#//Also not really a fanfic writer so this is definitely messy did my best to put in that LORE though

[7association-was-here]

Faust shall keep this simple, though of course the “grand finale” of this case could not be referred to as such in consideration of length and complexity (it is very, very long). But the following is the report and conclusion of the business at District 12, L corp.. summarised in a slightly more unique manner than previous reports.

-

The scent of the deceased reeked forth, sharply throughout our whole surroundings. Faust has very rarely visited this fallen wing but it was exactly as described countless times before; A near wasteland.

We considered searching for the individual whom identified themselves with the symbol, or perhaps title is more fitting, “SnakeHead”. But with the life of Heathcliff on the line and in the hands of an unknown threat Faust calculated that it is improbable to spare the time in searching for a guide in these unpredictable circumstances and territory. Not to mention that they have done enough help for us already. It would only be a burden.

Therefore we pushed onwards towards the center of the District instead where that infamous facility once stood. The head of Lobotomy Corporation and the Library Phenomenon. There was not much left of it except for mostly the underground entrance, for the upper half was supposedly transported by The Head into the outskirts.

Leaving behind multiple back-ups to watch and secure the surface, we descended, to the depths of the fallen wing.

As reported previously we encountered many of the “Abnormalities” and “Peccatula”, most of which were not a hassle to deal with. They are unpredictable yes, but manageable. (We shall need to observe them more sometime later..)

Pushing that aside as we traversed those ruins, the crackling of faulty wires, the dripping of blood, the flickering lights and the damp musty air were all that accompanied us passively. All else were hostile. We were thankful not to run into higher classed abnormalities though that much was sure. And Faust thought that the presence of some form of remaining energy being utilised is quite strange. It might have been flickering unevenly but the lights were very bright, unlike ones commonly found in abandoned buildings.

Of course that might have been from the remaining Enkephalin source somewhere within but the lights themselves seemed suspiciously brand new. I might be wrong, but it felt like a sign of recent inhabitants.

-

Proceeding forwards, and deeper into the facility, that was when the situation began to shift. As we descended to a new floor we noticed the surrounding seemed much cleaner than the previous upper floors. Much more sanitised and well-kept. In fact a few pieces of new furniture (most used for storing items, such as shelves and drawers) had been installed. All lined with research documents as well as what seemed to be various liquids in small containers. Faust doubts they were normal medication.

And not much to our surprise, moments later we spotted individuals ahead discussing a topic very heavily. I directed everyone to stay low, wait for them to pass, and in the meanwhile do their best to catch what it is those people were discussing. People in mostly lab coats..

”Yes, the substance reverts things to their original state…”

“So if we tamper it together with those alternate realities do you think..”

It was difficult to decipher what they spoke of. But those two sentences were what Faust remembers very clearly. And as they passed a revelation came to me as well, Faust recognises those lab coats. Or some of them at the very least, had the K corp emblem embedded at the side of their sleeves. What does this imply? That K corp is aware of the ordeal? Or were these simply stray traitors of the wing? Whatever this was Faust knew it was a sign that another of our cases was about to be answered. The missing former K corp employee.

I shall spare the details of how long we searched these floors but eventually we found him. The individual known as “Dongrang”, or so we believe. As his corpse had been altered very severely beyond recognition, and sealed within some form of glass incubator. A unique coffin inside one of the emptied chambers. This was certainly something K corp was not going to be pleased with as we couldn’t possibly retrieve the body from inside that device. Instead we could only take a photograph of it which shall be deemed classified and cannot be shared here.

-

With one of three cases dealt with I focused next on finding Heathcliff. The most important of them all.

Going deeper once more revealed that only the middle floors have been fully inhabited by this unknown faction. The final lower areas seemed more desolate… Not even abnormalities were spotted in these depths. Perhaps someone had cleared them out previously, as some traces did remain.

It was wholly uneventful for the most part, until we ran into an encounter. A familiar face, one which I immediately rushed upon, but was greeted with a strange disappointment right after.

Slumped on the wall lay a terribly injured individual. Heathcliff, but not my Heathcliff. It was one of the “mirror” versions of him, one we’ve indirectly met before in fact. The one from Shi Association. It is with regret to say that he was in a nearly irreparable state when we found him. A miracle he hadn’t immediately died, Faust will say.

And in thanks to that he was able to use those final precious moments to relay some information about our Heathcliff’s whereabouts along with information of another individual possibly with him. He claims that he was led here by a prescript (similar to how our Heathcliff was), and boldly followed along. As is later found out the prescript was a fraud and simply a trap for someone he described as “The Erlking Bastard” to ambush them. He recalls there being exactly 3 victims, aligning perfectly with the amount of Heathcliffs that we are aware of.

Though sadly… The Shi association fixer could not make it and later parted way right there with our eyewitness. A very mixed feeling it was. To watch someone I both know dearly and did not know at all the same time, perish just like that. A dear stranger.

We will contact Shi Association of their loss…

-

A trail of red string led us forth in this final floor, into a narrow hallway and into several more corridors, eventually from the distance we heard the clashing of two blades and of screams or shouts. A fight was in motion somewhere and Faust had to locate it immediately.

Now running through as best as we could in fear of being “too late” we pursued the red ribbon hastily and at last landing us in front of the entrance to one of the abnormality containment chambers. The door itself was fastened tightly, but peaking from behind the glass was still manageable and behind it lay a very strange and equally concerning sight.

Heathcliff, our Heathcliff, battered and bleeding though still holding on as he faced against yet another familiarly unfamiliar man.

A man seemingly at the end of his wits, his face worn and consumed with nothing but hatred and a single goal in mind. He seemed to be saying something, a speech perhaps to our Heathcliff. But with the noise canceled out not a proper word was made out. Afterwards he raised his weapon as though for a final strike, but I could not allow for that to pass. Pushing with all our might to get the door to open, just somehow, in some desperate miracle of hope, I could not simply stand to watch another—

“V.R.O.O.M way.” “Very Ridiculous, Out Of My”

And that “miracle” we desperately needed had revealed itself in the form of Ryoshu and her golf cart, ramming right into the containment chamber.

..Faust knows many things, but she does not know one thing right now. And that one thing is how can she describe the events which followed after the golf cart in a professional and sane way. To say the least Ryoshu’s ambushing was enough to pierce through the chamber and practically hit our foe point blank. Unfortunately as soon as we all began surrounding him, he vanished somewhere somehow amidst everything. Ryoshu quotes “Coward.”

It is anticlimactic yes, but I am certain things will properly come to an end eventually regarding his case in the future, all things in consideration. In other words that won’t be the last we see of him.

I instead turned to Heathcliff with many things to say, but we eventually left just as we had entered.

Faust would have said “carefully as to not be spotted” but we exited with the golf cart. No elaboration is needed on that.

-

And at last, after long sufferings that case comes to… A rather strange and unfulfilling close. Many strings did not tie together as Faust expected, such as the deal with K corp and the identity of this unknown faction remaining as it is. But for now,

I am glad that Heathcliff is finally safe. We lost one unfortunately, but he died a fairly noble death just as I would have wished for my own Heathcliff. He shall be remembered. And as for the other, the Öufi fixer has been returned safely to his own section. It will be awkward to explain what happened to their fixers, but nonetheless.

Ah. And I’ve received some additional information from Heathcliff… The fraudulent prescripts were indeed sent by “The Erlking”, in fact the murder of the workshop owner was also a part of the trap. And he explains too that this “Erlking” is another mirror occurrence of himself it seems.

The reason why he acted the way he did in attempting murder against the other Heathcliffs though… Our Heathcliff seems hesitant to explain. Whatever the reason may be I will not force it out of him right now if he does not wish to. Instead Faust will focus more on how “The Erlking” has anything to do with the unknown faction as well as K corp. What were their goals? What were they doing with the corpse of the K corp employee? And was the workshop murder truly a simple red herring, considering the strange mirror room within the warehouse? There were more questions produced than answered from this occurrence.

It is a very complicated matter indeed… Although now, I suppose that is all I can report. Faust shall take her mind off of this for a while and…

See if Heathcliff would like a cup of tea?

#//The end of the first arc :) #//I tried so hard not to make this too long I’m sorry ;; #//Also not really a fanfic writer so this is definitely messy did my best to put in that LORE though #seven association #project moon #limbus company #lore? #faust lcb #heathcliff lcb #//golf cart clutch fr #//faust explains the LORE to you ASMR

[vampbunnis]

boothill x writer&reading enthusiast!reader!!

wc: 680

tags - fluff!!!!!, hurt/comfort without the hurt, so just comfort, this is my first fanfic EVER!?!?!?, lots of projection, probably inaccurate portrayal of boothill srrie, boothill calls u darlin'/sugar, this is really really messy oops

a/n - the story kinda diverges into them just reading a simple book written by someone else but the idea was that they'd slowly work into reading more n more complex stuffs-- which eventually include reader's works !! tbh i like to think even if boothill doesn't fully understand yet he'd still wanna know what reader is writing. i'll probably rewrite this sometime in the future with the same concept, diff execution b/c this lowkey didn't turn out how i wanted it to ૮ ྀི◞ ⸝⸝ ◟ ྀིა

he feels bad and a little insecure about his illiteracy!! because he bets you're so so talented in what you do but he literally cannot appreciate what you write :((

sometimes he wonders if you'd be happier if you were with someone who was able to fully understand all of you-- all of your cute rambles about the usage of different literary devices in the books you were reading, all of the times you cried over dystopian novels and heart-crushing personal narratives and profound, emotional sentences that he just didn't have the capacity to understand.

when he sits you down one night and confides in you about this, your first course of action is to comfort him (obviously!!).

"trust me, i don't love you any less just 'cause you dunno how to read," you coo, peppering his warm face with loving kisses. "if i had to be with anyone else, i'd be sad forever knowing you'd still be out there. i love you, don't forget that, 'kay?"

you can see his worry-addled face relax a bit as you remind him of just how much you love him-- but you can still notice the crestfallen look in his eyes. you realize he has been worrying about this for a while; possibly since the first time you told him you were a writer.

you come up with a plan.

he's a little confused the first time you lay in bed earlier than usual with a book in hand, gesturing excitedly for him to join you under the covers. you usually read books on your own, no?

it didn't take him long to notice a difference between the book you were holding and the books you usually read.

he saw a few of the books you'd read previously-- they were thick, way thicker than the book in front of him now, and definitely way smaller in size. the covers also had pretty big differences. the covers of your usual books were much more mature-looking-- like they were meant to be read by adults. this book, however... had a fat, crudely drawn green caterpillar on the cover.

his metallic body slips underneath the sheets, relaxing on the mattress. he protectively wraps his arm around your waist, pulling you closer to him.

