Fic Retrospectives (2022)
Jan. 1st, 2023 03:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jajalalaWoohoo! Return of the yearly Fic Retrospective! Last year I did a series for a couple years at once, since I had recently joined DW and wanted to collate a bunch of thoughts together, and DWs long formatting was PERFECT for it. I guess this means I've now been on DW for around a year, which wow!
Anyways 2022 I think was the year of trying out Big Bangs, Exchanges, Theme Weeks, and other such events XD. I've talked in my journal about various reflections on that in more detail, but I'll touch on some thoughts as I delve into the works themselves. Still, I luckily found some time to buckle down and focus on a few personal multichapters, though there were definitely moments I felt myself flagging. I also got a ergonomic keyboard and learned some VERY helpful wrist exercises that significantly helped some wrist issues that had been holding me back for the first half of the year or so.
So let's dive into it!
Boku no Hero Academia
Dress Her Up
April 2022
I actually wrote this back in... I think October of 2021? I had been toying with Nejire/Yuyu thoughts since writing a tender oneshot mostly centered around Yuyu's butchness, and then I had learned of this thing called a "Big Bang" and specifically of a BNHA Rarepair Big Bang. As someone desperate for wlw works, I hoped that maybe there'd be a strong contingent of F/F shippers who might gather under the rarepair banner... but it ended up not being quite as many as I had hoped. Ah well, the discord at least was pretty hopping and people posted a lot of advice/resources on there (including this wonderful podcast episode on writing smut, which I think formalized some unconscious things I'd picked up but also gave some great advice/foundations and a more deliberate schema to work from when approaching sexual scenes in fic).
Anyways I saw this Rarepair Big Bang, had Nejire/Yuyu thoughts, and basically banged out this smutty oneshot in about a week I think while sign-ups were still going on XD. Interestingly this was just a 5k oneshot which was over the min word limit, but I later learned Big Bangs traditionally had much higher expected word counts, which was a surprise discovery! It was a p low stress Bang in that I had most of it written out first thing, the only bump was getting an artist. My first artist ended up dropping midway through, but another artist kindly pitch-hit at the last minute. To be honest I was mostly excited to be writing with other ppl and trying out this new thing, so even when art things were up in the air I wasn't particularly stressed about it.
On the actual fic itself: I'm personally a huge fan of sort of switch or 'unexpected' power dynamics. I interpret Yuyu as a butch, and the masculine association with that I think sometimes sets up an expectation that one should be a top or dominant. But Nejire is such a whirlwind I can only imagine Yuyu getting swept up by her, and I ended up getting curious about engineering a situation where Nejire could show a pushy, teasing, sexual vibe toward Yuyu. I really love the idea of putting masculine folks into very feminine and uncomfortably sexual outfits in an embarrassing way... might be a particular kink of sorts? but either way the thought of butch Yuyu being dressed in all sorts of embarrassingly feminine ways and then fucked in the very dress her best friend/crush won a beauty pageant in had me rabidly typing out this whole situation. The fact that I could slot it pretty neatly into canon gave it an easy structure and surrounding to work from. Overall I really liked this, it has a nice little emotional arc culminating in a confession, but it also has that delicious teasing energy that delights me.
Ice in the Hot Springs
April 2022
This was for another event, this time a Miruko-centric gift exchange set around easter! An absolutely delightful event, lots of activity and very well matched. I remember when I got the request form for the person I was assigned to create a gift for, I was like ":O ohohohoho....." I think technically you only have to fulfill one or two of the various tropes/requests they make, but after reading over a bunch of the things, I suddenly had this fake-dating undercover investigation at an onsen plot that somehow fulfilled like, more than half of them... AAA one of the lovely things about a gift exchange is that if a person gives some really good notes/likes/etc, it can stimulate a new concept that you normally may not have written on your own. Pushes the boundaries a bit in a good way.
I'm almost sad that this was only a oneshot instead of a full-scale multichapter, could have really drawn out the teasing of the fake-dating escapades, but I think it's much more manageable that I kept it at a oneshot. And this was lovely to produce among a plethora of other wonderful Miruko-centric works that came from the exchange.
