#that's why I set aside so many of my fanfiction wips for a long time

[crown-ov-horns]

I really thought the Millory Arranged Marriage Ch1 would be short and sweet. But, apparently, why not add a bunch of random scenes?.. Why not have Michael take Mallory to a satanist party?.. Why not have the actual wedding in Ch1?

I even wondered about including smut, but... No.

[thepagemistress]

Saw this floating around and thought I'd do it because why not? (Also I have two AO3 accounts so the answers will incorporate both.)

Fanfiction Q&A

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

128

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

374,590

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Right now, mostly just Supernatural. I'm not good at multitasking. But I've still got some IT and DBH fics lurking in my WIP folders and there was an OFMD one I wanted to write ages ago that isn't even canon now but fuck it, right?

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

#1 Braver Than You Think - It (1,280)

#2 Or Are Ya Chicken? - Castle (525)

#3 One I posted anonymously for Reasons™️ 😅 (505)

#4 Note to Self - Detroit: Become Human (333)

#5 The Domestication of the Swanman - Supernatural (316)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

*sigh* Not as often as I should. If someone leaves a long comment or an enthusiastic one or asks a question then I'll usually respond. But I don't like that AO3 includes replies in the comment count. I don't like inflating the number by responding to everything.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hmm. I guess Eighty-Sixed? My dark version of SPN but I did kind of subvert it right at the end because I'm me.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Probably Braver Than You Think. My middle finger fuck you to canon deaths!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Hate is a strong word. The one I posted anonymously ended up with ✨️drama✨️ on it because someone accused me of stealing their friend's idea and then some other people swooped in to attack that person and defend me and then some other person said I needed Jesus lol. But other than that one fic, no 😂

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I have done but I don't write it nearly as much as I used to and the more I don't write it, the more I don't think I probably can anymore. But I do have some in the back pocket should the mood strike. And it's usually pretty intimate stuff these days. Actually depends on the pairing, I guess. Not really opposed to trying my hand at anything.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

If we're talking actual crossovers and not just AUs, I have written one and that was my Supernatural/Santa Clarita Diet one which was a LOT of fun to write. I do have two other SPN crossover fics on my to-do list that I'm excited to get to eventually 👀

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yes! It was forever ago, over on ff.net. I don't even remember how I found out. I think the "author" actually messaged me asking permission to plagiarise my fic even though they'd already done it. But they took my Castle fic, did find & replace on the character names and turned it into a Big Time Rush fic. Absolute shenanigans.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I had someone ask if they could but I don't know if it ever actually happened.

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

I have not. I don't know that I'd be able to, tbh. I'm a bit of a control freak when it comes to writing.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

At this point, it probably has to be Destiel, right? It's endured this long. I still look back fondly on all my ships but none make me quite so feral as those two do.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Ugh. I made the mistake of rereading my Reed900 fic the other day and I actually really love it still. But I have no memory of where it was going and no clue where any of my notes are so it's probably dead. There's also my "Richie goes back to Derry to dig Eddie out of Neibolt" fic but I DO still have all my notes for that one so foolishly I keep telling myself maybe one day...

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I'm good at coming up with novel ideas. Or at least unique approaches to things. And I'm quite good at capturing a character's voice.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

You mean aside from actually...writing? I suck at writing action or setting a scene. I focus so much on dialogue and internal emotions that I don't realise I've never said where anyone is or anything to paint a clear picture.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic.

I've done it a few times but unless I know someone who speaks the language, I don't really like relying on Google Translate to get things right.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Knowingly, it must have been The Monkees. But I was writing self-insert stories when I was a little kid involving Sonic and Bill & Ted and The A-Team...

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

This is an impossible question. I guess Braver Than You Think. Especially because a fic author I'd been following for over a decade commented on it and that was the coolest shit ever.

Please, any writers that see this, go ahead and fill it in and tag me in it! I wanna learn more about your stuff 😊 and I'll specifically tag @ncrrington @maccca-chino @wigglebox @castiel @casdeans-pie but no obligations!

[phoenixislost]

Author Questions Tag

(Tagged by @lollybliz)

How many works do you have on Ao3? 1, and very soon will be 2.

What's your total Ao3 word count? 146,694

What fandoms do you write for? Genshin Impact, though I am also beginning to set some ideas aside for Honkai Star Rail, as well.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? I only have one published on AO3 at the moment, so by default it is History, Repeating.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I do! It brings me a lot of joy to see new comments on my writing and to get new feedback. The least I can do is thank someone for their compliments or join them in their misery over what stupid thing Character A has just done.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? This one is not published, but my angstiest ending is in a Fallout 4, Paladin Danse/Male Sole Survivor fic. It starts off with the two of them getting into a serious argument, and then ends with one of them suffering near-fatal radiation poisoning.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? For a published fic, this goes to History, Repeating by default. For unpublished fics, it would go to the sequel to my above-mentioned fic. The Sole Survivor... survives... again. (Ehe),

Do you get hate on fic? I was graced with one (1) very nasty and demanding person on History, Repeating early on, and ended up having to turn off anonymous comments because of it. Otherwise, nope!

Do you write smut? Not really, no. I write sexual themes and include sex scenes where they seem meaningful, but writing smut just isn't my cup of tea.

Do you write crossovers? I've not yet, and I usually avoid reading them, too. But I am currently considering a fusion AU for a fic in the future, if that counts.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? To my knowledge, no. The closest I've ever come to stolen writing was when I was in middle school and my friend wanted to write a story similar to mine.

Have you ever had a fic translated? Not to my knowledge, no. (Though I am happily open to it, as long as I am asked first)!

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes, and no. I've co-written fiction before, but not fanfic.

What's your all time favorite ship? I am a rampant multishipper in this fandom now, but my most comfy ship is Xiao/Aether.

What's a wip you want to finish but probably won't? I have a fic that I began writing a few years ago for the danganronpa fandom. It as a KomaHina fic set post-Danganronpa 3. Its premise turned out to be a bit of a prototype to what History, Repeating became, so chances are that I will never finish it.

What are your writing strengths? The most common compliment I get on my writing is on my visuals and descriptions, so I am inclined to say those are my strengths.

What are your writing weaknesses? I constantly worry about characterization and character motives. The last thing I want is to fall into fanon, rather than keep everyone as close to canon as I can get when it comes to fanfiction.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic? I have done this myself in bits and pieces. To me, it matters about what is being used, how it's being used, and if it is researched properly. Have context in the exposition around it, give translations in the story (in not so many words), have a footnote for readers to reference.

First fandom you wrote for? Naruto! When I was but a wee babe. Followed closely by Death Note. SasoDei and LawLight (at the time we just called it LxLight), were Baby's First Ship.

Favorite fic you've written? Published? History, Repeating. Unpublished? The fic I am currently finishing.

I'm not too sure who to tag for this, (and I am frightfully anxious to bother anyone), so this is free to whoever wants to answer these! (And please, tag me if you do, I'd love to see your answers).

[wordsnstuff]

Guide to Writing in First Person POV

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Practice & Adjustment

When you’re new to writing in first person, or you’re returning to the practice after not having done so for a long time, it can be difficult to adjust to the style. It’s a big shift to go from writing from third person, a relatively straight-forward perspective, to first person. First person introduces a whole new set of elements to consider when writing. Bias, reliability of their memory versus the objective truth versus the other characters’ memory of the same events, and motivation. Motivation is especially tricky when it comes to the first-person narrative because you have to sort out not only what happens and how it effects the characters/plot but why the narrator is including it, and how their personal perspective changes the way you’re depicting the events. The best way to adjust to this style is to practice. One of my personal favorite ways to practice is through low-stakes writing. Fanfiction, short stories, personal retellings of my own experiences like diary entries, etc. These are all methods of story-telling that are typically short-form and allow you to naturally familiarize yourself with the characteristics of a first-person narrative.

Including Backstory & Context

When you’re writing in first person, it’s important to consider that certain characteristics of the narrator’s perspective won’t make sense to the reader or adequately add to their reading experience until you apply the relevant context. Personal experiences, values, motivations, and priorities all influence how a person tells a story, and in order to write a good first-person narrative, you need to have a grasp on these things. The reader needs to understand them as well. Perhaps some of these things are deliberately omitted from the reader’s awareness,. If a narrator’s motivations, for example, are going to remain a mystery until the end, you must deliver a satisfying conclusion that establishes to the reader why that choice was made. It’s generally a good idea to introduce this information early on. Backstory and personal context are essential to the foundation of a first-person narrative. 

Developing Secondary Characters

Developing secondary characters can be a challenge in this point of view because you’re solely focused on the lens of an individual. The other characters in the story will therefore be established to the reader based on what the narrator thinks, feels, and tells of them. Many writers feel concern about creating well-rounded secondary characters in a first person narrative because everything the reader sees must be witnessed by the narrator. However, this can be an advantage. A secondary character’s arc forms more naturally because it’s being observed organically through the eyes of another. The narrator makes observations for the reader to interpret alongside them. The reader may not have extensive knowledge of the specifics that cause a change in the characters, but they are more intuitively informed by the secondary characters’ behaviors and reactions to the narrator and whatever the narrator can see. 

Distinctive Voice

You must be deliberate in the way you construct the narrator’s consciousness. It’s imperative that you be somewhat in-character while you write in first person because their thought process must be consistent throughout the storytelling. What are they likely to notice or fixate on when they’re experiencing or recounting events? What is likely going through their heads? What causes alarm or comfort and how is this reflected in the vocabulary or tone they use in description? A distinctive voice is a major part of developing your perspective character, so approach it with intention. 

Depict, Don’t Report

It’s just as easy in first person as it is in third person to fall into the habit of reporting events rather than depicting them. Reporting is when the narrative consists of “she said this” or “he felt this” or “the weather was bad”. Depicting is recounting the events with style and deliberate detail that constructs a tone and absorbs the reader. “He cast his eyes downward and kicked at the rocks on the path.” “A shadow fell over the café as clouds inched across the sun, “I love you,” he said. “I know,” I whispered. My eyes refused to lift from the condensation on the glass before me.” That’s the difference. Vocabulary, syntax, and deliberate detail absorbs the reader. 

Common Struggles

~ How do I avoid starting every sentence with the word “I”?... Intimate vocabulary & diverse sentence structure. When a scene consists of too many sentences that begin with the word “I”, that’s a good indication that you’re telling rather than showing. Detail should be interspersed and create some distance from the narrator’s inner monologue. Use vocabulary that bring the reader in and vary the construction of your sentences. This often becomes easier when you set aside time to focus on the practice of technical writing skills, rather than the practice of storytelling. 

~ How do I maintain consistent tense (past vs present) while writing from the first person perspective?... Practice. A lot of narrative skill and consistency comes with practice. Devoting time to a focused practice of maintaining consistent narrative tense at the same time as telling a story in first person is immensely helpful. Set aside time before and during the drafting process to practice your skill in this. Once you’re comfortable and zoned into these mechanics, you won’t have to think about it that much. It’s like muscle memory. 

~ How can I identify biases the character might have in relation to the events they’re recounting?... Analyze their motivations. Analyze their relationships to the other parties involved, and how that may influence what they focus on and what language they would use to describe the other characters’ actions. A lot of this nuance comes in the second draft and editing stages, but initially these two things are essential to writing a sturdy, foundational first-person narrative draft. 

~ What techniques can I use to keep the POV character’s voice unique & consistent?... Include deliberate trends in vocabulary, thought process, and focus. This is where their personality shines through their words. Are they more likely to notice the weather or the traffic when they first step out of their home? When having an argument, are they more likely to apply context to the other person’s tone or their body language?

~ How do I avoid accidentally making the POV character omniscient?... Get in character and don’t repeatedly remind yourself of things that you as an author know, but you as a narrator do not. If you as a narrator know that a secondary character is upset during a scene for reasons the POV character isn’t aware of, it’s important to walk the line of first person observation and omniscient foreshadowing. Question often why you’re including details in description, and if the answer is ever information that the POV character doesn’t know yet, it’s probably best to cut it out. 

