#this has no context besides a fic i wrote which i will NOT be posting | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

smokestarrules · 1 year

Text

Why Caleb & Evelyn’s Absence is Good Writing

So if you don’t know me, I’m a big fan of Caleb and Evelyn (Clawthorne. Because I’m sure). I’m fascinated with their story -- I wrote an entire fic about them in 2022 before we even knew Evelyn’s name -- and I find them both incredibly interesting considering what is both shown about them and not. Despite that, I had a feeling that neither of them would make an appearance in Watching and Dreaming, and I was right.

Understandably so, some people were disappointed with that decision, that they were hoping for an entire flashback scene or something close to it. But while that also appeals to me -- oh my god does it appeal to me -- I also really enjoy the intangibility of it all.

So, I have three reasons as to why I like that Caleb and Evelyn didn’t show up again, which I’ll go through in no particular order. The rest of this post will be under a cut because it’ll probably get pretty lengthy.

1) Haunting The Narrative

Half of Caleb and Evelyn’s intrigue comes from the fact that in the end, we really don’t know all that much about them. Everything that we do know is from second-hand accounts at best and the rest of their story is up to your own singular interpretation; we only know the bare bones of their tale, but at the same time, they’re both extremely monumental to the main plot of the show.

They’re hardly ever shown centered on-screen (in Evelyn’s case, never), and again, despite their huge impact on the characters and world even 400 years later, it’s part of their charm that... they’re mysterious. You’re not meant to know much about them, not meant to perceive them as normal characters. Caleb never speaks in the show, Evelyn hardly even appears, and in the end, they’re not meant to be understood.

Caleb seems to have undergone some semblance of a redemption, but that’s only alluded to considering how he ends up dead; the implied is everything, and getting a concrete answer would, in my opinion, ruin part of what makes this story so fascinating.

Of course, the biggest argument I’ve seen against this idea is that casual viewers of the show, the ones who don’t care about combing the background of Hollow Mind for lore about Emperor Belos’ big brother, will be confused without the lack of context. And... I disagree.

Sure, maybe some people haven’t seen the portraits from Hollow Mind, but they’ve certainly seen Caleb when Gus went through Philip’s mind in King’s Tide. Maybe they missed the book about Grimwalkers in Labyrinth Runners, but they definitely caught Caleb in Philip’s diary during Elsewhere and Elsewhen. Then, in Thanks to Them, there’s an entire scene in which Masha very kindly gives an entire summary on the topic, tipping off both the main characters and anyone else in the audience who may be confused.

The story’s all there, both in the background and in the forefront of the show, and it’s weaved in so beautifully that it’s hard for me to believe that anyone would see Caleb in For the Future (of which is a scene I will be talking about soon) and have absolutely no idea who he is.

So in the end, I think having a more clear understanding of the going-ons that set everything into motion would be almost doing a disservice to the fans who have spent their time piecing things together and it’s also not really necessary in the first place. It’d be nice, and I’m sure I would have gone even more insane with more to analyze, but with the way this show has always portrayed Caleb and Evelyn, them fading into obscurity in the final episode just seems... fitting.

2) Philip Doesn’t Really Deserve Closure

It’s a simple fact: Philip Wittebane is kind of a fucked-up guy.

Besides a flashback scene, another idea for a potential Caleb and Evelyn appearance that I saw tossed around most was this: it’s the end, Philip’s about to be defeated, and in the interim, he sees his brother one last time.

Either he’s given forgiveness or not, Caleb being present at his lowest moment would undoubtedly mean something to Philip; over the centuries he’s spent a significant amount of time trying to remake his brother -- to make him better -- and no matter how you feel about him, Philip is a tortured soul. Perhaps Caleb could help him accept his inevitable death, perhaps he could have one last chance for Philip to have a moment of genuine vulnerability.

He’d die with the ghost of his brother and the ghost of his brother’s wife looking over him, and he’d die content... maybe.

Or you can go the other route:

On the other hand, maybe Philip goes to his death kicking and screaming the whole way, with Caleb and Evelyn staring him down as he’s ultimately annihilated for good. The tale of two brothers is over, and while Caleb is the one who perished first, centuries ago now, it’s Philip who is undoubtedly the one who loses in the end.

The last thing Philip sees is his brother’s hateful, tired face, and he dies with that image.

Of course, that’s the one that sounds better to me; Philip is not a villain you could ever redeem (a cruel upbringing will not excuse everything) and to even make an attempt at it would feel cheap and be completely unaligned with ToH’s core values, which actively (and correctly) condemn people like him.

The problem with both of these ideas, different as they are, is that both of them give Philip a sense of closure that he simply does not deserve to have been rewarded with. Either way, he knows for sure how his brother would feel about him -- or, at the very least, how he believes his brother should feel about him -- and it’s just that, the knowing, that rubs me the wrong way.

In the end, the last time Philip sees his brother is in this scene in For the Future, and it’s safe to say that there’s no actual closure or anything close to it here. Whether or not you believe this is actually Caleb or just Philip hallucinating him (personally I subscribe to the latter), it doesn’t really matter because the idea stays the same.

Philip spends this scene snarling curses at his unyielding brother -- who seems to be, notably, his younger self, given his hair length -- while also actively melting away in front of his eyes. Philip is the one who’s alive, Philip is the one who (he believes) is on the right side of history, and yet Philip is also the one on his knees, his entire body disintegrating slowly due to his own choices.

As the episode continues, it’s shown that Philip is seeing Caleb and the other Grimwalkers that he’s likely killed as well, and they’re clearly more of a taunt to his already-collapsing mental state than anything else. Again I reassert my opinion that they’re not actually there, that they’re simply Philip hallucinating in one of his weakest moments yet, and because of that, there is no answer given.

They stare; he tells them to “Shut up” and they don’t react in the slightest. They watch and they stare and they dare him to care about them in any way and the entire scene is just... a precipice. Eventually they disappear for good, and Philip moves on without even trying to process this phenomenon.

Basically what I'm saying is that Caleb appearing in Philip’s last moments would give him too much credit. And that actually leads us right into the final point I want to make, which is this:

3) Caleb Wasn’t Actually That Important To Philip

In the long run, at the very least.

Now hear me out. When I say ‘important’, I don’t mean that what happened with Caleb didn’t have long-lasting effects on Philip, because that’s simply not true; otherwise, my entire last point would be meaningless. Obviously, it’s Caleb (and to a lesser extent, Evelyn) who can be credited with initially setting Philip down this path; Caleb was probably the most stable thing in Philip’s early life, and losing him in a way that felt like abandonment -- and then killing him -- is undoubtedly something that would stick with you for a lifetime, 400 years or not.

But Caleb’s death is also largely an excuse.

Much in the same way that “saving humanity” is an excuse for Philip to commit the atrocities he does, Caleb’s betrayal pushing him towards that path and his subsequent attempts at bringing him back are also an excuse.

Here’s the thing: if Philip was genuinely passionate about remaking his brother -- but better -- then he’d care about the Grimwalkers more than he does. If Philip actually considered every Grimwalker a potential Caleb that he could just fix, then he would not have been able to dispose of them so coldly. There’s dozens of their corpses piled under the Skull, yet he only even commits to memory a rare few. Even Hunter, the closest to Caleb a Grimwalker’s ever gotten, was given a Sigil! A Sigil, which tells me that no matter what, no matter how perfect Hunter may have turned out, Philip was never going to let him survive the Day of Unity.

True, there’s definitely a part of Philip that hates the Grimwalkers because they can’t be Caleb, at least not in the way he thinks he needs (which is impossible, but I digress) there’s also a part that I think is just... carrying on because this is what he’s done for the past few centuries. It’d feel like giving up on himself to give up on the prospect of having Caleb beside him again, but there’s no passion anymore.

In the end, I think Papa Titan said it best:

“...That man doesn’t care about anything but his need to be the hero in his own delusion.”

That’s exactly it. Philip believes himself as the hero of the story, as someone who’s been suffering for centuries but will one day finally get the ending that he deserves. He goes through all of this not because he wants to go home and not because he wishes he could return to the life he and his brother once had, but because he so desperately wants to believe in the delusion that he is a person doing all the things he does for good.

You don’t live for over 400 years working towards a singular moment without at least having the thought that maybe what you’re doing is incorrect. But Philip has never let those supposed doubts stop him, and by the time the series is ending, nothing matters except his goal -- to see the destruction of every last witch and demon on the Boiling Isles.

Which is why, in this final scene of his, there’s not a single mention of his brother. His brother, who he’s spent the last 400 years trying to save; his brother, who, by learning to be better, essentially kickstarted Philip’s entire goal, but it became so twisted so quickly as Philip subconsciously decided that he was the only one who could ever fix things.

To put it simply: Philip’s only ever been concerned with himself. His idea of morality, his vision of the Boiling Isles, his opinions on the witches that live there. Nothing else matters; Caleb is a crutch to fall back on and so is the idea that Philip’s saving anyone, it’s all just more vindication to feed into his hero complex, because he’s the only one that really matters. He’s human and Luz is human and so they’re redeemable, but he stopped seeing Caleb as human the moment he saw him with Evelyn.

In the end, I feel as if it’s almost safe to say that Caleb and Evelyn as constructs are more important to the all-encompassing plot than they are to Philip specifically; they set him on his path, sure, but his descent into madness almost feels inevitable, death of his brother or not. He blames his own misfortune on them, and the fact that they're never quite seen makes Philip’s villainous qualities that much more emphasized, I think.

Overall, I loved Watching and Dreaming and I loved ToH and I think the characters of Caleb and Evelyn are some of the most haunting I’ve ever encountered, literally and metaphorically.

Their story is largely up in the air, but it still gets told, you just have to look for it. That's their charm, that’s why they’re interesting to me, and that’s why I am content with getting the amount we got of them.

