#I'm sure there's probably a specific word for the object I'm describing

[anothermonikan]

tell me why I daydreamed (very drowsily, close to sleep) about the cutest plush-mannequin-doll thing,,,literally came out of nowhere I didn't even realise I was thinking about it until I realised that the way I was going with the story in my head was incredibly objectum. objectum divine vision. I gotta draw her and her partner gwahhh

[allfattenedup]

I'm a huge fan of your content, but I need to take a minute to talk about something you do that drives me absolutely wild:

I love when gainers tag their stuff as "ex-jock". Because, in the "real world" when someone uses terms like that, it's typically to describe a specific body type. An "ex-jock" is someone who works out, or at least used to. Sure they've gone a bit to seed, and they have a nice little pot belly going on, but their strong muscles, the developed upper body or the muscled glutes are all still present and noticeable. Any fat they have doesn't really jiggle all that much, because at the end of the day, there's still, you know, muscle supporting it.

But you gainers have created a second meaning for the term. When gainers like you use "ex-jock", it's not helpful shorthand to describe a specific body type, it's something used to remember a person who doesn't exist anymore. Because no one looks at a developed, established fatty, gut hanging and jiggling, ass and thighs plush and dimpled with cellulite, two chins and chubby cheeks grown plump with gorging on thousands of calories of chocolates and junk food, and thinks "oh yeah, he ran track in high school". Once you hit a certain threshold of weight gained, that history disappears. No one can see the hours in the gym. No one respects the team captain anymore. No one sees you as anything other then a lifetime fatty, because how could someone that fat ever have been anything else?

But that's not how gainers like you like to operate. Destroying the athlete you used to be, rendering them invisible, is only half the objective. Sure, you're fat now, probably fatter then you ever wanted to be (not that something like a weight limit, or goal, could ever stop you), but that alone doesn't give you the perverse thrill you crave. So what can you do? "ex-jock". A word that works like a brand. Now, no matter how fat you get, no matter how hungry you are or how much muscle mass you replace with soft, jiggling fat, the world will know that you made yourself this way. Like a bat signal in the sky, calling everyone to see an athlete that was conventionally attractive, fit and energetic, and who gave it all away. All so you could be what you see before you now.

And you're still hungry for more.

I don’t know what I can add to this because it’s perfection 😩👌🏼🐷🥵 And you nailed it. To me, I use ex-jock so that when people look at me they try to imagine what I must have looked like before I ruined my body with fat.

When they see my belly wobble against my heavy thighs, I want them to know the feeling is still strange to me, still new, still a bit frightening. Very exciting.

That the face I see in the mirror was once radically different. You’d have thought so differently of me if you’d known me before I got fat. But if I use ex-jock, at least you know when you see me like this that once I was the complete opposite of what I've now become.

That I’ve changed. I’m not making the best of the body I have, I’m making the worst body I can possibly bear, and then a little bit worse than that. Maybe a lot worse if things get out of hand. Methodically, intentionally, fatter and fatter, loving how hard it is to see myself like this. Relishing the constant, gentle horror as my fat arms wobble while I eat. Delighting in the dreadful embarrassment of a new double chin.

And you're right. I am hungry for more. Desperate, even.

[theamityelf]

Well, it's been a while since I've showed some highlighted text from my fanfiction and talked about it.

This is from Hajime/Hajizuru's perspective, and it demonstrates a departure from Nagito's sun-and-brightness-and-warmth view of Makoto. They both associate Makoto with comfort, but it takes different forms.

For Hajime, who now remembers his time in the labs, bright lighting is unpleasant imagery. Bright light is the state of being studied and hurt and handled like an object. Makoto is a generous obstruction of that light. An eclipse. Which is definitely...complicated, since he also retains his whole inferiority thing, but he's allowed to feel different ways about the same thing. Critically, Hajime's use of the word "shade" suggests that what he's comforted by isn't total darkness, but a comfortable balance of light and darkness. (Nagito would probably agree with that, if his outlook were a bit more honest.)

For Nagito, while I'm sure he's been in hospitals and had experience with bright light in those environments, I don't think that's what he associates light with. Even if it was, I don't think those kinds of settings have as starkly negative a connotation for him as they do for Hajime. There could easily have been a point where doctors and nurses were the closest things he had to parents, or at least a much-needed source of social enrichment. Darkness is having a bag pulled over his head as he's abducted, or walking from room to room while he's home alone, because why turn on lights in the rooms no one is in? He just needs his reading lamp and a house full of shadows. So whether bright light is the sun as he's leaving the house or the hospital lights as a nurse who barely knows his name is the first person to care whether he's eating in years, it's a positive association. And if he also associates light with fire and explosions, that's not too big of a con, for him.

(Nagito describes Makoto, and hope, in a lot of ways, though. I'm keeping this post on the subject of Hajime and Nagito's specific associations with light and darkness, because talking at length about the sun and the moon and skylights and windows and clouds and shadows would make me sound just insufferable, lol.)

[seriousbrat]

gobbledegook and notes on goblins (part 1 of 2)

So I have a google doc full of HP goblin lore that I developed for a fic and then never really ended up using most of it rip. But I thought it would be interesting to share, in case anyone needs to include a line of Gobbledegook in their own writing or something! I know next to nothing about linguistics so I'm sure from that perspective it's probably full of errors but anyway, I had fun.

PART ONE: GOBLIN LANGUAGE

BASIC INFO:

Gravakeluk, or Gobbledegook (a human bastardisation) is the standard language used by most of the goblin population worldwide. (more on this in part 2)

The language is based heavily on compound words— short sounds can be interpreted in a variety of ways to transmit a specific meaning. 

For instance, the only word we're given in canon is 'bladvak,' meaning pickaxe. This can be broken down into "blad" (blood, ore) + "vak" (axe), so "bladvak" is translated as "ore axe." "Blad" + "vak" + "den" (carrier/wielder) means "miner" or, literally, "pickaxe-carrier."

For a more complex example, "Rravk" can be translated as "sword" but also "power/might." The word Vvargdenrravkrak is broken down as: "Vvarg" (wand) + "den" (carrier) + "rravk" (power) + "rak" (place), and means Ministry of Magic. Literally, "wand carrier power place."

Pronunciation: Gobbledegook sounds harsh and aggressive to many humans. The language is guttural and consonants are created from the back of the throat, producing a rasping effect that almost sounds like the words are being spat at you. This is just how Goblins talk, however, and many phrases that were not intended as especially aggressive have been interpreted as such over the years by wizards.

Writing: Goblins use a runic semi-syllabic script—  partially behaving as a syllabary and as an alphabet, similar to Paleohispanic scripts from the Iberian peninsula. Some characters represent syllables, while others represent specific phonemes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-syllabary

 A note— “uk” is often spelt “ook” by wizards, but there is no distinction in Gobbledegook, as there is one character for the sound “uk”. This is why something like Griphuk is often spelt as Griphook in English.

