90 words written today -- finally did the thing I am required to do that I have been putting off for a month (it required me to watch a 45 minute video). Watched a bunch of Avengers Assemble (in its “Black Panther’s Quest” season), finished my holster set-up for my Black Widow at 2 am, I had the sudden urge to work on it. Listen, I’ve had cosplay parts sitting around since 2015 in a couple of cases, if I have the urge to work on something I’m going to take it. (At some point I have to get around to destashing my SW cosplay WIPs and just thinking about it is exhausting.)
once a king or queen of narnia, always a king or queen of narnia
17 for the writer asks?
17. What’s something you’ve learned about while doing research for a fic?
most recently increasingly batshit WWII facts, alongside a lot of stuff about WWII that isn't necessarily batshit, but which I just didn't know before. I try not to harsh the American educational system too much, since I came out of it and mostly teachers and students are just doing the best they can (especially in the No Child Left Behind days, when I was in school), but even as someone who was a big military history nut with a WWII phase back in high school, there's a lot of pretty basic stuff I just didn't know. Like, I don't think I actually knew anything about the Battle of Berlin, including that it happened? And very little about the Eastern Front, probably because the U.S. was not involved. Every couple of days I learn something new and usually horrifying about WWII. (THE GUILLOTINE WAS THE MAIN MEANS OF EXECUTION IN NAZI GERMANY?) Some of it's not horrifying, some of it's neat (signals intelligence!) and some of it is just batshit (the wedding ring thing).
I’m Bored and Anxious So I Slapped Together a List of Fan Fic Writer Asks
1. Share a song that makes you think of [fic title] 2. Do you read/reread your own fics? 3. What’s your favorite fic that you’ve written? 4. How many WIPs do you have right now? 5. What’s a fic idea you’ve had that you will never write? 6. Are there any fics from others you reread all the time? 7. How many ideas for fics do you have right now? 8. What project(s) are you currently working on? 9. Do you write every day? If you wrote today, share a sentence of what you’ve written! 10. Is there a fic that got a different response than you were expecting? 11. Do you have specific playlists for writing fics? 12. Do you have a playlist for your current WIP(s)? Share it! 13. How much planning do you do before writing? 14. If you could see one of your fics adapted into a visual medium, such as comic or film, which fan fic would you pick? 15. How do you come up with titles for your fics/chapters? 16. At what point in the process do you come up with titles? 17. What’s something you’ve learned about while doing research for a fic? 18. What’s one of your favorite lines you’ve written in a fic? 19. Give us a small teaser from one of your WIPs. 20. What’s a favorite title for a fic you’ve written? 21. Have you ever deleted an entire scene after spending hours laboring over it? If so, why? 22. Do you know how your fic will end before you start writing? 23. How do you choose where to end a chapter (if you have multi-chapter works)? 24. Share a moodboard for (one of) your current WIP(s). 25. Have you ever upset yourself with your own writing? 26. Is there something you’ve written that you would never want your family to see? 27. Is there a fic you were nervous to post/share? Why? 28. Have you ever tagged a fic “Dead Dove: Do Not Eat”? 29. Share a bit from a fic you’ll never post OR from a scene that was cut from an already posted fic. (If you don’t have either, just share a random fic idea you have that you don’t plan on getting to.) 30. Ask anything!
hi! fanfic writer asks: 13, 14, 23?
13. How much planning do you do before writing?
A LOT. I don't outline and I do a lot of development along the way, but I try really hard not to start a story if I don't know how it's going to end and a lot of the major scenes in between beginning and end -- these are what I call keystone scenes. Some of them aren't necessarily major, but they tend to be visually interesting and/or emotionally significant scenes. (I will also on occasion cut keystone scenes.) Ideally I'll have keystones at beginning, middle, and end, and if I don't have all three then I've learned not to start the story or to only do it as concept writing. Quite often my major subplots will develop along the way (the Howard Stark subplot wasn't originally part of Horizon, for example), and other major sequences won't necessarily be planned from the start -- Loki calling the Nine Realms wasn't part of the original planning for Yonder, but the story was always going to end with a Loki and Natasha conversation, just the events prior to it were in flux for a while. (Yes, I know how Morning ends.)
