#once I’m done thinking about downton abbey and reading pride and prejudice fanfic it’s over for you bitches

[winterscaptain]

me: disappears for approx 2.5 years

also me: drops a portrait of aaron into the void without commentary and dips

[owlways-and-forever]

Hello, it’s your CS Secret Santa! I hope you’ve been having a pleasant few weeks and that all this Tumblr uproar hasn’t been too depressing! Don’t worry, you’ll still be getting your Secret Santa fic from me, even if I have to snail mail it to you! :D I’m with you on favorite types of fanfiction: it really depends on my mood. I also enjoy unplanned pregnancy fics! 1/7

I think it’s seeing Killian and Emma interact in the situation and the way that Killian always is able to break down her walls and convince her that he will be there for her and the baby that just makes me melt inside! I think my favorites are multi-chapter canon divergence AUs. I like seeing how all the different writers in the fandom think things could have gone differently based on one or two small changes to canon. I love writing AUs too! 2/7

I still haven’t really hit my stride with consistently writing fanfic, but I keep hoping that practice makes perfect. What other fandoms are you a part of ? I’m going to have to go read all your fics now! 😉 Are there any other tropes that you would prefer I steer clear of? Or any tropes that you just absolutely love and I should try to include? I will tell you upfront that I’m not personally comfortable writing smut, so I’m sorry but I’ll probably leave that part to your imagination. 😉 3/7

My family has always had a tradition of putting up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving, so that kind of marks the beginning of Christmas music and movies and general festivities for us! And it is nice to get a whole month of Christmas joyfulness to help with the greyness of winter. Ick! Unless you like winter, which in that case, more power to ya! You’ll have to tell me more about your family traditions after all the secrecy is over! 4/7

My husband is third generation Czech so his family also does some traditional recipes around the holidays (mainly desserts!) and I’ve always been envious of families who have held onto their special roots like that! I love cooking and baking too, so I’d love to eventually hear what kinds of food you usually make! Does your family usually do big parties/get-togethers for the holidays? Or do you tend to be more laid back and kind of low-key?I would love including some Aladdin and Jasmine! 5/7

They were honestly one of the only good parts of season six in my mind! I just wasn’t a big fan of the overall writing by the point. Which was sad, but what can you do… Did you watch the whole show or was there a point where you stopped? I stopped watching live after the first half of season 5 and then just watched on Netflix. And I never watched season 7. Did you have a favorite season and least favorite season? Haha, I know exactly what you mean about Snow and Charming. 6/7

Actually, I still consider them two of my favorite characters, but their actions and characterization in the back half of the show is just… yeesh. You also perfectly put into words exactly what I’ve felt about their idealistic look on relationships! I’ve never been able to express that very well before, but just yes to all of what you said!I hope you got all those asks and Tumblr didn’t screw it all up!!! But either way, talk to you again soon! 7/7

Hello Santa! I’ve missed you! I’ve been having an alright week, nothing terribly exciting going on. I’m not too worried about the tumblr nonsense. I mean, I don’t like it and I don’t agree with it by any means, but I understand what they’re trying to do, and how difficult it can be to execute. I know there will be mistakes and it will be a bother, and I totally understand people wanting to leave, but I’m sticking around, at least for a while. But I’ve been on ao3 and ff.net for a while, so I’ll be keeping those up, and I’ll probably explore some additional accounts at some point. We’ll see.

Ugh, I’m totally with you! Killian convincing Emma that he wants to be around and be there for both of them is just too cute! It makes me all mushy. Also, I love seeing all the different names people come up with for their kids - names totally fascinate me in like a super nerdy way. Especially middle names. I think I’m very much in the minority of the fandom though with not liking Hope. Also, I see so much in fandom about their kids always being blonde and looking like Emma and just like… statistically speaking its not likely, and as a statistics person, that always bugs me. Like it’s fine if its just one kid, goodness knows that happens (both my parents have darker hair and I was white blonde as a baby and then blonde until I was an adult #towheadsunite). But when its like four kids and they’re all blonde the stats person in me gets very ruffled. I’m not sure I’ve read any mc canon divergence fics, but I always find them interesting. Mostly because I just find it’s not really a type of writing that I’m good at. The fun thing about AUs for me is that you get to world build, taking snippets from canon and snippets from the AU you’re fitting it into and make it this whole new thing. Say you’re writing a Pride & Prejudice AU, you get to pick parts of the plot that you like and twist them so it’s slightly different, and maybe you throw in some magic and see how that changes it. You get to choose what parts of Elizabeth Bennet’s personality Emma has, and what traits she brings over from canon Emma. And that’s just so much fun to me, to be able to create that way, and fit things just how you like them. But I find that when I’ve tried to write canon divergence I get too bogged down in the details - canonically, who was there and what had already happened and who knew what, and what magical abilities are there - and the story somehow gets lost in my brain. But I admire people who can write it, I think it shows phenomenal creativity to take a story and then run away with it and see how if you just change something small it can ripple out into the whole story. What are some of your favourite canon divergence stories?

