#I've really got to find a word other than 'fun' to describe my writing

[riality-check]

hi, love your viktor fic! since you say you find him easy to write and you feel like you've really got his speech down, could you give some advice on how to write his dialogue/these unique dialogue things you say you've noticed? I've watched the show 3 times but still find him so hard to write!

Anon, you have no idea the yapping you've unleashed. I love discussing the intricacies of speech, and I love discussing Viktor, so strap in and prepare for quite the long post.

Don't feel bad about not getting his voice down! Character voice is difficult, and it's even more difficult to maintain consistently. I have it a bit easier; I have a knack for memorizing speech patterns very well. So, once I metaphorically store the file in my brain, it's pretty easy to test all my writing for the "he would not fucking say that" phenomenon.

In my opinion, Viktor's speech can be summarized - though this is quite the reductionist summary - as having a lot of the same quirks as that of those who learn English in a schoolroom setting. He speaks very "standard" (in quotes because I don't feel like getting into the linguistic debate over that categorization right now) English. This entails a lot of things; for Viktor, this manifests as speaking in a register that is slightly more formal than many other characters in the show.

(Of course, these phenomena transcend learning English specifically. I actually run into them frequently when I speak Italian. But because the show is in English, I'm taking English as Viktor's assumed second language and will be using that reference throughout this post.)

Specific ways that manifests in my writing for him are outlined below. There are a lot, but I've listed my top three for brevity's sake.

No contractions

This one is difficult for me! I naturally write how I speak, which means I frequently clip my words. Plus, most of the characters' whose POVs I write from have very casual speech. Viktor is the exception. Changing your "can't"s to "cannot"s, your "didn't"s to "did not"s, etc. will help you achieve that slightly more formal register that Viktor tends to speak in. It's a bit of a pain, and it feels strange at first, but to me, it's one of the simplest ways to get your writing on the way to sounding more like Viktor.

Minimize your slang (and swearing)

I'm mostly taking this one from the "crank it" scene. A lot of second language learners aren't specifically taught slang in their target language; they have to learn it as they go. In that scene, Viktor encounters a phrase that is new to him, hesitates, understands, and then adopts it. Slang, for Viktor, is acquired. Demonstrating that in your fic rather than having him use it completely organically like a native English speaker would is another way to get your dialogue more in character for him.

Additionally, to my knowledge, Viktor doesn't swear in the show. I do have him swear in my fic, but extremely sparingly and only in cases of extreme emotion. Second language speakers (in my personal experience) are rarely taught profanity on purpose, and it often takes a while to use it fluently in their target language. So if you're having Viktor swear, do it sparingly, or write it out in whatever real world analog you think his native language is for some fun flavor!

Use specific verbs

There's a writing post I saw a while ago but cannot locate that describes this better than I could. The gist of this is to eliminate verbs such as "is," "has," "seems," etc. in favor of more specific verbs. This is less of an "English as a second language" quirk and more of a "Viktor is intelligent and Academy-educated" quirk. Viktor is precise and specific with his words whenever he speaks. Some examples of this that I've used have been "permits" instead of "lets," "inquires" instead of "asks," "fabricate" instead of "make." This also extends to nouns; "quandary" instead of "problem" is taken straight from the show. Using some of those higher-register words is very reminiscent of Viktor.

I hope this helped, anon!! This was super fun for me to make, and if anyone else has any additions, pls add on to this post!!

[marlynnofmany]

Thanks to everybody who signed up for Patreon yesterday! We're gonna go some fun places together.

[drdemonprince]

I remember a while back you did a fun ask game where people sent in kinks and you rated how good an investment they are and it keeps popping into my mind because of how chill you were about kinks that even kinky people tend to view really negatively in the sense of ethics. I was wondering if you had any advice on how to *feel* chill in terms of my own kink ethics. I intellectually believe that fantasies can’t be immoral and that kink with other adults is moral as long as there is consent (and appropriate risk awareness).

But I am still pretty triggered on the topic when it comes up. Eg, earlier a friend told me they are cutting someone they love off for being friends with someone who “sexualizes trauma”. And yeah, that is definitely where some of my darker kinks come from—though not all. They’re entitled to that opinion and action of course! But hearing all the things they said against this person triggered me, making me feel like I’m dangerous and that it is wrong of me to interact with them going forward even though this isn’t a topic I would discuss with them anyway. Until writing this I hadn’t even considered if they are still a person I *want* to interact with given this. Though I’m sort of unclear on whether it is actually wrong of me to interact with them still.

I am working with my therapist on this. And I know it will take some time to work through. I was just wondering if you had any words of wisdom on the topic.

My thoughts are that if I had a friend who cut people off for having problematic (or in this case, just like, unsettling?) kinks, I would not feel safe around that friend. It would seem to me that they were judgemental, moralizing, and had a completely different viewpoint on how the world operated than I did, and that sooner or later they would demonize me for things I thought, fantasized about, felt, and so on. I might have sympathy if the person was a trauma survivor early in their recovery, as it's quite common for people to think in very dogmatic, black-and-white ways about morality in order to protect themselves and to be highly reactive to perceived threat. But their feelings of safety are their own business to guard over, and mine are mine, and I just wouldn't be able to get along very intimately with someone like that. I'd have to give them a wide berth until they started to get over it, if they got over it.

Recently, a friend of mine was completely ostracized from their local queer community simply for writing a piece that touched on a taboo fantasy -- a taboo fantasy they had concocted as a way to cope with some really gnarly early childhood abuse. They lost performance gigs and friends, had hate campaigns erected against them, had mobs of people threatening all their remaining friends and colleages, all based on a rumor about a piece that they never even got to perform anywhere because someone had heard it was about a taboo subject and even the IDEA of what it might be made them uncomfortable, and so they assumed my friend was condoning abuse when they were literally just describing what had already happened to them and how they found healing from it. Shit like this sucks, and it comes down most heavily against queer people, especially trans femmes, and I've seen the fear mongering ruin enough lives that I try to steer really clear of it.

My life has been so blessed by inclusion of people with really intense, taboo, stigmatized kinks into my life. I was afraid to even breathe a word of my hypnosis fetish to anybody until I was in my late 20s, because I thought it was so freakish and evil. and now I routinely talk with people about really animalistic feral fantasies, harkness rule violating monsterfucking, rape play, necro fantasies, abdl, age regression, incest roleplaying, blood, eating bodily fluids, and everything else that freaks people out but harms no living being. Even when it's not my stuff, even when it's something I might personally find a little squicky to actually be in the room with, it makes me feel seen, safe, and free to express the depths within me. I think surrounding yourself with more people like that or just consuming their stories can help a lot. And trying to find some mental distance from the people who do fear monger and get triggered. They have their reasons for feeling as they do. But that doesn't mean we have to align with their values or actions.

[nickrocketrodriguez]

Hello, Nick! Can you share with us some of your favorite scenes into the writing process of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory? Or even some scenes that didn't end up on the show but you liked it?

Gosh, we wrote these so long ago it's so hard to come up with specifics. For the episodes I wrote, I loved writing the scenes in "Halfway Home" between Daniel and Kenji. I have a relationship in my own life that mirrors (to a certain extent) theirs, so to be able to put all of myself into that episode -- my first as a staff writer on a TV series -- was very special for me. It really allowed me to completely open myself up to working with other writers to intimately. I also get a giggle out of the part where Kenji doesn't have the words to describe Daniel's ultimatum, so he just grunts -- I didn't know if it would make anyone else laugh, but it seemed to, so it stayed! That was pretty fun.

"The Drop" was a bit tougher for me, as it was a pretty pivotal moment between Darius and Kenji. In their scene where they struggle over possession of Brooklynn's phone, I really wanted Darius to rear back to take a swing at Kenji, but for some reason, in a show where people are eaten by dinosaurs, throwing punches (or even implying it) was a no-go, but what ended up in there was still really fun and to the spirit of what I was trying to do.

"Batten Down the Hatches" was sooooo much fun to write as a horror and action fan -- I feel like the team really took what I wrote and ran with it in the best possible way! Seeing that one at SDCC with a group of like 800 fans was something I will never forget. People laughed, gasped, shouted at the screen -- it was just such a cool moment for me.

But getting to introduce Soyona Santos was also such a special thing for me. As I've said in the past, getting to write for Dichen Lachman was such a fanboy moment for me, I'm so glad I got to reintroduce her to the world and help usher in a more three dimensional version of the character than there was time for in Dominion. I love the cat-and-mouse vibe of their conversation. There's also the bit that I'm not sure many picked up on where Santos is the one who uses the term, "limb difference" for the first time in the series. Our consultants had taught me that phrase, and I thought it was an interesting choice for Santos to introduce it to Brooklynn. The thinking was somewhere along the lines of, in her quest to get deeper into the trafficking of dinos, she probably didn't have a ton of time to look into how she was really feeling about losing her arm, let alone find anyone else who'd introduce that phrase to her. So when Santos uses it, there's a split second where Brooklynn kinda connects with it. I think it shows that Santos isn't just a mustache-twirly type of villain. She's intelligent, she's hip to how language has evolved, and she might even be a good person in another life. There was a moment where it was called into question whether or not Santos would use the phrase, so I'm especially glad we got to keep it in there.

