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pikawrites · 1 year

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okay i'm bored, it's a holiday so i'm going to do this one by one.

an extensive list! read while watching.

“idk just read it” or any of the sort: i agree. i don’t even put those in my notes.

“defiantly” instead of “definitely”: big pet peeve. if i see any mispellings that are consistent i exit.

masses of tags and character pairings: i agree, but only to a certain extent. some enjoy putting their specific fandom drabbles in one fic, while others prefer using the series function, it really depends? but yea usually if i just see a huge wall of tags i wouldn’t read it unless the kudos : hits ratio is 1:10.

slowburn: i can’t really say anything because i barely read slowburn? but i do agree that if it’s like. five thousand words before the conclusion that’s probably a bit too few words.

the emoji one: i have never seen this in my life. but sometimes when i read chatfics i get to a point where i don’t even recognise or remember certain character’s usernames and stuff like that, so i eventually leave.

using words and phrases that don’t go with the world: if it’s an au, i totally get it, because if your character is in a modern era they would probably talk in modern language and not like…shakespearean language. but if not, even when i’m writing i like to stick as close to canon as possible. same goes for worldbuilding and facts or information that are readily available to me, i.e. poképuff flavours

bad writing and spelling errors: sometimes if i’m lazy i would put the fic there first then go and edit later, and i’d state that i would edit it later. but i’d never say idc, at some point if i look at my fic and i see so many spelling and grammatical errors i myself would cringe too.

false complete fic: i hate this. i hate authors that do this. i would never do this, unless i suddenly change my mind one day. even so, i’d probably only change it once at put a question mark there if i’m unsure of how many chapters a fic i’m writing would have in the future. i don’t plan, i’m a spontaneous writer, then i edit and edit until it’s satisfactory to put onto ao3.

multifandom oneshots: i am ashamed to say i used to do this. never again. if you catch me doing this it’s not me.

misspelling character names: get out.

no capitalisation of names: if i’m writing my personal thoughts i won’t capitalise, but in the actual story itself i would capitalise.

no reader engagement: i don’t really agree with this one. everybody wants reader engagement, why would you click out just because the author is simply asking you to let them know your thoughts on this fic, like what can be improved, what worked and what didn’t, etc. can someone explain this one to me?

second person pov: lmao. read and choose your ending stories, probably. but, i don’t see why this couldn’t be used as an interactive story to engage your readers. unless it’s that, i agree with this statement.

first person pov: for some reason i can only tolerate first person pov in irl books. if im on ao3 and i find out it’s in first person i immediately press the back button.

wall of text: yeah. pet peeve. big one.

lack of text: also pet peeve. stop making me scroll i just want to read the goddamn story.

rpf: never read.

summaries that are exaggerated: i mean, it is supposed to be a summary after all, you’re supposed to shorten or summarise what happens instead of giving yet another wall of text for the reader to go through before they get to your main wall of text.

‘or [insert basic summary]’: i disagree. some of these authors are funny enough to do a punchline here, why wouldn’t they? (i’ve never seen anybody use it for overselling or undersummarising, so…but maybe it’s just me.)

author’s note summary: i like to say this first or give my personal thoughts before i summarise the story below. it’s like a nice anecdote, y’know?

the self deprecation thing: i’m guilty, i still do it sometimes. yes, some of us still do this because the insecurity in us sometimes takes over the passion to write and be confident in our writing. although we may not be confident, we may still want to put it up to see if the reception is good or not, although i do agree that putting those kinds of things in the tags is kind of…not good for the engagement of your fic. recently, i’ve also been trying to take more pride in my work and getting to say fewer words of self-deprecation. it takes time, and a lot of new authors struggle with this because they’re inexperienced or don’t know how to write and are just experimenting. some of these authors don’t know how to tag.

bragging word count: some authors are in the dark about exactly how long a chapter should be, and it really varies for everyone as well. some authors feel like they should be catering to the majority audience, they feel obliged to reach thaat word count because if not they would feel like their story is not worth the read. let me turn the question around and ask you something––if you were to see a chapter or a drabble with less than a thousand words, would you click on it? drabble authors do this quite often; collecting multiple drabbles that they’ve written and simply dumping all of them into one chapter. because they feel the need to cater to the masses, who undoubtedly, enjoy longer chapters that are over two thousand words. it’s not every day you see a kudos top fic with less than a thousand words. if the writing is good,we should celebrate it, right?

what if x happened instead of y: usually this would come after actual summaries, so i’m fine with it.

too many tags: listen here. being funny while tagging is not for the no-nonsense people, but instead for the silly goofies. it’s easy to spot what is expected in the fic vs. being funny, if you can’t stand people in tags being funny that’s like saying tumblr tags should only be used for proper tagging and not being silly goofy. which i know tumblr is famous for their tags being silly goofy. and i totally agree with the bottom statements, it shouldn’t be the whole tag list, maybe ¼ is fine.

mpreg thing: i have. never seen. mpreg fics like that. probably just me.

crossovers with 2198419057139573810 fandoms: listen. some of us have wild ahh imaginations. i personally wouldn’t read it, but i used to write a fic on wattpad that had like a bajillion fandoms. i’m telling you, we don’t do it to please you, we’re doing it to please us. this is our self-indulgence time, so leave us alone.

fancop: yup. agree.

anything that isn’t mine: opposite. for me at least.

friendly reminder: real and true. all of this is my opinion, not factual or anything. highly subjective stuff here.

#pikawrites.txt #these pika thoughts need to pika stop #theres a lot of pika thoughts.#if you're free feel FREE to read through said pika thoughts #ao3 #Youtube

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thatgirlonstage · 3 years

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#I’m going to be a bit of an ass but #so there’s a person I follow on twitter #that I see sigh a lot about lack of content for a certain ship #they don’t follow me but #I have seen their username in the kudos of my fic on that pairing #but no comment #that fic is nearly 15k and one chapter if you got far enough to see the kudos button you can’t possibly have hated it #or i mean I guess you COULD but then why leave kudos #but it just #ugh #that was 15k of the ship you are ALWAYS COMPLAINING ABOUT NOT HAVING ENOUGH CONTENT OF #and you can’t muster up a ‘good job’ or a ‘thanks’?#even if you thought it wasn’t very good you can’t find some bland polite encouragement?#if you’re complaining about lack of content TRY ENCOURAGING THE PEOPLE WHO WANT TO GIVE IT TO YOU #god #I did say I was going to be an ass #I’ve just been... super bummed lately by how little engagement any of my fics seem to get #I’m gonna try and get TWYSILU and WiS wrapped up over the summer but #I’m starting grad school this fall #I may end up taking a year off publishing any of my writing #while I’m busy with that #with how busy I’m likely to be it’s not gonna feel at all worth it I think #not if I’m getting five comments if I’m super lucky #i’d rather just share directly with the handful of people who care enough to actually say something

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luthienebonyx · 3 years

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Fic Writer Interview

I was tagged by @thisbluespirit who has most excellent timing in providing me with this fabulous procrastination tool for talking about writing when I should actually be writing.

Name: Luthien. I’ve been Luthien in online fandom since 1998-ish, but it was also a joke nickname in a group of RL friends before that, which is a long story. But yeah, I’ve been Luthien approximately forever. (Ebonyx is the nickname for my now departed much-loved tuxedo cat, Ebony, if you were wondering. I’m Luthien most places in fandom, but the cat comes with me if Luthien isn’t available as a username.)

Fandoms: I started in Xena: Warrior Princess fandom, and there have been lots of others since. Fandoms that I stayed in for longer than five minutes (and a couple of times for up to five years)/wrote more than one story for include (the ones that I can remember off the top of my head) Harry Potter, the original Battlestar Galactica (1978), Pet Shop of Horrors, Stargate Atlantis, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Lewis, Once Upon a Time, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and, of course (and entirely by accident) Game of Thrones.

Where you post: These days, only on AO3, apart from some small tumblr prompt fills that then end up on AO3. Originally, I posted to mailing lists, and my fic ended up in lots of small, stand-alone archives devoted to a single fandom/pairing/character. Then LJ was where I posted for a long time. Tried ff.net at one point in the early 2000s. We weren’t a good fit. Oh, and I had my own website, too - had to learn html to do that originally.

Most popular one-shot: In terms of kudos, A Night to Remember, which is a Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries PWP. In terms of hits, Plain Jane, a Once Upon a Time canon divergence, which is one of my favourite stories out of everything I’ve ever written. (Also, some of my HP fic back in the day probably would take the prize overall, but it was all posted long before AO3 was a gleam in astolat’s eye. In Whisky Veritas, one of my Snape/Hermione fics, still has a stupid number of hits for something so old. I never know which of my fics are going to be zombie fics, and never quite die, but that one is definitely the biggest zombie of the lot.) So far as my JB fic goes, it’s Beloved and A Doom Unescaped.

Most popular multi-chapter: I actually haven’t written all that many multi-chaptered fics over the years, partly because I often wasn’t well enough to write them, and partly because they were frowned on a lot in the fannish circles I used to move in. That said, The Personal Touch is the most popular multi-chapter fic I’ve ever posted in any fandom, on every metric.

Fic you were nervous to post: Well, every fic. I always feel sick right before I hit the “post” button. But more than usually nervous? I think the first time I posted het I was pretty nervous, because I was a slasher, and there was a much bigger divide then than there is now. I’m usually not that nervous when I first post in a new fandom, though, because I don’t know anyone, I’ve got nothing to lose, and it’s like I can just sneak in, drop the fic, and then run away without being seen. (That was what was supposed to happen with JB. Oops.)

How do you choose your titles? Sometimes they’re song lyrics or quotes from poems or whatever; often they just come to me. I have a very big thick book of quotations for those stories that just don’t WANT to be named. (Sometimes this works really well. I really liked the fit of the title when I finally found the right quote for As Sunlight Drinketh Dew, for example.) I like a title with more than one meaning to it, if I can manage it, or something which points to things being not quite as straightforward as they appear on the surface. My recent Queen’s Thief story was about an eleven-day journey through the mountains, but the fic was called Twelve Days, because the story was actually about the emotional journey the characters were on rather than the physical one, and that didn’t end until they were out of the mountains.

