#my fave Sherlock BBC tropes

[meetinginsamarra]

My fave Sherlock BBC tropes: Enemies to Friends to Lovers

Around mid-month I’ll do a fic rec list with my fave AU genres or tropes. Summaries are taken from OP on AO3.

Enemy Number One by lookupkate

When Anderson finally crosses a line and gets fired a new pathologist takes his place. Sherlock isn't happy to find that the new doctor is almost as good at his job as Sherlock is. Said new doctor, John Watson, wants to woo the genius until he finds out what a prick he can be. Then he's just amused. And maybe a bit fond. And kind of smitten. Then he falls in love with the prick. Bloody hell.

Oscillation by lookupkate

John and Mary have been together for two years and John thinks they should probably settle down. John is happy with Mary. It's the only way their situation makes sense, so it must be happiness. Sherlock sees a flaw in that logic. What does John do then, when the strange man brings parts of his life into question and refuses to just bloody go away? Well, fall in love with him, of course.

Roommates are for little people by alexxphoenix42 @alexxphoenix42

John was looking forward to seeing his friends back at uni, but a new year brings new complications, not the least of which is a dorm room with only one bed, and a stroppy roommate with an utterly spectacular arse. God, John doesn't need the headache.

Mistletoe and Misdemeanours by Robottko

When Victor Trevor backs out of the Holmes family Christmas at the last minute, Sherlock panics because he has no way to impress his parents. Thankfully there is a handsome army doctor with nowhere to go in his coffee shop, though it would be more helpful if he were a bit more willing.

An Everlasting Inferno by thatawkwardfriend

Sherlock and John are both men who operate outside the law. John works for Mary and her hitmen in order to keep a roof over his head. Sherlock does anything his drug dealer asks of him in exchange for free drugs and housing.

They meet one night in a darkened garage to negotiate a deal. But they soon find out that neither of their bosses are being entirely honest with them about their goals or motives. With a little poking around, they stumble upon something much bigger than themselves and discover that perhaps, it might be in their best interests to work together.

(Loosely inspired by StartUp and Little Favour)

The Key to Castles in the Air by LadyKailitha

John is a clerk (and writing a book on the side) at a bookshop run by Mrs Hudson. The one downside to this perfect job is Sherlock Darling, Mrs Hudson's friend who loves to rile John up. About everything.

All that changes when they are forced to spend a week together in the country when bad weather hits. Sherlock's got secrets. What will John do once he finds them out?

Pencil Through My Heart by elwinglyre @elwinglyre

What’s worse? Sharing a byline with an arrogant consulting reporter or falling for him? Seasoned section editor John Watson faces this impossible choice. But first John must find him. Of course Holmes is out chasing the story of the century without him! In the process, Watson must reassess who and what he is, and even worse, admit he cares.

Aim for the Head by Breath4Soul

Sometimes you don't really find yourself until everything has ended. A fic about finding love, healing, and purpose after everything has gone to hell.

As if the doctor can read Sherlock's thoughts, he holds out a protein bar in the space between them. Sherlock’s eyes narrow on the man and flick to the bar with an expression of disgust. “You're at least one stone underweight,” the soldier states matter-of-factly, confirming for Sherlock, in yet another way, that he is a doctor. “Eating slows me down,” Sherlock grumbles. “No, fainting does.” The army doctor smiles kindly, patiently. Sherlock looks at him with confusion. “What do you care?” Sherlock snaps. The soldier’s smile deepens and he gives a casual shrug, turning his eyes to the road a moment. “You faint; we crash.” The soldier’s eyes slide back to Sherlock with their placid expression.

A Further Sea by i_ship_an_armada, ShinySherlock @ishipanarmada

(also on pirate and mermaid AU rec list)

Here be a tale of adventure for both body and soul, but beware if ye be not of stout heart, for this be piratelock, ya savvy? Luckless ship's surgeon John Watson takes a chance, and finds himself eye to eye with The Ghost, the scourge of the seven seas and a definite thorn in the side of the blaggard, James Moriarty. But when John finds there's more to this most cunning pirate than be meetin' the eye, he has to choose--is it a pirate's life for him?

Dive by FinAmour @finamour

It’s John’s third year of studying abroad at Harvard, and he’s still struggling to fit in. On a cold night in December, he finds his girlfriend with another man—and meets a tall, gorgeous bartender with horrible manners that he can’t stop thinking about. Just as John falls for him, madly, swiftly, deeply—the bartender disappears, and the bar unexpectedly shuts down. Unexplained occurrences begin to happen to John and his friends, and he slowly discovers the truth about the one he loves. Will he find him in time to tell him how he feels, and more importantly—can he keep him safe?

Synchronicity by Calais_Reno @calaisreno

Excerpt: John is just muttering some nonsense about bit different from my day when they enter the lab. A tall fellow with dark, curly hair is using a pipette to drop some liquid into a Petri dish. Hearing John’s voice, he looks up. Sherlock Holmes. They both freeze for a moment. He stares into those grey eyes that haven’t changed, still seeing every detail. Holmes gives a tiny smirk. “Afghanistan or Iraq?” It’s been years, and he is surprised at how much it still hurts. Realising that he’s staring, he clears his throat, shuffles his feet, and mumbles something about an appointment he’s forgotten.

OR: John and Sherlock meet again, years after they were school boys together. John hasn't forgotten why he still hates Sherlock Holmes.

The Company He Keeps by wibblywobblytimeywimeystuff

At his lowest point, John Watson met Sherlock Holmes. And Sherlock saved him. At Sherlock's lowest point, he met Greg Lestrade. And they saved each other. This is how Greg met Sherlock, how he met Mycroft, and how he became important to them both.

Toe to Toe by standbygo @blogstandbygo

(also on soldier and spy AU rec list)

Sherlock Holmes is an international ballet star. After a favour for his brother goes south, he finds himself trapped in a foreign country, with a man named John Watson who could be an enemy... or an ally. A crossover of sorts with White Nights, the 1985 film with Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines.

If Baker Street Could Talk by a_different_equation @adifferentequation​

There is a thin wall between 221b and 221c. As if by fate, it has separated two sitting rooms that now are almost morphing back into one. One of the sitting rooms belongs to Sherlock Holmes (43), a pianist, while the other one belongs to Dr John H. Watson (45), whatever he might be after everything. John is a war hero, an ex-surgeon and a widower; John tells everyone that he is developing a game that might take a lifetime. There might be a wall between them, but Sherlock Holmes and John Watson cannot be separated.

[shaymiens]

💛Smoshblr December Asks Day 21💙

What are your top 3 favourite tropes in media and/or fanfiction? (can be as general or specific as you want)

Bonus: What are 3 of your fave fanfics? (can be smosh related or from other fandoms)

YAY FANFICTION APPRECIATION

v general category here but psychological whump is my shit. whump and extreme hurt/comfort have always been incredibly cathartic for me. i love making little guys miserable. it's great.

fake dating! encompasses miscommunication, mutual pining, being frog boiled by your feelings, awkward performative firsts, all the good stuff.

i had to think on this one but the "everyone can see it" trope, when done well, can be so cute. sort of adjacent to fake dating. i think having two people who already sort of know they can work well together in a relationship yet procrastinate on acting on their feelings, being pushed together by well-intentioned family and friends... very cute. very sweet and goofy.

and ohh i'm telling on myself with these fave fics of mine but alas the writers need their flowers!! sort of dead dove disclaimer here, these are v particular and ns/f//w at times soooo. read under the cut!

We Go Anywhere But To The Ground by geordielover (bbc sherlock, sherlock/john, mature) - veeeeeery whumpy, sad, and dark. but i love when fics actually address characters' trauma?!¿?!¿ and the writing is so top tier. i'm sure i've been peppering little things from this fic in my own writing.

Best of Three by SilentAuror (bbc sherlock, sherlock/john, explicit) - IT'S SMUT i'm sorry it's smut!!!! but i'm gonna be so honest, i probably read this as a teen and this fic sort of exposed me to the idea of dudes just fuckin down and dirty........ and various other forms of foreplay lmaoooo. the writing is so good, the pining and emotion is so good.... my aspec ass is truly not opposed to admiring smut.

