right Behind You my primary focus projects this year. And of course, I’m sure new plot bunnies and writing events will take over my brain on occasion. Last year, I said I wanted my writing to become a reliable mental health tool for me again, and I’m glad to say that it definitely was that for 2023. I hope I’m able to use my writing this year to continue my healing journey. 

And maybe go and proofread all of the fics I finished in 2023 to fix all the inconsistent tense issues to prepare them for being bound eventually!

12 Anyone you would like to thank?

SO MANY PEOPLE!

@jennagrinsoverml for being one of my oldest fandom friends! For becoming a real life friend for all that we haven't actually met in person. For all the times you vented to me and listened and sent me pictures of your family and gushed over pictures of mine. I'm lucky to know you!

@ladyofthenoodle - for showing up in my DMs, For being a most insightful beta, for dragging me into a larger community over and over again, for listening to both my real struggles and my first world problems, for being my friend!!

@thelibraryloser - I don't know how to put this into words. But I very much look up to you. For your resilience through difficult times - you are role-model for how to handle this world with grace and kindness. Thank you for your stories!

@coffeebanana - for being so enthusiastic in the creation process before and after! When I have a story that is getting no attention one comment from you makes it so it doesn't matter. You give me all I need.

@bittersweetresilience and @wackus-bonkus-maximus for just being so kind and enthusiastic and supportive of any idea I happen to be talking about in any given moment. I guess for enabling me. Haha!

@blur0se and @mila-beedoodling for sharing your ideas and inspiring me to create new things!!

@asukiess, @chocoluckchipz, @sariahsue, @miabrown007 for creating so many beautiful things and for being kind and engaging in so many conversations!

And now, I'm really nervous that I'm forgetting someone because this is the first time where I feel like I've had more than three fandom friends. Haha! It's a good problem to have I suppose. In general, thank you to the miraculous community for helping me to survive this year. <3 <3 <3

Happy New Year Everyone!!

I invite anyone who wants to, to fill this out! (Or something similar because I think it can be modified for artwork pretty easily). But if you do, please tag me, so I can be a cheerleader for all you've accomplished this year!

[negotiumcrucis]

How to save your reviews on ff.net

In light of whatever is going down on ff.net today, I made this short guide for a friend on Discord, but I figured it might be useful for some folks over here as well.

---

On Chrome, open the review page for each fic, press Ctrl+P, then instead of printing it, select save it as a pdf. It works per page, so in case you have more than 15 reviews per fic/chapter, you will have to repeat that step for each page.

But there's one little trick you can do to have all reviews of your one-shot saved in one (1) single page.

This is the review page for one of my stories. There are 54 reviews total in this one-shot, which ff.net automatically breaks into four pages:

https://www.fanfiction.net/r/7500227/

But if you add a 1/ at the end of the URL:

https://www.fanfiction.net/r/7500227/1/

Then all reviews for that one-shot will be on one (1) single page. Go ahead and save it as pdf and you're done with this one!

For multi-chapter stories, you will have to do that per chapter, but it works pretty much the same way. Also, if your multichapter has 15 reviews or less so all reviews will be automatically shown on the first review page, so you don't have to add the 1/ at the end. In this case, just go ahead and save it as a pdf and you're done.

Yeah, it's not like a super fast method and you will have to do that on a computer (didn't try it on mobile), but surely it's better than screenshotting each review...

If anyone knows a quicker way, please do share it with the class!

ps. Since ff.net doesn't allow copy/paste, you can also save your own fics (or your fave fics) as a pdf.

[corduroyserpent]

V for the ask meme 🖤

V: Are there certain comments you’ve received on your stories that have stuck with you?

yes absolutely!! i've received so many incredible comments, it's really encouraging. especially on baby zzl! this is the only time i've gotten this sort of overwhelmingly kind response on a multichapter fic that's been going for almost 2 years, and i reread the comments often!

gonna pick a totally random comment (cough) from the latest chapter to share because it made me very happy <3

[Image ID: A comment from yilinglazy that says "Ough, oh yeah, destroy me with their heartbreak and then put me back together with that good good joy. That's the stuff you excel at the best, I think. Shattering a person and then helping them put thenselves back together. At least from my perspective. Laughing giddily as I perpetually twirl hair around my finger in wait for the next chappy (smiling face with hearts emoji) End Image ID]

and on the other side of things, please allow me to share the anti-shen yuan rant that makes me laugh whenever i think about it

[Image ID: An anonymous comment that says "OK, I just have to say it (starts anti-SY rant): SY is and always will be an arrogant, petty, jealous asshole - not once did he have the decency and curtesy to congratulate SQH (his supposedly best friend) on his pregnancy! SY is a toxic friend and should be avoided at all costs. I really hope SQH says to MBJ that he prefers to not be around SY during his pregnancy and and while raising his child. (ends rant)." End Image ID]

AHAHAHAHAHA *wipes tears from my eyes* oh man that's good. it's really only stuck with me because i absolutely do not receive comments like this from scummies, anon is a total outlier, like what the fuck hahaha

anyway, thank you to everyone who leaves comments. i cherish each and every one!

[fic writer ask meme]

[kotaka-kun]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

saw @middleearthpixie doing this and I wanted to do it too :)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

249 works

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

380,279 words

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Most recently I’ve been writing for Phantom of the Opera and Love Never Dies, but according to my AO3 dashboard, I’ve posted fics for just under 40 fandoms and naming them all seems excessive... That being said, my top five are Lord of the Rings, Phantom, MCU (mostly Captain America), Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Harry Potter. 