To Ensnare a Rabbit
June 2022
This was a VERY fortuitous Lady Nagant Big Bang pairing! The artist I got paired with was someone whose art I already very much admired, so it was a dream come true to have her illustrate some of the scenes in the fic I wrote. She ended up illustrating MULTIPLE scenes which was an absolute blessing; I think both of us were dedicated and completing things before deadlines and so we had wriggle room that made things pretty manageable and fun to do instead of a stressful last-minute project.
It took me a little time to come up with the concept, I knew I wanted something with Lady Nagant but it took some time to settle on Miruko as her partner... I forget how exactly I ended up there, but eventually I found myself comparing and contrasting the two, specifically Nagant's pre-rebelling willingness to obey the Commission versus Miruko being accountable to no one except herself. I thought it'd be fun to explore, and used their relationship as an impetus for Nagant to eventually betray the Commission (I just adore finding ways for stories to 'fit' into canon in some way, and it made the fic end with a bang). I surprised myself with how much their sex life contributed to the plot, it was really interwoven with Lady Nagant's slow growth into learning to take control of her own destiny, as well as eventually showing her a weakness of Miruko's that she chooses not to exploit. It was fun to research some rope bondage (especially in terms of helping my artist with references, I ended up going on several sites to try and find the best pictures and learned some things along the way), and the last scene surprised myself. When I originally thought of the concept, I didn't plan for a BDSM scene to sort of 'go wrong', but when I got there I found it was the natural development of their building communication issues and a final moment of vulnerability that became Nagant's turning point.
As I was writing the story, I remember considering splitting it into three chapters. In the end, I decided to leave it as a big oneshot since the chapter divisions would have ended up making very uneven chapter sizes, and I kind of wanted to just blast it all at once anyway and enjoy the full thing. Overall I was really happy with this fic, and again felt really blessed with the artist pairing.
Kiss Her Knife's Edge
February 2022-August 2022
HOOOO boy this one... Definitely one of the biggest writing projects of 2022 for me. I think it started sometime in 2021 when I had the thought "Dabihawks is fun, what about that dynamic do I like? Are there any girls I could project that dynamic onto?" and then through a mix of future-fic and adjusting various things I ended up engineering the setup that I so loved in DabiHawks (AKA undercover agent forced to get emotionally close to a villain and accidentally falling in love) for two gals who deserve more attention. It was really fun to build on their unique aspects as well, Ochako's financial struggles became an easily-squeezed achille's heel, and Toga's transformation abilities opened up a whole new angle of identity shenanigans for me to play with. This fic was also one where I decided to FULLY commit to doing full smut AND do a full, long, serious multichapter about it. I had done some porn with plot before, but I maxed out at 20k or so. This went quite a bit futher (69k, heh).
This was also a fic where I decided to establish a policy of actually responding to comments. Comments have always flustered me a lot and I feel embarrassed/nervous responding, so I tend to have a blanket no-response policy to avoid the stress. However I think my comfort levels have changed, so I decided to try actually engaging with people who leave very kind things in the comments. It was an illuminating experience! Many were just general thank yous, but there were occasionally really interesting conversations to be had. It made me want to reread some fics I've liked before and scroll down to the bottom to see if there's a treasure trove of discussions with readers and/or author with additional info I may have missed just reading the text.
The fic took a long while, but there was a lot to be excited about. Mostly the sex scenes, to be honest (they tended to grab and hook and drag me into the most delightful setups) but also certain other emotionally charged moments I was excited to write. I think the ultimate climax was actually a few chapters before the end, so I flagged a bit for the last few chapters while just trying to wrap things up, but I'm really happy with how the fic ended up and hope to reread it at some point to enjoy. I also have gotten closer/familiar with some of my commenters due to discussions.
You say you hate my guts, but you're still coming back for more
September 2022
Ohoho this was a wild little piece for BNHA Valkyries Week, a Dark Femslash week. When it comes to prompt weeks, I know some people like to do a series of oneshots... but personally I tend to prefer making one 7-chapter fic that finds a way to use each day's prompt per chapter. I ended up going with Midnight/Mt Lady because of a "size difference" prompt on one of the days, and because I think they're one of the couples that lends themselves to dark and messy stuff more naturally.
