whatif_au | Member Posts

April not quite 365 days

13. Have you ever volunteered to do something long-term?

When my friend and neighbor first got cancer fourteen years ago, she went through hell and back with her chemo. She was too week to do much so for 2 months I made her meals for her family, three times a week. It really helped her get through the tough parts. That's about the longest I've ever volunteered to do anything long-term.

pattrose

Crunchy questions

Do you believe that CBD oils work, that they're placebos, or something in between? I don't know about the oils. I do know that gummy’s really help fight pain. It's better than getting hooked on pain pills.

Is anyone familiar with the oils. If you recommend it, I would love to hear why.

pattrose

90 discussion questions.

1. What are the most important things we can teach children?
TWo things. Kindness and respect. With these two, you can do almost anything.

pattrose

Funny quotes

1. “Doing nothing is very hard to do… you never know when you’re finished.” – Leslie Nielsen

pattrose

Jokes

I told my wife she should embrace her mistakes. She gave me a hug.

I just found out that I’m colorblind. The diagnosis came completely out of the 9

You have two parts of the brain, “left” and “right”. On the left side, there’s nothing right and on the right side, there’s nothing left.

Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side got amputated? He’s all right now.

pattrose

Funny questions

30. Do you sleep with the lights on or off?

Off, of course.

31. What is the silliest thing you’ve ever seen a stranger do in public?

I can't think of anything.

32. If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

I wanted to be Samantha from Bewitched.

33. What do you typically do when you’re bored?

I pick up the house and bake and cook.

pattrose

Steven Wright Fun

1. My grandmother is also insane, she’s got pierced hearing aids.
2. My brother was a clown for the Ringling Brothers Circus and when he died all his friends went to the funeral in one car.
3. I remember when I was a fetus I used to sneak out at night when my mother was sleeping.
4. If I ever had twins, I would use one for parts.
5. I wrote a few children’s books… not on purpose.
6. I was arrested for lip-syncing Karaoke.
7. Every morning I get up and make instant coffee so I’ll have enough energy to make the regular coffee.
8. I woke up and was folding my bed back into a couch and I almost broke both my arms because it’s not one of those beds.

This is the last of Steven Wrights quotes. I'm sad about that.

snowynight

Watch on YouTube

sholio

Space Swap revealed today, and I got a lovely gift!

Not Their Hero (Murderbot books, gen, 9K!!)
SecUnit and Gurathin accompany Ratthi to a scientific conference, where they end up accepting a request for assistance against a corporation. It goes about as well as one might expect, given Murderbot's history.

I was amazed and delighted to find out that I had received a 9K gift, and it was a great time - plotty casefic with a dash of h/c, very canon-feeling, with interesting OCs and worldbuilding, fun character dynamics, and a great Murderbot voice.

(I have *no* idea who wrote this and cannot wait to find out.)

trillingstar

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

cornerofmadness

Let's workshop this a little.

I've been working on a couple of things, two long short stories trying to make them into novellas and I'll be getting edits back on the novel soonish that are going to require a fair amount of rewriting. One of the authors in my virtual meet up was told to delete X number of characters and really rework her story to have a better chance of being picked up. In all those cases it would need some substantial rewrites. My fellow author did it with little hesitation.

On the other hand I find myself struggling with any of them. My brain sees something as DONE and once it sees that, getting it to do anything major. Last week in

ushobwri

brumeier said something about their brain taking an outline as 'the story is done, no need to do more.' And I was like YES. This is why I don't like outlining.

But I can't use those long short stories as is. If I could get them to novella length, I could try to market them. I will have to add description and whatever to the 1980s novel and I'm already paralyzed thinking about it, mostly because it's already too long so what do I remove in order to do this? I have another finished novel that needs deep edits to be usable. I have nearly 20 years worth of nano novels sitting in folders because once I hit 50K the brain is like, that was the goal.

So how do YOU motivate yourself to finish something or rework it once your brain says 'this is done.' Maybe this doesn't happen to you. I rather hope it doesn't. But if it does, how do you handle it?