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

1. thank you for the food (ATLA, zukka, Fluff, Domestic Bliss, Modern AU) 2. Simple Happiness (ATLA, zukka, Fluff, Living Together, Modern AU) 3. Bucky has a belly kink, but Steve doesn’t mind in the least (MCU, stucky, ABO, Belly Kink, Pregnancy Kink) 4. Surprise (MCU, stucky, ABO, mpreg, Birth, Twins) 5. New Colors (One Piece, zosan, Fluff, Color Blindness, Gifts)

5. Do you respond to comments?

I do try, though I know I’ve missed a few over the years... but I do love and treasure every single comment I get!

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

I’d have to say that it’s probably a tie between The Worst Thing (MCU, Steve/Bucky, omegaverse, infertility, miscarriage) and overboard (LOTR, Frodo/Sam, trauma, depression, suicide attempt)

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

Hard to say, since aside from the two mentioned above, I write mostly fluffy happy endings... 

8. Do you get hate on fics? 

Thankfully, no. But maybe that just means I need to write more divisive fics? 

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

I do write smut, and it’s probably mostly -- if not all -- omegaverse tbh... 

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

I love love love writing crossovers! I think they’re fun and silly and a good time all around. Don’t know if I have one that’s significantly crazier than the rest, but I think i read the hobbit (in 1937 when it first came out) is one of my favorites to think about. I’ve got a soft spot for ws!Bucky is all. Putting him in Middle Earth and adding him to the Fellowship was just for funsies :)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I’m aware of...

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! A reader translated New Colors into Chinese, which was super neat!

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

Absolutely, 100% -- in the sense of collaboratively plotting out and writing a story, as well as taking turns in an improvised narrative style RP, and also something in between where the premise of a fic was agreed upon and each of us had characters to write, RP style. 

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

I don’t think I can pick a singular ship to label as my favorite... I’d call Zoro/Sanji my OTP, but only because they were the first ship I got involved in fandom for -- I haven’t read a fic of them in years. I’m reading almost exclusively Erik/Christine fics right now, but I’ve come across Erik/Raoul fics that have made me fall in love with them, as well as Erik/Raoul/Christine fics that are so so good... I guess in terms of longevity and my ability to always come back to them, Steve/Bucky has been a solid ship for me? 

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

Gonna go with Zoro’s Promise, since it’s the only multichapter fic I never bothered to move from FF dot net to AO3. It’s literally been ten years since I updated it lmao

16. What are your writing strengths?

On one hand, I guess my ADHD-fueled hyperfixation that allows me to write fic after fic could be considered a strength...?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

On the other hand, as soon as my ADHD-fueled hyperfixation loses its vice grip on me, I lose all motivation to write. Especially if I’ve already written out the scenes that I had in my head, I become incapable of filling in the gaps and making it a cohesive fic... I honestly don’t think I have very good writing hygiene even after taking classes on being better about being a hobby writer oops 

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

I personally tend to avoid writing in another language, because I think it’s hard to do well. Sometimes it takes you out of the fic because you have to copy-paste it into Google Translate to figure out what they’re saying, sometimes it takes you out of the fic because you speak the language and the author evidently doesn’t and they used Google Translate. 

19. First fandom you wrote for?

First fandom I wrote fic for and then posted would be One Piece... but in actuality, I’ve been writing fanfiction from long before I knew that’s what it was called. I was probably in second or third grade when I wrote self-insert Peter Pan fics. Also Shrek fics. I don’t have the notebooks I wrote them in anymore, but I have a very vivid memory of writing them.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

This is maybe the hardest question of all to answer, because while I like a lot of my fics, I don’t know that there’s one that I could call my favorite. My current WIP stranger than you dreamt it (PotO, Erik/Christine, ABO) is one I’m excited to keep working on because, well, omegaverse. But also time and time again (LOTR, Frodo/Sam, Time Travel, Fix-it) was one of the first multi chapter fics I’ve actually finished, so in that regard I’m rather proud of it. I liked the time-travel-y premise of it as well. And even though what comes after (HP, Snape/Harry, Time Travel, Fix-it) is still technically a WIP, I’m still pleased with how it’s coming along... though it’s been a hot minute since I’ve updated it oops

tagging... you! 🫵 if you're an author, i'm tagging u! i want to know about what you write!!!

[foxcort]

2023 AO3 Year-End Fic Review

thank you for tagging me @praetorqueenreyna 💚🤗

What is your AO3 account?

foxcort @ ao3, but im also gonna link my account on squideworld (which has nothing rn but im going to start posting there instead and its got about the same vibe as ao3)

2. How many words did you write total in 2023?

i wrote 10773 words and it was all for acotar!

3. How many fics did you publish in 2023? How many multichapters vs oneshots?

i wrote 6 fics for the entire year (which is surprisingly more than i originally thought!), 5 of which were oneshots and 1 of which was a collection of drabbles. im hoping to start writing at least 1 multichapter in 2024

4. What was your longest fic? Your shortest fic?

my longest was a heart of scales and storms at 2785 words, which was a feylin mermay oneshot and my shortest was spring memories at 714 words, which was the first fic i contributed to this fandom (and one that has a very special place in my heart)

5. What was your most popular fic? Your least popular fic?

comforter was my most popular fic at 447 hits and my least popular was a court of ice and fire at 43 hits, which is completely understandable considering its an oddly specific au and the only chapter i have posted is tamlin-centric, but i still love the idea and hope my muse can come around to contributing more to it this year!