Simple Math by TheMouthKing & tripwirealarm (w//atcher entert//ainment, ryan/shane, explicit) - ok i'm like SUPER telling on myself with this one lol. it's sad and horny—and written so, SO fantastically. i'm never a multi-chapter fic gal but this one caught me with the pining and whump. like i was reading this as weekly updates. it was such an experience. and this fic basically combines the elements of the last two fics i mentioned........

[skinnyscottishbloke]

A and B for the fandom asks!

Heyaaaa thanks for these : )

A - Ships that you currently like a lot. (They don’t have to be OTPs because not everyone has OTPs.) Friendships, pairings, threesomes, etc. are allowed.

Well number 1 has to be my ineffables, Crowley/Aziraphale from Good Omens. I’ll read allllll the fic - the angsty post s02 pining/reunion fics, the post s01 long friendship realized fics, the south downs retirement fics, hell even the human au fics (although those are a bit more hit or miss for me). I just cannot get enough of them!!! They are the ultimate to me. The outpouring of fic and art and meta post s02 makes being in the fandom extra fun rn. Also I like both the ace and allo interpretations, if the writing is good.

My number 1 used to be Johnlock, specifically from BBC Sherlock. While we all know how that show fucked up, Johnlock fic still has a special place in my heart and I find myself revisiting favorites often. Similar to Good Omens, the post s02 Reichenbach fall hiatus art/fic/meta was a great great time and makes me smile to remember it.

Nick x Charlie from Heartstopper are adorable and sweet and are definitely my fluffy pairing. Alex and Henry from RWRB are like their older siblings in a way - I just love them too (more book versions for Alex and Henry, although the movie was lovely, I just feel like the book goes more in depth).

Also love Merthur (specificially from BBC Merlin). I don’t even really like the show??? but I looovveeee the fic world, especially when the whole ensemble makes an appearance. Modern AUs are really fun for me in this verse.

Gotta shoutout my OG ot3 Parker/Hardison/Elliot from Leverage. Their canon relationship was beautifully developed and I love when fic takes it to the next level. Lots of found family vibes, idiots to lovers, all the best tropes.

The first ship I ever read fic for was Rose x The Doctor (Nine or Ten) over on whofic.com. They’re still a huge ship for me (Doomsday still makes me cry fuck) so even tho I don’t seek out fic as much anymore I still reblog a lot of gifsets and stuff.

I was on the Stucky train HARD for the longest time, and I still go back and read fic, especially from the Winter Soldier or Endgame fix it era. Another Marvel ship I read a lot of was Matt/Foggy from the Netflix Daredevil. Avengers era ensemble fics (everyone living in Stark Tower) are also a favorite.

I went hard on Drarry for a while and I still go back to certain fics but I wouldn’t say it’s a current favorite per say.

Gonna save my last big favorite ship for the next question cause it fits really well.

B - A pairing–platonic, romantic or sexual–that you initially didn’t consider, but someone changed your mind.

So!! My last big main ship is Bagginshield (Thorin/Bilbo from the Hobbit) and this is one that I didn’t really even get into until I read The Riven Crown by beautifulfiction. She was one of my fave Sherlock authors and so when I saw she had written Hobbit fic I was like welllllll normally I don’t read fic of written media (especially Tolkien cause I grew up reading Middle Earth); but it’s B soooo I’ll give it a try. And oh my fucking god I was HOOKED. And now Bagginshield is probably #3 in terms of how many fics I have bookmarked and how often I think about them lol. Richard Armitage knew what the fuck he was doing as Thorin in those movies. I also love the ensemble aspect with all the dwarves and I love fics (like the Riven Crown) where it gets into the bureaucracy of rebuilding a kingdom like Erebor and also rebuilding trust in the aftermath of Thorin’s gold lust.

There’s other pairings I love (Booth/Brennan from Bones, Kanthony from Bridgerton, all the Sense8 relationships, some Zutara) but I think these are the main ones for me.

Send me a letter from this list

[essayofthoughts]

7, 13, 35, 39? :D

7. Any worldbuilding you’re particularly proud of?

So back in the days before everyone decided the entirety of Harry Potter was as shit as it's creator* I actually used to run a HP headcanon blog, specifically one where I noodled out ideas about the flora and fauna of the magical world. I had a lot of fun with @themonsterblogofmonsters and while I probably won't be going back to it for some time - Hello CritRole pit! - I do still enjoy the sheer amount of sandbox space available in it.

Consequently some of my favourite worldbuilding I've done in fic form is probably The Banker or the Ban? Goblin Professions in Magical Europe, done for the Worldbuilding Exchange 2021. I wanted to try to dig into the racism and xenophobia of the magical world and to use some of the analogues and allegories of canon to further expand on it, to show how such things might occur in the world, sometimes mirroring known historical events, and to criticise such behaviour.

* I will be clear: JKR is a piece of shit. HP itself is flawed but worth criticising on its own merits, not being lumped in with its radicalised, shitty creator. I have seen a great deal of criticism that comes solely from a basis of wanting to believe it was always bad and that JKR was always bad and I dislike things that pretend that radicalisation isn't something that can happen to anyone - even you, reading this.

13. Are there any tropes you used to like but don’t anymore?

To write? Not that I can think of. To read? I definitely gained an ever-increasing dislike for slash fandom and went from tolerant of A/B/O to often quite skeeved out by some of it. There's a lot of misogyny and even racism often built into the way people who preferentially ship non-canon (usually white) gay ships and it often results in the villainising or fridging of existing canon female or POC love interests - this was especially bad in the Sherlock fandom; I recall reading one fic, absolutely excellent characterisation, beautifully written... but which introduced the character of Mary Morstan before her debut in the BBC Sherlock canon solely to make her a deceptive serial cheater so that John would be morally justified in getting with Sherlock.

After that I found that I just couldn't enjoy slashfic anymore - so often it ends up being at best dismissive of canon love interests and at worse actively malicious towards them, often drastically mischaracterising them.

I am someone who cannot stand purposefully, knowingly deceptive or dishonest presentations of things - and I consider the purposeful, malicious mischaracterisation of a character to be a similar brand of dishonesty.

Also just... the insistence of shipping your two (again, usually white) male faves together, often using the excuse of "But the female characters aren't as fleshed out!" - my dude, nor is that one guy mentioned in a throwaway comment by another character and yet fandom's so willing to give one-off male characters rich backstories and inner lives and just refuses to do that for the female ones. For the trans ones. For the characters of colour. It hacks me off and it's just fucking lazy.

And that's why I generally don't read slash anymore.

35. What aspects of your writing are completely unlike your real life?

I mean, I ran monsterblog for... several years, but my niche interest is Archaeology not Biology. As for actual fic... while I have codependent tendencies I'm pretty strict about managing those these days and I've certainly never been as codependent as certain characters I've written. And unlike Percy in Ghost Cass, I do not have the disembodied voice of one of my siblings in my head. I don't go adventuring like VM, and I am someone who Does Not Like travelling, especially long distances or overseas - I'm terrified of getting lost or running out of funds somewhere I don't speak the language.

Otherwise... I don't know? I often use things I've noted in my own life to help flesh out the world - the way that a valley can spread out down below you, golden fields split by green hedgerows, the way the cold wind can bite at your face, the soft cut of salt in the air when you're near the coast, the way birdsong can trill through the air. And with characters - quirks of eyebrows, the way a mouth twists, certain aspects of posture and movement.

I like using these little things I note day to day to help ground a story in a sense of reality, like the way a grounding touch can draw you out of your own thoughts. The point is to take something fantastical and bring it back to something the reader can easily understand and grasp - can relate to. That way, no matter how outlandish a thing one writes about - facing the bright, burning fireball of a dragon's breath, lets say - can be given a sense of reality by a reminder of the acrid scent of burning hair, the way the fire fills one's whole vision, the raw sting that lingers on the skin like lasting sunburn.

It makes the fantastical real.

39. Is any aspect of your writing process inspired by other writers or people? If so, who?

So back when I was in the MCU fandom, I used to write a lot of Maximoff twins fics. Like a lot. Like over 200 lots.