Do you outline? Hahaha. Um, I am definitely what GRRM calls a gardener rather than an architect. I have TRIED to outline, and all that happens is that I end up with scene drafts instead of an outline. My usual method is to just keep a list of bullet points and jot things down as I work them out. Sometimes I’m wrong, and then I argue with myself from bullet point to bullet point. They’re usually in any sort of order, and include details ranging from the main beats of the story to some silly joke or line or reference that I need to remember to include when I get to a later part of the story. I DID write a chronology for both Twelve Days (for obvious reasons) and also for my Yuletide fic, but those were definitely not outlines. No, nuh-uh. (Don’t want to scare my brain by making it think it has to deal with an actual outline.)

(Slightly more) seriously, though, I know the way my writing brain works. It needs to know the skeleton of the story: the general shape of the story, the main beats, where it starts and where it ends. But everything else, the flesh in between the bones, comes out in the writing. If I know too much before I write, the story tends not to work.

Complete: 128, not counting my Yuletide fic, and also not counting various old stories that never made it to AO3.

Do you take prompts? Sometimes. If I’m foolish enough.

In progress: 10 on AO3, but that includes a couple of open-ended collections, plus a couple of WIPs in old fandoms that, realistically, I’m very unlikely to ever return to. There are four JB fics that need finishing, and no, I haven’t forgotten about any of them. I just only have so much energy available for writing. I also still have to finish my JB chill exchange fic - which is what I should be working on right now but hey, there was this meme...

Coming soon: My Yuletide fic, which I obviously can’t talk about yet. I’ll just say that it’s a story I’ve thought about writing for quite a while, and I was thrilled to finally get the chance to do it. And also my JB Chill Exchange fic, which is... well, you’ll see. ;)

Tagging: Fellow procrastinators @robotsdance and @firesign23. Also: @samirant @slipsthrufingers @nire-the-mithridatist @kiraziwrites @sdwolfpup @scoundrels-in-love @schweetheart @woodelf68 @blatheringbluejay and anyone else who wants to do it.

#memes

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sandersstudies · 5 years

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Quirky - Chapter 6

A High School Superhero AU - Sanders Sides

(Will add tag list in a reblog! If I miss you, please let me know ASAP - As always, asks, comments, messages, reblogs, and keysmashes are more than welcome.)

Chapter Seven ->

<- Chapter Five

<<- Chapter One

You can now also find the fic with the same username and title on AO3 :) Fell free to stop by and leave kudos!

***

Logan leaned over the edge of the guardrail to gaze into the ruined city below. He squinted, but without his glasses he couldn’t see much more than the blurry shapes of the buildings. Virgil and Roman were just smudges on the ground, and both vanished from sight as they walked under overhanging beams.

A moment later there was a faint groaning from below which rose suddenly to a roar as one of the massive beams began to slide to one side. Logan felt a cry rising in his throat just as the beam suddenly froze in its path and went lumbering through the air in the other direction and smashing against a building, where it broke and fell to the ground as rubble. A cloud of dust and debris rose so wide that Virgil and Roman were totally hidden from view. Logan turned to look for Mx. Stokes and Mr. Picani, but several other students were already screaming for them

Logan squinted, but there was no chance of seeing to the ground. He started down the stairs as quickly as he could. It was difficult to see where each step ended, so he ran with a guess. He tripped once, but caught himself with a wild flailing of his arms. He could hear the teachers trying to restore calm, and hoped they weren’t watching him. Without his glasses even his quirk was weak. Well, even weaker than usual.

The dust was beginning to settle when Logan reached the bottom of the steps, but it didn’t help much with his blurry vision. The beam had made a depression in one of the buildings, but the other damage was minor. Logan resisted a cough.

“Virgil? Roman?”

A sudden blast of light emerged from the buildings, and Logan saw Virgil’s silhouette (too short to be Roman’s) illuminated for a moment before Roman followed his glowing hand into the open. He was using one arm to shield his mouth and nose, and the other to light his way; he seemed otherwise unharmed.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” he yelled through his arm after two throat-clearing coughs. The dust was settling, and Logan could see Virgil standing between him and Roman. Both boys were so dirty from the settling dust that their blue uniform jackets were now khaki in color. “What the hell did you do?” Roman insisted. He dropped his arm and even through his blurry vision Logan could tell that the other boy looked vaguely shell-shocked.

Virgil was shaking wildly as he tried to gesticulate an answer. “You..you hit the buildi— you knocked down the beam.”

“Knocked down?” Roman yelled. “That thing went flying through the air, you maniac! You could have killed somebody!”

“I saw it,” Logan said.

“Oh, so you’re here now,” Roman said, noticing Logan for the first time. “You didn’t see jack shit without these.” He chucked a blob at Logan, who caught it and looked down to recognize his glasses inside a sphere of Kai’s polypeptide gel. The durable nature of the material made it difficult to break into, but the glasses seemed unharmed

“Logan, what did you see?” Virgil asked.

Logan tried to break through the outer layer of gel to his glasses. “Unfortunately, not much. I was at a height of multiple stories and without my usual lenses. The beam did certainly behave outside the law of gravity. It began to slide downward, and then suddenly jerked upward and into that building.”

“Mess up halfway through trying to crush me, huh?” Roman growled. “The hell kind of quirk do you have?” He was very near Virgil, and had one finger raised as if to jab him.

Virgil was bristling. “Shut up, lightbulb,” he said, still unsteady but no longer stuttering. “I just saved your stupid life.”

“You just better stay out of my way, pipsqueak,” Roman said. “And you.” He reversed his finger to point to Logan. “Don’t lose your damn glasses again, okay?”

Logan didn’t have a moment to come up with a response before he was interrupted by a shout from above. Mr. Picani was almost falling down the stairs, and came to the base out of breath.

“You boys okay?” he asked, hands extended as if prepared to shield them. “Mx. Stokes said that all the safety settings are still in operation, no idea what happened.”

“We’re fi-,” Virgil said.

“We don’t know what happened either,” Roman said over Virgil. “But we got the glasses back. Sir.”

“All that matters is that everybody’s fine,” Mr. Picani insisted, ushering them toward the stairs. “We can replace glasses, but we can’t replace our students.”

Virgil and Roman didn’t speak on the trek back up the stairs, but even without his glasses Logan could see the tension between the two.

“Are you really all right?” he asked Virgil once they’d come out of the building and Roman had jogged a few steps ahead. Mx. Stokes has quelled the students’ panic and was escorting them onto the bus.

“Fine,” Virgil said. “Just real sick of Roman.”

“I can tell you don’t like him very much,” Logan said. He finally ripped his glasses free of their gooey prison and then leaned down in a confidential whisper. “To be completely frank, I share your sentiments.”

Virgil stifled a laugh. “Thanks.”

Mx. Stokes repeated Mr. Picani’s concerns as they got to the bus, and then smiled broadly once they confirmed they were all right.

“You kids will get to play in the zones soon enough,” Mx. Stokes promised, brushing dust off of Virgil’s shoulder. “But I don’t need you guys down there without training.” They checked the boys off their checklist and gave a friendly wave. “Last thing we need is another UA accident!”

Mr. Picani paused outside the bus to say something to the other teacher as Logan and Virgil climbed on. There was only one empty pair of seats left near the front of the bus, and Logan stepped aside in the aisle. Virgil paused, and then slid in first.

“You don’t want the window?” he asked.

“You didn’t seem to like the aisle on the ride here,” Logan said. “Would you like to switch?”

“No, that’s fine.” Virgil shrunk a little and stared out the window. Logan hoped he wasn’t offended. He glanced out the door of the bus. Mx. Stokes was patting Mr. Picani on the shoulder, and the two parted as the bus’ engine started.

Logan wasn’t sure if the other students thought the same, but it was nice to see two professional heros with such a friendship. In the media heroes were often in hot competition, or at the best participated in work-required teams. In the real world, however, Logan had now seen the great Glass pat Mesmerman on the shoulder like an old friend.

He settled against his seat as the bus pulled away. He was tempted to ask Virgil more about what had happened in the Ruins Zone, but wasn’t sure how to begin, so they rode in silence for several minutes as the students behind them babbled about the visit.

“Hey,” Virgil said after a while.

Logan glanced up.

“You have…” Virgil tapped his temple. “Some goo on your glasses, still.”

***

Despite the unanticipated loss of Logan’s glasses and collapse in the Ruins Zone, the class arrived back at UA just as lunch was beginning, and Logan and Virgil were joined by Remigius, who offered them sticks of gum which they refused before he popped three into his own mouth.

“Pretty wild what happened down there,” he said. “I saw that beam go flying. You got your glasses back though, I see.” This last part was to Logan, who nodded. Remy blew a bubble, and there was a moment of pause before it popped. “You must have some quirk, little dude,” he said to Virgil. “Because I know that wasn’t Ro’s handiwork by a long shot.”

Virgil shrunk and laughed stiffly.

“Let’s get in the line before it gets too long,” Logan suggested, and Virgil followed. Remigius had a paper bag in one hand, and split off to seat himself at a table.

“You don’t seem to like Remigius asking too many questions,” Logan said as they waited.

“He’s a fine guy,” Virgil said. “Just...yeah.”

“I understand.”

“Thanks.”

When they filed back into the classroom after lunch, Mr. Picani was writing in large strokes on the board: UA SPORTS FESTIVAL. A few students oohed and ahhed.

“Before you begin your final classes of the day,” Mr. Picani said, “I wanted to remind you all that next week begins the annual sports festival here at UA. I’m sure you’re all familiar with it, but we’ll be going over a few details today and discussing it in more length in your Hero Studies classes this week.”

The UA Sports Festival was televised every year; with the most prestigious hero program in the country, it was hardly surprising that so many people tuned in. Professional heroes and scouts often contacted the school following the festival with early offers for apprenticeships and nominations to high-ranking students.

“Preliminaries will be after lunch on Monday,” Mr. Picani said. “The top forty-two students to complete the preliminaries will pass into the main festival rounds. Remember that not only hero students, but also students in your grade from the support, management, and general courses will be participating. Therefore, no hero suits will be permitted on the field.” Several hands had flown into the air. “Hold your questions for now, as we’re a little short on time,” Mr. Picani said. “But begin thinking about your plans for the festival; as first-year students, you’ll be presented as heroes-in-training to the public for the first time.” He underlined the words he’d written on the board. “I’ll get out of the way of Mx. Talyn for your science class now.”