Other Resources

Pros & Cons of Different Points of View

Resources For Describing Characters

Resources For Describing Emotion

Connecting To Your Own Characters

Giving Characters Distinct Voices in Dialogue

 Introducing Secondary Characters

Tips on Character Consistency

Tackling Subplots

Resources For Describing Physical Things

How To Develop A Distinct Voice In Your Writing

Balancing Detail & Development

Showing VS Telling in First Person POV

Showing Vs Telling

Describing emotion through action

Improving Flow In Writing

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Masterlist | WIP Blog

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[luninosity]

fanfic writers tag game!

I was tagged by the marvelous @musette22 for this lovely fanfiction tag game that was devised by the clearly very brilliant @thewaythatwerust, to discuss some of the fics I’ve written over time! Thanks so much! 💖

Let’s see, I shall tag... @thebestpersonherelovesbucky @turtletotem @gerec @whtaft and @ninemoons42 <3

Which of your fics…

* Did you think would get a bigger reaction/audience than it got:

Ah, a tricky one! I feel like I never really have expectations - I just write words because I can’t not! But maybe lines of light, which was my Steve/Bucky Fake Character Death Trope fic - it’s sort of a weird little fic, but I wanted more of that trope, but maybe that’s just me!

* Got a better reaction than you expected:

Oh, goodness - just about all of them! I remember being so shy and so nervous to share any of my writing, years ago, and now I write things that people seem to like...I think probably never mind the why and wherefore surprised me most, though! That’s my TJ Hammond/Johnny Storm fic, and when I started writing it mine was literally the third fic on AO3 for that pairing, and for that small a fandom, I’ve just been amazed.

Also, of course: I’m constantly amazed by how much people love Like Sugar! It was the biggest thing I’d ever tried to write, and it made me a better writer along the way, and I suspect it’s the Evanstan fic/series people might remember most, from my fics? (Also also, if original-fic-inspired-by-an-Evanstan-drabble counts: the love for Character Bleed has been overwhelming!)

* Is your funniest:

...am I funny? I don’t know! *waves hands about* I feel like I never set out to “write something funny,” but then again I like terrible puns and wordplay, so there’re probably funny lines in most fics? I hope?

Honestly maybe every inch of north and south, which has the Chris-turned-into-a-puppy plot, or Now That I’ve Found You, Stay, because giant patriotic dildos, or some of the banter in just a couple lovebirds, because I love Chris and Seb in that one. Or some of Bucky’s pulp fiction stories in tales to astonish. Or all the TERRIBLE autumn-related puns in the current Evanstan fic, A Place Not Far Away!

Or we could go REAL old-school and pull out the McFassy semi-crack fic in which James gets magically cursed to turn into a kitten. There’s that.

* Is your darkest/angstiest:

Ahahahaha. Um. *stares in Characters Having Emotions*

Okay, okay, um... Aside from certain specific chapters of Like Sugar and Amateur Cartography, it’s either The Tones That Tremble Down Your Spine (Bucky needs all the softness, after this! of course so does Steve...) (sometimes I think about adding a chapter, because it ends a little abruptly, but I also wanted it to - not everything’s 100% resolved, but it’s clearly on a healing trajectory!) ...

...or, over in Cherik-land, I hope we rise to the occasion, which does have a hopeful ending but is painful, or the balancing act stories (also Cherik) which were...personal in many ways (also originally written over on Livejournal, because I’m old).

* Is your absolute favourite:

Impossible! *laughs* It’s always the current story I’m (actively) writing. Which at the moment is the Evanstan autumn fluff-with-porn A Place Not Far Away. I don’t know if it’s my favorite-favorite, but it’s nice to get back to Evanstan and I love fall.

* Is your least favourite:

Also impossible! There’re things I love about all my stories. If I have to...maybe It’s Time To Bring This Ship Into The Shore, mostly because Michael’s such a dick to James for a lot of it. Which is also true in Loving Days (why was that a plot point in a few of my McFassy fics?) but I think I did a better job with his redemption in that one, and showing how much he changed and tried harder. And with Ship & Shore I wasn’t super-knowledgeable about the soul-bond trope (it was a request-fic) so I never felt quite sure I’d done it well enough!

* Was the easiest to write:

Amusingly, considering how epic and glorious and long the whole series became, I’d say Like O, Like H - the first Like Sugar Evanstan story. It just flowed. It knew what it wanted to be, and I tried to keep up. (Lovebirds was also one of those, as was the TJ/Johnny fic, never mind the why and wherefore.)

* Was the hardest to write:

the sound of rain on tin. It’s been the fic I’ve had the hardest time with ever. It’s my own fault for trying to do too much in terms of plot - sort of AU, an Evanstan-Stucky crossover, Lovecraftian elements - and then starting to post before I had it all properly sorted. I do know how it ends in general terms, I promise! but resolving plot/action has never been one of my strengths, and we’ve hit the point where I actually have to figure out How To Fix The Magic Portal-Thing, and I don’t feel like I’ve got it worked out well enough.

I mean if you all just want me to write the emotional Sebastian talking to Steve Rogers (and maybe a little curious kissing) and Chris talking to Bucky, and then *poof* suddenly Seb and Bucky are back in their respective universes and we get Emotional Reconciliation Scenes and Love Confessions, that part’s easy. I’ve had stray bits of those scenes done for years.

* Have you re-read the most:

Like Sugar, in part for continuity as I worked on later stories and in part because I’m really kind of proud of it.

* Would you recommend to someone reading your work for the first time:

Depends on what genres they like! I’m probably best known for - if anything - Like Sugar, and I think it’s pretty representative of my writing in terms of loving tender kink-with-emotions! But the person would have to not mind Evanstan RPF and soft Dom/sub kink and arranged (sort of) marriage tropes.

Other than that, for Evanstan, maybe Sweet Disposition (the third version of the clothes-sharing fic!); or (baby won’t you please), which is the Chris And Seb Go To A Sex Club For Research For a Role fic, or tempt me, tease me, which is...Sebastian leaves an unsatisfactory date with someone else (brief and random) to go pick Chris up from a bar, and then there’re lots of revelations about Feelings, and also porn-with-emotions. Those last two ‘feel’ similar in my head for some reason - mood, maybe, or story arcs about revelation and discovery.

...for Stucky, maybe when and where our eyes meet (Bucky falling asleep! soft blankets!)...or tales to astonish, because it’s such fun!

...if you want to go a bit older, I have weird affection for my first-ever Cherik fic, Know That It’s True, which is a Cerebro hurt/comfort fic, and then I love the slow development of the McFassy in No Wonder, No Wonder, which I occasionally still think about trying to revise as original, but it’s so character-driven that it’d be hard, but I love the feel of it, the hints of magic and the setting...

* Are you most proud of:

Like Sugar! At the time it was the biggest story I’d ever tried to write, both in terms of length and in terms of world-building and planning and characters growing closer together. Character Bleed got more complicated in terms of needing multiple outlines and plot, eventually, but I couldn’t’ve done that if I hadn’t done Like Sugar first.

* Has your favourite line/exchange/paragraph (share it):

Too hard to pick! There are so many! 

I sometimes say it’s this one, from tempt me, tease me, though not always:

“If you’d like,” Sebastian offers, “we can even tell them I borrowed your key and lost it, if you don’t mind asserting small untruths to hotel personnel.” Big blue half-plastered Captain America eyes stare at him some more. “…Chris?” “You…” One hand waves, a partial gesture, pulled back at the last second. As if Chris has meant to reach out, and thought better of that. “You really would? You wouldn’t, y’know, mind?” Sebastian half-smiles. Thinks of cars with broken-glass windows in Romanian capital-city streets, thinks of students waving flags and cheering with feral glee, thinks of saucer-eyed childhood memories and songs of revolutionary fervor and desperate upheavals of optimism like birthing-pains. Chris Evans is beautiful and genuine and real, and Sebastian would do far worse things, would splinter his body and perjure his soul, to give Chris one more day in which to eat pizza and laugh and clap friends on the shoulder with a broad happy hand. “No,” he says, “I wouldn’t mind.”

Or, from the WIP - the next chapter of A Place Not Far Away - because my favorite is often what I’m currently working on, there’s this! Enjoy? <3

They both watch Sebastian for a second; he’s nodding, jotting down a quote, hair bouncing with the motion. His fingers are quick and tanned, gathering notes; his jacket’s casually open, and dirt’s left a scuff on his right boot.

 He’s a New York City reporter in a black leather jacket and a stylish sweater, but he’s also a reporter who doesn’t mind getting dirty and will run through a corn maze and helped set out signs the first day Chris ever met him.

 Carly pats Chris’s shoulder, says, “Enjoy yourself,” and heads off to supervise some historical blacksmith demonstrations. The sky shimmers in clouds and satin and magic and unfallen rain.

 Sebastian bounces back over. “That’ll be fantastic, she was so excited, she’s already thinking about next year, which is so perfect for a pull quote, and it’ll get people thinking ahead about coming here then!”

 Would you come back, Chris doesn’t say. Would you come back next year, next month, next week, even if your story’s done? Would you stay and not leave?

 He can’t ask that. This is Sebastian’s job.

 He says, “That’s awesome. You want lunch?”

 “Absolutely. I haven’t eaten my way through your menu yet. Recommendations?”

 “Classic Oktoberfest? The whole German sausage, potato, onion thing? That one’s popular. And, um, baked apples. In maple cream sauce.” Food. He can talk about food. Promoting their menu. Not getting down on both knees and promising to bring home every pumpkin Sebastian likes, if that’ll make those happy eyes stay at his side.

 “Sounds good.” Sebastian’s eyebrows go up, beckoning Chris into the joke. “And I do like sausage.”

 “I like your sausage,” Chris tells him, and Sebastian’s laugh is a splash of sunshine through clouds and cold and tree-branches that stretch to the sky.

[in-arlathan]

Fic Writer Question (#3)

I was tagged by @kunstpause again. Thank you for thinking of me. Doing this tag was a joy!

Today’s topic: Stories you want to write but for some reason haven’t (yet)

I will focus on fanfiction because I have way too many ideas for original works that never went anywhere or have been set aside to age like a good wine. But that’s okay. When I looked into my old fanfic folder, I found some gems from back in the day that made me cackle like the fandom grandma that I am.

But why do I put stories on the shelf? When I started writing, the main reason for abandoning a project was that I simply lost momentum or hadn’t thought the story through to the end and therefore ran into some kind of roadblock. If that happened, my burning hatred for revisions kicked in. I loathed editing with all my heart. Sometimes I made the effort to edit stories I really liked but that often lead to me finding even more stuff I wanted to change so it all spiralled out of control and I got discouraged.

This changed when I picked up copywriting as my profession. Through my daily job, I learned tp persevere and to stick with difficult projects when the rubber hits the road. It also taught me that not every idea is suited to be turned in fiction. From then on, I chose the stories I wanted to work on a lot more carefully and stored the plot bunnies in a swipe file until they either blossomed into a full-fledged concept or withered away.

The result is a much slimmer WIP folder. I collect a lot of notes and see if I can evolve them or include them in running projects, but I don’t hesitate to toss stuff into the garbage.

And now on to some of the stories that never went anywhere (yet). I had a pretty wild selection of fandoms in the last 15 years, so I picked a few fics that stuck with me for one reason or another. Added gifs for that certain je ne sais quoi.

The fun begins behind the cut.

Dragon Age

Since DA is the only fandom I actively write for a the moment, the list of projects is rather short. But these two are definitely on-hold for the near future.

Demon’s Dance – I shared a bit about this one during the WIP Title Game. It’s a one-shot idea set during Inquisition with some hot takes on the magic system in the Dragon Age games. I shelved it for now because that would require a deep dive into a system that is so very inconsistent that it slowed me down. I do want to get to it one day, but I have other stuff I want to focus on right now.

Running With The Halla – Another fic set during Inquisition, but this one is supposed to be a multi-chapter. If I break it down to its very core, then this is a fix-it fic for my Lavellan after the loss of her clan. I did write a few scenes for this but I’m not sure if this fic isn’t best kept in the realm of head-canons.

Moving on to the older stuff...

