A Fan's Playground

a meme that's been going around! I have been tagged by various ppl, and please do it too if you want to!

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

If we're just looking at the fanfic, I'm at 50. Dang that is many!


2. What's your total ao3 word count?

Currently at 114,681!


3. What are your top five fics by kudos?

truth can find the strangest home, svsss moshang (923 kudos)

If love is what you're after, inception arthur/eames (685 kudos)

revelations from a layover flight, svsss cumplane (231 kudos)

habitat, behaviour, svsss bingqiu (195 kudos)

as free as my hair, mcu steve & bucky (163 kudos)


4. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently: mxtx's three books are on constant rotation in my head and have been for several years. This is by far the most fic I have ever written for a fandom!


5. Do you respond to comments? why or why not?

I do try to! But sometimes I forget, or get overwhelmed, and then all of a sudden it's been years and it feels a bit late! I'm much better at it in recent years, at least, than I was in the early 2010s.


6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hmmm I think when I go for non-happy endings they're usually more bittersweet than angsty... like, for example, "I know what that song means now" (mdzs, jyl/jzx), where the viewpoint character is satisfied with her choices and priorities but narrative doom is hanging over her. And I have several other fics too with the impending threat of narrative doom as the main closing emotion.

For a different approach I also have "promises" (cremation of sam mcgee), but that's creepy rather than angsty.

I really don't think I have written any fics with a specifically angsty ending!


7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I think the most uncomplicatedly happy ending would be either "habitat, behaviour" (svsss, bingqiu), or "bodies, talking" (mdzs, jyl/jzx), both of which have endings focused on basking in the ways a good relationship with a partner who understands your needs can be so fulfilling.


8. Do you get hate on fics?

I have gotten occasional complaints but never straight up hate, so far! At least, that I can remember, lol. Sometimes a bad memory is helpful!


9. Do you write smut?

Sometimes! When it suits the needs of the fic I feel moved to write. It can be a really fun aspect of a character or relationship to explore!


10. Do you write crossovers?

I used to be a lot more into crossovers when I was younger. These days there's a much higher bar to clear for me to be into a crossover idea. The last crossover I wrote was in 2014!


11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Other than the inevitable LLM bot scraping, not that I'm aware of.


12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I vaguely recall having been asked once or twice, but I don't think anything ever came of it.


13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

I did occasionally, in long ago days, but I haven't cowritten in many years at this point.


14. What's your all time favourite ship?

Too hard to answer! I refuse!!! How am I supposed to choose between so many amazing ships!


15. What's the wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

The wangxian telepathic bond. Longing sigh....


16. What are your writing strengths?

Vibes, themes, characters.


17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Plot, fast-paced action or adventure, snappy conversations, that kind of thing.


18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I think there are contexts where it can be an effective choice to include untranslated dialogue, and I think that I'm not qualified to write the kinds of fic where it would be an effective choice.


19. First fandom you wrote for?

As far as I am aware, the fairy tale Cinderella, when I was about 8 years old.


20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Look, my fave is usually whatever I've most recently finished! Because it's what's been occupying my mind the most! Soooo it's either my yet-unposted jingyi fic (just needs me to figure out how to implement an improvement suggested by my beta), or my mxtx remix fic (won't be revealed till April 18, and won't be revealed as being by me until April 25)! So you don't get to read either of them yet. But SOON!

one

it's amazing how many baskets one person can need, once you commit to the basket lifestyle

tidying and organising one's space is best done by having a "home" for things where they belong, and baskets make it all look deliberate and aesthetic! once you realise how many problems baskets can solve, you never stop wanting more of them!


two

I've begun a draft for my mxtx remix exchange fic and I'm very excited! I think (I hope!) that this is gonna be a good one :DDD


three

note to self: when doing things with paint, an apron is insufficient to actually protect your nice clothes from getting paint on them!

thankfully I caught it early enough that I was able to wash the white paint off my navy blue pants - but that was a heart-stopping few moments


four

we need teleportation, stat. I have cool friends I want to visit, all over the globe! how am I supposed to live like this!


five

I learned recently that some people avoid blocking/muting users on #ao3 because they can't stand the notification bar that is visible at the top of every page if you do

I am here to bring good news: this is fixable, using site skins! Even if site skins intimidate you, it's an easy copy-paste situation. All you need to do is create a site skin, paste 3 lines of text into the css field, save it, and apply it as your standard site skin.

