#haven't done these in a loooooong while

[ashes-writing]

May I request a nsfw headcanon with Nick Stokes from csi vegas perhaps blowing off steam after a rough case? Ty!

Of course! I warn, I miiight be a little rusty with Nick because I literally haven't written for him in a loooooong time, though. But I'll happily try this for you! I hope you like it!

tag list babes || req rules / fandoms+characters; reqs open || got a req or ? || masterlist

WARNINGS ;

minors nope. not for you, move along. Hickies, oral (m giving, f recieving) and it happens in a workplace area.

TAG LIST ;

@beardedbarba

@uncrownedmox

@justmeandanoverdrive

@louderfortheback - these are the only names on my CSI taglist. If you'd like to be on it, please click link above and add yourself.

-- it starts with three words, no, not I love you but fuck it out. You're leaned against the door of the locker room when you say it. This shift has been one from hell and you're only half joking, but... Deep down, you mean it. You want it. And it seemed like a good idea at the time, you've been flirting back and forth for weeks by now.. It takes him by surprise and at first, he kinda blinks? Like.. did you just say that? But then, oh.. Then you wander up closer to him. Real close. And you're awkwardly melted against him, soft little laugh leaving your lips as you're bold enough to repeat yourself. "Fuck it out on me, Stokes. C'mon."

--- He's been into you for a while. A while. IIRC, he thought at one point he was 'cursed' in the romance department, so to speak. I can't remember why, but alas... Your little proposal opens the floodgates and the way you're dragging your fingers up and down the front of that brown denim jacket of his are starting to make him hard. He only gets harder when his mind fills with images, of him actually doing what you're asking of him. He blushes a little, hell. "You sure you want me to do that, darlin?" his drawl is twice as thick. Honeyed. Has you wet in an instant but that dangerous little look in those eyes, ugh.. He's got you pushed against the door and his hands pinning yours above your head after stopping to lock the door at your back. As his lips lock against your neck when he's brushed hair out of the way, he pins your hands again. "Do you know what you're tellin me t' do? Do ya?"

-- You figure out what you've just done real quick. After he's got your legs around his waist and he's reached down and tugged open your blouse, buttons spraying across hard tile with soft plinks. There's not a place on your neck, chest and throat that he doesn't leave a mark behind on. You're rubbing against him, fucked out and dripping, if the man were to stop, to feel the literal flood coating your thighs, ugh.. Oh god.

--- but then he does. Your back meets a table and he's standing between your legs, pushing them apart with rough and thick hands as he fixes a hungry look on you and the way you're rocking and squirming. He gives you that grin as he leans down, licking his lips and growling, "Fuck." quietly as soon as he sees the wet spot on your panties. Your finger s tug against dark hair as he bites his way up the insides of your thighs, groaning, grunting, growling. Your panties settle on the floor after being pulled down in haste and he stops, gazing up at you. "What if lickin you clean is better at calmin me down, darlin? That okay?"

-- You nod, whimpering when you feel his tongue circle your clit before allowing his lips to latch on. When you try to move your hips to meet his mouth as his tongue buries inside you, though, you quickly realize that Nick is the one in control here. He's got a grip on your thighs as he spreads them open as wide as he can get them and that grip will not budge. It's all you can do to tug at his hair and arch your back, squirm. And if you think he'll let you get off when you want? Nah. He's going to edge and edge until you're frantically trying to shove his head away. Spells out his first name between your thighs with his tongue too. Tells you that you two will finish this completely when the shift is over and you absolutely cannot wait.

#nick stokes #nick stokes fanfiction #nick stokes imagine #nick stokes x reader #nick stokes headcanons #nick stokes x reader imagine #csi las vegas fanfiction #csi las vegas #csi vegas fanfiction #csi vegas imagine #// minors do not even think it

[dxwnfxll]

Hi it's me again! Can I request basically the same homeless reader as before but instead of the foundations employees it's the scps themselves. I think they might not even be able to find out if the reader is homeless considering the fact they never go into the parking lot so they have to use other clues to figure it out. If they even figure it out at all with how good the reader is at hiding things.

Thank you!

Sure! Lolol

Scps with a homeless reader

(And for the sake of everything, reader cannot be affected by their anomalous effects)

These will be platonic

-Alright well here ya are, homeless and working at the SCP Foundation. You had friends, you had family but you've always been the type of person to not want others to worry so much about them

-you call it 'independence' others would call it 'pretty sad' since your situation has led to you sleeping in your car on site

-luckily for you, you haven't been caught and most likely you probably never will be caught since the only person on site that seems to care about you in some way is completely clueless

••035••

-You and the mask have..weird friendship let's say that.

-He's noticed how you are, how you seem to always be sick and how you always look as if you've never gotten any sleep.

-he doesn't believe your lies either, he can see right through them and he's a bit hurt that you lie to him

-but he assumes maybe you're lying because you're being hurt or maybe you're too ashamed to admit what's actually wrong.

-he constantly bugs you about it and asks what's actually going on but you usually keep it hidden, which in return annoys the mask

-so now he asks you everyday in hopes that you'll finally tell him what's going on, it's up to you if you do or don't.

-but if you do he can't help much, but he'll try to manipulate a researcher or two into getting you a dorm within the site

••049••

-049 is hard to convince just the same as 035, He's a doctor after all and he definitely takes notice when you show up to his cell looking dreadful and sick

-he'll usually try to always help you, He's always being your doctor but he does usually always ask why you're always sick

-hell he can't even count how many times you come to his office with a scratchy throat or irritated eyes that he somehow finds a way to heal

-you never reveal it to him though, and he actually respects that.

-i mean you do give him 'business' in a way, you're the only person he can actually be a doctor to.

-He's just worried about your well being

••166••

-You are somehow friends with the three eyed maniacs daughter congrats, and luckily said maniac doesn't seem to mind it

-but she was definitely worried for you (and Clef as well but only for 166s sake), you'd always come to her cell looking awfully tired and sometimes even sick

-she'd usually pray for you and even told the priest that visits her about you and your situation

-she doesn't bug you about it as you do have your own life, and even if you told her you're homeless there's nothing much she can do but ask to pray for you

-(though what she doesn't realize is Clef would probably see what's up with you and get you a dorm, he doesn't want his kid upset cause her friend done died from who knows what while being homeless)

••073••

-Cain has been around for a loooooong ass time, so even though you're obviously lying and trying to hide being homeless he *knows*

-but out of respect for you he doesn't say anything, he knows back then homeless people were looked down upon horribly and he could only imagine if it's still the same way

-he does go out of his way to try and help you some though, he'll bring you clothes (that he can touch) and just claim 'oh a friend gave me them but i can't fit them, you can have them though they look about your size'

-or he'll bring you some medicine but luckily that can be covered up with a 'i noticed you looked pretty sick'

-he of course see's how tired you look and will sometimes offer for you to sit on his bed as he tells you stories, cause he knows you'll pass out then.

