Howdy! I’m James (they/them) and I write sometimes. :)
You can find my AO3 here | My tag for writing (and sometimes complaining about writing) is #james writes | I also have a podfic sideblog here | I also started doing pixel art recently and my art tag is #james does art
Current Writing Challenges I’m working on:
Bad Things Happen Bingo
100 Prompt Fills
If you take a peak and have any suggestions/requests/etc for either, send an ask! I’m totally open to ideas :)
Masterlist under the cut (updated 02/27/25)
Original Work
-> Card Trick [Horror & Comedy, T, 555, 2024] — Never Walk Into The Bog
-> Sleight of Hand [Horror & Comedy, T, 1k, 2024] — Caroline moved to the foothills to have an escape. She gets to work nine to five and then the world is her oyster from five to nine—that’s what the real estate agent promised. She hasn’t been on a walk once in the six months that she’s lived here. Today that changes.
Avatar: the Last Airbender
-> No Offense To The Universe or Whatever, But I’d Choose My Family Over Mystic Cosmic Energy Any Day [Gen, G, 1k, 2019] — A rewrite of the scene in S02E19: “The Guru” where Aang locks his final chakra because he can’t give up his earthly attachments but with more platonic love and sibling bonds this time around.
Friends
-> The One Where Rachel Comes Out [Rachel/Monica, T, 3k, 2021] — A rewrite of S01E24 “The One Where Rachel Finds Out” where Rachel and Monica are together, and finding out about Ross’s feelings sort of throws them for a loop since no one knows.
Gilmore Girls
-> All To Reveal A Secret We Can’t Hide [Gen, T, 1k, 2018, Fandom Ace Fest] — Asexual and Biromantic!Rory coming out to her mom. Set approximately in Season 3, so mentioned Rory/Jess, but no actual Rory/Jess scenes or anything.
-> Five Times Rory Asked Paris About Parenthood & One Time Paris Asked Rory [Paris/Rory, T, 1k, 2018] — A 5+1 with Rory and Paris as they talk about starting a family.
-> I Can Hate You From A Distance, I Can Learn To Let You Go [Gen, T, 839, 2024] — Rory & Paris take on this prompt: roommate A grabs the baseball bat only to find roommate B eating pickles and macarons in the kitchen at 4 in the morning. AU after Bridesmaid Revisited where Rory and Logan stay broken up.
-> The Art of Failing [Rory/Jess, T, 2k, 2023] — It’s the 2008 recession. Rory loses her job, but finds a friend.
-> this could be good (i can’t change even if i wanted to) [Paris/Rory, T, 3k, 2018] — Rory’s girlfriend invites her to a fancy Hanukkah celebration held by her family, but there are a few problems: Rory has no idea how to act at a fancy event and nobody knows that Rory and Paris are dating.
-> three words, two hearts, one maybe [Paris/Rory, T, 2k, 2018] — Rory and Paris (finally) get together. Set in their senior year at Yale, slight AU, where Doyle broke up with Paris at some point and Rory didn’t get back with Logan after she found out about all the girls he slept with during Thanksgiving (because she actually had standards- and another blonde in her life).
-> we are not perfect, but we’ll learn from our mistakes [Paris/Rory, T, 1k, 2018] — Paris tries to make coffee for Rory with horrible results. Set sometime after season seven but the Revival doesn’t exist here.
-> Why Do You Feel So Down [Paris/Rory, T, 928, 2018] — Rory has been distant lately and Paris is going to get to the bottom of it.
-> Would You Be So Kind As To Fall In Love With Me? [Paris/Rory, T, 5k, 2019] — A Spring Break AU wherein Paris and Rory get together. Well, about three weeks after the fact anyway.
Marvel
-> What In The World’s Come Over You? [Peter Parker-centric Gen, T, 1k, 2024] — Peter’s senses are on the fritz, and he can’t seem to fix them.
-> You haven’t got one good reason for being alone [Peter & Peter B., T, 4k, 2022] — It’s May’s birthday, the first one since she died, and Peter is not doing well.
