I came here for the Johnlock

It's been a while since I've done this. 😬 Time to rec!

I've been going through my (nearly 2k) bookmarks recently, and have also read/bookmarked some really good fics lately, so here we are. I love that there are new authors popping up, and I love that I'm still finding authors from before Series 2 that I am just now reading.

I also feel the need to acknowledge the inspiration I take from reading and rereading many authors. ❤️ Thank you so much for giving your stories to the fandom!

A Going Concern (2026) by @skedazzle : ACD Holmes/Watson. When Holmes abruptly decides to end their partnership and ask him to leave 221b, a devastated Watson must pick himself up from the rubble of his life and come up with a new plan for his bleak, Holmesless future. But he can't stop himself from wondering about the real reason has Holmes abandoned him. Why now? Whatever did he do to deserve such treatment from his trusted partner — not to mention the great love of his life and his closest companion? ❤️ Now complete! I love an over-thinking Holmes throwing out a baffled Watson, who then must reason out why this has happened. Wonderful characterisations, happy ending, and inspiration for several stalled ACD fics in my WIP folder.

East of the Sun and -- (2011) by Anonymous: John rather thinks he might have been something else before he was, well, John. A discarded coat, maybe, worn through at the elbows, frayed and stained; or some bright-eyed bird or mammal; or a few inky, smudged sheets of newspaper; or a handful of rich, red clay. ❤️ I read this one when I was writing Nowhere Man. I can't resist a fairy-tale retelling, and this one was such an uncannily atmospheric story. Happy ending!

After (2016) by Susan: Sometimes late at night, when all I hear is the sound of Sherlock’s steady breathing beside me, I wonder if the life we have now is my reward for surviving everything that went before. But then Sherlock cries out in the dark, his body sweaty and tangled in the sheets, legs kicking out against some imagined villain, and I wonder how my reward can also be his punishment. ❤️ Post-apocalyptic johnlock is one of my favourite things, and this is beautiful. It speaks to the undying nature of their love for one another, even when they've lost so much. They're okay, even in this burnt-out world where a few people barter for supplies and you never have to wait in line. I read this first when I was writing Long for the World.

Evermore (2018) by Hope_Austen: Sherlock, just before John's wedding: So he does the only thing he can think of and mentally sits down on the cold Palace floor, crosses his legs and lets the memories and emotions all wash over him — the takeaways and the quiet nights at home, the chases and the crime scenes, the arguments and the laughs. He feels giddy yet angry. Melancholy yet hopeful. / And as the dust begins to settle around him, he feels robbed of what could have been, yet grateful for what was —The chance to share just a part of his life with the bravest and kindest and wisest human being he’s ever had the good fortune of knowing. ❤️ I didn't know I needed another wedding fixit; maybe that's something I'll always need. This one takes place at the eleventh hour; it's perfect.

Meanwhile The World Goes On (2025) by @raina-at : It's just past midnight in December 25th, 2009. John is in the middle of a staring contest with the abyss when he meets a mysterious stranger who proves to him that life is far from done with John Watson. ❤️ I will always need another first meeting, especially when it has lines like this: “Kevin, let me tell you a story,” John says, crossing his arms over his chest. “At Sandhurst, one of my instructors used to say he loves to teach self-defence to doctors, because they can name every bone in your body while breaking them. And granted, I’m a bit out of training, but I’m sure I’m still good for a sprain or two. Now hand over the phone like a good lad, and go about your business before you make me do something you’ll regret.”

Thank you for reblogging! ❤️

Here's a list of Ao3 links to individual authors who wrote fics in the 70s, 80s, and 90s! Names with a * are the most "iconic," aka who's works were most influential to the fandom.

April Valentine (80s)

Beverly Volker & Nancy Kippax (70s-80s)

Eileen R (70s-80s)

*Natasha Solten (80s)

Katharine Scarritt (80s)

Mary Lowe (80s)

CatalenaMara (80s)

Suzan Lovett (80s)

*Gayle Freyrer (70s-80s)

*Jenna Sinclair (80s-90s)

*Connie Faddis (70s-80s)

*Charlotte Frost (80s-90s)

Disclaimer: Most of these fics will not utilize Ao3's tagging system since they were imported from an archive, therefor you may encounter some dark themes such as noncon, major character death, etc. Formatting may also be slightly off.

