#i'm already challenging myself to do it with one of my non fic stories and it's so much fun

[spnfanficpond]

New Member Spotlight - December 2023

The Pond is always growing and we want to make our new members feel welcome! Here’s a list of recent additions to our fishy family, along with a little info about them!

Guppies, Jellies, and Mutuals, oh, my!

@mayalaen -

Other SM names? - Mayalaen on AO3, Discord, Twitter, Bluesky, LiveJournal, Dreamwidth, etc.

OTP? - I'm a multishipper so no true OTP.

Other fandoms? - Mostly Stranger Things, OFMD, Stargate SGA/SG1, Star Trek, X-FIles, and Angel the Series/Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but I'm interested in a lot of fandoms.

Looking for in the Pond? - I like to encourage people to write and create and I like to make friends in fandom. I was referred to the Pond for that by some members.

Something to signal boost? - I run a monthly writing/art challenge on AO3 called SPNColdestHits that you guys have already been boosting (THANK YOU!!). It's multifandom now and accepts art and original fic, not just fanfic. This is the AO3 collection link and of course, we're @spncoldesthits here on Tumblr, but we're also on Discord, Twitter, Bluesky, and Pillowfort.

Pairings you read? - I'll read pretty much any pairing, poly or otherwise. I'm not interested in reader insert, but I've read some.

Genres you read? - I prefer darkfic and/or kink, but I read anything.

Favorite writer(s)? - Xanthe Walter, but they haven't been active in fandom for about 2 years now.

What do you like to write? - My favorite is darkfic, D/S AU, and kink, but I also love writing crack and all other genres.

Masterlist!

Most underappreciated fic? - It's newer but it has the least amount of hits from the list of non-crack/non-gift fics and is an SPN/Blacklist crossover. Caging the Mongoose.

Something you haven't written but would like to try? Why not? How can we help? - I really would like to write some SPN/HDM fusions. I keep toying with the idea, but have never posted any of them. I always work better when I have prompts or ideas from others to spur me on.

.@leatafandom -

Other SM names? - @leatawrites, Leata (AO3 and Discord)

OTP? - Sabriel

Other fandoms? - Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Marvel, BBC Merlin, Star Trek, Doctor Who

Looking for in the Pond? - I could use some help with tags and challenging myself to write different things.

Pairings you read? - Ships, Gens, Poly fics

Genres you read? - Angst is my favorite but fluff and smut are always wonderful

Favorite writer(s)? - Yes, @idabbleincrazy on Tumblr or Gabriel_is_my_guardian_angel89 on Ao3

What do you like to write? - Angst, Horror, Smut, Bittersweet/Sad Things

Masterlist!

Most underappreciated fic? - My most underappreciated story is probably one of my original horror short stories. My most underappreciated fanfic is probably Becoming One,Two, and One Again.

Something you haven't written but would like to try? Why not? How can we help? -I really would like to write more horror however I feel like I struggle with expressing fear, scenery/detail descriptions, and word choice

@oganizediguana -

Other SM names? - Oganizediguana on Discord

OTP? - Destiel

Other fandoms? - I tiptoe through many fandoms, but SPN is my home. Good Omens

Looking for in the Pond? - I’d love to get encouragement for writing and the confidence to share my work. But I’d also love to just meet interesting people.

Pairings you read? - 99% destiel

Genres you read? - I read it all, but mutual pining slow burn is what makes me feel all the things. I love a good canon-compliant AU. I’m happy with anything that ends happily. Or at least hopefully.

Favorite writer(s)? - On AO3: NorthernSparrow, tenoko1, saltnhalo, there are so many amazing authors in this fandom!

What do you like to write? - Everything seems to turn into angst.

Something you haven't written but would like to try? Why not? How can we help? - I’d like the confidence to share what I have written.

@dragonslayer-5fanfiction -

Other SM names? - Ao3- Dragonslayer5

Other fandoms? - haikyuu, daria, lotr/the hobbit, tmnt

Looking for in the Pond? - I just want to make friends and read good fanfic. I like to beta read. Maybe write some fanfic, but I have writer's block rn.

Pairings you read? - Reader insert

Genres you read? - Fluff, crack. One bed, and arranged marriage forced proximity tropes.

What do you like to write? - Reader inserts. Fluff.

Masterlist! AO3 Works list

Most underappreciated fic? - Do You Think About Me? (not SPN)

Something you haven't written but would like to try? Why not? How can we help? -Honestly, writing two characters from the Fandom. I typically stick to reader insert, and I'm a little scared I won't get the characteristics right or the dynamic.

That's all for this month, folks! (If we're missing anyone, let us know and we'll add them to next month's list!) Make sure to say hi to the newbies and make them feel welcome! Thanks to all from @manawhaat, @mrswhozeewhatsis, @mariekoukie6661, @thoughtslikeaminefield, @katbratsupernaturalwhore and @heavenssexiestangel!

#welcome #new member post #pond admin #spnwin #supernatural #the winchesters #long post #fan fiction #fanfiction #fan fic #fanfic #spn fan fiction #spn fanfiction #spn fan fic #spn fanfic #supernatural fan fiction #supernatural fan fic #supernatural fanfiction #supernatural fanfic #spn prequel #pond events

[thecoramaria]

Hello!

Thank you so much for your blog, it's helped me a lot in writing my fics. It's definitely one of the best fic writing resources out there.

Onto my question: do you have any advice on how to write more quickly + not hate everything I write?

I do writing sprints a lot of the time but I can't help but feel as if my writing has gotten worse, and I feel guilty cutting down my work because I struggle to meet the daily word count goal I have for myself (600 words a day).

I'm about a quarter of the way through my longfic, and I feel like I've just gotten worse and worse at writing. I still love the story, but my writing feels clunkier and flows less smoothly.

Thank you!

I'm glad you're enjoying the channel! It's getting late where I am rn but sleepy Cora is gonna try to answer your ask anyway.

First of all, I'd just like to say that 600 words a day is a lot! (And so is being a whole quarter through your story btw.) While I have won NaNoWriMo a few times (a challenge that involves writing 50k+ words in a month) it's definitely not sustainable for me. Recently, I've struggled to just average more than 300 words in a day. Unfortunately I'm still coming to terms with my chronic pain and the limits it places on my ability to write fic. 600 words a day on average is just... not possible for me.

However, something I have been doing lately is to learn what my current capacity is, which seems to be 300 words a day on average. Note: on average! A lot of days, I don't even write that much, but some days I make up for it by writing a lot. As I say in this short, good writing goals are like persistence hunting. You might find yourself more motivated if you set monthly or quarterly word count goals rather than daily ones. Then it's not a big deal if you write very little or not at all on some days, since you'll still have plenty of time to catch up.

(Also if you tell a non-writer that you wrote like 300 words in a day, they'll probably be impressed!)

So TL;DR: focus on learning what your capacity is, and then set your writing goals around that. Also focus on writing goals that cover a longer period than a day to allow wiggle room for your erratic progress.

Now, onto writing sprints.

I have the flavour of autism that gives me a processing speed deficiency, meaning that it takes me longer to Do Things than the average (usually allistic) person. This means that I'm a slow drafter, but also a more methodical, intentional one.

This means that writing sprints aren't all that helpful to me. I need to ponder every sentence and detail as I write it, because I already figured out the plot points and character arcs in my outline. "Just get the story down in the first draft" doesn't work for me because I already did that. In a highly detailed outline.

So writing sprints may be what's causing you to feel like your writing is getting worse. There are two perspectives on this:

First drafts are supposed to be bad, and writing sprints are supposed to just help you get them done so you can fix them later. If you were previously a slow, methodical drafter, then switching to a strategy that focuses on quantity over quality is going to make for rougher drafts, and thus make you feel like your writing is worse. That's okay though, because you can edit a rough draft. You can't edit a blank page.

Writing sprints are sabotaging the quality of your drafts, so instead, you can ditch them and focus on the slow-and-steady drafting approach. It'll make for less editing time in the long run, and you'll feel more confident in your writing ability if you take a quality-first approach.

But wait! I have a secret third option! One that may not be to do with writing sprints at all!

Could it be that the reason why your writing feels worse... is that your current WIP happens to be challenging you in new ways?

The reason why I bring this up is because this is something I've encountered recently while editing my current WIP. For context, it's the second book in a trilogy, and the first book didn't require nearly as much structural editing and rewriting, so what's changed? Why are my drafts for Book 2 so much worse than Book 1?

It's because Book 1 relied on the Stations of Canon, (warning that this article mentions 'Harry Potter' if you'd rather avoid that) while Book 2 breaks away from them.

Basically, I built my fic around a plot formula from canon that was already proven to be effective, but now, I'm having to build the plot from near scratch. It's like learning to build a house where the scaffolding and measurements are all done for you vs having to do all that yourself. Of course my writing feels worse! I'm learning an entirely new storytelling skill. There's going to be plenty of mistakes along the way.

However, I'm making peace with my first drafts for Book 2 being "worse", because I'm learning just how crucial and transformative editing can be. Taking on these new challenges means that I'm noticing weak spots that were previously invisible to me, and what is a weak spot but opportunities to improve my craft?

