Wide Awake

My fanfiction blog

[aleheartilly]

Masterpost

About me

Hi there! I am Alessia Heartilly and I am a fanfiction writer. English is my second language so you'll find a little note at the end of all my stories. It's like a signature author's note!

My fandom is Final Fantasy VIII and I write especially for my OTP, Squall and Rinoa.

My stories

You can read my stories on my AO3 profile or on FF.net; I usually post on both sites!

I also do a weekly Random Fanfiction Spotlight, on Saturday, to promote older and/or less-read stories, and I randomly celebrate milestones, so bear with me!

My Wips

I have a lot of projects going on, and sometimes I publish a poll, lasting a week, for you to vote on the stories you'd like to see first. If you wanna read snippets of upcoming stories, you can find them under the tag My Wips.

You can always send an ask to have more snippets though! Anonymous asks are totally fine.

Bingo cards I have to complete

I also asked for a few bingo cards, and this is what I got:

Slumber party bingo

Language of flowers bingo

Hurt/Comfort bingo

FFVIII Bingo: Squall

FFVIII Bingo: Lore

Fandom Free Bingo - Valentine Edition

Eclipsing bingo

Lyrical Bingo

July Break Flash Bingo

Bad Things Happen Bingo

Sending prompts

I always accept prompts through my asks (anonymous prompts are ok as well)! Here is a list of prompts I find intriguing and will gladly write on them. Just send the entire sentence please, not the number to avoid confusion. Thanks!

Dialogue prompts

Kiss prompts

Other random dialogue prompts (nsfw included)

Kiss roulette

Intimate pillow talk

Other asks meme

I love to gush about my OTP and share headcanons, so if you're interested, here's a list of things you ask:

Fanfic end of the year ask game

OTP Relationship

Character ask

Writing ask game

Trivia on stories ask game

Fanfic writer ask game

Megalist of fic writer asks

[aerithcloud]

Squinoa is one of my favorite romances of all time.

[aleheartilly]

[FANFIC MILESTONE] Board Games

Today I celebrate a milestone reached by probably my silliest fic to date: Board Games!

This is another story I wrote while being on semi-mandatory rest, and it was so fun, especially because I totally leaned into the sillyness induced by a song I was listening to while writing (which is Captain Crash & The Beauty Queen From Mars by Bon Jovi), and basically had Squall playing Twister with his friends.

A few days ago it reached 25 kudos on AO3, so the sillyness is spreading, I'm so happy about it 😀

If you feel like leaning an awful lot into the sillyness, too, you can read it on AO3 or FF.net.

Thank you, everyone - and stay silly ❤️

[fiversdream]

I am giddy with excitement! A fanfiction archive that I thought was lost forever due to dead links has now been rediscovered thanks to an old link I saved a long time ago. I’m going to be downloading everything because I thought it was gone forever.

I can now read some old favorites from some older fandoms that originally sucked me into fanfiction.

[aleheartilly]

Yay!

[theylov3evie]

Squall my beloved they will never make me hate you Squall I love you Squall I love you Leon Squallhart

Final Fantasy VIII my absolute beloved and Squall my resplendent lion boy hfgjkhlnk

[puddor]

Ellone...what were you actually trying to change?

or, Squall realises who her shenanigans would've impacted the most.

[bubblepopspit]

Last month I asked my X (twitter) followers to give me some Final Fantasy characters to draw. There were so many suggestions that I decided to do a couple rounds. So after a month, I finally finished round 2! ✨ (hopefully I did all the characters justice this time 🙏)

(Here's a link to round 1 if anyone wants to see it)

[thewriteadviceforwriters]

writing advice that actually made my writing worse

okay but can we talk about writing advice that actually made my writing worse for a second

like not in a “this is bad advice for everyone” way in a “this absolutely sabotaged me personally” way

because ??? some of this set me BACK

1. “show don’t tell” (taken too literally) this one almost ruined my prose

i got so scared of “telling” anything that every sentence turned into… over-explained action

instead of writing:

she was nervous

i’d write:

her fingers tapped against the table, her leg bouncing, her breath uneven, her gaze flickering toward the door--

and it just KEPT GOING

like yes, showing is important but at some point you’re not “immersive” you’re just exhausting

2. “cut all adverbs” this made my writing feel so stiff it hurt

i started replacing simple phrasing with weird, clunky sentences just to avoid using one single “-ly” word

like… why am i doing gymnastics to avoid “quietly”

no one is giving out medals for adverb avoidance 😭

3. “write every day no matter what” this one burned me OUT

because instead of listening to my brain when it was fried, i forced myself to produce words i knew weren’t going anywhere

and then i’d reread it later and hate everything i wrote

which made me want to avoid writing even more

consistency matters, yes but forcing it when you’re running on fumes just trains you to associate writing with dread

