One hard part of writing a fic in a distinct but new-to-you genre or type of plot is worrying that you’ll just rip off the most memorable fics you know of that are like it. Last year, I wrote f!SXX and worried the whole time I was coming up with a plot that I was going to mimic kitschlet’s to be the one you whisper to—which is laughable now, because what I wrote in the end is nothing like that fic. I guess, this year, I’ll have to trust that I won’t inadvertently write a copy of my favourite modern-AU [redacted] fics… even though I did just catch myself mulling a plot point that’s a big part of one of them.
(It doesn’t allay my fears much that my giftee is a master of [redacted] fics! Theirs were some of the first I read.)
“I know I said I wanted a challenge, but—!” (aka, what I say every time I ask for a challenge and get given a perfectly appropriate one).