I'm a big believer that if you feel like your writing is bad or getting worse, instead of stewing in the insecurity, you should instead investigate why. Why is your writing clunkier or flowing less smoothly than it used to? Is it that you use redundant phrasing and tautology? Do you take 20 words to say something that could just as easily be said in 10? Vague feelings about the quality of your writing is what allows insecurity to fester. Actually knowing what the issue is makes that much harder, because now you have a concrete problem to solve. I do have a partial draft for a video that goes into that more, so if anyone wants to see me complete and film it, let me know!

Thanks for the ask, Nonny, and I hope this helps~!

#cora's ask box #cora's original posts #harry potter mention

[citrusses]

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers

Thank you so much for the tags @maesterchill @basicallyahedgehog and @tackytigerfic, I loved reading your answers (here and here and here). I feel like an imposter filling this out (I just started publishing fics in August!) but here we go! Answers below the cut

How many works do you have on ao3?

3

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

~42K

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Harry Potter, specifically drarry (with one guest appearance by a very sad, sexy Sirius).

4.. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The most kudos-ed is The Roommates*, which is a Sirius/Draco + Drarry endgame little piece of filth. My Suds fic, Löyly, has the second most kudos, followed by the rowing AU WIP, Our Objective Remains Unchanged. (*PS fellow americans who probably already know this: roommates does not have quite the same meaning in the UK as it does in the US, oops!)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do! I am so honored by every comment I have gotten. I also love leaving comments, though I never do so with the expectation of a response. I think comments are such a lovely way to extend the joy of the fic as a reader. If a writer wants to respond I love it, if not, that doesn't detract from the joy of commenting!

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

Nothing yet, I really love an unhappy/ambiguous ending so I hope I can write more of that in the future.

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

Only two of my published fics HAVE endings... but Löyly is probably the softest, though I actually think the ending of Roommates is quite sweet.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not yet :)

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

So far everything I've written is rated E. I surprised myself with 3 E fics right out the gate. I get very stressed that my smut is corny. In my two shorter fics the sex is very much driving the plot—non-explicit versions would be inherently different stories. In OORU I think it's more about the ways the characters do and don’t understand each other, and how that manifests in all their interactions, physical and otherwise, which didn’t need to be E-rated to work, but that’s how I ended up writing it.

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

I haven't yet. I can't think of anything I would want to write as a crossover but never say never.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

no

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

no

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

Not yet! Another thing that seems like a cool challenge. I could see myself enjoying co-writing a lot (I love talking about fics/ideas with people), but I also am so self-conscious about my own writing that I feel like it would be very hard for me to overcome those insecurities enough to write with someone else.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Drarry forever. Enemies to lovers will always be my favorite dynamic, so I came into Drarry jazzed about the ship, but the creativity of this fandom, the talent of the authors, and the fact that I have read so many iterations of this pairing and still am consistently astounded by the complexity and originality of these fics -- what else could compare?

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

The first thing I started writing in this iteration of my fandom life was a time travel fic where Harry is a disillusioned, socially-scorned ministry underling and he and Draco have to work together to stop an apocalypse that they learn about from a time traveler from the future. I have like 20K written and a bunch of it that I really like, but I just don't know if I'll ever have the motivation to return to it. It needs to be quite plotty and I struggle with that.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I find writing dialogue comes more easily.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

When I read I don't really visualize what I'm reading, it's more like I really feel the emotions of the writing. When there's a particularly beautiful descriptive passage in writing I really appreciate that, but more for the craft of the sentence. Because that's how I read, I tend to skip illustrative prose in my own writing, and I think that is a pretty glaring weakness. I am trying to work on it! And then also plot. PLOT.

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

I haven't done much of it -- Draco quotes a few Finnish words in Löyly, but he's not meant to be fluent (so perhaps he’s not even getting the words right) and there's either context to make clear what he's trying to say or it doesn’t matter if he’s understood (because Harry is so horny that he can’t even hear). I think it's very fun when writers play with polyglotism (?) in fics, though I also think it's quite challenging to do! I also love when things are hidden from the characters/reader in fic and language can be a good way to do that.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I honestly don't know -- I wrote a lot of "fic" for myself as a kid that I never even put on the internet. My old fanfiction.net account of stuff I actually published is still up and I could't take it down if I wanted to, so that's... out there.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Not to cheat but I really think I haven't written it yet. I love all my fics, and each of them was a very different and rewarding experience to write, but I do feel l haven't yet written a fic that, as tacky said in their post, is exactly the fic I wanted it to be. Here's hoping that happens!

Tagging @nv-md @sweet-s0rr0w @wolfpants @thehoneybeet @mintawasalreadytaken @kittycargo and anyone else who hasn’t done this yet!

#about me #tag game

[rainbowstargazerlilies]

Time for a new pinned post!

Hi, everyone, this is Becca or Ori! Those in the Mechs fandom might know me for the recent Mechs Ships Tournament (all tagged as "#mechs ships tournament" on here), my Mechs and TMA themed knit dolls (all tagged "#stargazer's four inch friends"), or the TMA and Mechs fics I write (see below). I'm in my early twenties, am currently a graduate student in psych-related fields, and live in the eastern time zone.

If you're interested in my fics, promo for that under the cut. Otherwise, enjoy the chaos!

Why should you read what I mentally call the booty shorts saga, actually known as "The Semi-Annual Non-Denominational Winter Holiday Gift Swap"?

Have you ever wondered what gift swaps might look like in the Magnus Institute?

Do you need to imagine Certain Characters (Jon) receiving so many pairs of booty shorts?

This sticks close to canon, so. . . do you want a story about booty shorts and nonsense to suddenly give you So Many Feels?

This is a collaboration between the amazing @ladydragonkiller and myself, and it was our first foray into writing and posting fanfic. I love it. Go read LadyDragonKiller's other stuff if you're a Mechs fan.

Why should you read The Stars Claim Them?

I started this series with imagining Lyfrassir Edda surviving the Bifrost Incident, and then ending up at the Magnus Institute, so it is a TMA/Mechs crossover.

I've been consistently posting for over a year. Two years as of this March, and I am so excited for that :) Currently, we're nearly 100,000 words in and going, posting right now is concurrent with TMA season 2, and I've had so much fun.

This is the fic where I stare canon in the eye, say "coward", and save every single character I can manage.

Be prepared for a very slow burn indeed, but the Violinspector element is certainly Very Much There.

We've had road trips, heists, blood snakes, rubber ducks, far too many Michaels, and more. I did a whole Peter Pan arc. It's nonsensical and amazing and I love it.

We've got a discord, where we have Very Normal Conversations about the fic, the Mechs, the Magnus Archives, and more. If you like the fic series, you're more than welcome to join!

If you enjoyed LadyDragonKiller's Raphaella backstory, I have some Easter egg references to it scattered throughout, because we brainstorm together. I consider it canon to this series, as far as that goes, and I have fun planting those :)

Why should you read anything from Corner of Dreams?

Those were oneshots I wrote last year as a part of a challenge to myself!

The first one is the angstiest Toy Soldier thing I could manage without crying. Have fun! Bring tissues!

The second is a fun little Violinspector thing that I really enjoyed writing. It just amused me so much to think about. And that ending. . . I like to think it ended happily, but there's no guarantee, is there?

The third is a Brian/Galahad oneshot. It could go so many different directions after the ending, most of which would absolutely change up canon. I like to think it wouldn't end sadly. Probably.

If there's enough enjoyment of these, there's two more I might add one day, based on Alice and on Gunpowder Tim vs the Moon Kaiser.

Also, if you're trying to get a taste of what I've written, one of these is probably a lot easier to start with than TSCT. These are each under 5,000 words.

Why should you read I Got You, Babe?

It's two chapters in and we already have the start of some fun stuff going on. We've got Violinspector angst, Nastya doing interesting stuff post-Out. . . Why wouldn't you?

Also, I'm having far too much fun whenever I get the time to write on it. It's going to be interesting. I can't wait to share more.

#pinned post time!

[machiroads]

Machi's 2023 Year In Review

'23 was a bit of a wild one. A toast to the last twelve months (both in fandom and IRL) under the cut.

Fic

Here's what went out the door in '23:

Naruhata Noir

I started posting NN in December '22, about a month after finishing 9L. At one point last year I joked about finishing the entire thing in the week between Christmas and New years. Evidently, this did not happen for a variety of reasons:

A) A series of events occurring in my personal life that do not merit further detail that I will herein refer to as "the conga line of nonsense". That kicked off during last year's holiday season and bled into like...May. Which leads directly into:

B) Tears of the Kingdom came out. And;

C) A general loss of motivation in the project.

During the aforementioned Conga Line of Nonsense, I had a goal of finishing before TotK came out, but I only managed to cobble together another 4 chapters between January and May. After somehow managing weekly to biweekly chapters for 9L, NN was much more sporadic, and at one point I had people asking me if I was still alive. Which. sucked, since I generally strive to be a somewhat reliable person.

Once the TotK hyperfixation hit, I managed maaaaaaybe another 2 chapters before I finally got bored of grinding monsters to upgrade outfits. I did manage to meet the third self-imposed deadline of finishing before going to Japan for 2 weeks, so at least that's one W.

