#me turning 23: (thinking about my fanfiction) this is so meta

[anna-scribbles]

in honor me turning twenty three, i give you: some old original notes about twenty three year old adrien from thirteen<3

[seeingteacupsindragons]

I've been reading so much meta, it's a little hard to keep track of who said what, so sorry if you have discussed this. Anyway, I saw a theory that William and Louis are twins, but because William stoke the identity of someone who is two years older, he's been lying about his age. Do you have any thoughts on this?

This is a very silly theory that doesn't make any sense. Let's break this apart.

The fact that William stole the identity of someone two years older than him is based on his extracanonical age of 24 (for the bulk of the series). This is the only reason we actually know this. OG William would have been 26 in the bulk of the series if he survived. This is discernable through simple math: he was turning 13 when he died, and the main series takes place 13 years later.

However, Louis's extracanonical age is only 23. Therefore, if William was lying about his extracanonical age (somehow???), he could just as easily be OG William's age, or Mycroft's age, or--you get the picture.

William's extracanonical age, to me, feels indisputable. Yes, his profile in the series is lying, or at least cribbing a few facts from OG William's biography (like his age and birthday, which are not William's own). But because his age even on this profile doesn't match up to OG William's biography, and because his height and weight are a perfect match to Sherlock's down to the centimeter and pound, the fact that they are exactly the same age despite this causing some weird timeline funniness, feels very concrete.

Yet, again, Louis's extracanonical age is only 23, and he has no reason to lie about that, especially extracanonically.

But here is my biggest reason this is incredibly silly to think of this idea as "meta" or a "theory": It doesn't help understand the story at all. It might be sort of fun to think about or have as a headcanon or write fanfiction about, but nothing in the series is weird in a way that would be less weird if they were twins.

Nothing in the series, even pre-adoption, indicates that they might in any way be twins. They are close siblings close in age who look similar....but OG William was only a bit over a year younger than Albert, and they also looked quite similar. Sometimes, this is a thing that happens. Mycroft and Sherlock could be mistaken for each other when Sherlock pulls his hair back. They're obviously not twins. They're just siblings who look like each other.

While YuuMori has some elements of unreliable narration, and while that is one of my favorite tropes I think should be used so much more often it should be universal, an unreliable narrator only works when the narration itself stops making sense until you realize someone's view, explanation, and narration of the situation is off.

For instance, in William's narrative, Sherlock was a detective who wouldn't kill, but would arrest/kill/end him, the Lord of Crime. Because William thought that, and because that's the typical story, readers were generally willing to buy it. But Sherlock had said already that he liked William, never said he was going to kill anyone, and very early on said the reason he wasn't going to kill Hope was because he didn't want someone to hand him answers--William wasn't actually tempting him with something he wanted anyway. Ergo, we can determine that William's narrative was unreliable. It doesn't actually match the facts presented to us.

Nothing at all in this series indicates anything about William or Louis's apparent birth being about a year apart is off, or unexplainable, or inexplicable, or just seems odd. In fact, it's never remarked on in canon at all. They have no real strangeness about them or their story that would make more sense if they were twins.

This is a theory that's trying to solve something that doesn't need to be solved. It's very much being pulled out of thin air.

And that's fine. There's nothing wrong with doing that. Please, I write original fiction: that's most of what I do. But it's ridiculous and inaccurate to call that meta or theory or analysis.

[sweetestpopcorn]

I swear, I don't understand when people say that Rhaenyra had an affair with Laena. I've read Fire and Blood since it came out and I always thought it was just friendship anyway, mainly because their friendship is compared to her and Alicent's own rivalry. but people talk about it with such conviction that I wonder if I read the book wrong. This kind of thing makes me doubt my ability to read and interpret :v

Same here, and "fond of" while used to imply some romantic links is also used between a lot of characters with no romantic link, like Jaehaerys and favourites of his for example, Barth if memory serves right, between Viserys with relation to Daemon too, and many others. If people want to go there fine, but it's a big stretch and not accurate at all to call it a fact or canon. Especially if they consider there was some threesome going on which I have also read, would love a thesis on how Rhaenyra didn't get pregnant then but then conveniently did the moment Laena and Laenor died and Daemon and her married sh:ting on the memories of both siblings apparently one of whom they were in a threesome with.

There's some weird logic and some flips and turns at play for this to be a thing.

But again, if people want to go there, there's something to hold on to I guess. Better than nothing 🤷🏽‍♀️ The one that really puzzles me, however, and is the true mystery would be how many people seemed to think Criston was the love of her life like hum... am I missing something? Like some fanfiction some of you read and mistook for Fire and Blood? Some meta written by some BFN with information taken from www.voicesinmyhead.com? Or is it their steamy rumoured affair 🔥 according to Feast written almost 10 years before George wrote the dance and created all the characters, you know before Criston joined the Kingsguard? So when Rhaenyra was 8 and he 23? Yeah that's what Feast says the only place where they are rumoured lovers :) that it was before he joined the Kingsguard. Did Daemon exist in the asoiaf universe at this time? Nope. Her husband was Lyonel too. But updating what's that? Reading what's in Fire and Blood? What for?!

Uhhh steamy affair between an 8 year old and a 23 year old. 'Tis what we here for right fam?

[ferociousconscience]

#12 for Claquesous, #2 for Valjean, #23 for Javert!

Why, hello mysterious anon, who could you be? Heehee !

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character? For Claquesous - Man! I love Claquesous! He's an underrated character. He's very very cool but also deeply deeply uncool. The duality of that mysteryman, I say. Thank you for asking about Claquesous. Saving my big grand crackpot theory about Claquesous alias Le Cabuc for a particular bit of meta that me and the ever-brilliant @patron-minette have cooking up >:D But other than that, I'll ape off Anna P-M's "Catacombs" thing for him, what with his Ventriloquism and that being associated with death and Necromancy (fascinating topic btw, wowee), I think him and Babet met because Babet was poking around in the Catacombs for teeth or perhaps weird looking bones… when suddenly, one of the skulls on the wall started talking to him, chattering its jaw and speaking in a funny voice. When Babet came closer to examine it (after getting over the initial shock, naturally), A different skull started talking in a different voice, and so on and so forth before the curiosity was overwhelming for Babet and he wanted to find the puppeteer behind this little performance. This did not go well, as Claquesous is a timid creature, very jumpy. Babet had to make multiple trips and build a lot of rapport before properly meeting the "Puppetmaster", as it were. Like feeding a stray and feral cat.

2. Favorite canon thing about this character? For Valjean - I love that he's so crafty. He loves to make things with his hands. I love that his specialty for so long was Jewelry, specifically bracelets. There's something poignant about a man who wore chains for so long, turning his handcuffs into something more dainty and sweet, though not without the touch of mourning that the black glass provides. I love that he crafts things for children out of coconuts, makes a shuttlecock for Cosette… And let us not forget the concealed saw in the sous coin that saved his ass in the Gorbeau ambush. It's such a nice reference to the "Country Life" he once lived, and to the fact that the convicts of Toulon could make crafts to earn a bit of money while in prison. His craftiness is often overlooked! I say he needs to be crafting and sewing more things in fanfiction. Hey, maybe he could even teach post-Seine Javert how to have a fuckin' hobby for once…!

23. Favorite picture of this character? For Javert - Alas, I've already answered this one for Javert! However I'm in a generous mood. Please accept this, a sketched over rendition of Gustave Brion's famous Javert drawing. I use it as a discord icon, lol

[strititty]

I posted 627 times in 2022

That's 627 more posts than 2021!

52 posts created (8%)

575 posts reblogged (92%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@simmonsized

@arquiving

@the-meat-machine

@uncannycory

@amazingakita

I tagged 555 of my posts in 2022

Only 11% of my posts had no tags

#art - 268 posts

#dave - 119 posts

#dirk - 66 posts

#rose - 64 posts

#alpha dave - 33 posts

#recs - 27 posts

#jade - 24 posts

#bro - 23 posts

#daverose - 22 posts

#john - 21 posts

Longest Tag: 137 characters

#suffice it to say i do not think that the people who dislike the direction homestuck and all its post canon content took are wrong or bad

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Writing Comms

Hey! So it turns out... I need money to live!

If’n you like my work and you’d like to support me, you can shoot me a DM and I’ll write you a short 1-2k word story for the low low price of $15 USD.

We can negotiate on length and content--I’m mostly a Homestuck kink author, but I’m willing to try to tackle other things!

Examples of my work can be found here.

11 notes - Posted July 27, 2022

#4

i’ve decided i’m going to liveblog my reread of the run and go by @simmonsized​, because life is short and i might as well spend it taking notes on fanfiction i like! consider this my foreword for the work, both that of the author and the blogging to come.

what can i say about the run and go, hereafter shortened to rng?

i can say that i’ve read it through several times already--you don’t post a strider-centric longfic on ao3 without catching my attention, alas. i am simply obsessed.

i can also say that the idea of doing this particular fic as a liveblog is in no small part due to this lovely post i reblogged recently, which very artfully summarizes rng’s premise and furthermore details what draws me to the strilonde family as a whole.

i have, my entire life, been a little obsessed with doppelgangers. the quote-unquote evil double, the broken mirror, one idea but a little to the left. my original characters tend to propagate themselves as iterations of one another, in relation to one another. foils, reflections, translations.

rng goes at the concept of self-and-other and just runs right the fuck away with it. dysfunctional family fractals make these halls and they are fascinating. i think the thing that caught me first, a thing that i bring up all the time talking about this fic to my long-suffering lover, is what turns into the refusal to other dave into davesprite--the nuance that goes into that choice, even when it isn’t always CONVENIENT for everyone - even us as readers - is something that has always struck me.

but let’s save some analysis for the reread, huh! at 504,625 words as of this posting, rng is a long piece of work, and i am going to try to go chapter by chapter, SOOOO... let’s! get! moving!