-very caring boy that knows your secret and just doesn't say anything

••4051••

-you were one of Rainers first friends coming into this place, and luckily for you he was pretty easy to lie to about your situation

-he of course noticed how tired you always looked, and how you somehow were always sick. And when he asked you just made up a lie about how uncomfortable the dorm beds were, or how it was always easy to get sick in a place like this

-and he usually bought them, but he was still pretty worried for you. And he kinds hated the fact he could only take your word for it since he was trapped in a cell all day

-he couldn't even really help you much even if you told him, sure he could 'manifest' things but then he'd possibly get you in trouble

-He's very worried for ya lolol

Sorry if these seemed rushed, i'm trying to get through all these requests that have been sitting lolol

Hope you enjoyed though and as always requests open!

#scp #scp foundation #scp fandom #scp fanfiction #scp x reader #scp 166 #scp 035 x reader #scp 035 #scp 049 x reader #scp 049 #scp 073 x reader #scp 073 #scp 4051

[whysamwhy123]

✨Fic Writing Review 2023✨

Tagged by the wonderful dynamic duo that is @aerodaltonimperial and @perhapswhoknowsvamp and it's very fitting that those two lovely people tagged me because they're a big reason why I wrote much of anything this year! Took me a while to get this done because I wanted to get my last fic of the year out the door first. I'll put the rest below the cut, and fair warning - it's loooooong. This bitch doesn't shut up, so I rambled on. A lot.

Words and Fics

76, 222 words published on AO3 in 2023

15 fics published on AO3 (16 if you count that one kinkmeme prompt I filled and posted anonymously)

2 little tumblr ficlets

Top 3 by Kudos

Voice in the Dark - Hookhausen (not super surprising, considering it was a popular pairing at the time, and it was the fic I wrote for the anniversary event)

Kids These Days And Their Darn Phones - Hookhausen

Half Your Age Plus Seven - OrangeHook (I continue to be incredibly surprised how well this fic did, like...huh?!)

Top 3 by Hits

Voice in the Dark - Hookhausen

Voice in the Dark, Part Two - Hookhausen (how fitting, LOL)

Half Your Age Plus Seven - OrangeHook (Seriously, what was it about this fic that drew people in? More so than any of my other OrangeHook fics? Like, I'm grateful and all but also confused, like this fic is way too long?! And weird about the age difference?!)

Author's Favourite

As much as I'm loving writing OrangeHook now, I think Voice in the Dark, Part Two is probably the best thing I've written? Even though it's also overly long and gets weird at the end (very much did not expect it to go in that direction when I started writing it), I'm actually pretty proud of how that one turned out. I had a clear vision in my head for how each scene would play out and what I wanted to get across, and man, I remember how most of the Hook/Evilhausen dialogue popped into my brain late one night when I couldn't sleep, so I spat it out into a doc and then about a month later when I actually wrote the scene, I don't think I changed a single word? I just added everything else around it, all the not-dialogue parts. And it was just a lot of fun getting to carry on that story, especially as someone who hasn't managed to crank out a proper multi-chapter fic yet. Who knows, maybe I'll return to that world someday...

Fandom Events in 2023

Uh, well, I guess I did the whole Hookhausen Anniversary thing? And...that's about it. I'm pretty disconnected from the fandom at large, whoopsie daisy 😬

Upcoming Projects

Hoo boy.

I have over 5k words of a Ricky/Christian Sugar Baby AU thing written already. I haven't posted it because it kinda needs some smut and that's still not something I can really do. I might post it someday, if I can make something work, or alternatively do what I normally do and put an annoying fade to black in there. Or maybe I'll think better of it and never post it because it's very self-indulgent and I highly doubt anyone else would really be interested or want me to continue it or anything. But I have Ideas for it...so many ideas...

Also, in my ill-fated quest to try and make myself write smut, I kinda started a Ricky/Bill championship celebration fic. Maybe I'll revisit that? Try to get it done?

And then there's that one fic I really want to work on, but have barely started. I've vague-posted about it here before - it's an incredibly fucked-up Dead Dove fic about Daniel Garcia and a Very Bad, Not-Good thing that happens to him, and the subsequent complete mental breakdown that follows. I've had the idea rattling around in my brain for the better part of a year at this point, despite not making much actual progress on it. Every time I think about it though, I have new ideas for scenes or dialogue. I'd like to make it work, but I don't know if I have the writing chops to handle it, plus it would probably end up being super long and nobody would want to read it, so it'd feel like a huge waste of time on my part? And I've had the idea for so long, it's out-dated too. But still, the urge remains...

Oh, and I still have a ton of OrangeHook ideas I'd like to make happen. Some are, of course, about their age difference. Some would (ideally) involve smut. And others... *nervous laughter* Others would likely result in an ''Everyone disliked that'' situation...

Writing Reflection

I was thinking about making a sappy post about this and whoops, here's my excuse! I don't talk a lot on here about my tragic backstory because honestly, who cares? But I will say this - before January of this year, I hadn't written a word of anything in years. Fic or otherwise. I used to love writing, but Stuff Happened and it killed all enjoyment I got out of it, and I thought that's how it would be forever. Then, for reasons I can't even remember, I started reading fic again, specifically in this wild little fandom of ours, and y'all are just so talented that it made my untalented ass want to give it another shot. So...I did.

I remember when I posted my first fic in ages back in January, I thought ''Maybe about three people will read this and no one will leave a comment or anything, but whatever, I wrote a thing and that's something I haven't done in years so that's enough for me!'' And to be honest, I still think that whenever I post stuff now? It's crazy to me that anyone actually reads my stuff and gets some kind of kick out of it. But every kudos and comment floors me and brings me so much joy, I can't even express it properly. I have to say a huge thank you to anyone who's ever read one of my fics, left kudos or dropped a comment. Whoever and wherever you are, you made my day!

And look, I ain't delusional. I know that calling myself a small fish in the fandom would be too generous. But I'm fine with that - because I'm genuinely enjoying writing again and that's what matters most to me. Even though I've also rediscovered how stressful writing can be (🙂🙂🙂) when it comes down to it, there's joy and happiness in my life that wasn't there last year and that's all because I started writing again. And because some lovely folks here decided to let me know they liked what I was throwing out there. The years have not been kind to ol' Sammy Sam-Sam and this year was no exception, but getting to forget about all that shit and write my silly little wrestling fanfiction has been a great distraction and a comfort through this whole year.

