Fic writing ask :)

Because my dear @blogstandbygo asked, in relation to my story Where My Demons Hide: 

Wait, can I answer them in reverse order??? I’d rather end on the positives, haha! 

12: What do you like least about this fic? 

The first thing that comes to mind here is that, because I wrote this after The Lying Detective Aired but before The Final Problem did, it’s not completely canon compliant, and you all know how much that josses my OCD soul! I knew that the emergence of new canon within days of posting this story would make that a likely outcome and tried my damnedest to write vaguely enough to make whatever TFP had to add fit in, and I think it mostly succeeds that way, but I wish that it had been somehow able to know in advance what those things would be and could address it. Also, it feels a touch unresolved in the sense that it ends with John still not sure where he’s going to land in terms of a longterm plan for Rosie and how to manage a life with Sherlock around it. Basically, that whole week I just wrote nonstop in my frantic need to process the shitstorm that was series 4 and also wrote These Four Walls, Exile, Now That the Dust has Settled (We Can See the Stars), and the companion story to this fic, A Satellite Out of Orbit. It was a busy week!! So in a sense, I was also okay with the notion of it having to feel a bit unresolved until the bombshell of TFP landed and created all sorts of new things to fix about the entire series. Just in the long run, that’s a thing that irks me. 

11: What do you like best about this fic?

Making John apologize!!!!!!!!! Properly! Fully! For ALL the things! The “apology” in TLD is barely even an apology; acknowledging that Sherlock didn’t cause Mary’s death is just John stating that he’s now aware of a fact! He didn’t apologize for: 

having blamed Sherlock in the first placehaving shunned him from his lifewhatever the fuck that fucking letter saidBEATING SHERLOCK HALF TO DEATH WHEN HE’D JUST BEEN TOLD BY MOLLY THAT SHERLOCK WAS WEEKS AWAY FROM DEATHnot acting sooner when he should have realized that Culverton Smith had overtly stated that he was going to kill Sherlockbizarrely attributing all of Sherlock’s belief in him to Mary - so much WTF there! SHERLOCK is the one who has always called John things like a war hero, the best/bravest/handsomest person he knows, in stark contrast to Mary questioning his every motive and ability, comparing him to a dog, invalidating his anger or right to have a say in naming their child. I could go on, as you well know. blaming Sherlock for struggling with an addiction, which is particularly rich considering John’s own struggles with an adrenaline addiction and at least borderline drinking issue

So yeah: making John apologize. He does it on his knees in this story, and before anything romantic or sexual can happen between them. I also liked all of the therapy for both of them, in this story and its companion story, which fits in both before and then after the original. I loved writing Sherlock’s descent in that one as he followed Mary’s treacherous advice and sent himself to hell. But yeah: all the therapy for both of them, please and thank you! I think that every post-series 4 fic of mine has included John apologizing and most of them have included therapy. Because seriously.