Okay But There Is Something Disquieting About This Urge To Cast Fan Writers As Altruists. They Give Us

Hey, I was possessed with the need to write this interaction but with no story to tie it to, so now here's this. Takes place post canon.

While sailing with his brother over the last nine months had been everything they'd needed and more, Ford was willing to admit it was good to be back in Gravity Falls. The time with his brother had healed some deep ache inside his chest, but knowing hed soon beseeing his grand niece and nephew, along with all the residents and old friends he'd left behind, was a similar balm.

What wasn't a balm was the monstrosity built behind what had once been his house.

Since Soos had moved into the shack with his girlfriend and grandmother, the Pines were now technically homeless. Soos had been very willing to move back to his old house, but Stan had simply said he'd 'handled' it and not to worry. Ford had been very worried, but he was trying to learn how to trust his brother again, and had simply left him to it.

This proved to be a mistake, as now there was a second, terrible house now built behind the first. It was further in the woods so as to be outside the idle view of visiting tourists, bit still close enough to be considered in its back yard.

Ford stared at it, feeling some kind of emotion as Stan burst through the front door and starting hauling in their luggage. Everything on the ground and second floor was made of a sturdy dark wood, with a green front door and circular windows. If he kept looking at just that, he could almost pretend it was a normal house.

Unfortunately he couldn't, and his gaze moved to the third floor that had been built with what looked like purple wood and colorful stained glass windows depicting several familiar images, had a balcony, a slide, and what could be an observatory, topped with a multicolored rainbow roof. The whole house was built around a giant pine tree, with its large branches casting shade across the entire structure. There was no way to know what the inside looked line without looking, but he was to enraptured with the strange upper floors and the fact that the more he looked, the more he noticed the strangeness carried over to the bottom floors as well.

There were small wards carved around the doorways and windows, one of the second floor windows was suspiciously hinged, as if built to be jumped out of dramatically, and if he leaned to the side he could see what looked like a large porch wrapping around the back with built in seating, a swing, several cannond, and a giant slingshot.

Too many windows were vaguely pig shaped to mistake who helped design the whole thing.

"Stanley," he called, grabbing the suitcase at his feet and dragging it inside, "what is this."

"What's it look like Six!" Stan called out from deeper in the house, "It's our new digs!"

"Let me clarify," Ford followed the sound of his brothers rummaging to find him in what had to be the living room, leaning back in cozy looking couch holding a soda, "why do we have another house, why does it look like this, and where did you get the funds for it, because I know our findings weren't enough to cover a project this large."

"Soos is still taking up space in the shack with his lady friend, so we needed someplace to stay," Stan said, wiggling deeper into the couch, "I asked Mabel to help design it with Dipper. Told her to go wild, because-"

"I GAVE YOUR EVIL CLONE A MILLION DOLLARS!" Fiddleford screamed into Fords ear, cackling as Ford shouted and jumped away, then scuttling over the the couch to climb onto the back and sit hunched over.

"What he said," Stan said with a smirk, sipping his soda as Ford rubbed his ear and scowled.

"Fiddleford, always good to see you. Why are you giving my brother a million dollars."

"Hey, he didn't give it to me, he paid me. I'm doing him an expensive service here."

"Really?" Ford raised an eyebrow, then turned towards Fiddleford with a questioning tilt of his head, "what on earth are you paying Stanley a million dollars for?"

"Hey," Stan said, eyes darting around suspiciously as Fords narrowed, "we don't need to worry about the details, just-"

"He done did tell me he'd stop swerving to hit me with his car if I have him a million greeneronies!" Fiddleford cackled, then leaned in and held up a hand and pointed at Stan behind it, like he was sharing a secret.

"Poor fool don't get that i got one over on 'em!"

"I see." Ford put his hands behind his back as he watched his brother start to sweat and Fiddleford chuckled to himself, "and why is that something you need to pay Stan for?"

"Ain't it obvious?" Fiddleford gave him a pitying look, like he was the strange one here, "Stan here has the car, I need to pay him to get him to stop."

"Sounds like good reasoning to me!" Stan yelled, hunching further into the couch and avoiding eye contact, "I hit man, man pays me not to keep doing that. Let's continue on with out lives."

"No, I think I'm a bit stuck on the fact you've been hitting my friend with your car. On purpose it sounds like."

"Hey!" Stan sat up, outraged, "don't make it sound like I was the only one doing it! Lots of people hit McGucket with their cars! He ran out in the road all the time!"

"Its true Stanford, I wasn't in the best place for a while," Fiddleford sighed, then grabbed his hat and clutched it to his chest, "I'd just wander around all willy-nilly, and good all Stan here was the only one who'd remind me to always be aware of traffic. Never know when a car will smash through a guard rail, destroy some fencing, then try to slam into you as the driver yells 'fifty McGucket points!' Or somethin' out the window."

Ford had never seen his brother rehunch and look away so fast.

