#the fics that live in my brain and sometimes in my notes app

[philosophiums]

hi sam!! 1, 2, 6, 8, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30, 42, 43, 44, 45, 47, 50, 51, 55, 57, 66 (lmhs), 71, 72, 76, 78, 79 😊 i just love picking another writer's brain hehe

KSJDBVJKDFBV MARIAM IM CRYING HELP 😂 *cracks knuckles* okay let's gooooo 💜 (there's gonna be a read more somewhere)

questions from here!

1. Do you daydream a lot before you write, or go for it as soon as the ideas strike?

Truly depends on the length of the wip! For short stuff that I'm confident will be under 10k, I just go in swinging. For longer stuff, I'm daydreaming constantly, even during the writing process. When I had a desk job, I would spend Work Time thinking and then write stuff out in my notes app, but now that I operate a moving vehicle for 7+ hours a day, I just spend the majority of that time Daydreaming, Thinking, and Planning for LMHS.

2. Where do you get your fic ideas?

It's about a 60/40 split between original thoughts (as much as anyone can claim to truly have original creative thoughts that are 100% not inspired by anything else) and ideas that are based on or inspired by the premises of other fics or by fanart (sometimes not even from the same fandom).

6. What’s the last line you wrote?

From LMHS, last line of chapter 3: "Sun shining on their backs, sweet snacks in their stomachs, and laughter in the air, the three of them take off together, venturing once again deeper into Changyin’s busy streets."

8. Post an out-of-context spoiler from a wip.

Not written out yet so I can't post a snippet, but in LMHS, water is so important to Megumi's character, way beyond just bending.

12. Do you outline your fics?  If yes, how detailed are your outlines?  How far do you stray from them?

Sometimes! I did outline LMHS, though that was mostly an attempt on my part at keeping track of all the thoughts @hinamie and I were throwing at each other. It's not very detailed at all, just a bullet point list of things like "they travel to [location] - remember that [this character] is with them" or stuff like that. It's a guide for the like... movement™ of the fic, but less so the nitty gritty details, which I kind of enjoy discovering as I go (be it while I'm writing or while Hina and I are talking). But the last long fic I wrote (250k) did not have an outline. I just followed my heart and the vision I had of the end of the fic <3 The back half of that fic did have a canon timeline to follow, though, which made it easier.

14. What is your favorite location and position to write in?

SJKDBJKSDB I do about 95% of my writing in a big leather wingback armchair in my living room, usually with one leg hooked over an arm of the chair. The other 5% is bleary-eyed, 2am in bed, notes app, half-finished sentences with just the worst spelling you've ever seen.

15. What’s your favorite time to write?

It used to be between 1am and 3am, back when I was unemployed/working a job I didn't have to properly sleep for. Now, the only time I seem to be able to write is from about 8:30pm to 11pm. It takes me forever to unwind after coming home, so I can really only get myself to focus way at the end of the day. 100% if I went back to a desk job or stumbled into a pile of money that could let me stop working, I'd be right back to typing away well after midnight.

17. Do you have a writing routine?

Sit down > open word doc > reread last paragraph > dissociate > walk away > come back three hours later and write SKJDVBDKJBVJKDFBV

18. Do you enjoy research?  Which fic of yours required the most research?

I don't necessarily enjoy it, mostly because when I'm researching, I tend to get pulled down a rabbit hole of stuff I don't need to know and will never use. However, I do find that I end up doing impromptu "shotgun" research a lot while writing. Literally while writing the first chapter of LMHS, I had to pull up some research on trees just to make absolutely sure I was describing something correctly. It's 100% an inconsequential detail, but at least I know I wasn't pulling it completely out of thin air KSJVDBDKJVB I don't think I could honestly say which fic required the most research. If we include the amount of time I spent on the respective fandom wikis for character/canon details, then Swallow the Stars for sure. But if it's only for Other Stuff™, then I think they're all about equal.

19. Do you enjoy creating OCs or do you prefer to stick solely to canon characters?

I love making OCs in general, but not really for fanfic. I'll make an OC for an inconsequential side character no problem (did this a couple times in Swallow the Stars), but, for the most part, I prefer to stick to canon characters. I've never written a fic from the POV of an OC, and I doubt I ever will. I would much rather explore the dynamics between canon characters than insert a new main character into a story that already has one.

22. Do you title your fics before, during, or after the writing process?  How do you come up with titles?

Depends! I've done all three before SKJDVBDKJVBF Sometimes, a title comes to me right away, and I can sort of circle around it while I'm writing (this is more common for me with short fics). Sometimes, I get a few thousands words in, and have played with the themes long enough to have it just sort of come to me. Other times, I'm fully edited and just staring at the words begging a title to appear so I can post KSJDVBDKJFVBDFV LMHS had a title before I even started writing, because I wanted to have a title when I posted the fic announcement. As far as how I come up with them, I've pulled directly from words in the fic, I've gone on random quote generators and pulled from those, I've sat down and literally just strung words together based on a theme or a single specific word I wanted (LMHS, for instance, came from a desire to use the word "haunt"). It just kinda depends and is different for every fic!

23. Is writing the beginning, middle, or end of the story easiest? Hardest?

The beginning is easiest because it's fun character introductions and scene setting, not a lot of plot yet. The middle is by far the hardest because that's where the plot is beefiest and where a lot of the transition spaces are, and at the same time you're starting to gather up the threads you want to tie off at the end.

24. How do you choose whose POV to write in?

I choose based on whose thoughts I'm imagining most when I'm first thinking of the story! When I'm new to writing for a fandom, I will sometimes have to start a fic 2 or 3 times to find the voice that comes easiest to me, though. I have a tendency to lean towards the quieter characters, but that's not always true! For example, Andrew Minyard's POV is easier for me to write in, but I have more fun writing Neil, so I tend to gravitate towards Neil for AFTG fics.

25. What’s your favorite part of the writing process (worldbuilding, brainstorming/outlining, writing, editing, etc)?

World building my beloved..... I love coming up with Reasons for things that I want to happen, tying things into the setting and the history and making sure it works for the characters as well. The moment when everything connects is so magical.

26. What’s your least favorite part of the writing process?

Writing KJDBKJDFBVJKDBFV Words are just.... so hard 😭

28. What area of writing do you want to improve in?

Detailing! Descriptions! I am constantly fighting with myself over how much detail I actually need to include in my descriptions, because on some level, I want to describe it as much as I possibly can so that it can be envisioned easier, but on the flip side I know for a fact that no matter how much I describe something, no one will ever see it exactly the same way I do. And so then I pull back too far, I think, and keep my descriptions bare minimum, which I think is just as unhelpful. I need to work on finding a balance. Maybe metaphor can be my friend here.....

30. How much do you edit your fics?  Do you edit as you write or wait until you finish the first draft?

I usually go through for edits a minimum of two times and a maximum of 4 times. I always do an initial read-through for details that I missed or clarifications I need to make or continuity problems, stuff like that. Then I'll go through for grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, etc. If I end up rewriting a lot during that second edit, I'll go back through yet again just to double-check everything. And, more often than not, I do a last read-through right before I post. Though, inevitably, there's always something that I don't catch until it's already posted KJSBDVKDJBV

42. What’s your favorite title that you’ve come up with?

I'm really quite keen on Like the Moon Haunts the Sun !! It's longer than what I usually go for with titles, but it's sooooo thematically fitting and just really really pretty imo. But, This Is What Hollows holds a special place in my heart because it's a bit different and yet perfectly fitting for that fic. Plus, it was titled loooong before I came up with a way to include it in the actual writing of the fic, and I felt like an absolute genius when I managed to do that organically.

43. Is there a trope or idea that you’d really like to write but haven’t yet?

I have a world mostly built for a fantasy setting with dragon gods and stuff that I've planned out all the lore for and yet cannot for the life of me actually think up a plot that would be interesting to write SKJVBDJKVB I have characters, I have setting, I have themes, but a plot? Evading me. And it's been haunting me for like 7 years.

44. What is your favorite genre to write?

Urban fantasy 100%!! I love writing magic systems without having to do historical research SKJBDVKJDVB Also just the idea of magic in a place that we live in is so special to me like... there is magic everywhere in the world, but sometimes that magic really does come from a spell book like Yes Please.

45. What genre/trope do you tend to write the most?

Found family trope my beloved,,,,,,,, don't look too closely at it; it doesn't say anything about me as a person I Promise.

47. Is there a trope that you’ve written before but are now sick of?

Not a trope, but when I was younger and Working Through Some Shit, I included a, I guess, circumstance™ that I will not actually say (bc it's like. triggering) in just about every fic I wrote, but I'm past the point now (thank god) of needing to vent through it, so I truly don't think I'll ever include it in anything ever again.

