#cathedralhearts

[cathedralhearts]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/84473811

three hundred sandwiches is back.

more kanetoews will be posted over the weekend.

[songkranexchange]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

A handful more days left to sign up to the Thai RPF/BL/GL fanfic exchange that I've created! Deadline of Feb 27 at 8pm AEST. The more people sign up, the better your chances of getting assigned someone to write a pairing for that you love! Spread the word!!!

[1d-fics]

Fic Rec: Angst

(Part Two)

1. And Then A Bit (infinitelymint) - “We’d like to give the fans what they want.” Magee states, placing his hand on the table in front of him and leaning forward. “We want to give them Larry Stylinson.”

2. In Vogue (otpwhatever) - Louis is the editor in chief of Vogue magazine, and Harry's running British GQ. Featuring Zayn as the crazy creative director and Louis' confidant, Liam as the sports writer that gets to sit front row at fashion week and DJ Neil as the only sane person in the whole story.

3. My Heart Is Breathing For This Moment In Time (usedtothebeach) - Louis has a rare genetic disorder that causes him to Time Travel to important moments in his past and in his future - and to Harry, always to Harry. When they're put into a band together, it seems like everything Harry has been waiting and wishing for has finally come true. Except for the small fact that Louis doesn't know that Harry is in love with him- that Harry's always been in love with him. Fate, it would seem, is just getting started.

4. The Same Ground (navigator) - What if the one that got away came back?

5. Common (cori lannam) - Henry VIII ruined it for everybody. Now the king or queen can only marry a person chosen by the magic of the church, or disaster will befall Britain. Prince Louis, heir apparent to the British throne, dislikes most things about his inheritance--but most of all that it could keep him from finding the real love of his life.

6. Toska (cathedralhearts) - Louis Tomlinson is the Earl of Dalkeith and Harry Styles is the Earl of Burlington. Louis's grandmother is pushing for an arranged marriage to Caroline Seymour and Louis is not only completely uninterested but completely gay. So, his best mate (and unrequited love of his life) Harry posits that there will be a marriage, but between them instead. Hijinks and lots of feels~ ensue.

More Fic Recs

[cathedralhearts]

ao3 wrapped

How many words have you written this year?

237,504

How many works did you publish this year?

50 - i did kinktober which grossly inflated my numbers

What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

all roads lead to you - a jossgawin usa roadtrip

What work of yours has the most hits?

love me like i'm yours - pondphuwin (4850)

What work of yours got more feedback than you expected?

not really more than expected, just generally get more comments on my jossgawin works than anything else

Favorite title you used

a modern woman's guide to regency dating - the only hetfic i've written in years, colin/penelope modern!au timetravel(ish)

If you use song lyrics, which artist’s songs did you pull from the most?

n/a

Pairing you wrote the most for this year?

pondphuwin although jossgawin are almost caught up :\

Favorite pairing you wrote for this year?

i like my jossgawin fics better D:

What work was the quickest to write?

wrote most of the kinktober pieces in one night

What work took you the longest to write?

stillness between storms - byakuya/renji. probably took a month to write all up?

How many WIP’s do you have in your docs for next year?

5 at this stage, but one doc has like 7-8 inside it, so probably 12?

What's your longest work of the year?

the shape of us - yinwar mpreg (20,559 words)

What’s your shortest work of the year?

crimson - perthsanta vampire!au (785 words)

What WIP are you taking into next year with you?

probably my seven-part omegaverse series, that's a big bitch

What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag?

barebacking D;

Your favorite character to write this year?

honestly i'm really enjoying the dynamic between joss and gawin. i know they're a pretty unremarkable and/or controversial pair but idk i'm just really jiving with them rn

The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?

byakuya for that byaren fic, trying to get his cadence and tone was really hard

What’s one pairing you want to explore next year?

i'd like to write more perthsanta, their dynamic is amazing

Which work of yours have you reread the most?

all roads lead to you. i had to edit it so fucking much. plus i really like re-reading it.

How many kudos in total did you get this year? 6,750

Which work has the most comments?

a version of me - jossgawin timetravel fic. 25 comment threads

Did you do any collaborative works this year?

nope

Did you write any gifts this year?

yeah, i've written a few gifts and i've got a yuletide coming

Did you receive any gifts this year?

yep! got 4

What’s your most common category?

by category i assume you mean fandom and it's thai actor rpf

What do you listen to while writing?

i've got a writing playlist. orgasvm is my on repeat artist right now

Favorite work you wrote this year?

all roads lead to you. or the yinwar mpreg.

Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

“Tell me I’m big… tell me I’m the biggest you’ve ever had…” Joss demands, and Gawin groans, back arching, lost in the sauce.

