#this wip was sitting in my folder for a week but i didn't really feel like finishing it but today i felt pretty distressed and it got me

[mayhemspreadingguy]

“If I had known that I was always doomed to lose him so young…That there was nothing I could do to change his fate…” Dream swallowed and when he spoke again the unshakeable calm of his voice wavered and finally broke, “I would have told him how I loved him, each day when he woke and each night while he dreamed. I would have embraced Eurydice as if she were my own daughter. I would have danced at their wedding.”

“I know,” Hob tightened his arms around Dream. “I know you would have.”

Giving Sanctuary by @avelera

This fic absolutely destroyed me! One of my favourites! Love it! 💕

I had it marked for later and avoided to read it because at the time it was already considerably long and I didn't really have the time for it (I have no self-control I'm hopeless binge reader so it would totally fuck up my schedule). I decided to read it not long ago aaaand then I caught up... to chapter 18 😭. WHY WHYYY WHAT A TERRIBLE TIME TO CATCH UP!?!??!!!

[leofrith]

[20 Question Fic Writer Tag]

Tagged by @aeide and @ainulindaelynn 💖 I did this one a few months ago but a few answers have changed since then so I'll update those. 😊

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Six now! Four one-shots, a short-ish multi-chapter which was supposed to be a one-shot that got away from me, and my longfic which at this point I should have just waited to post but am definitely still chipping away at.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

33,030 which is almost double my count from a few months ago. Woaaaaaaaaahhhh

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Still Assassin's Creed, now dipping into Baldur's Gate 3 as well.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Still the same five fics in the same order but with slightly different numbers:

Hideaway - 149

Bright Skies - 139

Press On, Move Along - 94

Out of the Cold - 43

Honor Bound - 29

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes! Always.

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

Still Press On, Move Along.

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

Still Hideaway.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Still hate-free, for now.

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

Sure do 💀 and I've posted some of it since the last time I did this. I think the only way I can really describe it is emotionally-charged, because if I'm going to horny jail it will at the very least be in service of some kind of character development. 😭

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

Still occasionally poke away at the AC x Star Wars AU, but I'm not super invested in it right now. But I'm sure that will change as soon as a new Star Wars thing comes out. Since I last did this I also went digging through the depths of my writing folder and found a Walking Dead x MCU crossover that I must have started when I was like 14 years old. Absolute fucking horror show that I am so very thankful I never wrote enough to post. 🤡

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Still no, as far as I'm aware.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope!

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

No, except for yelling back and forth about ideas with friends. I would probably be open to it but also maybe not because I know I am extremely unreliable.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Saying "all-time" favourite feels a bit much, but as far as mental real estate and also just sheer number of words written, Leovor far surpasses any other ship I've been into. 🧍🏻‍♀️

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

Since I did that ask game a few weeks ago, the Inquisitor Ahsoka/Rex starting a clone rebellion/post TCW AU has been on my mind. But I know that, realistically speaking, I'm unlikely to ever be invested enough to actually sit down and write it.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I'm trying to make a point to read more fiction and while it's possible that the few books I've read thus far lately just haven't been particularly good, it's certainly made me way more confident in my ability to write dialogue that feels like it would be spoken by real live humans and not aliens pretending to be humans. Similar deal with internal monologues. I'm convinced that none of these authors read their work aloud.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Still generally the same—overthinking comma usage, editing while I write and therefore being very slow, going back and forth between being stuck because I didn't plan enough and feeling stifled because I planned too much. Etc etc.

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

I try to avoid it as much as possible, with the exception being words or phrases that are used a lot in canon.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Still Marvel :(

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Honor Bound is still my baby, but I didn't expect to actually like A Different Kind of Solace as much as I do, mostly because I didn't really go into writing it expecting to hit the emotional notes that it does. Also still Out of the Cold. There are some banger lines there.

