#rwrb is also not a fanfic they just also happened to write fanfic

[villainanders]

right casey mcquiston famously an ally and not a queer person themself 😐

[butternutsquashthesenutz]

RWRB hcs probably pt. 1-

•After they get married everyone (mostly June and Nora) started calling Alex princess. Like, "shut up, princess"

•Henry has read MANY fanfics and written several of his own. This includes a secret five chapter story about him and Alex that stays hidden in the depths of his computer

•I know Taylor Swift is a controversial topic in this fandom, but you cannot tell me Henry "queer historian, writer, and dramatic gay boy" would not jam out to and cry over ts songs alone in his room

•David loves cuddling with Alex, and Henry calls him a traitor, but really he finds it adorable

•Alex has definitely brought some feral animal home that he found on the street hoping to save it and raise it as a pet, and then Henry made him give it to the shelter and he cried all night

•June and Nora get a cat. That's it. They're just cat moms

•When Pez, June, and Nora are all in the same place, they are most likely gonna sleep together

•Phillip gets better and he and Henry are able to work on mending their relationship after Mary dies and neither of them have to deal with her manipulation and abuse

•Alex posts lots of thirst traps, and Henry dies every time

•Alex calls Henry lots of pet names I'm Spanish, and also just in general talks to him a lot in Spanish. Henry has very low understanding of what Alex is saying for the first couple years, but he still melts

•Henry eventually tries to learn Spanish and after a while he can carry a conversation. Oscar often makes fun of his pronunciation though

•Alex is an apple user Henry is an android user. They argue about it often

•Alex's shit got rocked when Hamilton came out. He saw it 10 times

•They continue to have a New Year's party for several years after Ellen leaves office.

•They have a daughter and a son, the son is Henry and June's biologically, and the daughter's Alex and Bea's biologically. Both are referred to as aunt though. Also they used IVF not sex, just to be clear.

•When Alex turns 35, a petition is spread around social media trying to get him to run for president. It gets double the needed signatures, but he doesn't end up running.

•Alex usually tops, but not always. Henry is usually more dominant though.

•I know in cannon Bea gets married to someone (presumably a man) but I hc that she's also gay and meets a girl whose picking her friend up from and na meeting. (Idk, I have a whole story set out for Bea's love life)

•Not really a hc, but Henry has def ridden Alex while wearing a cowboy hat

•Pez always buys the children of the super six super lavish and expensive gifts when ever he visits, and becomes the favorite of the aunts and uncles

•After their first fight once married, Alex has a huge panic attack thinking they won't make it together, but Henry calms him down and it doesn't happen again

•Zhara and Shaan have a daughter who is the scariest little girl in the world. Alex is legitimately scared to get on her bad side.

•David has his own insta account and he has many photos in little outfits

•Henry and Alex write letters to each other every time one of them has to go somewhere for work, just for old times sake

•Henry's first novel absolutely kills all the queer teens, and is basically that universe's RWRB

•Alex often steals Henry's Jaffa cakes and won't ever admit it. Henry knows, and he finds it adorable

•Ever so often Alex will get super into some new topic and do loads of research, and write essays or make presentations on it and then share it with Henry so he can teach him everything he now knows.

•Lowkey canon, but Henry's a Maurauders era fan

•He's also a Tumblr girly and has had a secret blog for years

•The super six do slideshow nights, here's an example of one of those nights: Henry: People from History You Didn't Know Where Queer, Nora: The Statistical Likelihood of Each of Us Releasing a Rap Album, Pez: Rating Everyone's Exes, Bea: The Most Embarrassing Stories About Henry I Can Think of, Alex: Hottest Politicians Around the World, June: The Most Embarrassing Stories About Alex I Can Think of (Her and Bea worked together)

•Occasionally Henry will use an American term (like saying chips when he meant crisps) and Alex will use a British term (like jumper instead of sweater), and both get very upset when it happens (whoever didn't slip up finds it hilarious)

•They joke around whenever a gossip site releases an article about their relationship, like, "oh look, I've apparently left you and headed back to England after you cheated on me" "oh, good for you, that was a rude thing for me to do"

[inexplicablymine]

2023 Writing Roundup

Thank you to @welcometololaland @cha-melodius @kiwiana-writes @three-drink-amy and @rmd-writes @orchidscript for the tags, it was a fruitful year for my first toe dip into fanfic ~ and it will end with quite the bang as well (hence why I’m putting off my 2023 fic wrapped until at least January 1st).

July

No Sense or Sensibility (RWRB, T, 5K)

How to win the newlywed game with your best friend with whom you are not even dating (yet)

Uncut Not Uncultured (RWRB, E, 6K)

Alex never thought about if Henry was uncut down there… but now it’s all he can think about

August

The month in which I disappeared from all internet for three weeks to enjoy one of my other loves in this life with no service!

September

- Mr BodyPillow (RWRB, T, 21K)

The adventures of Ace Alex finding love, cuddles, and assurance from Henry

October

- They Were Tentmates! (RWRB, M, 4K)

What happens when you are forced to share a tent (and a sleeping bag) with your nemesis

- Because I’m a Scoundrel (RWRB, E, 8K)

Olympic athletes! TIME Gala at the White House! Mistaken couples costumes!

