#I just couldn't help myself when I saw the template

[heylavellan]

2024 writing round up

saw @inquisimer doing this, so thought i'd jump in as well. i like stats (i study it!) so i thought it would be fun to see what i did this year, especially since i picked up writing again about in august! if you feel comfortable sharing your stats, feel free to jump in. thought i'd also tag a few people (lemme know if you wanna be untagged!!): @lasatfat, @miladydewintcr, @shouldaspunastory, and @rookfeathers

words published: 47,643

additional words written: 45,616

total words: 93,259

fandoms: oops all dragon age!! mostly inquisition, veilguard, and origins, but there was a smattering of awakening and the books (aka various authors)

highest kudos: this actually surprised me! it's a tie at 39 for both of my viperquin/tashur fics! My Personal Andraste and Business as Usual. Very thankful to the Viperquin brainrot community on Tumblr for being so supportive!! ;u;

highest hit oneshot: also Business as Usual! my rookanis fic, sous chef was a close second by 10 hits.

new things I tried: mostly getting into fic writing again! i started up in august after a two year hiatus from fan writing in general. i published my first smut, took part in gift exchanges, and tried an epistolary.

fic I spent the most time on: Two of Your Finest Vints for @dapolyshipping. two and a half months trying to figure out how dorikrembull worked in a way that felt genuine. it's established qpr krem bullee figuring out that they both want dorian. krem falls in love and bull slots in just right :')

favorite thing I wrote: it's really silly, but Pigeon Proofing. writing with shale's voice is so fucking fun, and the prompt i got for this one had me shitting myself with laughter. also, wynne and shale have a delightful friendship.

honourable mention to frocks, frills, and thrills, a fun 4+1 things fic written as a part of @black-emporium-exchange. i had fun researching the dresses and avoiding writing my masters thesis. also is the reason that LettersandCoffee and i have been designated to be friends by the universe!

favorite thing(s) I read: so so many! here's a selection below:

Wingin It by @lioncubofboone. Dorian/Cullen/Krem. Krem plays wingman for Dorian/Cullen but misses the fact that he is sorely in love with them :')

All Hail West Thedas by @blarrghe. Dorian/Adaar/Bull. When I say you need to consider gay cowboys, you need to consider gay cowboys!!

Excised by jtph. Couldn't find their tumblr, so I've linked their YouTube. Dorian/Anders, past!Handers, FenHawke. Modern AU where Anders is a brain trauma patient at the hospital Dorian works at and they spend more and more time together.

If You Want by romanticiding. Couldn't find socials. Alistair/m!Cousland. Bros help each other come, right?

Teagan's Chance by @cherieofthedragons. Teagan/f!Cousland. Meriana never wanted anyone during the Fifth Blight, but she wants Teagan :')

writing goals for 2025: finish "As the World Falls Down," a post DA:O zevwarden fic where alistair made the final sacrifice. publish at least one work per month. and do another gift exchange! they're fun

new works: 27

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[koalaphoenix]

I was going through my art folder on my phone and realized how far I've come with how I draw Shay (and her different forms).

Way back in 2021 I drew her for the first time. She effectively came from a dream I had, where I lived her life in one night. But the struggle was I never actually really saw what Shay/I looked like in the dream. I knew what I was, who I was, but not what I looked like, beyond my hands. One of the most spectacular dreams I've ever had, by the way.

So early on when I was streaming, I decided to take a crack at drawing the dragon woman I'd been in the dream. I couldn't even really remember my/her name, although with help from my friends it came to me.

The first sketch was... Rough, at best. I had no clue how to draw an anthro creature, which Shay effectively was. I used multiple references to even sorta rough out what I wanted, and the result was not spectacular. But it was a start.

Then I was memeing with my friends about our D&D characters. I fully intended to RP as Shay when we began a campaign. It led to the version above - the first proper drawing where I was mostly happy with her overall design.

Late 2021 and I tried to push myself a little further, although I still didn't know what I was doing.

Art block hit me like a truck for a few months. When I finally managed to get drawing again, the results were initially really, really bad. But it wasn't too long and I drew what would end up being a far more finalized version of her design, the template for many future works. She was a more agile figure than her design sketch. I adjusted her horns to make more sense anatomically, and to fit better with her hair.