   The universe spits you out straight onto the roof where you entered the game, and you catch yourself with your face.

   --

   Davesprite struggles with being the Other Dave. Bro is back from the dead, and the Strider apartment is about two times too crowded for everyone involved. Reconciliation takes time and effort, and forgiveness is a thing to be earned.    You have to try, and when that's not enough, you have to try HARDER.

15 notes - Posted June 27, 2022

#3

it’s derseweek baby!!! here’s sort of a meta first in that this is the first (and possibly one of the only) time i have posted visual art on this blog. maybe it’s also the first time rose has put a collar on dave, idk!

@hsderseweek​ <3 hi yall

19 notes - Posted July 18, 2022

#2

@hexcitrine​ mercy, mercy, you have twisted my arm and i will get started on davesprite lalonde.

vital context for this kidswap is that for the most part everything proceeds as normal. i don’t have a LOT of the details worked out, but the meat of it is that dave and rose were swapped at birth. this is not some great sburb conspiracy--it’s fully unintentional. rose’s eyes are still their lovely violet, and dave’s are red as shitty koolaid. have no fucking idea how this happened. could have been a meteor mix-up. bro and momlonde could’ve met up and gone ‘fuck it let’s trade.’

i concede to knowing Nothing and i apologize.

THAT SAID!

rose strider is a girl of so many sharp angles and suspicions that even her friends have trouble getting along with her at the best of times, and dave lalonde could never take jade’s place as the loneliest girl in the world but his mother’s alcoholism drives him to a sort of lowkey highkey desperation for sober approval that does not come to him often.

so lime, you might be wondering, where does davesprite come in?

and i will answer by copy-pasting my original ramble...

shit. fuck. fuck... a series of events in my head:

dave lalonde and rose strider's doomed timeline, where john went and got himself killed and jade vanished. they know that something needs to be done to rewind the clock, to right the wrongs that have been committed. this whole thing will go off the rails otherwise.

assume rose is a seer of time. she sees the confluence of timelines, the endless deaths. she knows the path to take to find the timeline she is looking for, and she can guide others to that timeline - that may involve being able to time travel with other people ? classpecting is so weird, forgive my transgressions

so she and dave spend two or three months in their broken, doomed offshoot timeline. rose knows what she needs to do from the moment things go south, but

against everything she's been raised to do, against the brutal, scalpel sharp efficiency that has been beaten into her by word and blade alike... she doesn't commit to immediately. she will. she will. she just needs Time. time to spend with dave before she does what she needs to do.

but when the months have gone by and she realizes her resolve is trying to weaken, she cuts it out of herself. she says her goodbyes.

she sends dave back.

because dave is still john's best friend, because dave is light and they'll need all the luck they can get--a court doesn't need more than one seer, but a few knights might do the trick.

she may have... misled him about what was going to happen. about who was going to be left behind.

davesprite is fucking bereft.

what i imagine you get is not just a dave who is angry about being the back-up dave, but a dave simultaneously furious with rose for doing this to him and to herself. he spent three long months with her and somehow he never knew?

whole lotta messy betrayal, i think. whole lotta love made incandescent rage.

23 notes - Posted June 7, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Do you have dirk/dave recs?

boy do i! here's a few

pleonasms by nuclearwinter - no-game au. a series of one-shots that at once strikes me as tender and hilarious. dirk helps dave out with his sexuality, among other things. ;)

phase change by actinide - 14k, post-epilogues but not hs2 compliant. it's got a lot of good metanarrative shit and is altogether a very interesting piece of work. it has a very good sequel in sublimination that i would also recommend, featuring so many of dirk's messy feelings and how they affect everyone else.

dungeons & striders by mortior - 31k, d&d au. dirk is a lich and dave is a paladin! it's extremely fun and if you like d&d or fantasy in general you will take deep pleasure in this.

find me at sea (and tell me why you never loved me) by blackestofmarkets - 23k. dirk's up and vanished and dave goes to find him. a long and thoughtful meditation on movement and searching, which i like very much.

imitation games by centaur - 2.6k, post-game. one-sided but also really interesting and thought-provoking? dirk's running scenarios, as he does.

disengage, calibrate by applejuice_motherfucker - 14k, no-game au. continuing the trend of the fic above, this is also one-sided dirkdave, but sometimes you need to take a sip of the ANGST, babes! there's so much yearning... it's so good. (i started writing a sequel to this. maybe eventually it will see the light of day)

trial run by jalules & is it enough? do you think it's too much? by cmdonovann - 3.9k & 5k, post-game. okay enough sad and/or longish fic let's finish off with some PORN!!! trial run is a good hypnosis fic and is it enough? is a sequel from another author that is very good!!! hypno on both sides. delicious.

43 notes - Posted June 6, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[howlinchickhowl]

1, 23, and 40 for the ask game🥰🥰

Ahh you’re so cute! Ok, questions.

1. How did you get into fic writing?

It’s a universal story really, child consumes media, discovers media is finite, turns to the internet for consolation!

I’m a voracious consumer of things and it’s always caused me strife, I watch things way too quickly and then lament that there is none left. Reading fanfiction really solved that problem for me in the early days of the social internet and I’ve always been a scribbler so after discovering that this was a thing that people did it was the next logical step!  I think I was twelve when I wrote my first fic, I have no idea what it was like but I am certain that it was Not. Good. But I do remember the feeling of publishing it and being engaged by other fandom folx because of it and loving that feeling of interacting with people who love the same thing you do. And ever since it’s been my main way of contributing to a fandom. I can’t do graphics and I am actually astonishingly bad at coming up with head canons, and always with meta I feel like many other people have said whatever I have to say earlier and more eloquently so I don’t venture too much into it. But I love to write and read and talk about fics, and I love to hear what fic authors have to say about their works. BTS! Gallavich fandom is actually really great for that aspect.

23. What’s your favorite line that you’ve written?

This is a funny one because I’ve only published one fic for Gallavich! 

But this is the first line that ever came into my head to write for this fandom and I did put it out as a Sunday Six a while back so I don’t feel bad about including it, it’s part of something larger I’m working on and I’m just really happy with it, as a phrase. Can a line be more than one sentence? idk, I’m cheating anyway so let’s just include the whole darn thing!

Terry Milkovich is dead and it feels like there should be cries going up all around the neighborhood, beacons being lit and bells being rung and songs being sung like it’s fuckin’ Munchkin Land and suddenly the world is in technicolor. Ding fucking dong. Terry Milkovich is dead.

40. What’s the first fic that you remember reading?

I have no memory of what the first ever fic I would have read would be. But it would have been on ff.net, and it would have been for CSI 🙈 

The first fic I remember reading for Ian and Mickey, all those long months ago in February 2021  😆  is Good Boy by Poemjunkie. It’s an oldie, but when I get into a fandom I tend to start by going aaaalllll the way to the back of the A03 tag and read forwards. I want to know what people were feeling as it was being aired, I want to know the trends from the early days and how characterisations have changed with new knowledge. I am nothing if not the most thorough obsessive I know. I actually didn’t make it all the way through the IxM tag because I got distracted by contemporary offerings of which there are so many! And as I hear it told a lot of the great fandom works from early on have been deleted so the quality of what’s back there is a little questionable. But Good Boy I really liked and I’ve re-read it since. It is unfinished though so be warned before you take my recommendation!

Thank you so much for sending me numbers to answer! I’m incurably verbose but I had a great time answering this 😊  I love these ask games, they’re such a great idea and I love getting to know how everyone thinks! 

Edited to add: The ask game is here if you want to reblog and answer some questions yourself!

[xxbyimm]

Fun meta asks: 1, 3, 9, 10, 14, 16 and 23

YASSSS LET’S GET STARTED!!! <3

Tell us about your current project(s)  – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it? I am working on multiple projects right now! First off, I’m doing research for a story of my own. I’ve always dreamed of publishing a book and I finally am writing it. I already have a rough outline and a few scenes to get to know my characters! The chemistry between them is epic and I just- UGGGH.  <3

With that being said, when it comes to fanfiction of course there are lots of current projects. There is Enya’s journey (they always fight but the moment I need them to they won’t...), The Bet Thorin x Enya, Bard x Brea’s a Tale as Old as Time (chapter 3 is gonna be epic)- which all consist of 3-4 pages already. Also there are a few requests laying on the shelf and right now I’m plotting/writing my first Thranduil x reader fic! 

What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway) A smouldering sir Guy of Gisborne smutty scene in my Desire in the Darkness fic. I had the plot, but somehow I just... I... didn’t continue with it. :(

Are you more of a drabble or a longfic kind of writer? Pantser or plotter? Do you wish you were the other? Even my drabbles turn out to be monsters, so I’d say longfic kind of writer. I used to plot a little and make up things as I wrote, but nowadays I plot a little more to help myself define the structure of the story better. 

How would you describe your writing process? Slow. So fucking slow. As I told @soradragon, I hate the fact that my writing place is slower than a turtle. But yeah. There it is. Usually when I’m writing the first draft, I will edit the first scenes of that draft at the same time. When I’m fairly okay with my base, I’ll leave it for a day or two and review it as much as I feel like I need to.  

