#wip: STFAU

[kiwiana-writes]

Last Line Written in 2023

All right team, I'm about to fire up the barbecue and spike the punch for my New Year's Eve celebrations so I thought I'd take advantage of being one of the earliest timezones to jump start a fun little game, if anyone else would like to play!

The rules are simple: share the last line you've written/will write in 2023, whether it was today (or, I guess, tomorrow for most of you) or a month ago. It's totally up to you whether you provide context or whether you just leave us all the vibrating eyeball emoji as we head into 2024.

Here's mine, which if nothing else contains the biggest indicator I've given so far about what the "STF AU" I've been so close-lipped about actually is lol:

“Realistic?” Alex spins on his heel, getting right up in Henry’s face and poking him in the chest with such force, Henry stumbles back a little. Alex’s eyes are blazing hot, jaw set in a way Henry knows he’s going to have to agonise over the words to describe later. “Henry, I’m an openly bisexual, half-Mexican progressive Texan elected to Congress in my late twenties. You’re clearly happy to stretch the bounds of realism when it serves your story.”

Tagging @affectionatelyrs @anchoredarchangel @anincompletelist @blairwaldcrf @candyspandemonium @cha-melodius @clottedcreamfudge @cricketnationrise @cultofsappho @daisymae-12 @dumbpeachjuice @firenati0n @getmehighonmagic @happiness-of-the-pursuit @heybuddy-drabbles @hgejfmw-hgejhsf @indestructibleheart @indomitable-love @inexplicablymine @leaves-of-laurelin @lilythesilly @littlemisskittentoes @lizzie-bennetdarcy @matherines @maxbegone @myheartalivewrites @ninzied @nontoxic-writes @notspecialbabe @orchidscript @rmd-writes @sherryvalli @ships-to-sail @smc-27 @sparklepocalypse @ssmtskw @stereopticons @tintagel-or-cockleshells @welcometololaland @whimsymanaged and, of course, anyone who wants to play! (If you take the open tag please tag me so I can see!!)

[kiwiana-writes]

WIP Wednesday

Thanks for the "early" (by which I mean it was the middle of Wednesday for me but well before WIP Wednesday usually kicks off) tag, @getmehighonmagic, and to @suseagull04 for one at a slightly more expected time 🤣

I feel a little mean for sharing this? I am asking y'all to a) trust me; b) trust the process; c) trust that any stylistic quirks or inconsistencies, both within itself and in comparison to the rest of my back catalogue, are part of the process. I guess that's all I'll say for now 👀

There were a great many things Alex did not enjoy about waking up.  There was the act itself, of course; blinking his eyes open only to be momentarily blinded by the sun pouring in through a crack in the curtains no matter how tightly he shut them the night before. There was the way his dreams slipped away from him as he woke, trailing through his memory like snowflakes, impossible to catch for more than a moment before melting into nothing. There was the immediate caffeine craving his body inflicted upon him, despite it having only been eight or so hours since his evening cup of coffee. Seven hours, perhaps. Certainly at least five, most nights. Though worst of all was the way his phone would light up with notifications—no matter how early he set his alarm, politics was a nonstop calling, all day, every day.   Still. Perhaps if Alex had known how few opportunities he would have left to do so, he could have found it in himself to embrace the sensations of returning to consciousness a little more.

Forever feeling feral for whatever y'all are up to, so tags below the cut and, as always, anyone who wants to play! (If you take the open tag please tag me so I can see!!)

@affectionatelyrs @anincompletelist @celaestis1 @cha-melodius @clottedcreamfudge @cricketnationrise @cultofsappho @daisymae-12 @dumbpeachjuice @happiness-of-the-pursuit @hgejfmw-hgejhsf @hypnostheory @iboatedhere @indestructibleheart @indomitable-love @inexplicablymine @leaves-of-laurelin @lilythesilly @myheartalivewrites @nontoxic-writes @orchidscript @rmd-writes @roseapothecary @sherryvalli @ships-to-sail @smc-27 @sparklepocalypse @ssmtskw @stereopticons @tintagel-or-cockleshells @welcometololaland 

[kiwiana-writes]

WIP Wednesday

I have even less sense of what day it is than usual, but LET'S GO I guess. I'm feeling very iffy on this so far, so we'll see how much of it makes it into the final product 😅

Structural edits, Henry is inclined to think, are a task sent directly from Hell to make him hate himself. If he wanted his self-worth to be chipped away at with such alarming success, he could have simply not gone non-contact with his grandmother and saved himself all the time, effort, and stress of actually writing novels.  But here he is, faced with the reality that something about the last act simply isn’t working. He just can’t seem to identify what it is. It’s a realistic conclusion to the story he’s set out to tell, so why does it feel so unsatisfying?

