somehow a miracle has happened and I have some fics already finished for foxquin week

pray to the feeling-brave-for-posting gods that they’ll smile at me when the time comes!

putting this here just for me to keep track

Day 1 "I'll buy you time" or soulmate meeting maybe? still deciding.

Day 2 Undercover/undercover as civilians —finished

Day 3 “Technically it wasn't on fire" "Of course it wasn't on fire! You completely blew it up!" Wing AU —started

Day 4 Culture sharing/multicultural relationships —honestly faffing because there are so many things I could do for this one

Day 5 "I found him in the dumpster" —mostly done

Day 6 BAMF Quinlan and Fox Migraines/chronic pain —finished

Day 7 Quinlan as Guard general from the start —started

don’t know if this is relevant to your ask box, but I thought you might find it interesting.

I’m a 20 yr old trans man who’s just started an ongoing thing with a new Dom, who is over twice my age. I’m currently finishing up my second year at uni, and he’s, you guessed it, also the, uh…. academic sort.

He’s a busy guy so obviously we can only meet up every once and a while, but we text almost every day. From the beginning he was always curious about my school endeavours, but recently it’s become more of a thing.

He won’t let us meet until certain assignments are done. He’s flexible and understanding, like any good dom, but holy shit this man had me at a cafe for ten hours on 40mg of vyvanse writing my final essay like my life depended on it. I didn’t even know who I was, motivated by the pure need to please and, quite frankly, desperate desire to be absolutely taken and used. This man has “cured” my ADHD (not really, but damn well is he fucking helping it).

I think the point I’m getting at here it that I can’t believe it took the motivation of my D/s relationship to get me to get shit done. Like, I’m done DAYS before the deadline for things I usually would have left last minute. I’ve been honest with my struggles with motivation and difficulties taking care of myself, and he is genuinely invested in my well-being so I know it all comes from a place of care and respect.

At the moment I’m working on my final short film for a class, and he told me to make a list of all the foley sounds I thought would help drive the narrative (he knows I love making lists, it’s also the autism), and as probably one of the best rewards for my good behaviour, he shared with me a collection of audio files (he dabbles in audio mixing) that were relevant to the list I shared. Can you believe this??!!

All these studentxprof fics are getting it wrong. Sometimes nothing comes between a teacher’s genuinely investment in student learning (if they enjoy what they do, like he does) and that is absolutely true in this case. Absolutely unbelievable this is my life right now. Would love to hear your thoughts on this!

This sounds so fucking sweet and HOT anon! I'm so glad you're having an exciting time with an older dom who cares about you and helps you meet your goals! And the phrasing of this guy making you write for hours on vyvanse is especially titilating...making it sound like an intox scene omg drool

ADHDers are generally very socially motivated, which is not rare for human beings at all. It makes sense that having the external structure that an outside observe can provide and the sense that your actions actually matter to other people and that people care about you would help facilitate you focusing on shit and getting organized! Not to mention how much fuckin easier it is to perform any kind of household task or bit of drudgery once it becomes sexual service. Shit gives boring regular life a charge of excitement, and the abdication of power gives you the discipline to actually follow through, because you're not the only one on the hook for everything and that's less scary!

I have nothing much more to say other than this rules and I hope you keep having a fun time!

AO3 Wrapped 2023

Fics posted: 23

Pairings Written: Drarry (13); Sirry (1); Harry/Teddy (3); Tedrarry (1, written with the amazing @nv-md ); Ginsy (1); Jeddy (1): Fred/George (1); Hagrid/multiple people (1); Damen/Laurent (1)

Most Kudos: What a Fucking Git ran away with it. :D Fake hating tag for the win! Thanks for that priceless gift @goldenbi

Word count of fics posted: 105,551 

Total word count written: Just over 150,000! Hurray! 

My favourite fic I wrote this year: Oof. Probably a tie between my Wireless, Take You Home, and my Erised, TBA on January 5th. ;) <3 

I also finished my original novel this year, which has been far and away the highlight for me. I love my own characters so much, and when I let the novel sit for a while between reads, I miss them with an actual ache in me. I’m proud of myself for putting so much work into it and writing it through to the end, and I’m going to do my best to see that, one way or another, it makes its way out into the world in 2024! 

Goals for the coming year: Query an agent and get this novel published! But also, I want to write more short fics again, go bonkers with the pairings. The prompts you guys have given me have started me out on a great note there, so thank you! I’d love to do a couple/few fests again as well (I do love the community aspect, and deadlines are my friends, what can I say?) 

I hope to be around to support my lovely friends in their own creations too. This is an amazing fandom, and it’s been so cool to see new people find it this year and feel how I’ve felt about it for so long: that it’s a coming home of sorts. We have such a phenomenal community, so talented and generous and wise and funny and witty and wonderful. Thanks for letting me hang out with you guys here yet another year! 2024 will be my 12th year in this fandom! Hard to believe.

Okay, I’ll wrap up! I hope everyone reading this has a beautiful New Year’s Eve and a bright start to 2024!

