#lotr genfic

[katajainen]

All In Good Time (328 words) by katajainen Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Sam Gamgee & Legolas Greenleaf Characters: Sam Gamgee, Legolas Greenleaf Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Gardens & Gardening, Tomato-woes, Plant Whisperer Legolas, (not that Sam really needs him to) Series: Part 15 of February Ficlet Challenge 2024 - Tolkien vol.3

Summary:

Sam worries about his tomatoes - unnecessarily, thinks Legolas.

***

Day 15 of the February Ficlet Challenge 2024, prompt: “Out of time AND/OR Sports AU.”

[lotr-sesa]

The Lord of the Rings Secret Santa 2023 prompt meme signups are OPEN!

So, it's that time of the year again: time to sign up for the Lord of the Rings Secret Santa exchange! Slash, femslash, het and gen; you can request it all, so why not join in?

2023 is a year of special magnificence for this exchange, as it has now been going for TWENTY years! We'd love to see you join us for this anniversary.

Lord of the Rings Secret Santa has been a traditional exchange since its inception, but we continue to adapt and refine the exchange to best serve all participants. The exchange has been in the form of a prompt meme since 2020.

If you are new to the format, AO3 has a helpful FAQ here.

This year's timeline (2023):

Prompt Posting: November 1st to 30th

Claiming: December 1st to 31st

Collection Open for Posting: December 1st to 31st

All Fills Due: December 31st

You will be able to post up to 2 prompts, and we will do our best to make sure that at least one of your prompts is filled.

Please note that this is an FPF challenge. (i.e. Fictional, not real people fiction/RPF.) We're always open to all the Peoples and Ages of Middle-earth, which means that characters from The Hobbit and The Rings of Power are welcome too!

The Rules (2023):

You will be able to post up to 2 prompts between November 1st and 30th, and we will do our best to make sure at least one of your prompts is filled.

Your fill is due December 31st 11:59 pm Pacific Time (you can check what that is in your time zone here). Please post it to AO3 (and nowhere else, until January 10th).

As a matter of fairness, please make your story more than 750 words (1000 is better).

Once claiming has opened, please only claim a prompt if you plan on actually fulfilling your end of the bargain, and please only claim one prompt at a time. After you have completed your fill, you may claim a new one.

Signing up: the sign up form can be found here (or here if the main link gives you an error message). If you need help with signing up, please don't hesitate to contact the mods at lotrsesa[AT]gmail.com.

Claiming a prompt: use the "Claim" button next to the prompt you want to claim. (You can find open prompts under "Prompts" in the sidebar.) Several people can claim the same prompt. You can also claim a prompt without having submitted any of your own.

It's a good idea to follow us here on Tumblr or join the Dreamwidth community so you can keep track of any admin posts.

Have fun -- and spread the word! Every reblog is precious to us.

[runawaymun]

Hi so I just binged your fics and adore them, I love “kids get sane adults and overcome trauma and feel safe” fics

And I was wondering if it was inspired by any other fics you could recommend? Especially Tolkien

aaa I'm so glad you like them! thank you!

The adoptive family trope is a trope that is incredibly near and dear to my heart and weirdly underexplored in the LOTR fandom tbqh. You'd think there would be more of it. I get this question a lot and unfortunately I must repeat that my toxic trait is that I am incredibly picky when it comes to the fics I read, and that And the Stars Shine the Same was actually started in a blind rage after scouring the internet for anything like it, and finding that most of them over-simplified the healing process or grossly mischaracterized Elrond OR turned out to be romantic in the end (but like not in a good way). So unfortunately I have very few fics I can recommend.

In terms of well-written fic that you might like if you like my work, as always, I recommend pretty much anything @jaz-the-bard has written when it comes to Elrond & kidnap fam adjacent material (and just...good fic...in general...hngg). @potatoobsessed999 (potatoesanddreams on AO3) has some really lovely genfic, and I literally cannot recommend @idrilsscribe's Under Strange Stars series enough. The Ever-Fixed Star series is an incredible set of Elrond-adjacent (but mostly Feanorian-centric) fics by @eirianerisdar that deal with themes of forgiveness, family, redemption, and healing and they remain just about some of my favorite fics of all time <3 I also will continue to endlessly rec @thatfeanorian's All the Ways to Love which is not gen, but does include just really excellent Russingon slowburn trauma recovery re: Feanor is The Worst Dad Ever and Maedhros' self-esteem is a dumpster fire, and Fingon is Best Boy (of course!).

For other fandoms I recently blitzed through I've Been Holding Back Tears (While You're Throwing Back Beers) by im_your_mom_now which is just unabashed Peter Parker AU whump with Tony being a very worried and concerned adult (trying to be a worried and concerned adoptive dad but of course it's Tony and he's emotionally constipated so he's not going to outright admit that he feels like Peter is his son which is just CHEFS KISS) It's actually incredibly well written -- like I don't normally go for Marvel anything but I just couldn't resist. It hit all my sweet spots for me and I really am a softie for Dad!Tony with Peter. <3 It's incredibly anti aunt-May though, fair warning.

