raise your glass @waitingondaisies - Tumblr Blog

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Hi! Welcome to my blog! I’ll go ahead and say a little about myself here so we’re all on the same page. My name is Ilahi (ee-lah-ee), and I am 24 years old. I’m currently in grad school, which means that I have to do a lot of academic reading and writing. This sometimes means that I slow down on my fun reading/writing. Despite that, I am bound and determined to update how like home (my main wip) at least once a month, as well as my other wips as often I can.

The fandoms I write for currently are Harry Potter (yes, I know, it’s 2022, but I have an allergy to abandoning projects, so until I finish the fics I’ve started, I’m a bit stuck. Fuck JKR, fuck terfs, trans women are women) and Irondad (note, not the MCU, but irondad specifically). The fandoms I read are much more diverse, but also tend to be much more fleeting. At the time of writing this, I’ve been reading a lot of the owl house fanfic.

Which brings me to the fic rec portion of this intro post! Here’s a couple favs that I’ve read recently!

1. the ceramics series by unexpected chair: darius takes hunter in and they figure out how to navigate their new situation despite all of their trauma. the misunderstandings and difficulties they face make so much sense and are resolved in a way that heals both them and me 2. irreplaceable by for_the_night: tony discovers that harley is his bio son and ends up neglecting peter. peter has to deal with that and then, once tony realizes how much of a dick he’s been, peter has to figure out how/if he wants to let tony back into his life. i’m a sucker for a parental figure having to dig themselves out of a hole of their own making and this one really hits that spot 3. no bed of roses by ladyluciusash87: as a kid, harry meets snape’s daughter... except she has no idea and neither does snape. eventually the truth outs, and snape is horribly jealous of how much more his daughter loves harry than him. the oc’s are so well developed and i am loving watching snape deal with that emotional minefield and also very gradually open his eyes as to how great harry actually is finally, and i know this is a massively long pinned post at this point, i’d be remiss if i didn’t include the invitation to my discord server! everyone’s welcome, and i’d love to see you there! click here to join <3

#pinned post

Hi waitingondaisies,

I'm I-suppose-not, an aspiring fanfic writer on AO3, and I’m reaching out to ask if I could write a story inspired by your work.

To be completely honest, I wasn’t even using your fic for inspo at first, but while outlining a story involving Harry falling through the Veil, being received by Unspeakables (one of whom he recognizes), recovering with the Potters, and returning to Hogwarts where Tom Riddle is headmaster - it struck me that this premise felt very familiar. I had to go on the hunt for your fic in my bookmarks, but upon finding How like Home, I definitely spotted the unintentionally similar plot points. I believe I was subconsciously inspired by your fic, because I remember really liking it when I first read it in October of last year, and the story idea came to me very easily.

Of course, if you’re comfortable with it, I would absolutely credit you for the inspiration.

To reassure you, beyond the aforementioned shared elements, my fic diverges significantly in tone and narrative structure. While your story is a beautiful, wholesome hurt/comfort journey, mine leans more toward mystery and found family with a dash Harry being a menace to society. I’m working with post-war, Auror Academy Harry, who confronts death eaters in the department of mysteries, in the middle of an attempt to summon Voldemort through the veil from another dimension. Obviously, Harry falls through the veil and through some convoluted plot manipulations, (because I really want to write Harry’s last two Hogwarts years—sue me), he ends up slightly de-aged and fostered by the Potters.

My version of this alternate universe includes a larger Potter family, an alt-Harry who’s basically an OC (different background, appearance and all that jazz), and a very different supporting cast. The only other character overlap is Tom Riddle, who plays more of a mentor role here. Bellatrix, Edgar Bones, and several OCs are major players, and while Harry’s trauma is an important thread, it won’t be explored with the same emotional depth your story achieves.

If any of this makes you uncomfortable or you’d prefer I adjust the concept, I completely understand and will be happy to make changes. That said, the current setup works well for where I want to take the plot, so I wanted to be transparent with you and ask permission rather than proceed without saying anything.

I truly admire your work and appreciate the inspiration it’s sparked. Please consider my request.

Warm regards, I-suppose-not

Sorry for the late response! It sounds like your fic is very distinct from hlh and I hope you have a great time writing it! If you’re posting on ao3, you’re welcome to mark Hlh as inspiration for your work (which would put it with the other fics inspired by Hlh at the end of the work) of course it’s up to you! I certainly don’t own the concept of sending Harry to another dimension 🥰🥰

sourdough-seal

most important part of the writing process actually is when you loop a single song on max volume and stare at the word document and imagine the characters doing things for 14 hours. this is known as getting in the zone

drchucktingle

your fanfiction is valid

veteranfangirl

Someone please explain to me Kudos culture on AO3.

They seem kind of like Likes on Facebook? But then why don’t people leave more of them? I see 300 hits and four kudos. It seems so easy to leave kudos but people don’t? I understand being too lazy to review but to hit the kudos button seems quite easy. But do you only leave kudos on REALLY AWESOME STUFF? AM I LEAVING TOO MANY KUDOS??? LIKE A WEIRDO????????

lemonsharks

Sometimes I read the first sentence and go “nope nope nope nope” and hit the back button - that’s a hit.

