#actual chapter outlines go right in the computer

[blushblushbear]

so I've been doing the adhd virgo thing and planning shit out more thoroughly so hopefully things will be easier to write in smaller bursts regularly since my brain has been shutting down on my days off

right now I'm sitting at

7 long term fic concepts, all of which have a general idea of a story but only 3 of which have an actual written outline (which all three of those are for a few chapters worth of material before I have to go back and plan out more stuff)

I have 6 short term/one shot fic concepts, 3 of which have an outline (meaning I know pretty well what I'm going to write I just need to write it) (one of which is actually 3 short one shots in one and has since been requested in an ask {yesit'skitsuneinheat})

and then I have 3 random concepts that I have not decided if they're going to be long term or one shots but I THINK it'd be two long one short BUT MAN IDK one of them sounds like a neat idea but I might only be able to get A Scene out of it BUT WHO THE HELL KNOWS

Certainly not me! I have never known!

Well, I kinda know now cause I have an outline BUT THAT'S ONLY FOR A FEW OF 'EM so I'm only partially screwed I guess.

And this is not even involving the asks in my ask box which I don't even actually know the legit number cause some of them are repeats/asking for the same thing BUT YEAH

I'm both enjoying writing again and also it's a bit hell

but honestly a bit hell is how I do things so that's par for the course

ALSO I HAVE THAT LITTLE ANIMATION THING STILL SITTING HALF DONE IN MY COMPUTER, Y'ALL DON'T LET ME FORGET ABOUT THAT! BULLY ME!

idk what the point of this post was

other than I have no life I guess

and I'm trying to CREATE again or something and it's nice to have an outlet

OH I ALSO NEED TO WRITE THE SCRIPTS FOR MY OTHER FAN BOYS but frankly those dudes are so far on the back burner they're basically sitting on the counter next to the stove at this point

idk-- I hope you guys enjoy some of this shit when it eventually gets made. I am living a constant back and forth between I WANNA BE GOOD AT THE THING and WHO CARES JUST DO IT but also BUT NOO I LIKE-- I WANNA IMPROVE ON THE THINGS I CARE ABOUT I LIKE THAT PART OF THINGS TOO but also YOU CAN'T GET FEED BACK ON SHIT THAT DOESN'T EXIST

it's a struggle.

I should be on medication probably.

Also asleep.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk!

[pricemarshfield]

Answer the prime numbers. Do All Tha Prime Numbers 🫵

good lord. okay but i’m putting it under the cut

2. Do you plan each chapter ahead or write as you go?

biiiit of both? i know very concretely where i want a fic to start & end, i know the general placement of a few important scenes throughout the fic, and then i have Loose outlines about how each chapter will get me there. but mostly i write as i go; i just have an idea of the endpoint so i don’t wander off into the wilderness (drive my outline wildly off course)

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

well since playing bg3 it’s: become haunted by an idea involving raphael baldursgate, say oh my god no i haven’t even written any of my current wips in months i don’t have time, and then blacking out with 6k of porn that’s somehow not even close to done on my google docs. and this repeats forever

but also. i kinda just do it idk. i sit at my computer and write until it’s done

5. Do you like constructive criticism?

context dependent. if i ask for it, yeah. unprompted in comments, nah. people are much better about this than they used to be, which is funny because i’m less bothered now than i used to be. baby fic author sarah was haunted by concrit; current me is like yeah critique is the only way to improve but i am writing this for funnnn so leaf me alone

(should specify i Just mean in terms of like. technical advice here. if i’m being a bigot in my writing somehow, that is something i want to know and fix asap)

7. How do you choose which POV to write from?

vibessss. whoever i wanna write more in the moment unless the specific scene only works from one perspective. this is why talk is getting a sequel (threequel. i guess. bc i’m also doing the two-part “endings”) which is just the same fic but from raphael pov bc i want to write him now

11. Link your three favorite fics right now

only three? damn. can i do four 😭 you sent me over a dozen questions i’m doing four.

of street names & subway wall prophecies by @dalgursbate is SO good. buffyverse au shadowstarion, so well-characterized and vivid and also FUN i LOVE it. i already liked shadowstarion (shocking! girl who multiships everything likes pairing between two of her favorite characters!) but now i rotate them in my mind forever. i want to bind this physically so i have it and am only stopped by having not actually kept most of my bookbinding stuff when i moved. but i need a physical copy so i can Eat It. also everyone should read everything else molly’s ever posted

who will burn who by @pouralaura is so good i’m proselytizing for it. PHENOMENAL fic. professor au raphael and he is SOOO fun; he fits so well in this verse without being defanged into something unrecognizable. and also it’s HOT!!!! SO HOT! fanning myself when i read it! the prose is just soooo fucking nice in this too. all of what i’ve said about this fic is true of all of laura’s fics and once again. everyone should read everything she’s ever posted

Blood in the Wine by @atrueneutral is so fucking interesting that i literally had to lie in bed and just stare at my ceiling and THINK about it after i read the latest chapter today. priest raphael au But Watch Out. i’m so deeply intrigued by the world-building in this, and neutral’s tav is INCREDIBLY compelling. this fic makes me want to paint again and if i had a canvas on hand i probably would have by now. and not to sound like a broken record but everyone read all of neutral’s fics too tyvm 🙏

Cooler Than Me by @wetcatspellcaster has absolutely brightened my day with every update, which has been nice because boyyy am i going through it a little bit. an academic/celebrity modern au with rosalie frostsong, love of my life, as the academic consulting on a film about a historical figure she Hates, and astarion, playing that guy. it’s so fun and funny and fluffy, and i just love seeing how all the different characters are translated to this AU because they’re ALL bangers. fox you are my roommate and know this already but for anyone just reading through, i absolutely cannot recommend all of emma’s fics enough :)

for all of these peep me being #insane in the comments and also know i could have listed like eight more fics even Just sticking with bg3, plus like 10 more if i brought in all the banger d20 ones i still need to catch up on. anyway i’m gonna go reread all of these once i finish answering this ask

13. what’s a common writing tip that you almost always follow?

