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@bettsfic / bettsfic.tumblr.com

human of rapidly rotating special interests, writer of many fandoms | writing coach, teacher, editor | EIC @oficmag | leader @fanauthorworkshop | newsletter: betts.substack.com | 30s | she/her
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Between Sun and Sea (8746 words) by betts [AO3]
archiveofourown.org

Chapters: 3/3 Fandom: Hades (Supergiant Games Video Games) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Icarus/Melinoë (Hades Video Game) Characters: Icarus (Hades Video Game), Melinoë (Hades Video Game), Odysseus (Hades Video Game), Hecate (Hades Video Game), Zagreus (Hades Video Game), Theseus (Hades Video Game), Charon (Hades Video Game), Hermes (Hades Video Game), Moros (Hades Video Game) Additional Tags: Friends to Lovers, Canon Compliant, Character Study, Recreational Nectar Use 

Summary:

The last thing he could remember was reaching up toward the sun, the dark shadow of his hand across its blinding light, almost close enough to grasp. To hold in his hands. It had seemed in his reach in that moment—freedom, pure freedom after so long imprisoned—but he knew now it was impossibly far away. He knew now that he had always been destined to fall. Or: Icarus's point of view before, during, and after Melinoë's task.

here’s my yuletide fic! i feel like we’re only given a few crumbs of mel and icarus’s history in dialogue exchanges, so i wanted to develop their history a bit. 

Source: archiveofourown.org
#waxwitch#hades 2#melinoe#icarus#this fic hasn't gotten a lot of love which is a bit disappointing#but that's the way it goes sometimes i guess#my fic
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Anonymous asked:

Don't want to influence any of your dispatch choices because that takes away the fun out of decision based games but AM delivering a rec to a really great on-going fic to your inbox to potentially search for and peruse if you have any desire to when you finish the game! "eat the peach, choke on the pit" by decay_for_her on ao3!

marked it for later! i took a peek and saw that it's robert/visi which is already very much my ship so i'm super jazzed to read this later*. thank you for the rec!

*i'm doing 1 episode per week, so it'll take me a while

#dispatch#fic rec
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This blanket was a practice in patience. In 2025 I picked up crocheting again after doing it off and on for 20+ years. The difference this time was that I was finally old enough to take it seriously. I found this pattern and immediately wanted to work it up. I knew it would take me a year or so, hundreds of hours, thousands of yards of yarn, but somehow I never doubted I would finish it, even though my entire crafting history of partially finished projects said otherwise. I put about 20 hours into that circle in the center only to realize I didn't like one of the colors I picked out, so I started over with a color I liked better. I would rip out dozens of hours worth of work if I found one mistake. I didn't mind at all. A dozen hours isn't much in the face of the many years I'll own and use this blanket. My entire life, probably, and eventually someone else will inherit it. Maybe someone I'm related to, or a friend, or a random person who comes across it in a thrift store and wonders who would make such a thing. What I love most about crochet is that it's one of the fiber arts that can't be replicated by a machine. If you ever see a crocheted item, you know a human being made it by hand, stitch by stitch. Anyway, I've already started on the next one. I'll post some pics in another year when it's finished.

#crafting#crochet#fiber arts#handmade#yarn#yarnblr#yarn crafts#mine
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Anonymous asked:

What should a first draft look like? People often say it’s bad, but how bad. I often wonder if that’s just a self defeating way some look at their drafts or if it really is supposed to be a jumble of mess, that does not even look like a book, yet.

i remember having this question too. until a few years ago, i had a vision for a story and i wrote it pretty cleanly and that was it. i'd get some feedback and make some changes and the thing would be ready to go. but as i developed ideas with higher ambition that required more drafts to fully reach, my revision skills improved, which allowed me to write a lot messier because i knew a majority of the work would later be cut anyway. by "messy" i mean typing as fast as i possibly can with 0 thought. just getting all the ideas and fragments thereof on the page so that my future self can sew it all together and punch it up.

you can think of it like visual art. if you only paint one layer, Bob Ross style, you get a Bob Ross painting. don't get me wrong, i love those happy little trees. Bob Ross is REALLY good at making a whole-ass painting just off the top of his head because he has a really strict technique and chooses his limitations carefully. but if, say, i wanted to switch to portraiture or figures, i'd need to sketch them out first, erase, try again, maybe erase some more, and try again, then begin painting layer by layer, fixing as i go along and the painting develops as it may.

it's just different techniques, really. if you have a vision and know how to put it on the page, you're good to go. but sometimes you only have a scrap of an idea, or an idea so big you have no idea where to begin so you just have to start somewhere and see what happens. you have to teach yourself how to tell the story you want to tell. and for those situations, the shitty first draft is a great skill to have.

#writing advice#drafting
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chickpeaprophet asked:

Hi! Do you know of any online support/encouragement groups for writers who struggle with writing anxiety and perfectionism?