And don't even get me started on the episodes my amazing colleagues wrote for the rest of the series. They all did such an incredible job, I don't even have enough words to express how awesome their episodes turned out, not to mention how awesome all of the rest of the crew did in bringing the show to life!!

[arcadia-of-pluto]

Twist of Fate; Chapter Five

Pairings; LADS OT4 x reader

Word count; 3,000

Themes; isekai, eventual smut

Rating; 18+ for swearing and some mature context

Notes; As always, horrible described combat scenes. Also, a reminder for the text emojis, 💜 is Rafayel and 🩷 is Y/n

Also, I will be working on other stories and oneshots in the future! I just want to get this story rolling and then I'll begin writing other things.

Prev || Next

Masterlist

A few days later, Rafayel finally shoots you a text.

💜 :’miss bodyguard im in need of ur services’

💜:’theres a specific material I need to finish my artwork and only U can help me find it!’

Finally the message you were waiting for. You take a deep breath before sending your message back.

🩷 :’I'll have you know, I've been charging you half the usual price for my services. This better be worth it.’

💜 :’aww dont be like that! Come on over Ill tell you the details when yuo get here.’

You get dressed and head out, saying goodbye to Estelle on your way out.

Once at Whitesand Bay, you step into Rafayel's art studio and, of course, he's on the floor. You already know what's going to happen but you step forward regardless and put a finger to his nose to make sure he's breathing. “Rafayel?” you say, confused at how he was texting you one moment and now he's asleep. You look around the studio, noticing paint cans scattered all across the floor and unfinished paintings with the word ‘Lemuria’ written in the corner.

You go to tap his shoulder and he catches your wrist, causing you to jump in surprise and knock over a dirty water cup which bleeds onto a nearby canvas, revealing an ocean sunset. “Oh hey, you got here sooner than I anticipated.” Rafayel sits up and lets go of your wrist before holding his hand out, “Pull me up?” He tilts his head to the side with a smile. You sigh, shaking your head as you take his hand, but he has other plans and tugs you down with him.

“Rafayel!” you angrily groan as your knees hit the floor, your hand landing in a puddle of baby pink paint next to his head. “Are you crazy?” You ask, anger evident in your tone as you met his eyes from above him. “Mmh, only a little. Anyway, now that we're more comfortable, I need your help getting something.” He rests his hands underneath his head, making himself comfortable.

You roll your eyes and push your body up with one hand so you’re sitting next to him. “And you decided that was the perfect position to ask your question?” You raise a brow, shooting a pointed look at the baby pink paint on your palm. “I get it, it's not a good look. Let me take you out first,” Rafayel chuckles before saying, “Go wash your hand off, we can go to a café or something and talk.”

Once at the café, you sip on your drink as he explains what he's looking for is called a coral stone. He's painted with it before and he needs some more. It’s apparently a really important material for his next painting. “Look I-” But Rafayel shushes you, holding a finger to his lips as he spots something behind you. “There's someone here.”

“Is it someone from the N109 Zone? Why are they targeting you anyways? It makes no sense.” You scratch your head, annoyed at all of the interruptions, and he looks away for a moment, “I… refused to paint something for a big shot and, I guess, I pissed him off.” He shrugs before turning his head to look back at you, “Look, I know you said you want to get into the N109 Zone, so how about we work together, yeah?”

“I've been pretty busy these days…so I'll think about it.” You run a hand through your hair and then tap on the table with your nails. “Should we bait this guy out and see what he wants?” “Sounds fun, Miss hunter.” Rafayel smiles, before you both get up when a group of highschoolers are exiting the cafe and go straight down an alley where you ambush the guy.

He says he's a reporter and that a man who Rafayel sold a painting to died and the reporter was wondering if somehow Rafayel's paintings had killed the man. If you remember correctly, this was the same man who had a mermaid skeleton on display in his home so…maybe this is good riddance. Wait- or did Rafayel really kill that man because he had a lemurian skeleton in his home?

You both end up letting the man go but, before you do, Rafayel breaks his camera and you head back to Whitesand Bay together to look at the sunset. “Look, you don't have to say anything..Just come to the pier tomorrow at 10 if you're willing to go with me. And don't forget your promise.”

“What promise?” You tease before you reply quickly before he gets pouty, “I remember, don't worry.” It was the promise to be his bodyguard. “But if you do come tomorrow…I have an idea on how to get into the N109 Zone. The Nest is an information hub so we could…bait out Onychinus.” Rafayel turns to look at you and tilts his head to the side. “Sound good? I'll pull some strings and get you a Hunting day invitation, anything else you do after that is on you though.”

“You'll just have to show me how to be bait.” You say before you nod your head in agreement. “Deal.” You shake hands and go home to get up bright and early tomorrow.

You stretch your arms up in the air and yawn as you walk across the pier on Whitesand Bay. As you rub your tired eyes, you notice a tall man, that wasn’t Rafayel, standing on the pier. “Oh, hey Mr. Thomas.” You greet Rafayel's manager, who was a tired looking man. “Just call me Thomas. You know…I've never seen Rafayel this excited before! He's been like this since you've been around.”

“Oh really now?” You raise a brow, laughing before Rafayel steps in-between you both. “So you ready for our dangerous mission?” You ask and Thomas peeks around Rafayel with a look of shock on his face, “Wait, I thought you said this was a date!”

After this, the two of you hunker down into the small boat and begin to row toward the island in the distance. “Why couldn't you have gotten a motorboat?” You groan, tilting your head back as you aid Rafayel in rowing the rickety wooden boat. “Zayne said sun exposure to my scar may make it worse.”

“Zayne?” Rafayel raises a brow and scoffs, “on a first name basis with someone other than me?”

You pause, before internally cringing at your slip up. You throw a hand up in the air as you speak, trying to calm his dramatics. “He's my doctor. I've known him for a few years, remember?” You look away from him, not wanting to talk too much on that subject since you weren't sure what would happen.

“Hmm…Well, since you didn't ask yesterday or today, we're heading to Hat Island.” Rafayel says after a few moments of silence with a pout on his lips. “That one island that's riddled with wanderers? The one that everyone is told specifically not to go to?” You question before scoffing, “Huh, maybe I should charge you more.” “Don't be like that, cutie. The protocores from the wanderers here would be great to use as paint. Oh and the coralstone..it's said to be from Lemuria so that's why my paintings with it have illusion properties.” He decides to provide some exposition and you try to row a bit faster. “Anyways, you can't have all of the protocores, I have to submit some to the Hunter's association.” You grumble and the artist in front of you grabs your hand that's rowing. “Slow down, you're gonna make me seasick.”

After about thirty minutes of rowing, the island was finally close but it seemed like the boat was slowly falling apart. “Should we swim the rest of the way?” You worriedly ask, not fully confident in your swimming capabilities, since you can only doggy paddle and not actually swim. “And mess up my suit?” Rafayel retorts and you roll your eyes, “It's better than staying in a sinking boat.”

“Fine, we'll swim once we're closer.” The purple haired man reluctantly agrees as he notices more water seeping into the boat. “The boat will probably be fully submerged by then,” You comment, but continue rowing nonetheless.

Once on the island, you check your watch. “Hmm, it seems like the biggest fluctuation is on the other side of the island.” You say as you wring the water out of your hair. “We'll probably be here the whole day.”

You decide to shoot a quick text to Xavier, asking if he'll feed Estelle dinner tonight and then send another to Zayne, asking if he can reschedule your doctor's appointment for the day after tomorrow. “Alright, let's get going.” You start walking but pause as you notice Rafayel isn't following and has a pout on his lips. “What's wrong now?” You sigh and tilt your head to the side with your hand on your hip.

“You were texting other men with me right next to you.” He hmphs and crosses his arms over his chest. “Relax, Raf,” you roll your eyes with a smile, “I was asking my doctor to reschedule my appointment and my neighbor to feed my pet.”

“You got a pet?” The artist was suddenly interested, but you shushed him as you heard a twig snap nearby.

“Relax cutie, there's nothing around-” Rafayel suddenly lets out a yelp and hides behind you. “It's a monster!” He peeks over your shoulder and you let out a small laugh as you spot a small orange cat. “It's a baby! Come here, baby.” You crouch down and hold your hand out with a smile.

“A baby? That's an evil creature with razor sharp teeth and claws.” Rafayel hugs himself and shivers as he tries to stay far away from the little kitten.