Question for G :)) how was your fanauthor workshop experience? I don't know if I should apply it sounds interesting but at the same time almost no reviews or whatsoever. Thank you!

well I ended up doing it a second time, so I'd say it was pretty damn good! I think the reason there are "no reviews" is mostly due to tumblr's format not really lending itself to that? @fanauthorworkshop isn't marketing itself as a product so much as a pedagogical (educational) extension of the existing fandom gift economy—an exchange where you both learn stuff and share/teach stuff!

this answer is mildly off-podcast-topic and it's gonna get super long and wordy, so it's under a cut lol you're welcome

my Fanauthor Workshop experience

personally, I found the FAW perfect for me. I was at the point in my fic writing where I was getting some lovely comments and glowing praise, but also wishing the world in general took fanfiction more seriously, as a craft to be practiced and discussed, something with both intrinsic and literary merit. @bettsfic's first episode as a guest on Fansplaining really resonated with me and kind of spoke to that desire (it's a must-listen for anyone on the fence about applying to the FAW!!)

but I had never studied creative writing at a university level, and barely knew what a crit letter was. I found the FAW was the perfect way to learn that sort of thing in a low-stress environment! I didn't struggle with feelings of burdensome obligation the way I had with schoolwork; rather I was excited to read everyone else's writing and see what it had to teach me. I also loved having an appropriate venue to air all my writing opinions, lol. I found I was so motivated that I managed to attend every FAW session even though it conflicted with family vacations two years in a row. I wrote crit letters from the lobby of a restaurant in a national park because it was the only place with wifi. I even Zoomed into one session from a random public library in Durango, where I managed to alarm everyone else in the irl vicinity with my enthusiastic discussion of fictional cannibalism (shoutout to the story we workshopped that day, it SLAPPED.)

personally, I approached the FAW with the very specific goal of Having Fun first and letting the writing stuff come second (ie, not putting too much pressure on myself when it came to choosing and polishing my own workshop pieces, and not worrying too much about how they were received.) I still ended up getting some AMAZING critiques and responses to my two (very different) pieces—I was deeply impressed by everyone's insights, how much they were able to pick up on, and how willing they were to meet me at my level. the other pieces we workshopped ranged all over the place in technical ability, from "giohvnsksbnf this writing is so good I'm gonna fucking eat glass" to "this person is clearly just starting out as a writer, but even if their prose has some technical mistakes, their story has Good Bones and their critiques and discussion observations have been spot on."

my big secondary goal was to Make Friends and there I succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. I now have SO many cool FAW mutuals, a few of which I have hung out with IRL and the rest of which I totally WOULD hang out with IRL if given the opportunity. they're all uniquely creative and clever people who I probably wouldn't have met otherwise, so that's kind of the biggest Win for me. it's so cool knowing I have all these people I could DM out of the blue and be like "hey, would you mind looking over this short story/beta-ing this fic chapter?" and end up with some great insights. there's also an FAW Discord where anyone can kind of bring fandom- and writing-related questions to the floor, as well as share recs and self-promote projects (or in my case, recruit podcast guests who I know have been pre-screened for both their chill lack of pearl-clutching and their basic fiction-analyzing skills, lol.)

I would recommend the Fanauthor Workshop if:

you're a self-taught writer who's done most of your learning in the fanfiction space and you're curious about how writing is actually taught in academic settings

alternatively, you're a writer from an academic background who chafes at some of the more restrictive rules in traditional workshops/you're tired of the irl Guy in Your MFA -types who refuse to or can't engage with your work on its level

you're ok with doing some "homework" (writing two crit letters per week) on the honor system

you're down to read original work in a wide variety of genres/read fic from fandoms you're not in (maybe even fandoms/pairings/characters you don't personally like)

you like what you read in @oficmag

you wish fanfiction was taken more seriously as a craft

your favorite trad-published writers all seem to be workshop alumni (eg: I swear half of my favorite writers are Clarion grads)

you have work you'd like to publish and/or submit someday but you're not sure if it's ready/not sure where to start

you follow writing advice blogs or send them asks

you wish people would leave "concrit" (constructive criticism) on your fics

you wish people would leave concrit on your fics but you're worried they might be too mean or not "get" your work

you wish people would analyze your work and give critique without letting their personal value judgments get in the way (and you're ready to do the same in turn)

you worry your work is too niche, kinky, queer, romance-focused, or "weird" for a traditional workshop (note: but it doesn't have to be any of these things. people also workshopped gen and the equivalent of coffee shop AUs!)

you'd like to hear perspectives that don't come from cishet dudes

you enjoy Class Participation and discussions (or maybe you're no longer a student and miss that kind of thing!)

you think @bettsfic seems like a good teacher (spoiler: she REALLY is)

you like the idea of a creative writing class with no grades or possibility of "failure"

you'd like to meet people you probably wouldn't meet in any other setting, and make some cool friends from other fandoms

if even a couple of these bullet points sound like you, you'd probably get a lot out of the FAW!! I hope the next session of FAW-ers have a blast. I'll be lurkin the Discord rooting for y'all

Fic Writer Interview

Saw Topsy did this and it looked like fun so now Imma pester y'all with one.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

35, currently, and only 1 is for a fandom other than The Lego Movie lmao

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

496,195 over the course of 6 years

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1- Reboot To be honest, I'm kind of baffled by this one. I started it just when covid was really starting to take off, lost where I was going with it before I was even halfway through writing it because I got SO swamped with work that writing was taken off the stove entirely for a while, and a lot of it was honestly just half-assed to get it finished but so many people LOVE it. I don't think I'll ever stop scratching my head about it, but at this point I've just accepted that it's my most popular fic ever. 2- Atonement Still ongoing and without a clear ending in mind yet. I had 2 ideas I was wanting to play with when I started it- wingfic, and house arrest. I've been having fun with it so far. 3- Prizes, Plunder, and Adventure This one was actually written based on a friend's doodles & half-finished ideas. I took them & ran with them as far as I could lol. I'm honestly happy that this one's in my top 5. 4- Hot Spring Another one that I'm kind of baffled by. It's a oneshot that's barely over 400 words. People like their coppernauts fluff, I guess lol 5- Time Travel Troubles This one was based on a prompt a friend gave me when I complained that I wanted so badly to write but had 0 ideas, lol. Of all my oneshots, I'm glad this one made it into my top 5.