"what's this, darlin'?" he asks, pointing to the book with his free hand.

"the very hungry caterpillar," you reply, a bright smile on your face. you pause for a bit before speaking up again.

"i feel like i've been making you feel bad by leaving you out of my passion for literature-- i mean, reading, and writing and whatnot. i'm not the best teacher, but i still wanna share this part of me with you."

he has to try his hardest not to explode on the spot.

"'s alright, sugar, 's not your fault," he murmurs, gently caressing your side in an attempt to comfort you. "did 'ya get this book just f'me?"

you nodded, the solemn look on your face suddenly being replaced with one of excitement.

"this book is real simple, so i can read it to 'ya and hopefully you might learn a few things," you smile, giving him a peck on the cheek as you open the book.

since he barely knows how to read, you have to read the entire book out loud to him. that doesn't bother you, not in the slightest. in fact, you'd say it's even more fun that way.

he starts to snicker as the drawing of the caterpillar slowly gets bigger and bigger, eating food in larger quantities as the pages flip.

after you shut the book closed and put it on the nightstand, you turn to him. "how'd you like the book?"

"it was so stupid," he grins. "that [beautiful] caterpillar was still hungry after eatin' all that?"

you burst into giggles, hugging him tighter as you laugh. "mhm, i guess so. it's like me whenever you take me out to get fast food."

"oh, don't compare your pretty self to that thing," he smirks, tucking the both of you under the covers.

#⁺˚⋆｡°✩₊ 별빛이의 글쓰기 #⊹.(⸝⸝ ˆ ³(⁎˃ᴗ˂⁎)˚. byeolhill #boothill x reader #honkai star rail x reader #hsr x reader

[daisyrella]

god i put so much effort into figuring out a timeline of arthur’s life and relationships just to get myself worked up by other ppl’s batshit theories (that one asshole on reddit who said arthur slept with eliza when she was 15 despite all like 50 comments proving him wrong) when rockstar purposefully left it vague and i can interpret it my own way 😭

what’s bothering me the most is his timeline with mary. there are so many conflicting pieces of dialogue that just make no sense all put together. i really hate the way rockstar incorporated her into rdr2, it was so messy and lazy and way less interesting than eliza and isaac, which they randomly throw in near the end in passing dialogue.

from what i’ve gathered and my best estimates, PLEASE add whatever you think is relevant:

arthur and mary, assuming they’re the same age which i feel confident in doing, met when they were in their early 20s. however, i think it was also after the gang robbed their first bank together in 1887, so when arthur was 24. adds up bc he was definitely already an outlaw when they started “dating.”

abigail is the last-joined member who mentions seeing mary, and she joined in 1894 so i suppose that’s when arthur and her split up for good?

what boggles my mind is just how long of a time-frame that is. mary’s father is portrayed as someone who heavily despised arthur and did everything he could to end their relationship, and mary herself takes every opportunity to demean arthur for his lifestyle (and him in general lmao but that’s not relevant for now), so would she really have stayed with him, even on and off, for 7 years?

arthur was so in love with her i can see him sticking it out for 7 years, on and off bc at some point he slept with eliza and isaac seems to have passed before jack was born in 1995, so this timeline works for arthur and eliza, but still makes! no! sense! for mary’s character.

it may very well be the writers’ intention that arthur and mary spent all these years on and off together until she broke off their engagement when he wouldn’t leave the gang for her, but considering the gang was moving around, though much less than in the actual rdr2 timeline, how would they have sustained a relationship for so long when living in different states?

rockstar please explain i need this urgently for my fanfics and daydreams to make sense my brain feels so itchy rn

#red dead redemption #arthur ♡ #arthur morgan x reader

[fandom-took-my-sanity]

For the ask game… 35, 56, 68, and 70?

Sorry this took so long! I started drafting it and then Tumblr deleted all of my work for it :/

35. What’s your favorite fic you’ve posted?

I would say it’s probably you did a number on me (but honestly baby who’s counting?). It’s the only multi chapter fic I have, and I’m still in the process of writing it so stay tuned. I’m really proud of myself for sticking to it, because I haven't ever been able to write a multi chapter fic before! It's a Benslie au where basically Ben leaves Pawnee abruptly in the middle of his relationship with Leslie because of Unclear Circumstances, and the then they reconnect a few years later and there is a forced proximity aspect along with flashbacks and A Twist. I’m just so proud of it :)

56. Are there any fics that you would change or rewrite if given the chance?

I would probably change We’ve Had Worse Ideas, simply because it was just a random idea that I had and decided to write, and it's basically a crack fic. I really like it, but I wrote it after not having written for months and it's a little messy and a lot cheesy. I would definitely edit a few of the more cringey bits, and the ending isn't my favorite. However, I’m keeping it as it is, because I totally don't hate it. I just know that if I redid it now it would be a lot better. 

68. Are there any fics that influenced you to write the way you do?

Oh 100%!!

For the Best and Keeping Score by mouseratstan influenced me into using Taylor references in my writing, and how I write Benslie and angst.

know you still by HearJessRoar inspired my to write my JessiexSlater fic

Snapshots Left on the Negative by CyPanache influenced how I write angst as well, and also convinced me to publish my benslie fic

70. Are you subscribed to any writers on AO3?

Yes of course!

athenasrose (stranger things & ted lasso)

celine_cooperjones (stranger things)

mouseratstan (parks and rec & superstore)

QuietlyImplode, @quietlyimplode (marvel, specifically clintasha)

ThatWheelchairChick (gilmore girls)