In addition to the distractions of Life, NN was more challenging to write for a few main reasons:

Aizawa is not the narrator. Look, I'm mature enough to acknowledge that he is Blorbo From My Shows, and everything I write wants to revolve around him. Taking a step back from that and trying to get into another character's head after spending 8 solid months on 9L was an adjustment. It took me a bit of time to find Shinsou's voice.

Most of the relationship dynamics in this fic are non-canonical, and pulled directly out of my ass. Shinsou's relationships with the Hottas are central to the back half of the fic, and his relationship with Mirko also becomes prominent at times. NONE OF THESE CHARACTERS HAVE EVER INTERACTED IN REAL LIFE I'M JUST SMASHING DOLLS TOGETHER LIKE I DID AS A 7 YEAR OLD.

Trying to parallel something I already wrote several months ago is hard. I wanted NN to make sense on its own, but also follow the relevant bits from 9L. This was next to impossible to accomplish without sounding clunky. Almost from the very beginning of the fic, the outsider's perspective of Aizawa's first steps, I felt the urge to change the dialogue because the story that I wanted to tell from Shinsou's perspective was different from the one I wanted to tell from Aizawa's perspective. I locked myself into that rigidity for a while, until I finally decided just to say fuck it at the end and modify the 9L dialogue slightly because the story had taken on a life of its own.

Erasermic took a major backseat in this one, but I still needed to scratch the itch, and I think that's why I ended up writing 2 emic one shots in between chapters.

I don't think a direct parallel spin-off is something I would try writing again, and the fic was probably a lot longer than it needed to be, but at the end of the day, I'm satisfied with the way it turned out, and I'm happy I was actually able to finish it this year.

Here's a collage of my inspo for Aizawa's apartment cobbled together from google maps and japanese real estate websites.

Being No One, Going Nowhere

The first of the 3 one shots that I put out this year, and a proof of concept that I can slap together 3k in a day and a half fever dream and call it a fic.

This one in particular was instigated by one of @o0fyuu0o's tweets that refused to leave me alone. And maybe also the two broken arms story from reddit, but you know, like, less incesty.

Mic was extremely pathetic in this one, which is immensely fun to write. Just a pathetic little meow meow. Sopping wet cat of a man.

College AU was fun to write, emboldened in part by @kyurilin's fic Stray. After being married to canon-verse for both 9L and NN, this was an exercise in just making shit up, and also living vicariously through the memories of the house I lived in for the better part of 2 years as an undergrad. I graduated 7 years ago and it is still crystallized in my memory.

A Tumultuous Sea, You and Me

I've been nursing a healthy crush on Pirate!Aizawa (or Paizawa, as the kids on JP Twit call him) since the Volume 35 character page came out in June '22. Paizawa even killed a 2 year long art block, that's how powerful he is. (Look!)

I do not remember what exactly spurned this one on, but it also got written in the span of about 2 days. I think I reread The Art of Drowning at some point this year, but I do not remember if it was during the writing frenzy, or sometime before it.

Aizawa gets to hold the meow meow card again in this one. His 2 sentence rivalry with Vlad is one of the best things I've ever written.

Of the 2 days I spent writing this, I probably spent 75% of that researching pirate ships. I used almost none of it, and have forgotten almost all of it by this point.

I feel like everyone that dips their toes into the realm of merpeople has a different interpretation on it, but I wanted to spend approximately 0 minutes on worldbuilding, so it's just kind of a chill coexistence between the pirates and the mermaids in this one lol. People were intrigued by said "worldbuilding" however and wanted more, but I think I've scratched the mer-pirate itch for now haha.

1966 Ford Nutstang GT350 Shelby

@kyurilin made a tumblr post that misspelled "mustang" as "nustang" and I skim-read it and saw "nutstang" and was like "you know what would be a terribad nickname for the car? Nutstang." At which point I immediately informed her, which led down the rabbit hole of a very loose RP (as it often does) and I decided YOU KNOW WHAT? I SHOULD JUST TURN THIS INTO A CRACK FIC.

At which point I had to sort of construct a loose plot around the entire bonkers concept. Nemuri held a key role in the pseudo-RP, but I ended up wanting to keep the fic tight and her role was mostly cut. But rest assured she is there in spirit, though, judging.

The plush nutsack is just a bastardization of a kangaroo ballsack coinpurse I saw in a Crap Souvenirs From Around The World calendar I had many years back that has imprinted on my memory. At no point did I seek out visual reference for it, and neither should you. It is up to the reader's imagination.

On the topic of bastardizations, the reappearing nutsack plotline is borrowed from the drawfee gnome saga.

Mic yelling GOOD MORNING and Aizawa banging his head on the underside of his desk is S tier slapstick.

PEOPLE MADE ART????

Some wonderful listeners readers are still making art for 9L, and we have been blessed with two beautiful new pieces this year:

Mic and Eri's selfie, from @kaleidoscopedrawsjpg

The Only One Bed scene, from @guiltyfixations

@obsessed-dragon also drew the photo of Shinsou holding Miso from Naruhata Noir, and Black Spider Eyes drew Aizawa dangling out the window from Tumultuous Sea.

Every time a piece of art drops on my dash, or I see my fic being recommended to other people, my brain does a lil short circuit and I have to go get up and walk around for a bit. I'm not sure words can express how much it means to me that people have enjoyed my writing enough to recommend it to other people, or sit down and create something of their own based off of it. It's humbling, and I'm truly grateful for every kind word or "sketch I should have maybe spent a little longer on" hahaha

Stats!

Look, I'm an engineer. I can't resist the thrall of Microsoft Excel. So here's A Chart.

I value Bookmarks the highest of all the stats that AO3 spits out. Views are pointless (skewed higher in the context of multi-chap fics). Kudos are an indicator of how many people read and liked enough to leave a kudos, but bookmarks are my indicator of how many people liked it enough to keep it around to read again, or recommend to others.

The bookmark-to-kudos ratio is (in my unscientific opinion) a measure of how many people loved the work vs how many people just liked it.

From the chart above, we can propose the following conclusions:

9L is still, far and away, the most popular, and most well-loved thing I've ever written. I'm fine with that.

The Nutstang fic was a certified cult classic, with a bookmark-to-kudos ratio of almost 0.3, second to only 9L.

NN is at a respectable ratio of 0.24 (middle of the pack), but in terms of number of kudos, is not that far ahead the mer-pirate fic. NN was not tagged as erasermic, so I do think this checks out in terms of sheer exposure.

Still Cooking:

FFXII AU

I started this one in March during the conga line of personal life nonsense. I somehow lured in Robbirdthe8th and @o0fyuu0o and @obsessed-dragon and got a solid month of drafting done before I was like "maybe I should work on NN again" and then it sat dormant until like. October.

It's up to almost 30k across 3 partially written chapters already, and I outlined 9 chapters. It is almost certainly overambitious, and I will almost certainly run into the same motivation issue I had with NN because it's a rooftop 4 fic and not just erasermic, and it has a demographic of approximately four people as an AU of a game that came out in uh........2006.

I thought I'd get at least some of it out in '23 but I'm taking it easy and just writing when inspiration strikes at the moment.

Fortuneteller AU

I started this one maybe a week-ish ago, in my quest for a pitch for the erasermic zine (surprise! they haven't made official announcements yet, but I'll be in it. this is an easter egg for those of you who made it this far). It's going to end up far too long for the 3k word limit for that, so I'm just co-opting it for another one-shot. Taisho era urban fantasy dabbling in some Violet Evergarden/FMA-esque post-war themes. Mic with pince nez. Aizawa in hakama. Gratuitous amateur tarot. It has gripped me by the throat.

More from the Nine Lives Extended Universe (canon-willing)

I've got 3 more spin-offs to 9L simmering, just waiting for canon to figure out its business. These are:

When The Battle's Lost and Won

A final battle post-mortem in 4 parts (if 3baka all make it out alive that is). Every few chapters of canon that come out, something gets added or tossed. Extremely fluid at this point, but there are some good quality blurbs and bullet points in there.

Kintsugi

The erasermic epilogue to 9L, from Mic's perspective. An exploration of their relationship beyond the final battle, with an overarching theme that I've borrowed from a Dorktown documentary on former Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Dave Stieb: Not at all, and then all at once.

This one's just pure body worship, punctuated by an extremely casual marriage proposal. A lot of people still comment on 9L like "THIS CAN'T BE IT, WHERE'S THE REST OF IT?", so I hope this will satisfy those looking for some closure from a relatively open ending.

The Way of the Househero

With the impending graduation of the hell class, and a body that doesn't quite move the way it used to, Aizawa has a bit of an existential crisis and semi-retires so he can be a full-time parent to Eri while figuring out what's next for him. Mostly slice of life. No real plot to this one yet, mostly just vignettes. Aizawa finally gets cats of his own, makes mom friends, and becomes more of a knife slut (only its in the kitchen now instead of on the streets).

IRL

Painting

Every room in my home is painted some sort of bland pastel, and this year we managed to purge pastels from four rooms: my home office, our living room / dining room, and our bedroom. I am enormously pleased with how each of these have turned out.