Star Wars Legends

Hahaha, yes, I’m ancient. I wrote Star Wars fan fiction when there still was an Expanded Universe (aka “Legends”). One of my bigger projects back then was an old LJ claim for which I had to write 100 one-shots for a pairing of my chosing, in that case Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade. I got around to writing 25 of them before abandoning this undertaking because me one-shots get way too long and therefore take a lot of time to write. I always told myself that I would get back to it because I had way too much fun, but when the EU was all but wiped out, it totally killed my momentum.

I also had a long fic titled “No Good Deed” that was AU take on the gap between the OT and the prequels. The main twist being that Qui-Gon Jinn had survived. That thing was dark and angsty to no end because, of course, it was. I orginally planned this to be a three-part series but only managed to write about 2/3 of the first part. I don’t know why I put it aside though. It must have coincided with my move to Hamburg and my change in profession. I work a ton in that year and stepped away from writing fiction for quite some time afterwards. But I still think of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan in that fic very fondly.

If you want to see me embarrass myself: I’ve made a cover for ff.net back in the day for that fic. I might share it if someone asks. My Photoshop skills were subpar but I was enthusiastic! :D

Speaking of embarrasing WIP that never went anywhere...

Honorable Mentions

There was a CSI: Miami long fic that I used to write with my best friend back in the day titled “We Never Close”. The year 2006 was wild for us, let me tell you. I’m still not quite sure what we were thinking. But we outgrew that fandom and that fic very quickly...

There also must be a ton of Harry Potter fics lurking around somewhere that never went anywhere. One was my first attempt at writing in English and I remember that it was the hardest thing ever. Must have shelved that one back in 2008.

I think that’s all I got for you today. :)

Time to tag a few people, haha. As always, feel free to skip this one or join in. This is supposed to be fun after all: @johaeryslavellan, @kittimau, @charlatron, @serial-chillr, @faerieavalon, @cornfedcryptid, @deathvalleyqueen, @midnightprelude, @tessa1972, @elfrootaddict, @noire-pandora, @wardenari, @irlaimsaaralath, @solas-disapproves

Thanks for reading this far. Much love to all of you <3

[miss-nerd-alert]

10 Questions Tag

I got tagged by @sophielovesbooks, thanks for the follow!

Rules: answer ten questions, ask another ten, and tag ten people

1. Do you have a writing routine?

Not really, I just make a point to try and write something every day. It doesn’t have to be long, doesn’t have to be part of whatever story I’m working on, it doesn’t have to be good, it just has to exist. I have a notebook set aside for jotting down whatever random Idea comes to me throughout the day, you never know if it could be just what your story needs.

2. Music on or off?

Depends on what I’m writing, what kind of mood I’m in, and what I’m listening to. For more action-packed scenes, I’ll listen to stuff like Barns Courtney, Skillet, or Two Steps From Hell; for more dialogue-heavy scenes I might listen to classical music or ambient soundtracks (I reccommend tabletopaudio.com, if you’re interested). For romantic scenes, I’ll break out Adele, Alesso, or Boyce Avenue. 

3. A genre you’d never touch?

I tend to have pretty eclectic taste, so that’s a tough one. I’m tired of dystopia and urban fantasy, to be honest. Sure it gave us stuff like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and The Hunger Games, but the genres have so saturated the mainstream audience that there hasn’t been as much variety the last few years, and I’m ready to see something else. 

4. A piece of media that inspired you?

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett is my all-time favorite book. It and The Host by Stephanie Meyer feature protagonists that aren’t fighters in the physical sense, but have a gentle inner strength that allows them to endure anything and do anything with the skills they have. Wanda and Sara are my gold standard for strong characters, especially since I know people like them in my own life, and they are my heroes. 

5. A writing rule you always follow?

Happy Endings are a requirement. It can be a bittersweet ending, like in the Hunger Games, but a happy ending is an absolute must. Happy Endings are subversive, and everyone deserves one. Your characters get put through one form of hell or another during the story, why should they tough it out if they aren’t rewarded for their struggle. Happy endings do exist, I’ve seen it firsthand. If your characters have earned happiness, let them have it. 

6. A trope you hate?

The villain has a point/Every villain gets redeemed. I know I’m cheating, but the two have been used together enough times that it counts. When they’re well written, these tropes are fantastic, but they don’t need to be a requirement. Some of my favorite villains are the ones that are pure evil and are doing evil because they want to and it’s FUN. Ursula from the Little Mermaid, The White Witch from Narnia, the Joker. Complex villains are great when handled properly, but over-saturation leads to trope fatigue. I’m looking forward to a return of the classic Disney villains that are evil and own it. 

7. Do you think characters have to suffer for a book to be good?

No, I don’t. Struggle isn’t the same as suffering. Struggle means to make strenuous effort in the face of difficulty or opposition, to proceed with difficulty and effort. To suffer means to submit to or be forced to endure. A book is about a character trying to accomplish a goal despite opposition of one form or another; they struggle towards a goal, but they don’t necessarily suffer for it. For example, in The Martian, Mark Watney struggles to survive on a deserted planet. Andy Weir focused more on the problem-solving, rather than the psychological trauma any other writer would’ve prioritized. The character does suffer, sure, but it’s the struggle that matters.

8. What is the aesthetic of your current WIP?

I’m sure there’s another name for it, but I’ve been calling it Necrobotany or Persephone. Poppies, bones bleached white, lily-of-the-valley, pomegranates, dead leaves on cobblestone, a weeping willow, black lace, wisteria, deadly nightshade, white chiffon, a wrought-iron gate, the singing of a monastery choir, ravens, a crown of thorns, a full moon shining on a lake, the ringing of a lone church bell, and leaves rustling in the wind.

9. Planner or pantser? 

A bit of both; you should at least have an idea of where you’re going and what will happen next, but you shouldn’t be afraid to let different ideas in. You can have a really good idea, but sometimes things just don’t work out the way you expected; maybe someone suggests something better, or maybe you realize something you hadn’t thought of before. If you focus on just what you’d planned to do, you might miss some really great opportunities. 

10. Do you write only original works, or also fanfiction?

Fanfiction is great writing practice, a way to enjoy the fandoms you’re a part of, and hives of creativity. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come across fan works that are as good if not better than the actual canon. If you have the energy to write, but have hit a roadblock on your original work, fanfiction can be an excellent way to keep your creative juices flowing without beating your head against writer’s block. 

Some questions I’d ask:

1. What’s your favorite trope and why?

2. What’s your favorite romance from a story (book, movie, show, comic, etc.)?

3. What’s one character from a story that you DESPISE, and why?

4. Is there a bad trope you’ve seen done well (man in a dress, love triangles, etc.)?

5. Why do you like your favorite book (it can be a theme, a character, a quote, or a scene)?

6. Do you ask friends or family to read and review your WIP?

7. What’s one thing you think a retelling or remake did better than the original story (Disney’s live-action remakes, twisted fairy tales, etc.)?

8. What’s your favorite movie based on a book and why?

9. What’s one book or story you’d love to see get a good movie adaptation?

10. Which is more interesting to you, a ruthless hero or a benevolent villain?

I’m gonna tag @damngoodcookies @alsoaleteia @selfdestructivegirl13 @wordsnstuff @ancient-depressed-druid @jamesmarchioriblog @angrylamapirate @asiaredgrave @thecaffeinebookwarrior and @katsens-writing

You don’t have to, of course, but I’d love to see what you guys think.

[maxilsmaster]

writer ask meme

https://ciiardha-blog.tumblr.com/post/158543702841/writer-ask-meme

  1. Tell us about your WIP! right now, i’m working on a fic with classicfresh, scifell, errink, dustberry, horrorlust, afterdeath and killercreammare. basically, dream invited everyone on a picnic but it went horribly wrong and everyone started arguing.

2. Where is your favorite place to write? i mostly write stuff out on google docs then post to ao3, but sometimes i just skip to ao3

3. What is your favorite/least favorite part about writing? favorite: i don’t necessarily have to share my work. least favorite: describing things.

4. Do you have any writing habits/rituals? lots of dialogue, start with a line of dialogue.

5. Top five formative books? haha what

6. Favorite character you’ve written? probably error or ink. maybe my own sans, illusion.

7. Favorite/most inspirational book? i like the sight (warriors arc 3 book 1) and curiosity killed the error (by the lovely @shandycandy278​).

8. Do you have any writing buddies or critique partners? i recently gained a position beta-reading for @jasmynation​‘s undermaze fic. also my friend CosmoCat07 on ao3

9. Favorite/least favorite tropes? i have no idea.

10. Pick an author (or writing friend) to co-write a book with CosmoCat07

11. What are you planning to work on next? dying inside slowly

12. Which story of yours do you like best? why? New Beginnings, the thing I’m writing with CosmoCat07.

13. Describe your writing process oh hey this would be funny *types ideas on notepad on chromebook* *writes it out on google docs*

14. What does it take for you to be ready to write a book? (i.e. do you research? outline? make a playlist or pinterest board? wing it?) type a vague idea, and wing it from there

15. How do you deal with self-doubt when writing? bottle it up internally :D

16. Cover love/dream covers? i don’t like covers.

17. What things (scenes/topics/character types) are you most comfortable writing? not sex.

18. Tell us about that one book you’ll never let anyone read my first warriors fanfic. 30 chapters of me not fully understanding warriors. (un)fortunately, it got deleted when my old laptop broke.

19. How do you cope with writer’s block? write more

20. Any advice for young writers/advice you wish someone would have given you early on? don’t doubt yourself.

21. What aspect of your writing are you most proud of? the grammar, definitely. i’m not giving a shit about it here, but i’m good at grammar. no grammarly stop giving me your ads, i can write just fine on my own.

22. Tell us about the books on your “to write” list 50 one-shots then 70+ more.

23. Most anticipated upcoming books? the next warriors books

24. Do you remember the moment you decided to become a writer/author? no

25. What’s your worldbuilding process like? what worldbuilding process?

26. What’s the most research you’ve ever put into a book? very. very. VERY. little.

27. Every writer’s least favorite question - where does your inspiration come from? Do you do certain things to make yourself more inspired? Is it easy for you to come up with story ideas? inspiration? fanfiction. it’s pretty easy.

28. How do you stay focused on your own work and how do you deal with comparison? i don’t compare and i don’t get comparison. i’m not that popular.

29. Is writing more of a hobby or do you write with the intention of getting published? hobby

30. Do you like to read books similar to your project while you’re drafting or do you stick to non-fiction/un-similar works? all i read is fanfiction all i read is undertale fanfiction all i write is basically undertale fanfiction

31. Top five favorite books in your genre? genre: fanfiction. ckte, um ckte, undermaze, our tangled web, and uh ckte. i like ckte.

32. On average how much do you write in a day? do you have trouble staying focused/getting the word count in? i have trouble writing over 1000 words at once, but i try. i also write a lot. it’s been occupying most of my time lately.

33. What’s your revision/rewriting process like? oh, i messed up this word. edit. oh, this sentence would fit here... add sentence. oh my god this whole story sucks burn it in hell.

34. Unpopular writing thoughts/opinions? idk.

35. Post the last sentence you wrote from prompt 49. dear god. at least i’m done prompt 5...

“S’ why m’ not gettin’ ya somethin’ greasy,” Red answered, pulling open the door to Grillby’s.

36. Post a snippet SPOILERS FOR PROMPT 33 OF MY THING

Cross stepped between the two. “Alright, who wants to play hide and seek?”

“OOH! ME!” Blue cheered, wiggling around in the strings.

Horror raised the hand his axe was in, and Killer raised a hand as he stood up to retrieve his knife from the wall it had been stuck in from when he threw it. Meanwhile, Dust and Error let out a groan.

“Alright, majority rules, we’re doing hide and seek!”

“Yay!” Horror, Blue and Killer said, all in different tones.

“And Error, no cheating this time,” Cross ordered. “You know what, you can seek.”

“Fuck you,” Error spat as he dropped Blue from the strings. Killer caught Blue dramatically. “That was gay.”

“Then it’s a good thing we’re already dating,” Killer refuted, dipping Blue and kissing him.

“EIGHT! NINE! TEN!” Error yelled, turning around and subsequently causing everyone to jump.

They then proceeded to run out of the room.

