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Creator’s Spotlight: December Works Created by Duck Prints Press Contributors!

Our monthly “created works round-ups” are Duck Prints Press’s opportunity to spotlight some of the amazing work that people working with us have done that ISN’T linked to their work with Duck Prints Press. We include fanworks, outside publications, and anything else that creators feel like sharing with y’all! Inclusion is voluntary and includes anything that they decided “hey, I want to put this on the created work’s round-up!”

Check out what they’ve shared with us this month…


Hold it together by Era JM Couts

fiction || naruto || no ships, platonic or familial || teen & up || no major warnings apply || 940 || complete

summary: Hold it together had been Sakura’s mantra for far too many years. Existing for others, surviving a war, forcing her mind to endure just one more day, just one more mission, just one more battle.

But as Naruto and Sasuke fight their final fight, Sakura slowly has no more reasons to hold it together.

OR

Sakura’s pov of manga chapters 696-699. As per my view and poetic liberty.

other tags: Final Battle, POV Haruno Sakura, Angst, Chapter 696-699 (Naruto), Building anxiety, Sakura’s pov of the Final Sasuke/Naruto fight.

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I’d Call As You Climbed by Puck Malamud

fiction || arcane: league of legends (2021) || platonic or familial, f/f || caitlyn/vi (league of legends) || teen & up || no major warnings apply || 5,639 || complete

summary: > “You’ll have to excuse Vi,” the skinny kid with big eyebrows drawled. “She’s a punch first, ask questions later sort of girl.”

Caitlyn goes down to the undercity after Jayce’s workshop is destroyed and meets Vi and her gang. This doesn’t change anything. But then again, it might change quite a lot.

Written for Fandom Trumps Hate 2022

other tags: Alternate Universe – Canon Divergence; Alternate Universe – Different First Meeting; Arcane: League of Legends Season 01 Act 01; POV Caitlyn (League of Legends); Pre-Relationship; Pre-Femslash; Enforcers (Arcane: League of Legends) – Freeform; background Caitlyn & Jayce; Team Up; Privileged Character Unlearning Biases; Making Bureaucracy Work For You

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thinking (about last night) by Rhosyn Du

fiction || red, white & royal blue || m/m || alex claremont-diaz/henry fox-mountchristen-windsor || explicit || no major warnings apply || 18,743 || complete

summary: “I hope you know that I am literally never going to stop reminding you that you said that. I’m going to, like, take out an ad in the student paper. Maybe hire a skywriter or something. I am definitely telling Pez.”

“I hate you,” Henry tells him.

“Lies,” Alex says, still laughing. “You know you love me.”

Henry lets out a heavy sigh. “Well,” he says softly, “that’s rather the problem, isn’t it?”

“What, you think we’d be better off if we still hated each other?”

“I think,” Henry says slowly, “I’d be better off if I could figure out how to stop being so stupidly in love with you.”

It takes a few seconds for the words to really register, as distracted as Alex is by the heat of Henry’s breath and wondering how much it would cost to actually hire a skywriter. Once they do, it takes a full minute before Alex can move. Can breathe. Can think.

Finally, he forces out a whispered, “What?”

When that gets no response, he tries again. This time, his voice actually cooperates. “Wait, what?”

The only response he gets is a soft snore and Alex realizes that Henry, the utter fucking asshole, has passed out on his shoulder.

other tags: Alternate Universe – College/University, Roommates, Drunken Confessions, Communication Failure, Idiots in Love, Pining, Jealousy, Light Angst, References to Depression

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Castles in the Sky by Shadaras

fiction || 全职高手 – 蝴蝶蓝 | quánzhí gāoshǒu | the king’s avatar – húdié lán || platonic or familial, queerplatonic f+m (just in case: this is distinctly separate from the platonic relationships!) || queerplatonic chǔ yúnxiù & yè xiū, chǔ yúnxiù & shū kěyí, chǔ yúnxiù & team misty rain || general audiences || no major warnings apply || 36,613 || complete

summary: Here are two truths and a lie:

Chu Yunxiu is Misty Rain’s captain.

Chu Yunxiu is dating Ye Qiu.

Chu Yunxiu is happy to have the Shu twins on her team.

Of course, a lie can become true if you believe in it enough…

(A Chu Yunxiu character study.)

other tags: Aroace Characters, Mostly Canon-Compliant, Post-Canon, Team Feelings, Women-Centric, Fake Dating to Queerplatonic Marriage

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Fledgling Bonds by Tris Lawrence/tryslora

fiction || teen wolf || poly (one gender: male) || derek/stiles/jackson || teen & up || no major warnings apply || 6,143 || complete

summary: When Jackson’s ambo is called to the building where he lives, he’s terrified it’s Derek. But no, it’s the guy next door, who has crowds of noisy people over all the time, and plays his TV loud enough to bother Derek into getting noise-canceling headphones. Jackson and Derek are more than a little surprised to discover exactly who that person is.

other tags: Panic Attacks, Canon Divergence, Future Fic, Polyamory Negotiation

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​All of this month’s shared works are fanfiction – so if you’re in the market for something new to read this New Year’s Day, why not check them out?

