Fic Blog

I write fic so you don't have to

[magicspacehole-writes]

magicspacehole on Bluesky.

[wondereads]

Since it’s Nov 5th, I would just like to say that Diana Wynne Jones wrote a whole book about a world that had fucked up its projected path and had become a hellscape of modern witch trials and when they finally find out what went wrong it’s because Guy Fawkes actually blew up the Parliament instead of failing and it was such a big explosion that it introduced magic to the world and made everyone deathly afraid of it. Anyway

[magicspacehole-writes]

YES. No one talks about this book enough.

[mistress-riddle]

@magicspacehole-writes / @magicspacehole please come back to life 🥺🙏🏼

[magicspacehole-writes]

I’m here! Just drowning in work. Next chapter almost done. <3

[limetameta-deactivated20250510]

historical accuracy in fanfiction will be the death of me

ok but you know what technicality i've been thinking about for years and even asked my grandparents, who, you know, predate enver hoxa.

i know, i know, JKR doesn't know anything about the balkans and she probably thought it was like a walk in the park to go inside albania because she's ignorant of everything

but HOW on earth did Tom Riddle even go inside Albania? Do you think he did it illegally - do you even think that was possible? was the west allowed to go inside Albania during the late 40s and early 50s? i was taught this country was locked until 1985. my own parents didn't see some of their relatives from albania until 1985. that's when it began opening up to other countries. there was an iron-clad fist ruling albania from right after wwii to 1985 and unfortunately voldemort was a bit out of sorts during 1985 and onward. the timeline doesn't add up.

did tom riddle have to lie and pretend to be some sort of soviet dignitary?

did he go through muggle albania and confound them? because mage albania would have killed him on the spot, seen that he didn't die, and then take him away.

was magical albania disconnected from muggle albania and therefore not even communist? maybe it was more open. though this dissonance worries me now. the balkan is such a land full of old magic that this statute of secrecy thing looks like it's more imposed by the west to stifle magic rather than the whole world. and especially because albania was an unfortunately isolated country i do not believe they would maintain not to let it slip that magic was real. we here in the balkans are very magic-fearing and superstitious people. i have some stories where witches preformed rituals on some of my aunts to bear sons and they did so now witches are in good fortune. it's that kind of life i lead.

but every time. without fault. i have to write a sentence that alludes to tom riddle being in albania a vein pops in my head and i wonder HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET IN THERE?????? Furthermore how did you stay there? Who would house you? Nobody! Nobody would house you unless you were announced and legally there. How did you LEAVE?

Is there any historical explanation that could have allowed Tom Riddle to go as a tourist to Albania...

Anyway I'm going to bed now.

[anghraine]

so I’m looking at short story publishers (fantasy)

Tor, cream of the crop. 25 cents a word. Stories can be read for free (YES). Slowish response time at ~3 months. Prefer under 12k, absolute maximum is 17.5k. Don’t bother if it’s not highly professional quality. SFWA qualifying.

Crossed Genres. 6 cents a word. Different theme each month (this month’s is “failure”). Submissions must combine either sci-fi or fantasy with the theme. Response time 1 month. 1k-6k, no exceptions. SFWA qualifying.

Long Hidden, anthology from CG. 6 cents a word. 2k-8k, no exceptions. Must take place before 1935. Protagonist(s) must be under 18 and marginalized in their time and place. Must be sci-fi/fantasy/horror. Deadline 30 April. Response by 1 October.

Queers Destroy Science Fiction. Sci-fi only right now, author must identify as queer (gay, lesbian, bi, ace, pan, trans, genderfluid, etc, just not cishet). 7.5k max. Deadline 15 February. Responses by 1 March. You can submit one flash fiction and one short story at the same time. (My network blocks the Lightspeed site for some reason, so I can’t get all the submission details. >_>) Probably SFWA qualifying?