37. Do you ever write long handed or do you prefer to type everything? type. i can’t write with a pencil for shit.

38. How do you nail voice in your books? i don’t XD

39. Do you spend a lot of time analyzing and studying the work of authors you admire? idk, really

40. Do you look up to any of your writer buddies? shandy

41. Are there any books you feel have shaped you as a writer? what?

42. How many drafts do you usually write before you feel satisfied? one, then edit.

43. How do you deal with rejection? haven’t had to yet.

44. Why (and when) did you decide to become a writer? late grade 7, i guess. that was when i first started getting into warriors.

45. First or third person? third

46. Past or present tense? past, definitely

47. Single or dual/multi POV? i’m cool with either

48. Do you prefer to write skimpy drafts and flesh them out later, or write too much and cut it back? write everything in one go (spread out over multiple days, normally), then add/remove a few details

49. Favorite fictional world? right now utmv but i also like warriors

50. Do you share your rough drafts or do you wait until everything is all polished? i edit before i post, but i post individual chapters

51. Are you a secretive writer or do you talk with your friends about your books? mostly talk about it amongst the fandom

52. Who do you write for? myself, mostly.

53. What is the first line of your WIP? my current one, where i’m writing seven different ships in a one-shot?

This picnic was a terrible idea. Everyone was arguing over something so pointless and mundane that it may as well not even have started.

54. Favorite first line/opening you’ve written? not the one above

55. How do you manage your time/make time for writing? (do you set aside time to write every day or do you only write when you have a lot of free time?)  i just write constantly

[one-of-us-must-be-crazy]

👀 spare a WIP for a weary traveller

This isn’t going to happen for a LONG TIME but spoilers, eventually in Lucky Star, Christopher gets a little more human, and finds a hobby that he rather likes.

“You’re reading one of his?”

“What?” Ripley bent the mass market completely in half, setting it upside down on the coffee table. Samuels winced.

“That author,” he specified. 

“Oh, yeah. I’ve read the whole series so far,”

“I didn’t think high-fantasy interested you much.”

“Not usually, but I’m over the shoot-outs, military lit, and what generally passes for fantasy anymore. Retro science fiction only goes so far too,” she shrugged. “But I kind of like this guy, he’s got a…I don’t know, his perspective is weird. I like it. Except that thing in this one, where they brought in the wyvren hatchery, the way they move…Reminds me too much of shit.”

“I like what he did with them though; dragons are far too beloved of a feature to demonize at this point, especially by a newer voice.”

“You read them?” Amanda perked up.

“…Technically.”

“What did you think?”

“I want to know what you thought—“

“Nope, you first.”

“I think they could have been better,” he began. “Too many instances where you can tell the author is merely reciting a scene instead of creating one. I think several conversations between the knights and their lords are taken from his own experiences,” there’s more he could pick apart, so much more, but Amanda looks crestfallen as it is, and he’s a little confused by it.

“Yeah but I don’t think he was wearing armor, or talking about a surge of monsters in real life.”

“Well, you never know,” he said with a slight grin. 

“What do you mean?”

“You know that I’ve met many, many people through the company. I could have possibly seen him one day,”

“There’s no fucking way that you’ve met McClaren,” Amanda crossed her arms.

“Why not?”

“He lives in Scotland, for one; two, he’s probably ancient, so what would he be doing in the HR office of Weyland-Yutani, on Luna?”

“I don’t know, but I am familiar with him.”

“You’re lying,” she didn’t bother biting back her smile—she never bothered to around him.

“I’m not lying, and I’ll prove it to you,” she didn’t ask him to elaborate further, and he vanished for a short moment to his office, returning with a hardcover of the second novel.

“So you own a hardcover?”

“Open it,” he said, handing it to her. Amanda raised her eyebrow at him, flicking through the pages, before falling back on something strange on the title page that she missed in her copy of the book.

“holy shit. He signed it for you? The guy never does signings!”

“How do you know he doesn’t?”

“I looked him up once...read a lot about him. I thought you’d like the series, and I was going to try to find a boxed set of it for a gift for you, and see if I could get it signed. But then I found out that a) he doesn’t fucking sign anything ever, b) no one knows what he even looks like, and c) there’s another book left."

“There’s at least one, but knowing him he’ll probably drag it out for another two. He isn’t exactly...aware of human time and space.”

“Wait...Are you still in contact at all?”

“Yes but you can’t talk to him. I’m afraid to lose you to him,”

“Shut up,”

“I am though; he’s no older than I am. And is…apparently, your type.”

“I have at least three types.”

“He’s…much like me.”

“Then I’d rather keep you, not the updated-famous-writer-you. But I just want to ask him-- I’m mad about the alchemist—how could she not know what she was doing? If the king was using her work to help breed the wyverns, she had to know something, she couldn’t be that blind.”

“Perhaps she thought her work would help someone she loved.”

“That’s a whole other thing, that weird statue-hexed-to-life thing by some fuck up of hers? It doesn’t have a soul or a thought of it’s own and it’s...It’s creepy. She never even questioned it. And as far as her research for the wyvren hatchery—how would she think that the king gave a fuck about her science project sex toy—“

“That is awfully cruel, she really thinks that given enough power he might be able to live outside of her study, to be a person.”

“She fucked him though. Without knowing that he can’t say no to her. It was skeevy.”

“We were sleeping together nearly a month before you realized that—at the time—I couldn’t tell you no—“

“Again different story—“

“—is it? And why do you like the character so much if everything she does bothers you that much?”

“…She’s on her own. She came from nothing and now works under the king, not at the big castle of course, but still.”

“I don’t think she thought she was helping the king’s project; or that he was trying to breed monsters in the first place. Her father died in a dead-end battle for him, but…it happens all the time. Accidents. Mishaps. She doesn’t know—“ “Wait, did her dad die at one of the dens?! Oh my god it’s too long until the next one. And shit, if--” Amanda stops herself. Samuels isn’t going to call the guy up just becuase she wants spoilers, but--, well. Actually, that’s the exact kind of thing that Samuels would do.

“She does find out; and her ‘sex toy’ finds the record of her father’s death.”

“How do you—do you have an advanced copy?” he leaves the room again, and she half expects another treasure, an early release with a note in the front, maybe? Instead, he returns with the notebook she had bought him for Christmas. 

“I’m…getting to the point where it’s beyond something that I can…bend out of my own experiences. I don’t want to lean too heavily on folklore but for now it’s the best I can do to avoid just copying out Beowulf.”

“…….You wrote a fanfiction?”

“Amanda, I wrote the whole series.” His partner is silent, and he’s wondering if she hasn’t already guessed it in the past, but she’s clearly in shock. “The author’s first two initials are ‘C. S.’ and that didn’t—“

“I thought it was a Narnia reference!”

“How didn’t you figure out you’re a main character—“

“……I’m the creepy alchemist?! And--she’s like…minor royalty. And pretty.”

“I think you are,” there’s a moment when it clicks in, the secondary character, her hair color, her attitude, her lover, her missing parent, her drive, her lover’s tender affection towards—and it clicked. And other scenes clicked too.

“You wrote and published a sex scene about us?”

“….I’m sorry? It was a fade-to-black though, nothing happened on the page. In the moment it felt like that’s...where they wanted to go.”

“When were you going to tell me about this? Not--not the alchemist but all of it, how did you even keep this a secret???”

“I started…writing memories. Then I could change them. Slightly, and eventually I could reset them entirely and even add and take things and…I figured out how to make things up. As for how I kept it a secret, well, I don’t require a fraction of the rest that you do, and while I do enjoy relaxing with you, I like feeling as if I’m accomplishing something.”

“Look at you figuring out how to be creative,” she did look proud of him, and she was, even if it would take a while to fully comprehend it.

“I’d appreciate it...if no one else found out.”

“People love you—“

“They love a thing that I made.”

“And you by extension—“

“I’d lose my royalties, copyrights, and probably my waking job too if I was exposed on a large scale.”

“You’re being dramatic—royalties?”

“…I…I’ve been saving them.”

“For what? I mean you make a decent check at the meteo center, and the flat’s paid off so what—“

“If you ever want to try--the genetics laboratory on Titan.. We’ll need tickets, lodging for multiple months. Supplies. Medical—it’s…not—don’t think that you have to make your mind up if you aren’t ready--only if you did I thought having the funds ready would...”

“I’m the one that brought it up, but I think…Another day we’ll talk about it but—spoil it for me,” she changed the subject. “Tell me what’s going to happen.”

“You can read it.”

“…You did’t write another sex scene did you?”

“….Yes but not for publication. There’s one that I was going to include but—it was too tasteless, it didn’t suit the rest of the story, and I thought it unnecessary. They arrive back at the main group the following afternoon, walking closer, touching more. Readers will know something happened.”

“But you did write it.”

“…I did. I also wrote another six hundred pages of plot and character development aside from it.”

“I want to read it,”

“Read the actual story first—please I don’t know what I’m doing with it, and it’s overdue to the editor—“

“I’m sure it’s perfect—“ she remembers the dedications at the opening of each book perfection’s closest being, love of my eternity. “The dedications… I’m…I’m the woman they’re all for. All those thank you’s and acknowledgements and—“

“There’s no one else,” he means it in honesty and love. Of course there’s no one else. So few friends and so few confidants. If there were more, she’d still be the one they’re dedicated to, but as it stands, there is quite literally no one else. 

“Could you read it to me? The whole thing. I want to hear it, if it’s so important to you.”

“That’s a lot of –“

“Just a little! Each night a chapter or two. I want to hear it from you, how it was meant to be heard.”

AAAAAND that’s all you get. This is a stand alone bit inside of my “bad AU ideas” file that often ends up getting chopped up for later chapters of LS. This is likely to happen but the thing with Titan isn’t (a genetics lab, the sense being that they’d eventually have a kid/science project of their own). Maybe a one-shot becuase Samuels fretting over an infant is ridiculously cute but it’s not gonna fit the final version of them in Lucky Star.

[aconstantstateofbladerunner]

MHA Fanfiction WIPs (Update 5)

Hey gang I’m gonna tell y’all ‘bout all my My Hero Academia fanfiction ideas instead of actually working on any of them let’s GO!!!

The Butterfly Continuity

- Butterfly - The big one.  My magnum opus.  Izuku is stalked by a mysterious villain that starts to make him doubt his own sanity.  Each new piece of the puzzle only brings up more questions.  The main one: why does it only seem to go after him?

22/30 chapters as I make this post.  Scene by scene outline complete.  Currently being written and published.  We’re in the home stretch.  Beware major character death.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/17165612/chapters/40360787

- Distant Thunder - Takes place right after the events of Butterfly but I’d hesitate to call it a sequel.  Exists mainly to tie up a loose side plot the main story won’t cover.  Can’t give many details because spoilers.

11 chapters.  Outline complete.  There will be angst.

- Exit Light - A prequel story with young Toshinori and Nana.  A villain traps their town in all-consuming darkness.  “Consuming” in this case is literal. 

(Not directly tied to the events of Butterfly beyond a verbal mention.  Basically, I have this scene planned where Toshinori tells the basics of the story and I thought it might be fun to write the whole thing separately.)

7-8 chapters.  Major events outlined.  Focuses on the developing familial dynamic between young Toshi, Nana, and Gran Torino.  Happy ending.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/19233598/chapters/45733516

Bio Dad Might AU

- For Kurou - For their own safety, Toshinori must remove himself from the lives of his long-time partner and newborn son.  But they’re never far from his mind.  For years, not a day goes by where he doesn’t write a letter or set aside a gift for their eventual reunion.  It isn’t until he’s spent some time with his chosen successor, a young quirkless boy named Midoriya Izuku, that Toshinori’s consistent dedication to his family is interrupted.

23 chapters.  Major events and some scenes planned.  Canon divergence fic.  Streamlined to the important stuff because there are already an abundance of fics like this and I want to focus on my original stuff.  Toshinko.  Family angst with a happy ending.

- Told You So - Izuku hasn’t decided yet if he wants to go public with his heritage. On the one hand, he want to make a name for himself, not just as the son of All Might. On the other, he hates to lie and lying about One for All is hard enough. Most of the people who know the truth will support whatever decision he makes. Sir Nighteye isn’t one of them.