50. How would you describe your writing style?

HHHHHHH I have no idea. I think I am incapable of looking at my writing objectively enough to describe it.

51. Does what you like to write differ from what you like to read?

Very much so! I love reading prose that is rich in metaphor and simile, but for the life of me I can't write like that. I don't have the gift of constantly being able to turn a phrase so beautifully, but god is it gorgeous to read.

55. Have you noticed any patterns in your fics?  Words/expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?

I don't even want to think about the words and phrases I overuse because I'm sure there's plenty JSKDBVKJDFVB I do have a recurring theme of like... healing, though. This deep inner struggle of the characters to get to a better place is just... so important to me. I want them to heal, but more than that I want them to want to heal.

57. How conscious are you about including symbolism or foreshadowing in your fics?

I'm certainly conscious of it, but less so on the first draft. I think foreshadowing has a way of sneaking into my writing naturally (especially because I write chronologically), and then I can really hammer it in during the edit. Symbolism is purely being brought in during the first edit unless it's something so important that it was underlined a lot during the drafting/planning stage.

66. What’s a fun fact about LMHS?

It started as me just randomly thinking about ATLA and sending a question to Hina about what she thought the main trio's bending elements would be, and it just tumbled out of control from there SKJDVBDJKVFB

71. Do you spend more time reading or writing?

Writing, which is... saying something because I really don't spend a lot of time writing on a day-to-day basis. But I haven't read a published book in.... 4 years? And I don't read fanfic very often either, despite my bookmarks tab being overflowing with fics that I would like to read at some point. I just feel like I never have the time or energy to sit down and read.

72. What’s your favorite writing compliment you’ve gotten?

I have gotten a similar comment from multiple people that is about my characterization of canon characters within AUs and how it still feels like the canon characters but with realistic changes based on a different setting, and in fic writing I can't think of higher praise. Like... that's exactly what I want. I don't want the characters to be exactly the same as canon because their circumstances have changed, but I still want them to be recognizable. That's always what I'm striving for, and it makes me happy that people notice and think it's executed well enough to comment on.

76. How do you deal with writing pressure, whether internal or external?

Poorly KDEJVBKJDEFVBJKDFVBJF Really though, I struggle managing pressure when I'm writing. And it's always internal, because external pressure on fics just makes me petty since it's Free Labor, and people who complain about a slow upload schedule or whatever just make me Mad. But internal pressure is HHHHHHHHHH I am Going Through It with LMHS. I want it to live up to expectations, but I also want to finish it quickly, but I also want it to be lush and complete, and there's always this voice in my head telling me I'm not writing fast enough or good enough. Mostly I work past it by reminding myself that the time will pass anyway and that it's a miracle that I can even write ~1k words a day with how tired my job makes me. And on the days when that doesn't work, I have loud music KSJDVBDKJVBJDKFV

78. What motivates you during the writing process?

Up to the point where I start posting (for my last long fic, I was >100k in before I uploaded the first chapter), the motivation comes from a simple desire to write that particular story. For me, it can't come from anywhere else. If I don't want to write on a fic anymore and I haven't uploaded yet, I'll just stop. However, once I start posting, comments and general interaction with the fic gives me a huge bump in motivation. Engagement and talking about the story and the characters and the plot just makes me so excited to keep going so that I can drop the next plot twist or cliffhanger and read everyone's reactions. This time, for LMHS, I am very very lucky to have my own personal cheer squad of one (Hina) motivating me daily through memes and character discussion and new pieces of art and other various things <3

79. Do you have any writing advice you want to share?

The best actual constructive writing advice that I can give is: Do Not Edit Something Until You're Done. And yes, I mean the entire story - do not go back and reread/rewrite until you're done with it. Nothing will make your forward momentum disappear faster than going back to edit. If you're too hung up on details and perfection right away, you're never going to get done. You have to just write and accept that things will need to be reworked. Make notes for yourself on things to fix later or whatever, just do not scroll back up and start editing before you're done with something. It will only make you disappointed that where you pick up again isn't going to look as nice as what you just edited.

[wetcatspellcaster]

Hi! Sorry to bother you again, I'm the one who asked you a while ago if it was okay to ask for some tips on writing dialogue. Thank you so much for your availability and time 🙇‍♀️ I'm mostly curious about how you structure your dialogues and how you manage to build chemistry between the characters through banter. Do you follow a particular set of rules or does it just come natural to you? You write so many ideas and cool dialogues, how do you manage to come up with so many? In general, if you have any tips for a fledgling "writer", they are super welcome. No pressure, of course, I really don't want to intrude/steal your time. P.s. I forgot last time to tell you that I also really loved your AU fic, Party Favours. I was hooked from the first lines and I had so much fun reading it. It was a really comforting and entertaining read, like drinking a hot chocolate in winter. Honestly, thank you so much for gifting us with such a warm and funny story. 🥰☕

Hey! Thank you for being so nice about my writing and the strengths you think I have - I didn't know I had them, so it was interesting to see my work from someone else's perspective.

And also don't worry, it's not a bother to answer this question. Although I'm not sure how helpful I'll be as I have no formal training and that might mean my explanations aren't useful!!

I'll try to answer as best I can :)

I don't really have rules for chemistry, I'll be honest, but my favourite dynamic (as is fucking obvious from many a fic I've written) is overconfident flirt/straight-laced practical killjoy. Luckily for me... there are a lot of these in media (Howl/Sophie, Tamaki/Haruhi, certain flavours of Buffy/Spike, Jude/Cardan from The Cruel Prince, Labyrinth fanfiction, whatever was going on with Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries)! So I guess, if I was to give advice on that... I'd say if you really like a certain dynamic, go and look for examples of how they work elsewhere. Work out what it is about the pairing that makes your brain itch, or examine how these characteristic interactions play out, if there's any kind of formula to them - for instance, in Party Favours, the bit where Astarion is actively and overconfidently faking while talking to Threnn while Rose gets more and more flustered, was based partly on a fake relationship episode of Buffy lol. Like I didn't copy it word for word or anything, but it was an idea I saw elsewhere that I knew would be good for the pairing. .

Coming up with ideas... again, idk how idiosyncratic my process is. I maladaptive daydream a lot, and I really like scripting arguments (see above about what dynamics in fiction work for me, lmfao). i just love to hallucinate bickering, apparently. If I have any lines of dialogue that occur to me in any situation, I tend to put them into my notes app on my phone, to revisit later. If I have a scene with a particular purpose, I might look through my dialogue on my phone and try to find a series of quotes that work. Other times the maladaptive daydream for a few days might be the scene, and I'll write down any notes on what I want to happen and let it percolate for a few days before I actually write it. Sometimes pieces of dialogue will come to me before the scene does - Astarion's speech in chapter 7 of pieces happened before any of the rest of the fic, and then I was like "fuck. well. now i've got to get myself there." Mostly, this seems to just be a result of having these people live in my head rent free, but I'm also pretty autistic and so I script conversations a lot in social interactions anyway. .

Dialogue. I think dialogue comes naturally to me (see above comment about autism) and as such, I don't really follow any strict rules, I'm afraid... but these are some things I do formally try to do-

If a person is talking at someone (again, see how much I fucking love writing people bickering), you need to make sure it's not just a wall of text. Adding in paragraph breaks, even if it's a monologue, is kind of essential (speaking as someone who did not do this in the beginning, and it shows, particularly when you're reading my earlier fic on mobile rather than desktop). Often I will break it up with a one sentence interjection, a false start from the other person trying to get a word in edgeways, or a stage direction. I had a problem with one pairing I wrote for where one of the characters just would never speak... I needed to engineer lines for him to say even if it was completely superfluous. Sometimes, now I look at my writing, I feel like these are obviously fake and unnecessary... but they help break up the text and give the reader pauses. So they must be helpful, even if they're kind of just... there. it makes the dialogue a dialogue, with two people involved and reacting to each other. -

Similarly, speeding stuff up can be useful when creating banter, to keep pace and avoid people monologuing at each other. The key ways I tend to speed stuff up is usually a) characters finishing each other's sentences (derogatory or affectionate), b) interrupting each other (you'll notice my repeated 'Astarion-' is often used to get Astarion to just talk quicker and at more length and in more detail until Rose loses her goddamn mind), c) quicker back and forth where you don't need dialogue tags or stage directions bc characteristic voices will make it clear who is speaking. -

I read everything aloud as I post. This is how I proofread. Reading aloud helps me find spelling errors/sentence errors, but it also means that I have to speak all my dialogue aloud to my own wall like a crazy person. If I'm speaking it aloud in a different way, like the phrasing changes subconsciously to what's more natural in my mouth, I will often edit the dialogue to reflect that. I speak it, to see how it is spoken. -

Second to the above point, if you have a character who's voice you struggle with, listen/watch clips of their voice. I do not think I can write Lae'zel (or Gale tbh, and I'm now writing a whole fic from his pov so I clearly hate myself). I watch back clips of them all the time, and then I go to my dialogue, and see if I can hear it in their voice. If I can, I keep it. -

...Be brave enough to tell jokes. I genuinely can't tell you how much I don't think I'm funny. Every joke I write in my fic, I have no idea if anyone else will enjoy it, or if it only makes me laugh. But I put it in there, for me. I'm lucky, bc now some people tell me they found a joke amusing, and I'll know it landed with someone else other than me. But you tell jokes with your friends, presumably, and you're playful with them. So allow your characters to joke with each other, even if you're scared that no one else will 'get it'. If no one else finds it funny, at least the characters are having fun! -

Anyway, those are my main 'tips', I don't know if any of them are helpful!!