At what point in writing do you come up with a title? Can’t say... With A tale as old as time, I knew it was my title when I begun writing. But with Lovers (Fíli fic), I came up with the name right before posting it (and honestly I’m still not happy with it). Sometimes a work has no title and I struggle to find one. 

Tried anything new with your writing lately? (style, POV, genre, fandom?) Yes, I am consciously plotting my storylines now. It helps me to keep track of my ideas! :D

What’s the story idea you’ve had in your head for the longest? Enya’s journey has been in my head for over seven years. It’s time to conclude it, don’t you think?

Thank you for asking me, my dearest sister from another mister !!!! <3333

[imaginaryfriendcomic]

a long, meta PSA

Hello, my good readers! Firstly, I’m very glad to see we’re almost reaching 1k followers, and I’m still very determined to finish the next page - I’m nearly done with the whole layout!

Though what I want to talk about today is something I’ve been thinking for a while. As many of you may know, Imaginary Friend was technically going to be a comic adaptation of the original fanfiction I posted a long time ago. Now, I’m not saying I’m going to change the entire plot, yet there’s something in there that’s actually been bothering me, now that I think of it: and that’s about Gaster being a dad before the Void. Please read the whole post before commenting or sending asks!

*SPOILERS FOR THE ORIGINAL STORY

TRIGGER WARNINGS - MENTIONS OF ABUSE AND NEGLECT

Even from the first 23 pages, you know that Gaster is drowning in his sorrows and regrets. He keeps saying how he failed at being the Royal Scientist, for not being able to free everyone, and at being a father to Sans and Papyrus. If anyone has gotten to the fanfiction already, it’s claimed that Gaster used to overwork himself and did not spend a lot of time with his sons, and that “he pushed them away.” I’ll be including some chapter pieces here to prove my points:

LIKE I SAID, I WAS THE ROYAL SCIENTIST. I MARRIED A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN AND HAD TWO CHILDREN. MY WIFE, UNFORTUNATELY, PASSED AWAY... THE ONLY GOOD THINGS I HAD IN MY LIFE THEN WERE SANS AND PAPYRUS. I HAVE DONE EVERYTHING TO GIVE THEM A GOOD LIFE, WHICH MADE ME WORK EVEN HARDER AFTER MY WIFE WAS GONE. BUT THEN  I STARTED BEING SO FOCUSED ON WORK THAT I DIDN'T REALLY GIVE THEM MUCH ATTENTION. I BARELY SPENT TIME WITH THEM. WHEN I WAS IN A BAD MOOD, I USUALLY TOLD THEM TO LEAVE ME ALONE... I WASN'T A GOOD FATHER.

(chapter 2)

He let his wife die; nothing he had done to cure her from her disease worked. He neglected Sans and Papyrus, barely spent time with them and... treated them like they were just a burden in his life, when they really weren't. He had failed at freeing monsters, he had broken everyone's trust. He had disappointed everyone. He had had one job, and he failed.

(chapter 7)

It’s even implied that Sans looked after Papyrus on his own, too, which is further confirmed in the sequel I made, You’re Home Now (which contains Grillby x Gaster, just warning you guys).

He was very proud of them, despite Sans being lazy... His elder child did a great job taking care of Papyrus when he was younger (...).

(chapter 1)

The little Sans was home (in their very, very old house, the one located in New Home), watching television with young Papyrus. It was already late, the babysitter hadn't been able to come over, leaving Sans the responsibility of taking care of himself and his little brother, which wasn't that bad. Despite being a kid, Sans was actually responsible enough for his father to trust him at this task, though Papyrus could give some hard work sometimes.

(You’re Home Now, chapter 2)

Maybe this hasn’t crossed in anyone’s minds - if they’ve already read the fic - and well, I’m unsure if I’m overthinking this since I didn’t get that much depth to the original story, but this is my work, after all. I wrote this more than 3 years ago, so I’m looking back at it with a more critical perspective. Thus, this aspect about Gaster’s parenting has been bothering me recently.

I’m aware that many children have gone through this; being forced to look after themselves, their siblings or even their own parents (the latter isn’t quite the case here but anyway), as the adults fail to do what they’re supposed to - of taking care of their family and providing them love, attention and everything else. The lack of any of these things has been normalized in many households, and most of the time kids don’t realize how harmful it might be to them, because their own feelings aren’t validated. Since they’re forced to take in the role of the responsible parent, the adult, they excuse and justify their parents’ misdeeds.

Surely, in the original Imaginary Friend, Gaster acknowledges he wasn’t the best dad, yet now that I come to read it again, it never feels like he’s truly called out for that. Alright, he’s already being punished by the loneliness and helplessness for decades inside the Void, and he does show genuine remorse for his actions. Regardless, I feel like I’ve made excuses for his failures at being a parent. I feel like I used the “but he didn’t mean to!” excuse that so many people adopt when we’re talking about abusive and neglectful parents. I used Frisk, a character who I headcanon to have been abused by their biological parents, to justify that Gaster wasn’t all that bad:

"Don't say that! I think they would be glad to see you again." Frisk assured him. "I mean, you deeply cared about them and did everything to offer them proper conditions and-"

YES, BUT... I HAVE NOT GIVEN THEM ENOUGH LOVE AND AFFECTION. He sighed sadly.

Frisk sighed too. They had a feeling that Sans and Papyrus didn't hate him. They just knew it, but Gaster didn't believe.

"But... they never gave up on you, right?" They asked.

(...)

"I would've really liked to have a father who would do everything to give me a good life."

Gaster, curious, looked at the child. WHAT DO YOU MEAN?

"Toriel is my mom now, and she's the best, but... I've never had a father that cared about me." Frisk admitted. "You know... before I fell into the Underground. My real parents weren't... great. They were very mean to me, specially my father."

(...)

I AM SORRY ABOUT YOUR PARENTS.

"It's okay. At least I found great friends and a fantastic mom." Frisk said, smiling, despite remembering their mean parents. "You are a way better father than my real one. You shouldn't say you're the worst."

Gaster didn't answer.

"You may have not spent much time with them, but I don't think Sans and Papyrus wouldn't be happy to see you." Frisk said.

BUT I MADE THEM FEEL LIKE THEY WERE ANNOYING ME... I SHOULD HAVE NEVER DONE THAT.

"I understand, but, just so you know... I think you already made it clear to them that you cared about them, which is why they were always there for you even if you distanced yourself."

(chapter 2)

Sans and Papyrus don’t hold grudges against their father, either, and yet, now that I realize it, the former presents the same “pushing away” behavior Gaster presumably adopted. In the very least, Sans is called out for it, but I never explicitly connected that to how his father treated them:

"SANS, DID YOU SLEEP WELL?" Papyrus asked.

"i'm okay, pap."

"BUT YOU LOOK AWFUL-"

"papyrus, i'm okay!" Sans interrupted, sounding annoyed.

Papyrus shrunk out of fear. He had never seen Sans in that state before. He knew something was up with him, but for some reason, he was afraid of asking Sans what was wrong. His brother sounded so grumpy, he felt like he would piss him off if he asked that at the time.

(chapter 6)

"DON'T YOU JUST LEAVE THE HOUSE LIKE THAT!" Papyrus said, somehow pissed, but concerned at the same time.

"l-leave me alone." Sans managed to escape, but Papyrus wouldn't let him go.

"I JUST WANT TO TALK TO YOU! PLEASE-"

Sans teleported himself, escaping Papyrus's grip. He groaned loudly.

"SANS, OH MY GOD! STOP RUNNING AWAY FROM ME!" Papyrus yelled.

Turned out that Sans didn't teleport far away. He arrived in the same street, a few meters ahead.

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!" Papyrus yelled.

"i don't want to talk, papyrus."

"BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN JUST... TREAT ME LIKE GARBAGE!"

(chapter 9)

That’s NOT to say Gaster is evil. You could say that Gaster believes he was terrible because of his trauma from the Void. The dark dimension causes him to hallucinate things, alter his physical form and twist reality, and so that may be why Sans and Papyrus don’t hold anything against him. But the point is, I don’t feel like I’ve made that clear. And with Sans technically mirroring his past role model, I feel like the narrative swept Gaster’s bad parenting under the carpet.

This topic is very difficult to discuss, I’m very aware of that. I get that some abusers can make it different, they can change. However, that’s not what usually happens. What does happen is society underestimating and devaluating the effects of abuse on people, especially children and teenagers. Nobody tends to focus on the victims, and thus finds ways to justify the abuse. Like that, I feel like I contributed to that, too. That’s why I’m writing this post.

PLEASE NOTE: I’m very proud of having written Imaginary Friend, and I want to continue with the comic. However, I want to truly emphasize that there will be changes in the comic adaptation, and with this theme in mind, I’ll make sure I don’t unintentionally excuse bad parenting again. At the time I wrote the fic, I had no idea it might come off that way (which doesn’t mean I’m condemning myself for not noticing). I think a lot of other people haven’t had the same impression, either; yet now that I do, I want to change what this fic might have defended.

I’m very sorry for everyone who went through this situation in their childhoods, or might still be. It’s not your fault. Your parent(s)/guardian(s) should have been better, and that’ll never be on you. Maybe they “didn’t mean to”, but that doesn’t mean it’s not harmful. I wish you all the happiness and safety in the world. <3

Stay determined!

[orionsangel86]

Season 14 Wishlist

Alrighty then! As per the last few season’s, each autumn before the season premier I will write a wishlist of things that hopefully will happen in the coming season, which I will then go through once the season is over.

