#unforth writes

[unforth]

Whelp I've resisted locking my ao3 to registered uses through everything for years but this Lore.fm thing is my final straw. My fics are now locked for viewing and commenting.

If you need an invite feel free to let me know, I have at least a few codes.

Also: support podficcers! And legit actual screenreaders!

[unforth]

Should I have signed up for this? God no.

Did I anyway? Yup.

Westie this is all your fault.

ooh check this out:

Multifandom Rare Kink Buffet! drop a prompt/claim a prompt, 100 words or a sketch, works revealed on May 30

Original Work prompts welcome too, and mods have said they are not policing the definition of "rare" so if you wanna see it, request it!

[duckprintspress]

Given how common it is for book posts that say "just give me the book blurb! stop with all the other things!" to get tens of thousands of notes, I feel the need to say, as a tiny micro-publisher: if only sharing the book blurb sold books, trust me, we wouldn't be wasting our time with all the other shenanigans.

But just sharing the blurb doesn't work. Most people scroll right by.

And so we try every single method we can think of, including sharing the blurb among them, to try to get whatever eyes we can on the book.

Of course the description of the story is the best way to sell the book and get people interested, but it only works if y'all actually read it. And getting most people to the point where they'll read anything that isn't already immediately and actively part of their existing interests is fucking hard, so we use splashy graphics and short hand to try to hook people, and then hope that when they read the blurb, that hook will go from "oh, that's worth a glance" to "oh, that's worth a buy."

Also: just because the exact post you saw promoting a book didn't include the blurb doesn't mean other posts about the book don't!

Sorry. I just have seen so much of that recently (and not just because of that poll about "what convinces you to buy," I actually found that whole poll extremely interesting and informative) that I'm kinda losing patience with it.

Just posting the blurb doesn't work.

Signed, someone who sells books for a living, or at least tries to.

[wolffyluna]

Trick or treat! Hualian pigeon au (inspired by your Inktober art 🤣 )

So. This is a week later.

My excuse is, I came up with this idea for a full length fic that I thought would be fun. Sure, it was a pigeon keeping AU, but close enough. And then I started writing it, and realised that it didn't need to be as long as I planned it to be? And that by making it longer, I would have not so much as 'over egged the pudding' as 'made a sweet omellete.'

...except then it wasn't even a pigeon keeping AU?

So, I have a picture of HuaLian as pigeons.

And I have a post-canon pigeon fic.

***

Xie Lian sat on the edge of a fountain, watching as the crowds milled apart the market. The bubbling sound cut half the hubbub, and the scent of clean water cut half the smell of fried food and cooking meat.

Hua Cheng sat next to him, scanning the crowds as well, looking almost as if he was Xie Lian’s guard.

Which was funny, because they were out here in this mortal town on Ghost City business. Xie Lian didn’t have any reason to come, just— Hua Cheng had only just recently returned to him, and he was still greedy for his company. But the business was over, and they both sat around lazily, with nothing better to do.

Xie Lian munched on one of the red bean buns Hua Cheng insisted on buying for him.

A pigeon walked up to them, in that shy back and forth bob as they tried to test how close they dared to get for the reward of crumbs. She held her wings tight, ready to spring into flight at the merest twitch from the scary ‘humans.’

She was smell enough that he guessed she was a hen. Mostly white, with a strip of iridescent gray around her neck like a piece of jewellery. Very pretty, for a feral bird.

The pigeon keepers in Xianle had always favoured that pattern. The dovecotes in the palace were filled with as many pied birds like her as they were with pure white ones.

Maybe she was a distant descendant. That was a nice thought.

He pinched off a bit of bun, and tossed it to her.

She pecked at it, with great gusto and happy coos.

Hua Cheng leaned over to watch, taking the excuse to put his hand on top of Xie Lian’s. “Encouraging the rabble, I see?”

Xie Lian laughed. “Supporting my fellow busker.” He threw her another piece. A few more pigeons crept up cautiously, but she commanded enough presence that they didn’t dare approach yet. “She is a very charming performer.” If she was a long lost descendant of dove royalty, scraping a living out on the streets— well, she was fat and at least happy for now. That was something.