YAAAAY U REPLIED TO MY ASK! 1!!! 1! 1! 1!! (also can we have some more shadow hating Robotnik for existing and loving stone for... Also existing)

They're all adapting

Do you have any advice on how you choose which fic idea to write next? I want whatever the next Gravity Falls fic I write next to be one of the many long fic ideas my brain has thrown at me but I'm having trouble picking

God if you figure out how to choose please tell me.

No but seriously, start on whichever one you like fleshing out the most. Flesh it out and then decide if that one IS the one you want to write right this minute, and dont be afraid to bounce around! Writing different things at once is better that forcing yourself i to one thing until you dont want to write at all anymore

timestuck au warm ups

If you outline your fics, how do you go about it? Or do you just write it out without a specific plan?

God I wish I could just START writing my fics, but no I am nothing if not a well planned bitch

First, I write stuff out on paper. This makes it’s easier to go back and look at my own writing, but also paper has? Less high stakes for me? If I type something it feels like I HAVE to go in that direction, but when I write on paper I can just scribble it out or turn to the next page. This step is where I’ll write whatever comes to mind that I might want to add, usually out of order. I guess you could call this brainstorming? But I don’t usually cause to me brainstorming is JUST in my head, and this is on paper. That’s another thing, GET THE IDEA OUT ON PAPER because youll be super excited about a certain dialogue line or plot line, and if you don’t write it out you will forget. So step one is filling pages and pages of my favorite, designated ‘Brain Dump’ notebook (mine has mushrooms on it :) )

Then, actual outline. This is also on paper for me, where I’ll write out any big plot lines or bits I’ve come up with in the first step, and try to fit them in an order that makes sense. This is simultaneously the easiest part and the hardest, because I’m someone who wants smoothness in my writing in terms of how stuff flows together, so I’m ver particular about what stuff goes where. If I’m doing an outline for a WHOLE fic, each little line is most likely a chapter, or important chapter moments however, and this is important, I make up an outline for every chapter I write. That way I can go into detail with what dialogue goes where, the blocking of how the characters are, etc

Then it’s first draft time!! This parts fun. This is where I write BADLY. I basically just throw everything at my poor google docs until it sticks, and I try not to stop, so there’s no going back and spell checking, or finding a better word. If I write “says” or “he shivered” eight times in the same paragraph it DOES NOT MATTER. I’ll be back later. This draft is the shittiest possible version of what I want to write.

Step two of first draft is when I’m DONE, I have the bare bones of my draft, and this is where I go back and ask myself if I really deserve to know how to type. I’ll sew up any glaring plot holes, spell checking, rewrite verbs and whatnot to not repeat, stuff like that. If I read the whole thing and decide I don’t like this particular part, I’ll delete it and rewrite it.

Then it’s onto my favorite part, draft two. This is REWRITE TIME. not edit, rewrite. Thats the best writing advice I’ve ever gotten and I can ever give. I pull up two screens, slap my draft 1 on the the first screen and open a new doc, and rewrite the entire thing. Why? Because as im retyping this is when I add prose, and fix the flow, and add more angst in or better word choice or whatever. This is where the LENGTH of whatever I’m writing comes in, I’ll usually double whatever I have for the first draft, on sheer added prose and grace notes alone. This part is immensely satisfying, and it takes the longest by far. I do this for every single chapter of things I post on Ao3

Draft three is usually my final draft. I copy and paste draft 2 in another document, and I’ll read through again for any typos and mistakes and fix those. This is PROOFREADING, plain and simple, and it’s so important. I usually don’t fix much in this stage, but I do read it outloud (quietly to myself or maybe my dog) to see if it sounds right.

And thats it! Usually, at least with Abandon My Eulogy each chapter takes about two weeks, and by two week I mean I spend a week thinking about it not actually writing and then outline, first draft and correct that in three days. Draft two takes. So long, but it’s worth it

‘Sorry I went off on a ramble there

With the ai webscrape that recently happened on ao3 will you lock your works to registered users only? Its definitely insane whats going on and I’ve seen a lot of authors start to lock off all of their works.

If you don’t know what i’m talking about you can find out more here.

Please be safe and careful with your content!

I saw the thing about the AI scraping of Ao3. Unfortunately, my fics pre-February didn't escape, which means Abandon My Eulogy and Gonna See The Folks I Dig both were added in with the thousands of fics used to train some AI program somewhere.

But I'm not going to lock my works to be registered users only.

It's sad. To see my work getting shuttled off to be churned into a machine that spits out lifeless crap, its violating, and it does make me upset.

But AI could never, and will never, do what I do. And I do this shit for the love of the game.

I'm not making content to get a higher inconsequential number, im not doing this for some kind of internet fame or to be on the cover of Vouge or something. I write, and I make art, and I create because I love doing it, and I love sharing it, and I love when other people see it and they ALSO get the joy that I created it with.