For those of you curious:

Here is my wishlist for season 12 and here is my season 12 wishlist review

Here is my wishlist for season 13 and here is my season 13 wishlist review

Now as a slight disclaimer I need to stress that this isn’t meta, or me promising anything to happen (since I’m not a showrunner nor psychic) and is purely meant for fun - having said that most of the items on my wishlist are at least somewhat realistic wishes and within the realms (at least in my opinion) of actually happening.

So without further rambling here we go:

A decent arc for Michael!Dean. Yes, we all expect it to only last 3 episodes. which I find deeply disappointing. I would prefer if things are not as they seem and it turns out to last far longer than that.

Scenes inside Dean’s head. Like we got with both Cas and Sam when they were possessed, I really want to know where Michael has got Dean stashed away inside his head - and exactly what kind of experience that is for him. I can think of a whole bunch of different ways that could go - will Michael put Dean through hell? Or will he distract him the way of the Djinn with his idea of heaven? I am extremely excited by this idea and hope they don’t pass on the potential.

The missing scene from 13x23 when Dean said yes to Michael. There was definitely more to that and I hope so much we will see it - though I don’t think this is particularly likely.

Cas’s grief. Obviously. Last year I was all about Dean’s grief arc. This year, I need Cas’s to be just as bad. This is 10 years since the original story. Stopping Michael and changing allegiance to stand with Dean was Cas’s origin story - Remember how he reacted in season 5 when Dean was thinking about saying yes to Michael? Oh ho ho I can’t even begin to imagine how this will affect Cas. I want this to be a mirror of last year, and far worse than season 10. 

Sam’s continued leadership role. Now where I want to see Cas absolutely broken with grief over Dean’s possession, what I think would compliment it perfectly is Sam’s fearsome determination and functional leadership. It would be a great way to show how far the brothers have come to breaking the toxic codependency which has bound them to each other - that Sam is capable of functioning without Dean and without immediately trying to sell his soul or give his life for his brother. 

Sam and Cas working together. One of the things that I really hated about the start of season 10, was that without Dean around, Sam and Cas’s relationship just fell apart, and Sam was made to look pretty much like a douche by the show implying he had kicked Cas out of the bunker and blamed him for breaking his shoulder?!? (I found the whole thing very out of character for Sam but then destiel’s continued refusal to become canon tends to make Sam look occasionally douchey - but that is a meta for another day). Give me Sam and Cas as a team. Supporting each other in their grief and acting like the brothers (in-law) that they are.

Jack and Cas father/son bonding time - I mean I saw the promo and it looks like Jack is gonna be grounded for a little while... >.> but once he has written 100 lines of “I will not suggest killing my dad in front of my father” I think Cas will forgive him. I’d like to see Cas trying to teach Jack human things or mundane tasks with Dean watching them with a fond expression!

Addressing Dean’s abuse trauma - this one has been going around on tumblr recently so I’m latching on to other wonderful meta a bit here, but since last season explored Sam’s Lucifer trauma (and to an extent Cas’s Naomi trauma), it would be fitting if this Michael!Dean arc is followed up with an arc of recovery for Dean, not just from Michael, but from everything he has suffered since the apocalypse.

More seeing “behind the mask” with Dean. I think he has already massively grown into himself and out of his fathers shadow, but I’d just like more examples like with the chick flicks and the cucumber water.

Cas truly breaking free from heaven. Now I think that the ideal situation would be that Cas is the one to fix heaven, and that he leaves the angels by choice, and with them all respecting him and being thankful to him. But Cas needs to start to break free from that duty and obligation that he still feels to heaven. Even in season 13 he carried that guilt, and whilst this is more endgame stuff, I desperately want to see more progress on this. 

More hints towards Cas desiring human things and human feelings and basically desiring humanity for himself (no jokes guys, this time I DON’T mean Dean). I am a staunch human!Cas endgame girl after all. The show spent a lot of time in season 9 and 10 building on this for Cas and then it went a bit quiet. I’d like to see those threads picked up again.

In fact, when it comes to Cas, how about he starts answering some of those hundreds of unanswered questions that have been thrown at him since Carver era? How about he finds his place, where he belongs and AS WHAT in general? Cas, you have a home now and a family. Stop lingering in doorways. 

Sam showing us more of his personality. I think now that his Lucifer trauma has been somewhat addressed, Sam should be a bit lighter and more carefree. I’d like to know some more about him other than his obsession with serial killers which is frankly a worrying hobby Sam!

Mary and Cas bonding - in fact I just want to see all of the rest of Dean’s family bonding with Cas more. I want more knowing looks from Mary and even a conversation about the topic - oh wouldn’t that be a dream!

Dean coming out of the closet. Yes yes I know I know. Every year... But it is 20gayteen and next year is 20BITEEN and dammit the world is full of rainbows right now - Bert and Ernie made it official... Why can’t Dean Winchester? I’m totally cool with someone slipping THIS to Dabb. I won’t even ask for credit. ;)

Last year I wanted Sam to build on his relationships outside of Dean and we did pretty well last year with that. But of course, I want more. Maybe some Sam x Rowena? I’m game. 

On that note WITCH!SAM. I am still a huge lover of Sam practicing magick. It’s a story line with so much potential.

More badass ladies kicking ass. Aww man we were kinda blessed with this last year weren’t we? Keep it up show. Please keep it up.

Billie continuing to play a large role as Death. I find her captivating and want more.

Wayward Sisters returning. It still hurts, but we need to know what happens next.

JODY AND CAS NEED TO MEET GODDAMMIT. Also I want Cas to reunite with Claire again.

As per last year: The return of the mixtape. BRING BACK THE MIXTAPE (yup I’m gonna wish for it until I get it).

Please dress Cas up. The closest we got last year was the cowboy hat and the dreadful nazi uniform of AU Cas. Why can’t we have him in plaid? PLEASE.

Absolutely no Lucifer, Lucifer vessel or any hint of Mark Pellegrino. Plus no Kentucky fried chicken pantomime villains either. I’ll be happy if season 14 is free from this nonsense.

Saving the best for last, what do I always wish for above all else? You guessed it - DESTIEL. Do I want it to be canon? Well yes eventually of course. But in season 14 my wish is for their story to continue as it did in early season 13. More obvious destiel content, more of destiel built into the narrative and ideally, made explicit. A love confession? Even if only to a third party? That is undeniably romantic. Zero “no homo’s” would be nice. I just wish for further development on the destiel narrative. That is all. 

As always feel free to add to this with your own wishes! 

BRING ON SEASON 14!! :D

[ms-camucia]

"That lightsaber. It belongs to me." Why Maz Kanata Knows Some Shit Regarding Ben Solo

It’s why her eyes are so big. They’re full of secrets.

So, I haven't written any meta since... Well, roughly 2004, and it wasn't called 'meta' back then on 'ol Leaky Cauldron, it was just fan theories. So I apologize if I'm rusty, and if someone has postulated on this previously.

Basically, I have two theories I want to lay out here:

-Ben Solo was the one to find the Skywalker lightsaber -Rather than keep it, he entrusted it, along with some other possessions, with Maz Kanata

Oh Maz, you hoarder.

Timeline wise, this is a little sketchy, especially since we don't have too much canon to work from. We know that, in 28 ABY (Bloodline), it had been a little while since Leia had heard from Luke or Ben, but she didn't seem too concerned, so presumably it hasn’t been overly-long. By the time we see Kylo Ren in TFA, he's obviously been in the First Order for a bit, but for fewer than 6 years, since TFA is in 34 ABY.

My thought is that Ben found the lightsaber at some undefinable point - it may not even be important when - just that he found it, and kept it safe. He could have found it back in the Jedi school days, keeping it hidden, or he could have found it post-Luke's Jedi School Fiasco, but pre-Snoke.

Either way, Ben didn’t immediately go to Snoke after the Luke Incident. 

“When I get out of here, I’m going straight to the creepy man who’s been in my head since I was an infant!” said no one ever.

Just logistically, unless Snoke was there in the goddamn First Order minivan, ready to pick up Ben after Jedi School was left in a burning ruin, there's some time between the massacre and Ben Solo becoming Kylo Ren. In a period I'm roughly defining as "The Jedi Killer," since this follows early concept art of a Kylo-like figure who hunted down any artifacts having to do with the Jedi, Ben Solo has some time that's completely unaccounted for. 

“There’s some slight boxing around the edges, but it’ll sell as new.”

That's where Maz, and the "Good Story For Another Time" comes in.

So, let's try to establish that unaccounted for time.

Ben Solo, in his eyes, just had his uncle try to murder him. Something goes down, such that six students die, and six go with him. These kids - yes, he’s 23 and presumably just murdered some people, but if Luke called him a “frightened boy,” he’s a kid - are scared, confused, and looking for answers. But let's say they don't just hightail it to the First Order and find Snoke, because that would be ridiculous, no matter how much Snoke has been in Ben's head - the First Order is something that only exists in whispers by 28 ABY, and Snoke wasn’t there from the beginning. 

These kids want answers about the Force that they couldn't find with Luke - so they start looking. I'm already imagining some dark, Scooby-Doo/Indiana Jones mashup of the pre-Knights of Ren tracking down ancient Jedi and Sith temples and artifacts. They're successful - they find plenty of stuff, but very few answers.

Enter Maz Kanata.

This is the face of a woman who is already so done with this shit.