6. What fic didn't perform as well as you thought it would?

hmm maybe a heart of scales and storms? the statistics show that it only got 53 hits, but i still remember the comments i got for that fic and @haniaaaaaaaaaaa drew ✨this✨ beautiful art piece inspired by it! so from the reception the fic garnered it feels like it should have more than 53 hits but honestly i had so much fun writing it and i remember smiling so wide my face hurt for days after bc of the comments/artwork that it didn’t feel like it didn’t perform well (as far as hits go)!

7. What fic performed way better than you thought it would?

oh wildfire at 192 hits (this is a lot for me lol), which was an erisweek entry and the first time i ever attempted writing from his pov. honestly i don’t expect any of my character-centric stuff to take off, so i was pleasantly surprised at how it performed!

8. What was your favorite fic you wrote in 2023?

most probably comforter, more specifically the neslin chapter. i’ve had this super angsty, acosf divergence multichaptered neslin idea in my head for a while now, but i suck at long term fic planning and like most people i want to jump right into writing the interesting parts of it, so the neslin chapter was a scene from that idea and i felt so happy writing it and getting into the mindsets of nesta and tamlin in that au.

9. What was your favorite fic that somebody else wrote in 2023?

definitely rosemary by @bittermuire (thank god for this survey because in my effort to link the fic i realized ITS BEEN UPDATED!!! and as i read through it, i became even more convinced this was 100% my most favorite fic of 2023 💚) honestly, anything muire writes has me immediately hooked, but its the characterizations of the archeron sisters in particular that are so special to me. especially in rosemary. it also happens to be an october/fall fic, which are bonuses and pluses as far as im concerned. if you love the archeron sisters, give rosemary a read. if you need more convincing, allow me to provide one of my favorite quotes from the fic—

Lucien Vanserra watched her leave, his heart threatening to give out, and cursed himself a thousand times. Then another thousand times. Then, drowning in table salt, dreaming of her hair, thinking of getting himself a few sessions of therapy, he decided he would not, could not possibly, let her go. / rosemary (ch.1) by iriy @ ao3

honorable mention to plus 4 by firenaition @ ao3, because this is a fic i read at least once every month, a fic that i've shown and begged my rl siblings to read and quite possibly my favorite azulaang/atla fic of all time

10. Tag your friends to have them do this year-end fic review as well!!

if you haven’t done it already and you want to, do it! and tag me too, i love reading these!

[burntwaffle12]

20 Questions For Fanfic Writers

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

4 (2 are collabs with the amazing @monpetitchattriste )

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

54,832

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Miraculous

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

An Unhinged Team Up

Hold my hand (I want to show you off)

Sweet like wine...Maybe?

Speak now (or forever hold your peace)

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

I respond to every comment I get. I am fairly new to posting fanfiction and I love seeing the reactions I get from the readers. Also, I write because I need to get all the crazy ideas bouncing off in my head out or else I go insane, an after accomplishing that, comments are an extra reassurance of 'yeah, this was a good idea'.

I do have to say, I still have to get a bad comment, so in the event I do get some negative feedback or just a straight up mean comment I don't know how I would react or if I would even react at all, but that all just comes with experience.

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

I still need to write pure angst, but I do have a lot of angsty ideas in mind that I can hopefully publish one day. So far though, the angstiest fic is An Unhinged Team Up, I would say.

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

Probably Hold my hand (I want to show you off), nothing but fluff at the end

8. Do you get hate on fics?

So far no

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

Not a usual smut writer, I only have 2 but hey I guess thats 50% of my works. So far it has been more mellowed down smut but really passionate and needy

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

Nope, but I do have some wild AU's in mind

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't think so, at least I haven't noticed so I think that's a good sign.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No

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

Yes!! my best friend @monpetitchattriste write a shiton together and even have a shared drive where we dump all our ideas, she gets me and the unhinged thoughts I spurt out daily

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Anything love square, I eat it up.

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

I can't start a wip until I finish the last one, so for me to not finish a WIP is very unlikely. Call it what you want but my brain won't allow me to drop something midway.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I like to thing dialogue, and plot planning. I tend to come up with really intense scenes

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Maybe deacriptions? I start off very well but the deeper I go I tend to notice I repeat words a lot so I need to go into a thesaurus to help me out. I also would like to be more detailed.

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

That sounds fun, I speak 4 languages so I think it would be manageable, I would be worried about grammar in a language I'm not familiar with though, so I would ask someone for help

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Officially, Miraculous. Unofficially...Harry Styles when I was 14

20. Favourite fics you’ve written?

My first multichapter fic, An Unhinged Team Up. The plot is so fun to write out, even if a little challenging at times

Thanks for the tag! @hamsteriffic

Mmmm I'm tagging @monpetitchattriste and @miabrown007

[haldora]

20 questions for fic writers

Got tagged by @inkpot-demigod! Took me a while to get around to it, but it was fun to fill this out, even if I'm not much of a writer anymore.

how many works do you have on Ao3? 13

2. what’s your total Ao3 word count? 122,503

3. what fandoms do you write for?

Most of my fics are Babylon 5, but the latest fandom I wrote more than one fic for was Pathologic.

