kennysbirthday

[kennysbirthday]

not to be "comment on fanfic even if they are oooold"

But I just read a pretty good fic published in 2014-2015 (you know, roughly TEN YEARS AGO) and I was like, damn this is so cool, I have to leave a comment, even if you know, they probably wont see it...

The author replied less than an hour later.

[kennysbirthday]

My biggest tip for fanfic writers is this: if you get a character's mannerisms and speech pattern down, you can make them do pretty much whatever you want and it'll feel in character.

Logic: Characters, just like real people, are mallable. There is typically very little that's so truly, heinously out of character that you absolutely cannot make it work under any circumstance. In addition, most fans are also willing to accept characterization stretches if it makes the fic work. Yeah, we all know the villain and the hero wouldn't cuddle for warmth in canon. But if they did do that, how would they do it?

What counts is often not so much 'would the character do this?' and more 'if the character did do this, how would they do it?' If you get 'how' part right, your readers will probably be willing to buy the rest, because it will still feel like their favourite character. But if it doesn't feel like the character anymore, why are they even reading the fic?

Worry less about whether a character would do something, and more about how they'd sound while doing it.

[kennysbirthday]

This week, I read a fic that was around 20 years old, which had originally been posted on the author's personal website and which she added to AO3 a few years ago. She listed her email address with the fic, so after I finished reading, I sent her an email saying how much I enjoyed the story, how much I appreciated the work and effort she obviously put into it, and thanked her for uploading it to AO3. She responded the next day and thanked me for my message, then said she had a few more stories in the same series that she hadn't gotten around to uploading. I checked this morning--she added a 35,000 word novella and thanked me in the summary.

👏 comment 👏 on 👏 old 👏 fics 👏

[kennysbirthday]

*blowing dust off my wip like it was an ancient book* we back baby

[kennysbirthday]

Chapter 4 of Vertigo is posted!

When Lucy awoke the next morning, it took her a moment to remember where she was. Panic gripped her in its claws for the briefest moment as she opened her eyes to an unfamiliar sight; but as the tendrils of sleep ebbed away and the colourful interior of Lockwood and George’s caravan swam into focus, the tightness in her chest was quickly replaced by a bubbling feeling she hadn’t experienced in a long time. Joy.

Maybe one day I'll post these chapters without a 3 month gap in between. Maybe. As always, massive shout outs to my beta @ayeaye-capn and my artist @radishwizard. Y'all put up with so much of my rambling, it's honestly a skill.

[kennysbirthday]

Wishing all of you a very merry "I suddenly have the motivation and time to write a minimum 10k fic"... please

[kennysbirthday]

I'm working on chapter 4 of Vertigo, I promise. I just keep getting distracted by life.

[kennysbirthday]

[kennysbirthday]

you ever read an interpretation of your favorite ship(s)/character(s) that is just so contrary to what you believe and/or canon that you can't help but read more bc it is just so fascinating how wrong a person can be?

[kennysbirthday]

Ao3 version that lets you open the 'director's cut' where I, the author, explain every detail in excruciating detail to you and what it is in reference to.

[kennysbirthday]

Struggles before snuggles, that's the motto; but never forget the snuggles.

you can pry happy endings from my cold-dead hands. It can be the most heart stopping, gut wrenching fic that has every existed and I will read every drop of it if I get my happy ending. I have had enough painful endings in real life, give me happy in my fantasy world. It can be at the last second, it can be a single sentence, even a single word. Give me all the angst and hurt in the world for 500,000 words, but please give me the comfort I need in the ending. please and thank you.

[kennysbirthday]

[kennysbirthday]

It's so funny being a shipper when you're aroace it's like you're an anthropologist, like hey fictional blorbos who live in my head let me study your bonds under a microscope and take notes on what happens when I throw Valentines Day into your enclosure

[kennysbirthday]

Is this a problem?

[kennysbirthday]

It's such an amazing feeling when someone picks up on something in your writing that you 100% intended but didn't think people would notice. Like, YES!! My writing properly conveyed the thing it was supposed to!!! You are so awesome for noticing that!!! I am so awesome for writing that!!! I feel so good about my story now!!!!

[kennysbirthday]

[kennysbirthday]

Lesser-known steps of the writing process:

Finding all the paragraphs where you used some hyper-specific word more than once

Rearranging paragraphs that you swear you wrote in the right order but turned out to be totally backwards

Going for a walk, coming up with the perfect line, and forgetting it as soon as you get home and open your laptop

Creating a separate document where you can dump all of those nice sentences that no longer fit in anywhere

Waking up in a cold sweat because so-and-so was supposed to be barefoot but never actually took his shoes off