Hi! I was wondering, do you think you’ll ever write for she ra again? Your best friends squad series is probably my favorite thing ever.
This is a good question! And I'm deeply flattered you're asking - I'm delighted you like the series so much!
The short version is: yes. I have too damn many drafts and already-written-words that I love to never come back to spop and the BFS...
...but (and here's the longer version) I have no idea when I'll be able to do that. The thing about She-Ra is that I love it, and more than that I respect the hell out of it. It has gorgeously drawn, fascinating, consistent characters with fantastically distinct voices embedded in a brilliant narrative and an intensely creative world, and I've spent a lot of time and energy trying to do it justice. For me, that means spending a lot of consecutive hours getting into that place mentally and just kind of...living there. It's something I love doing. It's something I absolutely have not had the time to do this year.
Almost everything I've written and posted in the year 2022 has been compulsively drafted in about 48hrs, poked with a stick for about a week, and then dropped on the internet. It's all about pieces of fiction that I don't really respect enough to care if I get entirely right. (Not to mention, writing haphazard and inconsistent is basically the only way to show respect for Riverdale, glorious nonsense clusterfuck it is.)
There's other stuff there - some life events, a bit of psychology around validation and lack thereof - but that's all more personal and complex. The tldr here is that I love She-Ra too much to never write for it again, but respect it too much to post anything I've written for it anytime soon. I cannot in good faith tell you to stay tuned, but I can say that as long as I have a comedically massive WIPs folder for it, it's on my radar.
My podfic of Learning Curve by ForsythiaRising is done and I’m SO FREAKING PROUD OF IT!
At two hours and change, it’s more than twice as long as anything I’ve done before; and I am inordinately proud of how much I leveled up my voicework, ability to handle tricky dialogue, and audio editing skills while I I let this project consume my life for the last month. Oh, and bonus, I also podficced Learning Curve Plus by Fuhadeza. Check ‘em out on A03
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
In which Steve dies, comes back as a ghost, dies again, pisses off his DM, and causes a whole-party meltdown, all without ever being observably deceased.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
In which The Party is trying to play matchmaker (enthusiastic), Robin is trying to play matchmaker (reluctant), and the person least concerned with Steve Harrington’s love life is, for once, Steve Harrington.
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Whoops, totally forgot to put this here and now it has two chapters. Here, have a Steve & Robin (& The Party) found family fic heavy on the farcical (but angsty!) misunderstandings that is also the setup for the next one in the series in which I promise I will finally deliver on the ronance. Yes, I did bite off a lot. Yes, I do think I can chew it. Probably. Almost definitely.
Today on stuff I keep meaning to do, an updated writing post to pin, now with added Actually Everything. My intent is just to edit this for updates instead of making new posts; we’ll see how that goes.
Things I Have Written:
She-Ra (my beloved)
Catradora & Best Friends Squad hijinks, front to finish. Including 100+k words of post-canon stories focusing on the Best Friends Squad as they have space adventures (The Squad Goes Intergalactic), the super short one about predestination (Remade all the time), the also super short one where catradora doesn’t get married (Only Constant), the much longer one I wrote with @fuhadeza where catradora gets married a lot (The Thing About Forever), the self-indulgent one about fiber art (Twist; talk to me about spinning!), and the one where they’re Arthurian Knights that’s secretly an ode to the whole thing Tristram/Lamorak have going on (I will do you gentleness).
Riverdale (Rest In Chaos)
Join me in the descent from Jughead’s impenetrably pretentious s5 polyam-subtext-but-textually-bughead-because-Jughead’s-unreliable introspection that you should skip unless you’re up for an endurance challenge (Another Love Song for Betty Cooper) to Betty’s much more succinct and readable adventures in being aromantic but cool to make out with him (An Antonym for Serenade) to wait actually I think I’m going all in on the Betty/Archie/Veronica/Jughead polyamory (alternative solutions for gordian knots) to cool they have superpowers but only Betty/Veronica/Archie get to quite literally come (In then out, and other ways to breathe) to POP THE CHAMPAGNE THE OT4 IS CANON let’s get Jughead back in there, yeah he’s confused about it too (In which Reggie Mantle is not invited to the polycule). Somewhere in there I also wrote a completely canon compliant character study of the Biblical Angel Raphael (Shall the water not remember).