Logan found that even he had trouble focusing on biology while thinking about the sports festival. He stared at a Bunsen burner on the windowsill and began drawing its component parts absentmindedly in his notebook. He began making lines to start labeling the drawing, and realized that they looked like a sports bracket. He turned the page. He usually enjoyed Mx. Talyn’s lessons, but now he could only hear a vague chattering in the background as he drew a full bracket, beginning with sixteen contenders. Of the forty-two entrants to the first round, only sixteen proceeded on to the one-on-one rounds. Those would be the students to receive the most media attention.

The hero course was divided into two sections, 1-A and 1-B, with 1-A being Logan’s class and both classes containing twenty students. The support, management, and general classes were of the same size and almost equally prestigious, but didn’t focus on hero techniques or quirk use. There were occasionally dramatic underdog stories, like a strong-quirked general student making it into the semifinals, but usually the other classes were trumped by the hero students. Logan tapped his pen against his desk. If classes 1-C through 1-K contained twenty students each as well, then there was a total of 220 students attending UA, and only forty-two slots in the festival.

“Putnett squares are an excellent display for genetic odds,” Mx. Talyn said, drawing a two-by-two chart on the board. “We can see how likely an outcome is using this visual.”

If we’re going to talk odds… Removing other benefits and deficiencies, any individual student had a 19% chance to conquer the preliminaries, and a 7% chance to enter the one-on-one rounds. Logan tried to remember previous years. Hero students were far more likely to pass the preliminaries, but that was no guarantee. He also had no idea about the quality of the second hero class, 1-B, who had the benefit of not losing their homeroom teacher in the first week of the school year. Logan wished he had the previous years’ data in front of him. Making it to the festival would be an excellent initial promotion into his hero career.

Of course, Logan mused, every other student would be thinking the same thing. Virgil was splaying pencil spirals in his notebook, and Roman had spaced out in the direction of the board. Kai’s nose was running again. Logan sporadically took off his glasses to clean them against his shirt.

The rest of the school day was much the same. Students were quiet but unfocused in class, and loud and with a single goal between classes. Roman’s posse sans Roman were an especial contributor.

“My mom remembers seeing Mr. Picani at the festival when I was a baby!” Rafaela announced. “She told me as soon as she heard he was one of our teachers.”

“That’s crazy, Mr. Picani and the other teachers were just like us not so long ago,” Kenny responded.

“That was the year the villain Spite threatened the city,” Kai said. “That was what first made Multiman famous.”

“He’d only just graduated, too,” Rafaela said.

Virgil turned in his seat to stare at Logan. “Sports festival, huh?”

“It’s a great opportunity,” Logan said. “What are you thinking?”

“Thinking I’ll be lucky to make it past the preliminaries.” He swung his feet back and forth under the desk and swiveled to look at the empty seat behind him. “Too bad Terrence is sick, he won’t hear about it.”

“We’ll fill him in tomorrow,” Logan said. “He and I are from the same neighborhood. We walk home together and I can tell him about it.”

“So you won’t be walking with him today, then,” Virgil said.

“Not today, I’ll miss him.”

“Well...I wouldn’t want to replace Terrence or anything, but I’ll walk with you. If you want.”

Logan blinked. It was a kind offer, but Virgil always left the school in the opposite direction; they weren’t from the same neighborhood. “Don’t you go west when school ends?

“Right, nevermind, sorry,” Virgil said. “I was just thinking I could walk you home and then...turn around and go back. It’s silly.”

Logan suspected the arrangement was not for Virgil’s convenience, and supposed that the only alternative motivation was that Virgil enjoyed spending time with Logan. It would be rude to crush his suggestion. “You can’t live too far from school,” he said. “Are you near West Midoriya Hospital?”

“Just a few blocks from there,” Virgil said.

“My mother’s studio is near there,” Logan said. “We could walk to your house and she could come to get me when she leaves work.”

“Oh, you don’t want to come to my place,” Virgil raised his hands defensively.

“Well, you wanted to come to mine.”

“Isn’t that a little out of your way?”

“Not as far out of the way as your walking me home and turning around would be.”

“You got me.”

***

Logan didn’t walk often on the west side of town, so he tried to take in the route Virgil walked by rote, in case he ever needed to find his way again. A text from his mother confirmed she could pick him up at five, so he only regretted he hadn’t put a snack in his backpack in the morning.

He and Virgil had plenty to talk about with the upcoming sports festival, so the subject of the strange event in the Ruins Zone did not come up again, and the walk — longer than Logan’s usual one — did not seem long at all, and they soon arrived at a small brick apartment building. Logan followed Virgil through the lobby and up a flight of stairs, where Virgil let himself into apartment 208.

There were many photos on the walls of the apartment, most of them of Virgil and a women Logan assumed was Virgil’s mother. One recent picture, of Virgil’s middle school graduation, was placed prominently near the front door. The other photos stretched back through Virgil’s childhood. There was one of him staring grumpily at the camera in corduroy overalls and a fresh haircut on his first day of kindergarten, and a photo of the haircut itself; young Virgil’s eyes squinted at the clippers as they sheared off several inches of his dark hair and left behind buzzed sides. There was a photo of his first birthday, his mother crouched over his shoulder to blow out the candle of a cupcake for him. Baby Virgil’s eyes were wide in admiration of the tiny flame, the same color as his lacey birthday dress.

“Ugh, ignore those,” the teenage version of Virgil said to Logan. “My mom sure likes taking photos.” Virgil’s mother looked a lot like her son, with dark hair and a thin but lively face.

“They’re nice,” Logan said. “Thanks again for having me over.”

“It’s no big deal.” Virgil slumped his backpack off next to a coat rack before wandering toward the kitchen. “Do you want, uh...soda?”

“Sure,” Logan said, following. The kitchen connected to a small living room and held a two-chair table with folded leaves. There were two doors across the room, one slightly ajar to reveal part of a bathroom sink and mirror. More photos were on the wall, some of a younger version of Virgil’s mother sans Virgil. Her hair had been longer back then. There were also some of Virgil’s childhood drawings in frames and two pride flags pinned on the closed door, one bisexual and one, smaller and newer, trans.

“Sorry, I don’t host much,” Virgil said. “That’s the bedroom over there, and I sleep on the foldout. That’s about it. Do you want a cream soda or a Hero-Cola?” He squatted in front of the fridge.

“Cream soda,” Logan said. “Thank you.” He glanced back at the photos on the wall, trying to think how to continue the conversation. “What’s your mother like?”

“She’s cool,” Virgil said, getting a Hero-Cola for himself. “She’s just busy. She went back to school and all a couple years ago, so now she studies and writes her management thesis every night after work.” He snapped his soda open with a satisfying crack. “She wants to build a better life for us and all, you know?”

Logan nodded. “She sounds very nice.” He fumbled again for a way to continue the conversation. “My mother is a photographer too.”

“That’s cool,” Virgil said as he sunk into one of the two chair seats. “Do you want to…”

“Sure,” Logan was already moving to sit, and set his backpack on the floor. “Um...is that one yours?” He pointed at the bisexual flag.

“My mom’s,” Virgil said.

“Oh.” Logan’s brief playground romance with Corbin meant he’d never “come out” to his middle school friends, but besides Terrence he wasn’t sure how many of his A-1 classmates had taken the hint yet.

“I’m actually gay,” Virgil said suddenly, shattering Logan’s mental image of strutting into UA wearing a rainbow flag as a cape.

“Oh!” Logan said, so loud that Virgil flinched. “No, that’s great! No, no, I mean, me too!”

“Oh,” Virgil said, quieter and longer than Logan had.

Logan felt heat rising in his ears. “So, about the festival, I think you said you taped last year’s competition?”

“Yeah,” Virgil said, leaping onto this new topic. “On a VHS, can you believe it? Surprised the machine even still works. Want to watch it?”

“I was just thinking today how helpful it would be for my notes if I could analyze previous competitions.” Logan reached into his backpack and fumbled for a minute. “I was running the numbers today and — oh here it is.” He produced the notebook and flipped a few pages. “Any individual student has a 19% chance to pass the preliminaries, but as hero students, I’m almost certain the chance is much higher, but I just don’t have the data.”

“Eleven years ago, only seven non-hero students passed, and only two made it to the one-on-one,” Virgil mused.

“Eleven years ago?”

Virgil rolled his eyes as he stood to cross into the living room. “My mom taped that one for me when I was little. I watched it so many times the tape broke, but I remember every detail. Picani was in his final year then, you know. He’s only twenty-nine now.” He knelt down and shuffled DVDs under the TV. “Here’s the one from last year.” Virgil glanced over his shoulder. “We can watch it for uh...your notes.”

“That would be excellent.”

#studywritesstuff #sanders sides #fanfiction #fanfic #fic

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emptymasks · 4 years

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sleep comfort for both of you // illinois x reader

So How About That Date? ( A Heist With Markiplier x Reader Collection [SFW])

Pairing: Illinois / Gender-Neutral Reader

Words: 1446

Rating: General Audiences

Read on Ao3

Notes (more notes at the end): credit and thank yous to people in the @yancy-support-group discord server (come and join us) for giving me lots of inspiration for this

Sleep sometimes felt like your worst enemy.

You'd just be laying there at the end of the day all ready to rest and your body would just say no, no sleep for you. No matter how busy or active you had been that day, sleep just wouldn't happen. You'd just lay there staring at the ceiling, tossing and turning in the hope your body would find a position it liked. Laying there for who knows how long and checking the clock to realise you'd been awake for hours at that point. You could often tell when it was going to happen after about the first five minutes of laying down. You couldn't really explain it, but even if you were tired you could feel when your body and brain were just not going to accept sleep that night.

And then on the nights where insomnia wasn't holding you hostage, you'd find yourself kept away by noises and rocks digging into your back in forest shelters and caves and deserts as you stuck by Illinois side. You'd be trying to get to sleep but the slightest wind or dripping or water could keep you awake.

Not Illinois though, that man could sleep anywhere. You supposed he was used to it by now after being on so many adventures and journeys and having to sleep in all sorts of conditions and weathers and climates. He wasn't a heavy sleeper though. Though you were incredibly easily disturbed whilst trying to fall asleep, not everything woke you up once you were actually asleep. It was probably for the best Illinois wasn't a very heavy sleeper as on more than one occasion you'd been awoken by him dragging you awake (and one time giving up and you woke up slung over his shoulders) as the cave ceiling decided it didn't like you anymore and started to rain in on you both.