Maz has been established as someone with ties to Han, Chewie, and even Leia - in Forces of Destiny, it’s revealed that she's the one who gave Leia the Ubese disguise she uses in ROTJ. I think it's safe to say Maz Kanata is an Organa-Solo family friend, and most definitely someone a young Ben Solo would have met. As said by the woman herself, she knows the Force, and has clearly been around for a while. She's probably one of the first people Ben thinks to go to for help (especially if he's trying to delay the inevitable Snoke In The Head).

So Ben, and possibly the other students, go there, and she probably wheedles the entire Luke story out of a still-shellshocked Ben. Who knows - maybe he even confesses to her something about Snoke, knowing that she’s old enough to have a clue what’s going on with that guy (maybe she even sends him to Snoke, if he’s simply known as some “wise” Force-user. That’s a grim thought). Either way, Ben Solo is a man possessed at this point (possibly literally), and is just generally freaked out and on the run. Maz is old. She’s seen these eyes before.

And she’ll see them again.

(sidenote here - one can lift Finn’s dialogue with Rey at the end of this scene, and it would play out beautifully in IX with Ben/Rey if/when he leaves the First Order, and presumably tries to bail like his dad did in ANH. Maybe he even saves them in the Falcon. Poetry, rhyming, etc.)

This would be some Grade A ceramics right here.

ANYWAY, I get ahead of myself. So, we have:

Freaked out Ben Solo

Hoarding Jedi/Sith artifacts

Goes to Maz Kanata for answers

Spills his guts about absolutely everything

Maz agrees to keep his secrets - and his shit - before he runs

Like I theorized above, I think Maz is the last stop before Snoke. Maybe she tries to stop him, tells him to go home, but sees that this is the path he has to follow for right now. Ben would want to leave behind anything that could be seen as Jedi-ish before he goes to Snoke, and that would obviously include the Skywalker lightsaber, and anything else he had at this point. So he drops his Jedi stuff off with Maz.

Screenshot courtesy of me and Photoshop’s Highlights/Shadows.

I think what we’re seeing here is what was ditched. The lightsaber, maybe some Padawan clothes, what looks like a book or journal (see my fanfiction for my thoughts on Ben and writing things down), and some trinkets and bundles. Who knows if Ben told her where he was going, or if she already knew - either way, he’s on his way to become Kylo Ren. Someone will need to bring him back. Like the Lady of the Lake parallel that she is (someone else has made this connection, right?) Maz knew that, eventually, the right time and person would come for the saber, and maybe bring back Ben Solo - and thus enters Rey. 

“Ben.”

Maz basically has this girl’s number from the get-go - she immediately realizes her importance, tries to get her to leave her past behind by telling her what Rey herself wouldn’t believe until it came from Kylo/Ben, and attmepts to set her off on her hero’s journey. Of course, whether knowingly or not, what Maz actually does here is literally send her into Kylo/Ben’s arms.

Kylo shot first in the Great Thigh Grab war.

My final point I have to make here concerns the Starkiller lightsaber fight. Kylo has no reason to be able to immediately recognize the Skywalker lightsaber - it was last seen in canon attached to Luke’s severed hand, tumbling through Bespin’s ventilation system. Unless Luke spent his years as a teacher doing loving, technical drawings of the lightsaber (I mean, that’s what I do as an art teacher), there’s no reason for Ben to know it on sight unless he’s seen it before - and he knows that thing in a goddamn heartbeat.

But we all know what happens after this. Kylo goes from a completely unhinged madman possessed to making this face at the lightsaber in Rey’s hands.

Good lord, just compare this face to either of the ones above it. Boy is besotted.

And thus ends Kylo Ren’s focus on the lightsaber. To him, after this moment, the saber is Rey’s. 

He even puts it back in her damn hand.

Kylo/Ben doesn’t fight her for it again until TLJ, and even then, it’s less about the lightsaber and more about the million other things going on between the two of them in that moment. But that’s a good story for another time.

...And I’ve let what was originally a series of drunken screencaps I made at some point turn into an entirely-too-long meta. The last point I want to make is even a bit more meta - with the death of Carrie Fisher, we have lost our maternal figure in this trilogy. If JJ Abrams is a smart man, he is probably thanking his lucky stars that he set up Maz the way he did here, since someone will need to take up the position of the wise, older woman that helps bring everything back together.

If you’ve read this whole thing, congratulations. Sorry I went off on a bit of a rant, but this has been in the back of my mind for a while. Let me know if I’m completely off-base here.

[heartstopsbeating]

19, 21, 22, 23, and 24 for the meta asks please! <3

19. Is there something you always find yourself repeating in your writing? (favourite verb, something you describe ‘too often’, trope you can’t get enough of?) Ummm......I'm not so sure about if I repeat stuff too much in my writing, necessarily, but when I speak I tend to adopt a certain word or phrase and use it incessantly for months before it changes. (Currently it's the word "honestly.") I do tend to overuse speaker tags sometimes, but I try and catch myself when I'm using the same tag too many times in one scene and then fix it. It doesn't always work, but that's what multiple edits are for. :3

21. What other medium do you think your story would work well as? (film, webcomic, animated series?) I really think it would work well as a movie. I feel like it's a very cinematic world I've created, and we've barely begun to scratch the surface of the magic and mystery―that'll be explored more in the second and third books (because yes, I'm already planning on making it a trilogy). I feel like there's a lot of potential, especially with the level of technology we can utilize in movie-making nowadays, for my story to be turned into a really cool movie.

22. Do you reread your old works? How do you feel about them? Sometimes. Mostly when I'm rereading old works it's fanfiction, I don't generally go back and reread the original fiction stuff I've written too much because I just don't think about it. But I will go back and reread some of my old fanfictions from time to time.....how I feel depends on the fic. For the most part I look back and I'm proud of them, even if I do cringe a little at more poorly-written parts, but there are a couple that I have actually deleted because they were just awful.

23. What’s the story idea you’ve had in your head for the longest? Probably the one for my current WIP, Warrior. I've been working on this story since eighth grade (three years ago now), and I keep getting new ideas and inspiration for it. I love this world, and I'm hoping I'll be able to stick with it for a long time (though just based on how long it's taken me to write the first book, that shouldn't be a problem).

24. Would you say your writing has changed over time? I think everyone's writing changes over time, whether they realize that actively or not. You improve every time you pull out a notebook or put your fingers to the keyboard; gradually, those improvements will start to look like real change, until one day you look back on one of the first things you ever wrote and go, "Huh, I've really come a long way, haven't I?" I know I've done that―I've looked back at old works and then compared it to the kind of stuff I write now and definitely noticed a difference. The thing about writing is that you're always learning―always growing, changing, finding new ways to get the stories in your head onto paper in a way that makes sense and feels right. It's a lot of trial and error, but at the end of the day almost every writer will look back on their old work―whether that be an old half-finished story, or just the original draft of the scenes you edited that day―and notice how much you've changed. And I think that's something that every writer can be proud of.

[leofemt]

Being a fic writer is a horrible, thankless, vain pursuit. This is an objective fact.

tl;dr: I prove it: on two opposing fic- for both of which this meta-writer vouches for the quality- less than 10% of readers left kudos, and less than 1% commented.

A few facts:

Let's take one fic. A Tiger & Bunny fic for a rarepair. Personally, I love this fic. This is the best fanfiction of all time. Every time I reread it, I end up in tears and almost incapable of finishing it. It's long, artful, and emotionally devastating. It should have a great reception, right? No.

This fic has been on ao3 for more than 5 years. In its time, it's gotten almost 2.5k hits- not bad for a rarepair. It's almost 80k words long. I can personally vouch for the quality. Do you see how many comments it has? 23.

Of course, this can vary by popularity of the subject matter you're writing for- I've written a 7k fic that has more individual comments than this, just because the pairing is popular- but generally speaking, this is the case. Let's turn to some statistical analysis.

What percentage of fic readers leave kudos? In this case, 145 out of 2483 readers who opened this fic left kudos. 145/2483=0.0584, so 5.8% of fic readers leave kudos. (This doesn't account for quality of writing or people who are just trying out a ship, but even that's not that large a margin.) 6% of your readers will take the time to click a button to say "I enjoyed this!". 6%. 

Of course, that can be the case for other forms of art as well, in which case you shrug and say, producing art sucks, viewers take what they want and leave, let's move on. (If I were to do an analysis of the difference in response to popular fanart-type artists, though, I would look at view vs rt statistics on twitter. One place where this differs is: profit. Making actual money. How many artists do you know sell some kind of merch, or have a patreon, or do commissions? Probably a good number of relatively popular ones. How many writers do you know sell hardback copies of their fic? None, probably, unless you personally know EL James. How many writers do you know who actually get commissions? I don't know about you, but I can think of maybe 3 off the top of my head. Visual art is much quicker to consume than written art, and much easier to propogate, since it takes little effort to take in. How many visual artists take open requests on their blogs, instead of commissions? How many writers? A clear pattern starts to emerge.)

And now we move on to the most depressing part- comments. Of course it means a lot whenever someone comments, even if it's a few words of encouragement or telling the author you enjoyed their work. What percentage of fic readers leave comments? This example fic has 23 comments. 23 comments after writing almost 80k words, and I know for a fact that 3 of those comments are mine. This author doesn't reply to comments (which is relatively common, and don't take it personally- it doesn't mean they don't take your words to heart), so this is 23 individual readers who expressed their appreciation for this work. 23 comments out of 2483 hits: 23/2483=0.00926, or 0.93%. Less than 1% of readers left comments on this 80k behemoth of a fic. And 13% of that less than 1% is me. 