So...yeah. Thanks to everyone who's ever commented on my writing, thanks to the folks who follow me on here (I don't know how you manage that though, I'm such an annoying bitch, aren't you sick of me yet?) and thanks to anyone who I've had the chance to chat with about writing and ships and whatever silly little ideas pop into my head (any of y'all feel free to message me at any time, I am always down to blab about whatever blorbos/ideas take your fancy). I'm hoping I can keep this train a-rollin' a little more next year. Still thinking back to when I started writing again, I made my new AO3 account expecting to write Dustjim only, but then I quickly decided I couldn't write those two well enough, and since then I've bounced around a bunch of different pairings, with a few rarepairs shoved in between for good measure. God only knows where my head will be at this time next year, LOL. I'd love to finally be able to attempt some of the bigger ideas I've been cooking up for a while now. Maybe I'll even write a proper multi-chapter fic? We'll see, but this bitch can dream, at least.

Rules:

Feel free to show whatever stats you have. Only want to show Ao3 stats? Rock on. Want to include some quantitative info instead of stats? Please do this. Want to change how yours is presented? Absolutely do that. Would rather eat glass than do this? Please do eat glass, I’ve heard it’s good for your gums.

I'm not going to tag anyone because I'm pretty sure everyone I know who writes has already been tagged? So if you're reading this and you haven't, go ahead and do it! By which I mean, eat glass. Eat all the glass that you want. Accidents happen in the dark.

#What is wrong with you Sam you should not be allowed to write #Also you really need to learn to shut up dude #This bitch went onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn and on #But it was kinda fun reflecting on The Year I Got Back Into Writing #It's been fun yo #Who knows what this next year will bring??

[tboy-boone]

1-8, 24-30

Hi golf!!!

1. How many words have you written this year?

6,370 words!!!

2. How many works did you publish this year?

Five works so far but who knows... number six might be coming

3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

I was proud so proud of 'Til One Day They Just Cut It Loose. I was sooooo miserable writing it but once I was done, I liked it!

4. What work of yours has the most hits?

I Saw Your Ghost Tonight had the most hits. I didn't realize there were still people who thought about these movies..... where are they. Actually don't tell me, I don't wanna know

5. What work of yours got more feedback than you expected?

I was so surprised by the feedback I got on 'Til Someday They Just Cut It Loose because I got comment from someone who wrote one of my favourite fics on there! I was so shocked!!!

6. Favorite title you used

I Saw Your Ghost Tonight was soooooo perfect and it's like the best song ever

7. If you use song lyrics, which artist’s songs did you pull from the most?

It's a tie between all of them.... one from mitski, radiohead, Bruce Springsteen, and blink-182

8. Pairing you wrote the most for this year?

That one is another tie between Abigail/Ben/Riley and Margot/Claire

24. Did you write any gifts this year?

Nope, maybe next year?

25. Did you receive any gifts this year?

YEAH <3 angsty jack murdering Kate fic

26. What’s your most common category?

General for sure

27. What do you listen to while writing?

Sometimes I'll make playlists that makes me think of a character(s) and I'll listen to that on repeat

28. Favorite work you wrote this year?

I loooooooved I'll Pay for My Place. I haven't had a work consume my brain like that in a loooooong time

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

THIS ONE "There is a burning rage in stomach because he can’t hate him the way he did as child. However, Ethan can’t love him the way he did as child." I was so proud of that one

30. Biggest surprise while writing this year?

How many nice comments people leave <3 SO KIND!!

[wingedcatgirl]

Do you have any favorite plural characters in fiction?

Of the top of my head I think the only ones I really know would probably be Touka/Boogiepop and also some of the YuGiOh characters

Oh and Moonknight but I haven't read or watched that yet

There aren't a whole lot of options to choose from especially since we don't. actually participate in as much media as one might imagine bUT ANYWAy..

The WoL in FFXIV is canonically plural, kind of, and *looks at everything we've done with Vivi* is this cheating? This feels like it might be cheating, a little bit. Whatever still one of our faves.

Madeline Celeste, of course, though one could argue that Badeline is more a metaphor for anxiety and/or mental health problems in general than she is a proper headmate, still works though.

:thonking: ... The Girl and The Nightmare from Level Up could maaaaaybe be read as plural if you stretch? (Yes we do roleplay them as a straight-up system but the actual game doesn't depict them like that at all, we're extrapolating a possible future for them.)

And while it's been a loooooong time since we actually looked at any canon YuGiOh media, we have always been fond of Yugi and Atem.

#cat chatter #words from me a kity #kiraheartilly36

[srarlight]

Just how exactly do you juggle so many skills/disciplines at once, and do you have any advice on how do so? I've been trying to improve at art/music/editing for years and haven't made much progress, so the fact that you're way above average in all of those (way better than most people who just do one of those things) is utterly mindblowing!

Hey there!! ahaha this is quite the nice ask! I am happy to hear you think so! ;v; I left some thoughts under the cut!

For me it's usually been an experience of seeing something I like, and wishing there was more of it and realizing if you want more of that thing or vibe, sometimes you have to make it your self and then getting pretty dang tunneled into the idea of making it -v- Juggling everything in my free time hasn't always been the easiest, something will always pop up and slow me down, but I tend to get so easily excited by ideas, that I end up with enough hype for a project to keep going for loooooong periods of my life, even if that means get only a handful of hours here and there to work. Something I have done is try and set time aside to learn and although it doesn't always end up happening on the days I want, having a little, "lets mess with editing or music day" helps me form habits.

As for how it started, I love multi media, so if I wanted to make videos with art and a little motion + music and editing, that kind of forced me to try and learn a little of everything. When I was trying to pick up a new next skill set, the first hurtle was always the program and figuring out all the ins and outs. I've spent a lot of the time learning just on forums and tutorials to get past what I consider the first huge initial hump of- "how do I get this technology to do anything I want it to??? so many symbols and buttons for which I have no idea what they mean or do". After I finally brute force my way through that, it comes down just to the artistry of it which is usually harder to pin down. I don't usually have a strong initial idea of how to replicate a good aesthetic and draw/write/edit it to look how I want at the start. A lot of that just comes down to research and looking at lots of examples of similar projects with vibes I like. Seeing how other things sound or look and aiming to try and make my own version of that thing and being okay if the project is a little off, but I still got some aspect of it how I wanted so that'll make it all the easier for the next project.

But if anything for advice, I feel like the reason I've been able to keep at it for so long out side of my brain just tending to get fixated, is that I tie learning a skill set to things I really enjoy. So my personal stories or projects, not aiming to have it be a lively hood or built to appease a certain crowd. It's like hitting two birds with one stone in my mind and can be properly encouraging to keep digging in and seeing what else I can try. I can learn in a safe no stakes environment making pmd stories or other content that's mostly to push my own enjoyment-buttons. Come flaws or struggles, that thing of my project exists now cause I gave it a try hah. I found that slowly, but surely if I keep up studying examples I like while making my own thing, eventually more informed detail and aesthetics emerge.