FOR ME show don’t tell works. because i treat it as a mantra to make sure i’m showing what i’m telling, since my (unedited) writing style is just. so direct. my characters are introspective and love to think “i am doing x because y which results in z” and that’s fun but sometimes less is more. but also i think it’s a tip that’s oft misused and not always helpful hence the For Me

17. What do you do when writing becomes difficult? (maybe a lack of inspiration or writers block)

i simply do something else 👍 i am past the point of forcing words out of myself. i wrote a 40 page paper in one night bc i procrastinated so badly in my senior year of college and i don’t want to return to the mental state that invoked in me. especially not for Fanfiction, my Hobby

19. What is the most-used tag on your ao3?

post-canon, fluff, and alternate universe - canon divergence are the main three; i should note that these are largely one-off fics under 2k i wrote half a decade ago, and most of my fics now are messy longfics with a lot of smut. the canon divergence one is still real though

23. Best writing advice for other writers?

🗣️ if you’re stuck, go back three sentences!!! oh my GOD did this save my editing process. the fact i finish editing chapters ever is due to this. also write what you want to write when you want to write it; if you’re writing for a self-imposed deadline or entitled commenters, the fun’s gonna get sucked out of it Fast.

also if you get someone who makes a Lot of fic requests that brush veryyyy close to what you’re not comfortable taking just block them. it’s fine. protect your peace

29. What’s your revision or editing process like?

finish draft. take a full day away from it. reread. fix mistakes. i absolutely Should do more—reading aloud, probably make comments to myself and then go back—but tbh. i am impatient. i want to Post and see people’s Thoughts right away

31. Do you start with the characters or the plot when writing?

used to be characters and a Vibe and the plot would come after, now plots complete with characters and themes attack me in the night until a new outline appears in my google docs. i blame raphael

37. How do you choose where to end a chapter?

“okay so this chapter should end at this scene :) oh god why is this other scene getting so long. ah fuck this is already 6k words and i’m not halfway through my plans. oh jesus christ wait a second it’s incredibly self-indulgent additional scene with the steel chair!!” and then i keep writing until i hit whatever is in my outline. don’t do this. you can change your chapter count. i am inflexibly stubborn but everyone else can and should do that. or just don’t commit to a chapter count at first. don’t be like me

41. Do you tend to reread fics or are you a one-and-done kind of person?

I LOVE REREADING FICS !!! i guarantee every single fic i recommended above i have reread at least a dozen times times, and i think all three of them came out this year. one i discovered a momth ago. i have some fics i have reread Hundreds of times. i Love to reread fics

43. Do you take a sadistic joy in whumping your characters, or are you more the "If you hurt them I would kill everyone and then myself" kind of person?

*poorly hiding a comically large mallet behind my back* i’m sooo nice to my characters actually. ignore the longfic which is just my tav’s bad end. and also the one where i put her in a version of hell she’d hate more than usual. and also all the things i’m gonna do in later knife’s edge chapters. and also that time i posted “this sucks for everyone but me, the writer who loves making things worse”

47. How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

one. two if i’m really motivated. like a quarter of the way through before i give up and post immediately if i’m really UNmotivated. don’t be like me

53. How do you spend your time when it comes to fanfiction? Are you primarily a fic reader, writer, or a perfect 50/50 split of both?

i go through phases of each. i’ve written a lot this month, i read a lot last month. i think probably like 60:40 reader/writer but it’d probably be 50:50 if i wasn’t so committed to leaving comments with my full thoughts (and i love commenting. so i will not give that up)

59. Does anyone in your personal life know you write fic? if not, would you tell anyone?

my mom said she’d read my noir au when i told her about it (she has not). my grandma tried to figure out what to get me for my birthday by asking what fanfiction characters i liked right now. my aunt who i don’t even like has my ao3. i have no shame and also my writing fucks so like

61. Why do you continue writing fics?

I Need. To Read My Ideas. I Need Them To Exist. The Words Need To Be Out Of My Head And In A Form I Can Enjoy. also it’s fun and i like the community aspect of fandom

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

i love prompts and challenges but the fics i’ve been most excited to write have been fully independent ideas. still, fics i’ve loved and think are some of my best have come from challenges! so. idk i guess wishy-washy copout answer It Depends

71. When it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, ect.?

i got a note on my phone with bullet points that are not clear enough and that i will be confused about later until at 3am i remember what the hell i meant by a bullet simply reading “jowan” (note: this is a real example. it is not a dragon age fic)

73. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works?

i got no clue. i’m so bad at describing my own writing in general, i have no idea how to differentiate it from others’ work. i like it though! i’m just terrible at articulating stuff about my Own writing lmfao

fox you sent this to me An Hour Ago. if there are typos dont tell me. if i missed a prime number for Sure dont tell me. goddamn.

[maccreadysbaby]

Project: Killcode Origins — Vera

tw: none

wanna read the extended story? here’s the table of contents!

⚠️ THIS IS NOT THE NEXT CHAPTER OF PROJECT KILLCODE, THIS IS BACKGROUND FOR VERA.

(also I wrote this a long time ago when I was first starting to play with her character — like hundred days long ago, so that’s why the writing style might be inconsistent.)

SIX YEARS PRIOR TO THE BEGINING OF PROJECT: KILLCODE

VERA LEVANTE, EIGHT YEARS OLD, HOPPED DOWN THE STAIRS ON A SUNNY WEDNESDAY MORNING. It was the beginning of summer. The fifth day of it, actually, since she’d been let out of Redwood Academy for vacation. But that wasn’t what mattered… that wasn’t what made the day so special.

It was her eighth birthday.

And her parents were home.

She couldn’t remember the last time her parents had been home on her birthday — she was too little then to remember. They always worked a lot. But now, today, on her eighth birthday, both cars were in the driveway when she peered through her blinds. Her mother and her father.

She hopped down the stairs with a nearly contagious excitement about her, ignoring their rules about being careful on the steps. Surely they wouldn’t mind today.She’d tried her best to dress herself. A pink polo and a white skirt, although she couldn’t really tuck the shirt in right and the buttons near the neckline were all one hole too high. She hadn’t even attempted to make her rats nest of brown waves look decent. She didn’t care about that, because her parents were home.