Because I did lean more into my 'darker' side for this one. Still not as 'hardcore' as some folks for sure, but more topics that I would normally avoid or skim. The crux of the fic involves an abusive relationship between Mount Lady and Kamui Woods, which I found somewhat cathartic to explore. Back in college I got into a toxic relationship situation for a while, and I found myself channeling a lot of that to write Mount Lady's thoughts and responses to a lot of situations. It's not the most in-depth/detailed look into that sort of issue, since ultimately it's from Midnight's POV and the goal is to push the two gals together, but it was nice to slip some of those experiences into a character, and to sort of view from the outside how wild some things really were when you had to explain them to a person outside the relationship XD.
I remember when I first finished I kind of didn't love the fic, since I fell behind and rushed to finish on time... and then the last chapter I totally delayed for a week or so before finally putting it down. Today though, I gave it a chance and reread and found myself really enjoying it! The procrastination may have soured it at the time, but I liked how it ended up overall. To be honest I've considered adding an extra ending chapter, mostly of more sex... but the current form is complete as it is, so that would be a vague future bonus thought.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Where Is My Werewolf Lover?
September 2021-April 2022
AAAAA Oh my goodness... this big beautiful beast... I had scoured the "Werewolf Marianne Von Edmund" tag and basically gone through all the fics in there that interested me, but still craved more. This is perhaps embarrassing to admit, but back in the day I used to read Camp Camp fanfic (webshow about kids going to a camp), there was a particular trope/story archetype that popped up in fics involving one of the camp counselors being a very well-hidden werewolf while his co-counselor (A cynical gal who mostly just enjoys supernatural romance novels) pines distantly about a big powerful supernatural creature falling in love with her (while thinking her co-counselor is a kinda odd and boring dude)... anyway if you've read my fic, you should be able to see the bones of that concept. I've always been a big fan of identity shenanigans, so that kind of setup is like catnip to me, and since Marianne is somewhat associated with a beast in canon had my gears turning and connecting the concepts for a FE3H Camp Counselor AU that could use those tropes I loved from those Camp Camp fics.
The other layer is, of course, the heteronormativity that Hilda has to fight through. From the start having Hilda be insistent that her werewolf/romantic interest MUST be a man compelled me from the identity hiding angle, increasing the drama and helping excuse her lack of ability to see what's right in front of her nose, I also tend to enjoy figuring-out-sexuality stories in general. And it provided a lot of opportunity for comedy XD.
When I started the fic, I thought it wouldn't be TOO long... I kind of had vague flippant ideas, then ended up slowing down to explore Hilda's relationship with the other Golden Deer members, and developed an actual evil-villain-brewing-in-the-background plot and various other subplots with other characters... Ahahah it kind of spiraled out of control. In the end, even though there were moments I think I flagged and wanted to be done with it, I'm really happy with the end product. A week or two ago there was a very kind commenter who I think commented on every single chapter as they read along, and so I ended up re-reading it along with them... and wow, as always, my fic is written EXACTLY to my taste and absolutely delights me. There were so many little details I had forgotten that were fun to re-enjoy as they cropped up (and an occasional typo that slipped through the first time that I got to fix, whoops).
In my head I think I sometimes thought of this as a sort of 'side' from my main fandom, like a silly indulgent little romp that only I would care about... I think the FE3H fandom is somewhat smaller than the BNHA fandom, so it tended to get less engagement than my BNHA fics. In my head I interpreted that subconsciously perhaps as it being a 'worse' work then others, or being a less 'important' work, but in terms of stats at some point I poked more thoroughly at the FE3H fandom and found for that standard it seemed to be doing well, and the comments I receive on it are always so kind and heartwarming... plus rereading it made me fall in love with it all over again. In the end it's the longest work I posted for 2022, so I should stop pretending it was just a little thing and embrace it as one of my big darlings as it deserves.