TheSwoopTM, @sneaky-salty-bitch (ted lasso)

~~~

Fanfic Writing Asks

My Ao3

#thank you so so much #this was really fun #and again im sorry it took sooooo long for me to do it! #ask games #fanfic asks #fanfiction #ao3

[myladyofmercy]

I got tagged by @tessabennet to do a

8 shows to get to know me

list and she did it as a kind of watch history and I loved that method so I am copying it

1. h2o: just add water

this show defined my childhood. i was obsessed. i remember only being allowed to watch the rewatches on saturday mornings but not the premieres that came mondays through thursdays. when s3 came around my parents allowed me to record the episodes on vhs and then watch the episode the next day. when the finale aired i had a friend come over after school the next day and we watched the last two episodes even tho she already watched them the night before. in the scene where lewis walks down the stairs in slow mo she pulled out her flip phone and recorded the scene because she thought he looked so cute.

also rikki made me gay and i was always her when we played mermaids in the pool.

2. glee

my first big teenage obsession. i think i started watching when season 2 was airing. the last two seasons took so fucking long to come out dubbed that it was the first time i streamed an episode right after it aired in the us even tho my english wasn't that good yet. i also got my mom and my aunt to watch it. my aunts favorite was finn and when i read that cory had died i called her right before bed to tell her and she told me later she couldn't sleep that night.

my favorite characters were quinn and kurt. quinn made me gay(er)

also i wasn't in fandom spaces back then so i managed to escape all the crazy shit that went on in the fandom back then but i have met some new friends recently who were in it and told me some horror stories and i really feel like I dodged a bullet.

3. gossip girl

i only watched this show after it aired but it's so messy and a definite guily pleasure.

also unpopular opinion but my favorite character was jenny (i am also obsessed with her band and their music and covered two of their songs in my school rockband)

4. the originals

i always preferred the originals over the vampire diaries because i just liked klaus and the other mikaelsons more than elena and co. i also became obsessed with the soundtrack of the show and used to listen to the tracks on youtube and would then convert my faves. that's how i discovered my love for ruelle.

5. shameless

another big obsession I discovered between s4 and s5 airing. i remember crying real tears when ian and mickey broke up in s5. i think gallavich was the first pairing i watched fanedits on youtube for and also how i discovered twenty one pilots and my ultimate beloved florence and the machine. i also had a fan account on instagram at one point that got some likes from emma kenney.

6. supernatural

oh supernatural.

i discovered the show at a very low point in my life and bingewatched 10 seasons back to back while staying home from school. destiel was the first ship i ever read fic for (twist and shout anyone?) and even tho this show went on for wayyyy to long and made some very questionable choices it still has a place in my heart.

7. 911

at this point in time this show is probably my biggest obsession right now (probably because a new season is airing right now) i saw gifs of buck and abby on tumblr when the first season was airing in 2018 but only started watching when the spin off started and i rediscovered it via tumblr during s3. i have done multiple rewatches at this point and this show can truly make you laugh, cry, look away in disgust and believe in humanity at the same time.

also either buddie is the best slow burn of all time or the biggest queerbait since destiel and i am down for the ride.

8. young royals

where do i even begin with this show. it showed up on tumblr in july of 2021 and then i watched it the second weekend of the month and my life changed. since then i have started being truly active on tumblr, creating content myself, reading fanfic earnestly and by some great writers who i can call friends now, learning swedish (even tho the bird scares me), found a bunch of friends from all over the world and flew to fucking canada all on my own to visit people i met through this show. like what the fuck. even tho my obsession is a bit dormant right now they have just started filming the third and last season and as the amount of content will grow my obsession will too. i know it.

-

okay so this was a fucking essay but i really enjoyed this little deep dive into my watch history and even tho i don't expect anyone to do this I'm gonna tag some of my lovely friends (who i may or may not have found through that small swedish show at 8.)

@tooindecisivetopickaurl @i-love-semicolons @prince-simon @angelbabysimon @cloudywilmon @royalwilmon @oatmilkovich @ungaroyals @aro-of-artemis @little---versailles @cantputitintowords

[dollsome-does-tumblr]

now that our dear show is over, i’ve been thinking about grace and frankie as a complete series, and grace/frankie within it. so here’s some messy musings about how their relationship was portrayed throughout the seasons!

i get the sense that seasons one and two really built to that authentic queer* energy between them that was absolutely crackling and on fire by season three. and i don’t think the writers really thought about it consciously as a not-straight dynamic (as far as i can tell), it’s just what grace and frankie’s relationship dynamic organically became, especially because they were always juxtaposed with an actual gay couple.

then the writers became AWARE that people were shipping it hard in the hiatus between s3 and s4, and as a result i think s4 and s5 shied away from quite portraying the intensity of that energy in quite the same way, though by the end of s5 it’s definitely back in business. then with seasons six and seven, it absolutely felt like the show returned to that same energy as season three after taking a few seasons off, like the writing regained its confidence in going “no, you know what, actually? this is what their relationship is.” which, yay! and also, just a fascinating journey to have witnessed in real time over the past handful of years!

i also find it fascinating how nick functioned so consistently and completely as a tool (er, no offense, buddy!) for demonstrating the importance and incomparable specialness of grace/frankie. nick was around for a long time and somehow wound up ultimately being exactly what we the grace/frankie shippy audience hoped for him to be. the way that the show handled nick felt exactly how fanfic handled nick -- we were in consensus with the show one hundred percent somehow, in terms of how he made grace lose herself in the role of wife in a way she hated and how he was increasingly agonizingly aware that she loved frankie more??? -- which felt absolutely WILD to watch happen with my own two eyes. like, grace was attracted to and very fond of nick but she was in love with frankie and nick was almost a way for her to try to run away from how much she loved frankie and that was the literal situation!

anyway. man. what a time we’ve had since the spring of 2017!!!! i really love where we wound up. once i thought that nothing could ever be as good as the balloon scene at the end of s3 in terms of capturing that grace/frankie energy, but i think this season matched and maybe even exceeded it. i can’t really think of anything i would have wanted more from 7b and the finale -- except, like, sure, it would have been cool if they’d kissed and therefore gone to canon town, but i absolutely 100% did not expect that and in fact did not expect the ending to feel nearly as unabashedly intimate and romantic as it did.

* (i feel like “queer” is the best term i can land on for it because i think there are a lot of ways you could interpret where grace and frankie wind up together -- queerplatonic partners? romantically in love with each other? sexually in love with each other and they definitely hooked up as the credits rolled in “the last hurrah”?? -- but whatever it is, it doesn’t really feel like it fits within the heteronormative bubble. not that i don’t think you can have a love this fierce with a best friend, because of course you can, but i just feel like the way the show is writing them and depicting this relationship is ... different/not heterosexual and not platonic in the common understanding of the word.)

anyway. i’m just so happy that it really felt like their relationship returned to the emotional intensity that it had during the halcyon s3 days when we were all having perhaps the most fun of all during this show’s run! it has provided some eternal good vibes for my grace and frankie fangirl heart. <3

#dollsome's deep thoughts #grace and frankie #gaf s7 #gaf spoilers #also does anyone remember 'blazed martini' and feel weird looking at the 'blaze' button w/ all this gaf talk

[qqueenofhades]

Hi. I’m curious. What did you mean by “women who read fiction might get Bad Ideas!!!” has just reached its latest and stupidest form via tumblr purity culture.? I haven’t seen any of this but I’m new to tumblr.

Oh man. You really want to get me into trouble on, like, my first day back, don’t you?

Pretty much all of this has been explained elsewhere by people much smarter than me, so this isn’t necessarily going to say anything new, but I’ll do my best to synthesize and summarize it. As ever, it comes with the caveat that it is my personal interpretation, and is not intended as the be-all, end-all. You’ll definitely run across it if you spend any time on Tumblr (or social media in general, including Twitter, and any other fandom-related spaces). This will get long.

In short: in the nineteenth century, when Gothic/romantic literature became popular and women were increasingly able to read these kinds of novels for fun, there was an attendant moral panic over whether they, with their weak female brains, would be able to distinguish fiction from reality, and that they might start making immoral or inappropriate choices in their real life as a result. Obviously, there was a huge sexist and misogynistic component to this, and it would be nice to write it off entirely as just hysterical Victorian pearl-clutching, but that feeds into the “lol people in the past were all much stupider than we are today” kind of historical fallacy that I often and vigorously shut down. (Honestly, I’m not sure how anyone can ever write the “omg medieval people believed such weird things about medicine!” nonsense again after what we’ve gone through with COVID, but that is a whole other rant.) The thinking ran that women shouldn’t read novels for fear of corrupting their impressionable brains, or if they had to read novels at all, they should only be the Right Ones: i.e., those that came with a side of heavy-handed and explicit moralizing so that they wouldn’t be tempted to transgress. Of course, books trying to hammer their readers over the head with their Moral Point aren’t often much fun to read, and that’s not the point of fiction anyway. Or at least, it shouldn’t be.

Fast-forward to today, and the entire generation of young, otherwise well-meaning people who have come to believe that being a moral person involves only consuming the “right” kind of fictional content, and being outrageously mean to strangers on the internet who do not agree with that choice. There are a lot of factors contributing to this. First, the advent of social media and being subject to the judgment of people across the world at all times has made it imperative that you demonstrate the “right” opinions to fit in with your peer-group, and on fandom websites, that often falls into a twisted, hyper-critical, so-called “progressivism” that diligently knows all the social justice buzzwords, but has trouble applying them in nuance, context, and complicated real life. To some extent, this obviously is not a bad thing. People need to be critical of the media they engage with, to know what narratives the creator(s) are promoting, the tropes they are using, the conclusions that they are supporting, and to be able to recognize and push back against genuinely harmful content when it is produced – and this distinction is critical – by professional mainstream creators. Amateur, individual fan content is another kettle of fish. There is a difference between critiquing a professional creator (though social media has also made it incredibly easy to atrociously abuse them) and attacking your fellow fan and peer, who is on the exact same footing as you as a consumer of that content.

Obviously, again, this doesn’t mean that you can’t call out people who are engaging in actually toxic or abusive behavior, fans or otherwise. But certain segments of Tumblr culture have drained both those words (along with “gaslighting”) of almost all critical meaning, until they’re applied indiscriminately to “any fictional content that I don’t like, don’t agree with, or which doesn’t seem to model healthy behavior in real life” and “anyone who likes or engages with this content.” Somewhere along the line, a reactionary mindset has been formed in which the only fictional narratives or relationships are those which would be “acceptable” in real life, to which I say…. what? If I only wanted real life, I would watch the news and only read non-fiction. Once again, the underlying fear, even if it’s framed in different terms, is that the people (often women) enjoying this content can’t be trusted to tell the difference between fiction and reality, and if they like “problematic” fictional content, they will proceed to seek it out in their real life and personal relationships. And this is just… not true.