I have no idea if this information is helpful, but it's how my life has been with art for a long while! Thank you again for the nice ask ;v;

#asks #text

[lossie92]

Hiiii!!!! Madara for the ask game😁

Hello! My fave Uchiha? Sure thing! 😌

-

favorite thing about them

Is "basically everything" an option? Because if so, then that lol

least favorite thing about them

That he let himself be so easily manipulated by Izuna and Zetsu. And yes, I think Izuna manipulated Madara emotionally, using his terminal condition to push for more conflict because of anger and spite. I believe it was, for the most part, caused by Zetsu (or at least that's my theory, since canon, as always, gives us scraps only), and I understand that Izuna has trust issues, but still, I don't like it.

Also, I've read this super interesting MadaSaku fic a while back where Madara was revived after the Fourth War and decided to take a trip over the world to retrace his footstep and find out when Zetsu actually started manipulating him. The theory was that it happened much earlier than he imagined and yeah, that just made me hella sad for him, but also made me realize that Madara has a tendency to try and please everyone, which in the end ends up pleasing no one, including Madara himself.

favorite line

I have two, because despite being unhinged for the majority of his screen time, Madara actually says a few very smart things imo.

1. "Talking about peace, whilst spilling blood, it's something that only humans can do." This hits soooo hard and is very, very true. Nothing like starting a war to bring peace, eh?

2. "When you fall in love, you love with all that you’ve got. You must learn to bear anger, hatred, keep your ego and attitude aside and handle things with care, calmness, and love." This, once again, is very true. It also makes me sad for Madara. He certainly had a lot of capacity for love. If only the was no Zetsu and if he hadn't made some very questionable life choices...

brOTP

Again, I have two: HashiMada and MadaIzu.

The first one... I simply prefer them as friends nowadays, largely because I think they work better this way, at least in my head, and also because I ship them romantically with other characters.

The second, because I obviously dig brotherly bonding and we got so little of it with these two, which is a shame, but I still love it.

OTP

MadaTobi! Obvious answer, I know. They have been living in my head completely rent free for close to a year now and there are no signs of it ending any time soon, which I'm very happy about, actually. Tbh I haven't drawn or written this much for a ship before, and I have been in this fandom for a loooooong time, so...

The other Madara ship that I enjoy (if done well!) is MadaSaku.

nOTP

Anything with even hints of incest is automatically a no and, as mentioned before, I prefer HashiMada as a platonic ship these days.

random headcanon

Madara smokes weed to help with stress management. The specific mixture he uses was prescribed to him by a medic and this is actually what he puts in his kiseru.

unpopular opinion

Gotta be honest here, I don't care for the overblown flailing. There is very little evidence of adult Madara failing, even though he certainly has a temper, and I just think it doesn't particularly work with his character. Nothing wrong with it if you like him this way, obviously, but I just prefer him being written closer to what I gathered about his character from canon, I guess.

song i associate with them

Hmm I'll go with Razorlight's "Hostage of Love"

favorite picture of them

Not a picture, but a gif. I love this fight scene in general, but this particular fragment is just immaculate imo

-

Send me a character...

#madara #uchiha madara #madara headcanons #headcanons #naruto #naruto founders #ask game #character ask

[mariana-oconnor]

So, I love your fic(s) Lost and Found // The Wolves of Timely. Clint's hope for Barney, his guilt, Bucky's terror at being injected, all so beautifully written

But I was wondering, how do you go about writing such a long fic?

And if you outline your fics at all, do you look at your outline and go 'this'll be 50k words' or whatever or what?

Thank you! I'm so glad you like that fic. I love werewolves, and that fic was really interesting to write.

Oh boy. This is a weird one because the way I've done this kind of thing has changed so much over the years and I'm still in a place where sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and there's really very little rhyme or reason to when my brain decides that 'yes, this is good' and 'no, I can't'.

I've been doing Nanowrimo for years. Since... 2002? I think? Maybe 2003. Either way, it's been a long time. And while I haven't always won it, I have always tried. And in the beginning, I just started writing and whatever came out came out and that was that. Because when I first started writing, planning stories out just took all the joy of writing out of them for me. I wrote to discover the story, and if I'd already planned it then there was nothing to discover. I still sometimes find that planning something out makes it bore me when I actually come to write it. But I have got significantly better at finding interest in the smaller details, and constructing scenes, sentences and characters. There is a joy in finding the exact right phrase to convey your meaning. The perfect phrase is an elusive beast, but when you find it...

I know some people who use the Snowflake method, or plan every single scene and just... really go hard on the planning. I cannot do that. My mind rebels. There is no quicker way for me to kill my love of a story than to overplan it. Having said that, I do now plan, and in a lot more detail than I used to.

BUT that's not what you actually asked. You wanted to know how I now go about planning fic, particularly long fic. Sadly Lost & Found was planned on a past computer, so I don't have my initial files to hand, or I'd give you examples from that. But here's a sort of description of my 'method'. (Inverted commas because any individual project might have all, none, or some of these steps.)

(Under a read more because this got loooooong).

The Basic Premise

The general method of planning that I've sort of constructed over the year is I start by just... writing out the basic premise and then expanding it. I just type it, or write it longhand if that's easier at the time. It's not exactly a summary. It's more...

OK, for an example, I'll copy in one of the ones I did for a recent Tumblr ficlet:

SO - Another sort of college age fic. Bucky’s been trying to ask Clint out but Clint is oblivious so somehow, when they’re all drunk, the subject of lapdances comes up and it turns out Bucky actually did learn how to lapdance once, from this online course, but he broke up with that SO before he actually did it. They sort of dare him to do it - otherwise it’s a waste of talent, right. And Natasha suggests Clint, as he’s the only unattached person there or something. It’s hella awkward and Clint’s all like ‘No thanks’ and things get… even more awkward.

Clint sends a message to Bucky by accident - to the wrong chat? He thinks he’s deleted it in time, because it’s about how Natasha is the worst friend because now he can’t stop thinking about Bucky… gyrating, or something like that. Bucky has seen it, though, and he gets Natasha to let him in one night and he just… there’s the lapdance and there’s the threat of handcuffs or something. And Natasha sends a text that she’s not coming back until tomorrow and they’re welcome.

I was working that all out as I went along. It's pretty much stream of consciousness. Because this was a short fic and I had a clear prompt, this is a lot more coherent than they usually are. Often I'll just have questions in capital letters in the middle of them, like "BUT WHY IS CLINT EVEN ON THE CRUISE?" or "HOW DID BUCKY KNOW ABOUT THAT??!?!", where I know where I want the plot to go, but I don't know how to get it there. This flags the earliest plot holes that I can see them and also means that when I'm stumped I don't stop writing, I just write down the question that's stumping me and keep going with the plot. Sometimes I answer the question in the next line, sometimes I go 'fuck it' Future!me can answer the questions. Current me is just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks.

Often there will also be things like "NO, Natasha knows before that, of course she does." and then I backpedal with an instead or something.

