#no paragraph breaks is awful when i'm actually in a fic and will absolutely make me run

[smolweeblets]

Fuck work - Yelena x reader aot

A/n: Yelena tag has been so quiet so i wanted to contribute. Yall should write more fics for her again shes so amazing and cute and hot.

“Stop that.” You sigh tiredly as you smack the hand that's been poking at you for the past few minutes. The one that belongs to none other than your precious girlfriend. The girlfriend who was sitting in your chair, hugging you like a baby koala.

Yelena pouts for a few seconds, puffing her cheeks up and furrowing her eyebrows lightly. She still continues to repeat the action again after a moment though. You glare at her, not too seriously but you hoped was just enough to get her to stop.

It does not. And it is distracting. You were supposed to be working on a big essay you needed but your big baby of a girlfriend does not relent in her poking. You'd usually find the childish action cute, but today you were stressed and really needed to cram work. Needless to say, its was getting increasingly difficult to do just that.

“When are you gonna be doneee” Yelena whines, annoyed your attention is not fully on her. She always got clingy when she was at your dorm, she mentioned it was something about your scent or something making her all soft. You never took it seriously of course, and hearing her say it bought confused looks towards her from you.

“‘Lena. I said after 2 more paragraphs. Then i'll be all yours.” You declare firmly. She pouts again. That stupid little pout held so much power over you, but today you needed to be strong as the essay was due soon.

“You've been working for two hours already, a little break shouldn't be a problem.” She reasons out. She really is like a touch-hungry puppy, at this point you'd have no need for a dog because Yelena acted eerily close to one at times.

“And are you implying that you aren't already mine? I'm very hurt Y/n” Fake hurt feigned on Yelena's face, she unlatched from you for the first time in almost an hour to place the back of her hand on her forehead to emphasise her acting even more.

“I will smack you.” You jokingly bantered, fingers swiftly clicking the keys. The poking has finally stopped for a while, and the idle chatter was actually helping you think for some odd reason.

“Ouch… first you ignore our whole relationship and then you threaten to hit me… I'm so devastated right now dont talk to me.” Her acting continues, and yet her grip doesn't go slack in the slightest.

“Pff, stop hugging me first then” you chuckle softly, placing your hand on her face and pushing it away from you slightly.

“No.” She replies almost too quickly. You laugh at her response, an angelic sound to Yelenas ears. She blushes softly and gazes at you, thinking about just how perfect you are. Surprisingly she found herself thankful of you working for once, because it made you not notice her adoring gaze to tease her about it.

Her body tightens around you, deepening the hug to an almost suffocating level. She exhales relaxedly, loving just basking in your presence. It hurts but its fine, you love her. You can bear not breathing for a few minutes.

A few seconds of silence and keyboard clicking pass before Yelena cuts it. “I love you.” Your eyes widen in surprise, you are not used to her saying the phrase out loud. But now that she has you feel like you're going to melt. Your face feels hot, and your chest almost hurts now (out of love, not from Yelena's bone-crushing grip).

“Where'd that come from? And I love you too, you big baby.” You grinned out. Both of you felt absolutely elated to be in each other's presence. It was a nice moment in your little room, comforting silence enveloping you both like a warm comfy blanket.

Eventually you finally stood up, shaking Yelena off your back and stretching your arms and groaning. Your shirt lifted slightly, giving Yelena a good view of your stomach. She pokes it, revelling in its softness.

You quickly smack her hand away as you giggle, “Hey-! Don't do that, it tickles.” Your face was annoyed, but the soft smile on your face gave away your real feelings.

“Whattt? You looked cute, so I took the chance.” She chuckled, clearly enjoying your reaction.

“Aghhh whatever- anyways, i'm good for today so we can go do anything you want.” You yawned out quietly. Yelena got closer to you, standing up and angling you chin to make you face her.

“Heh, anything~?” Yelena smirked, eyebrows going up and down suggestively.

“Oh fuck off you perv.” You playfully push away Yelena's face while grinning, making her break and get into a fit of chuckles.

She quiets down after a bit, mirroring your gleeful grin.“Okay but seriously do you want to get food? Watching you work made me hungry.”

“Oh my poor girlfriend, so exhausted after watching her partner work on a grueling essay. So hard on my poor Yelena, she deserves much more food than me.” You dramatize, exaggerating your expressions.

“Oh well I'm going by myself then- since you know, my girlfriend doesn't appreciate my efforts.” Yelena shrugs as she starts moving towards the door.

“Hey I didn't say any of that! Stop im coming with you-” You rush to be by her side, smacking her arm lightly. Pouting while looking at her.

“Heh, that's what I thought, so where do you want to go?”

Ps: reqs are *still* open

[olderthannetfic]

Do you or your readers have any opinions on formatting dream sequences in fic? Or any thoughts on what makes a good one? To italicise or not to italicise... to signpost early or reveal at the end... what do people love or not love about dream sequences? (Apologies if this has been asked before)

--

You know, I don't think it has been asked before, actually.

For me personally, I usually like it signposted early if it's going to be a long sequence, but it depends on what function the dream is serving in your story.

--

Italics are acceptable, but reading huge blocks of them can be a pain. In many cases, it's probably best to begin the dream at a chapter break or big scene division, then make it crystal clear in the text when it ends (starting a paragraph with "X woke" or something) rather than using a lot of formatting of the dream itself.

However, it depends entirely on the structure of the work. If it's a fic that is punctuated by little snippets of dream that grow and eventually reveal the whole dream, recontextualizing the fic thus far, I'd absolutely put the few little dream paragraphs in italics. They'd be visual dividers between different parts of the fic.

--

I can't think of anything I love about them. I can think of many things I hate, but they all boil down to "Why is this here?"

A dream sequence should serve a purpose in the fic, so if it turns into too many paragraphs of impenetrable purple prose, I'll feel like it has overstayed its welcome and is no longer serving a good purpose. Even if it's short and well-written, I'll still get annoyed if it doesn't seem to be well integrated into the rest of the story.

Think about how dream sequences are used in other media.

Plenty of tv episodes have a character waking from a prophetic dream. They worry about it. Eventually, when the events come to pass, they either avert disaster because of the dream or the real events turn out to technically match the dream but are completely different from what the character and audience assumed. These dreams add foreshadowing, set up up irony, or raise the stakes.

Some dream sequences show what a character is worried about and thus are character development. Maybe the dream itself shows this. Maybe the dream is them being a villain or being into weird sex or whatever, and it's only when they wake that they go "Oh no! What does this mean?!" That reaction is the point and the existence of the dream sequence should serve it.

