January 2022 Updates

After around ten hours of fucking around with my site settings, I now have a static page! And I realized it’s been a while since I did an update. I’ve had this site for almost a year, and my love for it has not faded any.

I spent 2021 challenging myself. I started out January of 2021 writing 500 words a day and, though it wasn’t for any one project by any stretch of the imagination, I succeeded. Keeping track of my writing fell to the wayside as life picked up, however. I also moved for work that January.

This January, I didn’t write 500 words a day, but I’m excusing myself on account of all the health, work and life struggles I have conquered (or am in the process of at least surviving). Stress quite literally sent me to the ER this week, so I’m trying to unclench and let Fandom be a source of relaxation.

Yesterday, I also made a banner for one of my favorite fics of 2021, if not my outright favorite fic, featuring the ot3 of champions, Sasuke/Naruto/Sakura. I’m inordinately proud of it. Since typing this draft, I’ve further made about seven or eight more banners for older fics.

A special “thank you” goes out to everyone on my discord server who not only put up with me offering up 10 different versions of this banner, but actually offered up opinions on which color of font was better. I’ve gotten into the habit of making banners for my fics which has done wonders for how much I like them. I’ve pretty much decided that every fic I write in the future needs one– apologies in advance for the people on my server who see me torn on font and color details in the future, and say “Tim, you just posted the same image seven times. These are exactly the same picture.”

(Edit– one day later– that prediction proved entirely true. In the time it took to make this update, they did indeed vote on a half dozen more banners.)

In 2021, I entered new fandoms and wrote for old ones. I continued my love the MDZS (The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation) and let it lead me into first Heaven Official’s Blessing (TGCF), which consumed my soul (Hualian invented love, goddamnit!) and most recently, within the month, into Scum Villain Self Saving System, which plucks all my strings. You want tropes? MXTX as an author has you covered. And it’s also so deliciously gay.

BNHA and Naruto continue to be enduring loves, and I find myself with Harry Potter interests to this day, mostly spurned on by the fandom rather than the source material. Making banners has become an unexpected source of delight, one that keeps growing as my collection grows.

On account of the work I’ve put in, and the end of the first month of the new year, I’m going to spend this whole post bragging about my accomplishments over the last year.

In 2021 I posted 91,976 words to ao3 alone. This doesn’t include the works I decided would remain WIPs for a while and removed (at least 10,000 words more.) All but 9.5k of those published words are completed fics, so I posted something like 80,000 words of completed fics last year.

This year, I have published 6,651 words so far, which is a nice start as I’ve been down with the plague for over half that time.

In 2021, I participated in a few challenges.

The BNHA Rarepair Bang, which got extended a little bit longer, so that result is unpublished, though I personally have completed my fill.

I tried my hand and am currently trying my hand on Keira Marcos and Jilly James’ Quantum Bang— even if I’m not successful this year, I live in hope that I’ll have it finished by 2023.

Despite not finishing, I have furthered my writing goal on Kinktober 2020. I originally was trying to finish by 2021’s Kinktober, but that didn’t quite happen, either. I really stretched my writing muscles, and ventured into places I’m not quite proud to have visited, but it was interesting and fun, and I only have a few prompts left. Maybe by October this year!

I picked up a Holiday Bingo Card from Keira’s “Just Write” server– which you all should check out, if you’re of a writerly persuasion– and have completed my first fic, “You Will Be Found,” below, which is incidentally my first published Heaven Official’s Blessing fic. I’ve got two more WIPs for the card, unpublished. The challenge lasts throughout 2022 so I’m excited to see how that unfolds for me– cards are available until March, I believe, so that’s something open to everyone (if you’re interested).

On another note: I am actively working on standardizing my banner size, but until then I don’t want to hear it. I gave genuine consideration to retroactively creating a banner for every fic I wrote and published in 2021, but came to the conclusion that that sounds exhausting, and not every fic on my ao3 account is even being showcased here. That said, here are some banners, and some fics.

All of the fics below have been uploaded to this site, and the links work and are functional. Please enjoy!

— Timothy Wren.