#you didn’t ruin it lol but please don’t feel obligated to send me anon hate 💙

[daydadahlias]

Omg I only said this because you said that you loved anon hate but now I genuinely feel so bad, I actually love the way you describe Ashton in every fic, sorry if i ruined it ::sob::

1) this is adorable and I love you

2) please enjoy a small collage of me being excited about getting fake anon hate

#you played me like a fiddle I must say I’m impressed #ahjdjsjsa I was so delighted by it actually #like y’all think I’m joking when I say I love anon hate but this is how I react LMFAO #you didn’t ruin it lol but please don’t feel obligated to send me anon hate 💙 #god that’s the funniest fucking thing actually #thank you #pigeon #anon #so cute lmfao #I was thinking abt all the possible quippy one-liners I could wip out #I was so excited #the best part of this is y’all are conditioning me to assume any anon hate I get is my friends trying to make me feel loved HAKFJSJDA #god BLESS the actual people that want to send me hate I’m so sorry guys #someone actually hates me and is like ‘I hate u’ and I’m like ‘omg thank u 🥺’ #rip to actual anon h8ers #convinced I’ve actually never gotten real anon hate before ever. it’s all just my friends knowing how much I love it #fun fact all anon hate Anna gets is actually from me #that’s not true #sigh I wish I could feign stupidity that well 🤚 #anyway thank you ahdjjaja this is so sweet #dude i wanted u to come back and cite ur sources #i wanted to hear which ones of my fics sucked #i wanted that so bad

[notcrypticbutcoy]

Annual Writing Self-Evaluation

*All answers should be about works published in 2017.

I was tagged by the lovely @magnusragnor and @confidentalec -- tysm babes!

1. List of works published this year: 

Fives Time Alec Hates the Internet and One Time He Doesn't

I'll Love You in a Thousand Lifetimes

Wrecked

A Year of Firsts (cowritten with @malteser24)

Lies of Ruined Men

Every Time I Close My Eyes

Fives Times They Didn't (Officially) Go On A Date and One Time They Did

Artemis

A Year of Second Chances (cowritten with @Malteser24)

Of Lattes and Lawyers

Fall Without Wings

(And there are some things floating around on tumblr that I don't think ever made it to AO3...)

2. Work you are most proud of (and why):

I mean it sounds too obvious to be true, but Fall Without Wings. It's the biggest WIP I've ever attempted, and it sprawled from a silly little one-shot I wrote after watching David Attenborough bang on about birds for a bit. The stats are lovely, but on a personal level, I have put so much into this fic, and I feel like it's stretched me and made me a better writer in so many ways. It's been a huge challenge, but I've stuck with it. 

3. Work you are least proud of (and why):

Definitely the first fic I posted this year, Five Times Alec Hates the Internet and One Time He Doesn't. Scrutinising it, and having reread it during the writing of the next part in that series, just made me realise that there are so many bits of it that I'd just change, if I were to write it again. 

4. A favorite excerpt of your writing:

“Stars glittered high up ahead, twinkling points of light in a sea of infinite darkness. It was cold, wind whipping through the streets and rustling the trees, sending golden brown leaves tumbling to the ground, a carpet of invisible colours underfoot.”

This is from the opening of I'll Love You in a Thousand Lifetimes, and while its structurally not the most amazing thing I've ever written, I made a real effort in this fic to be a little more grounded, to focus on setting as well as character and emotion, because it's something I'm super lazy about, and I was really pleased with how it turned out.

5. Share or describe a favorite comment you received:

I've had some absolutely beautiful comments this year, and I genuinely treasure all of them. I love that people have challenged me and I love that people have disagreed with me as well as just totally losing their shit about some angst in the comments, because that's always fun ;) My favourite comment was actually from a fic I wrote late 2016 about soldiers who get deployed at Christmas -- it was personal, and I found it really touching and incredibly humbling. 

6. A time when writing was really, really hard:

The last couple of months have been a real drive for me. I picked up a little during nano in November, but I've had things going on IRL that have totally drained me of creativity.

7. A scene or character you wrote that surprised you:

Maybe the Magnus&Raphael scene in Lies of Ruined Men -- it was a slightly different style for me, and it was quite metaphorical and just...yeah. That fic is less than 1000 words but it was definitely a step out for me.

8. How did you grow as a writer this year:

I think I've gained a new appreciation for how one story, one scene, can be perceived in a hundred different ways that will never occur to you, as the writer. I've definitely seen things from other people's perspectives a lot more this year, and it's made me more aware of what I'm writing, which is a good thing. But at the same time, I think I've realised that I can only write for myself. I can't change what I'm writing because I get some pissed anons, or some people in the comments who disagree -- I've learnt how to differentiate between constructive criticism that should absolutely be taken on board, and just...people running their mouths. 

9. How do you hope to grow next year:

I'd really like to grow more consistent in the quality of what I produce. It's definitely something I struggle with. I can flip between styles and deliberately alter the way I'm writing, but I also do it without meaning to. You can really see it if you pick random bits of FWW -- there are definite discrepancies in the quality of writing. 

10. Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc):

This is the first time I've worked with a beta consistently on a multi-chap, and Alex has been absolutely golden. (I'm still trying to convince him to get swallowed down into tumblr... Goal for 2018 lol) 

11. Anything from your real life show up in your writing this year:

Yes, absolutely. I think I always have bits of my real life bleed into my writing, and, actually, I've had a couple of things in my real life that I wrote about as a sort of therapeutic exercise -- I have yet to publish any of it, but, 2018, look out 👀

12. Any new wisdom you can share with other writers:

Never stop. There are two things that I firmly believe make the difference between someone who writes and /someone who writes/ : practising, and reading. If you don't read other people's fiction (published fiction, quality fiction online) you never get out of your bad habits. You don't go, ugh, I hate this style, I will never do this, or, oh my goodness, this is so sweet, maybe I should try this. Read. Read everything you can get your hands on. Never underestimate the value of a book.

13. Any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year:

Fall Without Wings!!! Don't get me wrong, I've loved writing FWW, and will continue to, but at the same time, I am so excited to finally see it completed and move onto some of the other things stirring around in my mind. I'm super gassed to start on my fic for the SH Big Bang!

14. Tag five writers/artists whose answers you’d like to read.

@lecrit @actuallyredorchid @malteser24 @champagnemagnus @maghnvsbane @idontwantheworld-iwantmalec

(My apologies if you’ve already been tagged/absolutely hate these sorts of things! Don’t feel obliged, and Happy New Year!)

#writing things #me #lu talks