Of course, you can say, how do you know an abnormally large amount of people didn't just open this fic, decide it wasn't for them, and close it again? Maybe this is the Spider Georg of fanfiction. This is not the case, but if you propose the challenge, I will prove it to you. 145 readers enjoyed this fic enough to read all the way to the end to leave kudos. Don't forget that this is only a little less than 6%. 23 comments out of 145 kudos-leavers: 23/145=0.1586, or a little less than 16%. Of readers who liked this fic enough to leave kudos, 15.9% liked it enough to leave a comment. On normal fics, a comment isn't even that long- probably a sentence or two, unless the commenter is particularly moved, or happens to be me- and only 16% of the 6% that deigned to leave kudos decided to leave one. For an 80k word fic. I haven't even looked to see how many of them are followers of the fic who had commented on multiple chapters as they were published. 

What kind of response can you expect for your work, you ask? Surely, if I'm good enough, you think, the praise will come flowing in. Surely, you say, others will see the brilliance of my idea. Tough shit, Pinocchio. Writing sucks. Readers suck. Writers grovel for any kind of recognition of their work. On this fic, 23 comments were left on a total of 78491 words. 23/78491 is such a small number that my calculator went into scientific notation to try and figure out comments per word. The number is 0.000293 comments per word. Of course, no one expects a comment per word, so let's extrapolate a bit- let's see how many comments this fic got per 1k words. 0.000293*1000 is 0.293, or about .3. Less than a third of a comment per thousand words- and remember, average comment length is a couple sentences, or a series of emojis, or, "I like this!!!!! Thanks <3", which takes the average human maybe twenty seconds to write. Despite this, and despite the fic having nearly 2500 hits, only 23 users commented. 

And 3 of them were me.

If this doesn't convince you of the futility of writing, and that if you are a fan-content writer, or want to be one, not to base your writing's worth on the amount of comments or make yourself miserable catering to the whims of the masses, I don't know what will. For balance's sake, let's observe another case study. The fic I think is my most popular one- the aforementioned 6.6k fic- was written in 2016, over the span of a week and two days. It's for a popular pairing in a popular fandom.

8110 hits?! You shriek. For less than 7k words? While that other masterpiece, by a writer far greater than you, had only a measly 2.5k hits?!

Let me calculate it- this fic recieved 8110 hits for 6633 words: 8110/6633=1.223 hits per word. That's more than a hit per word, which is outrageous, but that's beside the point. This statistic in itself should convince you that popularity as a writer is based not on your actual talent or skill but on both the whims of the massless entity dubbed "the readership" and the objective popularity of your subject matter. Writing blows. Writing for an audience blows. Never write for anyone but yourself, if you choose to write at all, and if you do, do not be disheartened by a lack of reception. Readers take writers for granted. This is a given fact. 

I'll do the same calculations I had done in the previous case study. In this case, of 8110 hits, 745 users decided it was good enough to leave kudos. (Again- this is literally the act of pressing a button. Not too strenuous, though appreciated.) 745/8110=0.0919, or 9.2%- so performing a little better than the 80k rarepair fic, though not by much. This is still <10% of readers. 

Further, on the subject of comments- this fic garnered 33 comments, none of which I, the author replied to, just like the case of the previous fic. 33 comments from 8110 hits: 33/8110=0.004069, or 0.41%. What does this mean? This means that, firstly, larger viewships are sometimes a curse, because of something like the bystander effect- more popular ships means more material by other amazing authors, and less focus concentrated on one work- and secondly, this statistic is no different from the first case. Unless a fic gets wildly popular in itself, and becomes a staple and a brand-name and all those other things, you can expect little to no return on any investment you put into writing. This is a terrible fact and a solid truth. 

Readers are thankless, insatiable, demanding consumers who take for granted that the stories they crave will be there, prepared for them, and give little thought to the author behind the characters. Of course, this is the case in the professional writing industry as well, which is why writing is an undertaking that can only be undertaken with one purpose- something within the author that compels them to write. Writing sucks. Objectively, if you're looking for ways to be validated in your work, it's a waste of time, and sometimes I wish I could take all the fanfiction archives on the internet down for a day or two, just to see readers panic. People take for granted what has always been there. Don't write unless you want to.

Readers- the consumers I've bashed so thoroughly- if you are a fic consumer, and you've read all the way to the end, I implore you- show some gratitude. If you are someone who regularly leaves kudos and comments on fic you love, congratulations. You're probably some writer's favorite person. If not- well, I don't have much to say to you. Books should be free, but fan content writers write for less than free- they write at a loss. Appreciate them, just a little. Every time I see a writer groveling for a handful of comments, the lack of respect for something so many people claim they "love to read" and "don't know what they would do without" makes me hate "the readership" even more. Being a writer is a thankless, horrible, useless pursuit, because few people care deeply enough to do more than consume the content and leave- you can make it not so much so, just a little bit. Just a few words, and you could bump that comments button up a number. You could be the reason that percentage improves. All it takes is to give back, just a little, to the people who provide you your fan-content for free, at the expense of their own time.

[hillbillied]

I cba to count but any numbers what havent been already answered for the fic asks g ✌🏼

35 Questions for Fanfic Writers! welchh killed the meme

that’s all the odd numbers, you fuckin cunt, I’m gonna crush you in the lidl aisle with a tort textbook (thanks for these, I love em!! except for the couple that’re embarrassing; fuck you!!)

3. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works?

the sheer audacity of either the AU concept or the scope of project; they’re either ballsy, like a fic that moves through 300+ years of history, or stupid shit like “hey what if alien but with robots and gay?” (if i wanted to be meta i’d say a gay guy writing gay guys has gotta have an appeal, at least to other guys like me)

5. What’s the fic you’re most proud of?

When It Rains It Pours is my “magnum opus” (bleeding quotations) it’s the fic i always wanted to write. post-canon fix-it, exploring the details of two characters i love making their way in the world (close second is Church of Saint Andrew because it was just a horrible idea)

7. What element of writing do you struggle with most?

overwriting. i sit down to write fun lil romps between chapter updates and then suddenly i got 10k words and a new multi-chapter fic. there’s no “lil one-shot for a break” because i just… can’t write them like that. really bums me out

9. Which character(s) do you find most difficult to write?

trick question, i only write AndyEddie and am therefore immune (i don’t think i write Sledge as well as i could, tbr)

11. Who or what do you find yourself writing about most?

Andy, Eddie, and their gay antics

13. First fandom you ever wrote for?

these are real interesting ones because they’re just me embarrassing myself innit… i wrote for Bleach. like the anime. i was 11, maybe. fucking end me

15. What’s the weirdest fandom you’ve ever written for?

i want to die saying this but ya’ll remember Death Note? probably that

17. A trope you’ll never, ever write for.

i’m not putting it on me blog but the one that uses the greek alphabet

19. Do you prefer canon-compliant, AUs, or something in-between?

all fucking three, baby, fanfiction is a buffet and i got my All You Can Eat token!!

20. Gen fic or shippy stuff?

don’t mind gen fic if it’s multi-pairing so the focus is on other stuff, but otherwise gimme them ships

21. Favorite pairing to write for? (platonic or romantic!)

this question is unlawful, do not pass go, do not collect fifty quid and a statue from bristol river

22. Do you listen to anything while you write?

always!! normally lil youtube playlists for most fics, if not then just whatever gives that general vibe

23. Do you prefer prompts and challenges, or completely independent ideas?

i like a good prompt when it suits but mainly it’s indie fics (“indie fic” is a cursed term)

24. One-shots or multi-chaptered works?

i write one-shots in my fantasies, and multi-chaps in practice

25. Have you ever daydreamed about side adventures/spin-offs from your fic? Tell us about them!

shit, i’d kill for a spin-off of Church of Saint Andrew from Andy’s POV. centuries of being reincarnated over and over, meeting a random guy every lifetime and wondering why he treats you like he knows you, like he loves you… that’d be fucked up and fantastic.

every canon era fic i write is lowkey a side adventure/spin-off of When it Rain it Pours, tbh, like that’s my canon touchstone for writing

26. Is there anything you’ve wanted to write, but you’ve been too scared to try?

less too scared to try and more not willing to commit the effort. some things are so niche and so self-indulgent it’s not worth putting into text, not until I’ve got a fuckton of time on my hands

28. How well do you handle criticism when it comes to your writing?

i used to handle it terribly. now I handle it better. i’ve got a real specific viewpoint on fanfiction crit nowerdays; since fanfic is free, takes effort, and is not inherently for the reader, any criticism given should be a) asked for by the writer, and b) on points of actual relevance rather than “i personally do not like X”. if it doesn’t comply with those criteria, i find myself asking why someone took the time to write the public comment. you can complain about bad fic privately, like all things

29. Have you ever gone outside of your comfort zone for a fic? How did it turn out?

there’s a WIP in my docs from Andy’s POV that deals with some heavier shit and yeah, that was a step outside but if you push through it, your comfort zone expands like bread for the ducks

30. Tooth-rotting fluff or merciless angst?

merciless angst, we die like men

31. Do you have any OCs? Tell us about them!

yes and you will never hear about them but know they are jewish and gay

34. Copy and paste an excerpt you’re particularly fond of.

(fuck almost pasted from my uni work about cyclist helmets) thought you’d enjoy this one:

His name’s Edward Allison Jones and he likes to think his life story can be summed up in under a page. Probably less than.

Where to start? It’s a boring beginning.