Who We Are: Duck Prints Press LLC is an independent publisher based in New York State. Our founding vision is to help fanfiction authors navigate the complex process of bringing their original works from first draft to print, culminating in publishing their work under our imprint. We are particularly dedicated to working with queer authors and publishing stories featuring characters from across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. Love what we do? Sign up for our monthly newsletter and get previews, behind-the-scenes information, coupons, and more

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Creators Spotlight: November Works by Duck Prints Press Creators!

Our creators had a busy November! Check out some of the works they created…


Breath of life. by MizuShiba / @mizushibart

art || ​call of duty: modern warfare 2 || m/m || ghost / soap || general audiences || no major warnings apply || complete

summary: So close. So intimate. Yet its not enough.

other tags: smoking, cigarettes

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Kinkiest ship on the ocean (1-15) by FPwoper / @fpwoper

fiction || our flag means death (tv) || various, see tags per chapter || various, see tags per chapter || explicit || creator choses not to use warnings || 8,045 || complete

summary: Kinktober 2022 – OFMD Edition

31 (short?) fics featuring all kinds of kinks!

The chapter summaries will include the ship and tags for each fill because everything is rather fluid in this.

Chapters might not be updated daily.

This has been split in two, see the series for 16-30

other tags: (Tags and ships are included in every chapter description)

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Kinkiest ship on the ocean (16-31) by FPwoper / @fpwoper

fiction || our flag means death (tv) || various relationship types || various pairings || explicit || creator choses not to use warnings || 11,103 || complete

summary: Kinktober 2022 – OFMD Edition

31 (short?) fics featuring all kinds of kinks!

The chapter summaries will include the ship and tags for each fill because everything is rather fluid in this.

other tags: (Tags and ships are included in every chapter description)

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Kinky fuckers by FPwoper / @fpwoper

fiction || our flag means death (tv) rpf, new zealand actor rpf, new zealand comedy actor rpf || various relationship types || various ships || explicit || creator choses not to use warnings || 28,690 || complete

summary: Kinktober 2022 – RPF Edition

31 (short?) fics featuring all kinds of kinks!

The chapter summaries will include the ship and tags for each fill because everything is rather fluid in this.

other tags: (Tags and ship are included in each chapter description)

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Idiocy Can Sometimes Be Catching by FuziPenguin / @fuzipenguin

fiction || gokusen (tv) || f/m || sawada shin/yamaguchi kumiko one-sided || explicit || no major warnings apply || 1,972 || complete

summary: It’s the first time Shin has ever seen so much of Yankumi’s skin. Predictably, his body reacts. Unpredictably, his regular brain takes a back seat to his second brain for a moment when he offers to throw away Yankumi’s cheerleading outfit for her. Instead, he does something else with it. Something she would probably hit him for. A lot.

other tags: Unrequited Love, Unrequited Lust, Masturbation (male), angst, Shin is 18 years old

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That’s NOT A REAL TROPE you Hack Author! by Lucy K.R./Boomchick / @boomchickfanfiction

fiction || scum villain’s self-saving system || m/m || luo binghe/shen qingqiu, mobei-jun/shang qinghua || explicit || no major warnings apply || 126,603 || complete

summary: In a world that is a story come to life, bringing fanfiction tropes into play can lead to unexpected concequences… Especially if the fanfiction author had no idea what those tropes were supposed to mean!

A post-canon story of love, humor, hurt, healing, and most of all TROPES.

other tags: crack treated seriously, humor, hurt/comfort, happy ending, identity reveal, onscreen injury, animal endangerment, explicit sexual content, fix-it of sorts

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spring moves under ground and under skin by Puck Malamud / @theleakypen

fiction || mo dao zu shi/the untamed || platonic or familial || lan xichen & nie mingjue || teen & up || no major warnings apply || 1,840 || complete

summary: A pre-canon fic in which Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue become close when Nie Mingjue attends the Lan sect’s guest lectures and Lan Xichen takes some time to figure out that he’s ace.

other tags: Pre-Canon, Cloud Recesses Shenanigans, Platonic Physical Affection, Unaware Ace Lan Xichen, minor Lan Xichen & Lan Wangji, Best Friends, Increasing Intimacy of Address

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На высокий берег, на крутой | Onto the high bank and steep by Puck Malamud / @theleakypen

fiction || goncharov (1973) dir. matteo jwhj 0715 – beelzebub || platonic or familial || andrey “the banker” daddano & katya goncharova; background “lo straniero” goncharov/katya goncharova; background andrey “the banker” daddano/”lo straniero” goncharov || general audiences || no major warnings apply || 669 || complete

summary: Puck gets in on the Goncharov nonsense with a small missing scene fic where Katya invites Andrey out for lunch in order to get his measure.

other tags: Missing Scene, Awkward Conversations, Complicated Friendships

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You know you don’t need a better moment to go check out some fanfic! And don’t forget to leave some kudos and love!

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October Contributor Spotlight

It’s that time again! Happy November 1st, everyone. Here’s some awesome work by our awesome contributors!