My other one main piece of advice is... read. Seriously. Even if the media you want to write for isn't a literary novel, read other people's writing, and I do mean both fic and published books, because published books (if they're good) have an editor. I read a lot of books/webtoons/manga before I ever wrote a fic... like for 12 years or something. I was a big reader, and reading good writing is useful - it's inspiring, it's also just technically helpful. These writing tips might be useless, because lot of what I've done in my own writing I've learned through osmosis - just by reading a fuck tonne of books, good and bad. I'm not saying you have to read 60 books a year or w/e, but read like, a few good books!

(also, just write a bunch. I am only becoming a 'read' fic author on my 11th project??? basically??? so I've had a lot of practice at this point, and grown in confidence. The more things you finish, the more ambitious you get. I couldn't have conceived of Pieces when I was writing my first fanfic, bc I thought plot was my main weakness... now I'm writing an almost entirely original premise and that's bc I've learned a lot since I started writing!)

[raksh-writes]

In diamonds and leather

Fandom: Kinnporsche the series (2022)

Pairing: VegasPete

Warnings/Tags: Sugar Baby/Sugar Daddy AU, older!Vegas, younger!Pete, businessman!Vegas, college student!Pete, Dom/sub

Been feeling a great need for a Sugar Baby/Sugar Daddy AU for VegasPete but since there doesn’t seem to be any and I’ve had this rattling around my brain for months, here’s a lil’ preview snippet. Might make it into an actual fic one day, who knows. For now, hope y’all will enjoy  this small thing 💗

.

At thirty years old, Vegas is pretty sure most would say he has it all.

Lucrative business in luxury markets earning him more than he could ever spend? Certainly. A sprawling penthouse at the top floor with the overview of the city some would kill for? Hm, yes, the view is nice, that he can admit. A wardrobe full of silk shirts, suits tailored to perfection, italian leather shoes and watches glinting gold in the light? He should probably get rid of half of them, to be honest. Expensive cars and sleek bikes he’s imported himself? Probably one too many than he should be keeping, but the speed and freedom they give him are one of the only joys Vegas still has left in life because:

What’s even the point?

His father is long dead and buried, no longer a whip of disgust and derision over Vegas’ back and bruised face, no longer sneering over every aspect of his life and chasing him from one deal to another until he barely had any time or will to live for himself. So long he’s lived under his father’s orders, so long he’s lived only to take care of his little brother, but now Gun is dead and Macau’s safe and happy in university, living on his own and surrounded by friends, and Vegas? With his thriving businesses, his expensive clothes, fast bikes and more money than he knows what to do with? Well...

At the end of the day, as he sits down in his favorite armchair after hours full of taking care of his various businesses, as he looks over the city, Vegas can’t help the questions creeping over his mind, relentless and bleak. What now? What’s the point? You have it all and you’re not doing anything with it. You should be ashamed of yourself. No drive, no ambition, not knowing what to do with yourself. How can you even look at yourself in the mirror? Pathetic. More often than not a note of his father’s sneer sneaking through the disembodied voice of his thoughts. And it’s the pitiful truth, unfortunately. 

Somewhere along the time of his newfound freedom, Vegas found a carved out void behind his ribs, echoing and endless in its numbness. No amount of too-fast bike rides, of throwing away money at random charities, of high-end balls and lucrative deals could ever even attempt to fill it, not even sex he used to find reprieve in proved successful.

Long gone are days when he went out to pick up random twinks at clubs with music loud enough to drown out his thoughts — they’re too loud now, setting his teeth on edge, the young things too eager and shallow, the sex barely a spark hot enough to do it for him. Even the times he decides to take a sub at one of the few BDSM places he sometimes visits leaves him feeling more hollow than fulfilled in the mornings. It barely scratches the itch that manages to rear its head from time to time — the need to see a pretty boy ruined under his palms. It’s nice, the moment it happens, but then the void howls behind his sternum and his jaw aches from the force he clenches it with, a traitorous whisper of what’s the point? bouncing inside his skull. Vegas doesn’t have the answer and the rope he’s threading is quickly coming to an abrupt end.

Then it comes, from the most unexpected place Vegas couldn’t have ever predicted.

An app. A simple message.

A struggling college student with big dreams and sunshine smile.

Soft-cheeked, with barely any experience and melting under Vegas’ hands like he’s been made for it, made for Vegas. For him and him only. And Vegas shouldn’t, he really shouldn’t.

It’s not about money, he could shower the pretty boy with far more than he’d ever need and still not make a dent in his account. It’s not about chemistry too, because to be frank, it actually sparks way too high and bright between them. And it’s not for the lack of time either  — at this point in his life, Vegas has more of it than he has responsibilities on most days. The thing is—

Vegas is not suited to take on a fresh sub. To train someone completely new to kink in the way he prefers his partners. He has no experience with that, always took on twinks either versed in the lifestyle or he’d disregard his more sadistic preferences for a night of simpler, rough sex. It’s been good enough, he tells himself, it was, but—

Pete looks up at him with his huge, teary eyes, mouth parted and bottom lip glistening under Vegas’ thumb and the long-slumbering beast in his chest awakens, uncurling in the void with teeth bared and bloodlust on its tongue. Vegas wants, and he wants so deeply and viciously it almost scares him well enough to refuse this pretty siren of a boy. Almost.

He looks at Pete on his knees and his brain stutters with countless images.

With Pete’s cupid-bow lips stretched over his cock. With Pete shackled to his bed and writhing in the binds while Vegas takes him again and again and again. Not letting him come or wringing out orgasm after orgasm until he's a crying, wrecked mess unable to even speak. With Pete in pretty lingerie and a rosy blush spread over the apple of his cheeks. With Pete’s brilliant smile peeking out from around a glass of champagne, a speck of chocolate on his lips. With Pete on the back of his bike or spread over the leather upholstery in one of his sports cars. With Pete spent and boneless and sated in his arms, warm and smiling and whispering his name like a prayer.

Vegas wants and, for the first time in years, his mind doesn’t poison his mind with the bleak whispers of what’s the point? Because this—

This might just be the whole entire point. Pete, happy and satisfied, in Vegas’ arms. Smiling like he means it.

[domini-porter]

“today’s words brought to you, as always, by the notes app”

As always?? AS ALWAYS?? I don’t know why I can’t get over this. This is the second time I’ve seen you mention the Notes app and I continue to be mystified. Like I write on my phone sometimes, but only by necessity and always in Google docs. But the Notes app?? Does it have secret functionality I’m not aware of? Can you make comments or notations? Can you backtrack several sentences with an undo command? Is there an intermediary stage where you edit on a computer or does it go straight from the notes app to “Add Chapter”? This must be what Salieri felt like (minus the murderous part).

Anyway.

Uh.

Keep up the good work. In the Notes app. Where you do all your writing.

NOTES APP GANG

I’ve written almost exclusively in the Notes app since there was a Notes app to write in! Something about having to sit at a computer changes writing from Fun to Work. I think it’s my academic history plus the misery of the random desk jobs I’ve had? But with good ol’ Notey I can sit on my back porch drinking iced americanos for hours while I daydream about my OTP. Bliss!