GLOSSARY:

Ak – The, or A. Usually to give importance or emphasis to the subject at hand, as it’s not grammatically necessary. “Ak Varld Vvargden” is a well-known publication that translates to “A World of Wizards”

-ak – a pluralising suffix. This is only used for certain words as many nouns (such as the words for goblin or wizard) can be used both as a plural and a singular noun. Rravk (sword) becomes Rravkak (swords). Since the “ak” sound is so common in the goblin language, it can sometimes be tricky for the untrained ear to distinguish it as a plural, an ability that is gained with time and familiarity.

Blad – ore, blood (ore is analogous blood in goblin culture)

Bladrak - mine, literally “ore place”

Bladvak – pickaxe (ore axe)

Bladvakden – miner, literally "pickaxe carrier"

Braz – whereupon, or “and then.” Used frequently to describe a connected sequence of events, where in English “and” might simply be used. “I went to the bank whereupon I took out a loan.”

Brun – bronze

-den – suffix meaning "carrier" or “wielder of”. For instance, bladvakden means “pickaxe carrier” or “miner”. More famously, “Vvargden” meaning wizard, translates literally as “wand-carrier”

Ek – on, in

Eluk –  tongue, language

Eskarr – thank you. Humans don’t typically hear this word.

Euskaldunak – the Basque people (see Vvargdeneluk below)

Fell – city

Gorak – loan/transaction (Goblins view the sale of any items to wizards as the object simply being on loan, but really belonging to its makers.)

Gra – people, often used to mean goblins in general, “the people”. Not used for non-goblin people.

Grauld – Elder, member or members of the Council of Elders.

Gravak – Goblin

Gravakeluk- the goblin tongue, once misinterpreted rather carelessly and condescendingly by wizards as “gobbledegook,” which then stuck and simply became the English word for the goblin language.

Gravakrak – Goblin place, anywhere goblins dwell or control

Gu – our, us, we

Ka – I, mine, my

Kagra – return

Kavktta – death/die

Kuld – gold/money

Kuldden - banker (literally “gold carrier”)

Kuldrak – bank (literally “gold place”)

Leshak – liberation, freedom

Nad – nothing

Nadden - Muggle, literally “nothing-carrier”

Rak – place. Can be added as a suffix to mean “place of”, as in “kuldrak” (gold place, bank)

Rifa – silver

Rrantz – foul, rancid

Rravk – sword, might/power

Shor – hammer

Shorden – smith, “hammer carrier”, artisan

Shorrak - forge, literally “hammer place”

Uld – old

Vak – axe

Varld - world

Vvarg – wand

Vvargden – “wand-carrier”, or wizard.

Vvargdeneluk –  any language spoken by humans. In general Goblins believe it is not worth differentiating between them. In the case of British goblins, English is only spoken by the few goblins who have regular dealings with wizards. The only known exception are goblins living in the Basque Country, who have assimilated words from Euskera (the Basque language) into their own parlance. Some of these words have even filtered over time into Standard Gobbledegook. In general, goblins like the sound of Basque and some wizarding historians theorise that Basque wizards and goblins once enjoyed a better relationship than in other parts of the world. Therefore, there does exist a word for this particular human language:

Euskaldunakeluk – the Basque language

Vvargdenrak – anywhere inhabited or controlled by wizards, literally “wizard place”

Vvargdenrravkrak – The Ministry of Magic, literally "wizard power place"

-----------------------

Example sentence:

English: “Return our swords to us, foul wizards, and then die upon them” Gobbledegook: “Gu Rravkak kagra, rrantz vvargden, braz kavktta ek.” Literal translation: “Our swords return(to), rancid wand-carrier, whereupon die on(it).”

part two here, covering goblin naming conventions and some notes on goblin society. I also talked a bit about gender in goblin society in this reply.

[wetcatspellcaster]

Do you have any writing tips for newbie fic writers? Your descriptions are gorgeous. Thank you for pieces BTW, it's my favorite 'piece' of writing ❤️

hi anon, thank you for the kind words!💞💞 I'm flattered that I'm someone that you'd think to ask this question, so I'll do my best to answer! I've put my response beneath a keep reading cut to prevent it being a long post :)

I wasn't sure how to interpret this question, so I'll focus on 'technical' (?) tips mostly. Hope any of them help, in some small way!

my main tip to new fic writers is: write, first and foremost, for yourself, and to feed yourself. I've seen this perspective get put through the disk-horse ringer of late, so take it or leave it, or take it with as much of a pinch of salt as you need. But truly, from the bottom of my heart and from my position of sudden newfound popularity, this is the most important lesson I was ever given and so I have to say it. Popularity is not guaranteed. Even a popular fic will have haters and people who think it objectively sucks, and the readers who like you will never be fully pleased with what you've delivered. This could all be very depressing and cause an author to lose motivation.... if you make it the criteria for success in the first place. If you make the criteria for success your own happiness (or perhaps the happiness of you and a few close pals), providing yourself with what you, specifically, want to see, you will probably want to keep writing regardless of all other factors. Produce fics that you want to reread when you need comfort, when you are sick, and when you want to see your blorbos exactly the way you want them. This will make any fic worthwhile to you, regardless of stats, and prevent you from writing things that will suffer if your heart isn't in it! (this doesn't preclude gift fics/prompts! sometimes your heart can be 100% in providing food for others. find your key motivators, and feed that - a healthy amount - if you're trying to get into writing as a hobby!)

Now, onto my writing tips! I don't consider myself an expert and these are more lessons that have helped me, specifically, to improve my writing. But maybe something in here will be of use!

Bc you say you like descriptions... I tend to go into detail only when it's an essential thing that needs to be described. Leave wider details for readers to fill in with their own beautiful mind-palaces, and this gives you permission to go ham on what matters. What is it that matters? maybe it's a piece of the environment (say, a soul jar) or maybe it's just how hot one part of your ship is, in their hot clothes or out of them. If you focus on the important stuff but leave the rest to background, this not only creates a good balance of action to description, but it also shows the reader what they should prioritise in the scene.

I also google '[WORD] synonyms' a lot, for descriptions specifically. Which seems like it might be condescending advice, but it both helps you find different words if you're worried you're repeating yourself, and sometimes confirms that yes. You are using the best word actually, as you were.

Get a good balance of complex/simplistic words, as well as a good balance of complex/simplistic sentences. Sometimes you need a flowery description, sometimes you just need to state explicitly what is happening or the way things are. Tone will shift depending on your balance of these two things, so test the waters and see what works for you!

If you feel like you've written too much dialogue, the answer is probably no, you haven't written too much dialogue - for fic specifically. Most people are reading fic bc they want their faves to interact more. You are giving them more interaction and they will probably love it.

If you find phrases you like in the books/fic you read, it isn't plagiarism to use them so long as you recontextualise them. I'm certain I've used other people's words multiple times, particularly for my descriptions/imagery, and this is totally ok so long as the context is original. If you're worried, or its a whole sentence/interaction you like, examine the sentence/interaction and work out why you like it so much. Is it the sentence structure? Is the character dynamic? Is it the way the kiss plays out? Take the things you find sexiest in other people's writing and find ways to incorporate it into your own work!

I proofread by reading aloud. Yes, I sound mental and unhinged. My cats are worried about me. But this not only helps you catch mistakes, it helps to test the flow of a sentence! If you're ever worried a sentence is too long/a line of dialogue doesn't sound in character, read it aloud! This will help you work out if it's flowing or not, and if it isn't then you'll get some clues as to why!

