Undisclosed Desires

Multi-Fandom Discord Server

ragingrainbow — Sun, 09 Feb 2020 19:56:13 GMT

I've had a multi-fandom group chat on Twitter for a while and we recently decided that a Discord server would be nice for better organization (especially for things like pretty pics and recs). So, I've started a Discord server and I thought I'd open it up for others who might want a fannish refuge.

We're an 18+ server (most of us are in our 30s), we're respectful of everyone's fandoms, ships, kinks etc. In the two years we have functioned as a Twitter group chat we have been blessedly drama-free and we want to remain as such. We like to share pretty pics and gifs (sometimes nsfw - which has a separate channel), talk about fandom, rec fanworks and music, and chat about general life things.

If it's something that would interest you let me know and I'll give you an invite. :)

Electric Challenge: Stage 4

ragingrainbow — Sun, 09 Feb 2020 18:24:25 GMT

Stage 4: Faves and Recs

Part 1: in your own space, decide on your favorite genre of game. Declare it.

Part 2: Once you've done the above, select three games that you think are the best examples of your favorite genre.

Part 3: State the one character that is your favorite in each of these games. Talk about them.

Part 4: Rec three or more fanwork(s), each of which features at least one of your three favorite characters.

Definitely RPGs. I love immersive games with interesting plot (especially games where I can affect the plot/ending through my character's choices), well-developed characters and a varied game world to explore. I love when I get to assemble a team of heroes. I like when there are lots of things to collect and craft. I like interesting and varied romance options. And I really love when there are difficulty settings that start at "I just want to experience the story" - I tend to enjoy something more challenging on replays, but I just want to experience everything the first time around. Because I have such very specific liked, I tend to be quite franchise-loyal. So let's talk about some of my favourite franchises. :)

Spoiler Warning: This contains minor spoilers for some NPCs and combat systems of the games I talk about. I don't spoil any major plot points, but if you're the kind of player who want to know nothing at all before you pick up a game then don't read on. (It's just difficult to talk about why I love these games without talking about combat systems and some character development ^^.)

Dragon Age
My love for this series was pretty much instant - I bought Origins and Awakening (unopened) at a thrift store and once I started playing I was instantly drawn in by the plot and characters. Since I happened to pick them up just before Inquisition released, I ended up buying Dragon Age II as soon as I finished all of Origins and then I only had a small wait to get Inquisition. I do have to say that although the first two games are brilliant Inquisition has definitely become a firm favourite. I love the game world. I love trotting around on my horse. I love the whole system of establishing camps and bases. I love Dorian ♥ (and I can never quite decide if I want to romance him myself or leave him for Bull because both options are awesome). Although I do find it hard to pick favourite characters in these games because there are so many interesting, well-developed characters and their backgrounds and personalities are so varied. I love Krem as well, and will forever wish he was a romance option. I'm super excited that DA4 is incoming, even if it's a looong wait!

Mass Effect
Look, Bioware just know what they are doing. I actually bought the first three games without knowing anything about them, just because they were on sale as a bundle (although this was after I had fallen in love with Dragon Age, so I did suspect I would enjoy them). I think Mass Effect 2 is my favourite, I really enjoy the storyline of that one and I like that you can end up with a really disastrous ending. Although I do love 3 as well, especially the character development of your team members. I really love Garrus, and romancing him is interesting and at times funny. (Seriously though, the ability to romance aliens is one of my favourite things about this series!) I actually still haven't finished Andromeda, the plot of that hasn't pulled me in as much (probably party because it lacks in recurring characters from previous games) and also they changed how the camera works from previous games so it gives me motion sickness if I play too long, which is a little disappointing.

Elder Scrolls
My favourite Elder Scrolls game is definitely Skyrim, although I really enjoy ESO as well - it's easily my favourite MMO even if I have a long-standing love for WoW. My love of Skyrim was a little slower to come about than my love for some other favourite games. Basically at first it just made me motion sickness, but then I found that there is a mod that helps with that so I gave it another chance. And that time I rolled a mage and kept accidentally setting fire to things which was not great. :P Next try I tried being a Khajiit thief and I loved it! I spend so much time in this game (and in ESO, too) just sneaking around lockpicking and stealing stuff. And also assassinating people. It's a bit of an adrenaline kick to see if you get caught! One of my favourite things is definitely the crime/justice system - and the fact that the game recognizes criminal behaviour at all. It's just excellent for immersion. I don't really have any favourite characters in Skyrim (although I live Khajiits in general)? Despite easily falling in love with characters, I feel like I play this game for completely different reasons (doing crime, basically, lol).

Fanwork Recs
I don't tend to consume fanworks for game fandoms as much as I do other fandoms, but here are a few I enjoyed:

Can it wait a bit? by ravandus-poliux (Mass Effect, Garrus/Shepard)

Tali by labotor (Mass Effect)

This whole set of DA characters with flowers by drawingisfornerds (Dragon Age)

Dorian by anta_rf (Dragon Age)

To Rest in the Warmest Places (19532 words) by Sinope
Chapters: 6/6
Fandom: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Iron Bull/Cullen Rutherford
Characters: Cullen Rutherford, Iron Bull, Cremisius "Krem" Aclassi, Female Trevelyan, Dorian Pavus
Additional Tags: pre-Cullen/Dorian (background), very minor Inquisitor/Bull, Developing Relationship, Slow Burn, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Resolved Sexual Tension, BDSM, Dom/sub, Masochism, Bondage, Wax Play, Paddling, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Anal Sex, Oral Sex, Hair-pulling, Sparring, Voluntary Chastity, (don't worry there's lots of sex too), Safewords, mention of canonical past non-con
Series: Part 1 of A Canticle of Transfigurations
Summary: The Iron Bull watched Cullen from the beginning, but it took time for Cullen to let himself be seen. After all, he'd become so good at denying what he wanted that he never learned how to take what he needed.

Strategic Alternative (2672 words) by osamakes
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Iron Bull/Cullen Rutherford
Characters: Iron Bull, Cullen Rutherford
Additional Tags: Wall Sex, Frottage, Light Masochism, Cullen is a good boy!, Obedience
Series: Part 1 of Counterpoise
Summary: Given the choice, Cullen would much rather just burn Orlais to the ground rather than worry about a ball. It's a valid opinion, but Bull has a better idea.

Lay your ghosts down (3555 words) by vaguely_concerned
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dragon Age (Video Games)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Iron Bull/Dorian Pavus
Characters: Dorian Pavus, Iron Bull, Bull's Chargers (Dragon Age)
Additional Tags: Established Relationship, Canon Compliant, Post Trespasser
Summary: Bull tilted his face into the kiss. He reflexively pushed down the shake in his fingers, then had one of those moments of world-turned-upside-down dizziness as he realized he didn’t have to anymore. There was no one left here but the two of them and the Chargers, no Qun to be ultimately responsible to. It was the harder trick, figuring out when you didn’t have to lie.
He let himself tremble, just a little.

Strange New Worlds (637 words) by pluto
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2 - Fandom
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian
Characters: Female Shepard, Garrus Vakarian
Summary: Truth is, the first time Shepard gets Garrus's clothes off, she's not quite sure how to react. Written for the ME Kinkmeme.

Electric Challenge: Stage 3

ragingrainbow — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 15:08:35 GMT

Stage 3: Hometown + Community

Today, in your own space, talk about where you go to talk about games: your favorite communities! They can be here on Dreamwidth or off on other sites - which you can link to, if you want - or they can be offline. Wherever they are, they are your communities and today you can tell us why you like them and why they’re the place for you.

I'm not really part of many gaming communities. Back when the majority of games I played were MMOs, it was natural that the communities I talked about the game in were those related to the guilds I was part of - both ingame chat and things like teamspeak/ventrilo/discord servers and guild forums out of the game. I've always been a social guild member, so I utilized all those things to connect with fellow guild members.

When I moved from playing MMOs it wasn't as natural to socialize with others playing the games and I didn't really look for communities or forums. I have a few online friends who also game so I do squee with them sometimes, and my sister does play some games like Skyrim so sometimes we chat about what we're doing in game. I did join a few gaming communities on Facebook at one stage but I felt like there was too much drama going on (20+ years in fandom has given me such a low tolerance for wank) so I left most of them. The only ones I'm still in are a few Gaming Mommies groups (which I do recommend if you are a mother who games) and I'm A Girl & I Play WoW (which I'm not really active in any more since I don't currently play WoW, but it's a friendly group so I didn't want to leave).

I also follow some game-specific Tumblr blogs but that's mostly for pretty gifs/art and funny memes and not so much for community.

I'd quite like to join some gaming related Discord servers (esp for Mass Effect / Dragon Age) but it's a lot more effort to find those when it's not just a server for a guild you join, and I'm an awful procrastinator, so. :P (Honestly one of the reasons I joined this challenge was in the hope of finding some more people to talk about games with.)

Electric Challenge 2020: Stage 2

ragingrainbow — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 16:40:29 GMT

For those who might want to join this challenge, stage 1 was a friending meme.

Stage 2: A Gamer is You
As much as we like to say we've been playing video games all our lives, each of us had to start somewhere and go from there. Today, in your own space, talk about your history as a gamer. Where did it all begin? When did it all begin? Which games had the biggest impact on you? And so on.

Well, I definitely have not been playing video games all my life, because I didn't have access to any until my early teens. (I did enjoy board games, card games and making up elaborate fantasy stories involving quests that I played out though - so I guess those were a precursor to my later interest in gaming.)