Forever feeling feral for whatever y'all are up to, so tagging @affectionatelyrs @anincompletelist @blairwaldcrf @cha-melodius @clottedcreamfudge @cricketnationrise @cultofsappho @daisymae-12 @dumbpeachjuice @firenati0n @getmehighonmagic @happiness-of-the-pursuit @hgejfmw-hgejhsf @indestructibleheart @indomitable-love @inexplicablymine @leaves-of-laurelin @littlemisskittentoes @lizzie-bennetdarcy @myheartalivewrites @ninzied @notspecialbabe @orchidscript @rmd-writes @sherryvalli @ships-to-sail @smc-27 @sparklepocalypse @ssmtskw @stereopticons @tintagel-or-cockleshells @welcometololaland @whimsymanaged and, as always, anyone who wants to play! (If you take the open tag please tag me so I can see!!)

[kiwiana-writes]

Last Line Challenge

Lowkey mad at @hgejfmw-hgejhsf (not actually) for tagging me in this and EXPOSING that I may have started yet another fucking WIP. I am genuinely sorry. I mean, not sorry enough not to do it, but still.

The man in front of him has much longer hair, for one; dark, wild curls framing a face that’s a little softer, with a less sharp jaw.

Tagging the folks who I know are actively working on stuff, but as always feel free to take this as an open tag as well! @affectionatelyrs @anincompletelist @cha-melodius @clottedcreamfudge @cricketnationrise @dumbpeachjuice @indestructibleheart @indomitable-love @orchidscript @sparklepocalypse @stereopticons @tintagel-or-cockleshells

[kiwiana-writes]

Find the Word Tag Game

Thanks for the tag @cha-melodius! A fabulous complement to yesterday's game.

Rules: Share snippets of your work containing each of the words the previous poster selected for you. Then select four words and tag friends. (I also used a random word generator rather than try to think of them myself)

My Words: spin, constant, contain, union

Your Words: owner, grand, lease, battle

SPIN

From the Stranger Than Fiction AU, and I love this snippet so much you get TWO sentences (plus the dialogue, which I usually count as part of the sentence anyway because I'm nice):

“Realistic?” Alex spins on his heel, getting right up in Henry’s face and poking him in the chest with such force, Henry stumbles back a little. Alex’s eyes are blazing hot, jaw set in a way Henry knows he’s going to have to agonise over the words to describe later.

CONSTANT

From the Big Secret Collab with @indestructibleheart:

The constant is Henry, but this time, Alex knows exactly what they are to each other—and what they will be soon enough, if the box he has hidden at the back of his nightstand has anything to say about it.

CONTAIN

From angstapalooza:

Alex has spent the whole evening indulging himself in a steady diet of champagne and barely contained rage, and it’s working for him, okay?

UNION

Nothing. Well, three posted fics, but no WIPs.

***

Like Sara before me I'm only tagging a few people because this is definitely one of those games that's fun when we all have different words, but if you want to play and haven't been tagged yet, feel free to jump in!

@affectionatelyrs @cactusdragon517 @happiness-of-the-pursuit @hgejfmw-hgejhsf @indestructibleheart

@read-and-write- @rmd-writes @sparklepocalypse @stereopticons @whimsymanaged

[kiwiana-writes]

WIP Word Search

Oh god I've been tagged in this three times—thanks @anincompletelist @theprinceandagcd @hgejfmw-hgejhsf—so now I have a long-ass list of words 🤣

My words were: make, hide, square, edge, atmosphere AND hope, smooth, skin, water, paper AND proud, ceaseless, worried, dark, pointless. I am very literally begging the universe to ensure I don't have all 15 of these in WIPs, but I'm putting all this nonsense under a cut just in case.

MAKE appears in: Climb up and meet the sky

“This isn’t your local flight school’s Cessna, okay? The open cockpit’s the easiest part—she’s got no starter, no brakes, no flaps, no nose wheel. She’s not going to fly her way out of trouble, either; she’ll stall or spin. She’ll make sure you’re aware of every tiny mistake you make, sweetheart.”