And most of these were oneshots. Some of these were way-overlong oneshots (looking at you, Crimson Peak AU) but still - they were oneshots. And I got in the habit of writing these in a vignette style, small snippet scenes, capsule moments that gave an idea of the overall story while still being only a few thousand words, if that. Each of the sections was marked by a lower-case numeral and there could be as few as five and as many as... I think I got up to 100 in the Crimson Peak AU.

I stole this way of doing vignette fics wholecloth from the wonderful @cosmonauthill. They used it as a way of doing simple fics for a prompt game and I found it so helpful for actually finishing fics, because I could just organise snapshot scenes into rough order and not write the dull in-betweens. I'm also very envious of Niamh's ability to very deftly create an atmosphere or a visual image of a written scene and emulating what they've managed to do in some of their fics has definitely pushed me to improve.

I also attribute a lot of my... I don't know... particular way of thinking about things, and how I try to empathise with and even write characters I don't like and struggle with to @tobermoriansass, who taught me to more carefully think about alternate perspectives and where they originate from, even if I don't agree with them, and a lot of my specific thoughts about Campaign 1 and certain notes I'll repeatedly bring up in fics are absolutely due to discussions I had with @chamerionwrites as I was watching the Campaign. Chamerion has a very measured way of explaining their thoughts that really helps to understand how they got there and why they think they make sense and I generally find that more compelling than other arguments.

And also, through all of these, it's pushed me to want to make sure that even when you disagree with a character's choice you still understand where they're coming from. Niamh's ability to deftly set the atmosphere and Mike's to present the perspective and Chamerion's to put it all together coherently - knowing all three of them has pushed me to improve in these ways due to these things I admire deeply about all of them.

[aelaer]

1 ,10, 23 & 26 for the fic writer ask game? (Sorry that it's so many but I wanted an eve split between reading and writing. 😄)

This is the ask post, since I posted it like, ages ago. See previous post for delay excuses lmao.

1- How long ago did you start reading fanfiction? Writing fanfiction? Oh god I'm old, 2003 for both. Freaking 20 year anniversary next summer/fall, respectively. I already knew I enjoyed writing by that time and when I discovered fanfic (I don't remember how I learned of it--possibly a school friend? Possibly Neopets?) in late spring/early summer, it only took me until early September to start posting. I know the date because my first fic is still live (though it has been edited several dozen times lmao).

10- What’s your favorite fandom, pairing, or character to read fic for? 2003-2011: LOTR, Aragorn-based, usually Arwen was the pairing if it figured at all into the story (because just like now, romance wasn't my main genre). 2012-2016: Fanfic break! RP took over entirely. 2017-2018: BBC Sherlock, Sherlock, pairing didn't matter, no faves there. I read gen, Johnlock, Sherlolly, and whatever Sherlock/Irene was called. And I even read a few rarer pairs like with Lestrade and Moriarty. I rarely click on incest stuff, that's a squick for me. 2019-now: MCU, Stephen Strange, and no preferred pairing. My bookmarked stories include Tony, Christine, Wong, Mordo, Loki, but my super-faves tend to be in the good ol' gen/found family category.

23- What’s your absolute favorite trope to write? According to AO3, it's "Hurt Stephen Strange" *snort*. Which, yeah, probably. Also I like have him abducted because if we're gonna make it hurt, might as well make the situation really, really suck. Overall I'd say "angst with a happy ending" is basically the definition of 90% of my pieces.

26- What’s your biggest distraction when writing? Research. I start looking things up and go down a research rabbit hole, and definitely look at things that are not at all necessary for the story. It's a big reason why I have to now dedicate time to just writing and put footnotes for fillers to research later

[fozmeadows]

race & culture in fandom

For the past decade, English language fanwriting culture post the days of LiveJournal and Strikethrough has been hugely shaped by a handful of megafandoms that exploded across AO3 and tumblr – I’m talking Supernatural, Teen Wolf, Dr Who, the MCU, Harry Potter, Star Wars, BBC Sherlock – which have all been overwhelmingly white. I don’t mean in terms of the fans themselves, although whiteness also figures prominently in said fandoms: I mean that the source materials themselves feature very few POC, and the ones who are there tended to be done dirty by the creators.

Periodically, this has led POC in fandom to point out, extremely reasonably, that even where non-white characters do get central roles in various media properties, they’re often overlooked by fandom at large, such that the popular focus stays primarily on the white characters. Sometimes this happened (it was argued) because the POC characters were secondary to begin with and as such attracted less fan devotion (although this has never stopped fandoms from picking a random white gremlin from the background cast and elevating them to the status of Fave); at other times, however, there has been a clear trend of sidelining POC leads in favour of white alternatives (as per Finn, Poe and Rose Tico being edged out in Star Wars shipping by Hux, Kylo and Rey). I mention this, not to demonize individuals whose preferred ships happen to involve white characters, but to point out the collective impact these trends can have on POC in fandom spaces: it’s not bad to ship what you ship, but that doesn’t mean there’s no utility in analysing what’s popular and why through a racial lens.

All this being so, it feels increasingly salient that fanwriting culture as exists right now developed under the influence and in the shadow of these white-dominated fandoms – specifically, the taboo against criticizing or critiquing fics for any reason. Certainly, there’s a hell of a lot of value to Don’t Like, Don’t Read as a general policy, especially when it comes to the darker, kinkier side of ficwriting, and whether the context is professional or recreational, offering someone direct, unsolicited feedback on their writing style is a dick move. But on the flipside, the anti-criticism culture in fanwriting has consistently worked against fans of colour who speak out about racist tropes, fan ignorance and hurtful portrayals of living cultures. Voicing anything negative about works created for free is seen as violating a core rule of ficwriting culture – but as that culture has been foundationally shaped by white fandoms, white characters and, overwhelmingly, white ideas about what’s allowed and what isn’t, we ought to consider that all critical contexts are not created equal.

Right now, the rise of C-drama (and K-drama, and J-drama) fandoms is seeing a surge of white creators – myself included – writing fics for fandoms in which no white people exist, and where the cultural context which informs the canon is different to western norms. Which isn’t to say that no popular fandoms focused on POC have existed before now – K-pop RPF and anime fandoms, for example, have been big for a while. But with the success of The Untamed, more western fans are investing in stories whose plots, references, characterization and settings are so fundamentally rooted in real Chinese history and living Chinese culture that it’s not really possible to write around it. And yet, inevitably, too many in fandom are trying to do just that, treating respect for Chinese culture or an attempt to understand it as optional extras – because surely, fandom shouldn’t feel like work. If you’re writing something for free, on your own time, for your own pleasure, why should anyone else get to demand that you research the subject matter first?

Because it matters, is the short answer. Because race and culture are not made-up things like lightsabers and werewolves that you can alter, mock or misunderstand without the risk of hurting or marginalizing actual real people – and because, quite frankly, we already know that fandom is capable of drawing lines in the sand where it chooses. When Brony culture first reared its head (hah), the online fandom for My Little Pony – which, like the other fandoms we’re discussing here, is overwhelmingly female – was initially welcoming. It felt like progress, that so many straight men could identify with such a feminine show; a potential sign that maybe, we were finally leaving the era of mainstream hypermasculine fandom bullshit behind, at least in this one arena. And then, in pretty much the blink of an eye, things got overwhelmingly bad. Artists drawing hardcorn porn didn’t tag their works as adult, leading to those images flooding the public search results for a children’s show. Women were edged out of their own spaces. Bronies got aggressive, posting harsh, ugly criticism of artists whose gijinka interpretations of the Mane Six as humans were deemed insufficiently fuckable.

The resulting fandom conflict was deeply unpleasant, but in the end, the verdict was laid down loud and clear: if you cannot comport yourself like a decent fucking person – if your base mode of engagement within a fandom is to coopt it from the original audience and declare it newly cool only because you’re into it now; if you do not, at the very least, attempt to understand and respect the original context so as to engage appropriately (in this case, by acknowledging that the media you’re consuming was foundational to many women who were there before you and is still consumed by minors, and tagging your goddamn porn) – then the rest of fandom will treat you like a social biohazard, and rightly so.