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Their Last Embrace
June 2022
This was written for the femslash kink exchange! As I said about another work earlier, one thing I really enjoy about exchanges is being prompted to write something that you normally wouldn't... I'm a Catra/Adora shipper at heart (The first fanfic I originally posted on AO3 was a Catra/Adora oneshot frantically written less than a week after the first season dropped bc there was almost no content in the fandom at the time) but this person had Catra/Glitter on their requests form and a VERY thorough Dear Creator letter that got my mind churning. A lot of their likes surrounded things like power plays and messy dynamics and shit like that. There was also the tag "Hate sex that turns unexpectedly tender" on the request that absolutely catapulted the concept into what it became, what a good freeform tag!
As a canon-compliance lover I recalled that Catra and Glitter were, for a time, the only two non-Hordak people on a spaceship. When I first watched those episodes, even I had a pitter-pattering in my heart like "Oh, those two are getting closer, since there's literally no other options isolated out here..." The only problem is, as a canon-compliance lover I DID want to be as accurate to the show as possible (even if I ended up changing things), so I decided I needed to review the episode/scenes surrounding the timepoint I'd set it in the show. Unfortunately to me that was 'work' that I didn't want to do, so I procrastinated on the fic for a long while avoiding that necessary setup task, but did successfully complete it before the deadline.
Disney (Frozen/Sleeping Beauty)
Careful Who You Don't Invite
August 2022
My exchange piece for Femslash After Dark! There was an Elsa/Maleficent request that at first made me go like "????" but then after a bit more consideration... I found myself plotting and planning how it would work. In pursuit of that, I may have overdone the worldbuilding/backstory, but somehow I wanted to make some sort of sense and incorporate both worlds. The giftee had some other requests that suggested two women fighting for custody of a child (and then falling in love/fucking), which inspired me to use Anna/Kristoff's child and godmotherhood as the crux of an argument and eventual resolution between them.
Although I love the unique ship combo, I must admit I'm not the most fond of this piece... For one I think I rushed at the end, and so the sex scene doesn't hit as strongly as I wanted it to, and in terms of the event itself the giftee never responded/acknowledged this fic. I'm not sure if I accidentally hit too close to a DNW or there was some unwritten DNW that the giftee learned while reading the fic, but it dampened my enthusiasm to have the person who suggested the prompt give zero acknowledgement.
Basically I participated in a bunch of events. I branched out a bit more (especially thanks to exchanges due to the prompt nature of it) and tried some new things. Although events were fun, I think I'm gonna take a step back and focus more on personally-driven projects for 2023 (perhaps one or two exchanges/fan weeks). I learned that I really DO prefer multichapters over oneshots, so I think certain fan events just aren't the most suited to my preferred storytelling style. I'm at a pretty good spot in my life so I've had time/energy to write which has been lovely. I've also got some new tools to help with wrist issues which also helped me be pretty prolific this year.
Currently I do have one other work that I technically wrote during 2022, but have not posted bc it's for a Big Bang and my artist is delayed (or maybe dropping? Waiting to hear back from them, but I'm hoping to post with or without art soon bc it is long past deadlines). I also started publishing a new multichapter... a teen-rated BNHA fic focusing on Villain/Information Broker Momo, which I have a lot of ideas and a big outline for. I guess I'll have to review that for my 2023 retrospective!
Anyways 2022 I think was the year of trying out Big Bangs, Exchanges, Theme Weeks, and other such events XD. I've talked in my journal about various reflections on that in more detail, but I'll touch on some thoughts as I delve into the works themselves. Still, I luckily found some time to buckle down and focus on a few personal multichapters, though there were definitely moments I felt myself flagging. I also got a ergonomic keyboard and learned some VERY helpful wrist exercises that significantly helped some wrist issues that had been holding me back for the first half of the year or so.
So let's dive into it!