10+ chapters. Basic outline complete. Internship arc.

- Son Rise - Rumors have been circling of a secret All Might lovechild for a while now.  A new rumor says that All Might will reveal the child as his successor at the next International Heroes’ Summit in Hawaii.  The rest of the hero community has mixed feelings. 

Or, “Izuku goes to another country with his dad and has a bad time.”

11 chapters.  Major events outlined. Shameless excuse for me to gush about how cool Hawaii was while also hurting my boy.  Some Toshinko on the side.  Family angst with a happy ending.

Borrower AU

- Missing the Trees for the Forest - Toshinori was convinced his cottage was haunted from the day he moved in. He could easily blame the missing objects and little bites in his food on pests, but that wouldn’t explain the faint sound of crying some nights.

10+ chapters, partial outline. Gonna jump between angst and fluffy like a seesaw. Idea originally by @abyssal-glory who graciously gave me permission to use it.

Miscellaneous

- The Necromancer - Zombie apocalypse AU.  An unseen villain sets hoards of undead upon Japan.  As a designated disaster-relief shelter and a small fortress in its own right, UA becomes host to both the heroes working to stop the onslaught, and several hundred terrified civilians, including several students’ families.  Supplies and space shrink with each passing day, and it seems like the end to the nightmare is nowhere in sight.  Someone is bound to take matters into their own hands.

10+ chapters.  Some events planned.  Family drama and angst.  Not sure if there will be major character death yet.

- All But One - Toshinori is given the opportunity to undo over two decades of suffering by going back in time and ending All For One.  And that’s just the beginning.  He goes on to use his knowledge of the future to correct errors of the past, and makes his new reality infinitely better than the one he came from.  Better in every way but one.

Used to be a oneshot, not multi-chapter.  Outline complete and writing has started.  Open to making it an au but not sure yet.  Based on a bittersweet post by @skygemspeaks

6/? chapters up

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18796387/chapters/44597800

- Things that are His - Todoroki wasn’t allowed to have many personal belongings as a child. As a result, he tends to hoard what little he has, especially if it’s from a friend.

Oneshot about Todoroki being loved by his friends and loving them back. Kinda sad but not really.

- Spiked - There’s no such thing as a free meal.

Gore headcanon request that got out of hand into a oneshot.  Please read the tags.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20062174

- Angel’s Egg - Orphaned babies showing up on the stoop of hero agencies is unfortunately not all that rare.  And egg the size of a baby is entirely unheard of. Is the child within just the result of an unusual quirk, or something of far greater, supernatural origins?

Kinda out there au where Izuku hatches from an egg and is raised by All Might.  That question is posed to me, because I’m not yet sure if I want to go down the mundane or supernatural path; I have potential endings for both.

- Hanakotoba (working title) - Toshinori always wanted a family, but he wanted to be a hero even more.  He figured the family thing would happen naturally, but as the years go by and it doesn’t, he finds himself sinking further and further into longing.  And then he finds the end of his sorrows in his own garden.

Hybrid Thumbelina/Princess Kaguya au prompted by @agent-jaselin.  This one is for sure supernatural.

- Two Sons in the Sunset - One of the greatest crimes ever committed by Japan’s villain underground is hidden in plain sight.  Same goes for the crimes of one of its greatest heroes.  The results of both find they have a lot in common.

AU where Izuku is a test tube baby created by villains to defeat All Might, but ended up being adopted by him.  He and Todoroki later bond over similar baggage with their origins.  Whether or not it remains a bromance of full-on tododeku depends on if I can get over my own baggage of writing romance.

- The one where everyone finds out - Y’all been hounding me about making a fic where everybody finds out about Izuku’s past so this is here to tell you I’m working on it. Might be a fic of its own, might sprinkle an arc into one of the other aus.

- The Arena - Class 1-A gets transported to a pocket detention by some villains and have to fight whatever else is there.

No chapter estimate.  Mostly just have the concept and some scenes planned.

I’ll update this post as stuff comes out.  Please let me know what you think!

[onebighumanheart]

11/11/11 Tag!

Well, looky here. My first tag game of my Tumblr career(?). Huge thanks to @hyba for considering me for this after us just having met! I deeply appreciate it.

Without further ado.

#1: If you could choose one character (one of your OCs, but you can choose another character as well) to hang out with for a night, which would it be?

Any character... Temperance Brennan, Bones. We wouldn’t be doing much in the way of having fun, perhaps, but she could teach me all her anthropological ways. Maybe then I could finally decide whether that’s the career I want to pursue or not!

#2: When did you get the idea for your WIP(s)?

This is assuming I have a WIP—I don’t, really. That said, though, for each of my stories’ prompts? My best friend whipped up a list of them for me, one word a day for a month. If you check out my blog, you’ll see that they’re real inspirational! I’ve come up with the best stuff I’ve ever written from the words they gave me. 

#3: What’s the one thing you want to accomplish in your life?

I want to change a life. One way or another, I want to have been influential enough on this planet to have improved somebody’s life, however small or however long-lasting. Make somebody’s day better, keep them smiling through the week, give them the strength to make it through the month. Maybe even to live another day, with my work. 

#4: Where do you go when you need to take some space away from whatever is frustrating you (your writing, or anything else)?

I don’t have a place I go, no. When I’m frustrated, I usually just stick it through. Is that healthy? No, probably not, but I’m not the kind to stand my ground by stepping away. When I do, though, it’s usually to my room, where I’ll just lay there, contemplating. 

#5: What’s the funniest book you’ve ever read?

Funniest book... Probably Counting by Sevens by Holly Goldberg Sloan, my second favorite book of all time. It tells the story of an orphaned and adopted gifted child entering middle school who ends up losing her pair of adoptive parents, too. It’s poignant, touching, but also hilarious. If you haven’t heard of it or haven’t had a chance to pick it up, do that. Give it a read, it deserves it.

#6: Of all the characters in books that you have read, which one is your favourite?

Look. I’ve never actually read the book, but Howl’s Moving Castle means the world to me. It’s my favorite movie of all time since my older cousins first showed it to me when I was younger along with My Neighbor Totoro (I just love Ghibli, man). Sophie Hatter is one of my favorite characters of all time, a well-written woman who regains and maintains her strength despite (and, perhaps, because of) her affliction. If movie Sophie’s anything like book Sophie, I’m swooning. 

#7: Have you ever abandoned a story/book for over a year and why?

I abandoned writing in general for many months before these two weeks of immersing myself in it again, for personal reasons. In the general sense, putting words on a paper (or, more accurately, on a screen) felt... wrong. I’m trying to break through that the best I can lately, and I feel it’s working.

#8: If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where you would be?

Canada, no second thoughts. Why? Beats me. I haven’t ever been, I hardly know anything about it, and it’s cold enough to freeze my nose off up there. Do I still love it as if it were my home country? You bet. 

#9: Name one writer whose writing and style have influenced you.

Is this basic? You tell me. Stephen King. My favorite book of all time is It, after sifting through a PDF version because What Teenager Has Money To Pay For Books. (I’d like to, but a guy has to economize. King probably wouldn’t mind too much.) I’ve tried to take his level of description and tone it down a bit for my own writing, for I’ve had many run-ins with the ill-fated Purple Prose!!!. That aside, though, his pace and tone set up for the onl  book that

#10: Do you have an end in mind for your WIP(s)?

N/A, for the time being. But again, in terms of my short stories, I usually begin with a loose idea and flesh it out as I start writing, letting things come to a stop wherever they do. Then I prune a bit before showing them to the world. 

#11: Which WIP have you enjoyed writing the most so far?

My favorite story of mine so far is the deity prompt with Renata and Ludo. I feel it’s one of my stronger pieces thus far. A friend even said it sounds like something out of a fanfiction.

I’m going to tag a few people I’ve seen around the writeblr community. If you’re uncomfortable with being tagged, by all means, send me a message and let me know that’s not something you’re up to! I won’t mind one bit. @akingsleywriter @francestroublr @writer-jessicac @iannicellis @kidsarentallwrite @push-the-draft 

Have some questions of my own!

1. What’s the scene in a book or movie that’s most memorable for you?

2. If you have a WIP, who’s your favorite character in it? Why?

3. What inspired you to start writing? What continues to inspire you to keep writing?

4. List five of your favorite things.

5. What genre of content do you most enjoy? (Books to read/write, film, video games, etc.)

6. Setting goals is the biggest way to make your ideas a reality. What are some of yours?

7. Describe your closest friend.

8. What time period do you most write in? Why?

9. Do you have any other hobbies? Let’s hear them.

10. Is there anyone in your life who inspires or influences your writing? How so?

11. What makes you happy?

[pomegranate-belle]

11 Questions

Tagged by: @zeesqueere, thank you, and sorry this took me so long!

Tagging: @rawkhawkjock, @chessanator, @teashadephoenix, @returnsandreturns, if you guys want — and anybody else who wants to answer these!

1. How long have you been writing?

Uhhh since I was literate probably lmao — I was a very angry, repressed lil bby that got picked on a lot and my Kindergarten teacher nudged me towards expressing myself via the written word rather than with what little violence I could accomplish as a tiny six year old. And that, as they say, is history.

2. What are the major themes of your current wip(s)?

Courting the Sun-Dancer(?) (aka the one abt Alma and Navata): Regaining identity, cultural exchange, choice over fate, courage, loyalty, and the responsibilities of ruling

The still untitled story about Algernon and Tyderias: Homecoming, revenge, what it means to be alive, accepting your talents, learning to love others as they are, sacrifice, and true love

3. What do you want people to take away from your story once they’ve read it?

I don’t know, hope, I guess? It’s not the reason I’m writing them or even the point behind the plots but I wish I’d had stories like this (read: Not Straight Ones) growing up. Mostly I just want people to enjoy reading the things I write.

4. Would you be excited if people write fanfiction about your wip(s)?

I’d be honestly startled given the lack of information to work from right now lol, but I’m super jazzed any time something I write spurs other people to create. :)

5. What’s your go-to writing beverage?

I don’t think I have one but I will say I really had a productive night that one time I went out and drank like three vodka lemonades while working on a character, lmao

6. Who is your favorite oc? Tell me about them!

Ooh, playing favorites is mean... But yeah ok it’s definitely Mauve Sebella (incidentally, she’s also the character from the previous answer—)

She’s gone through about three different iterations as I tried to find a story for her. At first, she was a main character and much more whimsical — a burglar looked after by the remnants of her mother’s iron-smuggling operation. So she was kind of this happy-go-lucky gentleman thief type character with One Million Dads. The plot of that story fizzled out pretty quickly, and I set her aside for a while, but eventually I found use for a character with her specific powers so I dusted her off and gave her an unhappier backstory and an attitude adjustment.

As she stands now, there was no one decent to look after her and keep her safe after her mom died, so she was in a bad situation where everyone was either trying to murder her or use her powers for their own gain. She ended up as a child soldier due to her “magic-eating” eye and became the most infamous assassin on the continent. It’s the perfect conceit for the world she’s in because it means she travels a lot and I can use her as a side character in almost any story set in that world.

7. Do you feel that mistakes are important learning tools in the writing journey?

I guess? I don’t really think about things like that, lol

8. Rank your ocs by their capability in a footchase (either running after or from smth, your choice)

Navata is dead last for the obvious reason that she spends 90% of her time on land in a wheelchair. Then Charles DeWitte, then his younger sister Lucille, then Algernon Parson, then Alma, then Tyderias, then Mauve. Prince Balthazar is the fastest because he’s A Literal Werewolf and his running stamina is totally wild.

9. Does your wip have romance? tell me about it!! if not tell me about a friendship/important relationship in your wip!!

So many romances. So many.

Algernon/Tyderias: my Fake Married boys!! They’re a little suspicious of each other at first, but get over it pretty quickly. Algernon is a natural caretaker and he has an instinct to protect Ty pretty much from the beginning. Ty, who’s a bit jaded from, you know, being an exiled prince and unable to stop his father’s killers from taking over his kingdom, is intrigued by Algernon since he’s just a genuinely good person. Both of them are hiding parts of themselves at the beginning and it causes trouble when the truth comes out, but they pull together when it counts. They take interest in each other’s hobbies and it leads to some self-discovery along the way. Both of them try very hard not to fall love while they have to pretend to be married but uh, it does not work at all.