#lmfao me jokingly putting this through a word counter like. 400 words or smth right???#[2095]......#thats probably fine #toh #toh spoilers #the owl house #the owl house spoilers #philip wittebane #emperor belos #caleb wittebane #evelyn clawthorne #luz noceda #smokey speaks #500

503 notes · View notes

sailorspica · 2 months

Text

reijean v-day 💝⚔️

see vee's prompt graphic for this. i tag anyone in any fandom, i want to hear about your OTP!!

💝 favorite canon scene:

these panels in the 57th scouting expedition right here.

in the anime the only internal monologue we get is from jearmin, which is a big rewatch tell of oh shit! why are reiner's thoughts private (armored hehe). but the ONE time, ONE time we get reiner's thoughts in this arc in the manga... it's about jean. and it's not like he takes over narration like armin did when he encounters annie alone, or like jean does once these three meet up. it's just one stray 💭 of "jean really... is different."

sure, other characters note jean's maturity since joining the corps, but recognition from reiner stands out here as a vote of confidence from marcel!reiner, AND four years later: when he still describes jean as "an irresponsible jerk who only ever thought of himself," even though reiner knows first hand that jean grew so, so much after trost. and it's his fault.

💝 a song that reminds you of them:

i previously posted SASAMI's I Was a Window, but another one that screams reijean to me is Till Death by Japanese Breakfast. briefly, it's about marriage, but she wrote a whole book about the context that this song and her relationship come from, which i highly recommend.

so many images in it are so post-rumbling to me: "get these days to go by like the swaying of a ship," (the studio recording starts with ocean sounds); "sing me to sleep, soothe this insomnia"; "your embrace healing my wounds / teach me to breathe, teach me to move." the beginning of verse 2, "steering on hostile waves of panic, like fighting a wheel that pulls to the right" makes me think of a later jbrekkie song, Slide Tackle, which IS reiner.

youtube

💝 favorite official picture/graphic:

back to back on the vol. 32 alliance cover baby!!

💝 favorite fanfic:

i have to say two:

vermin by @oxygenbefore1775: delicious cadet days, delicious fucked up time in reiner POV, delicious, smart tangling with the technological/material/cultural gaps between the walls and the rest of the world. how much of RBA's deep cover is culture shock? the total lack of guile jean has while running roughshod over the land mines in reiner's head with just "bunny." god.

from shiganshina with love by @fromriches-tosin: this is really the one that lured me in. it feels like a locked room, three-hander play, when even being in the wide open air (well, not reiner) is claustrophobic because two characters are intertwined and dug into one another. and as someone who has inhaled shelves' worth of eruri fic and doujinshi, vee's levi is one of my favorites.

💝 favorite fanart:

oh, this and everything by @mikibagels. one thing about reijean that goes so hard is jean's growth spurt, cadet and post-rumbling reijean both have height difference. similar vein, @valmendy illustrating reiner's flirting from never let me go: "i feel like i missed out on my little brother growing up." hello???

💝 why i ship:

i binged the anime so late, just in time for season 4, and when the finale came out i could hardly think of anything other than "we're scouts, we don't know when to quit."

back in my day (i'm turning 27 this month), one dude beating up another in shounen launched a ship, a fleet of ships, and kept it afloat for years, but yams gave us their more obvious, huge interactions in the last... fifteen chapters. but there's so much history between them that screams to be noticed on initial reread and rewatch: the reijearmin (horrendous throuple name) date that was the female titan arc, that jean keeps his cool when the 104th hop on the armored as reibert and ymir try to flee, the whole return to shiganshina, the echo i come back to of "the jean kirchstein i know only thinks of himself."

with jean's OVA, they're the characters whose moms we see the most of besides carla jaeger??? the difference between karina and jean's mother is vast, yet their sons turned out so similar, despite it all. so caring, so haunted by that care. jean takes his leadership in the post-time skip survey corps so seriously, he agonizes over his field leadership in trost, while reiner feels like he killed marcel and bertolt and doomed annie, and in his lowest, lowest moments still manages to protect and worry for falco and gabi.

also, another big why: you people. this is such a cozy pontoon. 😘 happy valentine's day!!!

#reijean #jeanrei #reiner x jean #jean x reiner #♃#aottxt #♀

18 notes · View notes

tathrin · 1 year

Text

I should probably wait for when I get around to posting this whole chapter, but. I just wrote this section and I like it a lot and I don’t want to wait, I want to share it now. And this is from like chapter seventeen or something, and I only have up to chapter six posted and I really don’t want to wait that long ugh. So please have some peaceful, before-the-storm, out-of-context (but you don’t really need the context for this, I promise) pre-gimleaf interaction from my zombie au fic.

(Spoiler Warning for the Zombie Au Fic, I suppose, although nothing that’s particularly plot-relevant, I don’t think. Y’all knew they were going to meet eventually, and the fact that it’s happening in Rivendell is not much of a give-away imo. But stop reading now if you’re reading that story and don’t want to read anything out-of-order, I suppose.)

Strange as Rivendell is, however, it is nothing compared to the strangeness of the elf who flits up to Gimli now, his loose golden hair bouncing like tufts of dandelion in the breeze behind him.

"Legolas," Gimli says; a flat acknowledgement rather than a greeting.

Legolas smiles brightly and hops onto the bench beside him, crouching on his heels rather than sitting like a proper creature, as seems to be his wont. (Gimli tries to remember if he has ever seen this elf sit in a chair the way people do, then wonders why he is wasting the mental effort on someone for whom he cares so little.) Legolas is holding some kind of long stem in one hand, and he pinches a small purple bud off of it and sticks it in his mouth.

"What are you eating?" Gimli finds himself asking before he can remember that he doesn't care.

"Lavender," says Legolas. He holds the stem out. "Would you like some?"

Gimli blinks. "No," he says. "No, thank you."

After a pause while the elf plucks at his lavender and tilts his head back to stare up at the trees that line the street beside their bench, Gimli cannot help but to say anxiously, "Lavender. Which you…plucked from someone's garden as you passed?"

Legolas tilts his head, apparently thinking the possibility over. Then he says, "Yes."

"Ah," says Gimli.

He does not know much about gardens or flowers, but he thinks of the humans of Dale, and how territorial some of them can be about their homes and the surrounding grounds.

"Perhaps…perhaps you should not do that again," he says gently.

Legolas turns his silver-bright eyes on the dwarf and blinks at him. "Why?" he says, tilting his head the other way now before breaking into a grin again. "Oh! No, you do not need to worry, Gimli, it will not hurt the flower to lose a few buds. We grow lavender in Mirkwood, too, and I know its growth well. It flourishes in the south of our trees especially, or—or it did," he finishes, his voice going soft and a shadow passing across his gleaming eyes. "I do not know how it fares now, of course." Legolas ducks his head and turns away.

Gimli does not know what to say that will be of any comfort, and he cannot bear to make this strange creature feel worse while he is mourning for his homeland, so he abandons his attempt to explain the concept of private gardens and potentially possessive gardeners. He has a difficult time imagining that anyone in this peaceful valley will take offense to someone plucking a single strand of lavender from their garden, anyway.

He hopes.

I love writing about Mirkwood elves as these weird forest cryptids, and one of my favorite parts of this modernized-Middle-earth AU I’ve got going on here is how while everywhere else is a little bit more like our world due to the modern technology/society/etc innovations, Mirkwood is just even weirder than it was in canon, and Gimli is just like...what the fuck, what is this weirdo elf and why won’t he leave me alone. what the hell am I getting myself into. fuck.

Anyway whether you’re reading the zombie fic or not I hope you enjoy this little moment of out-of-context levity from it.

#gimleaf #gimli #legolas #mirkwood #lotr fanfiction #gigolas #my writing #my stuff #lotr zombie au #lotr

52 notes · View notes

rosalind-hawkins · 2 months

Text

My YGO Hetero Ships: Part 1

Wanted to make a little post about my Yugioh hetero ships because I feel like I don't talk about them much. And then the post wasn't little, oh well. Mostly Trustshipping and Polarshipping rants.

Peachshipping is a bit of a foregone conclusion for me. It's intuitive and I think they work so well together and are good for each other. I use it as a world-filling background ship a lot because it's just so... obvious to me? And wholesome, don't forget wholesome. It's sweet, it's positive, it's healthy. I don't have a strong grasp on either character which is why I haven't written it, and I don't feel passionately about it, but I do support it.

Blueshipping was the very first ship I ever wrote in my very first fanfic ever, and while I do support the ship, I haven't written it since then. There is implied past Mizushipping in Rock Bottom, but Kisara still dies like canon, so tragic ending and Seth is rekt. Like Peachshipping, this one is a no-brainer for me, it just only exists when Kisara gets to live/come back, because otherwise it's pure angst and tragedy.

Trustshipping is in the future for a current unfinished fic but I haven't actually written it otherwise. Currently working on a one-shot wip with my husband for it though. This is one that I do feel quite passionately about because I think Ishizu is one of the few people that even has a chance at getting close to Kaiba, in terms of purely canonical characterizations. And in terms of non-pure canonical characterizations (aka the fun stuff), there's even more potential for passion and romance. I think they've both had to grow up too fast, take care of their little brothers, deal with abusive fathers, make difficult decisions, and be forced into a role that they didn't ask for/weren't ready for. There will be understanding, patience, and compassion there, mostly just from Ishizu but you get the idea. The dragon doesn't want to be tamed but gradually realizes the benefits of the arrangement. She's strong-spirited in a quiet way and she won't let Kaiba treat her poorly. People might think she's Kaiba's trophy wife at first, being exotic and beautiful, but I think she can absolutely hold her own with poise, class, and wit. Whenever she has to go to a snobby social event with him, people will gradually realize that he didn't tame her, she tamed him. Ishizu the dragon-tamer. He is her dragon, she is his queen. She's not a trophy wife, she's not a gold-digger. Neither of them are a prize to be won. This is a partnership, and if you ever disrespect one of them in front of the other, you will be flayed with their words. She will also absolutely have her own career in Egyptology/Archaeology which helps to discourage the conception that she married him for any reason besides her love for him.