November

- Mr Party Hardy (RWRB, T, 7K)

A Mr. BodyPillow follow up exploring Alex’s relationships with parties pre and post Henry

- Minty Fresh (RWRB, G, 2K)

An illustrated story of their relationship to proposal one gum wrapper at a time

- No Nut November (RWRB, E, 10K)

Can the boys survive No Nut November? Not without a lot of innuendos that’s for sure.

December

- No Laughing Matter (RWRB, T, 3K)

Alex is the dental hygienist who helps with Henry’s Wisdom Teeth removal. It’s just as funny as you imagine.

To be posted before the end of the year :)

Super Six and the Sirens Call (RWRB, T, 111K, 20th)

Camp Halfblood meet the Super Six, a quest of the likes you have never seen before

Not So Silent Night (RWRB, E, TBD, 21st)

Alex is sick and tired of his piano playing neighbor, but what happens when they get stuck in an apartment together on the longest night of the year?

Messiah (RWRB, M, TBD, 25th)

Two boys, two instruments, two churches. Midnight mass and a very religious experience between the two of them

Fifteen Hours Till Forever (RWRB, M, TBD, 25th)

A firstprince canon compliant wedding weekend

Balls to the Wall (RWRB, T, TBD, 26th)

The story of how Alex spent a night in college in the drunk tank… even though he was never drunk

Glitter Bomb (RWRB, E, TBD, 27th)

Alex comes wrapped in a bow for Henry… and in some glitter

Where Is My SuperSuit (RWRB, M, TBD, 28th)

A four way love square between two super powered idiots

3/4th Cup of Love (RWRB, E, TBD, 29th)

What really happened in the kitchen when Alex taught Henry how to make those quiches

Sleeping Beauties (RWRB, M, TBD, 30th)

Alex and Henry attend the 2024 Met Gala as the muses of world class designer Pez Okonjo

Halfway There (RWRB, T, TBD, 31st)

Canon compliant demiromantic Alex realization contemplation and conversation

So much still happening!!! Will end the year with a whopping 19 fics and over 100K words shared. Spectacular.

An open tag but also tagging some lovely people to share what a year they have had!!

@adinarj @affectionatelyrs @anincompletelist @alasse9 @clottedcreamfudge @celaestis1 @cheesecurdsgravyandfries @celeritas2997 @cultofsappho @dumbpeachjuice @daisymae-12 @everwitch-magiks @firenati0n @happiness-of-the-pursuit @hgejfmw-hgejhsf @hillerskas @heybuddy-drabbles @iboatedhere @indestructibleheart @indomitable-love @jackwolfes @kill8a @lem0nademouth @littlemisskittentoes @nontoxic-writes @pirates-against-heterosexuality @roseapothecary @rockyroadkylers @read-and-write- @smc-27 @saintlynomenclature @three-drink-amy @tintagel-or-cockleshells @thinkof-england @vonpeepsisback @wordsofhoneydew @xthelastknownsurvivorx @zwiazdziarka

[meraki-yao]

RWRB Feelings: Paris

Okay so everyone goes on about how beautiful and masterfully done the Paris love-making scene is, and that’s absolutely 100% true. I’ve seen comments and reactions that say they feel like they’re intruding and they need to leave the room, and all I could think was “Well that means everyone did their job perfectly.”

I wanted to share a bit on how I felt watching the scene.

Note that this is pretty personal and not me analysing it, it’s just my feelings on it.

My culture and environment are really conservative and traditional, so families don’t talk about sex. My first real exposure to it (besides biology class and the few explicit fanfics I innocently stumbled upon) was a talk at school when I was 14.

Now, my school is a Catholic all-girls school, so one point of the talk was the whole “don’t have sex until you're married thing” which I later realized is an antiquated notion: honestly as long as it’s safe and consensual, let people decide what they want to do with their own bodies.

But that aside, that talk was actually pretty good, and I was really focused on the speaker, because other than the religious notion, they also talked about safe sex, which biology class only touched on briefly and is always a good thing to learn about, and the part that I remember the most: the emotional aspect of sex, or more appropriately named in this circumstance, lovemaking.

 The speaker said: “Having sex with your romantic partner, is saying wedding vows, making a declaration for love, with your bodies.”

I don’t know why, I didn’t entirely understand it, but I found that description beautiful, and remembered it.

Down the line I grew to learn that there are different ways to have sex: it can be fun, it can be passionate, it can be painful, whatever. And among the very limited sex scenes I’ve seen in shows and movies, they mostly kind of imply they’re doing it but never show what’s happening, which is okay with me, and also, I never really watched a sex scene that matched what the speaker said, which, again, okay. It's different, it's fine.

But when I watched RWRB and I got to the Paris love-making scene?

All I could think of was that quote.

“Making love is saying wedding vows with your bodies.”

This felt like that. This felt intimate, delicate, careful. But as much as it was the first time for Henry and Alex, it felt like some sort of consummation, there's some sort of beautiful finality to them. A moment going from “me and you” to “us”. In every facial expression, every flex of fingers, every breath and beat, you can see Alex and Henry falling more and more in love, bit by bit, second by second.