Roshambo by Jemariel

fiction || supernatural || m/m || castiel/dean winchester || explicit || no major warnings apply || 17,631 || complete

summary: Do you know how hard it is to find a motel room with three beds? Somebody’s gonna have to share with the newly fallen angel.

So Sam and Dean settle it with their time-honored tradition: Rock-Paper-Scissors.

Dean loses. A lot.

But maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

other tags: Bed sharing, friends to lovers, alternating pov, outsider pov (Sam Winchester), mild pining, background cases, mild injury

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Stand Here and Take It by theleakypen

fiction || all for the game by nora sakavic || m/m, poly (one gender: male) || kevin day/neil josten/andrew minyard || explicit || no major warnings apply || 1,645 || complete

summary: A locker room threesome set during the part of The King’s Men that is after the first kiss but before championships ramp up, in an AU where Andrew and Kevin have had an ongoing thing before Neil got there.

other tags: established relationship, blow jobs, kissing, mild D/s vibes, porn with feelings

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Spark Again by Tris Lawrence (tryslora)

fiction || teen wolf || m/m || stiles/jackson || teen & up || no major warnings apply || 6,779 || complete

summary: When Jackson was eleven years old, his famous father was directing a commercial about a wedding and the flower girl fell sick. Peter wanted Malia to take her part, but when Malia refused, Jackson ended up in a dress and in front of a camera with the ring bearer played by Stiles.

Ten years later, Stiles is now famous, but he’s happy to do a followup commercial. His only condition: if he reprises his role, he wants Peter to bring back the original flower girl.

No one knows that Jackson’s the girl.

other tags: Actor AU, Soulmates, Crossdressing, Alive Hales, Mistaken Identity, Background Relationships

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Now go forth, and read some things!

Looking for more non-DPP works by our contributors? Check out our past Contributor Spotlights.

Love what we do? Back us monthly on Patreon or ko-fi and get exclusives, free stories, merch, and more!

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Creator’s Spotlight: September, 2022

Welcome to our monthly “round up” of fan creations and original works by people involved with Duck Prints Press! This list is “opt in,” so you bet our creators made a lot of other things, but these are the ones they wanted to share with y’all this month!


The Sin by Artcake / @artcake

art || criminal minds || m/m || aaron hotchner/spencer reid || mature || no major warnings apply || complete

summary: Based on the classical painting “the Sin” by Heinrich Lossow, priest Aaron Hotchner and nun Spencer Reid steal away for some intimacy, even when kept apart.

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the ember in the dark by Catherine E. Green / @ombreblossom

audio || the magnus archives || platonic or familial, m/m || martin blackwood/jonathan sims || teen & up || no major warnings apply || 05:17:10 || complete

summary: “Will you kill Jonah Magnus? If you do, Jon will, assuredly, take his place,” Annabelle said. “What would you do to save Jon? What wouldn’t you do?”

Martin leaned against his fist, eyes closed. “Alright. What would it entail? This – thing you want to do.”

At the end of the world, Martin makes a different choice. With unlikely allies Annabelle Cane and Agnes Montague, Martin enacts a plan to save what they can of the world and – more importantly – Jon.

other tags: Alternate Universe – Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, Kissing, Fix-It, Season Five Fix-it, Canon-Typical Torture, Minor Georgie/Melanie, Pining, Canon-Typical The Desolation Content (The Magnus Archives), Canon-Typical The Beholding Content (The Magnus Archives), Podfic, Podfic Length: 5-6 Hours, Podfic & Podficced Works

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World Domination > Romance by FuziPenguin / @fuzipenguin

fiction || transformers (idw) || platonic or familial, poly (one gender: male) || starscream/thundercracker/skywarp; starscream & wheeljack || teen & up || no major warnings apply || 3,409 || complete

summary: Wheeljack helps Starscream discover something about his romantic orientation. And for once, a lab accident is not Wheeljack’s fault.

other tags: Established Relationship, Aromanticism, Self-Discovery, Friendship, Explosions, Injury, Post-War

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Go forth, and show some love for these awesome things!

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Creator’s Spotlight: August, 2022

Welcome to our second monthly “round up” of fan creations and original creations by people involved with Duck Prints Press! This list is “opt in,” so you bet our creators made a lot of other things, but these are the ones they wanted to share with y’all this month!

