#my longest work was like 40k and i started that one with an outline i broke into loose chapter-by-chapter summaries

[alternis]

ive been putting my third eye au ideas into a tentative timeline (split into pre-plot and story plot) and man. man. drafting is hell. i think in words so writing itself generally is fine but trying to come up with plot outlines to keep a structure/framework so i dont get bogged in the weeds is real rough.

[heliopauseentertainments]

1,6, and 15 for Reforged?

Reblog if you are a fanfiction author and would like your readers to put one of your fic titles in your ask + questions about it

Fic Context: Reforged

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

Originally, for the fic overall, I was inspired by a post by... I think their handle was squid-in-disguise (but I can't find the original post anymore and the ship-centered blog I reblogged it from almost 2 years ago apparently deleted). When I finish and type the final promo post, I'm going to try and tag them if I can verify OP's handle.

It was a fairly general prompt for if Rodimus visited Caminus and was hailed as a deity. I definitely took it in a different direction than was originally asked for. The original idea had "Megatron had secretly been in love with Rodimus the entire time" and I didn't lean into that as much.

I also went way deeper into Camien religion and history than I think anyone asked for, because I think that's interesting.

I also got to draw parallels with the Original Thirteen (from both IDW and Aligned). Added three drops of my experience with Judaism, threw the whole thing in the blender, and BAM.

TL;DR: I saw a post with an idea and no one stopped me. This is how many of my fics happen.

The rest of the answers are under the cut for length

6: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

We'll take away the sheer length, which far outstrips my other works.

This fic is special/different because:

It gets the most interaction and attention than all of my other fics combined. Something about it resonated with readers and this makes me very proud. I consider myself a very obscure fic author, so I was surprised that anyone even looked at it.

I started writing it on the tail-end of MegaRod being a popular-ish ship. I walked in right when content basically stopped being made (or at least incredibly slowed down to me and two or so other people that I know of). It was just a weird time to get into the ship, which is now almost a rarepair, but especially a weird time to drop a massive novel for it. This ties into the previous point: I'm surprised anyone looked at it.

It's my longest running writing project ever from starting to completion. (I've got up to chapter 98 drafted and only a few chapters after that left to go). Compare that to The Hollow Man, a novella that I slapped out in a month.

It's probably my most obvious example of "canon blending" right now. It's predominantly IDW1, but it's full of both subtle and blatant AU changes, on top of cannibalizing bits and pieces from other continuities, most noticeably Aligned.

It's the first piece I've had that got companion pieces, other little fics set in the same universe or bonus scenes.

It's the only fic of mine that my spouse threatens to write a crack/unhinged version of. For example: trials being based on the Great British Bake-Off

I'm sure there's more but that's what I've got atm.

15: What did you learn from writing this fic?

Novels are hard. Don't write them. I like to think I'm a one-shot and novella specialist, so 40k+ word beasties are not my normal wheelhouse. Some people are best at novels specifically! I do not think I am one of them! Now watch me put my foot in my mouth for Solar Flare.

If you do write one, give yourself a word count and/or a chapter cap. Do not accidentally write something longer than Lord of the Rings (the novel, not the trilogy, but maybe don't write something the length of a trilogy either).

Your brain will sometimes build in foreshadowing for you. Convenient and terrible all at once!

Characters will sometimes provide a story path that you did not plan for. Sometimes this is good! Sometimes this can get away from you and you're at a runaway word count again.

Outlines can be helpful to keep your plot from wandering too far off. I had a very rough outline for this fic of what I needed to hit and whenever something veered too far off, I had something tether it to rather than completely losing the thread. This doesn't work for everyone.

[luthienebonyx]

Fic Writer Ask

I was tagged by @samirant ❤️

Name: Apart from tumblr, I’m Luthien almost everywhere, including AO3

Fandoms I write for: I’ve written for many fandoms. Over the past 2+ years it’s been mostly GoT JB fic, but I’ve also written for a few tiny book fandoms in the past year.

Two-shot: I haven’t technically written a two-shot for JB. I guess Interlude, in Darkness and Interlude, in Sunshine are a thematically linked pair within a longer series (the Aussie Coffee verse) so I’ll say those. So far as other fandoms go, for Once Upon a Time I wrote a Regency AU Love’s Proper Exercise and then a prequel as part of a 4+1.

Most popular multi-chapter: The Personal Touch. This fic is 40k of sexual tension followed by a 12k sex scene sprawling over two chapters, before a bit of angst and an eventual happy ending - so of course it’s my most popular multi-chapter. And yes, that’s the longest sex scene I’ve ever written in 20+ years of writing sex scenes.

Actual worst part of writing: Trying to start writing again when I’ve been too unwell to write for a while and have lost all my writing momentum. It’s like trying to run a race from a standing start.

How you choose you chapter titles: Depends on the fic. If the story features more than one POV, then the chapter titles are usually the POV character’s name. Doubt Truth to be a Liar is set over the course of a day (and a bit of the next day) and each chapter centres on a meal, so the chapter titles start with Breakfast and go from there.