Polarshipping is another one that I think I've only written once, and it was in the context of Ettushipping, but I stan it quite hard. I won't shut up about it anytime Mai and Joey are in a scene together when I watch Yugioh with my husband. ("Omg look at the way he smiles at her! And look at the way she looks at him! And OMG he would die for her, this boy is too pure!!") I think I've used it as a background ship before a couple times maybe? But I love their canon storyline together and their dynamic (and I can even appreciate what happens for them in Season Four, even though that season kinda ruins Mai and does her all kinds of dirty, Joey's determination to help her despite her turning on them, despite Tristan saying "you're better off letting her go because I don't want to see you get hurt again", is one of the sweetest things and Joey is such a puppy and once they finally get together, I hope Mai understands what a Good Boy she has and absolutely spoils him). I do feel strongly about them and I want to write them at least one-shot at some point.

#musings #peachshipping #blueshipping #mizushipping #trustshipping #polarshipping #ettushipping #might do a part two #seto kaiba #ishizu ishtar #joey wheeler #mai valentine #mai kujaku #kaiba seto #jounouchi katsuya #okay this is the third time in two days where something accidentally posted and it wasn't supposed to and i swear i just hit save #is there an issue with the app or am i just stupid

9 notes · View notes

blorbologist · 1 year

Note

heyooo I just started writing fan fic and I really have no idea what I'm doing haha, can you explain how you draft and edit and write you long fics? i don't know what to do besides just starting at the beginning and writing to the end. (also sending this to multiple writiers so I can get lots of opinions)

Hi anon! I’m really flattered you’ve reached out <33

An amorphous list of advice from someone who has written over 300k words in under a year:

Make sure to note all your ideas for the fic down. You will not remember your plot twist thought up on the walk home in a few hours - *write it down!* It could be gushing to a friend about it or a notepad or whatever - and then make sure to compile it wherever you’re keeping your ideas for that fic.

Be kind to yourself! Sometimes it takes weeks or months to write a scene the way you want it - maybe you aren’t inspired, maybe you can’t get it to Work, maybe, maybe - don’t beat yourself up about it. It’s art. There is no timeline.

Likewise, if you’re new: I’d really recommend against a longfic! Do some oneshots first - seeing a work to completion and posting it will really help your confidence. A longfic is a long commitment, and if you end up changing plans or abandoning it it can be very discouraging for you to have that incomplete work be one of your first. It’s like training for a marathon :D

Get a bullet point list if you can of scenes you want to do or information/things that need to happen for those scenes to make sense. Even if you don’t have the details - I have the note ‘they find Tary in hell, because he overheard them and thought it was an adventurous place to be’ in my main fic doc. I didn’t know *how* they were going to meet him, or under what context, and figured that out as I wrote. You don’t need to break it up by chapter, just timeline.

Speaking of timeline, here’s a neat trick: muse is a fickle thing, you don’t *have* to trudge through content you don’t want to write to get to the good stuff. I usually prefer to - I like having the full emotional context for scenes clear in my head - but when writer’s block gets me I’ll often jump to self indulgent writing something fun I’ve wanted to get to. You can always go back and edit things and add in a scene later, so long as you haven’t posted yet…

… which is why I strongly, strongly, strongly recommend having a buffer when you can, or at least letting a chapter sit overnight while you sleep on it. I get the urge to post something you just made, hot off the press, but you would not believe the number of typos or inconsistencies I find after reading things over with fresh eyes. This is true for both oneshots and longfics - the chapters y’all are seeing for Two for joy were mostly complete around November during NaNoWriMo! It also means you have room to go back and edit things - if you stumble on a cool plot twist you can foreshadow it more effectively, or if a character arc changed in ways you didn’t expect you can lay more groundwork for it. It’s less stressful knowing that if gradschool goes to hell I’ve got… hang on… 13 weeks of wiggle room while still keeping to my schedule. And even if it did run out - this is free content, people would understand if I went on hiatus for a bit. You have all the time in the world - use it!

BUT, in a similar vein, feedback and encouragement are super important to keeping your muse up. Which is why I strongly recommend having a friend or two in fandom you can bombard with snippets and spoilers and ideas! One for sorrow / Two for joy would likely have sputtered and fizzled out without @rightpastnowhere, @katia-dreamer, @burr-ell, @essayofthoughts, @romeoandjulietyouwish - and the fandom community I found early on that were so excited for the fic! Engage with your commenters, they can make for really great friends, betas and/or tormented souls when you offhand chuck your most evil plot twists at them >:D

Remember that fanfic is supposed to be fun. You’re having fun. You’re writing, for free. I’ve mostly written for Critical Role as a fandom, but I promise you it’s not as scary as you might think it is. I haven’t gotten a single nasty comment or anon yet, despite, uhhhh, breaking up my OTP and piling angst galore on people (and making Vax trans). By in large, it's a supportive space - but don't be afraid to curate it to your needs. Writing is for you and whatever you want to get out of it: validation for your ideas/HCs/skill, new friendships and a sense of community, improving your own skill, self-indulgent things you want to see in fiction, working through trauma, hella hot porn, etc. We’re all allowed to look to fic for different things, If it stops being what you need, if it feels like work, like a chore? You can drop it.

Hope this was of some help!

#writing fanfic #cr fanfic #fanfic #tumblr writers #my writing #idk what to tag this and I gotta scram KJNGTKTRHNT BYEEE

37 notes · View notes

carochinha · 6 months

Text

19 Questions for Fic Writers!

I got tagged by @storybookprincess, thank you so so so much!!!

1. How many fics do you have on AO3?

Roughly... 16. That's not bad. Quite a respectable number!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

328,674

Damn. That a lotta word. Wild to think a third of those words are from a single fic huh

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Bit of a lot of things. Hunter x Hunter and Daiya no Ace are my big ones, but I've also written for Kingdom Hearts, Haikyuu, Black Clover, Project Sekai and....... Homestuck.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

"A Very Hisoka Wedding" stands head and shoulders above anything else at 1,143 kudos, which is legit insane. This fic isn't close to being my best. It isn't close to being my most innovative. It isn't even the longest! And yet it has more Hits, Kudos and Bookmarks than anything else I've ever written. Wild. Following that, we have "(Country Roads, Take Me)Home for the Holidays" at 365, my actual magnum opus so far, "Kiss Me Once, Kiss Me Twice" at 321, a short Black Clover ficlet that somehow keeps getting love, "Weekend at Leorio's" at 295 and "Pink Love" at 256.

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

I used not to respond to comments, but in the past couple of years I've been trying to respond to every comment I get. I like getting responses to my comments when I post on other fics, so I also want people to get that happiness. Besides, it's only polite!

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

...what is angst, signed, a permanently happy ending girlie.

Anyway it's probably "Quadratum Has Pocky", a KH drabble I wrote for Pocky Day which did not leave me with a lot of space for happy endings.

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

Literally all of them LMAO

But I guess "Red Eyes, Take Warning", my HxHBB fic this year gets special mention by giving Kurapika, the fandom's tragic boy, a happily-ever-after.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Sometimes. Home for the Holidays got a couple of comments once we got to the spicy part about how I should have tagged which character topped. That was wild. I'm talking like, HUGE paragraphs.

But not usually, no.

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

I did once! It was the vanillaest M/M ever written, but I sure did write it!

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

I do really like inter-sports-anime crossovers. I once wrote a Haikyuu x Daiya no Ace ficlet that was quite fun!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not since I was 15 doing it myself translating my terrible Digimon fics into English lmao.

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Favourite is a complicated word. All-time, however, isn't.

I've been an Akuroku girlie since 2005 and by GOD I will persist.

(the ship I most wish would become canon, however, is also from KH, but it's Soriku, which I've never even written about.....yet)

14. What’s a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

My Hunter x Hunter Praxis AU.

Huge AU, spanning five years, each of which focusing on a different set of characters, with highly specific references to a highly specific university culture from my country that like two people reading would understand. It's also technically a Reincarnation AU.

Yeah I'm never getting that written.

15. What are your writing strengths?

Apparently, characterization and making my character actions and plots seem believable in the context of canon. Which is good, because I really do strive for character voice matching the original, so I'm happy with this assessment by my readers LMAO

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

DESCRIBING ACTION.

If I ever have to write an action scene, I just don't. There is no combat in my fics, not because I dislike it, but because I can't write it lol.

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

Have done it. Will continue doing it when I find it appropriate. Helps when the POV character also isn't supposed to understand the language, because then you're just on the same page :D

18. First fandom you wrote for?

Digimon Adventure my beloved <3

(the fics themselves are also beloved, because although they're bad, I can see where I came from and how that shaped me into the writer I am today. My bad fics are a part of me and my journey just as much as my 100k word epics are.)

19. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Pausing + looking off into the distance.

You do realize this is an impossible question?

All the fics for me are... connections, within myself and with the people around me. Writing each one was a battle of finding the right words within me, the joy of sharing little snippets with friends, asking for help and bouncing off ideas. Listening to music and building the plot in my head as I walk, thinking about it as I fall asleep. Pouring my longing, my affection, my grief, and my hopes into these words, trying to connect with whoever will read them.

So I guess I'll say it's "All The Things He Said". It's the first fic I wrote for Daiya no Ace, a fandom I knew no one in. And I needed a beta. Trying to find that beta actually led me to finding one of my best friends, so I'm very thankful to this fic.

