#sure 20k of that was fic but words are words and stories are valuable even when they’re free

[narastories]

ramblings about writing longfic

So as you probably know by now I've been busy writing a chunky little fic over the summer. I wanted to look at the statistics of the process and ramble a little.

We got permission from Bob (@dresdenfilesbigbang) for a little vagueposting, although I don't think this post will even count because I'm not going to talk about the fic, I'm just going to use the process as an example to make a few points.

This time, I've used NaNoWriMo to track my word count, and that is the first thing. If you are motivated by tracking your word count, this is your reminder that besides being a yearly event, it is also a great tool that you can use all year around. Plus, you can create a project with any time length or word count, not just 50k in one month. I actually started off with 20k as the word count, since that was the minimum for the Big Bang, but ehm... well, it soon became clear that 20k is not going to be enough lol Point is, you can also update your goal as you go and it doesn't mess up anything in the slightest.

And I guess November is coming up if you want to do NaNo "proper". I did that once, and it was great to just see that I could. But honestly, 1600 words a day is way too much for me and I don't see the point. I would rather write 50k words over 3 months and push myself less. With the NaNo pace if you miss a day it really puts you behind, and that is just plain stressful.

Which brings me to my second point. If you look at this graph, your first thought might be "oh that looks so linear and disciplined" ...

(Well, okay your first thought may be "why the heck doesn't it start from zero?" I've written 5k before the start date, okay? It was a sort of "proof of concept" to see if this story was going to work out. And it's not like it was cheating, I've still written way too much lol)

And you know, you kind of would be right, I've neatly stayed above that dotted line, sure.

But then you look at my daily word count graph, and it looks like this:

(Again, ignore the anomaly of the first day please lol)

What I'm trying to say is this: if you write often enough, over a long enough period of time, it will look like consistent progress.

You don't have to write every day if it doesn't work for you. You really don't.

And I think it's nice to just pay attention to your process if you decide to start a bigger project because it will give you valuable info about how you work. And it will make writing the next longfic or bigger writing project easier.

My first multichapter work on AO3 is still unfinished at the 75%-85% point mark. I was posting it as I wrote and then I hit that point which now I know is critical for me. Now I know that when I'm 3/4 done with a fic of this size I usually want to go in and move things around, have a little crisis, and generally that I just go back and forth between writing and editing a lot. And because of that, posting as I write is a really bad idea for me.

So I guess the most crucial thing you can learn is how you write, and then everything will become a little easier.

Also, since this is a Big Bang fic with a deadline, it will drop all chapters at once which is something I haven't done before. Very exciting. (To me at least. To other people probably not, because of the tiny nature of the rarepair. But that never stopped me, has it?)

[madnessfromthemountains]

A snippet of 'Dinosaur Sue'

For Kedreeva, who asked!

Author notes: This got complicated fast because I can't find the most recent version. It seems to have been eaten by Google drive. Buuuut, the fic has been stalled for years. In a 'you took the wrong direction, dumbass' sort of way.

So thanks, I have now gone back 20K words and my heroine is about to meet her nemesis...or is he?

A further note: Most of my stories start out as (Blank) Sue because I like to have female protagonists and they used to be pretty much self inserts into whatever universe I was writing. I'm better now. Really. I make sure they're not me.

And also: This is set in a unique universe I also run a table top RPG in. There is magic. And dinosaurs. So, only self fanfic. :D

The snip (All fresh words!)

Chapter 5

Fiona

            Riding a pterodactyl was surprisingly relaxing, even if you were levitating and being towed along on a harness. Fiona wrapped an arm around one of the bundles on Plato’s back and snuggled into it as a pillow. She was too wiped out to really care if the sterronux raptors came back, even.

            She drifted off, lulled by the whoosh of Plato’s huge wing flaps and the cool breeze. That turned into a dream of the Atlantis base in Antaractica, chilly air moved around by too many fans to even count.

            “Hey Fiona, come look at this!” Ine called from the door to the restricted area.

            Fiona looked up from her computer. She wasn’t supposed to go in there, but it was two AM and nobody was working but the super geeks. “Sure.”

            Ine held the door open. “This is so cool!”

            Inside the hastily constructed plywood and tarp room stood the huge archway filled with dark glass they’d found. Fiona had only had one brief glimpse of it when it was discovered, half buried in glacier ice. Now it stood free of ice, mounted on a dark basalt stone that hadn’t been completely excavated.

            “What’s it doing?” Fiona walked over.

            “I..I dunno. I could swear I heard whispering voices a minute ago.”

            “Were you recording?” Fiona went to the table on one side of the room, covered with disorganized equipment and notebooks.

            “Oh…yes!” Ine tapped on a laptop’s keyboard. She listened to the hiss of fans for a couple minutes. “Nothing.”

            “Maybe you need a break!” Fiona patted her on the back. “I can’t see how it could be talking.”

            “It doesn’t do anything. Any energy you put into it just goes away. Can’t drill or chip or even scrape the damn surface. We don’t know what metal the frame is made of!” Ine went over and rapped her knuckles on the dark surface in disgust.