Here’s the thing, fellow white people: when it comes to C-drama fandoms and other non-white, non-western properties? We are the Bronies.

Not, I hasten to add, in terms of toxic fuckery – though if we don’t get our collective shit together, I’m not taking that darkest timeline off the table. What I mean is that, by virtue of the whiteminding which, both consciously and unconsciously, has shaped current fan culture, particularly in terms of ficwriting conventions, we’re collectively acting as though we’re the primary audience for narratives that weren’t actually made with us in mind, being hostile dicks to Chinese and Chinese diaspora fans when they take the time to point out what we’re getting wrong. We’re bristling because we’ve conceived of ficwriting as a place wherein No Criticism Occurs without questioning how this culture, while valuable in some respects, also serves to uphold, excuse and perpetuate microaggresions and other forms of racism, lashing out or falling back on passive aggression when POC, quite understandably, talk about how they’re sick and tired of our bullshit.

An analogy: one of the most helpful and important tags on AO3 is the one for homophobia, not just because it allows readers to brace for or opt out of reading content they might find distressing, but because it lets the reader know that the writer knows what homophobia is, and is employing it deliberately. When this concept is tagged, I – like many others – often feel more able to read about it than I do when it crops up in untagged works of commercial fiction, film or TV, because I don’t have to worry that the author thinks what they’re depicting is okay. I can say definitively, “yes, the author knows this is messed up, but has elected to tell a messed up story, a fact that will be obvious to anyone who reads this,” instead of worrying that someone will see a fucked up story blind and think “oh, I guess that’s fine.” The contextual framing matters, is the point – which is why it’s so jarring and unpleasant on those rare occasions when I do stumble on a fic whose author has legitimately mistaken homophobic microaggressions for cute banter. This is why, in a ficwriting culture that otherwise aggressively dislikes criticism, the request to tag for a certain thing – while still sometimes fraught – is generally permitted: it helps everyone to have a good time and to curate their fan experience appropriately.

But when white and/or western fans fail to educate ourselves about race, culture and the history of other countries and proceed to deploy that ignorance in our writing, we’re not tagging for racism as a thing we’ve explored deliberately; we’re just being ignorant at best and hateful at worst, which means fans of colour don’t know to avoid or brace for the content of those works until they get hit in the face with microaggresions and/or outright racism. Instead, the burden is placed on them to navigate a minefield not of their creation: which fans can be trusted to write respectfully? Who, if they make an error, will listen and apologise if the error is explained? Who, if lived experience, personal translations or cultural insights are shared, can be counted on to acknowledge those contributions rather than taking sole credit? Too often, fans of colour are being made to feel like guests in their own house, while white fans act like a tone-policing HOA.

Point being: fandom and ficwriting cultures as they currently exist badly need to confront the implicit acceptance of racism and cultural bias that underlies a lot of community rules about engagement and criticism, and that needs to start with white and western fans. We don’t want to be the new Bronies, guys. We need to do better.  

[althcr]

alright, before ep8 dropped i had said that i had a rant locked and loaded so let me write something small up for that before i get to my overall thoughts on the show in a different post.

now this is my big problem with the shows "who is the dragon reborn”-mystery, and to be honest my general problem if a mystery or a whodunit in a crime show is done in exactly the same way *coughsherlockcough*. (note, this is just my rant/my opinion, if you disagree, that’s fine.) i was already torn about the way they were dragging the mystery out without properly explaining important lore information (ie. no one should be happy about their fave being the DR) and to the detriment of certain characters developments, but it was the reveal in ep7 that truly showed me that they had done indeed the trope i despise the most.

setting up a mystery that viewers will want to try and solve together with the characters, without giving the viewers all the important details to even be able to properly solve it.

bbc’s sherlock had done this a lot because the creators wanted to “outsmart” their viewers and about got’s “subverting of expectations” we don’t even need to talk anymore. in this specific instance i know that they had kept a lot of rand’s backstory in secret, because they knew it would immediately tell everyone who the actual DR candidate is. i understand exactly why they’ve done it like this, i just vehemently disagree with its execution.

they showed us the rand and tam scene for three-five seconds during his DR “reveal”, but never before even gave rand any emotions or lines that would set it up/indicate that he was even struggling with finding out that tam is not his actual father (rand’s single focus on egwene and therefore lack of focus on the whole family situation is another issue, but lets not go there). they showed him actually channeling when he broke through the door, but deliberately left the channeling out when the scene happened in episode 2. sure i understand it was to keep the mystery, but if you deliberately edit out clues and keep other clues hidden away and only show them during the reveal, that is for me shit storytelling for a mystery. the only clue that was an actual clue was when he channeled instead of egwene during the ways, because the channeling wasn’t edited out and it could have been either of the two who had done it.

the fact that there are comments made about aiel and their red hair but then loial being the only one ever commenting on rand’s red hair is another way how they tried to keep that part of the mystery hidden, but for me also doesn’t completely work with the shows lore. sure, there is my book knowledge coming through where his red hair gets commented on by nearly every new person they meet, but the same can also be said about the heron marked sword that’s basically nearly a non-entity in the show.

tldr: i absolutely hate this lazy storytelling method of deliberately hiding and cutting away clues so your viewers will be at a disadvantage and you can “outsmart” them during the reveal of your mystery. without getting important clues a lot of mysteries can’t even be properly solved and that is bad writing and bad storytelling.

[littlenymphie]

𝒘 𝒓 𝒊 𝒕 𝒊 𝒏 𝒈 ’ 𝒔 𝒇 𝒂 𝒒

hello readers!!! let me tell you about my writing process. i’m more of a “pantser” when it comes to writing, which is like a writing term for someone who doesn’t really plot or outlines. they write by the “seat of their pants”.

i’ve been writing on and off since the early 2010s, but i’ve recently decided to come back and stick with it. i’m still learning how to write smut and plot driven works, which is where i struggle a bit. but other than that, i think im pretty decent for someone who took an impromptu 4 year break. anyways, let’s get to the actual faq, shall we? 🤎

📹 who do you write for? — i write for myself. first and foremost. i am a 5’2ft curvy latina with curly/wavy hair and pale skin. some of my work will have a reader with those features. but, for the most part, i tend to naturally write completely ambiguous readers, especially when the fic does not revolve around them or is devoid of any smut. for the fics that i’ve written in those features, i will include a disclaimer at the beginning.

📹 who do you write about? — i write about anyone that i simp for tbh. this list DEFINITELY fluctuates, given my tendency to have like a new fictional crush every week. the bolded names already have fics out while the others i have ideas for and/or unfinished fics of.

• original characters

• marvel characters

thor odinson — bucky barnes — steve rogers — natasha romanoff

• chilling adventures of sabrina characters

prudence blackwood — ambrose spellman

• outer banks characters

jj maybank — rafe cameron

• miscellaneous characters

sherlock holmes (bbc) — ransom drysdale

📹 what do you write? — below you’ll see some of the kinks and tropes that will most frequently appear in my works. however, my work is not limited to them. the top faves are bolded

• some of my fave kinks

knife play — blood play — size difference — impact play — dubcon — cnc — bondage — primal/prey — somnophilia — overstimulation —

• some of my fave tropes & aus

enemies to lovers — friends to lovers — fuck or die — sex pollen — a/b/o — exophilia — dadsbestfriend — bestfriendsdad — ddlg — royal — mafia — polyamory — college — dark content

📹 what don’t you write? — i would not call these my hard limits. however, some of them definitely are, like the kinks and the characters. i’m a new (mostly soft) occasional dark writer so this list is subject to change. it serves more as a guide for requests than a rule.

• romanticization and/or sexualization of the following…

suicide — mental health — neurodivergency — disability — homophobia — transphobia — xenophobia — necrophilia — pedophilia — beastialiity — feces — race — weight — incest — feederism

• nsfw content of underaged and following characters…

tony stark — pepper potts — nick fury — thanos — the hulk — loki laufeyson — endgame!thor odinson

🗓 posting schedule? — none at the moment.

