#Tumblrs search function is crap

[currymanganese]

I'm not a sydcarmy shipper but why do you think they should be together? I'm a sydluca shipper rn.

is it okay if i dm you some of my old meta when i have the time? 😭 this season/carmy in particular among other things was intensely maddening to me but i really do think that syd and carmy have significant feelings for each other and in their most harmonious moments have electric chemistry (thank you JAW and Ayo) despite their respective mental and emotional (carmy especially, hoo boy! whew chile, the ghetto!) hangups - and that they can build a loving, stable, and fulfilling relationship together someday IF given the opportunities by the writers to have the healing and character development that is needed for them to do so in a convincing and realistic way

also as sweet as their interactions were, and as much as i want syd to be with someone calm and respectful who is not verbally abusive and is polite - imo - i still think lucus (marcus and luca's ship name) had better chemistry to me, sorry. sydluca is cute but the chemistry is not firing on all cylinders to me considering i've only seen their interactions in one episode thus far. maybe i'll jump ship to sydluca someday if I see more of their interactions in the future, but I highly doubt it. 😭

p.s. here's three of my old Sydcarmy edits from post s2 in the interim until I wrangle my old Sydcarmy meta text posts (I first started to do fan edits / gifs / fanfic because of sydcarmy - at its best their dynamic is THAT compelling to me - I hyperfixated on them so bad that I did almost 30 fanvid edits for them up on my channel within a six month period after season 2 dropped - will be waiting until I see what the writers do in season 4 to decide if i want to do fan edits for them ever again though) ❤️

[agent-troi]

Mulder: My future partner must be brave, strong, intelligent, successful and organized. Scully: *steps on a caterpillar and proceeds to drop to her knees and sob while apologizing profusely* Mulder: That one. I want that one.

[theprissythumbelina]

Does anyone remember Nicolette's last name? I am actually asking, I forgot what I decided it was and I cannot find it in my files or the stupid Tumblr search system. Please help me. @thetruearchmagos I think we had a conversation about it?

[tigercomplex]

mad as hell that twitter is so unusable (even before musk) because it’s like the only place besides discord where gamedevs i want to keep up with are

[deadendtracks]

Grace meta on AO3

For @gromky as promised, I thought I'd posted a link recently but tumblr's search function is crap so here it is again!

Meta posts on Tommy and Grace's relationship

[vigilskeep]

Hiya, do u have a carrd or anything with info on your ocs? I love reading about ocs n all that crap but the tumblr search function is like actually evil. Keir seems super interesting but it’s like killing me trying to find posts to recap his lore 😭

i don’t i’m afraid!! it’s just his enormous mess of a tag as the lore built up... i might make something sometime??? i hadnt thought abt it tbh. in the meantime feel free to ask me any and all questions even if it’s something i’ve probably already said, i love going over this stuff and will do so forever if even slightly prompted. on that note, if it helps, here is a briefly condensed version:

keir is a red personality (aggressive/direct) non-mage hawke. i did his full playthrough as a warrior, i sometimes talk about switching him to rogue, but the only really important thing is that he’s a reaver and will bite you for real

he’s a man of few words, extremely blunt and threatening to the point of being absurdly over-the-top with pretty much all strangers, and much softer but still bluntly earnest with the small group of people he considers his own. he considers himself first and foremost a protector and would do anything to keep those people safe. his father malcolm was a strict man who raised him to do this and he accepted that wholeheartedly. consider him a guard dog. killed his first templar in defence of the family aged 15

he adores and idolises magic and fiercely supports mage freedom, though ultimately he would absolutely sacrifice a wider “cause” if doing so would keep his mages safe. fortunately or unfortunately, he can’t do that because the two are inextricable

he’s a proud fereldan and cares very little for kirkwall (hates kirkwall. hates kirkwall. someone please get him out of here) and its nobility, which tends to show in his appearance and behaviour. long braided hair, the streak across his nose is kaddis, and takes his mabari, silla, absolutely everywhere

he’s elf-blooded via his father, who was the bastard son of a fereldan elven servant girl and an orlesian chevalier who was with the occupation