“Fuck-- you are, though, you’re the biggest… biggest muscles, tallest, biggest cock, biggest heart, biggest smile, biggest l-love…” Gawin’s voice hitches on the last confession, and Joss isn’t sure he can get any more turned on, hearing the physical and emotional impact.

“No way,” Joss says, and Gawin nods, kissing him, unable to stop.

“You are. I haven’t ever felt like this about anyone in my whole life, Joss. I love you. I love you so fucking much.”

i like it so much because i feel like it's a great microcosm of their relationship wrapped up in the intimacy of their first time together. joss is very into being the protector, provider and the biggest in the room. gawin very much strips all of that away and forces joss to confront the core of himself. i also liked gawin being so honest about his feelings.

Biggest surprise while writing this year?

falling into a jossgawin blackhole that i am still yet to claw my way out of. send help.

[cathedralhearts]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

When he opens the door the night after Arizona are booted from the playoffs, and Bozie’s there with a sleeping Kanon in his arms, two massive suitcases, a car seat, and his hockey bag by his feet, Phil feels his entire world shifts on its axis.

[cathedralhearts]

fanfic game~ answers pt. 3

how do you balance writing and life? do you ever feel overwhelmed by the amount of writing you have to do?

No, if anything I feel overwhelmed at much life I have, and by life I mean work.

what do you do if a scene gets too serious?

I either ride it out and let it be serious because that’s what it needs to be, or I put a break in, move to a different scene, and come back to it later and fix it

how do you visualize scenes? do you see it like a movie in your head, or do the words just flow?

Both. Like the one that hit me on the bus the other day was like a lightning bolt hitting me-- I had to fumble to get my notes app out and start writing, wrote the outline of the fic all the way to work. Other times I just open google docs and shit happens. 

are you a planner, pantser, or planster?

Generally I’m a panster unless a really fucking amazingly well formed idea comes to me. 

do you know how your story ends before you start writing?

Nope, I figure it out as I go

what is one essential thing to remember when writing a villain?

I don’t write them BUT they need to have reasonable motivations. Like realistic ones. And will they be a villain but redeemable? Otherwise if they’re not redeemable I don’t see the point. Everyone should have the chance to turn their lives around

how do you write kissing scenes?

I think about times I’ve kissed in the past, how it felt. Granted my relationship with my husband started relatively calmly and didn’t involve years of pining like most of my OTPs but I did pine after a guy in high school for 2 years so I can relate. 

are you an over-writer, under-writer, or just-right-er?

Under-writer. I’ll go back and add more later, I do bare bones first pass unless again it’s an incredibly well formed plan.

do you try to put themes, motifs, messages, morals, etc in your writing? if so, how do you go about it?

Nah, cbf with that. I just write slice of life shit.

If you could go back in time and give your younger self a piece of writing advice specific to you, what would it be?

Have someone beta your One Direction fic properly because orphaning stuff that has thousands of kudos but is absolutely trash was a devastating process this year.

“proper” punctuation or all lowercase?

I am such an all lowercase bitch, that was en vogue in 2005-2008, but I do love me some excellent grammar.

less is more or more is more?

I fucking love big fics but it needs to be a good use of words and progressing the plot. Having said that my plot is usually “life’s mundaneness” so who am I to judge. 

said: overused or underused?

Said is said for a reason. Unless there’s a lot of emotion involved it’s just fine.

what would be on a moodboard for your current wip(s)?

Love is Weird by Julia Michaels. On repeat. That’s it. 

which season best matches the mood of your wip(s)?

Autumn. I live in Queensland and we don’t really do seasons here, but I grew up in South Australia so I did seasons there. Autumn was always my favourite.

does your writing style change depending on the genre you write?

I only really write one genre being boring life shit, so no. 

if you could have another author write your wip for you (bc we all dream of this occasionally), who would it be?

ooft probably sevenfists or fourofswords.

sarcastic narrators: entertaining or overdone?

To a point, again I’m all about meaningful use of words. 

do you notice your own voice in your writing style?

Sometimes, it’s hard not to? Since you’re writing.

how has your writing style changed over the years?

I’ve gotten better. 

first, second, or third person?

Third person. The other two are fucked. 

do you prefer dialogue or description?

Dialogue. 

do you describe a character’s appearance all right away or in pieces?

All right away, or not at all. I assume if you’re reading this pairing you already know who they are and I don’t both most of the time. I saw an awesome quote on Tumblr about how people don’t read books and can devour fic because there’s no need to worldbuild, everything’s already there and you can just enjoy the story for what it is and not have to put all this extra effort in. 

romantic/social sideplots: interesting or irritating?