Or if you use a custom skin (eg one of official ao3 skins, or other public skins) you can duplicate the skin, saving it as your own, and then edit it, and add the same 3 lines to the code along with all the other css that's already there. And then the fix will be implemented as part of your usual skin.

Here's what you need, these 3 lines. Including the third line with the closing curly bracket is important! and then you're good and will never see the notification banner about mutes/blocks again when you're logged in :)

p.muted.notice {
display: none;
}

six

You may notice that I've updated all my tags that used to begin with "about" to begin with "anent" instead. There's a bug in dw that makes tags beginning with "about" not work right (basically, you can't navigate through more than one page worth of the tag) but it's useful to me to have those tags appear alphabetically near the top of all my tags, so I went for a fairly archaic term as my replacement. As etymonline says:

"concerning, about, in respect or reference to," c. 1200, onont "on level with, beside," also "in the company of, fronting against," a contraction of Old English on efn "near to, close by," literally "on even (ground with);"

Yep, that'll do.

one

Listening to the going rogue podcast has made me more aware of just what it is that various behind the scenes people are doing in the making of a movie, and frankly it just makes me more astonished than ever that anyone does manage to create any actually good and cohesive movies. By their nature, movies are the work of many hands, and they all have to be working together on the same creative vision, and that is so hard...especially when it all has to be done within constraints of things like budget and top-down studio decision-making and everyone's schedules. And yet brilliantly good movies DO exist! Amazing!


two

I need to get out more with my camera again. Just hasn't happened much of late for a variety of reasons! But photography is fun.


three

did u know: it's fun to invent background OCs for fic, actually

fill the world with a sense that there are real people all over the place living their own lives, separate from our heroes and with their own priorities!

I love to read it. I love to write it!


four

Recently I tried to look into whether there are known reasons that many woodpecker species have red on their heads. And I found one study that suggests that a nicely bright bit of red colouration on a woodpecker head is a way to show off for potential mates that you're good breeding material. Birds with brighter red are associated with having better body condition, and producing larger egg clutches, according to one study. They also have smaller territories, which might mean they're able to claim higher quality territory.

Very intriguing results! But this study was just looking at one species of woodpecker, and it's the only info I could find on the topic. Overall it's not a well studied phenomenon, unfortunately!

one

it's funny, my approach to wordcount milestones in writing! when I'm very close to a nice round number, it really feels like a milestone. like: wow, I'm totally going to hit 1,000 words on this wip tomorrow!

then tomorrow comes and as expected I surpass 1,000 words but I don't pay much notice to it, I'm just cracking on with writing. the celebratory feeling is when the milestone is in sight, not when the milestone is reached. interesting.


two

Recently I jumpscared myself while listening to bird songs. One of the recordings of the dusky grouse sounded like a creepy man making weird mouth noises into my ear! Thank you dusky grouse, well done, this is SUCH a funny sound to make as a bird!

(the second recording listed on this page: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Dusky_Grouse/sounds)


three

turns out Christopher Chant fits exactly into the character type I most enjoy playing in zoom theatre. I reread The Lives of Christopher Chant endlessly as a kid, because it's just such a fun book! And now as an adult I can see how it sunk its little hooks into my brain.


four

I need to figure out a system for deciding which bird pics are for my rl-name presence online and which for my pseudonymous fandom presence online, so that I can post bird pics here sometimes. And also on my website in the bird shrine!


five

Found a new volunteering gig, went to my first meeting with them, and within a couple of days was trusted with login information for their entire website and email and social media accounts. And I might be the main website person now?

It's amazing what power you can accrue by dint of showing up and raising your hand.


six

I have been mentally scrabbling around for the right word for. uh. years? to succinctly summarize for myself in private bookmarks a certain mode of fic writing that very earnestly and naively sands off all complexities in order to present a one-dimensional story.

