#the total piece is 20k words

[caffeinewitchcraft]

The Hero and Hope (Part 2/5)

(part 1) (part 3)

The next time you go hunting, the Bahrs go with you.

“It’s really fine,” you protest. It’s early enough in the morning that the air carries a bite. With any luck, they’ll think the redness in your cheeks comes from the chill rather than embarrassment. “I’m not even going far in. It’s Hera’s birthday coming up and she likes squirrel…”

“You’re going to catch a squirrel without a blade?” Mr. Bahr – Ivan – asks. He tightens the strap on Mrs. Bahr’s back, making sure the quiver of arrows is snug along her spine. He pats her shoulder when he finishes and beams at you. “Are you very fast?”

Yes, you are. You’ve noticed that you’re even faster lately as your 15th birthday marches closer and closer. You purse your lips. “I set traps.”

“Don’t mind him, Isla,” Mrs. Bahr -Marie -  says. She fondly shoves Ivan off the porch of the orphanage so she can get down. “He’s always joking.”

“What sort of traps?” Ivan asks. He runs a critical eye over your coat and pack. “Will that be warm enough?”

You’re not sure if your coat is warm enough for the weather or not. Another rising power: you’re nearly impervious to the cold. You shrug. “I’ll be fine. And just simple snares and stuff.”

“We can’t wait to see,” Ivan declares. He gestures towards the road. “Lead the way.”

You bite your lip. It’s clear that they knew you were going hunting today by their garb. Both are in sturdy, worn leather with swords on their hips and bows along their backs. They probably heard from Director Sarah and came specifically to make sure you kept your promise not to hunt alone. But… “The other kids will be sorry they missed you.”

“We’ll see them when we return victorious with birthday squirrels,” Ivan says.

“What a sentence,” Marie says dryly.

You aren’t going to convince them to let you go alone. You silently lead the way towards the orchard. Or, rather, as silently as you can. Ivan talks the whole time, asking questions about the apple trees and pointing to ducks flying overhead. You answer the questions you know the answer to and hum whenever you don’t. You wish you knew more about the vegetation, but the most you can tell Ivan is whether or not something is poisonous.

“Those ones,” you say, nodding to the low, circular leaves Mr. Bahr is pointing to, “are tricky. The real ones taste kind of sweet. The other kind that looks like that makes your stomach cramp for three days straight.”

“How can you tell the difference?” Ivan asks.

You shrug. “You can’t. I just tell the younger kids to bring it to me before eating it. Usually, I trade it for something actually edible.”

Marie, trailing behind you both, makes a noise of interest. “Usually?”

You feel your ears go hot. “Sometimes I’ll try it for them just to see if they can eat it. I’ve had enough of the bad one that it doesn’t affect me so much.”

“You try it?” Marie’s voice is sharp. “Isla, there has to be a better way.”

“Not really,” you say. You scratch the back of your head and quicken your step. You’re almost to the tree line of the woods. “The kids like sweet things. If I didn’t give in occasionally, they’d try it themselves. At least this way they check in with me first.”

“I still don’t think—”

“Sounds like Marie and I’ll be bringing some sweets along with us next time,” Ivan interrupts cheerfully. He points past the last apple tree about a dozen feet ahead. “Looks like the path ends there?”

“There’s an animal track about ten feet into the woods,” you say. You’re uncomfortable with Marie’s reaction. You know it’s not smart to eat poisonous plants, but what else were you supposed to do? Your worst fear is that the kids will one day get hungry enough to eat them without caring about the pain. Your shoulders round. “We’ll need to be quiet once we’re there.”

“I’m the best at being quiet,” Ivan says. He elbows Marie. “Right, Marie?”

“Right,” Marie says. Her voice is still a little strained, but you can tell she’s trying to hide it. “That’s why I married you.”

“That’s a lie,” Ivan says. He stage-whispers to you, “She married me for my amazingly dashing good looks.”

Marie huffs a laugh but doesn’t say anything else. You’ve entered the forest.

You were worried on the way that you’d need to tell Ivan that he needs to be quiet in the forest. You needn’t have been concerned. Both adults are silent and walk with quiet steps, their dark eyes alert on their surroundings. They move through the undergrowth gracefully, their years of experience showing in every step. You try to copy Marie’s soft footfalls as best you can and are pleased when your steps get a little quieter.

The Bahrs watch as you pick places for your traps. Ivan silently points to one of your knots, eyebrow raised. Guessing what he’s asking, you undo the knot and then redo it slowly. He nods in satisfaction and then gestures for you to give him the rope. Curiously, you do. Ivan completes the same knot, fingers steady through each step. When he’s done, he presents it to you proudly as if to say, See? I did it!

It makes you do something you very rarely do in the woods. You smile.

After setting the traps you take the Bahrs to your favorite resting spot. The clearing lies just by the edge of the shallow part of the river. About a mile downstream the banks widen and the North River joins this one, making it a dangerous place of rapids. Here, however, the water moves slowly and is shallow enough to be warmed by the sun.

Finally, you speak. “Shouldn’t be too long. Maybe an hour or two and then we can go check on them.”

“Is this where you found the horned rabbit?” Marie asks. You sit on a large, flat rock by the river, but she stays standing. Her eyes carefully scan the perimeter of the clearing.

“Not quite. That was near the hills.” You point. “Fifteen minutes that way.”

“That’s close,” Ivan says. He frowns, concerned. “Was that the first demon you’ve seen here?”

“No.” When the Bahrs turn to you in alarm, you shrug. “Not all the time, but demons come here. They’re usually not interested in me though.”

“But the horned rabbit was?” Marie asks.

Interested is an understatement. You’re not an idiot. You know that demons are dangerous. That’s why you usually avoid them when you spot them. Normally they’re content to let you pass by, but not the horned rabbit. It followed you nearly all the way back to the orchard before you realized you needed to do something before it attacked you. “Yeah.”

“What other types of demons do you see here?” Ivan asks. His voice is light, but he’s looking at you with a very serious expression. “Maybe howling bats?”

“I hear them sometimes,” you say, “but I don’t stick around after dark.” Ivan and Marie exchange dark looks. You fidget on the rock. “What?”

“This is protected land, Isla,” Marie says. She purses her lips. “No demons should be south of those hills.”

“What other types have you seen?” Ivan asks again. He comes to squat by you so he can look you in the eyes. “And when?”

“Just horned rabbits.”

“Are you sure?” Marie asks. She runs a hand over her hair, slicking back the fly aways. “Horned rabbits aren’t usually sighted alone.”

You hesitate. It’s true that the horned rabbits are the only demons you’ve seen, but… “There have been some signs lately, but I don’t know if they’re demons.”

Ivan’s eyes sharpen. “What?”

“Wolves,” you say. Both Bahrs stiffen, hands going to their swords. You speak quickly. “But I’ve never seen them! They might be regular wolves. I found the tracks at the base of the hill, and some bones, but they were a week old probably.”

“We’ll need to ask the Lord to investigate,” Marie tells Ivan. She looks deeply unhappy. “The patrol doesn’t cover this far south.”

“An oversight,” Ivan says grimly. He reaches out absently and ruffles your hair. It startles you, but it feels nice. Ivan makes an effort to smile at you. “Good eyes, Isla. Is there anything else you’ve noticed changing in the forest lately? Even something not demon related?”

Something funny is happening in your chest. Good eyes, Isla. You wrack your brain for anything else. “I haven’t seen any other tracks or anything and there’s only been four or five horned rabbits this season.”

Marie makes a small noise in her throat. When you turn to look at her, she hides whatever expression she’d been making. “That’s a lot. Did you need to use your sharp stick on all of them?”

Ivan startles. “Sharp stick?”

You rub the back of you neck. “Just two.” You look up at the sky. You only had a sharp stick that day, but there are times when you’ve come out here with a knife. Knife days are for when you’re looking for bigger game.  “I’ve been pretty lucky hunting lately, now that I think about it. There’s been more deer and regular rabbits south of the river.”

“What do you mean ‘lately?’”

“The past month.”

Ivan and Marie exchange another long look. Before you can ask them what’s wrong, Ivan turns to you with another smile.

“Say,” he says, “what do you think about trying to bag something bigger than a squirrel today? You ever fire a bow before?”

Your eyes widen. “No.”

“You can use mine,” Marie says, pulling it from her shoulder. She holds it out to you. “We’re nearly the same height. The draw may be a bit heavy for you—or not.”

Embarrassed by the shock in her voice, you release the string. “I’m, uh, stronger than I look.”

“Good,” Ivan says. “That’ll make it easier to actually catch something today.”

The next few hours are the most fun you’ve ever had in the woods. Marie and Ivan go over every part of the bow with you, explaining the weight of it, the flexibility, the length. Marie and Ivan carry several different types of arrows with different tips, all good for different types of shooting. They let you practice on a tree across the river and each time you’re closer to hitting the center of it, they compliment how fast you’re learning, how accurate your eye, how steady and consistent your draw.

By the time they let you hunt with it, you feel like you’re walking on clouds.

The feeling lasts even after you return to the orphanage, a deer slung over Marie’s shoulders and your hands full of squirrel. There’s a pleasant ache in your back and arms from practicing with the bow. You can’t stop smiling. Everything Ivan says is out of the blue and Marie’s tired responses make it all funny.

At one point you’re walking behind them, watching their shoulders brush when the path gets a little too narrow. They’re smiling at each other and talking softly and for a wild, wonderful, awful moment, you imagine that you can keep this. You aren’t sure what this is. Their attention and their companionship, their gentle guidance and the way they speak to you like you’re an adult?