So he wasn't a particularly heavy sleeper, but he could fall asleep in the tightest and most uncomfortable places, which is why it was such a surprise after laying inside in your nice, warm bed with him, it had been over an hour and you knew he still wasn't asleep. Of course he hadn't said anything, he liked acting all self-sufficient and independent. It had been wonderful to watch that act fade as he got more comfortable around you and you started spending more time together and for you to realise that deep down he's soft and does care (though he still has that bravado). He's just lost so many partners he tries to push people away nonchalantly so that there's no risk of anyone else getting hurt. But you made it clear you were staying and there's no way he could get rid of you now.

You rolled off your back and onto your side to face him. He didn't move, just kept laying there with his eyes closed. You knew he was awake, his body was too tense and rigid.

"Ow," His eyes shot open as you jabbed him in the waist. He blinked up at you while you glared down at him. "Alright darlin', you caught me. I'm not keeping you awake, am I?"

"Only thing that's keeping me awake is my stupid brain. But what's keeping you awake, huh? I've never seen you having problems falling asleep. You know if you're worried about anything you can tell me."

He smiled at how earnest you were being. "It's nothing, you just try and sleep."

"It's not nothing. If you're going to lecture me about how sleep is necessary then I'll fling that right back at you."

You stayed staring at him, eyes locked as if he was challenging you to drop it. He sighed.

"It's nothing, alright. I suppose I'm just not used to all this. I'm so used to sleeping outside I hadn't realised how quiet things can get indoors. The bed's softer than what I'm used to, but it's not too bad. It's the silence I think. It's like it's just itching under my skin. But don't you worry your pretty little head about it, you can get enough beauty sleep for the two of us." And of course he winked at the end.

"Hardly," You scoffed. "I don't think I'm doing any sleeping tonight. I'd offer to open the window to help if it wasn't freezing outside."

"Now you don't have to do that on account of me. Why don't you just lie back down next to my big, strong, warm body," You laugh and drop your head onto his shoulder. "And you can at least get yourself some rest."

It was a shame you couldn't open the window though. It might help him to at least be able to hear some sounds of wind or nature or... You felt like an idiot, why didn't you think about this before?

"Now where do you think you're scampering off too?" Illinois questioned as you crawled away from him and grabbed your phone from your bedside table. "You know those things don't help you sleep right? Those screens aren't any good for you."

You ignored his complaints as you broughtup Youtube on your phone. "We're not going to be looking at it, we're going to listen to it. Sometimes when I can't sleep and I'm on my own I play ASMR videos, whether it's someone talking or often just soundscapes and sound effects. The noise helps my brain focus on something that isn't my biggest worries and fears creeping into my head at the worst possible time, you know. So, I thought, there's lots of videos of forest sounds and cave sounds and nature sounds... all sorts of sounds really, and we could play one and maybe it would help?"

His brows furrowed and he looked confused for a moment before pondering whether to trust your phone.

"I'll put it face down on the table so they'll be no light and no looking at the screen," You said trying to convince him.

"Alright, if you think if might help. Can't hurt, I suppose."

You tried and not look too excited as you pulled up a video of cave sounds (water droplet effects and wind and ambience) and reached back over to put your phone back on the table, turning the volume up so he could hear it from the other side of the bed.

You laid back on your side, facing him, watching and studying him as he closed his eyes again. Ever so slowly his body started to relax into the mattress.

"So maybe your phone isn't completely evil."

"It's helping?!" You forced your voice quieter as you were too excited to be able to be helping him.

"Yeah, sapphire, it's helping," He murmured and you blushed at the pet name.

He seemed fine for a while before he began shuffling a little.

"Do you mind if I..." He glanced down at where his hand now was, stretched outwards towards you and hovering next to your own. "I just want to... know you're still here..."

Your heart ached. You were slowly working out how touch-starved he was and how long it had been for him since he'd last experienced physical affection. "Of course."

He slowly intertwined his fingers with yours, pulling your arm over his stomach as he settled your joined hands there. You nuzzled into his shoulder. His thumb stroked over the back of your hand and he chuckled.

"It's adorable how you're smaller than me," You looked up and he was just staring at your joined hands with the goofiest, softest grin on his face and he sighed and he just looked fucking dreamy and you could have sworn he was blushing.

You moved to place a kiss along his jaw. "Well we can't all have 'big, strong hands' like you," You lowered your voice in some poor attempted at imitating him and you both laughed. "I'm glad though..." You muttered. "That you're fine with me and all."

"Darlin' I am so much more than 'fine' with you, you know that."

"Yeah, I know."

"And it is helping, it seems to be at least. The noise and you, holding your hand like this... sort of embarrassing to say, but of course Illinois doesn't get embarrassed by anything, but... it's nice, grounding even."

"We should do this more often then," You said around a yawn that broke out of your mouth mid-sentence.

"We should... But for now, sleep, for both of us."

You mumbled some form of agreement into his shoulder. "G'night Illy." He would groan and complain about that nickname, but he'd never actually asked you to stop using it.

"Good night, sweetheart."

Tag list: @thehalfdemonwitchfromamestris @rats-this-username-is-taken @hamiltrash1411 @line-viper (let me know if you’d like to be added to the tag list for my ahwm fics)

More notes: credit and thank yous to people in the yancy-support-group discord server (come and join us) for giving me lots of inspiration for this:(a collection of messages I took inspiration from)

Starship: Illinois: .....i didn't know you where this strong sapphire

Tinam: but Illinois exclusively using gemstones names as petnames with Y/N

Mars: Does Illinois hold Y/N's hand when he sleeps? I feel he'd do Illi loves that Y/N has smaller hands than him. He'll just be a blushing mess because "holy????? fuck??????? Whenever they hold hands he just has the biggest fucking heart eyes, the goofiest grin and can't stop sighingthank you all for saying it was okay for me to take these ideas and be inspired by them and write things based on them

i know it's been a little while, but my mental health took a dive but now i'm working on getting myself better.

huge thank you to everyone who's been leaving comments and kudos and requests, it means a lot.

big thanks to starship in the yancy-support-group discord server for giving me most of my inspiration for this, more on that in the notes at the top of this chapter.

and if you guys could please help me out and and reblog this promo post for the heist charms, stickers and pins i'm making and selling that would mean the world! there's also the link in there to my Etsy shop where you can buy them

also if you want to see the heist art i keep drawing you can follow me on instagram and twitter

#ahwm #ahwm spoilers #ahwm illinois #illinois x reader #a heist with markiplier #mywriting #mine #so how about that date #markiplier egos

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supervillainny · 5 years

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Author meme

Author Name:

Nny! Mostly because I started writing in X-Files fandom and there were already a bunch of Beths there, so I used the other half of my name; partly because my friend Tom gave me the nickname after Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.

It is pronounced like the bend in your leg, don’t complicate things. :D

(Almost all of my usernames online have been variants on a Nny, and I am appalled that it took me until last year to come up with Nnyfarious.)

Fandoms You Write For:

Currently I write for Marvel (Clint/Bucky) and once a year I write a Good Omens fic for the Good Omens Exchange, which I have participated in for 14 out of its 15 years. I’ve also got an unfinished Sterek fic and an unfinished Shadowhunters fic, although who knows if they’ll ever get done, and I used to write for Stargate: Atlantis. I think that’s about it on AO3.

Where You Post:

Mostly on the @winterhawkkisses tumblr and on AO3.

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story:

I don’t really... write them?

Apparently it’s:

Five Times Bartons Were Assholes (and the Only Logical Solution) (Marvel, Clint/Bucky)

“Barney Barton,” she says, “Clint’s brother. He’s - ”

Bucky thinks back to solid frames and identical expressions, the half-scared stubborn automatic response to a yell. Thinks about the way Barney’d grabbed Clint’s chin and hauled his head around, and how Clint had still stepped forward a little, between Bucky and him.

“Kind of an asshole,” he finishes. “Yeah, I figured.”

ftr I like this fic a lot :D

Favourite Story You Wrote:

My favourite story is currently in WIP hell because I am all about the instant gratification and nobody’s poked me about it, so. (This is awful but unfortunately true.)

Favourite that’s posted... hmm. I have over a hundred fics on AO3 - which is a little pathetic considering how long I’ve been in fandom - so it’s hard to choose.

I quite like

A Promise Made of Smoke (Marvel, Clint/Bucky)

The Budapest is as battered a piece of space junk as Bucky has ever seen, for the couple minutes it takes for him before he looks a little closer. It’s hiding something special under the hood with intake valves like that, and he suspects that the inside is a warren of levels and corridors that carefully conceals how much room is nibbled out of them and set aside for something else. She’s been torn apart and fixed up so many times she’s a maze of welding and obtruding panels, and if they were stripped away – small charges maybe, rigged to blow – she could probably outrun anything in this ‘port and several others besides. Bucky whistles, low, and Barton sends him a proud sort of sideways grin.

I think the writing is pretty as hell and there are some fun ideas in there, but it wasn’t nearly long enough to meet the potential it had.

Story You Were Nervous to Post:

All of them. Every single one. Some day you guys are gonna realise I suck.

Seriously, though, I’m not a very popular writer so there’s not huge attention on me, so that helps, and I don’t tend to write anything particular interesting contraversial.

Maybe the link below a little, because I think it was my first Marvel, and it wasn’t a pairing I think I’d actually read before, so there was a little more weight to it.

Nomenclature (Marvel, Bucky/Bruce pre-slash)

Nomenclature (noun) the devising or choosing of names for things, especially in a science or other discipline.

I’m not him,” Barnes says, and Bruce twists without meaning to, looks at the blank lines of his face.

“Him?”

“Sergeant Barnes,” he says. His mouth twists a little when he says it. “Bucky.”

“Okay,” Bruce says. He knows about names, about who gets to choose them, about which ones get given. He knows about the power that lives in that. “So who do you want to be?”

How Do You Choose Your Titles:

THIS IS NOT A SKILL. There is absolutely no method to this, I leave it to the last minute and then choose the least shit of the things my brain throws at me. As you will notice from the list of titles above, ‘least shit’ doesn’t really say all that much.

Do You Outline:

*cries*

No! Nothing I write is long enough to be worth outlining! I hate this about myself! I have studied several methods of outlining and got all gung-ho about it but I am too scared to actually do it because what if I still suck? Even typing about this is making me anxious and want to cry! Let’s move on!

