#late ffwf

happy ffws on the last saturday of 2022 haha! and daaaaangggg, choco, that's a great question!

i think one thing i enjoyed most about writing fanfic this year is expanding my array of fics and delving deep into intropsection and other various themes. i mean, i most definitely had a few fics from last year that were introspection, but this year i had waaayyyy more of these fics, most of which are based upon Aang's grief of the Air Nomads because for some reason that's my favorite thing to explore (lol...). but i also began exploring more niche themes that i don't think many people in the atla fandom tend to explore, such as Katara's changing perception of Aang as the avatar (gods don't bleed (except you do)) and Zuko's guilt on his role in the Fire Nation's imperialism (dreamless dreams).

this year, i also learned that i enjoy writing other relationships that aren't Kataang! i really did enjoy writing Iroh's and Lu Ten's relationship in leaves let go (to fall from the vine) and Hakoda's and Aang's potential father-son relationship in these sleepless nights we spend (waiting to come home). even in my current in-the-works multichap see the sky and sea (and remember me), i love writing Sokka's and Katara's sibling relationship just as much as the Kataang. these things are definitely something i enjoyed the most when writing these fics this year, and i'm waiting to see what next year will bring!

now, three fics i read this year... hmmm....

Monarch by @itsmoonpeaches. it's a sin to say i've only read this amazing fic this year (and yes it's still a Work-In-Progress) but OML this is so good!! the court intrigue, the characterization of Azulon, the various nefarious motives everyone has, the backstabbing... ugh i would most definitely recommend it to the atla fandom!! this deep dive into the imperialism of the Fire Nation through the eyes of the royal family would be one that's very very tricky to do well, and Peaches wrote it masterfully!

Unspoken, Undeniable by @flameohotwife, which is her fake-dating au for Kataang. there’s a lot of amazing fluffiness and pining and even a little bit of angst as Katara and Aang dance around each others’ feelings HAHAHA. would definitely rec it for a good ol’ fluffy romantic time! (also yis there is a sequel to that if you’re horny LOL)

and finally, your fic Drag You Down, which was just completed this past thursday! this is a kind of Kataang fic i have seldom seen in the fandom, a Kataang fic that’s more than a Kataang fic! it addresses Aang and Katara as who they are, down to their core, and their flaws and fears as the reason why they had to split up--and not because of a “simple miscommunication problem” either. it weaves in a storyline that is not just about Kataang, but it works in such a way that it affects how Aang and Katara each navigate the barrier between them before they can finally get together. in essence, the fic isn’t putting Kataang as the sole focus, but as the foundation of the story, with each event affecting it in some way, even if it’s not directly related to the relationship. it also addresses themes of The Guru and The Crossroads of Destiny that i rarely see in the Kataang fandom, and it’s done so well and so in-character for the both of them! overall, such an amazing fic i would definitely recommend to anyone who wants to bite into its themes and character-building!

What motivated you to write your first fanfic? Was is a love letter to canon? Hate mail? A storyline the author dropped/didn't do justice? Tell me about it! :)

@art-in-the-sunlight

Happy (late) FFWF!

Honestly, there isn't really a single answer to this question. It was kind of multiple things. I think really what it came down to, though, was that I was reading a lot of fan fiction, and I found I liked writing, so I wanted to see what kind of content I could pull out if I tried writing my own.

The very first story I ever posted anywhere was on QuoteV, and it was actually an original called Invictus. My friend Mick had the idea for it, and he asked me if I wanted to co-write it with him. So really, I guess I can credit the start of my "fan fiction career" to my friend, Mick.

In writing that, I realized that not only was I a pretty good writer (I had always done well on papers in school and stuff, but that's a totally different type of writing), but I really liked it. I had been reading a lot of fan fiction on QuoteV, and I figured, if I could write an original work--albeit collaboratively--why not a fan fiction.

At the time, my one true fandom (and still my biggest to this day) was Supernatural, and my best friend Tenzin was the one who got me into it, so I asked her if she had any fan fiction ideas, and she gave me the idea for Supernatural Adventures in Babysitting. And that's what started it all.

I think after that, the motivation for most of my fan fictions came from wanting to explore character relationships more deeply than the respective media ever did. Most of the time, it wasn't really about a specific scene that I hated or loved--it was always about the character relationships that I wanted to see more of.