Yeah that's mostly what I have for you! If any of my followers wants to chime in -- as always drop your recs on this post for anon :)

[letsnaththings]

Again, memeage

Memeage

Tagged by @cairistiona7  Thank you!

Rules: If you’re tagged, make a rec list of your own fics that you’re most proud of. The ones you personally want people to read because you know they’re good. The ones you get extra excited when you get comments on them because people are responding to what you know is your best work. As part of the list, say why you’re proud of them! Participant’s choice on how many that is and where you draw the line on pride, but the more the better. Bonus points for fics that you like to reread yourself or fics that have low engagement because they’re in a small fandom or an unpopular ship/trope. Then tag however many people you feel like to continue the game. (If you want a guide number, try for seven or however many fics you listed)

Secondary rule: If you get tagged and you’re not a fic writer, consider doing the same for art you’ve done or meta you’ve written that you’re proud of.

Tertiary rule: This is the time to be the opposite of humble! Hype your own stuff! Share why you’re proud of something. Do some self love! And please give the game a chance even if you haven’t written much or are just starting out etc etc.

Do or do not – there is no tag.

 All these are in the Tolkien fandom – the list got a bit longer than I had planned, even with vigorous weeding (and would therefore probably look partly different if I made it at another time). They’re all stories that I like to reread for one reason or another. Even if I felt a ‘must edit’ itch for some of the older ones as well *g* I’ve tried to say something more than the original summary for them, but didn’t succeed for all.

  Eriador

An excess of weather - Life in Eriador can often be harsh, even more so when the weather becomes as much an enemy as Orcs or wolves. A look at how the Fell Winter of 2911 affected the Dúnedain. 

A gapfiller story with mostly OC Rangers. What I like about this one is how the circumstances test the Rangers to their limits, and in some cases beyond.

 Troll country - Where were the Rangers when Thorin & co. encountered those trolls?

A gapfiller I didn’t know I needed until the plotbunny turned up

 Out of time - FA 83 - King Elessar visits the North and realises something that has been bothering him

There are precious few stories about the Fourth Age – another gapfiller I had to have.

Inheritance – Recipe fic:  A taste from history in two drabbles and a double drabble - originally written for the October 2014 challenge, Sweet or Savoury, at the Lotr-genfic LJ community; my element was 'spicy'.

My only recipe fic, and therefore also my best recipe fic *g*

 2nd Age

Et Eärello Andorenna utúlien - Númenor: thoughts upon arrival and departure.

There’s a lot more to explore for both Elros and Ar-Pharazôn I think, and maybe someday I will. Until then, this short sketch will have to do.

 Spindrift - Of the seven palantíri, it is said that the one kept in the tower of Elostirion is the chief, and that Elendil looked in it often to alleviate the yearning of exile. This vignette examines one such viewing in the year 3423 of the Second Age.

 Opening - Sometime early in the second millennium of the Second Age: a moonlit night in Eregion, and two craftsmen anxiously wait the unveiling of their latest work.

 Other

Edge of the world - After the Downfall it was believed by the remnants of the Dúnedain that the top of Meneltarma rose once more above the sea level. If so, sailors of later Ages may have found it on occasion.

 Recall - Thengel, captain of Gondor, deals with a small family crisis, considers the past and receives some news.

 Holiday - Snapshots of a summer spent in Dol Amroth. Gimli is ambivalent about it all.

This entire fic was written to justify the use of one specific word in a Tolkienian context. I’ll leave it up to the reader to spot the word.

 Collections

Back to Middle-earth month 2012 - A collection of the various drabbles and short stories I wrote for B2MEM 2012

A very miscellaneous bunch of stories, but one I’m pretty happy with. Definitely my best BMEM year.

 Tales of the North - banner

And in hope… –  Arwen finally understands one particular vision she saw in Galadriel's Mirror, and starts work on a special project.

Watching from afar – It is said in The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen that Arwen watched over Aragorn in thought. At times, this must have been a harrowing experience.

Envinyalë –  About a week after their wedding, Aragorn and Arwen spend an evening by themselves. Arwen has plans, but the evening does not turn out quite the way she had in mind.

A small collection of three stories in which I explored Arwen a bit, of course also against the background of my related stories on Aragorn and the Dúnedain.

 AUs

Some that live - It is 3013, and Orcs are raiding and destroying Dúnedain farms in Eriador. Aragorn sets out to stop the raids. Alternate timeline leading up to the War of the Ring.

This story… During the writing its working title was “the Heap O’Angst”, and I’ve also been known to refer to it as “the story that ate my life”. It took some work to get out of its headspace once it was done. Without giving away too much, it’s an exploration of honour, guilt, redemption, friendship, loyalty. It may also be the best story I’ve written so far.