After Hera’s birthday dinner, the Bahrs stay extra late to help clean up and to spend time with the younger kids. You are still feeling a sort of bone deep happiness you’ve never felt before. Everyone is full and sleepy-eyed from the amount of food you were able to put on the table. The kids gather around their slates in the common area, learning a new type of drawing game from Ivan and Marie.

Hera comes up to where you’re leaning on the doorway. Quietly, she slips her hand into yours. You squeeze it.

“Thanks for the squirrel,” she says quietly.

You lean down and press a kiss to the top of her head. “Happy Birthday.”

She hums and watches the fun in the living room for a long moment. She’s eleven now, three years older than you were that Winter. She’s the second oldest in the orphanage and, for the first time, you wonder if she feels the same sort of responsibility as you.

“I’m happy for you, you know,” Hera says.

You make a low questioning noise in your throat.

“The Bahrs will be good to you,” Hera says. She looks up at you evenly, a small smile tucked into the corner of her mouth. “You deserve that, Isla.”

Every muscle in your chest locks, chasing away the pleasant languidness you’d been feeling. “That’s not—they’re not—”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Hera says. She stands on tiptoe so she can throw her arms around your shoulders, hugging you like she did when she was five. She whispers in your ear, “But I would be happy if they did.”

She lets go of you before you can tell her she’s being ridiculous, skipping into the room to join the drawing game.

You feel out of sorts for the rest of the night.

-----------------------.

(part 1) (part 3)

Thanks for reading! The full story is already posted on my Patreon (X)! If you'd like to support me, please consider checking out my page!

This month will be seeing two main things update on Patreon first: Dandelion (x) and my Cinderella story (masterpost coming soon!) updates for both coming later this week!

#my writing #the hero and hope #second person #multi part fic #short story #kind of #the total piece is 20k words

[yaesnovels]

. good idea !

alhaitham x reader x kaveh

disclaimer: part of @angelltheninth's 20k collab!

warnings; threesome, poly relationship, fem!bodied reader, unprotected sex, choking, teasing, oral (f & m receiving), pet names (honey, sweetheart, good girl, princess), praise, degradation, edging, overstimulation, breeding kink, creampies

wc: 2.1k

a/n: i had been thinking about writing a threesome for alhaitham and kaveh for a while now so this collab came in pretty much at the right time; i was so excited to write it that i just really wrote it all today xD i hope you guys like it just as much as i do !!!

“so, we were thinking”, kaveh suddenly plopped down next to you, startling you as you had been focused on your book as you laid on the couch. 

“hello to you, too. idiot”, you muttered the last part as you marked the page you stopped at with a piece of paper and put the book away; giving your total focus on your boyfriend. well, one of them. the other one was still sitting on his seat, not really looking at kaveh and you. alhaitham was as unbothered as always – listening, but not actively participating in the conversation. 

you grabbed a bottle of water as you waited for kaveh to proceed, drinking a bit of it. you hadn’t even realized how dry your throat was until that moment, so the water was really helpful. 

“you know how we’re all in a relationship together? how come we never had a threesome then?”

you choked on your water, almost spitting it out on him to which alhaitham couldn’t help the snicker escaping him. “excuse me?”

“i mean, come on. it’s always either you and me or you and alhaitham. and i think we should switch things up a little? i feel like that would make things really interesting”, kaveh explained. in the same moment he was slowly stroking up your leg, fingers lingering gently over your skin, causing goosebumps to cover the naked skin as you were only wearing quite revealing shorts. 

“so, what do you say? think you can handle us both at the same time, honey?”, kaveh grabbed your hands and pulled you closer towards himself, having you move until you were seated on his lap. he grabbed your ass in the meantime, while you leaned in to kiss him. 

“now, sweetheart, don’t you think it’s a little unfair to me?”, alhaitham muttered from behind you, hand slowly wrapping around your neck, softly squeezing but not too much that it would affect your breathing in any way. 

you looked up to him, seeing him smirk knowingly as you gulped. 

between your two boyfriends, alhaitham had always been the more intense type in bed. he was the type to use you for his own pleasure (still, he would never leave you unsatisfied in any way) whilst kaveh was the more giving lover, bringing you to the edge over and over with his mouth and fingers before he even cared for his own release. 

being in between both of them now had you anxious on what was expecting you. “oh, honey, don’t think we’re going to go easy on you. and don’t even consider for a moment that we will leave you unsatisfied because at the end of this, you will either be begging us to stop or be on the brink of passing out. so, are you in for it, honey?”

you breathed in and out deeply to calm your nerves for a second before you nodded. “ah, ah, ah. use your words, sweetheart”, alhaitham warned you, hand squeezing your throat a little bit more this time. 

“yes. i’m all in for it”, you said once he relaxed his grip on your throat, almost in a trance as you lost yourself in kaveh’s eyes, he was looking at you with so much adoration and love in his gaze. 

“go on, love. get to the bedroom, take your clothes off; we’ll be there in a moment”, alhaitham said, pulling you off kaveh’s lap before you hurried to the room, all excited already. 

“this was a good idea”, kaveh then said before he got up, went to the kitchen and grabbed a couple of bottles of water. he already knew how intense things could become with alhaitham – having it experienced himself multiple times already – so he knew that you would want some water from time to time. and he obviously didn’t want you to dehydrate. 

“for once, i have to agree with you”, alhaitham chuckled before he disappeared into the comfort of your bedroom, already impatient to have you all shaking, crying and overstimulated for him and kaveh. 

—

it was so hard to breathe when alhaitham was fucking your mouth and kaveh was eating you out at the same time. your hips were twitching as you were nearing your first release of the night, alhaitham was groaning about how good your mouth felt around his cock. you were practically drooling around him, tears in your eyes as he was being absolutely rough with you. 

“feeling good, honey? aw, are you close? well, that‘s too bad”, kaveh faked a pout before he stopped, planting a soft kiss on your clit before he wiped off his mouth and chin from your slick. “shh, relax, baby. it‘s all good.”

alhaitham let out a particularly loud groan when he came inside your mouth, having you swallow it all. “open your mouth, sweetheart, let me see, perfect, good girl. you‘re my good girl aren‘t you sweetheart?”, alhaitham praised you for swallowing all of his cum. 

“our good girl”, kaveh corrected him with a grumble, all while he was leaving soft kisses over your thighs. “i’m here, too, idiot.”

“yeah yeah”, alhaitham rolled his eyes, softly caressing your cheek with his thumb. “my focus isn’t on you today.”

“right, of course. we gotta make sure our princess feels absolutely loved and satisfied, right?”, the question was rather directed to you instead of alhaitham, kaveh was back at teasing your clit, thumb gently circling the sensitive nub. 

“kaveh”, you panted, looking down at him in surprise as he slid two of his fingers inside, roughly fingering you as your body was twitching uncontrollably. the wet, squelching sounds had you cover your face in embarrassment, which al haitham didn’t like at all. 

“oh, sweetheart, who told you to cover your pretty face? hands. off.” 

your lips parted as you let out yet another moan, getting so close to your high until kaveh stopped again. “rude”, you muttered, adjusting your position on the bed as you grabbed alhaitham’s cock with your hand, slowly rubbing your fingers over his slit. 

“what was that, honey? i didn’t quite catch that”, kaveh’s tone was deep, almost threatening in a way. 

“nothing”, you replied, smiling apologetically at him. “can one of you please fuck me now?”

“demanding, aren’t we?”, alhaitham rolled his eyes, grabbing your cheeks somewhat hard to force you to look at him. “since when are you this bratty with me? do you want me to edge you until you pass out again?” 

“you’re going to hurt her”, kaveh warned him. 

“don’t even think of acting out like this any longer. it’s not going to work, sweetheart. and i swear i will make you regret this”, alhaitham ignored his boyfriend; absolutely in his element as the person you will always listen to. “i’ve had it with your attitude. we’ll edge you when we want and we’ll make you cum when we want to.”

kaveh was slowly feeling somewhat sorry for you – considering he slid his two fingers in again, building up a rough pace with them as he continued with his tongue circling your clit. 

“mhm, baby, you’re so wet. does it turn you on being between us two, hm? one of us ain’t enough for you anymore, now are we?”, kaveh groaned against your pussy, you were getting closer and closer to your release as you came around his fingers, creamy slick covering them as he pulled them out. your eyes were teary, as you were cursing and whimpering out kaveh’s name, the orgasm being intense after being edged a couple of times. once your body calmed down from its twitching, you were turned around onto your side. 

your hand was still wrapped around alhaitham’s cock, jerking him off and him moaning like that made you want him fuck you even more in that moment. “please”, you mumbled. 

“please what, honey?”, kaveh asked innocently, as he and alhaitham swapped places so that alhaitham could finally fill you up whilst kaveh could take over your mouth. knowing how alhaitham had a massive thing for creampies, it seemed fair to let him paint your insides white first. 

“please, fuck me”, you begged, as the scribe let himself get comfortable behind you and aligned his tip with your entrance. 

“your wish is my command, princess”, alhaitham chuckled, before he buried himself deep inside of you with one hard thrust, quite easily, he had to admit. which wasn’t necessarily surprising to him considering how wet you were. your moans were muffled by kaveh’s cock in your mouth. 

they managed to build up a pace that never left you empty in any way. you were drooling all over kaveh’s cock while alhaitham was fucking you with a relentless pace, not even once slowing down as he hit your g-spot and with you jerking him off before, he was already close to his second high. 

his eyes rolled back as he came inside of you, your walls clamping down on him to keep his cum buried deep inside but once he pulled out, he turned you back around on your back just to watch his cum drip out of your hole. 