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

Most of the time! Sometimes I can't think of a response though, and once I got overwhelmed with like 25 comments on one fic in one night from the same person so my brain kind of short-circuited lol. I definitely read and cherish every single one though.

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I don't really do angst tbh, so none of my fics really have angsty endings.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

That's a tough one to pick, I always write happy endings. XD; I guess I'll go with Starting Over Again.

7. Do you write crossovers?

Sort of; honestly I think they'd qualify more as AUs than proper crossovers, but sometimes I just get bit by a bug to write all my favorite characters in some other media settings for shits & giggles. Murphy's Law (Skyrim), Space Shenanigans (Star Wars), The Stranger (Myst), Octan Nights (1001/Arabian Nights), and Hollow Heart (Beauty and the Beast)

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yeah, when I first started posting Murphy's Law on ff.net. Honestly it just made me laugh, it was so obviously some kid doing a shit job of being a troll.

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

I tried once. It was SO awful that I ended up deleting it and swore off ever trying again.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope. The fandom I'm in is pretty small so no one's bothered to translate any fics in it, at least as far as I know.

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

Oh, eons ago when I was still just a little baby birb. I wrote a pitiful attempt at an OoT fic with 2 of my cousins that never got far. All my works since have been solo.

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

Coppernauts. C:

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Lord I have SO MANY. Think I'd pick Tech Support though (with a much better rewrite to boot, so no link for this one. If you want to read the atrocious original, you'll have to hunt it down yourself :P).

15. What are your writing strengths?

I'm told I'm pretty good with characterization. I'll choose to believe it. ;3

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Describing literally anything. I am terrible for just... not doing it. Which is something I REALLY need to work on if I really want to reach my 300k goal with The Umiran Amulet.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

There's only one language I can speak in any capacity, so I just stick with English. If it's something that's meant to be in another language, I just italicize it. Only every once in a blue moon will I use a word in another language, like if a character is swearing in their native tongue, and only if I'm absolutely 100% certain it's the right word.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Ocarina of Time. It was the fic I mentioned earlier that I wrote with my 2 cousins.

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

I don't really have any, at least at this time. I am very, VERY slow to move between fandoms & ships and am probably still going to be quite happily writing for TLM even when there's literally only 5 of us left lol.

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

I'd have to say The Atlantis Expedition, which was my first ever fic for the TLM fandom, and the first one I'd ever finished period. I have others that I love just as much, but this one will always have a special place in my heart.

OC TAG GAME.

tagged by @aartyom​​, thank you sm! <3 shamelessly stole your banner layout 😅

rules: sort your OCs into the below categories and (optionally) make them in this picrew. 

tagging @connortheconceded @lucien-lachance @mondhound @wispstalk @ervona @dirty-bosmer @netch-rancher @mareenavee @cultistbase @creaking-skull @stormbeyondreality @swordcoasts​ @vulpixelates​ @auddun​ @indorilnerevarine​ @thetinyshiloh​ @mantleofsanguine​ though no pressure as always xx

if i normally tag you in these sorts of things and have forgotten on this occasion feel free to just do it anyway :’)

1. FAVOURITE OC.

cheating a little here but these two are very much a package deal to me, they have always been jórunn and raydrin, raydrin and jórunn. do not separate them 🤧 they’ve been living rent free in my brain for over a decade, have grown and matured as i have, and if i could go back in time and tell my ten-year-old self that she’ll still be writing silly little stories about the characters she invented on the floor of a y6 maths class, i think that would make her very happy <3

2. NEWEST OC.

i invented vivienne because when i finally sat down to plan this story that had been kicking around in my head for years, i realised how little sense it made for mathyas to be the listener and so needed a new character to fill that role. though she was designed with a specific narrative function in mind, she has since come into her own as a character in her own right and i’d love to explore her properly someday

3. OLDEST OC.

as above— i’ve had these two since i was around ten, though their names, personalities and appearances have undergone a lot of work since then. i originally created them for a short story about a young couple going spelunking together, but they soon took on lives of their own, especially once i committed to the TESified versions of them <3

4. MEANEST OC.

vivienne speaks as little as she can get away with, but will make no effort to mask her contempt for others where she feels it (which is often). if she goes so far as to verbally express her disdain for someone, it’s because she’s deemed it objectively necessary for them to know how repugnant she finds them. she is so full of hate <3

5. SOFTEST OC.

cassathra is a hug personified, my goal with her was always to create a character who was very earnestly kind n warm. it was only when i sat down to write up her storyline that i realised how genuinely harrowing some of the events of the College of Winterhold questline are, but it’s important to me that she emerges at the end with her big, squishy heart intact :’)

6. MOST ALOOF/STANDOFFISH OC.

this one almost goes without saying— jórunn’s aloofness is one of the first things strangers will notice about her. she’s quiet, reserved, and blunt when prompted to speak, not just around acquaintances but around friends, too

7. DUMBEST (AFFECTIONATE) OC.

raydrin is by no means stupid, but he often is guilty of thinking with his heart more than his brain… he’s impulsive and reckless which i think can sometimes manifest as stupidity. but he’s smart in less obvious ways :^)