his playthrough has circle mage bethany. he adores her and he would do anything for her but her acceptance of her fate and disillusionment with his overprotectiveness meant they had an increasingly strained relationship. it was because she was trapped that he couldn’t leave the city. once he was champion, meredith essentially had a knife to his sister’s throat whenever she wanted his compliance, not to mention the looming threat to anders and merrill, making those three years the worst and most terrifying in his life

he romances anders! friendmance and they escape kirkwall together in the end. not always easy but he really loves him, justice half included. there’s a lot of lore here ummm if i mention the “and they were housemates” timeline, that’s my silly mutual pining alternate version of events where anders moves into the amell estate for safekeeping before he and keir actually get together. if i mention aura hawke, that’s the potential daughter i occasionally hc for them

he had previous relationships with morrigan (in lothering as young 20-somethings) and merrill (during act 1). you cannot keep him away from those romanceable mages

he’s still close friends with merrill. isabela is his best friend. he has a complicated, semi-antagonistic friendship with varric, who was really closer with anders but now after the fact doesn’t want to remember that. he deeply respects and is friends with fenris. he did rivalry with sebastian, but in an agree-to-disagree way where they considered each other friends nonetheless until All That happened. he had a more genuine rivalry with aveline though still coloured by their trauma bonding

i THINK those are the main beats of his lore but he’s my most discussed and developed dragon age character so i’m sure i’ve missed some of the assorted junkyard of thoughts

[firstkanaphans]

I am sorry to disturb you, you are one of my favourite writers here and on Ao3 and I have seen that you are always very kind in answering questions.

I have started to write a fic and publish it. But I'm halfway through and I feel stuck. I can't write and I was wondering, do you have any advice on how to overcome a writing block? I already have the story outlined but I find myself a lil unsatisfied with my already published work (I'm writing in English and it's not my first language so I've noticed some mistakes)

On one hand I want to concentrate on editing the already published part, but on the other hand I want to overcome my writing block and move on (especially because I haven't updated in 3 months already and I feel guilty)

Do you have any advice? I wrote so much I'm sorry, I didn't know who to ask🥺

Thank you for reaching out!! It's not a disturbance at all 🫶🏻

My first piece of advice would be to try not to feel guilty for not updating—whether it's been three months or three years. Your fic is a gift that you are giving to strangers on the internet for free. You are not obligated to write more or to write faster and if your readers are worth keeping, they’ll be willing to wait.

Writer’s block is something all writers struggle with and the first thing you need to do is identify what is causing your writer’s block. Are you genuinely unsure what should come next? Are you bored with what you’re writing? Or are you feeling burned out and no longer have any motivation to write? 

If your problem is that you’re stuck and don’t know what to write next, give yourself a day where your only writing task is brainstorming. Map out where you want the rest of the story to go and fill in the gaps between major scenes with moments that you, personally, are excited to write. If you aren’t able to brainstorm anything on your own, try some writing exercises. Put your favorite playlist on shuffle and write a mini ficlet while listening to the song that comes up. Stop as soon as the song stops, even if you’re in the middle of a sentence, and move onto the next one. Once you tap into that creative portion of your brain, coming up with ideas becomes easier.

Another thing I do if I’m out of ideas is to go into a random fandom’s AO3 page and just read the tags on fics to see if any of those tags might be something I want to write. Alternatively, you can go into your bookmarks (or really anywhere on AO3, but your bookmarks are likely things you enjoy) and use the search function to look at which “Additional Tags” are most common in what you read. That might trigger some ideas for you as well.

If you know what you want to write, but are getting bored actually writing it, spice the scene up a bit. Usually I do this by adding flirtation (I talk about this a bit here), but you can incorporate any element of your writing that you enjoy. Something else that helps with this kind of writer’s block is writing sprints. Set a timer for five minutes and start typing. You’re not allowed to stop typing for the entire five minutes. It doesn’t matter if what you’re writing is crap, you’ll go back to edit it later. The most important thing is to get words down on the page. See how many words you were able to write during those five minutes and the next time you do a writing sprint, try to beat it.