My mind kept presenting "juvenile" to me but that's not actually the right word. But I could never get to the right word because juvenile was always standing in the way, preventing me from seeing past it.

This week the word "facile" came to me and like. close! so close!!! I could feel the conclusion of my quest within my reach! And then looking facile up in wordhippo presented me with "jejune" as an option and like -- yes! That's exactly it! I have never used the word jejune before in my life but I guess I am going to start now. In private, where the authors I consider jejune can Never see it.

Jejune! I DID IT.

one

whenever I work on a sewing project that involves a lot of piecing scraps of fabric together in order to achieve the necessary size/shape of pattern pieces, I think to myself "piecing is period" thanks to bernadette banner. even though nothing I'm making is particularly period!


two

kinglets might be a load-bearing portion of my mental health rn and you know, I'm so valid for that. they're such perfect birbs


three

recently I was listening to a library & archives canada podcast episode about a collection of hebraica and judaica, and the collection manager was talking about a particular volume that was written out by hand by a non-expert in the 18th century, in the context of a village that didn't have access to a printing press

and the collection manager said he can't imagine what it would be like to want a book so much that you would take the time to write out the whole thing by hand in the evenings after your full day of work

and meanwhile I was like. when you were describing this book, my first reaction was that I want to try writing out a whole book by hand!! it sounds fun! and I don't even have the context of that being my only way to be able to have that book!


four

it's funny being in fandoms (danmei!) where the canon is horny enough that I actually do not read most of my blorbos as asexual. I have spent most of my fannish life casually accidentally assuming everyone's ace because there's no canon to explicitly contradict it. sure they love each other, but sex?? why would they want that?

but now. like. the sexual attraction and interest is right there on the page! in detail! so obviously it makes sense to write fic about it. even if, the whole time, I seem to have internalised it as merely one of the weird quirks of these particular characters, lol

(It just seems so fake to me that most people are allosexual!)


five

I need to learn not to gasp in delight and whisper "oh! hi there, friend!!!" when I see a cool bird near me that I wasn't expecting lol. birds tend not to like that!


six

thinking this morning about an SVSSS fic I wrote where a background character is wearing yellow....evidence that PIDW is set prior to the Tang era and the development of sumptuary laws proscribing the wearing of yellow for commoners? or evidence that airplane wasn't thinking very hard about sumptuary laws when he was writing? (or both? :P)

one

as of this coming saturday I will have been on tumblr for 13 years. that is so many years. how!!!


two

one of the small pleasures in life: sitting around with your partner, each of you working on your own hand-sewing/mending projects, and casually chatting about topics of mutual interest


three

I have now seen! flying squirrels!!!!! it's so cool that they're a mammal that exists on this world - and a mammal I can see in my country!

I need to start keeping a life list of all the mammals I see


four

another small pleasure: rereading my own fic sometimes and getting to be like, yeah that WAS a banger 😊


five

mdzs book club with verity has had 29 meetings. we started on january 20th of this year and are going strong. we're doing SO good. every book club meeting is a joy and delight! highly recommend the experience of doing a two-person book club with a good friend!

one

recently I was telling someone about crop milk and it is such a delightfully cursed bird fact that I have to share it here too!

did you know that mammals aren't the only living things to produce milk? a select few bird species have independently evolved it too! pigeons, flamingos, and emperor penguins all secrete milk from their crop to feed their young! lactation is even stimulated by prolactin, the same hormone that causes lactation in mammals!

crop milk has fat and proteins, like mammal milk, but no carbohydrates. it's also got the various immune boosting stuff and other similar intangibles

In pigeons, crop milk is....not quite a liquid. it's a pale yellow semi-solid that has been compared to cottage cheese.

flamingos have liquid crop milk! but it's bright red that looks like blood!!

(the colour fades over time though, it only looks like blood for the first week or so after hatching)

all I've been able to determine about penguin crop milk is that it is "thick"


two

I love being able to just go into the css stylesheet for my website and alter a detail about how lists are formatted....and then that change is automatically enacted for every list on every page of my site! it's so cool. coding is cool!


three

just finishing up listening to a podcast episode about pterosaurs and *dreamy sigh* pterosaurs are just so cool you guys


four

me spitballing funny fic ideas with a friend, and oh shit now I really want to write one of them!

it's amazing to me now that I used to struggle so much with coming up with fic ideas to write...these days I have far more than I can actually get to!


five

something I learned recently: it does not matter WHAT name I changed my irl name to, a certain type of cis people will find a way to hear a feminine name no matter what your name is, if they read you as female

I thought I had just insufficiently considered what my name could be misheard as! but no the problem is not with me.


posting about pterosaurs DOES mean I had to update my dinosaur tag. bc pterosaurs are not dinosaurs and I needed my tag to be actually inclusive!

one

tfw you get an email into your inbox titled THE WYRMHOLE and you're like. what's a wyrmhole and why am I being emailed about it. what kind of weird scam is this?

turns out it's a speculative short fiction newsletter I forgot I subscribed to? that is on its second issue ever? I have no idea how I came across it to sign up but I am glad to be in the wyrmhole now.


two

currently impressed by just how many times I can re-steep an oolong tea and have it still taste great

I'm not even brewing gong fu style, just re-brewing for 2 min every steep! and I can get six steeps out of the leaves!


three

my ning yingying wip now opens with nyy having to deal with helping an inconvenient small lost child while she is TRYING to have emotional revelations, and it's feeling much better than my first attempt at the scene. I should use this strategy more often, of making my characters deal with something irritating while they want to be focused on something else!


four

last week I made a mini zine about my houseplants for fun! https://federatedfandom.net/@soph_sol/112888711095172937


five

*slaps the hood of tgcf* this baby can fit so many trans characters in it

one

I had a dream where I learned I was a shapeshifter who can turn into a common loon?! ok not the most convenient kind of bird to take the shape of, given that they can't walk on land and they need an entire lake's worth of runway to take off into flight. but still! extremely cool, and I would like to go back to the dream where I was in the process of learning the lore of loon shapeshifters, please


two

I enjoy the positive feedback loop of:

1. I enjoy ling wen as a character!

2. people talk to me about ling wen because they know I like her, so I need to gain knowledge and understanding of her to talk about her better!

3. now I enjoy ling wen even more as a character!

4. people come to associate me with how much I love ling wen, so I need to do deeper dives into REALLY understanding her, so I can do justice to her!

5. now I enjoy ling wen even more as a character!

etc

(talk to me about ling wen any time! :D)


three

tfw you like all your recent fic so much that you want to put all of it into the "author's favourites" series you created on ao3. but. that would kind of defeat the purpose of having a series that collects just my faves!

I'm in my SELF-HYPE ERA. where I feel good about the things I make and do!


four

yes I am extraordinarily behind in commenting on posts, replying to comments, etc. I have just been too busy of late! I hold onto desperate hope that maybe this weekend I'll have the time to catch up a bit.

one

WELL I now own an antique tatting shuttle so I guess lace making is something that could be in my future?

owning a tatting shuttle is something that could happen to anyone!


two

dang my dreaming mind went ALL in on creating a classic gothic narrative the other night. big manor house that you run away from as it goes up in flames and everything. good stuff!


three

writing is so cool and fun you guys!!!!

I just am NOT over how writing has become a fun hobby I LIKE TO DO ACTIVELY, instead of writing being something that I liked to /have done/

never would have thought that all those years of making myself write bc I liked to have written would lead me here to this place!!


four

last night I was reading a fic where tea-making and tea-drinking were so well described that I literally went to go reach for a mug of tea next to me. where there was no mug of tea because I had not made tea that evening!


five

the thing about listening to podcasts about birds is that they simultaneously fill me with joy and wonder about all the cool things I learn about birds, and also with despair as it inevitably comes up that so many species are threatened or at risk or in massive decline due to human activities, like climate change and pesticides and invasive species and commercial fishing practices, and so much more. it's heartbreaking!!