8. SMARTEST OC.

despite the arguably unwise decisions mathyas makes in the fic (he’s having a bad year), he’s a genuinely very intelligent guy. i kind of designed him and raydrin to mirror each other, in this way— mathyas could afford to perhaps think with his heart now and then

9. OC I WOULD BE BEST FRIENDS WITH.

oh i would get on SO well with sanjir. that man could be anyone’s best friend if he wanted to be; he’s arguably the most gregarious and personable of all my characters, as well as genuinely kind-hearted, down-to-earth, quick witted, and charming. i’m excited to beat him up a lil now that the civil war questline is finally underway, but it comes from a place of love <3

nano | day 28

words: 2,231/1,667

notes: FIFTY K BAYBEEE!!! FIFTY THOUSAND WHOLE WORDS IN TWENTY-EIGHT DAYS ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? like what do you mean i wrote a whole 50k words in less than a month. i'm??? like i didn't think i would hit 25k so?? idk i don't have words i'm just kind of baffled. when i submitted my word count to the official nanowrimo website and got to the winners page i genuinely started crying. i watched the 2023 winners video and when they said congratulations i just started fucking bawling because i did it!!!! i'm so proud of myself. i've gone through a horrible, terrible, shitty year, i've felt every sort of doubt and self-hatred and insecurity about my writing you can imagine, but i did it and i'm so happy i finally got around to seriously working on the last chapter and for the first time this whole month i just wrote like my life depended on it. i wrote nearly 500 words in 15 minutes because i just got on such a roll. it felt sort of apt because it was a bittersweet reflection on everything that has happened in the fic so far, referencing things that happen in earlier chapters, talking about the relationships i had built between lucy and other characters in the story. i said very early on that the wendy-lucy friendship would be important in this fic and as i wrote a little part of introspection about that in this chapter i began to get teary eyed while i wrote. while i was writing that i actually came up with another really great idea for the fic that i'm excited to implement. the main scene coming from that idea is short but i'm going to sprinkle hints and foreshadowing throughout the whole fic. there's actually already a line in a part i had already written for the first chapter that works as a hint to it. i hope that when you guys read it you will be on the lookout for the breadcrumbs i'm leaving you and more than that, i hope that the payoff is worth it for those of you who do pick up on it i have two more days left after this and i'm not sure what i'm gonna do now. i have three options, 1) stop and take a break, 2) keep going on this project and try and hit the update every day and hit par every day badges on the website, 3) try get my final two badges by working on a different project (gift exchange fic). i don't know which one i will do, i'll decide tomorrow based on vibes but that might mean the end of this blog for the year. even if i continue nano goals with my gift exchange progress, as per the rules i can't talk about it publicly so there wouldn't be anything interesting to say in these posts (not that i've said anything interesting in any of these posts but. lol) i might do a wrap up at the end of the month but if i don't update this blog again this year, thank you everyone who has followed along for all your support. could not have done it without you. love you lots <3

quote: He had imprinted himself on her lips, on her heart, and she feared that nothing she did would ever make that go away.

total word count: 51,236/50,000

8, 9, and 18 for the new/end of year fanfic asks

8. Is there a story idea in your mental vault that you’ve never been brave enough to try writing? Is this the year? Can you tell us about it?

I guess my best answer is the great Fringe fix-it AU, which definitely feels like too much to tackle right now, so I've just been adding tiny pieces as I feel like it. Instead of a proper long-form fic, I may end up just writing snippets that connect over a given timeline - sort of like Restore the Years, I suppose - but the downside to that is that for a work that's entirely founded on the goal to force the post-S3 plot actually make sense and resonate with what came before it, I don't think skipping around and skimping on plot would actually accomplish my goal. Anyway, my idea is basically "Olivia and Peter and Olivia and Lincoln coparent across the bridge between universes," because I think Henry deserved to stay in existence and everyone should have had to actually deal with all the emotional fallout. Also because we were robbed of red!verse Lincoln and Liv falling in love while raising a baby and I'm still mad about it. This is probably not the year, but maybe I'll make some progress on it.

9. Short term goals… what do you hope to complete this week or in January?

Mostly the goal is to just keep chugging along on my WIPs. Ideally I'd like to post the next chapter of Here's a Safe Place to Lay Your Heart Down by the end of the month, but I generally try not to get my heart set on the specifics so as not to take the fun out of it. Planning to participate in at least one January Lockwood & Co flash fiction challenge, I've been really enjoying those. Also thinking of doing a WIP amnesty sort of thing to reevaluate my long-term backlog; for example, there's at least one Community fic that I think I'd be happier completing as a oneshot instead of trying to craft a plot arc around what I already have.

18. Do you typically post multi-chapters as you write, or finish it all and then start posting? Would you like to change your posting method? 

I always have the whole thing outlined (loosely) and at least a solid start at drafting all chapters before I start posting. It inhibits my creativity if I don't know where I'm going and I'm constantly stressing about making a decision I can't undo later. I used to be way more of a pantser, even as recently as my Continuum days, and it was nice for keeping motivation high but that meant plots that didn't always fit together neatly or pacing that felt clunky. Those Binary Stars was probably my first experiment with the loose outlining method - mm, I suppose I tried pieces of it with Just Once, but that was supposed to be a oneshot that wouldn't shut up and thus pacing issues were a given - and the three-act structure is probably a huge part of why I was suddenly able to bang out high-quality longfic (for me, anyway) like never before.