Complete:

124 fics, of which the highest wordcount by far is made up of tiny Winterhawk ficlets.

I get that people like them, I am so grateful that people like them, but it makes me unhappy that that is all I can do.

In-Progress:

1) A long fic that is about an AU teenage Clint who leaves the circus but - while he gives SHIELD a try - ends up fixing up a farm while texting his two assassin best friends (one of whom he is secretly in love with). It is called Snowman for short, because SOMEHOW there is a three part series planned and all of the stories are named after lyrics in a Disney song. Like. HOW. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN. I love this fic, I genuinely do, but the amount that there is left to write kind of exhausts me so it doesn’t happen. I need to sit down with @kangofu-cb and talk through what needs to happen next, at some point, because I swear there’s like 4-10,000 words left to write in the first part, and I would fuckin’ love to get it posted, but I have got distracted.

2) A fic in which Bucky runs a dog shelter and has a reading program for kids, and Clint is mostly illiterate and works in the circus but kinda wants to read to dogs. This is such self-indulgent ridiculousness, it is a fic of my heart, I literally do not give a shit if anyone else wants to read it, it is amazing.

Coming Soon/Not Yet Started:

I am quietly trying to persuade @kangofu-cb to turn Unnumbered ficlet into a fic with me. I also want to find an awesome idea that I can write with @flawedamythyst and let her organise me into awesomeness.

I am also signed up for the Winterhawk Christmas exchange, so that, and the Good Omens exchange, so that too. And I have an idea to write for @pentapoda which is so good in my head but I haven’t had time to sit down with.

I have lots and lots and lots of ideas, and lots and lots and lots of commitments, and I am dropping the ball on both. I am a terrible fandomer.

Do You Accept Prompts:

At @winterhawkkisses yes? But with the caveat that I have like 500 already in my inbox so it’s unlikely I’ll get around to them even remotely close to when they’re sent to me.

For actual fics, no. I will inevitably disappoint you.

Upcoming Story You Are Most Excited to Write:

Writing mostly fills me with nauseous anxiety. I am excited to beta the fics people have sent me for the Hawktion, which I am SO LATE ON, I’m so sorry, I love you guys, and to beta @kangofu-cb‘s ‘90s fic, and @flawedamythyst‘s Regency fic, because making other people’s stuff a little better is something I know I can do well.

Tagged By:

@kangofu-cb

Tagging:

@pantstomatch, @lissadiane, anyone else who hasn’t done it yet

#things about me #my writing

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data-monkey · 5 years

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AO3 stats project: kudos

Up next: what kinds of works get kudos?

Thanks to @eloiserummaging for beta reading these posts; any remaining errors are my own. A Python notebook showing the code I used to make these plots can be found here.

I want to be really specific before we get into this: I don't mean "which works are better." There's a perception I see sometimes in fandom that more kudos = better material (e.g. when you're sorting on the works page). That may be true within narrow categories, but kudos also relate to things like "was this emotionally moving vs technically skilled or both or neither" and "what would I be embarrassed to be seen liking" (since the usernames of people who leave kudos appear at the bottom of the page). So exactly why some things have more kudos than others is outside the scope of this post.

The first thing to look at is how the number of kudos scales with the number of hits. Obviously, if more people look at your work, more people are available to leave kudos. But we wouldn't expect the same ratio at low hit counts and high hit counts. That is, if 10 of the first 100 people who looked at your work left kudos on it, we would expect fewer than 10 of the next 100 to do it. That's basically because the top fans--of the author, of the genre, whatever--are more likely to read it right away when it's new, while people who read it later may not fit into the target audience quite as well. Even if a lot of them like it, statistically, you might expect that fewer of them will hit the kudos button. Also, because you can only leave kudos once, repeat visits will increase the hit counts without increasing the kudos counts; that will matter for works that people like to reread, or for works that were posted one chapter at a time.

So here's kudos vs hits. The blue-colored region is showing where the most works are: low hits and low kudos, like we already knew. The heavy purple line is the average trend. If you look very closely at the low end, you can see it bends a little bit: the average kudos-to-hits ratio is higher for low-hit-count things, like we predicted.

In fact, we can just plot that (average) ratio:

We can do the same for bookmarks and comments. (I’m just going to show the ratio from now on, because it’s easier to interpret.)

Those are pretty similar, with fewer overall numbers, and slightly more comments than bookmarks. I’m not sure what to make of the fact that bookmark & comment ratios increase with the number of hits. I don’t really use either bookmarks or comments, so maybe I’m missing something of the essential psychology there.

Okay. That’s averaged over all works on AO3. Do things change if we subdivide the works into categories?

First up: have the number of kudos per fic stayed the same over time? The first few years of the Archive didn't have the kudos feature, so the oldest works we would expect to be very low, but did things change after that?

Yes. I was a little surprised by this, but it does look robust: Works seem to get peak kudos (adjusted for hit counts) in 2016 and 2017, with less both before and after. I think there are a few possible explanations for this besides "people got more likely to leave kudos and then less likely to leave kudos." One would be a difference in other kinds of reader behavior: for example, repeat visits to the same work will drive down the kudos-to-hit-count ratio, because you can only leave kudos once; or, if people click on a work to mark it for later, that can register as another hit without actually being another human reader. Another would be a difference in reader populations: maybe the same people who have always left kudos are still leaving kudos, but the AO3 is now big enough that we also get readers who aren’t in fandom social circles and are less likely to hit that button. Also, if works in progress get a lower kudos/hits ratio, then more recent stories with a higher WiP rate might have a lower average--although, as I’ll show below, I don’t think it’s large enough to explain this discrepancy.

How about word count?

By the way: the labels have the same color as the lines they go with. I’m using an algorithm that tries to place the labels so they don’t overlap, which sometimes means the labels aren’t that close to the line they go with--for example, here, the 3,000-10,000 word line is actually mostly covered by its label, and there will be some cases below where the labels are pretty far off. Just match the colors and you should be able to figure out which is which!

Anyway, peak kudos occur around the 3,000-30,000 word count. Lower for the very longest and very shortest things. My anecdotal experience is that very long works are most likely to be ficlet collections or otherwise works in progress, and so you might expect more repeat visitors to those works as authors add new chapters. Actually, let's check on works in progress in general. Here's complete works and works in progress:

You do see signs that having a WiP gets you fewer kudos per hit. Again, this is almost certainly because the same readers come back for successive chapters but can't leave multiple kudos. The differences aren’t very large, though--look at the y-axis. The different years range anywhere from 0.03 to 0.08 at a low hit count, but the same range here is like 0.060 to 0.065!

Ratings?

Here’s an example where the labels are pretty far off the lines--“Not Rated” is the green line that ends under the second “e” of “General Audiences.” Teen and gen are a little higher, explicit a little lower--I would guess some combination of more repeat visits to explicit fics and possible embarrassment at leaving kudos on fics with certain kinds of content. (Also, higher ratings are somewhat more likely to have warnings on them, which may change the emotional calculus that goes into whether you hit the kudos button.) But again, these differences aren’t that big--nowhere near the differences for years or word counts, for example, if you look at the range the vertical axis is spanning.

How about pairing type?

As a reminder, those pairing types are gen (no romantic or sexual relationship); male/male, male/female, and female/female; then “multi” meaning either multiple types of pairings, or a relationship with more than two people; and “other” meaning everything that doesn’t fit neatly into those categories. I could have seen this plot going either way--M/M is the most popular so people like it, or other things are less popular and so readers reward them more. Looks like it’s the former. Not sure what to make of “other” and “multi” being the lowest.

Are fandoms different?

Indeed they are. (I don’t think this is entirely explained by differing kudos rates & fandom popularity over time, although that's probably some of it.) How about tags?

I feel like there's a paper somewhere in this plot alone...

One last note. As I mentioned, people tend to view kudos as a measure of quality. I have no way to measure actual quality of works. But I do have one way to think about it: Creators are likely to produce similar-quality work. (Not always, as fans of many published authors can tell you. But often.) So how much do individual authors' kudos counts vary? As I mentioned in the first post, I have a policy of not showing data for individual authors here. But I can show my own, since I can give informed consent as to this usage of my data. :) So here's the average kudos vs hit count line, with my fics shown as dots around the line.

I would definitely say my works have variable quality (particularly because I included all my own backdated works, meaning my fics span more than 15 years of my life--and I hope I'm a better writer now than I was when I was 18!). But you can see that the kudos to hit count ratios are ALL OVER the place. Twice the value of the line, 1/10th the value of the line--really varying, right?

So here's how I made the plot I'm about to show you. For every creator in the database, I look at their kudos vs hit counts for all their fics, and I measure how far away from the average line they are (and whether they're above it or below it). And then I measure what's called the “standard deviation” of those distances--basically, asking how much those numbers vary. A really low value means of an author’s works are the same--and that could be "every work has only 10% of the average number of kudos" or "every work has 1000% the average number of kudos"; doesn't matter, it just means they're consistent. On the other hand, a high value would mean, well, somebody like me: with some works that get a lot of kudos, and some that don’t. Here's the distribution of that standard deviation, for all authors with more than one fic and at least 1000 total hits on all their fics:

So you can see it does, actually, vary a lot. My particular number, by this count, is 0.44, and you can see that that's a little high but still pretty typical--even though it's a lot of variation if you look at it! So I think this is support for my statement earlier, that you shouldn't think of kudos (or kudos/hits) as a measure of quality, for some definition of quality. It's measuring something--but it's way more complicated than quality.

One more post after this: just some fun questions.