Sometimes I read the whole thing and go, “I want that 20 minutes of my life back” - that’s a hit.

Sometimes I love a story so much that I read it several times, each of which is a hit, but only leave x2 feedback: kudo and comment.

sconesforjustice

Okay, so I just recently realized that due to my habit of browser-crashing and re-loading (I need a new OS) there are a couple of stories that I’ve had up in tabs for weeks and have added something like thirty-four hits to the totals, but I haven’t even read. And I won’t leave a kudo(s?) on something I haven’t read, obviously, so I’m adding to the lopsided hit/kudos ratio on a few fics—possibly as many as eight at the moment. >.< I should start marking things to ‘read later’ instead of just leaving tabs up.

But yeah, one of the problems is what lemonsharks pointed out before: no matter how many times I read (i.e., give a hit to) and love a story, I can at most leave two pieces of feedback: one kudo and one comment. Well, I could leave more comments but then it gets a little weird. “Read your story again! Still love it!” — “Fifth time through, still awesome!”

And seriously: Leave kudos as you see fit. I’m a tad stingy with them and I’m trying to get better about it but don’t let anyone tell you that leaving positive feedback on a story you liked is wrong.

museaway

Well, I could leave more comments but then it gets a little weird. “Read your story again! Still love it!” — “Fifth time through, still awesome!”

That made me laugh out loud. I agree: leave kudos on pieces you enjoy. I leave them often, but I don’t leave them on a piece I didn’t like. Being the proofreading snob that I am, I don’t leave them when the typos start to add up, either.

When I receive kudos, I am truly touched, and I wish I could hug everyone who leaves one. I save the email notifications. Comments legitimately bring tears to my eyes.

chrissihr

If you really love a story, you can leave kudos as a guest from multiple browsers at least one time. If you enjoy a fic a lot, but logging out to log in as a guest and leave more kudos seems like more trouble than it’s worth, you can always comment again to say you’re rereading it again and it deserved more kudos, so you’re leaving extras in the comments. One of the reasons AO3 likely limits the number of kudos you can leave is to encourage more interaction between readers and writers in the comments. Writers absolutely will not mind getting “Love this, it’s my favorite ______ fic for (reasons). I always reread it on ______ days. Thanks!” WE LIVE FOR THAT KIND OF FEEDBACK. You liked my stuff? Really? I had no idea because there are only 8 comments because fandoms kinkshame the fuck out of themselves and their most hated notps and nope tropes, so readers are leery of leaving comments and kudos on explicit fic because someone they know who totally digs that kink, too, might read it and find out they’re trash, too. What was I saying? Oh, yeah: This is everything to me. Thanks. *knuckles away tear* Think of comments and kudos as payment for time spent creating something you love. Tip every time, not just the first time. Leave some love for the author.

hushinghorizon-deactivated20210

I’m kinda like, typos are the spots on the spoons at the restaurant. I’m still gonna tip my waiter.

bairnsidhe

Well, I could leave more comments but then it gets a little weird. “Read your story again! Still love it!” — “Fifth time through, still awesome!”

I get these all the time, and you know what? It’s NEVER weird. It’s amazing and I feel so good seeing it and all the warm fuzzy feelings. Please do leave many comments, and comments for everything.

To recap, acceptable types of Ao3 feedback

Kudo from your account

Kudo as a guest

Comment on the first chapter

Comment on the last chapter (assuming multi chapter)

Comment on the last-posted chapter (assuming a WIP)

Comment on every chapter

Reply to other comments and start a fandom sleepover convo

Re-comment to let me know it was so good you re-read it

Follow any social media link to further wail at me on tumblr

Make an ‘inspired by’ or gift work and link it to the work

Unacceptable types of Ao3 feedback

“Hurr durr u don rite what i like, ur dum”

“I like this, so I’ll ask you increasingly personal questions until you know for certain you’re my Manic Pixie Dream Girl and I will find you.”

“Some constructive criticism for improvement: set this whole fic on fire and die, you stupid slut.”

“This science you included is opposite this conspiracy theory I have, so your work is wrong and too political, please stop making me look bad.”

“WRITE MOAR, YOU ARE MY WRITING BITCH WHO DOES NOTHING BUT PLEASE ME. IT PUTS THE FIC UP ON THE SITE OR IT GETS ANOTHER WHACK.”