Anyway, tagging people! I'll tag @wingsonghalo because she had to read my bad Digimon fic and @tomioneer because of all I said in the last question!

#tag games

3 notes · View notes

ipreferfiction · 5 months

Text

20 questions for fic writers

@spyscrapper tagged me (shocking for everyone, i'm sure). thanks beloved

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

26!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

337,006 (a chunk of which is cowritten)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

posted, i have star wars (totj, kotor, swtor, prequels, and tcw), lockwood & co., and asoiaf. i've also written hotd-era asoiaf fics, a couple of unfinished mdzs fics, and something for grimm floating around.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

The Bond Between: fic i wrote for a tcw zine, Ahsoka & Obi-Wan. 137 kudos.

(note: technically the second fic is one that got hit by the kudos bot, so i am taking it out of the ranking because i cannot trust its numbers)

How Far We've Come: Lockwood & Co., written and set right after TCS. Kipps and the crew. 62 kudos.

Wasteland: prequels/tcw/original trilogy, Obi-Wan on Tatooine having a truly questionable time. 60 kudos.

Dragon's Rise: asoiaf, post-series. Dany, Jon, Tyrion, and Arya go to Old Valyria so Dany can break the Doom and rebuild the Valyrian Freehold. i hate several things i did with characters here, truly, and i am never going to finish it; i'm keeping it up so i can see comments and kudos, because it got a lot of engagement (posted right after the show ended), but i would change so many things now. 54 kudos.

tremble for yourself, my man (you know that you have seen this all before): kotor - Cassus Fett dies on Malachor and wakes up six years in the past, with the knowledge that something is manipulating the war. he kidnaps Revan and Alek right off Dantooine at one point to help him. extremely full of torture! also the cousin of found family, sibling acquisition via kidnapping. 50 kudos.

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

i try to, but i haven't been great at it for a while. so occasionally it takes me a few months, lol

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

posted? probably my mando wars novelization. none of the really angsty stuff is finished, and i also tend to shy away from bitter endings because they make me depressed. and i do mean depressed, i have depression and i tend to get a little too into my characters' heads, which is not great when they're having bad times.

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

uh. um. the... ahsoka and obi-wan one maybe??

8. Do you get hate on fic?

the only ones that actually hurt me were on a years-old asoiaf fic. i've gotten two or three in recent years when i've been writing star wars stuff, but they're so out of pocket they're absolutely hilarious to me. i make fun of them with my friends. shoutout to the person who told me not to use bitch because it was a slur against women when the context was literally a man calling his long hair a bitch to deal with. i am NEVER getting over that, it's so funny.

9. Do you write smut?

periodically, yeah. it's fun, i just am also horribly embarrassed trying to write it lol. i have very little posted, but i've got a handful of half-finished ones in docs.

10. Do you write crossovers?

nnnnnnot really? i toss them around for some of my OCs and original works (between each other), but i don't really write them or post them. now, fusions? yeah, i write those. the hp au is the only one i've posted, and also is my favorite. read the main fic before you read the oneshot, though, because besides being utterly awful (affectionate) it also makes no sense without context. not that the series has given basically any of that context yet, but, yk. it's coming. eventually.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not as far as i know. there's less theft in really niche communities like the stuff i tend to write.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

nope

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

yes!! @spyscrapper (i keep typing revanchxst as your url beloved when will you change it back) is my coauthor for the hp au and for our big swtor novelization, plus a couple of totj fics.

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

frankly, a couple of my ocs who live rent-free in my head at all times, from one of my original works. 1920s monster hunters, secret government organization, repressed queer people (person. the others are not at all repressed he's just a dumbass about emotions), constant threats of violence, morally grey pov characters, murder. i am literally insane about them. also a different set of ocs from fic that developed their own original work as well: magic university, depressed gay people, Plots, the usual. i am constantly chewing on them. in fandom, knight/scourge and cassus/ultimate, probably.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but probably won't?

most of my asoiaf stuff, tbh

16. What are your writing strengths?

prose. give me a good several paragraphs and i will give you gorgeous prose. flowing, poetic, great imagery, the works. i am not afraid to say that's what i'm good at

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

FUCKING dialogue. i hate dialogue so much. no more talking society has progressed past the need for talking. i can do a sentence or two, but full conversations? evil.

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

I'll throw in a word or two without translating, because single words are easy to remember and write a glossary for at the end of the chapter. full sentences, though? They're either in italics (if the fic is generally speaking one language and this is another), or unmarked except by dialogue tags (much rarer, generally only do it if the pov character would mostly be speaking another language and so marking it as unusual doesn't make sense. e.g., Cassus talking to other Mandalorians isn't gonna be italicized because it being in Mando'a is expected.)

19. First fandom that you wrote for?

sherlock, i think? i wrote an OC fic that has now evolved into its own original universe because i ended up hating sherlock after season 4, and also the fandom was so fucking annoying. i was writing doctor who and supernatural OC fics around the same time, but i'm pretty sure sherlock was first.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

tremble for yourself, my man (linked above) or start a war, for posted fics. for unposted stuff, a cassus wip i will eventually. eventually finish

tags: @zaolat, @hermitmoss, yeah that's all i've got lee got all the other people i know lol

#things i have been tagged in

3 notes · View notes

shastafirecracker · 8 months

Note

for the ask meme: 3, 18, 22?

another break for writing rambles!

3 what’s one scene you always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all the setup and context it would need? I would love to write just some smutty smutty PWP of polygun all having fun with vash’s vine tentacles but I keep being hung up by my own inability to let go of canon characterization - the fact that those vines are incredibly traumatic to vash and I have such a hard time getting him in my mind to a place where he’d be okay with even manifesting them, much less railing three people at once with them. argh! it took me however many thousands of words of the VWL post-canon AU to get to a place where I think vash is fine with feathering out and having oops-accidentally-psychic sex with wolfwood and livio. do I have to do that with vash/wolfwood/meryl/milly also?? (maybe?? i’m not saying it’ll NEVER happen I’m just saying it makes me insane)

I also have a slew of AU ideas that I know would make great 100k+ epics but like, man, that’s work, that’s so hardddd whine whine whine

18 do any of your stories have alternative versions (abandoned plotlines, AUs of your own work, alternate characterizations)? again I can’t say anything about BB fic yet, though I will! probably in december I’ll make a roundup post of discards and trivia. and I don’t think I ever have alternate characterizations, because having a strong idea of the characterization through-line is usually where my fics start. but in both Trillium & Ivy and my bb fic I have thought to myself that it would be so fucking easy to make them polygun instead of vashwood. there’s a very noncanon-to-t&i wip of the wives and the bfs having a bi4bi4bi4bi weekend getaway, which… I’m gonna hold onto because there was a polygun event interest check recently and I do like the bones of this wip, it just needs a LOT of work, so. if there’s an event it might be just the thing, idk.

T&I has the most abandoned plotlines of probably anything I’ve ever written besides my old destiel AU. modern-setting AUs have so many potential ways to get sidelined, at least for me. probably the biggest thing is that according to the original outline, the final showdown was meant to take place in like a warehouse at some docks (why? what??), zazie was going to drive everyone there because elendira sent them to get her man back safely, the WHOLE crew was supposed to go (vash, nick, livio, meryl, milly, kaite, zazie) and there were going to be? whole gun fight scenes??

this is a blatant example of what is meant by “don’t be precious with your ideas” - I wrote several thousand words of outline and then looked at all of it and said what the fuck, time to put all of this in the garbage disposal and start over. don’t be precious = drawfee’s whole bit of “delete your art.” sometimes you gotta accept not even scavenging for bits to salvage, just burn it all.

the fic is MUCH better for it

22 do you reread your old works? how do you feel about them? I do! I love them! oh it’s the tea, for me, the tea for me, the tea specifically designed to kill me, etc etc! I drift off from rereading my own fics in older fandoms often because I’m just not rotating those blorbos in my head so hard anymore, but for finished fics in my current fandom, it’s like hey wow this author wrote a fic that will push every single one of my buttons with extreme precision, because this author lives in my head and is me, lol. also, when I get a review that mentions any specific thing, I have to go back and reread that bit to extract all the dopamine from seeing it through fresh eyes and imagining how the reader interpreted it or felt about it.

#sf writes #writer ask meme #sometimes i think about the episode of 24 or whatever the fuck that was the original ending of t&i #and i'm like. did i have a fever? what tf was happening? brain?

4 notes · View notes

yahargulian · 11 months

Note

HELLOOOO I HAVE WRITING ASKS FOR YOU

6, 8, 13 (drop the music recs!!!), 29, 39 (begging you to tell the people about the blast furnace. if you want!!), 43, 57

ahem i would also like to take this chance to announce that kim is an AMAZING writer (and an amazing person full stop) and everyone should keep your eyes peeled for their fics in the future because whoooy boy their current serennedy wips and ideas are SOOOO GOOD and i’m not even really in the fandom??? but i live for every snippet i’m sent???

hehe please enjoy 💓💓

AAAAA Jamie holy shit.. Bestie you're gonna make me blush aaaa 👉👈

Whenever I do actually get these fics finished and published, everyone go thank Jamie for all his hype and support and for being my fandom screaming buddy adkjhga AND ALSO if you happen to watch a funky little show called KinnPorsche you should go read their fics like! Right the fuck now! And also keep an eye out for new ones in the future because I have also seen snippets of Jamie's wips and ideas and WOWIE is that fandom in for a treat or two. Or several hehe

6. What’s the last line you wrote?

"Unpleasant didn’t quite cut it." Which is from the same extract I answered with here, and is the last line I've written from any of my wips at the moment... But, I'm also gonna give you the last line I've written from the other fic I'm currently working on. As a treat! "Krauser had changed right there beside Leon, and he had never even noticed." I really am just making Leon go through it in two very different ways at the moment ahdgjkhag

8. Post an out-of-context spoiler from a wip.

"And maybe it had fulfilled the purpose for which it was designed, no longer held a practical use to him. But, as he breathed in, he felt its weight soft against his chest. And for a moment he couldn't exhale. A soft warmth bled in his chest; from his lungs, from his heart, from the weight of metal over both. Held. Like a promise. "No," he breathed, finally. Then, surely, "no, nothing." Not all purposes were practical, after all."

13. Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what have you been listening to recently?

I do! But I'm really really awkward about it aghkdgjdakg it depends on the vibe really! Usually music with lyrics distracts me (my brain starts focusing on the lyrics oops) so unless I'm listening to a specific song or songs on loop, I usually listen to video game soundtracks There are some scenes and stuff that call for a specific kind of vibe - or just silence as a last resort if I can't find anything to listen to - but lately I've been listening to boss battle music, of all things. This playlist, to be exact This is my hype music! My 'Getting Shit Done' playlist. I used to listen to a lot of this while doing uni assignments, and have been known to listen to it to do even mundane shit. Like laundry

29. What’s something about your writing that you’re proud of?

People have told me before that my fics have made them cry, and like. Nothing makes me happier honestly. Again with the emotion think, is anything I've written has ever made someone feel something it's the best thing that could possibly happen. So the fact that something I've written has apparently made people feel something so much that they've cried? Hell yeah I'm proud of that!!

39. What’s your most self-indulgent wip?

Okay no you're right, the blast furnace fic is pretty self indulgent so I will mention it. Basically, Leon and Luis fuck in the blast furnace, right after the fight against the two Gigantes. And this came about because I realised that this would be one of the best times for them to kiss in the main plot (literally like in an action movie) and also that nobody had written them fucking in the blast furnace yet? And once I realised that I realised how obvious it was to get them to fuck in there - and now here I am. So it's very self indulgent because I wanna see it ahdjkahkjgd but also now that I've started it I'm on a mission to make it as visceral an experience as possible! It's gonna be fucking great I'm really excited for it Honestly tho, most if not all of what I write or try to write is self-indulgent in some way. Hell, the key fic I'm working on is super self-indulgent just because it's basically me working through all my feelings about this damn lab key! And what it means and symbolises and what if what if what if. Everything I write is written because I wanna see it and explore it and experience it! It's all self-indulgence babey!

43. Is there a trope or idea that you’d really like to write but haven’t yet?

Answered here but long story short, yes! But hopefully I'll get to them soon hehe I also looked over the 4,000 word pollen wip again after typing my reply to this question and. Yeah. I've definitely gotta finish that one someday my god I forgot how strong the brainworms had got when I started that one ahdgjkahgkd

57. How conscious are you about including symbolism or foreshadowing in your fics?

Foreshadowing maybe, tho I'm not sure how much I'd say I'm conscious of it rather than.. Because I know where I'm going I try to build up to that. So I guess that would be a yes? Ahsdjhjgkj In terms of symbolism, maybe not as much as I should be? The aforementioned key fic is possibly an exception here because, well. It's literally about the fucking lab key. It's about the symbolism. But generally I'm not conscious about including it - and now this is making me wonder if I do? And if I do, how the fuck and when? Someone please tell me, Jamie please tell me aghdjdahgds

#thank u bestie AAAAAA #screaming crying throwing up #fr everyone go read his fics right the fuck now if u like kpts #this is not a request this is a demand ahgjkdhgkjds #answered #xhangkyuns

4 notes · View notes

aceghosts · 2 years

Text

WIP Thursday

Hey Everybody! I've been tagged by @purplehairsecretlair, @poeti-kat, @clicheantagonist, @thomrainer, @natesofrellis, and @socially-awkward-skeleton to share what I've been working on. It's more Resident Evil stuff, but I promise I'm going to be working on the final edits of Chapter 6 of the Five Years Later AU soon.

Tagging: @sstewyhosseini, @hoesephseed, @marivenah, @allthearchetypes, @bluemojave, @nuclearstorms, @indorilnerevarine, @smithandrogers, @derelictheretic, and anyone else who has anything to share!

Stuff beneath the cut!

This first snippet comes from my RE Longfic, which I continue to chug away at the first draft of. Right now, this sits at chapter 12, which is going to be a lot of Hunter/Wesker hurt/comfort. However, this part of the chapter is more lighthearted:

Tiring of laying in bed, trying to fall asleep to no avail, Hunter climbs out, deciding to find Wesker. As they step out into the hallway, Hunter hears the soft sounds of piano music. They walk down the hallway silently, following the sound of the music. Drawing closer, Hunter recognizes the music: Moonlight Sonata. Jill once played for them at a party, showing off her rusty piano skills. This player is the opposite, quite skilled to Hunter’s untrained ear. Eventually, Hunter finds Wesker at the piano, fingers deftly moving over the keys. They lean against the entryway of the room, not wanting to disturb him. Wesker looks to be in peace as he plays, eyes closed behind his dark shades. Hunter notices he’s even changed his black turtleneck to a black sweater. They feel guilty and embarrassed, knowing they should have had their breakdown in private. Hunter spent so much time shoving those awful tears down that it angers them to know they had so little self-control at that moment. “Are you going to stand there, or would you like to join me?” Wesker asks, opening his eyes as he looks over at Hunter.

Swallowing guilty, Hunter joins him at the piano bench, sitting beside him at the edge of the bench. “Sorry, didn’t mean to disturb you.”

“You didn’t,” He still continues to play, “And you don’t have to sit so far away either.” Heeding his command, Hunter scoots closer to him, close enough while still giving him room to play. The two sit in silence, Hunter watching Wesker’s fingers. They’re entranced by his movements, never having seen someone so skillful. “Do you know how to play?”

Hunter shakes their head. “No. I wasn’t really the musically inclined one.” It wasn’t the whole truth. Truth was that Hunter didn’t know if they were musically inclined. Their family was too poor to afford something like piano lessons, especially for Hunter, first in line. “My younger sister, Fiona, was the musically gifted one. She used to play the flute.” Another half-truth. Once they could get a job, Hunter’s money went to helping to provide for their siblings. Part of their money went towards Fiona’s flute, allowing her to join the school band. Fiona had been good at it too, but she decided playing professionally wasn’t for her and gave it up after college. “So, how did you learn to play?”

So yeah, just a soft moment between Hunter and Wesker. I swear this makes more sense in the context of the chapter. And, plus there is going to be a little discussion of Wesker's and Hunter's childhoods. (I'm gonna have to do some head canoning on Wesker's end, lol.)

Although, I’m kind of having an issue with this fic, where I can’t decide if I’m straight up gonna make this a canon divergent fic from RE 5. That’s a whole separate issue for a different post.

The second snippet comes from a Hunter/Wesker prompt, involving the BSAA Agent! Hunter AU. It’s going to be a follow-up to a prompt that I wrote here. Here is a small snippet:

Wesker is quiet, strangely somber. “If someone else made you an offer, would you consider it?”

Hunter smirks. “Depends on who’s making the offer. For you, it’s an automatic no,” They tease Wesker, who shakes his head.

“I provide good benefits as an employer.”

“Only if people live long enough to see them.”

Wesker chuckles, smirking at them. “Fair enough.”

I still haven’t finished the first draft of this one, so I don’t want to give away too much.

#kate writes #the hunter fic tag #fic: dead man walking #rip to you if you followed me for anything but resident evil #I've just fallen so hard back into it lol

23 notes · View notes

haldenlith · 7 months

Text

So, I'm rewriting the time-skip fic I was working on with Astarion and scrapping a lot of what I had, approaching it with an entirely different plot instead (same setting, though). However, I wrote a scene that I'm still fond of, and I'd hate to see consigned to the void, so I'm sharing it with you guys.

I'll give some background context: The premise was that, flung ahead a few centuries after the events of the game, the story is that a now much older spawn-Astarion is still alive and well in turn of the century, Edwardian-themed and Industrial Revolution-hitting Baldur's Gate. Astarion's made something of a name for himself as a faux-mercantile-lord, being the purveyor of a fairly successful perfume enterprise which is, publicly, the source of his wealth. As far as the public is aware, he's just some eccentric high elf dandy, with an ornery human assistant named Charles usually tagging along. None of that is the whole story, of course, (he is a Charlatan, after all) but it's how he gets by. At this point, his beloved (my Tav, Tannivh) that he fought alongside has passed on, leaving him to manage on his own. Which is... fine... until he encounters his reincarnated self and sees the man carted off to jail. Needless to say, Astarion's instantly invested and interested in getting said reincarnated man out of jail and into his hands. Cue the scene I thought was amusing.

As the guard led the two men through the jail, there were a few catcalls from the rowdier inmates. Not to Charles, of course, but to Astarion. His eccentric fashion tastes seemed to always catch people’s eye, though not always in a positive light. A few glares cut through the bars from others who were less vocal. Either way, Astarion merely lightly sneered in their direction with utter disdain. He wasn’t there to be afternoon entertainment.

The guard stopped near the end of the hall, leading them to a small cell where the wood elf from earlier sat, knees bent, arms resting on them. His barely shoulder-length black hair mostly obscured his features, and the firelight glinted off the unique manacles on his wrists. It seems they didn’t trust him to not sling spells while in the cell. The guard lifted his clipboard and flipped through the pages. “Ah, yeah, here he is. Yeah, we just booked him. Said he was a nasty bugger to try and drag in. Let’s see… Felaadan — which is about as much as we got out of him for a name. Age, unknown. His charges are ten counts of vandalism, four counts of assaulting a Flaming Fist officer, one count of public disturbance, eleven counts of unlawful use of magic, and two counts of trespassing. I’m sure there will be other minor infractions levied against him when the magistrate sees him.”