Some dream sequences exist to show that a character has been given hallucinogens, a psychic is messing with their mind, etc.

Once in a while, a fic has a tragic dream, and then the character wakes up and everything is fine. The one I recall like this that I actually enjoyed was a BTS fic where the point was the dreamer going and getting cuddles from another member after waking up. The whole thing contrasted their music video AU with their real lives. What I liked was that observation of how weird it would be to spend time on an AU of yourself that's sad and awful and how it would mess with you. It wasn't just that a character had a scary dream and then got comforted: there was a bit more specific reason to show that dream on-page.

A fic needs a twist, coda, or commentary other than "It was all a dream! LOL!"

Bad versions of dream sequences (which are numerous, I'm sorry to say) tend to just rely on "Surprise! It was fake!" If you just wipe out everything that has happened, then the emotional stakes you set up within the dream don't matter. You're telling the reader that the story doesn't matter.

It is crucial that the dream have lasting, real world impact.

The dreamer realizes something about their own feelings that they didn't before the dream. The dream is literally prophetic and changes how the character reacts. The dream is imposed by an outside force on purpose. It can be a realistic, internal, emotional impact. It can be a sff plot device where the dream is more than just a regular dream. But there has to be something.

Otherwise, you're writing filler, and your fic would probably be stronger without it.

[borealopelta]

🌿💝💋💘💫 for the fic asks!!

🌿how does creating make you feel?

all sorts of ways ngl. i write for very different reasons, all of my fics i could probably point out why i wrote them and they would all be very different. but when i'm done i usually feel AWFUL about it. so then i'll take a break and come back to reread half an hour later, fix two things, and then i'm really happy. creating something new is a GREAT feeling but the moment i'm done my first instinct is to hate it because what i remember is the struggle and not the great solutions i came up with and ended up writing down.

💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

my first ofmd fic, i was something made for god etc got a LOT of love and still does to this day. people LOVE this fic so much it's insane to me. it's my most viewed fic by far and i love looking at my stats on it, brings me joy. i wrote it more than a year ago, when steddyhands was at less than 100 fics and stizzy just barely hit 50, and it took OFF. it's a cute little fic and one of my favourite Signature Style Showcase Fics (i enjoy the writing style ok) but i never dared to dream it would get so much attention :)

💋when you leave comments on a fic, do you want to hear back from the writer?

ABSOLUTELY. i'm yelling my thoughts out into the void, sometimes i have questions, sometimes i'll just say things that might elicit a response, even if it's just a "glad you liked that bit" or "good catch!" or something. either way i love knowing what the writer thinks about what i think :)

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

yeah! my epic large mchuge (5k words.) gloryhammer sick fic between light and shadows really deserves a makeover. i reread it recently and i LOVE IT SO MUCH it's some of my best writing where things actually happen, but it has a bunch of repeating phrasings/sentence structures that i want to get rid of, and the dialogue can be a tiny bit confusing at times (as in who's talking) so. if i had to do one i'd do that but despite my little unhappy thoughts i do treasure that fic. it took a lot of effort to write and it holds up VERY well despite its age and my own developing style.

💫what is your favorite kind of comment/feedback?

i LOVE it when people quote lines/paragraphs at me and tell me how it made them feel or what they thought about that bit specifically. like yes PLEASE go through the details with a fine comb i want to know what you think of even the smallest little details.

[helloquotemyfoot]

QUOTE!!! 😍 12, 17, 21 for the weird writing asks. Any or all if you want. <3

Sorry this is a bit late!!

12. If a genie offered you three writing wishes, what would they be? Btw if you wish for more wishes the genie turns all your current WIPs into Lorem Ipsum, I don’t make the rules

Okay wow this is mean, I can only have three? Ughhh okay I think my wishes would be 1) better focus because I'm always flicking between different WIPs and struggle to get anything done! 2) ability to write more in one go, I'm often frustrated by not being able to write more than a paragraph or two in one sitting! >.< I know it could always be worse, but a slightly larger consistent output would be nice! And I think wish 3) would be a better ability to chop enormous fic ideas down to a respectable size. I'm not even asking to not get the absurd epic-length ideas that would take most people a lifetime to write, just to be better to rationing them down to bare essentials so they're completeable in a reasonable time!

Any genies out there bored? Please? 🥺🙏

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

Haha sorry this one is going to be a disappointing answer because I'm not really good at these sorts of questions! There's always too much and too little to talk about at the same time... way too much to squeeze into one tumblr post but I'm also simultaneously like "uh. I made up a book in one chapter. and someone who wrote a response to the book" lol.

I guess my favourite bit of lore is Brigid transitioning out of a tanistry system similar to medieval Ireland, which is simultaneously how Petra is the heir apparent and her position isn't secure. But whilst that didn't make it into the WIP, I already did a lore dump author's note about that XDDD

21. Could you ever quit writing? Do you ever wish you could? Why or why not?

Honestly yeah there are absolutley times I've wished to quit writing. Last year (or was it 2020? I think it was 2020 actually. Time is a lie), I really genuinely did try to quit for good. I stopped writing, and I think told a few people to tell me to stop if I mentioned starting again. By that point I was just absolutely sick of getting into cycles of feeling awful about my writing, feeling it was stupid and useless and I was doing it all wrong and so on, which was something that happened several times a year at that point, and sometimes it felt like that feeling went on for months. I stopped wanting to feel that way, so I tried to cut out the main thing that was making me feel that way, which was writing.

Obviously, that didn't really stick, even though it hasn't been smooth sailing from then either. To be honest, I think I'm still affected from a period of bad burnout back in early 2019 and I'm not fully recovered yet, and maybe I never will be. Most of those genie wishes? Are basically just wishing to go back to my pre-2019 self when I could write a lot more, a lot more consistently, and because my output was greater, it wasn't such a chore to stay focused on one project long enough to finish it (oneshots to short multi chapter works), which increased motivation, because I was finishing more things, etc. I went from thinking of 20k fics as "short" things that could be completed in a little over a month if I knuckled down, to having to drop to a schedule for my main WIP (this is just within the past year) of only being able to write one 4-6k chapter per month on average, whilst still feeling like I had no energy to work on other things and I didn't get a break from it. And even that after a while became too much and I just had to take a hiatus from that fic, which could still be a permanent hiatus even though I hope it won't be. The difference in my abilities is staggering even years later and I constantly find myself frustrated and sometimes really disheartened by how little I can do compared to what I used to be able to do, never mind when I think of other people who write even more than that. (Before anyone says anything, no, it's not outside responsibilities, if anything I have way more free time and fewer stressors than I did back in 2019.) Burn out is not a joke.

