#this was so nice........i've never written any sort of fanfiction before and it means So much to me that people care 😭❤️

[ice-sculptures]

Hi Rae! I'm really excited for your upcoming fic because I don't think I've read any painting fic where Mike finds out and they don't immediately get together. I'm looking forward to seeing the slowburn play out in the rest of the series :)

oh my god thank you!! i really appreciate you sending this 🥺

yeah, i really enjoy the interpretation where mike already knows how he feels and i love reading painting fics where they immediately get together, but also i am a Huge sucker for slowburns and since i don't think i've ever seen a fic where mike finds out about the painting and they talk about it but don't get together right away, i wanted to try a different sort of characterization :)

also, one of the things that i value most about byler is mike and will's really strong friendship, because that's the core of who they are and why they fell for each other in the first place, so i really wanted to write something that gets their friendship back to a solid and secure place after the strain of s3-4 before they start a relationship. and (spoiler alert) the other fics in the series will take place a year after this one, so they'll have that time to grow closer and mike will have had a lot of time to properly heal from the breakup with el before he finally comes to terms with his feelings for will and confesses.

by the way, i would highly recommend this fic by @padmedala, especially parts 2 and 4, if you want a similar approach to this story! they don't actually talk about the painting in this fic, but it does feature mike finding out about it and them building their friendship back up before mike comes out :)

[kitkatopinions]

@kitestarry Thought I'd answer this comment in its own post. :)

Ghira and Kali are very much so stereotypical "Mom and Dad" characters imo, where Kali is kind of nosy and she's comforting and she's given that "no she can hit people with pans too" thing that people give Supermoms since like 2000 so they can say they're strong women without having to do any work, and Ghira is like overprotective and tells Blake she isn't wearing enough clothes and hates Sun because he's a boy who's interested in his daughter. And I don't like the stereotypical "Mom and Dad" characterization in any setting really, but since they're only featured in two seasons and are honestly not even sort of the focus of Blake's 4-5 arc (which is much more about her, Sun, and Ilia,) they're very paper thin characters I feel like. So there isn't much else to them. But on top of that, the RWBY writers do this thing where they'll make the teenage characters do dangerous stuff but do not care to write the "caring" parental figures in their life to actually do anything about it. Like, with Willow you can at least be like "well she's an alcoholic who had an abusive husband" which doesn't mean that her complete lack of presence until V7 and her lack of action in protecting her children is fine, but it makes more sense. And when then sixteen year old Ruby left home to go after Cinder and supposedly like a year later Tai still is completely not around, we could at least say "well, he knows she's with Qrow and he might not have known how serious everything was" which isn't a good excuse, but it's at least something. But, I believe Blake ran away from home five years before the start of the show, which means she was like twelve! And she ran away to be part of a group Ghira thought was dangerous and morally wrong (which is why he left in the first place.) Like, we don't know if Blake had a good place to stay for that whole time, if she ever went hungry, and the show fully tells us she was in a bad and unsafe relationship for part of it. And where were her parents? And then the Fall of Beacon happens after Blake is on TV during the Vytal Festival, and the whole thing just makes them feel like very uncaring bad parents. There's also Ghira's whole peaceful protest 'be nice to your oppressors and they might like you' 'we need to stop faunus violence' thing. Like many Faunus characters, Ghira's a mouthpiece for the severely badly handled fantasy racism plot. It's bad on Blake, but since she has a lot more character and role outside of that, it's easy enough to just clip it out for her for me. But because Ghira has been such a small role, it's a lot harder to dismiss for him. Like if you removed that sort of thing from Ghira's character, all that you'd have left is 'over-protective dad who doesn't care about finding his twelve year old runaway but will comment on her belly shirt when she comes home."

But also, I don't write for them to be honest. Writing for characters oftentimes makes me like them more because it helps me dive into the character concept more than the oftentimes lackluster execution. There are a lot of characters I didn't like that much, but then when I write for them, I find myself really enjoying them. But my sister and I first started writing for RWBY after volume six with a fanfiction that was an AU branch off starting at the end of V5. And the only fanfictions I've written either are branches off of that branch off or are Team STRQ era fics. So... Ghira and Kali aren't really part of things in my fics ever.

So yeah, it's a combination of them being thin stereotypical parents with very little interest to them, their apparent lack of care when their twelve year old ran away, and just never writing for them so they don't get the same treatment of me fleshing them out myself that other characters who are just as thin in canon might get that make me like them more.

[wisteria-lodge]

Have you sorted the Hogwarts Legacy companions at all?? I checked your master list and couldn’t find anything but I’m not sure if I’m just being blind 💀😂

So here's the thing.

(And your ask is super nice and in absolute good-faith, it's just also a good way of getting into this stuff.)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is not Joss Whedon. House of Cards is not Kevin Spacey. But Harry Potter kinda is JK Rowling. She has an astounding and honestly pretty unique amount of both creative control and ownership over that property. The only other person I can think of who's even in the same category is George Lucas... before he sold it to Disney, obviously.

And JKR has written about how she interprets the royalty checks she gets as kind of tacit approval from the world, which makes sense because she's been also very public about how she spends those royalty checks to support anti-trans campaigners and legislation.

But. But. I get wanting to engage with the property. I mean, obviously. I'm going to tag this 'sortinghatchats.' The parent system is clearly HP, and the point of changing the terminology was never disguising that, it was more supposed to communicate that I am not engaging with the work or its creator uncritically. I think it's worked pretty well. I've gotten maybe one piece of anon hate calling me a terf? That's not bad.

I'm a teacher, and the place I work attracts a *lot* of LGBT students. Trans and non-binary especially. And they're interested in Harry Potter. They read a lot of Harry Potter fanfiction. They want to talk to me about Harry Potter, and about JK Rowling. I don't see this property fading away any time soon.

And like. I was a fan. I waited until midnight in a bookstore to get books 4, 5, 6 and 7. My Sibyl Trelawney came in second at the book 7 costume contest. Which was fine because the girl who won did the most perfect Hermione you've ever seen, and spent the whole time handing out SPEW badges and knitting house elf clothing.