And nope, no extra functionality (if anything, I wish it had both a little more and a little less, like, I’d love to be able to add words to the dictionary, and why is there a table function in a text app? and why does my thumb hit it all the time?). I’m a pretty undisciplined writer in that I just brain-dump a chapter in one go, usually without outlining or anything; one of my favorite things about writing big stories is typing an unexpected sentence that means there’s suddenly a B-plot or twist I wasn’t anticipating. It’s not necessarily wise, or good writing practice, but it’s sure exhilarating! (I do think constantly about the story, though, and do a lot of mental composition, so often it’s more like transcription than creation when I sit down to write.)

The only sort of outline or broad story note I keep is a list of all the character names, since there are so many, and I either need to avoid repetition or remember what minor characters might continually reappear (all the rich families, for example).

In general I have maybe a line of dialogue or a mental image I build stuff around, and a loose idea of how I want the plot to move forward. I usually don’t know specifics until I’m reading the thing I just wrote, which lets me know what happens next. Very wild magic-esque, which is again fun to do, but also pretty risky, because what if I decide something in Chaper 4 that I have to remember in Chapter 18? Or someone says something in Chapter 9 that recontextualizes something from Chapter 5? What about the overall pacing? I don’t even have a sense of how long they’ll be (other than “long”). Fortunately, I re-read things to a neurotic degree, and have the great good luck of living with a person who loves to talk endlessly about the process with me, which keeps it all fresh.

Which is also where the Notes app comes back in! There’s a strong appeal about it being so immediate—the words are constrained on a smaller screen, and I type them one-thumbèdly, which is way slower than with all the fingers, so it’s easier for me to stay locked into one scene or beat. And all the previous stuff is just a back-tap away, when I need to reference it! I also read fic exclusively on my phone, so seeing it the same format while I’m writing forces my brain into that context more easily.

I do use a computer to post new stuff! I’ll copy the chapter into Word (I am an Old), but just to see the word count, and to save it in a master document. I do chapter posting on a computer too, because of the stupid paragraph-break formatting in the AO3 text editor. I mostly edit as I write, though when the whole story is done I’ve taken to going back and editing it like one would a traditional manuscript (indents instead of line breaks, being mean to myself about my love of adverbs, etc)(this also means I have the stories in novel form, if anyone wants to have a copy).

Basically, I’m a lawless brain-dumper who does no due diligence! I have a lot of admiration for writers who have discipline; I constitutionally do not. For example, I love reading about your process! It’s so different from mine, but it gets results, and it’s fascinating to see how other writers approach their work!

[mumms-the-word]

#17 for the writer's asks. Like you have a schedule for Nautera, and I can't fathom writing fast enough to strick to a schedule 😭, or being certain I wouldn't want to change some parts until the fic is almost done. So I'm interested to hear what your process is!

Oh man this question is so complicated for me haha here we go. Looong answer ahead so I've put most of it under the cut!

17. talk about your writing and editing process

okay so let me start off by saying...I don't have a consistent process haha

I do up to a point. So most of the time for fic, when I get an idea, I'll mull it around in my head a bit, and I might jot down a few lines or notes I don't want to forget in the Notes app (either on my phone or on my laptop), and then I'll set it aside for when I have time to write it. Then I write it, read over it the next day for edits, put it in tumblr for another round of edits, and post it when I feel like I'm happy with it.

But in reality? Oof. It really just depends. (also TLDR, writing is a process, and I love my fanfic community <3)

Sometimes the inspiration to write a whole oneshot or scene takes me and I'll write out a first draft right there in the Notes app (I tend to sacrifice work when I do this, which is bad and often why I end up with so much unfinished work with deadlines staring me dead in the face at the last minute. So I do not recommend this, but hyperfixation will hyperfixate...) I believe I wrote the entire first drafts for Choosing to Live and Ascension, Return in one day each.

Other times, I'll come back to it and play around with it for a bit. Sometimes the writing is easy! Chapter 4 for In Fathoms Below was super fun for me to write (especially the last half) because I had battle music playing and I was just so excited to get to the dragon turtle reveal. Chapter 5, which will be a much more intense action/adventure scene, was significantly harder and took much longer. I think I spent several days, probably a week fighting with that chapter, because I wanted it to be good, fast-paced, and tense...but also make sense. I'll probably still mess with it before it posts on Friday.

Sometimes, I can write a whole scene/chapter in a day. Other times it takes me several days. It really just depends. Sometimes music helps. Sometimes I just can't make one single paragraph work and it frustrates me for days (*coughcoughCHAPTER 5cough*). Sometimes I write myself into a corner and I don't know how to fix what I did, but I'm too stubborn to delete anything just yet or start over. Not every chapter/scene/oneshot is the same!

Once I have a full draft of the chapter/oneshot, however, then I start to edit it. This also changes up depending on the project. For a oneshot, I might read through it twice on my Notes app, adjusting things as I go. I try not to write a full oneshot and post it on the same day so I can sleep on it and come back to it with a fresh brain (mini fics like the Nightfall and alone, finally fics don't count, I'll post those after two read-throughs on the same day because they are asks).

Once I'm half-satisfied with it in Notes, then I'll stick it into tumblr on my laptop and use the Grammarly widget to help catch grammar mistakes. Reading it in a different font/arrangement/format also helps with finding mistakes or catching awkward sentences. Once I'm happy with it on tumblr, I'll queue it up to post, and then copy/paste everything into AO3 and post it there once it goes live on tumblr.

For a chapter of my longfics, however, I might read it several times. I'll go back and read the previous chapter and then the current one to make sure I've kept things consistent and that everything flows or transitions from one chapter to the next, for example. I'll read it once a day for a couple of days (maybe skipping a day if I'm frustrated with it) and see what each new day brings in terms of edits, fixes, and ideas. With the Masquerade longfic, because it's kind of just for me and a friend (though I'm excited that others are enjoying it too!), I'll post the chapter as soon as I'm relatively satisfied with it, maybe only spending 2-3 days on edits (not counting time spent writing a full draft).

For the Nautera/Atlantis fic, however, because I know there's a bit more hype from 2-3 more readers (and people have been SO lovely in their comments on AO3 as well!! <3), I put a smidge more effort into it. For one, I set up a schedule and wrote several chapters in advance, because last week and this week is PACKED with deadlines and work I ignored while doing other things (ahem, like writing the Atlantis fic). I wrote 4 chapters pretty much in the span of a week and then held off posting any of them until I had a good queue lined up. Then I queued them up over two weeks.

The benefit to this is that it gives me breathing room to write at my own pace while still ensuring I have content for my readers...which is different than the Masquerade fic, which I kind of write "as the inspiration strikes" and so I don't update it nearly as consistently (sorry friends). Trust me, if I posted chapters as soon as I had them ready, I would've posted 4 chapters back to back on the same day or on 4 days, and then we'd be waiting 2-3 weeks (or months) for the next chapter. I'd get bogged down by shame, I'd contemplate quietly quitting the project, it would be a whole thing. The queue helps me and my readers. I really need to implement it for the masquerade fic too.

(I still have a queue going, actually. I currently have Nautera's chapter 5 queued up to post on Friday and chapter 6 in a "midway" draft stage, and the start of chapter 7 in Notes. I don't normally write that far ahead! But the idea has me in a chokehold...and I'd rather write it than work, unfortunately.)

HOWEVER. The benefit and downside to having the chapters queued up and being excited for them is that I can still mess with them. So for the Nautera/Atlantis chapters, they might sit in my queue for a week, and every day I might go back in and make tiny adjustments. So for some things, I might only do a day of edits, maybe 2 days. For something like the Nautera/Atlantis fic, though? I have a bad habit of messing with each chapter several times lol sometimes this is fine and sometimes I feel like I'm messing with them too much, you know?

All that said, for some reason, fics don't trigger my perfectionism, even knowing I have actual readers reading and responding to them. You'd think they would, but they don't. Unlike my original book projects, which trigger my perfectionism so bad I haven't finished several of them because I want to keep messing with them, fics are consumed so quickly I feel less pressure about sharing them. I think there's a kind of freedom in knowing that once it's posted, it's out there, for better or for worse. You can fix minor edits, but you don't necessarily have to sweat the small stuff because it's just fanfic, it's posted for free, and if people don't want to read it, it's not personal. It's been really fun, actually, and I love the little community I've built making BG3 fics for people (and for myself).

I think, also, it's been healthy for me to hone my writing craft/skills away from fandom spaces first. I didn't get an AO3 until this year and I'm in my late 20s. I think if I had tried to write fanfic when I was a teen or even in my early 20s, I'd be too obsessed with the numbers. At this point in my life, I'm just happy to get a couple of comments, and happier still that my writing brings 4-5 people joy <3

It also helps to remember the wise words of one of my graduate instructors when it comes to certain projects: Done is better than good. This is a life-saver for essays and school projects, of course, but for fic, I know we want our content to be good. So I'll adjust it for fic here:

Done is better than perfect.