Boku no Hero Academia
Dress Her Up
April 2022
I actually wrote this back in... I think October of 2021? I had been toying with Nejire/Yuyu thoughts since writing a tender oneshot mostly centered around Yuyu's butchness, and then I had learned of this thing called a "Big Bang" and specifically of a BNHA Rarepair Big Bang. As someone desperate for wlw works, I hoped that maybe there'd be a strong contingent of F/F shippers who might gather under the rarepair banner... but it ended up not being quite as many as I had hoped. Ah well, the discord at least was pretty hopping and people posted a lot of advice/resources on there (including this wonderful podcast episode on writing smut, which I think formalized some unconscious things I'd picked up but also gave some great advice/foundations and a more deliberate schema to work from when approaching sexual scenes in fic).
Anyways I saw this Rarepair Big Bang, had Nejire/Yuyu thoughts, and basically banged out this smutty oneshot in about a week I think while sign-ups were still going on XD. Interestingly this was just a 5k oneshot which was over the min word limit, but I later learned Big Bangs traditionally had much higher expected word counts, which was a surprise discovery! It was a p low stress Bang in that I had most of it written out first thing, the only bump was getting an artist. My first artist ended up dropping midway through, but another artist kindly pitch-hit at the last minute. To be honest I was mostly excited to be writing with other ppl and trying out this new thing, so even when art things were up in the air I wasn't particularly stressed about it.
On the actual fic itself: I'm personally a huge fan of sort of switch or 'unexpected' power dynamics. I interpret Yuyu as a butch, and the masculine association with that I think sometimes sets up an expectation that one should be a top or dominant. But Nejire is such a whirlwind I can only imagine Yuyu getting swept up by her, and I ended up getting curious about engineering a situation where Nejire could show a pushy, teasing, sexual vibe toward Yuyu. I really love the idea of putting masculine folks into very feminine and uncomfortably sexual outfits in an embarrassing way... might be a particular kink of sorts? but either way the thought of butch Yuyu being dressed in all sorts of embarrassingly feminine ways and then fucked in the very dress her best friend/crush won a beauty pageant in had me rabidly typing out this whole situation. The fact that I could slot it pretty neatly into canon gave it an easy structure and surrounding to work from. Overall I really liked this, it has a nice little emotional arc culminating in a confession, but it also has that delicious teasing energy that delights me.
Ice in the Hot Springs
April 2022
This was for another event, this time a Miruko-centric gift exchange set around easter! An absolutely delightful event, lots of activity and very well matched. I remember when I got the request form for the person I was assigned to create a gift for, I was like ":O ohohohoho....." I think technically you only have to fulfill one or two of the various tropes/requests they make, but after reading over a bunch of the things, I suddenly had this fake-dating undercover investigation at an onsen plot that somehow fulfilled like, more than half of them... AAA one of the lovely things about a gift exchange is that if a person gives some really good notes/likes/etc, it can stimulate a new concept that you normally may not have written on your own. Pushes the boundaries a bit in a good way.
I'm almost sad that this was only a oneshot instead of a full-scale multichapter, could have really drawn out the teasing of the fake-dating escapades, but I think it's much more manageable that I kept it at a oneshot. And this was lovely to produce among a plethora of other wonderful Miruko-centric works that came from the exchange.
To Ensnare a Rabbit
June 2022
This was a VERY fortuitous Lady Nagant Big Bang pairing! The artist I got paired with was someone whose art I already very much admired, so it was a dream come true to have her illustrate some of the scenes in the fic I wrote. She ended up illustrating MULTIPLE scenes which was an absolute blessing; I think both of us were dedicated and completing things before deadlines and so we had wriggle room that made things pretty manageable and fun to do instead of a stressful last-minute project.
It took me a little time to come up with the concept, I knew I wanted something with Lady Nagant but it took some time to settle on Miruko as her partner... I forget how exactly I ended up there, but eventually I found myself comparing and contrasting the two, specifically Nagant's pre-rebelling willingness to obey the Commission versus Miruko being accountable to no one except herself. I thought it'd be fun to explore, and used their relationship as an impetus for Nagant to eventually betray the Commission (I just adore finding ways for stories to 'fit' into canon in some way, and it made the fic end with a bang). I surprised myself with how much their sex life contributed to the plot, it was really interwoven with Lady Nagant's slow growth into learning to take control of her own destiny, as well as eventually showing her a weakness of Miruko's that she chooses not to exploit. It was fun to research some rope bondage (especially in terms of helping my artist with references, I ended up going on several sites to try and find the best pictures and learned some things along the way), and the last scene surprised myself. When I originally thought of the concept, I didn't plan for a BDSM scene to sort of 'go wrong', but when I got there I found it was the natural development of their building communication issues and a final moment of vulnerability that became Nagant's turning point.