Do you outline? I have tried to outline. My brain doesn’t work that way. If I try to do a proper outline, I just end up writing the story draft. So instead I create a file titled “[story title] - things to remember”. These tend to be a random mishmash of bullet points covering the main story beats, thoughts about what needs to happen (including arguments with myself about that from bullet point to bullet point), stray lines of dialogue and any small details that I want to include, and anything else that comes to mind.

Ideas I probably won't get around to, but wouldn't it be nice: I’ve been unwell for most of this year, so everything is in the “wouldn’t it be nice” category atm.

Callouts @ me: Let’s just say that I don’t think I’ll be writing Sansa again.

Best writing trait: People say that I do character voices well. Not in GoT, obviously, because I was so enraged with the show when I started writing it that I just Did Not Care, and then I went into writing total AUs. I guess otherwise, I’m good at writing complicated emotions?

Spicy tangential opinions: Life is too short to bother with fandom wank, or discourse, or whatever they’re calling it this week. Find a comfortable corner with like-minded sane people, and have fun!

Tagging: @thisbluespirit @woodelf68 @blatheringbluejay @robotsdance @it-may-be-dull-but-im-determined

[fallynleaf]

writing asks 3,5, 9

3. Tell me about what’s next on your list for being completed?

i have several fics in varying states of completion. a few of the shorter ones are candidates for getting finished and published next february (my tradition is to finish and publish an old project every International Fanworks Day on february 15), but none of them are like. especially good or anything. they're just various projects i've had sitting around for years.

my longest WIP is a marauder-era Remus/Sirius fic that i started years ago. the draft is currently 50k words, and the remainder of the fic is extensively outlined, so i could easily pick it back up, if i wanted to. i haven't decided what exactly i'm going to do with it, or if it's worth finishing, at this point, considering, well, JKR. the fic was planned to be essentially a full novel of the marauders' last year in school, so there's probably at least 40k words of fic left to write in order to finish the story, but i know all of the main plot beats already. out of all the WIPs i have, this is the one that is closest to completion, but it might perpetually exist in that state forever. we'll see.

the fic i genuinely would love to complete is a modern AU of The Terror where the expedition is a doomed indie wrestling promotion instead. i have lots of concepts for this story, and i think i have the ability to actually pull it off, but unfortunately i came up with the concept for it right around when i started really committing to learning Japanese, and i've been too busy studying every day instead of writing much of anything 😅

as far as original fiction goes, i actually have a novel draft that is complete, but it’s a weird book because it’s technically a modern AU for an extremely public domain story, so i could publish it right now as a 50k fic if i wanted, or i could publish it as an original fiction novel, and i haven’t decided exactly what to do with it, so it’s just sitting in my hard drive.

5. Show me your favorite under-appreciated fic; why do you wish it got more attention?

Rabbit in Wolf's Clothing will probably forever be one of these, just by nature of the fandom. i wish it got more attention because i am very proud of it and put months of work into it, but it is cursed to only have a small handful of people interested in the premise. this is also my longest finished fic.

Comment by MrCrowley on AngelOfNazareth's post is another one. for some years, i referred to this fic as the funniest thing i'd ever written. this is another fic doomed to obscurity because of the relationship tag, which is not a relationship that any human being wants to seek out fic for. this fic isn't that long, but the few thousand words that are in it took me months to come up with, so it looks deceptively short. i'm proud of this fic because i think it plays with a whole bunch of themes in the show that other fics rarely touch in the same way.

9. Do you write linearly or skip around?

this is a tricky question! i generally write pretty linearly, but there are times that i write a little ahead. typically, i just write dialogue ahead (if i come up with some good dialogue for a scene way later in the story, i'll write it down early, because if i don't, i'll almost certainly forget it), but sometimes i'll start writing future dialogue lines and also come up with some description to accompany them.

any scene that i write in advance almost always has to be edited (sometimes substantially) in order to fit into the story once my writing gets to that point. i'm largely a discovery writer, so even when i outline stuff ahead of time, the story always takes some unexpected turns and ends up at least slightly different than i had envisioned. because of this, i can't do too much writing out of order, haha! i don't fully know the story i'm telling until i get there, basically.

[falsegoodnight]

hi! not sure if you’ve ever talked about this before, but do you have a specific writing process you follow when you write fics?? i’d love to hear about it if you do :)) love your fics so much!!! (p.s. feel free to ignore this if you don’t want to/don’t feel comfortable talking about it!)

hiiii! first of all, i’m really glad you like my fics! thank you for reading them :) and for my writing process: i think i have talked about it a couple times but i do plan on making a thorough and detailed post describing my writing process but i’m lazy so it keeps getting put off! for now, i’m copy & posting what i said for an old ask where i split it into stages and described how long each one took  (+ new notes!!)