            To Fiona’s horror, Ine’s hand disappeared into the stuff like it was made of smoke.

            “Hey, what?” Ine struggled. “I can’t get it out!”

            Fiona ran to her and tried to help.

            “Something’s holding me!” Ine screamed.

            Yanking on Ine’s arm, Fiona brushed the dark surface. She felt a slight resistance, and then she fell over into it.

            Fiona jumped up…in a dark cave lit by a couple of magic lights. An echoing scream filled her ears, but she only saw a severed hand lying on the floor, gushing blood and twitching. “Ine!” Fiona screamed.

            “Calm, calm, human.” A raptor came into the cave. “His trap worked. Be glad you are valuable, or we’d feast on your flesh!”

            She understood perfectly. She wasn’t sure what language it spoke, but it made sense. “You assholes! Why’d you cut off her arm!”

            It glanced down incuriously at the hand on the floor. “The human wizard said you would be drawn in somehow.” It shook itself in a raptor shrug of wings.

            Maybe the ‘wizard’ was the prick who’d set her up in the jungle as a fire bomb trap. “Is he your boss?”

            It snapped its beak angrily at her. “For the moment.”

            Then…she couldn’t believe what she was going to say…”Take me to your leader.”

[novelconcepts]

[thnxforknowingme]

Miles To Go - reflections

So I did this for In Orbit, and I guess I'm doing it again - I have a lot of thoughts about the story I wrote! Like, literally 1500 words of thoughts, so don't say I didn't warn you.

It's bizarre to have lived with this story entirely on my own for so long, and now to release it all at once and see people's reactions as a whole. I'm so much more used to posting longer fics one chapter at a time, and getting responses as I go.

I've also just been so close to this fic, that I feel I've lost some perspective on what about it might land or be significant for other people (although that's always an element of sharing fiction - we each bring ourselves to a story and see it in different ways). Something I struggled with were the most overtly sad/angsty parts of the fic - writing out the words that sum up Kurt's grief, especially in chapters 1 and 11, almost seems to dull the emotion's impact for me. The thing about pain and emotion is that they're so much bigger than words - trying to capture them in language always feels like a doomed effort (John Green has talked about this before, especially in reference to Turtles All The Way Down). So seeing that people did have emotional reactions is gratifying (sorry for making you cry, but also thank you for crying!).

Because I enjoy learning about the process of stories being developed, I’ll force my own creative process on you. Once I’d determined the approximate route that Kurt (and Blaine) would be driving, I made the following outline:

I initially planned this as a 10-chapter fic, and thought that I could fit everything that happened in SLC, Vegas, and Death Valley into a single chapter. Ha! I also wasn't really sure of the ending yet - I eventually cut the 9th chapter idea here, because I didn't think that showing Kurt's solo drive back would be particularly valuable. I always knew that this fic was going to be longer than 10k, the minimum word count for the bang, but my estimations kept expanding as I wrote. "20k, probably," I thought, which then became 25, 30, and finally landed around 35k.

I knew this was largely going to be a Kurt fic, since it deals with his grief, but I toyed around with giving Blaine some POV chapters, too. But since he showed up pretty late into the fic, and I wanted to really be in Kurt's head most of the time, it just didn't make sense to change speakers. I considered having Blaine narrate just for the final chapter, but again - I needed to check in with other New York characters and where they were in their grief, and it would have been weird to just have that be told to Blaine by Kurt. It was so tempting to have Blaine POV for his reconciliation with Cooper, but since I had already determined the story was going to be all-Kurt by that point, I instead had to awkwardly have Kurt eavesdrop. Ah, well.

While Kurt's emotional journey/growth was pretty much determined from the start, since it's the main focus of the story, I also wanted to give Blaine some depth instead of just having him be the Love Interest. He needed a compelling reason to be trekking across the country, and I think it made it a more interesting story when they were both dealing with shit, instead of Blaine just being a sounding board for Kurt's grief. It seems like it's a common thread in my stories that if Blaine doesn't meet Kurt until later in his life, he ends up more repressed and unhappy...while S2 Blaine is so outwardly confident in himself (mostly with regards to his sexuality, but also his musical talent), I think I imagine that without Kurt's stubborn individuality and the transfer to McKinley, Blaine would have remained more buttoned-up and eager to please. In this case I thought that his parents might have seen Cooper's career as somewhat of a failure, and pushed for Blaine to pursue something more practical than performing arts. And in this particular universe, he went along with that. Psychology is still a way for him to help people, even minus the 'making art' aspect.

Since Kurt seemed to be Blaine's inspiration for moving to New York in canon, it made sense to me that this version of Blaine wouldn't have considered it. Coming out of several years at Dalton, he would have gone to a nice Northeastern school somewhere else (although still within visiting distance of NYC, for my purposes). I also just didn't want it to be too convenient, for them to end up living in the same city so they could live happily ever after at the conclusion of this plotline. It seemed more in line with the spirit of this story for them still to have to work at it, for things to be imperfect but still worth doing (and doing long-distance better than they did in canon, hopefully).