My first experience of gaming as such came when I was around 10 and we got a computer in the classroom at school. While it was mainly used for schoolwork, there was one game on it we were allowed to play on breaks - a text based adventure game called Stugan. I remember being so fascinated by it! The same year one of my friends got a NES and we spent many, many hours playing Super Mario Bros. I have fond memories of lugging the console around between our houses because that same friend got a new sibling that year and her mother apparently thought letting her bring the console over to someone else's house was a small price to pay for not having us in their house all the time. :P

It was a few years later before we got a home computer and I had actual computer games at home. My first few were ones that came on a disk from some magazine or other, the only one I remember was Lemmings which I was obsessed with. At some stage we got a few disks with various DOS games, the only two I remember is Keen 4 (which is a game I still pull out now and then) and Winter Challenge (the slalom and bobsledding was just super addictive?!). We also got Rayman at one point, which was another early favourite.

In 2000 I got The Sims as a gift and that was a game I would love for a long time (I still play Sims now and then, and I have played all the iterations and expansions). This was the first time I was so into a game that I actually stayed up half the night to play it (much to my mother's chagrin). I gotta be nostalgic for Makin Magic! Still one of the best expansions for the games. I spent so much time in that game building houses and raising generations of sims at at one point (during Sims 2) I made my own clothing and objects. It was pretty much the only game I played until...

Me and my sister got a Playstation 2 for Christmas in 2003. \o/ By then I had wanted a console for a long time and I can still remember the absolute happiness of finally having one. (And the frustration of having to share it with my sister lol.) We got a few games with it, one of which was Final Fantasy X-2. This was my first time playing a RPG and definitely solidified my love for gaming. I played through it so many times (and still have trauma from that fricking lightning tower calibration). I was obsessed with it on a level where I would pretend to bee asleep until my parents slept so I could get back up and play in secret. I bought Final Fantasy X as well for my very first paycheck and unsurprisingly loved that one as well.

After that I have continued to mainly play RPGs, because I now knew that I loved to immerse myself in story-driven games. A boyfriend introduced me to World of Warcraft and that was my main gaming obsession for many years. I joined right before TBC released so I never raided in Classic, but I raided a lot (first as an affliction warlock and later as a resto druid - I very much love being in a support role) in TBC and for the later half of it I was GM for a raiding guild. I hiatused for a while at the start of WotLK because I moved between countries, and then I had a brief stint in a small and amazingly friendly raiding guild but when that guild disbanded I never quite got back into it. I jumped between guilds for a while, raiding a bit here and there through the start of Cataclysm, but I soon found that my enjoyment of dungeons and endgame content was largely based on being in a guild I really felt comfortable in and I never quite found a guild like that again, so even though I have kept coming back every new expansion I have just pottered about doing what I can solo and then inevitably left again. I just don't like PUGs.

Funnily enough it's only recently that I have started actively looking for new games, before that I have mostly been introduced to them by friends or random circumstances. My love for Diablo came really randomly because I was without internet for a month and just bought a random game, and Dragon Age I found when I bought Origins and Awakening (unopened!) for about a dollar each in a thrift store a few years after their release. But Steam has definitely made it easier to find new games and I'm a bit more adventurous now, although the bulk of me trying new games is still through recs - unless there's a new game in a franchise I already know I love, of course.

Honestly though this question also made me reflect on how I don't really see myself as a gamer - I love games, and have done for as long as I've had access to them, but to my mind a gamer is someone who is more serious about gaming than me. But then I think back on the games I've played, and how much time I spend playing them, and how much I love them, and the fact that I own several pieces of game merch, and I guess I kind of have to reconsider...

Snowflake Challenge 2020: Challenge 15

ragingrainbow — Wed, 29 Jan 2020 21:51:34 GMT

Challenge #15
In your own space, create your own challenge.

Since there was some interest in the aftercare challenge when I mentioned it, I thought I would attempt to do another round of it! Last time I tried making a round 2 was a bit of a dud, but I'm hoping since it's been a few year there might be interested people who missed the first one.

I made a separate post for it here, for organisations sake. Please check it out if it's something that might interest you, and feel free to spread the word!

For those of you who are not interested in that, or those of you who are but want to do this too, I would like to challenge you to do something kind for yourself today. Whether that is treating yourself to something you want, reminding yourself of your worth, permitting yourself to rest, booking that appointment, setting limits/saying no, or whatever else you might be able to do for yourself. However big or small. It's easy to do nice things for others but a lot of us aren't as good as being nice to ourselves. (I used my cane when I went out today, despite disliking it. Definitely kind to my body.)

Now I'm off to check out what kind of challenges other people cane up with. :D

Snowflake Challenge 2020: Challenge 14

ragingrainbow — Wed, 29 Jan 2020 20:06:32 GMT

Challenge #14
In your own space, share your love for a trope, cliché, kink, motif, or theme. (Or a few!) What makes it particularly appealing for you? What do you like in fanworks featuring that trope?

I gotta say, after ~20 years of reading the same tropes in fic, my very favourite thing these days is old tropes done in new/unusual ways. A/B/O where the omega is the one who has power over the alpha? Slavefic where the owner is reluctant and actually wants slavery to be abolished? Soulmate fic where they fall in love before they even realize they are soulmate? Poly soulmate/soulmark fic (I just read my first poly soulmark fic recently and gosh I loved it)? Whatever it is, I am so very excited every time I find a po popular trope with a twist.

There are, of course, also some tropes and kinks that are my forever tropes and kinks...

The canonically powerful/in charge/whatever character as the sub/bottom
This really is one of my biggest kinks. It's a slightly frustrating one to have too, because in 99% of fandoms this will be the character almost everyone writes as the Dom/top. But I just love reading about characters who are always in control being broken and put back together. What does it take to make them beg? And really just the sheer intimacy of trusting their partner(s) enough to let go of all pretense of control with them. (What a rush it is for the partner who gets to be the one to take them apart. How big a responsibility it is.) This ties in nicely with one of my other big ones...

Soft Doms
In particular, I really, really love the combination canonically powerful character who submits to a really soft/gentle Dom. I love when it's gentleness, not pain (although I don't mind if there's pain, too) that takes the sub apart. I love Doms who are confident and competent but also gentle and caring. I feel like there's a perpetual lack of gently Doms in fic (idk if that is just because I crave it all the time, or if there is a common misconception that Doms have to be rough all the time). Oh and I also love...

Praise Kink
Are we starting to see a pattern here? (Give me all the kink with feelings, please.) In particular I really love praise kink in conjunction with kinks heavy on humiliation or/and pain. I don't care that much about humiliation/pain in itself, but tell that sub how pretty they are when they cry and I will be all in. :3

Aftercare
I've mentioned this once already this year, so I shan't dwell. But it ties in with the other ones so let me just me just mention it again lol.

Femdom
Most of my fandoms don't have any big m/f or f/f ships, so I don't see (or write) anywhere near as much of this as I'd like, but I do love femdom.

OT3/Poly
If there's a possible OT3 ship in canon, chances are I ship it. My forever OT3 is Elizabeth Burke/Peter Burke/Neal Caffrey, but there are quite a few others I ship to some degree.

Slavefic
This one I'm more picky with, since slavefic will always have inherent consent issues, and I am not a fan of noncon involving any of my pairings. But like I mentioned earlier, I really enjoy fic in which the owner is reluctant/caring/actually against slavery. In particular I really like when the trope takes the turn of formerly abused slave slowly learning to trust and actually kind owner. (I love Hurt/Comfort in general, and this trope just lends itself so well to that.) Luckily this isn't too uncommon a take in slavefic. Every time I talk about slavefic and caring masters I think about maculategiraffe's The Slave Breakers series, and my random favourite scene, which is where Jesse observes this moment between Holden and Bran:

Holden cut a bite-sized piece from his omelette with a fork, then used the fork to delicately dissect the piece before lifting it to Bran's lips. He repeated the operation twice before Jesse realized he was removing the mushrooms from the omelette's filling before feeding it to Bran, and that Bran was looking at Holden with wide, startled eyes.

"You don't like mushrooms," Holden said softly to him, touching another bite to Bran's lips; Bran opened his mouth automatically, still staring at his master. Jesse blinked at both of them, somehow less able to absorb this tiny,mundane gesture than the myriad other shocks his expectations had received over the past three days.

It was certainly conceivable-- he thought-- that a well-nourished slave who routinely ate at the same table with his owners would grow confident enough about food to develop preferences, likes and dislikes. But Jesse couldn't imagine Bran picking over anything he was served. Holden was a trainer who wouldn't encourage young slaves in a dangerous habit like fussy eating,and in any case Bran would surely be horrified at the idea of such ingratitude as a refusal to eat anything his master was pleased to give him. He might privately dislike mushrooms, but Jesse would have bet his own life Bran would eat them cheerfully. Yet somehow Holden had observed the preference, and was taking the trouble to indulge it as he fed Bran.

There are so many scenes in this series that I love, but there's something so understated in this gesture that just makes me super emotional every time I think about it.

Oh and I cannot forget to mention my absolute favourite ship dynamic:

The absolutely soft, bubbly character who somehow weasles their way into the heart of the closed-off loner.

Is it any surprise my latest obsession is Geralt and Jaskier? No it is not. Not even a little bit. (By the way, going back to the first kink I listed, Geralt totally bottoms.)

Snowflake Challenge 2020: Challenge 13

ragingrainbow — Wed, 29 Jan 2020 16:52:02 GMT

Challenge 13
In your own space, create a fanwork.