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The Meaning of Home (Chapters 32-38) by Tris Lawrence (tryslora) / @tryslora

fiction || original work || poly (one gender: male) || teen & up || no major warnings apply || 26,324 || complete

summary: In the final chapters of The Meaning of Home, Pawel finds his place in this new family of his.

other tags: adult audiences, angst, animal transformation, bisexual character, cat shifter, character has ptsd, established relationship, family, fostering, found family, homosexual character, lawyer, missing persons, mlm, modern, modern with magic, mute character, mystery, New York, off screen death of a parent, only one bed, parenthood, past temporary character death, police officer, polyamorous relationship negotiation, polyamory, pov third person limited, professor, reunion, rodent shifter, siblings, single parent, taekwondo, United States of America, mentions of off-screen transphobia

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love all to match point by Tris Lawrence (tryslora) / @tryslora

fiction || tiger & bunny || m/m || sengoku subaru/thomas taurus || teen & up || no major warnings apply || 10,108 || complete

summary: Subaru was scouted as a doubles player in badminton, and left his home and family to come play for this school. His partner has never played doubles, and is probably the most irritating, disagreeable guy Subaru’s ever met. They are never going to figure out how to make this partnership work, no matter how much Coach Kaburagi and Coach Brooks seem to think it’s going to be perfect.

other tags: Alternate Universe – High School, Alternate Universe – Sports, Background Relationships, Minor Barnaby “Bunny” Brooks Jr./Kaburagi T. Kotetsu, Minor Karina Lyle/Ryan Goldsmith, Other Relationships If You Look Hard Enough, badminton au

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Go forth and read some things!

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Creator’s Spotlight: July, 2022

Welcome to our newest monthly feature, a monthly “round up” of fan creations and original creations by people involved with Duck Prints Press! This list is “opt in,” so these three works were submitted to us by their two creators. We only opened the list for submissions a few days ago, so July our list is small, but we look forward to featuring a growing diversity of works by people who work with us in the months to come!


and the fierce reluctance of disastrous stars by nottesilhouette / @nottesilhouette

fiction || percy jackson & the olympians || no ships, platonic or familial || teen & up || major character death || 2,488 || ongoing series

summary: That voice, so full of hope and horror, is shouting now, banging and scratching and tearing itself raw against the bars of his compartmentalization. Something is wrong, and it wants Nico to know — to notice.

Nico doesn’t care. His bones have calcified this quiet numbness, and his body saps strength from the hellscape of Tartarus, and his heart glitters red like a pomegranate’s shell. He survives.

At this rate, the voice will not.

other tags: cw: implied PTSD, canon non-compliant, cw: depression

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and mix his immortality with death by nottesilhouette / @nottesilhouette

fiction || percy jackson & the olympians || no ships, platonic or familial || teen & up || major character death || 639 || ongoing series

summary: Luke is a brother turned enemy to the people he called family, whom he raised and praised till the heavens came crashing down to crush his heart.

Iapetus is a titan turned ally to the people he called nemeses, whom he despised and demised till hell rose up and held its hand out to hold.

In Tartarus, any kind of kindred spirit is more alive than the death that swallows their hope whole.

other tags: cw: depression, cw: implied PTSD, cw: implied history of abuse

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The Meaning of Home by Tris Lawrence (tryslora) / @tryslora

fiction || original work || poly (one gender: male) || teen & up || no major warnings apply || work in progress

summary: Chapters 28-31 of the serialized novel “The Meaning of Home.” In which Pawel manages to send his son’s mother off to disappear (again), and gets in far deeper with Leo and Colt than he expected. A story of magic, second chances, and avoiding looking at the relationships in front of you by investigating every possible mystery that presents itself. All while dealing with a lot of kids.

other tags: Magic, Shapeshifters, Polyamory Negotiations, Single Parent, Foster Kids, Mystery

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Go forth and read some things!

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How to Ask for Feedback on Your Writing

A guest post by boneturtle (@fishwritesfic).

It can be daunting to ask for feedback on our work. Past negative experiences, horror stories from friends, fear of people disliking something we’ve worked so hard on, uncertainty about what to input to ask for, and many other factors can make it seem easier to write our stories alone rather than show them to another person. 

Once you understand how to ask for feedback, however, sharing your works-in-progress can become a valuable tool for gathering information and honing your craft. So if you’re struggling with your work in progress, hoping to publish or publicize your story in some way, or are looking to develop your writerly skills, read on to learn how to ask for the right feedback for your needs!

How to ask for feedback

First, and most importantly: You don’t need to ask for feedback. Whether you ask for input depends on your individual writing, editing, and publishing goals. This post starts at the point of assuming you’ve already decided that you’d like feedback, but are hesitant or struggling for whatever reason. Here are some tips on getting the type of feedback you’d like – feedback that helps you move forward armed with useful information.

1. Be specific

Do not let people guess what you want. They will guess wrong. 

Even experienced editors need to be given some directions so they can focus on the aspect(s) of the story that you’re concerned about. For example, if they give suggestions on a story element you’d thought was fine, but offer no comments about dialog which you’re afraid sounds stilted, you may end up feeling more anxious than before. So when soliciting feedback on your work, tell your reader exactly what type of feedback/information you’re looking for, and ask them not to color outside those lines unless you allow it. Your questions will help your readers focus their energy and give you feedback you can actually use. (More on what types of feedback or aspects of the story you may want to consider is later in this post!)

If your work is being edited for publication, this rule changes slightly since your editor will also be applying their own suggestions to help get your story ready for their particular outlet, but you’re still welcome to ask any additional questions and request feedback on the things you’re worried about! 