Alma/Navata: These two are definitely an “opposites attract” couple! Navata is a queen who cares more about being approachable than being unquestionable. She has chronic pain that limits her ability to do things, but she’s fun-loving and doesn’t let her limitations discourage her. She’s a terrible artist and not really what anyone would call graceful even if she’s beautiful. By contrast, Alma is closed off with a solemn, cold image that discourages people from disrespecting her. She looks tougher than Navata, with lots of scars, but she’s much more elegant. They’ve each given things up for the sake of their position, but together they are able to recapture parts of themselves that have fallen by the wayside. They learn about one another’s cultures as Alma competes in suitor trials to win Navata’s hand.

Balthazar/Charles: These two are the original romance plot from the world Alma, Navata, and Mauve are from. Their story is on the back-burner right now but I still love them. Bal is rough around the edges but kind and earnest. Charles is kind of a flirt and he’s good at being charming; he’s knowledgeable, but he can also be a little naive, especially when it comes to his own family. Charles and Bal are childhood best friends who have been nursing crushes on each other for years and years. They share pretty much everything with each other — for example, even though Charles is very close with his sisters, it’s Bal he goes to first when something’s troubling him. And Bal is very protective of Charles, because he knows Charles’ dad treats him badly. However, Bal is unwillingly betrothed to Charles’ younger sister, Lucille. He plans to fight it and express his feelings to Charles, but his plan gets derailed when, during Bal’s coronation ball, Charles is hit with a curse that freezes him in ice. Bal spends the next five years doing everything he can to break the curse while the ice slowly overtakes his castle.

10. Do you believe in the advice kill your darlings?

Umm probably not?

I think needlessly making your characters suffer is just an exercise in sadism, lol, but I do think you’ll get a bad story if you helicopter parent as well and don’t let your characters make mistakes and suffer consequences.

As for “killing your darlings” in terms of getting rid of scenes or plot lines that you love... I think it’s stupid. If you remove the parts of your story that make you happy just so it will be nebulously “better”, aren’t you destroying what makes it yours instead of just some stupid formulaic “best seller”? I don’t know, that’s just how I feel about it.

11. Do you prefer plotting or worldbuilding? Why?

Plotting, definitely. Worldbuilding can be fun when it comes easy but other times you’re staring at a blank page trying to come up with fantasy names or mindlessly researching which fruits grow in what climate and you just want to stab yourself with a pencil. Don’t even get me started on dealing with how to represent different languages without having to actually Tolkien it and spend fifty years fucking inventing them. I’m not a linguist, dammit, I’m an author.

[formlesscopycat]

1--50 because I always like learning more bout you guys :PPPPP for xxx, maybe your favorite fic? Or Distance of the Falling Sun :D

Thanks for making me answer all the asks, I really enjoyed doing this, a jog down the memory lane is always beautiful. Also, this gives me a chance to make up for misunderstanding RuRu’s prior request (so sorry, babe).

1) How old were you when youfirst started writing fanfiction?

I started writing headcanonsin my native language when I was 12; I posted my first fic when I was 15.

2) What fandoms do you writefor and do you have a particular favourite if you write for more than one?

I’ve written for FinalFantasy VIII (Seinoa, Seifistis), Slam Dunk (SenRu), Lovely Complex (OtaRisa),Kimi no Todoke (Kazehaya/Kuronama) and Wallflower (SunaKyo). I’m currentlywriting for the love of AoKise (Kuroko no Basuke).

3) Do you prefer writing OC’sor reader inserts? Explain your answer.

I prefer OCs. I find readerinserts kinda weird.

4) What is your favouritegenre to write for?

Romantic comedies.

5) If you had to choose afavourite out of all of your multi chaptered stories, which would it be andwhy?

Love is a Scheme (forWallflower fandom) is my fave multi-chapter that I’ve written. One is becauseI’ve managed to finish writing it and two, it has all my favorite elements:denial of feelings, enemies to lovers, love confessions, meddling friends. Ihad so much fun writing that story and readers have loved it, too.

6) If you had to delete oneof your stories and never speak of it again, which would it be and why?

Perhaps that lame attempt ata songfic I wrote for Final Fantasy VIII fandom, ugh. No particular plot andinfused with bad grammar. But no matter how much I cringed at my earlierstories, I can’t bring myself to delete them because I still come back to thesefics sometimes if just to see how much I’ve grown as a writer over the years.

7) When is your preferredtime to write?

Daytime.

8) Where do you take yourinspiration from?

Poetry, quotes, metaphors,old songs. Also, from personal experience, sometimes.

9) Inyour [Distance of the Falling Sun] fic, what’s your favourite scene that youwrote?

Two.

The two of them are idiots in love, this, Kise is sure. He lifts hishead and meets Aomine’s face with a smile. Happiness sweeps across Aomine’sfeatures too, as he thumbs softly on the skin under Kise’s eyes, wiping awayhis tears.

“If only you told me sooner,” Aomine tells him with a smirk, theirfaces only inches away from each other.

“Excuse me, but you should’ve said something too.” Kise shoots back.

“Are we bickering again?”

“We’re not.”

(My fave scene because itfeels authentic AoKise, dorkos snapping at each other right after confession>.

10) Inyour [DotFS] fic, why did you decide to end it like that? Did you have analternative ending in mind?

There’s supposed to be a“Zero”, because the prompt is actually, “write a story with a countdown from 10to 0″. I tried to push for it but my sentences refuse to work out so I ended itat one.

11) Have you ever amended astory due to criticisms you’ve received after posting it?

I haven’t.

12) Who is your favouritecharacter to write for? Why?

Currently, it’s Aomine.Ironically, I don’t like him at first but now, I’m totally captivated by thischild, my heart is his. I think he has the best character development in KnB,with that gripping heart-wrenching backstory. I find it easy to write his tendencies and basicways. He’s flawless but at the same time, flawed in so many ways. If I peeloff his layers, I always find wonderful gems. I like going through the heads of flawed characters.

13) Who is your leastfavourite character to write for? Why?

Um, none.

14) Howdid you come up with the title for the [Distance of the Falling Sun]? - You canask about multiple stories.

I wanted to play with metaphors,heh. ‘Distance’ because Kise is chasing after Aomine, always yearning forAomine’s affections and he thinks Aomine is beyond his reach. ‘Falling Sun’because this is really about Kise, ‘burning’ with unrequited feelings.

15) If you write OC’s, how doyou decide on their names?

I take the names of myfavorite characters from other fandoms. For example, in my fic, Where YouBelong, Kise’s father is named ‘Takenaga’, he’s actually from the anime,Wallflower. Aomine’s mom will be named ‘Sayuri’, from Memoirs of a Geisha. Ialso employ the help of Google, to see if the meanings behind the names Ichoose will actually fit my OC.

16) Howdid you come up with the idea for [DotFS]?

I chanced on the prompt onTumblr and immediately, the angst muse overwhelmed me. Also, this doujin. Ijumped on the ‘unrequited love’ theme because it’s something that I personallyexperienced. With this fic, it’s structure first before the plot instead ofvice-versa and that came as a big challenge, I never thought I’d write it down.I only have the shaky idea for ten, three and one but how to fill in the rest,I don’t even know. Months after, the muse have shown mercy.

17) Post a line from a WIPthat you’re working on.

Waiting–he’s done enough of it to endure through its pain, a furnacerefining his patience like silver into flame.

(From ‘Worth the Wait’, anattempt at RinHaru, Idek.)

18) Do you have any abandonedWIP’s? What made you abandon them?

I’ve two. One is an AoKise. Ijust felt like there’s something lacking with the plot and I tried to think ofways to patch things up but sadly, nothing ever seemed to work. It upsets metoo, that I suddenly lost the interest to finish it because I’ve already hit6,000+ words.

19) Are there any storiesthat you’ve written that you’d really love to do a sequel to?

I want to do a sequel for IHear You through these Walls, the Kise side of the story, what he thinks of hiscute neighbor next door and what really happened between him and Haizaki.

Worst Birthday Ever – theAomine and friends part as they plan for Kise’s birthday. While WBE has lightangst, The Making of the Best Birthday Ever will be full of bickering idiots.And a little Aominecchi guiltrip (because of the phone call) will be explored in the sequel.

Rest is for the Weak – Aominecaught the flu because of the kiss. He puts the blame on Kise and  demands for Kise to care for him, too. It’smostly Aho having the time of his life, supremely enjoying Kise’sattention.  

20) Are there any storiesthat you wished you’d ended differently?

In that first fic I’vewritten, the MCs used to be lovers. They had a shot at being together again butin the end, they chose differently and still went their separate ways. I wishthey’ve been together.

21) Tell me about anotherwriter(s) who you admire? What is it about them that you admire?

There are so many but I’ll gowith these writers whose stories I always come back to, again and again:

Ashbear (FFVIII, Squinoa) –Writes with superior plot and superior characterization. She’s my childhoodfanfic hero. A decade later, I still find myself re-reading her stories, and onsome occasions, I still leave a comment, a plea, hoping she’ll finish‘Somewhere in Between’.  

Aki Midori (Slam Dunk, SenRu)– I always go back to her deathfics like a deranged masochist. Her storieseffin hurts like hell but so, so addictive.

For KnB, there are too manybut I’m all for these amazecakes authors:

Beautiful Thief (AoKise) – Iowe it to her fics which nurtured and nourished the AoKise monster in me duringits infancy.

DigimonDestined (AoKise) –she weaves beautiful imagery with her words, I’m weak for her rich descriptionsthat put me right into the heart of the situation and into the big mood.

dawnstruck (AoKise) – shewrites with short sentences but her writing style has this magical allure to itthat drives all the feels home.

Himi (KagaKise) – writes withlovely, complicated and realistic emotions that are eye-opening and gutwrenching.

22) Do you have a story thatyou look back on and cringe when you reread it?

The first two fics I’vewritten. It’s a wonder how readers have endured and managed to leave some nicewords.

23) Do you prefer listeningto music when you’re writing or do you need silence?

Hush, I need Silence.

24) How do you feel aboutwriting smutty scenes?

I haven’t tried, heh, andjust thinking about it makes me uncomfortable primarily because I can’t bringto words something that I have very little knowledge and experience of. I maytry to do some research but I don’t think it’ll come as authentic if my heart’snot really into it. I can insinuate love making but to go into the territories ofexplicit, I’ll have to pass ;D Even as a reader, I shy away from E-ratedstories. When I make rare exceptions, I skip the smut or I don’t dwell too longon these parts of the story. I’m pretty much contented with my ships being allkissy-kissy and touchy-feely when they get physical.

25) Have you ever criedwhilst writing a story?

Yes, because I can’t describea scene that’s just so vivid in my head. I see my words and shat, I want toshoot myself.

26) Which part of your [DotFS]fic was the hardest to write?

Eight, Seven, Four. At four,dammit, I’m almost done! Something has to be written, something has to work.Luckily, four walls of the empty room, heh.

27) Do you make a generaloutline for your stories or do you just go with the flow?

I make a general outline, Ineed to see the full picture before I get myself invested in a plot. I workwith tunnel vision, slowly from the ground up. There has to be a working title,too, before I get past 500 words.

28) What is something youwished you’d known before you started posting fanfiction?

That consistency in verbtenses matter.

29) Do you have a story thatyou feel doesn’t get as much love as you’d like?

I would want all of mystories to get so much love heh, but setting aside my weaknesses as a writer, I’vealways been drawn to small, semi-active or defunct fandoms so my expectationsaren’t really that high…As long as I’m getting some, I’ve been happy with thelove I get.

30) In contrast to 29 isthere a story which gets lots of love which you kinda eye roll at?

I’ve breached lewd levels withMy Favorite Costume but then, I’m glad it got nice loving from readers.

31) Send me a ficrecommendation and I’ll post it for my followers to see! (The asker is to sendthe rec not the answerer)

I’ve never been happier, thatyou enjoyed DotFS. You want angst and Teiko!Aokise, I’m stoked when the ideahit me, I can finally gift you a fic that you might actually like.