“He's harmless.” You say as you hold your hand out toward it and the cat stood there with wide eyes before the fur on his back bristles and he hisses at you before taking a swipe at your hand. The man next to you moves forward and his hand gets scratched instead as he grabs yours to make sure you were unharmed. “Ouch- see I told you it was evil. I'm gonna die now that it scratched me!”

“Kill the dramatics, Raf.” You say with a laugh and you grab his hand to look at it. “It's barely even bleeding…Do you need me to kiss it better?” You tease and Rafayel raises an eyebrow with a mischievous smile playing across his lips. “Oh, would you now? I'll only feel better if you kiss me- I mean, my hand.” “Are you sure?” You muse before leaning forward to press your lips against it, keeping eye contact with the man before he gets too flustered and looks away.

“That's enough.” He clears his throat, pulling his hand out of your grasp as his ear tips turned crimson. “Let's get a move on and we might be able to leave before the sun sets.”

Once you both get to the other side of the island, the sun is already low in the sky and said sky is beginning to turn orange. “So much for leaving before sunset.” You sigh, kicking your feet as you walk along the beach before your watch beeps. “A wanderer?” You pull up the map, confused. “But where-” “There.” Rafayel points toward the ocean, “Looks like it's gonna pop up soon.”

From the readings on your watch, this was going to be a big wanderer. Hopefully the fight won't be too difficult.

The large, blue bird-like creature rises from the ocean and you take your guns out of their holster. “It's oddly pretty.” You comment before the bird lets out a shrill noise and flaps its wings shooting out blue feathers that embed themselves into the ground.

You roll out of the way, landing on one knee and you fire a few bullets into the creature. “Rafayel,” You shout and he gets the idea. He runs over and you take one of his daggers, flipping it between your fingers as he takes your second gun. You launch yourself into the creature with Rafayel's knife, still charged with his fire evol, digging into the bird's chest and you drop down through the air. Rafayel’s dagger cuts the wanderer from chest to belly but once you get its feet, it kicks you into the water.

Rafayel grabs his weapon in one hand as you fall and then catches you as well, one arm around your waist as water swells around you both. If his evol is fire, how is he using water?

The cut on his cheek heals and you can't seem to stay conscious to see him finish off the wanderer. Instead, you feel yourself sinking deeper and deeper into the murky depths. A feeling of nostalgia washes over you as you feel a panic spread through your chest. You seemed…terrified of drowning but you have never been afraid of water before. Trauma doesn’t suddenly form so where did it come from? You want to cry for help but the moment you open your mouth, salty water fills up your throat and your body forces you to try and breathe. “Help me..” A memory almost resurfaces in your mind, but it’s put to a pause whenever you notice a faint red mark appear on Rafayel’s chest. Why wasn’t he coming to help you?

Though as your consciousness finally begins to fade, you could've sworn you saw Rafayel hesitate to save you. Then, the next moment, he's swimming toward you with a fishy tail? Whatever, it's probably just you hallucinating- is what you'd think if you didn't have any prior knowledge. You already knew Rafayel was lemurian, which is just a fancy way to say mermaid. He was from Lemuria, think of it like Atlantis but it's always been underwater. It was a city lost to time with Rafayel being one of the only inhabitants left, save for the other few people who escaped to land.

The next time you open your eyes, you're back on the beach next to a small fire. Your head was resting on Rafayel's thigh with his coat over your shivering body. You blink a few times before rubbing your eyes as you sit up and put your arms through his coat to wear it properly. It's dark out, you assume a few hours have passed since fighting that bird wanderer. You glance over at the artist and tilt your head to the side. “You…nevermind.” You shake your head before instead saying, “Did you get what you needed?”

“Ah, the bird dropped a pretty little protocore.” He holds the blue gemstone between his fingers as he shows it off, “annnd I also found some coral stones while you were out.” He puts the protocore away before pulling out a rectangular card. He hands it to you with his index finger and thumb. “Here.” “Is this..?” You take the card from him and open it up.

Invitation to Hunting Day. D-3

“Ah, so it's three days from now.” You unknowingly let out a sigh of relief and Rafayel raises a brow, “Are you scared now, cutie?” “Not really. I'm just reluctant to trust you.” You hmph, crossing your arms over your chest. “I saw how you hesitated to save me.”

“You saw but-” He sighs and rubs the back of his neck. “I didn't hesitate…I just hadn't killed the wanderer yet.” He looks away and clears his throat before slightly glancing back at you, “Did you…see anything else?”

“I did but…we'll talk about it later. It doesn't seem appropriate right now.” You say before you sneeze and wrap your arms around your waist. You hear a familiar hiss and you turn to look in the direction of the noise. “Oh, the baby is back.” Your face looks brighter compared to a few seconds ago. This time, the kitty lets you pick him up. “You are such a cutie.” You rub your face against his fur before kissing him on the head. You can hear Rafayel scoff beside you and grumble under his breath, “I can't believe I'm jealous of such a vile creature.”

“What was that?” You ask, turning your head to look at him. Your cheek still pressing against the kitty's soft fur.

“Nothing.” He clears his throat. “Thomas should be here momentarily with a boat and then we can finally go home. Are you going to take that creature with you? You shouldn't show it affection if you're just going to leave it behind and forget about it.”

You let out a heavy sigh. You know exactly what Rafayel means when he says that, even if he assumes you don't. He's putting himself in the cat's shoes- um, paws.

“Raf…” You press your lips together and pat his shoulder as you stand up so he can't see your face. “I'm not going to leave you.” Your hand squeezes his shoulder as you hold the cat to your chest. “I'm taking him with me..maybe my neighbor will want him and I'll still be able to see him all the time so…I won't forget about him either.”

Rafayel makes a noise in the back of his throat. You're not sure if it's from surprise or if he was overwhelmed with emotions, but he stands up and wraps his arms around you from behind, resting his forehead against your shoulder. “Just let me…stay like this for a minute, yeah?”

Your heart was pounding in your chest, this was the closest you've been to any of the male characters- to your friends, you could say. You take a deep breath before nodding, “Take as long as you need, I'm not going anywhere.” Rafayel's grip around your waist tightens and the two of you stay like that until the spotlight from the nearing boat lights both of you up, and Thomas brings you both back to the mainland.

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

You know, I just realized that I said I would update every weekend buuuttt I never said how many times I would update 😎 Twice. Probably twice. I feel bad since most chapters, until later on, will be 2-3k words so posting two chapters gives yall at least 6k to read and that makes me feel better. Anyways, hope you enjoy and be prepared we're getting closer and closer to Sylus!

[redux-iterum]

Sorry for all the questions from me recently,, but I've been planning to write a fanfic that takes place before pinestar exists in riverclan, blast to the past if you will! I just wanted to ask if you have any tips or advice because I really look up to your writing!

No worries about questions! I'm happy to answer if I can. I'll try to give some advice on writing in general, and hopefully it'll help you.

Figure out what pace will help you keep going on the project, fanfic or original, and work with that. If writing 200 words a day every day or 1k words every three days is your comfortable speed and keeps you from getting exhausted, then don't force yourself to Stephen King it and write an excess of 2k every single day. Your goal is to enjoy yourself here and keep going until it's completed. It won't be worth it if you suffer the whole time.

That being said, at times you may need to strap yourself down and just get through the part you don't want to write. This requires some discipline and self-training, but it is doable. The reward of getting to the part you're excited about is completely worth the work of writing when bored. I can very much promise you that. Every single thing I've ever worked on, I've had to force myself to keep writing/drawing at some point, and every time I've been happy that I worked until I got my reward of the part I was psyched to get to. Hell, I'm doing that right now with the next book in this series! And, fun fact, the more you do it, the easier it gets. Sort of like exercise!

If you need to plan ahead of time to finish a project like I do, then you might could borrow my method of planning: write down one or a couple sentences describing the overall, most basic idea of the plot (literally just something like "[Character] in RiverClan finds a secret plot by [other character] to overthrow the leader, stops them, and then discovers that they were right to be suspicious about the leader's secrets and helps oust the leader"); write down all the story beats and character moments you have in mind in no specific order; break down the plot into more chewable chunks using the aforementioned beats and moments to help you figure out the connecting veins to each chunk; and from there, go smaller and smaller as needed until you have enough to work with that you're comfortable writing. I personally like to write a summary of each chapter as well - all of them - before starting to actually write those chapters. It helps me keep track of everything and prevents me from fucking up the story I had in mind by being impulsive and forgetting the plan.

Even if you love a moment, character or line of dialog, if it isn't working with everything else and is disrupting the flow of the story, don't be afraid to throw it out. It's hard and I hate doing it myself, but sometimes it's just time to get rid of something you're attached to. "Kill your darlings" doesn't just mean killing a character you like, it means taking out things that you love no matter how much it feels like ripping out a tooth. You can always find a way to use whatever it is later in something else.

