#snugglesquiggle

[st-just]

top five unusual words?

serendipitous

encyclopedist

supercession

cataclysmic

sublime

off the top of my head.

[wmb-salticidae]

Writer Wrap-Up

Tagged by @snugglesquiggle in this post.

How many fics did you write this year?

Four from scratch:

"Essays on Excrement," 5,500 words on the history of sanitation in Harry Potter's Wizarding Britain, to explain why wizards decided to shit on the floor like dogs, and why they decided to stop.

"Excerpts from the Encyclopedia Magica (1985)," a collection of eight (at the moment) Britannica-esque articles for Harry Potter, including the true history of Macbeth, King of the Scots, and an awful disease called Tuberculitis.

"Kitchen Curses," a 200-word Harry Potter/Gordon Ramsay shitpost.

"The Nightmare Before Easter," roughly 200 words on a direct-to-video The Nightmare Before Christmas sequel that doesn't exist.

I posted three additional chapters for Tomorrow, the Flood, the latest in my ongoing Gryffindor!Voldemort AU.

I also continued work on a Secret Non-Fanfiction Project, which is probably around 40,000 words long but still not at the point where I can start posting.

I also assisted, to one degree or another, with various works from The Gods Have Horns, but @shadow-wasser is responsible for the lion's share.

How many words did you write this year?

31,953 words, not counting rewrites (if I work on a 1,000 word story, completely discard 300 words, then end the night with 1,100 words, then I log 100 words for the day's writing).

Did you try anything new this year? (new fandom? new pairing? new language?)

The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Did you participate in any fests/events during the year?

No, mostly because I forgot about the Worldbuilding Exchange.

Which is the funniest fic you have written this year?

Based on reader response, definitely "Essays on Excrement."

Which is the angstiest fic you have written this year?

Probably one or more of this year's chapters in "Tomorrow, the Flood."

Which is the steamiest fic you have written this year?

"The Nightmare Before Easter," I guess. But it's not actually steamy.

Which is your most valuable writing lesson learned this year?

Write badly. You can always fix it in post.

What do you look forward to writing next year?

I miiight work on a Voldemort/Tonks riff on PKD's Through a Scanner Darkly in order to get some practice for the story that's coming after "Tomorrow, the Flood."

⏺ ⏺ ⏺

Tagging @madam-melon-meow, @random-thought-depository, @shadow-wasser, @shostakobitchh, and @slashmarks.

[refleksa]

request: carnelian and/or peril?

i've drawn her before but i was not satisfied with her design... now i mostly am. also she was very fun to draw

[image description: Carnelian, a bright red dragon covered in many scars. Her scales are covered in spots, and she is snarling, while at the same time looking slightly nervous. Her eyes are orange. One of her horns is cracked, and her ear is partially thorn. Background is pale red with lighter outline surrounding her.]

[yingletgirltailtuft]

did you schedule the time loop post a bunch or are you just that committed to the bit

...or is there a time loop somewhere i should be worried about

What do you mean "a bunch"? That's the first time I reblogged it :)

(It's a fun bit but I think we're out of the loop now)

[st-just]

ranking of seek protags from most favorite to least?

mine's prolly win > orio > b, but tbh b would be favorite if they weren't joined at the hip to A

Win/Toby (best, cheering for them both wholeheartily) > Basil/A (compelling toxic, unpleasant to read in the good way) > Orion (seems like he might be starting to get interesting now. the Fox is cool).

[wmb-salticidae]

22. What is one of your favorite tropes to write?

What is a trope? Paladins, or good people who take their principles seriously, to the point that they can't be normal about things, e.g. Mozi, John Brown.

[st-just]

fav song at the moment?

incredibly arbitrary and changes every day but at the moment I'm really enjoying

[yingletgirltailtuft]

i was browsing your site and found your list of top albums. big fan of Lateralus as well as all of clipping.'s album, along with several others thing you picked

Haken has been on my list of bands to check for a Long time (i think i even have a few albums on my computer already >.>)

would you say Aquarius or Vector is the better album to check out first (or something else?)

i usually like starting with artist's latest work since i tend to assume it must be the culmination of their sound, but over the years i've come to realize this isn't always true

I recently have really come-around on Vector being their best work (I need to update that list when I find time), and their current sound is definitely closer to that than Aquarius. Fwiw, Vector was also my entry-point to Haken! First via the single "The Good Doctor", then the album.

My only hesitations to recommending Vector first are two-fold:

1.) It's half of a double-album with Virus (which I like a fair bit less, but to each their own!), both of which

2.) Lean heavily on band history, especially Virus. There's musical motifs from their first four albums all over the two of them, and the narrative frame-work is picking up ideas from at least two other albums. I definitely didn't fully appreciate them until I had context later.

But I'd still probably rec Vector first - it means a whole lot to me and I think it still stands plenty good on its own, removed from the mythos the band is putting into it!