The other day on the discord, I realized that I'd maybe surpassed 500k words in my Sidenote Full Story!universe. Then I looked at the numbers and realized that I had indeed surpassed 500k words in Sidenote at some point last year, and felt vaguely like blogging about it. Now I am. (It's a topsy turvy ride I'm taking y'all on, I know. )

So when I started writing fanfiction 9ish years ago (fuuuck how time flies), it was with a long Rose/Scorpius fic that was inspired by my loving the idea of the ship and struggling to find fics where people wrote them in a way that I liked. I'm very extra about everything, so I came up with lots of backstory - spreadsheets and spreadsheets (and spreadsheets) full of backstory.

And then I found that I didn't want to give that backstory up when I started branching out a little, because there were a lot of characters and backstories I'd gotten kind of attached to. So then I started writing about the versions of them I'd alluded to/come up with when I started writing CINAS... and then it kind of ballooned from there. I've gone back and retconned some things and tweaked others, but a lot of the core things in my stories date back from the very beginning.

I knew when I started writing CINAS that I actively did not want a prissy snobby Victoire or a Fred-James duo of troublemakers. I wanted a Victoire-Fred duo of mayhem and madness, and then a James-Roxanne duo perpetually trying to live up to their legacy.

I knew that I wanted my next-gens to be into danger. I definitely wanted Vic, James, and Rose to all work for a new department run by Seamus and a super traumatized Lavender. I wanted Scorpius to be a Healer, Albus to be an Auror, Dominique to be a +football-obsessed lesbian with a bob who loves working with dragons, and for Lily to be very much not on board with the whole fucking thing.

I knew that I wanted the Potters to have a weird fucking backstory that involved disease and working with dragons.

I knew that I wanted a Draco redemption arc and blood traitor Greengrasses, including an OC older brother named Brendon with a daughter named Johanna who works as an Auror and is one of Teddy's closest friends. I had a lot of OCs on my class roster spreadsheet who I had vague impressions of despite having absolutely no proper backstory for, especially these six siblings named the Dedworths who I became very attached to early on and whose ages I plotted out very deliberately (there are several stories that Van plays a more central role in that are hidden for editing right now). There were also some random OCs who'd graduated by the time CINAS happened named Micah, Lexy, Hannah, and Hannah who had I immediately had a weird attachment to and backstory for.

And... that's pretty much what happened. There are a lot of stories hidden right now for editing, but I think the general sentiment of "yeah so this happened" is probably pretty clear.

The Greengrass headcanon has been drastically expanded, but I haven't had to retcon a whole lot - I created a schism between Astoria and Daphne that wasn't initially there and realized that Astoria's brother and Bill were about the same age and could easily be friends, but otherwise, Astoria is about the broad brushstrokes of who I thought she was, and her brother is indeed a Slytherin war hero who Draco ends up working with (which is how Draco met Astoria in the first place).

And... I don't know that I see myself leaving this universe any time soon, tbh? Along with the fics that are actively being worked on, there are a lot of other things I'd like to explore, like Dominique's mentee relationship with Diana Potter (Charlus's sister and a distant relation to James I's father, who is definitely not named Fleamont), who started to work in researching dragon pox after losing her family to it. I want to finish some Dedworth stories and expand on what the actual fuck Brendon Greengrass and Bill Weasley were researching during the war and how (it fixes some plot holes, like why the fuck didn't the Potters just make Lily or James the secret keeper). I want to keep writing about Jo and finish the story I have started about her. I want to expand on Micah Higgins's family, because the magic mom/muggle mom/muggle sister dynamic is hysterical. I want to write about the Hannahs.

But I guess I'm mostly just proud of myself for spinning together all of these threads in a slew of fics that run from the late 1800s to the 2020s, and for hitting 500,000 words in the universe at some point last year. At some point, I want to chart out what characters are mentioned in what stories, because even though I'm sure I'm the only one who notices them, the existence of easter eggs makes me happy. If you do notice them, please be aware that (for example) Quinn Dedworth is not just a random Dedworth name I tossed out there, I have known exactly who he is and what he does for 7+ years and just haven't gotten around to having him properly be in a story.

Sooo... yay Sidenote!verse, and good job self? It's weird to congratulate myself on anything, but I feel like maybe this is an occasion to do it.

If you somehow got to the end of this and have questions about my backstory, you can ask them in my +writing journal. Alternatively, you can go about your day content with some context on just how extra I am.