#AND I'M WRITING THIS META FROM STYLE'S POV AND IT'S LIKE. HE DOESN'T KNOW. HE DOESN'T KNOWWWWW. BUT I DO. AND IT HURTS 😭😭😭😭 | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

iwriteasfotini · 2 months ago

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Seeking input/HC/Meta on young Severus' physical characteristics!!!

In canon, we know adult Severus has long dark hair, it is often described as greasy, and he has his trademark hooked nose. Now, my thoughts are that Harry (as the narrator) tends to call attention to Severus' physical appearance when he is feeling animosity towards the man. There are plenty of scenes when Severus' physical traits are never mentioned. I also think Harry is biased as a narrator. But this is not to say the description of Severus is inaccurate.

What I would like input on is how young/teenage Severus looks to himself and to his (non-hostile) peers. And if he is self conscious of his traits? His nose, which as a tween would not be as large or curved as it becomes, changes through puberty. How does he feel about this? Does he even notice? I imagine him with longish, shoulder length hair which is very straight. Harry often describes it as "curtains" around his face. But does young Severus style it at all? Does he brush it back for more of a slick look (this pairs well with "greasy" hair). I have long straight hair myself and my roots get greasy pretty fast. Coming from a lower socioeconomic class, he wouldn't have access to the magical hair care products other students do. That being said, I think Hogwarts provides shampoo (just a random ass HC). But I imagine him showering while trying to keep his hair dry to eliminate the hassle of drying it in his younger years. Side note: I invented a whole magical product called the Hair Halo which dries hair instantly, but Severus doesn't have one.

How does Lily view Severus' physical traits? I pretty much don't talk about this until they are older. But the story includes a lot of Snily.

Does young Severus mirror adult Severus? Or is there something about adult Severus which gives his hair in particular that greasy quality?

Does Sirius' remark about him leaving grease marks on his parchment during Snape's Worst Memory imply he was generally unwashed and unclean? Or is it Sirius' tendency to antagonize him by making an insult about his physical appearance (something Sirius of all people would be hyper aware of as he puts a lot of pride in his own appearance) which he may be exaggerating to be mean?

I want to preserve canon Severus' traits as much as possible. Also I have my own HC for him which will inevitably feature in my writing. I don't want to over emphasize his physical traits because the man is so much more than his looks. And I don't want people to think I'm ignoring it because I don't like how he is presented in canon (which isn't true, but I do question why his physical traits are emphasized so heavily when other Professor's are NOT). It is a true conundrum. I tend to leave all my characters physical traits rather vague because people HC them so differently.

Know that Severus has been one of my favorite HP characters for decades. I've grown to love other characters as well through fandom in particular. And I personally have a very flexible mindset where canon interpretation is concerned.

If you have thoughts on any about this, please re-blog and write me an essay. Or DM me.

I will be doing my final (probably cursing myself by claiming this) edit of Severus' first POV installment soon as it begins posting on December 21 and I want to make sure I have this dialed before posting!!

#pro severus snape #pro snape #pro snily #severus snape #young severus #spy severus snape #span

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esther-dot · 1 year ago

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I double-checked and heard '100' as well. I'm the same as you, honestly it sounds positive to me but people are going to spin headlines. The fact he's opened up about struggling alone probably indicates he's feeling better about it - I guess speaking personally, when I was able to verbalise that I was having trouble at all with my writing, that was already the point where I was beginning to untangle it.

I'm more interested in GRRM's process from a writer's POV as opposed to waiting morosely for the endproduct, so that's the angle I like thinking about. His work is extremely ambitious, because he's got multiple working elements at once: not just multiple perspective characters, but he's trying to pull off a deconstructive commentary (I mean this in the literary criticism sense, not the sense used in fandom spaces which is 'thing bad? what do about it?') in addition to marrying the weighted moral/thematic complexity of a classic novel paired with the fantasy genre. LOTR is much more firmly in mythic territory than that imo.

I say this as someone who's not necessarily an ASOIAF superfan, but I find his work interesting just because holy fuck, George, of course it's taken you twelve years.

(about this post)

Yeah, I think looking at this from a writer’s perspective gives one a lot more sympathy for how long it’s taking him to write. I've criticized him a fair bit myself, so I don’t feel overly protective of him, but most fans seem to ignore the vast difference between typical genre fiction and what he’s doing. I’ve said before, it’s literature, with all the layers and complexity that implies. Hence it taking a decade + to bring his story together just so (in addition to all the other reasons) and ghost writers not being a workable solution for him.