Finally, Cooper isn't mentioned in the prompt, but it just made sense for me to bring him in since the boys were heading to Los Angeles. I loved recreating the Big Brother dynamic in this universe (starstruck Kurt, snippy Blaine, oblivious Cooper). I also wanted to provide a more lasting impact from that interaction than canon did - after their reconciliation, it's important to me that Cooper does keep trying, that the brothers do keep in touch and build a strong relationship.

I mentioned this in a comment on the fic somewhere, but I also struggled with if/how to incorporate Kurt's tattoo into the fic. In canon, he gets it as an indirect result of Finn's death, and for understandable external reasons, canon decides to turn it into a joke by having it get botched. I liked the idea of Kurt getting an "it gets better" tattoo, not only because of the mostly sexuality-related reasons he lists in canon, but also because it could be tied more directly to his grief - knowing that he's been through terrible hardship before, and that this trauma, like all things, will eventually get better. That's a little more desperate and tragic than it was in canon, so hopefully that's tempered by the fact that it was still the result of questionable drunken decision-making. God, not to blow my own horn, but I love that Las Vegas chapter.

Not to get too personal, but the assignment of this prompt for me to write came at like...an eerily fitting time in my life. I was far enough away from the largest period of grief I've ever experienced for me to be interested in this plot - I very often draw from my own life in my writing, and I'd reached a point where I was ready to examine and toy with some of my experiences with loss through fiction. I don't think I made anything up about Kurt's experience of mourning - pretty much every thought he has about death and loss is one I've had myself. Then, literally a day before getting assigned this prompt, my family experienced another loss (we're doing fine, I'm doing fine, all things considered, it wasn't unexpected). So these questions and concepts that I was working with while writing felt very present and real to me. We lose people, and we struggle to process that, and somehow life goes on. Sometimes life going on feels deeply unfair, and sometimes it feels like a welcome distraction, and sometimes it feels like a miraculous gift.

I wouldn't call writing this story 'easy,' per se - as with all writing, there was work and thought and problem-solving that went into it - but in some ways I do think it came easily to me. I was cramming to write it all before I went on my own month-long trip which occupied the majority of April, and my writing pace was sort of insane, by my standards. I got to a point where I was aiming to write a thousand words a day, and I was hitting that goal. It certainly helped that my work hours were essentially nil, since it's the off-season for my job, but more than that it was just that I was so inspired, that I had so many ideas for this story that writing them out just came naturally. I don't know that I could have written this story as well as I did at any other point in my life, so the stars really just aligned for this fandom event and this prompt and my life and my writing.

I am also always a slut for travel narratives, for stories where the setting is present and important. I've never written a road trip story before, and I loved making this one. The locations helped build the plot and the mood, and the emotional arcs worked so well with the movement across the country (everything is stripped down and bare in the desert, so of course that's where we'll have emotional confessions and the reveal of personal secrets!). I often appreciate having an internal time constraint for my stories (a narrative that has to happen over a summer, or over a semester, or over a two-week vacation). This story sort of had that, but also provided a unique dynamic with the ever-changing setting. And of course I love the opportunity to bring a story into California, even if it's parts of the state that I'm not as familiar with.

If you've made it to the end of this post, on top of already taking the time to read my story - you are a saint, and I am virtually sending you a warm, homemade cookie of your choice. I loved writing this story, and I'm literally overwhelmed with the response it's been getting. Thank you for your attention and your kind words - I'm glad you could find enjoyment or emotion or connection through this fic.

[the-irish-mayhem]

Oooooooooooh, you have some sw fic outlines. Please, please tell me! I'd love to know.

Oh jeebus. I have a lot of them. While I was reading over these again/condensing for purposes of the ask, I realized the reason I probably haven’t finished any of them is because they’re all so plot-heavy and god knows when I start writing something with plot it’s gonna end up AT LEAST 20k.

I put this under a cut because it got long and apparently I am having lots of Star Wars feelings tonight and because I love you anon :D

A) There was the one Clone Wars-era fic where I literally created an entire race of aliens inhabiting a small planet not unlike Hoth and their entire culture was based off of ice carving. Like, they had massive ice cities and ice sculptures and stuff and there were whole celebrations and coming-of-age ceremonies related to ice carving, and even the prefixes of their names had to do with their specific family tradition of carving/where they were from because that influences their style of carving. for some godforsaken reason the separatists hone in and start terraforming the place to be warmer/melt the ice (I say ‘for some godforsaken reason’ but the actual reason is because in its liquid form, this ice isn’t water, it’s some sort of valuable starship fuel [this gives the ice unique properties, and figures into carving traditions, and makes it more hardy than normal ice]) and even though this is one of the good ol Neutral Systems, the Republic gets word of this and is like ‘well shit, we can’t let the Seps get all that fuel’ and Padmé Amidala is sent as a diplomatic emissary (partly because her coalition fought for it, but also because in the back of her mind she knows what it’s like to have your peaceful planet invaded by those who want to exploit it and so she packs like her whole arsenal of blasters because she may be a pacifist in theory, but she’s also fucking pissed.) Padmé also sees an opportunity when the Senate requests she accept Jedi protection on this mission, and she humbly suggests Jedi Knight Skywalker and Padawan Tano accompany her, because they have worked together in the past and will mesh more smoothly with her own security. Cue the shenanigans, with Anakin and Padmé poorly concealing their relationship from Ahsoka, political trickery and corruption, fighting Separatists, aggressive negotiations, and the Republic wins the day.