2. Think about what stage your story is at

Different stages of writing need different types of feedback. Too nitpicky early on, and you might waste effort polishing passages that don’t make it to the final story—and it’s easier to fix big-picture issues earlier in the writing process. A good rule of thumb is to start broad at first, and get progressively more specific as the story takes shape.

Early-stage: When you’re still brainstorming ideas and working on your first draft. Early-stage readers (often called alpha readers) are there to help you understand how your story is coming across but not to give value judgments.

Some example questions to ask early-stage readers:

  • Characterization: What are your impressions of the main character(s)? Who do you think they are, what are their motivations? What do you find interesting or cliche about them?
  • Worldbuilding/Setting: What is most interesting/surprising/confusing to you about this world? What is important to the people in this society? How is this world similar to or different from yours? 
  • Mood/Tone: Does it feel funny, dark, matter-of-fact, poignant, exciting? What parts make it feel that way? Is the narrator’s tone matter-of-fact, dramatic, funny, and does it feel jarring to read?
  • Plot: What do you think this story is about? What do you expect to happen next based on what you’ve read so far?
  • Sensitivity: If you’re familiar with the disability/job/experience described in this story, how well did it reflect your experience? Where did it fall short? What sorts of details would be more appropriate or accurate to include?
  • In General: What confused you? What excited you? What wasn’t as interesting? What made you want to read more?

Early-stage feedback is for collecting impressions, finding out what people are interested in, confused by, what they think the story is about, etc. This is important information for you as a writer as you aim to assess whether your writing is faithfully conveying your ideas. If people generally have the wrong impression about something that you thought was obvious, that could be an indication that you need to rework that part of the story to make the important details more clear. 

If solicited before you’ve completed your manuscript first draft, early-stage feedback can also give you ideas for how to move forward. If people are excited by a certain theme, you might decide to emphasize that theme. If they all expect the same thing to happen next, you might do something to subvert those expectations—or play into them—or, if it’s not at all what you had in mind, tone down the hints leading to that conclusion.

If you want reliable feedback, it’s often better to keep your questions general and avoid spoilers. For example, if you’re trying to figure out “does the reveal about Character A work?” and you directly ask that, your early-stage reader will already be clued in and on the look out specifically for that, so you won’t get a clear idea of what a reader who isn’t “primed” would read. 

 However, if you want to ask your reader for more specific or technical advice at this stage, be ready to share more so they can better help you (e.g. the story concept, where you’re at in the writing process, what unanswered questions you still have about the world, the characters, and the plot). You can always wait and share this information after they’ve read the passage if you don’t want to spoil their reading.

Middle-stage: Once you’re sure that your story’s most basic aspects are sound, try asking more technical questions about story structure, pacing, tone, and characterization. You don’t need to give much context; instead, see what the readers understood from the story itself. This helps ensure that your writing is clear and accurate to your intentions.

Some example questions to ask middle-stage readers:

  • Characterization: How does the main character come across to you at the beginning of the story? Have your impressions changed by the end, and why? What moments made you empathize with them? Do their actions feel justified? If not, what parts felt contradictory or confusing? What are your favorite and least favorite parts of them?
  • Worldbuilding/Setting: How does the setting affect the way you understand or think about this story? What details made you feel like you were really immersed in the world? What details or descriptions pulled you out of the world? What felt confusing or contradictory? What felt especially meaningful or cool? Did anything feel random, inconsistent, pointless, irrelevant or unnecessary? 
  • Mood/Tone: Is the narrator’s tone flowery or lyrical? Matter-of-fact? Is the mood (the feeling you get from the story) dark, funny, tense? Where does it shift, and do any of the shifts feel jarring?
  • Plot: Does the story feel ‘finished’ at the end? If not, what do you feel is missing? What unanswered questions are you left with? Are there any storylines that you wished you could have read more of? What parts did you want to skip or skim? 
  • Sensitivity: Same as for early-stage readers If you’re familiar with the disability/job/experience described in this story, how well did it reflect your experience? Where did it fall short? What sorts of details would be more appropriate or accurate to include?
  • In General: Same questions as early-stage, but also: what themes or motifs did you notice in the story?

The goal of these questions is to get more technical feedback; looking at the whole story, what works well, what is missing, and what takes away from the story’s success? These more specific questions can help you in your revisions as you decide what to elaborate on, rewrite, or cut.

Late-stage: After a few rounds of edits, you might be ready for a beta reader. In fanfiction circles, a beta reader is an all-rounder who helps with everything from brainstorming to proofreading, but here I’m referring to the person who reads your story before publication to give you one last chance for edits before sharing with the general public.

If you’re at this stage, you can ask many of the same questions as for early and mid-stage feedback, but also let your reader get more into the weeds about thematic elements, contradictions in characterization, plot holes, and details about the world that still seem inconsistent or confusing. Ask them to be picky; the story is all there, this is your chance to make sure it hangs together.

Spelling and Grammar Feedback: Once you’re sure your project tells the story you want to tell, you may solicit an editor to give you feedback on Spelling and Grammar (SPAG). It’s equally important to make sure this person is clear on what aspects of the story they’re supposed to focus on, and you should specify if you want their input at all on conceptual aspects of the story or if you’d prefer them to focus on clarity, proper grammar, spelling, and the other technical components of the story.