Hua Cheng’s eye crinkled. “I fear this San Lang is a phillistine.”

Xie Lian laughed again, and handed him some crumbs to distribute. “It takes time to properly appreciate the art, but my San Lang is so clever, I’m sure he could pick it up quickly.”

[unforth]

(it me, I own Duck Prints Press, and publish a mess of tumblrina and writeblr author short stories! and longer stories too, but so far it's mostly been short stories! and occasionally I write my own, but god, there's not enough hours in the day)

I keep seeing the novel version float around but... how about we talk about the published short story writers of writeblr? Off-hand, I know of a few (@asablehart, @vcaudley, @avi-why, to name a few). What are other shorts people have published? Give me a list. Give me some links. I want to find more short fiction and help celebrate those writers, too.

[unforth]

AO3 Wrapped 2024

This looked fun! Yoinked from @barbex . Template is here: https://www.tumblr.com/spicedrobot/768215592024014848/hi-i-know-this-is-very-random-but-i-love-your. Thank you, @spicedrobot

I keep looking at everyone else being excited about their word counts that are lower than this and telling myself I'm being a fucking weirdo but it's still a number so low it feels like failure when applied to me personally (even as I cheer on those I see who are happy for their own numbers. Brain double standards are dumb.)

Most of what I wrote this year was May Trope Mayhem fills that doubled as Rare Kink Buffet fills and I had a ton of fun doing it.

[eriquin]

Fanfic Year-In-Review!

Tagged by @hbyrde36, thank you very much! Here's what I did in 2024 and what I'm planning for 2025.

In 2024 I completed 3 fics that I began in 2023 (or earlier):

High Marks and Low Riders (DQB2, 324k, started in 2021)

The Third Task (DQB2, 177k, started in 2022)

The Prophetic D&D Game (Stranger Things, 44k, started in 2023)

I also completed and posted:

Nightswimming (Stranger Things, 265k, Steddie Bigbang. Technically started writing it in 2023 or earlier but started posting January 2024)

In 2025 I'd like to complete:

I've got 4 active WIPs that I work on every day:

Crown of Thorns (Stranger Things)

The Trolley Problem (Stranger Things)

The Oracle of Roane County (Stranger Things, sequel to The Prophetic D&D Game)

Cat's in the Cradle (Stranger Things)

In 2025 I'd like to start:

Going to put my non-active WIPs here because who knows what else will strike my brain. If I finish one of the 4 active WIPs, one of these will move up to the list.

Next part of Forgotten but Not Gone (DQB2)

The sequel to Of Empire, Queens, and Builders (DQB2)

The Steddie Isekai thing that's currently titled Silver Ogre (Stranger Things)

Tagging, no pressure:

@beenherewaytoolong, @bifuriouswaterbender, @sidekick-hero, @patchworkgargoyle, @findafight

@h-i-raeth, @vampsiltonpitch, @acecrack-mack, @2btheanswertothequestion, @stevethehairington

@ltleflrt, @unforth, @gigglebug

[unforth]

Eeee yes I wrote 11 fics, and MDZS came out swinging, last I checked there were more MDZS fills than any other fandoms (one of the CQL fills is mine).

One of my prompts also got a fill, an 18k (!!!) Daomu Biji fic that I cannot WAIT to read.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/55898449/chapters/141941761

I didn't care about anon so I just put up a list with my fills. Here's my master post - I wrote for TGCF, MDZS, SVSSS, Guardian, 2ha, The Yin Yang Master Dream of Eternity, Avatar the Last Airbender, and maybe something else idek my memory is fried.

https://www.tumblr.com/unforth/751918131450134528/my-rare-kink-buffet-fills?source=share

Also @tavina-writes is it true prompt will never close?? I had plotted fills for like 4 of these that I didn't get to write, and I dropped all the claims cause I'd assumed they'd close, but if I can do um later...

(Including another mdzs fill! And I had claimed your bathtub mimic one...)

Woohoo! Fic reveals are out for the Rare Kink Buffet - a multi-fandom event with tons of fun prompts, and despite the name, not all are NSFW/smutty. The authors won't be revealed for a few days yet.