(under the cut because i ramble)

1) idea/brainstorm

i tend to get ideas from other subject matter such as books, tv shows, movies, music, etcetera just like most people but i also get a lot of fic ideas in dreams. those actually tend to be the best ones, in my opinion. and once i get an idea and it won’t leave my brain for a bit, i open up a notebook page or my notes app and write down everything i can about it (the general gist, anything specific i dreamt/wanted, etc). sometimes i’ll even write out a scene if i can’t stop thinking about it. in fact, i’ve based an entire fic around one written scene more than once in the past. 

if i’m super excited, i usually end up blurting out the idea to a friend and there’s just something about explaining an idea to someone else that has you fleshing it out and building upon it and then suddenly you’re even more excited than before--

2) outlining

this actually tends to be a relatively quick stage for me! for the most part, once i get an idea and i get inspired, the story just comes together! there may be gaps but i don’t worry about them yet - i just start my character profiles and a scene list! my outlines tend to be pretty detailed but they can range from around 1k to up to 5k depending on the complexity of the story, characters, and whether any worldbuilding needs to be done. and every story is different - some i just have fleshed out in my head already so i don’t need to work it out on paper (or, on screen, i guess) and others i need to plan out every last detail or else my brain gets too muddled trying to sort everything out. and in my experience: the longer the outline, the longer the fic. 

i’d say typically this takes around a couple hours (for the basic outline) but i always come back to my outline frequently even when drafting, changing and tweaking things or adding/cutting things. outlines are fluid! they’re meant to change and alter with new ideas and different directions :)

[edit: i’m just quickly going to add a:

3.5) research 

this isn’t for every fic but sometimes a story i want to write involves something i don’t have a lot of knowledge/experience for and so i always make sure to research the topic as best as i can in order to portray it as accurately as possible. of course, this is fanfiction and no one is going to grade you on how credible everything is (and they shouldn’t!! this is all for fun!!) but i personally really enjoy the research aspect of writing and getting to learn about things i normally wouldn’t ever get the chance to. i’m currently writing a fic that’s required so much research (i have pages of notes; it’s ridiculous) and i’ve been having a lot of fun with it!! i also want to make a post about this but the main thing i try to do is find experts, whether that be from expert sources or from experts themselves on platforms such as youtube, specific websites, or even reddit and quora. the best way to learn is to learn from someone else who knows it well]

3) drafting

as expected, this stage definitely takes the longest. i’d say my average for writing days (as in, only counting days where i write) is around 2-3k or maybe 4k. on a really good day, i can write 6-8k (edit: haven’t done that in a hot second haha). the biggest streak i’ve had was when i wrote 40k in 4 days (ie: before we knew, which i posted the same day i finished, of course) but that is very uncommon, obviously.

so it all depends on the length of the fic and the type of story for how long drafting takes but i’d say majority of my fics were written either in a week (these are the shorter ones, just to clarify) or in a few weeks depending on length. one of my 50k+ fics was written in exactly 25 days (that sounds a bit like Nanawrimo but it was october) and then on the other hand, a fic that ended up at 30k-ish took me months to write - part of that was just that i wasn’t prioritizing it, but i also just struggled a lot with it.

(edit: so just to elaborate a bit more with challenges that are typically faced in this stage - there’ll be times where i get stuck on a scene or lose motivation and then i typically jump around and move to a different scene that i feel more excited about. that’s what’s so helpful with outlines: they let me switch between different points of the story without getting everything jumbled or creating hordes of plot holes and inconsistencies. for more on things i do to help me write more, i answered this ask a while ago. also if i get stuck plot-wise, then i often consult a fellow writing friend or go back to my outline to work it out) 

4) beta stage

i have two very lovely people who beta for me: @soldouthaz and my friend chelsea who does not have a tumblr :( (edit: she does now!! @kittenlouis :D) i’d say they’re both pretty fast, finishing in a couple days when i need them to! but again, it depends on the fic/length/other circumstances. they’re really good at catching my embarrassing typos and giving me feedback when i ask (edit: i tend to leave questions in the form of comments on google docs if i want specific input or feedback and it’s really helpful) 

honestly i really don’t reread/revise my own work (i actually sort of did for my second blff though since i had the extra time so we’ll see if it pays off!) (edit: i think it did!) but when i go through the edits from sarah and chelsea, i do typically end up skimming scenes and making changes that i deem necessary. i do highly suggest self-editing to anyone else though because it only ever makes the story better, never hurts it. i need to get better at it myself. 

i hope this gives you some sort of idea of my writing process even though it’s sort of a mess. feel free to ask more questions if you want me to extrapolate/elaborate anything. i wish you all the best!

[bisexual-buck]

tbh I was tagged and there was no title abut I think this is like a year recap kind of post so I’m going for it!

tagged by @princessfbi​ ☼

How many stories did you complete?

14

What is your total word count for the year?

According to AO3: 55,253! I don’t know my unpublished word count, and tbh I don’t really care because it’s probably less than 10k? I mostly wrote small pieces that never ended up in a fic and are saved as scraps somewhere. 

What fandoms did you write in this year?

9-1-1 on FOX bc I only know how to be obsessed with one show at a time.

Did you write more, less or roughly around what you expected you would?

I actually wrote hella less than I had hoped to. I was very inspired for fic ideas but lost a lot of motivation for writing during the summer and faced a lot of emotional challenges that I didn’t expect to.

What’s your own favourite story of the year?