HIDE appears in: Chantilly lace and a pretty face

A few days ago it was Between us we have more security than a Taylor Swift concert, who else could it be?; last week was I so appreciate you announcing yourself so I have time to hide my parade of lovers; the first time, though, was Alex’s personal favourite: Are you sure you are, in fact, home, and haven’t stepped into a deeply heterosexist 1960s sitcom?

SQUARE appears in: The way we get into each other's bones [angstapalooza RWRB edition]

Henry turns to Alex, his expression carefully guarded as he squares his shoulders in a deliberate, measured way that is utterly at odds with the carefree boy Alex used to look at in the glossy pages of J14.

EDGE appears in: a super-secret collaboration with @indestructibleheart that we just started poking at yesterday (I have no idea how long it will stay super secret BUT)

There’s a flash of light out of the corner of his eye, the unrelenting glint of sunlight hitting metal, and Henry’s hands curl into fists around the edge of the sink as he looks up.

ATMOSPHERE appears in nothing!

HOPE appears in: [Henry writes]

(Also, in a very chill no-pressure way, I notice you’re not writing as often as you used to -- I hope everything’s going well for you!)

SMOOTH appears in nothing! (Well, lots of things that I've already published but no WIPs)

SKIN appears in: Introspective rimming

Alex moves like he’s trying to crawl inside Henry’s skin, letting out soft moans and shivering gasps that burrow their way between Henry’s fourth and fifth ribs and carve out a place for themselves there, somewhere only Alex has ever reached.

WATER appears in nothing!

PAPER appears in nothing!

PROUD appears in nothing!

CEASELESS appears in nothing!

WORRIED appears in nothing!

DARK appears in: [Stranger Than Fiction AU]

The man in front of him has much longer hair, for one; dark, wild curls framing a face that’s a little softer, with a less sharp jaw.

POINTLESS appears in nothing!

I AM TAGGING @anchoredarchangel @blackandwhiteandrose @indestructibleheart @onthewaytosomewhere @orchidscript @ships-to-sail @stereopticons @tintagel-or-cockleshells @whimsymanaged and, as always, anyone who wants to play!

Your words are: land, answer, spare, funeral, value

[kiwiana-writes]

for the wip word game, an easy one: coffee

My toxic trait is that I'm allergic to coffee, but I'm better at including it in fic than I am at including other things I don't personally consume (aka breakfast) lmaoooooo. I'm giving you THREE WHOLE SENTENCES because I'm nice but also because I just love the rhythm of this, which is the most recent time I've typed 'coffee' in a WIP.

There was the immediate caffeine craving his body inflicted upon him, despite it having only been eight or so hours since his evening cup of coffee. Seven hours, perhaps. Certainly at least five, most nights.

[Send me a word, if it’s in any of my wip documents I’ll answer your ask with the sentence that it appears in.]

[kiwiana-writes]

WIP word guessing game: cup, glasses, and/or ice

CUP

From the Stranger Than Fiction AU:

There was the immediate caffeine craving his body inflicted upon him, despite it having only been eight or so hours since his evening cup of coffee.

GLASSES

I didn't have glassES, but I did have 'glass' in the Anastasia AU:

Somewhere not as far away as Henry would like, there’s the sound of glass being smashed.

ICE

From [Henry writes] which has been languishing in my docs so long I can't even freaking remember who I was talking to that made me start the thing in the first place lol:

Me: Fetch my smelling salts and some ice I need to LIE DOWN and CALM DOWN.

[Send me a word, if it’s in my wip document I’ll answer your ask with the sentence that it appears in]

[kiwiana-writes]

Me reading your wip list: 'oh cool, some interesting stuff...WAIT A GODDAMN FUCKING MINUTE.' STFAU = stranger than fiction au?????? i am SAT what the HELL how did I not figure that out already??????????

IT SURE FUCKING IS. I for real thought my last line written in 2023 was a much bigger hint than it ended up being lol.

I'm legit excited for this one! Henry as the novelist trying to edit his latest book, Alex as the protagonist who doesn’t realise he’s the main character of a novel until suddenly his every move/thought/etc is being narrated by a plummy English accent. Me getting a few meta jokes in 😅

[WIP tag game]