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I want to write a book called “your character dies in the woods” that details all the pitfalls and dangers of being out on the road & in the wild for people without outdoors/wilderness experience bc I cannot keep reading narratives brush over life threatening conditions like nothing is happening.

I just read a book by one of my favorite authors whose plots are essentially airtight, but the MC was walking on a country road on a cold winter night and she was knocked down and fell into a drainage ditch covered in ice, broke through and got covered in icy mud and water.

Then she had a “miserable” 3 more miles to walk to the inn.

Babes she would not MAKE it to that inn.

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Hi, feel free to take my new uquiz to discover what kind of vampire you are!

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me.

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when i was sixteen and insane for my shakespeare class final i had to do the “alas poor yorick” monologue at a competition and while i was doing it i had this insane thought of like. i’ve never been and never will be closer to experiencing hamlet’s mental state than i am right now. like of course all that stuff didn’t happen to me but when you’re 16-19 you kind of feel like all that stuff is happening, all the time, constantly

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please please please please reblog if you’re a writer and have at some point felt like your writing is getting worse. I need to know if I’m the only one who’s struggling with these thoughts

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It’s easy to forget JRR Tolkien was a fairly prolific academic translator with an interest in early medieval literature and philology. It’s so inspiring that he found time to write The Hobbit while fighting for his life over Beowulf.

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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 👏

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not to be dramatic but I genuinely cannot picture my life without AO3

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if you want to talk about age. writing's one of those crafts where the longer you've been a it, the older you are, usually, the better you get. now, i don't mean that young writers can't be talented, they can, they are, and there always will be incredible writers at whatever age. but writing, in general at least in my experience, is a thing that you have to do over and over again, you read more, you write more, you improve, rinse and repeat.

and i don't honestly think that i personally am all that old in the grand scheme of things. but still. since tumblr is a social media platform (and like most of its cousins falls prey to the strange neurosis of society and it's obsession with immortalizing youth), i think it's important to take a step back and consider. consider your favorite writers, no, not on tumblr, but in traditional publishing --

sarah j maas was 28/29 when throne of glass was published. she's now 38.

colleen hoover was 31 when she started writing her first novel slammed.

stephanie meyer started writing twilight at 29. midnight sun came out when she was 46.

margarette atwood published the handmaids tale when she was 46.

laura ingalls wilder published her first book at 65. her last book when she was 76.

and im picking specifically women, because it seems like society has a strange obsession with women and aging in particular. it's no secret that for the longest time, women were considered "spinsters" after a certain age (and for most of civilized society, that age was like 25).

but age and experience lends itself to writing in the same way that youth and strength lends itself to recklessness -- and there's greatness to the found in both, i think. olympic athletes start at a young age because they need time to mature into their sport. but thankfully for writing, you have your whole life, and the only limitation is whether not you have the time and strength to pick up a pen or sit down in front of a keyboard.

so remember. your favorite writers are your favorite writers because (and sometimes in spite) of their age. because of the lives they've lived, the hearts they've mended and broken (including their own). and reexamine your own kneejerk reaction to someone else's age; look in the mirror, imagine what your reflection will look like in 10 years, in 20. sit with your own anxiety, and ask yourself -- what are you so afraid of?

we all have a finite number of days here. let's not waste it on time spent worrying about the specific dates and years that someone else was born on.

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"undoing this character's death would take away his sacrifice and character arc" girl I don't give a shit. I'm bringing him back through the power of ao3 fix-it fics and there's nothing you can do to stop me x

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current fan creation landscape is kinda like if you went to a party with a homemade cake and everyone takes a slice and silently thumbs up at you with no attempt to start a conversation except for occasionally some guy sits in the corner with a tape recorder critiquing the cake as though he was a restaurant critic and another guy is handing the cake to an uber driver like "yeah i need you to find a restaurant that makes cake like this so i can have more of it" and the only person that's talked to you in 30 minutes is a very sweet little guy who was like "hey i liked your cake" and then ran away apologizing for bothering you the moment you said thank you.

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Some of us really need to be doing “Finish That Fanfic We Haven’t Updated in a Year November” 💀

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It's frustrating that you can come up with the plot of an entire fic in just a few seconds, but writing it all down can take anywhere from never to forever.

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that's... not how it works. you can't guarantee that your work definitely won't squick anyone. what do you think you're saying?

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just saw a fanfic on ao3 have a dedication for chatgpt... that section is meant for your horny perverted mutual who proofread your work, you violated sacred law and you will be torn apart and laid bare btw