🏷 taglist? — yup!!! send me an ask, and i’ll add you. you can specify which characters too!!! make sure to not be on anon.

💬 taking requests? — CLOSED!!! when open anything goes except what i listed before under “dont write” section. but i hv the right to deny or to not finish any request bc it’s all for free. (no, i will NOT be using the post+ feature on any works)

[writingwife-83]

My 2020 Sherlolly Self Interview

Thanks for organizing this fun activity @sherlollyappreciationweek! 🎉 I’ll start out with a very brief “about me” section-

I live in the northeast area of the USA, I’ve been married for seventeen years, have one teenage son, and I’m in my *gulp* late thirties now. I do volunteer ministry work and also work part time from home. Among other leisure activities, obviously I love writing! I started writing original fiction when I was a preteen, but I’ve been writing fanfic under the pen name “writingwife83” for over six years now. I discovered fanfic and the world of online fandom after becoming obsessed with BBC Sherlock in 2014 after s3 aired. I read The Full House, fell in love with the whole concept of fanfic, specifically for sherlolly, and couldn’t help but give it a go myself. And as they say, the rest is history!

Below the cut I’ll talk about some of the topics and fics suggested by followers/readers. Buckle up cuz it’s a lot lol...

Ok, first up to be kind enough to give me some feedback is @readstoomuch. You said- “what inspires you. Any story (I love them all!). Who do you love writing? Who is hardest for you? And which is that one story that you had fun doing?”

As for what inspires me, first and foremost it’s the show and characters itself. Watching those two on screen, it’s not hard to be inspired! But beyond that, I find a lot of inspiration in music and art, and just generally in other creative works and people. I think for a while I had my own internal inspiration and no lack of it, but as months dragged into years lol, I have found that the rest of the shippers are invaluable in filling the gaps when I lack inspiration and motivation. Some prompts I’ve gotten from others have taken on a life I never would have expected, and that’s pretty great. I honestly don’t think writing works best as a purely solitary activity. I know myself and although there is an aspect of my writing that will always be “for me,” that’s absolutely not all it is. It’s the fun of creating with others and it’s the fun of sharing with others.

As for who I love writing and who’s hardest, I think I’ve always felt pretty comfortable writing the main characters in Sherlock. I probably especially love writing Sherlock himself because he’s fun to break down and really dig deep into his emotions and thought processes. There have definitely been times some of the side characters have overwhelmed me and made me nervous about conveying their voices accurately. For instance, Mycroft can be tough if it involves pulling him out of his shell in a way that still feels believable and true to character.

That one story I had fun doing? Well there’s no way I can say just one. 😆 As far as reader response, there’s no other fic that can compare to the fun of I Told You So, that’s for sure. But as far as the actual plotting and creating, I think the fics I’ve had the most fun with are the multi-chapters I’ve done since becoming good friends with @thisisartbylexie. Having her as a sounding board, plotting buddy, and editor has absolutely increased my creating fun and has definitely also made me a better writer.

Thanks so much for asking @readstoomuch 🥰

Alrighty, @thisisartbylexie, you asked- if there's a fic that you ever wanted to go back to change in some way, which one would it be and why? Which one do you feel "oh wow, did I write that?" in a super positive way?

Idk how to choose just one fic. There are plenty that could use some changing lol! One I’d like to fix though, would be Pleased to Meet You. I know (because I’ve been told) that there’s inaccuracies in that one seeing as I’m not personally familiar with university settings in the UK. I did actually attempt research and I thought I got the idea, but apparently it didn’t work out terribly well. But the plotting and progression of that fic is one I’ve always been happy with, so I guess I feel like it’s a shame if it came off messy in some general ways and distracted from the rest of it. I like how I was able to weave that one into the canon of the show up to that point. And tbh it actually still fits as a uni backstory for them without any conflicts to the canon. As much as I enjoy canon divergence and AU, I also have a big soft spot for fics that simply connect seamlessly to what we’ve already been given.

As for “oh wow, did I write that?” I think one of my proudest accomplishments has been Zephyr. That fic kinda has it all lol. The tropes, the pining, the romance, the Victorian setting...ugh I love it. And there’s a climactic kiss moment in that fic that’s one of my faves I’ve written. I’m so glad I wrote it because of the Sherlolly Remix Challenge in ‘16, and at your suggestion, Lexie. But I will also be forever sad that I had to release that fic all at once on AO3 once completed. That fic would have been great fun to be writing and posting as I went along! And on top of being happy with the fic itself and how it came out, I’m awfully proud of the fact that you were excited enough about the fic to illustrate it, and that @goodshipsherlolly enjoyed it enough to record it as an audio fic. Honestly, what more could a writer ask for? 🥺

@mizjoely, you said you’d like to hear anything about The Queen’s Man. Okey doke, you got it lol!

I actually went back and read through most of that fic when I got this because it had been a long time since I’d looked at it. I gotta be honest that in hindsight...I’m a little surprised it did as well as it did.😂🙈 As some may remember, it started because I saw a magnificent manip and wanted to write something to go with it, and then because that was well received, somehow it just kept going. I did very little world building and development of characters in that fic. It was largely just one shippy, romantic, pining scene after another lol. At the end I did kinda tie it all in and wrapped the story up ok, but it was definitely one of those self indulgent fics where I didn’t feel like doing the hard parts and really just wanted to write the fun stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I loved writing it, and I’m so glad it got the positive reception that it did! But it just kinda makes me laugh because it goes to show sometimes you don’t know what’s going to do really well. You could agonize over clever plotting and world building and character development etc, and be so super proud of the finished product and all your hard work, but then you share and the response is like “meh.” And then other times you legit just throw something together with barely any careful thought, and the crowd goes wild! But aside from all that, the visuals in my head of that AU are just too drool worthy to me. Molly in Medieval royal attire? Sherlock in dark armor with a Purple Tunic of Sex™️ underneath? The two of them lingering in the dimly lit hallways and rooms of a castle and gazing endlessly in mutual pining? Yes to all.

Thanks for asking @mizjoely 😘

Ok wow, see what I mean? That was long! 🤣 If you read all the way through this whole thing, *Moriarty voice* thank you...bless you. Honestly, this ship is amazing and I don’t think I’ll ever have a writing experience anywhere else like I’ve had here. I’ve seen the other side of things in another fandom now, so I can all the more so confirm that there’s no ship quite like sherlolly. The warmth, reception, and longevity is mind blowing and I’m just awfully happy to have played a part in creating for the beauty that is Sherlock Holmes and Molly Hooper. 💕

[inevitably-johnlocked]

hey hey, it's axel again! you can just call me axe for short though :) i just came to ask how are you doing. i really appreciate you and your page a lot (hm i wonder why 😆) so don't be surprised if i come and check up on you to see how you're doing once in a while 💖 also, my girlfriend said hey and she was interested in knowing what's your favourite sherlock episode and why? also, i already seen all the sherlock episodes, watched them 'til we were finished for date nights! much love from axe x

(referencing this post)

Hey Axel!!!

Ahhhh, I’m so happy to hear from you, and I’m glad you guys enjoyed the entire series, LOL. I hope you guys are having many more awesome date nights! You should watch The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes and The Princess Bride some night; Mofftiss have claimed they were inspiration in the past for BBCS, but meh, even if it’s not true, they’re very good movies :) OH and WATCH THE UNAIRED PILOT. It’s... A Lot™. 

Ahh, oh boy it’s tough to pick jus tone fave...... because I love a lot of episodes but, I gotta say, I think I still love The Abominable Bride the most, because there’s SO much subtext and we see just how much Sherlock loves John just from that subtext. I dunno, I always enjoy watching it. But if you want episodes, I guess TSo3 because I’m a SUCKER for pining Sherlock, and I KNOW everyone hates S3, but I really like S3 because it was looking promising to make for an amazing climax and resolution seasons for S4 and S5. BLEH. Of the two good series, then, I love THoB. I dunno why. It’s got everything: military kink, pining idiots, jealous idiots, on-a-holiday trope, BAMF John and soft Sherlock GUH. It’s great. 