But I don't want this to just be negative so I'll also talk about what's helped me move past the burn out to an extent as well. Part of feeling better about coming back to writing over the past year and a half or so has been coming to terms with why I am writing and no longer letting people impose expectations on why I should be writing from the outside. Trying to "write for myself", a phrase that has never made any sense to me, just led to me becoming increasingly frantic and self-loathing as I tried to find the recipe to Write The Correct Way. I did not and have never had the internal id or voice that other people seem to have which tells me what I "want" to write, so I do not instinctively "know" how to write for myself, even though this is the expectation created by that phrase. Nor do I get any pleasure out of writing what I want to read, another thing people say they mean by "writing for yourself". Sure, I sometimes enjoy reading back things I've already written, but it's not WHY I put myself through all that hard work and annoyance, there are plenty of stories that I don't write and will never write because I enjoy playing them over in my head well enough - I don't need to have a story on paper to enjoy it.

Actually just admitting and saying with my whole chest "yeah, I write for engagement. Deal with it" has been a lot healthier for me. I write because it's the way I engage with fandom as I'm not very good at doing other things to engage with fandom (I struggle with essays and putting down character analysis, can't make art or gifs, and I'm bad at just having conversations with people) and it's a good way to hear what people think of my ideas and characterisations, things I don't really have other ways of talking about. So just saying this is my reason for writing, being self-aware about it, has given me confidence to push back against the universal idea that you should "write for yourself" and I no longer feel like I'm broken or wrong for not writing fanfic the way that other people write it. Because I'm not trying to fit a square peg mindset into a round motivation hole (that metaphor works, right? Right???) I just feel a lot happier in general and I can actually maintain more self-awareness about how I'm feeling about writing, such as realising I'm getting a bit overwhelmed by my main WIP and deciding to take a break, when I'm not taking these things as signals I have not yet found The Perfect Way I Should Be Writing and so I should keep going.

To bring this back to the original question, whilst I have tried to quit/want to quit writing many times, I've never actually been able to and I don't really think that I actually can. I've been writing for about 15 years now if not a bit longer, and I think when the writing bug grabs you, it really grabs you. I don't know if this is the case for anybody else, but I genuinely feel that writing and writing fanfiction in particular has changed the way I look at the world and other media. I approach everything with a more analytical mindset, which I suppose to some people sounds un-fun, but to me it's not un-fun at all, it only makes every piece of media more fun to experience and re-experience because I can see how all the parts of it fit together...... or don't fit together in the place of plot holes or similar, but honestly, there's usually joy even in that, in noticing a plot hole but realising that in the context of the moment, in the emotions and the characters, the plot hole doesn't actually matter, it doesn't take away from the culmination of the character arc (or whatever) at all. It makes every new piece of media a chance to experience new inspiration and get new ideas, which are fun to play with even if I never end up writing them. And not just stories, but all kinds of aspects of real life can provide this inspiration. It's joyful, and it's something that's so intricately linked to my writing, that it's not something I can turn off, and equally, it's something that keeps bringing me back to writing and storytelling. So I might regret saying this, but no, I don't think I could ever quit writing any more.

All asks from THIS post.

[not-delicious-milk]

yo I'm gonna be a coward. I've read fan fiction since middle school, and during that time I've read some truly cursed things. I personally have tried to avoid reading mentor/student relationships cause they squik me the f out. But I've always been more treat the immortals like they are their apparent physical age for shipping. So people trying to lewd the pre pubescent with the excuse that they're immortal are obviously full of shit. pt 1.

pt.2 but shipping like Rukia/ Ichigo is fine cause they're the same apparent physical age and act with about the same lvl of maturity. While shipping him with Yoruichi would be sketch. So full disclosure I don't ship Sukuna and Megumi, I don't really see them having chemistry, and no one has written anything good enough to change my mind. But it doesn't freak me out like Megumi and Gojo. Would you be willing to write why you don't consider the vampire rule to apply here?

i’m not completely familiar with the vampire rule, but i would assume you mean that apparent age trumps actual age when it lines up with mental and emotional development?

personally, i’m not a huge fan of that train of thought -- i agree that it’s important to consider mental age when it comes to immortals or very, very old entities, but actual age is still important. and that’s because of the whole reason why big age gaps are fucked up, i.e an imbalance of power that can easily be exploited. adults have more experience, influence, and physical maturity than children or teens do, which they can leverage to groom or abuse a younger partner. as much as i will admit to not hating twilight that much (breaking dawn made me want to give myself a lobotomy though) and honestly sort of liking the trope of “human girl in love with an ancient supernatural being” or any variants of that, there’s an important distinction that needs to be made with it so it’s not awful.

the answer has little to do with mental age. it has to do with power dynamics.

for a vampire romance (which i’m just going to use as a general term for these sorts of relationships) it is absolutely necessary for there to be some caveat in place to prevent the supernatural party from just taking advantage of the mortal one. usually we don’t even think about that when reading or watching vampire romances, because how could such a charming creature of the night stoop so low? 

but it’s important to note that vampires, in gothic literature, existed to fulfill a very specific role. the repressed victorians loved incorporating taboo subjects into their stories, for the steamy scenes i guess, but couldn’t easily do so within the confines of proper literature. one of those taboo subjects was r*pe, which they both found very hot in a forbidden sort of way and longed to explore in their writing without societal backlash, and if you cast an eye upon dracula or carmilla it’s quite easy to guess where those subjects ended up. 

so, for a proper vampire romance, it can’t just end in a straight up kidnapping or taking by force, both because that would be narratively uninteresting and morally corrupt. sometimes there’s a supernatural reason for it, like a protection that the mortal party has to prevent the immortal one from abusing their powers. for example, bella in twilight is immune to telepathy and later develops a shield power against all vampire powers, preventing edward from being able to take advantage of her or invade her privacy any more than he was already doing, fuck you stephanie meyer. sometimes the mortal party has a power of their own that, while relatively useless in situations where the immortal one can swoop in and save them dramatically, is very useful against said immortal party for whatever reason. for example, kagome’s status as the reincarnation of the priestess migoriko would theoretically prevent inuyasha from harming her; in a more explicit example, nanami from kamisama kiss holds absolute divine control over tomoe and could order him to stop if ever he tried anything she didn’t like. although there’s an age gap in those stories, it doesn’t feel like it, not just because of the immortal party’s mental age but because of their inability to take advantage of said gap.