[thebookshoparoundthecorner]

hii !! i just finished reading My Funny Valentine & i loved it SO MUCH !!🥹

for the ask game: 2, 8, & 17 🫶

oh my goodness, thank you SO much!!! That means a lot!!! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!!! I’m so sorry for responding to this ask a million years late, life has been hectic!

2. Do you plan each chapter ahead or write as you go? For me, this depends on the type of fic I’m writing! For my 5+1 fics, I’ll often plan each chapter out before and write them out of order based on what my ADHD brain is finding the most interesting at the moment, and then go back and tweak them once they’re all written in order to create a nice flow. That is, of course, if I have the whole fic written and completed ahead of time. Weekly release chapters are still planned chapter to chapter, though! With other types of fics (like The Rest Of Their Lives) I tend to outline the whole thing and then write it in chronological order and see where it takes me, and oftentimes I’ll divide chapters where they feel natural after it’s complete. Sometimes I’ll have a clear idea of where I want a chapter to end ahead of time, though!

8. Do you prefer the beginning, middle, or end of a story? As someone who can be very indecisive, it’s hard to choose, because I think they all have their merits 😂 Finding a nice place to start a story out can be really exciting and gives you the opportunity to draw a reader in, but the middle is where most of the meat of the story happens which is always exciting. I will say, it is oftentimes fun to write the ending though because (at least if you’re like me) you finally get to give the characters the payoff they deserve. I’m not one for depressing endings because the world is depressing enough as it is, so it’s always fun for me to get to see/write characters end up happy in the end, even if you have to put them through hell to get there. That’s the rule I have established for myself both in fic writing and in my original work, and I always find it satisfying (although I have such admiration for those who can write such beautiful, gut-wrenching endings, and have wept many a time).

17. What do you do when writing becomes difficult? (Maybe a lack of inspiration or writer’s block)

This is such a relevant question for me so thank you for reading my mind, because I deal with writer’s block (as I’m sure many do) constantly. It can be brought on by many things (stress, anxiety, feeling overworked, burnout, or just general lack of inspiration), and I’ve definitely found myself suffering from it in light of recent news. The best way to work through it is to be patient with yourself. Start small and work your way back up. Oftentimes when I get little ideas I’ll jot them down in the notes app on my phone, and those slowly build to bigger ideas and more creative inspiration. If you feel like what you’re working on is becoming a chore, work on something fun for only you to read and remember who you are writing for, truly, at heart. As far as creative inspiration goes, I always get inspired when I read. I love getting to know the worlds that people build, and it makes me eager to get back to the one I’m writing as well. Certain movies that remind me of the genre I’m working in also help get the inspiration going. When in doubt, I also scroll through Pinterest (but of course, as always, be aware of potential stolen work/art on there). Those all help me immensely! Thank you for the ask!!!

[leejihoonownsmyheart]

Lavender Haze

Summary:

Is there anything better than a meet-cute in a coffee shop? (Yes, the coffee shop is Starbucks).

Coming to you live thanks to: “just write a fic abt it to cope” –JJ of @rubyreduji If the story I told in that post was a blank page in a coloring book I colored it in and added detail.

-

You took a brief sigh of relief as you walked into the doors of the Starbucks you had stumbled upon with your friends. All day you had all been walking and touristing and despite having been in a coffee shop already today the green circular sign had come to a relief to you when you had spotted it at four in the afternoon from across a picturesque cobblestone street.

Sometimes it was nice to be able to step into a coffee shop that you knew like the back of your hand. The kind of coffee shop where your order could be as complicated as you wanted it to be, and you knew that the employees would still be nice to you. At local coffee shops employees weren’t always as nice as the baristas that wore green aprons.

Besides, as great as a unique drink at a local shop could be (after all where else could you get a maple cortado- What a cortado even was you still didn’t know) you were a sucker for a shop with a good member rewards system.

“I can serve you right here.”

You looked up from the barcode on your phone and the focused expression that had surely been your face as you loaded more money on your app was replaced by an even worse expression: Mouth gaped, eyebrows raised, eyes wide. Dumb- you looked dumb.

The person standing before you was possibly one of the most attractive men you had ever seen before in your life.

He had dark hair, wide dark eyes, lips curled up in half a smile- one that was inviting but clearly just an expression he gave customers. You couldn’t help the way your eyes trailed down his body, noting the way that his shirt was somehow managing to wear him despite the way that his muscles were so large you thought that the shirt should be tight on him.

But that was just it wasn’t it? The big shirt, the loose way his apron was tied around his waist, his messy hair and those big eyes.  

“Uh, whenever you’re ready, that is,” the man said. You cleared your throat, your eyes flickering back down to your phone screen as warmth flooded your cheeks. You screamed at yourself to stay focused. You couldn’t leave the coffee shop just because the barista was so-

You looked up again, catching one of his coworkers walking behind him. You sucked in a sharp breath.

His height.

How was anyone this cute?

You forced yourself to walk up to the counter, pressing a smile on your lips as you looked at him. In the back of your mind you heard the sound of soft music drifting through the lobby, lyrics that itched the back of your brain: I feel the lavender haze creep up on me. Surreal.

You willed yourself to stay focused, reminding yourself that you hardly looked like the kind of person that would get shy because of a cute barista at Starbucks. You needed to get a hold of yourself.

“Hi, sorry in advance, my order is kind of complicated.”

The barista just smiled at you innocently, his held tilting to the side ever-so-slightly.

“Good thing I’m good at listening,” he replied back.

You reminded yourself that normal people breathed in a pattern that wasn’t exactly erratic.

“Okay, don’t judge me. Can I have a tall pink drink with sweet cream and one scoop of matcha powder.”

The barista's eyebrows furrowed slightly, and his eyes flickered down to his computer screen. His mouth opened slightly and then it closed. He glanced back up at you.

“Sorry- You said raspberry syrup?” He asked. Your smile flickered with concentration as you scrambled through your brain to figure out what you had said that sounded like raspberry syrup. You could see staring at the little screen on the register that he had gotten the drink itself right but neither sweet cream or matcha sounded like raspberry to you so instead of trying to guess which part he had gotten confused over a polite: “No.” Just tumbled out of your mouth before you could stop it.

The barista didn’t look bothered at all.

“Do you mind repeating it? I’m sorry, it’s been a long day.”

You shook your hands in front of yourself.

“No, it’s such a complicated order for no reason. Here-” You repeated it, this time slower, and the whole time the barista nodded along.

“Oh, got it, it’s not that complicated.”

You laughed at his blatant lie, but you were grateful that he was trying to make you feel better for being the absolute worst kind of person. If you could you would just order the drink on the app but it wouldn’t let you add the scoop of matcha powder to it and despite everyone’s insistence that it was awful you thought it really made the drink.

The barista told you your total and you raised your phone to the scanner. You had all of your focus zeroed in on getting your app to scan that you didn’t even realize that the barista was looking at you until the computer beeped.

Somehow you managed to keep your composure.

“Good?” You asked.

“Good,” the barista agreed with a smile. “If you just stand over there, we’ll have your drink right out to you.”

You nodded, and turned to walk away, a thank you about to leave your mouth when he caught your attention again.

“Your outfit, by the way-” He took a breath like he couldn’t figure out why he was saying this to you. You couldn’t help but notice that suddenly his cheeks were pink. “You just look amazing.”

By the time he finished the sentence his eyes weren’t on you anymore. They stayed trained on the ground for a few beats before finally flickering back up to you. Oh my god, he was shy. Talking to you, the cutest barista on the planet was shy. You smiled.

“Thank you,” you said softly, your smile meeting your eyes. “I really appreciate it.”

The barista cleared his throat and turned away from you and you took that as your chance to walk to the pick-up area. You couldn’t help but note that somehow the people around you in the little shop didn’t seem to hear just how loudly your heart was beating.

You forced yourself to stay calm, stop thinking about just how cute the barista was but you felt so awkward just staring at your phone. You looked up and trailed your eyes around the shop. It looked like any Starbucks you had ever seen.

Small, with comfy lounge chairs and a fake fireplace against the back wall. You smiled as you trailed over the Starbucks cups but just as you saw one you wanted you ripped your eyes away from it. You did not need another Starbucks cup.

You glanced away from the display, your eyes falling on a poster board with a bunch of polaroid's on it. Your eyebrows furrowed as you read the sharpie written on the top: Meet your baristas.

Your eyes widened and you looked through the pictures and polaroids until- Jihoon, Sagittarius.

