(no subject)

[turps]

More Christmas adverts are landing, including John Lewis which always seems to be the one everyone waits for. It's my favourite of theirs for a few years, and I actually found myself feeling sorry for a plant. I also enjoyed the one from Amazon, which is very simple and at first I wasn't that fussed, then the end happened and what a lovely feel-good ending. Otherwise, there seems to be a lot of focus on food this year, with Asda's ads featuring Michael Bublé who keeps popping up and singing in various situations.

badfalcon posted this fanfic meme, and as I'm actually writing words atm, I decided to give it a go.

1. How many works do you have on ao3? 170.

I've other stuff out there written for The Sentinel and Mutant X, but I have no intention of ever finding them and posting to A03.

2. What's your total ao3 word count?

1,346,512

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Right now, Ted Lasso, The Musketeers, some winterhawk MCU. In the past, my biggest fandom was bandom by a huge amount, but also, popslash was a biggie.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Sexth Sense 905 The Umbrella Academy
Everything Has Come Undone 753 The Umbrella Academy
Like a Bunk and Cramped Sleeping -- 729 Bandom Gerard/Frank. I still can't believe this is my most popular bandom fic because it's not a favourite pairing of mine at all.
And the Painted Ponies 505 Mikey/Frank bandom ( I still love this, supermodel Mikey and the bodyguard who loves him )
Blurring the Truth and the Lies 365 Mikey/Pete bandom ( nurse Mikey and the popstar he falls for. I love this one too )




5. Do you respond to comments? I do, sometimes life happens, and they get answered late, but I always try to respond.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Questions like this always makes me laugh as it reminds me of the bandom fic I wrote which ended with Bob critically injured and being rescued from a deserted island -- as you do -- with the rest of MCR and I was going to end the story there because they'd been saved, surely that was a good ending? At which point my beta, themoononastick put her foot down and went, no! Write more.

I honestly don't know, I've written stories focussed on the afterlife for both bandom and popslash so I guess that would count as angsty, but oh! I know, it'll be the picfor1000 where Mikey loses him memory and can't remember Gerard at the end. Angst to the extreme!

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

I think most of them have pretty happy endings, but the one that is coming to mind is Blurring the Truth and the Lies, which is a huge angst fest and ends with a simple scene with Pete showing Mikey heart hands and I still love that.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Thankfully, no. The worst probably the comment 'eww het' on a The Umbrella Academy fic, but even then it made me laugh not be upset. Because of what I write at times I'm sure comments have been made that are not favourable, but I've never seen them.

9. Do you write smut?

I do on occasions but it's certainly not my favourite thing to write, and I'll swerve it if possible.

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

On occasions, but again, they're not my favourite thing to write. I guess the craziest is due to intoabar which was Ted Lasso/Hawkeye, though thankfully, only one assigned character from each was needed.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Someone reposted When Day Is Night Alone to another fic site. Thankfully, someone else saw and kicked up a fuss on my behalf and let me know. Last time I looked, it had been taken down.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yep a few, and I tend to say yes if asked.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

I have, one with sperrywink and one with someone who will be nameless as they scrubbed their bandom stuff off the internet.

14. What's your all time favourite ship?

That's a hard one to answer, especially as I tend to be a OTC person and not OTP. But, if pushed, I'll say bandom and Mikey/Frank. They're a comfort pairing and one that just feels right when I'm reading/writing.

15. What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Oh man, shame here. I started a follow-up story to a bandom story and made the mistake of posting what I had. I never write WIPs but somehow did in this case and I really shouldn't have as it's never going to be finished even though I kept getting comments asking about it. I would have said Musketeers in Space, but that's actually done now! Of course, will probably now take me years to edit the thing.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I guess I like to word build, my dialogue can be okay. Not sure what else.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I'm terrible at writing endings. I know this and have trained myself to try to improve them before sending to beta, but sometimes I'll still get comments back saying, this needs a much more extensive ending.

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

Nope, and I wouldn't even try.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

The Sentinel, the first ever fic was a terrible little thing for castalie then I joined a Sentinel beta group where starwatcher got her hands on me and taught me that it wasn't the thing to post solid chunks of words with no paragraphs—yep, I was that green. I really do credit The Sentinel fandom and the people in it for getting me writing. For example, I was in a Sentinel angst mailing list where you had to post dues -- ie, ficlets, at certain times to stay in it. So, that got me writing regularly. Was it good? Heck no, but did it help me with lots of practice? Yep.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

I think it's impossible to pick. So I'm going to take the easy answer and say the last one I posted which was the Roy is a werewolf Ted Lasso story, Where Can I Go When I Want You Around. Simply because it was the first time in a while I've enjoyed writing and the words flowed, plus it went over well, which is always a plus.

But there are so many more that I could pick, especially for bandom.

Comments

[omens]

1,346,512!!! :-O Way to go! And omg, dues to stay on a mailing list, that is WILD!

[turps]

I was shocked at the number too, but did write a load of long stories in my time in bandom. Guess they all added up.

Yep. It was a closed mailing list and if you didn't post your dues you'd have to leave. It was different times back then.

[misbegotten]

OMG I'm now misty-eyed over a CGI plant

[turps]

I'm glad it's not just me.

Especially when it was outside covered in frost.

[misbegotten]

Also... Musketeers in Space? Yes, please!

[turps]

Also... Musketeers in Space? Yes, please!

Oh, that story.

I originally wrote it for the h/c exchange years ago and realised after it didn't really match what my recipient wanted. So despite it being finished at the time, I let it sit, and then added more, and a bit more. And now it's finished for sure, but I'm taking forever to actually edit it so it's reads smoothly, and not like I've added parts over years.