If you have a willing beta/editor, by GOD, ask for their help. A second set of eyes is crucial to ensuring the quality of your story. The thing is that you're too close to your creation to know for sure if it's good to everyone else - even if it genuinely is amazing, you have no idea because you made it. Having someone outside the circle of sentiment to read and say, "Hey, this dialog doesn't sound very realistic" or "Huh, I thought this piece was foreshadowing something else, maybe clear that up a little" is, while painful to your ego, more precious than a pot of gold. Appreciate the critique you get. It's awesome for your growth. Do know that not all critique is going to be helpful to your specific writing style, but a lot of it is very much worth paying attention to and taking a minute to mull over and decide whether to humor it or not. This, too, you will get better at differentiating over time.

All this said, remember that if you're not getting a paycheck, you're doing this for fun. You are under no obligation to finish a story that's making you miserable. You'll have to learn the difference between "fic I'm in a boring moment of" and "fic that's actively harming my mental wellbeing because I feel obligated to complete it", and sometimes you'll need a second person to voice your thoughts to in order to judge that. If it sucks, hit da bricks! Don't punish yourself for having to stop, or even just taking a break. A fanfic is not worth your sanity. Trust me on this.

That shit got long and I apologize. Hopefully this helped!

[tlbodine]

Fae Horrors: Huldra

This week's double-header features a Scandinavian folklore creature, huldra (or hulder, for a collective of them, I think?) -- generally described as a seductive forest spirit or guardian, a beautiful woman with an animal tail and/or a spine like a hollow tree stump. I've read that they can be friend or foe to people who venture into the woods, and a common thread seems to be that they can seduce and manipulate men into doing all kinds of things.

I'm not personally familiar with the myths, so I'm not sure which things I've read on the internet are historically accurate. Maybe one of you lovely followers can fill me in?

Anyway, the films this week were Thale (2012) and Huldra: Lady of the Forest (2016). They are, to my knowledge, the only two movies about hulder. They also could not be more different from each other, beginning with the fact that one of them is quite good and the other is a steaming pile of hot garbage that had me screaming at the television.

First, the good one. Thale is a Norwegian film written and directed by Aleksander L. Nordaas. It's about two guys, Elvis and Leo, who work as crime scene clean-up guys. While cleaning up the very messy remains of an old man ("wild animals" got at him, tearing him to pieces and scattering him around the property) they find his hidden basement, where he had seemingly imprisoned a young woman.

The girl, naked and mute and somewhat inhuman, turns out to actually be very inhuman in the sense that she's not a person at all but a hulder who had been taken into captivity and experimented on. The old man in the cottage had worked at the laboratory, smuggled her out, and raised her here as a father figure, but continued to experiment on her. We figure out some backstory courtesy of some convenient fae-creature telepathy, and the story builds from there because the girl (the eponymous Thale) has family still in the forest, and also the military is looking for her.

I won't spoil anything further. It's a very simple story, one that leaves a lot of questions unanswered. But I don't mind that ambiguity. In form, it reminds me quite a bit of an episode of Trevor Henderson's podcast, The Mayfair Watcher's Society: Two normal blokes stumble into an uncanny situation, see some crazy shit, and get on with their lives without explanation or context. If you like that type of storytelling (and I do), this is worth the watch.

The entire movie was filmed on a budget of $10,000, with Nordaas acting as writer, director, editor, set designer, and so forth. Most of the film was shot in his dad's basement.

And honestly? Mad props. I have nothing but respect for a micro-budget film that understands its limitations and leans into them. The creature effects are excellent. Like, the CGI is a little rough, but the design itself is A+ and it delivered a proper scare at one point.

The greatest strength of the film imo is the on-screen chemistry between the two leads. We don't really know what the relationship between Elvis and Leo is, whether they're friends or brothers or what, but they manage to communicate a great deal without saying a word, and it's easy to believe they've known each other a very long time. They're drift compatible, in other words, and they have very different personalities (Leo is utterly unflappable, Elvis can't get through a job without puking several times) that make it fun to watch them grapple with being in over their heads. Props to Erlend Nervold and Jon Sigve Skard. And props too to Silje Reinåmo, who has to spend most of the movie naked and do most of her acting with her eyes. Good stuff all around.

Which leads us....sigh....

Huldra: Lady of the Forest is a Swedish film directed by Ove Valeskog, with writing credit to Valeskog, Eddie Boschek, and Björn Boström. I believe it is Valeskog's first feature film, and I don't know what the budget on it was for sure but IMDB estimates it at $75,000. It certainly looks and feels much cheaper than Thale, probably because of the terrible script.

Okay. Ugh. Basically: A lady boxer is invited out on a camping trip with a bunch of guys she went to school with, and they all go party in the woods and engage in various...activities?...at some kind of former hippie commune turned hunting resort attraction camp....thing? The hippie who runs the place has a "daughter" who they spy bathing naked in a lake and who (spoiler?) is a huldra.

I guess (???) the main point is that the hippie guy lures people out to his commune to sacrifice them (???) to the huldra, who also apparently has the ability to make people go crazy and turn on each other, which is seemingly how the hippie guy got here in the first place. The story keeps cutting between the present-day group and the original hippie group, and we see both of them becoming paranoid and turning on each other until only one dude is left standing to take care of the huldra?

It's convoluted. And, frustratingly, there are the bones of a really good story in it. I actually really like the idea of a forest creature who uses her faerie wiles to psychologically fuck with a group of tourists and make them turn on each other. It's like Evil Dead with a faerie and I'm here for it!

Unfortunately, the movie is two hours long and agonizingly boring to get through. It's paced like a slow-burn psychological thriller, except none of the characters are actually fleshed out or given any depth at all. You're forced to watch scene after agonizing scene of rambling, pointless naturalistic dialogue as a bunch of annoying frat guys get drunk, argue, act misogynistic, and make small talk, without any clear idea of why anyone is doing anything. Also most of the film's dialogue is in English (owing I guess to their multinational friend group) but it seems like English is not the primary language of any of the actors so all of the line delivery is also kind of weird? Like inflections are in odd places, stiff tone, just....everything is weird, man. And most of the violence is off-screen and there are no cool creature effects so we don't even get the pleasure of seeing these people eviscerated for our trouble :(

I could have put up with all of this, maybe. I could have dealt with the frankly nonsensical storytelling (which was SO CLOSE to being good but then shit the bed), the bad acting, the wobbly erratic camera that bounces around for no reason, the poor editing....all of it. I could have shrugged it off as a "meh." Until the end of the movie.

At the outset, we see our heroine playing with her baby niece, and her sister telling her that having babies is great, actually, and that she needs to get laid, and maybe if she acted more feminine people would stop assuming she was a lesbian. and we think, ok, fine, sister is kind of annoying but whatever.

So then the heroine goes into the woods with all these dudes and tries to rekindle with a childhood crush. They have sex, then he pushes her away because he's married, and then gets all up in his feelings about it and it's stupid but ANYWAY....he dies, and then later she nearly drowns, but she has a vision of his stupid dead face telling her she HAS TO LIVE because there is a BABY INSIDE HER and this gives her the strength!!! to survive!!!! and then there's a flash forward a couple years later and we see her baby running around on the beach with his cousin and her boxing coach tells her, "You finally have achieved real balance! but why did you quit boxing?" and she's like "I don't need it anymore because MY LIFE IS COMPLETE with the power of LOVE! I love being a mommy soooooo much" I'm not even exaggerating this is almost exactly how the scene plays out and oh my god it is so stupid and cheesy and terrible.

You are allowed to be a shitty movie, and you are allowed to be surprise twist birther propaganda, but you don't get to be both.

Ew, ew, ew.

Anyway. Ugh. I don't know where or how this film ended up on my list -- it doesn't have much footprint online, there's only one review on the IMDB page and no Wikipedia, there's no Rotten Tomatoes score, only two reviews on Amazon. So maybe it's mean to hate this much on a tiny obscure random movie. But dear god. If you have two spare hours and a Tubi account, spend that precious time on something else because this movie is a big stinker.

Onward and (hopefully) upward next week.

[wyn-n-tonic]

Books by Black Authors for Black History Month!

I wanted to share a list of books I love and books that I'm looking forward to reading that are by Black authors in acknowledgement of Black History Month. I feel like a lot of my fellow readers (especially my fellow white readers) always go into a, kind of, reading slump in February and I don't know if that's because the month of January is just ten years long that February feels like a hangover or if it's because they feel the desire to read books by Black authors but then the majority of what is marketed is usually books that are steeped in trauma or nonfiction books. And, like, yeah, nonfiction books are so important but when they're the only kind of book marketed it can make finding the other kinds of books that much harder but I believe that if you read the fun books and the happy books and the fantasy books it will make you want to seek out the nonfiction resources. I'm blabbering so long story short, I thought I would make a little list to do some of the legwork for my fellow readers to find stories that they can check out.