#ao3 #fan stats #fanstats

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fanfictionlive · 2 years

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i really hate how i can't feel fully comfortable in ao3 anymore

recently i binged a new show that dropped on netflix, and i liked it a lot. i went on ao3 to see what people have wrote so far, and i saw someone made a fic involving an unpopular fetish, with 2 kudos and 12 comments. wondering what the comments were i clicked on it, and i saw 2 people bullying the author for what they wrote and "jokingly" telling them to die.

thankfully some people were defending the author, but man i really hate how people read stuff despite all the warnings they saw, and then leave surprised hate comments as if they weren't warned repeatedly. it isn't just this specific fic where I've seen this happen, i've actually been the victim of it two times.

one time i wrote about a controversial pairing from some cartoon, and people started arguing with each other in the comments, to the point where the comments became angry walls of text. i orphaned it because i feared getting a call out post for that fic and i just didn't want it to be associated with me anymore. another time was when i commented on someone's dark fic, telling them i enjoyed it, and turns out the author was being stalked by a certain site and they exposed everyone who commented positively on their fics on that site, including myself. that site was known for really bad stuff so i changed my username and moved to a new account, and because of my anxiety disorder i'm still worried they're still stalking me.

this post is getting too long so I'll just end it here. i miss being innocent and just sharing all my work to see if anyone else would like it. i'm afraid to write anything that isn't "safe" and "pure" because there's a chance if i do I'll get hate, callouts, and possible stalkers. i hate the current state of fandom.

submitted by /u/pinkfaun [link] [comments] from FanFiction: Where Magical Ponies battle Imperial Titans https://ift.tt/1Ioh425

#fan fiction #writing #fanfiction #tv show #series #movie #fan #write

0 notes

thelionshoarde · 6 years

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the magnificent @sabraeal got me, :3 :3

1. How did you come up with your username and what does it mean?

It’s from an unfinished short story I wrote back in 2014: It was awful business working in the Lion’s Hoarde Inn. I think I just enjoyed the sound of it, (:

2. Which fanfic of yours has the most feedback? (bookmarks/favorites, follows/subscriptions, visitor hits, kudos)

Some Nights, my first Teen Wolf fic. People really love pack mom!Stiles, apparently lol.

3. What is your FFnNet/AO3 profile icon, and why did you choose it?

O PUREST ONE. It’s from a fanart I’m still chipping away at. Because: it made @superhappybubbleslove go WAAAAHHHHHH MY HEAAARRRRTT and I enjoy making wonderful people suffer! :D

4. Do you have any regular/favourite commenters?

Things are about to get real lengthy, so...

@sabraeal, of course, is a dream come true, and is currently back at it with her long reviews, and BE STILL MY HEART. @superhappybubbleslove kicks ass every Saturday with her amazingness (and often is the only, or one of the only ones, to comment on a very particular thing that i really loved about a story or art, and i always fist pump whenever she does that hahaha) @claudeng80 has given me some of my favorite comments, EVER, and I often have to take a day or more to process my emotions before I can actually respond coherently haha, I GET VERY EXCITED, OKAY. @hidetheremote is one of my most faithful and kind and generous commenters, I am always thrilled to receive them and she’s been showering me with encouragement since the beginning, so she has a VERY special place in my heart! I have a few commenters on my ot3 things that are incredibly kind, or people who have bookmarked/kudo’d almost all of them, and while I do not believe I know their tumblr handles, but I would sell my first born for you. :| special shout out to @vfordii and @stuffaeamade and @raediation who are always SO supportive of my obizenyuki feels hahaha! @youseimanami is a one woman cheer squad and AMAZING, so kind and so so sweet, and her comments always feel SO genuine, they just make my heart get all swelled up and fuzzy and warm, I love her! I know I’m forgetting people, but I LOVE YOU ALL, YOU ARE ALL MY FAVORITES D;

5. Is there a fanfic that you keep going back to read again and again?

I cycle through over time. There are a lot of older, long fics in other fandoms that I occasionally go back to when I need a pick-me up lol. Currently, there is I KID YOU NOT a south park kenny/kyle fic that I’m in love with and have read 2-3 times in the last couple months since I first read it and I WILL PROBABLY INDULGE AGAIN, SOON. (gold digger, IT IS AMAZING, OKAY)

6. How many stories are you subscribed to? How many do you have bookmarked?

I actually never figured out how to subscribe! 8D I have 86 bookmarks, but it should be more. I went through a year long period I think where I never signed into ao3 lol.

7. Which AU do you find yourself writing the most?

MAGIC. In some form or another lol.

8. How many people are subscribed and bookmarked to you in total? (you can view this on the stats page)

163 user subscriptions, and 2604 bookmarks. (some nights has 1912 bookmarks all on its own, okay, teen wolf is a v v large ocean of a fandom haha)

9. Is there something you’d like to write about but are afraid of people judging you for it? (Feeling brave? If so, share it!)

N O P E, i have no shame filter 8D .....ok, wait, the a/b/o one because it’s omega!obi and i’ve been a tad leery of the response i may receive for how very, uh, not your usual obiyuki dynamic in bed i want to make it. >_>

10. Is there anything you would like to be better at? Writing certain scenes or genres, replying to comments, updating better, etc.

Hn, yes and yes and yes and yes. My big thing is: I want to learn how to finish lengthier things. I got into fandom to try and do that, and it’s my goal for this year, especially.

11. Do you write rarepairs or popular ships more often?

Rarepairs, I think! Even when I write popular ships I usually write them in the less popular fashion haha. But mostly, I just write whatever I want, which is often a myriad of different pairings!

12. How many stories have you posted on FFNet/AO3 to this day (finished and unfinished)?

13 stories on ffnet, and a few of those were also on my livejournal. I don’t have an exact number for livejournal, but it’s over 100. I’ve started moving some of those fics from my livejournal to ao3, now, so I’m up to 40. Only 23 of my ao3 stories aren’t also on livejournal at this moment lol. And there are a couple of things on tumblr I haven’t moved onto ao3 yet.

13. How many stories do you have saved in/with your writing program?

I am unwilling to go down that dark and dangerous path. :|

14. Do you write down story ideas, or just keep them in your head?

I try and write down whatever jumps in my head, because I WILL forget things, otherwise. But I’ll spend days mulling over an idea, sometimes, before I am able to sit down and write it.

15. Have you ever co-authored a story?

Back in eljay days I wrote stories with other people on occasion. Sometimes it was just writing comment fic back and forth at each other. Or writing different scenes in the same universe that went together. Nothing big.

16. How did you discover FFNet/AO3?

I know I stumbled on ffnet myself, but I don’t remember for ao3. O: Pretty certain someone told me about it, but when I had livejournal I didn’t really use anything else.

17. Do you consider yourself to be a popular or famous author in your fandom(s) on FFNet/AO3?

Hm, I’ve never been a widely popular anything, though I was lucky enough to have some excellent fans on eljay, who would jump fandoms with me just because they wanted to read my stuff. And folk who were incredibly kind and generous with their praise no matter how many random things I churned out haha. I’ve always been thrilled if there’s just ONE person who enjoyed a story I put out! I’m pretty easy to please!

18. Do you have a nickname or fandom name for your readers?

My darlings!

19. Was there an author who inspired or encouraged you to write?

Anyone who writes is an inspiration to me. I see people putting up fic and publishing novels, and I go I WANT TO DO THAT, UGH. Because I’ve always been a writer, ever since I was teeny, and have never stopped wanting to do it. I’ve always been in love with words, and stories. (As I’m sure many others can relate: I used to get in trouble in elementary school because I would read as I walked, and it was EARLY elementary school, where you had to walk in lines with your class because they were afraid they were gonna lose you, and I could read while I walked because I would just follow whoever was in front of me to wherever we were going haha)

20. What writing advice would you give to a beginning author?

It’s 100% okay if you write something, and you’re really proud of it, and you go back later -- a week, a day, a month, two years, whatever -- and think: THIS IS THE WORST. That doesn’t ever really go away, because as creators we are constantly evolving and looking to improve, and often times something that is actually quite solid and gives many readers joy will be a thing that you facepalm over, later. Use that to keep writing, and try to remember that you are most definitely your own worst critic. At the end of the day, keep doing this thing because you love it. Your work IS worthy, even when you think it should be set on fire and scattered across the deepest ocean never to be seen again!

21. Do you plot out your stories, or do you just figure it out as you go?

A combo! Sometimes, especially for shorter things, I just get an idea, and sometimes I just think about it for a little while, and then I open a doc and I just go to town until it’s finished. Other times I start off by writing out the thoughts and building off of that, and sometimes I slip into actually writing it and then back to outlining. USUALLY I start writing a thing because I have a tiny spark of an idea, or a situation/concept I find interesting, and I have no idea where it’s going, and I just write to see what happens, and THEN I start plotting things out as I go, which can be one of the MOST frustrating ways to write a story. Anything big I’ve ever written (and I’ve written several drafts of several novels) starts out like this, where I have a random idea and I sit down and I write out whatever scenes crop up in my head, and then I start filling in the blanks, later. A lot of my longer fandom things also are like this. heading for a small disaster was me just sort of sitting around and thinking about an entirely different story, and then I had like, a half-formed idea for a single scene in my head, so I sat down and started writing chapter 1 to GET to that scene, coming up with stuff as I needed it, and by the time I hit the end of ch1 I was no where near my original idea, and had a bunch of other ideas, and THEN I started plotting things out.

22. Have you ever gotten a bad comment on a story? If so, what did you do?

I’m sure I have! Though I haven’t posted fandom anything for a long time, so I don’t really remember. One comment I do recall was not a BAD comment, it was a comment about a bad thing I had done in neglecting to tag something, and then I got all defensive because I was younger and even more stupid than I am now, and I was an asshole, which I regret. ):

23. Is there a certain type of scene that you have a hard time writing? (action, smut, etc..)

Action! Also, stationary scenes with multiple people that DOESN’T have action! Okay, ANY scene that has more than one person is tricky, though two people at least helps in pacing because it’s easier to intersperse dialogue, but you add one more person into a scene and I’m laying my head on my desk and CRYING. Transition scenes are also my bane, I have the hardest time figuring out how to move from point a to b. Basically: EVERYTHING IS DIFFICULT. That’s half the fun of writing something, though.

24. What story(s) are you working on now?

Too many, but I’m trying to focus on finishing up some longer things this year. Of course, despite that having been my resolution before the year even began, I have somehow found myself with two new longer fics than WHEN THE YEAR STARTED, ugh. disaster, magic!cowboy au, lyrias center, unicorn au, soulmate tattoo au, a second part to we can make our own way, the full version of back alley complete with smut and EMOTIONS, fight club au, ot3 modern day neighbors au, and all the christmas prompts I haven’t done yet, and I have like, two more chapters of picture perfect planned out that I just haven’t written yet, I AM HAVING A DIFFICULT TIME THINNING THE HERD, I 100% come up with more ideas than ever get written, as I’m sure most writers do haha.

