hiii! i really loved your love divides story so much and just found out it’s discontinued. if u don’t mind me asking, why was it discontinued?
Oh man, Love Divides. (As I'm sitting back and taking a drag from a cigarette with a far off look in my eyes.) I haven't talked about that one in a long time.
I have it marked as discontinued indefinitely, because I really do hold a lot of love for that fic and it means a lot to me that others enjoy it too. I'd love to continue it, but I think the original chapter would require a lot of editing, and the narrative for the next chapters would need to be reworked a little as the fic itself is almost four years old now. (Definitely not a deal breaker for me, but something I'm waiting for the right time to do.)
As for why I stopped working on it...
Season four of Stranger Things came out at a very weird time in my life. Eddie Munson stuck with me instantly, and I think I'll carry him with me for the rest of my life.
There's really a lot of reasons that the second and third chapters never came; but I think the base of it is that I got a little overwhelmed.
Love Divides was my first ever real fic, and definitely my first series. (Which, in the past couple months, I've had some trouble keeping up to date with them anyway - but that's a seasonal thing I think?) I spent a lot of time working on the first chapter (basically the whole time between the releases of vol.1 and 2 of s4) and trying to pack three seasons of a show (plus the extra stuff for my parts of the story) into the next chapter just seemed really daunting. Then, vol.2 came out. I'm not going to lie- Eddie Munson dying struck me in a way that no other character's death has ever done before. It forced me to deal with a lot of feelings around grief that I'd been trying to smother out in my life. It's a little embarrassing to admit, but to be completely honest, I was a fucking mess.
I also just simply didn't really feel like I had anyone in my life that I could talk to about it. Hell, up until a couple months ago, I didn't even have a beta reader for my fics. No one but the people who chose to read them on here had ever seen what I wrote, and I certainly didn't talk about them. I was too shy to try and reach out to anyone on here; because while I wasn't new to Tumblr, I was new to posting. It felt embarrassing, and that's something I'm still trying to work through today - just reminding myself that I am allowed to take up space and talk on the internet.
Then, of course, the "Eddie Munson Cringe" era started. While I never told anyone the extent of my involvement with the fan base, I wasn't quiet about my love for the character. I'm a person that cares too much about fiction, and I don't feel any need to pretend I'm not. Let's just say, the people in my life weren't exactly... nice about it. I was getting made fun of by people I cared about for simply enjoying a character, and watching them say stuff about people online I thought were so cool. Fan-artists, cosplayers, theorists, and other fic writers. I've always had a deep love for all things fandom, even if I wasn't an active participant in all of it. So, that just kind of made my feeling of displacement worse.
But, in the past few years; I've gotten people like that out of my life and surrounded myself with people that support my hobbies. They may not always get it, but they aren't going to make me feel bad about doing things that make me happy. It sounds silly, but I found my hype team. It does suck that it happened so long after Love Divides, but I'm happy it happened.
When I started writing again, I kind of had this idea that it had been too long to continue working on that story. Would anyone still read it? Has everyone moved on? If they did tune in, would they be angry at me for taking so long? Plus, I already had a ton of new ideas ruminating in my brain from spending so long not doing anything but thinking about the hobby I loved so much.
Like I said, I'd absolutely love to continue it one day. It's deeply personal to me and I think it'd be nice to rework the themes I put into that story with a brighter outlook.
But the simple answer to your question is - burnout and embarrassment.
Thanks so much for asking and thank you for showing love to that story! It means a lot to me! ♡
a small exert from chapter two (in-between 1983-1985) of my eddie munson fic
series masterlist!
"do we deserve a second chance? how did we fall into this circumstance?"
"I gotta say, the hawkins middle snowball does not seem like the Edward Munson scene." you hum shyly, slinking up to the drink table.
his eyes are wide as he looks up from the bowl of punch in front of him. a soft smile graces his features.
"yeah well, turns out you gotta do services to the school to run a club." he shrugs, grabbing the ladle and stirring. you can't help but smile, admiring his hair pulled back into a messy ponytail and the baggy black sweater hanging off his frame. "doesn't really seem like your scene either, y/n hopper."
his gaze flicks back up to you, making your heart beat faster. he bites his lip in an anxious tick.