“fuck, look how much you came”, kaveh groaned. 

alhaitham collected his cum with his fingers before he thrusted his fingers back inside, not wanting to waste a single drop. “keep it all inside, baby or i’m gonna need to fill you more”, alhaitham was so desperate, unusually so. he was usually so calm and collected. alhaitham laid down next to you to catch a break, breathless. 

“please”, you whimpered. “please don’t stop.” 

“oh, honey, don’t worry. i still have to fuck you. you will be so fucking full of us, baby”, kaveh promised, pulling out his cock from your mouth before he was laying on top of you. 

this was when kaveh’s soft side was back. he pulled you up a bit before he grabbed one of the bottles of water and placing it against your lips, having you drink a bit. “good girl”, he praised, softly kissing you in an attempt to distract you from him pushing his hard dick inside again. 

the sound of skin slapping against skin was so loud, he was going so fast that he had you gushing around his cock in no time. “you’re all ours, baby. just ours”, he grunted, “just like this, baby. come for me, baby.” 

“kaveh”, you cried as he as well filled you up with his cum, up to the brim, just like they promised. you were so full of their cum that it was already coating his cock all the while it was dripping out of your hole when he was pulling out. 

his breathing was so erratic once he released deep inside of you, everything was so messy as he pulled out. he even thought you passed out for a moment, but he wasn’t really sure. 

“you’re such a beautiful mess for me, baby. want me to fill you up again?”, he asked, mumbling as he kissed you sweetly. 

you were shaking your head, not having the energy to have yet another orgasm. “please, give me a break”, you begged, alhaitham only chuckling at how weak your voice was. 

“aw, babe, of course. you deserve this”, kaveh mumbled, “i’m so proud of you, baby.” 

you couldn’t help the little smile on your lips as alhaitham came back into the room – you hadn’t even noticed him leaving – with some snacks in his hands. “you did so good for us both, honey”, alhaitham praised you, something that rarely happened because he was the type to care for your sore body with cuddles instead of words. 

“this was definitely a good idea”, you yawned, grabbing one of the chocolate bars alhaitham had brought with him. both of them chuckled, as kaveh put the blanket on your body so that you wouldn’t feel cold. 

“i agree”, both your boyfriends replied in unison and the stare they gave each other made you laugh out loud. 

“idiots”, you mumbled. probably not your best idea because both of them were still ready to proceed with your sweet torture, since they had only stopped to give you a break. alhaitham raised his brow, questioning your ability to make smart decisions because clearly, you weren’t able to. otherwise you would remember what type of lover alhaitham was. 

it was too late for apologies as kaveh had you trembling in overstimulation as alhaitham put up a caring facade, making you cry out as everything went white once more. 

#. flowers for : alhaitham ! #. flowers for : kaveh ! #genshin fanfiction #genshin smut #genshin alhaitham #genshin kaveh #kaveh smut #kaveh fanfiction #alhaitham smut #alhaitham fanfiction #angellsthreeway

[exit-path]

Hey, remember this video? This is how tumblr made the Undertale “Stronger than You” parody.

Hi guys! Before we start, some of you on tumblr may have been in the Undertale fandom in 2015 when this was taking place, but I wasn't. So if you were at the devil's sacrament, then reblog with what you remember! I'd love to hear primary source perspectives of events.

(EDIT, 5/6/23: SO @galxie JUST PROPOSED TO ADAPT THIS POST INTO A YOUTUBE VIDEO. I'M NOT EVEN KIDDING)

(SO IF YOU'RE GOING TO SHARE YOUR STORIES THEN GET IT IN NOW)

But without further ado, let's begin, and watch as ordinary people made Internet history. (under the cut)

Part 1: gymleadercheren

It all started when @gymleadercheren drew a snippet of the Sans fight, with some Steven Universe lyrics underneath. This post caught the eye of @thepinkestpug, who had an idea.

Part 2: thepinkestpug

Later that same day—Oct 10, 2015—thepinkestpug sang a parody. Now, her Soundcloud link… how do I say it… doesn't sound very good? (He calls it "poor quality" herself.) But because he was in both the UT and SU fandoms, she was uniquely qualified to come up with these lyrics.

Upon seeing the "Stronger Than You" parody, gymleadercheren was ECSTATIC that she inspired someone with her post. The next day, she asked thepinkestpug for "permission to smoosh our lyrics together and make a comic?” If you've seen djsmell's video, you may recognize what she made next…

Part 3: The Comic

It took 3 weeks, but on Oct 29, 2015, gymleadercheren finally finished her comic. With 38 PANELS in total, the post was an instant success. She credits thepinkestpug for her lyrics, and links to an 8-bit "Stronger Than You" instrumental. Today, the post has over 20k notes.

Part 4: djsmell

Two days later, on Oct 31, 2015, @djsmell made a song cover of the comic. He NAILED the voice of Sans, and used the 8-bit song cover from gymleadercheren's post. He posted about it on his blog, while his YouTube video now has 11M views.

Part 5: alfa995

It wasn't until nearly 2 months later that on Dec 21, 2015, @alfa995 finally finished his animation. It used djsmell's audio, and filled in the gaps where the comic made you use your imagination. Today, the YouTube video has been viewed nearly 80 MILLION times.

These were alfa995's words about everything that had happened so far: "So basically someone… made lyrics for an Undertale version of [a song from Steven Universe] and a comic based off it, then someone else sung it, and now I animated it. I love the Internet."

Part 6: Reflections

And that’s the history of this video! This singular video has grown in popularity to such immense heights, it's a well-known piece of trivia that more people recognize the Undertale “Stronger Than You” parody than the actual Steven Universe song it’s based off of.

What I find interesting is how each person involved in this process had a tumblr blog. They saw each other’s posts and made more posts based off of them. By fandom standards this happened LIGHTNING FAST, the idea took 2 and a half months from conception to completion. It’s this connectivity that created the 4th most-viewed Undertale video.

The Undertale scene on tumblr spawned many more memorable fan creations, such as the “Underpants” series by SrPelo, which became the entry point for many into the wonder that is his animations.

It is this fandom that made Undertale a goliath of Internet culture. It is this fandom that made it so that Toby Fox will always have a loyal, rabid audience. Say what you want about it, whether you love it or hate it, the Undertale scene on tumblr may never happen again.

Thank you for reading, and I hope that you enjoyed!

This was my first time thinking about the Undertale fandom in a LONG time, and it was a nice trip down memory lane. Also, here’s a few things I found while researching that I couldn’t list above:

First, what's with all these "Stronger Than You" versions? I had no idea until I started researching that there were so many spinoffs of this singular video. Like, there's a CHARA response? There's a FRISK RESPONSE? THERE'S A TRIO VERSION?

And speaking of spinoffs, I want to shout out the video "Richer Than You"—absolutely phenomenal YTPMV that had a lot of effort put into it.

Finally, I want to shout out Super Eyepatch Wolf’s video, as it was my inspiration while writing this, and explains: “why did these videos get so popular?”

#undertale

[whorety-k]

𝕸𝖆𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖑𝖎𝖘𝖙

Requests are OPEN! Please feel free to drop them in my ask box.

Things I won't write: Watersports / Scat, Pregnancy (but I will write breeding kink! just nothing past it), Non-con, gore fetish, Mommy / Daddy / Ageplay, cheating / adultery

𝕱𝖔𝖗𝖊𝖜𝖔𝖗𝖉:

Hello loves! My name is Chaos, or the Raven Lady. I'm going to school for business accounting, so please bear in mind that writing (and occasionally drawing, making minis, and painting) is my hobby only.

That being said, I respectfully ask everyone who visits to follow a few rules while you're about:

1. My blog is 18+. Minors, I kindly ask that you do not interact. 2. Please keep discourse respectful. Everyone has difference interests and niches. I have been on tumblr since 2012 and I was there then the Dark Magic was written (aka nearly every tumblr discourse you can think of). I will simply block and delete any intentional hate send my or other's way. 3. I ask that everyone remembers that there is a person behind the screen who is writing everything. I do not have a regular posting schedule, and I may pump out loads of content for a week then disappear for a month. I have a relatively busy life. That being said, please feel free to drop an ask or a DM my way! I love to hear everyone's feedback.

𝕸𝖞 𝖙𝖆𝖌𝖘:

My Writing (#raven lady writings)

Writing Replies (#replies)

Ask Replies (#raven lady answers)

My Art (#raven lady's art)

My Ramblings (#raven lady rambles)

𝕸𝖞 𝕮𝖔𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖓𝖙:

𝔉𝔞𝔫𝔣𝔦𝔠

WH40K / 30K

Ebony Coasts (Merfolk!Corvus Corax x fem!Marine Conservationist!Reader) [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6] [Part 7 (NSFW)] - (20k words) Totally Normal Lorgar Womb Tattoo Drabble (NSFW-ish) - (264 words) Lorgar x wife!Reader - Bedroom Hymns (NSFW) - (462 words) Rogal Dorn and gn!Guardsman!Reader - (1.5k words) Konrad Curze x Imperial Agent!Reader - (1k words)

𝔄𝔯𝔱

Mermay! Leman Russ Art Trade (check out Beetle's Piece!!!)

𝔒𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔯

Magnus the Big Red Dog / Clifford the Red (+Bonus Ahriman)

#masterlist #raven lady writings

[read-and-write-]

2023 Fic Wrapped

Thanks to @anincompletelist for tagging me! This is such a fun thing to do!

Rules: Feel free to show whatever stats you have. Only want to show Ao3 stats? Rock on. Want to include some quantitative info instead of stats? Please do this. Want to change how yours is presented? Absolutely do that. There are no rules!