I've written some original stuff and with that, and with my fics, I have a similar style with the whole, knowing certain things, even having later bits of dialogue written, but not using an outline and just, writing until I reach those moments naturally. In the interview, Cornwell said he's a true gardener, doesn't even know how his own stories will end, but Martin has created a headache for himself by having established endgames, major beats, and what he's called set pieces that he's determined to naturally find. It's a difficult way to write. I think it does allow him some great characterization, but I honestly feel sick to my stomach when I think about what he has to be going through with that method and this series.

I'm sure no one is more anxious for him to finish the book than he is. Fanfic writers feel a weight over their unfinished fics, meta writers groan over metas sitting in their drafts, but none of us had the showrunners of the most popular TV show waiting for us to wrap it up, contracts with publishers, a mouthy worldwide fandom, our legacy hanging in the balance. Martin even talked about wanting to write the best book he could, knowing he's already kept people waiting so long, which means he's putting additional pressure on himself. I personally wish he took on fewer projects (distractions! demands!), but he has the right to a payday even if it is coming from HBO after the travesty of s8. He mentioned in that interview how there were times he thought his career was over, and I'm sure he never imagined he'd be so successful or become this wealthy. He should enjoy it!

I know there was a discord for Jonsas at one point, and I hope someone does that again when TWOW is gonna come out so people have a safe place to talk. I actually might wait for some Jonsas to post about their thoughts before I read it. I like spoilers, and I've stuck around this long to support the Jonsa fandom ( +spite for all the people who harassed us), so I don't think I'd be able to dip when TWOW comes out.

#dot chat

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astarkey · 3 years ago

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meta asks: 4, 8, 11, 16, & 19!

4. Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like) I guess this line from a drabble prompt I wrote.

She traces the inked flames on his arms delicately with her fingers, careful enough not to wake him. She follows the loops and swirls; her fingers dancing on his skin like a figure skater on ice. She reaches up to his neck where the trail stops, and stares at the two bite marks where his brother bit him. Although he had them covered up, she can still feel the scars as she gently touches the spot she once pierced through with a needle when she helped him shoot up. He might’ve found his venom that night, but her words stung more than anything. And it still haunts her just as much as it haunts him. She leans in and softly kisses his scars, and it stirs him awake as his chest heaves and his eyes flutter open.

It's a soft moment, but it's like the only paragraph that I've written coherently that makes sense for me, and not much is said, but it's like everything is told from those few sentences that convey these sort of feelings... Idk what I just said lmao, but it's the imagery and the tone that made me proud of it.

8. Is what you like to write the same as what you like to read? Umm... most of the time not really lol. Like the words I write doesn't grab me as much as I hoped it would, but it's like I don't know any other way to describe what I'm trying to convey because it's like if I explain too much in details and not enough internal thoughts or whatnot, I'll lose interest? Because I'll just feel this sort of disconnect because I'll be too busy focusing on what's happening in the setting or the scene, and it's like I feel like I'm not connecting with the characters... But it's like I don't know when there's a right moment for me to throw in how these characters feel because I have too many things happening. So I'm just confusing myself and thinking too hard that it's like I wanna get these stories out of the way rather than thinking of ways to flesh out the characters to give a good proper story. It's like when I read back my work, they all just fall flat to me.

11.What do you envy in other writers? How they write the characters thoughts, like in a way where it's like the story is written in their voice and not the author's, and it grabs the reader's attention perfectly that you feel what the character feels. Like I have no idea how they do that because I don't know enough words or feelings to convey something I'm trying to get across in the story, like something that'll make sense lol.

16. Tried anything new with your writing lately? (style, POV, genre, fandom?) I tried writing a fic for that movie The Guest lol. That was different since it was something I've written outside of the FDTD fandom and nothing related to any of the characters from that fandom. Like the characters are different and it was a challenge to try to write in their voice.

19. Is there something you always find yourself repeating in your writing? (favourite verb, something you describe ‘too often’, trope you can’t get enough of?) I noticed I keep writing "as" a lot lmao. As far as trope, I feel like there is a common trope, but I'm too tired to think of what it could be lmao. Like I think the bad boy/good girl, enemies to friends to lovers trope is common in stuff I write lmfao! Those are tropes I can never get enough of.

Thank you so much for asking me!!!