OPEN CALLS

Climbing High Female ambition, aspiration, and achievement explored through speculative storytelling

“Wish You Were Here” theme of vacations

The NoSleep Podcast

Ruadán Books. looking for books and novellas

The Dark Magazine

Bourbon Press magazine

A Midnight Kind of Place Is Open For Stories About Rats, Wasps and Spiders! Stories centered on rats, wasps, or spiders

Sley House Publications Patreon May 2026 Window Tales from the Midwest

Beyond the Red Line Redlining, segregation, and marginalized communities facing supernatural or speculative horrors

Quest Magazine #2 Power (arcane, technological, institutional, and personal forms of power)

Missed-Fits Something missing, out of place, or that does not fit

44 Themed Submission Calls and Contests for April 2026

From around the web

Anthropic Copyright Settlement: April Update

Scam attacks on Book Authors – now with AI

4 Ways Specificity Drives Your Story Forward

The Best Worldbuilding Tools for Authors in 2026

Do Writers Need to Read?

5 Paying Literary Magazines to Submit to in April 2026

Constraint as Creative Engine

Write Less to Write More: In Favor of Flash Narratives

From Betty

Five Ways to Include Dreams in Your Plot

Five Methods of Balancing Magic and Technology

Fifteen Heroic Turning Points for Satisfying Conflicts

Using Contradictions to Create Microtension – Part 6

Microtension in Fiction by Degrees

How to Create Compelling Hooks for Every Chapter

Things that Stop Us in Our Tracks: Are you your worst enemy?

Cause and Effect – Guest Post by Lindsey Hughes AKA The Pitchmaster

Is Fear Weakening Your Story? 5 Mistakes to Check

How to Use Dialogue Tags and Keep the Flow

Coping Mechanism Thesaurus Entry: Practicing Gratitude

How to Use a Semicolon Correctly: A Simple Guide for Writers (and Why It Still Matters)

Copyright Myths for Writers: What You Can (and Can’t) Legally Use Online in 2026

Internal Conflict vs. External Conflict: The Shift From Projection to Agency in Character Arc

here.

Current Mood: anxious
Current Music: Svengoolie

mific

So I'm into hockey fics now, and just realised there's a treasure trove of Helenish hockey rpf to be read. HR has taught me the basics of the hockey world, which makes the rpf easier to get into even if I don't really know the players. And I'll follow Helenish pretty much everywhere.

Two recs for now, Leon Draisaitl/Connor McDavid. Both locked to AO3.

Obligations. A long, slow burn story in an alpha/beta/omega-verse, and Helenish's worldbuilding within that is extraordinary, just as good as the way 'Take Clothes Off As Directed' deepened BDSM-verse. They're teammates on the Oilers, interacting with a mass of assumptions, miscommunication, hopeless denial, and obliviousness, so most of the fic is pining and unspoken longing badly hidden behind defences. They get there in the end, despite knowing how bad it'll be with the Press and twitter and their coaches and agents (the reactions of others plus their own idiocy replace RL homophobia as barriers), and there's finally some gorgeous hot as hell sex to enjoy after being edged for the rest of the story. It's from Leon's pov, and ends with a quiet paean to the hockey life. (17,681)

Silver Lining Playbook. Connor's pov, set at and after the recent Olympics. Non-linear plot, starting with them hooking up angrily and fake-casually, and only later we learn they used to be together then broke up due to the usual miscommunication and stubbornness. The ending's hopeful rather than resolved, and Connor's characterisation is excellent. Where the fic above was all repressed feelings and eventual fucking, this one's all fucking until eventually they talk about feelings. Very nice. (7212)

pattrose

What do you call a bear with no teeth? A gummy bear.

What did one cannibal say to the other while they were eating a clown? “Does this taste funny to you?”

What do you call a mobster who’s buried in cement? A hardened criminal.

What do fish say when they hit a concrete wall? Dam!

What do you need in order to make a small fortune on Wall Street? A large fortune.

sholio

It's really too early for me to feel like doing a full Babylon 5 rewatch yet, so instead I had a possibly cursed idea, which is to watch IMDB's top 10 and bottom 10 rated episodes and report back on them. And in fact I think I am going to do exactly that.*

*Unless I get distracted by something along the way, as often happens.

The best/worst lists are hidden in case you want to preserve the element of surprise.

The 10 best episodes according to IMDB, starting at the top

1. Severed Dreams 3x10
2. War Without End Part 2 3x17 (Since Part 1 is also in the top 10, I'm just going to watch them together, I think)
3. Z'ha'dum 3x22
4. Endgame 4x20
5. Sleeping in Light 5x22
6. The Long, Twilight Struggle 2x20 (By about this point I will probably have died of Drama and Tragedy. RIP me.)
7. Point of No Return 3x09
8. The Coming of Shadows 2x09
9. The Fall of Night 2x22
10. War Without End Part 1 3x16 (will be combined with part 2)
11. No Surrender, No Retreat 4x15

This looks fun! (For Babylon 5 values of fun.)