Her socks slid when she hopped down onto the hardwood floor from the carpeted stairs, but she was too excited to care. She half-skipped through their suave, expensive living-room, toward the massive double doors that led to her dads office. As she grew closer to the mahogany barrier, she could hear typing. Her father on the computer.

Without sparing a second to knock, she shoved the door open, glancing around the large room. A massive desk sat in the center, covered with papers and electronics, and bookshelves outlined the rest of the room, displaying literature and trinkets. Her father was staring at the computer screen in front of him, typing furiously with an annoyed expression on his face, brown eyes shining with irritation. He was already dressed in a full suit, per usual. Vera didn’t care. She weaseled her way around the desk, drifting up to her fathers side, bouncing lightly on the balls of her feet.

“G’morning, dad!” The child smiled, fighting back a yawn that ended up taking over her small features anyway. Her father didn’t look over at her, nor did his hands leave the keyboard.

“Vera,” He responded flatly, obviously engrossed in whatever was on the screen.

The little girl beamed at the simple acknowledgment, leaning over to lay across her father’s lap in boredom. “Do you know-“

Vera stopped speaking when her father held a finger up, pulling his vibrating phone out of his pocket. He answered it with haste. “Hey, George.”

Vera huffed, bringing her fingers up to fiddle with them until her father was off the phone. She stayed, bent across her fathers lap in boredom for one, two, three minutes, listening to him speak about opportunity cost — something Vera didn’t understand but pretended was some secret superhero stuff.

“Go see your mother,” Her father held the cell away from his mouth as he whispered, attempting to brush Vera off his lap like a bug. “I have a virtual meeting in a few minutes.”

Vera rolled off her fathers lap like a ragdoll, sitting on top of the ugly office rug momentarily. She watched her father talk on the phone. His eyes were trained on the computer, fingers dancing across the keys at a pace Vera could only wish to achieve, words too long for the child’s comprehension spilling from his lips just as fast. Only when he waved a hand toward her did she remember he’d asked her to leave.

Surely the meeting wouldn’t last so long. She’d had friends at school whose parents had to work on their birthdays, and they spent the whole evening with them. So she wasn’t worried.

She drifted back out of the office, returning to close the door once her father scolded her softly for leaving it open. She tugged at the front of her shirt — which was starting to look increasingly odd thanks to the buttons being fastened wrong — and made her way toward the kitchen. Her mom was probably in there.

But in fact, she wasn’t. The pristine countertops, expensive wooden cabinets, highest-end appliances all sat untouched that morning. With a light shrug, she kept walking, down the hall that led to her parents bedroom. She heard shuffling and movement from inside. Bingo!

The door was open, so she didn’t bother knocking before she walked inside. The room was huge, double the size of her room, with a giant bed in the center. Their walk-in closets sat open, and two suitcases were laying on the bed. Her mother was packing clothes into them. She scrunched her face up.

“Are we going somewhere?” Vera questioned, stepping in an odd rhythm over to the bed, where she hopped up onto the white sheets. Her mother looked at her, long, brown hair falling over her shoulder as she did so. 

“Vera. You startled me,” She stated with a sigh, placing a pile of folded clothes in the suitcase. “Have your brother fix you breakfast, I don’t have much time to pack.”

Vera scrunched her face up again. “Noah isn’t here. He hasn’t been here in, like, a week. A month, maybe!” She stated, tucking her hair back out of her eyes. It’d actually only been four days since she saw her brother's car pull out and not return, but it felt like a long time. All her mother said was: “Oh.”

“Where are we going?”

“Well, I was going to leave you with Noah, but I guess not. Your father and I had some pop up meetings rescheduled from later in the year. Super sudden,” She explained. Vera deflated slightly.

“But you’re coming back before dinner? Because it’s my-“

“Can you grab my phone and call your Aunt Jamie, please? It’s on the nightstand,” She pointed across the bed with a folded shirt in her hand.

Vera crawled over the suitcases and over to the white nightstand, grabbing her mother’s large, thin phone off of it. Typing in a password she knew by heart — from playing games while her parents did other things — she navigated to the little phone icon, and found her aunt’s name. She tapped it.

It only took two of three rings before her father’s younger sister picked up with a loud: “Hey-hey, Cherry.” His mother’s name.

Vera put the phone on speaker and sat it on the bed.

“Keep a hold on your tongue, Jamie, Vera can hear you,” Her mother deadpanned.

“Hey-hey, V! Happy-“

“I need to drop her off at your house today. Emergency meetings,” Vera frowned when her mother cut short the first birthday wish she would’ve received all morning. “We’ll be over in twenty.”

She heard her aunt snicker. “Okie dokie. How long is she gonna stay?”

It wasn’t rare for Vera to stay at her aunt’s. She spent a lot of time there — some of her clothes even stayed there. That’s always where she went when her parents were caught up with work… which was just about always. Her parents had been fighting with Jamie a lot recently. About something called custody, a word Vera didn’t know.

“I’m not sure. At least a week, maybe two,”

Vera’s eyes flicked up to her mother. “You’re not coming back today?”

“No, honey. It’ll take us almost all day just to make it there,” She whispered quickly.

“All good!” Aunt Jamie chimed from the phone, unable to hear Vera’s mother whispering. Vera’s eyes trailed down to the comforter she was sitting on. Surely this was a trick. She’d remembered that once before, Layla’s parents tricked her by pretending to forget her birthday, and then surprised her with a big party later -- Vera had been there. So she wasn’t worried.

“Thank you,” Her mother continued, reaching and pressing the red button that ended the call. “Go pack whatever you want.”

Vera nodded. If this was a big trick, she may as well play along. She tried to hide the small smile that spread across her face at the thought of them throwing her a big party, hopping off the bed and hip-hopping her way all the way back to her room. She had to make them believe she didn’t know about the trick, so she packed just like normal.

“Vera! Come on, baby, time to go!” Her mother’s voice came from downstairs. She hopped back down with a backpack holding a lifetime supply of toys, following her mother out the door. Her mother only had her purse, not the suitcases. So it was a trick.