14. If you could see one of your fics adapted into a visual medium, such as comic or film, which fan fic would you pick?
I'm a very visual writer, so really any of them. Right now I'll put in a vote for Horizon, because it has some of my favorite visuals -- the coronation scene at the beginning, the induced hallucinations, Steve's attempted escape, the Avengers' passage through the shut-down Grand Central, the return to New Asgard, etc.
23. How do you choose where to end a chapter (if you have multi-chapter works)?
Instinct and practice. I've been doing this for a long time and I pay a lot of attention to how other authors end their chapters, how serial fiction like television or comics end episodes/issues, and in general how beats work and what feels good. Sometimes I know going into a chapter how it will end, sometimes I just ride it out. I try not to end on cliffhangers too often -- there's an author I've read who ends almost every chapter on a cliffhanger and I find it really emotionally manipulative and frustrating to read. I realize "vibes" is not a great answer, but, well.
You ever see art of a character you love, and it's like, "You didn't make a bad piece but you didn't capture what makes this character themself."
Like, it's fine art, it looks nice or whatever, but that's NOT the character you love
cant recommend this enough but if youre able you should go on walks every day. like fuck weather fuck circumstance uust go outside. got rained on today and it was blissful. even just sit outside get fucked up by crazy ass wind youll never forget how small you are and rememebr everything matters
I’m Bored and Anxious So I Slapped Together a List of Fan Fic Writer Asks
1. Share a song that makes you think of [fic title] 2. Do you read/reread your own fics? 3. What’s your favorite fic that you’ve written? 4. How many WIPs do you have right now? 5. What’s a fic idea you’ve had that you will never write? 6. Are there any fics from others you reread all the time? 7. How many ideas for fics do you have right now? 8. What project(s) are you currently working on? 9. Do you write every day? If you wrote today, share a sentence of what you’ve written! 10. Is there a fic that got a different response than you were expecting? 11. Do you have specific playlists for writing fics? 12. Do you have a playlist for your current WIP(s)? Share it! 13. How much planning do you do before writing? 14. If you could see one of your fics adapted into a visual medium, such as comic or film, which fan fic would you pick? 15. How do you come up with titles for your fics/chapters? 16. At what point in the process do you come up with titles? 17. What’s something you’ve learned about while doing research for a fic? 18. What’s one of your favorite lines you’ve written in a fic? 19. Give us a small teaser from one of your WIPs. 20. What’s a favorite title for a fic you’ve written? 21. Have you ever deleted an entire scene after spending hours laboring over it? If so, why? 22. Do you know how your fic will end before you start writing? 23. How do you choose where to end a chapter (if you have multi-chapter works)? 24. Share a moodboard for (one of) your current WIP(s). 25. Have you ever upset yourself with your own writing? 26. Is there something you’ve written that you would never want your family to see? 27. Is there a fic you were nervous to post/share? Why? 28. Have you ever tagged a fic “Dead Dove: Do Not Eat”? 29. Share a bit from a fic you’ll never post OR from a scene that was cut from an already posted fic. (If you don’t have either, just share a random fic idea you have that you don’t plan on getting to.) 30. Ask anything!
Very upsetting that on this fresh morning in this broken world I am subjected to emails
I don’t know what you’re doing with your one wild and precious life but I’m making tables in word documents
The soft animal of my body does not love spreadsheets
All my life I was a bride married to amazement but unfortunately I also had to attend zoom meetings
HONESTLY also like. part of combatting misinformation is just accepting that you'll fall victim to it sometimes. no-one can be an expert on every imaginable subject and most people don't have the time to factcheck every single piece of information that comes their way. the key thing IMO is responding appropriately when someone points misinfo ie not doubling down and being like 'no there's no way I could be wrong about this'.
Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau The Marvels (2023) dir. Nia DaCosta
700 words written today -- woof, I have been absolutely exhausted and absolutely out of it all day. Just no energy at all until about 8 pm, terrible. (My curse is that most of the time I tend to get livelier after the sun goes down, which is obviously somewhat problematic during the point in the year where the sun does not go down until quite late.)
Snippet from Of Home Near chapter 8.
Sherman turned up while Natasha and Steve were wrapping up the story of one of their STRIKE ops, which fortunately hadn’t involved anything so odd that Peggy and the Commandos would immediately write it off as nonsense. It also involved Brock Rumlow making a fool of himself, to Natasha’s private satisfaction. Rumlow was a former Navy SEAL, which meant that after Steve and Natasha had explained what the SEALs were – they wouldn’t be founded for another seventeen years, though the Commandos had trained with their predecessors at the Scout and Raider School in Virginia – the Commandos were happy to take Steve’s obvious dislike of Rumlow as normal inter-service rivalry rather than inquiring too closely about specifics.
One of the more frustrating but rather petty things about Rumlow turning out to be Hydra was that he and Steve had actually gotten on well enough that Natasha had begun cherishing the hope that Steve might unbend enough to make a real friend. She also suspected that Rumlow had wanted into Steve’s pants, but that hadn’t been going anywhere either. She was never going to tell Steve about that.
Sherman bounded up to their table with his camera in hand and said, “You’re not dancing!”
Peggy, on her second whiskey, said, “Oh, it’s you.”
Steve looked at Sherman with some alarm. “What?”
He brandished the camera. “I want to get some shots of you and Mrs. Rogers on the dance floor.”
SPOT THE DIFFERENCE: BUCKY BARNES vs GRUMPY CAT | **Spoiler Alert: You Can’t
+ BONUS
Can’t stop laughing 😹
If you wouldn't go to someone for advice, don't take their criticism either.
Wait whoa
op woke up and chose logic today and idk how i feel about that
Fic idea where after the whole Accords fiasco Steve just starts working as a bartender at a pub in a small town in Ireland.
And it's just ridiculous.
He gets this thick Irish accent two weeks in, and at the beginning people don't realise it's him. But his name tag says STEVE and he never hides his superstrength.
You can see him carrying too many beer barrels for it to be normal, or cursing Stark/The Avengers/Accords new policies and its hilariously accurate/only an insider could come up with such detailed takes.
His bartending game is 10/10 and his sense of humour, no nonsense attitude towards bigots makes it so people in the town just decide that he is their local himbo.
So when he is recognised, his identity is kept like an open secret. Everyone in the town knows Cap is the guy serving Guinness down the street, but if a tourist/UN official shows up? That's just Steven, he was born and rised here, he's Siobhan's grandkid, what are you talking about.
Bonus points if Rogue Avengers (Bucky, T'Challa, Sam, Nat, etc) just keep showing up with like: zero disguises and sometimes even Cap merch.
The UN is going fucking crazy, and one day Tony Stark himself goes there to check. Steve pulls a fake mustache and just pretends like he doesn't even know who Tony Star, CEO of Stark Industries is. It gets on his nerves so much he starts rising his voice and all the regulars at the pub just kick him out. "How dare you speak like that to Siobhan's boy!"
Bonus points if Grandma Siobhan just looks absolutely nothing like Steve.
HAPPY 42nd BIRTHDAY, CHRIS EVANS! (June 13, 1981)
I’ve met some actors who are wildly self-aware, wildly self-possessed, incredibly intelligent people. I’ve also met actors who have no idea what’s going on around them at any given moment. And both can turn in phenomenal performances. It really begs the question: What is going on in your head when you see a piece of paper with a bunch of words? The only conclusion I can draw is that there is no formula. I think it’s meant to be in a constant state of rebirth. It’s this organic, living thing that you have to re-examine with every character. Sorry if that made me sound pretentious; I’m hearing myself right now.