Happy FFWF, friend! What is a trope that you think is overdone in the fandom? If you had to, what twist would you put on it to make it feel fresh again?

happy late ffwf, my friend! and ooh, good question! i do have two answers, one that's just in general, and one that's for the kataang fandom.

the first one, which is just in general, is the "enemies to lovers" trope because it's just sooooo overdone and also doesn't make logical sense; most of the time (to me), it just hinges on the assumption that two characters are horny for each other, which is a very superficial reason. bleh. if i had to put a twist on it (but not really a twist, per se), i would love to see them become enemies to friends to lovers. that just makes more logical sense, not to mention it gives the trope a deeper connection than just "horniness" or even "soulmateism"

the second one, which is specific to the Kataang fandom, is the heartbreak trope in which Aang gets "revenge" on Katara for "breaking his heart." that just... it makes no sense?? because Aang would never act entitled to Katara??? and "punish" her for having her own needs and space???? he respects Katara wayyyy too much for that - but sadly those kinds of fics are way overdone in this fandom.

i've already done my own kind of fic for this trope, never one (without the other) so i guess you already know the twist i love to this trope haha, tho it shouldn't be a twist: Aang respects Katara's needs but still pines after her respectfully. another fic that i think does this trope very, very well is @chocomd's fic Drag You Down, which, while more of a “break-up” trope than a “heartbreak” trope, still has that heartbreak and angst that i always adore from choco BUT keeps the characters in-character. highly, HIGHLY recommend reading this fic!

happy late ffwf! and i absolutely HATE, and I mean HATE it when people write dialogue as expositional blocks/use it as more to tell the reader than show what's going on in a fic.

to mitigate that, I first ask myself if the dialogue is what someone in real life would realistically say in the given situation. obv, it's not going to stick every single time, but I find that by thinking to myself, "what would I say in this situation if I was [insert character name]," it tends to really help make sure the dialogue is something an actual human being would say and not... like, a robot or something.

I think most of it is just from observing human interaction, tho. if you can emulate that natural flow of conversation between two people in fic, then you could probably pull off exposition in the dialogue without making it sound like exposition.

first of all, hotwife: no this is NOT unforgivably late 😤 and second of all, i would chew you out for beating yourself up, but i already did that, sooooo

a fic of mine that fandom most needs to read? would a fic series count? at this point, i think that the only thing worth reading from me is my Katara-centric series, which explores the show from Katara's perspective through the lens of cultural genocide, colonialism, assimilation, and cultural appropriation. i just think that this is an aspect of Katara that gets overshadowed a LOT in fandom, because a lot of people only care about her character when it comes to shipping 😒 if i had to choose just one fic, then it would be teach me because it is the literal in-series exploration of Katara's character. also side note, that fic in particular inspired this post (but ironically enough, it has 400+ notes?? and anti-@ang/anti-kat@ang zvtarians are also rb'ing this?? idk it's wild)

a fic by someone else that i think fandom needs to read? the obvious choice has been and always will be @thinkingisadangerouspastime‘s broken pieces still belong, one of the best, if not the best, explorations of Katara’s grief from the DoBS to TSR, but for the sake of this ask i will choose something a little bit differently, a fic that is also by Amy.

Happy late FFWF because of a field trip!

Nowadays, I prefer to read oneshots over multi-chaptered fics. The good thing about oneshots is that they don't require a huge investment; it's a quick in-and-out without the risk of cliffhangers 😂 And sometimes, all you really need is right in a oneshot.

Now, there are a couple exceptions in this case: @chocomd’s Drag You Down has my heart right now (and it just ended in the BIGGEST cliffhanger ever CURSE YOU CHOCO but it’s so good that I can overlook it 😊). And I had also been following Distorted Reality - an AU in which Aang from a canon-divergence timeline gets thrown into an AU where the Water Tribes are the ones attacking the other nations - for a while now, although the author seems to have gone on a bit of a hiatus... I think I should also clarify, however, that Distorted Reality’s characterization of Aang is noticeably OOC on purpose, it being the opposite of his lively, fun self in the canon series. I started following the series when I was... not my best, and reading a bitter, cynical Aang appealed to me. I enjoy it, but I know it’s not gonna be everyone’s cup of tea, so be warned.