Without a doubt: one hell of a story. May and Buck are the sibling duo I need and it was really fun to explore that dynamic. Buck is a big guy and definitely takes on this role where he feels like he has to protect Maddie, as we saw in season 2, but ultimately he is the younger sibling and he will always be the baby bro. With Chris or any of the other boys, he’ll be closer to a father figure than he ever will be a sibling because of the age gap and him being closer to their parents’ ages than theirs. But May is older and she’ll probably be able to confide in him more, as Buck is the youngest of the adults and can probably more easily remember what it’s like being a teen, even if he holds her accountable to the mistakes she makes. I don’t think they’ll ever develop this kind of relationship in canon, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t have the potential and y’all can’t pry this out of my hands if you tried.

Did you take any writing risks this year?

I meddled in planning some large fics that I have yet to post. I’ve got a notebook full of just one single, outlined fic. I estimate it’ll be at least 40k which will be my longest fic to date because I only started getting into my more adult writing groove in 2019. 

Do you have any fanfiction goals for 2021?

Word Count! Ultimately I want to hit 60k words because it’ll be my largest in one year to date if I do. But I also want to write and complete that fic I mentioned previously. I outlined in a notebook for three months. It’s time to get that bitch done. 

What is your most under-appreciated story?

Considering how recently it was posted along with Hits, Kudos, and Comments, it was probably without fear :c I love that wee baby. 

Biggest fanfiction related disappointment of 2020?

Honestly, this is more fandom related, but I was kinda sad to see the rapid decline in kudos and comments on buddie fics as soon as the show went on break. I feel like a lot of authors felt like their works weren’t as appreciated as they could have been. Brilliant works had some decent hit counts but such low numbers to show for appreciation. It kinda sucks to put so much effort into a story only to have it looked over. That being said, I don’t write for recognition, but that doesn’t change that I hope for readers to acknowledge the free works we put out there for people to consume. 

Biggest fanfiction related surprise of 2020?

Realizing that a lot of Buck whumpers share one brain cell. This is not a jab, this is just truth and I love it.

✗ tagging: @benjaminrussell @siriuslyjamie @depthandcharacter

[zephfair]

Fanfic stats

Oh hey, let’s get back to that post that @murderlight tagged me in and finish the questions because that was just ... 2 WEEKS AGO?! Gah, time really does fly when you’re not having fun. Yikes, I’m sorry!

Fanfic Stats

1. When did I start doing fanfic:

I started reading fanfic one boring night at work when I was *mumblemumble* old. It was X-files fic, and it was like a whole other world opened up to me. You mean other people out there think about these characters after the show is over??? Other people also daydream about what might have happened to the characters off camera or after the events shown??? Other people also *learned the technical name for it* ship them??? I was sold. From there on, every time I got interested in a show, I started to seek out fanfic (Buffy, Witchblade, DBZ, Gundam Wing etc). This was back in the lawless days of Yahoo group things, Geocities, what was the other terrible host site that always crashed (was it Angelfire)? Yeah, it was rough.

I created my first fanfic way back when I was 12 and I borrowed the giant complete Sherlock Holmes from the library and made up a story about being one of the Baker Street Irregulars and helping Sherlock solve a mystery, ofc.

The first fanfic I ever posted was on my private LJ back in 2005 when there was a Weiss Kreuz drabble community. I was too insecure to post to the challenges, and I had no LJ friends so I just posted for me. I posted a silly FFVII fic in 2008, I think, then nothing until I joined a bandom in 2011 that had its own archive site. There was a LJ kinkmeme, and I loved some of the prompts so I started there. Next thing I knew, I was hooked.

2. Of the works I have on AO3/FF/AY: (I mostly post to AO3 and occasionally crosspost to FFN if I’m craving validation. I no longer post to the bandom archive.)

I have 34 works (wtf I didn’t realize it was that many)

None are actively in progress

They all stand as complete although there are several I’d love to sequel.

1 is abandoned although if I ever find the HD with the full outline, I’d finish it. It upsets my OCD.

All 34 are in English

7 were gifts to others

34 are complete, of which:

1 is novel length (40k or over) but it’s a collection of shorter stories so

5 are novella length (17k - 40k)

9 are novelette length (7.5k - 17k)

19 are short stories (1k - 7.5k)

0 is flash fiction (less than 1k) I am too talky a bitch to wrap things up in less than 1k lol

13 have multiple chapters

I have 2 series 

18 are one shots

3. I have written:

17 stories for Da Vinci’s Demons

6 stories for the FFVII Compilation

5 for Bleach

3 for Teen Wolf

2 for Weiss Kreuz

1 for Bi no Isu

4. My longest complete single work on AO3 is: the Bleach AU Collection at 83,220 words. Is that cheating because it’s a compilation of all the short stories I did for a month’s worth of prompts?

5. My most popular work by kudos is: Creature Comforts which started as crack but took a little more romantic turn

6. My most common “additional tag” is: fluff, humor

7. My AO3 username is: zephfair. Zeph because it’s part of the very first pen name I chose back in a rush when I was scared af to post my first bandom fic. And Fair as a nod to the One and Only Zack Fair, who owns my heart.