But I still really like it when I re-read, even if I suspect it's not what the fandom is really used to.

[misbegotten]

But I still really like it when I re-read, even if I suspect it's not what the fandom is really used to.

Of course, it's the first bit of that statement that's important. I just posted a story for a fandom/pairing that only seems to be active between three 20 year olds on Tumblr? But I really like the story, so screw it.

Also I think the advantage of posting something that the fandom isn't used to at this point is that some people will actually be *more* receptive. Sure, you're probably not going to get tons of hits (unless there's still a rabid contingent of Musketeers fans out there?). But you'll be getting hits from people who are invested enough to click on it at this stage of the game. And that's really something.

I love the concept. If you ever decide you want a second pair of eyes on it, feel free to ping me.

[turps]

Sadly, no rabid contingent of Musketeer fans, but still some so hopefully, someone would read. But you're right, the important thing is I still do like it.

There's a good chance I will ping you for a second pair of eyes in the new year. I do need to go through it and smooth the obvious joins, but I do feel hopefully that, years after the initial first draft, it may be posted in the next few months.

Thank you for the offer.

[dine]

another group of winning adverts! loved the amazon one - the memories of sledding with the old wooden sleds was terrific! and that John Lewis one honestly had me rooting for a venus fly trip, which is not anything I could have guessed I'd ever say. I mean, it was a bit obstreperous, but I can't imagine exiling it to the garden in the frost

thanks so much for sharing!!

and then YT suggested the Sainsbury's 1914 ad, so I had to rewatch that as well

[turps]

another group of winning adverts! loved the amazon one - the memories of sledding with the old wooden sleds was terrific! and that John Lewis one honestly had me rooting for a venus fly trip, which is not anything I could have guessed I'd ever say. I mean, it was a bit obstreperous, but I can't imagine exiling it to the garden in the frost

I've enjoyed the adverts this year, but like you, I never would have thought I'd have been rooting for a venus fly trap plant!

and then YT suggested the Sainsbury's 1914 ad, so I had to rewatch that as well

That was such a good advert. One of the ones that has stuck in my head for ages now.

[frausorge]

That is an impressive word total! And counting!

I think another writing strength of yours is emotional nuances.

[turps]

That is an impressive word total! And counting!

Thank you! And for the writing compliment, too. You always say such lovely things.

[badfalcon]

1,346,512 is a fantastic, word count!

If your Sentinel stuff was posted to 852, you may find it's been imported/archived to AO3 because I found my stuff there (with an old penname still attached)

[turps]

1,346,512 is a fantastic, word count!

I was surprised when I saw how much I had actually written.

If your Sentinel stuff was posted to 852, you may find it's been imported/archived to AO3 because I found my stuff there (with an old penname still attached)

It was posted there, yeah. I think I may be too scared to look it up and re read. I was very raw writing wise back then!

[badfalcon]

I had a quick look at some of my old stuff and cringed - on the one hand, I was young but it's also really nice to see the improvement in my writing. But I still don't think I want to claim it as my own!

[jacieleigh]

Fanfic memes are always fun! It's awesome how much you've written. Such a shame that AO3 wasn't around in the heyday of PopSlash as we've completely lost so many wonderful stories. Interesting to have to keep writing in order to stay on a list. Hopefully, it wasn't too much or too often.

[turps]

I do enjoy a good fanfic meme, both reading and doing them.

I agree, so many popslash stories have been lost, which is a shame. It would have been fantastic to reread some of the challenges, especially the Christmas ones.


Interesting to have to keep writing in order to stay on a list. Hopefully, it wasn't too much or too often.
I think it was one due/ficlet every three months. People did use shortcuts though, for example, I was on the mailing list with someone who was also on an A-Team mailing list with me, and they posted the same story with the characters changed. So in one, Blair was kidnapped and tied up, in the other version it was Face. That always stayed with me and just showed how shallow the stories were that any character could be interchanged in them.

[jacieleigh]

That always stayed with me and just showed how shallow the stories were that any character could be interchanged in them.

Ugh! Yeah, I never like hearing that someone took a story and changed the names for a different fandom. It seems like that means someone is writing very generic versions of the characters. I'd like to think people would recognize my boat-building, bourbon-swilling Gibbs as NCIS! LOL

Although, I do think I may have written the same ficlet for PopSlash, but wrote it for two different pairings for some reason. Maybe it was a request, or maybe I couldn't decide.

[turlough]

Wow, that's A LOT of words, go you!!

Interesting that the highest kudos counts are for the Umbrella Academy. I thought that was a comparatively small fandom but I'm probably wrong. Frank/Gerard might not be your favourite pairing (not mine either) but it was definitely bandom's. And it's such an hilarious story too! It makes me a little sad that none of the Tints stories is among the top-kudosed but I think I can understand why. They're probably much too emotionally fraught to become really popular.

I still giggle when I think of your beta's reaction to your first version of the airplane crash story. You've become much better since then!

[turps]

I was surprised at the amount of words. Guess they all do add up.

I think with the Umbrella Academy, I happened to post when the fandom was red hot, so got a lot of kudos in a short amount of time. I still get comments and kudos now, but it has slowed a lot, so I'd say it was a relatively small fandom compared to a lot of others.

The Tints stories tend to get really good comments, so less readers, but the ones that do read must get emotionally invested. I'm still really proud of them, so I'm glad they do land with the people who read.

But yeah, Frank/Gerard, understandable but it still makes me laugh it's them.

I bet L must have wanted to tear her hair out when she read the first draft of the crash story. But it really did seem like a logical stopping point at the time *g*