They went to the car, where she sat in the backseat and listened to some tunes while her mother drove. Maybe the party was at her aunt’s house. That would make sense — her parents didn’t like having many people over. Too much expensive stuff in their house that could get broken. Her aunt’s house was big and nice, too — six bedrooms, one of which basically belonged to Vera — but it wasn’t so fragile. They could have fun in it without worrying about breaking something.

When they pulled up at her aunt’s house, her mother turned around in the driver’s seat. “Be good, I love you.”

Vera, who’d fully convinced herself she was about to walk into a surprise party, cocked her head, blinking in confusion. “You’re not coming?”

“I don’t have time, babe. Go ahead,”

“Is… the trick over?” She asked.

“Trick? What trick?” Her mother questioned, raising an eyebrow. “Vera, go ahead. I need to get going. Your father and I have to be in Brighton by six. We’ll see you when we get back, okay? Jamie will take great care of you like she always does. I’ll watch you get to the front door.”

Vera’s hope faded quickly. They hadn’t forgotten her birthday. They couldn’t have. Parents don’t… they don’t just forget their kids' birthdays.

With one last shred of hope that her mother would hop out of the car and yell surprise, Vera climbed out onto the sidewalk ahead of her aunt’s house. One foot in front of the other, she made it to the front door. It was already unlocked. She lifted her hand and twisted the knob, and it creaked open.

She glanced inside. No balloons, no streamers, nothing.

She glanced back, and her mother’s car was already gone.

It wasn’t a trick?

“Vera!” Her aunt, a tall, pretty woman with dark hair and even darker eyes came rushing toward her, scooping her up and spinning her around. “Happy birthday! We’re about to have the funnest day you’ve ever had in your life! We can call Layla and-”

While getting assaulted with affection, Vera peered out the window one last time, just to make sure her mother wasn’t turning around. 

There were no cars.

They really had forgotten.

Vera felt something burning, and she didn’t realize it was the back of her eyes until she started crying. Aunt Jamie released her immediately, and the girl brought her hands up to her eyes, the quiet tears quickly turning into quiet hiccups and sniffs.

“Oh God, did I hurt you?” Her aunt questioned, quickly appearing in front of Vera on her knees. Her hands hovered over Vera’s arms, not touching him.

“I… I… m-mom… and… m-mom-“ Vera herself could hardly even tell what she was saying through her own muffled sobs.

Jamie grabbed her wrists gently, pulling her hands away from her face. “Hey, V, take a breath. Tell me what’s going on.”

She drew in a few shaky breaths on her aunt’s command, just enough to make her sentence understandable. “M-mom and dad f-forgot that it’s my-my birthday.”

A few emotions — anger, frustration — flashed across Jamie’s face, before she settled on one of compassion. It seemed she didn’t know what to say, so she just drew the girl into her arms and stood, picking her up off the floor.

Vera hugged around her neck and hid her face away in the woman’s shoulder, sobbing quietly there. Jamie comforted lowly: “I know, sweetheart. I know. I’ve got you.”

Parents didn’t forget their kids birthdays.

She didn’t try to make excuses for Vera’s parents, nor did she try to come up with solutions or distractions to ease the girl's crying. She just held her, which, even if she didn’t realize it, Vera was grateful for. “I’ve got you.”

Vera’s spirits were low for a good portion of the day, but that didn’t stop Jamie from facilitating whatever activities she wanted for her birthday. After a while of back rubs and comforting words, they decided to go bowling with Layla and get ice cream. Vera was happier, then, but Jamie could still sense the hurt behind the girl’s eyes, the silent longing for her parents to be with them, too.

By the end of the day, Vera was alright. She fell asleep on the way back from the bowling alley — it was getting dark, anyway — so Jamie carried her inside and laid her on the living room couch.

The eight-year-old only woke up enough to hear Jamie speaking to someone. Probably on the phone.

“-even know what today is?” Jamie asked quietly. The sheer silence in the house allowed Vera to faintly hear the voice on the other end.

“May thirtieth,” It was Vera’s father. She’d know his phone voice anywhere.

“Your daughter’s birthday!” Jamie raised her voice only slightly, venom dripping from her tongue. “Your kid came into my house crying this morning because you forgot it was her birthday. How is that even possible?!”

“Because I have a real job. Unlike you. What is it you do, spend hours frolicking around inside a bunch of empty houses?”

“Being an agent makes me happy. Not sure I can say the same about your corporate job,” Jamie hissed.

“Just stop worrying about Vera, okay? She’s my problem, not yours,”

“She’s not your problem, she’s your daughter!” Jamie nearly shouted, but Vera heard her take a few breaths and calm herself. “Just… she was hurting this morning. I shouldn’t be the one to be there for her every time something happens.”

“You’re not,”

There was a huff. “She spends more time here at my house than she does at home. I don’t want her to grow up like us, J, I want her to have parents.”

“Don’t you dare start whipping out nicknames from our childhood, Jamie. She does have parents,” Vera’s father spat. “Parents that work to support her.”

“She doesn’t need you to grind so you can buy her the nicest things, she just needs you,”

Vera’s father made a growling noise. “I’m so tired of getting calls from you telling me how to raise my daughter. You don’t have any experience with children of your own!”

“I… think I’ve done a pretty good job raising yours,” Jamie said quietly. “Half of her closet is here. During the school year I pick her up and drop her off and do everything Redwood asks of parents. Every time you go out of town, she comes here to me. Have you even realized that you’ve spent more days out of town this year than in town? Almost double, actually.”

“And how do you know that?”

“Because I keep track of when Vera stays with me,” Her aunt explained, and Vera heard something make a clack noise. “I just… I don’t want her to grow up like we did. We had to raise ourselves. I want her to have a better life than us.”

“That’s what I’m trying to do by working for it,”

“At the expense of your relationship with her?”

There was a stiff, long silence, during which Vera only heard herself breathing. 

“Fine, Jamie. Fine. You win. If you want Vera so bad, take her. We’ll go to court when we return and hand custody over, since you find yourself so entitled to it.”

Another long pause. 

“Wh… what?” Jamie stammered softly. “That’s… not what I’m saying.”