As I was writing the story, I remember considering splitting it into three chapters. In the end, I decided to leave it as a big oneshot since the chapter divisions would have ended up making very uneven chapter sizes, and I kind of wanted to just blast it all at once anyway and enjoy the full thing. Overall I was really happy with this fic, and again felt really blessed with the artist pairing.
Kiss Her Knife's Edge
February 2022-August 2022
HOOOO boy this one... Definitely one of the biggest writing projects of 2022 for me. I think it started sometime in 2021 when I had the thought "Dabihawks is fun, what about that dynamic do I like? Are there any girls I could project that dynamic onto?" and then through a mix of future-fic and adjusting various things I ended up engineering the setup that I so loved in DabiHawks (AKA undercover agent forced to get emotionally close to a villain and accidentally falling in love) for two gals who deserve more attention. It was really fun to build on their unique aspects as well, Ochako's financial struggles became an easily-squeezed achille's heel, and Toga's transformation abilities opened up a whole new angle of identity shenanigans for me to play with. This fic was also one where I decided to FULLY commit to doing full smut AND do a full, long, serious multichapter about it. I had done some porn with plot before, but I maxed out at 20k or so. This went quite a bit futher (69k, heh).
This was also a fic where I decided to establish a policy of actually responding to comments. Comments have always flustered me a lot and I feel embarrassed/nervous responding, so I tend to have a blanket no-response policy to avoid the stress. However I think my comfort levels have changed, so I decided to try actually engaging with people who leave very kind things in the comments. It was an illuminating experience! Many were just general thank yous, but there were occasionally really interesting conversations to be had. It made me want to reread some fics I've liked before and scroll down to the bottom to see if there's a treasure trove of discussions with readers and/or author with additional info I may have missed just reading the text.
The fic took a long while, but there was a lot to be excited about. Mostly the sex scenes, to be honest (they tended to grab and hook and drag me into the most delightful setups) but also certain other emotionally charged moments I was excited to write. I think the ultimate climax was actually a few chapters before the end, so I flagged a bit for the last few chapters while just trying to wrap things up, but I'm really happy with how the fic ended up and hope to reread it at some point to enjoy. I also have gotten closer/familiar with some of my commenters due to discussions.
You say you hate my guts, but you're still coming back for more
September 2022
Ohoho this was a wild little piece for BNHA Valkyries Week, a Dark Femslash week. When it comes to prompt weeks, I know some people like to do a series of oneshots... but personally I tend to prefer making one 7-chapter fic that finds a way to use each day's prompt per chapter. I ended up going with Midnight/Mt Lady because of a "size difference" prompt on one of the days, and because I think they're one of the couples that lends themselves to dark and messy stuff more naturally.
Because I did lean more into my 'darker' side for this one. Still not as 'hardcore' as some folks for sure, but more topics that I would normally avoid or skim. The crux of the fic involves an abusive relationship between Mount Lady and Kamui Woods, which I found somewhat cathartic to explore. Back in college I got into a toxic relationship situation for a while, and I found myself channeling a lot of that to write Mount Lady's thoughts and responses to a lot of situations. It's not the most in-depth/detailed look into that sort of issue, since ultimately it's from Midnight's POV and the goal is to push the two gals together, but it was nice to slip some of those experiences into a character, and to sort of view from the outside how wild some things really were when you had to explain them to a person outside the relationship XD.
I remember when I first finished I kind of didn't love the fic, since I fell behind and rushed to finish on time... and then the last chapter I totally delayed for a week or so before finally putting it down. Today though, I gave it a chance and reread and found myself really enjoying it! The procrastination may have soured it at the time, but I liked how it ended up overall. To be honest I've considered adding an extra ending chapter, mostly of more sex... but the current form is complete as it is, so that would be a vague future bonus thought.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Where Is My Werewolf Lover?