With some of my longer fic, I write multiple of these stream of consciousness things, because there are sticking points that I just can't get my head around. I come at it from different angles. "WHAT IF Bucky actually is from an alternate universe?" idk. Sometimes I end up just writing swear words. I try not to call myself an idiot because Postive Mental Attitude and all that, but I will not deny that I occasionally just type long screams.

Is this helpful? This doesn't feel helpful.

But anyway, that's step one. Write down premise and try to mould it into some sort of mutant zombie plot. Include all the awkward, dumb questions and comments.

Step-By-Step

Step 2, is where things get more ordered, but they're still pretty vague.

This is where I list things from the plot. Roughly in order of when they should happen, but not necessarily. Sometimes I do this in an excel/google sheet, sometimes at the start of the document I'm writing in. (I do try to delete this before my betas get into the file).

So I have this list - it might be numbered or bullet points, or every 'plot point' in a different cell in Excel. I call them plot points, but that's not necessarily true. If there's a snippet of dialogue in my head, then I put that in. If there's just a scene or an action I know has to happen. I didn't do this for the ficlet I mentioned above, because I didn't need to, that plot summary was enough. I did do this for my Cap-Ironman Big Bang last year - The Highwayman's Baronet.

That fic ended up at 125k, the longest thing I have ever written, and my step-by-step plot summary had 34 'plot points' on it. Here are a few:

10. Steve decides to become a highwayman to uncover the secret of the inn.

11. Informal meetings between Tony and Steve. Tony and the piano!

12. Obadiah and Steve are not fond of each other

13. There is a highwayman, Tony is intrigued

14. Steve sketches the landscape.

15. Balls. There are balls. Of course there are. This is a Regency drama. Netherfield hall is let at last, mama

16. Indries Moomji is introduced. At a ball? Probably?

17. Highwayman Steve is always a gentleman. Holds up Tony’s carriage. Tony chases after him. Steve is more daring behind the mask. Kiss to the hand.

As you can see, most of these are pretty vague. "Obadiah and Steve are not fond of each other" doesn't tell me any specifics, but it does tell me that I need to add in at least one scene where this is evident, preferably more than one. Ideally, every time the two of them share a scene together, this should be the subtext behind every one of their interactions.

Other things like "Steve sketches the landscape" are pretty specific scenes, but not plot related. In the end, that did tie in with the plot (which actually surprised me), but at the point when I was writing this, I was just 'Steve draws, a scene where he sits and broods regency style while sketching would be cool'. Likewise "Tony and the piano!" makes little sense to anyone but me, but I knew that I wanted the piano in Steve's house, and in particular Tony's playing of it to be important thematically and symbolically.

As I get closer to the end of the fic, I know fewer details about what's going to happen, so the bullet points tend to get... weird and more vague. I have one bullet point that is "Tony goes investigatin'" and another that finishes with "SHOCK GASP HORROR".

I don't tend to take my planning process very seriously. Don't get too precious over your plan.

Estimating Word Count

Particularly if I'm writing for a challenge, I doing my step-by-step list in a spreadsheet, so I can add a column called "estimated word count" or "EWC", and then, based on what I know of my writing, I estimate to the nearest 1000 or 500 words how long I think each of my plot points will be. I am usually wrong. I go by a rule of thumb that a standard, none climactic or pivotal scene for me is around 2000 words, a climactic scene is roughly 5000 words and other things I sort of... guess. This is almost always wrong. Things are longer or shorter. But this isn't meant for me to stick to, it's just so I can see roughly how long the fic might be.

When I'm doing this, the plot points do tend to be more specific, as well. The vaguer ones I try to work into actual scenes or merge into other points so I can get a better estimate.

When I was about 40k into The Highwayman's Baronet I did a separate spreadsheet of "Scenes left to write". Because I was already writing it, I had a better handle on where things were going, and I estimated there was about 74k left, which was actually roughly correct. Go me!

Honestly, most of the time, with estimating word counts, I horrendously underestimate. The number of times I have sent someone a message saying 'This was only meant to be 5k and now it is 20k and I'm only halfway through! Help me!', well... It's a lot. I find that I want to add in scenes to illustrate character development and especially with slow burn you need to add in more scenes to establish the relationship (often my beta reader will suggest adding in even more scenes to do this. Beta readers are great). Estimating word count is hard. Sometimes you start out with something you think will be 50k and every scene is shorter than you think, sometimes the other way around. Experience has made me better at guesstimating, but there's no real science to it. Sorry.

Actually Writing

The important part of planning is remembering that if I don't stick to the plan, no one's going to arrest me or go 'ANA! How dare you take a fifteen thousand word detour into Clint's tragic childhood?! This wasn't in your plan!'

The plan is there for me, in case I get lost. The important part of the writing is to enjoy it. My rule of thumb is that if I'm bored writing a scene, I can't expect the reader to enjoy reading it. This isn't always the case, but something that's fun to write is far more likely to be fun to read.

This means that if I find myself writing something from the plan and every word feels flat and I just want this scene to be over, please when will it end? I do one of two things. I either jump to a scene from the plan that excites me, and come back to work out why that earlier scene wasn't working for me at a later date (sometimes it's because it's the wrong scene entirely. Sometimes I need to write it from a different POV, sometimes I need to drop it as a scene entirely and just write a sentence or a paragraph to cover what happened and move on). OR, just have something happen. Something off script. Something weird and crazy.

In Lost & Found, from what I remember, I never intended Wanda and Pietro to show up. I just wrote in a coyote because I was bored of 'Clint works on fixing up the B&B', and that... turned into Wanda and Pietro's entire subplot. Often, when you're writing you'll write yourself the answers to questions you haven't even thought to ask yet without realising it. Or you'll come to a scene later on and you'll be thinking 'But how do I get him out of this?' and you realise that the throwaway comment you wrote six thousand words ago is actually foreshadowing for this very moment.

So, I guess, what I'm trying to say is plan, but the plan?

It's more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules.

And then sometimes I don't plan at all, I just have a clear idea of a scene in my head and I start writing and see where it goes. Those times are some of the best. It's like my own personal adventure into the unknown.