Romance are front plots or main plots whatever, why would you ever have anything else?

abstract or detailed romance scenes?

Both are fabulous, I love detail. 

what don’t you like about your writing style?

I get distracted easy and I’m so repetitive. 

was being a writer a dream of yours when you were little? or did it spring up when your older? or is it just a hobby?

Hobby. I was your average Gifted Kid(TM) who used escapism to deal with shit, I played with Barbies intensely until I was 13, so. I’m not good enough to come up with my own characters and worldbuilding but I love playing in RPF sandboxes

[cathedralhearts]

fanfic game~ answers pt. 2

tell us about one of your characters who’s an absolute joy to write

All my characters are fun to write. I wouldn’t write them otherwise. I quite like the offbeat vibe Adam gives off, it’s fun to write his internal thoughts

do characters influence your writing style?

I’m not really sure what this means... but their personalities influence how I write, yeah. I remember when I was in European football, the most tortured, angsty, beautiful floral writing came from Kaka/Sheva. Religious iconography, Ukrainian winters, beautifully cut Armani suits. Your pairing’s personalities and vibe will form how you write them. 

do you start with the characters or the plot when writing?

When I was in hockey or football I’d usually start with a pairing and then think about plot, but in fandoms I only have one pairing I’ll start with plot

how do you name characters and places?

99% of the time I’m relating to real life characters and locations, the 1% I make stuff up I’ll just pick what sounds cool. 

tell us about a character who’s very different than you who you love a whole lot

Most of my pairings are athletes who had pretty good starts to life, not saying I didn’t but like... I guess at the moment because I’m really into them, probably Marcus Stoinis. Elite private school old boy, Greek, massive unit, Melbourne fashionista, our circles wouldn’t ever overlap but I love how sweet he is, especially with Adam. Sid and Geno have incredibly different upbringings to me as well, I love them so much. 

do you base your characters of real people or not? If so, tell us about one.

Pretty much all of what I write is RPF. I find it easier because I’ve got a real person to build my head canon around.

how many stories do you work on at one time?

I try to keep it to one, but I’ve been known to have three or four on the go.

are you an avid reader?

I was, pre-pandemic, smashing out like 60 a year. I read 5 books last year.

best piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten.

I love, love, love comments that quote part of my work. It’s just the best feeling knowing something I wrote affected someone THAT MUCH that they’ve quoted me and are screaming about it. Like, yes please.

what is the weirdest story idea you’ve ever had.

As mentioned earlier, that fucking bizarre slice of life 20k behemoth I wrote about Georgia Groome and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. I just literally could not stop writing though, I had to get it all out, it was the most meandering and pointless waste of words ever, but I needed to birth it and move the fuck on.

describe the aesthetic of a story in 5 words.

For ‘something real and something wonderful’ I’d say the aesthetic is “youthful trauma sunsetting into love”

how did writing change you?

Gave me a creative outlet. I can’t draw, can’t sing, can’t dance. It also traumatised the fuck out of me and made me really hesitant, there was this huge drama in European football when I was a teen with a hate meme thread that basically destroyed the entire fandom, everyone hid behind anon and wrote the most hateful shit about each other. I had to take a week off uni just to like recover from that shit. Basically deleted all my profiles and left fandom after that. Therapy was fun explaining that one. 

any writing advice you want to share?

Give it a crack, you’ll get better with time and a great beta. 

name three of your favorite fanfic writers.

thehoyden, omelet, sevenfists

what time are you the most productive when it comes to writing?

When it’s raining. I just love the sound of rain. Night time. 

what story are you most proud of?

‘something real or something wonderful’ still can’t believe I wrote something that great. It had like 5 betas and you can fucking tell. 

do you reread your own stories?

Yeah. I’ve read my Stoinis/Zampa stuff over and over because there’s fucking nothing else to read. I can’t believe they’re as OTP as they are and so small.

do you want to be published some day?

If it means I get money, yeah, I’d doit under a different name though

do you plan or do you write whatever comes to your mind?

Depending. Like for example on the bus this morning I got seized with an idea and whipped out my notes app and cobbled together a skeleton.

share the synopsis of a story you work on that you haven’t published yet

Adam wakes up and it’s 2015.

do you have any abandoned WIP’s? What made you abandon them?

I’ve got a 50k Carter/Richards that I did for Nanowrimo that’s a kidfic I wrote with daemons but one of my betas said it was too much so I started removing all the daemon parts but it was such a massive job I just gave up

what is the last thing that a fic made you google when you were writing it?