"I'm sorry for being a dick, eddie" you whisper sadly, mind flashing back to Halloween night.
he shakes his head and chuckles softly. "do you wanna maybe... have a smoke with me after this?" there's a pleading in his eyes, and his knuckles are white where he grips the table.
god yes.
"you know I would love to eddie-" his eyes light up at your words. "but I'm supposed to hang out with steve, he's kinda my ride." you reply sadly, chest aching.
"right yeah, steve harrington." he nods, and you can see the way he rolls his eyes as he picks nervously at the plastic table cloth.
"maybe some other time through? can I get a raincheck?" you try not to sound too hopeful.
he sighs in relief, and when his eyes come back up you note the way they skim you up and down, taking in the black sweater dress that almost mirrors his own outfit.
"yeah, some other time." he nods, a boyish grin taking over.
"cool." you nod, grabbing a prefilled plastic cup and biting your lip.
"see you then." he breaths.
all you can do is nod, walking away on shaking legs and hoping he doesn't see you smiling to yourself like and idiot.
"It's gotta be a strange twist of fate. telling me that heaven can wait. telling me to get it right this time. life doesn't mean a thing, without the love you bring. love is what we found, the second time around."
hey alex! are you still working on love divides or are you kinda eh about it now
hey hun, i'm definitely still working on it! I'm just going through a lot and trying to figure out time frames for pt 2 is really hard. plus it's going to be a lot more angsty and have a shit ton of personal stuff for little hop so I've been kinda putting it off for the sake of my mental state.
Hellooooo!! I have a question about love divides (which absolutely crushed my heart holy shit) i saw you had answered someone else who asked about how olivia felt about eddie and you said that she had developed feelings for him, but did eddie ever look at olivia in a romantic way too? did he ever have some sort of feelings for her as well or has he always just viewed their relationship as simply platonic and friends with benefits?? i really don’t like her💀rn i simply want the absolute worst for her BECAUSE SHE KNEW HOW THE READER FELT LIKE DAMN GIRL REALLY??? anyways😭i cant wait for the next part i know it’s gonna be so good🫶
hi, thank you bubba ♡
honestly no, eddie never had romantic feelings for her. i've said before that he was starting to have feelings for reader, which he felt really gross abt. so, i see it as olivia being a distraction for that. and eddie would have made it very clear to her that his heart wouldn't be in it.
i'm trying to finish pt 2 up now, i lost my motivation to write whenever my account got messed up (plus i started classes) so i have to catch some things up.
Will love divides have a happy ending or at least a comforting one? I just finished the first chapter and I went through 100 stages of grief I can't do this /hj
Btw can I be added to the tag list?
yes!! i can't stand to see my baby eddie in pain so everything will work out for them! (sort of)
hey!! can i be added to the love divides taglist? the first chapter hurt my soul but i can’t wait for the next chapter🙏i need to see how badass y/n becomes!!
ofc, lovely! thank you so much! i'm pretty excited to write it ngl.
Hey!! Okay so the first part of love divides CRUSHED MY HEART LIKE DAMN🤦🏻♀️i was sooo mad at olivia like😑she pissed me the fuck off “oh no we’re gonna break her heart🥺anyways lemme stick my hands down your pants🤗” it honestly makes me laugh a lil cause i knew a girl named olivia who would flirt with my gf at the time and it gave me flashbacks💀ANYWAY so olivia had told carter that she had feelings for someone else, so does she have feelings for eddie or was that just her making an excuse to break up with him?? Also is Eddie actually in love with the reader?
idk why but the emojis made me laugh so much!
plus omg same i had some who used to do that with my ex gf, lmao. not an olivia tho, thank god.
but yeah, olivia started to have feelings for eds after the whole bathroom thing. she thinks the way he babies reader and loves her is just- so even more bitch points there.
and yeah, eddie is kinda starting to have feelings for her as well. i've elaborated on that a little before; you can find it in the "love divides" tag!