Posted on Ao3: 34,145 (Across 14 fics)

Written total: 152,778 (yes, i do have a lot of docs created, a lot more than anyone wants to see)

3 published fandoms: Red, White and Royal Blue, All for the Game, The Shadowhunters Chronicles

Longest work: and every song reminds me of you (4,088 words)

Shortest work: yo te llevo dentro, hasta la raíz  (546 words)

very real wips, things I'm actively working on

Super Six and the Siren's Call (PJO AU- +100k) co-written with @inexplicablymine and @happiness-of-the-pursuit one of the most wonderful projects I've had the honour to be a part of and I'm so exicted for people to see it

Toe the Line (Figure Skating AU - 20k currently) my dearest child, 60 pages of outline, investigation, character sheets and visions i have at three am for a random scene 5 chapter away

Y recuerda siempre que tú eres la medicina (A bilingual June character study) A companion piece of sorts for a train of thought (of things not to forget), June's perspective through it all, both in Spanish and English like Alex's. and with Natalia Lafourcade lyrics as a title because that's June coded

carved within the beauty, the darkness in between and without (your) love, I am nothing two pieces about religion and firstprince from each of their povs, a question about loving yourself and about loving someone else against the things you've been taught and finding divinity within each other.

not so real wips with a little less real word counts but a lot of vibes

Spiderman AU, my entry for the New Years Resolutions event of @thebrownstone, which means it'll get here at some point

MasterChef AU, my way to put my professional knowledge to good use, it was a silly funny story and it grew a plot

Dancer AU, a drabble fail that was just a vision and then some people kind of made it get a full dual pov, double 5 + 1 plot

Numbers are not everything but I do like data and stats

Kudos: 3,969

Comment Threads: 187

Bookmarks: 946

Hits: 37,149

Numbers do not define an author's worth, but I also can see how far I've gotten with just one day deciding I wanted to write and post my fun little words again

top 3 sorted by kudos

las formas de llamarte amor (2.5k - 630 kudos)

my first fic in the rwrb fandom, it makes me so happy to see it being loved, it was the ultimate show of self indulgence

Henry has been a public figure for most of his life, the reason why he’s been given dozens of titles, some kinder than others, he’s been the gay prince, the spare, the prince of England's hearts, the activist, the author. All of the titles are inevitably a part of his history, but the way Alex calls him is the most important of all. Because to Alex, he is sweetheart, amor, and corazón; Alex calls him mi vida in between kisses and whispers hermoso, lindo, precioso with his wandering hands working through Henry’s body. His name sounds better when it comes out of Alex’s lips. or 5 times Alex calls Henry a pet name in Spanish and one time he calls him by his name or Henry learns Spanish one pet name at a time

to belong to a family (even beyond this world) (2.5k - 578 kudos)

this one, this one i wrote with my own soul, i used my tears as ink, wrote it for the Halloween Huh fest and it all the comments have made me so incredibly happy

“Talk to him. They listen, they always listen,” Ligia says and Henry nods, she squeezes his hand again before turning back and leaving him alone in front of the ofrenda. It's very rare that Henry has been at a loss for words when he tries to talk to his father. He has spent countless nights speaking to the stars, looking for Orion and hoping that —wherever his father is— he is looking for it too. “Hi dad,” Henry says softly, taking another look at the picture of his father, smiling at the camera. “I missed you.” or When Alex and Henry go to Mexico for Día de Muertos a familiar face appears on the Díaz ofrenda

you are an idiot (i missed you) (1.6k - 475 kudos)

wrote this on a whim, blacked out and pulled this out of nowhere, my first fic for aftg and really just an excuse to write Andreil being married for convenience™

The best, and arguably the only, good part of playing on opposing teams from your husband was getting to play a match against him. Therefore one could say that Neil was very excited about getting to play against Andrew tonight. Not only because for the first time since the season started they'd finally be in the same State and City (And later after the game, the same house) but also because Neil thought Andrew was 100% hotter when he was playing (Not that he would tell him out loud), and seeing him live was definitely better than seeing him on a screen. There was also the added bonus of the infamous Minyard - Josten Rivalry. Or Neil and Andrew are having too much fun with their rivalry until someone else takes it too seriously, and then they have a talk.

Being a not native english speaker means that fanfic does teach me a lot of stuff, namely vocabulary this year stars some bangers

Saccharine

Ubiquitous

Litany

Chagrin

Filibuster

I created a total of 19 docs, which doesn't mean there's 19 fics there, but it also doesn't not mean it

Alex's POV wins with total of seven fics

Six fics have the tag of Alex Claremont-Díaz Speaks Spanish

Three of my wips have an outline longer than 10 pages

there's a 30%? chance I will write smut at some point in the new year

my funniest doc title is "If you have religious trauma and you know it clap your hands"

This year has been crazy, for many reasons but I'm glad I found this space and I'm glad I'm back to writing, and on top of it all I'm glad of being able to meet so many because of it.

And the year is not over yet! There's still more to come!

I'm tagging a few people, don't feel pressured to do this but if there's anything you feel proud of I'd love to see it @inexplicablymine @happiness-of-the-pursuit @affectionatelyrs @littlemisskittentoes @ssmtskw @raysletters @14carrotghoul @heybuddy-drabbles @suseagull04 @everwitch-magiks @sherryvalli @rockyroadkylers

#fanfiction #tag game #fic wrapped #red white and royal blue #all for the game #i thought about waiting for this #but I'm impatient #so bear with me #this year was crazy #but you'll get a cheesier post in new years eve

[asablehart]

So, about short stories...

This year, it was my goal to become a SFWA qualifying author by focusing on publishing my short fiction. I wrote about 20k words of short stories over winter break '21, and I spent the rest of the new year editing and submitting those stories. Since then, I’ve sent over 100 submissions, and I’ve received 77 rejections and 7 acceptances. Of those acceptances, 4 are in SFWA professional magazines (at least, before they changed their qualifying guidelines) and 1 is in an HWA professional magazine.

Needless to say, short story publication occupies a FAR GREATER portion of my brain than it has any right to. Below are some rambling thoughts I have about the process behind short story publication.

This introduction is intended to bring you to the dark side (a.k.a. you, yes, you, should be writing short fiction)

The process of submitting short stories is SO EASY, especially when compared to novels. Your cover letter will probably be less than 4 sentences. You just attach your short story to an email or form and press “submit,” and then you just wait. Having to query a publication or pitch a story before submitting are both very rare occurrences, and typically reserved for longer stories, like novellas. I’m serious. Sending something to a mag takes like 30 seconds. I use the same cover letter for everything. It’s stupid how simple this is. Read this formatting guide and you’ve got all the information you need to send a story to like a dozen markets.

Also note that I’m going to refer to short story markets as mags, lit mags, journals, etc, interchangeably, so don’t get confused. Most short story markets, from magazines to anthologies, function in extremely similar ways, at least when it comes to the author's role.

--

Please start submitting, but…. not to be a bummer, but it’s a numbers game, and most of those numbers are going to be rejections.

Acceptance rates are low. According to the Submission Grinder, many magazines have acceptance rates lower than 2% (note that I’m usually referring to professional and semi-professional spec fic magazines, since that’s what I submit to.) This statistic is probably artificially increased because the Submission Grinder’s user base is a self-selecting group of authors who care enough about magazine submissions to use a third-party website to track them (a.k.a. the actual acceptance rates are probably even lower than they appear).

So when you see rejections that say “We can’t wait to see more of your work” or you see editors on social media say “We reject good stories every single day,” these aren’t empty platitudes. Magazines recent hundreds of submissions during open calls and are operating on razor-thin budgets (it’s actually very likely that the magazine you’re submitting to doesn’t even turn a profit).

What should you take from this? Submit often, and to as many markets as you can. Don’t bet on a piece getting accepted at one particular magazine. If you’re writing for a specific themed call, have a back-up plan (but probably delay sending that piece to a bunch of new magazines after a rejection; everyone else rejected from the same themed submission call is likely doing the same exact thing, at the same exact magazines).

Anyway, the best way to cope with a rejection is sending out a new submission.

Also, use Submission Grinder to track your subs. I’m in love with this website.

--

Should you take simultaneous submission guidelines seriously?

A simultaneous submission is when you send the same story to multiple magazines. Some magazines will tell you that they don’t allow for simultaneous magazines. Some will tell you that it’s totally OK as long as you disclose what you’re doing (in your cover letter) and promptly withdraw your submission from them if it’s accepted elsewhere. The editor of a magazine who bans simultaneous submissions is trying to avoid a specific situation: they’ve devoted a significant amount of time to a story they’re considering for publication, only for them to learn that it has already been purchased by another magazine right before they were going to send the author an acceptance letter.

How often does that specific situation happen? Very rarely. Like I said, acceptance rates are extremely low. The odds that you’ll get two acceptances on the same piece at the same time are just astronomical. Additionally, most magazines will take at least a month to get back to you, but probably significantly longer. It could take you longer than a year to get a piece published if you only submit to one magazine every 1 - 3 months. For some context: out of all my published pieces this year, only one was accepted by the first place I sent it to. The others have between 3 - 6 rejections each. Some of the pieces that I haven’t managed to sell yet have 10+ rejections. Some of these magazines held onto my stories for 100+ days.

In my opinion, it’s a real disservice to authors for a magazine to demand No Simultaneous Submissions while also taking months, and months, and months to respond with rejections. It’s disrespectful. It’s treating you like your time isn’t important. My favorite creative writing professor hated that magazines banned sim subs, and often encouraged us to treat these guidelines with a grain of salt if we decided to start submitting.