Recently, I'm finding myself wanting to unpack this property as an adult. Maybe understand some of the biases I didn't pick up as a kid, maybe do right by some of my favorite characters. Because there's good stuff in there. How much was on accident versus on purpose, how much is the fandom interpreting the text in a specific way, how much is the films smoothing over issues... and creating different issues... I would like to work all that out.

And actually, when I started writing some Harry Potter fanfiction over the holidays, it came pouring out, and it felt *good.* Clearly I've got a lot of *stuff* that I want to examine and *put somewhere,* and for me, writing (ships that JKR doesn't like) was a fun and ethical way to do that. Maybe I'll even post it with a nice disclaimer.

So that's me. Fanfiction, fan side-projects, fan merch. I guess the argument against that would be "free advertising," but like - HP has so much just - actual advertising - and I'd like it if people who still wanted to engage with the property had somewhere else to go. So no Hogwarts Legacy for me, no Fantastic Beasts films, or HBO miniseries, or even Cormoran Strike books. (and people don't talk about this enough - but a big aspect of that series is essentially JKR writing a non-magic AU where she ships herself with Mad-Eye Moody. I have no idea what to do with this information, but now you have it too.)

I could see myself writing more about JKR or Harry Potter, once I've turned it over more in my mind and feel like I have something useful and new to say. But as it is, this is a snapshot of where I am.

[coff-in]

you don’t need to apologize! it’s easy to feel burnt out specially with how many requests you get

do things on your own pace! i hope you feel better soon!! (ps: we’ll patiently wait for new i.i.i chapters!!🎉)

— Dungeon Anon

i hope i feel better too! everyone has been really nice towards me so far, i'm just not used to having an audience like this ^^; it's my first time actively participating in a fandom, i'm usually a consumer of content, so when i started making stuff i tried to live or keep up with the expectations i had for creators as a consumer and i'm realizing that the expectations i have are NOT forgiving :(

big vent talk (don't feel like you have to read it all)

i want to post something-- anything really-- to make sure that:

you guys know that i'm still active (my biggest fear is finding wonderful content made by wonderful creators and figuring out that they're inactive or on a undisclosed hiatus-- which is their right to do so, ofc! i don't say this to be intentionally rude or entitled)

to keep your attention (i like reading your asks and requests and they actively help me expand my own thoughts and ideas by introducing me to concepts i wouldn't have thought of before)

however, i think by keeping myself up to this "professional" standard i have in my head, i've sort of been taking the fun out of writing your requests little by little. i don't want to put blame on my audience and i entirely take blame or fault or burden for my feelings and thinking when approaching all this. like, i notice that i answer more conversational asks quicker than i do more formal one (ie i'll answer "hey coff-in! tell me your thoughs..." before i'll tackle "could i request...") it's also my fault for keeping my inbox open all/most of the time. i've gotten so used to the joy and happiness of getting an ask or request that i honestly get worried when i don't see a notification next to my inbox in the morning or before i go to bed.

i have a bad habit of getting really attached to fandoms and projects and then just... not finishing them. now that i have an audience, people who come to me (my blog), i fear about disappointing them when i have nothing to show. i've been working on other little side projects so i don't over-saturate on tcoaal and lose interest (i have new books to read, i'm working on a ren'py visual novel, i have dnd planned with online friends) and they bring me joy, but i'm constantly plagued with the thought that i'm doing something wrong by not working on something tcoaal related. and when i do answer requests or write for indulgence in isolation, i'm afraid that is isn't good enough. i know that it's a silly expectation to have-- i'm not a professional by any means, i'm a 19 year old student who barely goes outside-- but it just HAUNTS me. it makes me scared...

... i try to keep pushing though. i know that my characterizations of andrew and ashley aren't anything close to canon or as good as canon but that's to be expected, no? i'm not nemlei and these aren't my characters so i'm not going to feel as comfortable writing for them as i do my ocs and orginal characters.

i'm mostly just fighting myself these days.

i'm happy that you guys get that though! you guys don't force or demand me to write or answer requests... i just, i'm just so grateful to have you guys here to stumble upon my little blog. i've gone from posting little ficlets i've written in my notebook to nobody to answering requests and writing multi chapter fanfiction and drawing oc art to about 110 people (and those who lurk) in about two months. i have to remind myself that it's reasonable to get stressed and feel overwhelmed and to overwork myself, it's my FIRST TIME doing this!! there's no real study guide to handling fame (and i've never been good at studying anything ^^;)

i'll try to get writing out but it's probably won't be daily anymore (unless it's questions about my ocs, since i'm the most comfortable writing for my own characters) but it'll try to post something everyday. again, i'll also be writing for indulgence in isolation behind the scenes, too. i wanted to have longer chapters (about 3k-5k words) but i struggle producing 1.5k-2k words in about three days, so those updates may be a bit longer... i like writing, i'm just not good at it

i'm sorry for the long vent and all it's messiness. it felt nice typing it all out though. i've always felt like i had to explain my feelings somehow and it's nice to tell it to people instead of my empty bedroom aloud. it gives me a feeling of closure.

thank you all for listening and reading :) and thank you for your continued support

----

coff-in

[protect-daniel-james]

honestly, i'd talk about fanfic with you all day and would totally ask you all of these, but how about: ❤️, 🥴 (however you define weird), 🌶️, 🏆, 🫣

haha thank you!

The fanfiction that holds a special place in your heart

Definitely the fics that were at the beginning of now "big" ships - I was the second person to post a Rakidrić fic on AO3, and the first person to post a Gavi/Pedri fic in there. I like being ahead of the curve, to be kind of "proven right" about certain chemistries being interesting and appealing. And I like the idea that someone thought of Gavi/Pedri fic, searched AO3, and mine was The One fic that was there in their time of need - before others eventually got the balls to write one as well (and now there's almost 350 fics with Gavi/Pedri, which is amazing, since it's a lovely ship). So these two will always be kind of special in this sense. I wrote a bunch of unpopular/rare ships, and I don't strive to write what's popular or what most people would read - I hope that someone might read my fic and think - this makes sense, why didn't I know/think about this pairing; rather than being one of the billions who write about Messi/Ron or Messi/Neymar etc.

I also wrote the first Harry Kane/Pochettino fic, and I'm sad and disappointed there's not more about them! (they deserved it)

Your weirdest fanfiction

In terms of pairing, definitely the Unai/Football one, but I am proud of it and once again - I think it is subtle and it makes sense. Like, it's written in a way that could convince someone to ship them, haha (I hope). I think the weirdest in the sense of story itself it's probably Italian Cuisine. I cringe at the stuff I wrote about Ronaldo/Dybala, because a lot of it was pure PWP with a bit of angst. It was really explicit compared with what I've been writing lately; and it's basically meaningless porn that's not really my style anymore. It feels weird to me now that I was like - oh sure, lets write about Ron fucking Dybala with a cucumber. There's no other meaning, or reason, or any sort of explanation.... It's literally just that. And I think I don't like writing stuff like that anymore.

I wrote a lot of "weird" things in terms of incest, omorashi, piss kink, priest!AU, priest kink, Basque separatism!AU, or even more in the past - Trudeau/Macron PWP lol ... But I think all of these were justified/served the story/served the exploration of the dynamic - but there is just no excuse for the cucumber story, period.

Your spiciest fanfiction

Uuufff, that's difficult to say since I find most of my PWPs from 2018-2019 cringy (and that's when I wrote most of the spicy stuff). Probably Rakidrić's Never knew anyone in love or Three is a charm (Two is not the same) about Kane/Poch/Southgate threesome. And of course, the priest kink with Dalić/Modrić (and it was my first risqué fic, or a fic that I felt like some people might have a problem with), I do like a priest kink hehehehe. Once again I would write it a bit differently and probably more...subtly today? I think I wrote a couple of nice spicy PWP things back in the day, but now I feel like I use smut scarcely, non-explicitly, or as a tool to depict someone's deep desperation and inability to connect/communicate in other way (Lampardverse, Frank/Mason, Scamacca/Paquetá...)

The fanfiction you are the most proud of

Right now, probably The Stands of Villa Park. Ngl, some parts made me emotional, because it made me think of the reasons why ppl love football so much, and how important it is, how it is part of life (I wrote my Master's thesis about something slightly covering this subject, so naturally I am passionate about it) - and it gave me an opportunity to explore all of this in a deeper, visceral manner of someone who would not survive without football, who needs it more than food and drink, and who needs all his senses filled with football, football, and only football.

I'm proud of the whole Lampardverse experience (but it's not my verse wink wink) and its stories because it just makes sense and explains a lot.

I think atmosphere wise, I really like Briefly and We'll Always Have London because of the heavy implications and what is left unsaid - the unrequited feeling in the former, and the relationship breaking up in the latter. I like having that in fics.

The fanfiction you were most hesitant to post

The Grizicest saga. I feel like it was sort of an appetizer before Lampardverse, and a lot of the themes first explored in Grizicest are now being rediscovered in Lampardverse. I actually got one anon hate for the Grizou, Grizou story on my previous blog loooool. Today, I would write it differently, definitely. But the main plot would probably stay mostly the same.

Also, today I wouldn't care at all about someone hating on that story. Look, (wo)man, I feel like writing a story about Unai fucking a football pitch. Or a trophy. Or Scamacca pissing on Paquetá, or Cousin Jamie breeding Franko. What are you going to do about it? As I said in the notes for my last fic, patrolling days are over.

[queenofbaws]

I know I'm late but if you are still doing rhe fanfiction ask may I ask 🖊 🌝 📥? Thank you and I hope you are feeling better now!❤ have a nice day!!

omg not late at all!!! ;)c i'm ALWAYS happy to ramble on about this stuff, hehe - and thank yooooou! i hope you're having a lovely day too! <3 🖊 Post a snippet from a current WIP.

When you got down to brass tacks, he’d always known where the Washington girls were. There was no losing track of them, no having to scan frame after frame of surveillance footage for a flash of pale skin among the trees. Beth, he suspected, hadn’t moved much in the six years he’d been away, and unless Annie Cline had grown some sort of conscience (or spine) in his absence, Jack thought he very likely could’ve trekked up that damned mountain tomorrow and found the girl waiting in the exact spot where last he’d seen her, not a hair out of place.

As for Hannah…that one was another story. He wouldn’t find her on, in, or around the mountain if he went looking, but it hadn’t always been that way. There had never been a need to go looking for her, not before that night in 2015—she’d been happy enough to make herself known to anyone who called out. She’d been friendly that way.

🌝 Who is one character you haven’t yet written for that you would like to?

okay, i'm gonna cheat here juuuuuuuust a little because it's not ONE character but TWO: the more i replay the quarry, the more i realize i really, really love the little pieces-parts of jacob and kaitlyn's friendship, and the more i really, really want to dive into that and write more for both of them. i don't have any IDEAS for that as of right now, but.......i just feel like their dynamic is super fun, and there's so much HISTORY there!

📥 What is your fave fic to receive comments/messages on?

oh gosh, before i answer seriously i just want to say i've been super, super fortunate to get the comments and messages i have, and ANY time i see a message pop up in my inbox over on ao3 or here on tumblr, my heart sooooooars!!! any comment - literally ANY comment on ANY fic - means the world, and i revisit them ALL when i'm having rough days, whether they be walls of keysmashes or a single little heart 🥰

BUT since that wasn't the question, the serious answer is, surprise, the (almost)s and/or like wringing blood from a stone. they're my big, chunky, emotional longfics, and since they ARE heavier, every single time i get a comment on one of them, i'm just. beside myself. they're very personal projects, and so when people tell me they've even just clicked to give them a CHANCE..........honestly, there's no beating it hahaha!!! that being said, i for sure know longfics aren't for everybody, so i never, ever, EVER expect anyone to go tackling those stories JUST because they're my babies aslkdjfalksjdlfkjslkdjf

ask me stuff about my wips!

[anneapocalypse]

2, 3, 20, and 28 please? :D

chocochipbiscuit asked:

...I meant to ask 38, not 28, but do both if you like!

2. How do you spend your time when it comes to fanfiction? Are you primarily a fic reader, writer, or a perfect 50/50 split of both?

I am definitely both! If you actually break it down by hours, I probably spend more time writing fic, since I try to split my reading time between fanfic and original fiction, and I'm still mostly writing fanfic at the moment. But I definitely do both. I couldn't really imagine writing fic and not also reading fic; I might be selective about what I read, but being an active reader is important to me.

3. Are there any fics that inspired you to write what you do?

I have been inspired by so many longfic writers, the dedication they put into writing novel-length (and longer) works of fiction just out of love and enjoyment, and sharing them with the rest of us. There have been plenty that I've loved and been inspired by over the years, but one of the earliest ones that I'll always remember fondly is Trouble (Fallout 3, Butch/Harkness) by @rustypinhead, one of the first fics that made me want to write longfic myself.

It's been a while since I had an up-to-date "all time favorites" rec list... maybe I should do that again.

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

Man... there are so many things I love about writing fanfic, but I think one of my favorite things is learning a character's voice, and getting inside their head, understanding their motivations, seeing the world they way they see it. Especially for characters who have a distinct voice and point of view. (There is a reason I've been having so much fun with Sera.)

28. How do you deal with writing pressure (ie: pressure to update, negative comments, deadlines, etc)?

I'll go ahead and answer this one anyway. ;)

I do very well with deadlines. Deadlines are my friend. However, I do prefer to focus on one thing at a time, so I generally won't commit to more than one external deadline (like an exchange) at a time. I just work better and happier that way. But as I've gotten into the exchange scene a bit over the past few years, I've loved the structure of it, and ended up writing some thing I've loved that I probably would never have written otherwise.

As far as updating... I prefer to have the whole fic written before I start posting. I still post serially, because it's fun, and good for visibility, but I don't do well writing serially, and it's not a coincidence that the only longfics in my catalog that I've repeatedly stalled out on are the ones I tried to write and post chapter by chapter. Just doesn't work for me. (I have had a couple questions about whether I will ever update those, but they've always been nice about it, and I really don't have a problem with that.)

I have been lucky to receive very few negative comments on my fics. (I mean outright mean comments, not concrit.) On the rare occasion I've gotten an actually nasty and unconstructive comment, I've just deleted it without reply, because why give those people attention? I didn't write it for them, clearly.

38. What does your writing process look like? How chaotic is it on a scale of 1 (very tame) to 10 (you can’t handle this kind of chaos)?

My process is a very organized sort of chaos. I'm a Planner through and through; I brainstorm, I outline, I canon review, I take loads of notes. I live in Scrivener because being able to see all my notes for a fic at once makes my brain very happy.

...Here, I'll just show you what the binder for the Sera backstory fic looks like! (This is for a fic about 40K total, with not a lot of external research required but a lot of canon details to fit together.)

[sweetestpopcorn]

Hey. I discovered you on ao3 by your excellent fic the blacks and the Greens. Fantastic 💯💯💯

As a fellow daemyra fan, you have fulfilled all my shipping wishes. Cannot thank you enough. Everytime I feel depressed I read your fics and it makes me feel so much better. 😍

I was on twitter and found that people are supporting the Greens. I was like whatttt!!!!! ☠️.

Even worse they are bashing daemyra. Like WTF. if anyone is to be blamed it's Otto, alicent and ugghhh criston Cole. I've been bashed for criticising them. Before this I didn't even know that green supporters could exist. Like who in their right mind would support greens at all. And now this HoTD will demonize Rhaenyra, I'm sure of it. The castings are wayyy off. Not bashing anyone but Rhaenyra does not look like any sort of delight and idk what to say about the Daemon actor😭. I'm sure they mist be great actors but looks wise, no. I honestly thought the actor for Otto looked wayy better than demon's. What are your thoughts on it? Am I the only one demented? Have you received hate for supporting blacks or not supporting greens.

Hey there!

Awww thank you so much! Truly reading this makes me very happy, though you have to blame me writing that fic on me not having (good) Daemyra fics to read XD because I had never written fanfic before. Alas, the one true OTP of Fire and Blood and the hottest couple EVER needed someone to write about them so I was like:

Regarding twitter, a very dear friend of mine who also writes fics (though in a completely different fandom) told me (almost begged me) to never go to twitter. She said it was a totally new level of insanity there and gave me a few examples. Afterwards I made the (wise) decision of not going there. EVER.

I have spoken on my thoughts regarding REDACTED SHOW it's just two actually its:

1- No.

2- Hahahaahahah 😂😂😂

I actually have received very little hate in the almost three years I have spent working on my fanfictions, believe it or not. The two times I had haters/disgusting people was this hum... *insert your choice of insult here* calling me a paedophile (I laughed a lot, that truly put a smile on my face the whole day), and this *insert choice of insult here* who was recommending another fic to one of my readers on my comment section - super polite, yes I know - and used the following words regarding Rhaenyra "Daemon turned her into a whore" 🥰😍. #feminism 

As far as Green fans I have had like one or two reading my fic - that I know of. They were nice and seemed to like it. Tbh though, black fan, green fan, or neutral, you can either think Daemyra is hot af or you can be wrong :3 as long as they are polite I mean... stan whomever you like I don't care. And tbh I have seen a lot of so called "Rhaenyra fans" and "Black stans" say way more disgusting things - about Rhaenyra - than Greens fans or neutrals.

This is what this fandom does to me... I defend Green stans #f_ckmylife.

ALSO can anyone believe I wrote a Rhaegar/Lyanna fic and I got 0 hate comments? That was the shock of my life, ngl.

GOT and everything that came up until now regarding REDACTED SHOW taught me all I needed to know. They destroy the asoiaf material and George doesn’t care. No hate to him, I have never been offered millions of dollars. Maybe in his place I wouldn’t care either. I want to believe I would still care, but I think we tend to try and think the best about ourselves, so likely I would be a sell out too.

I also try to stay in my lane both on tumblr and on ao3. Like in my own blogs and fics I write whatever I want, but I very rarely respond to people, and I try not to get into fights online because it’s like a mud fight with a pig. The pig gets happy and you will get dirty.

That being said yes, I have read so much disgusting things written about Rhaenyra and the Blacks I just... sure why not? Tbh fair though, I have read some disgusting things about the Greens too, though trust me they do not come close to what is written about the Blacks and most of all about Rhaenyra.

Then again, I have seen Dany called a whore, slaver, white supremacist, rapist, racist, people wishing she would die/get raped, mad, cruel, compared to Joffrey etc etc... so it really doesn’t surprise me this fandom would go after Rhaenyra as they do.

While you are doing the Seven’s work by defending our Queen of Fashion and of the Seven Kingdoms aka Rhaebae, for your sake I would advise you to stay out of those fights and not give those people the time of day. Try to create a safe place for yourself online. Block whatever people and tags you need to, and surround yourself with positive content. It’s what I try to do <3 

As for myself, I will continue - to the best of my habilites - to give those who search for it Daemyra fics. I have tons of ideas and I am actually thinking of doing a poll of a oneshot people would like to see about them regarding any scene in canon or an au people would like to read. I will see if people would be interested when I update the next chapter XD 

Thank you again for your words. It’s a pleasure to write for someone like you! 

All the best!

XOXO, 

Gossip Popcorn.

[tthael]

What are your thoughts on trans eddie? I love it bc I'm trans and eddie is like one of my comfort characters. Since you're the best writer I've ever seen I'm curious on your thoughts.

Thank you, that’s so nice! I also have some Gender Trouble (transmasc isn’t quite the right word) and I think about gender dynamics a lot, and I think Eddie in particular has an interesting relationship with his masculinity in canon that makes him ripe for this kind of analysis.

Back when I was mostly interested in Hobbit fanfiction, I read a lot of good fics that played around with the gender dynamics of the characters; so while I know that genderswap fics can be a hot button issue because of transphobia and accompanying dynamics, I do like those stories when they’re well-written and taken seriously. For instance, this Dwalin/Nori fic by @thorinsmut features a genderfluid pirate captain and an identity porn romance during the Golden Age of Sail (https://archiveofourown.org/works/1861419) and it’s one of my all-time favorite fanfictions (content warnings for violence against animals, discussion of sexual assault, explicit sex, and a genderfluid character experiencing dysphoria). I tend to prefer always-a-different-sex fics, but I’ve also read a couple of a-wizard-did-it fics, like this Coulson/Hawkeye fic by amireal (https://archiveofourown.org/works/1173773) from back when I was into marvel (content warnings for internalized homophobia, explicit sex, and workplace harassment). I myself have had an idea for a while about a Hunger Games genderswap fic where, because 1 girl and 1 boy are always sent to the Games, Katniss can’t volunteer to go in his sister’s place, but he can volunteer to go in Peeta’s place because he plans to die to save Prim.

So, if we accept that gender essentialism treats children assumed to be girls and children assumed to be boys differently (which it does), I think that a transman!Eddie would have a slightly different experience growing up. Canon Eddie has a sort of glass closet going on and a lot of his childhood bullying is homophobic, and it’s implied that this is because he’s not performing masculinity to the expected level. Also Sonia’s abuse focuses on illness, injury, and contamination. She wants Eddie to be “safe” (goes into hysterics when he tries to get his feet scanned at a shoe-store because of the radiation), but she also wants him to be “clean” and “good to his mother.” Especially in the 90s miniseries and the Muschietti movies that take place in 1989 and 2016, a lot of that is coded to involve the AIDS epidemic, needles, and fears of transmission, which means that there’s an element of homophobia to Sonia’s influence. Also, Sonia canonically sex-shames Beverly, calling her “a dirty girl” and saying that she knows all about her, specifically singling her out of the whole group of Losers. There’s an element of sexual protection to her emotional abuse, as well as just a general unwillingness to let Eddie leave the house or get free of her control.

So if we reverse this dynamic and Eddie is a transboy, I think that the pressures he would experience would involve him not performing femininity correctly as a child, because he’s a boy. Eddie would still be very polite and somewhat soft-spoken and dreamy, and he’d be squeamish about bullies belching in his face and Richie playing in the sewers, just like he is in canon; but I think that his discomfort with his traditionally “feminine” responses would come from him instead of externally now. I’d have him lean harder into his traditionally “masculine” interests--cars and trains and other vehicles of getting away from his mother--and I’d have Sonia be even more aggressive towards Bill, Stan, and Richie, to the point of them not ever daring to enter the house the way they do in the 2017 movie because I think Sonia would be just as revolted by the idea of Eddie going around with a pack of boys as she is by Beverly in canon. I think that Sonia would be very invested in Eddie’s appearance, probably pressuring him about his hair and the way that he dressed, probably preferring him to wear skirts and nice clothes instead of things that he could wear to ride a bike or go running around in the Barrens in. I think that there would be a greater element of sexual shaming and body- and weight-policing to Sonia’s abuse, with elements of her wanting to protect Eddie’s “virtue” from “those dirty boys.” @pineapplecrushface wrote an always-women AU Nightingale (https://archiveofourown.org/works/24979312) and while Richie and Eddie are women in this story so it’s not the trans Eddie fic you are looking for, I think that the mentions of Eddie’s childhood bedroom seems pretty accurate for the environment that he would grow up in if he were assigned female at birth--a pink canopy bed and looking for clothes that don’t make him “feel like a cupcake.”

Actually, I think that this might look a lot like Carrie. I know that other people have already talked about the similarities between Sonia Kaspbrak and Margaret White, but Margaret’s abuse tends to orient not just around control but also around sexual maturity and perceived virtue.

I don’t know when or to what degree Eddie would transition--I don’t know if he would take the opportunity to do it while Sonia was still living, though I believe he’d be financially stable enough to afford it very early on. It would all depend on how the writer wanted to handle Eddie’s adult life--is he married to Myra? Does Myra know that he’s trans? Do he and Myra have a sexual relationship? Does Eddie know that he’s attracted to men? Is Eddie out before he gets the call from Mike and goes to Derry? What kind of transition does he want to have, if any? There are so many things to consider and I think it would all depend on what kind of story the author wants to tell--for me, I’d probably write a story where Eddie happens to be trans, and I’ve read some good fic to that effect--Rapacious from the Very Start (https://archiveofourown.org/works/22853020) by InkandOwl (I tried to find their tumblr to tag them and couldn’t) is one of my favorites, though tbh when I read fic I’m looking for explicit sex and that seems to be the core of this series.