I haven’t had a romantic relationship in my life so far, and while I don’t identify as ace or aro, sometimes I don’t understand the appeal of sex.  

But this was a moment where I watched it and went “Oh.”

“This is why people in love have sex.”

Seriously I cannot praise this scene enough. I feel like there should be awards for this scene alone. Round of applause of everyone involved in working on this scene, this ended up being such a masterpiece.

Sidenote: I was writing this, looking at gifs of the scene, and listening to You Matter to Me from Waitress and I started tearing up, what the fuck

[palfriendpatine66]

My dream is that you one day will write boiling rwrb au

Also I need to know all of your thoughts about the film

RED WHITE AND ROYAL BLUE MY BELOVED!!!!

In summary: I absolutely love it and have so many thoughts. But also I don’t see myself writing an obikin au for it. (Not to worry, I speak autocorrect 😉) Read more below the break

I adore rwrb. It’s my new comfort movie. I’ve watched it three times and I read the book after my first viewing.

The first time I watched in I could NOT believe how gay it was. Honestly I am still twirling my hair and kicking my feet that we get to have a rom com that is just SO!gay. I want more! And I’m really hoping that it’s popularity means we’ll get it

*side note for any of my younger followers: this makes me feel so old. But as a teen in the 2000s there wasn’t a lot of queer media readily available and what was definitely wasn’t showing or marketed toward teens. What I was aware of was adult dramas surrounding HIV/AIDS. Glee and Modern Family didn’t come out until I graduated. Stories like this would have been a game changer

Anyways: back to rwrb. I LOVE that it gets to unabashedly be everything that it is. Is it corny as hell? Yes! Is it tropey and over the top? Yes! Does it read like a fanfic? Yes! Is it fantastic that it gets to be all of these things that every!single! hetero romance/romcom gets to be while basically leading a pride parade through everyone’s Amazon Prime account? YES!!!

A short list of my favorite things about rwrb in no particular order:

All the star wars references in the book. They are nerds and they are my kind of people

Get Low is also my drunk jam. Yes I am the target audience. Yes I am ok with this

There’s a female president and vice president (girl power!)

The sex scene might just be the sweetest, most intimate thing I have witnessed with my own two eyes? It was so tender and so real

There was zero attempt made to pretend that they weren’t just copying the royal family and the fact that the movie leaned into it so hard is absolutely hilarious to me.

They’re also a biracial couple and they don’t shy away from Alex’s experiences as the son of an immigrant to the US (the book does more here)

The key stays on during sex, just hanging there bonking him in the face. 10/10. Hilarious. Kills me.

They do not shy away from gay sex happening and the boys are horny for each other. Like, we don’t just see them kiss once. Again, I’m old, but YES!!!!

I’m cutting myself off here but I could very much go on.

As for the possibility of an obikin au: I’m not going to lie, I thought about it. But I don’t think I see that happening from me.

The first reason is mostly how I write obikin. I don’t write same age aus because I can’t personally separate out their age gap and power dynamic from the other aspects of their canon relationship. I just don’t know how to make them work as peers. (Note: nothing against same age aus, I’ve read many that I’ve adored. I just can’t wrap my head around it to make it happen myself).

Secondly, I kind of don’t want to touch it? I realize I’m basically the queen of looking at a movie and thinking YES, but make it obikin! But I just went on a rant about how this movie/story feels special in that 1) it’s already queer and 2) is allowed to unapologetically be itself. And I don’t know that I want to change that

(Would I read a RWRB obikin au? Absolutely)

[thebrownstone]

Introduction | FAQ | Discord | Twitter | Collection

Do I have to join/be a member of The Brownstone discord to participate? 

No! Everyone is welcome to participate! The more the merrier! Please share this with anyone who may be interested in joining.

Do I have to participate in every single day?

Nope! We know that can be a lot. Just do the one(s) that excite you the most if you can’t do them all.

Can I post more than one submission per prompt/day? 

Yes, of course! If you are inspired to create multiple projects for one prompt, that's incredible.

What tags should I use? 

On socials, we recommend using any of these tags: #firstprinceweek, #firstprinceweek2023, #firstprince week, #firstprince week 2023. (The last 2 are for tumblr/ao3) You can also tag our accounts if you wish for us to repost your work! On ao3, you can add your fics to our ao3 collection.

Is Not Safe For Work (NSFW, 18+) content allowed? 

Yes, just as long as content is properly tagged.

Can I write a story in a language other than English? 

Of course!

Should I post my works as chapters of the same fic or as individual fics?

Up to you! However, if you end up writing a multi-chapter fic one day, we would suggest separating the fics.

Are there any requirements/suggestions about length for fics?

Nope! Feel free to write as much or as little as you’d like!

Is this event solely dedicated to either the book or the movie?

No! You can do something for either, just be sure to properly tag your works. If you write a movie fic, make sure to put it under the movie ao3 tag: Red White & Royal Blue (2023). If you write a book fic, make sure to put it under the movie ao3 tag: Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston. On other sites, use #rwrbmovie and #rwrb when applicable. 