Your lips spread into a smile. He even looked cute in that stupid polaroid picture.

You were ripped from your thoughts by the sound of your name being called. To your disappointment it wasn’t the adorable barista you had come to recognize as Jihoon. In fact, the shorter barista was preoccupied with getting a black coffee for the person behind you in line. You smiled at the barista who had set your drink on the counter.

“Thank you,” you said. You quickly took the drink, nodded a farewell to the barista and glanced at Jihoon one more time before leaving the coffee shop. It took your eyes a second to readjust to the bright fall sunlight, but when it did you quickly spotted your friends across the small cobblestone street. As you approached you waited for the obvious barrage of questions:

“Ew, what did you get?” Your best friend blurted, making all of your friends look at your drink.

“Is it green?” Someone asked.

“Is that cold foam on top?” Another person asked.

“What’s that on the side?”

The last question was the one that startled you. What was on the side? You had expected the color questions, and the content questions but what was on the side...?

“Probably just the-”

You stopped when you realized that what was on the side wasn’t your name, or the small little white receipt that sometimes came on the side, it was sharpie, and it was-

You gasped and covered the sharpie with your hand, but it was too late.

“Is that a phone number?”

Next came the obvious onslaught of questions. How and why did the barista write their phone number on the side of your cup? but you were too giddy to really care.

It seemed like you were going to see Jihoon again sometime soon, and you couldn’t wait for that day.

[thestrangeillusion]

S (or just one of them), X? :D

S. link your favourite author.

Oh god, this is such a difficult question! For the sake of not going down a complete rabbit hole, I’m gonna limit myself to only Kinnporsche fanfics for this question. And because I cannot possibly just choose one author for this, I’m gonna link the three fic authors in this fandom that I feel have probably altered my brain chemistry the most with their fics:

@the-cookie-of-doom: I am currently very, very obsessed with their fic “Pas de Deux” because bratty Kim and exasperated but-still-so-kind Chay have me in a chokehold. And then their trans Kim and glory hole fic live rent free in my mind and are really inspire some of my own head canons of Kim cause the characterisations are just sooo on point! Which reminds me that I really need to re-read those as soon as I find the time.

@bisexualbard-writes: Her “benefits to open and honest communication” series were some of the earliest fics I read in this fandom and it definitely contributed very strongly to how obsessed I ended up becoming with KimChay as a ship and with KimChay fanfic. I adored camboy Chay, but even more than that I adored Kim sitting across from Chay week after week in that coffee shop, Kim reading therapy books and Chay installing a mod that makes all of Kim’s online game chicken look angry and Kim being frustrated as hell by that. Simply amazing! And then all the incredibly angsty and incredibly hot sex was just so delicious to read. Another thing I loved was reading the same story from both Chay’s and Kim’s POV and all the ways they sometimes completely misunderstood each other and misinterpreted each other’s actions. Oh yeah, and then she completely blew my mind once again with one of her newest fic in which Chay holds a very willing Kim hostage in the hottest and most hilarious way possible. (Also, she let me in on the secret of how to super easily convert my fics into html format ready for posting to AO3, which I will forever be grateful for.)

@kimkhimhant: Their fics were also some of the first I ever read in this fandom (I went back to check and their “to love and be loved” series was actually my first ever bookmark in this fandom) and have also permanently formed and inspired my head canons for Kim and Chay and KimChay together. And I’m always reading their fics with my heart in my throat because of all the angst and hurt that they describe so viscerally, but at the same time I’ve always thought that their fics are really cathartic and feel healing as well. And at the moment I’m reading “this tender violence” which is so hard to read sometimes (and it must be so, so hard to write!) because of all the horrible things Kim is going through in it, but is just written so beautifully and with so much empathy that it definitely has a top spot in my list of favourite ongoing fics (and favourite fics in general).

X. give a summary of your current project!

While I have a ton of half-thought-out fic ideas sitting in my notes app that may or may not ever get written, the only project I’m currently actively working on is my WIP “i’m glad I didn’t die before I met you”. Basically, it’s a found family AU where Kim meets Porsche before Kinn ever does and triggers all of Porsche’s big brother instincts by being way too young to find himself in the mess he’s in (i.e. Korn trying to have him killed). I’ve been having a lot of fun exploring the KimPorsche friendship and messily blurring the lines between a big brother-little brother relationship and some underlying sexual (but NOT romantic) tension between them.  And then, because I’m a KimChay girl when it comes down to it, Chay is somehow finding himself in the middle of this, falling head over heels for Kim, all the while being sooo sure that Kim and Porsche have been fucking from day one (spoiler, they have not been) and might even be in love. Yeah, somehow I’ve found myself writing the misunderstandings trope, even though that’s not even a trope I usually particularly like, but I hope I’m doing it somewhat well… Anyway, this is not so much a summary as it is me rambling on about my WIP, but there you go.

Thank you so much for the ask! I obviously went way overboard answering this, as I always do 🙈 but it has been a lot of fun to answer 😊

[reyesstrand]

Happy belated nice ask day because I went to bed! Oh your writing is just so gorgeous and I want you to teach me!!! How do you come up with such beautiful imagery? What happens in your head when you write? Does writing flow or do you very carefully work out every sentence and edit as you go? Also you're 23??!!! Do you know how bad I was at writing when I was 23?!! How are you doing this? Magic?

stop cig you’re too nice you’re going to make me cry!!

if it’s a good writing day, then everything kind of quiets around me and i just visualize everything i want to happen. sometimes it plays out like an actual scene in my head, sometimes i just imagine a setting that vibes with the emotions i’m trying to capture. then i just try to play around with the language i want to use to express the emotion. sometimes that means it just flows and sometimes that means i have to stop and edit and fiddle with things until i like it.

it also means that a lot of the time, i’ll write fragments into my notes app or google docs app as i think them up. sometimes i know what fic they’ll be used for, and sometimes i just hold onto a line and wait until the moment feels right to use it. i have way too many random lines and scenes in the notes app ajdnskdn

i basically grew up with my head buried in a book so i truly think reading a ton has helped with things like imagery and motifs and evolving my own style. and just continuing on with reading and playing with my writing to see if i like that experiment or maybe don’t. i look back at fics i wrote in 2020 for lone star and find so many things i’d do differently, which i guess means i’ve grown? who knows! i also think writing fic for the same handful of characters over the past couple years has really allowed me to live in their brains, so i feel a sense of comfort with them that allows me to find an easier flow with writing them <3

[youngster-monster]

I KNOW THAT THE DISCORD WIPS ARE A TRAVESTY BUT PRIOR TO THAT THE LAST TIME I OPENED A GOOGLE DOC WAS IN LIKE 2018 TO MAKE AN OC SHEET THAT AMOUNTED TO 100 WORDS AT THE VERY MOST!!!! I DID NOT REALIZE GOOGLE DOCS WAS EVEN AN OPTION I JUST USED IT FOR MY BAD CHARACTER SHEETS

also i cant in good conscience act like the discord wips were ancient history... it is with Shame that i kneel before your askbox and admit that it was in 2020 until like late 2021... after that i realized i could use google docs and now i swear on my life that my fics are organized i SWEAR

ive been hibernating since february (last fic completed let alone worked on Properly) so i am more skeletal than rotted at this point but surely . surely it will come back to me and i will go crazy again

LITERALLY IT IS SO DIFFICULT INTRODUCING CHARACTERS i tried to write oc content recently and it went so bad that i couldnt even stomach the idea of it anymore it is so DIFFICULT but fanfic? fanfic is so much Simpler in my brain. in terms of work i mean because at the point that im writing fanfic about something ive already gone so deep into the lore that i could name 8 niche quest npcs and their full backstory + all of my headcanons in the form of 300 very lengthy discord messages

oh my god. sorry but midway through this ask i just remembered that i still have something of a discord wip channel in use right now, but its not for full works and it IS for snippets. sometimes i have these little ideas in my head but theyre not good enough for a full fic so i just jot em down in a discord channel for (hopefully) later use.... the discord wips will never die

real talk? what you said about any finished work being an accomplishment makes me feel alot better about how irregular my fics are because i end up feeling guilty about how by the time my writers block is over, the fandoms are completely different .. and to be honest when you stop thinking about it it IS kind of funny because theres a. wow fanfiction and b. anime fanfiction. i wonder sometimes if people go to my page and have an aneurysm looking at the fandom list

WII RP???????? WII RP???????????? i wasnt allowed to do really anything with our wii because i was really REALLY young so perhaps this is only insane to me because i never did anything except use the wii to watch pucca in 240p but ON THE WII??????????????????

im going to be wojack pointing at the m3:r wip until the end of time and you can count on that, these two dead elves (and particularly how you write them!!!) have carved themselves into my brain and they refuse to pay rent

2021..... damn bitch you live like this!!