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just @fanauthorworkshop! we've been running since 2022 and i think a lot of people in our community have overcome, or at least greatly improved, their anxiety and perfectionism in writing. applications for spring session will open soon!

#faw
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Anonymous asked:

hi betts! i want to recommend the game dispatch to you. i think there’s a few characters and dynamics that you will reallyyyy dig

i just started playing it!! i got through episode 2 last night and i really really dig it so far

#dispatch#game rec
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Reblogged
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fansplaining's 2025 wrap-up

Obviously there's been...a lot going on this year 🙃, so if you don't work in the media industry, you may not have been paying attention the utter decimation of culture journalism in 2025. The industry at large has been hemorrhaging jobs for a while now, but this year, it truly felt like the nail in the coffin for cultural coverage: sections and even whole publications completely gutted, legendary critics and journalists laid off, newcomers and longtime writers alike left with almost nowhere to publish save individual newsletters and blogs.

Even if you didn't know this was happening, you're feeling it. There's simply very little culture coverage out there today—and with a niche like fan culture, there's almost nothing left in the mainstream, with what little that does get published often reverting to an older style of exploitation or just kind of...guessing? at things that have been well-researched and documented. It's bad out there!

That's why we were incredibly grateful for Fansplaining's patrons, whose continued support helped us publish a fandom-related longread every month in 2025. Some criticism, some reporting, some personal essays, these talented writers produced some incredible work for us this year. In case you missed any of them, you'll find links to all of them below the cut. As a reminder, all of our articles also have an audio version recorded by the writer, if you prefer listening to reading.

One final note: there are BIG PLANS brewing for Fansplaining in 2026. If you like the work we published this year, get ready!!! We should be announcing more about that in the early days of January.

And now, without further ado, Fansplaining's 2025 wrap-up:

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And since we hit Tumblr's link cap 😭 our final two:

Alternate Universes — Fansplaining
Through fandom text-based roleplaying, I’ve lived so many other lives—and experienced so many other bodies.
Fansplaining

Our November piece was another personal essay, a beautiful meditation from @honkifurlonely about fandom text-based roleplaying, and using the practice to explore gender. "We share an innate enthusiasm for twisting and shifting the already fictional lives of fictional people. They all know me by a different name—and no one thinks I’m the girl that my family thinks I am." 

Can Fandom Make Us Better Tourists? — Fansplaining
In an era of overtourism, South Korea’s Jeju Island and international BTS fans are building bridges of mutual respect.
Fansplaining

And in December, Kayti Burt returned to Fansplaining to write about fan tourism: the good, the bad, and the vehicle for meaningful cross-cultural exploration. Centered on Purple Festa, a K-pop and K-drama themed event on South Korea's Jeju Island meant to connect pop-culture fans to traditional Korean culture, Kayti explored the ways fans can make fan tourism less extractive and more collaborative.

Thanks again to everyone who helped make these pieces possible—and of course to all our writers for their incredible work!

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I'm so proud of all the pieces I edited and published for Fansplaining this year, and I'm so grateful for the thoughtfulness, rigor, and just plain talent of these writers! Here's hoping I can commission many more folks to do this kind of writing about fan culture in 2026.

#excited to get caught up on these!#fansplaining
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Reblogged
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It's our BIGGEST SALE EVER!

We're clearing out our archives. Now through the end of 2025, here's the deal:

  • All print issues are $8
  • Orders over $15 get a free OFIC tote bag (while supplies last)
  • FREE shipping on domestic (US) orders over $10

Two of our print issues are already sold out, and the rest are close. Snag your limited edition copy now while you still can and while they're at their cheapest!

SHOP THE SALE NOW

site | submit | faq

#oficmag
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Reblogged kungfunurse
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Wordle is running out of words. Only 2,000 five letter words remain. When that supply is exhausted the Creation shall begin. One day the word will be ZHURM, and all shall get it, and all shall understand it to mean "an ache from suddenly remembering a long-ago friend, who meant something to you once, but whose face you can no longer conjure". The next day the word shall be JOROL, and all will get it, and all will know it means "the melancholy confusion of passing by somewhere where you once could have died". The next day it will be GREFT, and all will understand it to be a small brown bird with white streaks found only in South America, and suddenly, it will appear, in the shrubs of the Atacama desert, in the streets of São Paulo, and all will know that it once was not there, but now, will always be

#yes please#let's get some new words nyt!!!#wordle
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Reblogged
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i'll have something serious after i finish listening to the audiobook (does this count as a second reading in the span of two weeks) but yeah look at my rarepair guys are we woke enough for an ot3

#stebbinsposting#tlw
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Reblogged
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i'm reading the long walk for the first time and this quote is killing me:

"He decided Stebbins must have a pretty damn stupid mother not to wrap his goddamn sandwiches in foil, just in case of rain."

ray said FUCK you and FUCK your sandwiches and FUCK YOUR MOM

#garraty the og hater#stebbinsposting#tlw

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