Women in Practical Armor. 6 cents a word. 2k-5k. Must be about 1) a female warrior who 2) is already empowered and 3) wears sensible armour. Deadline 1 April. Response within three months.

Fiction Vortex. $10 per story, with $20 and $30 for editor’s and readers’ choice stories (hoping to improve). Speculative fiction only. Imaginative but non-florid stories. 7.5k maximum, preference for 5k and under. (I kind of want to support them on general principle.)

Urban Fantasy Magazine. 6 cents a word. 8k max, under 4k preferred. Must be urban fantasy (aka, the modern world, doesn’t need to be a literal city). 

Nightmare. 6 cents a word. 1.5-7.5k, preference for under 5k. Horror and dark fantasy. Response time up to two weeks. SFWA and HWA qualifying.

Apex Magazine. 6 cents a word. 7.5k max, no exceptions. Dark sci-fi/fantasy/horror. SFWA qualifying.

Asimov’s Science Fiction. 8-10 cents a word. 20k max, 1k minimum. Sci-fi; borderline fantasy is ok, but not S&S. Prefer character focused. Response time 5 weeks; query at 3 months. SFWA qualifying, ofc.

Buzzy Mag. 10 cents a word. 10k max. Should be acceptable for anyone 15+. Response time 6-8 weeks. SFWA qualifying.

Strange Horizons. 8 cents a word. Speculative fiction. 10k max, prefers under 5k. Response time 40 days. Particularly interested in diverse perspectives, nuanced approahces to political issues, and hypertexts. SFWA qualifying. 

Fantasy and Science Fiction. 7-12 cents a word. Speculative fiction, preference for character focus, would like more science-fiction or humour. 25k maximum. Prefers Courier. Response time 15 days.

Scigentasy. 3 cents a word. .5-5k. Science-fiction and fantasy, progressive/feminist emphasis. Fantastic Stories of the Imagination. 15 cents a word. 3k maximum. Any sci-fi/fantasy, they like a literary bent. (psst, steinbecks!) They also like to see both traditional and experimental approaches. Response time two weeks. 

Beneath Ceaseless Skies. 6 cents a word. 10k maximum. Fantasy in secondary worlds only (it can be Earth, but drastically different—alternate history or whatever). Character focus, prefer styles that are lush yet clear, limited first or third person narration. Response time usually 2-4 weeks, can be 5-7 weeks. SFWA qualifying.

Clarkesworld. 10 cents a word up to 4000, 7 afterwards. 1-8k, preferred is 4k. Science-fiction and fantasy. Needs to be well-written and convenient to read on-screen. Appreciates rigour. No talking cats. Response time 2 days. SFWA qualifying.

Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show. 6 cents a word. Any length. Science-fiction and fantasy (along with fantastic horror). Good world-building and characterization. Clear straightforward prose. Response time three months. Yes, OSC is editor-in-chief. SFWA qualifying.

Interzone. Sub-pro rates if anything (but highly respected). 10k max. Short cover letter. Science-fiction and fantasy.

[minutia-r]

Whenever I see a post like this, I feel like I have to tell people about the Submission Grinder.  I just did a search on it and it came up with 135 markets that pay for fantasy short stories. You can search by genre, pay rate, length of story they accept, etc, and it’s constantly being updated, which a post like this can’t be, and you can also use it to keep track of what you’ve sent where and when, and since a lot of people use it for this purpose it’s got a lot of good data about response times and so on. If you are trying to sell fiction or poetry on the regular, it is such a useful tool and I encourage everyone to use it.

[silverdragon-98]

@rudjedet this may be useful to you

[rudjedet]

Addition about Asimov’s: while their site states a cover letter isn’t necessary, it will not let you complete the submission form without one.

[magicspacehole-writes]

remember when i used to, like, write? those were the days

[scarf-it-box]

 GameRules: Write the latest line from your WIP and tag as many people as there are words in the line. Make a new post, don’t reblog.