B) With his padawan gone and his legion falling apart in the waning months of the Clone Wars, Anakin Skywalker wonders what will come after. Or, the Chosen One ponders peacetime. Set post-Fives’ death. (A look at how Anakin feels about losing the people he trusts the most. He 100% has a conversation with Rex about it. Address the “nightmares” Fives mentioned. Talk about clones as “property” and what will come after. Bonding over it.) first line: Fives’ last words stick in Anakin’s head like an itch he can’t scratch. It’s a flutter, a prod in the Force that he can’t understand. (also like. yo. if this turned into a multichapter, imagine Anakin and Rex prodding at this issue and the plot starts to unravel and after like 8 chapters of misdirections Anakin realizes the Chancellor is behind this and yo. YOO.)

C) Fives shoots the probe droid off his back. Everything changes. I have a lot of feelings about this Clone Wars episode cLeArLy and also come on Fives isn’t a shiny he’d KNOW he was being followed. Anakin and Rex are drawn into Fives’ investigation. Anakin is leery, but in the end, much like the previous fic, they unravel the web and everybody lives! (or at least most of them do)

D) Anakin and Obi-wan crash land on a Separatist-occupied planet. Anakin is severely injured because no one can ever legally say I don’t love Anakin-whump, and Obi-wan mother-hens and is trying to keep this idiot alive and it’s part survival, part thriller (because they gotta avoid the Separatists and keep it way on the DL that they’re Jedi), and lots of whump. Ideally, this fic ends in a catharsis moment that, down the line, will lead to Anakin NOT falling to the Dark Side, but I DIGRESS.

E) So, there comes a Breaking Point™ and Anakin leaves the Jedi Order, and Padmé leaves the Senate. Maybe the kids came early, and it just became ardently clear to both of them that Luke and Leia were their priority, and they both just dip outta Courascant and fuck off to Naboo to live happily ever after….kinda. They both love their kids, but they both feel guilty for leaving. (Oh, and Aunt Ahsoka comes to visit, because she left the Order and she and Anakin stayed in touch and it gave him another person who wasn’t Palpy to lean on outside the Order. Uncle Obi-wan also drops in from time to time, when he’s on leave.) So yeah, they both feel guilty, Padmé still teleconferences with Bail and Mon, consults on bills and proposals; Anakin still offers advice to Obi-wan, battle plans (and here Obi-wan would laugh because Anakin when do you ever stick to a plan.) and they both generally just keep up with what’s happening in the Republic because they’re SO DESPERATE to know that everything would be fine without them. And then it becomes very VERY evident that things are NOT all right when Palpatine moves forward with his plans, executes Order 66, and shit is just CHAOS. Idk if he like…. sends some people for Luke and Leia on Naboo, because in this outline I hadn’t decided how much he knows about their departures from their positions/their marriage/the twins, but anyway when he declares himself Emperor and the Jedi have been nearly wiped out, Anakin and Padmé know they can’t just sit idly by. So they both become Rebel leaders, building the Rebellion to what we know it as in A New Hope. Anakin, Obi-wan, and Ahsoka all try to suss out where the surviving Jedi are, all while evading Palpy’s Sith agents. It’s clear Palpatine still wants to turn Anakin. Padmé runs things politically along with Bail and Mon’s help, building a galactic support network. The twins are brought up on Rebel bases, learning the ways of the Jedi from all the survivors, not just a single master. (Though, if they were to get particular about it, Leia is Ahsoka’s padawan, and Luke is Obi-wan’s. The latter was accepted with some grumbling One Skywalker was enough for several lifetimes but changing his tune when Luke turns out a lot more like Padmé than Anakin.) They don’t ever plan on having more kids–life in the Rebellion is stressful and not to mention dangerous, but as these things go, there’s a whoops and there’s now a third Skywalker child when Luke and Leia are in their mid-teens. Boy or girl, I’m not sure. If it’s a boy, they name him Jinn Skywalker (because tbt to that fake vision Vader had in Lost Command) and if it’s a girl? I don’t know. I don’t think it would be Shmi. Padmé 1000000% suggests it, but Anakin says he doesn’t think so. Anyway. Lots of spying and battling and military-ing and propaganda-ing and politicking and lightsaber dueling and Rebels winning later, the Empire is defeated! (Probably after a hella intense battle between Anakin and Palpatine, or his Apprentice of the Week, and Luke and/or Leia have to be there to help him and ground him maybe? Don’t know for sure but it would be TENSE.) Luke and Leia are in their early twenties, Jinn/not-Shmi is ten-ish? Timelines. But they did it! They beat the Empire!