Can I create something that happens to involve a side ship? 

Sure, as long as that ship is secondary to firstprince. 

I don’t make fanart nor do I write fanfic, what can I do to participate? 

Anything! Many things are still available to you even if you don’t want to write or do traditional art. You can make gif sets, fancams/edits, playlists, or whatever you can come up with. 

Can I post my submissions late? 

Yep! We will continue to reblog tagged posts for a week after the event ends.

Will there be other rwrb ship weeks? 

Maybe! We hope to do this again for other ships, but we want to focus on this event right now. 

If I have further questions, where can I ask? 

Feel free to submit a question through our tumblr ask box.

[khaleesiofalicante]

Hii! I just wanted to let you know I love your writing! I've been keeping up with your fics for almost two years now and I loved every single one I read. I remember I was scrolling on ao3 trying to find something to read and LBAF kept popping up so I decided to give it a shot and OH WOW. After that I went and read your older fics as well and just wooow (I absolutely loved dear mr lightwood) You're my favourite fanfic writer of all time, I've never read any fan fiction that's as good as yours fjskslslsk. I absolutely love all your characters and the way you write emotions in your stories if that makes sense. It just makes me feel things fkskdjak. Especially IALS 😭🩷

I also love the rwrb au so far! I don't know much about rwrb so I'm excited to see what happens next! I also love how you chose to explore Max's feelings of insecurity in this.

So yeah ahah just wanted to tell you your writing is amazing <3

Thank you so much, darling. This made me smile so much! I'm glad you found my stories and they bring you comfort (and pain hehe). Thank you for giving it a chance.

I'm very curious to see your reactions to LDV since you don't know much about rwrb. I'm happy you are enjoying it!! It's gonna be a fun ride.

I am having a lot of fun(?) writing about Max's insecurities. In most media insecure men are often toxic because they express their insecurity (about their body or job or whatever) in a way that harms other people. Max's insecurities tend to harm himself and it's important to me that we explore it well! I know he is going to learn to unlearn and make peace with them with David's help :)

Have a great day x

[bluedalahorse]

Complicated queer media feelings beneath the cut…

Is anyone else feeling… I dunno… complicated about the part where we have Heartstopper, Red White and Royal Blue, and likely more YRS3 promo happening all in the same month?

I find a kind of enjoyment in each of these, so on one hand, I’m happy about it! (YR is my dearest fandom love right now about which I have many deep feelings, Heartstopper brings me joy and is what I’d watch with my middle school kids if I had kids, and RWRB is more on the “fun popcorn media” side of things for me but also has a lot of government humor that I laugh at as a person living in DC who gets subjected to motorcades etc.)

And I also think it’s awesome that queer rep has come a long way since when I was in high school, and there was only kinda Will and Grace and Willow on Buffy and you barely heard about some kids watching Queer as Folk if they were lucky enough to have HBO and parents who weren’t weird about it.

And and at the same time I know I’m going to be looking at my dash like, huh, that is a lot of mlm romance kissing between photogenic cis men.

Which. Again. Is progress? But also I’m a not-skinny aroace homosocial queer who is very interested in the stories of women and nonbinary people as well, and stories about friendship as well as relationships that reject traditional definitions. I want sweet romantic moments in my stories and decent makeout scenes but I also want stories about how queerness can challenge capitalism and hegemony and how we can create new families of choice and so on.

And for some of the texts I’m talking about, the canon definitely delivers? Things feel balanced? YR explores the class system with so much skill, and makes me ask powerful questions about justice and identity and such. It also has incredible female characters, including Sara as B Plot Protagonist driving a significant part of the story. (I wish I could find more fanfic from female characters’ POVs. I wish there were just as many “can’t wait until they get their happy endgame” posts about the Sara-Felice friendship as there were about the Wilmon romance, and I adore the Wilmon romance. I just love everything else about the show alongside it, and sometimes I find myself desperately craving discussion about the other aspects of the show while not knowing how to find ways of engaging about it.)

Heartstopper—I love how a multiqueer friends group is so centered in the story. Nick and Charlie are the main characters but Charlie’s friendship with Tao matters as much in the first season as his romance with Nick. I love how the show chose to have Elle carry a significant subplot in season 1 (although they could do better with that) and I am hopeful that we’ll get an ace discovery story for Isaac in season 2 and I’m looking forward to seeing more Imogen and we get a new disabled character and we’ll also get Tara and Darcy being Tara and Darcy! I don’t really follow people for Heartstopper necessarily, because it’s not really something I analyze or write fic for, but, you know, there’s a lot of it that goes around and I have generally positive feelings about it. I’m curious about what parts of the show and what characters people will choose to focus on.

RWRB… well, it’s been a long time since I’ve read the book, but I’m sort of holding off on comments until I see what’s different between the book and the movie.

Long story short I think I’m going to feel great about these various mlm pairings individually, because they’re all distinct personalities with stories and such, but I’m going to be feeling kind of weird and overwhelmed about the attention and gif visibility and squeeing that mlm romances between photogenic cis men get in aggregate.

