It's spring, and a fresh crop of fan exchanges is sprouting!

Spring in the northern hemisphere, that is. Well, theoretically. It was also snowing today. WHY.

Anyway ...

mcu_exchange is taking signups 'til May 13! Here is their AO3 page. Guess who is signing up for this one too. *LOLsob* Here is the tag set. A number of Defendersverse/Agent Carter/Punisher tags are represented as well as movie ones; I made sure of that. :D

Another one that I may or may not sign up for, justmarriedexchange, is taking tag nominations now. Tagset here. This is an exchange for all forms of marriages, from marriage of convenience to honeymoons to sedoretus.

fkficfest, the Forever Knight fic exchange, is back for its 10th year (!!) with a this-year-only themed non-exchange format instead of its usual exchange format. (I am going to try to write something for it this time.) The general theme is "ten years," which should be incorporated into your fic in some way. Rules are here. There is also an optional wishing/prompting post in which you can leave requests. There are no signups this year, and you do not have to create to leave a wish/prompt.

smallfandomfest is also taking prompts for a new round until May 21. See also What qualifies as a small fandom? and their small fandom pimping signups here.

And in writing news

I'm still browsing posts on the Magicians finale, but I've had one open in a tab for awhile: this post by seperis. And the reason is because of this:

But there's also this: any hack on earth can write tragedy. Devastating your audience is the easiest thing in the world.

You know what's hard? Blowing their minds with sheer joy. Shock them by giving them what they didn't even know they could want. I think I can count the times on one hand where a show managed that. To get it, you have to work for it.

I just kind of feel like something clicked into place for me, reading that. As a writer, I want to do that; I want to do it so badly. It's true, I think: it's so much harder to surprise!delight your audience than shocking people with a sudden tragedy as so many books, shows, and movies do. Some of the most burned-into-my-brain moments from various things I've loved have been the times it managed to do that to me. The Ben January books did it on several different occasions. I actually squealed out loud with joy at two different points during the Iron Fist season 2 (accidentally turned out to be the series) finale, in both cases because I really didn't expect to get what I wanted and the show delivered it to me EXACTLY. And certain things that Agent Carter did, as a show, that will make me love it forever. And Stranger Things. And others, of course -- more books than TV, I think.

I have always had a profound love for things that convinced me they were going not-my-way and then went exactly my way.

I think it's much rarer in part because it's a much more personal thing than surprising people with tragedy. It's so indelibly tied up with what a reader/viewer actually wants. A shockingly beautiful twist for one person might not work at all for another. So I'm not even entirely sure you can set out to do this. You might just end up doing it by accident.

But it's such a moment of transcendental joy when it happens.

#writergoals

And finally, dispatches from the Dept. of Fanfic

I posted a Iron Fist tag for Endgame: A Long, Long Time. (No movie characters, only TV characters dealing with the movie situation. Set post-IF S2.)

I also read:

- A Carol Danvers/Yon-Rogg fic (MCU) by snickfic that I really loved: Seasons, Changing of. (Recommended if you like sex pollen/heat scenarios, and messy emotions for these characters in which nobody is all right or all wrong. Very NC-17.)

- Pain, and other human sensations is a Thor Ragnarok fic that I am reading right now, written from a series of h/c prompts. Very iddy. No IW or Endgame content.

And finally: magibrain has got me watching playthroughs for Detroit: Become Human (which is only fair as I made them watch an entire season of Iron Fist). HANK AND CONNOR AND KARA AND ALICE AND FEEEELZ. (I also really enjoy Markus as a character, but I wish he had a more relevant-to-my-interests storyline. Oh, and I have just met Luther and love him already! And there is also a dog.)