Gardening

We moved to this house in January '22, and last year was mostly seeing what came up in the garden. This year we cleared out a lot of the decorative shrubs in our backyard (turns out you can hock shrubs on facebook marketplace), and planted a veggie garden. The extent of my gardening experience prior to this year was mowing the lawn as a teenager, so this year was a continuous learning experience, and likely will be for many more years to come.

We had some big wins (potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, cherries, squash, dear god the squash), and some losses (apples that were infested with tent caterpillars, arugula that bolted, and lettuce that got eaten by bunnies to name a few).

In addition to veggies, we also did a lot of general cleanup around the rest of the yard, including clearing out some invasive species and thinning out some partially dead shrubs. We mostly let the yard do its own thing last year, and the previous owner of our home died about 6 months before we moved in, so it was probably neglected for a while. I cut out a blackberry cane that was as long as our driveway. I bought a wood chipper and a compost aerator and am learning the art and science of turning yard trash into yard treasure. (I have not peed on my compost pile yet, as recommended by /r/composting. Maybe some day.)

I also adopted a clipping from my sister-in-law's monstera, which has done quite well (except for the parts my cat has taken a mild interest in nibbling on from time to time)

Travel

Probably too much travel this year ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

3 Weddings (4 if you count the one in December '22 that's included in the Conga Line of Nonsense). Got covid at 2 of them. Invited to a fifth next year. Wishing everyone of marriageable age I know IRL a very elope

Trips for work to Winnipeg and Calgary (to which I have never been before, but are both underwhelming). Also got to fly on a floatplane for the first time, which is noisy, but the views are unbeatable

I turned 30 this year, and after the Conga Line of Nonsense, I said fuck it, we're going back to Japan for my birthday. 2 weeks, 8 cities. L: Shimanami Kaido cycle (still somehow 30 degrees in September x full sun x forgot sunscreen x 80km = pain) (my husband has proofread this and insists that this is not an L but agree to disagree) W: Hokkaido (beautiful scenery, incredible food, not 30 degrees in September lmao)

Anyways

If you made it this far, thanks for reading, and thanks for your love in '23. I hope to provide you with more of the same nonsense in '24. Let me know if you want a spinoff cats + gardening + DIY blog, since that's just my life now. Happy new year 🍾

#Machiwrites #long boi under the cut

[darkstaranthology]

Hello. I am the anonymous author of 'dark star - an izch anthology,' lowercase intentional.

I am an adult. You may refer to me by they/them pronouns. This blog will contain unmarked spoilers for BNHA. I am open to questions in my ask box regarding my writing. Please do not ask me questions about myself, although I know many people reading this blog will be aware of who I am already, and that's okay.

I began writing this series in May of 2022, with a broader writing hiatus from August 2022 to now. But as I plan to return to it and fill out what remains of the series - and there's a lot! - I wanted to create this side blog for discussion and archival purposes.

Please understand that under this cut, there will be discussion of dark, triggering, and NSFW content.

'dark star' is an attempt by me to write content for my favorite ship that wouldn't otherwise exist.

'IzuOcha,' or 'izch,' often referred to as 'dkch,' 'dekucha,' or 'dekutea' in the Japanese fandom, is a ship from Boku no Hero Academia, a popular Japanese Shounen manga. It is between the main character, Izuku Midoriya, and his close friend and primary canon love interest, Ochako Uraraka. I am describing this in fairly neutral terms because both the subject of this blog, and the works I'll be writing about them, are moderately controversial in fandom.

Fandom, broadly, does not like izch. This is mostly for all the normal reasons that fandom doesn't like 'canon' M/F ships, and that's fine. But given that BNHA has one of the most popular fandoms in history, and izch is my favorite ship, I try to create the content I want to see for it, knowing full well that others won't if I don't.

That brings us to 'dark star.' I began writing it largely as a therapeutic exercise for myself, though it's also just interesting and challenging to do. The first fic in the series, 'bound,' began life as a dark fic centered on a different concept, before becoming a one-shot, before then becoming a multichaptered fic centered on izch. I was originally going to write more fics in the same AU (which is about a hypothetical Traitor Ochako Uraraka as a fanon conceit), until I decided I wasn't invested enough in that.

So it became an anthology series about my favorite ship, instead. izch, as written in canon, is not really a particularly 'problematic' ship. It concerns two high school students who have a fairly typical relationship, albeit one that exists against the backdrop of Shounen superhero action and drama. 'dark star,' by contrast, is pretty grim, often touching on subjects of age gaps, non-consensual sexual acts, where the line between non-consent and consent blurs, unequal power dynamics, the interplay of sex and violence, unconventional gender and sexuality roles, and how two people who are otherwise fairly 'typical' deal with being put in these scenarios.

I won't claim that it's meant to be 'high art.' It contains graphic sexual content, as well as graphic violence, that is as much meant to be thematic as it is entertaining. I like my ship, and I think they deserve to be a little dark and sexy, as a treat. Popular fanon doesn't blink at stories like this for typical fanon ships, and I'd like for them to exist for izch as well.

I am not very interested in pro-/anti-ship discussions. I am also not very interested in ship or character bashing debate. Some characters or ships may be portrayed negatively in my work, and I'm happy to explain why that is, but this is not debate club, and I'm not here to change your mind, or for you to change mine.

This blog carries a blanket content and trigger warning for character death, graphic depictions of violence, sexual assault, unequal power dynamics, large age gaps and abuse of power in relationships with minors, blood and gore, and abusive relationships. I will try to include more specific warnings as I go.

Broadly speaking, you can expect izch to get happy endings out of most of these fics. If your fave is someone else, read with caution.

My ask box is open. Have a nice day.

#izuocha #izch #dkch #izuku midoriya #ochako uraraka #bnha #mha #bnha fanfic #mha fanfic #dark star - an izch anthology #dark fic #dead dove do not eat #fandom culture #fandom meta #blog intro #pinned post

[justagalwhowrites]

Bestie!!!!!!! It’s been a minute 👀👀👀

This is not about a specific fic of yours but more so your writing in general (and I apologize if this has already been asked) - what is a trope/theme that you find most challenging to write, and would you ever choose to write that for a particular character someday??

Hope you get some good rest before the holidays kick in! Forever supporting you and your work!

Hi Bestieeeeeee :D

I hope you're doing well omg!!!

I think I would have a hard time writing things that seem either hugely OOC for how I interpret a character? Generally, the basis of who the characters I write for are is so engrained that writing them another way feels wrong (though that's certainly not the only way to write them!) But a trope or theme would probably be non-con or really questionable power imbalances? I say that as someone who enjoys reading non-con and dark fics! BUT I put myself in certain headspaces when I write that's very different from where I am when I read and, just because of my personal history, going that way would be really really hard on me. I do kind of toe around those tropes, though! Like with the BFD!Joel ask that became New in Town! BFD!Joel can imply a pretty steep power imbalance (assuming you're the same age as Sarah or Ellie even once everyone involved is over 18) that I wasn't sure I was comfortable writing it BUT I loved the idea of the taboo nature of hooking up with your best friend's dad so I mixed the dynamic up a bit. And I do have SA occur in my fics (especially once that are set in the TLOU OG timeline - I don't think the apocalypse would be kind to women, I think gendered violence would be rampant and my fics reflect that) but when I do write about the specifics of it, it's written very differently than my consensual sex scenes (I only use medical or scientific terms for body parts in SA scenes so they feel cold, clinical and a bit removed from anything intimate or sexual, for example.) While I think well done non-con can be fun and hot to read, I don't know that I'm the writer to handle it. And that's OK! I might change my mind at some point (I do have something that's dub-con percolating for a one shot) but I don't see me writing anything too far in that direction anytime soon, just for the sake of my own mental health.

And to be clear, this is ABSOLUTELY no hate to anyone who writes this stuff. Some of my favorite authors write absolutely gorgeous non-con and dark stories and I love to read them. I just am not in the mental space to write them.

Great question, bestie!! LOVE YOU!

#fanfic #kit answers #send asks

[goldenlaurelleaveswrites]

🤔🧠🌙🍰 for the ask game:)

Ask me about my writing

Thanks for the ask!! 💖💖💖

🤔 What is the hardest part of writing fic?

Logistically/in terms of life admin, finding the time/energy. But the actual writing process? I think for me it would be a combination of writers block, too many ideas, and self-doubt. I feel like writers block is pretty self explanatory, but having too many ideas can be really hard because when I get excited about something, I need to write it right away. So that means I always have at least five active projects on the go (I think right now that number is a lot closer to ten). So trying to balance them so I don't neglect the ones I've already started posting gets a bit tricky, and just having so much going on in my head can really tire me out. And with myself- doubt, I can really get into my head and question absolutely every choice I've made about a story to the point of paralysis. I usually manage to pull myself out of it, or force myself to do the thing that scares me. But it's hard to deal with, and it can really mess with my momentum on a project.

🧠 What’s an idea you have that you can’t quite call a WIP yet?

There are a few. It's kind of weird because if I have an idea and a scene pops into my head for it, I will write it even if I have no idea what the rest of the story is yet. 😂 There are a few things from my Back to September monthly challenge that got added to the hoard. Most of those I feel confident calling a WIP, but the Lighthouse one is still a nebulous mess of ideas 😂

🌙  What time of day do you prefer to write? Why?