I have written 3 fics for the buffet - feel free to let me know if you think you've figured out which are mine. The only thing I'll say as a hint is that only 2 of my fics are MDZS/the Untamed, and those ones are pretty on-brand for me XD

[pherryt]

Lost Boys

A multi fandom crackfic starring Ryoga Hibiki & Roronoa Zoro

Fandoms Include: One Piece, Ranma 1/2, Witcher, LotR, Zelda, Prydain, Fruits Basket, Old Guard, Slayers, Doctor Who and HDM Rated: G Words: 27,733 No Pairings Summary: Zoro and Ryoga get so lost they travel through other fandoms. No, they don't know what's going on either, but they sure would like to find out. Maybe someone along the way will have answers?

Authors Notes: I know a crossover like this is daunting. Not only are there 11 different fandom universes involved, but it's 27k.

First - I try to write all my crossovers so that you do NOT need to know the other fandoms to enjoy this fic. You might enjoy it even more if you do, but you can still enjoy it if you don't.

Second - I believe I have succeeded and I have testimony to prove it! I had @socially-awkward-chocobo read this over before I posted. She has no knowledge at all of HDM, never even saw the last movie for LotR (and doesn't remember much of the first 2), barely knows anything about Ranma 1/2 and doesn't remember anything about Prydain, except that it was read to her once as a child. And she enjoyed the fic :D

Thanks go to a number of people for encouraging this fic, helping this fic, or giving me ideas of fandoms/characters to play with. Including Socially-awkward-chocobo, I'd also like to thank

@li-izumi @unforth @ialwayscomewhenyoucall

... I think Tumblr is making it harder to tag people in posts. And to check if you did.

[immortalwanderers]

Fan Translations on Wattpad

Hullo lovelies!

It has been brought to our attention by one of our discord members that currently on wattpad, there is an entry for Tian Ya Ke that claims to be it’s own translation whilst stealing from other, pre-existing ones as well as fan art.

For further details and information on this matter, we highly encourage you to take a look at @bluemorningsoup‘s incredibly informative post on the situation at hand. You can find their post here.

I’d like to personally take this moment to remind the community that the hard work that translators put into making these works sharable across other languages is something to be incredibly thankful for. Often, translation projects are created out of love and dedication to the original source material, and fan translations are done for free. Such projects require many hours of work, as well as an understanding of the original language as well as one of the languge it is being transferred into, as well as a unique creative discretion on how best to share particular words, phrases or cultural differences that may not work as well outside of their native language. To see such efforts stolen and taken by others in such a way is not only disheartening, but incredibly disrespectful to those who took the time and effort to share these works in this way in the first place.

Bluemorningsoup very kindly links to fantranslations in their own post that you may be interested in so do take a look at what they’ve shared as alternatives!

We at Immortal Wanderers would also like to remind you lovelies of the translation works we recommend to! There are a lovely selection of works collected in this carrd page (not by ourselves, but by another very lovely member of the wider community for these novels), including some for those in languages outside of English, so do go ahead and take a look at what they share.

As of the time of writing this post, there exists no offical announcements for versions of either Qi Ye or Tian Ya Ke in the English language. However, if you’re interested in owning the Chinese editions of these novels, the very lovely @unforth has a fantastic post on how you can go about doing so! This way, you can show your support to Priest also.

[scarletlich]

Get to know me ask game

tagged by @rongzhi

RULES: bold the ones that are true and tag how ever many people you feel like to do it.

APPEARANCE

Blonde hair // I prefer loose clothing to tight clothing (well aesthetically i like a mix but comfort wise i like loose) // I have one or more piercings // I have at least one tattoo // I have dyed or highlighted my hair (i let my friend bleach it two days before i cut it off) // I have gotten plastic surgery (depends on your definition) // I have or had braces (at least 3 times and i had headgear too) // I sunburn easily // I have freckles // I paint my nails // I typically wear makeup // I don’t often smile // I am pleased with how I look (working on it) // I prefer Nike to Adidas // I wear baseball hats backwards