Not tagging anyone because this one has gone around a few times recently but if you want to do it, you're welcome to pretend I tagged you. 😌

[fluffypotatey]

any tips and tricks for getting into the writing zone?

ok so i have 2 methods and they depend on what i'm writing on: story writing and essay writing (waring: this is a mini-ramble)

with essay writing,

get mad, get super fucking mad, write that shit with spite flowing in your veins. even when i'm writing essays and stories i enjoy, i drag my feet.

i whine and complain like a toddler in my head because despite this topic being one i enjoy, putting my excited tones and rambling into coherent words always tends to feel like i'm butchering that (which is why academic papers should simply let me swear in them and use the 1st pov bc it is sO easy and my thoughts flow a lot better but noooOOOOoooooOOOOOooooo, i have to be formal and proper and-)

also, outlining. fucking godsend with essays. it's why a lot of my longer essays have headings bc i use them to outline and keep my thought on one line of thought bc i have a rambling issue (which is then easily solved with parentheses, my beloved)

with story writing (notice how this is basically a heading? good job! you've found my mini outline for this reply! have a cookie 🍪)

i find that jotting down that scene that is nagging at your brain immediately is super helpful. and do it even if you're now writing out of order. pro-tip: writing out of order is THE best, endorphins be going crazy bc you're actually not fighting with your brain with the story but writing alongside your brain-map.

personally, i find it very difficult outlining a story (how contrary) because sometimes my mind changes ideas or switches the order of scenes, and it is exhausting trying to keep up with all of that in your outline. but i guess, my "outline" with stories is simply me jotting down a very quick summary of the plot that invaded my mind in one document, never touching it again, but staying true to it because i wrote it down. therefore, it exists no longer in the recesses of mind but it a physical statement/promise to complete.

also (this advice goes for both story and essays) it is ok to take a break, step back, and not look at your writing for some hours, days, weeks, months, years--fucking whenever.

my midterm essay? a fucking nightmare. loved the topic, would write something similar about it for fun, but the reason it took me so long to complete (and why i dragged my feet) was because of the "short" timeline i had to complete it. i felt like i was on a time crunch and that led to me procrastinating, stressing over it, and taking my grand old time researching for it. however, when i was able to work on it? i allowed myself to simply do as much as i could. if i was unable to look at that stupid document, i didn't look at it. if my mind had a really good thought or example for the topic rotating in my head? immediate sit down and get that thought onto the paper. it must exist.

i have fics sitting in my folders that have been unfinished in so long, but i still consider them as wips because (and here’s another subpart-advice) i tend to work on them when i am unable to touch my current work. to be frank, working on something else helps keep you in the writing zone even if you cannot stand to look at the blank/unfinished work you wanted to complete originally. when i was incapable of writing for the Monkie Destiny Challenge, i switched to working on writing and editing my teen wolf fic (a fic i had not looked at since July) because while i still had that itch to write, something was blocking me from completing the prompts. and when i switched fics, getting into the zone was a lot easier.

so, to recap:

when jumpstarting the writing zone for writing an essay, you get passionate (can be read as mad/spiteful), and outline your thought process of the essay with headings to keep the writing flow flowing (the headings do not need to stay in the final product but they are good to have in the draft) .

when jumpstarting story writing, write! that! shit! down!!!! chronological order doesn't mean shit when you're in the planning/writing phase. your readers don't have to know that you wrote/planned a character's death before writing/planning out the beginning. they just read it in the order you publish it in!

to keep the writing zone stable and in working condition, TAKE THOSE BREAKS BOO! who cares about your personal deadlines???? if you feel exhausted before opening up a doc, then take that break, babygirl. again, your reader(s) will not need to know (nor do they need to know) how long it took you to get your writing piece done. hell, if you still feel the itch to write but the thing you wanna do is not working, then work on something else you haven't touched in a while because that itch WILL get its scratch somewhere, so help me god.

so yeah, i hope this was helpful, anon (and coherent jfc there better not be a plethora of typos T^T). happy writing, and may your weekend be a healthy dose of eventful!