It’s not that hard.

foxpunk

do you all see my vision here

#Harry’s in denial and oblivious #we love to see it #more oblivious than in denial I think #but it’s there

lyonnerileyauthor

mywritingcannotbestopped

Is this a problem?

gae-bolg-alternative-dot-exe

traditional-latin-math

draculas-husband

em-bitterred

Keep your priorities straight: post fic.

penandinkprincess

*cups ao3 author's face in my hands gently* please. you are the only one who understands the blorbos correctly. you must write more.

sam-scribbler

writing be like

beautifulterriblequeen

feeling that twenty minute gap lads

apollos-boyfriend

something they don’t tell you about being autistic is that every character you write WILL end up autistic/autistic-coded whether you like it or not

apollos-boyfriend

same goes for being aromantic/asexual. every character WILL come out at least a little aspec

apollos-boyfriend

if you reblog this and purposefully remove the second addition i Will block you.

teaboot

I just reada really good fic but halfway through I realized "oh shit this is really familiar.... didn't I write something like this once?" And as I kept reading I kept predicting what happened next and the further I went the more convinced I was that they'd ripped off my story-

like, copied the ENTIRE plot and re-written it, just better than I had? The characters were more fleshed-out than mine were, and the POV was more interesting, and the pace made more sense- but it was MY STORY?

So close to the end I was like "holy shit.. do I message them? Ask if my story inspired theirs? Should I be angry? Flattered?" Cause their tags and description didn't mention me AT ALL, which, sure, it's fanfiction to begin with, but if you're using my work than at least credit me as inspo, right? Just to be courteous?

But I get to the end of the final chapter, and it's not finished, and I'm kind of disappointed cause I never finished my story and I was really immersed in their version now and had been looking forwards to seeing how they tied up my loose ends- so I scroll to the bottom to leave a comment, and.

It's MY URL.

IT WAS MY STORY THE WHOLE TIME.

THE ONE *I WROTE*.

In *2013*.

And FORGOT ABOUT

BECAUSE I WAS SO INSECURE ABOUT MY SLOPPY, SHALLOW, AMETEUR WRITING

And I'm just sitting here now staring into space thinking about every shitty story I've ever written now like

IT WAS ALL GOOD?

IT WAS GOOD THIS WHOLE DAMN TIME??

I'M A GOOD WRITER?????

rsingwriting

I saw a post talking about how Terry Pratchett only wrote 400 words a day, how that goal helped him write literally dozens of books before he died. So I reduced my own daily word goal. I went down from 1,000 to 200. With that 800-word wall taken down, I’ve been writing more. “I won’t get on tumblr/watch TV/draw/read until I hit my word goal” used to be something I said as self-restraint. And when I inevitably couldn’t cough up four pages in one sitting, I felt like garbage, and the pleasurable hobbies I had planned on felt like I was cheating myself when I just gave up. Now it’s something I say because I just have to finish this scene, just have to round out this conversation, can’t stop now, because I’m enjoying myself, I’m having an amazing time writing. Something that hasn’t been true of my original works since middle school.

And sometimes I think, “Well, two hundred is technically less than four hundred.” And I have to stop myself, because - I am writing half as much as Terry Pratchett. Terry fucking Pratchett, who not only published regularly up until his death, but published books that were consistently good.

And this has also been an immense help as a writer with ADHD, because I don’t feel bad when I take a break from writing - two hundred words works up quick, after all. If I take a break at 150, I have a whole day to write 50 more words, and I’ve rarely written less than 200 words and not felt the need to keep writing because I need to tie up a loose end anyways.

Yes, sometimes, I do not produce a single thing worth keeping in those two hundred words. But it’s much easier to edit two hundred words of bad writing than it is to edit no writing at all.

theamyrlinsofa

This is the second time this post passes on my dash and it’s the best advice I ever got. I can’t write consistently in one go, it’s always about 50 words and then I get distracted and just have to do something else for a while. Do the math quickly: trying to write 2000 words a day takes a looooong time that way. So there were many days where I just didn’t even start writing, cause I wouldn’t reach my goal anyways and feel like a failure. Then I stumbled upon this post and I thought: hey, let’s give this a try. And it works! I set my goal between 200-400 words a day and that’s perfectly doable. Some days I get into the flow and I write a whole lot more. On other days, I struggle to get those 200 out but hey, at least I wrote 200 words and reached my goal. Whatever the outcome, t makes me feel good and accomplished.

Writing takes practice, so even if it’s only 100 words a day, it’s better than nothing. If it worked for Terry Pratchett and me, than it can work for you too!

muffinlance

My own tags because I am particularly proud of them:

#l also endorse this method #The important thing is to get your butt in the chair and make a habit of that #The writing follows like a stray cat: you need to sit long enough to lure it into your lap #At which point you’re stuck there until the writing leaves (you finish) or you need to go to the bathroom badly enough to disturb it

thememedaddy

hsuhaohsuhaohsuhao

EVERYTHING I FUCKING DO IS BAD

thestalwartheart

I love it when people take fic writing seriously. I love when it's not 'Here's this dumb thing I wrote' and instead it's 'Here's this thing I put blood, sweat and tears into. Here's this thing I slaved away at, trying new writing techniques and editing over and over. Here's this dialogue that kept me awake at night. Here's this beautiful turn of phrase I thought up. Here's this thing that I wrote with vulnerability and heart, and I am proud to share it with you.'