 As may be obvious, I like writing AUs, both long ones and shorter stories, because they allow exploring different approaches to characters, events and themes They’re also a lot of fun to play with: “what breaks if I change this…?”

 Unto the ending of the world - Dark AU, diverging from the end of the Two Towers: Sauron regains his Ring in Ithilien, and a very bleak world emerges for those who survive the Ringwar to make their way in. 

This is the only still ongoing story in the list. I started it in 2007 and am still writing it. I do actually know how it ends, but I’m a slow writer to begin with, and it’s taking just a bit longer than I expected to get where I want to go – plus I spent some time away from it writing the Heap O’Angst. The basic idea was quite simple, Sauron gets the One Ring, so what happens now? Quite a lot, as it turns out, and not much of it good.

 Elenion Ancalima - Nerdanel wonders whether perhaps it would have been better if Fëanáro had not listened to his father.

 Still standing - Six vignettes from Halbarad's point of view - from the siege of Minas Tirith until the day after Aragorn's coronation

[smhalltheurlsaretaken]

Since I'm back on my LotR bullshit and in search of good fics I wanted to ask you if you know any good Legolas Aragorn friendship fics which include the time where Aragorn still was a child in Rivendell....idk I just adore the idea that those two have known eachother since Aragorn barely reached Legolas kneecaps...

Oof, sorry anon, that's a question you'd have had better luck asking me 5-6 or so years ago. Teenage me had read probably half or more of all Legolas and Aragorn genfics on FF.net and I had this giant folder with thousands of them saved. That's how I learned English in the first place!

Unfortunately I don't have it anymore, and I've moved on to fics that are much closer to canon. It's been a loooong while since I've read much LotR fanfic. If anybody knows any good ones tho, please say so!

[roguetelepaths]

I have literally Never run a fandom event/challenge before, but I just saw a LOTR genfic week and am really considering running a thing like that for Star Trek if anyone else is down

[manako-no-yami]

#3 for angsty samfro pls??

Prompt: “What would you do if I didn’t come back?”

from this post (I’m still accepting requests! only samfrodo, though).

Rating: G

Wordcount: 455

Warnings: uhhhh...depression? very bleak and hopeless

-

It takes everything in him just to breathe. Every inhale is a struggle, every exhale sinking into a fog. He keeps expecting it all to just—stop. But his heart continues beating. He continues breathing. He continues trudging onwards. And he continues listening to Sam talk about the dream.

It’s all Sam can talk about, this silly dream. Green meadows, bubbling brooks, blooming fields, soft beds, furniture their size, peace.

The Shire.

Sometimes he can picture it, like a memory. Sometimes he listens to Sam’s fervor and thinks that there must be something to it.

But they are surrounded by barren, jagged rock. Haunted by a jealous, hideous creature. His mouth is so dry it feels as though it is coated in ash. He can barely choke down the lembas bread, when Sam asks him to eat it. His feet bleed from sharp rock and gravel. There is no room for green things, here. All Frodo knows is this. Nothing else exists, has ever existed. Everything Sam speaks of is just snatches of fancy, the thing of tales.

But Sam believes. And he never stops talking. Sometimes it makes Frodo angry. Only for a moment—he’s too tired to get angry long enough to do anything about it. He understands why Sam does it, really. But Sam doesn’t understand that the longing is simply another burden, one that Frodo had cast off long ago.

Sam wants him to want it. He wants him to hope for it, dream of it, think upon it with a brave certainty and fondness.

Frodo doesn’t have anything left in him for that. He’s so small. Everything he is is bone-creaking exhaustion. Everything he is is the heaviness hanging from his neck. There’s no room left in Frodo for anything except the Ring, nevertheless “the Shire.”

“You’ll see,” Sam says. “When we come back—”

“What would you do if I didn’t come back?” Frodo asks. His voice is light, casual. He’s genuinely curious. He wants to know what impossibility Sam has dreamt up of “after.” Surely, it can’t include Frodo.

“Why wouldn’t you come back?”

Frodo blinks. Why wouldn’t he? How could he?

“I don’t know,” he says. 

Sam frowns. “Is everything all right, Mr. Frodo?”

“Yes, Sam,” Frodo says. “I’m just tired.”

“A good meal, tha’s what you need,” Sam says. “Something nice and hot to fill your belly. That lembas bread ain’t bad, but it’s nothing like real hobbit fare. Do you think we could find anything to eat out here? I can cook something for you, you know. I have everything we need...’cept the ingredients. But, maybe if we keep our eyes peeled, something’ll come up. You never know.”

“Maybe,” Frodo echoes wearily. “You never know.”

[maglors-anion-gap]

Fandom Trumps Hate 2022 Info:

I posted earlier about signing up for @fandomtrumpshate but I'm making a new post because... the auction site is live for browsing! This means you have the ability to take stock of who and what is available before bidding opens February 23rd.