7 months of hibernation... you're getting preserved in a bog it's Fine. I spent a whole year writing Nothing, just rotting mostly, and now look at me ( < not normal) (writing though!)

Fanfics are so easy... and you get other people to bounce stuff off of too like if I crave content I can go yell to my friends about it. For OCs you need Context.... Lore..... who has the time!!! I mean I do I am a known oc enjoyer but still. What work

I do also have the snippet channel. And the snippet notes app. And the snippet google docs. And the snippet paper scraps. And– yeah okay I've escaped the indignity of discord wips but not that of Disorganized WIPs

I'm glad it helped! There's no such thing as 'moving on' for a fandom!!! I know anime fandoms tend to be fast moving but if you let your wip age some more you too can become 'the only person still writing this ship', and profit 😈

Listen. My parents could ground me from using my PC. They could take my DS. But by god they couldn't take away ALL the screens and if I had to point and click my way through writing a post about my sparklewolf daughter of hades then I WOULD. And did!! My wrist will never forgive me

[burningthetree]

Heeeeeeey sunshine! You don't happen to remember that fanfic ask do you? I have numbers for you if you can find it and wanna give it a go! maybe 2, 3, 5, 17, 28 (I always need recs!), 29, 38? All or some or one? <3

Hi love!! Tbf I had to go down your tumblr to find it LOL but I got it now!!

2. A trope I haven't tried yet but want to

I'd really like to try out unrequited love, or the soulmate thing. Two completely different things haha but it's something I've pondered over many a times!

3. A trope I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole

The pregnancy or marriage trope. Just ew.

5. One of my strengths

You're nasty, why would you do the same as I did for you. I think a strength I have is character dynamics? I'd like to think that I manage to write somewhat different dynamics for different characters.

17. Do I write a story from start to finish, or do I write scenes out of order?

I usually write them from start to finish, but sometimes when there's a scene I'm particularly looking forward to I'll draft it in my notes app to get it out of my system just a little bit. But otherwise it's always chronological!

28. Three of my favourite fic writers and why do I like them?

Oof. Uhm. Okay. First of all, evelynwrites. Her stories are beautifully written, the dynamics are impeccable, and it's just perfect overall. I also love love love what DeathBelle writes. Also sifuhotman is amazing and has a LOT of Haikyuu too. And You're gonna hate me because this isn't a rec for you lol but you truly are one of my favourites <3

29. If I could write the sequel/prequel to any fic out there not written by me, which would I choose?

Bro this is harddddd. Perhaps There's No Me Without You by CheCheCheer, because I really loved the brother-dynamic between Akaashi and Kuroo. It'd be lovely to explore that even further and the little fantasy universe. Though I think that'd count less as a prequel but more an introduction to the overall story (and I don't think I'd do it justice because it was super cute!)

38. A review that made my day.

There were so many that made my day. Not a specific one for this but you know those reviews that give a literary analysis of some lines or a completely new interpretation of a paragraph that you hadn't even thought of, but you love it. And there was one comment I got on a chapter of FMN, wait I need to look it up, I know it was by CheCheCheer, but I remember it was written so beautifully I legit teared up because someone felt like this about my writing?? IT WAS ON CHAPTER 20 OF FMN. I just read it again and my heart is soaring. It was the way it was written and what was written in it that will live in my brain forever, and I am so, so grateful.

[television-overload]

Get to know your fic writer (no pressure):

1, 4, 13, 16, 22, 25 (add link if you want), 40, 54, 56

Ooh yay! Thanks for the ask! I think I copied these all over correctly. I was bored so I went in-depth 😂 Here we go:

1. Do you prefer writing one-shots or multi-chaptered fics?

I've been sitting here for like 5 minutes trying to figure out which I prefer 😂. I find myself coming up with multi-chapter ideas more often I think, really grand plots that I definitely don't have time to devote attention to. I also run into the problem of not knowing how to fill in between the parts that I do I have ideas for, so true multi-chapter fics are a rarity. I've had a few times where a one-shot turned into a multi chap, and THOSE tend to work better and are way more cohesive. One of my favorites is one I wrote for Star Wars (wrong blog, oops 😅) but both chapters were a lot stronger than my usual stuff, and it performed way better on AO3 which was really gratifying.

I've always wanted to write a true masterpiece where readers are anxiously awaiting the next chapter, like so many I've read, but I don't know if I've ever gotten there yet. Maybe a few when I used to write NCIS stuff on fanfiction.net.

4. Where do you find inspiration for new ideas?

Songs, a lot of times. They hit me in the feels. Sometimes a line in a fic I'm reading will spark an idea, something I haven't thought about, a new interpretation of an existing scene from the source material. Gifsets, Tumblr meta analysis, movies I'm watching. So many places. I feel like half of them come to me when I'm at work, which is very inconvenient. The aforementioned Star Wars two-shot was half written on the bus ride home from work in the notes app on my phone. I've written several in the aftermath of particularly good or bad episodes/movies. Fix-it fanfic is always great, I feel like I need to write more of it.

13. What’s a common writing tip that you almost always follow?

I haven't done this for very long, but lately in my adulthood (as opposed to my teenage fics *shudders*) I've actually been pretty good about writing out an outline and going back to edit later. I used to just spew everything in a word doc and barely go through it before posting, but now I reread it to death, mostly to make sure it flows well. My outlines are, shall we say, extensive. The Star Wars fic I'm working on now had 20 chapters outlined and it totaled over 20,000 words. I've basically storyboarded the whole thing and then I go through and convert that to actual scenes. Important dialogue moments I want to hit are included, cause I know I'll forget them if I don't write them as they come to me. It helps me to be able to see the big picture, so that I don't give up on the project halfway through. But for spur of the moment fics or most one-shots, I still mostly write as I go. Occasionally if I have a thought that I want to make sure to include in a later scene, I'll just tack it on at the bottom of the doc and delete it once I get to that point and I put it in writing.

16. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Share one of them.

They're scattered all over the place so that's a good question that God probably only knows the answer to. Some are barely even ideas but take up a line or two in my notes app on my phone. Some probably live only in my brain, forgotten until something triggers me to remember that I was thinking of writing it 😅.

I'd love to do something with @irish-trish 's prompt to fill in the scene from NCIS "She mentioned you at the funeral, I could see what she felt." It sounds right up my alley, but there's a Star Wars fic week coming up in September that I want to actually do on time this year, so I can't allow myself to shift focus to NCIS quite yet 😭

Other than that, I want to write a second chapter to my X-Files fic "Field of Dreams" where Mulder gets to play catch with his son. I really loved writing that fic.

22. Are there certain types of writing you won’t do? (style, pov, genre, tropes, etc)

Nothing spicy. I don't think I'd ever write in first person unless it was in the form of a letter. Other than that, I think I'd do pretty much whatever. It's just a matter of what I have the skills for I think 😂

Not a fan of AUs, except canon divergence, obviously. To me, the way the characters meet is so integral to who they are that it can't be changed much or it just doesn't feel like them. I've read maybe one fic that changed how characters met (Mulder and Scully) but that was the result of time travel and all sorts of things that warmed me up to the idea, plus the characters as we know them were still there. Alternate universe in the truest sense. I got distracted, what were we talking about?

25. What fic do you wish you got more of a response on?

The two fics I think of as my comfort fics, ones I found really peaceful and natural to write, would have been nice to see get more attention. I've been writing on and off for like a decade now (😳) and I've only ever really had one fic truly pop off in terms of kudos and comments. Which are literally my life blood 😂. But a lot of my older stuff I look back on and I'm like, yeah, that wasn't that great.

My Star Wars (Obi-Wan and Satine) one shot "this could be such a dream" I found really emotional and relaxing to write. I was kind of surprised it didn't go very far, but it was part of a weekly challenge thing so I suppose it makes sense in a way.

To get back to the TV shows I write for, though (since that's the focus or THIS blog), I really really loved my X-Files fic "Field of Dreams", in large part because I love that movie which inspired it, and I love a domestic, peaceful and content-if-not-happy happily ever after for Mulder and Scully. The movie itself makes me cry and feel so many feels, and I thought the connection to Fox Mulder was a really good one.

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

I would welcome anythinggggg, that is my dream!! I haven't really written anything I'm super proud of yet in the NCIS fandom that I feel would warrant art, but maybe someday! I'm working on a Star Wars "Sound of Music" type looooong fic rn and boy, the amount of work I've put in, I would die if someone were engaged enough to be inspired by it.