Don't be afraid to take risks, if you want to take risks! This can apply to anything: being brave enough to put in a joke you're not sure people will find funny, describing something in a way you're worried people will find weird, tackling something from a perspective or POV that you find challenging. This may be a more intermediate tip, but you can start with small risks, and experimenting helps you find your writing voice! Taking risks makes your writing unique :) and I can't explain how much better my writing has gotten since I gave myself specific challenges. You will not get it perfectly write 100% of the time (there are some parts of Pieces that are weak compared to other parts) but it will always help you improve.

[priceless-taggy]

Taggy, Can You kind Of Help Me a Bit? 6_6

I'm Feeling.. i Dunno How to Say it. Questioning Myself?? It's a Bit Tiring. I've Felt this way before Back when i.. [shudders] Dated Coiny — Long story Short i Found Out i Didn't like Guys at All.

I'm kind Of Going Through the Same Thing Again But it Isn't Who i Like, It's more so.. Who i Am? I don't Feel Like i.. Fit? in What Objects Perceive me As? When I'm just, Put Into the Box of "Girls" It's a bit.. Frustrating For me. I don't know How to describe it. What do I Even do.

— 📌

agh, gosh pin, this is a lot to try n word into a single message... @_@ ill try though! the thing is, pin, you're surrounded by so many people around you who are awesome and supportive - your team and friends around you seem like the best place for you! ^_^ with that in mind, i feel like the best thing you can do..? experiment!! tell the people around you - whether it be your team or people on here whatever you feel like going by! just, see how it feels, tell everyone around that maybe you wanna use some pronouns for the week or would rather avoid specific labels, they're sure to understand, and you're free to see how it feels! stick with it if you like, but if it feels unnatural, just tell everyone that thats what happened! they BETTER understand, considering the people around you - if they don't? then frankly, they probably weren't worth keeping around anyway. (just let me know who if you like... ill send pillow after em >:]) i'm sure no one on your team at the very least would act in that way though, all the more reason to just do what you want to do, and see what works out!! people will be understanding - make the most of the time you spend with the people around you, you'll always feel way more comfortable if you're doing it when you're comfortable with yourself, first.

[kanmom51]

Kanmom, I haven't seen this moment talked about - correct me if I'm wrong - so I'm submitting it to you, for your objective opinion and to check my delulu-ness.

It's one of Jimin's welives on the go, in the car. The 16-minute one on or about March 28. It's still daytime and he's got his grey hood up and make-up still on (and looking gorgeous).

Around 10:18, he says that this is fun and now he gets why JK does welives like this. Then the driver and/or manager asks, is [the welive] over? JM says no, laughs heartily, says it's fun, and then seems to assure manager-nim, it's ok, it's ok.

This got my jikooker antennas tingling. Why would the mention of JK signal to his manager that the welive is over? Because he's not supposed to talk about JK unless specifically referencing a comment from JK himself or an ARMY comment about JK? Or because he's always talking about JK in his downtime?

Anyway, I dunno if I'm reaching but this moment was fascinating for me because we NEVER hear a manager in a live. Even when they came into JK's hotel room when he was getting stalker calls, they entered and took the phone out of the situation in silence. And, of course, there are those old, sus vlives where JM has said it's a manager moving, but not talking, in the background.

Even if this was not a thing, JM being so kind and reassuring to Mr. Manager who was probably going, oh shit, I'm so sorry! You weren't done?! was so cute to see. He is really the sweetest.

Yes @jiminsthighsfr, I did notice the whole manager/driver thing that went down. And no, I have no idea why he started talking.

Now, it's not like they arrived at their destination. We can still see the car bouncing around. So why did the manager or driver say that (not sure which it was)?

He says that and he giggles.

And continues:

And then again, looks at the person and giggles some more.

And then calms them:

Now, that could be him calming them because they spoke while he was still live, or that could be him calming them because of whatever the reason was for that person to ask if it was over, cough JK cough.

It's a little hard to think it didn't have something to do with JM mentioning JK seeing that's exactly when the manager/driver saw fit to ask the question...

Could the manager have thought it was over because JM mentioned his name or more so talked about JK's lives?

Went back to watch the whole thing. To see if this is the first time JM mentions JK's name out of context, meaning if this is the first time he says his name not reading a comment or reacting to one...

So up to that point JK hadn't commented yet, and although JM did mention JK it was always by reading a comment and answering it.

That statement about it being fun, that came out of no where.

Perhaps the person thought he was commenting about the live, or more like it being over, especially because he brings up JK independently.

If he wasn't fully paying attention he could have thought JM was done and talking to himself or to him kind of saying : "this was fun, now I see why JK does this".

I do have thoughts about certain guidelines they were given with regards to interactions and mentions. Let's not be naive here. For two members whom we all know were considerably the closest with each other in the group, inseparable would be the word to describe them, to go dead silent, not to be seen together, not to be paired together, not to be interacting with each other even when they are with others, like not at all, that's not a choice.

I keep repeating this time and time again. There is a reason JK did what he did with his IG account. Not everything is about them being a couple, obviously, but definitely some of it is.

Do we remember this happened in this live?

This one JM:

I didn't even remember that JM was asked this during the live, lol.

And the way JM had to think out his answer to the question if he saw JK's photos that came out... adding Tae into the mix, even if he wasn't asked about him. Man had to think strong and hard before coming up with handsome? Saying he saw the video. Handsome? Really JM? I can think of other words that were probably floating up there in his mind. Probably also the reason it took him so long to come up with handsome, lol.

Really enjoyed watching this one again. Thanks you for making me, lol.

[gabrielsbubblegumbitch]

Why hello,Hera here. I saw your Carmilla ramble and just wanted to say that I 100% agree. However,I feel like she makes sense somehow? Let me explain! We clearly see her as this respectable (yes,Velvette stay put) fairly modest woman, but I surmise that's a clear “don't judge a book by it’s cover” type of thing. And..yes,I would put photos but I cannot do that in anon...anyway.

Let's look at her. She is PERFECTLY portrayed as a hypocrite. Yes. Obviously there were some..character writing issues to say the least but she IS a hypocrite. Not just because she sells weapons; what does a hypocrite do? Say stuff and do otherwise, to their own advantage. She does everything she does to save her daughters and herself, saying to not cause war but outright attacking Vaggie AS SHE SET FOOT inside her chambers. She couldn't care less about other sinners,and that's WHY she sells weapons. She's a bad person, she sells guns to make other sinners outright attack eachother. Why? To bring more Sales of course. If you know you're in danger then..let's just say, wouldn't you sell your soul for some security? People have sold them for far less after all.

Secondly, notice how she's outright manipulating Vaggie,maybe Zestial even? She does absolutely NOT care about them. The only thing she has ever done for Zestial for all I remember in the show was stop Velvette from causing problems during the meeting,and when she felt like she was losing control over it — as someone manipulative would do — she shuts her down sending her away. She understood she f-cked up and TO NOT RUIN HER FACADE she literally admitted everything just to keep the strings stretched thin. And that's the thing about the final stretch: It can keep stretching for however long she wishes it to. After keeping it from people you must either speak up about it or let the situation fall into the hands of fate which isn't really reccomended when you're trying to guilt-trip someone with a heart wrenching Song,no?