WIP TAG GAME

Thanks @isahorcrux for the tag!! I love WIP games, and it is nice to check in and let everyone know where youre at in terms of writing! I have a lot in the pipe I haven't even hinted at for writing lmao

Guide:

1. List the titles your top five priorities for WIP updates (link your fics for new readers!)

2. An upcoming scene, event, or detail in each fic that you're looking forward to writing

3. Bonus: make a poll for your followers to vote on which top 5 WIP they are most excited to see an update on!

4. Then tag 10 writer friends!

Titles

A Court of Snow and Shadow Chapter Four -- ACOTAR, Azriel/OFC multi-chapter.

2. Sermon Chapter Eleven -- Batman, JasonEra!Robin Jason/OFC multi-chapter.

3. currently untitled Teen Wolf fic -- Derek Hale/OFC multi-chapter

4. ACOSAS Sequel A Court of Song and Flame -- ACOTAR, IC!Children fic, multi-chap

5. currently untitled Reacher fic -- Reacher (TV series), Reacher/Roscoe whatif! fic - possibly a one shot, more likely short multichapter.

Spoilers Abound Ahead! Turnback now!!!

Upcoming Writing

1. I've been incredibly sick for the last few weeks, so my goal to get chapter four out by the end of February likely will not happen, but I am so excited for this chapter. We're getting into Nyra's POV here, and diving deeper into Winter Court dynamics and her feelings on everything that happened. Her internal monologue has consistently made me laugh while writing, she's hilarious lol.

2. Sermon has been my white whale since 2017 lmao. I took two years (!!!) off because it stressed me out so much just staring at that document, plus everything else going on in my life. But I'm determined to finish it!! and now that actual plot is happening and all the exposition is over, I think that will be a lot easier. I love my lil babies cannot wait to finish their stories lmao.

3. So this one came to me once the Teen Wolf movie came out and uh....I had some issues with it. Namely how this entire series treated Derek. But I also was really interested in the idea of Derek being a parent, and all the questions around that - like who was Eli's mother? Where is she? What would rebuilding a werewolf pack like the Hales *look* like? I delved into it and sadly never found anything concrete enough to plan around, but I may rewatch the series again to get some inspo if there's enough interest.

4. Okay, so yes, I haven't even finished ACOSAS yet, why am I thinking about a sequel lol. Honestly, I just got really interested in what the Inner Court's children would be like, and quickly found myself pulled under lol. A Court of Song and Flame focuses on [SPOILER] Azriel and Nyra's daughter, Aella, and her relationship with a certain son of an Autumn Court Prince. It sort of turned into a buddy cop/romcom/mystery and I really, really love the idea. Just gotta finish ACOSAS!!!

5. I. Love. The. Reacher. TV Show!!! I found the first season so fun and compelling, and just absolutely fell in love with Roscoe. I had this idea of "what if, after leaving Margrave, one day a blonde teenager comes calling to find a father her mother only had stories of. Chaos ensues. I only have the first threads of it but I hope to expand it later.

Tagging a whole host of people that I'm sure might have already been tagged: @thequibblah @clare-with-no-i @emeralddoeadeer @sunshinemarauder @noneedforbloodpressure @acourtofwhatthefuck and anyone else who'd like to do the wip tag!

WIP Wednesday- Plans for this year

The past week has been extremely hectic (had to take my mum to the hospital--she is home now and she is fine!) so I don't have much to show for WIPs this week either. So I figured I'd take some time to do a little breakdown of some of the works I have planned for this year :]

This will not be exhaustive, as I'm incredibly susceptible to coming up with ideas to chase at any moment, but hopefully some of these ideas sound fun!

The Biggies

Royai Big Bang 2024 Anthology piece- To be released October 3rd, 2024. This is my first time participating in any sort of fandom event, so I'm very excited! If you've seen my snippets of or heard me talking about my Riza Going Undercover As A Butch Honeypot story, that's this one!

(Currently) Unnamed 03Royai Project- I had wanted to get this started last year to celebrate FMA03's 20th anniversary but alas.... 2023 sucked for me. So my goal is to get it started and work on it through this year! It's going to be an exploration of 03Royai after the events of the anime, made up of three parts: them falling in love and the challenges faced after the anime, the events of CoS and immediately afterwards, and then the future thereafter. A bit of a fix-it of sorts, if you want to call it that? but more of a look into their mental states and codependence and me trying to draw other people into talking about fma03 with me. My baby.

Other Ideas

What if Dante had fixated on Riza instead of Rose?- Another 03 project! Kind of a silly idea but I love putting Riza in situations, especially when it makes Baddies get weirdly fixated on her. Maybe Dante thinks having Mustang in her pocket would be good. Maybe she has a thing for blondes.

Wrath bullying Riza when she's his assistant/hostage- Rescued from my drafts! A short oneshot I do not remember writing but liked very much when I went "which one was this again?" when I was going through my WIP folder the other day. Bradley making Riza feel bad for making Roy 'weak'.

PPD Riza- Another rescued draft I think I wrote originally at like 3am one night. A oneshot of Riza being forced to finally reckon with her childhood trauma while struggling with postpartum depression after the birth of her daughter. Roy supports her (because it's HER TURN to be cared for).

Lycanthropy as a metaphor for feminine rage- Riza werewolf AU. An excuse for her to get mad about all the injustices she's suffered at the hands of men and be covered in blood.

Is 2024 The Year I Finally Publish 'The Infamous Printer Fic'?- ........maybe...

I'm sure there are other ideas that will pop into my head suddenly! And maybe a couple of these fics listed will get shoved back into Draft Jail... Time will tell. My biggest priority for the next few months will be the Big Bang piece, and after that I will try pushing more for Unnamed 03Royai Project, with little things sprinkled in between. Dear God Dear God Tinkle Tinkle Hoy let me get more writing (and art) out this year!