And also I drew abs on her.

Then there were several more drawings. I touched on alternate versions, put her in some fun situations as self indulgence, tried to experiment with difficult poses. There was a lot of struggle, as I still couldn't quite get her head shape consistent.

Then I found some new resources, and on a whim I drew what's becoming my favorite alternate version of her: Shayaa.

(Flat color iteration shown)

Shayaa was born out of two thoughts. I wanted a version of Shay that was a little thicc, and I wanted a version where she hadn't been abandoned. This ended up with her in armor, and was a leap forward in terms of quality and some design cues. The softer snout, more defined mouth, and thicker horns ended up really helping me draw her more consistently.

I was worried that it was one of those cases where I went beyond my actual ability and wouldn't be able to replicate it, but I was mostly wrong.

I decided I wanted to adjust "prime" Shay's design a bit, to improve her visibly aging and to widen the gap between her and Shayaa to emphasize their differences. I thinned her up a bit, made her muscles more lean, and rounded her features to make her appear more youthful - she's in her early 20s at the start of Godbreaker, but I saw her design as more in her late 20s or early 30s. She was always intended to be more lean than I'd drawn her, but skill issue. I also kinda hated parts of her default outfit, they seemed off and weren't the easiest to draw.

And now? I'm pretty satisfied with her design. She looks younger and more lean, and ideally a little less "civilized." Her hair got spikier to make it easier for me to draw - I suck at floofy hair. She's still pretty big, at 6'7" tall, but she doesn't look like a brick house anymore (nothing wrong with that, I love brick houses, she was just not intended to be that).

But yeah. Going through the old art, a lot of which I can't add to this post, it really hit home to me how much in such a relatively short time she's changed since the first real sketch, how much I've changed...

...And how much has stayed the same.

Aaaand to not end on any sort of deep moment, holy shit her old feet were HUGE.

[mossworth]

Under this, I'm going to write--as close to reality as possible--a real conversation I had at work with a college student (who was, at the time, older than me). I'm a public librarian.

"So, I just don't really know what I'm supposed to *do* here. Like, my professor is just not telling me at all what I'm supposed to do with this."

"Okay. It looks like you've been assigned to write an outline for your next assignment, which is an essay. Here, you've shown me the submission link for the outline. There's a template attached. You can follow this template as a guide for your essay. Which book has your professor assigned?"

At this, he vaguely gestured at his computer screen. On Blackboard, there was a pinned post about the assignment. The professor had picked three pieces of classical lit for them to choose from.

"Okay, these are your options. Which one did you choose?"

"That's not what I'm asking. I already have the essay, I just don't know what *this* assignment is supposed to be."

"Which book did you go with?"

He, again, vaguely gestured to the screen. My best guess was the title closest to his pointer finger.

"Is it Desiree's Baby?"

He shook and nodded his head at the same time. It was, but he didn't really know that. "I don't understand what she's asking me to do, here."

"So, you're being asked to write an outline. Based on this template. From there, you'll write an essay based off of the information points on your outline."

"Oh, yeah! Okay yeah, I have the essay. I don't have the outline, though."

"You have the essay?"

"Yeah, that's done."

"Okay, so the essay is done. I get it. Sometimes in college I'd write my essay first and work backwards. So, what you can do is take the points you made about the book in your essay and boil them down into an outline."

"I don't know what you mean."

"You... wrote an essay about Desiree's Baby. So, take the thoughts you had about the book when you read it and write them into an outline, following this template."

"Oh. No, I didn't read the book."

"What?"

"I didn't read the book."

"Okay." I am a customer service worker first and foremost. I had to remind myself of this and find, somewhere within me, the tone of voice that matched that. "Without an outline... and without having read the book... *how* did you write an essay?"

He gestured to the screen again, this time towards a document. In front of me was an essay, not in any format but "document" with fully realized sentences about the societal implications of race and heritage in the short story Desiree's Baby. "Can't you just help me?"

"With 'what'. Which part do you expect me to help with?"

"Can't you just... make the outline for me? I already have the essay. I shouldn't have to do all this extra stuff."