As I said above, critical media studies and thoughtful consumption of entertainment are both great things! There have been some great metas written on, say, the Marvel Cinematic Universe and how it is increasingly relying on villains who have outwardly admirable motives (see: the Flag Smashers in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) who are then stigmatized by their anti-social, violent behavior and attacks on innocent people, which is bad even as the heroes also rely on violence to achieve their ends. This is a clever way to acknowledge social anxieties – to say that people who identify with the Flag Smashers are right, to an extent, but then the instant they cross the line into violence, they’re upsetting the status quo and need to be put down by the heroes. I watched TFATWS and obviously enjoyed it. I have gone on a Marvel re-watching binge recently as well. I like the MCU! I like the characters and the madcap sci-fi adventures! But I can also recognize it as a flawed piece of media that I don’t have to accept whole-cloth, and to be able to criticize some of the ancillary messages that come with it. It doesn’t have to be black and white.

When it comes to shipping, moreover, the toxic culture of “my ship is better than your ship because it’s Better in Real Life” ™ is both well-known and in my opinion, exhausting and pointless. As also noted, the whole point of fiction is that it allows us to create and experience realities that we don’t always want in real life. I certainly enjoy plenty of things in fiction that I would definitely not want in reality: apocalyptic space operas, violent adventures, and yes, garbage men. A large number of my ships over the years have been labeled “unhealthy” for one reason or another, presumably because they don’t adhere to the stereotype of the coffee-shop AU where there’s no tension and nobody ever makes mistakes or is allowed to have serious flaws. And I’m not even bagging on coffee-shop AUs! Some people want to remove characters from a violent situation and give them that fluff and release from the nonstop trauma that TV writers merrily inflict on them without ever thinking about the consequences. Fanfiction often focuses on the psychology and healing of characters who have been through too much, and since that’s something we can all relate to right now, it’s a very powerful exercise. As a transformative and interpretive tool, fanfic is pretty awesome.

The problem, again, comes when people think that fic/fandom can only be used in this way, and that going the other direction, and exploring darker or complicated or messy dynamics and relationships, is morally bad. As has been said before: shipping is not activism. You don’t get brownie points for only having “healthy” ships (and just my personal opinion as a queer person, these often tend to be heterosexual white ships engaging in notably heteronormative behavior) and only supporting behavior in fiction that you think is acceptable in real life. As we’ve said, there is a systematic problem in identifying what that is. Ironically, for people worried about Women Getting Ideas by confusing fiction and reality, they’re doing the same thing, and treating fiction like reality. Fiction is fiction. Nobody actually dies. Nobody actually gets hurt. These people are not real. We need to normalize the idea of characters as figments of a creator’s imagination, not actual people with their own agency. They exist as they are written, and by the choice of people whose motives can be scrutinized and questioned, but they themselves are not real. Nor do characters reflect the author’s personal views. Period.

This feeds into the fact that the internet, and fandom culture, is not intended as a “safe space” in the sense that no questionable or triggering content can ever be posted. Archive of Our Own, with its reams of scrupulous tagging and requests for you to explicitly click and confirm that you are of age to see M or E-rated content, is a constant target of the purity cultists for hosting fictional material that they see as “immoral.” But it repeatedly, unmistakably, directly asks you for your consent to see this material, and if you then act unfairly victimized, well… that’s on you. You agreed to look at this, and there are very few cases where you didn’t know what it entailed. Fandom involves adults creating contents for adults, and while teenagers and younger people can and do participate, they need to understand this fact, rather than expecting everything to be a PG Disney movie.

When I do write my “dark” ships with garbage men, moreover, they always involve a lot of the man being an idiot, being bluntly called out for an idiot, and learning healthier patterns of behavior, which is one of the fundamental patterns of romance novels. But they also involve an element of the woman realizing that societal standards are, in fact, bullshit, and she can go feral every so often, as a treat. But even if I wrote them another way, that would still be okay! There are plenty of ships and dynamics that I don’t care for and don’t express in my fic and fandom writing, but that doesn’t mean I seek out the people who do like them and reprimand them for it. I know plenty of people who use fiction, including dark fiction, in a cathartic way to process real-life trauma, and that’s exactly the role – one of them, at least – that fiction needs to be able to fulfill. It would be terribly boring and limited if we were only ever allowed to write about Real Life and nothing else. It needs to be complicated, dark, escapist, unreal, twisted, and whatever else. This means absolutely zilch about what the consumers of this fiction believe, act, or do in their real lives.

Once more, I do note the misogyny underlying this. Nobody, after all, seems to care what kind of books or fictional narratives men read, and there’s no reflection on whether this is teaching them unhealthy patterns of behavior, or whether it predicts how they’ll act in real life. (There was some of that with the “do video games cause mass shootings?”, but it was a straw man to distract from the actual issues of toxic masculinity and gun culture.) Certain kinds of fiction, especially historical fiction, romance novels, and fanfic, are intensely gendered and viewed as being “women’s fiction” and therefore hyper-criticized, while nobody’s asking if all the macho-man potboiler military-intrigue tough-guy stereotypical “men’s fiction” is teaching them bad things. So the panic about whether your average woman on the internet is reading dark fanfic with an Unhealthy Ship (zomgz) is, in my opinion, misguided at best, and actively destructive at worst.

#long post #anonymous #ask

[youranxiousnerd]

Second Chances Thoughts

bc what

spoilers below

i have...thoughts

ah no chaotic intro, f in the chat

it’s still a nice intro, tho

IM SORRY ARE THEY NOT SHOWING THE TRANSFORMATION?!?!

WHAT

THIS IS A HATE CRIME /j

i used the thingy

no bows either?!?!

this is called high school musical: the musical: the series not high school musical: the backstage drama: the series

wow they got changed fast

“Passable!” 

I’ll be the judge of that oh wait i cant bc they didnt show us

YES QUEEN ASHLYN GETTING THE LOVE SHE DESERVES

ashlyn is such a queen

the perfect belle, stunning

“A couple letters, actually” it’s a sign (literally)

flower touch

AWWW REDLYN

STOP THEY’RE ADORABLE

they love each other so much

east high kids be snooping

not me thinking about carlos’ hand on seb’s back we were robbed im taking what i can get

“You were the perfect Belle tonight. I was really proud”

“Evil genius”

they’re so happy

AWWW A REDLYN KISS WHOOP WHOOP

kourt and howie are so awkward 

“drumroll?”

howie and seb would get along

weird little playoff, maybe he is lying?

they’re cute, tho

sad that they didn’t really get any build-up

“happy now?” “yes”

“If it’s with you, always” MY HEART

just like a fanfic

kourtney just invited north highs beast to east highs cast party

OH MY GOD MAZZARA IS ACTUALLY GETTING A STORY ABOUT HIM

i was not expecting that okay

ej and mazzara are the best

gina is so happy too bad it wont last

gina is an actress 

gahhhh portwell drama

oh god rini let the drama begin

that was very calm, did someone possess nini and ricky?

i really like them as best friends. i was a hardcore rini shipper last season but with all their constant conflict i realized how much fun they are as friends

“we are literally on the same page” 

“just for a moment” I LOST MY SHIT

miss jenn no

oooo seblos please be good

Seb calling Miss. Jenn out on her bullshit since idk when

“That’s a hard never mind now” okay wow

Miss. Jenn is Carlos’ godmother 

This is theatre, not football

CRYING GINA

gini

GINA SUPPORT DAY IS A THING PEOPLE!!!!!

oh wow a plot line actually being addressed

season 1 callback im not ready

gina and nini people!!! 

very sweet scene

ahha jamie callback we all knew it

i would really like to see miss jenns batb audition notes

“I’m in a great place, mentally” if you were you wouldn’t be saying that

OMFG IS SHE NOT GOING TO APOLOGIZE!?!?!

like that was a big deal, a big effing deal and then nothing?

you told a kid to jump off something high and you can’t even say “sorry”?!?!

back to the miss jenn love triangle

“I think I’m happy, or gettin’ there”

ricky you don’t have to be there yet it’s okay

that line hit

SEASON 1 OUTFITS

CORE 4 SONG

killer harmonies

sofia giving us that alto rep!!

portwell duet! audition outfits

very good, very very good. this song kinda screams autotune but it still sounds very good. 

last song of the season NOOO but very fitting

Is it just me or does “Second Chance” look like a music video they show in Justice (the teen store) in 2014?

cast bonding yay!

PAUSE THE ONLY SEBLOS MOMENT WE GOT THIS EPISODE WAS A WRIST HOLD?!?!!

DISNEY WTF

LIKE EVERY COUPLE GOT THEIR MOMENT AND ALL THEY GET IS A WRIST HOLD

BFBLBFIWGFSDMBF

shit why does my favorite ship have to be the gay one on a disney show?

east high booing the lily and french boi has me on the floor

“Big Red, you were also in it” BEST LINE OF THE FINALE OMFG

i missed antoine 

sorry carlos has glitter on his face

seb’s smile and wave at north high why am i laughing?

off topic but i have unintentionally started doing the seb wave (you know the one) (with the fingers) in real life.

also gay chair sit

e.j is also doing the gay chair sit 

lily what

you have had like one conversation

ew

she says she likes his face but not his personality? 

im calling bullcrap

pause didn’t lily steal the harness? are we just going to forget about that

probably, the writers did forgot to develop seblos

Let Ricky be single challenge

ANTOINE MY LOVE

REDLYN I LOVE YOU

SHUSH EJ’S SPEECH TIME TO SOB

ummmm

so this season has been for nothing?

all the shit they went through (the self-doubt, relationship problems, the injuries, the death threats) is for nothing?!?

since when does Miss. Jenn not care anymore about the Menkies?!?!

I actually get the kids side of this, but not Miss. Jenn’s. 

I was surprised they took this route with the Menkies, didn’t even cross my mind 

“It was five”

Big Red x medicine 

bet your ass ashlyn would have gotten a nomination best actress

“We got a pizza oven” THE EAST HIGH KIDS ARE COMMITTING ARSON

is mazzara staying for miss jenn? they could do long distance but it doesnt have the best rep in this show

gini

ashlyn is the captain of the portwell ship and nini is her right hand man (or whatever second best is called in sailing)

NINI MAKIN THE DEALS

RICKY WHY ARE YOU CALLING HER

WHYYYYYY

“Will you be my first kiss” smiles

OH MY GOD

WAIT NOTHING

WHAT

OMFG THEY CUT IT LMAO

“this summer is about to get hot” SUMMER SEASON 3?!?!

ANTOINE

OMFG HE BETTER COME BACK

I LOVE ABF

WAIT THATS IT

FWBEGLEWG

THATS IT

hey they ended with andrew barth feldman what more can you ask for?

Thats...it?

Oh wait some cast stuff...brb ima cry. The ending has some very series finale energy...I’m scared. Natalie wouldn’t have done the “buckle up wildcats” if there wasn’t a season 3, right? But the bloopers at the end...

The cast ending was great. “You are the Music in Me” was so heartfelt and I’m a sucker for bloopers.

Wait so no Lily home? It was probably a cut scene. 

If we got Lily home, can we get an album with the cast singing all the BATB songs? 

I have so many mixed feelings about this episode. Here is the thing, if you love the core 4 then this was your episode. If you’re like me and prefer the side leads then this was probably a little disappointing since we barely saw them. This episode felt rushed and a little messy, but there were some great moments. Season 2′s writing has felt a little weird. This season lacked the chaotic theater kid energy season 1 had. It was one of the reasons I fell in love with the show. If/when we get a season 3 I really hope the writers find that energy again.