3. Choose your readers carefully

As important as the questions you ask is who you’re asking them of. Will this person respect your boundaries and only give the feedback you request? Will they be honest with you and non-judgmental toward your writing? Close friends and family can often seem like convenient, ready-made readers. However, unless you’ve worked with them before and know how they’ll behave, proceed with caution. People who are too close to you might be too gentle because they want to make you happy, or they might ignore your boundaries because they think they know what you need better than you do or that those boundaries apply only to strangers. If someone, because of their relationship to you, is going to give responses you can’t trust, don’t ask them. 

Great readers are often other writers. Join writing groups (Eventbrite, Meetup, NaNoWriMo regional groups, and local writing cooperatives are good places to start), writing courses (my personal favorite is the International Writers’ Collective, and Clarion is also widely popular and well respected, but also look for courses near you!), and reach out to people whose fanfiction or original writing you admire. It can seem scary to contact people out of the blue, but these are all people with the same hobby as you, and even if they’re too busy to work with you they’ll be happy to know you appreciate their writing!

You can offer to trade feedback, too. Trading feedback is a great way to build your skills twice as fast – as you learn to give critique, you can also better learn how to apply critical reading skills to your own writing. 

4. Ask for help from multiple people

Spreading out the job of giving feedback can make the job easier on your readers. It can also mitigate the sometimes intense emotions that come with getting feedback. If no single person is commenting on everything, then you won’t feel as burdened by any one person’s opinions.

Some areas you could ask different people for help with include:

Brainstorming: If you have a friend whose ideas complement yours, ask them if they have time to talk stories with you! All ideas are good ideas when you’re brainstorming.

Developmental edits: Developmental editors can listen to where you want your story to go, see where it’s at now, and help you cross that sometimes-frightening gap between the two. Some editors are trained in this, but a trusted writing friend who has editing experience can also be a huge help with developmental edits.

General Story Comprehension: Check that your story makes sense (and if not, where/why/how it went wrong). The example questions under the early-stage and middle-stage feedback stages are great for your general-comprehension readers.

Characterization: Although you have an idea of who your characters are, does that come across to your readers? Ask someone who loves characterization to help!

Sensitivity readers and/or subject matter experts: When writing about an experience, location, or type of character that you’re not familiar with, try finding people who’ve lived that experience to check whether your descriptions resonate with them.

Beta reading: Ask someone who reads voraciously to go through the whole story and make note of all their unanswered questions, plot holes they spot, things they loved, things that were confusing, etc.

Proofreaders: Your beautiful grammar nerds. If you’re working with a publisher, your editor will likely do a proofread. If you’re self-publishing, don’t skip this step! Editing software can help but won’t capture all of those stray en-dashes where an em-dash should be. 

5. Remember feedback is a tool, not a prescription

When you get your feedback, don’t panic! It’s for you to use as you wish, and most writers only act on a small part of the feedback they receive.

You can use your reader feedback in unexpected ways. For example, if someone says that they really wanted to see more of a side plot, that may convince you to develop it more. However, if you didn’t want them to care so much and think it’s detracting from the main story, you could cut it and save it for its own story.

Additionally, there is no rule that says you have to ask for feedback for every story or stage of your writing process. If you’re writing a short story that you feel confident about, you might only want a quick round of feedback at the end. If you’re doing a long, multi-chapter piece, you might do a mix of early and middle-stage feedback for different sections of the story. One story might come so easily that it feels like it’s writing itself while the next needs lots of extra help. 

This is all normal. You’re not losing your touch if you need more input on certain stories; every story is unique.

6. It’s Okay to Ask for Only Praise

Normalize the writing cheerleader! As someone who has both given and received writer cheerleading, I truly don’t know how I wrote before discovering this. It’s less structured and has more emotional investment than other types of feedback, so is a bigger commitment for your reader. If you want a writing cheerleader, explain to your reader what you’re hoping for and ask them if this is help they’d be comfortable with providing. 

A writing cheerleader will shower you with praise, poke you for updates, and generally be your emotional-support reader. If you’re struggling to get words on the page or have been feeling down about your writing, they can make the difference between finishing your story and never touching it again. But even if your writing life is mostly smooth sailing, it’s still valid to want to find a reader who’s excited to read what you send them and who gives you unmitigated love in return. Let them boost your ego; you can be critical once the draft is written. No matter how cringey it may seem at first, the joy is infectious, and it works.

The Feedback You Never Knew You Needed

Before you start asking for feedback, you may wonder why anyone bothers exposing themselves to potential criticism. And even after this becomes a normal part of your practice, you will sometimes get feedback that doesn’t help or reflects the reader more than the writer.

So why ask for feedback?

Beyond developing your critical reading skills and learning more about your own writing, feedback can teach you about people: how they think, what they notice, what makes them care. It helps you understand how other people experience the things you write so you can start writing in those ways more deliberately. It can also help you learn to manage your “preciousness” about your own writing—when you let other people dissect your work, even if they’re not making value judgments, there’s going to be some discomfort. Learning to push through that for the sake of growth is like developing a superpower. You’ll start seeing your writing as the medium through which you communicate with your readers and developing ways to do that even more effectively.