I write to tell stories. I write to string words together to make phrases that turn into sentences that bear meaning to others. I write to make angst that'll make you cry, that makes me cry, I write happy comedy to make you, and myself laugh, I write to enjoy Fandom or just for the sake of creating.

AI could never take that away from me. And, assholes using AI to make some kinda money and using my work to do it pisses me off to no end, but its not gonna stop me.

I know there are some of you here who like and read my work and aren't registered users on Ao3 (Although, take it from me, I HIGHLY recommend becoming a user, its awesome) or simply read ao3 without logging in.

I see why other authors are locking down their work, I understand it and I even encourage them, but im not going to do it for my own.

Because I used to be an unregistered user. I used to be so afraid of getting caught reading unpublished stories that I didn't want anything associated with me, so I didn't make an account until YEARS later. I remember clicking on links and being behind a wall, unable to read a fic I wanted because I wasn't a user. I remember missing out on art and on stories I wanted to see.

So im keeping my stuff open. Im putting my work out there for the world, and unfortunately, that means that sometimes people in the world are gonna be dicks about free access and use my work. Someone might feed abandon my Eulogy into AI to spit out a new ending. Someone might use AI to make shitty generated art for it.

And it makes me angry. I do not give my permission now or ever to take my work, anything I've ever written, and put it into generative AI, and if I ever hear the name of someone doing it, I'll hunt them down.

But im keeping my doors open. The garden is free to enter, and I will try to make sure it always is. If Ao3 finds a way to make it so I can prevent my fics from being taken while still allowing free access to everyone, id be happy to use that. But until then, im going to keep writing, keep posting, and raising my middle finger to the assholes who think its okay to steal people's work.

im home from work bc i Got Injured so im indulging myself by finishing and posting an incredibly noncanonical joke i made about @dark-lord-of-awesomeness's shapeshifter Stan AU (fic here). stan has since learned fiddleford's name unfortunately, but i love to bully him.

sorry about no id but i injured my hand and typing this took a really long time

bonus: things i couldnt make them say but which theyre thinking anyway

"ford dies first" "no, stan dies first"

let's be real. you're all giving the grim reaper WAY too much credit

goth agent stone is something i've been spinning in my head for the past couple weeks... i've been into goth for, oh my god around a decade now (albeit on and off) so i hope you don't mind if i ramble some thoughts at you as a jumping off point? it's a bit of a niche headcanon so i'm delighted to share it with someone ;; this is a bit of a long one sorry so feel free to ignore it lol i won't be offended

i can imagine stone as having quite a corp goth lean: pinstripe pencil skirts, black trench coat over a suit, cat eye sunglasses, eyeliner!! that sort of thing. not all that different to what he usually wears, just... spookier! i can imagine him in a lot of black leather too, given the whole motorcyclist thing. robotnik might be similar but with more DRAMA. he's a supervillain he's got style he's got flair he's got ribcage patterns sewn into his jacket.

and since stone's someone who sews (and is clearly quite good at it) he'd have so much freedom!! can't find the perfect ruffly blouse? make one! in the '80s especially goth fashion was about hand me downs and DIY he'd be so at home

as for music!! that's the real heart of it. i can imagine them both enjoying the classic, 80s goth roots type of music but i've always pictured robotnik as having an industrial/metal/rock lean. stone feels like he'd be happy listening to whatever robotnik wants to listen to, honestly, as well as some of the dreamier stuff like cocteau twins. music to sway and yearn to.

but uhh anyway if you want a peek into goth culture i'd recommend watching or reading interviews with bands like specimen and fans at the bat cave or just on the street, there were a lot of news outlets that interviewed goths back when it was this really crazy new thing. i'm especially fascinated by the ones from the '80s but there's some excellent modern bands too :-3 and for a look into '90s and 2000s goth there's of herbs and altars' storytimes, please mind the content warnings on them because they're quite heavy but i credit dorian with getting me back into goth after i'd basically abandoned it in my teens.

i did a little happy dance when i saw you were thinking of looking into this stuff, i'm very passionate and this is really just scratching the surface. i could go on and on as all my friends are very aware ;; but i'll stop now. thank you so much if you read all this

Rambling is a love language and I would never ignore someone rambling at me. Feel free to ramble more, even! My DMs are open if you'd prefer!

This goes to everyone, actually. I am very very shy and socially awkward, but I ADORE IT when people talk to me about stuff they love. Everyone is welcome to! I love listening, as my girlfriend would tell you, and I love learning. No excuse needed, you can pop up like "hey I feel like talking about polar bears" and I'll pay attention.

That being said ohoho, this is great! Taking notes, taking notes, thank you so much! I can tell you've put a lot of thought into it. I do agree Robotnik would be far more dramatic with his clothes kinda like that scene in Megaming where he gets his evil outfit ready and I wouldn't be surprised if Stone is the one designing his outfits!

I can also picture this: