#this was the most bittersweet ask i've ever gotten

[yuriyuruandyuraart]

((Hhhhhh, I'm too tired to draw any more of it, but I can't leave it there--))

Killer smiles, and takes your hand. "Of course. Who wouldn't want to see a cutie like you again?" She winks. When her eye reopens, you can see a faint, silver eyelight. "Hm. . . Now that I think about it. . Maybe I'll be here Christmas Eve. How does that sound?"

as long as i can get one last goodbye hug, i'm ready to wait for years >:') <33333

[char-lie-spirals]

I would like to learn about the rest of the aus you mentioned here:3

Okay okay so!! I talked about some of them, so I'll just put the entire list under the cut and either link to my previous responses or cook something up! And what I cook up can possibly include a snippet of my writing too :]

Also since this is a lot of AUs/WIPs I'll try to be brief, but feel free to ask about more details on them!

Terminus' Ritual

This is an AU I've had for like a year now, and it answers a very simple question - What if the End HAD a ritual? That its avatars complete between mag 159 and mag 160? Simple answer - Zombies. And also some deaths getting reversed because getting a quick taste of it should make people more scared, and it's hard to keep a zombie apocalypse going with too few people. (This doesn't match the End's values, I Know.)

I have some notes on different characters' situations, who comes back etc etc but honestly the storyline I focused on the most is Oliver seeking shelter in Graham's old flat only for Graham to also be there, Pretty Confused about the passage of time between his death and now. :]

Graham gets spat out AU

Sasha gets replaced, NotSasha picks up the tape recorder and goes to dispose of the tape. The Artifact Storage is silent, but not empty, as a man who doesn't recall his own name wakes up on the floor. Okay this already sounds a bit like a snippet so I guess you can have a proper one too:

It was all pointless, you only suffered longer -- but is that truly pointless?

This one is a WIP in which I just wanted to explore the idea that the only reason Graham lived for so long was because he was scared that entire time, to the point the NotThem wasn't in much of a rush. It's pretty angsty, but can be bittersweet too if you look at it at the right angle and I am a simple man with a lot of hope in my heart. I've not been making much progress with it, and I'm not sure if I'll end it on the title-question and leave it up for the reader to decide, or if I'll provide my own answer, but let me say here: I don't think it was pointless. Not to me.

Michael(s) experience confusion

Already talked about this one here!

Graham Lives WITHOUT Becoming

Graham survives the events of MAG 003 because Oliver gets there in time to help him, and the two of them try to navigate the aftermath together. They go through many ups and downs, Oliver ends up becoming an Avatar himself, but Graham just kinda,, doesn't?? It just never happens. No fear claims him. At this point a lot of people are convinced he's an Avatar because of how his life is intertwined with the Fears but nope. Just some guy who can bluff pretty decently, gets lucky a lot, and loves his End-Avatar fiance a whole bunch :] (yes they're engaged now)

Graham Folger Lives because The Eye Is A Backseat Gamer

One of my Eye Graham AUs :] The main one, you could say! In this one, The Eye backseat-games his MAG 003 experience, and he Knows where to hide, what to do, and how to survive. After that, he goes on to start working at the institute, becomes an Archival Assistant after Jon's promotion, and goes through the horrors! I also talked about it Ages ago, right here- hold on that was in MAY???? 2023????? 10 months ago???? This is messed up.

Anyway! here's a little something I have written about it so far :]

DeathNote intro

Just me trying to explore how Graham and Oliver might've met, grown closer, gotten together and stayed together for 6 years :] No clue if I'll ever publish this and if so, if I'll use it as a backstory/background for one of my AUs or as its own stand-alone thing? But yeah it's just the two of them growing closer and falling in love :] You can have this snippet of it, too! It's their literal first meeting!

Antique seller Graham

Talked about this one here! I will probably do so again soon! But you can also have a snippet, since I guess writing all this really put me in a snippet mood! This is from this AU's version of Amy's statement :D

Cockroach Graham AU

I don't think I need to elaborate.

[ernmark]

Ask Game!

Thank you to @sapphosewrites for thinking of me for this <3

How many works do you have on AO3?

I'm almost up there with Sapphose-- I've got 141, though I really need to finish tranferring my really old fics from my fanfiction.net account.

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

Those 141 fics give me a grand total of 969,127 words.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

My biggest fandoms are The Penumbra Podcast, Star Trek: Deep Space 9, Welcome To Night Vale (that's an oldie, hot damn) and Les Miserables, with Les Mis being the most recent one I've been active in.

4. Top 5 Fics By Kudos

I'm honestly surprised that Haunting, but not haunted (Penumbra Podcast ghost AU) has overtaken The Issue of Omniscience (WTNV). Just Like an Angel (WTNV Wingfic) ranks just behind those two, then The Case Files of J. Steel (a very very large Penumbra Poscast one-shot collection). What surprised me was I Could Be Your Own Avenging Angel (DS9 alternate take on Empok Nor) making the top five-- apparently that one's gotten some recs lately, which pleases me immensely. The fact that all of these are fairly sexy is not a surprise to me.

5. Do you respond to comments?

I read them all, I squee in delight at them all, but a lot of times I'm just flummoxed about what to say in response. I know theoretically just a quick 'thank you' is appropriate, but it feels... I dunno, trite?

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Listen, I'm an absolute sucker for angst, but I tend to go with bittersweet rather than outright angst in the ending.

Just a Little Wooden Boy (OFMD) is the most recent, and plays hard with the idea of deep hurt turning love into something cold that can't be fixed. (Like a Terrier (Sherlock) has a similar vibe.)

Stay With Me (Wolf 359) just plain tragedy. Eiffel succumbs to the Decima virus, the other humans are forced to flee the station, and so Hera is left to comfort him in his final hours. It's in the same vein as The Way Things End (Supernatural) and Off the Path (Bioshock Infinite) where they're very much about accepting death when it can't be fought anymore-- but in the other two, there's the hope of accompanying your loved one on the other side, where Hera is now just trapped alone with her grief and the body of her friend.

7. What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I genuinely don't know how you would even go about judging that.

Most of my multichapter fics end with the idea that there's still work to be done-- causes to fight for, mental illness to struggle against, relationship issues to work out. The thing is that they now have a framework for dealing with the problem at hand.

So given that-- Of the Rapture That Impels (Les Miserables) deals with sinking into grief and despair and ends with actually being able to see a light at the end, which is pretty much the epitome of a happy ending in my book.

Skin and Scales (Penumbra Podcast) has the most classically happy ending, I think.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Thank all that is holy, I haven't gotten direct hate on fics since high school-- the fandoms I've been in have been lovely, and anyone who has unkind things to say about them has been polite enough to do it where I don't need to see it.

9. Do you write smut?

Yup.

10. Craziest crossover

I almost never do crossovers, actually. But years ago (so long ago that it hasn't actually been migrated to AO3 yet) I wrote a 9/Labyrinth crossover in which 7 was in fact Sarah, transfigured by the Goblin King in order to save her from the machine apocalypse.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I think they might have been yanked over to wattpad or whatever once or twice. It happens, it gets reported, I move on.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I don't believe so-- or if it's happened, it was long enough ago that I've forgotten.

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

Yes. And let me tell you, I am very bad at being a co-writer. The more successful stuff looks less like co-writing and more like parallel play in the same sandbox.

14. All time favorite ship?

I'm with Sapphose here in that I don't have one favorite ship, so much as I have a favorite dynamic. I'm a sucker for damaged, self-loathing characters who are so determined to do right by the person they love that they wind up becoming better (stronger, happier) people for it.

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

Just one?

Probably A Dynasty of Liars (DS9). I love that story so much, but I genuinely have no idea where it would go next or how I would execute it.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I'm told that my angst is pretty damn solid, and that I can get voices pretty well.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Scene transitions, and particularly those detailed descriptions where we describe where we're at. It's one of the things I can get away with more in fanfic than in original writing, because a couple references will convey which setpiece we're in so I don't have to do the work. In anything remotely original, that's a much bigger problem.

18. Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I'm in camp 'translate if the POV character knows it', with the addendum that "and they continued to speak in[language]" tends to be much more effective than actually writing long stretches of that other language, particularly if it's one that the writer isn't fluent in. If the reader doesn't know the second language, it conveys about as much as a keysmash. If they do, then you're prone to embarrassing goofs where you translate something badly without knowing.

19. First fandom you wrote in?

Lord of the Rings. A self-insert, Boromir-lives AU.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Pretty much any longfic that I've actually completed, I think. But lately, I'm partial to A Change of a Bizarre Kind (Les Miserables), because I did some stuff with the POV and structure that I'm really proud of.

Now that you've gotten to see me ramble, I'll go ahead and tag @ryosei-hime, @aftershocked, and @alecjmarsh

[sofoulandfairaday]

heyyy i’m new to bellamort and i think they’ve become my otp already thanks to you,

what are your favourite recs? mostly sweet, however much they can be and some spicy ones.

thank you!!!

Anon, this comment made me GIGGLE like an idiot, huge grin on my face - thank you thank you thank you so much. This is the best compliment I’ve ever gotten! It literally means the world.

With that being said - and this goes for the other people in my inbox asking for recs - I’m not the best person to ask. Firstly, I don’t read that much fanfic (hi, med student running on virtually no sleep here) and I’m always behind on reviews (fanfiction is meant to be enjoyed from my laptop with a cup of tea and no one in the house so i can weep/shriek/pace etc). Secondly, I suck at keeping track of what I read.

Thirdly, your ask in particular is virtually impossible because I live for the grief. I lap up angst like a kitten does milk.

Sweetness… meh. (Except of course when I cry and moan about the fact that I need to stop reading for the day because a fanfic literally made my heart ache. I'm telling you, I suffer more for these two than I do my irl friends and that says something about me.)

Anyway, this is what I’ll do. I’ll link some of my favourite authors (in English, if you want Italian recs just ask and I will deliver) and I’ll leave you to browse their pages and see what speaks to you. These are just off the top of my head, and on Tumblr and around Ao3 (if you know how to filter), you'll find other great ones!

(If I forget someone, or if anyone who reads *is* a Bellamort author, feel free to tag them/yourself in this post, or in a reblog.)

@star-named-riddle - Nefaria_Black @saintsenara - Asenora @deslea - deslea (where are you, girl, I need you) Abigail Belle (ex Gamma Orionis) (see above) meanwhiletimely (see above) Also, there's this masterpiece by @metalomagnetic featuring Rodolphus which GHHHHHHHH. Is all I'll say. Screaming, crying, hollering, etc etc etc. (There's also this masterpiece by the same author but even looking it up to link it made me shake and I won't speak of it until I have processed my grief because I have people to see later in the day and I cannot be dazed or aching or in tears or shellshocked by the rawness of the writing etc etc etc)

And finally, the most recommended (and popular, I think) Bellamort fanfiction ever, which I admit I've never read in full (I know, I know, believe me when I say I have no time/mental fortitude) which is of course Surrogate.

They are all absolutely brilliant for reasons I wish I could get into right now (they deserve proper recs, this hasty reply does not do them justice). They all present different but equally fascinating versions of my characters.

Unfortunately, none of them are really saccharine/fluffy. There is softness but it's always bittersweet in most of them. WHICH IS HOW I LIKE IT MUAHAHHAA- coff coff.

Happy reading! :)

[winkle-pickers]

Do you have a list you'd be willing to share of your favorite Honda and kaiba fanfics? Your art has gotten me into the ship and I'd like to consume as much content for them as possible

OH HELLO, good morning to me, this is one of the best asks I've ever gotten!!!

OK so Honda/Kaiba (well. Honda fics in general lol) can be a little tricky to find, sometimes it's tagged but ends up being a background pairing. So for my starter-pack list I'll be recommending fics where it's the main pairing and endgame 💖 There are many other great ones, but these are the ones I'd personally start with! Enjoy!

Hare's To You (by an orphaned account 🥲)

A really, really funny fic where Kaiba is turned into a rabbit after an unfortunate run-in with a magical being. (It's his own fault for being a dick.) He's found by Honda, lover of animals and all around great human being. It's a great fic bc Kaiba is the world's most bitey and pissed-off rabbit, Honda is completely ignorant & impervious and LOVES his new awful pet, and Kaiba gets a peek into Honda's daily life and starts to really think differently about him. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23072017/chapters/55188724

Ways of Handling It by Kharasma

Kaiba's fancy motorcycle breaks down on the side of the road, and Honda happens upon him. It's short but SOOO good, it characterizes them both really well and illustrates one of my fav stubbornship dynamics, where Honda gets through to Kaiba just by being. Well, stubborn. But in a very kind and unobtrusive way, so Kaiba doesn't even realize Honda is getting through to him until it's too late. >:) Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/37613125

The Homoerotic Art of Sword Fighting (by an orphaned account 🥲)

The AO3 title and summary don't do this fic justice. It's a really fascinating fantasy AU where every sentence is just crammed with really cool worldbuilding, presented so naturally that you feel immersed in the setting. It's a oneshot so that's a real accomplishment! Kaiba & Honda have such a fun dynamic in this one - Kaiba is the pursuer here, trying to hit his dumb-bag-of-bricks knight over the head with "I WANT YOU STUPID" and Honda is too dutiful and oblivious to really get it. (He gets it eventually.) Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23743630

Return of the Zombies by GayKaiba

Really you should check out all of this writer's works. The actual hero keeping this ship afloat and has been feeding all us stubbornshippers for years!! It was hard to pick just one. But this Zombie AU is just SOOOO good. It's exciting, creepy, great pacing, and of course the Honda/Kaiba in this one is top tier. I loved seeing them work together in this specific way. It highlights how badass and tough they both are in their own ways, but then they have these really tender moments that just make me go AHHHHhHHHHH Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/44869699/chapters/112895374

On fulcrums and floral blends by lysimachias

And then if I may be a little conceited and rec my own fic :) I had fun with this one bc it's a coffee shop AU, but I flipped things to have Kaiba be the world's grumpiest barista and Honda as the regular customer. It's about their budding romance but also about family and found family, and just generally that nebulous, confusing, fun & bittersweet period in your early twenties where you and your friends are all navigating the boundaries of adulthood together. I was quite proud of this one, especially since it's pushing my cherished agendas of Honda being an insufferable tea snob, and Kaiba pretending he drinks black coffee but then making himself disgustingly sweet lattes when no one else is looking. Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/40948185/chapters/102619068

[wifiwuxians]

20 questions writer meme.

tagged by @heyholmesletsgo THANK YOUUU

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

not counting things i'd rather remained anonymous, 21!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

513,621 lol

3. What fandoms do you write for?

mdzs, vaguely tgcf, hotline miami (though mostly past tense) and we'll see about the future

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Wei Wuxian's Super Special Super Secret Book Club still reigns supreme with 1229 kudos, and will most likely be my legacy despite it being the second fic i ever wrote for the fandom (i think?)

If You're Reading This, It's Too Late with 513, one would think i'd still be messing around with this AU but i'm happy to leave it where it is and just keep messing around with the crackship

Dawn Chorus, my most precious baby, at 251 by some miracle despite being oc/canon. you guys spoiled me with the love for this one tbh. none of my other xue yang centric works got anywhere near this close and i'm at peace with that because he's bonking my oc in this one and they have a kid.

The Book Club Extras at 232, which is hilarious when compared to the original but at least new readers will see there's more and maybe in the year 2055 i will publish them for fun

Frozen Pond with 156 at the end of the list, written for my friend @petitjams and taking place in a silly AU we made together (wen chao stays winning on here which is very funny)

i'm attributing the popularity of the first two to mostly being centered around super popular characters, because my later stuff is naturally better yet struggling haha

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

always unless they're like just emoji, because i like conversation! though i may also reply with a little heart hehe

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

i wouldn't call it angstiest ending, it's bittersweet, but the threads that bind us is my top pick. and it also needs more readers so go read it. your hands and mine has a bit of an 'angsty' ending but only for song lan. xue yang had it coming :p 💖

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

excluding the two above, so far they all have a happy ending, or at least neutral??? i'd say Book Club, though, because that's the massive 'everybody lives!!' silly fixit fic

8. Do you get hate on fics?

nope. i hope i didn't just jinx it. i get hate on art and through anon though! woo! (not anymore on here tho thank god)

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

i do and i feel like it sucks so i almost always end up fading to black LMAO my actual explicit stuff remains private... it's like too embarrassing for me. i got judged for it as an 18 year old and 10 years later haven't gotten over it. i like bondage and bdsm though and that seems to crop up in private 😏

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

i do on occasion! i love roleplaying them, but the only one i have out there is The Way To His Heart Is Through His Stomach (Oh God Please Don't Eat Me), which mixes mdzs and tgcf characters in a unique setting :3

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not to my knowledge, but i've had art stolen plenty so i wouldn't even be surprised

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes, a few have been translated into russian!

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

NOT YET BUT IT'S IN THE CARDS

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

all time? jeez. somebody tell me why i always freeze up and go blank when asked these simple questions? it's like i forget who the fuck i am. i feel like i should also say songxiao? but they're relatively new so it doesn't seem correct. fuck it. my all time favorite ship is [DATA MISSING OR CORRUPTED-- PLEASE PROCEED TO NEXT QUESTION]

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

haha... (looks at my abandoned hlm fic with the seventh chapter halfway written) haha...

16. What are your writing strengths?

i'd definitely say dialog. it makes sense, since the stuff i'm most used to doing is drawing silly comics. i also like to ping-pong emotions around and feel like i'm pretty good at that too

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

using the same words over and over and feeling like i never write Enough, like everything is always light and never in depth. i don't like making scenes too heavy with padding but i also feel like i need to find a balance

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

i'll do it only if it's a language i speak!!! this doesn't apply to peppering words like gege and stuff just for funsies. i think the best way to go about it is to just tell the audience what language they're speaking in that moment

19. First fandom you wrote for?

we're gonna have to go back to when i was 10 years old here lol... i think it was tokyo mew mew in terms of stuff i put online (oh god)

20. Favorite fic you've written?

it's hard to pick favorites, but i once again must say the threads that bind us in terms of work i'm most proud of.

i tag whoever sees it, plus @sugarapplebaby because ily

[lollytea]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Mar tagged me in this. Thank you Mar <333

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

22

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

358,837

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Owls....for now and the foreseeable future. Other things in the past but....owls. Owls and nothing else.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

There's Sunshine in Your Smile

Atlas and the Avid Reader

A Little Change

An Exercise in Understanding

Girl Talk

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

I don't, I'm sorry!! When I first started posting on ao3, I answered every comment I got, but as more came in, I realized I was running out of ways to respond and it felt like I was just copy and pasting "thank you so much omg!!!" again and again and it felt awkward and disingenuous. (I meant it tho!! I did!!)

Also I never have any idea how to respond to long essay type comments that were picking the fic apart and highlighting everything they like about it. I ADORE those comments!!! They make me happier than anything else on earth but HOW can I respond to them?? A one liner thanks feels cheap and meaningless, but a long ramble about my own stuff feels arrogant.

So I just stopped replying to comments altogether. But listen please listen!!! I do read them!!! I read every single one of them and I love and appreciate them with all my heart!!! Thank you so so SO much to anybody who's ever left a comment on anything I've written!!!

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

I don't really write angsty endings. I guess atlas and pages both ended on a bit of a bittersweet note? Maybe.

That one ducktales fic Fearless left off on a kinda angsty cliffhanger, only because I never finished it. So it's technically an ending

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

Man I dunno most of them are kinda open ended (or unfinished) I suppose A Little Change ended on a sickeningly sweet note. Like disgustingly sweet (because I was 19 and stupid and had no concept of subtlety) Penniless Promises ended with a marriage proposal.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No the only hate comment I've ever gotten is this one

It kinda annoys me. I consider your first hate comment to be a special milestone in your fanfic writing history. I've been waiting years for this. And then I FINALLY get it but I have no fucking idea what it means.

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

I've written bits and pieces over the years but I don't post any of it. I think the last "smut" I posted was weird werewolf knotting shit in like 2017

What kind? Fuckin uhhhhh. It's always very fluffy. Usually there's nothing weird going on. Sometimes there's monsters involved but the monsters are usually massive sweethearts who just want love.

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

No

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yes. A few times. And it's always fucking wattpad. At one point, somebody put my fic through Google translate and reposted it in Spanish. I would have been completely unaware if somebody hadn't messaged me about it.

The process of getting them to take it down was a fucking circus. Their ability to use Google translate suddenly vanished the moment I contacted them.

I reported it and had to go back and forth with Wattpad support because the fic was IN SPANISH, so they just kinda glanced at it and were like "This is not the same thing that you wrote. These are different words. Spanish words." I was losing my MIND!!!!!!

They took it down eventually. Anyway...sorry I went on a tangent, I just think this is a funny story. Moral of the story is there are probably several stolen fics on wattpad and run through translators, and we have no idea. There might be more of mine on there but honestly I do not have the energy to be monitoring the stupid site. I hate wattpad so much its unreal.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

As we have just learned from the above story, yes :D!!

But also yeah, some people asked permission to translate my stuff and post it with credit. Sunshine has been translated into Spanish and Ukrainian!

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

No I can barely manage to write them myself

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

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

Undocumented Events of March 23rd. I might update it at some point in the next five years. But I had so many chapters planned that it will probably never reach the ending at the pace I'm going with it. But I love the jungle book husbands. I get back to them at some point in time

16. What are your writing strengths?

Word disease is the worst fucking thing ever but it CAN be a good thing in some circumstances. A huge meaty chunk of a fic. Something to dig into. Having a lot to say can lead to a lot to write. And the more you write, the more likely you'll get some quality stuff in there.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I repeat. Word disease is the worst fucking thing ever. And when it's coupled with a complexity addiction, UGGH!!! It's a blight on my life. I can't just write a simple straightforward fic, without getting carried away and the ideas just get bigger and bigger. Suddenly I'm implementing more elaborate concepts, scenes that need to be handled delicately. Everything takes absolutely all of my brainpower because I'm a neurotic overthinker who can never just RELAX and write something fun. And I WANT all of it. I want to execute all the plans that exist in my head but then I get overwhelmed by how big and complicated everything has gotten and I get burned out. Which is why things so rarely get done.

I'm a perfectionist. A horrible terrible one. I struggle to write ANYTHING without carefully constructing every individual line of it. Which makes progress so slow and tedious. I get scared to even START fics because I'm afraid I'll make myself feel awful again if they don't turn out good.

My grammar is very imperfect but I'm working on that.

I can be very unnecessarily wordy and take forever to get to the point. I've reread my own stuff and even I have difficulty following it because the sentences just have so many bells and whistles for no good reason. I completely forget a huge chunk of vocab and don't realize they are simpler way to phrase things.

My attempts at executing believable emotional scenes often fall kinda flat. Writing drama is hard but I'm amazed by some people's capability to master it so I'm chipping away at it, hoping to get better.

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

I don't really have any thoughts at all about them. Literally none.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I'd like to say it was Trolls but it was actually Hetalia when I was like 14. But I do everything within my power to distance myself from Hetalia, so I like to say it doesn't count. But....need to be honest.

20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

Currently, at this point that I am at, the ones I used to be the most proud of now feel like they were a waste of time. I'm sure that will change again in a few months. How I feel about my own stuff is never consistent. The way that this question is phrased implies a forever favourite. Something I loved then, I love now and will love in future, and that is just never the case.

But also I don't wanna be an Eeyore about it, so I'll say a trance, a dance, a romance perchance?

I really do love my fairy Willow. She's so special to me :D!!

Tagging: after writing this whole post, I now feel very weird tagging people specifically and being like "HEY YOU! Look at this post I made <33" This is like a don't look at me post. BUT I do have lots of writer mutuals. And writer followers. If you're one of them and you see this....you!!!! Tag youre it!!!!

[floating-in-the-blue]

Twenty Questions Writer Meme

Thank you soooo much for tagging me @nuandia <3 <3 <3

How many works do you have on AO3? 84

What's your total AO3 wordcount? 341,785

What fandoms do you write for? currently (and for the foreseeable future), it's only Julie and the Phantoms (with a very minor guest spot from Red White & Royal Blue). In the past, I've also written for Metal Gear Solid and Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries with a few more random ones sprinkled in, but usually just for a single fic or two.

What are your top five fics by kudos? Will You with 409 kudos (one of my earliest jatp fics when the fandom was still hungry) Home is Where My Ghost is 253 kudos (even earlier jatp fic but let's be real, not as good) In Your Starlight  253 kudos as well (the jatp Star Trek au) Silent Souls  with 254 kudos (somehow this little Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them soulmate au got really popular) Under My Skin  208 kudos (a silly, fluffy Metal Gear Solid tattoo artist/florist au)

Do you respond to comments? I really want to say "always" but there's a few that I haven't responded to yet. Though mainly because I've been talking with the people on other sites already. But in general, save my few lapses, I do believe that it's only good manners to say 'thank you' if someone takes the time to not only read but also comment what you've written.

What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Well, the angstiest ending, because very sad and bittersweet, is the one I wrote for Nature 2.0 but which hasn't been published yet but I love a lot. There's two more finished Metal Gear Solid fics with sad endings, Dear Dave and Battlefield, because they're both, strictly speaking, major character death fics. The death just happens to be more or less natural at the end of a (mostly) fulfilled life.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Except for the sadder MGS fics, most of my fics have proper happy endings so I'm not sure. The Star Trek AU has a very hopeful ending that I quite like and I think my current wip, the Alex Adoption Fic, will have a very happy ending, especially considering the beginning.

Do you get hate on fics? I have once received anon hate on a prompt fill gift fic that asked for genderswapped Snake/Otacon because the anon thought I was transphobic. It was honestly very laughable so I didn't take it very seriously. And of course there was the whole blacklist disaster in the jatp fic and me ending up on that list because I'd dared to write jatp smut (once, at that point, very loving, with aged-up characters). But I didn't receive hate on the actual fic, either on AO3 or here.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yes, see above ;D I've gotten better at the steaminess, I think, but my characters still talk more than I usually expect them to (though I love it) and they're also very bad at hiding their feelings. I also like to keep it a little down to earth with some awkwardness or clumsiness and lighthearted notes. So no hardcore pwp with only bare resemblances to the actual characters from me. I do believe even the sexiest times need to make sense with the characters ;D

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? The earliest fanfic lil me ever attempted was a massive crossover of Star Trek (TOS and VOY), Stargate, X-Files and Star Wars (and maybe a few other things I can't remember right now) but I never got very far. Incidentally, that's the only fanfic of mine my parents ever read (they were very encouraging ... not sure what they would think of things now XD). But actually published fic? I might forget some earlier things, but I don't think I've ever written a crossover with characters from two distinctly separate fandoms meeting somehow (except co-writing, see answer below). Only ever AUs with maybe a borrowed universe or plotlines.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? not as far as I know. There was somebody who stole a bunch of smut fics for jatp and posted them over on wattpad but mine weren't among them. Still not sure whether to be glad or affronted about that ;P

Have you ever had a fic translated? I have! Silent Souls (Vietnamese translation) ... it's all in the title ;D It got 8 kudos and a bookmark. It doesn't really count but I've also translated rpg-turned-fics written by me and a friend into English and once I get access to those files again (hopefully saved from my old hard drive) I'd like to get back to those and finish the translation. Maybe once I run out of inspiration for jatp if no other fandom has claimed me by then.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Evidently, the answer is sort of. They weren't properly written as fic. But turning an rpg into a fic was also a lot of fun and a nice challenge. Luckily, my writing partner's and my own style meshed well enough so it was easier to put it together. As vans already mentioned, she and I brainstormed a very nice polyphantoms idea that I still quite like but we never got beyond brainstorming. I might ask her if I could tackle the idea again now she's moved on to other fandoms but I'm not sure I could write polyphantoms any more. I also once wrote a self-insert Final Fantasy X/Dark Angels crossover fic with a friend in high school. It was not good but lots of fun.

What's your favorite all-time ship? I'm assuming this is about writing and then the answer is obviously Willex (Alex/Willie from jatp) because I've written so much for them and still have so many ideas. But I also really enjoyed writing for Snake/Otacon from Metal Gear Solid. They're angstier and burdened with more baggage and their canon ending is more bitter than bittersweet but the philosophical soldier/genius nerd combination is a very nice flavour to explore.

What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? Nature 2.0 probably. It's the only one of those ambitious fics I actually started posting on AO3 and so will forever haunt me there. I'm not saying never but it is very unlikely at the moment.

What are your writing strengths? I think character, dialogues, and scene flow. I'm also a decent editor (for a non-native speaker) so pretty all of my stories should be pretty readable without having to stumble over frequent repetitions or typos or weird tense changes.

What are your writing weaknesses? action scenes and PLOTTING

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? Does it count as writing dialogue in another language if I'm writing in English even though I'm not a native speaker? XD As for other other languages. It hasn't come up yet, tbh.

First fandom you wrote for? Aside from the aforementioned massive crossover lil Yeo attempted as a young teen, I think it was the self-insert Final Fantasy X (never published, thankfully) with a friend.

Favorite fic you've written? This is always difficult but also not. I think the one fic I am 100% happy with is Call For a Date, (Don’t) Fall in Love the willex fake boyfriend agency au. That doesn't mean I don't love my other fics though because I generally do.

I'm not sure who's done this and who hasn't but let's try @innytoes and @jonairadreaming <3

[zombolouge]

twenty questions for fic writers

tagged by the incomparable and enchanting @icescrabblerjerky , and you caught me while I'm already comparing writing stats for other things so this fits in well with that task ;)

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 19 baybeee

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 2,319,545. I am. Verbose.

3. What fandoms do you write for? Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Legend of Zelda, Ace Attorney, Mystic Messenger, and then I wrote the novelization of the song 6969 by Ninja Sex Party and a Caduceus character study for CR.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Indefensible (Ace Attorney) has 1,234 (HA!)

As Bright as the Stars (Mystic Messenger) has 1111 (ALSO HA)

Tearing Down the Heavens (Dragon Age: Inquisition) has 730

Hundred Years in the Making (LoZ: Breath of the Wild) has 627

We Are Ferelden (Dragon Age: Origins) has 271

Genuinely really surprised none of the Mass Effect fics are in this category, I'm so proud of those XD

5. Do you respond to comments? Absolutely always, whenever possible. lol I will also ramble at anyone that asks me questions.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Probably The Traveler, which I warn you from the very start has a sad ending. It's Dragon Age fic retelling the stories Solas tells of his time dreaming in the Fade, with the trappings of a Doctor Who theme in which he travels through the fade with a series of companions.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Uhhhhhhh I think probably We Are Ferelden comes closes to a happy ending? Eventually I will give my DA series an actual happy ending though. Most of them end either bittersweet in some way or as a sort of non-ending ending because I know the story continues.

8. Do you get hate on fics? I've gotten a wee bit of hate on the Zelda fic, Hundred Years in the Making, but it was fairly mild. I don't really respond to it much though because it's hard for a stranger to say something that will actually hurt my fee fees XD

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Oh yeah, sure. Most my fics contain smut of some kind. I don't really write smut without plot, though, it's gotta be a natural part of the narrative or I just lose interest.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? I have not. I just haven't thought of one that caught my attention enough to want to write it down.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I'm aware of. I have had some lines and suggestions used, but usually that's with credit. lol now I HAVE had jokes and things I've said stolen but that's a bit different.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope! I'd prob be open to it but I'd deffo want credited as the OG author.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes! I think it's been orphaned now though lol

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship? I CAN'T CHOOSE THIS. But prob Shakarian.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? I will finish all my WIPs, how dare you doubt me. (The Traveler would have been my choice for this but I FINISHED IT NOW MOTHERFUCKER)

16. What are your writing strengths? Words....go many. Big words. lmao honestly I don't ever really know. I think I'm good at characterization.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Brevity.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I do it sometimes, but usually make an author's note that it's done with shitty translation software so it will not be Authentic. (if I were putting it in a novel I'd prob pay to have someone look it over, but fic is free and thus my resources put into it are limited lol)

19. First fandom you wrote for? I'm gonna assume the AU crossover I wrote for Pokemon/Dragonriders of Pern/Zelda/Narnia when I was 9 does not count. lol it was Dragon Age tho

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written? My Mass Effect series, I think. I love different things about all my fics, usually because I was doing different things in all of them, but A Name for the Stars trilogy is something that I'm most proud of. Almost every scene in that serves a plot purpose and I wove a LOT of different things together to create one cohesive thing, and I think if you can get through all of it, it has the biggest bang for the buck. Also I burned that realllll slow XD

I will tag @jusbeinkt and @kesla and @literarypeachtea and @tinkeringteacup (do it if you feel like it, no pressure here frens lol)

[reggieblk]

20 questions for fic writers

thank you sm for the tag, @liquidluckandstuff !! <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Currently 4, though there should be another arriving before the end of the year

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

278,494 but with me being the kind of person to not post WIPs, that number is not representative of how many words I've actually written.

I just checked all my docs, and my unpublished WIPs come out to 460 393 words so far (across 4 different long fics and 3 oneshots).

So my actual word count is 738 887. what the fuck. i started writing this year btw (in february i think) so this is probably a sign of something worrying lol

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Harry Potter

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I only have 4 fics posted but the order is : equals in life, let the light in, love is such a dreadful thing (and dread is so lovely), and to hold your life in my decaying hands

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

Yes! I just enjoy interacting with people who took the time to read, enjoy, and comment on my fics. People are generally very nice to me too, so it's always a pleasure to chat.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't really do angsty endings lol. I suppose I have to say equals in life bc it's bittersweet? but it's not angsty imo

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

We're gonna have to stray into WIP territory here, but I'm going to have to say If we were lovers; the ending is very sweet

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I have not, no, which I am super grateful for lol. I have gotten annoyingly critical comments though

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

Yes! I'm confused about the second part of the question, what kind? Idk man they bone, what more can I say? But I do write explicit smut scenes bc they're fun

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

I have not!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge :)

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! I've had a few people inquire about translating equals in life and they're always so so lovely and respectful! Thank you to all translators out there!

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

I have not, no.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

If you asked me this last year I would've said Drarry, and my answer would have been the same over the last ten years. However, I have come to favour Tomarry & Harrymort, I sway more closely to Harrymort between the two but not enough for me to give a definitive answer.

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

Er, I didn't count this one in my answer to the word count question but I have a tiny bit of it written. It would've been an eighth year Drarry fic where Harry's struggling through the aftermath of losing Voldemort's soul -- it would've been the most Harrymort coded Drarry fic lmao. But I don't think I'll ever finish it, simply bc my other WIPs are a lot more interesting.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I would say dialogue, and I'm quite good at what I call recall, I rarely forget details about my fics so I like sprinkling in recalls to lots of little details previously mentioned, sometimes so small the reader wouldn't be able to pick them up I think.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Action scenes are the bane of my existence. I'm just Not Good at them. The writing doesn't flow, the scene is badly set up, they're just not my thing. I actually have a WIP I started in the hopes of getting better at action scenes haha.

I'm not that good at describing people. With it being fanfiction I just assume people know what they look like, but even if they do, physical descriptions add so much to the fic, and I should do them more often.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I'm guilty of this lol. I like doing it in french bc it's fun, but for another fic I had to sprinkle in some italian (i don't speak italian) and it's just stressful (thankfully my beta does understand italian so they helped me). I try not to do it in languages I don't speak.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I'm going to say Harry Potter, but I'm not going to check that. I know that when I was younger I wrote quite a bit of fanfic I kept to myself, and I'm fairly certain the first was Harry Potter. But I also know I wrote some other stuff that I will not be disclosing lol

20. Favourite fics you’ve written?

I have to say it, equals in life (partners in death)

But, I'm very fond of this oneshot I wrote: to hold your life in my decaying hands

And my favourite long fic I've written is If we were lovers, which will hopefully be out before the end of the year.

Tagging: @auphaniim @thequietsoliloquy @tommarvoloriddlesdiary & @pinktom (pretty sure some of you have already been tagged, sorry) no pressure ofc!! x

[more-better-words]

20 Writer Questions

Tagged by @mytardisisparked. Aw, thank you ☺️

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

52!

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count?

546,530. And it ever increases! (to be fair, a full third of that is one fic <.<)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

At tthe moment, the Star Trek: Enterprise brainrot continues to be extremely real. But if you look over my fandoms list, there's a diversity of very niche and obscure properties!

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Far and away, the four fics that make up my ENT series Built to Last, though not in order lol

What We Build Here

For the Duration

From the Ground Up

The Place We Call Home

And then Lay Down the Beat, which is a Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency joint.

5. Do you respond to comments?

Heck yeah! I am massive ho for comments and love to respond to them.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I have an allergy to angst - I read and write fic because I love the characters and want them to be happy, so about the worst I can manage is bittersweet. So probably What We Build Here, but ONLY because I knew it would have a followup and everything would be okay!

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

All of them! The fic's not over til the happy ending gets here!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Never on AO3, but I have gotten some rude anons here on tumblr in the past.

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

Kinda. 😄 I've written some M rated Trip/T'Pol that is inevitably very vanilla and very sweet.

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

I don't - I don't think my brain's wired right for crossovers.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not in the manner that this question is asking, but I do consider the AI scrapping stuff to be theft and I'm not cool about it.

Stealing this answer from @mytardisisparked, because yeah

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? 

Nope

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

Years ago I worked on a massive Baldur's Gate 2 AU with a friend that was a lot of fun. Never did publish any of it, which is a shame.

In my more modern writing era, no, though I have been the grateful recipient of a lot of ideas and positive feedback from some very wonderful people (most especially my beloved @pajamasecrets, but also @candiedsumire, @deadheaddaisy, @followersarepeopletoo, and a host of others)

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Every ship i've ever written is my favorite!

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

Probably the sequel to In a Strange Land. That one just...*sigh*

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue, definitely. I can sit there and have characters chat endlessly and be happy as can be.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

All the parts around the dialogue 😅

I struggle a lot with plotting. The answer to the question "what happens next?" makes me break out in a cold sweat.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

As it's never really been an issue for me…none, really.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

If someone dug up my old LJ (and I won't tell you where to look), they'd find some extremely middling (and unfinished) Buffy the Vampire Slayer fic.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

That changes depending on the weather, the phase of the moon, or the barometric pressure. I love them all for different reasons. 😁

Tagging anybody who want to play along!

[asexual-fandom-queen]

Fanfic Writer 20 Questions

I was tagged by @nixie-deangel to do fanfic writer 20 questions, so let's dive in! Tagging @42wallaby-way-sydney @fatherofthebride @coldtomyflash to participate, if they are so inclined.

How many works do you have on AO3? 72

What's your AO3 word count? Just shy of 366,000

What fandoms do you write for? I started out doing most of my writing for The Flash/Arrowverse, but most recently have moved on to writing primarily for Stranger Things, Ted Lasso, 9-1-1, and Teen Wolf

What are your top five fics by kudos? 1. Turn And Face The Strange (Stranger Things, Stoncy) 2. All On The Line (9-1-1, Buddie) 3. Givin' Yourself to Me Can Never Be Wrong (The Flash, Coldflashwave) 4. Hands On Me (I Think I Wanna Let It Happen) (9-1-1, Buddie) 5. House Like a Homecoming (Stranger Things, Poly Monster Hunters)

Do you respond to comments? I do! I kinda never shut up about how important comments are to a fandom's ecosystem, so when I get them, I answer back!

What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I don't usually end fics in full angst mode, but maybe the fic with the most bittersweet ending is Unfair. It's a SethKate (From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series) fic set in the aftermath of a sex pollen situation that leaves them both hurt and vulnerable. But there's still that nugget of hope, because they're hurt and vulnerable together.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? If I'm going for not just pure fluff factor, but how satisfying the happy ending is in the context of the rest of the fic/the source material, I would say Maybe We'll Get Forty Years Together which is a Jamie/Keeley/Roy future fic set during their wedding where Jamie has a chance to hash things out with his father.

Do you get hate on fics? Every once in a blue moon. I write a lot of polyships, and sometimes those polyships are an amalgamation of two sides of a ship war, and people have opinions about that lol. But generally, no.

Do you write smut? What kind? Sure do! I'd say it's what I write primarily. Generally, I write smut with feelings, or angsty smut. Sometimes it's definitely just smut for smut's sake though, which is also fun! I'm a big supporter of being horny on main.

Do you write cross-overs? I don't. The closest I've gotten is writing an AU based on another tv/show. I don't dislike them in principle, I've just never written one myself.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Yes! Someone stole Taste of Your Lips (I'm On A Ride) and changed it from the original pairing of Zari/Amaya from Legends of Tomorrow to a Lauren/Camilla RPF and posted it on Wattpad. I'm very grateful to the person who messaged me on Tumblr to let me know, because the thief did take it down when I confronted them about it.

Have you ever had a fic translated? I have, and it's really cool to have been asked. My Buddie fic Exploration has been translated to Chinese.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Not exactly. I was part of a multi-creator rewrite for season 2 of Legends of Tomorrow, which involved re-plotting and re-drafting as a group, so you could technically count Episode 2: Crisis and Faith.

What's your all-time favourite ship? I'm actually gonna have the dumbest answer for this question because it's a ship I've never written for, probably never will, and don't even really read, but it's Frank Castle and Karen Page from Daredevil/The Punisher. Their dynamic is just exactly what I want out of a ship. No notes.

What's a WIP you'd like to finish, but doubt you ever will? I have an Abby/Buck/Eddie fic that's on permanent hiatus that I almost certainly will never finish, especially because, in working on it, it started to splinter off a lot of ideas and dynamics and scenes I actually want to use for an original novel someday, so I don't see myself ever completing it. I would like to finish that novel though lol.

What are your writing strengths? I think I always feel most proud of my characterization being pretty on point, and I get enough comments to that effect that I don't think I'm just making that up. I also think I'm good at writing in small details that seem minor but make an impact.

What are your writing weaknesses? I fizzle out! I don't have good stamina to go back to something if it's gonna take me more than one sitting to write, which is why most of my stuff falls in the 2-4k range. I also lose steam without feedback and encouragement. My educational background is in creative writing, and I've been a long-time member of fandom, plus part of writer's groups even before then, so the idea of writing being a solitary thing is kinda wild to me.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? To each their own for this. For me, personally, I'll use a word or a very small sentence I'm reasonably confident is correct in a fic, but for longer sentences, I would write in English and just indicate it was said in another language in the dialogue tag. Plus, even if it was a language I do speak fluently like Frech, it doesn't mean readers do, so I think English is still the way to go.

First fandom you wrote for? So, if we're talking first fic ever, we have to go back to when I was five and six years old and I would make little "books" out of folded index cards where I'd write stories about Sailor Moon or Cardcaptors. My first fic on the Internet was back in my FF.net days, and it was a Kyoya/Haruhi fic for Ouran High School Host Club. My first fic on AO3 was actually a multi-chapter Sterek fic that was never completed and that I've since taken down. The oldest fic of mine you can still find posted on AO3 is a multi-chapter Coldflash fic We Could Keep Things Just The Same, the first chapter of which was posted on February 24th, 2016!

Favourite fic you've ever written? I still feel like I've never topped There's a Menace In My Bed; Can You See His Silhouette. There are some edits I might go back and make with my extra eight (EIGHT!?!) years of writing experience, but the core of what that fic accomplishes? The delicious angst? The emotional minefield of dubious consent/sex pollen/fuck-or-die? The smut as character study? The caretaking? This just hit on a lot of things I like, and I'm really proud of it even all these years later.

[bywayofmemory]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Tagged by @iamstartraveller776, thanks!

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 313. 113 of them are 3SF fics so they only sort of count? I haven't even posted 2024's batch yet.

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 452,247

3. What fandoms do you write for? My fandoms list on AO3 is...long. Like 80+ fandoms long. This is once again due to 3SF; fandoms I am or have been actually active in are Firefly, Chronicles of Narnia, Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, Grisha Trilogy/Shadow and Bone, and Greek Mythology.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Drunk on the Dying Light [Grisha Trilogy, Darklina] A blood-soaked amplifier gives Alina the ability to control him, but the Darkling still haunts her; all the more so once she becomes his wife.

Maybe It Will All Come Back to Me [A Song of Ice and Fire, Jon/Arya] The wars are over, Daenerys is on the Iron Throne, and Arya finds Jon at last, though neither of them are who they were before.

Hold My Heart in Two [A Song of Ice and Fire, Jon/Arya/Sansa] The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives, in whatever form.

The World That's on the Other Side [Firefly, Mal/River] When River Tam is fourteen, she meets a man who tells her her future. She doesn't want it, but he's a different matter altogether.

The Ladies Love Wash, and Wash Loves the Ladies [Firefly, Wash & all the women of Firefly] Wash is popular with the womenfolk; it's just a fact of life.

5. Do you respond to comments? I always try to! Usually I am successful.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I don't write unhappy endings too often, but two stand out - Always, we strive to get closer, one of my Narnia Fic Exchange fics from last year in which a post-canon Edmund battles through memories to find Susan, only to find she's not ready to give up living even for him, and A Rush of Blood Is Not Enough, a Folk of the Air sex-pollen fic where Jude unknowingly dubcons Cardan and he's very angry once it wears off.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Most of mine have happy or at least bittersweet endings, so this is hard - but it might well be The World That's on the Other Side, where Mal and River manage to fix everything bad that happened in canon before any of it technically happens at all.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Rarely, since I'm a NNF. I used to get a bit back in the day when I was actively writing Mal/River due to the age gap and mental stability issues inherent in that pairing, and now I get a comment or two on the Darklina fics from time to time. They just get deleted.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yes! I write pretty vanilla M/F and F/F smut; haven't gotten further than the mildest of kinks so far.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? All the time. The craziest are probably the Where's Waldo/LotR or Narnia/Sports Mascot RPF [sort of??? how do you even classify fic in which Gritty appears?], both from 3SF. For non 3SF, it's almost all Narnia/ASoIaF. Probably the most unusual of those is The Truth Without Lying, since that's partly a 1940/50s England AU of ASoIaF as well as a crossover.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of, but I don't look for it.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Yep. There's three of them on AO3, and I've been asked other times, though if those were done they didn't get linked back to my originals.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Only in 3SF, where you can 'cowrite' in terms of leaving a series of prompts or fills with a specific partner or two. That I do almost every year. In the traditional sense, no.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? I don't really work in Firefly anymore for the obvious reasons (dead fandom, the Whedon of it all), but rereading any of my Mal/River work still feels like meeting up with old friends. I love them.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I had a third and fourth part of my Mal/River series Love Keeps Her in the Air planned out, and a good 1/3 of part three written. It's literally the only unfinished fic I have. It never got finished because I moved across the country during the middle of it and my ambition never quite recovered.

16. What are your writing strengths? Dialogue and characterization. I'm very good at getting character voices down (and typically just avoid writing characters I can't get a handle on, honestly).

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Plot. Beginnings. The absolute worst. This is why I have no WIPs; if I manage to actually get something started, the hard part is out of the way for me.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I used to do this all the time in Firefly, using Mandarin phrases they'd used in the show. Everyone did at the time. Now I wouldn't; I'd go the "swore at length in Mandarin" route, or just use dialogue tags and description to indicate the characters are speaking another language, like I do with Valyrian in my HotD fics.

19. First fandom you wrote for? LotR, a very long time ago. Firefly is the first one I published anything for that's still on the internet.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? I have so many favorites! I couldn't possibly choose one, except I could and it's The World That's on the Other Side. The ones written during ~the flow are always my faves, and that one stands out the most in that regard.

Tagging @thatgirlnevershutsup, @wingedflight, @siterlas, @starsuncounted and @oakashandwillow if you want!!

[fitzrove]

Writer Asks

Tagged by @yallemagne (thank you<3) ages and ages ago... Inspired to answer because I just published a fic and feel good about it hjejejfjj

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Undisclosed amount xD I've put a bunch on anon, especially from fandoms I'm not active in anymore (lbr, mostly Endeavour). Publically, it's 26 rn.

2. What's your total ao3 word count?

212040!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Elisabeth, hopefully in the future Tanz der Vampire (I've been thinking about it for like five years), in the past Endeavour (TV).

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

They're all Endeavour because those are older and in a (slightly) bigger fandom... Unfortunately I think they're not the best ones I've written, a lot of them were when I was 18 (no offense to 18 year olds) and had just started writing fanfic ajajjjd. Which is why the top 5 are on anon except for one LOL. I really do think kudos doesn't tend to accumulate "correctly" xD People like familiar tropes and time of posting also affects it, there are many fics of mine I consider "underrated"

My top five kudosed Elisabeth fics are: black as the earth (shortened title), Flights of Angels (todolf longfic), Dominion, Midnight Man & Starwalk. tbh deserved...

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

Yes, I try to respond to every single one of them so people will hopefully comment in the future too, especially if they're kind, funny or thought-provoking!!! However, I delete them if I don't like them or they're weird, boundary-crossing or TMI ahdjfjjf (has happened a handful of times - the joys of writing explicit stuff lol. PSA: do not tell fic authors about your sexual activities in the comments, i do not consent...)

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

I often do bittersweet, or "sweet but also has Implications" >:] Oh and I guess there's a lot of them where Rudolf dies at the end... I think the actual angstiest might be No Forevers (Endeavour fic) even though nobody dies in that one. Though I ruined it by writing a sequel to it, after the showrunner wrote one of the characters back into the show after like 10 years xD In my defense, this wasn't my idea!!!

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

Beams of Morning (Endeavour). I retconned one of my own DIY bittersweet endings whoops... 🤣🤣😭 It's sappy, even, but maybe that's allowed. For elisabeth it's Flights of Angels because the happiest happy endings are ones that feel deserved.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No - I've gotten hate for my headcanons/meta and my video essays though (never to my face ;D) which can be fic adjacent. I guess it's because there's a better tagging system with fic, like, people won't be exposed to stuff they don't want to see as readily as with tumblr and youtube etc. And people also know how to leave other ppl alone!! Ajdjjfjf

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

Yes. The unpleasantly sexy kind 👀

10. Do you write crossovers?

Noooo, I don't really read them either. The kinds of crossovers I like are the ones that are crossovers "in name only"; ie. setting or tropes lifted from one work, characters/cast from another. Wildly incongruent characters showing up in each other's universes and interacting etc doesn't fit into my suspension of disbelief most of the time 😭

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Luckily no!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but I once helped someone translate theirs into English, which was cool. Oh, and recently I've been asked for permission to translate at least one of my fics - I hope it happens because it's always an honor!! >:]

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

I've collaborated on series, but I haven't co-written stuff on a deeper level. I think I'm too much of a control freak to get into it ajsdjjf, I can do stuff inspired by other people and am happy if my stuff inspires other people, but if I need to agree on plot/characterisation with someone consistently I don't think it'd work out, since no two people have identical takes and preferences with stories and characters.

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

For around 2.5 years it's been todolf, it captures a lot of stuff I've liked in fiction for a longer time already >:D I can't really say whether it will be the Ship of a Lifetime for me... I mean it did make me move countries (as one reason of a few) but if someone asked me in the summer of 2016 I would've probably said [checks ao3 reading history] um. h*milton x j*fferson... so like. IT CHANGES A LOT OK ajajsjdj

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but don't think you ever will?

I don't want to doom any of my current wips to the graveyard!!!!!! I am having worries about the fate of my todolf swan lake modern ballet au fic though. The original draft outline is complete but it doesn't really fit my character interpretations for tod or rudolf anymore, it's from january 2022... Idk maybe I can one day rework it somehow with different characterisations ajsjdjf but yeah mostly it's interesting concepts haphazardly tied together but no coherent plot

16. What are your writing strengths?

Imagination/coming up with ideas, metaphors, descriptions (usually), grammar and syntax, writing crown prince rudolf really well (XDD), rhythm/pacing (usually), the way it Sounds (my brain sometimes fixates on phonetics randomly because after all, English is not my first language, and sometimes there'll be like, a really pleasing/satisfying combination of sounds in smth I think to write and I think I'm good at picking up on that, like how it flows and sounds. Idk if those preferences are universal though or if it's just me writing what I think sounds pleasing)

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Writing varied characters, writing varied speech patterns/"character voice" also in narration, vocabulary.... I am but a humble English as a second technically third language speaker,,,, (i'm doing an english language grad school degree rn lol so i think i'm no worse than natives, not humble abt this actually, but i'm on the level of like. a not so well-read native speaker. Because most actual fiction literature I've read in my life has been in Finnish, in English I've just read academic literature, fanfic and like 10 books max! I need to read more and become a better writer ahhdhhdhf)

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

No... Dialogue is a big no from me, it often feels cringe ngl ajsjdjdj. My personal philosophy is "if you need a translator's note for people to understand what's going on, don't put it in" 😅 A lot of the time different languages are also used in fic in nonsensical ways where it will look ok to a lot of people but bother the hell out of native speakers/ppl who speak the language. This is smth that can technically be done well but it's usually not aksldlldd. I think pet names and individual words can be fine but it needs to be done in moderation... I also obsess a lot over research, like, the nuances of the word need to actually mean what the author thinks it means :'D

19. First fandom you wrote for?

First published for Endeavour, first wrote for H*rry P*tter... (never-to-be-published fan comics and little stories as a young kid, like 8 years old).

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Right now it's vers l'onde souterraine... ;) I think I'm constantly improving as a writer and hopefully every fic will be better than the last!!

[nanachachasposts]

Hello! I've started reading your coriolanus/sejamus fic and really liked it!

I know it's a spoiler but I have to ask, will it have a happy ending? I'm thinking as in they manage to live a happy life together, maybe just a bit dark romancy.

Anyways, love the writing and hope you have a great day!

Hiii!

To be completely honest the ending I'm most likely going to go for can only be described as bittersweet at best, mostly for Sejanus. Though I haven't gotten there yet, it's eventually going to be somewhat canon compliant (I'm not killing Sejanus I swear god did not make me his strongest soldier I will not be taking his hardest battles). As much as I'd love to have a happy ending, it's not a viable option without changing one of the characters (and I'm trying my best to write them as in character as I can) Thank you for the kind words! I hope you have the best day ever!

[ljf613]

20 Questions for Writers

I think I've done this one before, but it's been a while, so let's do it again! (Tagged by @pencilofawesomeness)

1. How many works do you have on AO3? Officially, 71. (I also have a handful of fics that I've moved into the anonymous collection-- mostly unfinished WIPs I currently have no plan to return to.)

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 231,362-- I'm so close to a quarter million words, hopefully I'll get there by the end of the year.

3. What fandoms do you write for? The majority of my posted fics are for Avatar: The Last Airbender (plus a few for Avatar: Legend of Korra), and I've written several fics for the Miraculous Ladybug and Fairy Tail fandoms. Currently, the fics I'm working on with the most regularity are for the How to Train Your Dragon and Once Upon a Time fandoms (A Better Version of Our Best and Not My Homeland Anymore, respectively). I've also written fics for numerous other fandoms, including Tales of Arcadia, Fullmetal Alchemist, Teen Wolf, Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, The Familiar of Zero, and The Dragon Prince. And of course, I'm always thinking and plotting out new stories for fandoms I've yet to write for.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? —5. fifteen for a moment - 956 —4. I'm worse at what I do best - 959 —3. we all bend and break sometimes - 1,132 —2. you don't get what all this is about - 1,179 —1. nobody wants to pay the asking price - 1,286 These are all part of my ATLA we all want love/we all want honor series. As a matter of fact, my twenty-one most popular fics-- by a long shot-- are the twenty-one parts of the same series. (Even the least popular, war is not freedom, with 627 kudos, has over twice as many kudos as my most popular non-wawl/wawh fic.) (Part twenty-two, which I just posted this week after a two year hiatus, obviously hasn't gotten quite as much engagement yet, but at the rate the kudos have been coming in, it'll likely be on par with the others within six months, if not sooner.) My five most popular fics outside of this series are as follows: —5. “Can You Please Just Hold Me?” [ATLA] - 243 —4. Nonbender Zuko AU (Outline) [ATLA] - 259 —3. “Are You Jealous?” [ATLA] - 261 —2. i bled out tears (the only water in the desert) [FMA] - 265 —1. The Bells of Kardia Cathedral [Fairy Tail] - 286

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Yes! I love responding to comments for the simple reason that I always want to talk about my stories, and who better to discuss them with than the people who love them enough to leave comments on them?

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Oh, unquestionably It's Winter Again (And I Can't Wait To See You) [ATLA]. I like writing open-ended stories, so sometimes I'll write oneshots with angsty but ultimately hopeful endings (that may or may not end up developing into full-fledged series). This story, however, was not left optimistically open-- it is just angsty and tragic and I LOVE it.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? The happiest? Uh, just going by the completed fics… I want to say Something Like a Love Story [ATLA], which I think has one of the sweetest endings I've ever written, but even though the story itself has a happy ending, it is a pre-canon story about Hakoda and Kya, and anyone reading it knows how their story ended, so it really ends up feeling more bittersweet than anything else. So maybe Just Between Us (Did the Love Affair Maim You Too?) [ATLA]? It's a nice, solid hurt/comfort fic where I really made the characters work for their happy ending, so it does have a sweet, feel-good payoff. But there are three main characters in that story, and only two of them actually get a real happy ending, so maybe not. (Zuko and Toph are definitely living happily ever after, but Mai still has some more work to do before she can say the same.) I guess I've got to go with The Bells of Kardia Cathedral. That was a just a cute, fun little story full of humorous misunderstandings, but at the end of the day, everyone involved got their happy endings.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Honestly, no-- which is pleasantly surprising, considering that a lot of my stuff is kind of niche and involves unpopular and often Problematique ships.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? No, your local neighborhood prude over here is not about to write anything stemier than the occasional chaste makeout scene.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? Yes, but I think about way more crossovers than I've ever actually written. The craziest one is probably a tie between Fairy Tail in NIFLHEIM [Fairy Tail x Shall We Date?: THE NIFLHEIM+] (for pure crackiness) and my untitled Miraculous Ladybug/Fullmetal Alchemist AU (for meshing two canons that had no business blending so well together).

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not really-- there was an incident a while back where someone compiled all of the wawl/wawh series into a single fic, but they posted it privately, and I think they just wanted it all in one place for downloading purposes. In any case, I'm pretty sure it's gone now. (For those interested in having this series all together, it's in one piece on FFN.)

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Not as far as I know. But someone did make a podfic for this side of the sun!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Nah. I've talked about collaborating with a few different writers over the years, but nothing has ever worked out. (Yet!)

14. What's your all-time favourite ship? Nathan and Haley from One Tree Hill. No question.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? The People They Once Were [ATLA/LOK]. This was the first Avatar-verse fic I ever wrote. For so long, I wanted to write something for this fandom, but I had absolutely zero ideas. (In fact, I initially watched LOK with the hope that it would give me some fic-writing fodder, which it did.) And then I finally had this idea, and I was so excited about it, but I didn't quite… know what to do with it. I probably won't ever come back to this one, but I am grateful to it for breaking that ice and allowing me to help me get into writing for this fandom (in which I've been quite prolific).

16. What are your writing strengths? Closing lines and action between dialogue. I try really hard to end everything just the right way, and I do my best to make sure the reader can follow what the characters are doing as they talk to each other. I also like to think I'm decent at writing emotional descriptions.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Fighting scenes and visual descriptions. I have a hard enough time making sure I maintain a solid spatial awareness of what characters are doing where in a normal interaction. (Aphantasia, my beloathed.)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I've done it before, sure. While reading fics in the Fullmetal Alchemist fandom, I noticed that several writers had used Hebrew as a stand-in for the Ishbalan language, and as I have some familiarity with the language (not that I have any real fluency, and I certainly couldn't carry on any more than a very simple conversation, but I can read it well enough, and am comfortable with its syntax and grammatical conventions), I decided I could use it, too. While writing my FMA fic, i bled out tears (the only water in the desert), I also interspersed a bit of Yiddish and Aramaic, as those languages mesh well with Hebrew. The whole thing was really fun! In general, while I'm not against writing dialogue in another language, I'm not well-versed enough in linguistics to invent my own, so it would have to be an actual real-world language, and I would have to have enough of an understanding of said language to be able to play around with it. (Lately, I've been thinking about writing a retelling of one of my favorite biblical stories, in which I would almost certainly use some amount of Hebrew dialogue.)

19. First fandom you wrote for? Well, I vaguely recall writing some proto-fanfiction in elementary school for assignments and stuff ("write about what you think happened to this character after the book was over"), and somewhere out there in the world is a binder with the outline (and a handful of scenes) of an elaborate Twilight fanfic I plotted out in middle school (complete with a vampire creation story!). But the first fandom I really wrote for was Familiar of Zero, back in 2015. This was still three years before I actually discovered fanfiction, but I finished all four seasons of the show in about a week and was struck with such a solid idea of what would happen directly following the final scene (probably some of those old school assignments sticking with me) that I had to write it down immediately. I did eventually post it (basically untouched) on AO3 as Hero's Return. The first fandom I actually posted for was Miraculous Ladybug, not long after discovering AO3. (The first fic I ever posted was A Miraculous Night.)

20. Favourite fic you've ever written? Oh, undoubtedly A Better Version of Our Best. I consider this story my magnum opus-- I love the family drama aspect, the parallel storylines spark such joy, and the worldbuilding and character development has been so interesting. I'm also experimenting with some new storytelling techniques and pacing strategies. I think it's really a culmination of everything I've ever learnt about writing and storytelling (so far!).

Tagging @lynzine and anyone else interested!