I try to write whenever I can, and if an idea pops into my head and I can write it down (even just notes) I will, even if it's at three am. But I prefer to write in the evening/night because I just find I'm more creative and the words tend to flow better then.

🍰 Name one of your fave comfort fics (doesn’t have to be your all time fave).

Just one?! I'll give you three. (This is a non exhaustive list. If I listed all of them we would be here all day 😂)

Adamaris by @livrever

Killer Combo by @quickspinner

La Belle et le Serpent by @frivolousflare

#fanfic ask game #ask game #blueberry-macaron

[loonysama]

For the meta asks for writers: 2, 6, 7

Thanks @calenlily for the ask! These were thinkers!

2. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

Right now I'm working on a spicy one-shot for Anna from Frozen's birthday and an exchange piece for a multi-fandom challenge that's top secret! But I have too many WIPs that I've already started posting and my goal for this year is to finish them, or at least finish some of them. I also have the Kristanna Halloween Days challenge to look forward to in October (some ficlet ideas are swirling around already!)

One of the WIPs I have out there is gonna get a rewrite. It's a Frozen x Tangled ghost story with a Kristoff/Anna and Anna & Elsa focus set in modern times called "Seeing is Believing, Hearing is Deceiving." The family lives at a haunted Victorian mansion and Anna has the ability to see but not hear ghosts (which she fully embraces) and Elsa can hear but not see them (which negatively affects her mental well-being). Anna gives ghost tours of their estate and Kristoff is the estate's conservator/maintenance tech. Both of them have an interest in Victoriana, and both live with one foot in the past. One day Kristoff is doing some repairs in the basement and discovers a literal skeleton in the bricked in dumb waiter shaft, which awakens some malevolent spirits that had been contained until then. Anna and Elsa (with the help of Kristoff and their father, Agnarr) have to work together using their combined abilities to stop a ghost that tries to use a loved one to complete their unfinished business. There's a story within the story that parallels with a history of the estate and its inhabitants with clues for how to solve the mystery, along with passages from a diary kept by the former governess. And throughout this whole thing there's also a Kristoff/Anna love story and a tragic love story about two of the ghosts. I spent so much time on world building and character development, and researching, not to see this project through. I still have two white boards with the family tree and character arcs set up, along with schematics of the Victorian mansions on the estate! I'm hoping to have it fully posted by Halloween, but I'd also rather take the time to be happy with it this time around, even if it means finishing in December or whenever. Needless to say, I have my work cut out!

6. What character do you have the most fun writing?

Anna from Frozen! She's lived through so much sadness but she's still bright and sunny and never gives up hope that things will be better. And she always sees the best in people. That ends up being her downfall in some ways, but in other ways it's a strength. Her character also shows incredible growth from F1 to F2, and in a lot of ways she's kind of written off, being the spare to Elsa's heir, but then her true talents are acknowledged when Elsa abdicates and names her as the new queen. And she is her own hero. She gets help from Kristoff along the way (and I love him and his non-toxic brand of masculinity), but ultimately she's the one that saves the day. It's a flip of the damsel in distress/knight in shining armor, which I can't get enough of.

I love writing her as strong and formidable (especially when no one expects that from her) despite whatever challenges she faces. And sometimes I write about some really dark and heavy stuff and it's nice to have a little ball of sunshine to part the clouds for all of us.

7. What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree?

I'm not 100% sure how to answer this, but here goes:

I like to push myself to be diverse in my writing, so every fic is a little different. Although, they do tend to bleed into each other a little. Usually there's something I like from one that I use for the next story but I turn it around. But there are other things that run through my stories, I'm sure.

I write a lot about relationships, so I rely on a lot of dialogue to tell the story at least as much as prose. Prose doesn't exactly make for good banter! I will say that my best fics are less dependent on dialogue, so it is something I've been exploring.

I also tend to write from one character's perspective most of the time (usually the female). I like to really focus on that character's development, and it's ultimately more interesting to me than an action-packed plot. Sometimes that means 1st person!

Most of the time my female characters are dominant or at least equal to their male counterparts, and usually they're the ones to save the day. And there's almost always a trace of trauma and mental illness there, even if it's not apparent to the reader. Sometimes I write things in layers, one specifically for the readers that have experienced trauma, because they will see things there that others won't, and an overall story arc meant for everyone. Not sure how successful I am there, but it's always in my mind anyway.

I'm a huge fan of AUs. I love writing them and reading them, even just thinking them up and filing them in the "some day" folder. Most of the time I come up with the AU before anything else, then the characters, then the plot. I think it makes for good world-building and character development, which I love. Sometimes my plots get overly complicated as a result, but for them, I tend more to just write it as I go with only basic plot points that change by the time I get there.

I have a tendency towards run-ons and over-using commas. (Don't we all, right?) I am a chronic under-editor and gun-runner that hardly ever uses betas, so I've been known to notice errors a week after posting and going in to fix it (I know I'm not the only one). I'm not gonna bring up my other flaws except that I'm always working on getting better.

I think people would agree with that? At least I hope they agree with the good stuff anyway.

#asked and answered #my two cents

[syntheticavenger]

Que Sera, Sera

I reached 10K.

10K! That's a big deal to me. Especially as someone who came over from AO3 and wanted to explore more interaction. And for a while, I enjoyed it. Loved it. Cranked out fics like no one's business because it was fun.

But I've stopped having fun.

Three users have had a parasocial interaction with me on here in the past months. If you don't know what that is, here you go. When I set my boundaries, I was threatened, told they would self-harm, delete, etc. if I didn't talk to them because I was 'their friend' and then a malicious rumor about me being a minor was spread - which was untrue. The worst part? People reblogging it without asking me if it was true. Thankfully, it was a non-issue after a while but I was blocked by a lot of people - and I had my age in my bio the entire time. That's how widespread the sheep mentality is here.

To top it off, I've continuously had my ideas stolen and been ignored when I fought back. Sometimes in casual discord chats and in conversations with people. Did I make it a huge deal? Nope. I messaged those who did it and some took it down and others... doubled down and kept them up. I prefer to keep it between myself and others. I was dragged in a vague post about stealing a sentence and many of my former mutuals took a side or stayed silent, choosing 'neutrality' and then ignoring me in the process. People have shown me again and again who they are in this space and I'm extremely grateful for the ones who I do keep close on here. I'm aware of an ask that has been circling around about work being stolen. I haven't posted it because I don't want the drama.

In the past when I've brought up my work being stolen, there is no listening. Only deflection that it was a 'mistake' or 'a coincidence'. A mind is already made up without even hearing me out? That's telling. If it was me and a familiar sounding sentence in two completely different fics? Raked across the coals, that post reblogged by the same people who stole from me prior. And I am tired of people rushing to defend these people. I wouldn't do, mutual or not. Wrong is wrong.

I am exhausted.

The toxic positivity of only uplifting your 'friends' and not others who are struggling to have their work be seen, reblogged, etc., was and still is performative and I'm not talking about me. The refusal to call out the blatant racism under the soft chiding of 'be kind' does nothing. I don’t even post some of the disgusting racist anons I get because there is no point in giving them any sort of attention.

Speak up about the blogs that are deleting because of racist anons and harassment, having their work stolen and the general bad treatment with people demanding updates and forcing their opinion on a story you’ve written, that comes from your own heart and brain. Let's go even further. Let’s talk about the harassment in general but staying silent because as long as it's not you, you’re good, right?

The continued abuse of black and POC writers on here is tiring. The consistent silence of the mistreatment is infuriating. The one person who inspired me to write was Jen and she got sick of the BS here and deactivated and went back to AO3. Do you know how frustrating that was for me? To know that even if her work was amazing, she'll only receive racist comments and harassment, barely any reblogs and no real engagement except for a few measly reblogs of her black authors masterlist.

Performative.

I enjoy writing for my mutuals and my anons, hands down. That's why I'm still here. I'm going to let that be enough.

I wanted to do a challenge but at the moment, I'm mentally exhausted with the blatant gatekeeping (which in itself is hilariously pathetic), silence with harassment when it isn't your friend groups, the continuous harassment of black writers (especially in the CE fandom - which is hilarious in its own, considering my own experience) and the increasing fragility of some writers on here when they are called out on their own privilege.

I'm not here to police your ways of interacting. But I am here to make sure my space is curated for myself.

And right now? Some of you don't fit in this circle.

So.

Snip, snip.

To my amazing mutuals and anons, I'm here. Just trying to balance out my personal life outside of here that has gotten much better now that I am not entertaining as much toxicity from this place. I see your asks and I'll be responding as my mental health allows. I see every single note and it makes my heart so happy.

I am protecting my little slice of peace at the moment. It's a nice place to be and I'll have a challenge up when I don't feel like burning this blog to the ground every time I log in.

Let this also be known that I'm posting this to get this off my chest and to not let this weigh me down.

Do not take this as a sign of weakness that I'm keeping it professional.