Star Wars (is a fun time)
Weird little philosophical things about Count Dooku’s Qui-Gon Jinn guilt (this thing of darkness), Ezra Bridger & Leia Organa almost hooking up as reckless teens in the least sexy encounter ever and never talking about it ever again (Requiem for a Misspent Youth), Hera Syndulla & Luke Skywalker talking because I think they should talk (They talk about Jedi), and the uncomfortable generational angst that just kind of lives between Luke Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano (Chiasmus).
Stranger Things (is also here)
Gets its own section because I have two more I’ll be super sad if I never finish. Currently two Steve fics (the king is dead, Steve Harrington is Having a Crisis Today) and one Robin fic (Party Plan) in which everyone assumes everyone else is straight, everyone is wrong, and it leads to silliness with a side of feelings. Very, very robust drafts of the Nancy and Eddie fic very much continue to exist in my drafts and oh boy would I love to ffs finish them.
Other
Midsummer Night’s Dream ot4 shenanigans (four bosoms and one troth), a non-linear Arcane fic about CaitVi (Pins & String), a more important Arcane fic about spotlights ([that one saying about a nail]), the one about the fairy tale you’re more likely to know (about 12 Princesses, Dancing), the one about the fairy tale you’re less likely to know (Jorinde & Joringel; Fraxinella), concerning changelings (original work), concerning dragons (Game of Thrones/Harry Potter xover), concerning witches (The Squire’s Tales by Gerald Morris; the company of witches), concerning punching god(s) in the face (RWBY; if it had to perish twice), Harry Potter house sorting meta (Out of Sorts), a very silly Destiel fix-it fic (how soon unaccountable), an even sillier Teen Wolf fic ft. none of the characters anyone cares about (Brett Talbot’s Last Week in Beacon Hills), a character study of Mulan from the Once Upon A Time TV show (Tactical Advantage), gay shit about the Enchanted sequel for some reason (Some Enchanted Evening), and now there’s a HSMTMTS one about the inherent homoeroticism of being romantic rivals in two different sequential love triangles ([line from I Don’t Dance here])
And of course all of it is on ao3 here.
I could totally end the post here, in which case it would be reasonably sized, very informative, and in no way make any promises I cannot keep. But where’s the fun in that, so...
...Things In My Drafts Folder (She-Ra, unless indicated otherwise):
I have a lot of drafts, and I’m writing them very slowly. Turns out, it takes longer to write things when you are (a) busy and (b) hopping between ten drafts at the whim of your brain instead of focusing on just one. The good news is that, historically speaking, when I stick with a hobby for a full year it tends to mean it’s not going anywhere. So while I can’t promise I’ll end up finishing all of these, the highest chance is that I’ll finish a bunch. Just...slowly.
(Edit 4/16/22: just...SO slowly. And I’m gonna run ttrpg again now so like...the slowest. But the drafts all DO still exist.)(Edit to add 8/31/23: I still really do want to finish these bc I am extremely proud of them but like idk who knows when. Ttrpg is going great tho so like hmu to talk about arthurian roleplay I guess)
Most of these fics have titles already, but I’m vaguely and nonsensically superstitious about announcing them so formally so early. So I...won’t.
The one where Catra & Glimmer have a space adventure ft. all of Catra’s shitty bosses. (I started this draft last summer, forgot about it for most of the year, and then proceeded to write a ton for it two nights ago. So: case in point about this stuff getting written just slowly.)
Adora And Her Spaceship.
The highkey catradora romance amnesia fic where I name the chapters after poems because sometimes I get to be pretentious, as a treat.
The catradora au that’s mostly about dragons and a little about a bad pun.