So yeah, LOL.

I hope you guys are keeping safe and doing well!! Take care!! <3

EDIT: OH!! Did you guys see the cute fic inspired by your situation??? It’s adorbs :)

[meetinginsamarra]

My Fave Sherlock BBC tropes - Casefics

Around mid-month I’ll do a fic rec list with my fave AU genres or tropes. Summaries are taken from OP on AO3.

Okay, so there are obviously a lot of Sherlock fics where a case gets solved. Here, I only include the especially plotty ones.

*********************************

“The Case of the Green Gown” by splix

https://archiveofourown.org/works/2659472

...Watson had at that time deserted me for a wife, the only selfish action which I can recall in our association. I was alone.  -Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier

(Please ignore this useless summary! This is hands down the most complex but still completely logical casefic I’ve ever read. Layers upon layers of stunning reveals, intriguing case and beautiful characterization of our beloved. Awesome!)

“Ten Days” (part 1 of “The Fallen” series) by Engazed @engazed​

https://archiveofourown.org/works/456761

Sherlock Holmes has been dead for forty months, and John is at last beginning to live his life again. But just when he believes he might be happy, his world crashes back down around him.

John is named a missing person. Someone is pointing DI Lestrade in the wrong direction. And as the days pass, his situation only grows more dire. It seems like the disappearance of his best friend is the only thing that can bring Sherlock Holmes back from the dead.

“The Slash Man” (part 2 of “The Fallen” series) by Engazed @engazed

https://archiveofourown.org/works/949101

After ten days of unspeakable torture at the hands of Sherlock's worst enemies, John Watson has returned to Baker Street to live with a man whose death, no matter how fake, still haunts him. But his recovery is not easy, his friendship with Sherlock is strained, and a dangerous but hidden menace continues to threaten them both.

(”Blackbird, Fly” is part 3 and currently a WIP)

“The Green Blade” by verityburns @verity-burns​

https://archiveofourown.org/works/320879

As a serial killer hits the headlines, the police are out of their depth and the next victim is out of time. With faith in Sherlock Holmes at an all time low, this is a case which will push loyalties to the limit...

“A Goose Quill Dipped in Venom” by Polyphony

https://archiveofourown.org/works/344050

Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective, is called in to a very ordinary although brutal murder. Something is badly out of tune with the whole scenario and Sherlock finds himself becoming more and more obsessed with the crime - and also with the victim.

“The Iceman cometh” by Polyphony

https://archiveofourown.org/works/539555

Title from the Eugene O'Neill play of the same name. An intriguing puzzle tempts Sherlock to accept Victor Trevor's invitation to the French Riviera, but all is not what it seems. Frustrated by the case and increasingly concerned about an absent John, Sherlock uncovers far more than he was meant to and is forced to become a fugitive, pursued by those on both sides of the law, as he fights for his freedom and the lives of all those around him.

“The Edinburgh Problem” (part 1 of “Scotland series”) by snorklepie @snorklepie

https://archiveofourown.org/works/2392997

“A nice holiday, just a bit more...murdery.” John said drily. “Yes! The best kind of holiday!” Sherlock beamed. “So we won’t get bored!”

After he separates from Mary, John returns to Baker Street. Following a request for help from Sherlock's cousin Violet, the detective and his blogger take a trip to Edinburgh. John discovers more about the Holmes family and Sherlock than he bargained for, but tries not to run screaming.

“October to Hogmanay” (part 2 of “Scotland series”) by snorklepie @snorklepie

https://archiveofourown.org/works/3606486

“What are we, now?” John mused aloud, once they were in a cab heading back to Baker street. It was a cool, damp afternoon and Sherlock was studying the passers-by with detached interest. He glanced over at John with a raised eyebrow, his fingers idly worrying at one of the buttons on his coat.

“Nothing seems quite right. What would you call me, if somebody asked?” John waved a hand vaguely at the space between them. “What do we call… this?”

(”Savage Music, Sombre Light” is part 3 and currently a WIP)

“Periodic Tales -series” (18 fics) by 7PercentSolution @7-percent​

https://archiveofourown.org/series/504749

Lots of science, lots of case fic! This is Sherlock as chemist, using the periodic table of elements for many different reasons. Each story is centred around one particular element, in two parts. One focuses on aspects of Sherlock's childhood and events in his life; the other part shows how that has influenced his abilities as the world's only consulting detective, demonstrated through a case fic that shows off his deducing skills.

(most of Seven’s fics could be put onto this list btw, but I’ll add only one more)

“Devonshire Squires” (part 8 of “Fallen Angel” - series) by 7PercentSolution @7-percent

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11830755

Post THE/Pre So3, John and Sherlock try to rebuild bridges, but a demanding case challenges both of their assumptions about what happened to the other one during the hiatus. Lestrade tries to play peacemaker, but Mycroft's meddling is counter-productive. Case fic, sickfic and angst all rolled into one misery-laden ball of reading pleasure

“Midnight Blue Serenity” by BeautifulFiction @the-pen-pot​

https://archiveofourown.org/works/635897

“This was like nothing John had ever thought to associate with Sherlock: stubble, skin-tight jeans and three small silver rings gleaming at the crest of one ear. It was unbelievable, like stepping into an alternative universe, and John couldn't stop staring.”

When Sherlock infiltrates a club in order to track down a serial killer, his altered appearance is enough to make John question his assumption that Sherlock is beyond his reach. However, is he the only one who appreciates his flatmate's charms, or is Sherlock at risk of becoming the next victim?

“The Adventure of the Body Snatchers” by dioscureantwins

https://archiveofourown.org/works/5574523

“Body snatchers,” whispered a girl. “Oh, Mr Holmes. Oh, Davey…” Her eyes watered and with heaving shoulders she buried her face into her neighbour’s overcoat.

Sherlock looked perplexed. “Is this one of those pop culture things?” he asked the room at large.

John nodded and drank the last of his tea while his flatmate rolled his eyes before leaping to his feet.

“Right. I can’t think with so much stupidity in the room.” He began making shooing motions at the distraught girl and the boy who sat comforting her as well as the others. “Everybody out. John and I don’t have time for this nonsense. Out, out, all of you.”

“The Moonlight and the Frost” by CaitlinFairchild

https://archiveofourown.org/works/1998777

“And once again, you think you know what’s best for me.”

John rises from the chair, the anger and frustration and hurt overwhelming him, bursting out of every pore, and he doesn’t even know for sure that it’s Sherlock he’s angry at, really, but the only reason he tied himself to Mary in the first place is because the person he really loved left him behind, and the woman he married once sat in the shadows above a darkened swimming pool and aimed a sniper rifle at his heart and later shot his best friend in cold blood and cuckolded him and just gave birth to a child that wasn’t his and right now he just can’t do this, he just fucking can’t do this anymore.

John has to somehow rebuild his life in the wake of Mary's betrayal and Sherlock's deceptions.

“Sketchy” by serpentynka

https://archiveofourown.org/works/1090850

What (and who) will be left when nobody cares about your Work? A slow-burn fic with cases, places, mistaken identities, unfair choices, essential changes, violent feels, blatant lies, fearless portraiture, family secrets, high-risk bespoke gifts, durable friendships, bedtime stories, foreign travel and tongues, sickness (and health), and the significance of things which are slow to unfurl -- but cannot be ignored. Oh, and...porn.

“All the best and brightest creatures” by wordstrings

https://archiveofourown.org/works/582059

Sherlock sent Jim Moriarty to prison for killing Carl Powers at age ten. This is the story of the consequences.

“The adventure of the silver scars” by tangledblue

https://archiveofourown.org/works/5131763

“All this does not mean that I’m not still basically pissed off with you. I’m very pissed off, and it will come out now and then.” –His Last Vow   It’s been thirteen months since Mary shot Sherlock and John finds he’s still pissed off about it. Sherlock had thought everything was settled: John and Mary, domestic bliss. But when John turns up at Baker Street with suitcases, the world’s only consulting detective might not be prepared for the consequences. A new case. Some old scores to settle. Certain danger. Concertos, waltzes, and whisky.