I used GoodReads links (and one StoryGraph) link, you can choose who to purchase from yourself (although I will suggest BookShop.org as your purchase does go towards indie bookstores, I also really like the Libby App which is just your library and it works with your Kindle/Nook/Kobo/iPad). All authors that I have included in this are American or have strong ties to the USA which is why I did not include authors such as Bolu Babalola, Talia Hibbert, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie but I do highly recommend checking them out if you haven't because they do write gorgeously.

Kennedy Ryan has an extensive backlog and beautiful writing, beautiful prose. She had a book called Before I Let Go (Skyland #1) come out in November 2022, it is a second chance romance between a married couple. It has been on my shelf forever, the cover is beautiful and I've heard nothing but truthfully incredible things. I have listened to snippets of the audiobook but keep putting off getting the actual audiobook because Kennedy is the kind of author I want to read the grammar, syntax, wording of everything from. This book actually got optioned to be adapted into a television show and there's a second Skyland book coming out in March called This Could Be Us that has the ARC readers going wild.

Jasmine Guillory is one of my favorite authors. She is a Bay Area native and has a law degree from Stanford. Not only do I think that she writes beautifully but I cannot even describe to you the way that I kick my little feet and twirl my hair. I feel like my favorite of hers changes. Up until a few weeks ago, I would've told you that Olivia Monroe in Party of Two was my favorite Jasmine girly but I listened to Royal Holiday to kick off my reading for January and Vivian Forest is such a beautiful character. She's a 56 year old Black woman who is a veteran social worker who thinks it's too late for her on several fronts and then she gets swept off her feet while on a vacation with her daughter AND THE ROYAL FAMILY. What?! I also think that Jasmine writes, like.... character appropriate sex scenes if that makes sense. Like, Vivian's scenes are more reserved than Olivia's were, Vivian's more closed door than Olivia's were. She also has a Beauty and the Beast inspired book called By The Book and I kept texting my friend the entire way through and then made her buy a copy so she could text me right back with all her thoughts. Amazing. I love her.

You want cozy fantasy romance with monsters and happy Black women being loved by their hot monster lovers? Kimberly Lemming has GOT YOU COVERED.

Plugging my new author friend P.J. Leigh and her book Olawu. She actually responded to my request for some indie author recs on Threads and sent me a copy of Olawu that will be here on Friday and I'm so excited. She describes it as: "Set in precolonial East Africa with romance, action, sisterhood, found family, and a feisty but flawed female lead." I cannot wait to dig into this one.

Another author who messaged me is indie author Quiana Glide. Her bio is that she is an unabashed fangirl and her books feature pregnancy trope, cosplay, professional wrestlers and cafe owners solving murders. Her books sound fucking great and they are available on Kindle Unlimited for my KU girlies (gender neutral).

Celestine Martin messaged me as well and she writes paranormal romance with Black witches, emo mermen and fae princes. I tripped over myself running to my Libby app to place a hold on the audiobook.

25 to Love! by Joye Johnson is another one available on Kindle Unlimited for my KU girlies (gender neutral). The synopsis is: "TV's hottest dating show is '25 to Love!'. To nab a guy from her past, Lola signs on as the token girl of color. All's fair in love and ratings--can a week on TV get Lola closer to the one that got away?" You know what I love? Second chance romances, besties, that's right.

Splinter by Jasper Hyde was another I was recommended. Jasper writes paranormal, LGBTQ+ books. Jasper Hyde is a pen name for Georgina Kiersten who also goes by Rian Fox. The pen name denotes the subgenre that they write. Georgina does go by they/them pronouns and writes plus sized rep and neurodivergent rep too.

Kelly Cain. That's it. That's the tweet. THE EVERHEART BROTHERS SERIES????? If you know anything about me, you know that I have a hearing issue and so I've used audiobooks before but I never really clicked with them or got the hype. Turns out I had boring ass narrators (look I did the audio version of a lot of nonfiction books I had to read about old dead white guys in college so of course I had that feeling). THE EVERHEART BROTHERS AUDIOBOOKS ARE WHAT CHANGED ME. Deanna Anthony, the narrator, is so engaging and I didn't feel like I was listening to an audiobook, I felt like I was sitting across the table at brunch having a gossip session with my bestie. If you read it and you didn't like it, that's fine, but I didn't lie to you and enjoyment of art is subjective but also you're wrong and argue with a wall.

I've been seeing a lot of talk lately about Pride & Protest by Nikki Payne. This is a Pride & Prejudice and one of the reviews says, "If you ever wanted P&P to feel more like watching a swoony, steamy episode of Insecure, this is the book for you."

Currently, I am reading You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi. It deals with themes of grief and romance and also bisexual representation. Absolutely beautiful prose. Akwaeke is Nigerian and has been in the USA since college. They are non-binary and go by they/them pronouns.

I also cannot end this list without mentioning Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow. This follows three generations of a southern Black family in the neighborhood of Douglass in Memphis, TN (I was born a couple miles away in Raleigh) . Now, this book does have quite a few trigger warnings that I won't put here but I do encourage you to READ THE TRIGGER WARNINGS before you purchase this book as it does deal with some pretty heavy subject matter.

I'm also going to end this by saying to keep an eye out for anything done by my best friend, the person who I have shared so many amazing, beautiful, life changing experiences with ALL OVER THE WORLD for the last fourteen years: Isana Skeete (Isana does not use pronouns). If you look at the GoodReads account for Isana that I linked, you'll see lists made with recommendations of books with queer POC rep and asexuality representation.

[forget-me-maybe]

2024 reflections

thank you for the tag @lemonsrosesandlavender <3

here are some tags for @little-paperboat @waterdeep-weavemoss @gufu-vire and @galeorderbride if you want to <3

i'm really just rambling here, i hope some things make sense.

What's been your biggest learning point this past year?

2024 is the year i started writing more than just short stories at the age of 10. so everything?

i was really scared of hurting my characters in the beginning of the year, i just wanted them to be happy. now i know that doesn't make a good story at all and i can't wait to throw all the characters under the buss and drive back and forth over them a couple of times for good measure. if i wanted to be happy all the time i should've stayed with one shots.

also plan ahead and edit more, please.

How has your writing developed this past year?

i think it's gotten a bit less detailed and more focused on what's actually important. i kind of know what i want it to look like now, which i can't explain at all more than i know when i see it.

Bad writing habits?

this is mostly to do with my mental health (which is surprisingly good these days except sometimes), i get into my slumps where i don't write anything for weeks and just get really mean to myself for not writing and then get even meaner when i sit down with the document and can't get the words on the page. no fun at all times. and i like to have fun.

Favorite thing you wrote?

you keep showing up for sure. but, while i like what i've posted and the feedback it'd gotten, i think the reason i personally like it so much is because of what's to come *rubbing my hands together like a fly*. i can't wait to get it onto the page and share it.

i also have to make an honourable mention to somewhere there's a party, i expected three people to read it but not only did more people find it (not that many, it's a one shot modern au of a not particularly popular ship after all), the people who liked it truly ate it up and i got some great feedback. i also never expected i'd write it. i never expected i'd write the series. a true wildcard fic.

Biggest win?

i'll try to say this without getting all soppy. finding my little space and community in the big bad world.

maybe the real win were the friends we made along the way.

i won't tag anyone because i will forget someone but palps, the beno babes, my mutuals, the regular commenters.

that's what's meant the most to me throughout 2024.

Your favorite words of the year, aka the words you check each chapter for, making sure you didn't repeat them 788 times?

amused and annoyed. they are my favourite feelings but good god, forget please learn to describe it in some other way.

Goals for the new year?

be kinder to myself.

maybe don't write more as in amount of words but write more regularly.

try out new smut things, not just the old repertoire in different settings.

What are you excited for in the new year?

yksu!

acoh!

bless you!

getting deeper into the durgic nonsense (last night my head made a looooong timeline for them which unfortunately might mean what was supposed to be two chapters, one pre-tadpole and one at moonrise, might have to be expanded (which i kind of don't want it to 😭)).

find another rude, morally lacking, and/or old blorbo to write about (this will happen, i can't help it).

[dervampireprince]

Same anon as in the chatbot ask!

I appreciate and admire your stance on AI; I’m working on a research project highlighting the harmful impacts of CAI and was really hoping you weren’t in support of the platform.

I’m frankly disturbed by how many creators I found bots scraped from with a quick scroll. I’m so sorry it happened to you, and equally sorry to have to bring it to your attention. I hope this is more of a one-off than a recurring issue.