The star trek voyager au. Yes, also catradora, it’s all catradora.
Possibly a seamista fic??
An arranged marriage au that’s so deeply and totally backburnered that I’m not even bolding it but which I want to mention here on the off chance that if I ever get around to finishing it I can look back from a decade in the future and tell my past self I told you so.
(not She-Ra) Another Supernatural fic - aka the one where I rewrite plots for a bunch of female characters, because that’s what I did while I binged that show but also dear goodness it needs so much editing
(not She-Ra) The one where Anakin Skywalker is a shitty teen force ghost.
(not She-Ra) I would like to finish the Stranger Things drafts a lot yeah. Same with a bunch of Arcane stuff.
In conclusion: sorry for the long post. Extra sorry if you are someone who follows me for non-writing/non-She-Ra reasons. If it helps, it’ll probably be a long time until I make another one. In the meantime, my writing tag continues to be #forsythiarising, and if I remember to I may make a series of posts about the titles of my existing fics bc I have a lot of meta and love titles a lot. As with most of all this: we shall see.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
“Your sister is ruining my party,” Caitlyn hisses from their hiding spot, crouched behind the punch bowl. – Hello from Arcane Hell I wrote a caitvi fic. It is…hmm. Fun. I think the word I’m gonna go with is fun. It was supposed to be full throttle comedy but then I got feelings, and it was supposed to be just some snippets but then it got a plot, and it’s arguably a character study of someone who thinks it’s a character study of someone else. The girls flirt a lot in it. I like it when they make out. Jinx is here, ft. explosions. A dress gets ruined. The content dictates the form, up to eleven (no, wait, sorry - up to twenty). Meanwhile, if that’s not your jam, here’s my comedy routine about how the spotlights in the Piltover Council work, because I’m sorry but those overdramatic spotlights are the funniest thing of all time.
Here are some Riverdale fanfics, with more fanfare than they probably deserve. I am scheduling this to post on Wednesday because I like Wednesdays.
An Antonym for Serenade
A 5+1 fic (very light M, ~5k words) in which Betty Cooper doesn’t have time for romance and Jughead Jones doesn’t care if he’s getting off or off sleuthing, as long as Betty’s calling the shots. Aromantic-spectrum Betty who prioritizes murder boards (and, to a much subtler extent, probably ace-spec Jughead who is horny for murder boards). Canon compliant as of season 6A.
I did not expect to be so emotionally attached to this, but it turns out writing an aroallo character really got me, and thusly it’s ended up one of my favorite things I’ve written. So there’s that.
Another Love Song for Betty Cooper
A 10k word canon-season-5 adjacent minimally-AU exercise in Jughead-centric navel-gazery that I cannot in good conscience recommend anyone read but god was it the most fun to write. In it, Jughead Jones:
Thinks about Betty Cooper
Talks to Veronica Lodge
Sleeps with Veronica Lodge
Has the same conversation with Veronica Lodge for eight years
Imagines the polycule he is too insecure to be in
Is probably on the asexuality spectrum but has a bunch of canon-compliant sex anyway
No, not on the page. It’s rated T.
Realizes he’s a shitty writer
This is a big deal
(maybe)
(or not)
Thinks about Betty Cooper
Thinks about Betty Cooper
Thinks about Betty Cooper
Does not talk to Betty Cooper
Comes to terms with the concept of Archie Andrews
Opens his goddamn mouth
Fails to entirely grasp the true meaning of friendship Riverdale but gets to have it anyway
Does absolutely nothing
There you go! You have the summary, so you don’t need to read it. (Though if you do, you will get to some of the most decadent prose I’ve put together in a long time. Jughead’s just kind of insufferable about it. I say with affection.)
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Finally, a note to the patient people who followed me for, uh...not this. Though I have no idea how you ended up down here: thank you for your patience and I promise I do still have seven bajillion SPOP and Arcane drafts. I make no promises about finishing them but please know that I really do want to.