And as an escape from all of these heavy episodes, apparently I will be watching, in order of worst to ... slightly less worst:

IMDB's lowest rated

1. TKO 1x14
2. Infection 1x04
3. Secrets of the Soul 5x07
4. The Gathering 1x00
5. Grey 17 is Missing 3x19
6. Grail 1x15
7. The Long Dark 2x05
8. Strange Relations 5x06
9. The War Prayer 1x07
10. Survivors 1x11

Genuinely surprised that they're not even all from season one and five! Absolutely unsurprised that most of them are! I do genuinely like some of these, and at least one of them, I skipped most of when I was originally watching season one, so it will be interesting to see what I think of it now.

Not starting this tonight (probably) because I have other things to do, but Soon™.

pushkin666

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: on my Chandler/Joey chair
Current Music: the voices in my head :D

badly_knitted

Title: Almost Love
Fandom: Babylon 5
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Susan Ivanova, Marcus Cole.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 350
Spoilers/Setting: Rising Star.
Summary: Susan is grieving for what might have been if she’d only taken the chance.
Written Using: The prompt ‘Heal’ from my B5 prompt table.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Babylon 5, or the characters. They belong to J. Michael Straczynski.
A/N: Triple drabble and a half, 350 words.

( Almost Love... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

badly_knitted

Title: Crowded
Fandom: FAKE
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Dee, Ryo.
Rating: PG
Written For: Challenge 497: Ghost Town at

drabble_zone.
Setting: After the manga.
Summary: Coney Island has never seemed so crowded.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
A/N: Double drabble.

( Crowded... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

badly_knitted

Title: Persuasion
Author:

badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Tosh, Rhys, Jack.
Rating: PG
Written For: Challenge 912: Refuse, at

torchwood100.
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Aliens can be stubborn.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
A/N: Double drabble.

( Persuasion... )

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: my desk

mific

Ok I lied about going to bed.

Hilarious vid “To Be A Princess” -
set to some musical song, possibly Disney? By theburialofstrawberries.

https://www.tumblr.com/mific/813728132898177024/shane-as-princess

smallhobbit

Slightly early, but I've basically achieved everything I had in my goals for 2025/26.

Goal No 1: Do a Themed Monthly Post
Posting Views from the Window every month has been fun and in particular interesting as it's shown the change in the trees over the year. My last post will be at the end of the month, so I can include views from the upcoming holiday.

Goal No 2: Accept the Unexpected
We decided at the beginning of March we'd go away for a couple of nights and would take my car. Unfortunately when I got in the car that morning a warning light came on. So we had to hurriedly move everything over to J's car. Which worked fine in the end, and the car was soon sorted once we came home - no time to do anything that morning. And The Daughter and I have booked a holiday for July 2027. I mentioned it to her as being of interest, she agreed, so we booked - all within a day.

Goal No 3: To Embrace My Personal Interests
That's gone well, although I do sometimes look at my Library Want To Read list and wonder. However, it's entirely up to me and if I want to do some of the Goodreads Seasonal Challenge, then I shall. And I have bought rather a lot of audiobooks from a recent Audible sale, but I'll get round to listening to them :)

So yes, it's been a good year. I don't always achieve all my goals, but it is pleasing when I do, especially when I will carry on with the ideas behind the goals.

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Page generated Apr. 13th, 2026 02:46 pm

What If? AU Challenge

a monthly, multifandom writing challenge

Member Posts

April not quite 365 days

Crunchy questions

90 discussion questions

Quotes

Jokes

Funny questions

Steven Wright fun

Music Monday: BABYMETAL - ヘドバンギャー！！ 15th Night Ver. (OFFICIAL)

Space Swap

Starching

Writerly Ways

Riches

Some of these made me laugh. I hope they brighten your day

A cunning plan

Fic: Fall Out Boy - restraint under pressure, Pete/Patrick

B5 Triple Drabble: Almost Love

FAKE Double Drabble: Crowded

Double Drabble: Persuasion

HR vid rec - To be a princess

End of Year Goal Review 2025/26

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April 2026

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