ABOUT SONGS CAN WE PLEASE SPEAK ABOUT OUT FOR LOVE? that song is absolutely screaming: “I didn't tell you this for my own advantage but I'm trying to distract you by telling you to fight for who you love yes whoo totally cohesive with what the main trope is!”.

Last and probably least, we take english as the official and outmost canon language in which the show is written. However, in certain translations DURING the overlord meeting — more specifically while velvette sang respectless — she said “I warn you that sooner or later you will pay for it, If it were up to me I would kick you out of here!”. Now, I know this is probably to actually make it rhyme but IT'S NOT JUST THAT. Because if we take a little more objective view we understand that she is exactly the type to be so aggressive. She sells weapons,attacks Vaggie, Stays behind closed doors when she could've HELPED her, and look at what information she actively chose to withold versus what she said up until out for love? . Think about it,She cares for herself and for her daughters..which brings me up to the first point.

Now, you're probably right and she's Just badly written but THERE'S STILL HOPE! I hope-

Ah you are certainly onto something. I also noticed that she basically confirmed Velvette's words by shutting down the meeting just to not ay it directly. Like, it was a terrible choice. She's obviously not as strong and wise as she poses if one (1) loud lady was able to disarm her so quickly. She's as short tempered as Vox or Val considering that Vaggie she attacked for no reason. I honestly agree with everything that you've written because it makes sense. I'm sure her being just a hypocrite wouldn't bother me that much if it wasn't for the way the show frames her. I can't really describe it I feel like it insists, I should see her in a positive light. That's not the case with any other Overlord. Even Rosie is explicitly shown to be profit-driven and manipulative (don't get me wrong, I would die for this woman but she basically told Charlie "here's how you can convince my people to die for your cause without telling them that they will probably die"). But Carmilla is just fierce, protective, supportive and reasonable. Dunno, I hope they will fix her somehow in season 2 since she's probably not going anywhere.

[robo-cryptid]

What are some common writing mistakes you see in fic that are easily remediable? (also, i love your writing a lot & it has inspired me to start writing as well, sending much love!)

Starting from the bottom because THANK YOU. Inspiring other people to start creating too is probably the best compliment a writer can get. ;o;

As for "mistakes," I don't know if I'm qualified to answer, lol, but I guess one thing I see a lot (and deal with when I'm writing too!) would be using more words than you need. I talk about this a lot, but I don't think I've ever gotten specific about what I mean, so here we go. This answer got pretty long!

The first way I see this is in the "turned and went" category. I was betaing for someone who wanted me to help with pacing specifically, and we figured out together that what made it feel slow and stilted was that every few sentences, they'd use "he turned and went..." or "she stood and walked..." or something like that. You just don't need both verbs. Your readers will know that if the character was sitting and now they're walking, at some point they also stood up.

I also see a lot of overuse of modifying words. "Really," "somewhat," "a bit," etc. The banes of my personal existence are "just" and "a little." I have the words "just" and "a little" in my editing list so that I do a search and delete most instances of them before I post a fic, lol. It's a writing tic that I can't get rid of. A lot of these modifiers are unnecessary 99% of the time, and they clog up sentences so they take longer to read for no good reason.

Next would be over-describing. Sometimes you get into a fic, and the first thing you get is an immediate description of what a character looks like. Because it's fanfic, it's probably a character we've met before, so it's not strictly necessary to include at all. But sure, maybe your POV character is cataloging some details when they first meet. That happens, and it can be an easy way to imply some attraction if this is a romance. Still, they're probably not going to make a laundry list, like, "his hair was black and pulled back with one strand that hung in his face, and he had big brown eyes and a bold nose and great cheekbones, and he had a goatee, and now here's the full detailed list of everything he was wearing too." We also don't need to know every single object that's in a room, or what the journey from one place to another looks like, or the "hello, how are you?" parts of a conversation before they get to the meat of it, or where every person is standing if it's a whole group, etc. You only need enough details to ground your readers, and the details your POV character is most likely to notice. For example, I remain obsessed with Hanzo's huge, expressive eyes in the "Dragons" short, and also I'm just partial to brown eyes, lol, so I often have Cassidy notice their color and maybe that Hanzo's really muscular or something. But I don't give you a rundown of every detail of his face all at once, and you probably only get a quick sense of what he's wearing. Obviously, this is not a hard and fast rule. If your character is especially observant or obsessively detailed or something, having them do this can be a way of showing that. For some people, maybe they want the setting to feel like a character itself, so you'll get a lot more description to get people to really know the place. But in general, most of the time, you only need a quick handful of descriptors and you're good to go.

The other type of over-describing would be microinteractions. Fandom lives and breathes these things. This is probably the one I struggle with the most, too, lol. Fanfic writers give us every minor piece of body language in a conversation, and honestly, that can be fun to read and fun to write, but it can also get tedious fast. Do readers really need to know every time someone sighs? Probably not! In fact, a lot of them are skimming past those details altogether, lol.

I'm of the opinion generally that a desire to over-describe everything from characters' interactions to setting to clothing, and using a ton of words in the prose, is actually us as writers trying to control the readers' experience. Like we don't trust them to "get it" or have imaginations of their own, so we're micromanaging every detail. Not only does this not work (I have had readers who did not understand something I took pains to make extremely clear, and readers who picked up on subtle stuff I barely hinted at), but it's also a pain for you and the reader.

You have to know readers' experiences of your writing are going to be different than you intend. It doesn't make you a bad writer or communicator; it means readers aren't passive sponges, but actively bring their own interpretations, backgrounds, and baggage to what they read. You have to trust that most of the time most of your readers will get it and even enjoy filling in some details themselves, and you have to let go of that desire for control.

Anyway, my final piece of advice on this is that if you're worried about any of these issues, challenge yourself to trim as many words as possible from your fic. (You can paste it to a new document so you don't have to lose the old one!) Seriously, delete things until you're afraid the structural integrity is about to crumble. Then see how much of your fic still makes sense, and which parts might need some description put back in either for further clarity or simply for flavor. Learning to write to word maximums is, imo, as important as, if not more important than, learning to write lots of words.

[letsatomicbanana]

Neurodivergent Ink hc’s? Ok!

Full-body stimming, gets up and runs/paces around a room when excited, jumps up and down/shakes himself to get energy out.

Speech pattern mimicking/fluctuating voice, the people he’s around and media he consumes can alter how he sounds at a given time and the contrast is jarring as hell

Hand-flappy stims with limp wrists, usually a sign of extreme excitement or severe stress

Ink doesn’t need to eat, as we know, but he likes to and while he is pretty chill with anything when it comes to art supplies, with normal people food he is such a picky eater. Like he is not gonna touch a salad, he’d rather die.

Mimicking as a stim and/or echolalia. Thing make cool/interesting/funny noise? He makes it too. And sometimes it just happens automatically. He hates having to explain that he’s not mocking people.