I started plotting a fic for The Witcher the other day, but I haven't quite got far enough to share anything from it. But I did make a playlist for it already to set the mood, so I thought I'd share that as a little fanmix, since I spent several hours trying to find just the right songs so it seemed like a little much effort on something not to share it.

I didn't have the spoons to make it a proper cover image and stuff today but here's a rough version for now! Hopefully someone else will enjoy it.

Paint Me In Trust // A Geralt/Jaskier Fanmix
[[listen on spotify]]

dodie - Human
Will you share your soul with me?
Unzip your skin and let me have a see
Paint me in trust
I'll be your best friend

Damien Rice - I Don't Want To Change You
Wherever you go
Well, I can always follow
I can feed this real slow
If it's a lot to swallow

mxmtoon – feelings are fatal
So I'll keep it inside and bury it deep
I know it's not healthy, but you won't hear a peep
Though I'm always sad and I'm always lonely
I could never tell you that I'm breaking slowly

j'san - i'm in love with u, sorry
I'm in love with you
You heard me
I Guess
I'm in love with you

The Oh Hellos - Hello My Old Heart
Hello, my old heart
How have you been?
Are you still there inside my chest?
I've been so worried, you've been so still
Barely beating at all

Helen Rose - Love Me Like I'm Not Made Of Stone
Even though it hurts, Even though it scars
Love me when it storms, Love me when I fall
Every time it breaks, Every time its torn
Love me like I'm not made of stone

Tom Odell - Can't Pretend
Love, I have wounds
Only you can mend
I guess that's love
I can't pretend

Christian Leave - Please Notice
Cause I notice when you get mad
You close your eyes
And I notice when you are sad
You let out sighs
I need to know are those sighs ever over me?

Nikolaj Grandjean - Uncuff Me
It's that I love you and you love me
What I wish to come across with here
Is I want you to waltz with me
Have it echo, have it resound in here, clearly</div>

Snowflake Challenge 2020: Challenge 12

ragingrainbow — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 21:16:29 GMT

Challenge #12
Commit an Act of Kindness (or two or three ♥).

Today started out awful for me. I have a sinus infection and was unbearably nauseous, and I've had pain in my right wrist for days that's steadily getting worse (I know my body well enough to know those two are connected and nothing to worry about, but it still sucks).

So when I saw what today's challenge was I decided to throw all my limited energy today into making the world a little brighter. I might be miserable, but that's no reason not to make someone else smile!

I'm in a penpal group where lots of members send RAKs to each other. Just small things to cheer someone up. A year and a half ago I was having a rough time weathering a bad fibro flare and a few members sent me random gifts to cheer me up. Ever since I have been meaning to pay it forward but I am way too good at procrastinating. So today I finally did it, I picked two members to send little gifts to. Looking forward to them receiving their gifts. :D

I also went and dug for fics without comments in a couple of my smaller fandoms, so I could leave comments on a few I enjoyed. (Though I only read a few short ones, I bookmarked a few more to read and comment on some day when I have more energy.) I saw a challenge for people to do this a while back, and at the time I was swamped with other things, but I kept meaning to do it eventually. So I grabbed the excuse to make a start at it!

And I treated myself to the pretty yarn I have been eyeing for a few months! Which is definitely an act of kindness for myself, because I needed yarn to make myself some wrist warmers. Our house gets too chilly when it's cold and windy. I'm so bad at making stuff for myself though. I'll happily spend 20 euro on yarn to make a blanket for a gift, but spending the same amount on yarn to make myself things suddenly seems too pricey...

Anyway, this is the yarn I ordered:

I'm using the plain green one to make myself dragonscale fingerless gloves (providing it's soft enough, at least). Haven't decided on patterns for the others, we'll see when I get them.

I had planned to go back to the wishlist challenge when/if this one came around, but I didn't really have enough mental energy to sort through wishlists today. So I am making a note to myself here to go back to read more of them before this challenge is over. Because acts of kindness brighten everyone's day!

I definitey managed to make myself smile today, so I hope I made some other people smile too! And now I am going to curl up with a cup of sleepytime tea and hope for a good nights sleep for myself. :)

Snowflake Challenge 2020: Challenge 11

ragingrainbow — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 17:02:13 GMT

Challenge #11
In your own space, recommend a fannish or creative resource.

First of all, I want to rec Fanlore, because I feel like a lot of fans aren't aware that it exists? From their Wikipedia page: Fanlore is a wiki created to preserve the history of transformative works, as well as that of fans, and fandoms, with a focus on people and their activities rather than on fandom canon. It is owned by the OTW. It's an awesome research for learning about fannish history (or, you know, nostalgia tripe). They also have a Dreamwidth Community at fanlore, for news and announcements.

For writing resources, I specifically want to highlight OneLook Reverse Dictionary and Thesaurus. "This tool lets you describe a concept and get back a list of words and phrases related to that concept." I'm not exaggerating when I say that this has saved my sanity! All those times you just cannot think of the right word as you are writing, this site is real good at finding that word for you (as long as you can find words to describe what you want lolol).

I also want to rec little_details, which is an excellent fact-checking community for writers. They have a 10+ year archive of tagged posts so chances are you can find the info you need, and if not, it's a great place to ask!

And because I like to share, here are some of my bookmarked pages and posts which I find especially useful for writing fic:

Ten Mistakes Writers Don’t See (But Can Easily Fix When They Do)

Format, Paragraphs and Pacing: All the Boring Crap that Makes a Fic Readable

An Easy Guide to Writing a Kick-ass Summary

Ten Simple Ways To Get More Attention For Your Fanwork

A Users’ Guide to AO3 Tagging

Entitlement? In a sense

On Writing AUs

Historical resources for fanfic writers

Tips On How to Write Characters with Wings (For both fanfic writers and original content writers)

Resources For Writing Sketchy Topics

How to Write Pain

How To Write Magic

Let Your Characters Lie

Writing: Characterization and Body Language

Writing smut for the non-smut writer

1001 ways to write an orgasm

Make it Hot

Smut 101: The Geekfiction Guide to Getting It On...On the Page

[writing] why do you think the 'net was born? porn, porn, porn!

Workshop – Fic Soundtracks: Unite Rhythm With Words

And this Tumblr post about the best way to cuddle to warm up someone with hypothermia. Look, you never know when you need an escuse for characters to cuddle, right? :P

Yeah, I know the challenge said "a fannish resource", but I know this is the kind of challenge that's going to be fine with my over-enthusiasm. And I hope people might find these as useful as I do!

Snowflake Challenge 2020: Challenge 10

ragingrainbow — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 16:16:06 GMT

Challenge #10
In your own space, talk About A Creator/Someone Who Inspired You.

You know, I always tend to struggle with questions like this, because I tend to find it difficult to pinpoint specific people who inspire me. But, the reason I did these challenges in one day is because I decided I wanted to talk about Neil Gaiman for this.

I was gifted American Gods by someone I dated almost 10 years ago - and at the time I had kind of fallen out of the habit of reading, but I instantly fell in love with the book. I went on the buy and read several other books of his (at the time the only other one I had read was Good Omens).

At some stage I found his blog and started to really appreciate him as a person and his insight into writing. There's been many times I have felt discouraged by my own writing when things he have said have inspired me to just write anyway.

Some quotes and things from him I've found especially inspiring:

Know safely what the rules are, and then break them with joy.

The process of writing can be magical — there times when you step out of an upper-floor window and you just walk across thin air, and it’s absolute and utter happiness. Mostly, it’s a process of putting one word after another.

If you like fantasy and you want to be the next Tolkien, don’t read big Tolkienesque fantasies — Tolkien didn’t read big Tolkienesque fantasies, he read books on Finnish philology. Go and read outside of your comfort zone, go and learn stuff.

"Tell your story. Don’t try and tell the stories that other people can tell. Because [as a] starting writer, you always start out with other people’s voices — you’ve been reading other people for years… But, as quickly as you can, start telling the stories that only you can tell — because there will always be better writers than you, there will always be smarter writers than you … but you are the only you.

The world always seems brighter when you've just made something that wasn't there before.

Tomorrow may be hell, but today was a good writing day, and on the good writing days nothing else matters.

Basically his whole NaNoWriMo peptalk, but especially:

You write. That’s the hard bit that nobody sees. You write on the good days and you write on the lousy days. Like a shark, you have to keep moving forward or you die. Writing may or may not be your salvation; it might or might not be your destiny. But that does not matter. What matters right now are the words, one after another. Find the next word. Write it down. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

His 8 Good Writing Practices, particularly #8:

The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you're allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it's definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I'm not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.

His "Make Good Art" Speech, select quotes:

The rules on what is possible and impossible in the arts were made by people who had not tested the bounds of the possible by going beyond them. And you can.

When you start off, you have to deal with the problems of failure. You need to be thickskinned, to learn that not every project will survive. A freelance life, a life in the arts, is sometimes like putting messages in bottles, on a desert island, and hoping that someone will find one of your bottles and open it and read it, and put something in a bottle that will wash its way back to you: appreciation, or a commission, or money, or love. And you have to accept that you may put out a hundred things for every bottle that winds up coming back.

The one thing you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can. The moment that you feel that just possibly you are walking down the street naked… That’s the moment you may be starting to get it right.

I hope you'll make mistakes. If you're making mistakes, it means you're out there doing something. And the mistakes in themselves can be useful. I once misspelled Caroline, in a letter, transposing the A and the O, and I thought, “Coraline looks like a real name…”

And now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make good art.