So should you listen to a magazine when they say No Sim Subs? It really comes down to your comfort level and how patient you are. You may also need to consider how easy it is to withdraw a piece, because some submission forms make it more difficult than others (looking at you, CWSUBMISSIONS). 

Ultimately, you never have to disclose why you’ve withdrawn a piece from a magazine, and authors CAN and DO withdraw pieces for a variety of reasons.

But if you decide to break writer law and the writer police come to get you, don’t be a snitch, thanks. I said nothing.

--

Lit mag twitter is surprisingly useful

Magazines announce future submission calls, their reading period schedules, and themed issues on twitter usually far in advance. You won’t get this information unless you’re checking their individual websites regularly (which would be a waste of time). I wouldn’t be prepared for half of these open calls if I didn’t have a twitter account. And unlike novel publishing twitter, you don't have to post or interact with anyone to reap these benefits.

--

Most speculative fiction magazines are publishing literary fantasy, scifi, and horror.

There are sometimes very clear divisions between literary fiction and genre fiction, but you won’t find that line with pro/semi-pro speculative fiction magazines. In my experience, literary speculative fiction far outnumbers pure genre fiction (however you want to define that). Short stories also tend to be more experimental, in terms of both content and story structure.

Why can short stories afford to take these risks? I think there’s a few reasons for this. The first is that many magazines survive off of yearly crowdfunding campaigns and independent investors/sponsors, not individual sales. So much of their money comes in advance in this lump sum from future subscribers, so they don’t have to cater to market trends like novels do. Additionally, subscribers generally don’t buy magazines because there’s one story in the magazine that they enjoy—odds are, they enjoy the editorial voice of the magazine. They trust the editor(s) to curate a cohesive collection of stories, which means the magazine doesn’t have to depend on a viral, popular story to boost their sales. 

This all comes to a head during award season (the Hugos, Nebulas, the Bram Stoker award, etc). Look, I’ve never edited a magazine, but the way magazine editors are constantly promoting during award season… you know it’s important to them. They’re probably looking for stuff to nominate all year, which means they’re chasing literary fiction, stuff that really resonates with people on a deep personal level. And you’ll see short stories on the ballot by authors you’ve probably never heard of unless you’re really up-to-date with lit mags. In my opinion, this leads to a diversity of fiction that’s very hard to find elsewhere. 

I also think this means you can and should just write whatever the fuck you want without worrying about marketability, which is a really freeing feeling. Seriously, lit mags publish some WEIRD shit.

--

Lots of people (including editors) will tell you to read a magazine to get a sense of whether or not your story will be a good fit—I think this is bad advice.

Don’t get me wrong, I think you should read short fiction if you want to write short fiction. I also think that if you dislike the content that a magazine publishes, you probably won’t be able to sell them a piece. And that you can improve your craft by finding a publication (or two, or three) that consistently publish works that you enjoy so you can analyze their structure and incorporate what you’ve learned into your own stories. Additionally, if a magazine’s content really resonates with you, and you consume it regularly, it’s probably because your writing style is similar to their editorial style—this may be a sign that they’ll enjoy your work. That’s something that happens organically, in my opinion, not something that can be forced.

But like I said in my first point, the key to success here is to send out a LOT of submissions. I’ve submitted to over 40 different markets this year. I’ve read stories from maybe 10 of those markets (usually when it was offered for free on their websites). I don’t have the time OR THE MONEY to breeze through issues from that many magazines, and I’m not going to stop myself from submitting somewhere just because I haven’t read what they publish. In fact, I think it’s really unfair for editors to place this onus on the writer, especially if their magazine doesn’t have free content available and especially if their submission guidelines are otherwise vague AF—PLEASE, PLEASE, editors, just tell us what kind of writing you enjoy in the guidelines.

The fact of the matter is, even if you read a magazine and write something specifically for them, odds are you’re going to get rejected anyway. I’m not trying to be a bummer here, that’s really just the statistics. It’s really a fundamental misunderstanding to assume that authors regularly write entire short stories with one specific market in mind, and that they’ll forgo sending that story to other markets because it was only intended for Clarkesworld or F&SF. 

--

Personal rejections are nice, but don’t think too hard about them. Alternatively, writing is so much more subjective than you think.

Rejections come in tiers, but they can be summed up as form rejections and personal rejections. Form rejections always look the same, and they are generally (but not always) sent to stories that weren’t really considered that strongly for publication--in fact, many magazines utilize first readers, who are volunteers who read the first few pages of submissions and make a quick judgement call about whether or not to send that story to the editor for second-round consideration. Form rejections often come from first readers. (Of course, this is not always true. Some magazines don't use first readers at all. Some magazines use first readers, but still refer every story to the editor anyway and promise submitting authors that the full text of all submissions are read before a decision is made.)

Personal rejections include specific references to your story, often explaining why the editors decided to reject it. This might be phrased as constructive criticism or simply as observations. Some magazines make it their goal to ONLY send personal rejections, but those are the minority. Typically, personal rejections come after higher tier consideration, and usually take longer to receive than a form rejection.

The thing is that writing is subjective. It’s tempting to think that editors, who are often the arbiters of publication, can objectively separate good stories from bad. The logical conclusion, if you think this way, is that they’ll give you objectively sound advice to revise your piece before you submit to another magazine.

But this isn’t really true. A personalized rejection is giving you good advice—if it were possible to resubmit the same piece to the same editor for the same magazine (and unfortunately, you usually only get one shot). The same advice might not help you sell your piece to a different magazine. In fact, it’s very likely that aspects of your story that one editor disliked will be the same things that make a new editor fall in love with it. I experienced this while submitting my sci-fi/horror story “Rider Within,” which was rejected from PseudoPod because of the amount of exposition in the first few pages. This same piece was accepted by Dark Matter Magazine without any edits after the PseudoPod rejection. The key difference here is that PseudoPod is an audio magazine; every magazine from PseudoPod’s publisher boasts the same line in their submission guidelines, “Our readers can’t skim past the boring parts.” Podcasts have a much smaller margin for too much exposition, and that magazine needs to be picky about that sort of thing to keep their readership. A print/ebook magazine will have different standards.

Really, almost all of my rejections/acceptances can be used as an example for subjectivity in editorial taste. My story “In the Nest Beneath the Mountain-Tree, Your Sisters Dance” sat in Clarkesworld’s second hold pile for a MONTH, which is insane and probably something that will never happen to me again. This same story was rejected by a much smaller magazine (probably by a first reader) after like 3 days of consideration. The story didn’t just suddenly decrease in quality, it’s just that the editor of one of the most selective scifi magazines out there liked it enough to consider it for publication, and a different editor really didn’t enjoy it at al.

Back to the point, there’s still reasonable situations where you may want to make edits after a personal rejection. If you read critical feedback that really resonates with you or if you get feedback that points out parts of the story that you were already iffy about, then by all means, make those edits! You might also want to do some editing if multiple rejections point out the same things.

--

Read the submission guidelines, but don’t self-reject.

“Self-rejecting” is when you look at a magazine and tell yourself “my story won’t work here,” or “I don’t fit the submission call,” or “I’m not good enough to be published here.” And not all self-rejection is unwarranted. There’s going to be times where you read the fine print and realize that you’re not the right fit. Submission guidelines are written for a reason, and while the worst thing an editor can say is “no,” it does help if you don’t waste their time (or yours).

That being said, you can really take some submission guidelines with a grain of salt. When it comes to themed calls, there’s a huge variety between magazines who want their theme followed very literally and magazines who consider the theme more of a vague prompt to inspire new ideas—and it can be really hard to tell them apart, so honestly? Just go for it.

And unless a magazine is very clear about “hard no’s” (such as asking you not to submit stories with gore or other triggering content), it’s more accurate to interpret “we don’t like publishing these topics” as “we don’t like the cliches associated with these topics, which makes them a hard sell.” Some magazines will clearly separate their anti-wishlists into Hard No’s versus You Really Need To Impress Us With This Content, but more often, you’ll have to read between the lines. I’ve found that lists of hard sells often include stuff like vampires, zombies, and werewolves, because editors have seen a thousand stories about the same magical creatures, and they’re trying to encourage more diversity in the submissions they receive.

My first publication this year was “Emmory and the Wolf” in LampLight Magazine, and it’s a case where avoiding self-rejection really paid off. LampLight was holding a special call for authors without a pro-sale, and I wanted to get a story in right before the deadline. It was a last minute decision on my part, and I have to admit that I skimmed the guidelines. I’d submitted to LampLight before, and I could vaguely remember that they specifically asked for no werewolf stories, but I didn’t see it in the guidelines this time. A day after I sent that submission, I looked at the guidelines there, and the “no werewolves” rule was there, staring me in the face. I was mortified, and I really debated withdrawing my submission, but ultimately I decided that I would just assume it was a rejection and try to forget that it was sitting there in the Submittable queue. So, of course, imagine my surprise when that story was accepted.

I think a lot of factors went into this acceptance: “Emmory and the Wolf” subverts typical werewolf tropes and rarely features the werewolf (in wolf form) on screen. In fact, almost all of the story is a conversation between a woman and her wife on a road trip. Additionally, I later learned that the editor of LampLight held this special submission call because these two issues of LampLight would be the very last before the magazine closed. If he published werewolf content in an earlier issue, that would have encouraged more people to submit werewolf stories. But that clearly wasn’t a concern here. All of these factors (skimming the guidelines, catching LampLight when it was about to close) are coincidences that I couldn’t have anticipated when I was submitting.

Honestly? I think you should usually err towards submitting over not-submitting, because like I said, the worst you can get is a rejection.

--

Okay, that's honestly it for my short story thoughts. I hope this is helpful, informative, or just kinda interesting to someone ^^ Even if it isn't, I'm glad I got it out of my head.