[fandom-trauma]

Hello hello! Ive been gone a while. Lots of things have happened, and I'm still in the thick of my final year project, but it's (mostly) coming to an end mid-Feb! Thought Id do a little post (mainly for me and the 4 followers I have) on my current WIPs Ive picked up, and what I plan to be doing. Personal update under the Read More.

First of all, I have like a million art and fic WIPs related to Immortal Desires and Perfect Match 2. No biggie, I just have... lots and lots of thoughts about Poly!PM MC and Poly!ID MC. Yes, this means I do have a fix-it fic about how that end of book confession goes... maybe even a rewrite of the entire last chapter... but hold that thought!

Now that I'm a little bit more versed in Twinery (see second point below for why), I'm a little bit tempted to make my rewrite interactive as well. Just text tho lol, but either way, an ending rewrite is a ways away, and also I kinda wanna wait till Bk2 is released to really start working on it. (I didn't realise ID was GOC so you bet I binged it within three fuckin days when I did. It's a bloody amazing book. I also finally finished my playthrough of PM2, so that explains why these books are giving me immense brainrot.)

SECONDLY, 'A Date with Bryce Lahela' is about halfway done! I'm not exactly sure if I've ever shared the idea publicly to the fandom, but this is the basic gist of it: Date is an attempt on my end of trying to recreate those TF Date Specials, but with the one and only Bryce Lahela. Cool, right? Unfortunately, it's only in text format, bc I'm learning Twinery Harlowe.

What's left of Date? When can I play it/a demo? Pronoun choices, smut scenes and equipment variations, a whole activity is uncoded, trackable achievements, load/save functionality, and after that it's just making sure the whole damn thing works. As for a demo... ;) .. ... Joking. The entire predicted gameplay is short enough to not really need a demo, so there won't be a public one. I aim to have this done by, god, hopefully end of the year? This damn thing's been sitting in my WIPs for two whole years, so I would really like it done and over with, haha, but it's a lot of work for one person.

THIRD, I have a 1.2k word rewrite of Foreign Affairs Ch12 Tatum diamond scene that has been in the making, and rotting away in my WIPs, since 2 April 2021. Honest to god, it's a little bit of a vent fic, and I've been slowly chipping away at it whenever I've been stressed. The rewrite isn't because I see the scene as bad, but I do wish there was a liiiiiittle more hurt/comfort in it lol.

FOURTH, well... I have a few Bryce x M!MC smut fics that, uh, really should be finished and see the light of day. Or, at least escape the WIP folder and experience the cool damp corner of my tumblr blog.

So, that's my WIPs so far! Personal stuff under the read more.

----- ----- ----- -----

My 3D animation final year project wraps up a couple of weeks before my graduation. I knew the workload was going to be larger than what I've had with my previous 2D animation projects, but boy it really hits different when you're actually working on it. I won't go into it too detailed, but if you're curious, feel free to ask about it!

My 2023 started off as a... mixed bag. Low lows and high highs, I guess. Won't go into it, but yeah, not great.

Me having Date in semi-working condition is purely because of a NYE group gift exchange and my hubris at making a working product within 2 weeks. It was... yeah, no, I've been humbled, but man was the result such an endorphin rush.

I've also got really into making custom content for The Sims 4, so that's where the bulk of my free time went, really. I'm active in a few TS4 discord servers, so if you see mothy-simmie, say hi :P

[mariana-oconnor]

I'm a little late, but if you're still doing director's commentaries, could you please do one for The Highwayman's Baronet or the Trouble With Roommates series?

Thanks!

I am!

The Highwayman's Baronet is possibly my favourite fic that I've written for Marvel. I just love it so much. The regency-esque setting was just totally out of my comfort zone... I bought myself a handful of regency romance ebooks to try and get into the vibe and none of them hit right. So I went to Jane Austen instead, who is a lot more the vibe I was going for. I also rewatched Sharpe.