F) This one is sparse, but like…. what if Cleigg freed Shmi and Anakin before Padmé and company found them? Or they just don’t find them until Anakin is a moody teenager, but now with Better Emotional Control because he wasn’t raised a Jedi, and has a loving family? So basically he kind of teaches himself how to use the Force, because he literally has such an intense unconscious connection to it. Eventually Someone Comes™ but I don’t know who this would be or what their reason would be, but I mostly wanted a reason for Owen to be Salty™ that Anakin left the farm. Because in this fic they would be proper brothers, ok. Also, Anakin wins a shit ton of pod-races and becomes semi-famous on Tatooine for being the only human to win not only one race, but a fuckin BUNCH.

G) Your classic Anakin-Gets-Thrown-Forward-In-Time

H) Your classic Luke and Leia-Get-Thrown-Back-In-Time

G) Not sure if this counts, but there’s like…….a massive Star Wars/Avengers Fusion AU that I’ve got going on. I’ve written like… thousands of words for it. Steve is a Jedi, trained by Jedi Master Peggy Carter. His best friend, former Padawan Bucky Barnes fell to the Dark Side after being captured by an enemy (either Separatists or Empire, but I’m thinking Separatists), but Steve still believes that Bucky can be saved/doesn’t believe his falling was purposeful. Cue Jedi rhetoric about falling to the Dark Side, and Steve goes rogue and tracks down Natasha Romanoff, a former Jedi-turned-Sith assassin-turned-bounty hunter whose wise-cracking, flyboy partner goes by the name Hawkeye and is allegedly the best shot in the galaxy. Nick Fury is Mace Windu but with an eyepatch and more justice given to his story. Thor is the prince of some rich planet in the Core (or maybe Mandalore) who was found to be extremely Force-sensitive as an infant, but his powerful family covered it up in his medical records so he wouldn’t be noticed by the Jedi. Jane Foster is a Jedi healer who kind of finds him out.

These are just the ones I have google docs for; this isn’t even counting all the notebooks that definitely have plot-bunnies written in them.

[diminuel]

Reading List: April

I missed archiving fics I read in March, but I’m back for April. Some of the fics I might have read in March. I’m still not very good at keeping track of what I read when! But the important part is that you get some fics to read! ;D

I’ve added the archive warnings in the brackets in case there were any, but didn’t include the tags. So make sure to read them.

Enjoy! ♥

bring it on home by xylodemon (2.4k)

"She ─" Sam grimaces again. "She likes tea, right?"

Dean hesitates. He pictures their old kitchen in Lawrence ─ the floral wallpaper, the walnut cabinets, the pots and pans hanging on hooks. Sheer, white curtains had hung in the windows, and Mary had left them open because she'd liked plenty of sunlight. It had smelled like coffee in the mornings. Dean had always lined his army men up on the table before eating his Cheerios.

"I don't know," he admits. "She ─ maybe."

Soft and gentle, but also slightly melancholy coda fic for 12x02

The One: Supernatural Edition by motorbike_on_the_avenue (73k)

The One is America's #1 dating show!

Twenty contestants will spend six weeks competing in tasks, to show the American public they should be picked to marry the suitor. Over the six weeks, they'll be voted down till just The One remains...

Dean Winchester is this year's suitor. A 34 year old firefighter from Kansas he isn't entirely sure why he applied to a dating show where he has to get married at the end.

Especially since he'll never have met (or seen) anything about his future lawfully wedded whatever.

But just who will be voted The One?

This is such an enjoyable fic! Dean and Cas don’t even meet each other until the very end, but the premise is so captivating and I constantly was nervous and rooting for my faves *lol*

Kitchen Overhaul by Powerfulweak (Explicit, 20k)

For Dean Winchester, his family’s bakery is his life, even if business is tanking. When his brother volunteers them for the reality show “Kitchen Overhaul”, Dean is less than enthusiastic with changing anything about his beloved bakery. He is even less enthusiastic to deal with the infamously icy host, Chef Castiel Novak.

Just like the previous fic on the list, this fic also has a TV show format as the premise of its story, but it’s more in the background. I loved this a lot! I got frustrated because of Dean, then because of Cas, but it’s all very rewarding!

Peak Homosexual by K_K_TiBal (3.7k)

You know that thing that happens where you hear something really homophobic in public so you gay it up as much as you can? This is that story.

Cute, pretend relationship fic! ♥

Neighborly Behavior by Annie D (scaramouche) (1.8k)

Cas and Dean at a neighborhood potluck, in an AU where they're both kinda assholes.

It’s hilarious and always good for a re-read!

Dean's Table by through_shadows_falling (4.9k)

On Castiel’s first day waiting tables at the Roadhouse Diner, his co-worker tells him to save a spot for Dean, a young veteran with a cane who sits in the same corner booth every day. Dean doesn’t talk, but Castiel’s charm soon works its magic until Dean reveals that he’s there to reconnect with his brother after a painful falling out. Castiel hopes Dean will succeed, even as Castiel's roommate, Sam, visits the diner one morning.

Lovely story about Cas easing Dean out of his lonely shell. And it also includes a happy reunion.