8. Bonus fact to get to lucky number 8: I wrote 3 of the top 4 kudos’d fics in the Da Vinci’s Demons fandom which is lolworthy because there are only about 500 works in DVD, and it’s mostly because I started writing very early in the fandom. xD Oh, and I have an alarming number of smutty stories in my repertoire. >_<

Tagging you all! (Feel free to modify the q’s to suit you!): 

[risthebrave]

what are the stages of your writing (ie outlining - drafting - revising) like? How long do you typically spend on each?

this is a great question! thank you zanni!! 

i’d say the typical stages of my process are:

1) idea/brainstorm

2) outlining

3) drafting

4) send to beta & hope for best 

yeah, i really do not edit/revise my own work and i know that’s not good but i cannot handle it??? and i have a bad habit of finishing a fic and posting it in the same day :/ 

but anyways to go more in depth:

1) idea/brainstorm

i tend to get ideas from other subject matter such as books, tv shows, movies, music, etcetera just like most people but i also get a lot of fic ideas in dreams. those actually tend to be the best ones, imo. and once i get an idea and it won’t leave my brain for a bit, i open up a notebook page or my notes app and write down everything i can about it (the general gist, anything specific i dreamt/wanted, etc). 

2) outlining

this actually tends to be a relatively quick stage for me! for the most part, once i get an idea and i get inspired, the story just comes together! there may be gaps but i don’t worry about them yet, i just start my character profiles and a scene list! my outlines tend to be pretty detailed but they can range from around 1k to up to 5k depending on the complexity of the story, characters and whether any worldbuilding needs to be done. and every story is different - some i just have fleshed out in my head already so i don’t need to work it out on paper (or, on screen, i guess) and others i need to plan out every last detail or else my brain gets too muddled trying to sort everything out. 

i’d say typically this takes around a couple hours (for the basic outline) but i always come back to my outline frequently even when drafting, changing and tweaking things or adding/cutting things. 

3) drafting

as expected, this stage definitely takes the longest. i’d say my average for writing days (as in, only counting days where i write) is around 3k or maybe 4k and on a good day, i can write 6-8k (i wrote 6k today actually!). the biggest streak i’ve had was when i wrote 40k in 4 days (ie: before we knew, which i posted the same day i finished, of course) but that is very uncommon, obviously. 

so it all depends on the length of the fic and the type of story for how long drafting takes but i’d say majority of my fics were written either in a week or in a few weeks depending on length. one of my 50k+ fics was written in exactly 25 days - that sounds a bit like Nanawrimo but it was october actually! and then on the other hand, a fic that ended up at 30k-ish took me months to write - part of that was just that i wasn’t prioritizing it, but i also just struggled a lot with it. 

4) beta stage

i have two very lovely people who beta for me: @soldouthaz and my friend chelsea who does not have a tumblr :( i’d say they’re both pretty fast, finishing in a couple days when i need them to! but again, it depends on the fic/length/other circumstances. 

again, i really don’t reread/revise my own work (i actually sort of did for my second blff though since i had the extra time so we’ll see if it pays off!) but when i go through the edits from sarah and chelsea, i do typically end up skimming scenes and making changes that i deem necessary. 

i’m not sure if any of this was coherent but thank you again for asking such a good question zanni!! <3

[foodcourtpancake]

2020 fanfic/writing review meme

tagged by the ever lovely @marnz, thank you sooo much this was so fun !!  What fic/writing did I disgorge from my brain maw this year?

oooooooh boy. 2020 was a big year for me, because i finished the first draft of my very first novel! it also marks the longest piece of writing i have ever done - i’m a short story person, long-form work is VERY difficult for me. the first draft was 41k and i have since bumped it up to over 50k in subsequent drafts. it was really fun for me to finish the first draft exactly one year after starting it, but the majority of the draft was written in early 2020 due to quarantine and my seven month stint of unemployment. 

my novel, tentatively titled “a different kind of light,” it began as a passion project - i hadn’t written anything substantial other than poetry since... god, since i came back from my master’s program? so it was something really self-indulgent just to ease myself into a space that was quiet, soft, and calming... and then i fell in love and didn’t ever want to stop writing about the characters. 

IN OTHER NEWS, at the end of 2020, i wrote and completed my first fan fiction since 2012 (!!!!) and in a completely different fandom world! the wonderful world of anime~ 

Takeaways from reflecting on your kick-ass writing, or kick-ass lack of writing, during a year more focused on survival than perhaps any other:

i write my novel better in the morning/day and fan fiction better in the middle of the night when the frustrations of my day have settled in^^

it’s okay to rest and i shouldn’t have to feel guilty about it !! i have been on a break from working on my novel regularly for a little while now because life and working full time during a global pandemic is... exhausting, but i think having that time away will make coming back to work on it that much more exciting and helpful 

i’m in awe of people who outline, they are my heroes... so my goal is to start outlining my long form work! i took notes on a fic that’s been rattling around in my brain, so that’s my first step towards proper outlining - fingers crossed !! 

having other writers around me to read my work and encourage me and hype me up and tell me my writing is actually good after all is CRUCIAL for me

Most surprising fic you wrote this year:

i surprised myself by writing fan fic for the first time, again, since 2012 when i was writing one d*rection fic (and i only have ONE published fic to my name???). it was so fun after working on my novel for a lot of this year to take a break and explore established fictional characters/relationships. like with my novel, i didn’t really have a plan when i started, i just wanted to write about a specific set of characters - and it was so nice to have a friend to read each installment and encourage me along the way!! they got me so hype to keep writing.