can you see where this is going? 

megumi/gojo is absolutely foul -- there’s the grooming aspect, the fact gojo knew megumi when he was five and practically raised him as a father, and the implicit power imbalance of a teacher/student relationship. there’s no question as to why it’s so repulsive to think about.

megumi/sukuna is equally repulsive, but really only when it exists in fan works. in the canon, sukuna doesn’t have the opportunity to so much as interact with megumi most of the time, let alone take advantage of him, and yuuji would stop that before it ever happened. it feels like a classic vampire romance because the power imbalance should, theoretically, be nerfed by outside circumstances. of course this isn’t the case in any sukufushi fanworks, because it would obviously be boring for sukuna to respect megumi’s boundaries and also to not date a fucking 15 year old from inside the body of another 15 year old, jesus christ. in sukufushi fanworks, which as i’ve stated is the only place sukufushi even exists, there is always something cancelling out the restraints placed on sukuna’s power, whether it be that he has his own body, takes advantage of “enchain”, is able to take control of yuuji’s body on his own, yuuji lets him out for whatever reason, it doesn’t matter. 

there’s always something like that because sukufushi doesn’t exist as a vampire romance, it exists as something more like tentacle p*rn. 

that’s not a sentence i ever thought i’d write, but i think it makes sense? it’s not supposed to be an actual relationship, it’s more like wish fulfillment for people with degradation and pain kinks. in sukufushi fan works, sukuna wields absolute power over megumi and takes full advantage of the age gap and power gap between them. just like how tentacle p*rn strips away the right to refuse in the face of absolute alien power and a language barrier that keeps consent from being withdrawn, sukufushi strips away megumi’s right to refuse in the face of absolute curse power and sukuna’s inability to take “no” for an answer. this is why all explicit sukufushi fics end with megumi being r*ped or nearly r*ped. 

please don’t ask me how i know all of this. sometimes good fanfics have sukufushi scenes in them and i have to like, scroll past the paragraphs really fast to get back to the plot. it’s just that omnipresent.

in other words, megumi/gojo is more grounded in “reality” (not the reality of a functional teacher/student relationship, but the reality of a 28 year old man really being 28 years old) and absent of vampire romance justifications for the age gap. it feels gross because it is and also because there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be.

megumi/sukuna doesn’t feel that way at first, especially if you mainly see sort of canon compliant shipping of it. it’s really common and also never commented on when people joke about sukuna having a “crush” on megumi based on his lines of dialogue when he says he’s curious about him or whatnot. that obeys vampire romance rules, so it doesn’t feel weird. sukuna really doesn’t want to kill or harm megumi because he’s important to his plans later, so that’s out. yuuji would never let sukuna touch megumi with a 10 foot pole either, so that’s out. really their only interactions are hypothetical, besides that one time in shibuya, and even then literally nothing happened. sukuna didn’t want his pawn to break yet, that’s all. even when people overanalyze it they can’t really get any farther than “looks like someone’s got a crush on fushigurooooo” because that’s the farthest it can go. 

if you start looking into sukufushi fanart or fanfics, which is about 95% of the content for sukufushi anyway because again, it’s not supported by the canon at all, vampire romance is replaced unceremoniously by tentacle p*rn. which is why i hate it so much. 

thank you for coming to my ted talk

[anakinlove]

Hi!! I was wondering if you have any advice,,, I know that in order to become a better writer, I need to write. However, I'm afraid that what I write will turn out not-so-great, and it's keeping me from writing :'( Do you have any thoughts on this? (& sorry for bothering you!)

Hey! Sorry for the late reply, I’ve just been thinking about this all day to actually try to give advice and not just go “oof couldnt be me” 

I know that it is scary to think about your work being out where anyone can see it. I struggle with it myself. I worry that the fic I spent 8 hours on will get hate or quite frankly worse, not get read. But I PROMISE YOU there is always going to be at least one person that loves it. Hopefully enough to leave a comment on it, but I know that there are fics I think about that I read when I was 13 and was too young and dumb to comment on. 

My main advice would be to never let anything keep you from writing. If I had stopped writing the second I had gotten hate for it I would only have one fic. But I didn’t. I kept writing because I love it, and I know there are other people that like reading my fics too! There are going to be people that love reading yours. 

If you want, I will show you what my earliest writing looks like. It’s bad. It’s gross. It’s definitely awful, but if I had stopped when I was 14 then I wouldn’t have learned what I have. Just keep writing and eventually you’ll write something you’re so proud of you could burst. I was so proud of my very first Percabeth fic that I cried when I posted it. There’s no better feeling. Set It Free (my reader breaking up with anakin fic) is literally one of my proudest achievements bc like, I did that!! It’s mine!!!!

Overall: don’t let anything keep you from writing. Just don’t. It’s not worth it, when writing is so fun! Same goes for anything else in your life, be it art or something else. ALSO???? TAG ME IN YOUR FIC BABE LIKE DAMN I’M ALWAYS IN THE MOOD TO READ SOMETHING NEW

Ily anon thanks for stopping in💖

But if you would like some ~pointers~ from a non-professsional writer I have written some down here below the cut: 

I just want you to know that I am absolutely not a professional and quite frankly most of these are probably my opinions, but if they help you/ you have more questions please let me know, I’m always happy to help! Some of these might suck to hear but they are all the truth to me.

Honestly I think one way to get better is to make sure to always try to write longer fics. I find that having more time to play with the characters, more opportunities for different types of characters, and more descriptions for your scenes are always great ways to improve, because you might google more words that you didn’t know existed,  or find new ways to describe something. If you always write a clear blue sky try writing a dark and stormy one!

Don’t be afraid to put actions in the middle of dialogue. For example:  

“You’re so cute,” I smiled, laughing softly, “I wish I could be more like          you.”

you can even do something like: 

“May I...” he whispers hoarsely, sounding desperate. Like he needs something. “May I hold you?”

It breaks apart your paragraphs better rather than “Dialogue.” Description. Like yes absolutely use that, but test new waters! Go to new lands with your writing!

I know a lot of people that don’t do outlines for their fics, but I do! It gives me a clear set of directions for what I want to happen. Here is an example of one for an up-and-coming fic: 

This one is VERY in depth, mostly because I have a lot things I want to happen and I’m practically writing the story within the outline. I’ve also seen some that are 

“He kisses her here, smooch smooch. 

time to do the deed here

end with snuggles!” 

(I’m looking at you Julia) 

It’s just an easy way to know what you want to happen, and it prevents getting offtrack, or rambling. 

I know this is going to sound stupid, but not every sentence in a fic has to be poetry. Unless you are specifically going for a poetic fic, you don’t have to spend four sentences describing the shade of brown of your character. It can be just brown. A honey brown works too! Small descriptives in-between large ones are always my go-to. If you want to spend four sentences describing the hair, then only spend one describing their clothes, or something else. Poetic fics can be beautiful when you’re specifically going for that style. There are plenty of writing styles. Find yours! Experiment!

Try not to switch point-of-views. If you are writing in the third person, then please stay third person for that fic. Same goes for second and first. Switch between characters if it fits the scene for sure! But one of my huge pet peeves is seeing: 

She stood at the edge of the water, overlooking the lake surrounded by treews. 

“It’s so pretty” I said to no one. I looked around and noticed to my left that there was a very large tree. 

It seemed pretty easy to climb, you thought. So you climbed it all the way to the top. 

It just breaks the story apart. It sounds like three different people are narrating it. Try to stick with one! Feel free to do one fic in third-person and another in second, but don’t switch during a fic. 

If anyone wants more un-professional advice by someone who should definitely not be giving advice lmk. Or if anyone has questions, comments, or concerns also lmk. 

[rivalsforlife]

one more ahaha but the cherry blossom scene at the end of catch up game ch 3 because i'm still thinking nonstop about it all the time 👀👉👈

ABSOLUTELY I CAN also for anyone reading this go look at Mika’s art which inspired this scene. It’s the tumblr version so you can reblog it too, which you should do, even if you don’t read my long rambling,

okay once again rambling below...

Traditionally, Larry Butz arrived at any social gathering anywhere from half an hour to three hours later than the time he was told, so all things considered, he was actually early. Phoenix wasted no time informing him of the latest betrayal among their small elementary school friend group.

this is a direct callout to one of my friends from high school, where we started seriously considering telling her that any social event we were planning started an hour earlier than it actually did so that she’d make it there on time. We never did in case this turned out to be the time she actually made it on time, but still.

“Larry, remember that one time we were trying to make that gigantic hopscotch game, and we ran out of chalk?” He pointed an accusatory finger at Edgeworth, who sighed. “It turns out, Edgeworth hid it all along!”

Larry blinked, then shrugged. “Oh yeah, right, that. Well, I kind of had an idea…”

“Wh — You hid this from me too?! D-Death! The death penalty for the both of you!”

“Why does this all sound so familiar,” Edgeworth commented under his breath.

I think this part is mostly there so Larry actually does something because I couldn’t find any real way to fit him into this fic...? Anyways the dialogue there with Phoenix threatening the death penalty on Miles and Larry is pretty much directly lifted from the end of Turnabout Goodbyes, which is why Miles comments on it sounding familiar. 

They continued on in that vein for some time, dredging up old elementary school memories. Phoenix proclaimed to be the only innocent member of that group, before Edgeworth brought up a set of very nice gel pens Phoenix reportedly stole from him. Phoenix and Edgeworth got caught up in their argument, and barely even noticed when Larry wandered away, joining Maggey and Gumshoe at the fishing pond while Franziska critiqued them.

This sort of familiar banter was normal. As Edgeworth teased in that same way he had ever since Phoenix first faced him in court, he had to wonder if he’d just imagined the way Edgeworth had been looking at him during the party. Maybe everything was fine, after all.

Not pictured: Phoenix and Miles leaning in closer to each other as they argue. too close. Larry tries to comment but neither of them hear him. Eventually he just walks away because he’s sick of third-wheeling with these two. It’s my firm belief that if there weren’t the court benches in the way that they need to slam, these two would slowly walk closer and closer to each other as they argue because they. uh. want to “intimidate” each other. that’s why they’re nose to nose like that. the whole courtroom is suddenly very uncomfortable.

Haha anyways also I think these two would pick the dumbest things to argue about all the time? Never seriously arguing, the just like bickering because they don’t know how to hold conversations about their feelings.

“You still haven’t explained exactly what happened to my gel pen set,” Edgeworth accused, as they circled around the argument for the third time.

Phoenix threw his hands up in the air. “I just forgot to return it! I didn’t know you were so bothered by it. You should have brought it up!”

“Back then? You were so sensitive. If I brought up that you might have upset me in the least, you would have burst into tears.”

“I wasn’t that sensitive.”

Edgeworth sighed. “Wright, you cried when I got a question wrong on a spelling test, because you thought I would be sad about it.”

“And you were!” Phoenix retorted. “You cried for like an hour!”

“Because when you started crying, I thought it was something I had to be ashamed of!”

More bickering, pretty much! Also I do think Phoenix cried A Lot and was super sensitive up until the whole Dahlia trial which traumatized him pretty badly... 

Anyways the REAL story behind this incident which I am making up just now is probably that Miles was on the verge of crying because of Getting Something Wrong -- which I totally get, I absolutely almost cried over spelling tests as a baby -- and Phoenix picked up on this and realized his best friend was sad and started crying, which made Miles start to fully cry, and it just became a mess.

Meanwhile Larry with the 3/10 on his spelling test was just like “I don’t get what you guys are so upset about a 9/10 is great” which just makes them cry even more.

(Then Gregory probably found out about this incident and sat Miles down and gave him a speech about “everyone makes mistakes and it’s okay to not be perfect all the time, this is a learning opportunity and it shows you what you need to work on!”

:)

That sentiment didn’t last very long.)

Wow I’m getting off topic, moving on --

Phoenix crossed his arms. “I remember this whole thing very differently than you do. You cried first.”

“I never cried in fourth grade.”

Phoenix leaned in and whispered into his ear, “Origami.”

“Do not bring that up!” Edgeworth hissed as Phoenix reared back, laughing.

I don’t know if you need to lean in super close and whisper that in his ear though Phoenix, that might be a bit unnecessary. Miles got lucky here in that his Eternal Shame over not being able to fold an origami crane in fourth grade overrode whatever reaction he undoubtedly would have had about Phoenix’s face being very close to his face.

Anyways this banter is here in the fic mostly because I really wanted to show them being all comfortable and happy with each other. That was a major thing I wanted to push as much as possible in these earlier chapters, that they do care about each other a lot even before we enter the more outright romantic territory.

“Regardless, I am certain you took my gel pen set, so don’t try to blame faulty memory on that one. I bet you carelessly used them all up, didn’t you?”

“Hardly! I wouldn’t even touch it after you left. It reminded me of you.”

Some of the fight left Edgeworth’s stance. “Really?”

“Well… yeah.” He wasn’t sure why the admission suddenly felt like a confession of an entirely different sort.

aw man Phoenix you brought feelings into your banter NOW what are you going to do.

I’m preeetty sure I have books that I lent to my friends in fourth grade that they never gave back so it’s of course not an inherently romantic thing, they probably just forgot it was mine and obviously aren’t going to bring it back now ten years later, but for Phoenix in this case it was probably more like “I borrowed these gel pens from Miles and then keep forgetting to give them back but was going to after winter break, and then he left, so I need to hold onto them until he comes back”. Miles was taken from his life so suddenly it probably had a huge effect on him, especially since he had few friends at the time and Miles made such a big impact on him.

The two of them sat underneath the tree in a sudden, serene quiet. They’d both discarded their suit jackets at some point, down to their dress shirts and waistcoats. Phoenix pretended not to notice the way Edgeworth’s eyes darted across the line of his shoulders and lingered longer than they should have.

I don’t ever really pay much attention to what people are wearing or what they look like at any particular time when I’m writing, but in this case I took extra care to make sure they were in the same outfits as in the art that inspired this!

Maybe I’ll ramble a bit more about that! Pretty much the “theme” of narumitsu week this year was “cherry blossoms”, so I wanted to find some way to incorporate them into this fic somewhere somehow. I decided to have that as a focus on Free Day because I enjoy having structure and wasn’t sure what to have for the day.

Some of this scene, mainly the picnic, is inspired by that one official art here. The first iteration of this chapter had everyone in it (with the obvious exceptions of Diego and Mia) but then I took out Maya and Pearl for reasons I explained when I was talking about the scene in chapter 6 where I decided to cut a lot of Maya’s scenes out of this fic... even though I love her a lot.

And of course when I thought about cherry blossoms and narumitsu I thought about Mika’s art, yes I am linking it again, which I believe she posted about a month or so before I started planning and I was Thinking About It Constantly. It’s gorgeous and since there was the perfect opportunity to use it here I just couldn’t resist and here we are.

Back to the paragraph: Miles attempted to subtly check Phoenix out. It was not subtle.

“Do you still have those gel pens?” Edgeworth asked, softer. “I think you owe me them, after everything.”

“Oh, shut up,” said Phoenix, but it was difficult to have a heated argument right now, for some unknown reason. “If I still have them, they’re in a box somewhere. Plus, they ought to have dried up by now.”

“I doubt it.” A faint smile was beginning to crawl on Edgeworth’s face. “Those gel pens were state of the art.”

“Sure they were,” Phoenix dismissed. “And, what, you’re going to use them? Sign your fancy prosecutor documents in bright pink?”

“What makes you think I don’t do that already?”

“You wouldn’t — oh, wait, of course you’d have customized ink in the same colour as your entire wardrobe, who am I even talking to…”

“Mhm.” Edgeworth brushed his bangs from his eyes, a motion that Phoenix’s brain decided to fixate on for some reason. “But really, you went to all the trouble of keeping the set, and you never used any of them?”

(Miles voice) “oh so you kept something as trivial as that for so long because they reminded you of me? Tell me more. Why do you want a reminder of me. What exactly do you think of me, Wright,”

hm pretty much as soon as Phoenix brought Feelings into this conversation the atmosphere kind of changed and you can now imagine Miles staring with the most adoring expression at Phoenix while Phoenix is ignoring this with such intensity that it doesn’t even show up in his narration. But he also watches the way Miles brushes his bangs from his eyes, so he’s not much better.

And thinking about it now this scene really went on for too long about gel pens hahaha... 

“Objection!” Phoenix declared. “I used the blue one to write you letters at first.”

“Ah, of course you did. I never got any of those… How many did you send?”

“I don’t even want to know…”

Edgeworth hummed and looked off into the distance, where Gumshoe was demonstrating how to cast a line. “Your level of dedication is something else,” he said, as if to himself.

“Well, yeah. You were my only non-Larry friend. You were…” Phoenix swallowed. “You were important to me, you know? You saved me.”

“You keep bringing that up. You’ve more than returned the favor, you know that, don’t you?”

“I’m inclined to disagree.”

I don’t have a consistent headcanon about whether Miles got or read the letters, in this fic presumably von Karma intercepted them and got rid of them... and then presumably Miles ignored any that were sent to him as an adult.

Also these two are going to have ridiculous arguments about who saved who until they’re on their deathbeds, I’m sure.

Edgeworth turned back towards him as if to retort, but stopped halfway, his eyes widening slightly as he stared at Phoenix.

“... Something on my face?” Phoenix asked, trying to quell the feeling of some sort of anxiety that bubbled up when Edgeworth stared at him like that.

insert mikacherryblossomart.png

Miles turns away for one second and then suddenly oh no he’s even more gorgeous now

Edgeworth was silent for some time. Then, very softly, he said, “You have cherry blossom petals in your hair.”

“What? Do I?” He reached a hand up to brush them out, but Edgeworth stopped him by grabbing his wrist, freezing Phoenix.

“With your hair, you’ll never get them out like that.” With his spare hand, Edgeworth began to pick each individual petal from his hair. “You look so — silly, Wright.”

Partially a callback to the beginning of chapter 3, when they were kids:

“Y-Your hair,” Miles managed to say through stifled laughter. “One of the flowers fell into it.”

Phoenix hands shot up into his hair. “Really?”

“You look so silly, Phoenix.” When Phoenix failed to find the flower, Miles reached out. “Here, let me.” 

 Phoenix remained still as Miles reached up to the top of his head and picked the flower out of his hair. “Your hair’s really soft,” Miles said quietly, before handing it over to Phoenix. “Here you go.”

because Miles apparently remembered that it was difficult for Phoenix to get the petals from his hair the first time, and also, wanted an excuse to touch Phoenix’s hair again.

But also the dialogue and interactions are ONCE AGAIN INSPIRED BY MIKA based on this reply to my reply to the art on twitter. look at that you can go and retweet the art on twitter too!

Overall this gives us an accurate Thoughts to Speech translator for Miles:

Miles: You have cherry blossom petals in your hair and it is going to kill me.