The Dreamwidth page is HERE.

I am offering:

one fic (5k-10k words)

Tolkien, Howl's Moving Castle, or Captain America

Maximum rating: E

Minimum bid: $15

I can write any rating and any content, this includes kink. I'm happy to do AU fic (I have a LOTR/Tam Lin AU in my portfolio) and canon divergence. I also like to write genfic, character study, niche worldbuilding and sociopolitics etc.

Tolkien: Any pairing or character (indulge yourself!)

[Note: I am under "Tolkien - Any" if you want to bid for that, I will not show up under "Tolkien - Silmarillion"/"Tolkien - Hobbit" etc]

Howl's Moving Castle: Howl/Sophie

Captain America: Steve/Bucky

Special Offerings: f/f ships, Poly ships, Genderswap/genderbending, Canonically trans or nonbinary characters, Trans or nonbinary readings of canon characters, Racebending, Unhappy endings, Ambiguous endings.

If my offering (or the prospect of other offerings) interests you, the Dreamwidth page is HERE.

[blarrghe]

Tagged by @wavesofinkdrops @inquisitoracorn and @juliafied thank you for the tags! And tagging on @onionjuggler @fandomn00blr @aymayzing @cciarants @midnightprelude @whataboutbugs and anyone else who would like to do this!

How many works do you have on Ao3?

24

What's your total Ao3 wordcount?

436 317 (holy shit?)

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Matchsies - DA (Pavellan) - 63

Twelve Nights - DA (the same Pavellan....) - 54

The Merrill Sessions - DA (genfic about found da2 crew family) - 50

I Hate You (and your little cat too) - DA (a Fenders meet-cute) - 43

Anders Has Several Problems - DA (Fenders) - 42

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Abolutely. Pretty much always, I’ve been lucky with comments and gotten some really nice ones and I love getting to have more of a conversation in the comments. Talk to me whenever tbh I crave interaction.

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

Hmmm none of them? This one really short Solavellan piece? The Merrill Sessions might have a kind of angsty one if I ever...write it.

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

Twelve Nights has the most predictable, tropey, perfect Hallmark Movie Ending ever and I love it very much.

Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you've written?

Not yet! I do love a good AU though so if the right world presents itself I could see that happening.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Nope! I’ve had largely positive responses or just no response at all :p

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Ehh kinda. My favourite stories to write tend to involve romance and quite a few of my fics have Sex Scenes but I tend to write soft-core, feelings-y smut when I do. The couple more explicitly smutty fics I’ve written just made me feel super self conscious and they always feel clunky to me, idk, but I really love an overly romantic (in the flowery prose sense not necesarrily the LOVE sense but also, usually) sex scene, they’re fun to write! Finding the mood to write anything more explicit is hard though so even though I have some ideas it’s slow going. 

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not as far as I know.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not translated but @protect-him was kind enough to do a podfic of Like Raindrops which was super cool!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No but I’d be down! HMU.

What's your all time favourite ship?

Pavellan.......

What's a WIP you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

The Merrill Sessions...I left it in a good place so it’s easy to take a long break from but there IS supposed to be more. Eventually. Maybe. Also probably just straight up abandoning my DAI novelfication fic because honestly, it’s kind of boring and was mostly a place for me to dump my canon-ish daydreams when I first played the game. It has a special place in my heart as being the first fanfic I ever wrote, but like, I’m probably gonna straight delete that from AO3 it’s really For Me. (and I’m definitely never going to finish it lol)

What are your writing strengths?

Supposedly, characterization and scenery descriptions! At least that’s where the nice comments seem to be focused ;) Characterization is something that comes easily to me and I tend to be very proud of my work there, descriptive scenes were something I worked hard on this year and just really really love as well. I’d like to think my terrible jokes are also a strength, but that’s probably just me.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Planning/plotting. I’m definitely guilty of starting things with a good idea that’s based almost entirely in character work and not attached to a plot, so I’ve had a few meandering plots and unfinished things that just kind of...don’t go anywhere. These days I’m outlining ahead a lot more but endings are still pretty tough! Oh also “this is going to be like two chapters” gets me every time.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Totally fine just make it work? I dislike fictional languages that don’t really have much to them, so I try to use them kind of sparingly and tend to describe that something is said in another language rather than trying to put a bunch of like, elvhen in. (Because DA Elvhen sucks. A LOTR fic would be another story, but then I’d probably spend ages on being a perfectionist about the language because I feel like if you’re gonna do TOLKIEN boy you gotta) So I’ll use or make up a word here or there but I prefer the language I use to be something I can actually work with. But I think there are lots of ways to approach a multilingual work that could be cool. I’d consider using French or something I actually know in a more in-depth way sometime.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Dragon Age! A good three or four years before I started posting any of it lol.

What's your favourite fic you've written?