But yeah, I’d be down for trans Eddie fic. I think that there’s a lot to unpack there, from how Eddie’s “gazebos” confrontation with Sonia would take place because the primary issue there would not be the idea of keeping Eddie compliant and in the house as a mama’s boy, it would be the idea of keeping him locked in a tower like the witch in Rapunzel because Sonia keeps treating him like a princess; to the idea of needlephobia changing from a threat involving AIDS contamination to perhaps something empowering and self-authenticating like T injections. And Eddie’s such a well-rounded character anyway, I think that there’s a lot of room to dig into his bickering with Richie and his outward aggressiveness and see how much of that is stress and how much of that is the idea that masculinity never shows weak emotions and how much of that is Eddie is quick-witted and thinks arguing is fun. There are also several parallels between Georgie and Eddie, particularly in their relationship with Bill; I think that as a kid, Eddie would think that Big Bill is just the best role model in a real little-brother kinda way, and Sonia would be super threatened by that because she’s Eddie’s mother, Eddie’s supposed to want to be like her.

I think in general I’d be down for most trans fic, as long as it was well-written. In the book there’s an interesting passage from the perspective of Richie’s mother where she reflects on how much she wishes that she had a daughter, because she doesn’t understand Richie and Bill, and she’d feel more confident if she had a daughter she could do things with like baking cupcakes. And I think that a trans Bev would change the way that she experiences abuse from her father, who in the book prefers her to behave in a feminine way (stops being angry at her when he thinks she’s afraid of spiders, because “all girls are afraid of spiders”; becomes irate at the idea that Beverly is playing with boys; obsessive over her virginity) but would behave differently if he thought he had a son and that Bev was transgressing masculine rules.

Anyway! *hammers fist on desk* Bring me my all-trans Losers AU!

[ju1ian]

Fanfic Writer Asks ✨

Tagged by - @oftincturedwords thanks you bestie!!! :)

My AO3 is JulianJoyStark if anyone wants to check it out.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

- i currently have 11 works on AO3 but will probably be uploading a 12th work later today or possibly tonight.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

- 102396

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

- ive written for five different fandoms which are:

Red Dead Redemption

Tombstone (1993)

Evil Dead

Reanimator

Fallout New Vegas

* I wrote a Star Wars fanfiction one time but I orphaned it because I really didn't like it. *

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

- too five fics by Kudos are:

* Let Me Drown (129)

* What If I Don't (99)

* Nice to Meet You (60)

* Moving Parts (51)

* Roommate Problems (47)

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

- so i actually have a terrible awful habit of never finishing any of my multi chapter fanfictions BUT i would say that where I left Let Me Drown is very angsty and that fic was planned to have a very sad ending but I stopped writing it because it became too close my real life happenings (which really was the point in writing it was to project and vent) but I just got really depressed with writing it so I stopped lmao. I might still finish it but it would just be to wrap everything up.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

- probably What if I Dont. It took me like four years to come back and finish it but I think I wrapped it up really nicely. I also think There is an Olive Garden in Tombstone Arizona has a very happy ending.

7. Do you write crossovers? If so , what is the craziest one you’ve written?

- only crossover I ever wrote was Evil Dead/Reanimator crossover and I became unhappy with it so I abandoned it.

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

- no! lmao all sex is skipped over in my stories. im asexual and I don't like writing sex so I just don't do it. I'll write kissing/the leading up to a sex scene and then just simply skip over it.

9. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

- I try to buy sometimes I get overwhelmed. Ideally I like to respond to every comment I get but sometimes I don't know what to say lmao

10. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

- I got hate on the Star Wars fic I orphaned. Which is part of the reason I orphaned it. It was admittedly not very good.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

- no + I was unaware that was a thing that happened.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

- no but I would love to have some of my fics translated so they could be enjoyed by other countries! That seems fun.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

- I have not and I don't think it would be a good idea since I'm sort of unreliable lmao

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

- hmmmm I don't know! Currently I'm very into Doc Holliday/Wyatt Earp

15. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

- Let Me Drown. It was an important story for me to write and I would love to finish it but I don't think I'll ever be able to. I also would have liked to finish Nice to Meet You but I don't think I will.

16. What are your writing strengths?

- I'm very critical of my own writing so I don't see myself have any wiring strengths actually. I've been told I have a good writing tone but I don't know what it means.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

- all of it lmao. But probably like structure? Run on sentences and stuff. I only ever started writing because Brett Easton Ellis who is my favorite author inspired me with his book Less Than Zero so I modeled my writing style off of his and not a lot of people like that. But I'd say I have a lot of writing weaknesses.

18. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

- I personally wouldn't write dialogue in another language if I didn't know the language. Since Google translate can sometimes be unreliable/the translations don't flow the same way that native speakers actually talk. If I didn't know 100% that the language I was writing in would be perceived exactly how I wanted it I wouldn't write in it.

19. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

- my first fandom I wrote for and posted publicly was Fallout New Vegas.

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

- this is a difficult question but I'd say my favorite fic I've written was There is an Olive Garden in Tombstone Arizona because it made me happy to write it and it was the first time I'd sat down and just written a silly little story with no real goal in mind and felt happy while doing it.

I don't have anyone I specifically want to tag in this so if you see it and you want to participate just say I tagged you!! :)

[thedeadflag]

1 When thinking of the word daddy I've always thought of a women? if i ever thought of a man as a daddy ive never sexualized it or ?? but i can now see the daddy kink and its effect. Ive read the g!p fic analysis and i didnt know a lot about the stuff ive read. The clexa fandom is the first fandom ive been in and its where ive first seen anything about g!p or about a/b/o? or even the word dubcon. Dont know if im naive or just didnt think about looking more into it and what it all really means.