I love Nomad Steve. I had just read the comic series where he gets all sad and cries in a dark room while hugging the flag. And his level of drama in those comics is just... *chef's kiss* And then I rewatched Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves for the eleven millionth time and there's a scene in that film (probably my favourite film of all time) where Robin is robbing a noble woman and he says "A woman of your beauty has no need of such trinkets" and kisses her hand and my brain went 'yes. YES. This is the level of drama Steve has. THIS, but with STONY.'

The opening scene was the first thing I wrote, over two years before I actually published it on AO3. I had this feeling of complete and utter melancholy that I wanted in that opening scene. I just wanted Steve to be totally lost and alone and grieving

I had a lot of trouble with this fic. I wrote 14k of it, then stopped for a year. Wrote another 15k, stopped for another year, then I saw the post for the cap-ironman big bang and decided 'you know what, fuck it. Let's go back to that Regency highwayman fic'. It wasn't easy after that, either. I almost gave up several times. At one point I started writing a whole load of scenes from Tony's POV, which didn't end up being a thing. It would have made the whole fic twice as long. But it did help me work out where I wanted to go.

I wanted to use Indries, because she seemed to be used so little in Stony fic, and in the comics she works with Obadiah so she fitted really well into the plot I was working with (which, let's face it, is sort of the plot to Iron Man 1).

The ending was so difficult as well... Steve and Tony just kept refusing to communicate properly. I don't know if it was the regency language that I was using or if I subconsciously just knew it needed the action climax and the romantic climax to be spaced out a bit more, with Tony on a more equal footing rather than in his sick bed and barely able to move. I think it works better as I have it now than how I originally planned it, though.

Steve and Tony's conversations were my favourite part to write; they were difficult but so much fun. The way both their personalities and the social mores of the setting combine to make this really acrobatic dialogue where they go from playing off each other in good humour to mistaking each other's meaning. And then you add in Obadiah - who was surprisingly interesting to write. Having to walk the line with him of everything he says being entirely reasonable, but also if you read it another way creepy/rude/manipulate af. That was a lot of fun. I love word play.

Loved writing Sam as well, a bit torn between wanting to tell Steve to calm down and stop being so dramatic, and just full on throwing himself into it. So in the end he compromises by judging him for his romantic drama and leaning in to the mad highwayman hijinks. Totally reasonable.

Basically this fic was a massive slog to write, but I love it and I am incredibly proud of it.

The Trouble With Roommates despite being a different pairing, different setting, entirely different tone, has a similar story, actually. They too were sitting in my WIP folder for years.

I first started writing it in response to the Winterhawk Week 2017 prompts, and I wrote the first 4 one after another, they practically wrote themselves. Then I left them sitting on my computer for ages until I had a bingo deadline coming up and I looked at them and I think that was when I added the fifth one, which is why that one doesn't really follow the prompt unless you squint. I think the 'game' I was going for was musical statues? And I found that they could all fit prompts from my bingo cards as well, so I... posted them as bingo fics instead. Is this cheating? Probably. Do I care? Not really.

On the other hand, my method of writing for them was completely different. With The Highwayman's Baronet, I was trying to write something good (fatal mistake). With The Trouble With Roommates I just wrote whatever seemed fun at the time. They are very silly fics written entirely for my own entertainment and they all flowed pretty easily when I got started. Although both play into my love of identity porn and ridiculous miscommunication nonsense.

The only one that didn't flow was number 6. I tried to stick to the Winterhawk Week prompt at first, which was soulmates/reincarnation, and I think I have a few thousand words of that. The basic premise was Clint is kidnapped by someone who believes that the Winter Soldier is their reincarnated soulmate and Clint has been systematically trying to break them apart over the course of several lives. It was kind of trippy and there was going to be this dream sequence where Clint got drugged into seeing his past lives and realised Bucky's true identity that way. It was just way too much, so I decided to ignore the prompts, because no one even knew I was using them in the first place, and just simplify it down to vengeance kidnapping but the reason that one took so long to finish was because I kept going down the reincarnation rabbit hole and getting lost.