Do you need to ask for feedback? Absolutely not. But if you’ve decided you want feedback and you learn to ask, accurately and clearly, for the kind of feedback you want, it can be incredibly useful, and—dare I say it?—fun.

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WELCOME TO MAY TROPE MAYHEM!

May Trope Mayhem is a multi-fandom/original creation event open to writers, artists, and content creators of all kinds! We’ve put together a list of 31 of our favorite tropes, one per day through the month of May, and we encourage creators to join us for this month of fun tropey mayhem.

Our goal is to promote motivation and help with habit building, so we’re encouraging people to keep their ficlets under 1,000 words, or if you make art or a gif or some such, to stick to a sketch or a single image.

This event is primarily held on Tumblr, but you’re welcome to participate on anywhere Duck Prints Press has an account (you can see all our current platforms here) and we’ll keep our eyes on our tag everywhere!

How can you participate? It’s easy! There’s just a few simple rules:

  • to participate, write a ficlet, a poem, create art, make a gif, or create any other content that you want, aligned with the prompt for the day!
  • post your correctly tagged fills to Tumblr, and we’ll reblog them!
  • you must tag warnings such as gore, MCD, sexual content, etc., so that people can avoid triggering material!
  • please also tag fandom and ship, so people can find what interests them!
  • we ask that you put the tags at the top of your post, so they’re easy to find.
  • if you write more than 1k words, please use a read more,
  • if you write something with NSFW content or potentially triggering material, please put the entire story under a read more.

Ping us (@duckprintspress) or tag your creations “#may trope mayhem” and so we can find them! We’ll reblog all fills that follow the above rules and are posted between May 1st and June 8th, 2022.

If you post to AO3, you can also add them to our collection there!

You don’t have to sign up, just post your fills. You don’t have to be a member of the Press, or following us. You don’t have to be part of a specific fandom. We’re open to all ships, genres, formats, etc.! You don’t have to post fills on the corresponding day, though we ask that if you’re creating for a day that hasn’t happened yet, please wait for that day to post.

This is a low-pressure event, held all in good fun, and we look forward to seeing what you create!

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Coming Soon: May Trope Mayhem!

Get your mental engines in gear and your keyboards ready, because Duck Prints Press will be hosting our second annual May Trope Mayhem starting on May 1st, 2022!

May Trope Mayhem is a multi-fandom/original creation event open to writers, artists, and content creators of all kinds! We’ve put together a list of 31 of our favorite tropes, one per day through the month of May, and we encourage creators to join us for this month of fun tropey mayhem.

Our goal is to promote motivation and help with habit building, so we’re encouraging people to keep their ficlets under 1,000 words, or if you make art or a gif or some such, to stick to a sketch or a single image.

This event is primarily held on Tumblr, but you’re welcome to participate on anywhere Duck Prints Press has an account (you can see all our current platforms here) and we’ll keep our eyes on our tag everywhere!

How can you participate? It’s easy! There’s just a few simple rules:

  • to participate, write a ficlet, a poem, create art, make a gif, or create any other content that you want, aligned with the prompt for the day!
  • post your correctly tagged fills to Tumblr, and we’ll reblog them!
  • you must tag warnings such as gore, MCD, sexual content, etc., so that people can avoid triggering material!
  • please also tag fandom and ship, so people can find what interests them!
  • we ask that you put the tags at the top of your post, so they’re easy to find.
  • if you write more than 1k words, please use a read more,
  • if you write something with NSFW content or potentially triggering material, please put the entire story under a read more.

Ping us (@duckprintspress) or tag your creations “#may trope mayhem” and so we can find them! We’ll reblog all fills that follow the above rules and are posted between May 1st and June 8th, 2022.

If you post to AO3, you can also add them to our collection there!

You don’t have to sign up, just post your fills. You don’t have to be a member of the Press, or following us. You don’t have to be part of a specific fandom. We’re open to all ships, genres, formats, etc.! You don’t have to post fills on the corresponding day, though we ask that if you’re creating for a day that hasn’t happened yet, please wait for that day to post.

This is a low-pressure event, held all in good fun, and we look forward to seeing what you create! You can see last year’s list here, and read fills from 2021 by going to #may trope mayhem or by visiting our AO3 collection.

The official 2022 May Trope Mayhem List will be released on May 1st, 2022!

(though, Patreon and ko-fi backers get a sneak peek today…)

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The “And Seek (Not) to Alter Me” Kickstarter is Now Finished!

Duck Prints Press LLC is thrilled to share that our second crowdfunding campaign, aimed at raising $12,000 to enable us to publish And Seek (Not) to Alter Me: Queer Fanworks Inspired by William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” has come to a successful conclusion! Over 30 days, 242 backers contributed to support us for a total of $14,914 US.