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

Despite most of my work being for B5, my top 5 fics are mostly for other fandoms, probably because of differences in overall fandom size. 1. Postprandial (Gotham) My sole fic for the fandom and probably the most indulgent thing I've ever written. I'm gonna be real here and say that I have a conflicted relationship with this fandom because I, uh... do not like the show and have little to no interest in DC media otherwise, but it was one of those things where a certain ship grabs me by the balls heart and pulls me into a deeply cringe obsession. But being cringe is the only way to make art, especially the kind of intensely gratuitous, unselfconscious, and joyful art that this turned out to be, and I'm still very fond of this fic and happy with the reception it got. It's my most popular work by far despite being a niche kink, which has contributed to me feeling a lot less self-conscious about my interests in general. 2. Shadowshow (Pathologic) A compilation of fics written for the Pathologic Kink Meme featuring a bunch of different characters and ideas. While I have no way of knowing which fic most of the kudos are in response to, I have a feeling that the fic with the most broad appeal is probably the Burakhovsky sex pollen twyre fic, which was a lot of fun to write. With porn tropes like this, I have a lot of trouble keeping a straight face, so I tried to lean into the silliness while keeping things broadly in character and I still like the result. It ended on a sequel hook, too, which I'm still surprised that nobody on the kink meme grabbed to follow up on. I'm generally very fond of these fics because they're symbolic of a really fun time in my life and the best fandom community I've ever participated in. <3 Patho Blocklist alumni 2020 represent 3. Suffer Your Excess (B5) This was the first B5 fic I'd ever posted and my first serious attempt at fanfiction in a long time. I still have a lot of nostalgia attachment to it and I see why people like it, but ultimately I think I explored similar themes a lot better in subsequent fics. But this was still vital practice in getting my bearings in a new fandom. 4. A Golden Autumn (Pathologic)

Ah, my tragically incomplete Burakhovsky longfic that I still have all outlined and plotted out and just never continued. I always have lots of ideas for long multichapter fics, but almost never allow myself to start them because I almost always burn out or get distracted by other things and then it haunts me for the rest of my life. Maybe one day I'll continue it, but I've come around to feeling like it was a product of the early Patho fandom and a lot of the themes and ideas in it have since been thoroughly explored by much better writers than me, which puts a damper on my enthusiasm, alas.

5. Every Shining Thing (B5)

Always happy to see this one breaking the top 5 because although it's one of my older fics, it still holds up for me. The fandom being as small as it is means that I can keep up with the tag pretty easily and while there's amazing stuff still happening, I can't say I've seen another fic with similar themes crop up in the fandom and while I of course would love to see other people exploring these ideas, it's kinda cool to be the person who wrote the definitive fic on this topic. When I'm feeling down on myself and wondering whether I'll ever manage to write substantively again, this is one of the fics I look to to remind myself of what I'm capable of.

5. do you respond to comments?

Yes! I love getting comments and try to respond to all of them.

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

I tend not to go for unambiguously happy or sad endings. I prefer something more bittersweet. A speck of light in the darkness or a note of unease in an otherwise harmonious resolution. But I think Open Wound, a Londo centered character study during one of the darkest periods in canon, has a pretty bleak ending.

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

False Dawn, probably. A Londo/G'Kar fic that takes place in a happier fix-it AU. The closest I ever get to writing fluff. An objectively low stakes material problem with somewhat higher emotional stakes that ends on a pretty feel-good high note.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Never directly on my fics, thankfully, but I've been sent a few death threats and attempts at suicide-baiting for writing some of the things I do and supporting others who do so. I take it as a point of pride. <3

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yes. Most of my work has some erotic undertone even if it's not explicitly sexual. I'm open to a lot of things and while I do have very strong interests in certain kinks, what I'm drawn to when writing tends to be more related to a certain character dynamic and the unique possibilities it offers. So basically, I write the smut I think is the most IC for whatever characters I'm writing and whatever serves as the best vehicle for the ideas I'm trying to get across. Which isn't a very interesting answer, but it's true.

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

No. I prefer really diving into the specificities of a certain world and trying to deepen and intensify the ideas that are already there rather than trying to combine it with other things to make new ones. If I ever get to thinking that elements from different canons would be really interesting to see combined, that usually ends up as a launchpad for original worldbuilding rather than contemplating crossover possibilities.

11. has any of your work been stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! I've had a few of my B5 fics translated into Russian by some wonderful folks and posted on FicBook! I always love going there and google translating all the comments. <3

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

Not really? I used to do a lot of RP, which is a similar activity, but not quite the same thing. I guess the closest I've come is some collaborative kink meme stuff where different writers build on each other's work. One of the fics in my Shadowshow Patho compilation is a kink meme fill that's framed as a sequel to a fill that someone else had written (and I'm still super flattered they liked it <3).

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Man, I have a new one like every month. Judging by my fic output, though, I think Londo/G'Kar (B5) is still my ultimate OTP. Love that toxic old man xeno.

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

See Question 4 :c Aside from that, I've got a couple half-finished Patho kink meme fills I'd been working on that just never got done and they sit in a folder on my computer taunting me.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Voice. Character voice is often what makes or breaks a fic for me and it's a skill I consider especially vital for fanfic specifically. I care a lot about it and, according to the comments I get, it pays off. Character dialogue is where most of the action happens in my stories and it's something I put a lot of effort into, both in the sense of 'would they say this?' and 'how would they say it?'

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Writing :)

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

Is there controversy about this? If you're writing a multi-lingual character who speaks multiple languages in canon, then part of writing them IC is going to be replicating that, so yeah, break out your dictionaries and put out calls for fluent beta-readers. AO3 actually has some great tools for implementing this. I used hover-text for translations when doing some conlanging for a B5 fic and it worked really well.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Ooh, tough question. I started writing Sailor Moon fanfiction in paper notebooks in elementary school way back in dinosaur times. Never posted any of it, though.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Ahh, this is hard! I'm gonna be a shameless shill and mention the favourites I think are underappreciated, both B5.

First is The Sayonese Affair, which is the longest fic I've ever completed and am still very pleased with. It's a post-canon fix-it AU political comedy-of-manners. Porn with plot. If you can stomach the tags, I'd highly recommend it.

Next is Accidents of Gesture, a lengthier one-shot that stands as the fic that gets to the heart of what I love about this canon and this ship. It's got some painful conversations, some hurt/comfort, and musings on the nature of forgiveness. I tag... @ibenholt, @emblazonet, @wescravings, @strangestquiet, @gloriousmonsters and whoever else wants to do this!

[holly-fixation]

Well, here's my Happy Mother's Day but I don't have any Jenova content I can share so here's some exact opposite content with what I call "'wholesome' Hojo" (or as wholesome as he can get)

please enjoy!

...

It was so hot, so uncomfortably hot, yet his body shivered through cold sweat. His head hurt, foggy and struggling to process anything around him. He kept his eyes closed with a groan, only occasionally opening them to the world beyond his spot. He was sitting on something warm, but the warmth was cooler than his own body. It felt nice when he wasn't reeling. 

It was his first fever. He didn't understand what was happening but he felt absolutely terrible. His perfectly kept silver hair had fallen to a bird’s nest of knots and frizz. His body subconsciously searched for relief, slowly turning and arching and stretching to find the cure he needed. 

It was two days after Sephiroth's extended mako treatment began. He had no idea how much longer they trapped him in the glass tube. He only knew after a certain point he couldn’t breathe, and he vaguely remembered hearing something about a miscalculated value before they suddenly drained the lifeblood of the planet and he collapsed on the floor of the tank.  

He was so weak, so tired, but his body was plagued with restlessness while his mind desperately ached for rest. He tried not to show it, tried to be strong and continue his training, trying to make Hojo proud. But he couldn’t think. His body delayed his commands, and his ideas were clouded and dangerous. He lost to the first machine that morning, and he had no idea why the scientist turned it off when his sight quickly went dark and he suddenly awoke on the ground. He didn’t even remember falling. 

He missed Professor Gast. He missed him so much, especially on days like these. He didn’t want to be alone in his room until the ailment left him. He wanted to feel safe, but all he had left was Hojo.

“Ah ah,” He heard Hojo’s voice above him as he stared at the monitor, but it felt different. There was no bite, no snippiness. It was just a noise to get his attention, and it worked because his head of silver hair subconsciously turned a little closer to the source. “Against me.”

His delirious fever ailed mind didn’t understand the command. It didn’t make sense. He barely knew where the voice came from, his sight filled with cloudy substitutions of reality. The glow of the screen held his limited attention. He didn’t want to move, but he knew he had to. He tried to look toward the white above him instead of the black hair before it. 

Two snaps hurt his ears, but it pulled his eyes to the black blob. 

“Lean, Sephiroth.” When the scientist shifted his body, his weakness didn't allow him any freedom. He found the side of his body leaning against the white and his head used the folded fabric as a pillow. There was an arm around him. “Open your mouth.”

He did understand that command and opened his mouth like a baby bird, a small gap for whatever was coming. He saw and felt the warm spoon enter between his lips, but the contents made him wince and cringe. It was wrong and artificial and made him want to spit it out, bitter and tangy and nasty. He couldn’t hide his reaction. He had no strength to spare. He only used the last of it to swallow the medicine as fast as he could. 

“Come now, it’s not that bad.” Even that snide comment was softer than normal. He wanted to think about it more, to understand why, but he was so tired, slowly and hesitantly nuzzling against the chest of the scientist while he continued his work without another word.

He wasn’t punished for reaching out for touch this time. It was the first and only time in his memory that Hojo made him feel safe. …maybe even feel care if he looked hard enough.

.

.

.

.

Thanks for reading! This is a sneak peak of one of my current multichapter fics, but this can totally be read on it's own. Happy Mother's Day!

[hgejfmw-hgejhsf]

20 Questions Game for Fic Writers!

I feel like I've done this before, but like...definitely before a MASSIVE amount of my fics were released post-fest, so thanks to the amazing @ssmtskw tagging me, I'm gonna do it all over again!

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

52 total!

2. What’s your total ao3 word count?

128,450 words!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently, only RWRB. In the past, I've written some for Once Upon a Time.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Ghosts

Volume Control

Retaliation

Do we still have forever?

Modification to the map of you

5. Do you respond to comments?

Always! I live by comments, so I will always show my appreciation for every single one.

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

I suffer from this syndrome that only allows me to write happy endings, so the angstiest ending I've written still brings with it some hope. It's Darkest before the dawn.

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

I think one of my newer fics, No fear, no fences, nobody - no reins has a pretty lovely ending. Lots of hope for a pretty blissful future.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not yet. Still waiting on my first hate comment. I'd love for it to never come, but you know how fandom can be.

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

Before FirstPrince, I wrote a lot of fade to black. Now, I dive right into wherever the story and the characters lead. The fic listed in answer #7 is probably the smuttiest I've ventured so far.

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

I haven't yet but I'd be open to!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope, not yet.

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

Not so far, but a couple are in the works!

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

FirstPrince.

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

I once had a super neat idea for a Captain Swan kid fic, but I don't see myself ever finishing that one.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Henry's POV apparently haha. I'm just gonna spend the rest of my existence writing everything from Henry's point of view, and I'll be fine.