How you’ve grown as a writer this year:

i genuinely thought that i was incapable of writing anything over 20k. i was just like “i am a short fiction writer and that’s that” but i really fell in love with the characters of my now-novel and i just wrote and wrote until i completed the story i wanted to tell, without pressuring myself to reach any particular milestone other than an loose word count and completing the narrative. getting back into REGULARLY writing (500 words a day, 5 days a week) as well as regularly reading to keep my brain active and immersed in stories was super good for me!! my characterization and use of physicality has grown a lot over the last year, and my confidence as a writer as well!! i still struggle with imposter syndrome obvs, but i feel like i accomplished something so big this year and i am very proud! 

What’s coming in 2021:

more haikyuu!! fan fic (gasp!) because my hyperfixation hasn’t gone away and i might possibly... post it... online... to be read and enjoyed by the general public??? shocking 

adding another 30-40k to “a different kind of light” and hopefully finishing a full manuscript by may (marking two years since i started it!!) 

i want to write a series of stories in the same setting as my novel following some of the side characters, i’m so excited to start~

i have no idea who to tag but if any lovely writers follow me, feel free to use!!^^

[youhearstatic]

10 Questions Every Fic Writer Secretly Wants to be Asked

I’m just gonna answer these because why not this is my blog I’ll do what I want, you’re not my Captain!

1. Of the fics you’ve written, which is your favorite and why? It’s not finished but in the untitled Barry POV fic (aka the ‘fic i wasn’t gonna write’) there is a scene I’m so insanely proud of it’s really killing me to not just share it now. I’m probably 40k in and maybe... halfway done? It’s hard to tell. But gosh, I just love this scene so much.

The rest of these I’m just gonna answer for A Thousand Tiny Moments because it’s complete and I’m proud of it. Before that the longest thing I’d ever shared was probably around 2k words so this felt like A Big Deal.

2. Which scene was your favorite to write in A Thousand Tiny Moments ? The party scene at the beginning was the first I wrote for the fic and it was so much fun writing Lup as grumpy and hostile and possibly a little drunk.

(Putting the rest under a readmore because this is long and already very self indulgent.)

3. Which part of A Thousand Tiny Moments was hardest to write? I struggled a lot with the part where she brings him soup because there’s a lot going on there but mostly it’s on Barry’s end of things. (It’s a key piece of who Barry is in the Barry POV fic.) But it’s also part of Lup’s journey. It was hard to find a balance between being Lup-centric in what (in my head) is a Barry-centric scene.

4. If you could change anything in A Thousand Tiny Moments, what would it be? I’m really bummed it didn’t occur to me to put in a Grabthar’s Hammer reference for one of Lup’s made up deities.

5. Did you make an outline for A Thousand Tiny Moments ? Did you stick to it? No outline but I mean... the major plot points of Stolen Century kind of did that for me? The party scene at the beginning was just free form writing on a vague AU idea. Pretty much all the Taako & Lup scenes just appeared magically. Taako pretty much kicked down the door and marched himself in. None of the Taako moments were planned.

6. Which scenes did you cut, and which were added in A Thousand Tiny Moments? The scene of Barry cooking was added. I wrote it for the Barry fic before the Lup fic was even an idea. As soon as I was done I was like “well, I like this but it has to be Lup’s POV to work so it doesn’t fit here.” I stuck it in a drafts folder and forgot about it until I was halfway through with the Lup story. I was excited to use it because it feels genuine. It also felt like a good representation of why she loves him. It's so easy see why Barry loves Lup. As @femme-fatigue wrote so eloquently, she is “so fierce and yet so kind” which is just the PERFECT way to describe Lup and the perfect explanation for why Barry (or the audience or anyone) loves her.  (Also, seriously check out that comic at the link because it’s both literally and figuratively gorgeous.)

But I think Lup’s love for Barry isn’t as clear to people. My belief is that Barry isn’t just the lover, he is love. I see Barry as the one who loves everyone on the crew so much, cares so much about their safety and happiness, that his own anxieties and his fears of his shortcomings are forced down as he tries to do everything possible to provide that safety and happiness for them. Barry pushes himself to do better, work harder, not because he thinks he can - in fact despite his belief that he can’t - but because that’s what his crew, his family deserve. So that cooking scene just felt exactly like something Barry would do. And Lup fighting down her impulse to take over and instead just sitting back and watching him and trying to understand and appreciate his motives? That felt as important as the more directly canon scene with the robot. Loving someone when they are at their strongest is easy, loving someone when they are trying their damnedest at something they aren’t good at? Seeing the good in their effort? That’s love.