My dude’s rsd is off the charts a lot of the time, he is afraid of most slight indicators he’s not liked.

When he was younger (hell, even nowadays) he used to line up his toys specifically in rainbow order.

No words can describe his excitement when he saw Error expressing autistic traits, he literally shouted “Hey! Just like me!”.

Ink hyperfixates/gets special interests on other pieces of media us real people know and love.

He subconsciously personifies colors and other concepts/objects! Mainly colors, though.

Nightmare was actually the first one to point out that Ink’s traits were probably a byproduct of neurodivergence. No one else noticed given how differently he presents from others, but NM is pretty well-read on the subject. Idk why I necessarily have this hc, I just think it makes sense for those two to have a history for some odd reason.

Ink often needs to bite things to stim, it was a problem before the other stars got him some chewlery.

When overstimulated Ink will often “puddle” in a similar way that Nightmare is often depicted to, letting his body heavily liquify into ink and just kinda sitting there slouched with only his upper half visible while he calms down.

I hope those sufficed!

Oh boy big post. ( and messy)/Pos

AUGHHHHHH!!!!!!!! I LOVE ALL OF THIS!!!!!!!

I LOVE the concept of someone pointing ink's traits and stuff!! I'm very found in stories like that, where someone is seen as 'weird' and 'quiky' but someone actually realizes that *maybe* something's happening (I have this silly lil headcanon that Ink's fathers suspects something).

Adore the stimming part!!! (Love how you also used "extreme extress"! Stims aren't just for happy feelings you all). For me at least, ink's the stim king (change my mind), he would totally repeat sounds and voices he hears across the multiverse for that *Nice feeling*!

|I've always imagined Ink having RSD too!!! Combined that with his abandonment issues and you have a disaster in person.|

Ink being happy about other people sharing the traits that he says is such a good flavor (oh boy), he would feel "I'm not the weird one!" bc i often feel that Ink would feel very out of touch with NT people given how different he is in general, so when someone does something *he does* he's like "you're just like me fr!"

Ink is a mess in overatimulated tbh (he even vomits). Headcanon that he locks himself in the doodlesphere to calm down (It's his personal multiverse after all!)

| Just asking, but the "Ink personafies objects" actually canon? I mean, look at his paintbrush for example! He even canonically talk with it (pretty sure Broomie is not alive or anything like some say). Comyet even says he hugs it like a kitten! |

[whumpster-fire]

Wings of Fire thoughts continued: Talons Of Power Edition

I've heard that Arc 3 has Animus magic get totally shut down for everyone and I can kind of see why? I think giving it basically no limits on its functionality other than "If you use it too much you might go crazy but we're not sure" and who gets their cheesy counteraction spell on another animus off first was probably a mistake, as was the "Actually you can totally just directly put a spell on another dragon" thing. I think the general idea of a magic system where everything has to work off an object is a good idea, but I'd like to see things like Darkstalker needing to social-engineer his way into getting other dragons to accept items that have Trojan Spells and doing obnoxious things like enchanting items to be invisible while worn so everyone has a headache trying to figure out how he's doing it. Make him a threat because his prophecy makes him really good at anticipating the countermeasures to his magic, not just "I have a blanket Charm spell up at all times."

I'm also not a huge fan of the "Turtle made Anemone an Animus" thing. I think it's more impactful if he can never know the truth. Also cool: if Turtle was sure it was his fault she was an Animus for a while because "What are the odds that after centuries of zero Seawing animus dragons, suddenly TWO dragons turn out to have the power?" and then after everyone found out Orca was also an Animus it was like, if there were two there's no reason why there couldn't be three.

...Anemone is certainly a case study in why encouraging 2-year-old dragonets to use magic is a bad idea. Poor kid's going through it. I think her having a Villain Arc out of pure intoxication-of-power plus thinking it's inevitable and deciding to kill her whole family is one of the less interesting things that could've been done with the premise, though. I would have rather seen her cause serious damage with a well-intentioned spell because she worded it wrong or didn't think through what it would do, or Darkstalker fed her phrasing that would make her spell do something horrible, and then Turtle was forced to out himself as an Animus to stop her / tell her how to deactivate a spell, and Anemone lost it at him and him specifically, because she realized that her entire life her older brother could have prevented so much of what she went through, or done something about so many of her unborn sisters being murdered, but chose not to.

Horrible fucked up thought: imagine if Darkstalker tricked Anemone into casting his Icewing Genocide Plague spell for him because he foresaw that if he cast it himself it would be countered pretty quickly. Like what if he gave her instructions for a spell to make "All those who are sworn enemies of the Nightwing Tribe" sick as a "practical joke" and a "test of her powers," and worded it in a way that she didn't have the medical knowledge to know the symptoms he described could be fatal or made her word the spell to replicate some disease she hadn't heard of? And this eventually still fails because Darkstalker forgot Anemone existed so he couldn't anticipate a future where she turned it off. He did detect her casting the counterspell but he knew that some random Sandwing showed up for about a second when he cast the "Summon every animus dragon" spell so he was like "well I caught the missing rogue Animus (Turtle), I bet I scared that random sandwing so much she put up a protection spell, which is a problem for later."

[misc-obeyme]

Oya CC Tell us more about your OC powers Beside Arsenios, because I'm greedy

Oh you want to know about the other OCs?? Well admittedly they aren't quite as developed as Arrie aldksfj but their powers are something I can describe easily enough I think! I apologize in advance for the length of this response lol.

There are several OCs of course, but generally I gave each one of them some sort of specific power that is unique to them, aside from the general use of magic. Mostly because I think it's interesting when characters have a specific thing they can do that others can't.

Everybody probably knows by now that Arrie's is music lol.

The other demon OCs also have specific powers. Liviana's is psychometry, which is where you can sort of read things from an object by touching it. Specifically, she can touch something and see where its been, kind of like its memories. She'll also gain some insight into the object itself, like what it's made of or who it belongs to, that kinda thing.

Lael's power is memory, in that he can manipulate the memories of people. He can see them, but also remove them or replace them or alter them in some way. He also has a photographic memory so he's able to remember everything in exact details.

Chymion's power is chaos. He's... kindaaa got a bit of a backstory that I've been ruminating on that has to do with this. But the main idea is that his power is very unpredictable. It can be explosive and erratic and he can't always control it. So when he taps into the chaos power, he tries to make certain things happen with it, but the chances of that actually happening are very low. It's powerful, though, so it's like he's exchanging precision for power, if that makes sense.

Abraxas, whose profile hasn't been posted yet, has a power related to language, words, and confusion. He can understand and speak any language, read any book, but he can also scramble words or make it impossible for someone else to understand speech.

I went the same route with the reapers because I thought it would be interesting if they had specific abilities, too.

Caligo, my poor little meow meow, has a relatively weak power. He can manipulate fog or mist. It's basically like he uses it to hide himself when he doesn't want people to see him. But that's about it. He has a complex about it lol. He does make up for it a little bit by being extra skilled with the scythe he uses as a weapon.

Stella, whose profile also hasn't been posted yet, has the ability to see how a person will die. Not when or where, just how. And she has to deliberately search for it, like a mark on their soul. She doesn't use this very often, but it's helpful for a reaper.