#alwaysupatnight #questions and mentions

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literaticat · 3 years ago

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I know they say to avoid infodumps - but aren't they necessary sometimes? Like in the middle or towards the end of a mystery when the whole mystery is revealed along with an epic backstory? Or a killer's exposition when he or she is unmasked at the end, explaining why they did what they did? I've tried to weave it in as much as possible but I still have one big exposition infodump 200 pages (of 300) in. The characters joke about it a bit, meta-style, flagging it as such. Are infodumps ever okay?

Look,,, if I were you, I wouldn't ask me questions like this. I am a dum-dum, OK? It truly does NOT matter to me what POV your book is in, what tense it is in, what eff'in 'info-dump' you have, wHaTeVeR -- I don't care. These are questions for people who know way more about craft than I do. Like WRITERS.

The only time I would care about or even notice ANY of those things is if they glaringly WEREN'T WORKING -- like for example you've chosen to have a distant third-person narrator so I'm not able to know the things as a reader I need to know to make THIS story go or THESE characters compelling. That I'd notice. But, while changing the POV might be what THIS story needs - that doesn't mean that it's the right solution for EVERY story, you know?

In other words - I honestly wouldn't notice an info-dump unless it ground forward momentum to a halt and made the book suddenly a slog to read. And I can't possibly know that about your book - because I haven't READ your book. Maybe it works just fine - in which case, KEEP IT! If people who read it think that it makes the story saggy, do something about that. (But what you do to fix the sagginess may vary case-by-case, and may or may not involve getting rid of the 'infodump').

Here's what I care about: IS YOUR BOOK GOOD? Did I want to stay up all night reading it? Do I want to recommend it to everyone I see the next day? It doesn't matter to me how you got it there. (Sorry?)

Writing is an individual artform. The same methods of creation that work for one person would not work for another. Waking up every morning at 5am and beavering away at your book for an hour and forty-five minutes exactly may work for one person, whereas writing in dribs and drabs, on weekends or at night for random amounts of time might be what other people need to do. Some people are fast, some people are 'slow'. Some people are pantsers, some people are plotters. We accept that, right?

So the same thing is true for all these "rules" about how to write.

Aside from using words / grammar / punctuation in a way that adheres to the norms of the English language for clarity of communication, I truly don't believe there ARE any "rules" that matter in terms of writing. There's plenty of advice out there on ways to make your book ______ -- but there are also plenty of people that don't do those things and are still FINE.

Like people on the internet are always banging on about how you "should NEVER use adverbs" -- ookkkkk but plenty of writers use adverbs as liberally as salt and their books sell admirably.

I am not saying none of it is useful -- A LOT of it might be useful, and it's a good idea to learn and think about all kinds of craft things -- "save-the-cat story structure" and "the heroes journey" and whatever Hemingway had to say about adverbs and yadda yadda - read the craft books, take the classes, watch the TED talks, and then take what works for YOU and helps YOU create a compelling, compulsively readable story, and leave the rest.

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xthelastknownsurvivorx · 4 years ago

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master list - rwrb

comprehensive timeline

full fics

from newest to oldest (via ao3)

every time my heart swings back to you [firstprince]

not a day I don't miss (those rude interruptions) [firstprince]

snl | season 45 episode 2 | hrh prince henry & fsotus alex claremont diaz [firstprince]

an (in)complete list: of 100 word drabbles [firstprince]

burn (they're watching us/i hope that they) [firstprince]

some element of mystery [firstprince]

satisfied (never have been, never will be) [firstprince]

the frustrating, intoxicating, complicated sum of him [firstprince]

weird that it happened twice [no ship]

fuckin' love doing things out of spite [firstprince]

from cakegate to romantic dates [firstprince]

be my last, share my every breath [firstprince]

i think, perhaps, if it helps, it was, er, rather inevitable [firstprince]

tales from the junk drawer [firstprince]

headcanons

long hcs

freshman roommates!au [firstprince]

hamilton!firstprince au [firstprince]

history, huh? [outside pov, firstprince]

princes dont need keys [firstprince]

short hcs

cannot sit in chairs bi [no ship] (whitehouse trio)

does, uh, our american friend know how to sit in chairs [implied firstprince] (alex vs phillip)

fem!alex + she could step on me and i'd thank her

i suspected you might want me, too [firstprince]

multiple trips are for cowards [firstprince]

nora is done w alex's (obviously bi) ass [no ship] (alex and nora)

well, actually, he's the one who- [firstprince]