32) Are any of yourcharacters based on real people?

Some scenes are loosely basedon first hand experiences.

33) What’s the biggestcompliment you’ve gotten?

“Your storytelling is impeccablysubtle; you show but don’t tell. As I was reading, I could see everything in mymind as if I was there with the characters and living through them. The littleshock at the end was bloody brilliant.”

This comment is quite memorable andimportant to me because it’s for the first-ever angsty-fangsty story I’vewritten way back when (for Final Fantasy VIII fandom (my first love)), withonly 600 words. I was young, had just started writing and simply doing it because I deeply love the characters. This comment made me so happy years ago,and had sparked a bigger desire in my young-once heart to put my ideas intowords and throw ‘em all out there for people to see.

34) What’s the harshestcriticism you’ve gotten?

The reader said that she was terriblydisappointed with the ending I had. She said she followed the story with highhopes but the ending just, meh.

Well, I was young, it’s formy first fanfic and I’ve written all chapters of it before I posted so I’m notreally that open to changes and suggestions. But looking back, yes, reader wasdefinitely right, the ending sucked.

35) Do you share your storyideas with anyone else or do you keep them close to your chest?

Close to my chest. I’m notreally that confident with the things in my head, I mostly feel I’m getting judged when I share my ideas.

36) Can you give us a spoilerfor one of your WIP’s?

In Where You Belong, therewill be a scene where they celebrate Kise’s birthday and everyone but Aho gothim a gift.

37) What’s the funniest storyyou’ve written?

Maybe, Rest is for the Weak?You said Aomine was strangely acting like a mother hen in that one.

38) If you could collab withany other writer on here, who would it be? (Perhaps this question will inspiresome collabs!) If you’re shy, don’t tag the blog, just name it.

I’d love to work with any ofthe friendos in the AoKise~ discord.

39) Do you prefer first,second or third person?

Third person. I like tellingstories through the bird’s eye view, it gives me a lot of control.

40) Do people know you writefanfiction?

For sure, my mom will disownme if she finds out about the things I write. Only two people in real life knewthat I do fanfics. I told one friend during high school and a cousin who is somuch into anime accidentally found out.

41) What’s your favouriteminor character you’ve written?

Ranmaru (Wallflower) in Loveis a Scheme. With his charms, he successfully made his friend jealous out ofhis wits which resulted into an awkward confession.

42) Song fic - What made youdecide to use the song xxx for xxx.

I only wrote 1 songfic forthe heck of it. The song was very popular at that time

43) Has anyone ever guessedthe plot twist of one of your fics before you posted it?

I haven’t encountered suchcomments from my readers..

44) What is the last line youwrote?

Can’t you see how he looks atour Ryou-chan like he’s looking at fireworks?

45) What spurs you on duringthe writing process?

Thinking I’m getting closerto fluffy, lovey-dovey scenes gets me going. The fluff scenes are my ‘checkpoint’,my pit-stop for every leg of the writing journey.

46) Ireally loved your [Distance of the Falling Sun] fic. If you were ever to do asequel, what do you think might happen in it?

Hey, thank you for the love!If there will be a sequel, it will be a countdown beginning from 1 to 10, set10 years into the future, in Aomine’s POV as he recalls the ups and downs, thejoys and pains of his beautiful relationship with Kise.

47) Here’s afic title – [The man who never lied (or morelike, what would a story inspired by that song be about? :D)]. Whatwould this story be about? (from Ruru’s ask too)

Mmm. Ok, first, I love Maroon 5 and ADAM LEVINE! I’ll write an AoKiserunning along these lines: What Kise would give up for Aomine to achieve hisdreams… What Aomine would give up just to keep Kise’s love. Or, Aomine is tornbetween choosing to follow his dreams of becoming an NBA player or keeping thelove of his life. On the premise that he can’t have both because real life islike that… you can’t be thoroughly happy XD

(Because I’ve read a lot ofstories wherein Ao gets to be NBA star and gets Kise too. Not that I don’tthink he deserves all the joys of this life, but I want to explore this Ao whogets to give up his dreams for Kise. Ofc, I’ll make him choose love overdreams, heh.)

48) What’s your favouritetrope to write?

Enemies to lovers.

49) Can you remember thefirst fic you read? What was it about?

Yes, I do. Its title is Giftof Love (FFVIII fandom). It’s inspired by O’Henry’s The Gift of the Magi. Lotsof angst and fluff in the end.

50)If you could write only angst, fluff or smut for the rest of your writing life,which would it be and why?

Angst. I love writing journeys that explorethe depths of human emotions and I think there’s no better way than angst tobring me there. But with happy endings. Always with happy endings. Because thatis the whole point of my shipping, to see my children struggle in the midst ofthe storm, turbulent waters raging all around, and see them dock safe and soundto happy couple-land.

[callmetippytumbles]

20 Question Tag Game

Please tag @the-everlasting-dream in all your posts!!

Thanks, @the-everlasting-dream, @theroyalweisme, and @hellomynameisdeviblaire for tagging me.

1. When/what age did you start writing? I started writing around 14 or 15, mostly reviews and interviews for the school newspaper and then doing some fanfiction at 16.

2. What inspired you to start? I liked how it made me feel.  Writing, for the most part, felt good, even when I sucked.  The fanfiction was a way to deal with my crushes since I didn’t have someone who could tolerate talking about them at the rate I thought about them.

3. Where and when does inspiration usually strike you? Like the Shakira English-language crossover hit, “Whenever, Wherever.”

4. Where and when do you usually to write? Morning? Late at night? On the bus? In bed? Whenever I get the chance, wish is not as often right now.  I think I do my best work late at night.  That’s is usually when the idea to solve a block I have with a WIP comes to me.  Sometimes I would write on the train or during a break at work on my iPhone in GoogleDocs, but I don’t like to do that often.  My thumbs cannot handle that kind of demand.

5. Do you listen to music while writing? If so what genre/playlist? Sometimes.  If the music is really helping to establish a mood or an aesthetic, then I would listen to that song on repeat while I write that part.  Other times if I need to focus or drown out other thoughts I would listen to some lo-fi hip-hop beats.  I have been liking Fushou. lately, especially the track “burgundy.”

6. Which category do you like best? Angst? Fluff? NSFW? Other? I like a little bit of everything.  Each category brings something different to the table.  

7. Which category do you find most challenging to write? The part of me that lives to self-flagellate would say all of them.  To narrow it down I would have to say action and NSFW.  Action because you have to write it so that the reader can see it and that can be rough.  NSFW is mostly because I have to a.) admit that I am interested in the sex I am writing, and b.) push it further and not hold back.  I am working on it.

8. If you had to pick your favourite Choices book, which one would it be and why? The Royal Romance.  It was my first book and I fell in love quickly.  See, I got the Choices app because I have been seeing the ads, I was bored and I was down for some mess of the baby daddy variety.  I saw the title and was like “oh you can get two European niggas to get to boxing over you like Darcy and Hugh Grant in Bridget Jones’ Diary? Sign me the fuck up.”  Then there was no mess and I got hooked.

9. If your Choices LIs were real, which one (and only one!) would you personally want to be with? I would say Ben from LoveHacks.  While Liam is like the romantic hero that my middle-aged heart would long for, Ben is the one I have a chance of actually finding.  Also, if I marry Ben, I could have a wedding where I don’t get kidnapped.  A fine-ass man that could support himself with his creative gig, has his own place in San Francisco, will not take your shit and love you down?  I would like that very much.  

10. Do you share any physical characteristics with your Choices MCs?  Pics/selfies optional :) I don’t think I have too many that I look like.  Especially since I tend to mix it up with my MCs and more often than not go for darker skinned MCs even though I am light skinned.  Maybe the light-skinned MC in BloodBound?

11. Which MC do you share the most personality traits with? I think all of the MCs have some aspects of me.  Halle (TRR) is Auntie Tippy.  She has the parts of me that are basically guiding me to my Auntie glory.  Aminah (BloodBound) has more of my dedication to seek out satisfaction and pleasure first, even if it's detrimental and counter-productive.  Asha (The Freshman, et al) is Needy Tippy...etc.

12. Which Choices character do you feel you have the best grasp of in terms of personality? Liam. I like writing his thoughts since he can be very cerebral and I feel like I am like that a lot of the time.  Writing for Kiara has been interesting as well since I relate to her desires to set her emotions aside to do the job even, if not especially, when it’s difficult.  

13. What’s your favourite choices pairing to write for? Liam x MC obviously.  Almost too much to the point that other pairings and other projects outside of them really suffer.  For every one idea I would have for a fic that isn’t about Halle and Liam, I would have 10 fics that center them.

14. What is a pairing/s you hope to start writing for? I am writing more about Aminah in BloodBound for my TRR x BloodBound crossover series, In the Dark.  I would like to spend more time with her and also Zahra and Hayden for Perfect Match.  I have a series outline for Perfect Match but I have not been dedicating a lot of time to it because Halle and Liam kind of dominate my imagination.  Also, I have that Zahra is Nigerian and my Yoruba is shite and Zahra does speak it.  

15. What do you hope to improve in your writing? Lots of things.  A better grasp of conversational foreign languages would be nice.  Also, I think I could use more diverse words.  Sometimes I repeat the same word for stylistic reasons, but I could opt out of that more often.

16. Any pet peeves related to writing? As a reader, poor formatting is a huge turn-off.  Especially when it comes to dialogue.  Not breaking up the dialogue when you have two characters talking to each other is a huge pet peeve of mine.  Not breaking up paragraphs is also a great way to not have me read your fic.  As a writer, my crippling insecurities keep me busy.  Also, the pronoun versus proper noun thing could be better.

17. Are you inspired by any IRL experiences when you write? Care to share? All of the time.  All of my MCs are Black Women and race/gender play a role in their lives, some more than others.  For the Home series, I drew a lot from the current climate and just American history to influence Halle, her character, and experiences.  I also thought a lot about Meghan Markle and how she was treated by the British media and the conversation about her.

18. Is there any particular piece of work you consider to be your ultimate writing goal? Something so amazing you hope one day you’ll be able to be up to that standard? I am inspired by a lot of writers on here.  Like blown away by the writing and fic concepts.  So much so that I cannot name just one work or one writer.  @madaraism has this series, Himeros, that makes me weep openly at my desk.  I have recommended it before, will do it again.  @i-dream-so-i-write can really do an AU scenario that is developed, nuanced and interesting, but still works within canon.  That is hard.  Especially for a reader like me that isn’t that big into AUs, but I am into hers.  This is why I am so lucky that she wanted to do In the Dark with me.  

19. Did/do you write for any other fandoms? If so which ones? I did write for Radio Free Roscoe back in the day.   

20. In your spare time (when you’re not writing) what other hobbies do you pursue? I listen to a metric ton of podcasts.  They usually fall into three camps: ratchetry with social commentary, social commentary, and true crime.  I have tons of recommendations.  Feel free to ask.  I also do a lot of reading and I have been trying to get back into watching TV series and Netflix.  When I am not doing those things, I am indulging my hair product obsession.  

So I am not going to tag a bunch of people since a lot of the people I have tagged have done this already

I am tagging: @i-dream-so-i-write  @lizzybeth1986  @mrswalkerwrites  @kingliamthirst   @umccall71

Share and tag your favourite writers!

[tarysande]

Hey! Is there any ME alien culture or society (I don't know if asari, quarian, turian, etc. cultures differ within their species like in ours) you would like to know more about? And second, your writing motivates me to continue writing when I'm having a tough time. I have many ideas and they usually make their entrance when I'm writing a story. I don't want to give up on that story to focus on the new idea, but this new idea usually blocks everything from the current project. Any advice?

Part One, Alien Stuff:

The very short answer is that I’d like to know more about all of them. I find it really hard to believe that cultures that have been spread out across the galaxy for so much longer than humans wouldn’t have cultural diversity. Like, maybe the turians start with the same set of ideals, but adapting to different environments (at the very least) on a colony world would, I think, have cultural/societal effects over time.