I didn't really do the same thing with the angels, exactly. It's more like they each have a specific job and their powers necessarily correspond to it.

For instance, Gabriel is still a messenger angel and has a trumpet and all that good stuff. So their power is related to oration and music specifically. But it's a little more vague and it works in mysterious ways.

Azrael is the angel of death. And he has the power to create life as well as destroy it. He's kinda op due to the whole angel of death thing, but he's been confined by the Celestial Realm for a long time.

I think that's everybody. I mean, assuming you're asking about the Unchained characters. Oh well I didn't talk about Zebulon, who is also an angel, but I'm not sure about his powers entirely yet... he's a very minor character in Unchained, so any development for him would have to happen in a different story.

[hopeymchope]

re: toxic fanbases. I'm not good at telling what fanbases are toxic. I'm both a doormat ("that rando who started yelling at me all of a sudden probably has a good reason and I'm dumb for not seeing it 👍") and a weirdo who tends to stay within very small circles. With Danganronpa, I feel like there's *something* that makes it a little jarring compared to other communities, although it's by far not the worst community I've personally interacted with.

Its popularity definitely plays a massive role; it's actually impressive to see how active Danganronpa circles remain after all this time, but the downside is that there's a lot of brainrot, distant memories, and most importantly people who've been involved with it for WAY too long. I myself have definitely grown horribly bored of having the same tired debates be brought up time and time again - I can imagine people with a different personality from mine getting very upset over that.

Though I don't feel a connection to that aspect at this time, the prevalent young fanbase also comes with its qualities and flaws.

I could go on, because this community is so large and so old that it's genuinely, like I already mentioned, jarring at times. I'll turn my back from being told DRAE is irredeemable media because it uses dark humour to see someone draw a Komaru with giant tits requesting coitus. There are times when interacting with Danganronpa fans has made me wish I'd just never known about Danganronpa at all, so all things considered, even if I can't put words on it, there's a strong negative aspect to it.

At the same time, I don't know how it being Danganronpa specifically relates to some negative experiences I had - was some of the abuse I endured as a Wiki admin related to the way the DR fandom is? Or did it have to do with Wikis more than it did with DR, with French users more than it did DR? Maybe the problem is that this series has given so many of us such intense brainrot and we can't stop getting involved with it.

Sorry if this long ask is annoying in any way - I figured you might be interested in exploring the conversation around how the DR fandom might come across as toxic, objectively or subjectively OTL

One thing I remember for sure is that when I posted Akudama Drive LGBTQ headcanons, I felt perfectly fine and happy about it - but when I decided to post my Danganronpa headcanons too, I had a strong feeling that I was taking a risk, however small. That's not a very nice feeling to get as an adult who's just trying to be a little happy and silly with PNGs.

Oh, I don't mind a long ask at all! I'm grateful for the detailed thought you put into this, honestly. :) I'm a pretty wordy person myself — you may have noticed.

I think a lot of what you're describing as negatives within the DR community are unfortunate constants with fandoms of ANY popular media these days. Not ALL of it, but....

Every piece of media is gonna be declared irredeemable/offensive/problematic by some parties now if it delves into any kind of darkness or deals with any kind of major crimes, it seems like I've seen more than one person online state — with a straight face, mind you — stuff like "Danganronpa is toxic AF, many of those characters are LITERALLY murderers" and I'm just over here thinking are you fucking serious? I don't remember seeing people say stuff like this in my fandom circles before 2019 or so, but I see it everywhere now. It seems to have grown more prevalent since the 2020s hit? There are people who just can't stand to deal with any moral grayness, any dark theming, etc — and they don't think anyone else should allowed to enjoy that stuff either. (Now I'm wondering whether there are people similarly dismissing Akudama Drive. Much smaller fandom, so maybe you don't see that. But I can imagine someone grumbling "These characters are LITERALLY criminals, wtf." LOL)

We all know Internet Rule 34, but I feel like there are certain built-in multipliers to it that increase how widespread it is. Animated media? That's a multiplier that will cause even MORE porn to exist. Japanese media? That's another multiplier. Which means there's tons of porn of DR characters — even for the teen characters that're underage in most countries like Komaru. At least I've never stumbled across porn of the small children like the Warriors of Hope, THANK FUCKING GOD. I sadly don't doubt that it exists, but I hope to god it remains in a dark corner, out of my goddamn sight.

And I definitely feel much, MUCH more afraid to say anything about LGBTQ headcanons for popular media than I do for relatively small fandoms. Maybe that's partly symptomatic of being American in an era where tolerance and acceptance of LGBTQ people is sliding horiffically backwards? At least I think I'm safter to share such things on Tumblr than I would be on Reddit. I'd be afraid to talk about my personal DR LGBTQ headcanons, too. I've even drafted a post about that once and then been like "You know what? No. I'm not opening myself up to abuse for this," leading me to delete it. I've done similarly for the Madoka Magica fandom as well... too active, too big = too likely to result in blowback. I believe Akudama Drive is a pretty small fandom, though, so it makes sense to me why that'd feel like a more comfortable place to talk LGBTQ concepts.

But with all of that said, I can't claim that the infighting over interpretations of characters and events that I see on the DR Wiki is something that every fandom deals with. Maybe some of them do; honestly, Fandom Wikis weren't really so huge a thing before I got deep into DR in the back half of the 2010s, and I haven't really gotten involved with any of the Fandom Wikis I've come across afterwards either. So I don't know for sure! But it seems like that could be uniquely unpleasant about the DR fandom — the way people define "canon" as a matter of personal interpretation.

Since I'm stuck on the English side of the DR Wiki, I'm not certain whether you deal with the same stuff in the French incarnation. Characters like Komaeda and Ouma are especially difficult to police — they have so many fans who think they are pure of heart, and so many fans who find them loathesomely manipulate, and you can't necessarily be certain what about them is true or false. Put all that together, and it's hard to keep things to "Just The Facts" when people fundamentally disagree on what the facts ARE, which can lead to a lot of infighting among the people editing the thing! God... even deciphering the truth about what's going on in V3 and determining how we should or shouldn't explain that haziness is an awfully sticky wicket all by itself.

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

Can you write me a horoscope text for each of the signs?

Sure! Here goes...

Aries

Despite your reputation as a creative force, you are actually of no practical use to humanity. As far as anyone has been able to tell, your decisions are largely random. Whenever you decide that a word or phrase is too vague, you swiftly move on to another word or phrase, hoping that this new one will be specific enough. This futile process does not seem to be based on any sort of measurement. Whenever you need to illustrate the concept of nothingness in a philosophical argument, you typically stick your hand in front of your face and open and close your fingers, as though you were imitating the beak of a predatory animal. According to researchers, your name is a synecdoche for your personality. Aries! You are the co-starring pokemon of the movie "My Neighbor Totoro."