HOBBIES AND TALENTS

I play a sport (used to be a coxswain on my school's crew team for many years, was a captain of the team too) // I can play an instrument (violin) // I am artistic // I know more than one language // I have won a trophy in some sort of competition // I can cook or bake without a recipe // I know how to swim // I enjoy writing // I can do origami // I prefer movies to tv shows // I can execute a perfect somersault // I enjoy singing // I could survive in the wild on my own // I have read a new book series this year // I enjoy spending time with friends // I travel during work or school breaks // I can do a handstand

RELATIONSHIP

I am in a relationship // I have been single for over a year // I have a crush // I have a best friend who I’ve known for ten years // My parents are together // I have dated a best friend // I am adopted // My crush has confessed to me // I have (had) a long distance relationship // I am an only child // I give advice to my friends // I have made an online friend // I met up with someone I have met online

AESTHETICS

I have heard the ocean in a conch shell // I have watched the sun rise // I enjoy rainy days // I have slept under the stars // I meditate outside // The sound of chirping calms me // I enjoy the smell of the beach // I know what snow tastes like // I listen to music to fall asleep (TTRPG podcasts actually) // I enjoy thunderstorms // I enjoy cloud watching // I have attended a bonfire // I pay close attention to colors // I find mystery in the ocean // I enjoy hiking on nature paths // Autumn is my favorite season (if it weren't for the semester yeah)

MISCELLANEOUS

I can fall asleep in a moving vehicle (rarely... chronic insomniac) // I am the mom friend (friends say i have 妈系男友 vibes) // I live by a certain quote // I like the smell of sharpies // I am involved in extracurricular activities // I enjoy Mexican food // I can drive a stick shift // I believe in true love // I make up scenarios to fall asleep // I sing in the shower (not in the dorm shower but at home yes) // I wish I lived in a video game (would like to live in luofu xianzhou during peace time) // I have a canopy above my bed // I am multiracial // I am a redhead // I own at least 3 dogs

Tagging: @mimicori @lily-ocho @zhaotings @fucknectar @yanwangdijunfensi @niteshade925 @buried-in-stardust @unforth

[dei2dei]

Fic Tag Stats Game - Oneshot Edition

tagged by @dolcemcrte!

Rules:

Give us the links to your one shot fics with the most hits, most kudos, most comments, most bookmarks, most words, and least words (does that count for one shots? Guess so).

Most hits: Pretty Things , E. (6,904). Unrepentant Arcane CaitVi smut.

Most kudos: Pretty Things, E. (398); pretty sure for the same reason. I do love kudos on smut.

Most Comments: Pretty Things, E. (18). Are we seeing a trend?

Most Bookmarks: Pretty Things, E. (97 when you check private). This fic was fun, but... yeah, this is what happens with big fandoms.

Most words: Because of a Horse, M. (11,401). Ghost of Tsushima, Jin/Yuna.

Least words: Any of my standalone drabbles at 100 words. Hidden Power (E), a Honkai Star Rail Serval/Cocalia drabble; A Smile That Changed The World (M), Gundam Wing: Witch from Mercury Hands (G), a One Piece gift for a friend. ... well, this is what happens when you write ONE smutty oneshot in a popular fandom and the rest of your fics tend to be longfics in a smaller fandom, I guess. Pretty Things remains the only Arcane fic I've written to date, along with Hidden Power & ASTCTW for their fandoms. I've written a few Ghost of Tsushima pieces and all the OP I've written has been giftfics. Not a single MK piece made it on here, alas!

I will tag... hmm. @cosmictapestries (I know you only have a few oneshots!), @eviltothecore13, @sarnakhwritesthings, @unforth

[unforth]

An elven prince appears in your bedroom.

"You are commanded to serve me in the summer court," they tell you.

"I've never told me you my name!" you exclaim. "You have no..." you trail off, though, as you realize in horror...you can't refute the prince. Their words compel. You can feel the power of the geas, the strength of their authority.

Frantic, you try to think when you could have erred.

And then you realize.

Yesterday, you had noticed your Facebook account was logged out, so you used your name and password to log back in.

But no, you hadn't been logged out.

You'd accidentally gone to Faebook, not Facebook.

And now, they had your name...