#writing #publishing #short fiction #indie publishing #writeblr

[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

[elismor]

@cacodaemonia tagged me for this and I'd rather do ANYTHING than work right now so...

20 Questions for Writers

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

149 at the moment.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 119,562

3. What fandoms do you write for?

99.9% Star Wars The Clone Wars, but there are a few for Stargate, Firefly, Supernatural, and other SW incarnations thrown in.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

When the Cat's Away (167)

Pillow Talk (137)

Intensive Care (131)

Forty Winks (128)

Whiskey, Tango...Foxtrot?! (108)

Interestingly (or perhaps predictably?) they are all Codywan and the last four were written for an event.

But also? If I ran AO3, I would eliminate Kudos.

5. Do you respond to comments?

Always. Though not always promptly. I feel like the least I can do is thank people for taking the time to both read AND comment.

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

Hmm. IDK. I really don't ever write angst? How does one define an angsty ending?

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

I'm not sure how to answer this one, either. Most of my fics have what could be described as happy endings...I don't know that any of them are happier than any others, though?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not yet. But I think I fly low enough on the radar that no one really knows to read me unless they know me personally?

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

Welp. I have tried, anyway. I did a series of smutty drabbles as practice in 2023, but they pale in comparison to what I would consider actual smut.

The closest I think I have come to real smut is a Thire/OFC Jedi piece, but I think even that is probably like rated R for nudity, not graphic sex.

I do not really feel qualified to write m/m smut and I only did the m/f as an exercise to prove to myself that I am not an actual prude.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I have, in the past. But nothing since the early 2000s.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I am aware of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! So cool to have been asked that.

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

Yep--a couple of times, with mixed results.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

So. I don't actually tend to ship? At least not like everyone else seems to? I know I know. I do fandom wrong.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

A sequel to my first piece of SW fic that was written in 2002 right after ATOC came out. I started it when Kenobi was airing, got maybe 20K words in and...stopped. For lots of reasons.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I am pretty good at rhythm and character POV. And maybe narration.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I think I used to be pretty decent at action, but now it really vexes me. It tends to feel very tit-for-tat in drafts which drives me crazy because the rhythm is off to my "ear".

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

I don't care for it, actually. It feels very forced and inaccessible, so I wonder why people even bother. A sprinkling of words here and there is okay, but whole conversations? No thanks.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Well. Do my self-insert Wonder Woman (Lynda Carter era) pieces count? I was like 6 or 7 at the time...so, not IN fandom. If not...Highlander: The Series.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

I don't know that I have one? Maybe one of my old HL fics, which I am sure I would hate now, but really loved at the time.

Otherwise, I have gathered my personal fave SW fics into a series:

Spiral Bound

I like them all for various reasons. Don't make me choose.

And now, god damnit, I have to go back to work. But I tag @odekiisu, @come-chaos, @valkeakuulas and @elthadriel, as well as anyone else who wants to play.

And here's a copy of the questions, to make it easy for folks to answer:

20 Questions for Writers

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

3. What fandoms do you write for?

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

5. Do you respond to comments?

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

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

8. Do you get hate on fics?

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

10. Do you write crossovers?

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

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

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

16. What are your writing strengths?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

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

19. First fandom you wrote for?

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

[1800titz]

are you gonna update TDIAG anytime soon 😭

Hiii.

So, short answer: probably not for a few weeks.

Long answer:

There’s a few different reasons why TDIAG updates have fallen behind.

1. TDIAG is a long fic. And by that, I mean it’s a LOOOONG fic. By now, it’s somewhere over 100,000 words (I believe it’s around 120K or close), with each part being at least 10-20K. The parts for this fic generally take a long time to write, simply because the bar that has been set for each part is a high word count. The basis on which readers consume and writers produce is drastically different, so what may take only a few hours for someone to read has taken me numerous days to write. That being said, it’s really easy to get burnt out writing a lengthy fic where the content is very, very similar in every chapter. TDIAG consists of (mostly) smut, and writing 15,000+ word sex scenes again and again between the same two characters can become really repetitive

2. Also, life is really hectic for me outside of this platform, as I’m sure it is for everyone else. I go to school full time, I work 4-5 days a week, and I have to balance a social life, a romantic life, and hobbies like writing with all of this in mind. It’s a lot easier right now to produce a smaller piece of writing than to make time for another 15-20K of words.

3. I love my little community. I love the feedback I receive. As a writer, it is the greatest reward, and nothing fills me more with a sense of accomplishment than a reblog or a nice word left by a reader. I have never put my content behind a paywall thus far, and all I ever hope to receive for my hard work is feedback. That being said, it’s difficult to find inspiration to spend days writing an update when the notes on TDIAG don’t reflect that readers want to see it. I totally get it, it’s a long fic and there’s OCs, which aren’t in demand on this platform the same way that reader inserts are. But at times it can feel draining to spend hours writing a piece and then realizing that readers just aren’t as interested as they would be in different content

4. Writing shorter pieces where I can play with different tropes and different personalities allows me to avoid a writer’s block. I have crazy, crazy, crazy ADHD, and I have so many tropes and so many AUs I haven’t even shared with you all yet (trust me, @cherryjuiceblues will back me on this and let you all know she gets whiplash from how quick I switch around fics LOL). Writing organically, writing what comes natural to me in the moment is the way I’ve found I can really immerse myself and enjoy writing

5. If I’m not 100% enjoying what I’m writing, if I’m sitting down and forcing myself to write something for the sake of producing an update (as opposed to organically letting words flow for an idea I’m excited about), the content is not going to be my 100%. I would never want to post something that I didn’t pour 100% of myself into, and I’m afraid that if I were to solely focus on writing TDIAG right now for the sake of pumping out an update, then it’s not going to be my best, and I don’t want to share that with my readers.

I know there is a dedicated base of readers anxiously awaiting an update for TDIAG. I am so grateful for you all, and I appreciate you for being patient for me and for sticking around. I will never just up and abandon this story, and I apologize that I’ve put this fic on a short pause, but I hope this clarifies what’s going on behind the scenes and why I’ve been focused on posting other fics in the mean time. Just trying to share my passion for writing in the ways that I can at the moment <3

#tdiag ask #Sorry this is really long but I just kind of wanted to explain

[bosstoaster]

How do you write long stories? Like, 20k+ ? I always have these grand ideas of how I'd like to write a fic that carries grander themes, like a plot against someone that's investigated or a slow burn romance literally anything that feels like it needs to be long to match the content? Like a 5k murder mystery would be over so quickly it'd lose impact? But I can never find the words or inspiration for what should happen in all the "in-between" moments. I can think of things for the beginning and end and a couple of scenes in the middle and it all comes out to about 8-10k. And I can never think of what to put between those scenes. I've got so many disjointed fics I've written over the years that have remained drafts because I don't know how to elevate them from scenes into stories? The pieces don't fit well enough together to turn it into something more epic. It remains a small fic :/ Any advice at all on this? I remember you saying a rough word count of all your fics combined over the past couple years and being flabbergasted by the number. Extraordinary. I'd love to be able to write long fics 🙏 sorry for the ramble!

(Current total AO3 word count is just over 2.75 million words, which doesn't count the 350k-ish in drafts, or fics on account accounts. But anyhow.) I had the same problem for a really long time, actually! Like, genuinely a decade of fic writing through middle and high school. The answer might be different for different people, but one thing really changed the game for me.

Outlines. Outlines are essential for longer stories, by my book.

What I do is I have an idea for a fic, usually a scene or like, an image of a ~vibe.~ From there I ask myself the first question. What do I want from this? Is it a cute romcom situation? Is it a sexy horror story about taming a monster? Is it a surrealist horror story? What do I want someone else to feel when reading this?

When I have that answer, I can answer the next questions: is this an AU or a canon fic? An AU means that your first chapter is probably going to be setting up the differences from canon. Canon means you have to tell your readers when we are in canon and set up how we got to the Situation (or jump into it, if you're feeling spicy.)

With that answer, we have an approximate starting location. It's fic, so we know where your audience is. How do we get from there to what you want to write about? What needs to happen for your fic to occur? For example, in my vampire fic, step one was turning/killing Dave. Okay, so you have your fic in a state where you're ready to run wild with your premise. Here's the actual meat of your questions.

How do I determine what goes in between the start and the scenes I want to write?

Usually one of a few ways

What needs to occur to get to the scenes I want to write? What makes the characters act in a way I want them to, but isn't out of character? Do they need to be hurt? Emotionally compromised? Worn down? How does THAT happen?

What makes logical, in character sense for the characters to do? Given any of the scenes and conflicts you have planned, what would be their next move/concern?

What SLAPS? What scenes add to the feeling I want the audience to have? For example, if this is a rom com, what scenes would make it clear they should get together, or would work well emotionally? If it's a cozy mystery, what clever things does the main character notice that tell you more about the weird cast of suspects? If it's a horror, what makes the situation more tense?

The point of an outline is literally to fill in these gaps. And there's no stress! You can change stuff or ignore it down the line. You're just drawing a basic map for yourself to know the directions you need to go. Just put down ideas, and if they don't work, erase it and try again.

Many vary a lot in length depending on how much detail I already have in my head, how long the fic is, and how complex the story will be. The Vampire sequel outline is six pages long (very long), while most of them are a page or so.

Here's the vampire sequel outline, speaking of. For that, what I had at the start was a) the boys testing what it means to be a vampire and b) Vamp kidnapping Dave. That's all. The rest I made up during the outline.