But honestly, as much as I never realized it, I think the dialogue is one of my major strengths. It took a friend @oneofthewednesdays complimenting me on my dialogue as well as hearing a podfic of one of my works to convince me that the dialogue I write feels pretty genuine and authentic.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Writing anything except one shots lol. I'm working on something now that might become my first real multichapter fic that isn't cowritten, and I'm really excited, but also terrified that I won't finish it.

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

I've done this! And I've received a ton of positive feedback from native speakers that I did it justice, which made me feel so good.

19. First fandom you ever wrote for?

Pirates of the Caribbean.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Oh gosh. It's like asking me to choose my favorite child. But as many fics as I've written in the months since joining the RWRB fandom and as immensely proud of them as I am, my heart keeps coming back to quite possibly the best line I've ever written.

“Fuck,” is all that he can say, but even that tastes of Alex, of top shelf whiskey and the cinnamon he always adds to his coffee. Alex had spoken the word into Henry’s mouth on countless occasions, so he was all-too-familiar with the way it slipped off of his tongue so smoothly, as if the letters themselves were forged together just for him by some foul-mouthed god who knew the damage such a word might wreak in the possession of someone as fearless as Alexander Claremont-Diaz.

And this line lives in a little post lake house fic, the second fic I ever published in the RWRB fandom, called What If I Do?

Uncertain who's already done this, so I'm gonna leave this as an open tag for anyone who sees it and wants to share their incredible writing background with the world!

[underragingwaves]

2022 End of Year Fic Review

I was tagged by @ulfrsmal (ty for the tag and the sweet mention!) and, uhm, I got a little wordy in this one. Please do click the readmore if you want some fic recs! 😘

1. What is your AO3 account?

captainkilly is my main account that features all my fics, but all my Vikings fics in particular can be found under the pseud underragingwaves

2. How many words did you write total in 2022?

197,158 words, not including the fics that were Tumblr-only.

3. How many fics did you publish in 2022? How many multichapters vs oneshots?

12 fics in total, of which 3 were multichapters. (I am counting the one fic I began publishing in 2021 and updated in 2022 among these as well.)

4. What was your longest fic? Your shortest fic?

The longest one that I updated in 2022 is homeland, heartland (which sits at a comfortable 63k and counting), but I didn’t begin publishing that in 2022. The longest fic that I published entirely in 2022 is The Ascendancy Seat, which clocks in at 60k.

My shortest fic is leavetaking, which lands around 2k.

5. What was your most popular fic? Your least popular fic?

If we’re counting homeland, heartland, then that’s the most popular one in hits/kudos/bookmarks by far. Secondmost popular in terms of hits is the Ivar-centric massive undertaking The Ascendancy Seat, but in terms of kudos/bookmarks the honor goes to another Ivar-centric fic called ouroboros.

Least popular fic is the aforementioned leavetaking, but that is because I only recently uploaded it to AO3 and now backdated it to reflect its original publication date. I think it’s one of those hidden gem fics, haha, because I loved writing this as a missing scene and it allowed me to work with Ragnar instead of the usual suspects.

6. What fic didn’t perform as well as you thought it would?

Honestly, I don’t think I publish anything and expect it to ‘perform’ in any way? I am used to people finding my fics and faceplanting in them whenever, which means that some of my fics initially don’t do so well in terms of hits/kudos but eventually grow into crowd pleasers. I can never predict which one will take off months from now, lol. That said, I think I wanted more people to give the reverie protocol a chance – I know it’s not an AU that immediately incites folks to read it, but I just love the way this one sang on the page for me personally.

7. What fic performed way better than you thought it would?

ouroboros. It is not at all my fave of the fics I’ve written, and I raise my eyebrow at its popularity even though I know that its premise (Ivar-centric smutty stuff) is this fandom’s form of catnip. I have a hard time writing something that is outright smut – it’s a journey for me that I experimented more with in 2022 – and while I’m making the best sort of googly eyes at the OC I wrote for this fic (Malika my beloved) I really do not think it is my best and I’m still surprised when people pick that one over some of my better works.

8. What was your favorite fic you wrote from 2022?

I’m actually going to name 3 fics for various reasons, haha.

First up is The Juniper Tree, in a hands-down-no-contest sort of way. That fic was a work of love for me and returned a sense of stillness and certainty to my writing process that I hadn’t felt in a long time. It is one of those fics I can say ‘wrote itself’, and I love it unbelievably much. Y’all know I love Ubbe best of all and getting to write this whole multichapter from his POV was just… yeah, I had a good cry about this one by the time I completed it. A really special writing experience that I think is my best work to date.

Secondly, The Warlord’s Wake was probably the most… cathartic to write. I had played with this post-series idea for a good long while until I finally started this fic, and it gave me the closure that I think I honestly needed in terms of where Hvitserk’s story ended in the series. I really wanted to write a fic in which Hvitserk had used his position in Alfred’s court to play a very long game that would eventually return him to his feral pagan bastard ways. It was a good thing for me to get to express this, especially because I have seen a fair few fics and opinions in this fandom regarding Hvitserk’s conversion to Christianity (and the Christian-centric narrative some people choose to uphold) that make me feel supremely salty and quite upset.

Last, I’m going to go ahead and name The Maker’s Path. This is the lone fic I wrote for a different fandom, namely Dune, and I got so horribly creative with the prompt I wrote it for that I just need to squee about it some more. I always thought Dune would be impossible to write for (like Black Sails, it’s one of those things that’s just perfect to me the way it is) but I found a little neat corner somewhere in the book’s folds and movie’s visuals that allowed me to put this fic to the page. Getting to work with a Sardaukar character as well as a Fremen character was a cool exercise that only got more pleasing when I managed to include my own favorite character (Alia) toward the end.