Let’s all give a round of applause for the cast and crew who filmed majority of the season during a global pandemic. That could not have been easy. They gave us a pretty good season under crazy conditions. They definitely had to change some things to fit the current climate. Overall, hats off the the cast and crew because you guys killed it. 

I’m really going to miss this show, hopefully it gets renewed. It has become a comfort show these past several weeks. My sanity says “no, don’t go” but my sleep schedule says “leave.”

To second chances!!

#disney+ #hsmtmts spoilers #hsmtmts #hsmtmts season 2 #hsm the series #ricky bowen #nini salazar roberts #nina salazar roberts #rini #gina porter #ej caswell #portwell #ashlyn caswell #ashlyn moon caswell #big red #redlyn #seb matthew smith #carlos rodriguez #seblos #kourtney greene #howie #kowie #antoine #lily #miss jenn #mr mazzara #jennzzara #time to cry

[hariosborn]

james potter fic recs!!

lily evans, i see you, hear you, and i respect you... but we’re gonna forget about you for a hot minute

no please don’t say that... by @hello-everyfandom tag yourself, i’m sappy james :(( i just want to attend at least one gryffindor party in my lifetime. thinking of shifting realities :// jkjk i have no free time on my hands :(( but if i ever did, i would for sure visit the marauders and hang out w them in the common room 🥰 hashtag gryffindor pride!

match made by @slytherinquill who is y/n and why does she get all the guys 😔i would hate to have to choose between two boys who like me, but lucky for me no one likes me! as much as it squeezes my heart, i love the fake dating trope with all my heart bc of all the emotions it puts me through - and this one was so well written! love that for the writer, could not be me, i suck at writing <3

too late for love by @futurewriter2000 just the right amount of steam and heartbreak ;( fun fact: i used to only read and write on w**tpad and that was where i read my first hp fanfic after 2 years of being on the app (i had promised myself hp was off limits) and like i was looking on google to see the marauders fancasts and i saw a gif of aaron taylor johnson and i accidentally clicked on it and it took me to a oneshot on this writers page, and i was like “oh well, might as well” and i read it and i was crying and then for a month i was going on incognito tabs to try and read everything on her masterlist and then i caved and got a tumblr and here we are! so shoutout to @futurewriter2000 for being the writer to suck me into this lovely whirlpool that is harry potter fanfiction heehee

numb love by @heloisedaphnebrightmore i love non-cannon stuff because lets face it, my existence is not cannon. but this! this right here! wow! yes! it hurt, but it was worth it! i love how i could still have my own harry potter uni fantasy, but still have it line up with the cannon timeline 🥺

jealous by @writingfortoomanyfandoms short and sweet but dang! my heart did that little b***rflies thingy 😳i think best friend!remus is the best thing ever, and sirius’ little jabs at lovesick james were *muah*

nightmare by @marauder-exe more butterflies! i won’t spoil it - but when the prompt was mentioned (like james used it) i melted onto the floor. i became a puddle of puddy on the floor. i went so soft. i felt like i was in my natural soft girl state. romantic hari was activated :0

summer revelations by @pregnant-piggy YESSS!!! YAAAASSSS!!! SUMMATIIIIME!!! i live in ~la~ and its that kind of nasty hot rn (and during the summer) bc we’re having a heat wave, and i just wish with my entire being, that i could instead spend my summers in the english countryside in a cute french style house with cute boys dancing around their feelings for me. thats the dream right there. y/n has it lucky. i bet she takes that sh*t for granted 😒 jkjk love her! i am her! also i had in mind the exact dress i would be wearing, and bc of the humidity, i’m imagining my curls would be ~activated~ and so my messy bun would just be at peak cuteness <3

pushing the right buttons by @heloisedaphnebrightmore i don’t know why (actually i do) but the word “waist” and the action of “wrapping his arm around your waist” makes me feel something amazing. i’ve learned that my love language is physical touch + affection and this fic has that, and then paired with the idea of someone appreciating my waist just makes my brain go into overdrive. and then shirtless james is obviously a plus as well. 5+ points for that alone. 

uncontrollable wandless magic by @heloisedaphnebrightmore ooo imagine having powers 😏eleven typa beat. (OMG WAIT THE CHARACTER FROM STRANGER THINGS, NOT THE AGE AJKABVKJ)

schemes series!masterlist by @futurewriter2000 OOOO YESSS! this series broke my heart, but like in the best way possible, so its all good. also this fic introduced me to the idea of fantasizing abt mulciber, so i am not complaining. love me some remusxreaderxjamesxreaderxsiriusxreaderxmulciuberxreaderxplatonic!regulusxreader

potter by @mellifluousmalfoy relative of ernie mcmillan??? james potter??? soulmates??? the answer to all of those questions is yes. yes i do. yes i am. yes i is.

a golden lion and the pale blue bird by @remusishotterthansirius im not saying i agree with this authors user, but i a*ree with this authors user. back to the scheduled programming - i love study buddy!remus. like period bestfriend. introduce me to my future mans. you go do that remus. you play matchmaker. go ahead, i give you full permission 😌 

just go by @jamesmydeer i don’t even - i just - when - AGHHH. maybe its like a disease, but i love putting myself through pain via heartbreak stories on tumblr. it gives me a rush. pretending i’m actually in love. its nice ya know? its definitely an obsession, but i think its a healthy one! 

Y’ALL I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DOING MY HOMEWORK BUT I PROCRASTINATED AND MADE THIS LIST! AHHHH

but its okay bc its been a looong time since i made my first post - which also, ty for the nice messages from all the writers mentioned 🥺

hope you liked these recommendations! i’m sorry if you’re a writer and get tagged in like ever single fic rec list i post, i just really like your stuff 🥺

ANYWAYS I HAVE TO GO, I HAVE SO MUCH HOMEWORK TO DO AND SO LITTLE TIME BYEEEEE

happy reading! 

#fic rec #fanfic #imagines #oneshots #writers on tumblr #writing #hp #Harry Potter #james potter #fluff #fic recommendation #recommended reading #marauders au #hp marauders #marauders era #james potter x you #james potter x reader

[trobedficrecs]

One Day She Will Swim with Dolphins 

Fic Rec #1 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/520555 by scioscribe 

There are mature implications in this story if that makes you uncomfortable!

Where do I even begin with this short but remarkable fanfic? One Day She Will Swim with Dolphins focuses on Shirley and is an immaculate character study. The story’s pretty old and was actually written while the show was still on air so I’m not quite sure if the author is active on ao3 or any other social media platform for that matter. I picked this fic as my first review and recommendation because of how much I loved it and because of how rare Shirley fanfic is in the fandom. It’s literally everything I wanted from canon and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I read it. 

The writing style is beautiful and impactful. It’s one of those stories where you feel every gut-wrenching emotion through simple words laid out perfectly by the author and it lingers in your mind long after you’re done reading. 

The writer effortlessly nailed Shirley’s passive-aggressive and judgmental attitude. There is a moment in the fic where Shirley says something off the wall about the stripper Andre cheated with which stays very true to her as a character. It demonstrated her flaws as a person brilliantly in my opinion. 

One of the things I admired about the story is its point. Shirley is more than a wife and is more than a mom. Sure, she is both of those things, but she is so much more than them. Within this story, she’s finally given the depth and emotion that the actual show writers failed to give her. Everything from Shirley leaving Andre for herself (which felt so empowering and moving by the way) to Shirley slowly becoming her own and discovering her worth-- I just loved everything about it. I’m honestly speechless by how well thought out this one-shot was. 

Another thing I was obsessed with was the dynamic between Shirley and Britta!!! They’re definitely one of my favorite duos on the show, so to see it being explored on a deeper level is lovely and satisfying. It hits the core as to why their friendship with one another works and why they’re good for each other. They give the other such an amazing balance and the author showed this well. And ending the story with Shirley hanging with Britta was the absolute best way to do it because it came full circle. We see Shirley finally doing something for herself and shifting from everything she’s “supposed to be” to what she really wants to be! I can’t even put into words how much I adore that conclusion.  

This fic was beautifully and also at times painfully real. It was such a good read and I loved every second of it! 

FAVORITE THING ABOUT THE FIC:

While I loved the whole thing and appreciated the fact that it focused on Shirley, my favorite part was definitely the exploration of Britta and Shirley’s dynamic! Their friendship was beautifully written. I also loved the title because it really shows what the story’s about; Shirley breaking free and becoming her own!

LINES THAT STOOD OUT: 

1. There was a messiness to them that she loved because it seemed more honest than the way Andre had kept buying her scarves and pretty earrings right until he told her he was leaving.

2. She was going to go swimming with dolphins. She was going to scream when she wanted to, shout and holler, and she was going to dance to Chuck Berry in her nightgown, her hands warm around Britta’s, and she was going to keep rocket pops in the freezer. She was going to put up as many pictures of the Lord as she wanted and she was going to hold her head up in church even though she’d left her husband. 

3. Britta didn’t understand why she had left Andre, Britta had never seen that part of Shirley coming, so Britta touched her shoulder with delicate fingers and said, “Did he break your heart, Shirley?”

“No,” Shirley said. “He just didn’t know what to do with it. I do, though.” 

4. They were just so perfect she had to laugh.

DO I RECOMMEND THE STORY: 

Absolutely!! In fact, I highly recommend it!  Especially if you’re a Shirley lover like I am. It’s only 2,902 words long; the story makes its point and hits home with so little time to do so. This fic was so beautiful and powerful. It lives in my head rent-free and I will never forget it! 

END NOTE:

Okay, guys! That was my first review!!! I finally had the nerve to post it. What did you guys think? I can’t wait to read more of your fics and review them- this fandom has such talented writers and I love you all sm. Thank you for reading this if you did! :)

Also, if you want me to review your fic (as long as it revolves around community), inbox me!!! I have a few I’m already doing but I would love more!

All my fic reviews and recs will be under the hashtag trobedficrecs!!! <3

#trobedficrecs #fic rec #fanfiction #shirley-centric #shirley bennett #nbc community #trobed #britta perry #troy barnes #jeff winger #abed nadir #annie edison #andre bennett #dean pelton #craig pelton #god i can't believe i finally posted this #anyway here it is !!

[modlisznik]

002. please feed me your stakh/artemy or stakh&artemy thoughts

ok so stakh&artemy because that’s the vibe rn, let’s goooo

002 | send me a ship and I will tell you:

when or if I started shipping it.

I’m not really shipping them romantically - I’m not against it, there’s definitely ground for some steamy romance (also I’m not immune to that one fic about dumplings), but for now I’m more interested in their friendship. perhaps some hopeless crush when they were still teens and didn’t know what’s going on?

my thoughts:

there’s so much to unpack here - seriously, their relationship is so tragic and messy and tangled in things beyond their control, ahhh, just like in a finest melodrama *cheff’s kiss* I mean, it’s obvious that the reason they’re both so... seething during these first days is that they both care deeply - and feel betrayed; Artemy - because it’s a dreadful think, to realize your friend consider you capable of hurting your own father, responsible for his death, and because this time when Artemy needed help, needed support, when he really could be murdered on the street his best friend turned his back on him. And Stakh - because, well, Artemy not only came back home, but also came back too late.