Phoenix: What? Do I?

Miles: No, wait, don’t brush them out, I want to touch your hair because it is soft and this is the perfect excuse. You look so captivating.

if Miles had said that out loud though it would probably have killed both of them.

Phoenix let out an awkward, low laugh, starting somewhere deep within his chest. “R-Really.”

“Mhm.”

Edgeworth’s eyes locked with Phoenix’s, and time seemed to freeze. There was a sudden thrum of tension in the air, as if Phoenix were in a play and he’d suddenly forgotten his lines, forgotten he was supposed to be in a play at all.

(chanting) “kiss kiss kiSS KISS KISS --”

But before either of them could break the sudden spell over them, a fishing hook whirred through the air, and —

“Ack, I — I think I got it stuck!”

but of course that needs to be interrupted at the worst possible time because this is fanfiction and this is how things work!

“In the tree?! How did you even manage to get it that far?”

“Don’t worry about it, Maggey, I can climb up the tree and get it unstuck, just hang on —”

“No, no, if I just give it a big yank—”

“Maggey—!”

I broke the first rule of writing dialogue because I can’t really remember who’s supposed to be saying what. I think that Maya had a few lines here and then I didn’t change them since there were no dialogue tags...

Pretty much -- Maggey with her eternal luck tried to fish but released the line too early as she was swinging back so the line went back and got caught in the tree branches directly above Phoenix and Miles.

I think the dialogue progression goes Maggey -> Originally Maya but now either Larry or Franziska -> Gumshoe -> Maggey -> everyone going MAGGEY NO!!!

I remember going fishing with my grandpa once a long time ago and either I or my brother did get the fishing line stuck in a tree. would not recommend.

The branch above Phoenix and Edgeworth jostled, and pink petals burst all around them, fluttering down and catching in their hair and on their clothes. One petal even fell behind Edgeworth’s glasses.

They stared at each other for a moment, stunned, Edgeworth’s hand still loosely wrapped around Phoenix’s wrist, as Maggey shouted apologies from the distance.

There are no cherry blossom trees where I live so I have no idea if we’re even in the right season for this or if cherry blossom trees even behave this way - but I’m basing it off of... you know when it’s that point in fall where if you shake a tree branch leaves will just scatter everywhere? That. 

Also RIP to the other four who were just having a grand old time fishing and then turn around seeing these two sitting really close to each other almost holding hands about two seconds away from a kiss... which they’d just interrupted...

And then — the most incredible thing happened, and Edgeworth began to laugh.

Phoenix could have catalogued all the laughs he heard from Edgeworth: the usual, short laughs often mistaken for a scoff by those who didn’t know him as well as Phoenix did; the triumphant, smug, courtroom laughs when he thought he had Phoenix cornered; to the quiet, restrained ones in private that were more of a hum than anything else. This laugh was new.

This was a full-on fit of laughter bubbling deep in his chest and spilling from his mouth, which Edgeworth quickly covered with his free hand, with the additional bonus of covering his reddening face. It wasn’t something hidden or faked or triumphant, it was genuine, and open, and Phoenix could swear it was one of the most beautiful sounds he ever heard.

Miles here is going through an emotional rollercoaster having been two seconds away from finally kissing the love of his life only to be interrupted at the worst possible time, which is just so on brand for the two of them that he can’t help but start laughing hysterically. Plus Phoenix probably looks absolutely shocked suddenly covered in petals, which doesn’t help.

Then the next two paragraphs are brought on by Phoenix Pining and also me wanting Miles Edgeworth to laugh more... 

From my notes for this scene:

They stare at each other for a moment and laugh, and Miles’ laugh just utterly captivates Phoenix and makes him fall so completely in love immediately and oh no he is screwed he is utterly screwed.

So pretty much I had to encapsulate the “falling so completely in love immediately” part which I decided to do by focusing on Miles laughing. I wanted to draw a lot of attention to that which is why there are so many paragraphs dedicated to Miles laughing and Phoenix thinking about Miles laughing.

Trucy’s laughter always made the world feel a little brighter, and made Phoenix feel stronger. Edgeworth’s laugh did the opposite; it dislodged something inside of him, it weakened him, it made the whole world go soft and fuzzy around him. Instead of illuminating all the good in the world, it turned Phoenix’s world into one person.

More focus on Miles’ laughter but also... kind of drawing attention to Phoenix’s reaction to this being different from his reaction to other people he cares about laughing? Because feeling warm and happy when seeing someone you care about non-romantically laugh is normal, but then I wanted to make it clear that this is a different sort of feeling for Phoenix. 

Also Phoenix has to realize this is a different sort of feeling for him because otherwise he could brush it off like he’s probably dismissed all of his romantic feelings throughout the years as “oh I’m just glad my friend is happy, and I rarely ever hear Edgeworth laugh so him being relaxed enough to laugh like that makes me feel happy too,” but it’s not what he’d expect if he just sees Miles as a friend. And it’s described as weakening in the paragraph because right now the subject of his romantic feelings for Miles isn’t something that Phoenix can fully or easily accept right now (as chapter 5 would indicate).

Edgeworth’s fit of laughter subsided, and he shifted his hand so he could look at Phoenix again, the hints of a shy grin peeking out between his fingers, his hair and his shirt and his face adorned with a sweet, gentle pink. It was like looking at an entirely different person — or, no, the same person, but with all armor off, all guards lowered.

Miles is very embarrassed right now but kind of... in a good way...? Like again, almost kissed the love of his life then rudely interrupted at the last possible moment, plus Phoenix’s whole reaction to the thing gave Miles the impression that Phoenix wanted to kiss him as well, so he’s feeling a little giddy. Plus he was just laughing a lot when he normally doesn’t do that. Overall he’s not used to expressing his emotions so he’s embarrassed and a little shy about it...

The part about Miles’ “hair and shirt and face adorned with a sweet, gentle pink” refers to both the cherry blossom petals (in his hair and clinging to his shirt and a bit on his face) and also him blushing quite a bit.

It all feels a little out of character honestly haha because Miles isn’t really the type to be blushing hardcore like this and be a little shy, buuut in this case I let myself get away with it because he’s dealing with romantic feelings he hasn’t ever dealt with at this level before, and it’s also out of character just enough to really strike Phoenix in the heart. You can just imagine him staring at Miles with the most lovestruck expression on his face because he hasn’t seen this side of Miles before and he loves it.