7. Who was your favorite character to write in A Thousand Tiny Moments? I hope I did okay writing Lup. I love her but she’s not as fun to write but I’m second guessing so much, terrified of not doing her justice. For this fic? Taako was so so so much fun. I find him equally intimidating to write because his voice is so specific and well represented and I don’t want to fail that either. But every time he appeared in this fic it was like he just walked in and did the things. There was no planning or thinking, he just happened, each time. It felt like it had very little to do with me if that makes sense.

8. Which came first, the title or the fic? The title didn’t come until editing was almost done and I went “oh shit, I have to name this thing!”

9. Which idea came to you first in A Thousand Tiny Moments? I think the elevator scene was the first in my head. My original idea was - and this is what I called it in my files right up until the day I posted it - ‘bad hookup AU’. The idea was they hooked up or almost hooked up and a lot of things stacked up to make the situation look really awful. So then instead of starting at zero for their Stolen Century time, Lup would start off kind of hating Barry. It didn’t really go that way, of course. It turned out to be much more about Lup’s growth and changes as a person both on her own (as opposed to half of Taako & Lup) and as a person with a found family that wasn’t going anywhere. I really loved Lup before I started but I fell even more in love with her while imagining this Lup just before being chosen for the Starblaster and how she changed during the Stolen Century, especially from the moment Magnus regenerates at the end of cycle one.

10. What are some facts readers may not know about A Thousand Tiny Moments? Okay, so originally my reason for Taako daring Lup to go to this party was he just wanted her out of the way for an evening because he had a date but was kinda being a little shady about it? Like maybe whoever it was, he was too embarrassed to tell Lup he was going out with him or something? I don’t know, I didn’t put much thought into it and I didn’t worry about it because the important thing was that Lup was at the party and Taako wasn’t. I wanted Lup a little off balance, wanted her in her own head not hanging out with her twin. 

And then that scene in the dorm room happened. Taako came in and he crawled into bed with Lup and he was quiet and vulnerable and I swear I was typing it and just shocked that it was happening. Because it dawned on me... “Ohhhh, he sent her to the party because he wanted her to do something that would get them kicked out. He doesn’t think they’ll be picked and he’d rather they got kicked out have to deal with being rejected.” 

It’s probably silly but it felt like a moment of connection between me and this character. Like I felt I should apologize to him for thinking his motive was so shallow. 

Those kinds of moments - where you’re writing and the story does things you didn’t realize it was doing - are The Best Things Ever. 

Also: the unfinished Barry POV fic is kind of the match to A Thousand Tiny Moments. It will be - for the Stolen Century portion at least - a very similar story. The key scenes will be there but slightly different. Beyond just the thoughts of a different character, it’s also like they perceive/remember things a little differently the same way two people wouldn’t tell you the plot of a movie in quite the same way.

[quelsentiment]

hi pal! i think i do actually! im normally veryyy indecisive about everything, but i really loved the area where i did my undergrad so i think i'd move back near there. it also helps that i have a long distance s.o. who lives near there haha. oh thats so cool to hear that we have a similar style! I think i usually hear from people who have very detailed outlines but ive always found it more fun to just sort of write and like you said, let the characters guide you! (1)

i honestly had to check my ao3 to answer this bc i wasnt even sure what i normally write haha. i guess 15-20k is my most common length? but this monster of a wip soulmate au ive been working on is 100k+ so uh... idk if i can really say that i tend to write shorter things hahaha. this is definitely an anomaly for me though - ive never written anything longer than 50k before this fic! im sure your big bang is going to be great. what are some of your fav tropes to read/write? i was talking about this the other day with a friend and fake relationships are absolutely my jam hahaha. yay for puzzles especially when you need to pass some time! i always think puzzles arent going to be thaaat fun and then i get started and get totally hooked and into it haha! when my roommate and i were doing puzzles we would stay up so late trying to finish them bc we both didnt want to stop until we completed it. happy new years eve btw! do you have any plans? -S xx

hey pal!! 

oh that’s awesome you have an idea where to live, and i’m sure it will be nice to move closer to your s.o, you must miss them a lot, especially with the way things are now 🥺

omg 100k?!? i guess that makes sense, since you’ve been working on it for a while, but that’s so exciting! the longest fic i’ve written so far is around 40k i think, but my big bang fic will probably be around 50-60k. would love to get to 100k one day though, it feels like such a milestone, so congrats!! to read, fake relationships are definitely so so fun. do you have recs for that trope? i love historical AUs too (and my big bang fic kinda is one). and i guess when i write, i tend to include angst elements, although banter is also a fave to write! basically i’m a sucker for good dialogues, and i’m trying my best to implement that in my own writing 😌

my only plan for new year’s eve is to hang out with my family (we have a curfew at 8 anyway...) what about you? are you still at your parents’ or are you back at your own place?

[louandhazaf]

WIP MEME

Thank you @phd-mama for tagging me!

List all the things you’re currently working on in as much or little detail as you’d like, then tag some friends to see what they’re working on. This can be writing, art, vids, gifsets, whatever.

I’m working with @assisreal on a Lucifer AU fic that I am SO excited about it. I have a pretty low word count at the moment, but I feel like it’s going to be long, like, one of my longest, by the time I’m done. Also, this is a Zouis fic and it’s really exciting to play with the supporting cast of characters. 