Have a lovely evening, keep being cool :]

/gen /p

honestly it makes me feel almost violated.

i remember seeing a reddit thread where someone was like 'i joined a vtubers patreon and got in vc and said i use cai and they all told me i shouldn't use it' and all the comments were like 'theyre so toxic' 'they just dont understand' and guys... yes they probably did understand. if someone is making fun of you for being lonely or 'cringe' by using cai yeah they're being an asshole, but you are in the wrong for using cai. how do you think it generates writing and voices? by stealing the writing and voices from people.

i've seen cai users say the voice feature does 'feel' wrong as it's taking from real people, but none of them seem to know or want to acknowledge that the writing also steals from real people. generative writing like cai, chatbots, chatgpt, etc, have to get trained on something. and that something is real writing by non-consenting authors, ficwriters, journalists, anyone who writes anything online even someone's personal blog or tweets. even if you're making a chatbot for your own oc, and not someone else's character, the chats it generates your oc is taken from stolen writing.

as far as i can see there is no way to get my characters removed from cai. you can report voices being used without consent, but not writing.

this is what i found of my characters on cai, and it makes me really upset and uncomfotable.

they also took some of my art of ambrose and arden to use as the thumbnail and didn't credit me as the artist. even if they had credited me, i do not allow reposting of my art. also, no one in their lives has ever described arden as "smiley" (i'm not policing anyone's headcannons or imagination with that one, just pointing out something silly to lighten the mood so i don't have a complete meltdown).

yes i censored out the cai users name who made these chabots. please do not go and hunt them down, please do not go and find them or message them. especially as we don't know if they're a minor.

it seems to me a lot of minors use cai which is worrying as who knows what the chatbot could spit out regardless of safety measures they have in place. and i'm sorry anyone's so lonely they have to turn to cai only.. you don't have too. fanfic exists, rp communities exist, various online communities whether tumblr groups, discord servers, subreddits, are people still using amino? i mean if you're a minor you should be extra careful getting into online communities and talking to others online (and if you're a minor you shouldn't be following this blog) but like... imagination exists. try getting into creative writing?

idk when we did get so bored with imaginations we had to do this. you know what i did as as kid and there was no access to anything like this? i would copy and paste fanfics into microsoft word, find and replace one characters name with my own and boom you got yourself a self insert fic (note: these edited files were only ever kept on my pc, i never posted them anywhere). and there's soooooo many reader insert fics out there now, hell i literally make my own reader/listener inserts of my own characters, i'm not starving you for content out here. and i'm okay with people writing fanfic about my ocs or commissioning others to write you fanfics (my commissions aren't open).

thankfully i don't think my voice has been uploaded on there? i clicked the 'call' button to see what would happen and nothing did so i think that means there's no voice? or perhaps it doesn't work unless you make an account i don't know.

yeah sorry that became a longer rant. i don't know if more of my ocs are on cai, these are just the ones i found by searching my username in there. there could be other copies of my characters on there that don't credit me.

also a lot of character uploads use ai 'art' as their pictures which you know is also terrible and steals from artists.

and you're right, there's so many more characters taken from small creators and other VAs. i searched yuurivoice on there and got 50+ results of chatbots of his ocs AND ALSO OF HIM. please do not making cai's of real people that is so much worse than someone's oc, it's equally as bad on the stealing front but also so paraosocial. you do not know yuurivoice, you cannot get a bot to act like him as you do not know him or how he acts. watching a creators videos or streams does not mean you know anything about the real them, and especially does not mean you know them or are friends with them. found at least 5 for cardlin audios, some of his ocs and some of him. 6 for dark and twisted whispers ocs.

and if a creator gives you permission to make their oc into a chatbot... that doesn't make the chatbot okay. a creator can consent all you like, but the writers who's work was stolen to train that chatbot still didn't get to consent.

in the rare chance any cai user who's made chatbots of my characters on there sees this post: please delete them. please. you didn't get my consent for this. and you didn't get the consent of all the writers your chatbot was trained on. i don't think you're stupid or cringe for using cai, but you are contributing to generating ai content which is stealing from real humans and harming the environment.

[optiwashere]

Do you mind sharing any advice you might have for someone that wants to write smut with a trans girl in it? I like yours a lot but I don't want other people to think mine is gross or weird. Thank you for everything you do!

Heya anon 💜

Thank you for the very lovely comment about my fics, that's super kind of you to share with me. I'd be happy to help even if you weren't so sweet :)

I swear I've answered an ask like this before, but I can't find it thanks to tumblr's incredible search features. So, here we go.

First of all, I'm not an authority on this subject. I'm one (1) lady that likes to write and happens to write a fair bit. Take what I say as nothing more than a suggestion and compare it to what other trans women who read/write erotica think on the subject; compare it to your own opinions. Collate that data and toss out all the shit you find unhelpful or useless. Find where your personal boundaries and interests sit in the cross-section of it all.

TL;DR? Write what you'd like to read. Be aware of the tags and descriptions you use. It's a hobby, so have fun.

Let's get the big one out of the way: never be afraid to write what you think is enjoyable to read and/or what you think is hot. Really, it's that simple. If you are nervous or anxious, I understand. It's hard to put yourself out there, but there is no way to ensure that you'll write something that everyone likes. There's really no reason to worry about those that won't like what you write, so why bother?

Your favorite writers might have readers that find their works "gross or weird," as you put it. Those people will always exist as long as you publish words for others to read. That's the nature of the beast. You should consider the reasonable opinions you hear, but like any other type of editorial advice, you don't have to agree with it — some people want to eat a peach pie when you want to make tacos.

You should also learn to differentiate a reasonable opinion from an unreasonable, unhelpful, or straight-up harmful one. For a blatant example of a harmful and unreasonable criticism, anyone that calls femslash with a trans woman an "excuse to write het sex" is directly calling your character(s)/you a man regardless of intent.

That being said, in my experience the overwhelming majority of readers are reasonable people with specific tastes that they're entitled to have. But we can't write with the goal of pleasing all of them. Writing like that results in nobody's happiness.

Anyways, here's some other suggestions that came to mind.

If you yourself are trans, then don't force yourself to write something that you know will trigger any dysphoria that you might suffer. I don't care if it's popular for X character to be written as trans in a specific way - don't do it in the way that you know will hurt you. "Oh, everyone writes them this way" is a terrible beginning to your writing journey, and it extends in smutty directions even more so, especially if it's going to actively harm your mental state.

Do write whatever niche that gets your writing brain going wild. That's the fannish spirit you want to really grab hold of! Write something kinky or something vanilla or something chaste or something raunchy. Write chaste D/s that's focused on domesticity or non-sexual kinks; write raunchy vanilla smut that's all about graphic descriptions, dirty talk, and ramped-up emotions. Or write hyper-explicit kink and chaste vanilla smut. It's all valid.

Focus very sparingly on genitals. Focus on the character first. Feelings, motivations, interiority. These have to exist, even in PWP at some level. Sure, describing whatever they've got in salacious detail is expected and desired by readers when another character is, like, literally about to give oral and can barely contain themselves with desire for the person, but it's a fine line to walk.

Trans women have junk of all kinds. Don't be afraid to write people with whatever you want. Write girls who happen to have dicks and girls who happen to have pussies. You don't have to strive for the mythological ideal where you have an equal measure of both either.

Very personal advice, but please don't use the "fut*nari" tag or its related tags for trans women in fics. Use the "Trans Female Character" and/or "Trans [Character Name]" tags instead. Some trans women are fine with the f-tag or ambivalent to it, but it's a massive red flag for me. It's a dehumanizing word for me, so I avoid anything with that tag.

Give some kind of heads-up as to what terminology you're going to use. This can be in the tags or an author's note (I prefer the note though I don't think either is right/wrong) but I think it's important, specifically for this type of smut, that the reader knows what they're going to read w/r/t how you describe a character's body. Some people really don't like the word "cock" for what a trans woman might have, but others don't like calling it anything else. I use a variety of terms in my fics based on the character and how I interpret the ways in which they would describe their bodies. This doesn't have to be universal, either. Don't follow what one person does just because they do it. Think about how the character might internalize their body and go from there. It's fine to end up with the same words, but do it because you believe in it.

Lastly, and by far most importantly, have fun. If you're stressed out, bored, or having mental crises over fanfiction, then you need to stop. It's a hobby—a fun one tbh—and your suffering is not worth it.

Hope that helps, anon.

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

Kinou Nani tabeta. aka My Heart is Full aka I suck at titles

Let me just say before anything else. This is not a recap or a review. This is me feeling the need to write down my feelings because they are pouring out of me. This is more a personal note than anything else so skip it if that's not your thing.

I always watch this show on saturday mornings, with my coffee and breakfast, because it gives me a boost for the weekend. And I wanted to postpone the final episode as much as possible but I just couldn't. I gave in.