But also also. Maybe that’s on me for not being into something like Yellowjackets fandom or not spending more time browsing the tag for XO Kitty. So the problem could also be me. I mean who knowsss?????

[shame-is-a-wasted-emotion]

WIP Wednesday (or Thursday?)

I am taking advantage of @bitbybitwrites saying the water is fine,so here I am. (Also I love doing this. Please tag me too. Cause I need some motivation).

The month of December has been very lucky for me in a way because I actually wrote something with the reason of challenges. What am I working on ? I am going to debut into Red,White and Royal Blue fandom. I had signed up for 2 fanfic events and I am working on one. The other one is gonna be hard with the fact that I have to start from the scratch.

What's happening with Klaine? @ericdooley 's second part of the secret santa gift is on list as of now. If I complete the 2 rwrb fics,that's the thing I should work on.

What am I working on apart from gift exchanges? I should make a new year resolution (which is not gonna happen anyway) that I should write some multi chapter fics. I already have one,I should complete it 😭

So,I have a bunch of oneshots that I'm working on. Here is an excerpt from one of them:

“Hey,” Kurt greeted back in low tone,” Go, take a shower and come back. I've made dinner.”

What happened to him? Blaine would usually expect him to yell at him to shower first before touching him because hygiene was important. Also, the low tone was suspicious. Anyway, Blaine just nodded and left for a quick shower.

They sat down for dinner and started their dinner.

“ So how did your day go?” Blaine asked as he self-served some Mac and Cheese.

“Nothing. Just a normal day.”

It was still in low tone. And Kurt was visibly sniffing and clearing his throat. Something was wrong.

“How was your day?”

Change of topic before getting down with the thing that was troubling Kurt. Great. Blaine went through his day, recalling everything that happened including interesting cases he dealt with, the seminar, a little gossip and stuff.

Kurt didn't hear any of these. Don't get him wrong. He was usually a good listener but now the thing that was bothering him was blocking his ears and brain. He didn't know.how to ask him. He didn't know how to let him know that they were also connected in some other way , way before they met.

I love hurt/comfort and angst/comfort and I can't stop writing them someway. Do you think I should be posting soon? I don't know.

cc: @kurtsascot @rockitmans @cryscendo @forabeatofadrum

Tagging:@fallevs @special-bc-ur-part-of-it @kirakiwiwrites @cerriddwenluna @hkvoyage @little-escapist and anyone who wants to self invite just like myself!!

[daisymae-12]

get to know me

I'm a lil late, but thanks for the tags @14carrotghoul @happiness-of-the-pursuit @suseagull04 @heybuddy-drabbles @read-and-write- ❤️ loved reading all your answers!!

name: mae

sign: Capricorn

time: 10:26pm

ok putting the rest under a cut cause I always end up typing more than I expect 😂

favourite band/artist: I love a lot of bands/artists but Troye Sivan is the only one consistently in my spotify wrapped every year so I'll go with him 😂 (he just dropped a new album too which I've had on repeat lately)

last movie: thought it was barbie but just remembered I was watching the little mermaid live action during a few dinners a few weeks ago but never finished it whoops (I will finish it one day)

last show: 911 Lone Star (but only the Tarlos parts 😂) I did promise my friends I would try love is blind but a part of me is regretting that promise because I ceebs 🥲

when I created this blog: a couple of months ago just for RWRB fandom purposes 🌞

other blogs: my original personal blog from 2009 still exists 😬 stopped using it in 2013 though. Made a new one in 2014 for fandom things but stopped using it in 2016 😂 I've also got an art one that I used from 2016-2019 😅 then came back 4 years later to make @rwrbficrecs lmao so yeaaah I've been on tumblr for a while 💀

do I get asks: when there's an ask game going around, but omg there's still some nice day asks haunting me in my inbox, I'm a terrible procrastinator 😭

average hours of sleep: 7-8ish (I use night contacts so the hours I sleep literally dictates how clear my vision is going to be the next day and I hate it when it's blurry so I will always aim for a full nights sleep for that reason only 😂 occasionally I'll sacrifice good vision to read a fanfic late into the night though haha)

instruments: piano 🎹 but the last time I learnt an entire piece was 2009 - my attention span is really shit 😅 it drives my husband mad that when I play it's just parts of songs LOL

him: "what happened to the rest of the song?" me: "don't look at me"

what I’m wearing: pj's (tshirt + shorts)

dream job: artist/illustrator - which tbh is already my usual job (i'm on a year off atm) but it's very hard to make it a financially stable job, I'm just very very lucky that my circumstances allow me to do it at all 😅 So my dream job would be artist with financial stability please 😂 also there was a time I thought I'd love to be a wedding photographer until I did it ONCE and was like "I definitely don't have the stamina for this", so I didn't do it again 😬 I got wet from the rain, my cameras got wet, I was hungry as fuck, everything just hurt and it was very stressful 😂 big respect to wedding photographers LOL That was fun way to procrastinate 😂 I'm late so not sure who's already done this. love learning more about people, but no pressure as always: @myheartalivewrites @celeritas2997 @dot524 @gwiazdziarka @darwinsfinchesx @raysletters @cha-melodius @cultofsappho @rmd-writes @littlemisskittentoes @affectionatelyrs @pragmatic-optimist @lizzie-bennetdarcy @tintagel-or-cockleshells

[sugdenlovesdingle]

hi bijou!