25. Do you plan your next project(s) before you finish your current ongoing story(s)?

HAHAHA

26. Do you have a daily writing goal set for yourself?

Nah, I almost never succeed at stuff like that, and I get pissy if I fail, so I’ve learned not to put myself into that position if I can, because it just hurts my writing. I just write when I want, or when I have time even if I don’t want.

27. Do you think you’ve improved as a writer since you first started?

Hopefully! Though posting old stuff to ao3 has made me aware that my vocabulary has actually suffered over time, and I’m hoping to fix that!

28. What is your favorite story(s) that you’ve written?

I don’t entirely love anything that I’ve written. There are aspects of many things that I love dearly, though none of it really wins out against another. I’ll say: three of my orig novels are probably closest to being no 1.

29. What is your least favorite story(s) that you’ve written?

There was this one HP fic I wrote when I was like, 14?? I don’t know, but apparently I was VERY ANGRY, and wrote some really messed up stuff, and I wouldn’t mind being able to bury that shit haha. But truthfully -- I probably grew a lot from it, as embarrassing as it is to me, now. ...okay, there was a LOT of HP fic wherein I was in my DARK AND ANGSTY years, that, whew! I’m glad I’m not that person anymore haha.

30. Where do you see yourself (as a writer) in 5 years?

Still writing, hopefully. :3

31. What is the easiest thing about writing?

CRYING. Crying is very easy, and so is laying my head on my desk and despairing that I will ever figure out how to make things work.

32. What is the hardest thing about writing?

WORKING THROUGH THE TEARS. It is very easy to give up, and mope, much more difficult to grit your teeth and wrangle a story into submission.

33. Why do you write?

Because I love the power of words. It’s magic. A written story is essentially an illusion spell. You put the right words on the page in the correct order, and behold! An entire world, with living characters, is born within the mind of a reader. And a single, minute change to any one of those words may shift the whole thing. It’s a constantly evolving formula, and full of surprises, and if you are particularly lucky and diligent you might even be able to spin an entire tale that grips people, shakes them up and makes them believe in something impossible, something that YOU created, from nearly nothing. That kind of power is pretty damned addictive.

#writing meme #about me #personal

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femslashhistorian · 7 years

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Nothing lasts forever - My Femslash History

This week I realized that one of my favorite fanfic author's tumblr and AO3 accounts disappeared. I don't really know them and we interacted on tumblr twice, so I have no idea what happened, but I hope they are OK. (Update: found them again with a new tumblr)

Somehow this made think quite a bit.

I have seen websites with fanfic go away, I have seen stories being deleted from AO3, and I have clicked on broken links to fics that no longer existed, but somehow this was different. This was someone I had interacted with, someone whose work I had actively followed.

I am really thankful that they had not deleted their wonderful work from AO3 but orphaned the fics instead (that means the stories are still there but the author's account is gone).

As you can see from my username, I really like to preserve things, I like for stories to be there for a long time, long after the author lost any interest in them, long after the shows they were based on got cancelled...

Here are a few things that I came up with.

If you are an author...

Think about using a pen name / pseudonym instead of your real name or your usual nickname. Something removed enough from your real name that is not possible to guess who you really are. This has many advantages and one of them is that it gives you more options when you move on from a fandom (if you ever decide to).

If you want to leave a fandom or go offline ... for whatever reason: Don't delete your work, maybe orphan them on AO3, or just leave your account behind and move on... Your work might have touched many or only a few readers, they might come back to it, it might be discovered by new readers.

As a reader...

Don't take for granted that your favorite fic or your favorite author will be here tomorrow/in a month/ in a year.

Be nice to the authors, leave kudos and comments.

Download you favorite fics (to your PC, iPhone, OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.)

Download the long fic you are currently reading.

Download any fic you might want to read again.

And in particular, download any fic that you want to read later, if it has a controversial pairing or a possibly controversial theme... (I have seen a lot of them go away within a few hours or days after I saw them on the tumbler AO3 feed)

And finally

Thanks to anybody who ever wrote and published a fic and thanks to anybody who operated or contributed to a fanfic mailing list, website or archive.

If you want to learn more about how to download fanfics from FFN and other fanfiction sites, look here.

This is part 11 of a series of blogposts that I call my femslash history

For more tips I recommend this very helpful post: Archive your fandom stuff

Changelog

2017-10-10 originally published

2018-05-11 updated to add AO3 404 error screenshot and brief update in the introduction

2021-06-06 updated with additional link (that I had only added in a reblog)

2021-06-12 updated link to better how to download fic from FFN guide

For more like this & f/f fanfic recs, visit my blog or follow me on twitter & tumblr main blog @femslashhistorian | fic recs only @femslashhistorianficrecs

#femslash fanfiction #fanfiction #femslash history #history #fanfiction tips

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nichetales-archived · 6 years

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About Me As A Writer

Tagged by @shitabukenjirou ~ <3

1. How did you come up with your username and what does it mean? Foxyena and FoxyenaArts is my name for all platforms. It makes me easy for commissioners to find, and dates back to my years doing furry art commissions, which is also where the name originates.

2. Which fanfic of yours has the most feedback? (bookmarks/subscriptions/hits/kudos).

Well, the most hits & kudos is Skipping Practice with nearly 17k hits and ~630 kudos, but Courtship of the Owl has the most subscriptions and bookmarks.

3. What is your AO3 profile icon, and why did you choose it?

The same as the one I use here. I tend to only use one icon for all sites at once, and I love Matsukawa + glasses and smoking aesthetic so~

4. Do you have any regular/favourite commenters?

I do! I don’t know most of their tumblr usernames, but there certainly are a few lovely people I am always excited to see comments from.

5. Is there a fanfic that you keep going back to read again and again?

Honestly, there’s a few. I reread fics a lot, but my favorite that I find myself always coming back to is Lust and Lies by DeathBelle aka @worthlesspride.

6. How many stories are you subscribed to? How many do you have bookmarked?

I currently have 253 bookmarks and 223 subscriptions.

7. Which AU do you find yourself writing the most?

I don’t have a particular AU. I have ~50 fics in progress and aside from those in a series, they vary from Transhumanism/Cyborg AU to cute lil’ Coffee Shop AU. I actually try really hard to have variety.

8. How many people are subscribed and bookmarked to you in total? (you can view this on the stats page)

348 Subscriptions and 525 Bookmarks

9. Is there something you’d like to write about but are afraid of people judging you for it? (Feeling brave? If so, share it!)

I have a TenSemi fic titled Human Juice that is literally nothing but all of my kinks out in the open and I’m so sorry for anyone who chooses to read that whenever I release it. It has everything from Erotic Electrostimulation to Blood Play and more. So much more. If you wanna know more about it, feel free to ask I guess lol.

10. Is there anything you would like to be better at? Writing certain scenes or genres, replying to comments, updating better, etc.

Fluff and just.. happy things. I thrive on painful/angsty/poetic forms of writing and I struggle with just letting them be happy for once.

11. Do you write rarepairs or popular ships more often?

Both! Right now my posted works are mostly popular ships for main ship, but I have dozens of fics in the works for rare pairs like MatsuKuro, GoshiShira, SemiSuga, OiYama, and more. Courtship of the Owl even has Komori/Konoha in it.

12. How many stories have you posted on AO3 to this day (finished and unfinished)?

Only 9, but that is about to change real soon ‘cause Avery here has no self control and can’t write just one fic at once apparently.

13. How many stories do you have saved in/with your writing program?

63 total. 7 of them are for YOI, and the rest are all Haikyuu!!

14. Do you write down story ideas, or just keep them in your head?

I write down all of them. My process actually starts with coming up with a title and creating a premise and theme around the title of the fic.

15. Have you ever co-authored a story?

Yessir! I have co-authored 2 works with @tettsuroo, though one is not complete yet.

16. How did you discover AO3?

I honestly don’t remember.

17. Do you consider yourself to be a popular or famous author in your fandom(s) on AO3?

Absolutely not.

18. Do you have a nickname or fandom name for your readers?

nnnnoooo?

19. Was there an author who inspired or encouraged you to write?

Several, but most notably was @worthlesspride, @tettsuroo, and @kaiyouchan.

20. What writing advice would you give to a beginning author?

Learn from other authors. Pay attention to what you like about their works and learn from your peers. Don’t be afraid to reach out, make friends, and create a network of support around you. Learn from others, but always be you.

21. Do you plot out your stories, or do you just figure it out as you go?

I’ve done both. Courtship of the Owl has a 22 page outline detailing everything that happens in it, while Petals of Pining never had an outline at all. One-shots normally don’t get outlines either. Just lengthy, detailed multi-chapters that have complex plots and subtle details/foreshadowing.

22. Have you ever gotten a bad comment on a story? If so, what did you do?

Yes, I have. Someone who I had read and commented on their work supportively commented on one of mine; they disagreed with the ending I wrote and tried to “fix” it, telling me what should have happened and ending the comment saying something similar to “now all is right with your world”. I simply commented stating I had revoked any and all support/comments/bookmarks of their work and that I didn’t want to associate with someone who thought that was appropriate behavior.

23. Is there a certain type of scene that you have a hard time writing? (action, smut, etc..)

I struggle with scene transitions sometimes. How does one get from point A to point B...

24. What story(s) are you working on now?

You Can See My List of Current Projects Here But Courtship of the Owl and my Secret Santa ficlet + art is my primary focus atm. That list is roughly in priority order. Roughly.

25. Do you plan your next project(s) before you finish your current ongoing story(s)?

I mean... have you seen my Current Projects list?

26. Do you have a daily writing goal set for yourself?

Mm not really. I try to at least work on something daily, though. The amount may vary depending on how strenuous my job was that day or if I had time to be on the computer or if I was writing on my phone.

27. Do you think you’ve improved as a writer since you first started?

Sometimes I wanna vomit when I read work that I wrote only a few months ago so I would assume so, yes.

28. What is your favorite story that you’ve written?

Demons Wear Contacts. It’s not released yet, but it’s a Demon!Matsukawa MatsuHana fic. I’ve never had so much fun writing before. The fic is in Makki’s perspective, and will be my next multichapter fic after Courtship of the Owl is done.

29. What is your least favorite story that you’ve written?

My early works, especially the YOI ones. I had never really written before and while I’ve still only been writing for about a year now, they make me cringe so hard. I’ve been thinking about orphaning them, honestly.