Astarion plopped a hand on his hip, cocking his head to the side, peering into the cell. “Well, aren’t you a naughty boy.” The man in the cell glanced up at being addressed, but initially paid them no mind.

Initially.

There was a pause, and he did a double-take, piercing emerald eyes snapping onto Astarion’s face and meeting his gaze. A flicker of recognition passed over Felaadan’s features.

That was all Astarion needed.

“How much is his bail posted for?”

Charles blinked at the question, and leaned in to whisper through gritted teeth, “You cannot be serious! If you want hired muscle, we know where to find it for far cheaper!”

As Astarion gently pushed Charles away, the guard sucked in a sharp breath. “I don’t know, m’lord. He’s caused a lot of trouble over the past month. I doubt he even has a bail set for him, thanks to him trapping — accidentally or not — Lady Caldwell in her manor a week ago.” Astarion arched up an eyebrow, a bemused smile appearing on his face. Someone terrorized that old bint? Good.

“I think we could… work something out. You’re all so busy with… the rest of the rabble. Besides, imagine how the press would react if you flayed the skin off some poor boy for making plants spring up hither thither.”

“Well, lashes weren’t really — ”

“And wasn’t the big push going to be that The Gate was heading in a ‘new direction’ with our laws? To become a beacon of a new age? Surely denying citizens bail, exacting archaic punishments, and preventing proper rehabilitation would run counter to that ideal.”

“I mean, I guess you’re — ”

“I feel like it is my duty as a noble lord — no — a noble citizen to aid in bettering our society. I am more than willing to do my part to help clean up the streets and rehabilitate this man! Put him to doing good, honest work! So! I ask you again, my good man, what is his bail set at?”

Charles and the guardsman both stared, a bit stunned (though for differing reasons), at Astarion.

“I, um, I’ll go talk with the Warden and see what I can do,” the guardsman replied, jerking a thumb behind him as he stepped away. Shortly after he left, Astarion jerked his chin in the man’s direction, his gaze on Charles.

“Make sure someone gets paid.” With a begrudging sigh, Charles followed after the guardsman. Once they were essentially alone, Fel’s voice finally spoke up from his side of the bars.

“... You have a lot of faith that I’ll come along quietly with you after I’m out.” A wolfish grin spread across Astarion’s face as he returned his attention to Felaadan.

“Darling, if you’re even a third of the man you were in your past life, you’ll not only do that, you’ll feel obliged to return the favor owed.”

And scene.

I just thought it was an interesting little scene that I had written, and that I'd share that incomplete snippet before I shove it into a folder and scrapped.

#haldie writes #Astarion #fanfic snippet #I just love the mental image of Astarion monologuing while doing his Deception/Persuasion gig on the guard #like of course this diva would put on a show while lying through his teeth

2 notes · View notes

bleachbleachbleach · 10 months

Text

I realize there are 2-3 people besides me who even have the context for this, but I need to post this here IMMEDIATELY lest I forget again. The context is, I wrote a fanfic, and the East Rukongai Soul Train is in the fanfic, and it has a Gallery Car with really bad still life paintings that are either a very brilliant or very poor interpretation of what “still life” is supposed to be.

The reason it has a gallery car is mostly because the Lonely Planet Travel Guide said it did, but I forgot that the real impetus for the galley car is that there are supposed to be Soul Train museums in Districts 6 and 24. My fic doesn’t stop in either, so I gave the train a gallery car BECAUSE. OF THE WESTERN MINING & RAILROAD MUSEUM IN HELPER, UTAH.

BECAUSE OF THE SEA TURTLES IN THE WESTERN MINING & RAILROAD MUSEUM IN HELPER, UTAH.

In one of the basement exhibits, the museum reused some old displays that apparently used to be about sea turtles but are now hosting Western mining and railroad paraphernalia, but without actually covering over any of the sea turtles facts, which are now also part of the Western Mining & Railroad Museum, thereby making SEA TURTLES part of the history of Western Mining & Railroads.

THAT’S IT, THAT’S THE BIG SOUL TRAIN ENERGY. THAT’S WHY I WROTE IT THE WAY THAT I DID. THE SEA TURTLES IN THE WESTERN MINING & RAILROAD MUSEUM IN HELPER, UTAH.

I’m writing in all caps because it is EGREGIOUS that I forgot about the SEA TURTLES even for a moment.

Sea!! Turtle!!! Facts!!!! in MY Western Mining & Railroad Museum? MORE LIKELY THAN YOU THINK

#no brain just bleach #soul train

5 notes · View notes

sinigangsta-ao3 · 2 years

Text

Thursday Thoughts: Why I said “fuck it” and posted dead dove content on my main

So I wrote a cosmology fic recently: “Asmodeus,” an EreMika fic that loosely retells the Filipino myth of the creation of the sun and the moon.

I’ve always wanted to write a mythology fic. But I also saw this as a ripe opportunity to explore a different style of writing and to write something with drastically dark themes.

And, even though it heavily and graphically deals with violence, incest, and noncon/dubcon, I made the decision to post it on my main AO3 account. Right beside my modern AU fics and my sweet little one-shot of Grandpa Eren and Grandma Mikasa.

For additional context…

As I shared a couple of weeks ago, I’ve created a persona to navigate fandom and write/publish fics. Being "Nina" has been such a freeing experience for me. And one of the biggest benefits of navigating the online space in this way is that (surprisingly and gratefully) I’ve found a group of friends to create alongside, commiserate with, learn from, and simply share what’s going on in my life…

They have also been an invaluable support system as I started to immerse myself in The Fandom of Today — and all the various rules of engagement that it entails. They shared with me their experiences of “cancellation,” the ins-and-outs of “antis vs. pros,” what the hell “ratio” means…

(In full transparency: I still don’t completely understand what any of these terms mean, but I appreciate the context. Learning about their experiences has helped me to approach this online environment with a little more care, a little bit more protection around my own energy.)

You see, I grew up in the age of FF.net — the age of lemons and limes, where tags and warnings weren’t a thing and you just stumbled upon a fic and gave it a chance and hoped for the best.

I’m not about to wax poetic about “The Good Ol’ Days”: I’m a big supporter of how fandom has evolved.

How social media has made fics and fanart a lot more widely accessible and available, how it's a bit easier to find people who are into the same things as you are (regardless of where they're physically located) and share similar interests. How there can be discussion around what you create, and access to the creators themselves so you can get to know them as people. How there's a lot more transparency around what is being created so that you can filter based on your preferences and tastes.

I firmly believe that these are all good evolutionary steps within fandoms in general and how creators and consumers alike can navigate content within fandom.

What I am most confused by (and completely against) is how all of those things have become almost weaponized. How forthrightness with tags and content warnings have seemingly given consumers an opening to judge something before they’ve even consumed it. How the social aspects have provided opportunities for individuals to harass others about what they’ve created, what they think.

(And I know that this isn’t just a “fandom” issue. That these are indicative of larger, global trends that most likely stem from information and content overload, a decline in media comprehension, warped views of online personas and the entitlement we develop when we have such immediate access to them…)

So, before I knew about all of these things (because, in my naivety steeped from fandom of yore, it just never crossed my mind that censorship and harassment could occur), my fic writer friends (bless their hearts) helpfully and well-meaningly cautioned me. Especially when I tossed out that I was working on “Asmodeus.”

They were so helpful and supportive as I wrote it, but they were also helpful in providing guidance on how I should protect myself when posting it. They suggested not talking about it on Twitter, posting it anonymously, maybe even creating a separate AO3 account on which I could post darker content.

And I started to do all those things. Even secured another account so I could have another, “dark” fic writing persona.

But, as I finished up the first part of “Asmodeus” and prepared to post on AO3 under my newly created pseud, something didn’t sit right with me.

To my husband’s frustration, I found myself continuing to ask him if it made sense for me to post under a different name. Should I do that? Should I post anonymously? Should I just post on my main account?

After a lot of internal dialogue and external commiseration with my husband, I finally realized what was bothering me: I realized that I kept wrestling with where I should post and what name I should post under because I ultimately didn’t see a point in censoring myself in this way.

Plus, I was REALLY PROUD of what I ended up writing — and I didn’t like that I subconsciously felt ashamed of something that I really loved.

I realized that I’m already donning the persona of “Nina the Fic Writer.” What is the point of me putting on this “costume” if I have to tone it down for the sake of other people? Why put all this effort into creating a safe place for me to create, to explore, to play if I ultimately have to censor myself?

If I have to start curbing myself, then fic writing just becomes another chore, another job. Another environment in which I need to filter myself for the sake of other people’s opinions.

If I want to continue to be in fandom, to create fics and to interact with other people who are just as obsessive about these stories as I am, then the most sustainable approach for me is to be authentic.

I set boundaries to protect my privacy and my family. But I won’t create additional segmentations of my online persona. I like what I like. I write what I want to write. And I want to own those interests. Wholly and unabashedly.

I commit to these things, though. In my authenticity, I will never say things or create things that actively harm others, especially if they belong to marginalized groups. I will be a responsible writer/creator and clearly apply tags and warnings so that people can filter what I put out there, based on their interests. I will never put down other people for what they create and talk about and enjoy.

But, ultimately, I will not put energy into restraining who I am and what I like and what I want to create.

I’m already told in every other place I exist that I need to tone myself down. Sorry not sorry, but Nina the Fic Writer is not gonna tone herself down. Not in this space.

#personal writing #personal blog #on fandom #eremika #fic writing #thursday thoughts #nina-bean writing

12 notes · View notes

yokohamabeans · 1 year

Text

It’s been a minute, guys! I can’t even begin to describe how immensely sorry I am for posting the fic-writing ask game and taking THIS LONG to answer them... The cheek of me, an absolute clown!!