Fandom Trumps Hate--BIDDING NOW OPEN!

tl;dr: see what I'm offering and bid here!

--

I’m thrilled to announce that I’m participating in the Fandom Trumps Hate (@fandomtrumpshate​ ) charity fanworks auction again this year!

This year, I'm offering two different auctions:

As in years past, the first is that I'm donating a short fic (up to 5000 words, depending on the amount pledged/donated), in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fandom, the Avatar: The Last Airbender fandom, ot the Steven Universe fandom!

For this, I will write 100 words for each dollar the winning bidder contributes, CAPPED AT 5000 WORDS. E.g, for a $5 donation, I will write ~500 words. (For any donation $50 or above, I will write ~5000 words).

Last year, I had such a good time writing the Avatar piece "Enduring" for @klainelynch and the Steven Universe piece "Embodiment" for @jeejyboard.

You can more find examples of my work here.

The second auction I'm offering--for the first time this year--is a fan labor one! I am happy to be a culture/sensitivity reader to help you brainstorm or comment on portrayals of Jewishness, Judaism, or Jewish culture!

Bidding for both auctions will be open from March 1 to March 5. More information about what I'm offering, and the bidding form, when it opens, can be found here.

-- What is Fandom Trumps Hate?

According to FTH’s official tumblr:

“FTH is an online auction of fanworks…dedicated to empowering the transformative fandom community to resist hateful groups and ideologies. We seek to offer a banner under which fans can join together to strike back against gathering forces of hate and oppression. It is our goal to find a way for all kinds of fans, with all sorts of gifts, to contribute to the resistance.”

tl;dr, FTH is a great yearly auction in which fan creators donate their time and labor to raise money for organizations that combat hate. Which are needed now more than ever.

You can find more information at their tumblr, or their Dreamwidth.

2023 Goals Final Results

I know we're more than a week into the new year, but shit's busy so I only just now got around to looking back at my goals for the year and seeing how they panned out. Let's see how I did!

Numeric goals

Minimum goal: 5 fics and 50,000 words over the year

Aim goal: 12 fics (ideally at least 1 per month) and 80,000 words over the year

Ludicrous goal: 15 fics and 100,000 words over the year

I posted 16 fics totalling about 73k words, so Ludicrous by number of fics but Minimum by number of words -- but on the other hand, my writing tracker reports 94k words written, which is above aim, but then again only 79k are Writing rather than Brainstorming or Editing -- let's just call it approximately Aim goal overall. I'm quite happy with that. It's less than last year, but last year was kind of buckwild numbers-wise.

15,000 lifetime kudos

222,222 lifetime hits

1,000 kudos on 2023 fics

10,000 hits on 2023 fics

I fell slightly short on the 2023 kudos, but everything else I smashed! We love to see it. Watching the numbers go up makes my brain go brrrrrrrrrrrt.

General goals

Tracking my writing

Still doing! Wanna see some sexy graphs? Just kidding you're getting them anyways.

I also put all my fics ever into a spreadsheet tracking various things (POV, tense, word count, publication date) and one of the things I found interesting was confirming how little smut I write lmao. It's more than it used to be, but I still don't think of it as really a focal feature of my writing, and that's born out in the statistics.

Beta-reading more

Check! I beta-ed for the PJO Big Bang (which was super fun) and also for a few friends. Plus I've been beta-listening for @pandapodfics, which has been a blast!

Reading-reading more (both fic and non-fic) 

Mmmmmm I read some fic, but I genuinely don't think I read a single published book all year. which is a little sad. I just don't have the time to read an entire book in one sitting, and I don't have the self-control to stop XD

Branching out to explore new fandoms or new pairings

I wrote a Series of Unfortunate Events fic for Troped which was really fun! And for my @1dastroficfest fic, I had Larry, Ziam, and Shiall all as major focal ships -- Larry was definitely the foreground, but the side ships were not minor.

Replying to most comments

I think I replied to about 70% of comments this year, which isn't terrible. It could be better, maybe I'll go and do a few more, but I always struggle with comments that are just "this was great!" or a few emojis lol -- I appreciate them, but I just don't have much to say back!

Make a podfic

Make a fic rec of some of my favourite fics

Make a cover for one (or more than one) of my old fics

I still have not done these oop. But I have been helping with Panda's podfic as mentioned, so maybe half-credit? And in the new year I just started @1dcommunityficrecs to crowdsource recs, so maybe that's another half-credit?

Find the executive functioning to put my Wordplay and Troped fics into series

Come up and implement a generic AO3 pseud for my non-Larry non-critrole fics and sort those around

Did these in August! It's a little harder to keep track of things sometimes like what account I'm commenting from, but not too bad, and it feels more organized! In total, I've written 45k for Wordplay (17 fics) and 63k for Troped (15 fics).

Come up with and implement sort of Replying To Old Comments Project so I feel like less of a doof replying to comments from like… five years ago

Still want to, still haven’t.

Next up -- new goals! Or well, some recycled XD

1-10 for Fanfic asks for the new year!!

1. Do you have a word-count goal for the upcoming year?

I do actually! I'm aiming for 100k! So far I'm at 5,894 :)

2. Will you participate in any fandom exchanges or fic challenges, etc? 

I don't have an plans? I'm really bad about staying in the fandom community loop. 😅 But I'm not opposed to participating if I find one interesting.