See, I believe that a lot of the bad blood between them come from the fact that once they were brothers - almost. That is, they were brothers for one another, but not for Isidor, who never really consider Rubin as Artemy’s equal, nor as a student, nor as a family member, despite Rubin wanting to be just that. So I can imagine that a friendly rivalisation between Artemy and Stakh grew into something more vicious and bitter when the latter realized that there are parts of Artemy’s - and Isidor’s - heritage he will never get access to, no matter how hardworking and devoted he is, because with Kin it is always about blood. Was it the moment he started hated the steppe people? he will never become Isidor’s apprentice, he’s just an impostor, Ersher understudy, a spare copy in case of Isidor losing another son. Yet Stakh loved him, and resented him, and he couldn’t hate him - so he turned that hatred towards the Kin and that part of the Kin that was within Artemy

did Artemy know? I think he did; he’s a dumbass sometimes, but other times he’s surprisingly insightful about people and I bet he realized that the way his father is treating his friend is wrong. But Artemy, too, loved his father with the feeling that comes both from his heart and his upbringing; he honoured his father and respected him and was then too immature to openly question Isidor’s actions. was he feeling guilty? ashamed, that he allowed for his father to mistreat his friend? probably

but they both still care, that’s why it hurts so badly, that’s why their fight the night before Tyoma’s departure was so bad. the very fact that Tyoma was leaving was bad enough - it’s a small town from which no one ever leaves, and he was daring to leave, and was leaving his friends behind - but the fact that he was leaving to study medicine in a big city was even worse. but at the same time, Stakh surely knew it was a huge chance for Artemy. How many people could afford that in the Town? And Artemy was gifted, yeah, he deserved that and on some level Stakh probably was happy for his friend. But at the same time, why he deserved that opportunity and Stakh didn't? Artemy already had a future in the Town, a place among his people, something Stakh will never have - why he couldn't be the one to go and learn something different? It's because Artemy will always be the true son of Isidor, and  Stakh will stay here, in this Town where nothing awaits him,for the rest of his life. Trully bound to this land,  like a dog on a leash. And for Artemy, we know that he didn’t really want to go, it was his father’s idea, his wish, and it put Artemy in a situation without a way out - if he’d refuse Isidor’s wish, Stakh would call him a coward and an ungrateful son; if he’d agree, it’d be like admitting that he deserves more than Stakh does. If he'll succeed at the university, Stakh will never forgive him; if h'll fail, Stakh will call him a failure, a wasted chance.

I can imagine Stakh years later, watching Isidor sending a letter after letter with no reply, and sinking deeper and deeper into darkest thoughts. That Artemy doesn't care, that he forgot, now a big city doctor, he considers himself better than his old father from the backend of nowhere. And that Isidor still trusts him more, indifferent to all sacrifices Stakh makes for him

What makes me happy about them:

that after all that ^^^^^ they care!!! And given a little time and dedication, they can mend their friendship, now more mature, despite both of them acting anything but mature. I love how passionate, how real their dialogues feel - full of little jabs - all members of the apple basket gang love to bully their friends, and rightfully so. also they gave us “Rubin is an idiot”, which is the single best line in both Patho games, full stop. you can just taste Tyoma’s frustration here

What makes me sad about them:

it’s that particular brand of disfunctional family dynamics where there’s nothing as obvious as physical violence, but a heavy, suffocating atmosphere of painful truths left unspoken, accusations swallowed up, teeth gritted, little wounds left to fester for too long. and still, they both loved Isidor and each other - it wouldn’t hurt so bad otherwise

Things done in fanfic that annoys me:

a personal peet peeve, but I don’t like when Stakh’s bigotry is being explained as a form of internalized racism coming from him also being of mixed heritage. it makes his character look too much like Artemy at the cost of what’s unique about him. idk, I just don’t vibe with it

Things I look for in fanfic:

friendly bickering. healthy-and-unhealthy rivalry. innocent remark erupting into a big fight because they’re both hot-tempered and won’t hold back. Kids shenanigans. heavy conversations at 3 in the morning, when they both realize that their childhood was kind of messed up. more fights

My kinks:

both of them geting therapy and a big bowl of soup

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other:

as you know, I’m a huge burakhovsky shipper, so Artemy’s already taken... I have a soft spot for Stakh/Andrey, especially during Artemy’s absence; it’s not the healthiest of ship, a lot of unspoken anger here, but I know the writer who can make it work (;* Max, if you’re reading this, ;*)

My happily ever after for them:

Stakh being a grumpy uncle to Murky and Sticky is the ultimate endgame. also Tyoma and Stakh learning from one another. Stakh and Tyoma's bickering that starts with grunts and frustrated huffs and sharp remarks that may seem out of the line to a bystander, and ends either in both of them crying from laughter, or in a mock-fight (which can be a sight to behold)

jesus christ, this is a lot of text

#domirine #@domirine #pathologic #pathologic 2 #sorry for taking so long... there are lot of feelings here #as you can guess #thank you for the opportunity to write some of them down #also it's obligatory for me to say that Isidor can fuck right off #long post

[the-lightning-strikes-again]

Hi! I just started reading your fan-fiction, "Adrenaline Rush" and I have to say it is VERY good. I have a question if you don't mind answering it. I am writing fan-fiction of my own and I have been pushing it off for months because I don't know where to start. For this, what was your writing process? Example: Did you write your plot first or did you write as you went to each chapter?

Hi, anon! Thanks for your very kind note and interest in Adrenaline Rush! The story has its issues/tangles, but it’s definitely been a fun and personally meaningful project for me to try writing. It means a lot to hear that you’re enjoying it! And that’s very exciting that you want to start writing as well. :)

Each writer will be different in terms of their creative process, so a part of your question involves learning more about yourself as a creator too! It’s good to know how your brain likes to work and what environment helps it hum along, which may or may not align with what works for me.

Honestly, AR’s design and development has been haphazard. For me, AR all started because I was unable to attend a nearby drag racing competition in 2018, and those races had been a pretty big staple in my life. At the same time, my head was full of Voltron shenanigans because I’d just recently joined the fandom. I was walking the family puppy when it hit me that Blue Lion, Red Lion, etc. would be good names for Top Fuel machines. I was so excited at the concept of exploring drag racing in a fic. It gave me a “race” to look forward to, along with all the drama and adrenaline that came with it. In that moment, I had enough excitement in my brain to convert the Potential Energy of my idea into the real Kinetic Energy of writing/typing.

If you have the energy but are not sure how to “start” your story, then you might consider what it means to set aside the opening or even the assumed first chapter for now. What scene/image/dialogue in your head do you really want to write right now? What happens if you just…start there, and then work backwards or forwards? Sometimes you have to get a feel for the medium you’re working with before you can really start molding the scenes and imagery into something fully formed. My first “scene” I wrote for AR was definitely not the opening one. The first story lines I wrote involved Lotor smoking a cigarette on a pro stock motorcycle, lol. I built around that image, as well as the image of a determined Allura sitting in Blue Lion, preparing to race. The desire to bring these characters and their racing machines to life really helped me hammer out that first chapter in a blur of a few days, where I puzzle-pieced scenes together. 

Other activities that can help you start a story is to look at how other authors start their stories. For example, do they start with a question, or a conversation, or a description of scenery? Do they start at the very beginning of a plot, or in the middle of action and catch you up on the details later? What kind of opening in other people’s stories most engages you? What happens to your story if you start with one element over another? What kinds of plots and story structures make you feel most engaged when you read them? What happens when you try to emulate those things? (Just questions to munch on here.)

I think it also helps to ask yourself why you want to write this story. Do you just want to explore an aesthetic that makes you feel good? Do you have a deep need to explore a certain kind of character or world? Are you hoping to get a catharsis of some kind? Is it a couple of things at once? Are you wanting to write a massive epic or just a short drabble to convey a moment in time? If you know “why” you are doing something, that can help you to know what kind of scenes to write—and what the story’s goal or vibe should be. Silly plot holes and clunky dialogue and some OOCness can be forgiven, especially in fanfic, which is a labor of love anyway—but if your story radically changes its tune or plot and no longer addresses the “why” that made you so excited in the first place, then that can alienate even you from it. Once you know what you want out of your story, then you can start plotting out all the different ways you could potentially achieve that goal. This feeds directly into the types of scenes that appear in a first chapter.

Before I started writing any actual scenes for AR, I did try to feel out more of the story by writing a promotional blurb. Like, if this were a book jacket or a Goodreads summary, what would that enticing blurb potentially look like? What was this story going to be about, aside from Lotor and Allura being pretty while they race machines, lol? I had some people in a discord who were kind enough to let me “pitch” a blurb at them to see if it would be of interest. This was my original pitch, which isn’t terribly different from the story summary as it appears on AO3 today:

The discord members were very encouraging, and so that gave me the push I needed to start writing story content, beginning with the images of Lotor smoking on his bike and Allura preparing to qualify. This tactic might not be for everyone just starting out, but writing a short promotional blurb/story summary can help you identify some initial parameters in terms of characters/conflict/setting. Having those basic parameters can then further target the types of images, dialogue, and scenes that make logical sense for introducing your story.  

If you need more structure than just free-form writing or building off an image in your head, you can definitely use an outline to help you identify scenes or images that you’d like to try working on. While AR did not start off with an outline, it does have a plot outline now to help ensure I don’t drop something important. So I started bulleting ideas, trying to stretch out the story summary to its natural/logical end point.

An outline can help you write linearly if clear, concrete structure resonates with your brain. It can give you an opportunity to “preview” how a chapter opening can affect future events before you even write them, if you’re worried about where free-form-writing can take you. If you want to use an outline, it doesn’t even have to be all that elaborate. It can just be bullet points or explanatory sentences, or pieces of dialogue. It can be notes on a poster arranged in a spider web design. It can be a collection of gifs on your computer that signify the emotions you want to simulate in the story—it can be literally anything, and it can evolve too.

Paradoxically, writing an outline has also helped me move away from having to write individual chapters in a linear fashion, which is sometimes hard for me to do over a long course of time. So readers on AO3 might experience AR as a linear story, but I have dozens of pages of future scenes or bits of dialogue that I felt inspired to write over the last few years. Like, one major scene appearing in the most recent chapter 9, which published here in January 2021—it’s been written since July of 2019, lol. Using an outline to tackle a story can empower you to follow your bliss in a nonlinear fashion. For example, sometimes I’m more in a mood to write racing, and other times, I’m more emotionally invested in writing AR’s background drama or romance. If I halfway know where I’m going based on my outline, I can switch gears to write what I immediately want to write, and then I can later sew scenes and dialogue together later in a fairly smooth fashion.The concept of writing a chapter straight from start to finish just doesn’t have to constrain me with this method, and that’s critical for me. I understand having to trudge through writer’s block for a particular scene, but I like to minimize that pain as much as possible. And sometimes moving beyond that point can remove the writer’s block entirely.