[billsfangearring]

I've really enjoyed reading these posts today—thanks for kicking things off and making this lovely banner, @efkgirldetective! I thought it would be fun to do one myself even though I'm not a fic writer. (Yet? See Goal 1. 😬)

Goal 1: Publish my first fic.

I will almost certainly regret stating this publicly, but I've got about 1,200 words written of my first fic. It's a First War Remus/Sirius fic that probably won't be most people's cup of tea, but it's the story that started bouncing around in my head this fall that eventually drove me to give this whole fic-writing thing a shot. (Lessons learned so far: Plotting is hard! Atmosphere is easy! I use too many similes!) Since I'm in it now, feel free to ask me how I'm doing with this and hold me accountable—@consistentsquash and @the-dream-team have already been doing a good job at occasionally prodding me about my snail-like progress.

Goal 2: Publish four more of my Wolfstar Yearbook rec lists.

For those who don't know, I've been putting together rec lists of my favorite five or so Wolfstar fics completed in each year, starting with 2003 (the publication year of the oldest fic I'd ever read). I cranked out five of these in less than three months over the summer and kind of burned myself out on the pairing and those posts for a few months. I think aiming to post one every three months is a sustainable goal given other things I want/need to do next year.

Goal 3: Publish at least one non-Wolfstar rec list.

I'd really like to do some sort of Jily rec list, maybe sticking with my M.O. of reviewing older fics that aren't as well-known now. I can also think of a few other pairings/themes that I conceivably could do a list for. I already have a multi-pairing time travel rec list that was well-received on Reddit, but I haven't posted it here because it doesn't really fit my tumblr "brand," to the extent that I have one. I may post that over here too at some point, but it won't count toward this goal.

Goal 4: Publish another deep-dive single fic rec.

My excessively long review of The Last Enemy series by @chdarling was an interesting challenge this fall. I'd never written an in-depth review like that before, and the fact that TLE is a WIP series with a pretty intricate plot added another layer of difficulty. I had a lot of fun analyzing it in more depth though, so I'd like to set a goal for myself to do another one of these if something else speaks to me in 2022.

Goal 5: Consistently leave comments on works I enjoy.

It took me 15 years of silently reading fic before I mustered up the courage and effort to leave my first comment. I've tried really hard these past six months to make commenting more of a habit, and I'm happy to say I've managed to build some momentum! Part of this process for me personally has been giving myself permission to not do the absolute most with every comment—they don't have to be beautifully articulate and insightful to mean something to the author and make me feel happy about leaving one. Lowering that self-imposed barrier to entry has been really helpful for me to get better at commenting. I want to keep working on this in 2022.

I think most of the authors I follow on here have already been tagged. As a reccer/reviewer myself, I'm going to tag some fic rec blogs I've appreciated this year instead. Zero pressure to do this, of course, but I'd love to hear your 2022 goals for your reviews if you have any you'd like to share! @consistentsquash @wolfstarwarehouse @wolfstarlibrarian @wolfstarhaven Anyone else who wants to participate should consider this an open invitation too!

#2022 goals #wip that shall not be named

[alpacaparkaseok]

Hey B! Do you have any tips for someone who wants to start writing? Also which platform would you recommend publishing on? How did you get into writing BTS ff? Do you plan to make a career out of it? Anything else to keep in mind? I am the person who asked about Wattpad and your soulmate series. Thought I would take an emoji identifier so it is easier in the future to know who I am until I create a tumblr account - 🤷🏻‍♀️💜

Hi!! I'm SO sorry it's taken me so long to respond, but I'm here now! I love these kinds of asks, I'm so excited for you to start writing!

Also, I'm just gonna invite other creators to respond/reblog this with their own tips and tricks, because we all have different ideas worth sharing!

Tips!

Have fun with it! I know, cliche, but so so so important. The minute this stops being fun, it gets a whole lot harder to do. Don't get that confused with challenging yourself, though!

Writing fic is simultaneously selfish and selfless, because on one hand you're basically just entertaining yourself (lol, at least that's what I'm doing, using this as an outlet most of the time) and on the other hand, you're churning out substantial fics that nobody is paying you for. Of course, we all hope for support and comments, which is freaking awesome. But don't be afraid when you feel overwhelmed to just go back to the basics. Open up a word doc or a notebook and write something with zero pressure.

Publishing platform!

Ok ok, I am a lil biased. I got my start on Tumblr for BTS ff, and the community on here is awesome. Tumblr is much more aesthetically pleasing in my opinion, so I enjoy that a lot. ALSO, I feel like cross posting to AO3 is a must - it's the literal queen of ff sooo

I'm honestly not a huge fan of Wattpad, which is funny considering that that's how you found me! It just doesn't seem as open and easy to get your content out there. For one, I feel like Tumblr is a whole community, but that might also be because I've got some of the best readers known to man who interact not only with me, but with each other. I'm usually just the facilitator!

How on earth did this happen to me

Oh my lanta who even knows. For those who've been around for a while, I'm sure you've seen this many times, but I couldn't find a soulmate au that I really wanted to read, so I took matters into my own hands and made one myself. And then I fell down the rabbit hole that I now find myself in!

As for a career...it's completely my aspiration to become a writer! I actually do help write non ff stories on the side for a few clients, so I guess we're just one step closer! BTS ff has most definitely been the biggest help, as I've been able to get feedback and grow as a writer. If anything, it helps me to write almost everyday, which is exactly what I want to be doing.

For now, there's no quitting my day job lol, but that's alright with me because I'm a librarian so I'm already winning in the book department haha

Anything else?

I've mentioned this before, but I just remembered it so I'll stick it in here at the end! I created a private Pinterest board way back when I started Tumblr and I screenshot/pin all of my sweet asks, comments, dm's, etc. that I get! I've named it, "When you need to see the light", and it's a source of motivation, inspiration, and general feel good feelings for when I'm not feeling my best. I would suggest finding some way to keep all of those feel-good moments in a spot where you can find them whenever you want to see them again!

Especially when I first started out and those moments were few and far between, it kept me going! And I'm really really glad it did. I love my Tumblr fam way too much to miss out on them!

I just use Pinterest for literally everything. Each major series/story has a Pinterest board filled with inspo, which is awesome if you're a more visually inspired person!

hope those answered your questions! 💜💜

#🤷🏻‍♀️💜 anon #b:asks #Tumblr writers #bts writer #writing tips

[aleteia-ff]

I have three questions: 1.I was just wondering, when is the next update of your story 'A Decade To Find You'? I'm so excited about it!I know you are busy and all. I'm just curious. 2.Though you POTA 2 is currently WIP, are you planning on writing a trilogy for the series? 3.And if you are going to write another HTTYD fanfiction with another genre, what would it be? Thanks!😊 P.S I'm not that used to write you phantom series in abbr. because in our country 'POTA' is a curse word.(the f word)XD

Oh, nice ask! Thank you!

1. I was just wondering, when is the next update of your story 'A Decade To Find You'?

I hope to update A Decade To Find You this weekend, but it depends on how much writing I get done in the following days. If not, it’ll be the weekend after that at the latest. I’m very glad to hear you’re excited for it! :D So am I ^^

2. Though you POTA 2 is currently WIP, are you planning on writing a trilogy for the series?

Hahaha, all good things come in threes, right? 

I did once talk about the Phantomverse becoming a trilogy, which would include a prequel about Hiccup’s time in Constantinople. To explore his relationship with Alexander, his captivity and how his mentality twisted from mostly Canon!Hiccup to becoming Phantom!Hiccup. 

Currently, I think the odds of me writing that are quite low. It would be a long story, featuring only OC characters alongside Hiccup and Toothless. I therefore don’t think there’d be that much interest in it, and it’s ended up pretty low on my priority list as a result. Especially because I don’t have loads of time to write. 

The Phantom of the Archipelago comes first in the Phantomverse. After that one is done (and Gods, it’s a big one, it might even become larger than the original Phantom), I think I’d be more likely to write short stories within the Phantomverse. Either about characters other than Hiccstrid (Hamish comes to mind), or stories that take place years after the events of The Phantom of the Archipelago. I have quite some ideas for that I am really fond of ^^ 

I’m very happy you seem to like the idea of a trilogy though!

3.And if you are going to write another HTTYD fanfiction with another genre, what would it be?

Now that’s a difficult question... If we take genre to mean outside of the Phantomverse, then I have many many other AUs still on the shelf/halfway completed. If we are really talking genre, I would say Phantom falls within the romance/drama category. Almost all of my ideas fall into that category, because I’m just the most interested in it. I love exploring human emotions and complicated relationships, and that quickly veers into drama. Romance also implicates that. It’s just so satisfying to make two people grow towards each other and fall in love (it’s why I love Enemies-To-Lovers in particular). 

Looking more at one-shots though I have definitely done stuff that isn’t romance. Even though it’s not long, I am still quite fond of ficlets like Proving Your Worth, which features a heart-to-heart between Spitelout and Snotlout, Do You Want To Train A Dragon? and Chasing the Western Wind, which are mostly about Zephyr and her relationship with her father. I especially loved writing that second one.

On the other side of the spectrum there’s the start of No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, which I would put in the ‘whump’ category. There’s Hiccstrid in there, but in the two chapters written so far, and what I had planned next, their relationship is more context than the main force driving the story. 