“You heard me,”

“No… no, Jared, I don’t… I don’t want her, she’s… yours,”

“Weren’t you just yelling at me for not wanting her?”

“No, I mean… I didn’t mean that. I just meant… I want her to have a mom and a dad, not an aunt that passes for them. I’ve told you time and time again that I don’t want to take her from you, that’s not what I’m trying to do. Please, I’m… I’m sorry. I’ll stop calling you,” Jamie backpedaled.

Vera’s father huffed. “No, no, you’ve already proven you’re just what she needs. Don’t shy away from the reality that’s of your own making. You’ve been at this for years. At my throat day after day on Vera’s behalf��� just take her already. My lawyers will be in contact.”

“I don’t want to take her,” Jamie murmured, her voice growing thick.

“Then why’ve you been fighting so hard?” 

There was a third, long silence.

“Don’t do this. Don’t give your child up out of spite for me. Please,” Vera shifted on the couch when she heard Jamie’s voice break.

“It isn’t the first time we’ve thought about handing you custody. Get ready, we’ll legalize it when we get home.”

Three shrill beeps alerted Vera to the end of the call. Her father had hung up. She didn’t really know what most of that meant, but she did sort of pick up on one thing — that Jamie was going to take her? Take her where?

The child didn’t open her eyes. Not until she heard someone crying, quietly, so quiet it could be passed as something outside or the air conditioning. When she heard that, she sat up, peeling her eyes open to look around the dim living room.

“Aunt Jamie?” She questioned, rubbing her eyes with a childish yawn. Her aunt, who’d been facing away from her, near a front window, wiped her face and turned, making her way to the couch from the other side of the room in a heartbeat.

“It’s okay, baby -- go back to sleep,” She said quietly, plopping down on the couch where Vera’s head had been. The child obliged, carefully shuffling herself around until she could climb up on her aunt’s lap, wrapping her little arms around the woman securely.

Jamie only cried once Vera had fallen asleep.

--

tag list that never works lmao

@fleur-alise @sarcopterygiian @gayboss-too-close-to-the-sun

@xiaonothere @skylathescholarly @flyrobinflyy

[bucktommyscones]

fic talk-tagged by @aringofsalt 😊 thank you!

How many wips do you have currently? I've got four, only one that I'm currently actively working on. Or trying to anyway.

Which one are you finding the hardest to finish? Why do you think that is? The Wedding Planning sequel to Call You By Mine. There's a plot point I can't decide if I want to pursue, so I keep writing around it, but it's kind of integral if I do want to do it, so I'm kind of running in circles with it. It's why I keep writing all these tumblr ficlets. I want to write but I'm stuck.

What does it usually look like when inspiration strikes for you? Notes app! My job is pretty mindless so sometimes I let my imagination run wild and that's where I come up with ideas. I use the notes app on my phone often, then move to making notes on my computer.

Do you curate playlists for each fic or is your process different?Sort of...I often listen to music when I write. Since I'm only writing Bucktommy right now, I have two playlists for them that I listen to.

Do you go balls to the wall and write as you go or are you more organised? In the middle I think. I keep notes as they come to me, but when it comes to actually writing, my process is to just get it out. I let myself write until I can't anymore, then go back and edit. That's why my last couple of fics weren't chaptered....I was finding that chapters were breaking my flow. I used to do full outlines but found I rarely actually stuck to them.

No pressure tagging: @desert--moonchild, @hipsterdarcy, @kinard-buckley, @intermittent-showers

[atiyasnake]

Yall, I gotta ask, exactly just how normal is it for you for stories to be on your mind 24/7?

Like for me, it what I think about always. I'm thinking about this fic, that fic, and a possible new fic. I'm thinking about a prompt or rough outline I created a doc for almost 2 years ago or 2 weeks ago.

I'm thinking about what the next chapter is about or how I want the plot to progress. Or that one moment I've been gnawing on like a dog with a bone.

I drive to work and while making sure it's safe to switch lanes, I think about how X character will deal with the next situation I'll put them in.

In-between work phone calls and tasks, I'm itching to open my doc and write a few lines. Reread my outline, maybe rewrite a draft. Even though I only have access to them on my phone and I can't type on that, cause it honest to God has caused me pain in my hands and -like I said- I'm at work.

Even right now, I'm at work. It's an hour until we close and I'm the only one working the front desk hoping no one calls cause I've having a good time daydreaming about how I want one of my stories to go.

In my jumbled up mess inside my head, I'm twisting and turning around all the components of a story. What POV will it be, how the dialogue will go, and what is the next thing I need to write? I'm switching bullet points and little snippets of notes I've written on a sticky note or typed on my phone.

I'm trying to piece it all together into something I can and want to write. It's all I think about.

It's not just fanfiction either. I have my own original stuff. Stories I'd love to write, would love to read.

I think about rewriting short stories I've written in writing club in my notebook or typed up on my computer. I imagine scenarios to put characters I haven't even created in.

I don't know their names or the color of their eyes, but I know they'll fight with a smile and blood staining their teeth. I'll know that their friend will run their fingers through their hair. I'll know that they don't like it when people yell and are bad at cooking.

When I go to sleep, I would basically tell myself a story. It used to just be scenarios with some unknown character, but now it is filled with my brainstorming, wondering how things could go in my stories.

Especially my fics, since those are stories I know people actually read. It's crazy to think about.

There's a person, more than one, who read something I wrote. Who decided they liked it and would like to continue reading. It's absolutely mind boggling to even think of one, nevermind a dozen, a hundred, a thousand people have read something I wrote.

I think about them.

I wonder what they think of the words I strung together. What image comes into their head when they read them? I wonder what my words have made them feel.

I honestly can't describe just how much stories mean to me. I think about them all the time. From the moment I wake up till the moment I go to bed.

They're all I ever think about.

I don't know how someone can talk to me about stories without feeling as if their chest was about to burst. As if they're scrambling to find the proper words and could only yell and shake their hands with how it makes them feel.

How can you not want to scream, laugh, and cry when you think about stories and all that they are, all that they could be?