Got tagged by the wonderful @floralflowerpower

It wasn’t his fault the kid was an idiot.

The last thing i was writing was edits for my really old villain deku fic.. i haven’t written lately at all..

Flor tagged a lot of people.. but i guess i can tag @aureolusfirewrites and.. hmm.. maybe @clockworksapprentice? And also @thewildwaffle!!

[aureolusfirewrites]

Ooo alright

Something to keep him grounded and sane that wouldn’t fade away.

Still writing for Love war and torture

@minecraftninjerkid @theangrycomet

[minecraftninjerkid]

Hmmm…

Even if it felt like they were treading on fragile ground right now, they’d solve it the way they always solved much more dire problems: together.

The final line to a WIP I’m too scared to release XD

@cipheress-to-k-pop and @gritsandbrits, you two have fun

[cipheress-to-k-pop]

I had to choose between a couple of WIPs

Pulling the flower from behind your ear, you handed it to him, “You know in some cultures, this flower means to pick up the slack and stop looking like a confused chicken.” You snapped.

It’ll be out this Saturday, I’ll post a snippet soon

@secretsandwriting @tadpole-san @capricorn-stark @miraculouscloud i wanna see what you guys are working on

No pressure tho

[secretsandwriting]

I just went to the first one that isn’t a request and turns out it was the twilight one I started a few months ago and don’t have the heart to delete yet. That’s all I’m saying.

He helped you into his lap and loosely wrapped his arms around your waist.

Tagging: @fuzzycloudsz @hadesnewpersephone @cecedrake2217 @kinoko-kai

I’m going to be fully honest, I don’t know if you guys write a lot. I’ve been slacking on my blog stalking. One of these days your just going to get a spam of likes and it will all be me. Yes this is a threat.

[kinoko-kai]

this is from a creative writing assignment for my english class.

I may have hated her, but I wasn’t going to let the bitch die.

I don’t know who to tag uhhhhh

@bigfan-fanfic @bumblesimagines @fabricated-misslieness

i honestly can’t remember if i know other blogs that do the tag game stuff…

[bumblesimagines]

I mean it’s not like super cool or anything

“F.R.I.D.A.Y, could you make the car go faster? My boyfriend might go on a killing spree and I don’t have money to bail him out.”

I finally figured out how to do the line on mobile! Anyways lol no clue who to tag but @magmagicstyle and anyone who writes and feels like doing this

[magmagicstyle]

Well, will post it tonight but sure… let’s share something…

“Aro wasn’t really looking for Edward to be fine, but he didn’t want for him to die, since that would make his punishment quite easy and fast, and he didn’t deserve that type of mercy after making you feel so much distress.”

I… have no idea who to tag since I suck at getting to know people. Wait… I guess that I know who to tag… kinda… @thefanficmonster @forthehpfanboys

[thefanficmonster]

A little late to the party but I’m here 😊

“Yeah, you can imagine how closely I listen to each voice in each animated movie I’ve watched since her and I started dating.”

Tagging: @lavenderrosegoddess​  @greenie-of-sheild​  @laurensxox​

[laurensxox]

Jwjaajakaian Thanks for tagging me in this, Vy, I love these kinds of games/posts! 💙

This line is from a WIP in my sideblog so yeet-

cw: Swearing

“I gave you a chance! I gave you MY fucking chance and you fucked it up!” he screamed, his eyes practically glowing with the intensity of his fury.

Have fun, lovely people 💙

Tagging: @moontwinkles @katyasrussianaccent @stylistiquements @delicrieux @helluvahotelfics

[delicrieux]

aww thnk u for the tag ! 💗

His heart sputters in his chest and he quickly looks away, embarrassed to be caught in such a reverie.

tagging: @kxssiewrites @luvcherrie @fortisfilia @loki-hargreeves

[marsconer]

Arlo met Sol on a monday, basked in awe of their holy glow, Arlo betrayed Sol on a thursday, three years later.