54. What’s your favorite part about the fanfiction writing process?

Honestly, I get so excited to post it. I hope people will enjoy what I've written. I've read so much great fanfic, that I just want to contribute my 2 cents to the fandoms. Getting comments (as rare as it often is) literally makes my day and makes it all worthwhile to me. Any form of engagement, interaction here on Tumblr, that's what I strive for. But I also write for me. Exploring ideas I've never seen done before, filling in gaps in the fandom, I love it. Those comfort fics I was talking about, I love to just go back and read. It doesn't really matter, in the end, if they touched other people like they do me. I like them and that's what matters. The fics I'm not so proud of? I've been transferring them over from Tumblr and fanfiction.net anyway because some of them have received really lovely comments and people might enjoy them despite how I feel.

56. What’s something about your writing that you pride yourself on?

I hope I'm improving on descriptive language. I want to bring out emotions in my writing, and I think there's been definite improvement since I started. I'm also thankful that I have a grasp on grammar and spelling and all the typical writing conventions. That can be a turn off to a lot of readers if it's a complete mess, so luckily I was always a pretty harsh editor throughout my schooling 😅

Get to know your fic writer

[diana-fortyseven]

🛠🍷🥰

Wow, that's a huge glass of wine! Thank you (for the ask, not for the drink lol)!

(But also, thank you for the drink.)

🍷 Do you drink and write?

Usually not, but sometimes it's fun. There's this very particular type of creativity only red wine can unlock. Other drinks only make me sleepy, not creative.

Always edit sober, though! :D

🥰 How do you feel about reader interaction? Are you open to receiving questions about your fics?

Y E S! My comments on AO3 are unrestricted on all fics, please go ahead and ask whatever you want to know about any of them. I'm not looking for constructive criticism, though. (But if you find a typo or a punctuation fail, please do let me know lol. It shouldn't happen with multiple layers of spell and grammar checkers, but sometimes I add something last second before hitting "publish", and sometimes my brain is not braining while I do so.)

🛠 What tools/programs/apps do you use to write?

Sit down and enjoy that glass of wine, this'll take a while... xD

For spontaneous short fics (and for plot bunnies that came out of nowhere), I use Google Docs. It's great because it auto-saves, and I can access my docs on any device.

Then I have Scrivener for fics that require a bit more planning or are more than just one scene.

I made different templates for the different kind of fics I usually write (and should I ever feel like I'm 100% happy with my ever-evolving templates, I'll happily share them!); and it's perfect to organise and keep all plot bunnies in check.

How was I ever able to live without the Corkboard and without being able to shuffle scenes and around like index cards? I love this fucking Corkboard, I love the binder, I love that I have a template that groups all "Save the Cat!" plot beats into the three acts of the three-act structure. And my god, do I love that I'm also able to customise the theme of my Scrivener and turn it into a pastel rainbow. Absolute eye candy! <3

I very recently treated myself to Scrivener for iOS, and I'm so happy that I did! Again, Google Docs is great for some quick note-taking, but being able to add a new index card to my WIP's Corkboard wherever I am? Priceless!

For mind maps, I use Scapple. It's from the same company that makes Scrivener, Literature & Latte. Good to organise thoughts, not necessarily a must-have. There are free mind map tools out there. I just want to support Literature & Latte.

I also use voice-to-text, because that's something that really helps me whenever I feel like I can't write. The words are there, the stories are there, but I can't fucking write them down for whatever reason.

After experimenting with different free options (let me know if you're interested in my thoughts on them and which I would recommend), I settled for Nuance Dragon Professional 16, the best dictation software on the market, but also fucking expensive. I don't regret this. It's probably overkill if you're only using it for fanfic.

I don't use the mobile version, Dragon Anywhere, because it's a subscription based service now, and fuck that. It's probably really awesome and all, but I am not paying €150 per year for this.

So, to save money, I use my €1,000 dictation software with the free dictation app ALON Dictaphone to dictate chapters or scenes on my phone. There are probably better apps out there, but I've been using this one for more than ten years and I like it. You can organise your voice notes with labels, so you always know which fic they belong to. It also synchs with all cloud services out there (I use it with my free Dropbox), and I can access the files on my laptop when I need them. Dragon 16 can transcribe these files without playing them, which is really nice, because a) I don't have to listen to my own voice and b) I can do something else on my laptop and don't have to stay quiet while it's transcribing.

For spelling and grammar, I use LanguageTool. The free plan offers all I need, and it integrates with Google Docs and my browser. The best thing about it is that you can choose which English accent to write in, and it will tell you if an expression you used belongs to a different accent and offer you an alternative.

For a quick final edit, I use ProWritingAid and Hemingway Editor. I like that you can choose the genre in PWA. I dismiss a lot of their suggestions, though. There's a reason I chose passive voice for this one sentence, dammit! xD

AutoCrit also offers interesting editing tools. I'll give it a go at one point, but for now I've only played around with the example text a little.

So, yeah. That's basically it, I think.

[randomfandom815]

4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 for the fic asks 🤪

this is the greatest ask I have ever been sent thank you

4. How do you choose which fics to write?

Well, I write down all my random ideas, and sometimes my brain decides to elaborate on those ideas

8. Post an out-of-context spoiler from a wip.

Not sure what counts as out of context, but I'll go with: The very unexpected befriending of a dragon

15. What’s your favorite time to write?

11 pm through 1 am

16. Do you write by hand, on your phone, or on your laptop?

Usually on my laptop, but if I'm on the go I end up using the notes app on my phone

23. Is writing the beginning, middle, or end of the story easiest? Hardest?

The middle is definitely the hardest, I always have a starting point and an ending point and then total mush in between. The easiest varies between beginning and end depending on the fic

42. What’s your favorite title that you’ve come up with?

easily live together, die-nosaur alone, I'm very proud of my shitty puns

[longeyelashedtragedy]

1-5 for the writer asks!

thank you!!!

i write most of my fics in the notes app that comes with apple's os, which for those who may not know looks like this:

so most of what i write is in..that font. when i was younger i'd go to write on The Basement Computer (tm) and i couldn't begin writing unless i'd picked the perfect microsoft word font for the story based on...vibes? now when i use word i Exclusively use garamond for some reason lol

2. i could definitely write by hand, but my brain moves really fast when i write and my typing is much faster than my handwriting so anything i write by hand is automatically less detailed, which i dont like

3. i don't have a writing ritual, is that cursed in itself? one thing--i actually can rarely write in my own living space which is...Inconvenient and maybe a little cursed.

4. any like bad porn word makes me go feral... "his essence" for example

5. despite being a really superstitious person i don't think i have any writing superstitions? sometimes i try to keep my plot ideas on the d/l because the more i talk about it the less i actually want to write it, but i don't think i have any big ones really.

<3

[scoops404]

18 for I was your willing accomplice, honey (or any fic you'd like) & 46!

From [X] this ask game:

18. If you wrote a sequel to [insert fic], what would it involve?

I haven't thought about this much, but I think it would deal more with the fandom side of things -- explaining to their fans that Dream was moving to London with George temporarily until the visa came through and then like the ache of missing their family. Maybe some hilarious Drista (Chloe) & Tommy moments. I think the plot would be like settling into London and living in a too small flat and like figuring out how to settle into each other -- george's family and Dream meeting them. Maybe Nancy and Chloe and Sap would come visit. VERY soppy and i probably won't write it but I imagine that DNF are happy and thriving

46. Do you prefer writing on your phone or on a computer (or something else)? Do you think where you write affects the way you write?

Actual writing happens on my laptop (where i am now) but the creative juices usually get flowing when i'm falling asleep so ill craft an entire scene of dialogue and write that into my notes app and then fill it out the next day (most of Fallen was written this way, especially the big talks with Kate and George in chapter 11 and between Dream and George in chapter 12) and sometimes they aren't in order. So I might picture the ending of the fic and have that scene outlined ages before I get there (very true for every multi chap i've written in this fandom) -- which is fun but does require some editing work when i finally get there. As for where I write -- yes, absolutely. It also depends on the time of year/season. Lol, lately my most successful days have been at Panera with an outlet. But most of the original novel i wrote was written at a picnic table outside like a couple miles from my house. Depends on the vibe, I guess. I can't stay writing at the same place too long. I actually moved my desk around my apartment (my dog thinks I'm crazy) just last night so my brain thinks I'm somewhere else. Lots of Presently in London was written sitting up in my bed when I hurt my back and couldn't sit. I very rarely write in the same place.

Fun to think about, thanks for sending!