How can I just go on about my day knowing I have access to thousands of stories, am sharing a few of my own, but also will never know thousands of other ones that have yet to be created?

I honestly think I live for stories. Whether it was to read them, write them, or just think about them. I think they might be one of the reasons I'm still alive today.

Which funnily enough, is a story of its own.

[bomberqueen17]

writing etc

Well so I did push through on writing this week. Retrieved my real computer yesterday so I did all of the work on my old laptop, resurrected, short on battery life, unable to charge except for some reason from one particular outlet in the house, who knows why.

But anyhow. I finally got through the block on the next chapter of the Peace-Tied continuity, which-- I just scrolled back in a Discord thread where I'd been discussing it and I got as far as December of 2022 before i was squarely before this point. So it's been a big block for a while. And now I'm like.........

where was I going after this

LOL it's such a weird feeling, to have finally worked past a scene you'd been planning on writing-- and the thing is, I really wasn't sure which direction it would go, my first draft of it was way too much one direction and I'd written it ahead of the setup, and once I did the setup that draft didn't really work anymore, and some of the setup was from ideas I'd had years before, and needed fixing, and anyway it's been many drafts and I wasn't sure where it would come out. And I'm still not sure what it actually means. But now I have to go back and look at what my ideas were for the next bits, and figure out where I'm taking those.

And the chapter isn't even ready to post, i still need to go back and make sure I've walked the fine line between "character doing what I need him to" and "ooc", and I'm ngl I'm a bit resigned to it coming down on the "ooc" side, but I console myself nobody who minds that is still reading along with this unless they're quietly hate-reading in which case you do you, I respect that.

So I'm actually at the point in both ongoing serieses where I'm like...... past a big block I've been trying to strategize around for a long time. And on to a next section I've mostly not let myself write ahead. So it's weird uncharted territory, especially when you're not an outliner. (I can't do outlines, really, I can only speculate about what might happen next, and more often than you'd think I absolutely know where to take things despite not having overtly planned them, but. I secretly suspect this takes up all of the brain space I have, which most people use for like, their daily life, and this is why ADHD meds can't fix me, because my head is entirely full of fictional realities and there's just not room for real ones. IDK. Can I know where I left my keys? No I may not have that information because I filled the place where it goes with different Wet Cat Boy scenarios, sorry.)

anyway I think it's even odds, looking back at the last posted chapter, how many commenters expect this scene to go where it went.

Behind the cut: a snippet of what happens next in Eagle Sable, Lozenge Gules, which left off with Iorveth's Unicorn Badge story which had taken me a couple of years to write too. I will update that chapter soon so don't click if you really want to be surprised I guess, LOL. But I don't realistically know how long the final edits will take me. I'm off to the farm tomorrow probably, and it's three weeks there this time, so. Not a ton of time for writing, coming up. But the hard part's done, I hope.

“You might have to hold the pup’s collar,” Iorveth said, cutting the consonants sharply to punctuate his languid tone, “he seems a bit overexcited.” Roche had forgotten about the dog collar. He’d noticed Gascon was wearing it, but that memory had fallen right out of his head. But there it was, thick and studded, brown leather with sturdy brass hardware, exactly the style of collar Flash and Nosewise had worn. He reached down and cradled Gascon’s jaw, just as Iorveth had done to his. “I don’t think I need to haul on that collar,” he said softly. “I know a good dog when I see one.”  “Takes one to know one,” Gascon said, brash and uneasy. Iorveth clicked his tongue disapprovingly, but said nothing. Roche looked consideringly into Gascon’s face. He wasn’t a bad-looking fellow, really, strong-jawed and young, and even more appealing with the brashness shredded away a little.  “Well,” Roche said, “time to prove it,” and leaned in to press his mouth to Gascon’s. Gascon tasted like wine too, but it tasted different in his mouth than it had in Iorveth’s. Roche pulled from his physical memory and slid his tongue into Gascon’s mouth just as Iorveth had to him, and Gascon made a soft little whimpering noise and opened up to him. 

[balshumetsbaragouin]

Daily Excerpt: Passion

Everything is right on time for Passion this week, and you'll get chapter 11 tomorrow! Wow! We're almost halfway through everyone! In honor of that, have a sneak peek from just on the other side of the halfway point. This is from Chapter Thirteen: A Repose and Provocative Discovery!

_____________________________________________________________

He vowed to kill GhostTeenReignsSupreme as soon as he tracked down their real identity. The weirdo had more than 5,000 posts on their forums. They spent their time berating Huntress fans, arguing with Phantom fans, and otherwise shitting up the place. When the asshole wasn’t banned, they were actively antagonizing everyone around them in a spiral of occasionally amusing, but always disruptive, bullshit. The forum’s resident troll posted on every sub-forum and topic, like they had no life or didn’t need to sleep. While most users took their presence in stride, Danny was tired of looking at admin tickets about their raging slur and curse word filled rants or fielding the DMs from the few concerned users who got genuinely upset with the bully’s antics. Whoever this was, he’d find them in person, give them a good scare about being polite to other people, and maybe blow up their computer for good measure.

Tucker, who’d found the posts mostly hilarious, disagreed. He kept reinstating the douchebag to haunt their website and menace the people of Amity. At this point, the ghost powered teen thought the geek reinstated them to be his nightly entertainment.

He clicked through to the Phantom sub-forums, a vain attempt they’d made to cut down on the Forum Wars between his fans and Huntress, looking at the first thread at the top. It was about some prototype plush. Of course, the last poster was GhostTeen, who else would it be? He clicked through to read the opening post, scrolling down as the poster outlined their plans for an official line of phantom merch. They hoped to get Phantom’s attention…somehow, and convince him to let them produce the goods. All proceeds, absent production costs, were to go to a fund to help Amity rebuild after ghost attacks. Oh, no…that sounds terrible! I mean, not the charity part, that’s fine, but I do not want my face on sleazy, cheap tourist trap trinkets. He scrolled further, watching posters fight it out in the thread about ethics, materials, return on investment, shipping, and whatever else struck their fancy.