Alternative lubes. It was in my google history and I searched something at work and my friend was like what the fuck are you googling alternative lubricants for. Still haven’t recovered. 

what’s the weirdest reason you’ve ever shipped something?

Weird is a subjective term I guess, athletes doing gay shit together is pretty weird

what is your favourite title for a fic you’ve written?

‘netflix and iso’ is pretty hilarious. 

when have you felt the most confident in your writing?

2014, and now.

when have you felt the least confident?

Between 2014 and now.

how long will you spend on a story or scene before you give up?

If it’s not working I just leave it and come back later, no point trying to force something that’s not gonna come. 

how do you write emotional scenes? do you ever feel what the characters feel?

I’ll sometimes pull from real life experiences for romantic or traumatic shit, it does suck when they’re suffering but I never let them suffer for long :D

are you very critical of your own writing? how much do you find yourself editing (either during the writing or after the fact)?

Yeah I am, mostly because I get frustrated the scenes aren’t coming out how I want in my head. 

[cathedralhearts]

fanfic game~ answers pt. 1

do you know how you want the story to end when you start, or are you just stumbling through the figurative wilderness hoping to find a road?

I usually have an idea of what I want to write, either a loose framework or just an idea. Like, my 26k Zoinis started with a draft of the phone call from Marcus to Adam about his grandma. My 39k Sid/Geno soulbond was a big bang prompt. I’ll always start at the start, and for my long form fics I’ll start writing scenes and then fill in the space between. 

talk about a notable time a narrative or character has looked you dead in the eyes and said “fuck your plan, here’s what we’re actually doing.”

To be honest, I can’t remember that happening. My characters tend to do what I want them too-- it’s more come from betas who say it’s OOC or unrealistic. 

on a scale of 1-10 how much do you enjoy incorporating romance into the average story?

100000% I am the biggest sucker for any kind of trope, I liiiiiiiive for sharing a bed narratives, I could read a thousand of the same pairing in the same trope and be sent every. single. time. I love soul bonds as well. Legit peak romance for me. I also love regency fic but it’s hard to get right and even rarer to read. 

what is the plot bunny you’ve been carrying for the longest? optional bonus question: do you ever wonder why you haven’t written it yet and experience deep existential dread?

I haven’t really, I tend to write what I feel inspired to. I wrote 20k of the most obscure like British Actor RPF, it was Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Georgia Groome set while they filmed Angus Thongs & Perfect Snogging and it was just bizarre, total id and really weird shit. Had about 40 reads and zero kudos. I deleted it off AO3 but I guess writing that is the closest I gotten to this. 

have you ever made a playlist about something you were writing as an elaborate means to procrastinate when you could have been actually writing and if yes drop a link, son

I am not a playlist bitch, I am a listen to the same song 150 times until it breaks my Spotify Wrapped.

do you have any kind of consistent writing schedule or just hoping for the best?

I stopped writing for like six years, from 2015 up until late 2021 and it fucking sucked man. I was busy being in a relationship and working and birth control fucked with my mojo. Trying to write anything was like sucking from an empty reservoir. I stopped BC because of $$$ and then BANG. Cranked out like 20k in a week. Was like waking up again. I write most nights now. 

tell us about the plot of the first fanfic you ever wrote

I remember it was Sailor Moon-related. I got my first computer, it wasn’t hooked up to the Internet but it had a really early version of Word on it, and I would just go to town. I wrote something about like a Sailor Sun I think??? Twins?? I can’t tell if it was a fic I thought of or wrote. I just remember being disgusted with myself at how shit it was. I was super into Lance/Justin around that time too, ~Lambs~ as they were called, and remember trying to write something short about them as well. Bad bad bad. 

what’s your relationship with constructive criticism and feedback like? do you seek it out? how well do you take it?

I take everything incredibly personally but that’s my character flaw. I think that’s why I insist on a beta for as much as I can because I know the gaps in my ability and once someone beta reads it, my shit improves like a thousand percent. If it’s genuinely constructive I will-- I remember a few hockey fics I posted people asked me to increase tagging or told me certain creative decisions I made didn’t make sense and they DNF as a result. 

in an ideal world where you’re already super successful and published, would you want to see a tv or movie adaptation of your work? why or why not?

I think I’d like my Sid/Geno soulbond ‘something real or something wonderful’ made into a movie. It’s probably my standout fic. 

at what point in the process do you come up with titles, and how easy or hard is that for you?

Usually halfway through, without fail. I’ll either pull it from the song I’ve got on repeat 150+ times to write the fucking thing, or it’ll come to me. ‘something real or something wonderful’ was a line from some quote I saw on tumblr I think. Mostly song lyrics though.

what’s something neat you’ve learned while doing research for something you were writing? also, how much do you worry about doing research in general?