9. What was your favorite fic that somebody else wrote in 2022?

Gonna be that person and name 5 for funsies!

Greedy Gods, by @vikingstrash (stellar Aslaug-centric work, I always love how Yume writes Aslaug and this was a lovely ‘missing piece’ of canon to me)

Gatekeeper, by @ritual-unions (I still don’t know how I survived this one and when I say it lives rentfree in my brain y’all had better believe it)

Gnothi Sauthon, by @bouncehousedemons (you know it’s good when I make hearteyes at a reader pairing, okay? this is just comfort food)

Reactions Of Your Kind, by @ulfrsmal (Ubbe/Hvitty goodness that essentially catapulted a friendship – I’m very fond of this one, and it’s a definite pick-me-up)

This lovely Freydis & Liv prompt fill by @mercurygray (it’s in my head a lot, as it has perfectly captured the dynamics between the Valhalla characters and I love the ‘outsider’ POV of Harald in this piece)

10. Tag your friends to do this year-end fic review as well!

@vikingstrash, @mercurygray, @pomprincesse, if y’all have done this I apologize for tagging ya. Also tagging anyone who writes fic in our lil fandom and wants to do an end of year close-out! 😊

[astorytotellyourfriends]

hi, hope you’re doing well! 🥰

if you’re up to it, I think ✨, 💘 and 💌 from the ask game sound interesting!

✨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)

i'm pretty happy with the reception on all of my hellcheer fics tbh, i don't think there's any one in particular that i wish would get more recognition but for my own inspiration and desire to finish the wip, i maybe wish if the fates allow had a little more hype? i wouldn't call it neglected by any means because i know there are people who want more and by god i'm TRYING to write more but every time i sit down to work on it, my brain just goes nah i don't wanna. so idk, maybe talking about it more would help the inspo flow but i'm also just trying to be kind to myself and i'll get to it when i get to it.

💘Is there any posted fic you want to rework/re-edit/re-write?

lmfao probably all of my wips if i'm being really honest. the problem with posting as i write is that sometimes i find plot holes that i feel weird about going back and retconning so i just sort of hope nobody notices. if i were smarter about writing and posting as a whole, i'd at least TRY to write a multichaptered fic from start to finish before posting it on ao3 but alas, i'm impatient. (i'm working on trying to get back to that habit, though. it's hard.)

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

i started writing a one shot a couple days ago that i originally thought might be a multichaptered fic (and i've hinted about it in the past), and it's exciting to sort of experiment with a theme i haven't tried yet. i've posted a couple bits on twitter but here's another one for you:

"No wonder you came at me with a frying pan," he teases.

"Oh my--" Chrissy covers her mouth and her face crumples with distress. "I totally forgot-- I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm…" Eddie presses his hand to his shoulder, realizing in that moment that it doesn't even ache a little where she'd hit him. "I'm fine," he murmurs as he presses his fingers gingerly along the slope of his shoulder, pushing them harder and harder in search of any shred of bruising in his skin.

But there's nothing there.

let's get real fic writer asks

[angst-in-space]

september '23 writing progress

words written: 12.6k

most words written in a day: 1.6k

least words written in a day: 56

current yearly total: 133.8k

projects worked on:

- ya sci-fi book revisions

works published in september:

none

september goals:

finish ya sci-fi book rewrites…? aka i’ll probably have to write like 1.5k words a day oh boy

update either altea rising or sylvix dreamscape?

if i have time/energy for anything else…. work on other fics?

october goals:

finish book rewrites....i mean it this time i swear

update one of my multichap fics?

maybe work on other fics if i have time/energy (but it's doubtful lol)

notes:

well... did not meet any of my september goals. oops! i did work on my book rewrites—but as always, i overestimated how much i could get done in a single month lol. and i kinda burned out in the last week of september, partly because i was busy but also just because... i have not felt super confident in my book lately lmao. i was also on hiatus from my mentorship for three months and was hoping to resume it in october but have to put it off for at least another month bc i have not finished this draft...so i'm a bit bummed about that. additionally i have another silly self-imposed goal/deadline that i'm a little worried about but. idk might say more about that next month depending on how things go, haha.

soooo i am hoping to finish rewriting my book by end of this month—a big Maybe, since i have a big chunk left, but i am getting pretty close to the final act so... i might be able to do it? however i'll also be traveling for a week at the end of october, so...We Will See.

i do miss fic terribly so i think i'll allow myself to at least dabble in that this month. it's been a hot second since i updated any of my multichapter fics, so might try to do that. and/or might hop around between some wips and see what inspires me. yay!!

[hua-fei-hua]

Hi Huaaaaaaa I'm in your askbox :3

10, 19, 23, 45 for the Fanfiction Questions, I simply must know

hiii naviiiiii we are hanging out on my blog :33

totally forgot i rb'd those things hehe but anyway~

10.  Is there a fandom you read fic from but don’t write in?

at first glance, my thought was no, bc i don't really fandom-ize every bit of media i absorb, just a few special ones (i can be normal about things!! for real (not clickbait)!!!)

that said, there are a few fandoms i've read fic for that i've never written for! going all the way back to my roots, i read so much mlp fic, n although i technically wanted to write mlp fic back in the day (n have like. two paragraphs of an ancient pitch rotting in my gdocs), i never really committed to it.

nat made me read some pokespe fics too back in the day, so i've read a couple of those too despite never really reading a ton of the manga. one pokespe author also recommended some kingdom hearts fic that i ended up reading, despite having never played kh or knowing anything about it really!