On the last page, containing the newest message, was another post from the OP. It was only then, taking in the little insignia they used on the forums to designate the OP of a thread, that he realized the entire plan belonged to GhostTeenReignsSupreme. Just…fuck him I guess. Of course, that was the only person weird enough to go through with this outlandish scheme. The last post had a picture of the plush prototype. It was…actually really cute. He hated that he liked it. He felt his lips thin and his eyes narrow the longer he looked at the cuddly looking plush toy.

[slivensays]

What inspired you to start writing fanfics?

What’s your favorite character to write? Why do you like writing them? How many fics have you written about them?

Share some writing advice!

Yay, thanks for the ask!

What inspired you to start writing fanfics?

Honestly, it was Brad Dourif as Gríma Wormtongue in LOTR, The Two Towers. Went to see the movie, got hooked on the character, desperately wanted to know more about him and his motivations. Since actual facts are scarce (sadly), I must have stumbled upon a fic featuring Gríma early on. The concept that we get to make up our own stories and explanations for fictional characters was totally new to me and I loved it! I already enjoyed creative writing and storytelling, so it was kind of a natural step to start writing fanfic.

What’s your favorite character to write? Why do you like writing them? How many fics have you written about them?

Aaand that would be Gríma.

Something about him just resonates with me. I want to know more; why did he make the choices he made, how did he turn out the way he did? Sad backstory, unfortunate circumstances? There is an “otherness” about him, he is different* and why is that? Dourif has said somewhere that he and the writers did come up with a background story for Gríma, based on Dourif’s experiences being picked on in boarding school, and I’d really, really like to hear that story, assuming it was more than just general vibes for the character.  

Anyway, what little we do get to know, paired with the movie performance, tickles my imagination. Unlike many other characters I like in different fandoms, we are told practically nothing and so we must make up our own answers. (Which is great fun!) but I guess what it boils down to is that “otherness”.

I have written 10 fics so far in which Gríma is a main character, 12 counting stories where he just makes an appearance. (Might have a few more in my drafts.)  

*Not only different in appearance, that was a choice made in the movie for reasons. But he clearly seems to have different ideals and priorities that makes him stand out from his countrymen, mannerisms and a behaviour that no one else in Rohan seems to display. Why did this guy turn out so different?

Share some writing advice!

Hm! Some things that have been helpful to me during an intense year of (coming back to) writing;

Drafting: writing outlines full of question marks, placeholders for lines I want the characters to say, things I need to fact check or just feel generally uncertain about marked out for later revisions etc. has been great for moving forward with the creative process; I don’t need to know whether this is grammatically correct right now, I’ll just fix it later and move on to the fun stuff.  

Getting to the fun stuff: itching to write that one scene, but feeling like I must come up with a frame or a scenery or whatever? Not necessary! I am allowed to skip directly to that thing I’d really like to write, I can work on bridging later (building scenes or chapters that work as a bridge between scene x and scene y, I may have made this term up idk but I like it).  

Procrastinating: computer on, document open, but I just have to take a little trip to the kitchen and while I’m there, I might as well do this or that little chore – I think this is not so much procrastinating as it is processing. I’m taking a small (or big) pause from the story, thinking of what I want the character to say or do next, motivating myself that when this chore is done, I get to go back to my story and write it exactly like so.

There! Happy writing!  😊

[lepiosprites]

Homestuck^2 Sprite Critique: Meat!Karkat

Disclaimer: This is going to be less of critiquing the outfits and more about the composition/construction of the sprite itself.

(This sprite is from chapter 3, specifically page 105. I ripped it myself)

(This sprite i got from a submitter)

I find it interesting that they used john’s outfit as a base, but then made a completely different sprite for him sitting when there’s an example of john sitting in comic

(This sprite can be found on john’s sprite reference sheets)

Actually now getting a closer look, it looks like for Karkat’s sitting sprite they used john’s right foot for both feet, which is why the feet look the same. Huh.

Perhaps the made the new sitting sprite because this one wouldn’t look good on top of the stool? Although in that case, they should have based in off of tavros’s sitting in a wheelchair sprite. There is also a sprite of john sitting like that at his computer, but it’s from the back so it wouldn’t be of much use.

When we get a panel, it even shows karkat and roxy sitting on the stool as one would.

Which shows that his shorts/boxers are shorter than john’s shorts are. We’ve seen a character in boxers in homestuck (terezi), so why did the team use john’s sprite as a base? I guess because they weren’t sure how to sprite socks, which is fair as the closest thing we’ve gotten to seeing that in sprite form is tavros’s sock and sandal combo. Or perhaps they forgot about that part, which i suppose is fair as that particular sprite shows up twice in one section (Act 6 Intermission 5 to be precise)

How i would fix it

As stated before, i have a cleaned up version of karkat’s sprite that i used as a base. I took terezi’s boxers and then for the socks i just, used the bare feet sprite from the same sprite of terezi and outlined it so the toes aren’t visible. I feel like that makes it look more like he’s wearing socks as opposed to using and of the shoe outlines because those are just always going to read as shoes.

[trappedinmymind]

3, 7, 8, 16, 19 from this ask game

3. What is your writing ritual and why is it cursed?

I'm not entirely sure I'm interpreting this question correctly, but I'll try my best. So, since I typically have multiple writing projects going at a time (especially right now), my brain mentally categorizes them into "computer projects" and "phone projects". Computer projects are more 'important' (not really) and feel as though I have to work on them in a professional environment (i.e. sitting at a desk) and take them seriously. Phone projects are more relaxed, I'm-doing-this-just-for-fun projects (again, that's not actually true it's just how my brain perceives it at the time) where it feels appropriate to do anywhere, at any time. It's fine to do phone projects on the computer, but I Can Not do computer projects on my phone (I technically can, it just feels wrong). These categories are not fixed and in fact change regularly.

As for the actual writing process, phone projects tend to just be stream of consciousness. There are a few places I might need to edit, but they're usually [forgot this word] or [transition here] and other small edits. (As a note, I use brackets to signify where I need to edit, with whatever's inside describing my idea of what I need there. It makes it very easy to find with ctrl+f). Computer projects get something comparable to an actual outline, with lines of ideas of what I want to happen interspersed between [descriptions of what I want to happen here] and [more context/detail] and etc until I basically have the whole chapter planned. Then, I'll go back through and add whichever scenes I feel inspired for until the chapter basically looks like how a phone project would.