More below the cut, including links to whole fanzines!

it's been months since i've written this, so the writing is no longer to my liking. it's undercooked, to say the least, so i apologize if it is absolutely horrendous.

Rosie hates cabs. She hates it a lot. And by a lot she means as big as Big Ben, which is really a lot. It does nothing but move! It's all it's made for. Most times, it's dizzying inside, because it's always moving. It's fast, but sometimes too fast, so Daddy and her almost fly. Daddy hates that a lot, too. Flying is very enjoyable, but only when Daddy and Sherlock drive the plane. (Daddy and Sherlock go very fast sometimes, and very high — she's seen the top of all of Baker Street from Sherlock's shoulder, it's the highest she's been! — but cabs don't even let her see beyond the window, yet they're still too fast.) And that's the thing: it's so impatient. Whenever she and Daddy get inside after visiting Sherlock, it immediately moves. Being patient is very important, Daddy said, and cabs are the most impatient things. They can never wait to take her and Daddy away from Sherlock. Sometimes, the cab goes too fast that Sherlock is already a small line behind them when she looks back on the back window. She hates that, too. She once told this to Daddy. She had told him, "Daddy, I hate cabs." Daddy had been drinking his morning tea while reading the newspaper on his mobile. It had been a Sunday so Daddy got to stay home. Daddy always skipped to the bad news; he enjoyed it better than stories on why flowers should be on a certain angle so they could sprout. He would tap his fingers on the table, then look at his mobile, then mutter something like 'That's not even a 4'. "And why is that, love? Bad dream?" "Because they're too fast and they're impatient." Daddy had chuckled. "They are, aren't they?" Rosie hadn't been amused. "So why are we still getting in on them?" "Because, sweetheart, you'd hate the tube even more." "Will the tube take us away from Sherlock, too?" Daddy looked a bit confused when she said that. "Nothing is taking us away from Sherlock, love." "Yes, there is!" She had stomped her foot, and that's a bit not good, so she had said sorry before she continued. "Cabs! We get in them and then they take us away from Sherlock. Always!" Daddy had opened his mouth, but then he had closed it. He must've had no idea what to say. It’d been alright. She hadn’t known how to tell him that cabs wouldn't have to take them away if he just didn't call them either. "Why can't we stay with Sherlock instead?" Daddy had smiled, but it’d been the smile that didn't crinkle his eyes. Daddy had been sad. "Because we can't, Ro. Don't you like our home?" Rosie hadn’t wanted to make her Daddy sad any more, so she had kept it to herself that their house was more of a fridge. It made her Daddy frozen. When they're in Baker Street, his eyes always crinkled when he smiled. He smiled all the time. When they're at home, it only crinkled if he was with Rosie. Unfortunately, she wasn't always with him, so Rosie didn't know if her Daddy smiled at all when had neither her or Sherlock, or he just stayed still like ice.

aw, man! this could've been great!

(referencing this ask)

Hi Lovely *HUGS*!

First off, I am HONOURED you have ALSO taken time out of your day to share with me and all of us something from your drafts!!! I really am enjoying y'all just being random and wanting SOMETHING to come of some old work.

Secondly... "could've been great"???? NONNY!!!!! IT STILL CAN BE GREAT!!!!!!!!! You're SO SILLY!!!! Amazing work by all of our wonderful authors all started somewhere!!! They don't just pop out of people as masterpieces!! I personally think you have a GREAT base here to flesh out a short slice-of-life ficlet!!! This is really bittersweet and wholesome and I'd love to see where it can go!

Don't sell yourself short, Nonny! Seriously, I know we are all our own worst critics, but even Stephen King starts his stories with drafts and I'm sure he has "bad days" regarding his writing! All great stories have to start somewhere, and, as I said, I think you have the start of something pretty special here <3

I do honestly hope you go back to it and complete it or work on it, because, like the other one, it has a lot of potential. I AM honoured though, that y'all keep sending me these. If encouragement from the community is what's needed for you guys to press on further with these, then I am all the more happy to help <3

Master Post for my Season-3-to-TMP Spirk Breakup Meta Analysis Series

People complain all the time about the odd, out-of-character writing in Season 3 of Star Trek TOS. They also complain that there is no canon explanation for the reason why Spock left Kirk and Starfleet to attempt kolinahr by the start of TMP. Why are these two things both so weird?