@sk1fanfiction !! <3

[sk1fanfiction]

thanks for the tag!

Actual most recent line:

But Ruby didn’t know what to do.

Most recent aesthetic line:

It was the kind of worried that made you feel sick to your stomach and turned your insides to mush.

tagging @magicspacehole-writes

[magicspacehole-writes]

thanks @sk1fanfiction ! most recent lines: ---

The cast of the play had improved significantly after two months of rehearsals, arguably moving from emotionless rocks with a rudimentary capability of speech to being somewhat passable as humans.

---

"BECAUSE VOLDEMORT IS LIVING IN MY FLAT AND KEEPS CRITICIZING ME FOR MY POOR HOUSEKEEPING!" Harry shouted.

---

tagging @unspeakable3

[magicspacehole-writes]

I have two prompts to write, a fest fic of some unknown length due in August, a FTH fic of 10k+ words, a new chapter of BE, and I have to find time to post my new buddy-cop fic. And all I can manage to do is lie on the floor and contemplate existence. Help.

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

I’m sorry but...ur telling me there’s actually people aged 30+ on here reading fanfic ... with whole families ..

I assume this is sarcasm lol

[out-there-on-the-maroon]

Got bad news for them about the ages of who is writing the books and scripts and filming the movies and tv shows they like … 

[naryrising]

Got real bad news for them about the age of the people who run AO3.  

[rabidchild67]

Got further bad news about the age of many of the popular writers in most fandoms.

[cluegrrl]

Someone’s gonna be horrified we hen they find out how old the actors playing their faves are…

[out-there-on-the-maroon]

So this post circled back around and I wanna clarify my snarky comment at the start. I was purposefully pointing at the creators of tv shows and movies and books, not fans in fandom, for a reason. Most of those influential figures are white men in their 40s, 50s, 60s, even 70s. For long established book series, i.e. Tolkien or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, they’re long dead. 

It really troubles me that there’s this rise in teens targeting older fans (hell most aren’t even old, I would not call someone in their 30s old) while blissfully consuming media created by men twice the age of those fans they’re saying should go do their taxes or take care of babies or whatever. 

Why are older men allowed to create, shape franchises, set ongoing stories for decades … and older women (let’s be real this stuff is almost always lobbed at an older woman for daring to have a hobby and friends) are expected to fade into the background and never speak up about their interests, or indeed have interests, ever again?

What is happening to these kids? I see teenage girls insisting that any woman over 30 is a hag, a creep, pathetic, and should no longer speak to friends online or go to conventions or enjoy stories or create crafts or write for fun. That’s what they think of their futures? That past a certain age they aren’t allowed to have friends, hobbies, interests, spend money on things for their own enjoyment, do things for fun rather than profit? 

That’s bleak as hell. 

[octopuscato]

It’s super bleak, and it makes me sad, and angry too. Additionally to what’s been said about ageism and misogyny, it seems to me like they’re succumbing to the very capitalist idea that people over a certain age (25? idk) shouldn’t do anything for fun, but only for profit. And that’s…horrible, really. That’s not how human beings work, and one of the reasons why burn-out and depression are soaring to new heights is because of this mindset - that people should only work, only sell their talents, but not have the time or energy for playing. We need playing though. We need fun, we need hobbies, be it at age 15 or 50. Their refusal to accept that adults could possibly need fun and games too - other than, say, the very male-centric stuff like watching sports etc.? That is what capitalist brainwashing looks like.

[magicspacehole-writes]

you still alive?

Sort of. I think lol. Real life has been grinding me into dust :) But hoping to get back on track soon <3

[magicspacehole-writes]

anxiety + writing

1,000 positive comments: look at that. something i wrote was coherent enough to be commented on. cool.

1 slightly negative comment: i am horrible. i have no right to call myself a writer. my work is shit. clearly i have failed. i should quit.