Huge, big thank you to my lovely moots (@obsidieneyes , @shions-chin-scar , @highviews , @penrose-quinn) and the anon who sent in the asks!! As I’ll be answering every single question on the list, I thought I’d just consolidate all of the asks in this post. Here goes!

1. Do you daydream a lot before you write, or go for it as soon as the ideas strike?

The former! Usually I get an idea, then daydream about it to flesh it out a lot before actually writing it down, so I can put out a whole scene and have a smoother flow. Actually, even writing the lines themselves take a lot of daydreaming; I often have to rethink, write, reread and rewrite everything I have typed out... It’s way too time-consuming tbh...

If you’re asking about specific ideas / scenes, I usually read or watch a bunch of related media (e.g. for ROAC, it’s a ton of crime shows and documentaries) and try to get inspired by them!

2. Where do you get your fic ideas?

Kinda cliched, but everywhere, I think. Sometimes I’ll see something on the street and try to ‘put into words’ what I’m feeling about it, then see if I can channel that into writing. This is mostly cuz I think characters are also humans with a myriad of fleeting thoughts, so if I can just highlight some random thought they have in my fic, I think it may flesh them out a lot more.

3. Do you share your fic ideas, or do you keep them to yourself?

I keep them to myself (excluding the drafts and snippets I post here). I kinda lead a double life, noone in IRL knows I write fanfic hahaha

4. How do you choose which fics to write?

Tbh, it’s all about which stan I’m obsessed enough to write about first, then all about how much ‘potential’ the story ideas I have for a full-fledged work! (i.e. can the plot go anywhere, do I have enough themes and motifs to sustain the whole fic etc.)

6. What’s the last line you wrote?

"Lighten up, will you?" drawls Ran from the seat beside. His smile is bright in contrast to the brewing storm. "It's sacrilege to walk into a hostess club with a glum face."

"We're walking into business," Kakuchō retorts, narrowing his eyes at the glass of whiskey in Ran's hand. "You can be a little less relaxed about this."

5. How many wips do you have? What fandoms/pairings are they for?

I guess 2? They’re ROAC (TokRev, Kakucho/OC) and Liar, Liar (KnB, AkashiOCKise), though I don’t think Liar, Liar has been in ‘progress’ as of late.... It’s taking a long hiatus but I swear I have plans to finish it!

7. Post a snippet from a wip.

Well, that much you must agree with Mama. Utsu and Yū and the women of Murasaki aren’t supposed to exist in the real world. But with the lion’s share of your salary going to her and the Mara-kai, you needed a second job, and a girl clutching only a high-school diploma didn’t have many options. Service jobs like store-keeping or waitressing were out of the question—you will never have the strength to deal with human beings all day and all night.

8. Post an out-of-context spoiler from a wip.

You roll your eyes at Pierre. This old fogey must be out of his depth if he thinks he's worth that much. Still, you agree just so you can hang up quickly. The bartenders at Murasaki will know how to swap it with something cheap.

9. Does this word [chosen by asker] appear in your current wip?

Hmmm, there wasn’t a specific word chosen so Imma skip this question, I think I’ve posted enough snippets for now! 🤪

10. Do you work on multiple wips or stick to one fic at a time?

Stick to one.... I used to be able to write two fics at the same time, but because I hyperfixate, my attention usually goes entirely into a single story/character at a time.

11. Do you write scenes in order, or do you jump around?

I write them in order always, so I can keep the flow and make sure I don’t repeat words/phrases! Sometimes, I get the inspiration for a future scene and just pen it out somewhere for release and future use, though!

12. Do you outline your fics? If yes, how detailed are your outlines? How far do you stray from them?

Oh yes! Pretty detailed, in my opinion, for scenes I have very clear ideas about (e.g. bullet point story boards). I usually stray from them when actually writing them though, but I still keep the essence nonetheless.

13. Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what have you been listening to recently?

No, I’m the kind of person who needs total silence to work / study / write...

14. What is your favorite location and position to write in?

I wouldn’t call it favourite, but more of ‘I have no choice to’: It’s on the train during my commute hahaha

15. What’s your favorite time to write?

Whenever I am free these days.... (i.e. daily commute....) 🥹

16. Do you write by hand, on your phone, or on your laptop?

Mostly on my phone (via GDocs) these days!

17. Do you have a writing routine?

Not at all, but I suppose writing while commuting is kind of a routine since it happens at a fixed time almost every day?

18. Do you enjoy research? Which fic of yours required the most research?

YES!!! Well, I’m pretty much only writing ROAC but yes it required A LOT of research for the yakuza / hostess / Japan underworld setting! I also researched tons about the Japanese mythology/folklore, Buddhism and Journey to the West so I can weave metaphors / allusions into my writing. Well, needless to say, I also look through the TokRev Manga and its related official media so I can get the timelines / characters right too.

19. Do you enjoy creating OCs or do you prefer to stick solely to canon characters?

Let’s put it this way..... all but one of my fics are OC fics 🥸

20. Do you prefer writing AUs or canon fics?

Both actually, but because I write OC fics, they are kinda AU? But I always make sure I follow canon as much as possible!

21. Do you prefer writing chaptered fics or one-shots?

Chaptered fics! In case you can’t tell, I’m long-winded af... I got lots to say.... 🧑‍🦳

22. Do you title your fics before, during, or after the writing process? How do you come up with titles?

All three! Sometimes, I get inspired or really like a quote and decide to make it the title (aka titling before writing), or I write the story/chapter and base the title off it (aka titling during/after writing).

23. Is writing the beginning, middle, or end of the story easiest? Hardest?

For me, the beginning is the easiest because I’m fresh with lots of solid ideas. Hardest will be the middle, cuz I usually already have an ending in mind. It’s just how to get there!

24. How do you choose whose POV to write in?

Tbh, it’s more like whatever I feel like hahaha. I used to write in 3rd POV cuz that’s what I’m most comfortable with, but recently the 2nd POV is fun too!

25. What’s your favorite part of the writing process (worldbuilding, brainstorming/outlining, writing, editing, etc)?

Hands down: brainstorming/outlining. Editing comes a close second cuz that usually means I already have things down and done.

26. What’s your least favorite part of the writing process?

Writing is the most torturous. But also the most fulfilling, I guess!

27. What area of writing do you feel strongest in?

I actually feel really confident about dialogue. It’s the easiest and most fun, IMO, cuz it’s easy to put into words what people will say off the top of their head. Dialogue can also reveal a lot of a character too.

28. What area of writing do you want to improve in?

Exposition. Especially because ROAC has a lot of worldbuilding, I struggle really hard to explain the settings / things cuz I don’t wanna make it dull and flat, and yet using too many metaphors will make it unnecessarily flowery. I really wanna be able to explain things in an engaging way!!

29. What’s something about your writing that you’re proud of?

Hmmm.... Characterization I suppose!

30. How much do you edit your fics? Do you edit as you write or wait until you finish the first draft?

I edit them as soon as I write. Every single line is a product of overthinking... Which is why I’m so slow....

31. Do you use a beta reader/editor?

Nope! I personally like to be ‘responsible’ for my own fics, so it’s all me babeh!!

32. Do you take fic requests? Why or why not?

I’m sorry to say that I don’t... I’m struggling to write my own fics as it is....

33. Is there a specific word count that you hold yourself to/enjoy writing the most?

In the past I keep it at about 3~4k per chapter. Nowadays (for ROAC) it’s about 4~5k per chapter, though I think I’ve been exceeding it hehe.

34. How much of your personal life/experience do you include in your fics?

Not a lot, but I suppose I sometimes weave in my own thoughts / perspectives!

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

Within my very limited number of fics.... ROAC? I think the prose for it is the best I’ve written so far (though the bar wasn’t that high to start with hahahahaha).

I recently re-read (the re-written) Liar, Liar, and have to say I also really like my prose in that too!

36. What fic are you proudest of?

ROAC, again haha! Specifically, I’m really chuffed with how Chapters 1 and 4 turned out.

37. What fic has been the hardest for you to write?

Incidentally, ROAC Chapter 5...... Half of it is Kakucho’s POV and about Bonten / Mara-kai gang things, which is hard for me to write about cuz I (fortunately) personally have no experience in crime, so I have to research a lot! It’s also really hard to write from the perspective of adult Bonten in some ways, cuz they’re likely quite different from their teen selves in the manga.

36. What is your most self-indulgent posted story?

Every single OC fic I post has been nothing but self-indulgence......

38. What’s your most self-indulgent wip?

Um, ROAC? (I’m sorry to repeat my answers.... ROAC is all I have 🥹)

39. What is your favorite world that you’ve created for a fic?

Long ago I took on a Tobirama fic set in Yoshiwara (or the Naruto world version of it) and I really loved the whole world built around it! The theme of Edo period Japan has always been something I loved. It’s not published (or written, really) though. Tbh, if I ever finish ROAC and Liar, Liar, I’d like to go back to it....

40. Who’s your favorite character you’ve written?

Kise was really fun to write in Liar, Liar. Ran too actually!

In terms of OCs, Yua and Mama are really interesting to write. Saeri (from Liar, Liar) was hilarious and breezy to write too ‘cuz the fic was really light-hearted and ‘slice of life’ish!

41. What’s your favorite title that you’ve come up with?

I’ve already taken it down, but Past Tense Events (my Rindou/Reader fic) was a really cool title I think! It was inspired by a poem I read somewhere, but I can’t remember which it is now...

42. Is there a trope or idea that you’d really like to write but haven’t yet?

I’m not someone with self-restraint, so I think I’ve pretty much gotten everything I wanted to write down in a doc draft/outline somewhere!

43. What is your favorite genre to write?

Romance cuz I’m a sap hahahaha! Well, the dark crime genre tone of ROAC is fun too so far!

44. What genre/trope do you tend to write the most?

Romance, or Rom-Com, based on my old fics.