Second FYI. This will probably be incoherent and a mess because that's how I feel. Also, this fucking menopause (surgical, don't give me too many extra years) is really making a mess of my emotional state this week, so I'm all over the place. Also I might've had some wine. Also this may be a bit long. I think that's it.

How I got here

So, I've loved cinema since I was like 7. (yeah I'm going really back in time) Because my mom like films, she dragged to the cinema even when I was way too young for whatever was on. [ Fun Side note- The first film that I saw in the cinema was Bram Stoker's Dracula, when I was like 6, and my mum got into an argument with the cinema employee because" I am her mother, and I'll decide what she can or can't watch"and so I did watch it.]

So I always loved watching films, talking about them and eventually went to uni to learn how to make them. During that time, I went through a phase (which happened to a couple other people in my school) where I kinda got emotionally detached from the stories. I could only see the camera angles, the lighting, the editing, etc.

When I was done with uni, and had decided that editing was my favourite thing I started doing a bit of work in editing, mostly online stuff and a couple of ads in London, and 3 years later I was done. Obviously there were life factors and health factors that contributed to this, but still I left it all behind.

Then, I quickly went back to being able to watch stories with all the emotions.

Let's skip forward to present day.

Kinou Nani Tabeta? feel in my lap by way of my very first BL. Seven Days. I watched those films and went through all the emotions and needed more. More of that serotonin please.

So I got in research mode and that's when I found this wonderful world of BL and eventually this show.

Now, a little bit more about me, just in case you aren't sick of me talking about myself. I'm not a jolly person. If you asked anyone that knows me irl, they would describe me as someone who always thinks the sky is falling. However, I also love a lot of things deeply, and when it comes to things that I can't find a word big enough for it I call it magic. So I'll use it here.

Kinou Nani Tabeta? is magic.

If this show was a meal then the absolutely right ingredients were found, they were put in the hands of the best cooks and everything was prepared with love and care. This show that I love, was put together by people who love it, and couldn't not make it. This is what I believe. It's my kind of faith.

I've seen so many shows, I've loved so many of them, a lot of them touched me deeply. But only a few touched me this way.

When there is love in something, real care and empathy in the making of something, you can feel it, I believe. And I feel it so much watching this show. I get emotional just writing this.

I wish I could thank every single person that made this show possible. And we could argue all day about the quality of a show, its actors, writers or directors. I could argue why my favourite show is better than your favourite show, and why your show is more important than my show, and why that show failed and another succeeded. I will not argue about the importance of this show and my faith is unshakable.

Maybe because I love food so much and in my life my love filled moments were always around food, I connected at first with Kenji, because his reactions to food resemble mine. But this season Shiro stole my heart and soul. His quiet but profound way of loving Kenji made cry more than any sad scene ever could. And onions and chicken thighs will forever have deeper meaning in my kitchen. These two characters are so well written and so well acted, the words are so layered and so meaningful, that it's a miracle to me that it exists and that I got to watch it.

I'm sure other people will write much better posts about this show, and will probably be better (at a hell of a lot more on point) at writing about all the amazing things that this show has done. But I'm an emotional wreck and I could only write from a personal place today.

I'll be rewatching this show in it's entirety soon, because the evolution of these characters, Shiro specially, was such a joy to witness.

If you read this far, thank you. 💜

[plusultraetc]

3, 16, 67 for the fic writer ask game!

Thank you for the ask!!

3. Describe the creative process of writing a chapter/fic

Okay so it almost invariably goes like this: the idea strikes; I dump anywhere from 1000-2000 words in a notebook, blank document, or phone note over the course of a day or two; I spend the next x number of months trying to fill in the gaps and rewriting scenes until the words don't make sense to me anymore; and then at some point after that I hit post 😭 I should also add that I work on multiple WIPs at once—as in, split screen on my laptop. I would NOT recommend this process & am in fact actively trying to find a new one that works for me :')

16. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Share one of them?

A LOT (as usual). There's definitely a pretty clear division between what's on the front burner and what's on the back burner rn, and like. An unexpected response to a fic has really thrown my writing into a tailspin recently? BUT aside from that, I would say I have about 3-4 other WIPs almost ready to post that I'm trying to polish & publish by the end of the year. One of those is the next fic in the Shinsou expansion pack which I can definitely share a bit about!!

The five-second summary is that I've wanted to write Shinsou & All Might interacting properly since 'let the years we're here be kind,' so I did, but then it got a little angstier than I intended. It does however have more Present Mic assisting with Shinsou's hero training, which I've also wanted to write more of for forever, so that's been really fun!

67. Do you prefer prompts and challenges, or completely independent ideas?

OOH this is a really good question! I used to avoid prompts and challenges like the plague because I was terrified I just. Wouldn't know what to do with them. Like, shaking the idea brain upside down and coming up empty. But then I participated in the 14 Days of MHA challenge and @/au-roulette and it turns out I actually really love writing prompts! I still think I prefer working on completely independent ideas, but it's a much closer call than I would have thought!

Tysm again <3

[blueberry-pride]

Sing Me A Melody

Centurion Follower Event Special (March 1-25) Warnings: N/A Request: Hi, can I request about mc/Yuu loves to sing and rook and mallues write a poem about how they admire their songs ^^ (I really like poems and singing I think it'll be Soo cute ✨)

Berry: So I accidentally messed up with the original one in my inbox TvT hopefully this still finds its way to that anon because I actually really like this idea <3 Haven't written poems in a while but it was fun getting back into it!

"To what do my sharp ears have the chance of hearing?" He chuckled as he peaks from afar. Standing still, blending into the woods as he watches (Y/N) as the light dance through their skin, their voice echoing through the trees, leaves gently falling down like rose petals around them which has the hunter enraptured.

Would spend the next few days, trying to find your voice once more. Planning out his schedule just so he could spend just a little time to watch you in your moment.

Watches from afar as to not scare and interrupt your singing but just couldn't help himself singing a lonely duet for a while. Be it singing along with you or adding his own verses. He often finds himself to be in a more lovesick mood, humming and swooning (Vil and Epel are giving him the side-eye)

To describe his style of poems, I think he'd write like hundreds or even thousands (you can't stop a man who is this passionate) and they all vary depending on the song you chose to sing that day. Very sweet, charming and passionate for your eyes only.

You'd come across these poems as Rook would have them in a sort of scavenger hunt. Easy to find and navigate but loves the thrill of it when you realize it'll lead you to the place you'd often sing at. There, you'd find him, smiling softly with a single red rose in hand. Would you care for a duet (Y/N)?

My words, my pen, and my heart could not do you justice

But by the stars above,

Your voice, your melody and your presence…

is your dialect, a showcase of love

I may know and speak a many from far and near

But you, mon amour'

You speak in a language that only my heart can hear

Through you, I see beauty, I see your grandeur

My pen, Your Melody, My heart to your presence

May we sing together in our decadence

No matter what we may speak, no matter what is sung

Our ballad will go onward as the day is still young

"I've heard countless melodies and ballads for my kingdom, and for my honor..." He thought to himself but he couldn't stop his feet from walking towards the familiar voice near Ramshackle. "But never have I been struck down like lightning by a melody as soft and gentle as rain."

The Fae prince was already poetic and smitten from the first time he heard your voice and each time he watches from afar, he grows even more fonder of you. Would often just stop in the middle of what he's doing if he hears you humming from across the hallway. (Don't make him shush you)

Whenever he doesn't know the song your singing, he'd go to Lilia or even others for help on the matter. (A very funny scene is him bothering Leona about it as well if he' catches sight of the lion's in the vicinity). Similar to Rook, he's also the type to hum to himself as he goes about his usual walks at night or around the dorm. All while his dorm is curious to what got their dorm leader so enamored by a love song..

His style of poems has quite the difference in comparison to Rook's. Malleus' are what I believe to be honest, sentimental with a all the love showered into each verse. Devotion and sincerity in its purest form all while sprinkled with ornate words that are only fitting for such a Fae of his caliber.

I see this story befitting of a secret admirer trope. Malleus would be the type to send poems night after night, happily watching from a far just to see you smile upon reading them. He'd leave it by your doorstep up until You'd come back earlier than expected to accidentally catch him in the act.

"Well isn't this quite a predicament we're in child of man."

The stars don't hold a candle

in comparison to how radiant you are tonight

The darkness, where I've lived for long and alone

Yet your sweet words, The heart in your song felt like home

How I feel for you can be the making of a story

Path of thorns, wall of flames, or even if I was pierced by ivory

No matter, lull me to sleep with your symphony

And I shall let it be

Of shadows, of storms and curses I master

All to hear your melody, my symphony

Give us a serenade as I waltz you to our Happily Ever After

[briannysey]

Getting Started Reading Poetry in "Free Verse"

So @gunkbreaker asked me for recommendations on where to get started for reading stuff in free verse. I'm a poet who mostly learned, wrote, and read what I could through the internet and in open mics, and only recently have started to get a classical education on this. So I've got some thoughts, but take everything I say with a grain of salt (other than my recommendations, they're good).