The Glen by Annie D (scaramouche) (3.2k, Explicit)

Dean's run out of excuses to not claim Cas, so he finally does. Better late than never, right?

This is actually set after a previous story, which focuses on Sam and Kevin. It might be slightly confusing without the previous part but I think still an interesting read, especially with the following part!

The Shop on the Corner by CasCase (18.6k, Mature)

Two years ago Castiel left behind his job and his past to fulfill his dream of opening a neighborhood bookshop. Now, his shop is popular and he’s finding himself fitting in with his new community. He’s perfectly happy with his quiet life among the books.

Perhaps the only thing that could make it absolutely perfect would be the attentions of Dean-the-Delivery-Guy. But, of course that means Castiel will have to work beyond his own insecurities to find a way to see the gorgeous man more than once a week.

Maybe he should stick to the books after all.

This was fun and lovely and even though there’s a bit of angst and pining involved, Dean’s gentle patience were lovely!

In Someone Else's Life by blue_morning (4.5k)

Cas never believed in love at first sight, but when he accidentally crashes a wedding trying to keep his brother out of trouble, it happens to him. Happy ending, right? Yeah, except that the man he falls for just happens to be the groom.

Light-hearted misunderstandings (mostly Gabriel’s fault) and an absolutely hilarious ending!

The Return Policy by aileenrose (12.9k, Explicit)

"Most of his visitors are academics. They come from universities all over the nation, sometimes beyond. Others write books. The man in the Reading Room today is neither. He’s a tall, irritated man with a federal badge."

The federal agent's partner is usually the one who does the research. And even though Cas doesn't think this man is a real federal agent, he's happy to help where he can.

A great read, close to canon, with lovely atmosphere!

Do You Need a Stepdad? by supernatural9917 (1.8k)

When Claire Novak tweets a picture of her dad cooking, she didn't expect to go viral, or for everyone to be quite so hot for her dad.

Based on a photo prompt: Teenager Claire posts a snarky tweet about her single dad Cas, and gets this response. She says ‘LOL no he’s gay’ so Dean tweets to ask if she needs a stepdad!

It might be short but it’s incredibly delightful! 

How to Keep Time by aileenrose (6.6k, Mature)

Dean's just beginning to learn that some times are more precious than others.

Very touching fic, featuring homeless Cas making beautiful things and Dean having to (re) learn what’s truly valuable.

The Neighboring Perspective by aileenrose (12.7k, Mature)

Dean's newly single, in a new house, and a brand-new father to boot.

Dean's also got this weird thing where some stranger is leaving baby clothes on his porch at night.

A very lovely fic with Cas breaking my heart with his softness and his sadness...! ;w;

Best You Ever Ate by darkforetold (1.7k, Explicit)

Cas sucks—under a table at Ma's Diner.

A PWP! :D

For Science by shiphitsthefan (6.1k, Explicit)

“Think of it like an experiment," says Dean. "You’re testing a hypothesis as to whether or not a desirable response can be achieved through the stimulation of the anus via the application of a willing volunteer’s muscular hydrostat.”

Cas raises an eyebrow. “Are you actually trying to use the scientific method to talk me into letting you lick my asshole?”

It might sound like a cracky PWP, but it’s not! It features ace!Cas and Dean figuring out their sexual relationship. It’s sweet and funny~

Remarkable by shiphitsthefan (3.7k)

It’s only Castiel’s first day as a teacher at All City Elementary in Sioux Falls, and he’s already been warned by four teachers, the guidance counselor, the principal, and the librarian to watch out for Ben Braeden’s father. Unluckily for Castiel, Dean turns out to be just as “helpful” as everyone’s said, bringing in stacks of literature and just as many ideas for how Mr. Milton can encourage his students to be more socially conscious. Castiel dismisses him every time with hardly a second thought.

When Ben brings in his Patriot Day essay assignment, Mr. Milton can't help but change his mind.

I love how passionate and insistent Dean is about social issues. And the way the other teachers speak about Dean makes me sad, but at least Cas makes an effort and the whole fic is very sweet and uplifting!

Made Manifest by schmerzerling

Wherein Castiel defied God for Dean before Dean even knew his name.

I was craving trans!Dean fic and this was recommended to me. It’s really good, focusing on Dean up until Cas pulls him out of hell and recongizes Dean for who he is. Dean, not Deanna.

Low Battery Blues by destielonfire (4k)

Wherein a dead phone battery ruins an otherwise perfectly good and well-intended joke and causes Cas to think Dean broke up with him.

Misunderstanding with a happy ending!

Parent's Weekend by Piper_Halliwell1979 (1.7k)

Claire needs a "dad" to come meet one of her professors during Parent's Weekend at college. She can't get hold of Cas so Dean steps up to help her out. Turns out Claire wouldn't mind if she had two dads.

Dean and Cas both pretend to be Claire’s dads!

This Is Gonna Have Consequences, Kid by omgbubblesomg (Explicit, 3.6k)

Modern AU. Dean is looking for someone to spend the night and Cas is working the streets

PWP with sex worker Cas, featuring younger!Cas and older!Dean.