If your problem is that you are feeling unmotivated to write, my biggest piece of advice is honestly to just take a step back and either give yourself a few days to recover by not writing anything, or try writing something else. Write a oneshot. Write that scene from the climax of the fic that you’ve been dying to get on paper. Find a prompt list on Tumblr and write a few of those. Hopefully after a little break, your motivation for the fic you’re writing will come back, but if it doesn’t, don’t force yourself to write it. This is a hobby. If it is no longer bringing you joy, then what’s the point?

As for whether to go back and edit what you’ve already written or keep pushing forward regardless, it depends. If the primary reason you’re not wanting to write something new is because you’re so preoccupied with the mistakes you know are in the already published portions of your fic, then I would go back and edit those first just to clear your mind. But in general, I think it’s better to keep pushing forward and go back to edit later. It’s easy to lose momentum if you stop, but I totally understand how distracting it can be to know that those errors are there, especially if you’re neurodivergent like me. So, I would advise doing whichever makes you want to write more. And just know that the average reader is not going to care about grammatical mistakes as much as you will.

I always feel like such a fraud giving writing advice and obviously these tips will not work for everyone, but it’s at least a good place to start. I hope this was helpful, Anon! 

[heresathreebee]

Please use the "read more" function on your fics, y'all 🥺

The "long post" function sucks and most tumblr users have it turned off. I personally have chosen not to read, reblog, or otherwise engage with those 3,000-5,000 word long fics (that I would otherwise love) because they clog the feeds of veteran users who have Long Post disabled.

And as a fellow author, it physically hurts me to do it. For shorter fics I make exceptions, but holy crap I know some of y'all a dropping amazing stories that unfortunately are getting passed over because of your chosen formatting.

Read More can be added via computer AND mobile, just search the tag #How To Tumblr and you will find directions for it on both versions.

[silcoitus]

I saw you posted and I legit jumped through the roof (there is a hole in the roof now) cuz like OMG SILCOITUS JUST RESPONDED but also this is another request..

Do you have an tips for new tumblr writers? BUT ONCE AGAIN TY U FOR BEING AMAZING

Love ya

-Lj

Hello again! Sorry about the roof damage. I hope you're able to get it fixed soon.

Tips for Writers, Specific to Tumblr

PUT YOUR FICS UNDER A READ MORE. Good lord in heaven please. You will turn off so many people to your writing if you do not use this function.

TAG APPROPRIATELY. And don't do the shitty TikTok way (with letter substitutions and stupid TikTok vernacular like "unalive" instead of "kill" and "slip n side" instead of "suicide" etc). Tag like a normal ass human being. And don't tag things that aren't included like characters that are in the fandom but don't show up in your fic. That crap is annoying. You're not gaming the system; you're shooting yourself in the foot and turning people off to your work.

LINK YOUR WORK. Make it easy to find what you've written. Searching for posts on Tumblr is terrible so make a Masterlist and pin that shit.

START A TAGLIST. Even if you don't have many followers, go ahead and set up a way for people to be added. (And Do Not Add People Unless They've Asked To Be Added)

Tips for Writers in General (below the cut)

GET A BETA READER. If you want to improve your writing, get yourself a beta reader. If you have a friend that also writes, become each other's betas. Both having an editor and being an editor can improve your writing so much. My betas catch fewer and fewer mistakes the longer I do this. And I learn so much from reading/editing my friend's fics.

DO SPRINTS. If you're having trouble just starting, set a timer for 5-15 minutes and just start writing. Don't go back and try to fix typos or make every sentence perfect; just get your thoughts down. A crappy low word count sprint is still better than not writing at all. You can edit and finesse and polish later, but first you have to have something to edit! (If you're on Discord, set up the bot Sprinto. Great for getting friends on sprints and it automatically tallies up your word count.)

WRITE FOR YOU. Don't write because you want the notes or the followers or whatever. Write because you want to share a story. If you're writing crap just bc it's popular and you don't even like it, why bother? You should write to enjoy yourself. I write because the spirit of Silco possesses me until the fic is written and who am I to deny him?