30. Where do you see yourself (as a writer) in 5 years?

Probably doing the same thing I am now, maybe for a new fandom. I hope to do more zines though. I’ve quite enjoyed those.

31. What is the easiest thing about writing?

For me, it’s sensations. I love writing what people feel, the emotions, the sensations of touch, taste, see, etc. Or planning. I’m really good at plannin’ stuff.

32. What is the hardest thing about writing?

Finding the time and energy to dedicate to doing it. Also writing fluff. I’m so bad at writing happy things, you guys.

33. Why do you write?

It’s something I enjoy, and it’s another way I can be part of a community, a network of people who enjoy what I do and I can build friendships with.

Tagging: @tettsuroo, @worthlesspride, @madamemalfoy21, @hajiiwa, @rhealmobsidi, @quinnlocke, @crown-of-winterthorne, @aizawa-shoutas, @mystictrashheap

#tagged #personal #if you wanna know more about my fics you can always ask #my inbox is always open #I'll happily give sneak peaks of some of the fics if you ask nice~#writing #fanfiction #questions #thank you for tagging me

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bsinoranges · 6 years

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In which it gets sappy

Tagged by the amazing @lethesomething!!

1. How did you come up with your username and what does it mean?

So uh. BS is actually short for bittersweet, but now it doubles as my in-joke for BS in whateverCourse -- hence the in. So BS in oranges.

Then it’s bittersweetoranges because i read this fic called bittersweet and it was damn good to me at the time. Also my favorite fruit is orange.

...I’m bot good at giving names nor titles. Haha.

2. Which fanfic of yours has the most feedback? (bookmarks/subscriptions/hits/kudos).

Hm. Overall, that would be my KuroYachi one-shot The Lights in the Sky are Stars. It was sort of my love letter to the KuroYachi ship, and so I’m not entirely sure if I’ll be able to add on to it.

For subscriptions that would be my still unfinished brofest piece, The Thief, the Witch, and the Fae. This one is my bid at making an interesting take on certain characters and dynamics in a dark fantasy setting. Futakuchi is the lead if only because @haruhi02 accidentally gave me his name when I asked for random characters.

3. What is your AO3 profile icon, and why did you choose it?

A freezing link from Breath of the Wild. Well, why not? Haha. I love Link, I love Breath of the Wild, and when I resurfaced back on tumblr botw recently came out and also the free icons.

(the rest is under a cut because it’s long and sappy)

4. Do you have any regular/favourite commenters?

Well. I won’t name favorites. Frequent commenters tho... they’d be my friends from chat, so shoutout to @lethesomething and @haruhi02 because you guys are great.

To be fair, I don’t think I post frequently enough for people to keep their eyes peeled for me.

5. Is there a fanfic that you keep going back to read again and again?

Boy, do I. Basically anything in my bookmarks are the things I regularly return to read. Quite notable, however is anything by bigspoonnoya. God. I love her work. From the HQ to the BNHA to the YOI.

6. How many stories are you subscribed to? How many do you have bookmarked?

I bookmark more than I subscribed. Buuuuuuuuut I’m subscribed to a grand total of 4 works, and I’ve bookmarked 62 fics.

7. Which AU do you find yourself writing the most?

Fantasy. Hands down. There’s three-ish urban ones, then there’s two full-on fantasy pieces. The rest are slice-of-life.

There’s just something about fantasy that makes me really happy. It might be the freedom to make, or that I like using fantasy as a substitute for when I want to comment on current events. But usually I like writing things that are fantastical.

Someday I want to make write a slice-of-life that makes the mundane fantastical, and then vice versa. If only because it’s the little things that steal my heart and imagination every single time.

8. How many people are subscribed and bookmarked to you in total? (you can view this on the stats page)

Four wonderful people are subscribed to me, while 12 are subscribed to my stories. For bookmarks, I have a total of 24. ^^

9. Is there something you’d like to write about but are afraid of people judging you for it? (Feeling brave? If so, share it!)

Many of my topic matter don’t really make much, if any, waves -- at least that’s what I think. I’m only afraid I can’t do justice to my dark/fantasy elements, because that would be a real shame.

10. Is there anything you would like to be better at? Writing certain scenes or genres, replying to comments, updating better, etc.

First it’s definitely finishing what I start. My multichaps aren’t incredibly long, but I worry a lot about continuation and future chapters that it spoils writing the present one, so I hope to work on that.

Next is my exposition and narration. I can only say “Name smiles.” so much before I think I write in a horribly stale matter.

... Does writing romance or any sort of sexual or romantic contact count? Cause, boy do I need practice.

11. Do you write rarepairs or popular ships more often?

Is YamaYachi popular? KuroYachi? I’m pretty sure they’re an okay and accepted ship. But in any case the rarest pair I’ve written is KuroYachi, and then KamaFuta. Because those pairs need more content, and I’m pretty willing to fill them.

12. How many stories have you posted on AO3 to this day (finished and unfinished)?

I have 9 works in total. Five of which are completed oneshot, and the other four are unfinished multichaps. See the trend yet?

One of the finished oneshots is the longshot Nowhere in the Sea. It’s the first fic I finished in my whole 17 (at the time) years of living.

Of my unfinished things, one of them is an anthology (that I should probably close since I’m not planning on updating anytime soon) and then the three fantasy pieces that has a lot Worldbuilding™.

13. How many stories do you have saved in/with your writing program?

H A H A.

Hm. So, I switch between Google Docs, Sublime Text 3, and OneNote. But there’s a whooping 17 unwritten stories in various states of disrepair.

I’m most excited for the YamaYachi one, and also the sprawling ensemble cast one. :D

14. Do you write down story ideas, or just keep them in your head?

I mostly keep them in my head. So they flit in and out of my memory like deadlines. On the rare occasion that I’m possessed by the idea, I’l have written the idea down and then some on anything I find convenient at the time (laptop, phone, or paper.)

15. Have you ever co-authored a story?

Yes. @haruhi02 was my partner for the hq fantasy fest thing. She was with me when I finished my first ever fic Nowhere in the Sea.

16. How did you discover AO3?

I was friends with this author back in FF.Net, and she had an AO3 account. Then, I branched off her fics to read the FE:A fics.

17. Do you consider yourself to be a popular or famous author in your fandom(s) on AO3?

LOL. Of course not. I can say, with confidence, that I am probably obscure.

18. Do you have a nickname or fandom name for your readers?

Hm...

19. Was there an author who inspired or encouraged you to write?

Fun fact, the first fan fic I wrote was an unfinished novelization of the Swan Princess (Nest Family Entertainment), and then an illustrated re-telling of Barbie’s Princess and the Nutracker. I started seriously pursuing writing around... the grade 5, when my bully of an English teacher said I had a talent for writing. If I had any it remains to be seen. But it was my friends back on FFnet. The likes of Mafi, and Tune, and Loke. They were there for me during my baby days writing for a fandom. We weren’t in the same fandom, but they inspired me so much.

Also I really like Philip Pullman and J.K. Rowling and thought it would be awesome to publish and write books.

Today though, it’s my friends in the chat who continue to inspire me everyday.

20. What writing advice would you give to a beginning author?

I don’t think I’m qualified. But if I should, it’d be to stay strong and welcome to addictive cycle of happiness and misery. Because there’s nothing like writing that one perfect scene -- it’s worth all the stress and the struggle.

Also. Writing is like wine, it get’s better with age, but it doesn’t mean that you like wine.

21. Do you plot out your stories, or do you just figure it out as you go?

I plot a lot. Like a lot. But I throw out a lot through the window when push comes to shove. Sometimes I’ll outwrite what I’ve planned or plan something new and then I’ll get flung into a crisis. Haha. Fun.

22. Have you ever gotten a bad comment on a story? If so, what did you do?

The worst comment I’ve had is spam on Nowhere in the Sea. I just wish I had more comments. #NoShame.

23. Is there a certain type of scene that you have a hard time writing? (action, smut, etc..)

Smut. A bit of action, but action is easier than doing the sexy.

24. What story(s) are you working on now?

I’m focusing all my energy on Amor Fati, which is my gift for the fantasy exchange. I need to finish that because it’d be sad if I didn’t. And, most importantly, I want to make my giftee proud.

25. Do you plan your next project(s) before you finish your current ongoing story(s)?

The plan is to keep up with my plans. I have no shortage of plans. Hahaha. But I do plan on finishing up Amor Fati then finishing either Scales or The Thief, the Witch, and the Fae before moving on to other projects.

26. Do you have a daily writing goal set for yourself?

Nope. It would probably be better if I did, but acads just eats a lot of my time.

27. Do you think you’ve improved as a writer since you first started?

I think it’s arrogant to think that I did, but I guess I did. I was 13ish -- two years after fifth grade -- when I took writing more seriously... And looking back my writing style changed. ^^

28. What is your favorite story that you’ve written?

I love all my stories for different reasons. To be honest tho, it’s what I haven’t written and am yet to write. I love The Thief, the Witch, and the Fae for it’s dark and heavy atmosphere. Scales for its hesitance and its secrecy. Amor Fati for the melancholy and for its world. Nowhere in the Sea for being my first in a lot of things (but also it’s magic system and world gdi). Lights in the Sky are Stars for it’s sweet fluff. Class Pizza for its tomfoolery. So on and so forth.

As much as I have a hard time looking at my writing, I won’t deny that I love them for the things that they are and could be.

29. What is your least favorite story that you’ve written?

... Probably my anthology? It reminds me of bad memories.

30. Where do you see yourself (as a writer) in 5 years?

Here, still suffering but instead out of school (hopefully) and knee deep in some sort of job.

31. What is the easiest thing about writing?

The planning and the talking and the crying and the reading.

32. What is the hardest thing about writing?

The writing. Or maybe that point between the first scene and the third. Something like that.

33. Why do you write?

Why don’t I? Writing is me. I’ve did things for the sake of reference, I’ve devoted a lot of myself to writing and the idea of writing. I love it. It’s an amazing way to express.

I wouldn’t give it up for the world.

Sooo. For tagging. @spacegaykj and @astersandstuffs and @slothesaurus if you guys don’t mind ^^. Feel free to ignore if you want. Thank you for the time.

Also double tagging @haruhi02 because I can.

#ask me stuff #thanks for the tag #I didn't expect to be so sap #but you know acads just chewed me up and spit me out so that might be a thing #hahaha

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