#My writing #long post #anonymous

[princessnijireiki]

this girl I go to school with wrote an entire piece defending johnny d*pp and now his PR team is reaching out to her and it’s just all blowing up across sm and I haven’t been able to talk to anyone in my life about how frustrating it is to me to see ppl bend over backwards for this man

I feel for you but it may just make you feel better to know that that is like... FUCKING batshit & completely off the wall for them to be doing, literally even if that girl published her defense of him in a nationwide magazine or something, literally even if she's a journalistic "name" a layperson would recognize (I know, all the really credentialed people are covering REAL news right now, but for sake of pretending lol). and I can't blame the PR team, they're doing their jobs, and tbh as long as depp or his agents/management still have the money to pay them + he keeps imploding his social & professional life, they'll be in business a loooooong time.

but holy shit, the lengths they're having to go to to raaaake the barren fields of public opinion for a single credible-sounding turnip of defensibility from an author who doesn't come across as desperate to do a line of coke off that man's dick means it's clearly not easy money by a long shot.

add onto that the recent news that favors mads mikkelson for depp's harry potter replacement... depp filmed only one scene, but has a pay-or-play contract, so wb choosing to recast in and of itself is not even just, "I'd rather pay you to go away than deal with your personal shit," but, "you are such a professional LIABILITY that paying you a full salary, finding someone new to pay a full salary to, and postponing our ROI on a harry potter film for at least a full year, during covid, still puts us financially AHEAD so long as we don't have to mention you in press, promotion, or credits ever again moving forward."

and then additionally, you have the fact that like. okay. they could've gotten colin farrell back, right? but even though he's also under contract at wb, he's doing the batman. and while wb accommodated ezra miller doing fantastic beasts and justice league reshoots at the same time when whedon took over from snyder. depp's departure is so much more of a clusterfuck in advance, more of a clusterfuck than joss whedon, the snyder cut, everything, that I haven't even seen any buzz to suggest they'd consider disrupting another wb project to bail this one out the way they've literally done before, even though it could protect that hp continuity... they would rather pull a terrence howard to don cheadle complete clean break than let depp fuck with two movies to save his face.

all of which is to say. the extent to which he is FUCKED right now is genuinely hilarious because it is truly all his fault. and his PR people aren't miracle workers, so the fact that they're stuck on damage control vs image rehabilitation means he is also unwilling to "lose," even though rich white men have mastered the art of failing upward... depp would rather condemn himself to angry, drunken, BROKE obscurity while unfortunate employees somewhere are tasked with googling fan blogs, than lift a single finger to pull himself out of the hole he dug & now sits in the bottom of.

he could pull himself back into enough of the right people's good graces with a few well-placed social dobby pussy "indulgences" & enough public performances of remorse, but depp would rather drink his way through his cash & sue his ex-wife for hers to try to get a cut of that aquaman money & punish her for leaving him, and for shaming him in the process, when he was the one who wouldn't let her leave or live in peace.

and in a true, classic abuser move, depp would ultimately rather destroy his own life in the vain hopes of taking a much younger woman he couldn't intimidate, possess, and control down with him; metaphorically continuing to smear his own blood on glass & screaming "look what you made me do" even while more of his friends and allies turn away than rightfully abandoned joe exotic, and who, god willing, will leave him to face the brink alone, until he re-evaluates who he will choose to be as a person when he realizes he will never get to live out his fucked up fantasy of degradation and revenge, and that he is no one's tragic hero.

#i sat on this message for a lil bit bc i knew... I KNEW i had to write sth to give this poor anonymous soul some catharsis #you are not alone. but he is so cheers to that!!!! 🍾🥂

[intrepidmare]

MARE'S RECAPS ~ THE MANDALORIAN: CHAPTER 9 "THE MARSHALL"

Oh wow! It's been a while since I've done something like this. Last year, I caught up with season 1 about 2 days before the finale, so I didn't have the opportunity to write reviews/recaps. This season, though, I'm going to 😀 so here it is the first one! 

For the folks that haven't seen the premiere and don't want spoilers, scroll past this, fast and furious, because it's full of them. If you want to blacklist tags to avoid spoilers from me, I suggest that you add #mando spoilers, #the mandalorian season 2 spoilers, and #mare's mando recaps to the list.

I've seen the episode a few times (yeah, I'm that obsessed with the show) so some of my reactions are more visceral than others since I was too excited the few first times I watched it and I missed a lot of details (another reason to rewatch the episode more than once). This recap is loooooong, which is an indication of how amazing it was.

So this my final warning to those avoiding spoilers. Stop reading, right now. The rest of you… enjoy and let me know if you share some of my opinions. I'm always open to chat 😊

Chapter 9 ~ The Marshall

So it begins! It's so exciting!

I knew that Mando and baby Yoda walking in the street at night was going to be the opening scene. I started to think about it after watching the second trailer, and I'm glad that I was right.

It turns out that the red-eyed creatures were not jawas as I saw some people saying.

Baby Yoda was not happy with the little excursion to the fighting arena. Not walking on the streets nor inside watching the fight. I still laughed when he locked himself up in the pram, even if I've watched the trailer like a gazillion times by now and I knew he was going to do it.

And talking about the baby, he's getting more vocal I think. He's making a few new noises, whimpering more, which I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing. That he complains more means that he feels safe with his buir and isn't afraid of retaliation for it as he probably was with others in the past and the reason he didn't cry much in season 1. But it breaks my heart that he is stressed. And that child is anxious, I can tell you that much.

The fight with Gor Koresh's thugs was awesome! The gamorrean flying to squash Mando and failing had me cracking up. And omg! Din'd moves! Using his helmet as a weapon and throwing his vibroblade. And leaving Gor Koresh to be eaten! Man of his word, he didn't kill the guy.

On a side note, I would've never guessed it was John Leguizamo who gave voice to Koresh until I saw the credits. Of all the actors who could play the part, I never thought of him.

Umm, I'm curious about the time Mando has spent in Tatooine, which according to him it's been a lot and it makes sense since he knows so much about the Tuskens, their language and culture. I'm guessing he spent a while among them. He had to learn all that somehow. 

When I speculated that Mando was going back to Tatooine after watching the trailers, I said that I was going to riot if he didn't visit his favorite mechanic. Thankfully, I didn't need to worry. I loved Peli in episode 5 of season 1 and I loved her even more now remarking on Din's dislike of droids and trying to keep the baby for herself. Not to mention she complaining about not getting good help these days 🤣

And I ADORE the (improvised?) Birikad Din got for the baby. Of course, the baby is safer in the pram, right (guessing that's why he used it when he met Gor Koresh), but there's something sweet watching him carrying his son so close to him.

And I tell you, Mando has been spending credits lately in baby stuff. I mean, he got a new pram (which I initially thought it was the original that he had somehow retrieved from the garbage in Nevarro, but no, it's not the same, and neither it's the one that Kuiil made) and he also got the bag/birikad thing, which looks brand-new. I wonder what else he bought.

Watching the droids doing maintenance of the Razor Crest makes me think it's all for nothing, knowing that in a few episodes (it might be even in the next one) Mando is going to crash the ship. More than once perhaps.

😆 The baby still loves speed! I think riding on the speeder bike was the only moment that he truly enjoyed in this episode. Look at that happy face 

When they arrived at Mos Pelgo and Din went into the cantina, leaving the baby outside, I was like: Din! That's not responsible. How can you leave your son out in the inclement sun, alone! Then baby Yoda peeked in and I went: never mind. I take back what I said.

Oooh. Cobb Vanth! I love him! For a moment, I thought it could actually be Boba but it seemed illogical and that's what Mr. Feloni and Mr. Favreau wanted us to think. I was correct.