4. “plan everything before you start” this killed my excitement SO fast

i’d spend weeks outlining every detail and by the time i actually started writing…

the story already felt “done” in my head

no curiosity left. no momentum.

now i leave gaps on purpose so i actually want to keep going

5. “make your writing sound pretty” this is the one that made my writing feel the most fake

i was so focused on making sentences sound “good” that i stopped focusing on what was actually happening

everything turned vague. floaty. kind of… nothing

like yeah it sounded nice but nothing hit

now i care way more about clarity and impact than sounding impressive

6. “your first draft should be terrible” okay this one is half true but also messed with my head

because i took it as: “don’t even TRY”

so i’d write things i knew weren’t working and just leave them

instead of… fixing them a little? making them better?

your draft doesn’t have to be perfect but it also doesn’t have to be painful to read 😭

idk i think the biggest thing i’ve learned is:

advice isn’t universal

what helps one writer can absolutely wreck another

so if something is making your writing worse, harder, or more miserable

you are allowed to drop it. immediately.

no guilt. no “but everyone says this works”

like okay… it doesn’t work for ME.

and that’s enough.

[promptcalender]

Non-Sexual Intimacy

washing the other's hair

giving a massage

reading with legs stacked on top of each other

swapping clothes

casually bringing their favorite snacks without being asked

comfort when upset

sharing secrets

putting their necklace or bracelet on for them

caretaking after a bad day

making eyecontact and immediately smiling

confiding in one another

casual touches and hugs

knowing the other's tells for being stressed and immediately working to help them calm down

[Prompt Calender: April 6th, International Asexuality Day]

[aleheartilly]

[BINGO CARDS] Blossoming Spring Bingo

I have a few cards I never got around to post, so I'll do it over the next few days!

Here's the first one, from @fairytalebingo:

The prompts:

Town Festival

Zinnias

Cardigan

Morning Dew

Cherry Blossoms

I'll probably write a story including all of these, but I'm still planning it so I can't promise I won't get verbose over these :D

All stories written will be posted under this AO3 collection; this is the masterpost for this card.

Thank you!

[leighlew3]

[autisticcodex]

Happy pride month.

[luna-azzurra]

Signs your romance subplot has absolutely no tension (sry)

♡ they meet and immediately like each other (goodbye conflict, we barely knew you)

♡ the only thing keeping them apart is a misunderstanding that one conversation would fix

♡ both characters describe the other as "beautiful" within three pages of meeting

♡ their chemistry is told not shown (the narrator insists they have spark. they don't.)

♡ the love interest has no personality outside of loving the protagonist

♡ they argue once, make up immediately, never argue again

♡ obstacles are external. they always agree with each other about everything.

♡ the rival love interest exists for two chapters then vanishes without explanation

♡ they almost kiss. something interrupts. this happens four times. on the fifth time they kiss. the end.

♡ the love interest is described as funny, clever, and kind. we see none of this.

♡ their big emotional moment is in the rain. it is always in the rain.

♡ the breakup lasts exactly one chapter before they reconcile

♡ "i've never felt this way before" said by someone with no prior emotional history

♡ both confess feelings at the same time. no awkwardness. no stakes. just synchronized emotion.

♡ their first kiss is perfect. no bumped noses. no wrong angle. cinematic and frictionless.

♡ jealousy subplot introduced and dropped without consequence

♡ they have one shared interest and it is the plot

♡ trauma bonding mistaken for romantic chemistry (these are different things)

♡ the side characters ship them loudly. this is not a substitute for actual tension.

♡ one of them dies temporarily. other is devastated. they come back. no lasting emotional damage.

♡ they end up together because the plot ends, not because they chose each other

♡ epilogue: married with children. every loose end tied. nothing left to feel.

[aleheartilly]

[FANFIC MILESTONES] Celebrations

Today's milestone celebration is for... Celebrations 🤣

This little story of mine reached 250 hits on AO3, and I am so happy about it, because it's the first thing I wrote after getting my pelvic bone broken by a car (don't text and drive, folks!).

It's kinda short for my standards, because I still could not hold something heavy on my legs for an extended period of time back when I wrote it, but I hope it's fun for you as it was for me writing it.

Thanks everyone for this achievement!

You can read the story on AO3 and FF.net!

[perfectquote]

“Distance doesn’t separate people. Silence does.”

— Jeff Hood

[aleheartilly]

Here is your card for Bad Things Happen Bingo. Happy writing!

[xoue]

i miss him lol

[aleheartilly]

[RANDOM FANFICTION SPOTLIGHT] A seat next to you

Another Saturday, another spotlight!

This time, I chose A seat next to you, a story I wrote for a prompt I received here on Tumblr (remember you can always send you own!) when I specifically asked for something about old&wrinkled squinoa.

So here it is: Squall, Rinoa, 53 years later.

Read on AO3 or FF.net.

Title and lyrics at the end from this song:

Seat Next To You

Bon Jovi · Song · 2008