Twelve Nights for multiple reasons. It’s finished (!), it was the first longfic I ever did finish (!!), and IMO it’s impecable. I put so much heart and soul into that fic and it was such a joy to write. It’s basically a feel-good movie with a socialist subplot. I love it a lot. But! Matchsies is quickly becoming a close second, which is fun because it has Magic and Angst.

[astriiformes]

Genfic Reclist!

Hi! So in honor of @genuary-fic-event this year (which is a cool event you also might want to check out!) I decided to put together a list of some of my own favorite gen stories.

It’s multi-fandom, as this is just a collection of stories I have enjoyed reading, and the exact definition of gen might be a little wibbly for some (a couple stories include canon couples, even if none of them focus on romance), but I love coming across good gen stories, and thought this would be a nice way to showcase the work of some writers who have contributed some great work to the body of genfic out there.

This is by no means a comprehensive list of stories I like, but it’s a list of some that have really stuck with me. As a note, I’ve included author’s tumblr handles where I know them (otherwise I have just shared their Ao3 username), but if there’s a writer I was unable to pinpoint one for who wants credit on here, just let me know!

Without further ado, here they are:

Pan Pacific Voices: 10 Years, 5 Interviews by Neotoma

Fandom: Pacific Rim, Words: 7,678 

An unconventional style for fic but it’s so good! I adore the conceit, which is that the text is a series of transcripts of interviews with characters for the Library of Congress’ Storycorps project looking at life after the Shatterdome. And the worldbuilding, characterization, and writing are all fantastic. It’s even got art! One of my absolute favorite fics of all-time.

As far as gen goes, two of the interviews are with novelization-canon couples (Hermann and his wife, and Tendo and his), but no new relationships are introduced, and there’s no real romance -- just characters talking about the lives they’ve built together after the war. I would still call it very gen.

No Heroes on the High Seas by @spell-cleaver

Fandom: Star Wars, Words: 74,651

Two words: Pirate AU. Big, multi-chapter, vaguely fantasy, Pirate AU that re-imagines the Original Trilogy with more than a few touches of its own, as well as the inclusion of loads more Rebellion (and some Prequel!) Era characters than the movies. Just a ton of fun conceptually, and really well-done.

The Anakin/Padmé and Han/Leia relationships exist similar to canon, but I would still call this one solidly gen. It feels similar to the movies to me and focuses much more on the familial relationships amongst the characters than anything else.

Only the Nightingale Sings by @mithrilwren

Fandom: Critical Role (Campaign 2), Words: 170,518

We love to see big epic-scale genfic! This one is a canon divergence story where the party go to Rexxentrum immediately after Felderwin and have to deal with So Much Empire Nonsense. It’s pretty dark as a result, but so, so worth it. (And at least has a happy ending!)

This story is very long and wholly gen, and one thing I love about is that as a result, no matter which member of the main party is your favorite, they all have really interesting plots going on, so it’s very worth reading as a fan of any of the characters (and for their relationships with each other!)

With Hope and Without Hope by monica4567

Fandom: Lord of the Rings, Words: 109,969

On the heels of my last rec here’s another “canon divergence that gets very darn dark but oh man is it worth it” story for a different fandom. (Can you tell that’s a type of story I’m into?) The story follows the majority of the Fellowship through an alternate version of The Two Towers in which Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli ended up being captured alongside Merry and Pippin in their efforts to rescue them.

I think this one explores some really interesting ideas and, similar to my last rec, also does a great job of giving significant plots of one kind or another to all the main characters. The Ao3 tags don’t offer too many warnings, so heads up that it includes a fair amount of both physical violence and mindfuckery inflicted on some of the characters, but it does ultimately swing hopeful in a very LotR fashion.

Speak, Friend, and Enter by Thevina

Fandom: Lord of the Rings, Words: 10,865

A story that mingles together two stories, one with Legolas and Gimli in the “present” and one with Celebrimbor and Narvi in the past, just to stir up all the emotions about Elf & Dwarf friendships. It also plays around some with what we know of Tolkien dwarves being very private about gender and makes Narvi a woman, which is an idea I really like.

[katajainen]

Golden in the Memory (269 words) by katajainen Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Frodo Baggins & Sam Gamgee Characters: Frodo Baggins, Sam Gamgee Additional Tags: Saying goodbye to the Shire, Sam worries, (as he does), Slightly angsty foreshadowing maybe, Sort of missing scene from early in the FOTR, February Ficlet Challenge 2024 Series: Part 1 of February Ficlet Challenge 2024 - Tolkien vol.3

Summary:

The Shire summer has given its best, and Frodo dithers about leaving.

***

Day 1 of the February Ficlet Challenge 2024, prompt: “High noon AND/OR Fake dating.”

[lotr-sesa]

TWO WEEKS until the 2023 Lord of the Rings Secret Santa claiming and posting deadline!

There are now TWO WEEKS left to get those fills in! Claiming will run all the way until the posting deadline on December 31st.