💕 What is your favorite fic that you’ve written?

🚀 Do you like to outline your fic first or create as you go?

📚 Is there a fanfic or fanfic writer you recommend?

🎨 If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

for the writer asks! :)

Hey Rachel! 💕 My favourite fic is probably Love and Lou - it was a lot of fun putting Carlos Through It with TK and Lou! And the sarcastic lines that came to me at 4am actually work really well in the fic! 🚀 Anyone that's seen the state of my docs knows me and planning do not match AT ALL. it's usually just ~vibes~ or a line or two that I end up writing a fic around. Which is also why I'm so 'bad' at the WIP tag games - I make most of the fic up as I go. So some of the snippets I've posted we're written approx. 5 minutes before posting! 📚 I'm bad with remembering titles and usernames! When I'm in the mood to read something i usually go by the AO3 filters for whatever I want to read. I love your Nancy/Marjan fics (I'm bad at commenting but I WILL get around to it!!) I just had a look through my AO3 history and bookmarks and there is this RWRB fic: Growth is Uncomfortable (because you've never been here before) by Jaistiel that's amazing. It's basically the whole story but with a redemption arc for Philip. It's really really good! Read me in my original language by rakketyrivertam - a fic about TK being Jewish and sharing it with Carlos and a little look into Judaism/Jewish culture. I've thought about writing something like that myself but I'm not Jewish and the amount of research I'd need to do to even come close to doing it justice makes my head spin so that's not going to happen. But this is an absolute wonderful read! And (I spent ages looking for this) Déjame Ver Cómo Es Que Floreces by 14carrotgold - a RWRB fic where Henry meets the Diaz side of Alex's family, learns some Spanish, and a little look into Mexican/Mexican-American culture. It's a beast of a fic but I love it. I just love stories that give me (some) insight in other cultures - told by people *from* that culture. Google only tells you so much, but someone who is actually speaking from personal experience can 'show' you things that won't appear in a "5 things you need to know about x" list. 🎨 Anyone who wants to make any art for ANY of my fics will be my new best friend and I'll love them forever. Just FYI @ all artists Though Carlos and TK talking to a group of middle schoolers in Austin TX First Responders Week could be fun. Or Carlos dressed as a luchador and TK as a cop in Carlos' uniform in The Perfect Costume (or Nancy and Marjan as Gomez and Morticia Addams!) Or the boys riding a mechanical bull together like in Love online

Thanks for asking 💜 (and sorry this took forever!)

[o0anapher0o]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thank you for tagging me @meraki-yao. I am very happy at the oportunity to shamelessly plug many, many of my fics :D Let’s do this!

How many works do you have on ao3?

47

What?! When did that happen? And how?

What’s your total ao3 word count?

502,199

Weirdly less surprising, even thought hat number is completely unreal.

What fandoms do you write for?

Interview with the vampire (2022)

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries

Red White and Royal Blue

Star trek: Deep Space Nine

And I have one teeny tiny Thunderbirds fic

Top 5 fics by kudos

Somewhere I have never travelled (ds9)

Petal by Petal (ds9)

Your most frail gesture (ds9)  

Watch that man (rwrb)

Personality (ds9)

I feel like I should count the first three as one, since it’s literally parts 1, 2 and 3 of a trilogy.

Surprising how fast my first rwrb fic got up there.

Do you respond to comments?

Always, usually a bit rambly. I love talking to people about my writing :D

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Puh, that’s a hard one. I’m such a happy endings girl. My instinct was one of my iwtv fics, but they’re more angry than angsty lol, so I’m saying it’s between Of all untruths the truest is you (iwtv) and Do no harm (ds9)

What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Your most frail gesture ends with a wedding, though actually I like the accepted proposal in Petal by Petal more.

Do you get hate on fics?

None so far (knock on wood).

Do you write smut?

No. A lot of my fics make it clear sex is happing but I don’t write it and I haven’t really any urge to.

Craziest crossover

My TayNick character crossover New Information. Also my only crossover so far, but that’s a side note.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. Hopefully having all my stuff archivelocked will keep it that way.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

YES! Someone did a translation of Do no harm into Russian. Only one of the coolest things that ever happened to me (though I would have preferred to be asked beforehand rather than simply be presented with a link).

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No. I’m not entirely sure how that would work, but I’d be open to it.

All time favourite ship?

Why do people insist you have to have one favourite over everything else? No, I’m an adult, I can have as many OTPs as I want.

What’s a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Beneath Lucifer’s claws. I love this story so much, but I have it in me to finish it. I also have an old ATLA fic I love to bits, that has really neat bits but I was such a different person when I wrote it, it would need a complete rewrite and half of my favourite scenes don’t really work anymore.

What are your writing strengths?