Backing the campaign was the only way to get a print copy of this gorgeous anthology, but it’s not your only purchase opportunity! We expect that the e-book version (in ePub, Mobi, and PDF formats) will go up for sale on our website sometime in July; if we have any extra merchandise, we’ll likely offer that for sale at that time, too. So keep your eyes peeled (and make sure you follow us on social media!) and you can be among the first to hear!

Whether you backed this campaign or not, always remember that you can support us, and the fan-creators-transitioning-to-original-creation with whom we work, by backing us on Patreon. Alternatively, if you prefer Ko-fi, we don’t yet offer a subscription model on Ko-fi but we will soon (we expect to set it up in the next week or two! We’ll likely also open a merchandise store there) so consider following us there, and you’ll get a notification when we open up monthly subscription options there! And, of course, you can buy our books and merchandise anytime through our webstore!

Wondering what’s next for Duck Prints Press?

We’re so glad you asked, because the answer is: a lot!

  1. Our next two anthology, She Wears the Midnight Crown and He Bears the Cape of Stars, are in-process. These two anthologies feature stories involving masquerades – in all kinds of settings, and with a very loose definition of what counts as a masquerade! She Wears the Midnight Crown focuses on wlw stories. He Bears the Cape of Stars focuses on mlm stories. Both include a huge variety of settings, types of characters, relationship models; we’ve got lots of genderqueerness and poly, too. Authors’ final check in is today; based on the editors’ reviews of work submitted at Check In 1 and Check In 2, trust us, you are not gonna want to miss these two books! We’ve also recently (technically, today!) contracted an artist for the two front covers – more on that in the coming days!
  2. The crowdfunding campaign for these two anthologies has a planned June 15th launch date, but! As promised in January when we were recruiting authors, we will not be continuing our relationship with Kickstarter. Instead, we will be working with Seed & Spark, an independent crowdfunding platform that focuses on projects that tell stories; they primarily work with film media, but we’ve had a lovely e-mail chat with the folks there – they’re happy to have us, and we’re delighted to be an early (but not the first!) book publishing project launching there. We’ve got a member profile there already set up – so, if you have an account there, we encourage you to give us a “follow,” and if you don’t have one yet, now might be a great time to make one! We’ll also share a followable version of our project at least a couple weeks before launch – we’ll make an announcement when the time comes, so be on the look out.
  3. With the help of our Patrons, we’ve officially decided on the theme for our fifth anthology! The project is still in its early planning phases – we have a theme but no title or schedule – but at our management meeting this week, we’ll be discussing a tentative timeline for production which amounts to, “hopefully formally announced/opened for recruitment in June, with an anticipated crowdfunding campaign in the fall or early winter.” Expect an announcement sometime in late spring or early summer.
  4. We’re also in the very early planning stages of an erotica anthology and our next “Queer Fanworks Inspired By…” anthology. Both would have 2023 crowdfunding releases.
  5. Now that we’re almost caught up, work-wise, on the backlog of editing that resulted from my health issues, we’re also looking to other “next projects,” especially working on publishing more novels. We expect to build on our existing relationships with A. L. Heard and Tris Lawrence, by publishing a re-edit of Hockey Bois and editing and helping crowdfund further books in Lawrence’s “Welcome to PHU” ‘verse. We’re hoping to have Hockey Bois our sometime this summer and a crowdfunding launch for “Missed Fortunes” and “Into the Split” (books 2 and 3 of the “Twinned” trilogy) sometime in Quarter 4. In addition to these known projects, we’ll be opening the floor to authors who’ve previously worked with us, likely in late summer or early fall, to discuss projects they may have in mind or in progress that they’d be interested in pursuing and potentially publishing with us. We’re tentatively hoping to publish 3 – 4 anthologies in 2023 and up to 4 novels. And, as always, you bet your bottom dollar everything is gonna be hella queer!
  6. As you may be aware, Patrons at the $10 and $25 level on our Patreon get access to one erotica story per month, written just for them – but, what you may not realize is that after 6 months, the rights for those stories revert to our authors in full, and they can do what they wish with those stories – including publishing them with us! One of our authors has opted to do so, and we’re hoping to have the story published on our website by the end of April (more information on this soon)! We’ve been hard at work tweaking our website and shop configuration in preparation for this, and Alessa Riel has developed an awesome variation on our standard Dux logo, for all your citrus-scale needs…

We’ll share more on the erotica label soon!

And none of this includes our ongoing projects – our regular blogging on writing, publishing, and prompting (we’ve been expanding our stable of blog post authors!); events like #drabbledaysaturday on Twitter and May Trope Mayhem (coming in 2 weeks!); our monthly Patreon short stories and erotica stories; and more!

As you can see, there’s a lot in the pipeline, and there’ll continue to be more to come. The success of both of our first crowdfunding campaigns has been a huge boost for us, helping us build a profile, grow our relationships, develop more reliable streams, and more. Thank you all for your support, your reads, your signal boosts, your backing, and your interest. There’s loads more work to do, of course…but the result of that work is going to be a growing catalog of amazing queer works by queer authors and artists, and honestly? We couldn’t be more excited about what tomorrow will bring!