Taurus

*******TRANSCRIPT HERE*******

Gemini

The various behaviors you exhibit seem to betray a certain ennui. Whenever you appear to be calm and rational, you are probably upset about something. The decision you made to organize your desk into a messy pile does not reflect any sort of order; rather, it is the product of a prolonged mental state of panic and exhaustion. Whenever you eat food with the aid of a utensil, you try to be careful not to appear excited. When you see someone whose name you can no longer remember, you often try to remember it by arbitrarily associating it with one or more songs you like. You have a friendly way of gesturing with your thumb and forefinger when asking someone a question, as though you are holding a baby. One of your closest friends is a rabbit.

Cancer (see first paragraph of Scorpio)

Leo

You soak up sunlight as quickly and as fervently as a flower. You tend to become defensive whenever you are asked a simple question that you are not prepared to answer, but as soon as you have time to analyze your position, you will change your mind and agree with the person asking the question. Sometimes, when people ask you for small favors, you will say that they are unnecessary. There are several hundred copies of In the Mood for Love floating in the air above your head right now. Each one represents a different phase in your personal and professional development. The Sega Genesis remains your favorite home console.

Virgo

There is some sort of mysterious power that helps you know exactly where everything is in a given room, even if you have never previously laid eyes on the given room. You are currently working on a personal project that is extremely important to you, but you do not share this information with anyone because you are afraid of looking like an idiot. Whenever you watch something that is scary, you sit with your legs crossed. You once slept for several hours after watching a sad movie, and the other people in the room were concerned. The buttons on the other side of your laptop are labelled with tiny, elegant, handwritten words. You feel intense emotional bonds with the peas in your backyard, even though you have never spoken to them. The back of your left hand is the embodiment of your most childish fantasies.

Libra

Your personal motto is: "I'm not crazy, I'm simply dazzling." It is unclear whether the motto has any real meaning, or if it's just a shorthand way of describing your insanity. The phenomenon known as "dreams" is both highly confusing and completely uninteresting to you. Whenever you observe an object, you tend to do so in a roundabout, round-about-ish way. When you are late to meet someone, you strive to be as late as possible. You think it is very difficult to conceptualize a large number of people. Sometimes, when you look at the sky, you think about cows. Even if you're alone, you sometimes pretend to be speaking on a cellphone. When you see a butterfly, you lash out instinctively, even if the butterfly is not coming near you. Your heart is a very long hallway with several secret doors and passageways.

Scorpio

Something about you suggests that you might be a spy. Whenever you tell a lie, you do so in a way that resembles an attempt at self-deprecating humor. You have a recurring dream in which you are being chased by a laser pointer. You always have to look at both sides of an equation before you determine whether it is right. Sometimes, you take all of your clothes off, even if it is not appropriate, and pretend to be a Disney princess. You tell people that you are watching a show, but in reality you are being watched. Whenever you break a piece of furniture, you write an apology letter. When you drink orange juice, you feel dizzy. Just over a year ago, you possessed a great deal of optimism. Now you have almost none. Your identity is an enigma, even to yourself. You cannot see your own heart. Someone has been trying to kill you, but they're not very good at it. *******TRANSCRIPT HERE*******

Sagittarius (see first paragraph of Gemini)

Capricorn (see first paragraph of Aquarius)

Aquarius

Only one person on Earth is capable of moving your heart, but not everyone is capable of possessing it. There is a very small amount of black fuzz growing on your ear. Whenever you find yourself in a field of wildflowers, you make sure to walk in a straight line. Whenever you make a phone call, you tend to have a very clear idea of what your voice sounds like on the other end of the line. An acquaintance of yours discovered the existence of a giant sea slug that looks like a robot clown. Your favorite condiment is the relatively obscure Japanese product known as "bonito flakes." According to biologists, most of the world's population lives in a giant bubble that is invisible to the human eye. Because your eyes are always darting in different directions, people sometimes mistake you for an epileptic. The children of two different people often call you by the same nickname. You are close friends with a man named "Cerbus."

Pisces

You have a habit of making the same kinds of gestures whenever you are speaking to a person who is equally passionate about the same subject. When someone catches you at a vulnerable moment, you become like a bug in a jar. You think it is extremely important to possess a very complete and organized body of knowledge, but most of this knowledge is either false or irrelevant. You have at least one very badly out-of-print book in your bookshelf. The gods keep casting you away from your home every few years. Your body is a very elaborate illusion. You keep a lot of unusual and sometimes dangerous objects in your pockets. You have never heard of anything called a "pocket." You are capable of being extremely incompetent in ways that would be difficult to predict. You were born in a lavish and extravagant birthing chamber in a place called "New Mexico."

Makes sense with the way that social constructs become "real" as you can't pick them apart. It also explains a lot about the flaw in Exhaling as a concept.

(I will probably post most of the ratios in the comments since they are long and the idea is that anyone who is curious can find them if they want to.)

[pluralprompts]

Do you have any idea where we might look up general writing advice that maybe isn't overwhelming? A syskid in our head wants to write but looking up "writing tips" on Google is... A lot for an 8 year old honestly. If not. Totally fine and understandable. Thank you for this and the other blog you run. They're really great. Thank you again -🐀🌊

We've learned most of our writing skills through either books or trial and error, so I'm not sure about where to go online for writing tips. That said, we've collected a few resources for you, so you can focus on more specific areas of writing to improve!

General/misc advice:

Here is a post about how to improve your writing by finding what you like in other people's writing!

Here is a collection of resources on how to describe people, places, or objects.

Here is a chart showing the average development of young children, so that you can accurately write them.

Here is a list of personality traits you can give your characters!

Body language:

Here is a list of body language that indicates certain emotions, for when you want to show how a character feels!

Here is a post that gives examples of actions your characters can take to show what they're feeling.

Grammar:

Here is a website that goes over the different past tenses in English.

Here is a website going over different sentence structures.

Synonyms and antonyms:

Here is a dictionary website explaining synonyms and antonyms.

Here is a list of words you can use instead of "said" if you want to refer to how a character says something.

And since we can't exactly give you the books we learned from as a resource... Here are three tips from us to you that we find very useful when writing. Geared towards fiction writing, but can probably be adapted for non-fiction writing, too.

(Under a cut because let's be honest, this post is long enough as-is.)

—

1. "Show don't tell" means "Use imagery to tell information so you don't sound like a textbook."

"Show, don't tell" is a very common piece of writing advice, but ironically, it's not very descriptive in what it's telling you to do. Why is this ironic? Because "show don't tell" is supposed to encourage you to be more descriptive, especially when it comes to characters' emotions and actions! The advice here is to use imagery (descriptive or figurative language) so your writing doesn't bore your readers. It's the difference between

"John was angry."

and

"John slammed the book down, leaping up from his chair so fast that it was knocked to the ground."

The second example is more interesting, right? That's what showing is! It's giving your reader a description of what's going on through a character's actions so they can imagine it themselves, as if they were "shown" what's going on. They don't need to be told that John is angry – they can figure it out themselves based on what you've shown them. Don't tell us John is angry, show him slamming down a book! Don't tell us Susie likes outer space, show her talking to someone excitedly about space facts!

So, here is our first tip: be sure to use imagery, especially if you're talking about a character's emotions, desires, or actions.