I could definitely see myself writing more stuff like that; exploring non-romantic relationships between other characters (Phantom already does a lot of that with the Hiccup-Stoick interactions) or going towards darker stories...

Comedy/crack fics is something I’d also still like to try my hand on but that’s such a difficult genre to pull off. Could be a challenge though!

P.S I'm not that used to write you phantom series in abbr. because in our country 'POTA' is a curse word.(the f word)XD

Hihi, I’ve heard that before I think, in Spanish right? :D 

#thank you for the ask #<3 #asks #phantomverse #phantom!hiccup #phantomcup #pota #phantom of the arena #acnhhh

[vanaera]

Hi!! I was wondering if you had any basic writing tips. I honestly NEVER through I would write anything but one day I just did casually because I loved reading fics so much and now I'm in way too deep and became way too attached to whatever I'm creating rn. I love THH and your style and you blog in general so I was just wondering if you had any basic tips to offer. ok thank you luv you Bye

Hi hon! I'm happy you enjoyed The Heart Holiday and had a great time in my blog! But I am happier that you are enjoying writing. It's going to be a wonderful adventure! 😊😊😊

I don't really know much how to make a cohesive writing advice post bc my thoughts are just scattered around when it comes to the how-to's of writing (I'm a mess, I'm sorry). However, these are some tips that really helped me to write (Idk if they're basic but these are the fundamentals I always consider when I write).

*Contains spoilers for movies Minority Report and Whiplash

Define your character's wants/needs

So you've got your character. You know how they look like. You know what are their likes and dislikes. But the wants/needs will help them become more substantial. More interesting to follow bc your readers are going to be hooked as to whether your character will be able to achieve or not their goals. A character's want is what they desire. It's usually evident at the very start of the story. Most often, it is the premise, itself. (Ex: Minority Report's John Anderton wants to prove his innocence to a future-predetermining system). Meanwhile character's need is what they have to become to fully achieve their goal. Unlike the first, this needs more unearthing in the story. The character usually don't know their needs at the start. The conflicts in the stories pushes them to realize their needs eventually (Ex: John Anderton realizes he needs to let go of his belief in pre-determined futures bc the system has great faults and they are already ruining his life). It's like this: wants = the temporary goal; needs = the real goal. And both of them project character development, for better or worse or to stay the same way despite the challenges (hello flat character arcs). The needs especially show this. This is one of the factors that make your story interesting to follow. Your readers are going to want to know how your characters are going to realize their needs, how they will change to become what they needed to be.

Define the conflict

Conflict is the one that creates the drama. It orevents your character from achieving their goals. It is the obstacles your character must overcome to reach their wants/needs. Conflicts propel the story further. It also makes it more interesting, especially when they layer upon each other (ex: Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight). But conflicts also define characters. The decisions your character makes in face of a conflict says a lot of things about them. (Ex: In Whiplash, Andrew is faced with the decision to sue Fletcher for his extreme teaching style. Or to endure it and become the great musician Fletcher claims he can create. Andrew chooses the former but soon feels empty. When he meets Fletcher again, he gets enthusiastic and even agrees to play for him, despite knowing Fletcher's extreme methods. So in here, we see Andrew is driven by his need to be a great musician, no matter what it takes). Bc of this, your reader gets to know more about your character in a deeper level. It also helps them sympathize more with them.

Establish your story world

This is something I really want to emphasize. The story world plays a large part in defining your characters. It consists of the things that will help your character grow stronger, as well as the conflicts and limitations that will challenge your character to realize their needs. Not only that, a fleshed-out story world sucks the readers into your story (I think this is the reason why Harry Potter and Avatar: The Last Airbender are so fun to read/watch; it feels like you're going onto a vacation in another place whenever you indulge in them). This tip tho doesn't only apply to fantasy genres. Slice of life stories also need a stable story world to work on so your story can be as realistic as you want it to be (Ex: In 3 Idiots, we see how much education is greatly valued, at the same time, how much the students are letting their grades affect their lives. Much more in a prestigious unibersity for Engineering. Readers, especially those who are studying Engineering like the protagonists, will be able to empathize more with the struggles of the characters).

Lengths of sentences

This is something I'm still struggling to learn. Okay, so now you've got your story world, characters, and conflict. You now have to execute your story. Different lengths of sentences will help you that. Sentence lengths help the flow of reading. It creates the tempo and the beat of your story. If the scene is fast-paced, you can opt for shorter sentences bc it creates wuick beats. If you want your readers to stay for a while, say for example, you're describing a place, long sentences are great for defining those details. But make sure you must have a combination of both bc you may lose your reader in the story if you wrote long sentences upon long sentences. While keeping everything short will make your story sound robot-like. Chsnging it up also makes the tone of your story not monotonous. You can better keep the attention of your reader that way bc a non-stagnant flow helps in seamless reading. I tend to write long sentences before and I realized this is true when I tried reading my past works. I then learned how to change things up and then I saw how interesting and enjoying to read my stories now have become.

Find your own style

This is a lesson I learned the hard way. When I was just beginning to write, I followed the footsteps of a lot of reknowned writers. Only to end up writing in a way I'm not happy about. End up writing something that doesn't feel truly myself. I made a lot of mistakes until I learned that no matter how many people say "don't write this way, but this way," or how much you get pressured with thoughts like "Oh, I have to write this way bc this is the trend, this is what most readers will like," nothing feels better but to write how YOU want to write. It's your story. How to write it should be totally up to you, because no one will be able to write your story, but only you. Find and do your own style. It may not feel rewarding sometimes. But trust me on this, there are people who will like what you and how you write and they are going to look for you and anticipate your upcoming works. You know why? Because only you can write that story/that way. So don't lose hope, and just keep writing.

These are just some I follow to help me write my stories more effectively. If you wanna learn more, you can search the tag #writing tips in my blog. I reblog writing advices and encouragement posts for writers there.

Also go to amazing blogs like @theliteraryarchitect and @yourlocalwriterblog . They give the most helpful advices here when it comes to writing in general- writing, editing, publishing, and even screenplays, you name it.

You can also go to nerdwriter1, justwrite, and Lessons From The Screenplay on YouTube. These channels have helped me a lot in writing my stories. Though they usually talk about films and screenplays, their tips are very hepful in writing in general. I always go to them whenever I feel lost and need guidance in writing some certain parts.

Sorry this got so long. I just lobe love writing so much, I don't know how to shut up about it. I hope I was able to help you, hon. Good luck in your writing and if you finally posted it and want me to see it, just feel free to hit me up 😊😊😊

#aers blushes #the heart holiday feedback #the heart holiday #reviews #writing tips #aera writes #sorry for the typos #and how this may look messy #i tried my best hehe #aera gives tips #this is my first time writing a writing tip #and my brain is fried #im still trying to learn how to group these tips in cohesive topics #bc srsly im planning to write How To Bullshit Your Papers 102 #101* #for college graduates #cus I wanna also share the tips that heloped me in writing papers #I have no clue to nail at all #or even finish for that matter lmao

[aijee]

Hey Aijee! glad to see you back to answering asks, hope you are doing well!

i’m sorry if this would make you relieve the pet peeves post, but i’m a little disheartened about what you wrote about ESL readers. re: “especially since my English is understandably hard for ESL readers”. to make it sound like all ESL readers have less english literacy than native english speakers is hurtful, because that is not always the case. And as someone whose english skill has always been looked down upon by anglophone people on the internet, despite knowing that my english is, at the very least, on par with them, it hurts me to see you perpetuate the notion (even if you didn’t intend to do so).

Sorry for this, i felt the need to tell you! i’m an ESL reader that adore your writing, fully, with no problems on understanding your english at all. Thank you, always, for the wonderful stories you bring to life! Hope you have a great week Aijee :) hope happiness finds you easily.

Hi anon, apologies for the very late response. I'm not logged into my Tumblr accounts on my devices anymore since I'm off-the-grid these days.

I hear you and I apologize for any misunderstandings caused by my writing! The phrase you’ve taken lacks context within its post, and the post’s content may suggest unintentional negativity towards ESL readers. I appreciate your stance and civil phrasing. If you’ll allow me, let me explain myself in detail. I hope you’ll trust that there isn’t a bone on my body that could ever look down on an ESL user; as a vanilla monolingual, I only have respect and admiration.

In saying that my English can be hard to understand for ESL users, that is not the same as saying ESL users are incapable of understanding me. I recognize that “ESL” encompasses of a wide range of English abilities—including fluent and non-fluent individuals. I strongly implore blog readers to recognize that I am incapable of explaining every facet of an argument, and that my opinions are usually, if not always, well-meaning. In a personal blog, I can’t be fully nuanced (otherwise I’d write dissertations for responses—which I kind of already do). Asks like this to correct me/clarify something can help with expanding on those limitations and misunderstandings, and I appreciate your attention to it. Just know that those limitations exist.