[unforth]

Imo this also applies to the people going on about OOC. You're not improving literally anyone's fandom experience, you're just making people who don't have much self-confidence terrified that they'll do it "wrong" and be subject to derision.

Like. Yes great the posts I've seen on this topic usually make it clear they implemented "don't like don't read." Congrats that's the bare minimum.

But how do you not see that coming on tumblr and vague-blogging about it as absolutely rancid behavior? This is the fucking neurodivergence website. So many people, if they don't know who it's about, will think it's, if not literally about them, at least still applicable to them. The fear of being The Kind Of Person Those Posts Are About is absolutely crushing to many types of writers: those who are new, inexperienced, not writing in their native language, suffer from anxiety, using their fic to explore personal topics with the characters as proxies, and so so much more.

You don't actually have to come on tumblr for head pats ~I read something SO OOC/SO badly written/SO garbage and I didn't say anything mean to the author~ just. Just shut up! Find a friend to DM with about it privately, or make a private bookmark and whine there, or keep a personal journal, but for fuck's sake stop making generalizable posts about what kinds of fic are shit, and everyone else, stop fucking reblogging them.

It's actually so damn easy to not do this, and I feel like seeing it's proliferation is another symptom of a lot of old norms in fandom wearing down.

TL:DR, if you read something you hate

��️ don't like, don't read

❌️ vagueblog about it on tumblr

✅️ shit or get off the pot (read something else or make your fucking own if you think you can do better)

Signed, an author who likes writing out-there AUs where I deep dive into one specific aspect of a character's personality and amplify it, who is extremely tired of bookmarks like this:

[Id: screen capture of a bookmark comment from AO3. Text reads: I disagree with most of the characterization, but separating it from SPN this is an excellent story about being queer.]

Like. Thanks I guess.

Anyway, sorry to go off on your post, OP, I've just been pissed about this for a while and I guess this is the moment I'm opening my mouth.

I think it's mean how some people talk about fics on AO3.

'Oh you gotta wade through literal trash to find the good stuff'.

Were you not a beginner once? Did you not write crack fic or self indulgent things for your own entertainment?

Maybe don't speak that way about your fellow fic writers? Just because some fics aren't as polished as others, or involve fetishes and tropes you don't enjoy, or are not the style you want your fics to be doesn't mean they're trash.

It's a horrible thing to say and beginners are going to be discouraged from writing knowing that their fics might be considered trash because they're just starting out.

[duckprintspress]

Hi there, i'm not sure this is in your wheel house, and I hate to waste your time, but I had a question and wonder if you might be able to offer advice (no worries if you can't or don't want to). i write a lot of fan fiction, but also have lots of idea about non-fan fiction stories. when i've tried to write them, however, I find the idea of getting a whole story out to be sufficiently intimidating that i've never been able to do it (there are probably other reasons for this of course, too). i love the A03 capability of posting one chapter (which can be super short) at a time; it's a real impetus to keep going without having to complete an entire work up front, esp if the feedback along the way is encouraging. what is your take on getting an original fiction story out in a03, but then trying to get it published elsewhere afterwards (taking it down from a03 at that point if necessary)? is that something feasible to try to do?

or perhaps you have other recs? (I don't think my original stories (unlike my fan fic) is likely to be focused on LGBTQIA+ relationships or issues, and i'm straight, so i suspect it's not what your publishing house is focusing on)

thank you so much for even reading this message.

Howdy anon! So there's a few things brought up in this message, and I'll try to answer each.

First: yes, we love offering advice and getting asks! Srsly, you and everyone, don't hesitate to drop stuff like this in our inbox, I love answering them, and if I (hi, I'm @unforth, meatspace name Claire, pen name/editing name Nina, and I own the Press and run our social media accounts) don't know the answer, I can kick 'um to the DPP server and get more folks to weigh in!

Second: yeah, motivation is a constant challenge, and what works is always going to be different for everyone. Those comments each chapter can be all that keeps me going on a long fanfic sometimes (and even they're not enough sometimes, oops, shovels a bunch of unfinished wip under the carpet behind themself)

Specifically, you ask: what is your take on getting an original fiction story out in a03, but then trying to get it published elsewhere afterwards (taking it down from a03 at that point if necessary)?