September 2021-April 2022
AAAAA Oh my goodness... this big beautiful beast... I had scoured the "Werewolf Marianne Von Edmund" tag and basically gone through all the fics in there that interested me, but still craved more. This is perhaps embarrassing to admit, but back in the day I used to read Camp Camp fanfic (webshow about kids going to a camp), there was a particular trope/story archetype that popped up in fics involving one of the camp counselors being a very well-hidden werewolf while his co-counselor (A cynical gal who mostly just enjoys supernatural romance novels) pines distantly about a big powerful supernatural creature falling in love with her (while thinking her co-counselor is a kinda odd and boring dude)... anyway if you've read my fic, you should be able to see the bones of that concept. I've always been a big fan of identity shenanigans, so that kind of setup is like catnip to me, and since Marianne is somewhat associated with a beast in canon had my gears turning and connecting the concepts for a FE3H Camp Counselor AU that could use those tropes I loved from those Camp Camp fics.
The other layer is, of course, the heteronormativity that Hilda has to fight through. From the start having Hilda be insistent that her werewolf/romantic interest MUST be a man compelled me from the identity hiding angle, increasing the drama and helping excuse her lack of ability to see what's right in front of her nose, I also tend to enjoy figuring-out-sexuality stories in general. And it provided a lot of opportunity for comedy XD.
When I started the fic, I thought it wouldn't be TOO long... I kind of had vague flippant ideas, then ended up slowing down to explore Hilda's relationship with the other Golden Deer members, and developed an actual evil-villain-brewing-in-the-background plot and various other subplots with other characters... Ahahah it kind of spiraled out of control. In the end, even though there were moments I think I flagged and wanted to be done with it, I'm really happy with the end product. A week or two ago there was a very kind commenter who I think commented on every single chapter as they read along, and so I ended up re-reading it along with them... and wow, as always, my fic is written EXACTLY to my taste and absolutely delights me. There were so many little details I had forgotten that were fun to re-enjoy as they cropped up (and an occasional typo that slipped through the first time that I got to fix, whoops).
In my head I think I sometimes thought of this as a sort of 'side' from my main fandom, like a silly indulgent little romp that only I would care about... I think the FE3H fandom is somewhat smaller than the BNHA fandom, so it tended to get less engagement than my BNHA fics. In my head I interpreted that subconsciously perhaps as it being a 'worse' work then others, or being a less 'important' work, but in terms of stats at some point I poked more thoroughly at the FE3H fandom and found for that standard it seemed to be doing well, and the comments I receive on it are always so kind and heartwarming... plus rereading it made me fall in love with it all over again. In the end it's the longest work I posted for 2022, so I should stop pretending it was just a little thing and embrace it as one of my big darlings as it deserves.
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Their Last Embrace
June 2022
This was written for the femslash kink exchange! As I said about another work earlier, one thing I really enjoy about exchanges is being prompted to write something that you normally wouldn't... I'm a Catra/Adora shipper at heart (The first fanfic I originally posted on AO3 was a Catra/Adora oneshot frantically written less than a week after the first season dropped bc there was almost no content in the fandom at the time) but this person had Catra/Glitter on their requests form and a VERY thorough Dear Creator letter that got my mind churning. A lot of their likes surrounded things like power plays and messy dynamics and shit like that. There was also the tag "Hate sex that turns unexpectedly tender" on the request that absolutely catapulted the concept into what it became, what a good freeform tag!
As a canon-compliance lover I recalled that Catra and Glitter were, for a time, the only two non-Hordak people on a spaceship. When I first watched those episodes, even I had a pitter-pattering in my heart like "Oh, those two are getting closer, since there's literally no other options isolated out here..." The only problem is, as a canon-compliance lover I DID want to be as accurate to the show as possible (even if I ended up changing things), so I decided I needed to review the episode/scenes surrounding the timepoint I'd set it in the show. Unfortunately to me that was 'work' that I didn't want to do, so I procrastinated on the fic for a long while avoiding that necessary setup task, but did successfully complete it before the deadline.
