#a-windsor

28. Share three of your favourite fic writers and why you like them so much. 

               There are so many writers I’ve read through the years, and many in this fandom alone, who have inspired me to become the kind of writer I’d like to one day be. There is a magic to the fanfic community that allows you to watch authors develop and grow over long stretches and it’s been an honour to watch that happen time and again. 

The very first person I’d tag here is someone no longer on AO3, but whose fic altered a lot of how I approach my own work. I think they are wildly, incredibly talented and so cognizant of every word they choose to include in their stories. Regardless of personal feelings, my first few months in this fandom were spent reading everything they once had on AO3 and falling back in love with storytelling through fanfiction. 

That said, here are 3(+1) you can actually go and read the work of (and you should). 

1. Authorette @authorette44 | tumblr + ao3

Beyond being one of the kindest human beings I know and a dear, dear friend, Authorette holds within herself the ability to transplant characters into an entirely new dimension and make you believe every single word of it. I mean, just a quick scroll down her AO3 profile gives a minor glimpse into the magic of her mind. She’s been churning out massive, time consuming fics for years and the response on each of them is a testament to her talent. Authorette’s work is the perfect place to escape from reality for a few hours and return to life rejuvenated. Her fic Mise En Scene has been one I reach for every time I’m overwhelmed by something since I first read it more than a year ago. 

2. Piratekane @piratekane | tumblr + ao3

I’ve had a tab open on my phone of their AO3 page pretty well since I first joined this fandom, back in November/December 2018. They have this really incredible way of capturing things that are gut-wrenching to start with and applying this hopeful, realistic aura around them. I believe and believe in the stories they’ve told through the years, no matter how abstract the concept, because they are so honest in how they describe the human condition. Above all that, they’ve been truthful about the struggle with writer’s block and coming to terms with changes in productivity. At the start of the year, they posted a daily word count of writing and I found it so motivating to not be alone with the isolating feeling of not living up to this internalized idea of what readers expect of you. They are kind and wonderful and I cherish every conversation we’ve had about writing - especially that time where they offered to go and read 40K words of fic (that they’d pointedly not read yet) in order to help me with one issue I was having in chapter 11 of Epithet. 

3. Thegirl20 @thegirl20 | tumblr + ao3

At the dawning of Vanity, there was but one soul who dreamed of all they could become. The 71 pieces written for Emmerdale on their AO3 (including bits and bobs which has 84 chapters currently) makes her a hero, in my books. I know she’s not for the fanfare or attention, but the fanfiction community in this fandom is rooted in her presence and the warm, safe places she writes these characters into. When things are painful and impossible to cope with, there’s a thegirl20 fic to make you feel better. If nothing else, she’s been crucial for the collective mental health of this fandom and I am so glad she exists here. 

+ 1. A Windsor @a-windsor | tumblr + ao3 + ff

Nyssara - sinner

Sara Lance is a sinner. It weighs on her bones and she thinks she’s truly fallen from grace when she is lost from the Amazo, just like the Gambit. The things she’s done play like an old black and white movie, no color in these memories.

Then Nyssa is there, bright, strong and sure, reminding her that her sin has not tarnished her, it has tempered her into the beautiful soul she is.

lust

It was only for lust that she was brought to sin at all. She desired her sister’s boyfriend, ran away in the cover of night. It was thrilling, having a secret, and Ollie was more than willing.

All Nyssa says is, “You have paid your dues for that sin.”

gluttony

It was her first mission alone with the League, a simple assassination. Sara felt she was ready, that is, until she walked into the warehouse filled with girls, most of them too drugged to have any awareness.

She did not have much awareness herself until the leader’s blood was pooling around her boots.

Nyssa tells her that the lives she’s saved are the payment for that soul.

greed

While her family thought she was dead, she was enjoying learning all the things her relationship with Nyssa meant. It was selfish, if she got too happy. She picked fights with her Beloved sometimes, punishing herself for it.

Nyssa sees through it and tells her, “Happiness is not a sin.”

sloth

When they were younger, Sara would ruin any of Laurel’s successes, unwilling to put forth the effort to create her own successes. Laurel once told her that if Sara put as much effort into doing what she wanted, instead of destroying what Laurel has built, Sara would triumph where even Laurel could not.

“All I see is a child trying to emulate their idol. That is not a sin, habibti,” Nyssa speaks softly.

wrath

Sara was lost to revenge from the moment Damien Darhk took Laurel’s life. It consumed her and she would have struck down anyone--from Rip Hunter to Oliver Queen--who stood in her way. Her vengeance would have had no limits.

On those dark nights, Nyssa explains, “You wanted answers for your suffering. That is simply human.”

envy

Dark, terrible feelings of want have filled her soul so much over her life. From Laurel, to rich, beautiful friends in high school, to prisoners on the Amazo that received special treatment from Ivo. It has poisoned many aspects of her life.

“It is not a sin to want, Little Bird, it is a sin to take.”

Sara repeats those words like a mantra until she finds peace in them.

pride

Lives were lost on the Amazo due to self-righteous hubris on Sara’s part. Ivo trained her well and part of her had thrilled at that. Now it just makes her sick. What kind of monster would find pleasure in such acts?

“Confidence in a hard-earned skill-set is not pride, love, it is satisfaction. The skill, not the act, was done with pride. The act was a deed done for survival in some of the worst human conditions,” Nyssa coaches.

--

Sara finds herself risen to grace in Nyssa’s love.

������gotta love that homeowner existential horror.