"Sir." I don't call my patrons by titles. We're not that formal. But, I do remember being told--as a child--that when and if I wanted to call someone a bitch, I should curb the impulse and call them 'madam' instead. In this case, 'sir' served the same purpose. "Doing that would be against our policy. I can see if the book is in our collection. I can get it for you, and you can read it. After that, you can actually write your outline, and then, your essay."

He didn't take me up on the offer. I never got him the book, and even without my help, it wouldn't have mattered. On Blackboard, right under the assignment submission link, was the link to a six page PDF of Desiree's Baby. Free, unedited, avaliable, and short. Very, very short. But, hey, maybe I was the one in the wrong. He already had the essay.

It was such a weird day, standing in a library and being told about the unfairness of being forced to do "all the extra stuff"--namely, reading. Reading anything at all.

Sorry man, I feel like this derails a bit. I don't really have a point, I just don't want to be the only one that has to feel the frustration from that conversation. I never saw him again after the day I told him I couldn't help him if he was just using AI for his homework.

ur future nurse is using chapgpt to glide thru school u better take care of urself

[backofftubby]

Aaron Dingle Week 2019:

Day 7: Free choice - Toast

[doodlesnchaos]

I saw Spiderman Au and I couldn't contain myself, so here I go with a few :

1. Has Anne some kind of mentor or she's learning on her own how to be a superhero?

2. Are the Plantars or her parents in this AU? Not asking because I'm afraid that they're Anne's "Uncle Ben" or something like that

3. Is Sasha in this AU? If she is, what's her rol?

4. Has Anne a "special" hability as Spiderman? (For example, Miles Morales invisibility)

5. How did Marcy find out about Anne's secret identity?

Aw yeah, I love these! Thanks for sending this in!

1. No, Anne doesn’t have a mentor currently. It’s more like getting tossed into the water and learning to swim on your own.

She does end up getting help from Marcy, but originally she just kept it to herself. There’s a notebook filled with the ‘Dos and Donts of Heroing’ that she’s made from personal experience.

2. Yes! Both the Plantars and her parents are in this. She helps out at the Plantars farm on a couple days a week and don’t worry her parents are safe and sound. They don’t know exactly what Anne does at night, but they are beginning to suspect it isn’t always ‘late night study sessions’.

They won’t get “Uncle Benned”, there’s Marcy for that at a later time.

3. Indeed, Sasha is in this AU. I’m still working on the finer aspects and other details. She is a different experiment of Andrias, meant to be a perfect assassin, meant for those who went against Andrias himself. After all, who’d suspect a kid to be dangerous?

He considered her a failed experiment due to a few flaws. He placed Grime to ‘deal’ with her, however Grime went against his wishes and merely took her away instead. Grime has her under his wing, even though there’s now a large target on both their backs.

When Sasha first gets wind about this nighttime hero with abilities, her own interest is peaked and beginnings to seek them out, hopeful, thinking they’re another ‘failure’ like herself.

Just know Andrias has a secondary plan for ‘rouge’ fails

4. It’s funny you ask that, because I originally templated Anne a bit from Miles (my favorite Spider-Man). I’m not entirely certain yet, however I do plan for each of the girls so have an aspect of the Gems Powers in some manner or another.

The Blue of Anne reminded me of the Blue-Ringed Octopus, so I was going to incorporate a venom-touch almost. Also since the Blue also gives the aspects of high levels of energy, I wanted to do something with that too.

I still have to think more on this one, but if you have any ideas let me know!

5. Anne originally didn’t want anyone to know, the only issue was when things kept happening when they shouldn’t be happening ( stick to walls and other things being one of thing) was when she begun to think of needing to talk to someone. Just didn’t know when or whom.

She just didn’t know when or how. Marcy on the other hand, was puzzled as to way Anne was acting so off and basically avoiding her. In her mind, she thought she did something horrible or messed up in someway, causing Anne to want a break from the relationship or just completely ghost her.

Then it just so happened, Anne came into her room one night through the window, completely freaking out over a number of things and talking about sticking to walls, etc. And it was in that moment Marcy was relieved that she hadn’t don’t something terrible but rather holy crap her girlfriend had superpowers.