I’m not consistent either. I try to at least write a little bit every day, but it always depends on what’s going on and how inspired I feel. I do have this excel thing where I keep track of how much I write for each of my WIPs each day, which I like. It helps me visually see the progress I’m making, and I’m definitely a visual person. The only other fandom I really write for is Harry Potter, but I like Doctor Who, West Wing, Downton Abbey. I think DW is really the only fandom of those. Honestly I watch way more shows than it ought to. I can’t think of any other specific tropes right now, either to include or avoid. Sorry, I know that’s not very helpful. I don’t mind not having any smut, I’m also not very comfortable writing it, and only selectively comfortable reading it.

Oooh, that’s a nice tradition! We always put our tree up kind of whenever we feel like it. I don’t know if my mom’s done hers yet, and my dad insists on waiting until the 12th so it’s the twelve days of christmas, no matter how many times I tell him that that’s not what that means. My roommate and I put our tree up last weekend though, so it’s all decorated now. We’re actually going to do a little “family photo” with the two of us and our pets tomorrow, which should be a riot. Haha, I do like winter! I love the cold bite in the air and the fairy lights everywhere and bundling up. And I especially love snow. It’s my favourite. But I’m also a January birthday, so I dont think I had much choice in liking winter.Oh my goodness, we do huge get togethers. Mostly just because our family is big. My mom has 8 siblings, and all but 2 are married, and then I have somewhere around 15 cousins, plus partners, so a normal holiday dinner for us is usually over 30 people. Thanksgiving is usually the biggest holiday for us, because somehow it’s worked out that that’s what most people can make it for. Christmas is still big, but less people travel for that, and I think it’ll probably continue to dwindle as cousins get married and stuff. This year will actually [probably] be the first year that I haven’t spent Christmas with my family, so it’s going to be a little weird for me. Boxing Day we typically go to my dad’s brother’s house, and I see his side of the family because they’re English. It’s always fun, and its usually the only time all year that I get to see them, but it’s also strange because I’m the only girl. It’s a more low-key day though, so generally if I need some quiet time I just grab a book and find a cozy spot. Last year was really nice though and two of my cousins and I stayed up super late and told stories and bonded. What kind of food is traditional for Czech christmases? I wonder if it’s similar to Polish food…

I definitely stopped watching live at some point in grad school, but I couldn’t tell you exactly when. It wasn’t really a conscious choice so much as just having a ton going on and not always being around to watch. I never watched s7 though. Once Emma and Killian were gone… well, I gave it a try, but I only got like 3 episodes in or something before I decided it wasn’t for me. Maybe one day I’ll go back and watch it, but I haven’t done a OUAT rewatch for a few years.I know that’s their fairytale story and everything and that’s kind of the point of them to some degree, to be that “ideal true love” but idk. I guess it just seems a bit garrish in the way that the other relationships really have to work for their happy ending. And snowing hits their bumps too, but… they kind of iron themselves out? One of the things that I liked about OUAT was that it was still fairytales, it was still fantastical, but it was realistic when it came to characters. They were broken, complicated, imperfect. The people themselves weren’t fairytale versions of anything. Except snowing. And from the perspective of being that fairytale ideal, they’re done well, of course, and I think that’s why people like them. But it’s so different from everyone else on the show.Anyway, that was a lot, but it was so wonderful talking to you! I hope we get to chat again soon! (Also sorry for not really asking any questions, but it’s nearly 1am now and WAY past my bedtime so I’m going to get some shut eye and then post this when I wake up.) Cheers!