I’ve been told my pacing is good. And I think I’m quite good at characters voices right when it comes to fanfic.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Punctuation. And I definitely suffer from ‘why use a period when I can use a comma’ disease XD. Scene transitions always feel clumsy to me, I don’t know if they read like it.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

Oh, there’s an essay. If I were to give general advice I’d say, avoid it. It’s fun to read when you speak the language and annoying if you don’t, having to look up stuff all the time interrupts the reading flow. It’s even more annoying when you speak the language and the author clearly didn’t.

I’ve seen it done well once, where it was used so the characters couldexchange information because that was the natural thing to do for them, while keeping it a secret from the reader. That was neat. 'But even that could be done by just saying 'he said something in [language]'.

First fandom you wrote in?

Published or not? My first published fic was Jack’s Desk for mfmm. But I also still have fifteen year old supernatural and vampire diaries fics in a notebook somewhere. The world wasn’t ready yet.

Favourite fic you’ve written?

Something unstoppable and Somewhere I have never travelled. Neither of them came out the way I thought they would but I love how they ended up so much.

tagging @sapphosewrites @xenobotanist and @nalyra-dreaming

[tibby]

Hi Tibby! I saw your post that Casey McQuiston was originally a prolific fanfic writer of AG/JE rpf. I had heard that they were a prolific rpf writer…but for a different fandom. More specifically Harry/Louis from 1D. And that they were one of the mysterious authors of the legendary These Inconvenient Fireworks.

I find it interesting that it’s a well known rumor that they wrote rpf, but there are differing details about which fandoms they wrote for. Though in this case, they heyday of the social network fandom was ~2010 (afaik) and 1D fanfiction peaked closer to 2014 (though TIF was written in 2012). It’s definitely possible they wrote for both.

Just curious about your thoughts on the matter 😏

hi ariel! i have never been involved in the 1d fandom, so i can't say if i know anything about the (in)famous fics within it. my knowledge begins and ends with the after films being based on harry styles/oc rpf. so i cannot offer any answer there.

i WILL also say that i cannot say with any certainty that rwrb is in fact jesse eisenberg/andrew garfield fanfiction. i just know that casey mcquiston was a prolific tsn writer back in the day, and the american guy and british guy falling in love is a very funny coincidence to me. and also that reporter guy had STRONG justin timberlake energies. honestly i've spent enough time in tsn fandom to pick up on which character was meant to represent who, but for all i know the same can be said for 1d fic or whatever.

i've also had people in the tags of that post claim that rwrb was based on a merlic fic, so who knows for sure. i personally don't think that the story itself was originally fic, but that casey was simply inspired by. certain actors or characters when writing their leads.

anyway. i didn't expect my posts to get any kind of attention outside of my immediate mutual circle, which is primarily compromised of people i know and many of whom already had the rpf knowledge. i just find the whole thing funny, and as a tsn stannie it's just something i like bringing up because it makes me laugh. i don't particularly care about fic writers becoming authors or rpf being made into movies, because. well. shit happens, it makes money, tsn is virtually rpf and one of my favourite movies of all time. there are much better hills to die on.

i am just of the opinion that if rpf/fanfic IS going to continue to be made into movies then they need to commit to the bit. cast the actual person it was based on. if that meant we needed jesse and andrew, or harry and louis, or the two guys from merlin to be the rwrb leads...then so be it. we all know it's fanfiction and possibly rpf anyway. why not take it all the way?

[violsva]

I was tagged by @havingbeenbreathedout to post recent, current, and future reading. Unfortunately it is the middle of January, when winter seems eternal and focus nonexistent. However, it occurred to me as I said that that the middle of January is certainly better than the beginning of January, so there's that!

Recent: The last thing I finished at work was a collection of E. F. Benson's ghost stories. I've been reading a lot of Edwardian ghost stories recently and it's just so nice watching terrible things happen to near respectable academics while I wait for the printer to go off. Benson has some interesting interactions with modern technology (his modern) but an annoying tendency to try to explain the metaphysics. I prefer M. R. James.

I also read the most recent installment of the further adventures of Madame C—, which was excellent as usual. In audio there was Dead Man's Ransom by Ellis Peters--I find her work very one-note, but it's a note I really want to hear sometimes.

I have also been reading a bunch of RWRB fanfic. (I skimmed the novel this summer because the gifsets were hot but it really isn't my preferred tropes.) From the outside, it appears to be good in direct proportion to its smuttiness.

Current: At work I am now going through Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner, which I am enjoying as much as one can enjoy anything in January. It is kind of amusing how many of the "rules" of modern fiction writing it flat out has never heard of and doesn't care about. I do find it somewhat stunning that Warner wrote this particular novel when she was only just over 30.

I have just started Time Was by Ian McDonald, which I hoped would be a gay version of This Is How You Lose the Time War, and it looks like it may even live up to that.

I am halfway through the audiobook of The Intrigue by Marion Chesney (aka M. C. Beaton), which is nice enough, but I don't think I'll feel the need to continue the series. Especially as the narrator is just okay.

Future: My hold on Paladin's Faith by T. Kingfisher will hopefully come in by the end of the month. Other than that, I should probably see if I can focus better on nonfiction right now.