The Adventure Zone: Amnesty
-> Training Montage [Duck & Aubrey, T, 1k, 2024] — Aubrey decides she wants to expand her skillset and asks Duck for help. Set between Season 1 and Season 2.
hbo max blocks screenshots even when I use the snipping tool AND firefox AND ublock which is a fucking first. i will never understand streaming services blocking the ability to take screenshots thats literally free advertising for your show right there. HOW THE HELL IS SOMEBODY GONNA PIRATE YOUR SHOW THROUGH SCREENSHOTS. JACKASS
somewhere out there is a guy who meticulously takes screenshots of every individual frame of his favorite tv shows and then painstakingly etches each one onto a roll of film which he puts into his old timey projector and recreates the footage as a silent film with his own lavishly hand-lettered dialogue cards and original score that he plays on his upright piano and charges audiences one shiny penny a play. at last, big media has finally outsmarted ol' Zachary Zoetrope
PSA for everyone who doesn't know, explained simply
this is NOT because of blocking screenshots, it's because of HOW streaming sites use your computer's hardware to optimise performance, which means the thing rendering the video and the thing capturing your screen aren't the SAME thing. so they can't talk together.
you can fix this by going to your browser settings, searching for "hardware acceleration", and turning that off.
Because a lot of people have asked me how I write so much and so fast
Write every day. Deadass. Not a joke. Not a throwaway tip. One sentence. One paragraph. One page. You have to work the writing muscle every day or it gets weak. You lose it. Use it or lose it. This is non-negotiable. Literally one sentence. It will trigger another one every time so just write one. Even if you delete it later, getting the practice in helps. It's all about repitition.
No idea is a bad idea. It's just not fully formed yet. No sentence is a bad sentence. It just hasn't been revised yet. Never tell yourself something is bad. Shift the mindset to everything can be improved. I find myself getting better with every fic and every draft.
Get used to writing on your phone. You have to be able to write whenever the ideas strike you if you want to write a lot and write well. So use your notes app or Google Docs or whatever. But get used to writing on your phone. Your thumbs will hurt. That's okay. Write waiting for the doctor. Write in line at the bank. Write on the bus. Write literally anywhere. Stop waiting for the perfect mood to strike or the perfect time or the perfect environment. Write when you think of something.
Always be thinking about it. And in tandem, let yourself be bored. Stop doom scrolling. Take a walk. Listen to music and think about your next scene. I'm literally ALWAYS planning a scene if I'm not actively focusing on another task.
Read. Read all the time. And don't just read. Think about it. Analyze scenes that work. Analyze why they work. How characters are developed. Do this with all forms of storytelling. Movies. TV shows. Graphic design even. Why did it hit so hard? How did they manage to so efficiently convey character traits?
Observe people. Your friends. Screenshot text conversations—use them later. Coworkers. Family. Strangers. Analyze different personality types and how they play off each other. Become trauma informed. Understand how people's pasts affect their behavior now. If you write romance, learn about how different parenting styles affect how people approach romance. Look into attachment theory. I'm not joking. Make psychology a hobby. Read about it. Take a class. Understand how people behave and WHY. This will make your character interactions more realistic. Also, go outside. Touch grass and talk to people.
Understand yourself and your own biases. Journal. Deconstruct your own personality. Figure out what's bleeding onto the page. Keep it or discard it.
Talk to people you know about their jobs and hobbies. Learn about them. Keep a list. A bank of stuff like this to use for side characters. It helps flesh them out and build out your world. It's okay to steal traits from people you know. It will always be more genuine to give characters hobbies and jobs you know about than try and make them up. If you have to make them up, utilize Tiktok and search "day in the life" videos for the type of person you're writing about.
Know that you're never going to feel good enough. You will always want to be better. It will always feel like someone is better than you. This is good. Every writer can improve. The moment you stop being hungry to get better is the moment you lose. You'll never be perfect but you can always chase it. But also, take people at their word when they tell you they loved your writing. They mean it. You are a good writer. But you can never stop getting better. <3
I am running a marathon with a twisted ankle and it hurts but some pain is normal, right? Everyone says it's supposed to be hard. It is a marathon after all. I am running a marathon with a twisted ankle but honestly it could be worse, right? I heard someone once finished with a broken leg. The ankle is nothing compared to that. I am running a marathon with a twisted ankle but you can get used to pain, right? The body can endure almost anything. The problem is always the mind. I am running a marathon with a twisted ankle but I made it this far, that means I can keep going, right? Everyone says it's supposed to be hard. It is a marathon after all.
"why do you keep calling things you find beautiful, inexplicable, and unsettling angels" i'm just doing what british wartime radar technicians did first