(2/5) and not going to lie here i have read a few g!p and the a/b/o stories and ive read another post where you also have a lot of questions how in these fics writers "g!p fics get our bodies wrong" (not sure what how to title the post) and reading through it theyre many questions that are sometimes to never mentioned in them and it just sounds more or a interesting read if stories did mentioned those things and were written well and right about trans/intersex women?

(3/5) i dont know where i went with all this but it was a well interesting read that i dont not understand all of it just yet but will continue to reread and look more into it :)

(4/5) lastly i didnt mean to disrecpect you if i did it was unintentionally. sorry. i saw a post where somewhere around the lines you said it hurts to write clexa because of how horribly written lexa is as a trans/intersex women or in g!p fics and all and fetished and pain. i was deeply hurt by it all when she died and knowing this side in fics it adds to the hurt and how some people dont talk about it more or writers not listening due to wanting popularity

(5/5) wanted to add that even in ouat there was the same issues? in fics so it looks like and now in clexa fics involving all this. even though its been more then an year since lexas death lots of people were hurt in many different ways so many things happened after some for the better and some things thats are still arent talked about and not only effects this fandom but others. sorry just have many thoughts on it that slowly ill become more aware of. dont need to answer this just needed to say more

Like, I know the whole “She calls me daddy too” meme floats around wlw fandom and all, but that sort of thing literally did start in hetero fandom. I’ll definitely take your word that that’s what you think when you see/read/hear it, but 99+% of the time, that’s not going to be the case, and it’s not going to chance that ‘daddy’ is an explicitly primarily male-coded word. it will always be associated with maleness before anything. When cis women have it applied to them, that primary meaning gets to fall away temporarily because their womanhood, their validity, cannot be questioned. By design of cissexism, it cannot be questioned without undermining the sex and gender binaries and the power cis people wield. 

So cis women get access to the term temporarily, in a non-serious non-threatening manner. But it’s still one of the most male-coded words, it’s infused with maleness, and attributing to a trans woman is the exact same as calling her a man, a male person, because we don’t have cis privilege.

As for if you’re naive, honestly, there’s always a variety of reasons why folks don’t know this stuff, why they don’t pick up on this stuff. Whether it’s age, or lack of prior education, lack of exposure to trans women, naivete, etc., most people are unaware. So don’t feel guilty on that front. Everyone has to learn sometime...when the opportunity rolls around doesn’t matter so much as what folks do with the opportunity. A lot of people choose not to think too hard about it, not to concern themselves. It’s a good thing to learn, and it’s good that you’re thinking about it now.

Yeah, the big jot-note list of questions points out the flaws in the g!p/abo stories. Like, it’d be nice if authors actually did write more representative stuff...it wouldn’t actually be difficult, and it’d make for better, more engaging stories, and it’d help fandom be less exclusionary and hostile for us. There’s such a wealth of possibilities when writing trans woman characters, or intersex women, but all so many writers and readers care about are these fetishistic fantasies that get them off. There’s a considerable lack of care and concern about us as real, complex human beings. 

And there’s no disrespect. I can see Clexa stuff on tumblr, see fanart of Clarke and Lexa, it doesn’t usually bother me unless it’s fetishistic stuff (but i’ve blocked the artists of those so they don’t show up on my dash). Sometimes if I think only about Lexa, yeah, things can get soured, but so long as it’s canon material or art that looks canon-aligned, I’m generally good. Sad, given what JRoth and the show’s writers did, but I can handle sadness a lot better than dysphoria.

My issue is that I need to essentially get into the heads of my characters when i write, and whenever I try to get into Lexa’s, I can’t help but think about all the stories and depictions of her that are transmisogynistic and hurtful and fetishistic. I can’t block those memories and thoughts out when I’m trying to mentally collect everything I know about her as a character to decide how she’d behave or react in character in my stories, what she’d say, what she’d do, etc. There’s such a drastic split in who’s been used as a vehicle for trans fetishization that it’s essentially left barely any harmful material on Clarke’s end, which is why it’s so easy for me to write Clanya. So I can’t write Lexa as a character, because the process disgusts and upsets me, and I can’t watch the show because it makes me sad, and I can’t engage in fandoma and other people’s fanworks all that much because so many people are unsafe. So her character’s just altogether been tainted for me.

And it sucks, because like you said, so many people rushed to fandom as a balm to their pain from the loss of Lexa and the betrayal from the show. And it just hurt that so many could do that, knowing how it felt to be hurt and betrayed by writers that created cheap harmful content instead of good representative content, only to turn around and create mountains of cheap harmful content that sent trans women out of the fandom in droves, without much of anywhere to go, no big social network to bond together with and help each other with the pain and loss. All those people who would loudly yell “Support your sisters, not just your Cis-ters”, and then push us out of fandom without a care in the world to the hurt they caused us.

Yeah, these tropes have been around a while. A/B/O is relatively newish, having cropped up in the past decade, but it’s just a big mash-up of common tropes like g!p, mpreg, werewolf, bestiality, dubcon, sex pollen, BDSM, etc. So they’ve definitely been in and around OUAT across its tenure, I did a minor survey on that fandom’s use of g!p and its own magical variant, magic!cock. it’s been in Glee. In X-Files. In Xena. Lower volume, but there are g!p works out there in just about everything. Easy to ignore if they’re rare, outliers. 

In recent years, though, with greater exposure to trans women in media, there’s been a boom in mainstream trans-women porn. And, mirroring that growth in that male-driven market, there’s been a big boom in g!p fiction. It used to be small and largely avoidable, and now it’s everywhere and growing in popularity still. The 100 is just a fandom where it’s been the most saturated in femslash. There were more g!p works in Glee’s fandom, but Glee’s femslash fanfiction count dwarfs Clexa and other femslash fanfiction in The 100 fandom.

But the big boom of popularity in The 100 wasn’t just self-contained. All the ones who took to the trope, those who felt compelled to write about it, they’re carrying that desire to the new fandoms they’re in. WLW fandom does migrate, it’s a big running joke, so when we migrate, these patterns continue.