Disney (Frozen/Sleeping Beauty)
Careful Who You Don't Invite
August 2022
My exchange piece for Femslash After Dark! There was an Elsa/Maleficent request that at first made me go like "????" but then after a bit more consideration... I found myself plotting and planning how it would work. In pursuit of that, I may have overdone the worldbuilding/backstory, but somehow I wanted to make some sort of sense and incorporate both worlds. The giftee had some other requests that suggested two women fighting for custody of a child (and then falling in love/fucking), which inspired me to use Anna/Kristoff's child and godmotherhood as the crux of an argument and eventual resolution between them.
Although I love the unique ship combo, I must admit I'm not the most fond of this piece... For one I think I rushed at the end, and so the sex scene doesn't hit as strongly as I wanted it to, and in terms of the event itself the giftee never responded/acknowledged this fic. I'm not sure if I accidentally hit too close to a DNW or there was some unwritten DNW that the giftee learned while reading the fic, but it dampened my enthusiasm to have the person who suggested the prompt give zero acknowledgement.
Basically I participated in a bunch of events. I branched out a bit more (especially thanks to exchanges due to the prompt nature of it) and tried some new things. Although events were fun, I think I'm gonna take a step back and focus more on personally-driven projects for 2023 (perhaps one or two exchanges/fan weeks). I learned that I really DO prefer multichapters over oneshots, so I think certain fan events just aren't the most suited to my preferred storytelling style. I'm at a pretty good spot in my life so I've had time/energy to write which has been lovely. I've also got some new tools to help with wrist issues which also helped me be pretty prolific this year.
Currently I do have one other work that I technically wrote during 2022, but have not posted bc it's for a Big Bang and my artist is delayed (or maybe dropping? Waiting to hear back from them, but I'm hoping to post with or without art soon bc it is long past deadlines). I also started publishing a new multichapter... a teen-rated BNHA fic focusing on Villain/Information Broker Momo, which I have a lot of ideas and a big outline for. I guess I'll have to review that for my 2023 retrospective!
Tags:
no subject
Date: 2023-01-02 06:03 am (UTC)butch Yuyu being dressed in all sorts of embarrassingly feminine ways and then fucked in the very dress her best friend/crush won a beauty pageant in
*YEETS INTO TO-READ LIST*
Totally relate on the "exchanges help you branch out" thing. I've got some fics that I probably would've never written if it weren't for the exchange I joined. And there's just something about finding a way to make multiple prompts work in one story that's very fulfilling.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-04 12:38 am (UTC)It definitely helps broaden horizons and try new things, especially when the prompter has similar but SLIGHTLY different tastes
no subject
Date: 2023-01-02 10:15 am (UTC)I'm so happy the wrist exercises made such a difference to you. It's such an unassuming video, and I was so desperate and in pain when I found it... I want everyone who needs it to find it, haha.
Really fun to see your retrospective and read your thoughts on it all :) You sell your Nejire/Yuyu fic very well gieghieghie
wow, as always, my fic is written EXACTLY to my taste and absolutely delights me.
This really is the best part of writing, especially after some time has passed and you've forgotten ENOUGH :D
no subject
Date: 2023-01-04 12:51 am (UTC)1. Reach down you hand to the poor downtrodden girl
2. Now tilt your hand up to hold her hand
3. Now lift your arm up, showing your strength as you raise her out of poverty
4. But alas! Now that she's used you to climb the social latter, she's betrayed you, so cast her away
5-8. Repeat on the other hand.
9. Now point to the ground, get back in touch with your earthly desires as you party to forget the women who have betrayed you
10. But it still hurts, so turn to the church and pray to be freed from your earthly desires and pain
11. Pray EVEN HARDER, prayer hands above your head, in hopes of relieving the pain in your heart.
12. But it still hasn't worked, so cast those prayers behind you, perhaps nothing can save you from yourself
13. Naruto run.
It's a bit silly (and might not make a ton of sense without doing the motions with it) but it's how I remember it so I don't have to watch the video every time XD
no subject
Date: 2023-01-06 12:52 pm (UTC)