[magicspacehole-writes]

Prompts

I am now briefly taking prompts. I was hoping to practice and expand my writing skills to keep from going stale, and I seem to practice best with short prompts. If anyone has any prompt ideas, let me know. Give me an HP character, a genre (angst, humor, romance, etc), and a scenario, and I'll try to write a scene of 200 words or more. Be as vague or descriptive as you like.

[waterborn-phoenix]

Life would have been so much easier for literally everyone if Dumbledore just let Tom Riddle become the defence against the dark arts professor tbh

[locketsoul-deactivated20220324]

Dumbledore was a coward

[sk1fanfiction]

@magicspacehole-writes thoughts?

[magicspacehole-writes]

Life would have been easier for everyone except Tom XD

I’m a bit torn. On the one hand, it seems more sensible to me to keep one’s enemies close (or at least people of concern). If Dumbledore was worried enough about Tom to complain to Dippet, then clearly he thought Tom was problematic, so why send him out into the world? The whole “he’ll corrupt the YOUTHS” thing just seems weak to me, or at least a risk that he should probably have been willing to take in order to be able to keep an eye on Tom.

On the other hand, Dumbledore did not have the ability to detect and expose Tom’s wrongdoing properly when he was under 18, so perhaps he would have an even harder time with an older Tom, and would, in fact, make things worse by giving him access to the castle, its power, and impressionable children (though I am inclined to believe that the biggest reason Dumbledore was not able to catch Tom in wrongdoing was more to do with him being COMPLETELY DISTRACTED by Grindelwald and whatever the fuck else was happening at the time).

But as I write my weird, canon-divergent fic, I’m finding that the most realistic changes for Tom to go through as a teacher are ones that would help pull him (very, very, very, extremely slightly) away from the path he eventually follows in canon. Especially when being given the job at an earlier age. This suggests to me that things really might have been different. Maybe not different enough to change what happened in canon, but different.

[magicspacehole-writes]

Bad Education Fancast

Here we go:

Tom Riddle: Christian Coulson Minerva McGonagall: Felicity Jones Ilania Sylvestry: Tuppence Middleton

Horace Slughorn: Jim Broadbent Peggy Vance: Amy Adams Cornelia Fowler: Eiza González

Albus Dumbledore: Michael Gambon Brian (the Impostor): A slightly more reasonable version of Michael Gambon Armando Dippet: Donald Sumpter

Ozymandius Fogg: William Jackson Harper Herbert Beery: Hugh Bonneville Silvanus Kettleburn: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

Cillian Tyre: Brendan Coyle Grayson Grayson: Jim Carter Dee Carson: Michelle Gomez

Constantine Lestrange: Michiel Huisman Sebastian Rosier: Allen Leech Vincent Avery: Enver Gjokaj

Madam Sable: Thandie Newton Phineas Nigellus Black: Richard E Grant

So, that’s it! I now thirst for Lestrange in a way I did not before. This was a horrible idea what have I done

Thank you to @js-between-worlds for coming up with the best Peggy ever, whom I have stolen. 

[locketsoul-deactivated20220324]

Ok here is my fan cast for bad education (hope you like it senpai uwu @magicspacehole-writes ) (this is how i see them in my head )

First tom hughes as Tom riddle

Hozier as lestrange

Eva green as Cornelia

Young maggie Smith as young minerva

Briana Buckmaster as Ilania

Amy adams as peggy

Danny devito as Beery (im sorry idk why my brain did this)

Dumbeldore as dumbeldore

Slughorn is slughorn

(if i forgot anyone its just 3am im sorry)

[magicspacehole-writes]

AHHH I LOVE IT

[magicspacehole-writes]

19

it’s been eighty years, and finally, i managed to finish another chapter. 

FFN | AO3

[magicspacehole-writes]

I miss you, also loved the latest chapter of the bad education series!

Awww <3 and thank you!! I am desperately trying to finish the next chapter and it is just. not. happening. :( and I keep distracting myself by writing weird one-shots.