“Major Pieces” by Lindentreeisle (Captainblue)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/162152

Sherlock knew that he could thoroughly rely upon John Watson's moral sense. And that's why he knew that Lestrade was wrong, wrong, wrong.

[mizjoely]

In case you didn’t know...

...I have many side blogs, most of them BBC Sherlock or Ben C. related (but not all). I am mizjoely, yes, but I am also (*DRAMATICALLY WHISKS CURTAIN AWAY FROM STACK OF SIDEBLOGS*):

Adstrade-Lestradler - As advertised. Home for one of my fave rare/crack!pairs

BBC Sherlock References - Just an attempt to help people who are looking for references for various sets, characters, costumes, dialogue, etc.

Benedicterotica - Sensuous manips, fanart, gifs and pics of the fabulous Mr. C! Rather NSFW/lemony, so be warned!

Khanolly Cannoli Canoodling (mizjoely’s Khanolly blog) -  A home for all the Khanolly (BC’s Khan & Molly) fics, manips, art and others posts.

Life-on-the-magic-roundabout -  A home for Cabin Pressure fanart, broken out by episode and character.

Sherlollilists - Like Victorian!lock? Wed!lock? Teen!lock? Uni!lock? Got a hankerin' for a wankerin'? Find all that & more here! All your favorite tropes listed in one convenient location.

Sherlolly Fanart - Lists organized by artists and some favorite tropes like Victorian, snuggling, kissing, etc.

Sherlollyfun - Gifs, picsets, picfics, crack, fanvids, etc. of our favorite duo!

And last but not least, mizjoely’s-forever-reblogs, which is my non-fandom faves. Looking for that one post about the squirrel on the birdfeeder? It might be here! How about that post showing the real life Simpson’s intro? Got it! Go, shoo, explore!

[jamlocked]

C, J, U, V and X :))

C -  A ship you have never liked and probably never will.

Ohhhh, boy. I could go three ways on this really...or maybe two, idk. I feel like my answer will be taken as problematic - - and I’m going for it anyway, because it’s just my opinion. 

The ship I dislike the most is Sherlolly. It’s not because I don’t like Molly - I do, a lot. It’s not because that would make Sherlock straight or bi - the whole argument that used to fly about that Sherlolly = homophobic is fucking gross. It’s just not a ship that does anything for me. I used to think that I just found it boring (and this is NOT me saying that Molly is boring, or het romance is boring, or any of that), but I’ve come to realise it’s mostly because it vibes with the part of Sherlock’s narrative I like the least. The whole, ‘Sherlock was weird and abnormal with no friends, but now we’re going to turn him into a complete human being’, thing. Which, VOMIT. 

Again, I’m not saying that het romance is too ‘normal’ to fit here. Sherlock could have a massive thing with Irene, and that would have a vibe I like far more. The issue I have with Sherlolly is that Sherlock has always been an extreme type of character in whatever canon. Molly, in BBC canon, is this wonderful character Sherlock came to find a great friend in. The notion that he could ‘learn to be normal/complete’ seems to be the arc of the four seasons, complete with the whole ‘I love you’ scene in TFP, where they full dangled the possibility of future!canon!Sherlolly by at least making Sherlock think about it seriously. It seems to equate with ‘the more we teach Sherlock to fit into ‘normal’ society, the more chance he has of having a ‘normal’ relationship, with someone...’ - okay, I’m not going to hold Molly up as a bastion of normality, given she falls for sociopaths and does autopsies, but even if you take that into consideration, it’s still the most ‘normal’ relationship the writers could put him into. A casual viewer would go, ‘he’s got a girlfriend now, he behaves better, he gets on with his family, he’s straight/white/upper middle-class = totally a character I’m easy with’. 

And that’s just not what interests me when it comes to relationships I want to watch. Now, if we’re talking about dark!Molly who’s into Glee and cats, but also runs a black market organ business and wants Sherlock to help sort out the competition - I’m totally here for that. If Molly likes her knitted cardigans and secretly wants to kill Sherlock, while he likes his suits and is madly in love her but also wants to use her to get to her criminal mother who harvests dead bodies and practices necromancy? I’m all ears. 

But ‘Sherlock gets a girlfriend, solves crimes, learns manners and is never obnoxious again, and OH LOOK WE FIXED HIM’ - fuck, no.  ...that was a lot of words, and I didn’t explain it very clearly, but I’ma stop now. 

J -    Name a fandom you didn’t think about until you saw it all over Tumblr. (You don’t have to care about it or follow it; it just has to be something that Tumblr made you aware of.)

Tumblr has made me aware of BTS, The Witcher (although I had seen adverts for that on Amazon, but idk anything about it), Hamilton, Moomin, MASH, The Mentalist, Kyo Dir en Grey, Elementary ...oh man, there must be more, but I forget. I’ve been here a few years now. I’d heard of most of these shows/people before Tumblr, of course, but didn’t know much about them. And still don’t on some of them, but am definitely aware of them now. 

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.

Jim Moriarty, obviously. HE IS SO FUN. And there is such pain under the smirk, and THOSE SUITS, BABY. I am the biggest sucker in the world for obsession, and ...well, see my answer to X in a minute. There’s nothing about him I don’t ove. So much scope to play with in fic as well. 

An old fandom of mine - Les Mis. My fave character is Javert, because of course I love the most awful dick of them all. Again, with him, see X below. And also again, so much to write about. I literally nearly based a PhD proposal around him, and his representation, his place in 19th century France, his attitudes and where they came from. Did you know the character of Sam Gerard in The Fugitive is based on him? He’s relentless, he’s unforgiving, and he collapses at the end in the most spectacular way possible. Total prick, and I fucking love him. :D

I’m really trying to think of character I love who isn’t a total douche, just for the sake of variety. But I can’t, so lets go with Gene Hunt from Life on Mars. 

I expect most people won’t have heard of/seen this show (but omg they might be making a new series, sa;ldfkjsalfksj I CANNOT :D), but if you can watch it, you should. Gene Hunt is awful - a 70s cop with all the faults of the time. Corrupt, mostly alcoholic, sexist, violent, homophobic, racist...but also hilarious, and there’s a really big heart under there. You learn that he might do nothing but call people the worst names in the world, but he always ends up doing his job in. If you watch this four minute video, you’ll get the gist. If you’re a fan of the Discworld series and you like Sam Vimes, you’ll recognise Gene. He’s the arshetype of Copper, and he goes on this great arc from being the stereotypical bad copper of the 70s, to being something quite different. And he really is hilarious, with insane charisma. He and Sam Tyler are the perfect double act. :D

V - Which character do you relate to most?

Jim Moriarty. I may not be a criminal mastermind, but only because I’m not that smart. And don’t have his level of swag, because c’mon. Who does?

X - A trope which you are almost certain to love in any fandom.

AHAHA. My bulletproof trope is ‘two sides of the same coin’. Sherlock/Moriarty. Javert/Jean Valjean - who, incidentally, were two characters based off one man; Vidocq. (A man who more films should be made about, incidentally.) These two are literally two sides of one man. Even Gene Hunt represents part of Sam’s psyche in Life on Mars, as well as the more obvious old vs new, forensic vs gut instinct. 

But yeah, in literally any fandom, you show me a protagonist and an antagonist that are more or less the same person, and I’m there. Cannot get enough of it. 

[sasquatchandleatherjacket]

Ahhhh your tags on the Sherlock post got me so nostalgic for early bbc Sherlock/John fic it was so!!! Good!! Between s2 and 3. What were your faves??

Oh oh!! Yes so good omg. It’s hard to remember it feels like a lifetime ago! I will rec some (sorry for the ugly formatting I’m on mobile bc my laptop is still broken. 🙄

I think my favorite post reichenbach fics were lucid by dr_girlfriendhttps://archiveofourown.org/works/655032

and the quiet man by ivyblossom https://archiveofourown.org/works/322978

In fact the quiet man was probably the last fic I pulled an all-nighter to read (not to say the fic i read now is less all-nighter worthy, but alas I am older and less able to pull it off!)