—

2. Said is not dead, it's just in limited supply.

Ah, dialogue tags – so easy to misuse and make a text look ridiculous! A dialogue tag is any word or phrase that indicates who said something, and how they said it. For example, in this sentence:

"This is an example," John said.

the dialogue tag would be "John said." The problem here is that "said" is... kinda boring. It doesn't tell us much about how he's saying his example sentence. So, some people try to avoid using the word said as much as possible, claiming that "said is dead!"

This can definitely help add some flavor to some boring dialogue. But if you try too hard to avoid using the word "said," you can end up with some ridiculous sentences, like:

"This is an example," John trumpeted.

Like, what?? "Trumpeted"?! It may be a dialogue tag, but no one describes the way someone speaks as "he trumpeted"! To fix this problem, I try to go through three techniques: adding actions, adding replacements, and removing unnecessary lines.

By adding actions to what a character says, you can indicate who is speaking without ever using a dialogue tag. Here's an example:

Susie stretched in her chair, her back giving a few pops as she twisted. "Are you sure that you know what you're doing?"

You can tell it's Susie speaking, even though I didn't say any variation of "Susie said", because she's completing an action in this scene! This is the first method I use when writing dialogue.

The second method is simpler – I use dialogue tags that aren't quite as out-there as "trumpeted." There's a large number of options you can choose, all with their own individual meanings and implications, so I'd advise checking the dictionary whenever you're in doubt! Here's an example of a more tame dialogue tag:

"Do you really have to do that?" John asked. "I can't stand that sound of popping in my ears."

This is what most people try to go for when they avoid using the word "said"; just replacing it with a more descriptive dialogue tag. It's a good strategy to use! Just try not to get carried away, okay?

But then, one has to ask... what if someone used neither an action NOR a dialogue tag to indicate who's talking? Is such a thing even possible??

Yes! Yes, it is. However, you have to be careful – you must make very clear who is talking if you choose not to use either an action or dialogue tag to indicate a specific character.* This is possible through the use of back-and-forth dialogue, where the reader learns to expect the next line to come from a specific character, and thus it's not necessary to write that line as coming from that character. The reader already knows who's speaking!

Here's an example:

"Have you gone to that new ice cream place yet?" Susie asked.

John shook his head. "I wanted to, but I was stuck at tutoring until after they closed."

"Ah, that sucks!"

In this case, the reader knows that Susie is responding to John! I didn't need to give her an action or dialogue tag, but it was still clear that she was the one speaking.

Important note!! Remember that if you're going to use this last technique, you MUST make sure you close the other character's statement with quotation marks, or else according to writing rules, the next paragraph is also spoken by them. This would look like:

John looked up at the cloudy sky. "It's going to rain... And here I thought it would be a nice day.

"I hope Susie makes it home before it starts to pour."

Make sure to always close the quotation marks before another character starts speaking!!

With all of this said (hah), when should someone actually use the word "said"?

Well, despite the phrase "said is dead," said is still very useful for if none of these techniques are working in your favor. In these situations, "said" can be the best choice! I'd recommend trying out these techniques first, but if the action feels off, the dialogue tag feels too descriptive, and you need a clearer indication of who is talking... Grab your shovel and dig up "said" from its grave.

*In some of our dialogue prompts, we don't use any dialogue tags. This is because who the characters are is not relevant to what we're communicating (the conversation between them). In stories, however, the characters become relevant, so we recommend you add some dialogue tags or actions if you use any of our dialogue prompts.

—

3. Keep your paragraphs in TiPToP shape!

TiPToP is an acronym that writers use to remind themselves when to start a new paragraph. The acronym goes:

Ti – time (ex. time skips)

P – place (ex. new location)

To – topic (ex. new thing to focus on)

P – person (ex. who is talking)

Acronyms like TiPToP are useful, because no one wants to read a story that's just one long paragraph! Paragraph breaks give the reader time to take a breath, and can be useful for adding tension, like –

... This. Like this. Do you see what I did there? How tension was added to the writing through the sudden paragraph break I added? It's a powerful tool.

Back to what I was saying, though. Paragraph breaks can add a lot to your writing, such as tension or even humor, but they're primarily used to add a sense of "flow" to your writing; to keep it from going stagnant or being a giant wall of text your readers have to chip away at. If you're not sure when to add a paragraph break, refer to TiPToP.

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And there you have it! A small collection of resources on writing, complete with some tips from yours truly. If you ever run out of resources and wish to go looking for more, we recommend starting on the writeblr side of Tumblr, as you can find many writers discussing and sharing tips that helped them improve their writing. We hope this helps you in all your writing endeavors!

[kachinnate]

how would u describe evan hansens whole like. Deal. any character analysis for him? i love the way u write him

firstly: thank u!! ;_;<3 i feel as if my current stuff up on ao3 doesn't 1000% reflect how i Would write him now or maybe i just hate my old writing who knows 😭 but regardless it's for the most part up to par w/ how i feel abt heem....

so what i think his deal is is that he's an unintentionally sorta selfish kid riddled with severe self-loathing and mental illness and a desire to be wanted for Something despite the fact that He doesn't believe there is Something there for him to be Wanted for. and the selfish part mainly being in how he is so In His Own Head and kinda chooses to accept that he's a failure and that no one likes him and he has nothing no one alone when that isn't / doesn't have to be the case. like.... thinking he's the main character but in the inverse/wrong way if that makes sense some sort of inferiority complex 😔 i also believe he intrinsically can be kind but i don't think he's Nice, just overtly polite and therefore sorta Appearing as nice

when i was a teenager and just starting to write fic for the first time i would write evan kinda like... purposely a bit meaner than one might fkjgsndf at the time out of spite because it annoyed me so much seeing a lot of people in the majority of fanon spaces depict him as an uwu smol anxiety boy... however, looking back on it i Do think i was onto something for Different reasons 😭 mostly being that 1. i tend to lean a bit towards the arena stage characterization of him, which was objectively a bit more harsh and a bit more rude and 2. in most of the contexts i had written him in, it was w jared specifically in which case i do think he would more or less abandon most of his Need to Be Nice / Polite / Unoffensive because depending on the context 1. he's accepted the fact that 'jared doesn't like him' and therefore doesn't try as hard to give off a good image or pretend to be something he isn't because he doesn't really see a point and thinks jared is just Always gonna be a dick to him / think of him as a 'family friend' (which i'd like to believe he knows is bullshit regardless) or 2. he Does recognize jared as a friend and for the same reasons feels comfortable enough to not put up a front. maybe a mixture of both ! again it sorta depends on the context

his adamance (i'm not sure if that's a word) to the idea that he's such a loser who can't get better no matter what i think makes it much harder for both himself and others to like Be Close to him but yet he wants it so bad and simply doesn't realize he is inadvertently part of the problem. there isnt specifically any One Way he wants to be, he just doesnt want to Be Him... because to him it's clearly wrong and not right and why nobody sees him and why he feels alone etc etc etc

but all that to say -- that's how i personally try to write him when i do jsdkfnsdf obviously that's not The Right Way[tm] or how i expect everyone to see his characterization (and it probably doesn't encompass like even all of My thoughts either i'm just rambling a bit as i procrastinate further on a paper) but! hopefully that answers ur question