So, works are absolutely converted from AO3 stories to published stories. I can think of a half-dozen examples off the top of my head (one of the most recent being Even Though I Knew the End by C. L. Polk, which started as a Dean Winchester/Jimmy Novak fic). However, I'd point out that original fiction gets very VERY low engagement on AO3. Most of the conversions I know of are people taking fanfiction and either scrubbing the barcodes (as in, swapping character names and removing/replacing canon references) or completely rewriting it. If the feel you're struggling with is "I want to get fanfic-like engagement but on a completely original work" I think you'd struggle to get that on AO3; virtually no one I know who has posted original works on AO3 has gotten that engagement on those works.

Publishing it as original fiction that you don't substantially change for publication will also weaken your ability to get it published. It'll guarantee that you can only apply with it to places that allow/do reprints, because you've already "used" the First Worldwide Publication Rights that most publishers will want for an original thing - because you already published it. So even if you remove it, the cat is already out of the bag on "first," and that will limit your options - another reason to do it as fanfic that you then rewrite. It's relatively hard to find places that will publish works, especially long works, that the First rights are already off the table (though we're one example of a place that will, we've published things that are up on AO3, and allowed the unedited versions to remain on AO3 when we've done so. For example, several of @tryslora's stories. We've also allowed the opposite; there's at least one original work on AO3 that started as a DPP exclusive for Patreon, and when the rights reverted back to the author, they chose to post it to AO3 with our blessing).

Of course, you can bypass these issues by self-publishing. Then what you keep and what you change, whether you keep it on AO3 or remove it, etc., is up to you, because you're the boss. Self-pubbing puts a lot more of the work on your shoulders tho - editing, cover art, marketing, typesetting, etc., all of it becomes your responsibility.

But: yes, taking works from AO3 to original fic publishing is feasible and is a thing that happens all the time. Depending on how you're publishing it and/or how extensively you rewrite it, you may not even have to take it down, but it would depend. Certainly, for most trad pub/big publishing houses, they would expect you to take it down.

Re: your last point about working with us, we require exactly zero disclosures from our contributors about their sexual or gender orientation. Our only requirement is that authors have posted fanfiction on a public, accessible fanfiction website. To the best of my knowledge, the vast majority of the people we work with are LGBTQIA+, but I also know for sure we've worked with at least one person who was cis and het. There are probably more. It's honestly none of my business. We've also published plenty with no LGBTQIA+ component. The way we work, we accept authors, and once we've got the author, we publish what they want to write, we're not particularly interested in policing that. Things without LGBTQIA+ don't tend to sell as well, because of the interests of our customers, but we'll put it out anyway *shrug*. I'd guess around a quarter of our catalogue has no explicit LGBTQIA+ rep, maybe a bit less.

Anyway! Hi, I'm wordy. TL:DR is: you can absolutely try to motivate yourself to write original fic by publishing it to AO3, but engagement is likely to be low, and doing so will make it harder to publish. If you feel you need the motivation that posting chapter-by-chapter gets you, it'd be better to write it as fanfiction with the intention of rewriting it later, as this will improve engagement without doing as much damage to your ability to publish it later.

and if you wanted to write with us, you'd be welcome; we recruit authors through our anthologies, and I expect our next open call to be sometime over the late spring or summer. We only juuuust started talking potential themes a few days ago.

Hope this helps!

-unforth

[dmsilvisart]

December (belated)Birthday Art 1 of 4

Perks of an Overactive Imagination Written by @unforth

This was an adorable fic I came across quite a bit ago. It’s veterinarian Dean and animal lover Cas....it has to be adorable! 

Decided to draw a scene from it for Unforth as a Happy Birthday (a month and a half late)

“Again, Cas?” Despite the snark in Dean’s tone and his rolled eyes, he couldn’t keep affection from his voice. Cas’ expression was so wide-eyed and earnest, importuning, as he held out the entire damn box of adorable mewing kittens toward Dean. Dean could appreciate a guy who felt strongly about animals; initially that was a lot of what drew him to being a veterinarian. Heck, there was a lot to appreciate about Cas.