This Came Across My Dashboard And So I Am Reblogging It Again Because It Makes Me Cry.

This came across my dashboard and so I am reblogging it again because it makes me cry.

Update: I continue to work on all things! Nothing is abandoned! New chapters will come!

The actual, fun and exciting update: I'm going to start recommending a few AMAZING TLOU fics that you might have missed on my blog every Saturday for the next while.

I hope you find some new great reads to keep you going while we wait for season 2 - our fandom is seriously so freaking talented, and there are SO many incredibly written fics out there that I want to yell about a bunch of them! Please reblog!

These fics will vary re: how closely they stick to canon and what themes they explore, but you can expect them all to be wonderfully written and, obviously, heavily feature Joel Miller.

Some of these, including this weeks, may include mature content - make sure to read and heed the trigger warnings listed on ao3!

I have never really been interested in fan fiction with OCs, so I missed out on this week's recommendation for a long time and I bet a lot of you did too. It's both a wonderfully told Joel love story and a fic that, in my opinion, really honours the world and characters of TLOU.

Go Your Own Way by @chronicallyonlinewriter 232,575 words || 31 chapters rating: mature [see ao3 tags for full content warnings] featuring: post season/game 1 life in Jackson, angst, fluff, action, romance, smut, plenty of protective Joel and parent Joel

You can check out a review from @march-flowerr below, describing some of what makes this story so special: (vague general spoilers re: themes and mature content)

“Go Your Own Way stands, in my mind, as one of the most well written piece of fiction on Archive of Our Own. Nandorluna has such an intimate and authentic take on the existing characters that we know and love (on Joel and Ellie and all the Jackson gang) but it’s her ability to create stunning, well fleshed out original characters that drew me to her story initially. Her main character, Benny, moves across the story in such a visceral and realistic way; her arc spans not just the present canon timeline, but transports us through an entire lifetime: from childhood to outbreak, to first love, to first loss, to heartbreak and grief and then finally, to her heart’s final resting place: Joel Miller.

Zee manages to write about and embrace such difficult topics as assault, pregnancy loss, and grief without ever once making a show of it. She handles each moment with quiet dignity and intense self reflection; she draws beauty from the hollow depth of heart ache and despair without ever once losing the thread of hope that The Last of Us is known for.

At the heart of Go Your Own Way is the love story of Joel and Benny. Zee manages to create a compelling story about brokenness and connection and the raw, rare glory that is finding someone with whom you can begin to fit yourself together with again. It’s a story of family - of people who when left to wander, find their hearts drawn to each other. It’s a story about love - each relationship, from Benny and Alexei’s long friendship, to Ellie and Joel’s turbulent first years, to Benny and Joel’s steadfast devotion for each other, caters to the soul. It’s a story that I’ve found myself returning to, again and again, in all moods and places in life. If I could change anything about it, it would only be that it did have to end after all."

If you read and love this, please please show the author some love and leave a kudos and comment!! Happy fandoming y'all.

Tommy Miller

Feeling a little manic, the last couple of days. Not sure why that is. I had to stop taking my meds because of my cognitive issues (since we can't be sure it's not the medication, rather than long COVID, until we do some more investigating) so it could be related to that. The last time I was manic I wrote about 2/3rds of GYOW embarrassingly quickly. And I've written about 8k words since yesterday, so...at least I have that going for me?

🔥 For the ask game only because I know you write sex scenes and I love them lol.

🔥 Have you included any sexy scenes in your fics? If yes, do you find them easy or difficult to write?

Hah. Yes, I do include some sexy scenes in my fics. I don't consider myself a 'smut writer,' but they are included because I write about relationships where sex is a component. It really depends on the scene, for me. In general, writing has been a struggle lately, but some sex scenes have been more difficult to write than others. I tend to write more emotionally-charged smut scenes than anything else (hard to avoid in my current series, since it deals with some heavy themes that directly relate back to how one of the main characters views sex) and sometimes I really push myself to get the tone ~just right, more than I probably need to.

For the ask game

🥳🚦👑

Ameeeerrrraaaaaa ❤️ 🥳 Why did you start writing fanfic? It was a pretty natural transition from my days as a 12 - 13-year-old, spent role-playing X-Men characters in Yahoo! chat rooms. Yes, I was definitely too young to be doing that, but I did not have very involved parents when it came to my time spent on the internet, lmao. I had some pretty popular fics when I was on fanfiction.net, then again when I was on Mibba in my late teens / early college years, then I just sort of...stopped writing. Picked it up again last year because the TLoU brainrot is real - and because I wasn't finding the kind of fics I wanted to read, so I figured whatever, I'd try to write one. 🚦What sort of endings do you prefer to write: ambiguous, bad, happily ever after, etc.? I tend to gravitate toward bittersweet endings, I think. I think everything I have posted to Ao3 so far has ended that way, except for one smutty one-shot (that I am not overly fond of). I like angst, even when I'm trying to inject a little happiness, haha.

👑 Do you like writing short fics or long fics? I try to write short fics, then they always end up being really long. ALaYF was supposed to be shorter than GYOW, and maybe ten chapters. It'll end up being 18 chapters and close to 300k words by the time I finish it. I'd like to write more shorter fics / one-shots, though.

Fanfic Writer Ask Game

These are always fun so I wanted to make one! Reblog this and let others send you an ask based on any of these emojis/questions:

❤️ What is your favorite line that you’ve written in a fic?

💥 What is one canon thing that you wish you could change?

✨️ Out of the comments you’ve received on your fics, what are two or three of your favorites?

👻 What is your wildest headcanon?

✍️ What’s your ideal writing setup?

🚀 Do you like to outline your fic first or create as you go?

🎁 Have a piece of a WIP you want to share?

🏷 Is there a tag you like to search for when looking for fanfics to read?

⏰️ Do you like to post fics on a schedule or at random?

👓 What helps you focus when you write?

💕 What is your favorite fic that you’ve written?

🐇 Do you write for yourself, for others, or both?

🥳 Why did you start writing fanfic?

🦋 Which character is your favorite to write?

🦈 Which character is the toughest to write?

🍬 Do you write for multiple fandoms? If yes, what is your favorite fic of yours for each fandom?

🌻 How often do you read your own fics?

📗 Do you want to write something outside of fanfiction? If so, what about?

🎬 If a movie or show were based on your fic, which fic would you choose and who would you fancast?

💭 What inspires you and your writing?

🧪 Do you research for your fics?

😎 What fics do you prefer on a scale of canon compliant to wildly original?

💎 Do you often write about a relationship or focus on an individual?

🔥 Have you included any sexy scenes in your fics? If yes, do you find them easy or difficult to write?

💘 Is it easier to write angst or fluff?

🚦What sort of endings do you prefer to write: ambiguous, bad, happily ever after, etc.?

💡How many WIPs do you currently have?

🔎 Does anyone beta read or edit your fics?

📚 Is there a fanfic or fanfic writer you recommend?

🤩 What led to your interest in the fandom?

🤖 Are non-fandom friends aware that you write fanfic?

💛 What is the most impactful lesson you’ve learned about writing?

👑 Do you like writing short fics or long fics?

🎯 Do you have a writing milestone you’re working towards?

🔮 Any advice for writers working through burnout or writer’s block?

🤔 Would you ever want to write something canon if you got the opportunity?

💌 Is there a favorite trope you like to write?

🎨 If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?