But, mostly, I find a lot of comfort in this one:

As far as I'm concerned, the entire reason for becoming a writer is not having to get up in the morning. It's not writing when you don't want to, and writing late at night if you want to. I'm a fairly undisciplined writer.

Because I, too, am an undisciplined writer, and I always kind of felt that I couldn't be a published writer because of that, so it is incredibly encouraging to see a successful writer who works in a similar way.

And, for good measure, here are some of my favourite quotes from his works, because reading great lines from other writers always inspires me (plus, a lot of these are just generally inspiring, too):

Grown-ups don't look like grown-ups on the inside either. Outside, they're big and thoughtless and they always know what they're doing. Inside, they look just like they always have. Like they did when they were your age. Truth is, there aren't any grown-ups. Not one, in the whole wide world. (The Ocean at the End of the Lane)

It is sometimes a mistake to climb; it is always a mistake never even to make the attempt. If you do not climb, you will not fall. This is true. But is it that bad to fail, that hard to fall? (The Sandman)

"Not only are there no happy endings," she told him, "there aren't even any endings." (American Gods)

Fear is contagious. You can catch it. Sometimes all it takes is for someone to say that they're scared for the fear to become real. (The Graveyard Book)

When angels go bad they are worse than anyone else. Remember Lucifer used to be an angel. (Neverwhere)

When we hold each other, in the darkness, it doesn't make the darkness go away. The bad things are still out there. The nightmares still walking. When we hold each other we feel not safe, but better. 'It's all right' we whisper, 'I'm here, I love you.' and we lie: 'I'll never leave you.' For just a moment or two the darkness doesn't seem so bad. (Midnight Days)

And I also want to throw out some love to fannish creators and say that every single one inspires me! Fandom is just and endless source of inspiration for me, the way people make free art just because they love things so much. When you think about it, it's amazing. ♥

Snowflake Challenge 2020: Challenge 9

ragingrainbow — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 14:34:38 GMT

I was originally going to do challenge 9 and 10 in one post, but then my answer for #10 became loooong so I decided to split them up. :D

Challenge #9
In your own space, promote at least one canon that you adore (old, new, forever fandom).

I deliberated for this a while - there's so much canon I love, so many fandoms and moments I have collected like little trinkets, but I think this time I am going to have to throw some love at the Good Omens TV adaptation.

I'd read the book years ago, and although I loved it, it never quite inspired me to go search out fandom for it (that's not atypical though, I very rarely engage with book fandoms), but I completely fell in love with the show. I think much of it was because it's the kind of show I needed right now. It's funny and silly but it's also hopeful and gentle and undeniably romantic. With the state of the world being what it is at the moment, it's just nice to have a show that let's you escape that for several hours (despite the fact that it is about the apocalypse!).

I had kind of fallen out of love with fandom by the start of last year, and Good Omens made me fall solidly in love again. Both with the show and that particular fandom, but also with fandom on a larger scale - reminding me how fun it is when fandom is positive and creative (the sheer amount of fanworks that has been made for the show is astounding!), and giving me a fandom I really loved, connected with and thrived in again (I've been short on those for a few years). It's also a huge help that especially Michael and Neil are so accepting of fandom and ready to validate fanworks and the fact that all headcanons are valid.

I could wax lyrical about this for longer but a) I'm kind of brain tired because I have a headcold and b) I want to catch up with this challenge today.

Oh, on the subject of favourite canons, let me jump over to The Witcher for a moment. Because I just watched this interview with Joey Batey, and since I have had Toss a Coin to Your Witcher stuck in my head ever since I watched that damn show, I felt vindicated when I learned that he had that song stuck in his head for 8 months.

(Also I love the answer he gives to the question about fans discussing every aspect of the show in forums, where he says "the funnest part of this kind of fandom is tearing it apart, surely" because yes, he gets it.)

Snowflake Challenge 2020: Challenge 7

ragingrainbow — Sun, 19 Jan 2020 21:45:43 GMT

Challenge #8
Rec at least three fanworks that you didn’t create.

Since I have been a pretty lurky consumer of fanworks the past year and not really recced or commented as much as I usually do I thought I would take this opportunity to rec my favourite fanworks I have found in the past year.

These are from various fandoms. Since I mostly consumed Good Omens fanworks, I will put all the GO works at the end of each section to make it easier. The rest are just in the order I find them in my bookmarks (I'm terrible at remembering titles, so have to refer to bookmarks to remind myself what to rec).

Fic

The Morning After (5382 words) by capitu, birdsofshore
Fandom, Pairing: Harry Potter, Harry/Draco
Summary: This is what happens when you stick your wand in places where it really shouldn't go.
This fic is hilarious. Draco tries to use a muggle toaster. The fact that we get the toaster's inner monologue really makes it.

Oblivious Idiots in Love (38395 words) by devje
Fandom, Pairing: Once Upon A Time, Emma/Regina
Summary: In which Emma Swan and Regina Mills are oblivious and idiots and in love.
Let me also add the summary from the second fic in the series: His moms don't even seem to have noticed that Mom kisses Emma on the cheek every morning when she leaves for work.Every. Single. Morning. I mean, do I need to say more? I love Emma and Regina's relationship in this. And I love Henry just being so done with them.

every winter fades away (into the spring) (22887 words) by coalitiongirl
Fandom, Pairing: Once Upon A Time, Emma/Regina
Summary: A year in the lives of Emma and Regina, falling in love all the way through and doing every bit of it backwards.
Soulmarks isn't usually a trope I go for, but I really love this one. There's so much softness and they get the happy ending they deserve and I love how they pretty much fall in love before the soulmarks are revealed.

Sixteen Hours (1267 words) by InsaneTrollLogic
Fandom, Pairing: Scrubs, Cox/JD
Summary: “We’re going to have to quarantine you, Janice. Sixteen hours to be on the safe side. When that’s over, we forget this ever happened and get on with our lives."
An interesting take on zombie apocalypse AU. I like how it's told in snippets. Very heavy on the angst, do heed the Major Character Death warning.

Home Comforts (3396 words) by Mab
Fandom, Pairing: The Sentinel, Blair/Jim
Summary: After the episode Prisoner X, Jim needs his home.
I'm admittedly always soft for shaving fic, but I really loved the characterizations and their dynamic in this. It's lovely and gentle.

you're my cherry pie (9256 words) by novembersmith
Fandom, Pairing: Venom, Eddie/Venom
Summary: The first time Eddie suggests they have sex, Venom is, more than anything else, extremely confused.
This isn't even my fandom. but the summary and tags intrigued me. I was not disappointed. This fic is hilarious (Venom researches human sex on the internet, enough said, I think). And also quite sweet. And eventually actually kind of hot? I haven't seen the movie, so it definitely works to read even if you're only vaguely familiar with the canon.

At Rest (4460 words) by autoschediastic
Fandom, Pairing: The Witcher, Geralt/Jaskier
Summary: Three moments in time Geralt and Jaskier rest.
I haven't had time to read much in this fandom yet, but I had to include this. I loved how easy their relationship feels, and how they were characterized so well that I heard every line in their actual voices. It's a perfect dose of the kind of intimacy I craved after watching the show.

such surpassing brightness (7733 words) by Handful_of_Silence
Fandom, Pairing: Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley
Summary: The revelation that Aziraphale might have been in love with him for thousands of years is surprising. The fact that literal books have been written on the subject comes as even more of a shock.
The idea of Aziraphale being the Patron Saint of Queers is enough to charm me all on its own, but this fic is just extremely well written, heart-warming and funny.

A Home at the Beginning of the World (5867 words) by stereobone
Fandom, Pairing: Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley
Summary: "Oh," Aziraphale says. "I think Crowley might have moved in with me."
This fic is just peak failing at communicating feelings. It's also so damn sweet.

An Angel who did not so much Fall In Love as Settle Into It Gradually (7548 words) by TheLadyZephyr
Fandom, Pairing: Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley
Summary: The story of the little moments over the millennia that shape an angel’s regard for a demon, and the way he slowly, with great reluctance but inevitable surety, falls in love.
Such a lovely little slowburn fic full of soft Crowley moments.

Fireworks (3262 words) by Lyowyn
Fandom, Pairing: Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley
Summary: It turns out that, despite six thousand years of unresolved sexual tension, Aziraphale and Crowley aren't actually any good at having sex.
Very funny, and also quite sweet. As much as I enjoy all the angel/demon smut I feel like it makes sense that sex might not be something they take to immediately...

Regulars (2510 words) by irisbleufic
Fandom, Pairing: Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley
Summary: Today, Sunday, there's a sense of rightness and quiet. Outside, he hears birdsong that reminds him of home. Rashid drops sugar cubes in each tiny glass bowl—refined white for Lapsang Souchong, demerara for Earl Grey—and readies the tea tray for delivery.
A lovely outsider POV fic from the pov of various humans who have observed Aziraphale and Crowley at different times.

A Touch Like Sunlight (11159 words) by just_quintessentially_me, goodomensblog
Fandom, Pairing: Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley
Summary: After the apoca-wasn’t, time carries on - as time does. Days bleed into months, and months into years. And through it all, Heaven and Hell remain unnervingly silent.
I don't even really know what to say about this? It gave me so many feels. Crowley is so protective, and then he is an idiot, and then Aziraphale is all BAMF. My poor heart.

how big the hourglass, how deep the sand 51071 words) by Handful_of_Silence
Fandom, Pairing: Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley
Summary: After the Apocalypse, and with characteristic slowness, both Crowley and Aziraphale think there might be something they need to sit down and talk about. And then Aziraphale disappears.
This fic broke me. It is super angsty. It's half a year since I read it and I still get a lump in my throat just thinking about it. Do heed the warnings, but if you are looking for something to make you cry, this should do it. (Seriously, this is one of the best angsty fics I have ever read.)

Just One Yesterday (1952 words) by Kedreeva
Fandom, Pairing: Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley
Summary: Crowley and Aziraphale didn't stop the apocalypse on the first try, but you know what they say... try, try again.
I think about this fic a lot. It is angsty (as time loop fic tends to be), but also quite short, and there are several lines just just punched me in the gut.

alpha centauri (12528 words) by hyruling
Fandom, Pairing: Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley
Summary: “There isn’t time, angel!” Crowley snaps. “Will you come with me? Yes or no?”
Aziraphale clenches his jaw, and Crowley is sure he’s lost him. But unexpectedly, his expression hardens. He looks determined when he focuses back on Crowley.
“Yes.”
I don't really know what to say about this without spoiling any plot. They do go to Alpha Centauri. There's slowburn. There's pining. There's an angel and a demon being idiots. There's some drama and a touch of angst. There's fluff. There's a happy ending. Just do yourself a favour and read it. :)

Pray For Us, Icarus (65826 words) by Atalan
Fandom, Pairing: Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley
Summary: For three centuries, Crowley has been reincarnated over and over as a human with no memory of his past. Aziraphale has tried to find a way to restore him to his true self, but all he seems to do is hurt them both. This time, he only means to steal a brief moment when he walks into Crowley's flower shop. But Crowley can't let it go...
If you are looking for angst, look no further. This is another fic that completely broke me (and then put me back together). It haunts me. I just have to listen to the playlist for it and I am hit with all the feels. It is absolutely amazing.

Untitled Stardew Omens Fic (29296 words) by Atalan
Fandom, Pairing: Good Omens/Stardew Valley, Aziraphale/Crowley
Summary: Crowley has decided to give up on life in the city and move to the countryside. Aziraphale is intrigued by the new arrival in Pelican Town. Fluff ensues in such enormous quantities I am compelled by law to recommend a dental check-up after reading.
I haven't even played Stardew Valley but this fic is super sweet and the world is described so well that there is really no need for game knowledge to appreciate it. It's perfect for when you need a big dose of fluff.

Slumber Party Summons (29066 words) by JoyAndOtherStories
Fandom, Pairing: Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley
Summary: Crowley gets Summoned by a teenage girls' slumber party. Everyone has far more on their minds than they've wanted to admit, even to their closest friends. Also, pajamas, hair and makeup, manicures.
This is a delightful fic. It's funny. And cute. It also turns out the girls can help Crowley. Seriously, just read it.

Fanart

I've never really searched out fanart often before, but this year I have been so low on energy that the majority of fanworks I consumed was actually art! (I started off trying to comment on these but I soon realized that my knowledge of the technical aspects of art are limited so all my comments were So soft! So pretty! Such colour! Sooo... these are all beautiful and made me feel things? note to self to seek out resources for learning to comment on art.)

Sterek Cuddles by virtualcarrot (Teen Wolf)

Sterek Christmas by sixspades (Teen Wolf)

Sterek by xiaopa25 (Teen Wolf)

Jim/Blair by liduke (The Sentinel)

"Brilliant" (Jodi as Ten with Ten's Companions) by licieoic (Doctor Who)

Dorian/Inquisitor by trashwarden (Dragon Age)

Sunflower - loyalty and friendship (Krem) by drawingisfornerds (Dragon Age)

Bull/Dorian Happy and Old by imrisah (Dragon Age)

Apostates-part2 by goma-itoh (Dragon Age)

Garrus Vakarian by sanakaan (Mass Effect)

Sheppard/Garrus Cuddling Under a Blanket by mordinette (Mass Effect)

Loki with the Tesseract by erisiar (Avengers)

Demon Gerard by misfitpansy (MCR)

Lesbian Tarzan by toodrunktofindaurl (Disney/Tarzan)

Gerald and Jaskier relaxing together by wannastayugly (The Witcher) kinda nsfw for nudity

I need no one. by Giada (The Witcher)

We could head to the coast. by ganylus (The Witcher)

Yennefer by bys-vynita-illustration (The Witcher)

The Lioness, Queen Calanthe of Cintra by CESAR (The Witcher)

“Gwynbleidd” by idek-carrie (The Witcher)

Saint Michael Sheen - Patron Saint of Shipping by Paola-Serena Ibba (Good Omens)

Hastur by luluxa (Good Omens)

Happy Place by smarties-art (Good Omens)

Taking pictures along the way, just for the novelty by lonicera-caprifolium (Good Omens)

Hastur & Ligur by drawingroomanguish (Good Omens)

Crowley Making Nebulae by nights-end (Good Omens)

Agnes Nutter by labonart (Good Omens)

Sssssssnooze by awai-sensei (Good Omens)

The Four Horsemen by fols-eli (Good Omens)

And then God said thou shall give all demons soft animal crowns. by smoosie (Good Omens)

War/Pollution by annasassiart (Good Omens)

Death by birdloaf (Good Omens)

Aziraphale and Crowley by nathengyn (Good Omens)

Crowley Before the Fall by sokodraws (Good Omens)

"I didn't mean to fall..." by sheepskeleton-art (Good Omens)

Aziraphale/Crowley big snake cuddles by pidgydraws (Good Omens)

Fanvids

Reminiscence by TheGaroStudios (Doctor Who, Tenth Doctor)

My Tears Are Becoming A Sea by SunnyVids (Doctor Who, Doctor & Rose)

I am the Doctor by Beta Dottore (Doctor Who)

Multifandom Mashup 2019 by Pteryx Videos (Multifandom)

Paint It Black by ThePandoricaOfFandoms (Multifandom, Multicrossover)

and yet, here we are. by meyanas (The Witcher, Geralt/Jaskier) watch on Twitter for sound

Dusk Till Dawnby x.Kira.x (The Witcher, Geralt & Jaskier)

She's Your Destiny by ThePandoricaOfFandoms (The Witcher)

Lunacy by x.Kira.x (The Witcher)

Sucker by NewBe (The Witcher, Geralt & Jaskier)

F*çk by CTippy (The Witcher, Geralt)

Here I Am by PinkGl8er2 (The Witcher, Yennefer)

Aziraphale Antidepressant Ad by areyougonnabe (Good Omens)

Up To No Good by zowho (Good Omens)

On Your Side by SunnyVids (Good Omens, Aziraphale & Crowley)

Don't Stop Me Now by Spellbound (Good Omens, Aziraphale & Crowley)

Under Pressure by Spellbound (Good Omens)

From Eden by HowlingNerdWolf (Good Omens, Aziraphale & Crowley)

glitter and gold by SIDANI (Good Omens)

Watch the World Burn by brightwanderings (Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley)

Welcome to the End Times by CTippy (Good Omens, Aziraphale & Crowley)

Meta

I am not big on meta, I tend to prefer discussing headcanons over analyzing apart actual canon, but I just want to throw out a rec for Good Omens Analysis and Feelings by chaoticlivi. There's a lot of interesting analysis and reflections in there!

Whew! That ended up being a longer list than I expected, and there were still more I would have liked to include. I do tend to be pretty meticulous about adding anything I want to rec to my AO3 bookmarks, so you may consider that a more complete reclist of all my favourites in various fandoms! You can also check out my fanart tag on Tumblr and my fanvid playlist on Youtube which is where I mostly look for art/videos.

I hope you found something you enjoy in my reclist! I think I'm going to try to start doing a monthly "fanworks I loved this month" or something, I do tend to want to share everything I have feelings about. (I did try to have a rec Twitter but I forgot to use that.)

If you have any other fanworks you think I might enjoy based on something I recced here, to feel free to drop a link! I love getting recs. :) (Also please let me know if I messed up a link or miscredited something. I tried to double check everything but... the list was long heh.)

Snowflake Challenge 2020: Challenge 7

ragingrainbow — Sat, 18 Jan 2020 13:53:08 GMT

Challenge #7
Promote/Rec/Sing the Praises of Yourself!

Ah, the one that's the hardest to do every year. I knew it was coming up though, so I have spent the past 2 weeks thinking about it. (And you know, taking 10 minutes or so out of each day to think of things I'm good at was a huge confidence boost - I think I will make this a thing!)

Some general things I'm good at:

1. Getting acclimatized in new places. I have moved a lot in my life and lived in 4 different countries - 2 of those I moved to on my own as an adult, without ever having been to either of them before. And I didn't move for work, so I guess I might also be good at being a risk taker. I can pretty much feel at home anywhere (if there's internet connection, lol).

2. Being flexible when plans change. I've always been someone who adjusts to what life throws at me, but the past couple of years has made this extra important, since my husband sucks at it, so I get to keep him from panicking too. (This has also proven to be a really great trait to have when coping with chronic illness!)

3. Taking charge when no one else steps up. I am very much a follower if there is somewhere else around to lead, but I've always been quite good at organizing things in situations where no one else wants to.

4. Cooking/Baking. I've always loved to cook (I got a Disney cookbook for Christmas when I was 6 after which I started cooking all on my own), and people have always loved my food.

5. Writing (100 word) drabbles. I love tapping into a single plot moment and making a tiny story focused on it. And I love the process of editing it down to an exact number of words.

6. Parenting. I was a single parent the first 5 years of my son's life, and he was diagnosed as autistic just before his 4th birthday (the autism itself isn't a struggle, but fighting for him to get the accommodations he needs and has a right to definitely is). I will happily pat myself on the back over the fact that he is an awesome little human. ♥

Some of my own fanworks I am especially proud of:

1. Pretty much every drabble I have written. I mean, I love writing them, so I'm proud of them all! Variety of fandoms, including Dragon Age, Adam Lambert, Pentatonix, Harry Potter, Bandom, Scrubs, Good Omens, One Direction, Lord of the Rings.

2. This Adam Lambert/Tommy Joe Ratliff fanvid. It has over 18k views. \o/ Picture quality is a bit meh by today's standard but I spent so much time on it back when I did it and I still love how it turned out.

3. This Adam Lambert werewolf AU series. I'm actually working on a new part of this, because I never quite let go of these characters. Silas is one of my fav OCs I've created (I don't tend to write many OCs, really). It's a series of one-shots.

4. This Sterek Fanmix. I still listen to it now and then. Idk, I just love the vibe of it. It took me many weeks to find and order the songs. (It's meant to be a Stiles - Derek POV shifting order to the songs). These days when I'm also into Steter I feel like it would work for that pairing too (perhaps even better). xD

5. This Pentatonix vampire/slayer AU (WIP). I may have failed at updating this for the past year (I failed at writing... well, anything at all?), but I really love the world and the plot and I really do intend to finish this fic this year. I will be even prouder when it is finished because I don't write much long, plotty fic!

6. This Sterek first time one-shot. I'm not a big fan of first-time fic, so idk why I decided I needed to write this but... I really love how it turned out?

7. This Jessica Pearson/Harvey Specter femdom spanking fic. Despite my love for femdom, I haven't actually written much of it, for a variety of reasons. I still love the dynamics in this one though.

Whew. Proud of myself for thinking of many things, even though I've been feeling kind of faily lately! :D

Snowflake Challenge 2020: Challenge 6

ragingrainbow — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 21:11:52 GMT

Challenge #6
In your own space, make a list — anything between one and ten things is a sweet spot, but don't feel constrained by that! - of things that you wish existed in fandom or elsewhere, or that you'd like someone to make for you.

Gosh, this is always so challenging for me? There are a bunch of things I randomly want, but when I try to write out an actual wishlist I always forget all of it. Oh well, forging ahead!

When it comes to the fanwork wishes - of course I will always be super excited if someone makes something just for me, but I will happily take recs, too! For the trope-specific request I will read any fandom, for the fandom-specific requests I will read just about any kind of fic.

Some wishes other people might be able to grant:

1. Femdom fanworks. Not fussed on gender of other partner(s) (although I do love submissive men), as long as there is a dominant female and (consensual) kink.

2. Aftercare focused fanworks. I feel like I always ask for this (and I did run that aftercare fest some years back), but I just love the intimacy of aftercare and so many kink fics skip or don't go into much detail on it. I don't even need the kink scenes before it, I love fanworks which are entirely focused on aftercare.

3. The Witcher fanwork recs. I finally watched the show this week, so I will happily take fanwork recs! Feel free to drop a link to your own if you've made some. (With 800+ fanworks on AO3 alone, I feel like I will miss some good things.

4. Good Omens fanwork recs. I think I have read most of the popular, frequently recced fics, but the fandom grew so quickly I am sure I missed a bunch of gems. So please send me all your less-popular recs, or link your own.

5. TV Show Recs. I'm still catching up on The Good Place and I'm only on Series 8 in my Doctor Who marathon but still, I'll gladly take recs for good shows. Espcially ones that might not be talked about a lot? I have Netflix and Amazon Prime.

6. Recs for good shipping songs. I have this list of shipping songs on Spotify, and I'd love to add more! I use it to pull songs out to make mood playlists for writing or specific fics, and to make fanmixes. (I like slowburn and angsty/pining ships, as you may be able to tell. But I do have some happy ships too, so I'll take happy recs! I just want it to be more inspiring than generic love songs?

7. Comments on my fanworks. I know it's natural comments have tapered off for me since I have posted very little in the past year, and I have posted in old fandoms or fandoms where I don't interact much with other fans. But, I kind of miss getting comments? So if anyone is inclined to take a look at my works and make check one out and comment, I'd be super happy. :) If you don't find something of mine you want to comment on, comment on someone else's fanwork! I just feel like there needs to be more commenting in general.

8. New Fannish Friends. At some point I started being into fandoms none of my friends from past fandoms are into? I'd love to find people who are into the things I am currently obsessing about. (I feel like the easiest way to get an idea of what that is is to take a quick look at my Tumblr, but I also mentioned some in my intro post from challenge 1.) Anyway, if you're into similar fandoms, feel free to friend/say hi! (I also just started using Discord for fandom flail, so if anyone has server recs feel free to throw them my way.)

9. Fannish penpals? Does anyone else here happen to also penpal? I feel like I can't quite wax lyrical about my fandoms to penals who are not in fandom. And I'd kind of like a penpal or two I can do that with? I'm in Sweden.

And the probably impossible to grant wishes, but we all have some of those, I'm sure?

1. For a remake of The Sentinel or a The Sentinel inspired show where Jim and Blair can actually be queer (Are we ready for that yet? We should be.)

2. For more queer main cast characters in fantasy/sci-fi.

3. For there to be something like Tumblr that allows for sharing of pictures and pretties that is by fandom, for fandom so it won't pull shit like nsfw-bans. I know this is very much a pipe dream because it would be a huge, pricey undertaking but a girl can dream...

4. For the current purity policing of fandom or whatever we should call it to blow over. I know discourse like this goes through cycles in fandom and it will run it's course eventually, but it feels like the current cycle is particularly hateful? I'm tired of seeing people be targets of hate for writing problematic things about fictional characters...

5. For my current bout of fibro flares/migraine flares to be over so I have energy to actually write again.

.... This turned out long. I am feeling hyper and chatty today lol. (And also generally nervous about asking for things, and being nervouse makes me more chatty.

Snowflake Challenge 2020: Challenge 4 + 5

ragingrainbow — Mon, 13 Jan 2020 21:18:24 GMT

Yep, still catching up with this. Brain fog/headaches is really kicking my ass lately though so it's slow going. But a fun distraction when I have the energy!

Challenge #4
In your own space, set some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private.

I've already kind of set goals for myself privately, so it very much can't hurt to write them down for accountability!

Finish and post at least two fics or fic chapters every month. I only finished 4 short fics - 1979 words total - last year. I very much want this year to be more productive. I'm setting an amount instead of wordcount because this way, if all I get out is two drabbles every month, I still accomplished something!
Finish I Will Kiss You Soft So You Know. There are only 5 chapters left and I have them all plotted out. I really want to get them written and posted this year. Hopefully in the first half of the year!
Be better about commenting on fanworks. I feel like I've fallen out of the habit, and I definitely always want more comments, so I figure I need to start with commenting more myself. :)
Eat healthier. I've eaten so much junk and candy lately. Also got kind of addicted to Cola. So I really want to get back to better food habits this year, because I know it helps me feel healthier.
Do at least one crafty thing every week. I had a similar goal last year and it started well and then kind of tapered off. So hopefully I'll do better this year!
Participate in one fanwork challenge. I'd really like to get into doing challenges again, they've always been fun and good for kicking my muse into gear in the past. I'm thinking something low pressure and multifandom but I haven't quite decided which one yet.

That's about it! I also have plans to learn knitting but I'm not making it an actual goal on it's own because I tried last year and struggled so I'm not sure knitting is actually for me. I just want it to be. :P

Challenge #5
Comment to someone you haven't ever interacted with before or introduce yourself to someone you've briefly interacted with and friend/follow them.

I'm going to check this off as done too because there's a bunch of people I've left comments for in this challenge who I never talked to before (and there surely will be more! I love reading other people's responses). Also I got to know someone new on Twitter over the weekend.

Snowflake Challenge 2020: Challenge 3

ragingrainbow — Sat, 11 Jan 2020 20:06:28 GMT

Whew. I've had a whole week of bad fibro flare (I guess Christmas/New Years/Birthday finally caught up with me), so I'm only just getting around to catching up with this. (I know there's no stress abut participating, but I wanted to, and chronic illness keeping me from doing things I want to is damn frustrating). Anyway, been looking forward to doing these, so let's see how much I can catch up today!

Challenge #3
Pimp Your Favorite Communities, Fests or Challenges!

I'm sad to say I don't participate much in either communities or fests/challenges right now. I used to be in a lot of communities but somewhere in my fandom hopping I fell out of the habit and ended up doing most of my fannish interaction on Twitter (I do have a semi-NSFW DM group there with friends from various fandoms, which is my fav fannish hangout at the moment because we're a nice, drama free multi-fannish group). And I just haven't had the mental energy to participate in fests and challenges for the past couple of years.

I do kind of hope to change this in the coming year though, because I think finding some low-pressure challenges might be what I need to get back into regular writing, so there's one community I actively use and want to rec - fandomcalendar! I feel like most people probably know about it, but in case you don't, it's a super handy way to find things like fests and challenges from any fandom. Even when I amn't actively participating in anything, I use it just to find places to lurk for new fanworks.

I've also been lurking good_omens_kink quite a bit lately. Mostly in failed attempts to kick-start my muse. I have always like kink memes though, I really need to find active ones for my other current fandoms.

I also like lurking kink_finders, since I enjoy kinky fanworks and it tends to turn up good ones. (I've asked for recs there once or twice, but it was a few years ago.)

And if anyone reading this is not participating in snowflake_challenge, I do very much recommend it!

Just making this post reminded me how I really need to get back into checking DW regularly, because I do love comms!

Snowflake Challenge 2020: Challenge 2

ragingrainbow — Sat, 04 Jan 2020 22:21:37 GMT

Challenge #2
In your own space, talk about your fannish history.

I guess my first fannish interaction with something was various mid- to late 90s boybands. I was pulled into liking Backstreet Boys by friends, and I had a bunch of posters (BSB was also my first concert), but it wasn't really until Hanson came on the scene that I really became obsessed with a something. Me and a friend wrote what essentially was fanfic about them - mostly self-inserts but some elaborate AUs - but fanfic wasn't a concept I would become aware of until a few years later.

My point of entry to online fandom came in 1999. By then, my family had moved to Ireland from Sweden, and my main fannish focus was Westlife. We got internet at home, and I searched for pics of my favourite band online, ended up finding an unofficial fanclub, and through there found mailing lists. Over the next few years I ended up running a local Irish branch of that unofficial fanclub, running a website about them, meeting a bunch of people from the mailing lists, making graphics, and eventually discovering fanfic was an actual thing other people did too and writing fun self-insert fic where I married my favourite member and held "auditions" for friends to be featured in my fics (and likewise auditioned to be featured in other people's fics).

In 2001 I started branching out from that one fandom. At first because the first Lord of the Rings movie came out, and I had found another obsession. This fandom is where I started writing fanfic which was not self-insert, which really was a turning point both in how I wrote fic and interacted with fandom - because now I was writing fic based on canon rather than just my fantasies, which meant I started discussing headcanon and engaging with meta. For me personally, those things are to this day some of my favourite things about fandom - I love analyzing (and over-analyzing) canon material and discussing different headcanons. So this is really the point at which I started interacting with fandom partly because I loved fandom, rather than it just being the space in which I could talk with other people about this thing I loved.

I started actively looking for fanfic to read, rather than just reading whatever people posted on mailing lists. At some point I found Bad Fanfic! No Biscuit! which was what made me have 3 new revelations about fanfic: 1) It could be smutty! 2) It could be gay! 3) It could be kinky! (These were three very big revelations for me, because at this point in my life I was questioning my sexuality and kink intrigued me. Yes, I very much learned a lot about my own sexuality through fanfic.)

Funnily enough, finding that queer, smutty fanfic was a thing didn't immediately make me go look for fic like that in the fandoms I was in. Instead I went looking specifically for queer/kinky smut fic, which is how I started reading The Sentinel fic even though I hadn't watched the show (and wouldn't until about 6 years later). There was some really great fic in that fandom though, and I lurked and read a bunch of it. It wasn't until I decided I wanted to write smut that I went looking for smut in my own fandoms. Which is the point at which I started writing slash about boyband members and hobbits. (Separately. Not crossovers. Though that could have been interesting.) Basically, I read a lot of fics in a lot of fandoms, and I wrote a bunch of fic in a few fandoms.

I started University in 2003, and had access to a huge library. I read a bunch of books that had nothing to do with my studies. At some point I found a book about the history of fandom and slash fic? I don't remember what book it was, I remember it had a bunch of theory about why women write gay smut. I went searching for more academic books about fandom, found them, read them, developed a more solid interest in fandom itself and fannish history.

I fell out of fandom for a while after that. University was busy, I got a job, moved away from home (or rather, my family moved back to Sweden but I decided to stay in Ireland?). And I guess, on some level, I thought I was too old for fandom, in the way you might when you're in your early 20s and trying to adjust to adulthood. I wrote some original fiction and poetry, I published some on a blog, I had dreams about publishing, but ultimately I realized that I didn't find writing as fun when I wasn't doing it in a fannish context where I could theorize with other fans and I actually got feedback and it was valid to write just for fun?

Sometime towards the end of 2008, I started to dip my toes back into fandom. At first it was became I came across (old) publicity for Hanson's The Walk, and feeling nostalgic for my first big obsession, I ended up buying the CD, loving it, wanting to connect with other fans again. At first I mostly hung out on the message boards on their official site, but I joined Livejournal 2009, since that's where most of fandom hung out at that stage. (And I just went back to my earliest imported post to figure that out, and found this post, so I guess I can pinpoint that I started writing fanfic again in early May 2010.) At some point, not actually sure when now, I came across a video of Adam Lambert kissing Tommy and deep dived into that fandom. Which is to this date the fandom I have written most fic for.

And this is the point at which finding new fandoms became much easier - through Twitter and AO3 and Tumblr happening. I picked up a bunch of new fandoms through things friends were into - my most active fandoms have been MCR, One Direction and Pentatonix but I have written one or a few fics in quite a few fandoms at this stage. I have interacted with and read fic in a lot more. (I listed most of my fandoms in my intro post from day 1 of this, so I won't make the whole list again).

By the end of 2018 I kind of hit a rut where I wasn't all that into any of my fandoms any more, I felt uninspired to write, and recent negativity in fandom just got the best of me. I wrote nothing at all for the first half of 2019 and didn't interact all that much with fandom other than chatting with close friends. And then Good Omens happened. And it has been such a breath of fresh air! Neil is so fandom/fanfic positive (as is Sheen), all the fans I have interacted with have been so friendly, there is so much great fic. I may only have finished 4 fics in 2019 but Good Omens made me excited about fandom and writing again!

So, here we are. I feel excited and positive about starting the new year. I have found my joy for fandom again and I know that alone will make the year much brighter.

Snowflake Challenge 2020: Challenge 1

ragingrainbow — Wed, 01 Jan 2020 16:09:07 GMT

New year, new decade, new snowflake challenge! I am so excited for this year's, since I ended up having to give up on last year's due to being sick most of the month.

Also I have been meaning to revive my Dreamwidth, so this seems like the perfect opportunity.

Challenge #1
In your own space, introduce yourself!

What a perfect challenge to start with for me, considering I've been overhauling my online spaces and don't have an up-to-date profile at the moment. So here's a quick little intro:

I'm Nikki, and I turn 36 on the 5th and I live in Sweden. I'm cis (she/her) and bi/queer. I've been married a year on the 12th. I'm a mother to a wonderful 7 year old. We have 3 cats (Kitty, Dasher and Dotty). I'm a spoonie. Other than fandom, I enjoy reading, writing, gaming, penpalling, papercrafts, crochet, cross stitching, baking, cooking. I love tea - and when I say love I mean I have a whole cupboard just for tea in my kitchen. I'm hoping to learn knitting this year.

I've been in fandom 20 odd years. I'm very much a multi-fandom and multi-shipping kind of person; I tend to hyperfocus on a few fandoms at once. Right now it's mostly Good Omens with a side of some older fandoms like The Sentinel and Scrubs because I've been feeling nostalgic. Other fannish things I like include Teen Wolf, Firefly, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Bandom, Sherlock, MCU, Kingsman, White Collar, Suits, Babylon 5, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Adam Lambert, Pentatonix, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, The Orville, Person of Interest, Sense 8, Queer as Folk, The Good Place, Once Upon a Time, Numb3rs. (Why do I always feel like I forget half the things I'm into when I try to write these lists?!) I also have an evergrowing to-watch list that contains a bunch of potential new fandoms, so who knows what new obsessions I'll get into this year?

Right now I'm mostly active on Twitter (where I mostly post personal things and some fannish stuff) and Tumblr (where I mostly reblog fannish things with some positivity/encouragement, feminist and queer things, and stuff I just find cute/funny/interesting). I post all my fanworks to AO3 (where I also use my bookmarks as my reclist).

Feel free to friend/follow me anywhere - I love having new people to talk to (and reconnecting with old friends, too)!

SNOWFLAKE CHALLENGE 2019 – DAY 1

ragingrainbow — Thu, 03 Jan 2019 12:00:15 GMT

I don't normally make new years resolutions. But this year I promised myself to spend at least 30 minutes a day on writing or some other creative endeavor. I've kept to it so far, but am feeling sort of uninspired at the moment... And then I remembered the Snowflake Challenge! So I'm going to participate in the hope that a couple of weeks of filling a prompt each day will kick m creativity into gear. :) (Also, with the loss of Tumblr I thought I'd try to get back into using DW more regularly, so hopefully this will help with that too!)

Day 1
In your own space, talk about your Happy Place—the things that give you joy, calms you or keeps you sane.

I'm going to have to say that my main happy place is fandom; just fandom in general. I am very much a homebody, and we bought and moved into our own house this year, so home is also a place I feel happy and safe but... fandom trumps home, for the simple reason that today's technology has made it portable. :3

This year is my 20th year in fandom. Throughout those years, it's been a safe harbor throughout a lot of real life things - it's been a place where I found lasting friendships, a creative outlet, a place to share and discuss ideas, a support network through some really rough times, a place where canon and fanworks has helped me escape the real world and let me breathe. The place I discovered my sexuality, the place that shaped a lot of my political beliefs and social activism. Growing up with a narcissistic parent who never understood why I cared so much about issues that "don't affect me", fandom was the first space I felt like people understood me; and even though I've had some negative fandom experiences, too, interacting with other fans keep reawakening that feeling, which really helps on days when I feel super-anxious about interacting with people.