3. Do you anticipate writing for a new fandom this year? Which one?

Probably not? I get a bit fixated on the fics I already have, and right now I have 3 wips I feel guilty not updating regularly. Maybe once I get Universal Chaos finished I'll feel more free to move on to something else.

4. Do you think you’ll stop writing for a fandom this year? Which one?

Also probably no.

5. Which WIP is first on your list to complete this year? Will you post a snippet?

I would love to finish Universal Chaos. I'm so close to being done with it. (I think.) I at least am on the downward slope. Unfortunately I don't have a snippet for it at the moment.

6. Which yet-to-be-started fic is first on your list?

Hmm... I've considered both a Fantasy John Wick fic with a daughter oc, as well as a Daredevil fic that's FoggyxOC centered. But we'll see!

7. Will you change anything about the way you interact with other writers?

I would love to be more connected if I can find the time. It's always been fun to 'share' ocs and work on fics with friends. :)

8. Is there a story idea in your mental vault that you’ve never been brave enough to try writing? Is this the year? Can you tell us about it?

I can't say there's any I've been too afraid to write yet? I think IDDWTD is my most "growth" fic bc it includes a sort of mystery and answer to that which I've never tried to attempt before.

Can't really give spoilers (or shouldn't) but maybe people who are used to my fics might be a little surprised?

9. Short term goals… what do you hope to complete this week or in January?

I'm hoping to update both IDDWTD and AMH this month! I just need to focus a bit more on AMH and I think I can easily do it.

10. Will you keep a record of all the fics you write and/or post this year?

I'm keeping track of my word count, but since most of my stuff is long fics, I don't really keep track of them 'yearly'. I do need to update my pinned "masterlist" though.

2, 5, 9, 11, 16 for the fic asks?

hello darling friend tysm for the ask!!

2, will you participate in any fandom exchanges or fic challenges, etc?

if i’m asked to absolutely!! i think they seem so fun but being in smaller fandoms i think they’re a lot harder to figure out. i’ve actually considered forming a few of my own for like halloween or the holidays and stuff but i’m kind of the only cadnis writer still somewhat consistently active and everyone else who writes for mean girls is into very different things (which is great we love to see it but it makes group stuff hard lol) and matilda i haven’t checked up on in so long i have no idea what’s going on in that little corner anymore whoops

5, which wip is first on your list to complete this year? will you post a snippet?

we are continuing my beloved series of ‘someone has to write all the cliche fics for this ship and by golly it might as well be me”! from the looks of things the first one to be finished will be a college au (professor/student) that i’m honestly really proud of. i’ve been hammering away at it for a while lol. but we also have a few more like that and obviously plenty more that aren’t that i’m not gonna spoil just yet but i’m very excited for them :)))

“As long as I’m your professor, this can’t happen, no matter how badly I want it to,” Cady says with a sniffle. She gently presses a kiss to the corner of Janis’ lips before she pulls away and takes a couple steps back. “I’m so sorry, Janis.”

Janis watches her go for a minute, barely feeling the frigid rain slamming against her face. Cady hunches in on herself and clicks off. “What about when you’re not my professor anymore?!”

Cady freezes and turns to look at her. “What?”

“Once I graduate,” Janis begs. “Can we be together then?”

“…Technically, yes, we could,” Cady says. “But-”

“Wait for me,” Janis says. “Please.”

Cady bites her lip, but she nods after a second. “Okay.”

“You will?” Janis asks, finally feeling hopeful enough to smile for the first time in what feels like years.

“I’ll wait,” Cady agrees. “If you’re willing to do the same. Come to me once you graduate, and… we’ll see what happens. Okay?”

“Okay,” Janis says, smiling around a sob. Cady does the same before she continues walking away.

unproofread snippet brought to you by maybeimamuppet :)

9, short term goals… what do you hope to complete this week or in january?

i’m really hoping to have that and the next chapter of pt done by the end of the month!! my third writing birthday is at the beginning of march and i’m really hoping to have a batch of fics ready to crank out by then :)) matilda is kind of wonky for the time being bc i have very few wips and i need time to sort through which requests i can actually do/want to do so they might be a while but focusing on my meanies for a while will be a nice change i think!

11, would you like to try any new fanfic genres or tropes this year?

i don’t think i do!! at least not in fics lol i’m good with my romance and family fluff sorta genres i’m in but i am trying to write a few publishable like real actual books that are a little different so we’ll see how that goes!

16, do you have one fanfic that you wrote a ton for, ages ago, but never posted? will this be the year come hell or high water that it WILL get finished and posted?

UHHHH honestly most of my wips are kinda like that lol. i hyper focus on one and then get bored with it and move on to a new one and herein lies the cycle of Big Issues. so i have a lot of like half-done oneshots (including requests i literally got in 2021 and am sobbing trying to get done i feel so bad). i do have an entire folder of ‘unpublishable fics’ that will never see the light of day. they’re mostly just writing exercises but some of them are just really embarrassing so most of them stay there lol. and i have a multi-chapter The Good Place au i started years ago and couldn’t figure out other than the title but i only wrote a couple scenes for it but that probably also won’t ever see the light of day. ce la vie ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I want to scream into the void and rant about offline stuff, but I also feel this huge hesitation of posting too much detail on the internet, so, here's as short and vague as I could pare it down to:

just basically feeling super overwhelmed by "adulting" offline stuff including: buying a new house, moving but taking several months to actually pack/move/unpack, selling the old house, shopping for more furniture to fill the new house, being constantly ill since early October, researching and choosing new doctors (including primary care and OBGYN), having a rough stretch of OCD and anxiety ickiness, having to stop fencing for medical reasons (not related to fencing, i did not get injured, i just have Other stuff going on), and experiencing the general holiday fatigue of gift shopping and event hopping