Without outlines, I would have no idea where I'm going in a fic, so I'd get through what I had then stall out and get writers block and dither and run in circles and eventually give up.

Respect the power of the outline.

#bt writes

[horanghaejamjam]

Emergency Commissions

Hello everyone, I know I still have fics due and I hate to do this but recently my older pup Prince has become very sick and I am unable to afford the treatment and medication he needs so I am opening emergency commissions to try and help earn a bit more money for it.

Shares help a lot as well if you are unable to commission at this time! If you are interested in commissioning please read my details below and feel free to message me through Tumblr with inquiries.

You may also message me on Discord: horanghaejamjam

Or email me: [email protected]

___

Please note at this time I ONLY write for kpop idols and kdramas. I am familiar with hundreds of groups/soloists/and dramas and I am happy to research them for you if I am unfamiliar.

I am a detailed writer who specializes in oc inserts, x readers, and fantasy aus. I am happy writing all genres, pairings, and relationships.

What I will not write:

Continuations of another writer's work

Ocs that are stolen

Smut with idols (or commissioners) that are minors

Idols that are deceased

Idols involved in major scandals

Stories meant to attack anyone or a certain group irl

Slurs

Tragic Historical Events

For smut based stories or stories dealing with darker themes not listed above please message me to discuss what I am and am not okay with.

Pricing/Payments:

My base price is $5 per 1k words up until 20k words. After 20k words I charge $5 per every additional 500 words.

Since I am currently out of college stories will take 1-3 days to complete once commissioned. If you would like the story to be completed the day of it will add an additional $4

NSFW stories (including smut and darker themes): will add $3 - $7 to the total price depending on how detailed the NSFW is.

All payments are in USD and will be done in a 50/50 payment plan. 50% is due once the commission is started and the rest is due upon its completion.

Once the final fic is complete I am willing to alter minor details for free you also will not be charged if I go over the agreed word count.

I accept the following payment methods: Paypal, Venmo, Cashapp, Zelle

Other Important Info:

Once the final payment is confirmed I will send you a pdf copy of the completed story. As the buyer you are allowed to use your commissioned piece for any personal matters. You are allowed to repost it or translate it onto other sites as long as you credit me as the writer. You may not edit or repost the work as yours or resell it.

I will likely post the completed commission onto my Tumblr and AO3 unless it contains details that I am not comfortable posting. If you have an account on any of these sites you will be tagged as the one who commissioned the piece and the owner of any Ocs. If you do not wish to be tagged for whatever reason or would not like your work posted please specify this with me ahead of time.

Since these commissions have such a quick TAT I will begin working on them the second I receive payment. If you decide to cancel the commission you will be refunded 50% of the commission price. Once the story is completed and approved it is non refundable. I will be constantly updating you on the status of your story on whatever communication method you prefer so you know where its at.

If you have any questions do not hesitate to reach out to me! Any and all support is greatly appreciated.

#kpop #kpop fanfiction #kpop x reader #writing commissions #kpop commissions #ateez #ateez x reader #stray kids #stray kids x reader #seventeen #seventeen x reader #bts #bts x reader #blackpink #blackpink x reader #txt x reader #txt #enhypen #enhypen x reader #kpop ships

[galamalion]

grappling with the fact that one piece has 10 sagas (more to come in the future) and ~30 arcs, meaning that writing individual routes for the current 12 characters i have selected will total to about 120 sagas i will have to rewrite and 360 chapters, assuming i can fit 1 arc per chapter (which absolutely will not happen).

now, assuming each arc will be about 10k works and each chapter i write is 3k-4k words, there will be about 1080 total chapters and 90 chapters per character.

and some sagas, like marineford and whole cake island, will definitely be longer than 10k words, 20k words at minimum, meaning that each route will be at least 100 chapters and 300,000 words, making the total word count of all routes 3.6 million words.

i am going to out-write game of thrones.

#sorry if my math is wrong i'm a psych major i don't mess around with that #trying to hype myself up while i write #love me some dropout <33 #one piece #one piece x reader #romance in the red line

[obiwanwhumpminibang]

FAQ

What is a mini bang? How does this work?

This event is mainly a form of collaboration between fandom artists and writers. The event will start with writers creating a summary of their fic and a short excerpt which participating artists will then make artwork inspired by these fanfictions in return. During the reveal timeframe, these works will be made available to the fandom.

You might have taken part in a big bang event before, but this event is intended to be a scaled down version of this. Our word count minimum for participating writers is 3K words and the upper limit will be approximately 20K words. This event will also only span the length of three months in total.

Who can participate? How do I sign up?

Anyone (18+ though)! We do not have any requirements other than age for writers or artists, but we do ask that you join the event in good faith. 

Sign-up dates and links to google surveys are listed in the Event Information post pinned to this blog. If you wish to confirm you have successfully enrolled in the event, please contact the mods and will make sure you are. 

What level of complexity is expected for art pieces? 

We welcome any skill level for this event! All we ask is that your piece is fully complete at the time of posting and is more than just a sketch. 

Can I sign up as both a writer and an artist?

Absolutely! In fact, we’re encouraging it! As many of us in the Clone Wars/Prequels/Obi-Wan fandom circles are likely aware, there are not as many artists as there are writers in this particular fandom. We want to ensure all the writers participating are able to get artwork to go with their fanfic.

Can I sign up to make art for multiple fanfics?

Yes, we are also encouraging this! If you are an artist willing to make more than one piece for the event, we would love to be able to use this as an option in the case our writers outnumber our artists (which is very likely). When filling out your sign-up, please answer the prompt regarding how many pieces of art you are willing to make for the event. 

Keep in mind, even if you are willing to make multiple pieces, there is a chance this will not be necessary based on the sign-ups from other artists. 

Will I need to fill out two sign-up forms if I am planning to be both an artist and a writer?

No, please just indicate on the sign-up form you would like to be both when prompted. 

Are the mods planning to participate in the event?

Yes, we are both participating.

What is considered to be “whump?”

We would like the fics and artwork to be whump-centric. What do we mean by that? Well, you just need to hurt Obi-Wan really. It’s up to you whether you want to comfort him or not. We aren’t looking to limit your creativity, just as long as Obi-Wan gets some good old fashioned pain & suffering. 

Consider some of the following tags on Ao3 if you want to get a better idea of what we’re looking for: Hurt/Comfort, Whumptober 2023, Chronic Illness, Sickfic, Major character injury, Major character death, Injury Recovery, Whump, Disability

Is shipping permitted?

We would like to keep the primary focus of the event on whumping Obi-Wan. Can that include a relationship? Sure, but we encourage participants to keep this as a secondary aspect of the fic. We want to make sure artists are able to find fics that match their interests and it will be more difficult if most of the fics include ships and our artists are not interested in those particular ones. 

Can fanfics and art be NSFW? 

Yes. Artists will need to ensure writer prompts and fic information fit within what they are comfortable with during the claims process. 

Are there other rules regarding what can/can’t be written about?

No, as long as everything is tagged appropriately. Go buckwild. We encourage violence and crimes (committed against Obi-Wan, of course). 

And because it needs to be said, the mods subscribe to the “don’t like, don’t read” policy. 

How do artists pick/claim writer prompts?

Before the claims period (exact dates TBD, but the first week of February or January 31st) writers will be required to submit both a summary of their fic, as well as a short excerpt that helps to give artists a good idea of the content of their fic. Additionally, writers will list what rating their fic is planned to be and any warnings artists should be aware of before choosing to work on the fic.

During the claims period, artists will review the writers submissions (which will be anonymous for the sake of fairness) and report which prompts they would most like to work on. From there, mods will match artists to prompts based on their votes. 

How long do writers have to finish their fics?

Writers will have approximately 11-12 weeks to fully complete their fics. However, there is an expectation that a summary and excerpt (100 to 500 words) are finished in time for the artist's claims. Currently, the due date for the summary and written excerpts is January 31st. The remainder of the fic can be worked on continuously up until the reveal week. 

How long will artists have to finish their pieces?

Artists will have approximately 7-8 weeks to finish their pieces. 

Will there be a discord server for the event and is it mandatory to join?

Yes and yes. Sorry dudes another discord for another event. Mostly, it makes it easier for mass communication purposes and will be the main way us as mods will communicate with participants. You are required to join the server and the mods will send a link to the server to you once your sign-up has been approved. 

As an aside, we will not be communicating via email throughout the event other than to send a link to the discord server if you would like to receive it this way. Though the sign-ups will require an email address, our expectation is all event communication will take place on discord. 

Can fics be shared outside of the event before the reveal week?

No. All fics and artwork should only be discussed with event participants until the reveal week. The only exception to this rule is beta readers, but remind them to practice discretion. 

Are there any check-ins?

There will be one check-in for both writers and artists each. This will take place about one month from the reveal week and will serve the purpose of ensuring everyone is on track to finish their work in time.

#FAQ #obi wan whump mini bang #owmb2023

[jennyandvastraflint]

It's late, I'm very tired, but I am going to write you the ask anyway because I need you to know you put a new fic idea into my head and somehow it has grown and now what am I going to do? Do I have time for it? No. But it's been a lot of fun writing a snippet on the train today (as you do) and I hope it will stay for a while and maybe develop?

Basically, it's -

"[The cat] already has a name" the Doctor said suddenly. "She's called Siren." "You've named her?" Yaz exclaimed. "Has she told you?" Graham asked. "Mate, she doesn't actually speak 'cat'; she was having you on, earlier" Ryan stage whispered, before blinking and looking over to the Doctor. "You don't, do you?" "She's wearing a name tag" the Doctor explained and really, now that Yaz was examining the cat's collar, there was a tiny silver square reading 'Siren'. "Oh" she said, wondering why the Doctor hadn't used the name yet. Was it as not to get too attached? It had taken her awfully long to enter the discussion on the name, too.