If I had to choose one, I’d probably choose turians because some of my favorite characters are turians and boy would I like to have a better idea about them. We get so little variation in the game. (I mean, look how embarrassingly long it was before we even met a female turian! Blech.) ((For that matter, I hate that we see so few females of most of the aliens. Please. I refuse to believe all this BS gender segregation would be happening.)) 

I would love to have concrete examples about what turian society is like, how they form families, what their cities and houses and ships and stuff look like on the inside. What do their tools look like? Or their eating utensils? I get that the game is constrained due to mechanics, but I do not believe all turians, for example, dress the identical way we always see them. I want to see variations there, too. I want to know about what they eat, and how they adapt to conditions on different planets where the home food sources are perhaps not so available. I’d like to know what their upbringing is like.

Again, due to constraints and mechanics, we just see these fairly one-note versions of the various alien races. “Ahh yes,” the game says, “this race is the space cop race, that one is the space exotic dancer race; have some space scientists, too.” Sure, we can read between the lines, but I would just love to actually know more about what they’re like without inventing it myself. (Though I have and will invent things when necessary!) I would like to be shown more, instead of being told. (The asari are a good example here. We’re told they are the galaxy’s artists and philosophers, but like... we do not get shown it.)

Part Two, Writing Stuff:

This is complicated, because I definitely feel like this is an arena where what works for one can be the absolute wrong thing for another, and there is a lot of conflicting advice out there. (I think Stephen King’s on record somewhere saying not only do you have to write one thing at a time, you have to finish it in “a season.” Ha ha. Ha. Ow.)

I used to only be able to work on one project at a time, and only linearly to boot. Then, I started to realize that being so constrained was actually really stifling to me. Now, I do tend to bounce around between ideas and projects, but that tactic is not without its serious downsides. I mean, on the one hand, I nearly always have something I’m writing even if one of the other stories isn’t cooperating. On the other hand, it is hard for me to regain traction and momentum if I leave something too long. It’s not that I don’t like the story or find it interesting or want to finish it... I just... really struggle with the motivation. Sometimes it’s challenging to sink back into a story’s unique voice. 

Real talk: sometimes it doesn’t matter how much you love a project, you are going to hit a point when you hate it, think it’s garbage, think it’s useless, think you’re a hack, want to give up. And that’s when the siren song of ~*something new*~ is most tempting. Why not just put aside the thing that’s making you upset and dive into something new? It’s so fun when it’s new! All these new situations, new characters! New toys to play with!

If you have trouble finishing things already, always jumping at the new ideas may ensure you never finish anything at all. Here, too, you want to think about your own personal goals. If you’re writing as a hobby or to make yourself happy, then do whatever makes you happiest. Finish stories or don’t. Play with new toys whenever you want. Roll around in new ideas. I mean this sincerely: if writing is your fun pastime, let it be fun.

If, however, you’ve got aspirations of making writing a career, at some point Discipline is probably going to come knocking. You’ll have deadlines; you’ll have expectations to meet. You will, in short, be required to finish things. That’s a skill as important for a writer to have as a honed imagination or the ability to write compelling characters or cohesive plot. For some (for me!), fanfiction is an arena where I can hone some of the skills I take to my original work, and finishing things is part of that. (Not that you’d guess by the languishing state of some of my WIPs. Languishing, though, not abandoned. See above re: difficulty of dropping back into a story when you’ve been away for a while. *sigh*)

One thing that might work for you is to take some time to write down notes about the new ideas you get as they arise. Try to write this stuff as fast as you can, without overthinking. Try setting yourself a timer and just free-writing/stream-of-consciousness writing everything for 15 or 20 or 60 minutes. That way you’ll have notes to return to, to refresh your memory. It’s possible that if you give yourself an outlet for the new stuff, the old will keep cooperating with you.

Don’t punish yourself for having a new idea. Try not to look at it as a failure to adhere to the original project. New ideas are gifts. They really are. (I have a tendency to punish myself for perceived failures/laziness/inability to adhere to “plans”---in my experience, all this does is make me sad and depressed and not want to write anything at all.)

The most challenging thing of all, of course, is learning when an old idea isn’t worth sticking to. I don’t have a fast and easy answer for this conundrum, unfortunately, but I do know that sometimes when a really great new idea strikes, it’s because the old work is sad and tired and not actually going to amount to anything. You don’t want to get stuck blocked forever while you try to beat a dead horse back to life, right?

I’m sorry that I don’t have a more concrete answer. (I wish I did! For my sake as well as yours!) I do wish you the very, very best of luck with your work, though, and thank you so much for the wonderful compliments

[shesailsships]

2016 in review

Tagged by @frenchcirce <3

total number of stories (completed/WIPs):

7 completed (they are one-shot fics) || 3 WIP...one fanfic and two original works

total word count:

I’m just going to tally my fanfic word counts here (my original works are always in flux, I’m constantly adding and cutting)...9,985 published without counting Ghost Hunters, Lies, & Money...with counting Ghost Hunters, Lies, & Money-- are you ready for this? A whopping 236,716 words. GLM had become monster sized, it’s hundreds of pages long at this point...and still going lol! 

fandoms written in:

Oh gosh, I’ve written for quite a few. My very first fandom was JAG and it was what introduced me to what fanfiction was. I wrote many many fics for JAG, eons ago. They were my first writings. They’re still out there somewhere, lost in the internet. So yes, JAG for one. Later I wrote for Primeval. I’ve written a short piece for The Pretender. I tossed my hat in the ring and was moved to write a one-shot for Clintasha. Ghost Hunt though, has been a long beloved muse of mine, and the only fandom I’m currently writing for with any regularity. There are so many fandoms I follow-- I have a whole folder on my computer full of half-finished fic...I can say that I’ve attempted writing for just about every ship that I love <3 

looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d expected?

I always seem to write less than I want, so sad! At the beginning of each year I have these grand plans of making more time for my writing, goals of writing for more fandoms that I love, publishing more one-shots, ect. Unfortunately, I rarely seem to be able to follow through with these plans. It’s 2017 now, and once again I’m back on the grand dreams train. I desperately want to write more this year, especially on GLM. I’d love to get four solid chapters out this year...maybe even finish it? We’ll see :)

what’s your own favorite story of the year?

We’ll since we’ve gone over the fact that I haven’t been very prolific lately, it would have to be my WIP, Ghost Hunter, Lies, & Money. That being said, I would choose GLM as my favorite anyways. I’ve been writing it for 10 years now. It’s apart of my heart, I am so tremendously proud of it <33

Original works wise, the novel idea I started revisiting in 2016 has got me so excited. I can’t wait to grow this idea more and develop it into something. 

did you take any writing risks this year?

Does not writing count as a risk? lol! It sure feels risky to me...[glances at readers nervously] Not to mention I go slowly crazy without a creative outlet. I NEED TO WRITE. In all seriousness though, I feel like every time I open Word I take new risks. Approaching my original works is both a exciting and terrifying experience. I am writing out of my comfort zone, about characters I don’t know very well yet, in a setting I’m not quite knowledgeable about yet. Very different from Ghost Hunt.

do you have any fanfic or profit goals for the new year?

Like I said I’m in it’s-a-new-year-imma-write-lots mode, so I have lots of plans for 2017...but at the very top of my priority list is publishing new chapters for GLM. I am dying to share this final arc with my readers <3

best story of the year?

GLM...because that’s the one I feel most proud of? I feel it’s the best of my works anyways! That, and I didn’t write anything other than GLM this year. Aside from starting my original novel that is...and that’s still shaping up! 

most popular story of the year?

Why, Ghost Hunters, Lies, & Money of course! I’ve had 10 years to build a following of the most lovely readers in the entire world. To know there are people out there who actually want to know ‘what happens next?!’ amazes and honors me. I am truly blessed. 

story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:

Kindred Spirits, my only Pretender fic-- as well as my Memily one-shots. The Pretender is a small fandom, so I know there’s not much traffic, but I really feel I captured ‘a moment’ in that piece, and I think other fans would enjoy it if they knew it was out there :) As for my Memily one-shots, that’s just me waving my shippy flag proudly, and wishing someone else out there would join in with me. Memily is a small niche ship inside the Primeval fandom, I’m a passionate shipper, but I’m one of the few [sigh]

most fun story to write:

GLM! I get so excited about different plot points, revealing twists, badgering my characters with embarrassing hijinks, setting up inside jokes. I often laugh to myself while writing it, much to the alarm of my cat lol!

story with the single sexiest moment:

Hee, hee, hee-- I guess it depends on your perception of sexy? Sorry kids, I don’t do NC-17. I come from the Jane Austen school of romance. A brush of the hand. A low whisper. Locked eyes. Surprise gestures, which reveal hidden feelings. Subtly. I am a huge fan of the ‘slow-burn’, building tension. Passion is an aspect of romance that is fascinating to me. I feel you can have passionate characters, involved in a passionate romance...and not have to hit the sheets in the first chapter. I really enjoy writing passionate characters... characters who are passionate about each other...and how that passion comes out. But anyways, back to the question! 

Sexiest moment I’ve ever written? In my style, I guess you could look to my reviewers for an answer to this one, I’ve scattered some special moments between Mai and Naru through out my fic that I know have gotten quite a reaction ;) I personally change my mind on this all of the time, but right now I’d say the most passionate scene I’ve written, would be the final scenes of Chapter 23. Mai and Naru alone at base after the blood rain in the theater. There’s a certain intensity there, so much tension has built up between them, there are things she wants to tell him, but can’t-- and he knows it. He’s worried for her, and she’s worried for him, and through that their passion for each other shows. The whole scene has that oooh-something-might-happen feeling, you just kind of hold your breath...it’s enough to make my heart race, and I’m the one who wrote it! Yes, I know I’m a dork ^__^

most sweet story:

Bedside Manner, hands down. It’s the first piece I wrote for the Ghost Hunt fandom and it features a really sweet ‘what-if’ scenario between John and Masako, where he takes care of her at the hospital after she’s hurt on their first case. Say it with me, awwww! <3 

”holy crap, that’s wrong, even for you!” story:

According to my sister, who pre-reads my GLM chapters before I post them: the Mr. Sachi x Miss Miyuki twist. Sorry? [evil cackle]

story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters & most unintentionally telling story:

No exact example of this really, except that after writing GLM for so long I feel even closer to the characters, that I know them better. Also, I’m having a harder time distinguishing between canon, and the canon of my fic...oops? lol!

Writing Kindred Spirits really put me in Catherine and Sydney’s frame of mind...which was really interesting. Writing out that piece between them really helped me build better theories on who they were as characters during the events of that time, which the show kept mostly hidden from us.

hardest story to write:

I sound like a broken record, but GLM. Naturally, right? It’s my longest running work and it has a mystery plot that, believe it or not, is not my greatest strength. Then there’s the added pressure of wanting to meet not only my expectations, but the expectations of my readers. I’m a perfectionist and I end up revising so much of what I write. Takes me forever. 

Also, my original novel. Every aspect of my novel is in the developing phase, nothing is certain or concrete, there’s just this vague sense of what I want the story to be and the excitement that goes with it. Every sentence I write is experimental. It has been a real challenge getting off the ground and out of my comfort zone. I have my good days and bad days. Still, I’m learning and looking forward to what these fingers will type next! 

biggest disappointment:

So many things. I think that’s apart of the yin/yang of writing. I’ve written and lost pieces of original work due to computer errors. That has to be the most disappointing, down right painful actually :( I back up my work obsessively now. 

Also, actually being able to write when I do have the time. It’s so funny that way. There will be plenty of times where I make the time, sit down all ready...and can’t seem to put out anything? Ah, the woes of being a writer ;)

biggest surprise:

How well received my work has been, the reviews my readers leave for me. Being a writer, putting yourself out there-- it’s nerve wrecking. Self-doubt is my friend. To get the kind of response I’ve gotten over the years, I am so grateful for it. When I say reviews fuel my writing, I truly mean it. Nothing motivates me like hearing that someone just can’t wait for more! Or that my writing has touched someone, made them laugh, ect...oh goodess! <3

taggity tags: @sy5starplaty (because I know you write :D) AND anyone else who writes that follows me, really-- I tag you! Do this, I want to hear about your writing :)