But, consider this: What if these two weird things are related? What if the odd actions are not out of character at all? What if Season 3's subtext leads directly to Spock's abandonment of the life he built in Starfleet, and more specifically, to his separation from Kirk by the start of TMP?

What if we're actually watching a painful behind-the-scenes Spirk breakup unfold in real time?

A few months ago, before I had ever seen TMP, I watched "Requiem for Methuselah" for the first time and the vibes were so weird that I started to dissect the subtext by writing my way through it. And the subtext kept getting deeper, episode by episode. And so I kept writing about it. And then I finally saw TMP, and I suddenly realized that, not only was I right, these things are all connected. Season 3 and TMP are not actually doubly weird; they are two related weirds that cancel each other out. And, even better, the pain and angst of Season 3 eventually leads to a happy ending in TMP!

To create this series, I wrote over 20,000 words on the subject in the space of a few weeks. (Thank you, hyperfixation.) Recently, a couple of the posts are making the rounds again. People keep reblogging segments of the series, so apparently there is an audience larger than my weirdass self and the void I am shouting into.

So, for your pleasure and convenience, I have reassembled the full series here in chronological order. Some of them are short, silly posts, and others are lumbering behemoth posts with tons of subtext to comb through and mull over. Enjoy the journey with me.

Hey, so, I started doing a writeup a week ago about how to get character voices in your fanfic to sound “in character,” in response to a comment from a new writer I was beta-ing for. 

I’ve been told this is a thing I do well.

As someone who studied dialogue extensively for a theatre degree, I tend to do this reflexively now, and I don’t write out each individual step. But I put some thought into how I might break down the process if I was new at it and looking to get better.

I don’t think it’s actually that different than an actor studying character accents, except as a writer you’re breaking down meaning rather than sound.

Let’s take a look at what makes dialogue unique to a character. I’m gonna list these as bullet points first, and then I’ll suggest some exercises to explore these aspects of speech.

Most important aspects - focus on these first

Vocabulary - the words they use. As subset of this:

Complexity of words, which can include:

Syllable length

Likelihood to be used in casual conversation - a character can be very smart and still use very informal language.

Cultural touchpoints

Culture can include pop culture references - think Tony Stark’s nicknames for everyone, i.e. “Point Break” and “Underoos”

How in or out of sync the character is with the story’s setting with regard to both time and place - are they from a different country or era of time than their peers?

Important - Check these out if you have time

How likely the character is to speak their mind vs. change the subject - this could be for any number of reasons, from fear to duplicity

Amount they say / Introvertedness / how reticent they are - This is somewhat related to the above point, but not necessarily, and should be researched from different angles. Subverting a topic is not the same thing as being afraid to talk about it.

Different ways of speaking with different characters - this could be a function of story (i.e. how a character who is captured speaks to their captors as opposed to friends) as well as pure Code Switching

Deep cuts - Advanced aspects of speech

Fluency in the language they are speaking

Accents - You do not have to write a character in an accent, i.e. spell the words differently to show the accent, if you don’t want to. It really depends on the piece (usually how light hearted or humorous you want it to be) whether you do or not.

Okay, this is all well and good, you say. But HOW do I incorporate this into my writing?

Dialogue analysis exercise

Find five (or more, but at least five) representative lines from your character’s canon dialogue.

If they don’t speak, don’t have five lines, do the best you can. (I imagine other forms of communications can probably also be analyzed in this way, but I’m gonna focus on dialogue for now.)

These are going to be your key phrases. They need to be from canon and they need to be words that really show off who your character is.

Say the words out loud. Read them again and again. What do they sound / feel like?

What is the average syllable length? How many long words do they use?

Do any words jump out at you as archaic? What about modern pop culture references?

What is a different way they could have said this? Write some alternate versions of this phrase and figure out WHY the character didn’t say it this way instead. What is the difference between the canon dialogue and the alternative? Try to be as specific as possible. It’s as important to know what they wouldn’t say as what they would.

Look up any of the more complex words and find some similar ones, with a similar level of complexity. Use a thesaurus you trust and possibly also Wordnik. If your character doesn’t use ANY complex words, reflect on that. Why? What’s their reason? How does that fit with the rest of their personality?

Think of some other characters from other pop culture pieces who speak in a similar way. It doesn’t have to be 100% the same, but if it can help your ear get used to some new-but-different phrases, it’s enough. You’re training your brain to speak like the character. Start to sort phrases they would say from ones they wouldn’t. How do these two characters differ?

Now that you have worked thoroughly through your key phrases, start to imagine these lines said in something other than the original context. What if they were said to a different character? WOULD they even be said? What would change? What would happen if your character was scared / hurt / overjoyed / sick?

Finally, after all that, write some NEW dialogue for your character, either as practice, or right into your fic draft. Keep using your key phrases as a guide and go back to canon as much as you need to! You can do this!

After all of this, you should feel significantly more confident in writing that existing character into your story. Huzzah!

how come none of the spirk nation ever told me abt this? I mean, besides being upset over being replaced by a computer, to me Kirk seemed just genuinely jealous of Daystrom at certain points.

Like, the minute Spock showed awe for the dude Kirk was all "nope. Hate computers. Nope" when he's usually ALL FOR PROGRESS.

sure, I might be exaggerating, but then after a while, this exchange happens:

HE JUST SAYS KIRK IS IRREPLACEABLE. AND BETTER THAN LOGICAL MACHINES. LIKE WHAT. THERE'S NO LOGICAL REASON FOR HIM TO SAY THIS, HE'S JUST TRYING TO MAKE KIRK FEEL BETTER. AND IT WORKS. SO MUCH. KIRK MAKES GOOGLY EYES AND FORGETS ALL HIS PROBLEMS IMMEDIATELY.

“I amsick will not to choir because i have a heache. i Hope its very and i am so sorry

love,

blue”

IT WAS ON THE DESKTOP. THIS IS WHAT I SENT.

(this includes: broadway, movie musicals, and musicals not on broadway)

Thats. Insane to me.

The inside of a car can get up to 40°C/104°F hotter than the outside temperature. Why would anyone get inside that????? It's gonna take your air-conditioning at least half an hour to combat that and bring the temperature down to something even remotely reasonable, and in the meantime you're sitting there risking heatstroke.

Now, I understand that it's currently winter in the northern hemisphere, which is where most of this site lives, but a) I'm in the southern hemisphere and today was Lots Of Degrees, and b) y'all should read this now and commit it to memory or queue it to reblog in summer or whatever, because it boggles my mind that some of you get into a car whose interior is literally oven-hot.

So!!!! Some tips!!!!!

Get a sun visor. One of the big ones that goes inside your windshield. You will not believe how much cooler those things keep your car. Get one, use it. Leave it to bounce around in your back-seat on cooler days, but have it on hand for the stinkers. They range in price but two-dollar stores usually have them for pretty cheap.

Leave the windows of your car cracked open. It doesn't have to be much. Literally just the tiniest amount will mean that the heat building inside your car has a way to escape, meaning the interior temp will naturally be kept lower. The larger the opening, the better, but depending on the neighbourhood you're parking in, maybe it would be better to have them open just a sliver. Even the tiniest crack will help. Ever tried warming up an oven with the door open? It doesn't work well. This is the same concept. If there is a way for the hot air to escape, the inside of your car will stay a lot cooler than it otherwise would have.

If you're fancy enough to have an openable sunroof (that's the dream) then leave that open a bit as well.

Youve just gotten back to your car and opened the door, and its hot as fuck in there. Open another door, ideally on the other side of the car, and let the hot air escape. If you can open all four doors and the boot, then thats even better. A bunch of the hot air will flush out. Not all!!! But a lot. Give it anywhere from a few moments to a few minutes, depending on how much of a hurry you're in.

Get in, start the car, open all the windows. Yes, even if you hate having the windows open.

Put the air-conditioning on full blast, and make sure the recycle is turned OFF. This means it pulls fresh air from outside the car (hot, but less hot than inside) and pumps that into the car, further displacing the heat inside the vehicle.

Start driving, still with the windows down. Once you get up enough speed, the force of the air from outside coming in will blast the rest of the excess heat out of the car.

The temp inside the car will now be roughly equivalent to the temp outside the car. Still hot!!!! But MAJORLY less so, and majority more handle-able by your air-conditioner.

Put all your windows up, and switch the air-con over to recycle. This means it takes the air in the car and cools it, then spits it back into the car, meaning that with each cycle, the air gets progressively cooler a lot faster.

If you do this, your car will be a hell of a lot more comfortable a hell of a lot sooner than it would be if you got into a 60°C/140°F cabin and just.... endured that, until your aircon could overcome it.

mature

no archive warnings apply

9 957 words

completed

eric bittle/jack zimmermann