Currently, just over half the prompts have been claimed. Our goal is to make sure every prompter gets at least one of their prompts filled. Have a look and see if you can help us out, or reblog this post as a signal boost. We'd love to see all the prompts filled in honour of the 20th anniversary! ❤️

Here are prompts still waiting for some love:

There's gen prompts for:

Poppy & Nori from Rings of Power

Dain Ironfoot -focused fic

time-travelling Gandalf

Broader ensemble prompts for both Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship, Third Age Dunedain) and The Silmarillion (almost any character).

Romance/pairing (varying ratings) prompts:

Bronwyn/Arondir from Rings of Power (this one an AU prompt)

Legolas/Imrahil (either m/m or gen)

Fingolfin/Maglor (modern AUs possible)

Galadriel/Sauron

Caranthir/Caranthir's Wife/Haleth

Boromir/Faramir

There are also some kinky prompts if that's your cup of tea:

Dom Arwen

two different prompts with bottom Melkor (AU and First Age)

You can find all the prompts HERE, as the prompt meme format doesn't allow for linking to individual prompts. :(

If you are new to the format, AO3 has a helpful FAQ here.

This year's timeline (2023):

Prompt Posting: November 1st to 30th.

Claiming: December 1st to 31st.

Collection Open for Posting: December 1st to 31st.

All Fills Due: December 31st 2023.

The Rules (2023):

You will be able to post up to 2 prompts between November 1st and 30th, and we will do our best to make sure at least one of your prompts is filled.

Your fill is due December 31st 11:59 pm Pacific Time (if you want a countdown timer to fret over, there's one here). Please post it to AO3 (and nowhere else, until January 3rd).

As a matter of fairness, please make your story more than 750 words (1000 is better).

Once claiming has opened, please only claim a prompt if you plan on actually fulfilling your end of the bargain, and please only claim one prompt at a time. After you have completed your fill, you may claim a new one.

Claiming a prompt: use the "Claim" button next to the prompt you want to claim. (You can find open prompts under "Prompts" in the sidebar.) Several people can claim the same prompt. You can also claim a prompt without having submitted any of your own.

It's a good idea to follow us here on Tumblr or join the Dreamwidth community so you can keep track of any admin posts. Have fun -- and spread the word!

[eijispumpkin]

1, 8, 19

1. What was the first fandom and/or pairing that you wrote fic for?

my first fandom was tolkien’s legendarium!! when i was like 14 or 15 i was sitting in my little corner writing genfic about the nolofinweans (an elf royal family). the grandeur and the tragedy and the hope in lotr + the silm were definitely formative influences on my writing dkjbfjks

after that i got into homestuck 😔

8. Do you listen to music while you write? If so, share a song that’s been inspiring you lately.

yes!!! i make playlists for just about every mood i have while writing, so that i can just throw on the jams for whichever vibe the scene i’m doing has. although sometimes i just put stuff on shuffle and let what happens happen. lately i’ve been on a real postmodern jukebox kick, esp this song!!!

19. Who is the easiest/hardest character for you to write about? Why?

ash and eiji i’d say are both pretty easy for me at this point!! i like writing them both and i think i have a pretty solid handle on their voices, with how much of them i’ve written. hardest might actually be sing, just bc i haven’t gotten that much experience writing him outside of paper boats, which is a v specific universe!!

Behind the Scenes of Fic Writing: 30 Questions for Authors

[absynthe--minded]

(Gen anon) Thanks so much for your reply, that's really helpful :) I'm really looking to get into some Silm fic, and honestly don't know where to start. There seem to be sooo many cool stories and authors out there! If it isn't too much to ask, do you have recommendations for someone getting into fanfic? (I don't have a problem with all the Quenya names btw so that's not a restriction) Your fics all sound pretty cool too :)

It honestly depends on what you want to read!! There’s a LOT of incredible content. I write primarily Russingon-focused Silmarillion fanfiction; here’s my masterlist. I’m also gonna include my Russingon fic recs post and my LotR fic recs post here too for good measure. But! In addition, some authors to consider:

@mc-dude finished their Russingon longfic and it’s Great 10/10 do recommend

@nikosheba has a long Russingon-centric series recently finished, and I love their writing style!

@arofili writes a lot of stuff for all of Tolkien, genfic as well as ship fic!

@jaz-the-bard is somebody I need to read more of but they ALSO write a lot of Silm fic

if you’re comfortable with smut, @cullondil writes that but they haven’t really been active lately

I hope that helps some! This is all pretty Noldor-focused AND if people want to add their own recs for anon please do!

[arizonapoppy]

2020 Fic Highlights

Thank you for tagging me, @gellalaer - I’m glad you are feeling back in the swing of things, and taking everything on your own terms. [socially distant elbow bump]

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your favourite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

2020 wasn’t a great year. I spent the first part of quarantine curled up in a ball, then finally felt better, and then got swept under by deaths in the family. It’s been hard to get my muse back, but I’m gradually working up the amount of writing I do. My mind at the end of fall was fizzy like a shaken bottle of soda pop, ready to explode with ideas. I hope that can translate into a more productive 2021!