26 pieces by lanning is maybe my all time favorite, it’s case-fic with lovey whump and h/c for everyone!!https://archiveofourown.org/works/244826

Off, off book by scullyseviltwin is amazingly scorchingly hot and I can’t recommend enough. https://archiveofourown.org/works/661046

Curious case by cleo2010 has the lovely “someone hurts their hands and can’t, ah, do certain things, ahem, and someone else needs to help them” trope. But it’s also not a pwp, there’s quite a love story. https://archiveofourown.org/works/333574

A cure for boredom by Emmagrant, slow burn but also with gorgeous smut all the way through, surely one of the most popular fics? https://archiveofourown.org/works/335385

Skullduggery by atlinmerrick and this time no (forgiveness) also by Atlinmerrickhttps://archiveofourown.org/works/432116https://archiveofourown.org/works/487409

Epic, real life love story. I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy the second one (no spoilers but it involved a topic I don’t usually care for in fic) but after reading scullduggery I knew I had to. Turned out to be so much more than I ever imagined, and still think about the message of this story almost every day to be honest.

[dragonnan]

For the fic asks: 💡 What’s the weirdest thing you’ve been inspired by?❤️ Who is your favorite character to write for and why?🤔 What’s one genre you’ve never written that you’d like to try?💰 What’s one trope you wouldn’t write, except for money?

Aw lovely!!

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve been inspired by?

My friend told me about a Psych dream she had where the series villain, Yang, was having a dinner party and Shawn was the feast she intended to serve.  This turned into my cannibal story.

Who is your favorite character to write for and why?

This is entirely dependent on what I'm currently into.  In general terms it's usually the lead character.  However with an ensemble cast, such as the Avengers (where basically ALL of them are the lead) I'm drawn most to the character with the greatest degree of trauma.  Though not always. 

So, for example, my two favorite characters to write for with the MCU are Iron Man and Doctor Strange.  Aside from physical and psychological damage, that is pre-existing from the movies, they both also are a combo of witty/sarcastic and arrogant (my fucking kryptonite which I'll expand on as clearly this question will be a longer answer).  For me it's the chance to create vulnerability in a character that has thick walls built around them.  I will never tire of that.  Which is why my list includes characters like Shawn Spencer (Psych), Sherlock Holmes (BBC Sherlock), Jack O'Neill (Stargate - though I left the fandom prior to writing any story, alas), the 10th and 11th Doctor (Doctor Who), and a new favorite, Philias Fogg (Around the World in 80 Days). 

Sometimes, though, I fave the lead because that's literally who the series or film is about and I wouldn't watch it if I didn't love them.  It's just that simple.  But why I CHOSE that show or movie over others - sometimes it's because I love the actor.  Sometimes it's due to that bit of kryptonite mentioned above.  Sometimes I love the concept of the series and I grow to love the lead after watching for a while.

This is exactly why "favorite" questions are so hard to answer lol!   

What’s one genre you’ve never written that you’d like to try?

Not sure it's really a genre... are different kinds of whump genres? lol! They are for me!! I've always wanted to write an amputee story.  Specifically where a character loses a limb and has to go through the stages of loss and recovery and pain and massive life change.  Partly why I haven't tackle it yet is finding the right plot outside of "character loses a limb".  Another aspect is making sure to give the right representation given there are millions of people with these sorts of disabilities living normal lives so I don't want it to disrespect that life.  So, yeah, I'm just waiting for the right time.  I pretty much have the character in mind and maybe after I get through some other projects I'll revisit this idea.

What’s one trope you wouldn’t write, except for money?

Probably smutfic lol.  Not to say I haven't dabbled in the past but honestly it makes me so incredibly uncomfortable that I would need some serious up front "could pay of student loans" level payout.   

[educatedinyellow]

Tagged by @a-candle-for-sherlock, thank you!

Reblog with your answers and tag ten of your favorite fanfic authors!

How many fics have you written?

I currently have 45 up on AO3, though a couple are WIPs. I’ve never posted anything long, most of my stories fall in the 1-5K range. I’ve also written a few stories that have never gone online; those were my early efforts, written for my best friend. There’s a 15,000 word Highlander fic that falls in that category, a few Buffy fics, a few Classic Who vignettes. But they are so embedded in our own storytelling worlds (we spent much of our adolescence telling each other long fanfic-style stories over the phone) that they wouldn’t really make sense to a public audience, I think.

Where do you share your writing?

Mostly on AO3 now, but also on comm fic exchange pages like Holmestice and ACD Holmesfest. I have a bunch of short little comment fics over on the BSG No-Takebacks comm. I still have a fanfiction dot net account, though it hasn’t been updated in a long time.

What is your pseud?

Educatedinyellow here, rachelindeed everywhere else.

Where/when do you usually write?

Hahaha sob. I usually write when I have exhausted myself into it. I find it very difficult to start, and I brainstorm and procrastinate for a long time before buckling down and forcing some words onto the screen. There usually comes a point after I’ve got the first scene written where it becomes easier, but the sad truth is that writing does not flow easily for me and it’s almost always a real effort. I’m sure that’s in part because I have not developed regular writing habits and am a more sporadic contributor. I am always glad that I did it. But to be honest the best part is when it’s over and I can read and enjoy it without having to work on it anymore :)

As to my preferred spaces of writing, I like to have a long stretch of alone-time to work, which sometimes means going to a library. Other times it’s writing at night after my loved ones have gone to bed. And I seem to do a lot of brainstorming in restaurants and grocery stores.

What is your favorite fanfic that you’ve read?

I’ve been reading fanfic for so long that there’s no way I could ever choose one. But if anyone would like to browse through my AO3 bookmarks and see if they find anything to their taste, feel free.

What is your fave fic that you’ve written?

Hard to say. My feelings about my fics change as I get more distance from them. I’ve only written with concerted effort in three fandoms so far - Harry Potter, Battlestar Galactica, and Holmesiana – and looking back over those…

I’d say my favorite Potter fic is probably Severe Reasoning (Snape character study, 4K, T); my favorite BSG fic is probably Forever Taking Leave (Lee/Kara, ghost story, Sixth Sense fusion, 7K, T). With my Holmesian fics I’m still too close to them to judge. With ACD fic, at the moment it’s probably Someone at the scent of orange blossom (H/W, 3K, T). With the BBC fics, I will just say that, although I don’t expect it to wind up at the top of my list in the end, I do have a fond spot in my heart for the first Sherlock fic I ever wrote: The past is prologue (almost meetings, 1.5K, G). It was written for a now-defunct comm called Sherlock Flashfic, in response to the prompt: “a missing hour.”

What inspired you to start writing fanfic?

I’d been reading it for many years. I was swamped in writing and research work of other kinds and wanted to cheer myself up, so I ventured to post a few stories about Severus Snape. It was fun, though I never knew anyone in the Harry Potter fandom and my stories didn’t find many readers. After a while I stumbled into the BSG fandom, which was chock full of friendly and creative people, and I’ve carried on writing ever since.

What is your favorite trope to read?

Maybe magical realism.

What is your fave trope to write?

It’s more of a genre than a trope, but I love to write fusions. Some of my favorite fics have involved imagining how the major elements of one fictional universe would influence the characters of a totally different fictional universe. I’ve written a BSG-Sixth Sense fusion, a couple BSG-Greek mythology fusions, a BSG-Buffy fusion, a BSG-Batman fusion, a Sherlock-Harry Potter fusion, a Sherlock-Doctor Who fusion, and a Sherlock-Star Wars fusion. I keep coming back to that kind of writing, I find it terribly fun.

What is the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever read/heard/would like to share?

Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. That’s what I need to remind myself – don’t be so afraid that you won’t write something great that you wind up not writing anything at all. Allow your story to just be what it could be today, and trust that probably in the end you’ll be happy with it.

What is your favorite feedback you’ve received as an author?

I love every comment I’ve ever gotten, honestly.

Who else would like to do this? @ancientreader? @marsdaydream? @viridiandecisions? @scfrankles? @sanguinarysanguinity? @plaidadder? @odamakilock? @tiltedsyllogism? @discordantwords? Anyone else who wants to, please do and tag me so I can see :)