Hmmm.... I think I accidentally wrote half a love-letter to fandom here. I guess I'll end up rehashing it if that's a prompt this year. xD

Snowflake Challenge 2018: Day 9

ragingrainbow — Tue, 09 Jan 2018 17:01:22 GMT

Day 9
In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you have created. It can be your favorite fanworks that you've created, or fanworks you feel no one ever saw, or fanworks you say would define you as a creator.

Honestly, most of my works are my babies, and it's always a little difficult to decide which ones to push into the spotlight. Ultimately though, there are some I am a little bit more proud of than the rest; fanworks which challenged me, fanworks I put a extra work into, fanworks I really loved working on. It seems like the obvious choice is to share them (and why I'm proud of them).

FIC: I WIll Kiss You Soft So You Know [Pentatonix, Mitch/Scott, a/b/o, WIP]
This is my current WIP, and I love it for a number of reasons. It's the first multi-chapter fic I have written in years, but hopefully not the last. It's a plot I've had stewing for a while - I'm not a huge fan of a/b/o as a trope but I liked the idea of an Alpha/omega couple who truly love and respect each other and work together to fight inequality. And my Scott and Mitch headcanons just lent themselves well to that plot, so it's been easy to write.

FIC: Maybe I Just Wanna Be Yours [Teen Wolf, Derek/Stiles, First Time, 2800 words]
This was sort of a surprising plot bunny for me, because I've never really considered writing virgin/first time fic. But I love the way it turns out, I feel like I managed to captured the tenderness and gentleness I wanted while it was still THEM (I mean, come on, they're both pretty stunted when it comes to talking about feelings etc). It's also my second most popular work on AO3.

FIC: So You Can See How Beautiful You Are [One Direction, Harry/Louis/Zayn, Sex Change, 4500 words]
Honestly, gender/sex swap has never really been a trope I was into. This fic was born out of a throwaway conversation about multiple orgasms and overstimulation, and sort of... grew. I obsessed a lot about writing this because I wanted it to not just be sex change for the sake of smut (even tho it totally is, heh). I've had some comments saying the body discomfort was good so yeah, I'm quite proud of this one.

FIC: These Bonds Are Shackle Free [Suits, Harvey/Jessica, Non-Sexual Bondage and Spanking, 665 words]
podfic available
I love femdom. I haven't written nearly as much as I like, because I've been bad at shipping het and femmeslash pairings. From the moment I started watching Suits though, I was into the power Jessica held over Harvey, that hint that she was the only one who could keep him in check. Sadly, I never go around to writing more of this pairing, but this one holds a special place in my heart. I'm so happy this was podficced.

VID: A Perfect Lie [Adam Lambert, Adam/Tommy, 3m30s]
I put a lot of work into this fanvid, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I still watch it now and then and feel super nostalgic about this tour and pairing.

MIX: My Body Is A Cage [Person of Interest, John Reese, 8 songs]
I spent a conciderable amount of time hunting down songs for this, and I really like how it turned out. It's dark, and gritty, and it's a good representation of my early impressions of Reese (and the series as a whole).

Snowflake Challenge 2018: Day 8

ragingrainbow — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 19:19:25 GMT

Day 8
In your own space, share a favorite piece of original canon (a TV episode, a song, a favorite interview, a book, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much.

I deliberated over this one for quite a while. There are so many canons that have shaped my experience of fandom - from my first finding The Sentinel fic, to me first writing LotR fic, to watching Star Trek TOR because it's where slash fandom has it's roots and genuinely falling in love with the characters. Plus a whole bunch of other books, shows, and movies where I have laughed, cried, loved and lost with the characters. Honestly, musing on what my favourite canon(s) may be made me want to revisit a whole bunch of them, and also made me excited about finding new things to be a fan of, about getting to know new characters and worlds. (I'm currently following Star Trek Discovery and The Orville, and yes I am falling hard for some of those characters. I'm also rewatching Babylon 5 and falling in love with those characters all over again.)

But I do have a very favourite piece of canon, and it's probably the one I have consumed the least fanworks of because I love the canon so much that I don't need anything more added - Queer as Folk (US). It admittedly has its issues (as a bi woman I will feel forever cheated by the bi invisibility alongside the - realistic - biphobia displayed by some characters), but it also did so much right in the myriad of issues it adressed, and I doubt that I will ever feel so much for a TV show ever again.

And then there is Brian and Justin. There is a quote going around about their relationship being "the most realistic, touching, honest way of love, ever portrayed on television", and I feel like it could be true - their story arch broke my heart a hundred times over yet I couldn't stop rooting for them. Also I kind of love that Justin is so much younger yet he teaches Brian so much.

On a good day I could write a longer coherent piece on all the reasons I love this show but I'm sick and sleepy and more likely to just babble on incohorently about my love for the characters. Instead, I am going to rec a couple of my favourite QaF fanvids, and let them speak for themselves.

CW: These videos contain canon-typical homophobia, harassment, abuse and violence.

Snowflake Challenge 2018: Day 7

ragingrainbow — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 14:14:15 GMT

Day 7: In your own space, create a love meme for yourself. Let people tell you how amazing and awesome and loveable you really are.

Don't mind if I do. Being sick atm I will gladly accept any love, pics, gifs etc. people feel like throwing at me. Bring it on! :3 (Anon commenting is on, for those who prefer to leave anon love.)

Snowflake Challenge 2018: Day 5

ragingrainbow — Sat, 06 Jan 2018 12:45:33 GMT

Day 5
Recommend a fannish or creative resource.

One of my favourite things about fandom is its diversity and inclusiveness (or, at least, how it's relatively easy to find the diverse and inclusive pockets of fandom). I love fanworks which represent that diversity, and in recent years I started reflecting on how bad *I* am at making sure my own fanworks are diverse. Which has led to me hoarding a whole lot of articles and resources on the subject of writing diverse characters. So, since I don't really have one favourite resource, I thought I would share some of those links for this.

Writing the Other
Reaching into the QUILTBAG: The Evolving World of Queer Speculative Fiction
Having "different" sexual practices in one's world
Avoiding LGBTQ Stereotypes in YA Fiction
Writing Gay Characters
Beyond the Closet: Writing Gay Characters
Writing Better Trans Characters
4 Pitfalls To Avoid When Crafting Trans Characters
Writing Asexual Fiction
Carnival of Aces: What Accurate Portrayal Means
Changing Images of Trans People in Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature
A Few Tips and Resources for Writing Characters of Color
Writing People of Color (if you happen to be a person of another color)
Writing an Autistic Character When You're Not Autistic - A Masterpost
Writing Autistic Characters
If you’re writing a d/Deaf or Hard of Hearing Character...
On the handling of disabled characters

Snowflake 2018: Day 4

ragingrainbow — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 21:31:34 GMT

Day 4
In your own space, create a fannish wishlist. No limits on size or type of fanwork; just tell us what you’d like to see.

This is the day where I always wonder why it's so hard to ask for things? But the plus side of doing this one a day "late" is that it's my birthday today, which somehow makes me feel more comfortable asking for gifts. :P

I'm in quite a few fandom and ship a lot of things, plus when it comes to good fanworks I tend to enjoy things outside my fandoms, so for the recs feel free to rec from any fandom. But, as a guide, these are the fandoms I'm currently most active/interested in: Superfruit/Pentatonix, Kingsman, Bandom (mostly MCR/FOB), Harry Potter, Firefly, MCU, Star Trek, White Collar, Suits, Person of Interest, 1D, Adam Lambert, QaF US, Sherlock, Teen Wolf, LotR/Hobbit.

Aaalright, onto my wishes!

1. I need some some themed playlists/fanmixes. Either for specific fandoms or pairings, or just to set a certain mood, or even just some music that's good to have on when writing. I have Spotify and 8tracks, also happy with a list of songs that I can find myself.

2. I'd love some recs for fanworks containing non-sexual D/s or aftercare. (I appreciate recs in general, but these themes are ones I haven't found many works which focus on.)

3. I love comments, so if anyone shares my fandoms I haven't read my fic feel free to check it out? If nothing of mine interests you (or even if it does), I'd love for you to give a comment or two to another creator!

4. I'm looking for ideas/patterns for fannish crochet, cross stitch or perler bead projects. For this one mostly for Disney, Harry Potter, MCU, Star Trek, Warcraft, Diablo, Dragon Age, Minecraft. But I'll consider others!

5. I always like to make new fannish friends. I know it can be hard to say hi? So if there's anyone reading this who would like to say hi and talk about fandom (or other things!), please do so! I'm mostly active on Twitter, but I respond to messages here or on my Tumblr too.

6. If there are any fannish people who penpal (snail mail) and would like one from Sweden, I'd love some more fannish penpals too.

Birthday Fun - The Gift of Music

ragingrainbow — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 21:54:28 GMT

One of my non-fandom friends did this for their birthday, and I thought it was a really neat idea so I'm trying it too! I hope some of you will want to join in! :)

Basically, for my birthday I have made a collaborative Spotify playlist, and started it off with 20 off my favourite songs at the moment. I want my friends to continue this playlist by adding at least one of their own favourite songs to the list, as a birthday present to me, if you'd like. If you don't have Spotify it's no problem, just leave your song(s) of choice in a comment here or message me on another platform and I will add. (If a song is not on Spotify, I'd love for you to share a link to somewhere else to listen to it, but I obviously won't be able to put it in the playlist.)

The songs definitely don't have to be recent or in English, just whatever you enjoy. The point here is to hopefully find some new music to listen to!

Playlist link: https://open.spotify.com/user/1119253347/playlist/5kRpEzw0mLcwV4EbHanQGA