My favorite tropes I like to read are really anything angsty. And I mean ANYTHING. Breakups, tragedies, mcd, angst to fluff, fluff to angst, SADNESS ALL AROUND. BUT, and I say BUT, I adore tropes that can end happily too, which are the following:

One character of a ship gets hurt and the other character is the only one who can save them (and does!)

One character of a ship gets hurt and the other goes ABSOLUTELY BESERK

The “I’m so glad you’re okay” trope (you know what I mean 😉)

One character of a ship goes missing and the other absolutely FREAKS OUT, and when they come back cue either ✨relentless affection✨ and/or threats of bodily harm

I’m sure there’s more, but I just can’t think of them atm

Now, as far as the type of fics I like to write: purely oneshots as of right now. I realized a while ago that I do not have the stamina to complete long-term fics, and often as I go along, my writing improves, which results in cringe and overall Not Having a Good Time. Trope-wise and genre-wise, I can literally write anything EXCEPT SPICE AND SUGGESTIVENESS because I just. can’t. i tried it one time and i have to live with it being immortalized on the internet. i regret my life decisions with that.

But yeah, I can write fluffy tropes and hurt/comfort tropes, I just tend to go more angst trope-ridden fics.

lol hi happy FFWF! Oof, good question.

Um, I think that if there was anything I would change in one of my fics, it would be to make my Aang fic life is a burden (and the choice to carry it) longer and smoother.

See, this fic came out from my own thoughts about the nature of life and how it can be hard to get through but also how it can be beautiful. Plus, when I was looking for Aang-centric and Katara-centric fics, I've stumbled upon several authors whose styles of writing are so poetic, so I wanted to try my hand at emulating that.

Needless to say, I feel like it could've been better. I could've made it longer and added more to it, I guess, and I feel like compared to those other authors, my attempt at being poetic falls flat. Oh well 🤷🏻‍♀️

I guess the lesson for me here is to do what I'm good at, and the rest will fall into place. It's a bad habit of mine to look at someone else's writing and be like, "If only I could write like that." But really, I should just be writing the way I write, since it's my style and no one else's. Sure, I could probably learn and improve from others' writing styles, but at the end of the day, I write my best when I write for myself.

Happy FFWF! And oh for sure the avatar's fear, my Aang-centric introspection fic.

Let me give you context on why I wrote this fic:

So back in maybe April/May, I started to really delve into Tumblr and explore it more deeply. And since I was really curious, I decided to see what lay within the “anti-zvtara”/”aang defense squad” tags.

And oh. wow.

The takes that people had about Aang - pacifistic, selfless Aang - were just. wow. I couldn’t believe all the stuff that was being said about him.

And rather unwisely, I kept going back into the tags to see bad take after bad take after bad take about Aang (mostly from toxic zvtarians), and it just made me really... really angry.

So what was my response to all the anti-Aang rhetoric being thrown around?

Write a fic that addresses all of it, of course.

“the avatar’s fear” was definitely one of the most intensive fics I’ve ever written by far. I think it was because I had to consider all the arguments in the context of canon and forge it in a way that made Aang feel like a complex, nuanced character (which wasn’t hard, per se, it was just the fact that I had to handle it seriously).

I honestly don’t know why I decided to choose “fear” as the primary theme. It could be 1. I wanted to try my hand at a 5+1 fic (because those are AWESOME), and 2. I think I was subconsciously influenced by the saying, “If you’re not scared, you’re not human”? 🤷‍♀️ I don’t know. All I know was that a fic idea was there, and I took it.

I guess the bottom line is, the reason why it’s my favorite fic of all the ones I’ve written so far is because it has meaning. Most of my fics are self-indulgent pain with maybe a few Deep Thoughts™ thrown in there.

But “the avatar’s fear”? It’s not just a fic; it’s not just something I’ve written because I simply wanted to write it. It’s a defense of Aang. It’s a showcase of how complex and nuanced a character (or even humans) can be, even if it doesn’t seem like it on the surface. It’s a defense of truth, an in-depth analysis of being human*.

That’s why I consider this fic my crowning achievement. Because it’s supposed to make you think about humanity as a whole through the depiction of one character, and it’s supposed to leave you with something new to learn.

I like to say that if you wanted to read any fic from me, this would be the one to read. Even if you don’t read anything else from me, if you read this one, then I think that’s all you really need to read from me anyways.