i also used to read a lot of miraculous ladybug fic (once in a blue moon i'll also get update emails for some of them c':), n although i had some ideas for mlb fic, i never wrote any of them.

i think the most recent fandoms i've read but never written for have been the adventure zone (balance), since i'd read taz fic as it crossed my dash after i listened to the podcast, and princess tutu, bc i had a mutual who got into it, so i started w/their fic after i watched the anime, then poked around the archive a bit hehe

19. Is there a ship which you wished you could get behind, but you just don’t feel them?

hmmm i'm honestly kind of a "once a hater, always a hater" kind of person, so it's kind of hard for me to think of a ship that i see around, know the basic appeal of, but don't really Understand in a way that makes me more proactive or picky w/seeing them portrayed.

that said, i would love to read some kokosara meta that elaborates on how a relationship btwn them would further kokomi's character, why sara is the only character who would be able to push her in that particular direction

23. Name a fic you’ve written that you’re especially fond of & explain why you like it.

oooo that's tough, since i'm very fond of p much all my fics for various different reasons, even if i don't think their writing is particularly up to my standards anymore.

like, even tho jjk was technically a while ago for me now, i'm still obsessed w/the idea of a constellation au (zenith); and the diner at the end of the night is still easily one of the most well-written high-energy comedies i've ever pulled off.

it's also really hard to pick out of my genshin fics which one holds the most specialest place in my heart bc most of them hold niches in my heart!!!

typically, though, i pick disjunct bc during the writing process, it was the first time where i really felt allowed to give a character Mixed Race Struggles(tm) wholesale w/o feeling like i was just making them mixed for the sake of it. i'm also really happy with the way it ended up resonating w/people on a core level, and the experience of artist-viewer connection n just having an Art Moment(tm) that resulted!!

45. What is your all time favourite fanfic?

i used to say A Miscellaneous Tale of Night and Day, which is The 200k word pokespe fic nat made me read when we were in high school that hasn't updated since 2012 that has effectively inoculated me against "abandoned fanfiction sadness", and the plot n premise are still a ton of fun, but i've been rereading it a bit as of late, and you can feel the early 2010s casual transphobia and misogyny in it lol. i'd say that it helped shape my comedic tastes/ability to just write self-indulgently, so for that, i'd categorize it under "influential fics"

honestly my favorite fics tend to be long multichapters, but there are honestly so few that line up with my tastes and have an ending in genshin, n i didn't read enough in jjk to have any longfics to really be fondly subscribed to. thinking about it, i genuinely think my fave fics are just the ones nat n i make up together over discord until five in the morning LMAO

in terms of fics that exist(ed, at least at one point), i'd say the now-deleted snk fic tower of babel would probably qualify as one of my all-time faves, n i can say that's not just the nostalgia glasses bc i do still have a copy on my hard drive lol. the premise is that five girls, each hiding their own secrets from each other or the world, end up renting one apartment together, n they learn to trust each other enough to communicate n rely on one another. there's also a bit of romance happening in the bg, but it's not the biggest aspect of the fic, n i really liked that!!! also the way it dropped the title in the end, basically stating its main theme as "it's a lot easier to fix your problems if you communicate abt it" CHANGED MY LIFE the first time i read it lol

ANYWAY YEAH that's all of them hehe thanks for the ask~

fanfiction questions

[kareenvorbarra]

AO3 stats meme! tagged by @anghraine

Rules: Give us the links to your fics with the most hits, most kudos, most comments, most bookmarks, most words, and least words.

Most hits: The Debate of Bregor and Aegnor, a Silmarillion fic from 2013 in which Andreth's siblings finding out about her relationship with Aegnor and drama ensues. In one of the great mysteries of my fandom life, this fic has 9,068 hits - over two and a half times more than the fic with the second largest number of hits, which is for a much bigger fandom (asoiaf). It doesn't have a proportionately larger number of kudos than my other Silm stories. Maybe it's a glitch? Maybe there are a handful of people who reread it hundreds of times? I'll probably never know lol

Most kudos: Five Times Kareen Told Ezar the Truth and One Time She Didn't, a Vorkosigan fic that explores Kareen's relationship with Ezar from her marriage to his death, with 123 kudos. The Vorkosigan fandom on AO3 is very generous with feedback, more than any of other fandom I've written for :) I do also think this is one of my best fics, so it feels good that it has the most kudos.

Most comments: What We Are Allowed, which is basically Thick as Thieves from Laela's POV, has 45 comment threads and 62 comments total. This one has an advantage over the others because it's a multichapter fic and has a handful of regular readers who usually comment on updates <3

Most bookmarks: Blessed the Bride of Argos, the Agamemnon/Cassandra fic I wrote for Nonconathon 2021. According to the stats page it has 46 bookmarks, but when I actually open the fic it only shows 23 - I'm guessing the rest are private bookmarks? It's an E-rated noncon fic, so a lot of private bookmarks wouldn't be particularly surprising.

Most words: What We Are Allowed is incomplete but currently at 40,841 words. It's my longest writing project EVER and I'm extremely proud of myself for getting this far and updating relatively consistently (also I think it's a pretty good story).

Least words: Remember, another Silmarillion fic, with 376 words. It's about Morwen and Rian's relationship and also about Rian being a musical prodigy. I just reread it for the first time in ages and I think it holds up pretty well!

tagging (if you feel like it) @heckofabecca, @chthonic-cassandra, @squirrelwrangler, @yavieriel, @vardasvapors