1) The first story I finished in 2020 was One Week, a Thryce (Star Wars) story. It is unapologetic songfic of the Bare Naked Ladies song. It took a lot of plotting and a lot of watching of tango videos. This is the story that I put the most effort into (I started it in 2019 and worked on it off and on) and I’m really proud of the work I put into it.

2) I get warm fuzzies from thinking about Chevalier. It is a post-war LoTR fluff about Pippin and Diamond and I had a lot of fun imagining Billy Boyd’s facial expressions and mannerisms as I wrote it.

3) If you had told me on January 1st, 2020, that the band I had ignored on NYRE while I had a hissy because nobody else in the family wanted to have a Star Wars OT marathon would a) become one of the all-consuming fandoms in my life, and b) I’d be writing RPF, I would have asked what color the sky is in the alternate universe you stepped out of. But here I am, a total ARMY writing the tiniest of canoes, BTS genfic fluff. I really enjoy writing the Mischief Managed couple.

4) Not Fluff In the Slightest: Relicts. This was both challenging and part of a challenge. Inspired by the old Diet Coke Break commercial, I imagined some lonely Nightsisters thirsting over Luke Skywalker on his post-RoTJ search for Force artifacts. Writing smut is incredibly difficult for me, and Luke Skywalker isn’t my type. However, I spun my own brand of crack throughout it and worked out the story, little by little. It was a very good exercise and I’m quite satisfied with it.

5) My last story of the year was A Present for Master Billaba, another Star Wars story, a fluffy everybodylives!AU about Caleb and Depa being the mentor/student that they deserved to be. My happiness about it comes from how Indy seemed so happy to get it as a gift, and that makes me happy that I got the prompt right.

I think almost everyone in my circle has done these already, so I’m not going to tag anyone. I guess I’ll have to be more proactive about my year in review at the end of 2021!

[shadowsong26fic]

Fanfic ask: 1, 5, 11, 14 for Precipice and any other fic you feel like sharing for, 18, 27, 33, 34, 38, 41, 44, 49 (sorry for asking so many, I just really like these questions!)

Hoo boy! This’ll be fun :D

::cracks knuckles::

1) How old were you when you first starting writing fanfiction?

Ten or eleven, when I first figured out it was a Thing. (Somewhere, buried in my boxes of Old Papers, there is baby!shadowsong’s attempt at writing something involving Padme turning up at Yavin but with the serial numbers very badly filed off, before I learned it was possible to just...write fanfic, lol.

5) If you had to choose a favourite out of all of your multi chaptered stories, which would it be and why?

Oh, Lord, why must you do this to me. XD

I mean, I like all of them for different reasons? Writing Precipice is almost like coming home, I’ve been living in that AU for so long; The Devoted was delightfully self-indulgent and a fun exercise in worldbuilding and I do plan to put more in that AU at some point, I swear; These Three Remain also had some super self-indulgent bits and some sweet cuddly fluffy bits and yep; Distaff is so much fun to work with Anakin’s characterization and her (in said fic) relationship with Padme; I have some WIPs that I’m super excited to get out...even going back to old fandoms, HoTM and Cartography!Verse and The Promises of Angels and Serenissima (ish; we were posting it as a series of vignettes rather than one long novel) and For Sorrow Sung and all my AtLA fic, and...

...yeah, I’m bad at picking favorites XD

11) Have you ever amended a story due to criticisms you’ve received after posting it?

Not really? I’ve added extra notes and when I was a baby in the LOTR fandom I actually took a fic down because I got pounced on by a Canon Purist, but I...don’t usually change what I do have planned out in response to criticism? Sometimes I add in some filler/explanation, or comments inspire me to add thing, but...

I don’t plan things out in a whole lot of detail, but I do usually have a few Major Plot Points worked out, and I tend not to change them because criticism. I usually don’t go back and edit, either.

14) How did you come up with the title for the xxx? - You can ask about multiple stories.

I think I actually talked about this in detail last time I did a similar meme to this...aha, here we go: https://shadowsong26fic.tumblr.com/post/186756818127/a-and-i-for-fic-ask

18) Do you have any abandoned WIP’s? What made you abandon them?

Yep, a few. Mostly, I abandon WIPs because I drifted away or otherwise left the fandom (i.e., most of my SPN fic), or otherwise got stuck on a plot point (For Sorrow Sung, which I might rewrite, I got stuck on because I wasn’t sure how to write Roslin; Distaff has stalled because I have to do a Monster chapter next because I did some things out of order; etc., though I actually do intend to get back to Distaff at some point, and am considering rewriting For Sorrow Sung or getting back to some of my other BSG fic...). ...on that note, there are several Stalled WIPs that I don’t consider abandoned, I just get sidetracked by other things even if I intend to get back to them At Some Point (Auxiliaries, Masks, a few others.)