My gawd! Din's shock when Vanth took the helmet off. I just knew he would freak out the moment Cobb asked for drinks and I said to drink they need to remove their helmets and Mando is going to lose it when this guy does. And the standoff! Was so good! "Take it off or I will" is going to become a quite popular phrase in fics from now on, not in the same context, but yeah…

The krayt dragon… oh shit! Or rather Dank farrik! We can't see Mando's face or expression but I can imagine which one was when he saw the dragon eating the bantha the first time.

Oh my goodness. The baby hiding in the pot! Too adorable! 

I know every hardcore SW fan lost it watching Vanth modified speeder because is a callback to the Phantom Menace and Anakin but my first thought was: is he compensating for something? Sorry, I couldn't help it 

The dog-lizard creatures were kinda scary at first but then became adorable. Almost as much as baby Yoda getting out of hiding

Baby Yoda doesn't like dog-lizards things. He looked afraid to be eaten I think. Poor little guy.

And look at that! Din showing such growth! To think he was the one incensing others in negotiation 😆 this is a total callback to the jawas in Arvala-7. And I gotta tell you, Din freaking loves his flamethrower. He doesn't waste the opportunity to use it.

The krayt dragon eating the Tusken raider instead of the bantha was quite of a plot twist 😆

When they were planning the attack on the dragon, Cobb Vanth's face when Din told him that the bones and pebbles were to scale, and then when he had volunteered the villagers to help… priceless! 

I like the fact of banding together with others for a greater good, relying on others to accomplish something is going to continue being the theme of this season. It started last season but I think it's going to be stronger this time around along all of the episodes.

😳😲😳😲 this thing vomits acid?! What. The. FUCK?!!!

Cobb: I don't think it's dead

Mando: me neither

Me, at the same time as Din: yeah, nope it's not dead

Oh yeah! Teaming up with jetpacks!

When they showed the bantha with the remaining explosives my first thought was why didn't they use all those before?! That's why they didn't kill it!! Of course, it was just an excuse to grant Din a more grand win in the end, but you know, it's stupid not to use everything you have to kill the monster on the first try. Just saying

Wait, what? Din! What are you going to do? No! Taking care of the child is your responsibility, not Cobb Vanth's! I hate this plan of yours, Din Djarin!! Whichever it is!

Oh! Nice callback to the flaw on that jetpack. But makes me wonder, do all the rising Phoenixes have the same flaw? Cuz unless Din knows Boba in person and that it's his armor with that particular flaw, it means it's a common problem for all and I don't like it.

Get away, Din! Get away, Din!! FLY AWAY!! AAAAAAAHHHHHH! NOOOOOO! 

There he is! Damn, Mando! Don't scare me like that! Altho, it was a nice move.

Okay, but now I want someone to explain something to me. If the dragon's acid melted people at contact before, how the hell is Din so whole? I mean, sure for argument' sake let's say his beskar armor provides some protection, but he's not entirely covered in it. His cape and undersuit seem just fine, albeit sticky. Where's the logic in that?

The tuskens getting the pearl reminded me of the jawas and the mudhorn's egg, chanting zukka, zukka (or however egg is spelled in Jawa).

That's quite a piece of meat. The baby is going to be happy eating off it for days🤣

😮😮😳😳 BOBA FETT!!!!! Yesssssss!!

Okay, I've seen other people's thoughts and some think that Boba was after Cobb Vanth because he had the armor, but I don't know. If that was true then why he hadn't gone to Mos Pelgo and got it? It seems to me that it's more likely that Boba is following Din somehow because it's the second time in as many Mando's visits to the planet that they sort of cross paths. Could they know each other? Have some score to settle? It's possible. Din has spent much time on Tatooine -his words, not mine- so it wouldn't be so out of consideration that they actually know each other. That if Mando knows Boba is (fake?) Mando, I don't know. Probably not, but who knows?

Extra thoughts

I gotta say that Ludwig Göransson is killing it with the score music! Oh. My. God! So so so so good! I could tell from the trailers that it was going to be awesome this season but it astounded me in chapter 9. Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous! My favorite piece is when they're going to the dragon's cave to kill it. The orchestral sound of the already familiar music blew my mind!

#mare's mando recaps #mando spoilers #the mandalorian #the mandalorian season 2 spoilers #the mandalorian season 2 #din djarin #baby yoda #cobb vanth

[gra-sonas]

The cast are probably gonna wrap the finale if not today then tomorrow I can see them have the wrap party at the weekend and then all start to leave Santa Fe next week I am kind of Emotional I know we haven't really gotten much in terms of BTS or cast content in general this season but knowing its all done we just have to wait for the promotion then eventually watch it makes me emotional

I can’t believe it’s almost over for this season, nonnie! 🥺

And now that it looks like we have another month of nothing ahead of us?

I’m super emotional, ngl. I’m happy for everyone to go home after all this time, but since we didn’t get much out of them while they were filming, things will dry up even further once they leave Santa Fe. 😭

It’s gonna be a loooooong month until S2 promo will kick off.

#nonnie asks

[scarletjedi]

Do all the fanfic asks you haven't yet! (And for ones that require a specific fic, go with your original stor ♡)

Cut for length

things that inspire you: Good writing in other people

things that motivate you: panic, fear, love

name three favorite writers: Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Gail Simone

name three authors that were influential to your work and tell why:  J K Rawling was a real inspiration as this book, loooooong ago, began life as a HP fanfic. Samuel Delaney was a major influence mostly because he was my graduate advisor and gave me some of the realist writing advice that I'm only now coming to understand. PG Wodehouse taught me how prose could be like poetry--and be cutting and funny at the same time. (Pratchett did the same thing, but I read Jeeves first)li>

since how long do you write? I’ve been writing since I was very wee, with a dedication to writing for publication since I was 16, and a dedication to improving my craft since I was 18 or so. 

how did writing change you? It gave me a greater appreciation of script, and a greater appreciation of the way language works. Anything other than that, I’m not sure because it’s been me for so long. *shrug*

I’ve already answered this :P

what time are you most productive? Morning, which means vacations are not productive because I sleep in. 

do you set yourself deadlines? Nope. When I do, I don’t meet them and it spirals. 

how do you do your researches? google, usually. For something more complicated, I have access to several different academic libraries :D

do you listen to music when writing? I do and I don’t. I do when I need to focus, and I don’t when I can’t focus. I try, and if it doesn’t work I shut it off. 

favorite place to write: My office

hardest character to write: My protagonist, Chris. He’s the main focus, so he has to be perfectly executed, and there’s a lot of pressure. 

easiest character to write: Jamie, his romantic interest. He sprang fully formed into my brain, and he’s a delight. 

hardest verse to write: 3rd? 

easiest verse to write: 1st!

favorite AU to write: TIME TRAVEL AU

favorite pairing to write: Jamie/Chris (my main pairing)

favorite fandom to write: right now, I’m diggin Star Wars - it’s been a love for so long. But I miss LOTR, and I’m trying hard to get the next chapter of WAMW out. 