45. If you could only write one type of AU for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Fantasy ancient/feudal Japan AUs!!! I love Japanese myths!!

46. Is there a trope that you’ve written before but are now sick of?

I think I drenched Liar, Liar in second-hand embarrassment a lot in the rom-com meet-cute way in my first iteration of it. It was really fun back then but thinking back, it was way too much hahaha

47. Who is your favorite character to write for? Has this changed since you’ve started writing for that fandom?

Hmm Kakucho, I think? I think it kinda changed in the sense that I got even deeper into his character than I intended to (for example, ROAC was meant to be a Reader/OC fic but I ended up going into the direction of a character study). The thing about Kakucho is that we get just enough information from the manga about him to form a definite idea of what he’s like, but not enough to dictate it, so we can exercise some imagination and creativity too. This is what I think, at least!

48. What fic of yours would you say is the best introduction to you as a writer?

I want to say ROAC but I think I’m a rom-com kind of writer by nature, so maybe Liar, Liar?

My favourite and proudest work is still ROAC though!

49. How would you describe your writing style?

THIS IS A REALLY HARD QUESTION!!!!

I genuinely have no idea. But when I write, I want my lines to ‘mean more than they let on’? I like to use metaphors and similes, and when writing in the POV of characters (especially Yua) I hope to have some edge to it too. I’m sorry y’all, I have no idea how to describe my writing style...

50. Does what you like to write differ from what you like to read?

Not at all hahaha my interests in reading and writing are aligned! When I write, I like to look for inspiration too so I often read works in the same genre for it!

51. What’s the average word count of your fics?

Based on my 2 works on AO3, it’s about ~4.5k per chapter!

52. What is the most-used tag on your ao3?

“Original Characters” and “Slow Burn”

...pretty accruate picture of my fics, tbh!

53. What’s the fandom/pairing distribution of your posted fics?

...............They’re all Canon/OC fics.................

54. Have you noticed any patterns in your fics? Words/expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?

I like this question! I think I often write the theme of ‘fate’ and ‘destiny’. The idea of fated lovers / soulmates is so cliched but romantic to me.... Recently, I notice I use a lot of ‘conversation filler’ words or phrases in ROAC, like ‘well, xxxx’ or ‘come to think of it’ or stuff like that. I think I’ve been influenced by Japanese writers cuz I noticed they like include those in their narratives too (or at least, the English translations of them).

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

I already rewrote Liar, Liar, which was something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.

If I ever have the time or energy, I wanna rewrite Past Tense Events!

56. How conscious are you about including symbolism or foreshadowing in your fics?

VERY CONSCIOUS!!!!!! And I’m over the moon whenever my incredibly perceptive and clever friend, Obsidian (@obsidianmooneyes) picks up on them hehehe

57. Do you have a favorite piece of figurative language you’ve written?

Tbh I’m not too sure what this question means, but I guess I’ll just post a piece of my writing that I like and has figurative language!

You remember his eyes when you held his face—wide and strained for what you might do next. (Even you were in fear of what you might’ve done.) They swallowed you in like gravity, consumed you whole and made you wonder: what if, in that instance, you were to let yourself fall? To crash on his lips like an asteroid upon Earth, and obliterate the world around you? Would it be so disastrous?

58. Have you participated in any fic events/writing challenges? If yes, what were they and did you enjoy them?

No, unfortunately.... 100% because of my lack of time, and also I can never meet a writing deadline....

59. In ROAC, what inspired the idea for the plot?

It’s all in the title, my friend! The OG folklore, Requital of a Crane! (Tsuru no Ongaeshi)

60. In ROAC, what’s your favorite scene that you wrote?

Hmmmm.... The favourite scene I think is still in the works and not published yet, but among what’s already out, I think it is the mahjong scene in Chapter 4!

61. In ROAC, is there a deleted scene/idea you wish you could have included? Why did it get cut?

YES! In the yet-to-be-published Chapter 5, I have an entire scene of Yua interacting with Mitsuya. (Yua buys her dresses for the club from him, and is also a deliverywoman for his supplies and materials, so they have a friendly client type of relationship.) I wrote the whole scene out but deleted it because it was taking too much space and time away from the real plot... Though, thinking back, maybe I should’ve included it simply becaue Mitsuya is really cool (lmao), and I think there was some characterization of Yua in it. (I may or may not include it in future chapters, or at least give it a mention, though!)

62. What was the hardest part of writing ROAC?

Getting into the perspective of criminal Bonten. The underworld is something very real and complex, so I don’t wanna write Bonten and Mara-kai as a ‘movie-ish’ kind criminal organization. Bonten’s mindset and way of thinking will thus be very mature, dark and different from mine, so I think it’s hard to get or write about them in a ‘realistic’ way, if you get what I mean.

63. If you rewrote ROAC now, would you change anything?

Hmmm... Not really tbh, I think I’m pretty satisfied with how things are going in it so far. Though of course, if I read it again in like 5 years I will probably have many things I wanna change about it.

I also have plans to write other spin-offs too, about Yua in other timelines!

64. If you wrote a sequel to ROAC, what would happen in it?

As it happens I DO want to write a sequel to ROAC. Especially with the new happy ending in TR! The sequel will probably be something short about Yua and Kakucho / Ran / Tenjiku’s relationship in that timeline.

65. What’s a fun fact about ROAC?

In my early drafts, Yua’s supposed to have a younger sister that she revolves her whole life around. She was supposed to be in debt just to take care of her after their parents died. Then I decided to scrap it because it’s kinda cliched, and I wanted Yua to be more ‘alone’ and relate more to Kakucho haha. I don’t regret this decision though!

66. If a fic was titled [insert made up title], what would this story be about/how would you write it?

No particular requests for this question, so Imma skip this!

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

OH many...... Abalone on the Shore by unolvrs and WHITE NOISE by 1keshi got me into writing in 2nd POV. Blackkat (on AO3)’s prose is also an absolute inspiration!

68. What are your favorite fics at the moment?

GREEN LIGHT by PENROSE-QUINN!!!

INTOXICATING BEAUTY by OBSIDIANMOONSTONES!!!

KILL THE DIRECTOR SERIES by HIGHVIEWS!!!

All super gorgeous writing!! Anyone who’s been on my blog knows how much I love them! Obsidian tears your heart out but Kadie (highviews) will salve it with her adorable rom-com romps. Then, you lull yourself to sleep with the familiar comfort of Pen’s fic!!

69. Are you subscribed to any writers on AO3?

Hell yeah!! I don’t know if I clicked the ‘subscribe’ button but I defintiely check the profiles of the writers I’ve mentioned in this post a lot! (unolvrs, 1keshi, penrose_quinn, ObsidianMoonstones, highviews, phen0l/maokitty, blackkat)

(I’ve also been creepily lurking around phen0l‘s writing..... exquisite.... especially this Dabi fic: Higher than the Mountains, Deeper than the Sea TRULY PHENOMENAL)

Special mention goes to razbliuto for her cleverly, unique writing in the One Piece fandom!! Sophie (from Methyl Nitrate Pineapples) is absolutely ICONIC as an OC!!!

70. Do you spend more time reading or writing?

Tbh, discounting articles I have to read for work/school, I have to say writing... and even so it is minimal.... I haven’t really had the time to read recently....!!

71. What’s your favorite writing compliment you’ve gotten?

Every compliment I get is my fave, I’m serious!!! But special mention goes out to Obsidian’s super detailed analysis of ROAC on AO3..... To have your work so thoroughly understood by another is an indescribable feeling.....

72. What do you tend to get complimented on the most about your writing?

Based on the comments so far, I would say the intricacy or details in my fic! Which I’m eternally grateful for because I have to say I worked hard on all the research!!!

73. Do you have a fic you wish got a bit more love?

Hmm.... Liar, Liar I suppose? (since it’s just the other one of my fics atm, and I really liked how it turned out) But it’s on hiatus so maybe not....

74. Is there a particular fic that readers gravitated towards that you didn’t expect?

I don’t consider it a fic, but the headcanon posts I’ve made about Tenjiku blew up quite a bit more than I was expecting!

75. How do you deal with writing pressure, whether internal or external?

Thankfully all of my moots and readers have been sublimely kind and understanding about how busy I am IRL, so I don’t get a lot of ‘external’ pressure! As for internal, I think I just try to chip at my works (but clearly to no progress so far)

76. Why do you enjoy writing fanfiction?

Two words: SELF INDULGENCE!!! Also because I get to imagine a totally ‘new’ perspective through my OC, and explore things and themes I don’t in real life!

77. What motivates you during the writing process?

Wanting to push my ideas out to the world I think! And I’ll come off as a sap for this, but comments from readers too haha!

78. Do you have any writing advice you want to share?

I still don’t think I’m the best person to give writing advice, but I think this holds true a lot: WRITE WHAT YOU WANT!! And most importantly, write for yourself. If you’re writing for ‘exposure’ or likes / views, it’ll be easy to get discouraged if you don’t get the reception you were hoping for (I’ve been down that path). But if you’re just writing whatever the hell you want, then you’re gonna be satisfied no matter what comes out most of the time, IMO!

80. Free space - asker can come up with any writing or fic-related question they want!

Hmmm no specific question for this either, but I’ll just drop a small tidbit about ROAC! There will be an entire chapter devoted to Ran’s POV, late in the fic hehe! (Tbh, I may even write a spin-off sequel set in a timeline where Kakucho didn’t survive and it’s just Ran and Yua)

NGL this took quite a bit out of me, but it also made me reflect and think about my writing a lot so I enjoyed every second of it!! Again, really sorry that it took my almost half a year to answer these....I wish you all nothing but the best for 2023!

#yokothinks #ask things #on writing #ROAC braindumps #I'm also sorry if I seem like I'm running out of steam in some questions.....

5 notes · View notes