And while, yeah, a lot’s happened, and not a lot of people like to talk about what’s wrong in fandom, most folks try to avoid conflict. But stuff like this is important. It needs to be talked about, because people need to be aware, they need to learn, they need to see what’s happened/happening because of trans fetishization. Most don’t want to, but they need to know. They need to think about this and understand.

Anywho, it’s cool. I’m half asleep and rambling, and just happy to know that of the 14 messages that found there way into my inbox last night, a few of them were positive and good stuff. I like when people learn, when they want to learn. it’s a good, healthy thing. I’m glad I managed to help you understand the situation better. Feel free to hit me up again if you have any questions in the future :) I hope you have a good day!

[winter-oleander]

Some Stuff on What I've Been Up To and Current Projects

Jeepers, I haven't posted anything in forever. Well, here's an update on some stuff, I guess. I've been studying the craft of storytelling for a while now since I am writing a book and would like to write something that is not garbage. Also, I had the worst time trying to figure out how to write a story from start to finish for much of my life. Like, I could come up with concepts for stories all day long and characters, too, no problem. But actually writing an entire story? Most times I'd start and then just get lost and have no idea where to go from there. And even worse was that I had no idea where I was going wrong. But that didn't stop me from continuing to write. It's always been something I enjoyed no matter how little I knew what I was doing. *raises hand* Pantser from birth here. But no more. I discovered story structure. And it blew my goshdang mind. The entire idea of planning a story out at all before writing just blew me away. I could do that? There's guidelines to follow?! Other authors aren't just making it all up as they go along and how to do that is just out there on the web!?! Whaaaaaaat?!?! My brain melted. Just, right out of my nose and off down the street to Why-Was-I-Not-Informed-ville. Like, this just totally devastated me but in the best way possible. Like, "colors are a thing?!" levels of shock. And it still kinda horrifies me that nobody once mentioned this was a thing I could do to me even once while I was growing up. But I can't really blame anyone for that (well, I mean I could, but I won't) because people in general seem to have this weird idea that stories just come into being fully formed. It's the same with all art. Somehow the general public has gotten this idea that talent is this thing you either have or you don't and if you don't there's nothing you can do about it. I mean, I'm sure there are people out there who actually realize that any form of art, including writing, is a skill that can be learned and developed by nearly anyone. (Drawing is a technical skill. Learning that should never have been shocking yet it was to my younger self.) But wherever those individuals are they have never been in my life. Y'all need to speak up and educate all those ignorant people who go around parroting nonsense like "she's so talented!" instead of "she's clearly worked her butt off to be that good!" Because otherwise people all just nod along and never question how creative processes actually work. I'm getting way off topic, though. Story and scene structure, I learned about them and have been developing my grasp of both, slowly but surely. I often feel like I have no idea what I'm doing, yet with each attempt at creating a story I learn more and more and that feeling of confusion and uncertainty lessens. One day soon I will be able to store my notes in a binder on my shelf because I won't need to constantly reference them anymore, and my floor will no longer be a sea of paper piles. Haha. I'll never see the carpet of bedroom again. But at least it'll be because of all the ideas and planning and such that I'm writing rather than because I need to yet again go over the function of the three major plot points or the four quarters of my current narrative or what the hell a pinch point even is why do I need those again oh right. It's 2 am and I am ridiculously proud of the fact that I have learned a thing. Maybe even two. Two whole things. It's astounding. And I am awesome. I learned that thing. Take that, ignorance! But yeah, I've studied and planned out various ideas for stories and written a sea of notes in which my cardboard boxes full of magna drift whilst carrying stacks of the sea upon their cargo. And I think that at last I have gotten enough of the important stuff internalized that I can start actually writing again. Actual prose instead of the condensed / telling form I've been using so I don't go through all of my paper supply in one sitting, destroy my right hand, or waste countless hours rewriting story bits that will ultimately be abandoned because I haven't finished planning the story to the point that everything no longer reads like a transcript of a dream sequence. Actual writing. I'm actually pretty excited for it. I've missed it more than I realized I ever could. And on that note, my current fanfiction projects are two Marvel related things. One is a collection of six Science Bros/Boyfriends/Husbands short stories, each one focusing on an event in a different stage of Tony and Bruce's developing relationship. The majority of the planning is done for the shorts and I'm currently working on the meta narrative that encapsulates the others. I'm also trying to be extra creative and add in some cipher related stuff to the meta narrative because I do love me some cipher related stuff. We'll see how that goes. The second project is a fic that takes place in an AU I've been developing for a little while now. The AU is sort of based on the MCU but with some 616 and other stuff thrown in because I hate myself and like to drown in complexity. This was originally going to be a way more complicated story with far more characters, but I eventually realized I was overloading myself and the narrative and looked for ways to simplify. Fortunately, I found a way to do just that and am quite proud of myself as it's my first time recognizing and solving one of the oldest problems I've repeatedly faced as a writer. Planning for the fic is in an odd early-ish stage due to all the reworking it took to get to this point. But I shall persist and it shall be plotted out in its entirety soon enough! After I've gotten some sleep preferably. The fic takes place pre-Ironman and is about Tony weathering a bad blizzard with only his robots and JARVIS for help while dealing with a young homeless mutant who picked an awkward time to get a nasty cut on her hand while eating out of Tony's garbage. Things aren't so bad at first with the kid turning out to be nearly as big a geek as Tony and all kinds of interesting due to her mutation, though the kid is anxious to be on her way, convinced that horrible things will befall Tony if she lingers too long. When the house loses power along with the rest of the city, Tony finds himself trapped in the dark with the temperature plummeting, supplies dwindling, and a stranger who is much more than she initially seemed. Buy together, Tony and his new housemate may just have what it takes to survive the storm. Assuming the kid doesn't eat him alive first, that is. I've got other projects in the works, including reworking some ancient stuff I started by never finished (I'm looking at you, desert pikachu), but those are on the backburner until I've finished at least one of these two. Hooray for fanfiction being a fun way to develop writing skills! That's about it, so I hope all you lovely people have a wonderful day and enjoy something nice between now and next time. Bye bye!