Admittedly, the original outline I wrote for AR doesn’t match 1:1 to what’s currently written. As I started actually writing out scenes correlating to those bullet points on my outline, things changed. The space between bullet point 1 and bullet point 2 expanded with additional scenes, and those additions changed the details in the original bullet point 2. So my outline has gone through several tweaks as well.

This is the “organic” slop that can occur between your true written product and your initial assumptions for where the story should go. There are going to be plot milestones that you likely have to hit in order to achieve your end-goal/correct vibe with the story, but it’s totally okay to let your characters have a voice in how they get there. You might start an outline or a story assuming Road Trip A through the city is the best way to get to the end or achieve a certain vibe, but as your characters grow in your head, they might decide for themselves that Road Trip B through the mountains is the best way to the end. Once you set a story in motion, it’s no longer just you driving it. Your characters should drive the story too. Allowing them to do that will keep you emotionally invested and interested in the story. Sometimes, your characters will even write for you if you don’t know what to write. Honestly, I’m not entirely sure I’m in control of AR—I suppose I’m the navigator with a map sitting in the passenger seat, but I know I’m not the one holding the wheel, LOL.

And while we all do hope to create something quality that we’re immensely proud of, I do think it’s important to keep G.K. Chesterton’s thought in mind: “If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.” In other words, the desire to create something immediately perfect with minimal effort can keep you from doing anything at all. It’s better to accept a messy first draft and to know you may have to revise later, than to sit in fear and end up writing nothing. And sometimes, your brain needs physical content to react to before you feel you’ve found the best option. Like, just getting content down to start with can change your whole perspective. You can revise and mold things as you get a better feel for what you want to convey. There’s always draft 2 for structural changes. Or draft 3 or 4 for polishing and getting a satisfying first sentence down. There’s no pressure to crank out a Pulitzer Prize Winner on a first draft or even after you publish something to a fanfic archive. This is fanfic. It’s supposed to be fun, at the end of the day. Let yourself enjoy the process of messy creation. Let your characters help you out. Don’t be afraid to revise or try out a few different things get to the vibe/end you really want. To do is to know.

If you’re still not confident in yourself or your abilities to make a critical design decision, you can always engage a beta reader or have someone listen to your ideas. Talking things out loud or reading your work out loud to yourself can help you process creative decisions in a new way! There’s also a significant difference between typing on a computer or writing things down on paper. Typing on a computer can take away the fear of permanence, while writing things down on paper can slow you down and make you experience each word more fully.

So I guess to wrap all of this up: I have a pretty fluid process, and I’m more worried about not creating at all than I am about screwing it up. Even a screwed-up work can teach you something and help you get somewhere better next time. And if you had fun making it, then maybe it wasn’t a screw-up at all! I really encourage you to soul-search on what gives you joy or excitement regarding this fic idea you have, and to hold on tight to that joy as you begin translating images in your head or outlining plot points, or something in between.

I hope something from this response helps you! <3

#Voltron #VLD #Adrenaline Rush #Fanfiction #Fanfiction writing #writing #writers of tumblr #writeblr #lightning rambles #it's hard to know how to start something #but it can be rewarding to jump into the challenge #I believe you can do it! #Best of luck on your first steps with writing fic!

[writingwife-83]

My 2020 Sherlolly Self Interview

Thanks for organizing this fun activity @sherlollyappreciationweek! 🎉 I’ll start out with a very brief “about me” section-

I live in the northeast area of the USA, I’ve been married for seventeen years, have one teenage son, and I’m in my *gulp* late thirties now. I do volunteer ministry work and also work part time from home. Among other leisure activities, obviously I love writing! I started writing original fiction when I was a preteen, but I’ve been writing fanfic under the pen name “writingwife83” for over six years now. I discovered fanfic and the world of online fandom after becoming obsessed with BBC Sherlock in 2014 after s3 aired. I read The Full House, fell in love with the whole concept of fanfic, specifically for sherlolly, and couldn’t help but give it a go myself. And as they say, the rest is history!

Below the cut I’ll talk about some of the topics and fics suggested by followers/readers. Buckle up cuz it’s a lot lol...

Ok, first up to be kind enough to give me some feedback is @readstoomuch. You said- “what inspires you. Any story (I love them all!). Who do you love writing? Who is hardest for you? And which is that one story that you had fun doing?”

As for what inspires me, first and foremost it’s the show and characters itself. Watching those two on screen, it’s not hard to be inspired! But beyond that, I find a lot of inspiration in music and art, and just generally in other creative works and people. I think for a while I had my own internal inspiration and no lack of it, but as months dragged into years lol, I have found that the rest of the shippers are invaluable in filling the gaps when I lack inspiration and motivation. Some prompts I’ve gotten from others have taken on a life I never would have expected, and that’s pretty great. I honestly don’t think writing works best as a purely solitary activity. I know myself and although there is an aspect of my writing that will always be “for me,” that’s absolutely not all it is. It’s the fun of creating with others and it’s the fun of sharing with others.

As for who I love writing and who’s hardest, I think I’ve always felt pretty comfortable writing the main characters in Sherlock. I probably especially love writing Sherlock himself because he’s fun to break down and really dig deep into his emotions and thought processes. There have definitely been times some of the side characters have overwhelmed me and made me nervous about conveying their voices accurately. For instance, Mycroft can be tough if it involves pulling him out of his shell in a way that still feels believable and true to character.

That one story I had fun doing? Well there’s no way I can say just one. 😆 As far as reader response, there’s no other fic that can compare to the fun of I Told You So, that’s for sure. But as far as the actual plotting and creating, I think the fics I’ve had the most fun with are the multi-chapters I’ve done since becoming good friends with @thisisartbylexie. Having her as a sounding board, plotting buddy, and editor has absolutely increased my creating fun and has definitely also made me a better writer.

Thanks so much for asking @readstoomuch 🥰

Alrighty, @thisisartbylexie, you asked- if there's a fic that you ever wanted to go back to change in some way, which one would it be and why? Which one do you feel "oh wow, did I write that?" in a super positive way?

Idk how to choose just one fic. There are plenty that could use some changing lol! One I’d like to fix though, would be Pleased to Meet You. I know (because I’ve been told) that there’s inaccuracies in that one seeing as I’m not personally familiar with university settings in the UK. I did actually attempt research and I thought I got the idea, but apparently it didn’t work out terribly well. But the plotting and progression of that fic is one I’ve always been happy with, so I guess I feel like it’s a shame if it came off messy in some general ways and distracted from the rest of it. I like how I was able to weave that one into the canon of the show up to that point. And tbh it actually still fits as a uni backstory for them without any conflicts to the canon. As much as I enjoy canon divergence and AU, I also have a big soft spot for fics that simply connect seamlessly to what we’ve already been given.

As for “oh wow, did I write that?” I think one of my proudest accomplishments has been Zephyr. That fic kinda has it all lol. The tropes, the pining, the romance, the Victorian setting...ugh I love it. And there’s a climactic kiss moment in that fic that’s one of my faves I’ve written. I’m so glad I wrote it because of the Sherlolly Remix Challenge in ‘16, and at your suggestion, Lexie. But I will also be forever sad that I had to release that fic all at once on AO3 once completed. That fic would have been great fun to be writing and posting as I went along! And on top of being happy with the fic itself and how it came out, I’m awfully proud of the fact that you were excited enough about the fic to illustrate it, and that @goodshipsherlolly enjoyed it enough to record it as an audio fic. Honestly, what more could a writer ask for? 🥺

@mizjoely, you said you’d like to hear anything about The Queen’s Man. Okey doke, you got it lol!

I actually went back and read through most of that fic when I got this because it had been a long time since I’d looked at it. I gotta be honest that in hindsight...I’m a little surprised it did as well as it did.😂🙈 As some may remember, it started because I saw a magnificent manip and wanted to write something to go with it, and then because that was well received, somehow it just kept going. I did very little world building and development of characters in that fic. It was largely just one shippy, romantic, pining scene after another lol. At the end I did kinda tie it all in and wrapped the story up ok, but it was definitely one of those self indulgent fics where I didn’t feel like doing the hard parts and really just wanted to write the fun stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I loved writing it, and I’m so glad it got the positive reception that it did! But it just kinda makes me laugh because it goes to show sometimes you don’t know what’s going to do really well. You could agonize over clever plotting and world building and character development etc, and be so super proud of the finished product and all your hard work, but then you share and the response is like “meh.” And then other times you legit just throw something together with barely any careful thought, and the crowd goes wild! But aside from all that, the visuals in my head of that AU are just too drool worthy to me. Molly in Medieval royal attire? Sherlock in dark armor with a Purple Tunic of Sex™️ underneath? The two of them lingering in the dimly lit hallways and rooms of a castle and gazing endlessly in mutual pining? Yes to all.

Thanks for asking @mizjoely 😘

Ok wow, see what I mean? That was long! 🤣 If you read all the way through this whole thing, *Moriarty voice* thank you...bless you. Honestly, this ship is amazing and I don’t think I’ll ever have a writing experience anywhere else like I’ve had here. I’ve seen the other side of things in another fandom now, so I can all the more so confirm that there’s no ship quite like sherlolly. The warmth, reception, and longevity is mind blowing and I’m just awfully happy to have played a part in creating for the beauty that is Sherlock Holmes and Molly Hooper. 💕

#sherlolly #sherlollyselfinterview20 #I spent too much time on this lol #hope some of you enjoy reading it! #I hope I remembered to link everything #there were lots of links to be added lol

[zwritesstuff]

Writing a First Draft

I’ve seen a lot of advice posts that encourage writing a “bad” first draft, or saying that the point of the first draft isn’t to be “good” just to be done, but I have yet to see any examples of what that actually means (which is unfortunate because for a lot of first-time writers that may just mean that their best effort on a first draft isn’t “good enough”), so that’s what I’m here for! The ultimate advocate of ugly writing, babey! Let’s write some “bad” first drafts!!

Forewarning that this is going to be difficult for you perfectionists out there (same hat tho!!!), but really, if you’re looking to finish a first draft within a reasonable time frame (and not continue to rewrite the beginning 50 times to get there, only to be disappointed when the next scenes aren’t as “good” as the beginning), then this really is the way to go. Perfectionism comes in super handy in later drafts, but it’s a real burden in the first draft, and I really really relate to that. What I find that helps keep my perfectionism in check while I’m drafting is to keep a separate Word doc open (or a notebook and pen at hand) to jot down new ideas or things that have changed throughout the draft. Putting a page number down next to the notation will save your life as well. Your future self will thank you!