Also, a bunch of miscellaneous self-indulgent things that I never really intended to share outside a small circle of friends that I wander away from when my attention gets caught by a similar shiny self-indulgent thing I don’t really intend to share outside a small circle of friends...

27) Do you make a general outline for your stories or do you just go with the flow?

Moooostly go with the flow. Then again, I don’t formally outline most things, but I generally have an Idea of the Main Plot Points I’m working towards? But those are usually Super Major Things (i.e., with Precipice, when I was going into it, I had most of Arc 1 planned out ahead of time; I knew when and how Lavinia was going to be introduced; I knew most of how Rex got brought in and at least when Ahsoka came in; I knew Ahsoka was going to be Leia’s primary teacher; I knew when and how Specter was going to die; I knew that the reunion (and the attempt to kidnap Lavinia) were going to happen (though actually I was originally planning for Saw to be behind said kidnapping before realizing that didn’t make sense); I knew when Infernalis was going to be introduced and then die; and then some Spoilery Stuff for the next several arcs :)

So, yeah. I usually have a general notion of where things are going (...most of the time; I mentioned Distaff above, and I’m waffling on how I want things to end for that one...) but a loooooot of white space and things are in flux along the way.

33) What’s the biggest compliment you’ve gotten?

Honestly, probably the one I kept in my inbox to reread the most often was on The Promises of Angels--I got a very long comment about the things I’d done with both the focal character and other side characters and the way I’d handled the established lore (and places where canon had fallen short, re: ex-vessels and so on), and then saying they were going to rec it to other people. I’ve gotten other very nice comments since then, (Precipice gets a lot of comments, some of which are lovely, some of which are infuriating), but I think the reason that one sticks with me is because I worked on that fic for so long, and it was a 100k gen epic about a tertiary character who (at the time) had been dead for five seasons. So, a very niche-appeal fic, especially in a fandom that tends to be very shipping-focused, so the fact that it had that much appeal outside of my own brain meant a lot.

(Also, just...the fact that so many people have read and liked Precipice means a whole lot to me????? Was not expecting that for a long wandering genfic epic, lol. ...again, because the fandom I was most active in prior to that is very ship-focused; Star Wars tends to be more gen-friendly, at least that’s been my experience thus far.)

34) What’s the harshest criticism you’ve gotten?

Maybe not the harshest overall I’ve ever gotten, but I mentioned earlier that I took down one LOTR fic because a Canon Purist complained about it to me--I mean, it might not have actually been that mean if I were to get it now that I have a thicker skin, but I was Little Shadowsong at that point and it hurt enough for me to take the fic down, and it does kind of linger in the back of my mind as my Worst Comment Experience.

38) If you could collab with any other writer on here, who would it be? (Perhaps this question will inspire some collabs!) If you’re shy, don’t tag the blog, just name it.

...to be honest, I don’t do a lot of collaborations overall, and most of the ones I do tend to be with people I’ve been friends with/RP’d with for a Long Time.

That being said, I’m possibly open to trying? Right now I have a lot on my plate, both fic and IRL wise, over the next couple months, but if anyone’s interested, hit me up and we’ll see if we can work together!

41) What’s you favourite minor character you’ve written?

In Star Wars? Probably Bo-Katan. I really do wanna finish/start posting our faces like a mirror before the Mandalore Arc actually airs (not that I care about jossing so much, but it’d be nice to Officially lock my canon there so I can point to it if anyone does the whole ‘but canon says!’ thing at me, lol). Also, I love writing Beru, at least the way I write her in Precipice.

If we expand to other fandoms...Nick in SPN, at least before canon brought him back wrong; for BSG...well, most of the ‘minor’ characters I like are really secondary and/or Major in one arc or two--i.e., D’Anna, Gaeta, Ellen Tigh is a lot of fun; in AtLA, I personally mostly wrote major characters and OCs (though some of those were...people who had definitely Existed, but were not named or explored in canon--i.e., Lu Ten’s mother), but my primary RP/writing partner and I worked a lot with Haru and Song and Teo and the Dai Li, among others...but said partner mostly handled them.

44) What is the last line you wrote?

((With an additional line for context; also this is subject to change.))

“True,” Sabe said. “...are you sure you’re ready for this?”

“No,” Padme admitted, after a moment’s thought. “But I think if I wait much longer, I’ll...I’ll either start climbing the walls until I run out and do something righteous and half-planned and stupid, or I’ll...or I’ll never be able to figure how to start, and I’ll just...”

49) Can you remember the first fic you read? What was it about?

I cannot, sadly. But it would’ve been 15-20 years ago, and probably either Star Wars or Harry Potter. Maybe Dragonlance or DBZ or Sailor Moon.

Ask me a fanfic writer question!