Born in a place called Red Lion, that he hasn’t been back to since he screamed his little baby scream at the midwife. It wasn’t a good start, either, considering his parents hightailed it out of there and over the West Virginia Stateline to avoid paying for his little baby entrance. They tell the story like they’re fucking Bonny and Clyde, but their son imagines it more like Flintstones. Yabba dabba doo.

35. Ramble about any fic-related thing you want!

quick fire round: i can’t stop watching the legend of korra (it’s fuckin good man) and it keeps bringin me back to the avatar AU, every time i write “cunt” in a fic i feel americans clutch their pearls, i’m getting back into the old groove of making chars jewish and not giving a fuck, once I found out “high school” was just secondary school i couldn’t write/read high school AUs cause that’s grim tbh, and sometimes i don’t even watch tv shows i use for AUs because I’m a busy boy

[lettalady]

Meta writers asks: 2, 6, 18, 21, 23

Fun Meta Asks For Writers

Oh goodness! Thanks for the questions! 

Okey dokey here we go....

2.  Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

          Ok so current project(s) wise: I’ve had what happens in Turn plotted since the concept for the story sprang from the screen and into my stubbornly-trying-not-to-start-another-WIP brain and can’t wait to get to the end.            Future project wise: I’ve given up on keeping the WIPs at bay and have started compiling other ideas and characters and plots and stories. I’ve plotted myself into a ... shit I’ve forgotten the term for it already and need to look it up again. Tetralogy. There it is.            Yes I’m a mess. I own it. 

6.  What character do you have the most fun writing?

          It really depends on my mood and WHICH CHARACTER IS ACTUALLY COOPERATING WITH THE DESIGNATED PLOT. [ahem] I love not really knowing what Loki is gonna do, regardless of the ‘plan’ he may have helped orchestrate. I really enjoy it when he freezes for a split second when his agent does something incredibly foolish/ reckless - essentially when she makes life more difficult for him. It’s what she’s good at, after all.            Really just point to a story and pluck out any character and I can give you twenty and seven reasons why they’re fun to shove into different situations. 

18.  Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them.

          I think I’ve mentioned before that Unsettled was supposed to go a very different way. It branched several times - or at least I meant for certain things to happen and was unceremoniously told NO it was not allowed.            I’ve had a couple differing versions of the latest WISH installment written out before scrapping them and starting again. I have every intention of finding a way to work certain elements back into the story at some point, though, so shhhhh spoilers.            TJOURN is another that had a different planned ending that I failed to reach. Granted I adore where we ended up but it was a sad day when I had to admit that I wasn’t going to be able to successfully pull off ‘he doesn’t get the girl’. The somewhat mollifying thing that I’m clinging to is that it’ll still work as part of the story, just a branched off section.... if I can ever get back to those prequels. 

21.  What other medium do you think your story would work well as? (film, webcomic, animated series?)

          Oh man if only any of those were options! I would love to be able to adapt any of them into other mediums, or work with someone on adapting them. I’ve only just started stumbling upon podfics while indulging in stories in a different fandom. When I went through my Burn Notice rewatch (and deep dive into the novel etc) I found a few of the associated webcomics that brought to life details that were only mentioned in passing in the series, which I found incredibly cool. So yea, long rambling answer - as is my way - is: YES PLEASE. 

23.  What’s the story idea you’ve had in your head for the longest?

          YOJA - the story that pulled me back into fanfiction and reignited my passion for writing. If we go back further I’d have to sheepishly admit that most of those stories original works I’d posted on fictionpress don’t have an ending. I did go back and try to start to rework the vampire trilogy and find the ending that I’d plotted but got distracted by other plotbunnies. Maybe I’ll finish that set of stories. One day....

[clonerightsagenda]

alright... this is a vague as hell question so i understand if you gotta think about it for a while, but do you have any advice on writing? or maybe about the process of how you personally write things? i love how organic all the emotions in your fanfictions seem to be. it's not over the top but they still seem /tangible/, you know? i aim to have that kind of skill some day so i figure i may as well ask where i can, but no pressure or anything! thank you :)

Well, first of all, thanks for the compliment! It’s always exciting as a writer to hear that things are coming across well. And it’s very flattering to have someone come to you for advice.

Now, my writing style and process vary dramatically between fic and original stuff. There aren’t a lot of examples of my original stuff online - I put a few stories up here, here, and here, and of course there’s the shitty vampire novel, but all of those are pretty old. I don’t have any current examples of my original stuff; I’m hoping to get back into that more once TLC stops eating my life. So I guess I’ll split this response into halves, with a section for generic advice as well. So thirds, I guess.

General

This is something you hear everywhere, but the number one ingredient in good writing is time. I’m 23 years old.  I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. And my early stuff is shit. That being said, it’s fun shit - there’s this joyful abandon you can find in really early work, where the writers don’t know any of the rules, don’t care about what other people think, and are having fun in this new world where they can do anything. I love looking back at my old stuff for that reason.  But in terms of quality, it’s not great. Now…  I’m not going to be arrogant; I’m not spectacular, but I’d say I’m pretty consistently OK. Solid.  And a good chunk of that is because I’ve been writing for nearly two decades.

That being said, this time I’m talking about is over *years*. I don’t hold with advice that says you have to write every day to be a writer, even if you feel miserable doing it. Doing something when you hate doing it is a good way to poison it for yourself forever. There’s a difference between knowing you’ll get into a writing session once you start and you’re just dragging your feet vs. forcing yourself when you don’t want to. Don’t punish yourself if you don’t feel like writing today or if you don’t have the time. Don’t fret if you’ve gone a year without touching any of your wips! You can always come back to it. It’s not a race.

You’ve probably heard this next one already as well, but reading is also important. Find authors you like. See what they’re doing. Learn. And this 100% includes the writers you like online.* There are some people online doing incredible things with language that I haven’t seen as much in published fiction, because self-published stuff is a crucible for creativity that might not get past official publishers as much or as quickly. (Ngl it’s also a dumping ground for a lot of bad stuff, but you have to do the filtering). The more you read, the more you have to draw from when you’re developing your own style.

*(If your goal is publication, you do need to read a lot of what’s being published in the genre you’re aiming for. Most of my advice here is focused on just writing for pleasure. Publication has some different considerations.)

Finally, if you have an opportunity to give and get critique, go for it. You learn a lot from pulling other people’s writing apart. What worked? What didn’t? How can you apply that to your own work? Do note though, that unless people are asking for this level of criticism, they may not appreciate you showing up and giving it to them. There are some sites that involve people critiquing each other, or you might find a workshop class or group. You can also find friends who might be interested in swapping stories. Always figure out what your boundaries are and how honest you want your friends to be. Setting that up at the start is a good way to avoid hurt feelings later.

Those are all pretty general and obvious, and I’m sure you’ve heard most of them before. So let’s move on to my process and break the rest of this response into two.

Fic-related

I’ll start with fic since that’s what you mentioned. Again, a major ingredient is time. I’ve been in this fandom for 5 ½ years, which is kind of horrifying to think about. I wasn’t writing fic for all of that time, but what I was doing was a lot of meta and character analysis. I really love digging into characterization and motivation. How does this character really feel? Why do they do what they do? What would be the best way for them to develop as a person?  Those are questions I dealt with in my meta posts, but they are also questions that you frequently deal with in fanfic. Then TLC happened, and I ended up writing tens of thousands of words for these characters. That was a hell of a lot of practice. So, I got very comfortable with them. I can whip off a pesterlog like that these days.

What really got me comfortable though, was assigning a kind of speedy and carefree attitude to fic. I tend to be very protective of my work. For a long time, I wouldn’t let anyone read anything I wrote. A real turning point was when I went to a workshop where the instructor challenged us to submit something. I submitted something terrible to a literary journal, and it got rejected, but I also got a really nice note, probably since whoever looked it over realized how young I was. That first submission broke some of the tension. However, I still tend to be cautious. I’m a perfectionist. I like to get things right. So with fic, I really tried to let go of that. I don’t polish this stuff as much as I’d polish original material. I usually do a little more if I am putting it up on ao3, but I will write something in one go and slap it online. That’s incredibly freeing. It makes me more productive, and I think some of the stuff I write fast and loose is often some of my better stuff. The John and Jade pajamas thing, which I think is by far the superior tuesjade prompt response I’ve done, popped into my head all together. I wrote it down, did one pass of revision, and was done. Telling yourself ‘I’m just going to write this thing because it’s fun and I want to, and I’ll put it up online in case anyone else wants to look at it, and if they don’t like it I don’t care because I like it’ is liberating. When you’re no longer so worried about getting everything perfect and making sure other people will love it, I think you write better stuff.

In terms of process, most of my fic is short. I usually have an idea, often a few scenes will pop into my head fully formed, and I’ll write it. There’s typically not a lot of planning involved. In my longish 6-10k stories, I usually do this for multiple scenes and then paste them together. Now, I planned the hell out of TLC, but that’s because it’s 1500+ pages with over 30 characters to deal with.  If I didn’t plan everything out, I’d be halfway through and realize I’d forgotten a main character. And that would be terrible.

I want to make sure I touch on emotion, since that’s something you mentioned. A lot of it does go back to all that analysis I did so I got pretty comfortable with how I interpret these characters’ inner lives. Then I had to figure out how comfortable they would be talking about that stuff, how they would express it, and what circumstances might encourage them to be more vocal. The nice thing is, people sitting around talking about their feelings is a perfectly acceptable fic genre. I’m not saying you can’t get away with that in original stuff - I’ve seen some good examples - but it’s not a hallmark in the same way. Fic is about filling in the gaps, and since content creators often don’t slow down to show these quiet emotional moments or the emotional impact of various story events, fic writers and fic readers love them.  