I haven’t started writing it, but I have 2k words of an outline (AN OUTLINE! TWO THOUSAND WORDS OF AN OUTLINE! @jiksax is totally to blame for this) for a poly fic that will probably be the next thing I write because I’m amped to write it. It’s established Elgar Johnson and Nick Grimshaw and they meet Louis. It’ll be angsty and gentle and probably include a phenomenal lack of communication in the beginning that they all learn from. 

I have 40k of my Madrid AU written. I probably have another 40k to go. It’s all plotted, I just need to write it. This one is Larry. Artist!Harry & Popstar!Louis. 

A (ahem, lol) anon prompted me to write a 90s fic. It’s a Larry fic where they meet on the set of the 1979 video. I’ve started it, then got caught up in exchanges and challenges so I need to get back to it. 

My Cozy Fic will someday be finished. It might be an advent fic for next year. This is a famous/not-famous Larry fic that involves a cabin in the woods and a supportive lumberjack-esk Liam. This one has also been around forever. I think I’m like 5k-ish into it at this point?

and 7.   I also know what I want to write for Swallow My Words parts 1 & 3, but I just need some time to start those, so they’re not technically WIPs yet. 

I’m going to tag @jiksax @nightwideopen @fullonlarrie and @assisreal for their WIPs if they haven’t done this yet and are interested. 

[rahabs]

Tagged by @allegoriesinmediasres!  Thank you, and I am so sorry I am late in replying to this!  Exams, I tell you.

AO3 name: sithmarauder [main]; cheydinhal [other]

Fandoms: The Terror, Star Wars, Hetalia, The Tudors, Elder Scrolls, and various other things throughout the years.

Number of fics: Oh gosh.  Quite a few, spread over various accounts (including old FF.net accounts--I haven’t cross-posted the older ones that predate AO3) since 2008.  I’d estimate well over one-hundred, possibly crossing into two hundred at this point.  It has been... a few years.  A decade.  Over a decade.  Twelve years, to be precise.

Fic I spent the most time on: Hm.  Likely Judas, my benpoe brainchild, just by virtue of it being the longest one, and I spent a lot of time planning it out until the very bitter end.  So really, there’s no excuse for me having not finished it, because I know exactly where I’m going with it.  I also spent a lot of time on my smuggler!Ben Solo kylux fic, Memento Mori, as my poor friend can attest by virtue of her having to sit through me throwing draft outlines at her and sobbing my way through the logic and the timeline.  Cheers to you, @complimentary-halves.  It took me a few years, but I actually did finish that little 40k mini-beast.

Fic I spent the least time on: Hard to say, really.  I have a couple longer fics that I spit out in no time, while I spent a lot of time on some of the shorter ones, and it’s been so long I can’t rightfully say anymore which fics I’ve spent the least amount of time on.

Longest fic: Judas (50k+)

Shortest fic:  Lines (98 Wörter)

Most hits: Judas (8148 hits), followed by Memento Mori (4000 hits)

Most kudos: Judas (425), followed again by Memento Mori (276)

Most comment threads: Let us just assume the answer to “most anything” will be Judas (101 comment threads).

Most bookmarks: Judas (101), then Luminous Beings (85), then Memento Mori (81).

Total word count: Oh.  I don’t know.  Across my AO3 accounts: 210 161.  However, I have 100+ fics on my old fanfiction accounts, most of which I haven’t cross-posted to AO3 (because they are old, old fics), so that number is probably substantially higher.

Favourite fic I wrote: Identical Descent (for The Terror, Jopson/Little); Judas (for Star Wars, Kylo Ren/Poe Dameron; yes I know hush hush I haven’t updated in years but I still have a soft spot for the fic); A Seat for the Guest Unknown (for Hetalia; Spain/Austria, Prussia/Austria).  Also, a galennic fic that is currently sitting at 20k+ on my computer that I have been steadily working on but have yet to finish (and I do not wish to post it until it’s done to avoid my tendency to not finished posted multi-chapter fics).  Also, fond of Memento Mori, because I’m proud of myself for actually finishing it (I have gnarly track record with multi-chapter fics).

Fic you want to rewrite/expand on: Of my posted fics I would dearly, dearly love to update and finish Judas one day.  I am also in the process of writing the sequel to Memento Mori, to take the series up to the end of Force Awakens.  There are also quite a few fics on my old fanfiction account that I will likely be remixing/rewriting and then cross-posting.

Share a bit of a WIP or a story idea you’re planning on:

“Get off me, you brute,” Thomas says, but the push he directs at Edward’s slumbering form is more playful than forceful, and there is a smile in his voice that he’s sure does not go unnoticed by the creature in front of him.

Aka, the 10k+ joplittle fantasy AU that literally no one but me asked for, because my fool mind went “what if Edward Little was a dragon” and what started out as a silly one-shot turned into something with a plot.  Much like Judas, come to think.  Why am I like this?

Tagging anyone who wishes to do this!  I’ll confess I don’t know a lot of people who write fic anymore.