For a little background, I’m monolingual in English with some very basic knowledge of a few Asian languages and some sign language. My family is based in a rural Asian town, so that language fact about me makes me stand out a lot. My parents, who are also ESL users (fluent), have frequently remarked that my English is too hard to understand for the rest of the family (also ESL, but less fluent) because I use “American slang”, “speak too fast”, and use “American humor too often,” plus an American accent is hard to understand in my hometown. Thus, I have been raised to be conscious of the way I use English. That consciousness isn’t with the intent of “looking down” on my relatives or neighbors, but to ensure that communication is effective. On the other hand, this doesn’t bar me from communicating with my full intelligence and respect for the other party, whether in-person or online.

Also, on more than one occasion, I have gotten legitimate feedback in comments and AO3 bookmarks that my writing/fics can be hard to understand by readers whose first language is not English, usually within the sentiment: “English isn’t my first language and it was hard to understand some parts/humor, but I enjoyed the story! I feel proud of myself for learning new words/challenging my abilities.” Since I’m the author, I’m able to see this pattern. Similarly to my parents’ feedback, the difficulty is mainly in my style of writing that banks on nuance typically present in native usage; fluent users of any languages, native or otherwise, will struggle with native details. E.g. My parents can speak and understand English fluently, but sarcasm tends to go over their heads since sarcasm doesn’t exist in their mother tongues. Wordplay and figurative language can also be difficult.

Finally, meaning will always be lost from author to reader no matter what language, no matter the reader’s language ability. In the same way meaning is lost in translation, meaning is lost in the transition of creation to consumption of a creative piece of work, especially when more than one layer of meaning is involved. You can imagine that consuming something in your second, third, fourth language (unless you are a professional translator, polyglot, studying like a translator/polyglot, etc.) will result in further lost meaning. Even multilingual people (many of my IRL friends whom I envy so much) with more than one mother tongue will struggle with understanding everything in any of their native tongues. There’s even an academic difference between “native” and “fluent”, but if my uni courses in sociolinguistics have taught me anything, language in general is super muddy.

This may or may not be relevant to mention, but I have been vocal in the past about how English isn’t indicative of ability and is put on a pedestal far too much; conservative America and many places on the Internet are glaring examples of that. I’m sorry that you and ESL individuals have to deal with that bullshit. It will almost always come from insecurity, a desire for superiority with a dearth of healthier, long-term places to cultivate confidence. While I take pride in my English skills, it’s something I would never hold over other people. In the statement of mine you’ve quoted, you could easily switch out English for any other language (if I was hypothetically monolingual in another language) and the sentiments I’ve written in this post would be exactly the same.

The statement you quoted wasn't a poke at ESL users not understanding my writing fully (if that was interpreted) or a slight against their intelligence or capabilities. Rather, it was acknowledging that, objectively-speaking, some ESL users have had a hard time understanding me; I really like long-winded metaphors, second meanings, etc that any reader would miss, regardless of English fluency. In acknowledging ESL users who are fluent in English, we must also acknowledge ESL users who are less fluent in the language. Moreover, the former’s fluency is equally as impressive as the latter consuming something in a language they aren’t fluent in. In the context of that pet peeve post, I was separating ESL users who might not have 100% comprehension from readers who simply read what I write at face-value, thus ignoring the extra work I put into the other layers.

I have nothing but the utmost respect for people who learn and use a language as convoluted, lawless and steeped in colonialist privilege as English. My language-learning skills are laughably poor...

#askaijee #helloooo long post #we respect civil discussions from nice anons in this household

[olderbynow]

Some time ago the always lovely @whopooh​ made a post asking writers to talk about their own fics, posing five really interesting questions she’d like to get input on. And is there anything you can think of that writers love more than talking about their writing? (Other than maybe comments.) No, right? So settle down around the fireplace, kids. Get your marshmallows roasting and prepare to be bored stiff for a while as I talk endlessly about me, myself and my fics. (And most of these answers are even MFMM related.)

Pick one fic that you’ve written and talk about what makes it important to you.

 For this first one, I've got to go back a bit to my pre-MFMM days and this one fic I wrote for Rookie Blue, the show I loved and then hated even more than I had loved it, but which got me back into writing again, so I'll have to be grateful to it for that. But yes, back when things were still mostly rosy I wrote this fic called These Dreams Will Haunt You, which is the only time that I can think of when I've posted something and thought, "I have no idea if this works outside my head, but I don't really care. I like it." Which is a pretty powerful feeling. I set out to write a specific thing, in a specific way, and I did. That fic is the story I meant to write when I started writing, written in the way I meant to write it. THAT NEVER HAPPENS. (I'm obviously not saying that I didn't angst endlessly about it while I was writing it, and I'm not saying I didn't sit there biting my nails as I waited for comments from my incredibly patient beta, I'm just saying: The final product is something I've always felt good about, even with all the water under that fandom bridge.) 

Pick one of your older fics and say what about it you like most, and what you would do differently now. 

In MFMM, I think my biggest "regret fic" (of the published ones, there are plenty of things I regret about the ones that never saw the light of day) is The Place Where He Fell When He Saw The Stars, which is one of those fics that started out as what I thought was a good idea, but then I just completely failed to do what I had wanted to with it. Which is why it turned into the one-shot that it is, rather than the full on multi-chapter fic I had been meaning to write I still like the idea, and I like the intention behind this fic, I just don’t particularly like the fic itself. If I got a do-over on this one, I think I’d have given up on the Year of Tropes deadline that I was working towards and hung onto it until I knew how to do what I wanted to do, rather than writing myself into a corner I can’t be bothered to make my way out of. (But I do think, honestly, that then the fic would never have been published at all, so I’m not sure where that leaves us, really.)

Pick a fic and say something about why you wrote it – if there was a specific inspiration, perhaps from RL, fandom life, or a theme or a trope you felt needed to be written in a new way. 

I hesitate to bring attention to a WIP that has gone un-updated for more than six months, but lets forget about that for a bit and I'll tell you about Fast Times at Wardlow High, the high school AU the MFMM fandom had been pretty damn sure they didn't want until @heavyheadedgal​ suggested one here on tumblr and we all realised that YES, 17-year-old Jack rocking the debate team and Mac with a mohawk are in fact things that should be in our lives. And after reading people's suggestions for this non-existent AU I was so determined to bring it to life that I wrote a quick one-shot in a day, completely desperate to get it out there before AO3 was flooded with HS AUs. LOL. That one-shot turned into a thing, and although it doesn't look that way from the infrequent updating, it's my favourite thing that I've done in MFMM fanfic, because it's just my happy place in fic. There's no pressure, since I've totally given up on things like plot and character development and this making any kind of sense in the long run and am entirely focused on just enjoying writing it. I only do it when I feel like it, and I never really worry if it's any good. Because it's a HS AU, there's something about the nature of that that just allows for all sorts of badness. Basically I’ve given myself carte blanche to suck, and it’s really liberating and I should probably do that more, actually. In life in general.

Is there something you wrote in a fic that was read differently than you intended, and that made you see your own fic in another light? 

 I think the best example of that happening to me is the MFMM fic Back In The Ring, which was my contribution to the March Trope of the amazing Year of Tropes organised by @firesign23​ and was a very poor excuse for a bottle episode fic. The fic was just meant to be a jokey bit of plotlessness, but some people seemed to take the whole thing more seriously - and in a very different way - than I had intended. They certainly took it all much more seriously than Jack had done in the fic. But it led to my favourite ever analysis of anything I've written in the history of the Universe by @whopooh​, and so I can't really be sorry for the fact that a few readers were offended by Phryne's offhanded attitude to her past dalliances. 

Is there a fic by another writer that has inspired you? 

Okay, the thing is, for MFMM fandom, I don't have that. I have fics that I love, and I am inspired by this fandom as a whole (cue string section) but there's no one specific fic that has made me go "I need to write a story now." (Possibly this is the one downside to being part of a fandom with SO MANY writers who are just so incredibly talented? Which is not a thing you'l find me complaining about. Ever.) But in past fandoms, it has definitely happened, and this stroll down memory lane as I tried to find a good example of it was threatening to steal whole days from me as I reread past favourites from fandoms of yore, but instead of doing that, let me tell you about these two writers who used to co-write Rookie Blue fic and then edited their way into writing original fiction instead. Their style of writing was completely mesmerising to me, and I devoured, repeatedly, anything they wrote, whether or not it was a ship/au/whatever I was interested in. Because I just adored their words. They influenced my own style of writing in a lot of ways, but mostly in a way that was "Huh, so I can just write like I'm me and that's fine?" rather than feeling like you need to write like you're ~literature. I don't take that with me in all my writing, and I think in MFMM you mostly see it in Wardlow Whoopie, which was very much me trying to force this extremely contemporary sounding narrator's voice into a story set in the 1920s. I still don't understand at all how it could ever make sense, but it made me laugh as I wrote it, so I'm not going to argue any fine points here. (But yeah, that fact that I can't just do that is definitely the most challenging thing about writing MFMM fic - which I guess is also why writing Fast Times is such a relaxing thing, because I get to mostly do it there.) 

I’m pretty sure people have been tagged on this already - I know I was, which makes me think everyone else must've been covered, but in case you weren't and this is the first you've heard about this questionnaire, you should definitely do it!

#what we talk about when we talk about fanfic #mfmm fanfic #rookie blue fanfic