When I’m writing something focusing on emotion, I try to avoid “quick fix” stories. You can’t suddenly solve depression or anxiety or trauma. Instead, my moments of catharsis typically involve someone learning to be more honest than they had before about their problems, an exchange of insecurities, a realization of what they have left to overcome, or another sort of “small step”. They’re quiet, tiny progressions on a scale of getting better, and maybe that’s why they feel more organic? Sometimes you get a big epiphany in life, but more often you get a lot of small ones.

I do think stories focused on emotional development can very easily seem forced and false, so I’m pleased that you don’t think mine do! It’s something I worry about. I think the biggest trick is to make sure the characters aren’t just talking about something because you want them to. Would they realistically admit something? How would they respond to being questioned? Are they doing this because they want to, or is it obvious that the fic author has tied them to a chair and is pointing emphatically at a teleprompter offstage? One advantage for me is that a lot of my fic is set post-TLC where people have aired a lot of their grievances. However, they’re still sometimes reluctant, say one thing and mean another, or cloak one emotion in something different. Once you know how a character behaves, you can write them behaving that way and still express the true emotions underneath through the ways they try to hide them. I think Catch Me If You Can is a good example of that. Vriska is allergic to being genuine (that’s kind of her whole arc in that fic) and so instead of being upfront about her emotions, she frequently gets defensive and hostile. However, those defensive responses betray a lot about what she’s really feeling. So often, I like to express character’s emotions in the negative space between their reactions and their true sentiments. What we don’t say or only allude to is often more important than what we do. Sometimes the words we use are just distractions.  (In contrast, Dave will talk to a wall, and TLC Jade is so determined not to repeat her mistakes she turns honesty sometimes into a cudgel or penance.) Often, characters being truly honest to each other and straight-up admitting their feelings shows up at the ending of one of my fics as the resolution moment, once they’ve worked their way up to that level of vulnerability. See: A Horrible Kind of Nice.

OK, let’s touch quickly on original stuff. In terms of process, it’s the total opposite. I outline the hell out of it. Maybe not for some a shorter stories, but for anything long? I love outlines. I also tend to start with the plot first. That’s something, after spending so many years focused on fic, that I’m starting to reconsider. I think that when I go back to original stuff, I’m going to spend a lot more time immersing myself in the characters first, so I can write them as authentically as I hope I write people in fic these days. I also write out of order. Is there some scene you are really itching to get to? Write it. This goes for scenes in the same story, though. You do need some level of discipline to not keep jumping from new idea to new idea abandoning your old ones. You’ll never get anything done that way. I do think there’s power in finally completing something too. In my experience anyway, after I completed my first long story, it got a lot easier to finish other ones. I did that with the help of NaNoWriMo, but I’ve since done it on my own.

This has gotten very long, so I’ll cap it off there.  It’s a big question that can be answered a lot of ways, and I feel like I mostly rambled. So if you’d like clarification on anything, or if you want to say 'hey Kat you didn’t answer my question at all’, feel free to ask a follow-up.

[haleykim84]

Fanfic questions. I got a bunch for you: 51, 50, 47, 45, 42, 40, 39, 34, 32,  27, 26, 23, 9, 8, 3, 1

Thanks so much for the ask @noisypaintersong! I’m sorry it took me forever to get to these! I really love doing these things though, and you’re the only one who asks me stuff *pouts*, so thank you for enabling me!

1. What was the first fandom you got involved in?

My very firstfandom was The Hardy Boys back when I was 12 or 13. I read a couple of HardyBoys books in my native language when I was on a trip with my parents and lovedthe characters so much that I was immediately hooked (incidentally, this isalso when I discovered my love for h/c). Unfortunately, there were only twelveHardy Boys books published and I thought that was that. Until the internethappened (which was around the same time) and I discovered there were SO MANYMORE Hardy Boys books out there! I didn’t care they were in English. I bought afew, grabbed a dictionary, and basically taught myself how to read English. TheHardy Boys fandom holds so many good memories for me, I still go back and rereadmy favourite HB fics every once in a while.

3. What is the best fandom you’ve ever been involvedin?

I guess HardyBoys. Such warm and welcoming people, which was exactly what I needed at thetime. Hm…and maybe Stargate Atlantis, because of the plethora of quality Sheppard whumpfics ;)

8. How did you get involved in your latest fandom?

That was actually @velkynkarma ‘s fault :) I knew her from the Young Justice fandom, and then Isaw her start posting Voltron stuff. I knew she has good taste, so I decided tocheck out the show and ended up loving it, though I didn’t get particularlyfannish about it until season 2.

 9. What are the best things about your current fandom?

I love that thefandom is just so incredibly active and ALIVE. So much good content and so manypeople with great theories and meta. Also, just the characters and the showitself. Keith has completely stolen my heart.

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

I think Devotion is the YJ ficI’m most fond of, probably because it was the easiest fic for me to write todate. I tend to struggle A LOT when writing, which is one of the reasons whyI’m such a slow writer, but for some reason Devotion just seemed to writeitself.

I have to admitthough that I actually really like my most recent Voltron fic In the Hands of Hatred.It’s my first ever (and maybe only) multi-chapter Voltron fic and even though Ireally struggled with it at times, I like how it turned out.

 26. How do you come up with your fanfic titles?

Heh. WELL. Havingto come up with fanfic titles is the bane of my existence! I’m only slightlyexaggerating. I’ve tried using song lyrics and quotes from poems, but that’snever worked for me. Usually I end up using a word that I feel captures the themeor tone of the story (you’ll notice that most of my fics have one-word titles).In the Hands of Hatred is anexception, both in that it’s obviously not a one-word title but also in that itcame to me fairly early on in the writing process (although originally it wasIn the Arms of Hatred, until my awesome beta suggested using “hands”instead of “arms”).

 27. What do you hate more: Coming up with titles orwriting summaries?

I hate writingsummaries, but I have to say I hate having to come up with a title even more.32. Do you listen to music when you write or doesmusic inspire you? If so, which band or genre of music does it for you?

It depends on themood I’m in and on how focused I am. When I’m focused, I love listening tomusic when I write, particularly these epic, energetic, intense/dramatic songs,like Sia’s The Greatest and Unstoppable, Imagine Dragon’s Demons, Linkin Park’s Numb, etc.

When myconcentration’s flagging though, I have to turn the music off or it’ll become adistraction. Music definitely inspires me though.

 34. What’s the word count on your longest fic?

22,917 (In theHands of Hatred).

 39. What is your greatest strength as a writer?

Ooooh boy. Uh… Idon’t know if I’m necessarily good at it, but my favourite things to write arecharacter interactions; characters showing how much they care about each other.I mean, I’m definitely not good at writing these big, emotional scenes – I liketo keep things understated and prefer to have characters showing each other howmuch they care, rather than have them declare their undying love for one another.

 40. What do you struggle the most with in yourwriting?

Plotty stuff.There’s a reason why my longest fic is only barely 20K. I suck at logicalthinking and making decisions  and Ijust tend to handwave a lot.

 42. List and link to 5 fanfiction authors who areamazing:

Jeez, only five? :(

Black Friar – she writes the most AMAZING whump fic.Seriously. She has a ton of Young Justice fics up, and has just finishedwriting her first (also amazing) Voltron fic Casting Shadows.

@velkynkarma – she’s written some of my favourite Keith whump fics,like Pillar in the Dark.

Mikimoo – I LOVEher Batfam fics. I tend to skip the shippy stuff, but ooooh boy, does she writegood Dick whump!

APendingThought –she’s written some great Voltron and YJ fics (featuring Keith and Dick whump,respectively ;)).

Yet_intrepid – I knowshe tends to write Shiro-centric fic, but she’s also written some exceptional(and heart-breaking) Keith whump.

 45. What is your all time favourite fanfic?

Okay, I’m nevergoing to be able to pick just one fic, so:

Voltron

For now I thinkI’m gonna go with @velkynkarma’s Pillar in the Dark. But I also LOVE chapter 5of Knights of Lion (I’ve reread it several times now).

Young Justice

Black Friar’s OfMonsters and Men. Hands down. Well. And Coming of Rage, also by Black Friar.

Batfam

Mikimoo’s And ifI Recover and This Night.

Hardy Boys

Stormwatcher’s ADangerous Summer. Or rather, her entire Telepathy series. Her website is downat the moment, but I’ll edit in a link later. This is a series that I just keepcoming back to, no matter what fandom I’m in.

47. Archive Of Our Own, Fanfiction.net or Tumblr -where do you prefer to post and why?

I prefer AO3,because I like the tagging system and it’s easy to organize stuff, but I haveto admit that it seems that people on Fanfiction.net are more likely to leavereviews? I dunno, I always seem to get more reviews on my fics on ffnet than onAO3.

As for Tumblr, IHATE posting fic on Tumblr, so I tend to just post a link to AO3.

 50. How did you get into reading and/or writingfanfiction?

This is actuallyalso linked to The Hardy Boys! As I said above, I initially only had 12 HBbooks to read, but when I discovered the internet, I also very quicklydiscovered the world of fanfiction. And was hooked straight away.

 51. Rant or Gush about one thing you love or hate inthe world of fanfiction! Go!

I love, love,love that hurt/comfort is an actual thing/genre in the world of fanfiction.It’s something you’ll rarely find in mainstream media, which, honestly, is oneof the reasons why I read very few actual books these days.