favorite character to write: Katie, the protag’s little sister. (she’s 16)

least favorite character to write:  Pat, the dad. 

favorite story you’ve ever written: fanfic - Comes Around Again, though Old Man Luke is creepin’ in and I have a fondness for Pineapple. Original fic, I’ve got a porn ficlet called “Thanksgiving” that may see light sometime soon. 

least favorite story you’ve ever written: It’s not that it’s my least favorite, but I posted “Love Letters” before I was completely happy with it, and it twitches sometimes. 

favorite scene you’ve ever written: In fic: Bilbo recounting the Winter in CAA. In my book: interviewing The Beast. :D

favorite line you’ve ever written: “Everyone in the room wants to fuck me,” Jamie said airily, his smile sharp. “Lesser mortals use Tinder, now.”

story you’re most proud of: Comes Around Again, the BEAST

best review you ever got: I was told my fic, “Drowned in Moonlight” said *exactly* what someone wanted to say, they just couldn’t find the words. 

worst review you ever got: i was told CAA moving towards the movie ‘verse was lazy writing and they “thought better of me” 

favorite story/poem of another author: Sansukh - god, that last chapter killed me. 

hardest part of writing - getting it out initally. 

easiest part of writing - Revision

alternate title for (insert story title) - My book has had several titles, all terrible. It’s currently “The Beast” but it has been both “Weather Magic” and “Breaking” 

alternate ending for (insert story title) the original ending of the book involves a cross-country escape and a full-scale battle. it’s scaled back now, and better for it. 

alternate pairing for (insert story title) - there has never been another pairing for my original fic. Pineapple could also be Obi-Wan/Rex or Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon/Rex

single story or multi-part story? MULTI

one-shot or multi-chaptered story? MULTI

canon or AU? depends on the AU. GIVE ME TIME TRAVEL

do you reread your own stories? On occasion. sometimes, the story I really want, is the story I wrote. 

do you want to be published some day? VERY BADLY. 

which one of your stories would you most like to see as a movie/series. I’d love to see my book on TV. My wife and I talk about fancasts all the time. I think Netflix could do it - they’d make it gay enough without the gratuitous violence (HBO). That being said, the fact that CAA wont be filmed PAINS me. 

one song that captures (insert story title): Uuuhhhh….

do you plan or do you write whatever comes to your mind? I write from an idea, whatever it is, then I plan a bit, then I write between main points. 

would you ever write a sequel for (insert fic title here) My original work is the first in a series. :D

do you write linear or do you write future scenes if you feel like it? I write out of order. Usually, I have an idea, then a moment later in the work (like the climax) that I write out, then i fill in the blanks. 

share the synopsis of a story you work on that you haven’t published yet: BOY DISCOVERS MAGIC IS REAL, the Gods are real, and the world is about to end. Also, he’s bisexual. 

share a scene of a story that you haven’t published yet: Meet my main boys:

Chris sighed, knocking his knuckles against the car window. “You gonna tell me where we’re going, yet?” he asked. Jamie tapped his lips with his finger, humming, and Chris rolled his eyes. “I will hit you,” he said, mild.  

“Sure, why not.” Jamie said at last, and ran his hands over his steering wheel in a quick, practice move. “We’re looking for Burnt Mill Road.”

“Oh, that’s not ominous,” Chris muttered. He squinted to try and make out the writing on the street signs as they passed, but was hard to see; Mid-August rain had soaked the roads, and now it rose as a lingering, ground-hugging fog. That, combined with what felt like two-hundred percent humidity, meant that the letters of the street signs blurred in the headlights and didn’t come into focus until just as they were passing by.

Jamie grinned, his dimples casting shadows in the scruff on his cheeks. It was too short for a beard, but Jamie made sure to keep the edges trimmed like the vain peacock he was. Fuck him, if it didn’t look good on him. Adult. “Are you scared?” Not that he acted like one.

“No,” Chris said, strangled, and he winced. He wasn’t, really, but there would be no way of convincing Jamie that when his voice cracked. He cleared his throat. “How many time have we done this shit? Have I ever been scared.”

Jamie barked out a laugh. “Every. Time.”

Chris sighed. Every. Single. Time. “I’m not scared, I’m cautious.”

“Uh huh,” Jamie said dryly, chancing a glance over at Chris. “Did caution check the flashlights three times? Did caution make me wait half ’n hour while his phone charged?” HIs voice dropped, like he was in on a secret, and he glanced down at Chris’s lap. “Is caution wearing your lucky underwear?”

Chris’s mouth twisted, and he sucked on a tooth. “It’s practical,” Chris ground out.

“You fucking are,” Jamie said, shaking his head. “I can’t believe you just admitted it. What’s practical about lucky underwear?”

“Not that!” Chris said, rolling his eyes. He was, in fact, wearing his lucky underwear. They were comfortable, okay? But there was no need for Jamie to know that. “I meant the phone.”  

“Yeah,” Jamie snorted. “If we get a flat tire, not for ghosts.”

Chris looked out the window, conceding the point. He folded his arms. “How do you even know what underwear I’m wearing?” he grumbled.

Jamie sighed, overly put-upon. “Hello?” he said, sing-song, and rolled his hand to gesture at himself. “Gay. What do you think gay-dar is?”

“Knowing who in the room would fuck you?” Chris offered, shooting Jamie a lopsided grin.

“Everyone in the room wants to fuck me,” Jamie said airily, his smile sharp. “Lesser mortals use Tinder, now.” Chris laughed, finally, and Jamie’s grin brightened.  

They drove on, and Jamie ended up behind a boxy old Chrysler, its back end covered in bumper stickers that had been bleached white in the sun. One of them was one of those ribbon magnets, but Chris couldn’t tell which cause it supported. Maybe it supported all of them, or none of them. Schrodinger’s ribbon. A street sign caught his eye, and he frowned.

“How many “Pine” streets are even in Jersey?”

“All of ‘em,” Jamie answered without pause.

Chris crocked his head, still looking out the window. They passed a sign that said Welcome to Atco. What was in Atco? He pulled out his phone, and typed “haunted Atco” in the search bar. Loading. Loading. Loading. Fucking 3G. “All of the streets are called ‘Pine’? or all the streets called ‘Pine?’ are in Jersey?”

Jamie hummed. “I stand by my earlier statement.”

“I request clarification,” Chris said, closing the app and darkening his phone.

“Request denied.”

“Ass,” Chris said, with a crooked smile.

“Ginger.”

how many unfinished ideas/stories are you working on at the same time?: 7!

three spoilers for (insert story title): The boy gets the boy, the Beast Speaks, HE CAN FLY

open question to the writer: I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THIS MEANS I’VE BEEN WORKING ON THIS FOR OVER AN HOUR!!

#meme #poplitealqueen