Phoenix’s heart stuttered in his chest, and may have stopped entirely.

He was screwed.

He was completely and utterly screwed.

And even Phoenix can’t deny that he’s super in love at this point. 

I think I wrote this part, changed the words “screwed” to “doomed” right before posting, and then switched it back again for no particular reason. The Vibe just felt a little off but oh well.

Then the next chapter skips over the rest of this picnic but honestly Phoenix’s brain skipped over the rest of this picnic as well. Imagine the two of them just kind of standing around in a lovestruck daze for a while. I think Franziska had to physically drag Miles out of there. no one knows how Phoenix got home, not even Phoenix and least of all me!

But thank you Mika for requesting this!! And for drawing such incredible art for me to base the chapter around haha!!!

[maqicool]

you reblog a lot of drarry drabbles so i was wondering if you read any longer fics? Do you have any recommendations? I'm in the mood for some long reading. I'm not really picky as long as it isn't underage

I don’t know how long is long to you, so I’m going to do intervals. I also didn’t want to post repeats of authors, so I just basically made a list of writers who have a number of good long fics and chose my favourite from those. So, all of these authors should be checked out. ( Also this is my first “rec” type thing and I don’t know how it’s done. So I’m basically going to gush like I would when giving them to a friend. Sorry if this is completely incoherent. ) 

20-30k

The Softer Side of Draco Malfoy by QueenofThyme (29.7k)

Summary:  When Harry Potter’s experimental potion ends up all over Malfoy, and he starts behaving differently, Harry is left wondering: what the fuck is wrong with Draco Malfoy?

Opinion: By the first paragraph, I was sold. Second, I was invested - not only emotionally, but physically. I could not move until I read on. Third paragraph and I was hooked. I had to finish it and I absolutely devoured it. Just – the voice is so strong in this piece and every of their pieces, let’s be real. It is so fucking cute. It’s so funny. There’s so much second hand embarrassment to the point I had to put my phone down because I was freaking out and needed a break. There’s so much Oh Shit! in this story that makes it my favourite thing ever.

Draco Malfoy: Toilet Supremo by who_la_hoop (26.1k)

Summary: It must be a vision brought on by eating cheese sarnies too close to bedtime, Harry thinks. There’s no way that Draco Malfoy can really be standing on his doorstep, calling himself a Toilet Supremo, and expecting Harry to buy not only this unlikeliest of scenarios, but also a new loo. But no: Harry’s eyes do not deceive him. Malfoy, Lord of Toilets, is really there. Which begs a very important question: what the hell is he up to, and what evil scheme is he about to unleash? Because there must be an evil scheme … mustn’t there?

Draco. Sells. Toilets. This is literally the funniest thing I’ve read in ages, alright? It’s cute, it’s snarky, and honestly?? It’s so pure?? There’s so much to love about this. I love Hermione, and Ron, and the people who use the toilets in the adverts - they’re the best side characters, honestly. If you’re looking for something light-hearted and funny, this is a great read.

30-50k

A convenient Impracticality by firethesound (38.5k)

Summary:  Somehow Harry ends up agreeing to a fake relationship with his ex-nemesis-turned-friendly-acquaintance-with-benefits, except for some reason it involves an awful lot of actual dating and, sadly, not much sex. Confused? Harry is too, but when has anything with Draco Malfoy ever been as straightforward as it seems?

Opinion: All the second hand embarrassment. ALL OF IT. I love it. I’m trying really hard to make this coherent, so I have to contain some of my love, but this is one of those fics I keep going back to read whenever I’m down or in need of a pick me up. There are parts that I immediately go to for the comedy or feelings. I love everything about it and the background ships are a++.

In Evidence of Magical Theory by bixgirl1 (43.7k)

Summary: In which Harry and Draco can’t fight, and so they fall in love instead.When a hex meant for Draco accidentally catches Harry as well, the pair are forced to learn to understand each other in ways they previously might have thought impossible.

Opinion: I’m going to be clear in saying that I only include this one piece, but I highly recommend everything by this author. I didn’t want to put a bunch of things from one author, but what made me choose this instead of The Shape of the World or Balance, Imperfect basically boiled down to the bed sharing. I’m a sucker for this trope. It’s my favourite. This plus Bix’s writing, plus the angst, plus the fluff, plus the awkwardness, plus the falling in love, plus the plot twist ( and what a fucking plot twist that was wow ) all made this one of my favourite fics and it’s very high on my recommended list. This is the fic I threw at my older drarry friends and had long discussions about our feelings in regards to thi sfu ck ing stor y. Side note: most stories I read that contain a lot of sex scenes, I start to skim it, because it ends up being 1k words of penetration. I read every word of this. Because it’s written just so perfectly. 

Sealed With a Kiss by Faith Wood (46.4k)

Summary:  Harry Potter will fall in love with the first person who kisses him. Draco knows what he must do. A Christmassy Hogwarts fic, this.

*internal screaming* For the love of all that is holy, this fic is literally the air that I breathe. This is one of my favourite eighth year fics. There’s hijinks, accidental love potions, miscommunication, pining and HOLY PLOT TWISTS WOWOW. I was shook, shaken and stirred. There is the perfect amount of angst to hurt, but not enough to destroy you. The fluff and cute will do that. Also: I love christmas fics. 

100k+

Starfall by lomonaaeren (196k)

Summary: When the truth about a seemingly minor Dark hex Harry has suffered leads to the dissolution of his marriage with Ginny, Harry spins into a downward spiral. His private consolation is creating a fantasy life for himself in his journal as Ethan Starfall, a normal wizard with a big family. When he receives a random owl Draco Malfoy has cast into the void as a plea for help with his son Scorpius, Harry replies—as Ethan. There’s no reason, he thinks, for an epistolary friendship with Draco to go further. But Draco might have different ideas about that. 

ALRIGHT, where do I begin with this? First off, I have a thing for identity porn. I love it. Second THE FUCKING ANGST! I felt the pain of everyone. I felt Ginny’s pain, Harry’s pain, Draco’s pain – I felt everything. I even felt Scorpius’ temper tantrums. I had to take several breaks because I was too invested. This is some DRAMATIC SHIT. I don’t usually curse around my mother out of respect ( despite her being like ... you’re an adult ... idfc ) but I shouted a couple obsceneties because of this story. You’re going to need a pitcher of tea, and then back up tea because this story is going to spill it. The amount of yes in this fic is amazing. I highly recommend. It’s just not for the faint of heart.