I know so much about such random shit. Mostly sporting timelines. Cricket has been the hardest to get my head around because all the other sports I’ve followed have been so much more linear and easy to follow-- swimming had heats, qualifiers, then Olympics. Hockey had set seasons and then Olympics or  Worlds every set period. European football was the same, with set seasons, Champions or Europa League depending on what you qualified in, and the World Cup. Cricket? COMPLETELY OBSCENE. Big Bash and IPL and the other leagues have set schedules but they’re so incredibly condensed (BBL is legit like six weeks or something stupid. SIX WEEKS) and it’s all around international team selection which is split into test, ODI and T20, and it’s not the same teams, they change constantly, so half the time the guys are playing T20s and the other half its ODIs if they’re even picked together. There’s some regular tours but other random ones. Shield is all over the place, they seem to come and go depending. I worry about research if my fic revolves around real life events and developments. I think that’s why I tend to favour AU, because I don’t have to worry about that shit.

do you ever have trouble focusing on writing? how do you get around that?

I try to focus on writing one fic at a time-- having said that, I’ve got 2 half-finished ones and I’m about to start a third so I’m fucked.

talk about a writing experience that has pleasantly surprised you.

Cricket is the first time ever that I’ve been able to write about my, for lack of a better word, culture. Like, I’m always writing from the POV of North Americans or Europeans and it has been so fucking nice to be like “Typo pool floaties? El Camino Cantina? Bevvies? Calling everyone mate? Fucked summers?” and for that to be realistic and part of my worldbuilding? /chefkiss

what’s your worst writing habit?

I reuse stuff a lot. I posted a porny fic the other day and I’ve noticed I repeated ‘rolled his hips’ and ‘grabbed his hips’ so much. 

where do you share your writing?

I usually post on AO3 to start, post a link on this Tumblr, if it’s hockey fic I’ll repost on my hockey sideblog, and my Twitter. I tag extensively.

where is your favorite place to write?

My study, on my laptop. I love the feel of the keys under my fingers, Apple laptops are the fucking best to write on.

what is your favorite line you’ve ever written?

I don’t really have one. I’m sure I’ll remember something and come back to edit this.

what is your most and least favorite part of writing?

Most favourite part: finishing and posting. Least favourite part: writing.

IYKYK

what are some books or authors that influenced your style the most?

I don’t really have any. I think I’ve been doing this for so long I’ve just got my own style, it’s mostly funny, and I always have one of the pairing who’s a mouth and one who’s usually overthinking a mile a minute, sometimes they’re the same, sometimes they’re not. 

what is your favorite trope to write?

Sharing a bed. Closely followed by soulbond. 

describe your writing process from scratch to finish.

Get an idea. Open Google docs. Either write a rough plan or just start writing. Sometimes I have some lyrics to start to get me in theme. Once I’m done, I’ll re-read a few times to catch things to fix. I’ll try to find a beta (although they’re like fucking hen’s teeth these days), then use that amazing doc I found somewhere that automatically adds AO3 coding, then post. 

how do you deal with writers block?

Poorly. I’ll either start writing something else and return to my original idea later, or write absolute garbage to push through it and come back to later.

on average, how much writing do you get done in a day?

Depending on how motivated I feel. When I was writing ‘netflix and iso’ I wrote it mostly over 2-3 days and it was like 13k. Some days I get barely 1k out. 

what’s your revision or rewriting process like?

Not great. I am so shit at self editing, I miss so much stuff. I’ll just re-read it as much as I can. 

do you like to write one-shots or series, and why?

One shots. I wrote a few series when I was kicking around 1D fandom (I honestly completely forgot I wrote for that fandom until I found it when looking for other stuff further down my AO3 and immediately orphaned almost all of it) but they were so bad. 

do you share rough drafts or do you wait until it’s all polished? And who do you share them with?

I don’t really have any friends in this fandom so no sharing. In hockey I’d be flicking my drafts around for feedback and call it a beta half the time ahaha.

handwritten notes or typed notes?

I absorb it better when I print it out and edit-- I did this for my Saratoga horse racing Kane/Toews and feel like it totally elevated my fic. 

give us a spoiler for one of your stories.

For ‘if you love someone’, Sid and Geno end up getting together at a wedding

most inspirational quote you’ve ever read or heard that’s still important to you.

Someone who could be either Neil Gaiman, Chuck Palahunick or Stephen King said something along the lines of, write the shitty thing because everything’s shitty in first draft but at least you have something you can edit and make amazing. So I always try to write whatever I am wanting to get out because at least I make a first pass and then go back and edit the shit out of it.