I'm not quite sure how far this will go but there is actual plot already somewhere. It's a bit - difficult though. Because they're all treating the cat like you would treat a cat. Which is different from how you'd treat a human/timelord/whatever, especially when it comes to boundaries. And they don't know she's not a cat of course, because River is there ~undercover~. To them, basically, 13 has 'adopted a stray'.

Anyway, it is still very fun :) (also 90% of it has turned into a zoo tycoon ad but I am blaming that on companion-showdown) I love writing for the fam! It's difficult to juggle so many people in one scene but I love all of them so much 🥰 (but if I do write this whole piece it will probably end up being doctor/yaz/cat!river centric so that's only 3 characters and one is mainly non-verbal)

(This is about that cat named River Song in that post (yesterday?) and you saying it should be River undercover btw. Not sure whether that's been clear until now.)

Do you think Siren is a good name? Sirens sing and live in bodies of water, so I thought she might choose it as a not-too-obvious undercover name. Plus, River would dig the seductress connotations. (It might also have come to my mind because we've been talking about mermaids but anyway)

Alternatively, I was thinking Cleopatra bc we know River has cosplayed as her and it would be cute to call the cat 'Cleo'. It's a very cat-like name, I think.

Or 'Melody'? More angsty but also more obvious and riskier. And the idea is that the Doctor cannot know either she's there. But it also makes a good name for a cat I think.

(also, yeah, I totally haven't finished the lkh rewrite either, I think I told you earlier. But ohhh shiny new fic concept with thasmin and River and a cat 😍😍😍 anyway I am blaming you <3 (for the idea, not the procrastinating - the procrastinating is 100% on me))

God, I hope this is halfway coherent now. I'm not feeling too coherent 😅

Anyway thank you so much for listening <3 I'm very grateful to hear any thoughts! On the name or general thoughts :) Also questions! As I said, there is some plot. Unfinished, but I can see a main direction (and it looks suspiciously like 20k+ words so... not sure I will follow it ever)

First of all, absolutely love that my bullshit inspired you XD

Second, I love the scene you wrote omgggg! The fact the fam didn't notice the nametag and just went to the more outlandish explanation of "13 speaks cat" 😂

I love the name Siren so much!! Like first, it fits with the "River" (body of water) "Song", but it also reminds me of how when River calls for the Doctor, they are always there for her, almost as though drawn to River.

(Shiny new ideas always so appealing, yuppp, it is a thing I know all too well)

I am so excited to read more of this, and am looking forward to the plot that awaits us!

On the point of juggling so many characters, yes, I find that anything above three characters regularly interacting gets a bit crowded. Perhaps you'll still find a way to have Ryan and Graham there and doing little tasks during the fic, like for instance sending them to get food for Siren XD

I am honoured to have enabled this as your writing sounds a delight!! May the writing gods bless you, may your writing be plentiful and motivating!

#doctor who #thirteenth doctor #river song #yasmin khan #ryan sinclair #graham o'brien #tardis fam #Fanfiction #ask

[zeroducks-2]

Zero, pls give me the strength to write a filth ass sladick fic. I’ve got the brain worms for one specific abo fic, and I stg, it’s all I can think about rn 😭 do u have any advice for me?? Writing? Motivation? Characterization? 🥺🙏

Of course!

Now I'm of the opinion that writing advice, ALL the writing advice you find online with no exception whatsoever, is totally useless. "Think of the characters this way!", "structure the plot that way!", "motivate yourself going by percentages!" etc - it's not that it's bad pieces of advice, in fact, they're all great suggestions. The issue with them is that creating a story has some technical aspects, but writing is unique to every person.

One of the billion writing advice floating around might be great for you, or maybe all of them work, but maybe not at single one is even vaguely useful, because how you approach writing is strictly personal so if they work on you or not is completely hit and miss.

Therefore what I can tell you is how I work, and maybe you'll find some compatible aspects and it can help you :)

Long post ahead!

Writing & Motivation:

MOST IMPORTANT. Talk about this with someone. DM your beloved mutual, hit your bestie up on discord, annoy me on anon, do whatever you need to talk about this fic. Talk about the plot, how the characters are supposed to be like, what should happen, what world building is in place, how the sex should pan out. "But people will be annoyed!" NO WE WON'T, I PROMISE. I love hearing people's ideas on their next fic, AU, revolutionary plot bunny. I love all of them and I'm not the only one. Talk to us about your fic!

Don't pick a specific time or moment of the day to start writing. You have 20 minutes and then your cousin will be there? It's alright, throw down 30 words in those minutes. You have two hours and you're afraid you'll get in too deep before the dentist appointment? I KNOW IT HURTS but when you're back from the dentist you might be tired, in pain, not motivated anymore. Write when you feel the itch, even on a leaflet with a permanent marker (I normally use my phone's notes if I have no choice). Don't wait for the right moment, the right moment can be any time you want it to be!

Don't plan a shitton of chapters. Plan just one, write that one. "But it's 1k and there isn't even smut!" It's still better than no chapter at all with 0k words isn't it? Write that scene, no matter how short it is. Once it's done admire it, look how beautiful it is. You want to write more now? Great, go ahead! You don't feel like going on with this? It might be time to share your little thing with someone on AO3, on tumblr or IRL! And if writing just that one little chapter satisfied you, that also is okay! Oh wait, you only know what to write for your sex scene, no context? Write that sex scene, the context is right there in your head. If you'll also want to write the context that's fantastic, but start by writing that scene you want to write, don't stress because you need to "get to it". Don't punish yourself with "I can write what I want to write only after 20k words of introduction", that's the perfect recipe to make you drop the fic.

Characterization

Don't be afraid that the characters might be OOC. I promise you no one cares, and the people who care won't click on an ABO fic which maybe is also a Feudal Japan AU with aliens. What matters is the impression of the characters. I'm writing one of the sections of my Omegaverse Royal AU at the moment, and I decided to make it Eobarry! But I have no idea how to write Eobard, he is a real challenge to me - I have an Eobard expert friend who gives me some advice, but still. He's a complex character with a rich history and there isn't much I can do to keep him IC, but the thing is... if I don't write this, there's simply going to be less Eobarry fics to go around. Better if there's one more, even if it's not up to whatever imaginary standard I set with myself, than one less.

Don't be afraid to make the characters act a certain way because it's convenient. This is the exact opposite advice I give when people are writing non-transformative work: When you're writing a story, once you decide that a character is afraid of spiders you need to stick with it and make them afraid of spiders forever, they can't be afraid of spiders only for 1 scene. This does not count for fanfictions. Fanfictions exist for us to have fun, be horny, feel a whole lot of emotions and fulfill the desire to chew on our blorbos like they were squeaky toys. So you want Dick to be afraid of spiders in this fic? It never happened in canon...? Who gives a shit, he is now afraid of spiders. You want to make Slade very good at playing marbles? Cool, he is now a champion marble player for your fic and your fic only. And it doesn't matter if the characters are not consistent and "fall in love too quickly", or if "the sex is not realistic", or if "they should get pregnant like this", or if "there's no way they'd be alright with this situation". None of this crap, nobody gives a damn. You're writing to have fun, not to win a literary prize.

You might write A LOT and then realize you are absolutely unsatisfied with how the story went, because a character did something which set them on a course that you ended up not liking. It's fine! Go back to where the choice was taken and split the fic! Coincidentally, it's something I am doing with my Omegaverse Royal AU (the Sladick part) because I decided I wanted it darker :)

And remember, it's okay to be inspired by other fics. If you take something precisely off another fic you might want to ask permission because it's the polite thing to do, but if for example you find that you write Alpha Slade with a scar on his mating gland because you read that in my fic, that's totally okay! We continuously get inspired by each other, and my beloved writer friends know that I take inspiration from their things! (indeed my Omegaverse Royal AU, because apparently it's the perfect example for everything today, was inspired by the amazing works of anawrites and TheSubtextIs, with their Conflict Resolution and Conquered by Love).

Reach out if you need help, or if you want more specific advice that might be 100% useless! Cheers :D

#my asks #writing advice

[euthymiya]

“it always ends with I love you”. can I just say, this is officially the best fic I’ve read on this entire app. I’ve read lots since I started Genshin, but this piece in particular feels so real. thank you for treating Wrio so gently, he deserves all the love and empathy. imo men need to be cared for in this way more often.

growing up I read more comics than text so I tend to struggle with long reads. but this fic was totally worth it. this lonely gal’s heart is all warm and fuzzy now. fic so good that I need you to know.

Have a lovely day~

PS I stopped using tumblr for awhile til I started Genshin. I apologize in advance if I spam like🙏🏼 still getting used to how things work here nowadays.

PPS I was this close to msging off anon but alas I’m too shy

can i just say you are my favorite person ever 🙏🫦 no seriously i’m honestly very flattered to hear that, i was a bit scared he’d be ooc but you and the other responses have been overwhelmingly supportive and i’m very grateful!!! i wasn’t sure if i was making him too vulnerable or not but you are all the reassuring feedback i needed!! i am truly so grateful you read the full 20k words too i know long reads can be a bit of a struggle for some people (understandably so) but i appreciate you sticking through with the whole story and giving it a chance! and i promise i do write shorter pieces too if that’s your vibe haha ;)

i hope you have a lovely day too!! you really deserve it

and no worries about likes!! hope you have fun scrolling away <3 also i’m happy to interact and chat with you on or off anon i love hearing from you guys! feel free to do so however you’re comfortable most <3

#my asks