Using a read-more b/c this is gonna be a long-ass post.

So a lot of my kind of ambient poetry education came through reading stuff that I purchased from bookstores, hearing folks at open mics, and most especially from listening to spoken word stuff on Youtube (shoutouts to Button Poetry for keeping my creative spirit alive from 2014-2022 before I returned to school). I was often derisive towards established meter and verse like iambic pentameter because I carried the foolish belief that this limited what a poet could write about and keep a poet from writing "real poetry" not that I had a coherent conception of what "real poetry" even would be.

Anyways I'm over that. Something my current mentor has been trying to nail into my head is that there are three major types of form when it comes to poetry: Received Form, Created Form, and Found Form. Received Form is any already established or created form that comes to a poet and will be the most common source of established schemes for meter, rhyme, syllable count, line length, etc... (Sidenote: part of the reason that I was derisive towards Received Form is because I am kind of metrically blind & deaf, and really struggle to identify it let alone use it) Created Form could not have any of these, or could have just a few, or no restrictions on all. It's just a form that you have fashioned for yourself and didn't exist before you started in it. A lot of stuff that could be considered "Free Verse" will fall into this category. Then there's Found Form which is like, a journal entry as a poem, or a grocery store receipt as a poem, or a spelling bee as a poem. They're things that you find in the world that you change and adapt into a poem, and there's some incredible fucking poetry written in Found Form.

Quick side note: Free Verse kind of came around with modernist literature and poets. It mostly just means poetry that lacks established meter, rhyme, or other limitations. But as my mentor has often said "All poetry has forms. It might just be less traditional or take more expansive language to describe."

Anywho, I'm just gonna y'all with a TL;DR of the recced poets then I'll go into recommending specific works and why I think the poets are great for this form. We've got

Sarah Kay

Jun Jordan

Mary Oliver

TS Eliot

Hanif Abdurraqib

So let's dig in:

Sarah Kay

Free verse is interesting in that sometimes when a poem is in some sort of received form like an iambic pentametered sonnet or a haiku these forms aren’t readily apparent when spoken aloud. Sarah Kay’s work is often freely available to the public only through audio. She does a lot of readings, if you want to read the text of her poetry you typically have to purchase a collection. I’ve linked some examples of her work here. She does take on a little of “the voice” that spoken word poets sometimes get made fun of for. Her poetry is typically wildly and powerfully earnest which I think helps dispel some reservations folks might otherwise have for that. From what I understand her work right now is very focused on educating folks on poetry and finding ways to connect students to poetry through spoken word poetry. It’s an approach that will often ignore or totally drop more classical verse as it finds ways to meet new poets and poetry appreciators where they’re at.

https://poets.org/poem/house-no-doors

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OemkJy0y0b0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdLmHCwciCY

June Jordan

June Jordan has many great examples of work that exists outside of received form. If you’re looking for a poet who built on the vibrant traditions of the Harlem Renaissance, a poet whose poetry and work was activism and advocacy then June Jordan is a great place to start. Jordan was also a huge proponent for using Black/African American English in poetry.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/161359/poem-for-siddhartha-gautama-of-the-shakyas-the-original-buddha

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/161358/resolution-1003

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/161360/you-came-with-shells

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/161357/poem-about-my-rights-651df23f84683 (CW for frank and heavy discussion of sexual violence in this piece)

Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver is having a bit of a moment in pop culture. “Wild Geese” gets TikTok edits and readings of it are set to joyous montages of peoples’ lives. Which is fair, the poem is just that good. It straight up changed the way I think about and approach my identity and paved the way for me to crack my egg and transition.

Her poetry is very often devoid of received form, and is notable for almost always consisting of heavy imagery from nature. She took frequent walks in nature and drew on this for her work. I’d argue that she wrote so frequently and heavily with nature imagery that once you read enough of her work you can start to parse the images and metaphors as not usually being about the presented subject itself, but as a vehicle for discussing personal or social issues and phenomena. Which isn’t a very bold claim, but Oliver wrote a lot and when you read enough of her work you really can start to read and understand subjects that are very far from the nature she portrays.

I have a collection of her works that I keep on my nightstand, and when I don’t have other readings I’m working through I try to read a couple poems from it. I’m gonna be honest that experience of reading her poetry by lamplight is an almost religious one for me. I cannot sing Oliver’s praises highly enough.

T.S. Eliot

I can’t speak to too much of Eliot’s work. I know he’s often regarded as part of the first wave of “Free-Verse” poetry. The Wasteland is definitely worth reading on vibes alone, but especially knowing that you’re looking for poetry outside of established meter, rhythm, and rhyme schemes, if you wanted to start with one of the first, most famous, and classical examples then The Wasteland can be a great place for that.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47311/the-waste-land

Hanif Abdurraqib

The poem here linked at muzzlemagazine is a great example of how the form of a poem might not be easily available to listeners. The way a poem is spoken is often transformative, and an adaptation even on the part of the poet between the written piece and the spoken piece. The link here has both Abdurraqib’s audio and his written poem so you can see and hear some of the differences between the two.

https://www.muzzlemagazine.com/hanif-abdurraqib.html

Abdurraqib has been hugely influential on my work. His work is titanic in scope and thought, and honestly I think after he’s gone the poets and historians of tomorrow are gonna struggle to understand just how awesome and powerful his poetry is.

A lot of ink’s been spilled (especially by Abdurraqib himself) over the importance of importance of Carly Rae Jepsen and the Minnesota Timberwolves to Abdurraqib. I think he writes honestly and with a powerful dignity about topics that other poets and writers might fear to explore or worse: topics that other writers might feel are beneath them.

https://poetrysociety.org/poems-essays/in-their-own-words/hanif-willis-abdurraqib-on-ode-to-kanye-west-in-two-parts-ending-in-a-chain-of-mothers-rising-from-the-river

https://www.splitthisrock.org/poetry-database/poem/i-dont-know-any-longer-why-the-flags-are-at-half-staff

I’m gonna give a special shout out to Abdurraqib’s “And What Good Will Your Vanity Be When The Rapture Comes.” When I speak about poetry that changed me, this one is it. I listened to this piece and said “Fuck I want to write half as good as this” and it kept me writing and reading poetry through some of the hardest points in my life. A lot of Abdurraqib’s work, I feel, is transcendental. Its work that through image, metaphor, and content becomes surreal and transformative.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZxsRiKJje8

Honestly if you get one takeaway from this essay please let it be “Read Abdurraqib, no one is doing it like him.”

[astranite]

Here's a few questions lmao

3. What’s your favorite fic that you’ve written?

5. What’s a fic idea you’ve had that you will never write?

6. Are there any fics from others you reread all the time?

10. Is there a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

20. What’s a favourite title for a fic you’ve written?

27. Is there a fic you were nervous to post/share? Why?

Thank you!!!

3. Edges of the Universe is definitely my favourite fic because it explores both John and Scott's relationship and who John is and how that is interwoven with being autistic. All of my neurodivergent Tracies fics have a special place in my heart because even though in my head they always are I love exploring it on a textual level. Though I actually love all of my fics for their own reasons!!

5. Hmmm I am often trying to write all the ideas I am having but some are fun just to play with and imagine! For a very random one I've got some ideas for a crack treated seriously body swap trope fic mostly because giving them each other's strengths and weaknesses quite literally has the capacity to be interesting for characterisation. I might write up some notes to post if people were interested but its not something id write as a fully fleshed out fic. Though I do enjoy a plot-device mad science we dont explain makes things happen presmise!

6. So many fics I love!!! There is Suffering in Silence by @janetm74 which has John and always gives me emotions, Nowhere Else by @silverstarfics because its scott and john and my birthday fic and i adore it, Trochilidae by @idontknowreallywhy for ADHD Scott that I am very fond of, and Sweet Chariot by @edutainer2022 particularly CH2 Puzzles for a beautifully described cuddle pile.

10. It would probably be that my fic of John and Virgil got more of a reaction of many people enjoying it than I expected as its not really a combination i have seen very often (but if anyone has any recs!!!).

20. Two titles of note are Protective is an Emotion because that encapsulates the core of the fic in John protecting Virgil, and Respite (Spun Glass and Golden Light) because of both poetic and metaphoric reasons. Though I occasionally use song lyrics or single words, I enjoy finding the right set of words for titles particularly in a phrase.

27. Again probably that would be Edges of the Universe most as it is very close to my heart, intensely emotional and personal from the experiences it is drawn from and I'm very proud of it.