Okay, so let’s get into it! You have an idea, and you need to get that first draft out before you lose motivation or move on to a shiny new WIP idea. What’s that first draft going to look like?

Write the scenes you’re excited about first. If you’re someone who, like myself, needs to write things in chronological order, then write these scenes in chronological order - but! if you have the conclusion figured out, then write it now, yes, even before that one bit in the middle you’re not sure about. Is it likely that some details in these scenes will change as you keep writing different parts of the book? Yes! Do it anyway! Anything you write will be helpful for later drafts, so write those scenes!!! Plus, if you start with what you’re excited about, you’ll want to keep writing even after they’re finished, because your brain will just keep generating other super cool ideas for those in-between scenes. And yeah, there will definitely be filler scenes to write, but you can probably worry about those in the next draft.

If you’re on a roll, don’t worry about punctuation, grammar, or spelling. I mean it! If those red squiggles in Word bother you, turn them off (they’re really only semi-helpful for editing, and we’re not doing that right now). If you write faster and think better using “internet grammar” (minimal/excessive punctuation, no capitalization, weird spelling, etc.), then do that! If it helps you get words on the page, it’s worth doing.

If you’re not on a roll, try putting some space between what you’ve written and what you need to write. For me, that frequently means hitting enter (even mid-sentence if I suddenly get stuck), typing “monkey,” and then hitting enter again, as many times as it takes for my brain to reboot and remember what the hell I was going for. If that means I have a chain of 20 monkeys in the middle of a paragraph, so be it. They get to hang out there until I come back in draft two and delete them. 

I’ve also written “uhhhhhh” and “oh fuck now what” several times in a first draft. It happens. It’s easier to write in a way that mirrors your thought process, so just do what works. Use memes in your prose to keep it moving - it’ll make future you laugh when you go back through on draft two!

Don’t be afraid to change major pieces of plot - but don’t you dare go back and rewrite earlier pieces to match! Let’s say you’re at the end of act one and you revealed some tragic detail about your MC’s backstory, but now you’re in the middle of act two and you’ve realized that it no longer fits your idea of MC and you no longer want it to be true. Simply make a brief note of it and keep writing like that scene in act one never happened. Deleting, rewriting, and repurposing are all for later drafts! The goal on the first draft is literally just to reach the end - and it’s inevitable that you’ll find and change the story along the way.

Forget about foreshadowing. No matter how detailed of an outliner you are, the fact is that in the first draft you really don’t actually know what’s going to happen yet in your book (see point 5). So forget about trying to foreshadow. Spell out what’s happening plain as day - because the first draft is just one long exposition dump to aide you in future drafts. If you get halfway through and a sudden twist or weird piece of backstory jumps out at you, write it in as if you had foreshadowed, even though you haven’t yet. Make a note of it, and maybe even note where you could foreshadow this in the next few drafts, but keep moving forward. 

Changing perspectives is fine even if it goes against how you know you want your final draft to be. If you have a scene in mind that you know you need to include, but you have no idea how MC would react during it, but you know how your side character would react, write the scene from the side character’s perspective. You can think about MC’s POV in that scene later - again, the point is just to get it written, so if switching POVs gets you through the scene, do it.

Ultimately, this is what people mean when they say your first draft is going to be “ugly.” It’s going to be a little (or a lot) messy. But that’s okay. The struggle of the beginning writer is realizing that your first draft is not going to look like anything you’ve read before - because those are final drafts. And to the gifted writers who breezed through school (like I did) by submitting their first draft essays for grading - that’s not going to work here. Every time you rewrite a piece, it gets better. If you try to make your first draft perfect, you will just end up frustrated and disappointed at the time you wasted, because you’ll end up reworking 80% of it or more in the subsequent drafts. Your writing style will change and improve, and your knowledge will grow, and every time you revisit a draft, that will be reflected.

So write that ugly draft. Insert so many author’s notes mid-paragraph that you look like an early 2000s fanfic writer. Contradict previous scenes like you’re constructing the most elaborate Winchester Mystery House -esque draft the world has ever seen, complete with paragraphs that lead to nowhere and mysterious monkey chains cutting sentences in half. 

And then, in the second draft, make it look as though the first draft never happened.

#writing advice #writeblr advice #first draft #first draft advice #nanowrimo #i feel like this is appropriate for nano #mine

[accio-the-force]

AO3 Fanfic Stats

Thank you for the tag @tomatobookworm :) 

I joined AO3 in 2013 for another fandom, but posted my first AoS fic in Febeuary 2016. I’ve posted 48 works to date (47 of which are for AoS). 

What are your five most popular works of all time? (starting with the most kudos)

clothes make the man (233 kudos) - Dousy

never meet your heroes (142 kudos) - Dousy / Huntingbird

brief experiments (126 kudos)- Multiple/Drabble collection

time after time (118 kudos)- Dousy

stand by me (113 kudos)- Dousy

* Honorable Mention to Meet Cute: A Team Engineering Group Writing Project, which has 616 kudos, but considering it was a collaboration, I’ve excluded it!

Also, Dousy was the best thing to come out of 2020 and really has pumped up my stats 😂

What are your five least popular works? (starting with the least kudos)

don't go breaking my heart (10 kudos)- Simmorse

dreaming of a white christmas (10 kudos) - Fitzsimmons*

playing dirty (15 kudos) - Huntingbird

building castles in the air (16 kudos) - Scis & Spies

it's on like donkey kong (17 kudos) - Quakerider

* Just posted yesterday!

Are you surprised about any of these lists?

Not really! Two things stick out to me:

Dousy fans are the absolute best and roared into the fandom with so much enthusiam! It was some of the most inspired I’ve ever been writing!

I haven’t posted a ton since the show ended but I’ve noticed that hits and kudos are way down across the board, even for “bigger” ships like Fitzsimmons. This isn’t exactly surprising-- I’d expect the fandom to shrink post finale, but it does make me a little sad! 

Optional, if you want to calculate it (remember that ao3 will count all the words in a multichap towards the year it is completed, regardless of how much was actually posted that year): How many words did you publish in 2020?

AO3 says 32k. But when I subtract words from prior years, looks like I wrote 24.5k words in 2020, which is actually a lot of words for me! (shout out to Earth vs. Space and the final season for inspiring me!).

What’s a favorite fic you published this year?

A couple fics stick out to me as favorites for different reasons

clothes make the man: I was super proud of this fic concept-- it played with a gap in canon and some of the spec parts of the fic were off, it was super fun to write and felt very in character, which is always my goal!

time after time: was a super messy spec fic that I rushed to finish/post because I was convinced that Dousy would kiss during the time loops and I wanted it on the record for posterity!

But I think my absolute favorite might be and yet...! I’ve wanted to write a Set It Up inspired fic for a while now and while I still didn’t have the energy for a full AU, I did manage to write a fun Fitzsimmons season 1 AU I love using one of my favorite quotes from the movie. It had also been sitting unfinished for like a year and half, so I’m super proud I finally posted it!

How do you feel like you’ve improved as a writer this year?

I’m not sure I did 😂

What is something new you did writing-wise in the past year? (new fandom, pairing, setting, genre, collab, etc)

I actually pushed myself quite a bit this year. I wrote full length fics for 3 new ships, including 2 rarepairs (Scis & Spies and Simmorse) that were pretty far outside of my comfort zone!

What is something writing-related you would like to try in the future? (check back at the end of the year and see if you did it!)

I started my first longfic (dousy!) last year (behind the scenes!) and I’d really like to finish it in 2021!

Today’s date, so you can see how your results might change if you do this again in a year.

January 3, 2021

This was a fun way to look back-- I’m not going to tag anyone, but definitely recommend!

#personal #ao3 stats #dousy #fitzsimmons #lauren rambles #tag game

[sugawara-sweetheart]

hey! how did you grow your account?

hi!! okay so i’m gonna try my best to answer this but in all honestly i really don’t know. i made this account expecting it to be mediocre at best because it’s been quite a break since i last wrote fanfic so i didn’t expect this. i’ll try and give you the best advice tho!!

okay first for new accounts you need to show up in tags which is hard. @tetsuwhore told me that usually your content starts showing up when you post/reblog 100 times, like 100 posts and follow 100 accounts so i definitely tried to do that asap. also don’t get motivated if it seems like nobody is reading your work- sometimes it takes a bit of time to pick up but it definitely will!!!

use lots of tags- like haikyuu fic, haikyuu headcanons, character x reader etc. just fill them up

post regularly- i think i post pretty much everyday which can be a lot so you don’t need to do that much. as long as you have a regular posting schedule i think that helps?

be kind and interactive- i waffle loads in my replies but that’s because i like interacting with my followers and you want to show your blog is a welcoming space! idk if this is just me but i get ‘vibes’?? from writers- if a writer’s replies to their anons are kinda rude or short/abrupt/careless it kinda puts me off them? bc like it costs nothing to just treat someone nice

make your account pretty and organised- the organised bit is more important tbh but make a masterlist or navigation and pin it to your blog or put it in your description? or tag your work properly so people can find your work easily- i used to read a lot of hq content for about a month before i started writing and the blogs i liked and visited often were organised and generally had nice themes. if a blog was messy or it was hard to find their work i would literally just be like 👀imma head out now

have a decent standard to your writing- okay this is going to sound harsh but your writing needs to be good to a certain degree i guess? you don’t have to be amazing or accurate cause you can write how you want (i don’t use caps for example lol) but make sure your spelling and grammar is correct at least because for me that puts me off lol

be original!! since i started my fuck marry kill event my followings started to grow super quick because it was something original and specific to my blog so try to come up with your own niche! @ceo-of-daichi is known for her daichi content, @scorpiosanssexy is known for her astrology, @super-noya writes amazing song fics and has an amazing folklore series and i noticed @dinosaurtsukki for her super cool buzzfeed unsolved au. nobody wants to read the same hcs or fics they’ve read from every other author lol, they want to see what makes you stand out!

which makes me also say dont plagiarise or do anything that’ll make enemies lol. nothing makes you lose popularity quicker than a bad rep. so just be good to people on here and don’t do anything wrong like plagiarise or hate on people etc

be patient- sometimes it’ll take time before things pick up but you’ll never grow if you quit too quickly. just keep at it- whether there’s 10 people or 100 people who enjoy your work it’s worth it and of course the main thing is that you enjoy it!

make friends!! this is less specific to growing your account but probably helps? haikyuu writing side of tumblr is filled with such kind lovely people and it really is a community!! so many writers have discord servers which they’d be happy for you to join so i definitely suggest joining any that come along your way. also interact with your mutuals!! send them cute messages, play tag games or just start a conversation with them! but don’t just make friends with writers for the sake of using them to grow your account that’s a bit mean :((

i really wish you the best of luck with your account and hope it works out for you!!💗

#sweetheart gives advice #i hope this really does help #and is good advice lol #i dont actually know what im doing tbh #interacting #anon