Let me know if you have more specific writing questions, Lj, and I'd be happy to answer them to the best of my ability.

Happy writing!

[absolutebl]

Hi ABL, I did search your blog for a post on this and couldn't find one (probably because tumblr's search function is crap and my current wifi is too), so I just thought I'd ask. I finished watching Color Rush and thoroughly enjoyed it, and I was going to watch season two next. But then I read a few of the reviews, and apparently the actor who played Yoo Han wasn't available so they got a different actor in to play a whole new love interest... and I'd rather not watch that. I got too attached to what the main leads had in the first season, lol. But at the same time I really want to know what happened to Yeon Woo's mother and the other missing monos. So I guess my question is whether you think it's still worth watching even if the main couple isn't the same? Does the plot make up for that? Thanks a lot <3

No problem, I reviewed it here, and I am pretty shure the review answers your questions.

Just FYI for a blog like mine (it's public facing) just use Google, type in "AbsoluteBL + [keyword]" and whatever you're looking for should pop up.

[lunian]

Hi, sorry, I just came across an old post of yours. Are you still panphobic/an exclusionist? Tumblr’s search function is crap so I don’t know. (Sorry if you aren’t anymore, I just had an incident as a teenager where a lot of bisexuals harassed me online and told me to “off” myself in incredibly graphic ways for being pan instead of bi so if you don’t like pans could you let me know and I’ll block you for both our benefit).

oh? no, I'm not?? sorry eehhhh maybe i reblogged/posted something questionable long time ago, I've been here since I was 15 👁👄👁

I can't remember that i ever had been panphobic but I might have said something offensive bc I didn't consider further how bad and harmful these words can be

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

Could you pls expand on your tags re: spy x family, questioning kids etc.?

oh Anon, I wish I could remember which post this was about. Alas, Tumblr's blog search function is, how you say...crap

[marianomoreno]

god why is the tumblr search function so fucking crap you go on a blog and it says "posts frequently about #blorbo" and when you click on blorbo whoops no posts there!!! just empty!! lol!! haha!!

[catb-fics]

do you guys remember someone said van worse glasses and sweats out maybe no one really does recognize him bc he is wearing glasses although i could never see him wearing either because in my head he only exists on stage

Yes and I just spent forever searching for this very ask on my blog and I can’t find it - tumblr search function is crap 😩

Sadly I think hoodie Van is as casual as we’re going to see him. I’m still not convinced he wears glasses too!

[godsofhumanity]

hope you don’t mind me asking, but i think you mentioned that you don’t really like dionysos and i was just wondering why? (or a link to the post if you’ve explained already, in which case i’m very sorry; i tried looking but tumblr blog search has decided you’ve never written anything mentioning dionysus ever 😭😭)

hellooo yes that’s because tumblr’s search function (on mobile at least) is crap unless you actually go to the url and use the “tagged” search and not the “search” search

anyways, no i do not mind u asking at all! indeed, i have answered this Q before, you can read it here

[thebigshotman]

Goddamnit I love this website and the people on it but holy crap what the hell is this Tumblr Live thing??? It’s not my place to say I hate it cause I have no interest in it but there’s two things about the presentation of it on the home menu I simply must rant about

So, I’m mobile. Permanently, unless it’s blog maintenance I only do stuff on mobile. And when you open the app the Live stuff takes up like half the screen, so you gotta scroll down to see what you actually want to. And the Search button is GONE. Instead there is only more Live BS. You have to tap a teeny tiny magnifying glass on the corner of Home to search anything. Which was a shame when I wanted to look up Guys and Dolls stuff earlier (more on that later, maybe lol)

Point is, I’m sure Live is fine, but when it comes to mobile they gotta fix the presentation of it. In what universe is a new feature more important than the freakin SEARCH FUNCTION???

Ok rant over, back to your regularly scheduled Spamton blog 😁 Something event related with the Addisons is coming soon-ish!