But I also have a skip-the-line copy of Gwen and Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher for a week. I don't know if I'm in the best place to appreciate it but maybe it'll be a nice counterweight.

Tagging: The last five mutuals to interact with my posts were @tiltedsyllogism, @edenfalling, @unrealthings, @consultingpiskies (hi sweetheart!), and @oulfis.

[happiness-of-the-pursuit]

hey, for the emoji asks :) 😈 🍦💖 💔

hey!! thanks for the ask!

😈 Has there been a point in a story where you did something just to be playfully mean to your readers?

Hmmm this is a good question. I've been part of writing a couple of cliffhangers for Super Six and the Siren's Call which is the first thing that comes to mind. Otherwise I don't know if I've been intentionally mean... Yet, lol.

🍦 What's the sweetest fic you've created so far?

Gotta be Water over Blood, a kid fic with Henry and Alex as Uncles, which I was originally going to write a Christmas sequel to, but then I had holiday dildo workshop brain rot, so it didn't happen (this year). That being said, all of my post-canon fics (including my interviews) happen in the same post-canon world in my mind, so very possible that these characters pop up again somehow.

💖 What made you start writing?

I've written what was essentially fanfiction since I was a kid, when I'd finish a book and want to imagine what happened after. I also have always loved writing—wanted to be a journalist for a while, was part of a Creative Writing club in high school as well. But I didn't really follow through on any of this in college. When I finished reading RWRB almost a year ago, I immediately went in search of fanfic (been reading it in other fandoms for a decade) and became entirely consumed by it. However, I've never felt the need to write and publish before now. I read  th0ughts' youtube fics and immediately wanted more (especially a Hot Ones one), but since there were none, I ended up filling the void myself. You can check out my YouTube fics here.

💔 Is there a fic of yours that broke your heart?

Not a posted fic, but a WIP of mine: Honey, You're Familiar (From My Mirror Years Ago) which has also been called "Daddy Issues" because that was it's working title for a while. In it, I'm swapping the Arthur and Oscar storylines. It's really interesting and fun exploring how one change has such a huge impact on their lives and who they are as people, but I also start off pretty heavy. Henry and Alex each get a prologue, and Alex's starts from his father's diagnosis and follows his cancer journey. I really love Oscar as a character, so it was a bit painful to write.

[meraki-yao]

About Adaptations

Ok, I have a couple of thought posts on RWRB written that I want to post (My entry on the movie in my handwritten movie+book journal is already 22 pages long and I’m not even close to being done, I just love it so damn much), but I feel like I need to preface all my thoughts by explaining how I feel about adaptations so my thoughts make more sense and certain groups of people don’t come at me with pitchforks or something.

Plus I just think it’s a fun mindset to have for fandoms that have different representations!

Some of the fandom/franchises I’ve been in that impacted me the most have adaptations, and more often than not the adaptation’s fandom is the first one I approach: MCU/ Marvel Comics, Shadowhunters TV/ The Shadowhunter Chronicles, and well now, RWRB and RWRB Movie.

Getting into Marvel actually helped me create this system a lot because it's sort of part of their lore, and that’s also when I started reading fanfics.

See, the way I understand these different stories with the same core, is that they are alternate universes of each other. The main characters are fixed beings, and the shared events in both timelines are fixed events. All differences are divergences in the timeline.

Granted in our reality, differences in adaptations have their own reason such as constraints in visual media, casting limitations, scriptwriters with different visions etc, but treating them as legit other worlds, and seeing them as a network of different universes helps me enjoy all of them a lot more. That way I don’t mind the changes made that much, as long as within its own universe, it’s consistent and meaningful. (ex: if significant events that happen on a character are removed but the character’s traits that are supposed from the said event don’t change, we have a problem)

And some fun bonuses of that are:

1, when something in the adaptation is directly from the original source material, like a line, or a significant object, it makes me giddy because it feels like these two different worlds are connected by some wonderful magic

2, if there are things in the original source material that isn’t in the adaptation but they don’t conflict with what’s in the adaptation, at the very least in my mind, I add it into the adaptation universe (I do this especially when writing fanfics)

3, when I’m drawing fanart or picturing the book characters, I blend the appearances of the original material with the adaptation, ex: for Shadowhunters, when I draw book Alec, I draw him with blue eyes and black hair from the books, but add in the eyebrow scar and rune placements from Matt Daddario’s portrayal in the TV show; for RWRB when I picture the book version of Alex and Henry, I still see Taylor Zeker Perez and Nicholas Galitzine just with some difference: the book’s height difference (Ha, sorry Taylor), Nick with shorter blonde (like Prince Robert from Cinderella 2021 length) and blue eyes, Taylor looking more like he did as Marco in the Kissing Booth 2 with shorter hair but a longer fringe

I don't know why, I just find the sort of idea of "xxx stays the same across universes" really endearing.

Anyways, yeah. I get the want for book accuracy since the idea of adaptation is “seeing the book come to life”, but sometimes it’s just not that doable. Thinking like this makes it a lot more fun for me, and honestly, I just want to be happy when I’m watching/reading stuff, and this does that.