The Ritual by HazelDomain (Explicit, 9.6k // non-con cw)

The Winchesters were used to being outnumbered. They weren’t too worried about taking on humans, numerous though they may be. It was the ritual’s mystery guest that concerned them. 

Their intel wasn’t good. They knew the cultists needed the participation of some incredibly powerful being in order to complete the summoning. “Powerful” and “being” were both very loosely translated, as was “participation.”

I was on a hurt!Cas kick and this story has plenty of it. Cas was abducted by a cult and then found by the Winchesters once it’s been mostly completed. See the archive warnings (graphic violence and rape) and further tags!

Finding Courage by DarkHeartInTheSky (26.3k)

By allowing Lucifer to use him as a vessel, Castiel helped eliminate the Darkness and saved the World. But it may have been at the cost of Sam and Dean's friendship. Deciding he has nothing to live for without that, Castiel plans to end his life on his terms and be at peace---if only a certain ghost of an archangel would leave him alone. Meanwhile, Dean needs to learn to use his words.

A Supernatural "It"s A Wonderful Life" AU

More hurt Cas. Dean reacts very negatively once Cas is free of his possession, sending him away. As a consequence Cas tries to commit suicide and is given the chance to either die or return to life once more. It takes a while to convince him that he hasn’t lost everything. It’s sad but it has a good ending.

Specimen Two Eighty Five by HazelDomain (Explicit, 8k // non-con cw)

Prompt: Cas gets taken prisoner by the MOL or some other people. They lump angels in with all the other supernatural creatures, and believe they’re little better than animals. They keep Cas restrained and burn or tattoo warding on him. They talk about him like he can’t understand them. They strip him, examine him, make him manifest his wings. He can’t escape, and every day brings new mistreatment and misery.

Hurt!Cas and tortured Cas seems to be the theme of my reading at the end of April. What I particularly like about this is the non-linear narration!

Womb Kindred by Annie D (scaramouche) (Explicit, 33k)

It was probably too much to hope for that Castiel's once-betrothed, Dean of Winchester, never found out that they had a child together.

I adore this fic and the last chapter was recently posted. So it’s on my to re-read list! It’s got a very interesting setting and there’s constant tension between all the characters. Cas has been hurt in the past and while he is fierce in guarding Claire, there’s a sad resignation about him. And about Dean as well. They’re pretty much walking on eggshells around each other all the time and then they get flung into troubles which readjusts their relationship. While it has a good ending, it’s clear that it’s not a perfect happy ever after. 

Pining Sickness; Or, Murder With One Stone by athaclena, iraeim (Explicit, 57.8k)

New York, 1895. The rigid customs of the old century are beginning to fall away, allowing access to the professions for more people than just Omega men and Alpha women. Dean Winchester, the city’s first Alpha male Detective, uncovers evidence that a mysterious new illness killing mated couples might have its origins is the criminal rather than the medical.

Castiel Novak is a respectable Omega doctor who has started to see patients dying cruelly of something he cannot cure or even effectively treat. Approached by the Detective to once again give his medical expertise, he is eager to work towards finding a cause and, he hopes, a cure for the unfortunate sufferers. But both men harbour a secret attraction towards the other, and the quest for the truth will stretch their relationship beyond its limits.

A historical murder mystery set against a backdrop of a non-traditional Omegaverse.

I absolutely adored this fic! It’s got a historical setting and a very interesting world building which, as the summary advertises, features a non-traditional distribution of roles, with omega men at the top of society. The case itself is interesting and you just get a massive dose of pining between Dean and Cas, but it’s a quiet, resigned kind of pining, that really pulls at your heart.

Take On Me by Powerfulweak (Explicit, 46.4k)

Alpha Dean Winchester figured the closest he’d get to the apple pie life and fatherhood was a one-shot, “wham-bam-thank-you-mam” trip to a sperm bank. That is, until he comes face-to-face with the omega carrying his pup on a fateful trip to the grocery store. When the the omega runs off without a word, though, Dean learns the situation is far more complicated than he expected. Can an anonymous sperm donation and the favor of a lifetime help two complete strangers find everything their life was missing?

A fic with an unusual premise that just promises a “it’s complicated” kind of situation! There’s plenty of very intriguing angst, but there is a fluffy happy ending!

Marry Him by ProLazy (2.9k)

Jimmy is sick and asks Castiel to do him a favour. This results in Dean mistaking Cas for Jimmy and explaining that he wants to marry Cas.

A cute sort of mistaken identity fic!

Left Behind by Aini_NuFire (6.6k)

Sam and Dean saved Lucifer from Amara. They just assumed that meant they’d saved Cas too…

(Author needs to vent some angst, but there’s still a happy ending)

That last part of the summary pretty much describes this fic. It’s a gen fic, addressing the fact that Cas often gets forgotten or left behind, especially in this whole Lucifer and Chuck fiasco. ;w;

Captured by bobertsmallismydad (6.2k)

On a day when he is taking a break from Heaven Castiel is captured by the order of the Royal Court aka King "Dickbag" John Winchester. He is forced into servitude as a . . . nanny?