I spend my free time handling the above items, on top of the usual daily chores of, you know, laundry and cleaning and "what do you mean i have to make another meal again i just ate"

and i haven't really had any time to connect with my creative outlets -- posting on tumblr, writing, playing the uke, even DND to a small extent (not enough time to put into character building between sessions) although DND has been like the ONE thing still happening

and it just sucks and I want to write but when I finally do get time I'm just so tired, so i just ended up scrolling mindlessly on tumblr or watching dumb youtube videos -- if I'm lucky instead I'll watch an actual play show but for a bit I was caught up on CR and Fantasy High and didn't know what to watch next because the next season comes out so soon so I don't want to get caught up in something else

[side bar: been working my way through one-shots, finished the amazing Escape from the Bloodkeep and I'm almost done with Mice and Murder. Mice and Murder has been super fun and entertaining and I kinda want to play a clue style rpg now -- side side bar but i collect clue variations -- and with the RO anniversary on my mind I've been wanting to read like a clue or sherlock holmes style AU but i have been having trouble finding one? like it can't have been 7 years with no sherlock holmes type rebelcaptain AU? maybe i need to try different AUs or search terms or filters? anyways. would also read a shadowgast murder mystery AU too, still mostly reading shadowgast fic anyways although EVEN FIC I haven't been reading as much either, but the RO anniversary had me thinking about Them again a little bit]

anyways i kinda felt like posting here would help me feel a little bit more connected, i guess, to the creative side of myself? since this is sort of my primary creative outlet, or used to be, if that makes sense.

also i saw a post about something called get your words out, which had some writing goals that looked attainable even for me with all the Stuff happening, and that has felt a little bit like -- something to maybe look forward to, to maybe help me get back into things... I don't know if I'll pledge yet and maybe I'd just do something for myself in that vein but yeah. something more interesting to think about than searching my insurance website or shopping for shelving or chairs or sofas...

gonna go back to watching Mice and Murder. thanks for reading this rant.

2022 Writing Wrap Up

Total words published: 149, 266. All but 947 of them published three days ago.

Additional words written: Oh, hell, your guess is as good as mine. I've got Perpetual Soup documents simmering over here, I take bits from them and add to them all the time. Like, google is crashing rather than admit that the Epic Scrap Yard doc has been around and perpetually changing since 2011. I know I had 4000 words on the next chapter before the clock struck midnight on the 31st; I can't remember how much I added to @swaps55' fav upcoming arc (aka Kai Leng's Worst Mistake Ever) or the Vortex of Tears, but I know it was something.

Grand total of words: 149,266++! Only not, because I didn't write all those; many were first published years ago, and even the re-writes represent about three years of work. So who the hell knows.

Fandoms: Mass Effect, of course. I've also added small amounts to an original novel idea, but mostly world-building notes.

Highest everything (raw kudos, hits comments): Of all time? It's always A Star to Steer Her By for hits, kudos, and bookmarks. I'm pleased to see Sunset and Evening Star beats it for subscriptions, though!

Highest kudos-to-hits ratio: Okay, I don't think this is fair. People come re-read aStSHB, but they can only leave kudos once. Like, far and AWAY the biggest k:h ratio is for Copilots, which is a tear-jerker short fic I gave to @musanocturnis in a holiday exchange because I'm a horrible friend. It only has 45 hits total, but people who go "I know, I want to CRY!" and click on it are apparently getting what they signed up for.

New things I tried: Um. Hrm. @swaps55, what did I try that was new? :P I wanna say there's something in the Emotional Cascade Failure chapter, but it wasn't so much new as hard. There's a lot of emotional stuff in SaES that's very much putting myself in situations I have no experience with — which is always part of writing, and is new every time.

Fic I spent the most time on: Sunset and Evening Star, no question.

Fic I spent the least time on: Shipmates, my lil' exploration of how Joker and Kaidan met.

Favorite thing I wrote: I like a LOT of what I wrote this year, which is an awesome feeling! I get giggly-excited over some space combat sections that haven't seen the light of day yet, and about anything with Alejandro. I'm very pleased with coming up with the Poss'm acronym. And Joker and Kaidan's ridiculous N7 Craft Hour conversation cracks me up more than it should, for sure.

Favorite thing I read: I've done way, way more writing than reading of fic, but it's got to be one of the scenes with the Yang Gang from @swaps55' Cantata. I just love their whole dynamic. The needlepoint wall sends me, and I'm going to work a reference to it in somewhere. I also really liked Wish I May, Wish I Might by @spaced0lphin, who's out there single-handedly providing every possible form of content for the Shoker fandom including a frickin' game mod. (Which I haven't yet played for the same reason I haven't read the Tiger By My Side rewrite, @spaced0lphin — keeping my own story clear while I'm neck deep in it, and not having time :( — but the original TBMS was my fav Shoker long fic, back in the day, so...)

Writing Goals for 2023: PUBLISH NEW CHAPTERS! We're lookin' good, just gotta keep going.

New works: Just Shipmates, I think. Though my main fic is so damn long I sort of feel like the new chapters count. That'd be A Bunk on the Normandy, Emotional Cascade Failure, and Possum, most of Trust, then the new chapter Shipmates (which is different than the short fic, titles are just hard, okay). There's other new stuff through-out, but those are almost 100% new.

Tagging: @writes-in-space, @spaced0lphin, @virusq