This has a very interesting premise! An enslaved angel having to work as a nanny? Great! Castiel is captured by king John (a douchebag) and tasked to watch over Dean, which he does, over the years. Until Dean himself becomes king.

Choice and Precious Vessels by justabrain (11.2k)

In a world where angels wear collars to suppress their powers and are subservient to humans, a young Castiel finds himself serving a family with two young boys, Sam and Dean. He soon befriends the older of the two, yet all good things must come to an end.

Another gen, Cas whump one. It’s a sad story in which angels are slaves and even though Castiel’s situation improved when he is being bought by the Winchester family, Cas still isn’t treated with dignity. And while the story promises a happy ending and it does have a happy ending, my soul wasn’t quite soothed. ;w; All the damage had been done and nobody makes reparations for it. But despite the sadness I do think it’s a great read!

the worst week of dean's life by jhoom (1.7k)

Dean’s son is driving him crazy.

Super cute, poor Dean is so frustrated because he can’t get his son to call him dada.

Moonlit Sky by hollyblue2 (1.1k)

They'd been busy on their actual anniversary, so Dean decides to make it up to Castiel.

A soft and fluffy story, good for the heart!

Dean's Carol by BurningTea (17.9k)

Dean has learned that a hunter can't have close friends or loved ones, not without being ready to lose them, so he decides it's safer for Cas not to be around.

Can the traditional visits from three ghosts change his mind?

Dean has to learn an important lesson! I love how it takes the story of the christmas carol and putting it into a canon compliant universe, where Dean is aware of what’s happening because he knows the story.

[josai]

how do you do it? start a fic and continue writing it until completion? do you have resources on how to write an introduction, because i'm at a traffic light :( i have ideas, i just don't have the thoughts of how to organise everything so it actually forms a story. so i wanted some advice from you as you're one of my fav iwaoi/AO3 writers :(

Hey anon! 

Starting a fic and finishing it - especially if it is a long fic - is definitely not an easy feat. Don’t feel bad at all that it’s been a bit of a struggle! I’m no expert by any means, but here are a few things that I do when I get a fic idea that help me finish things that I start.

When I first get an idea, more likely than not, I’ll yell to someone about it! (Haha, you know who you are ;D) It doesn’t need to be totally fleshed out, but I find that talking to someone about an idea helps give it a little bit more.. substance. Not only that, but telling someone the details helps me see which areas of the plot are weak or strong, and often times whoever I am bouncing ideas off will have a different perspective on ideas. So if I’m not sure if a certain event works, they can help with that. Also, this just gets someone excited about the idea, and that is so great for motivation! I can’t even explain how much that motivates me to want to write. Having someone else tell me they like the idea, can’t wait to see it in writing - it’s great.

As for the actual writing, introductions are also my weak point. A lot of the time, I write an introduction last. Don’t be afraid to just jump into the story! Write the first parts that you are inspired to write. If that isn’t the introduction, then write the middle of the story. Once you have finished the rest of the story, then you can read it over and figure out if there’s any set-up that you feel that the story really needs. Show it to someone else if you have a friend that can look it over, so that they can tell you if there are any parts that are confusing or that they felt was missing. I find this so valuable because a lot of the time, I can’t always tell, because the entire story is completed in my head - if that makes sense? So I fill in the blanks, but someone else wouldn’t. Actually, oftentimes, after just starting a story, I find that I don’t need a big introduction anyway. If anything a sentence or two introducing what is happening is enough.

If you’re having trouble organizing, try starting with writing down all of your ideas. On paper, in a Google doc, wherever - just get them written down, and then you can look at what you have in sequence and see if it makes a whole cohesive plot. I rely a lot on others here, because I pretty much always just yell at my friend and she yells back if it makes sense or tells me if something is missing or it doesn’t make sense. But if you work better solo, just see if there are any holes in your plot. Mark those spots, and see if you can bridge your ideas together. It might be helpful to sort into scenes, or chapters. If the idea is long, having multiple chapters to write can be great because you can post small bits at a time and get some response from people.

But, with this remember that the first few chapters of a multi-chapter fic aren’t going to get very many hits. This is true even for well-established authors - don’t let this discourage you! I find once you get to 3 or 4 chapters, more people will click on it and it’s still much easier than trying to sit down and write 20k+ words without actually getting feedback.

Most importantly, though? You have to like the idea. It’s so, so hard to motivate yourself to write if you don’t like it - so make sure it’s exactly the way that you want it to be. Don’t change it if someone doesn’t like it (someone always doesn’t), don’t change it if someone offers suggestions you don’t like. Stick with your idea, and write it because you like it. Yes, you’ll get comments, and talking to friends is motivating - but I love my writing a lot more when I’m writing it because it’s an idea that I’m in love with. 

One last thing - don’t forget to take breaks! If it just isn’t working and you’re getting frustrated, take a step back. Go watch something, listen to music, take a walk, just get a break. It’s important to be disciplined, but don’t try to force it if it isn’t working. Listen to what your body is telling you.

Sorry this is a bit of a mess - hopefully it helped some! Good luck!