I usually take at least a few days off of writing after this, just to clear my head and come back to the chapter with fresh eyes. I'll make minor edits to phrasing, add some [more here] and other things just to lengthen scenes that feel a bit too short. If the situation is particularly dire, I'll put brackets around a whole sentence or even paragraphs that I feel need to be re-written, then come back to it at a later time.

Then I'll whittle away at those, and finally once I've gotten rid of all the bracketed sections, I'll paste the whole chapter into google docs and do a grammar/spelling check. After going through all of those and making whatever changes I think are needed, I'm basically done with the chapter. Sometimes I'll come back a few hours later to give it one final check before posting, other times I just want to be done with the chapter and post it straight away (usually the latter).

7. What is your deepest joy about writing?

I like the daydreaming portion of it, where I haven't written anything yet but am convinced it's gonna be great :).

Nah, in all seriousness, there's a lot of little joys in writing for me, but I'd say my favorite is weaving in all the little details and hints that are gonna come back later. The things that start out small, seemingly insignificant, but grow and grow until there’s no way to ignore it. I love those little things that mean everything. They’re like gold bars to me. Small, but heavy, and priceless.

8. If you had to write an entire story without either action or dialogue, which would you choose and how would it go?

Without action. I think I could imply a lot of action in the dialogue, and descriptions and character's thoughts can be used to lengthen the scene, imply pauses, and etc easily enough.

Without dialogue, readers are left with long paragraphs of text that might be difficult to keep track of. Even when I'm writing action-heavy scenes, I try to intersperse some little bits of dialogue or at least markable thoughts that gives a bit of a break from having to visualize everything. I don't think I could write something without dialogue in a way that makes it enjoyable.

16. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever used as a bookmark?

I'm not sure - it's usually a business card or receipt that was left in my purse, or the torn-off corner of a piece of paper that was just laying around. In an emergency, I have used another book as a bookmark, but I was planning on coming back to it as soon as I could, so that might not count.

19. Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?

I started when I was a kid. The first thing I wrote was a mcyt fanfiction, but admittedly the plot was kind of good so I might reuse parts of it again. Then I didn't write for a while, but I started getting into mental health stuff and wanted to write stories from the perspective of people with different disorders to try to help destigmatize them (again, I was a kid. I'm now well aware that unless I have those disorders, that's not exactly my place) as well as a few things playing with the concept of time and souls.

I first started putting stories online when my friend got me into a fandom and we created a joint account. It was mostly my friend publishing on there, but I posted a few things, too.

I don’t know how I stopped writing, but I did. Some time just before or during the pandemic. Maybe life got too much. Maybe I just didn’t feel comfortable writing for the new fandom I was in (it involved real people, and I hate writing based off of real people) and couldn’t focus long enough on something I did feel comfortable writing about. I’m not sure.

I think it was Nimona that finally brought me out of that writing slump. I couldn’t get my head out of that world, and it got to the point where the only way I could get out was to write it down. Then of course I went back and started writing for my old fanfics again, and came up with a few ideas for potential original works

[darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght]

Chapter 25- Part 14

CW: brief depictions/discussions of suicide, dismemberment, and death

Now, time to level up Kirby and see if he'll evolve…

Perfect! Now, onto the last part of my plan: grabbing that Facade! As I said, it was in the Arcade, and- heck, while we're here, let's do the lottery real fast.

Oh! That's a great item! I can't wait to not use it until the very end of the game because of how rare and good it is!

Now then, time to go on another gambling spree to raise up…4,000 coins…oh boy…

(Much gambling, so much gambling, later…)

At last…after nearly two hours of games, it's finally mine!!

Ace's power is about to increase tenfold!!

And with that almost final piece of the puzzle in place, this is the team:

Ace has an Oran Berry in case his health gets a bit too low, Obsidian has the Synthetic Seed for the benefits it'll give her on Factory Field, and Gash has a Rawst Berry because we do not want his Attack hindered by Burn.

But did you see how I said Facade was almost the last piece? See, the actual last piece comes at the Abandoned Power Plant itself.

There's something about this place that I read about some time ago. Using some Common Candies to lower Prong’s level back down to Lv. 29, then leveling her up one (1) time to Lv. 30…guess what happens?

That's right, the Abandoned Power Plant is the designated “special magnetic field” location of Reborn! And thanks to that, Prong is finally able to reach her full potential as Vikavolt! Look at her, look at our special laser gun, she's got wings now!

Oh, and as for why I leveled Prong down beforehand…Vikavolt can learn Bug Buzz, but only at Lv. 31. Before, Prong was Lv. 39. So…yeah. But luckily, we have enough Candies to get her back up to Lv. 40 with Bug Buzz (and Dig) in tow.

So now, the actual final team is:

And before I forget, let's see that PokéDex entry!

Now then, it's time to…try and explore this horrifically dark place.

Earlier, I noticed that there were some gates blocking the central hallway through the power plant, so I imagine we need to find some way to open them. There seem to be some other hallways to the left and the right, so…let's go down the right side first.

Mm, yes, this darkness is made of darkness…what am I looking for, exactly? A button? A switch? A computer?

Glad these pipes are so visible, outlining the hallway like that.

Aha- so, instead of Gym Trainers like the other Gyms have, there are just wild Pokémon here. Fair enough, I can't imagine Shade would be hiring anyone, this man does not participate in the economy.

Uh-huh, more hallway…but I do see something different at the end. Some kinda green panel thing- that must be what opens a gate.

…Um?? Um??? Um????

I was…too shocked to screenshot a lot of what just happened, but to summarize it best I can, uh. Well, first, that person on the screen looked like Agent Grass, but given the lighting, it was hard to tell, it could have been someone else with green hair. But that person was…beheaded? Torn apart? By…something?? What was that all about, exactly??

Well…either way, it looks like I was right, these green panels are the key to getting to Shade. So let's keep looking. See, here, there's a hallway closer to the entrance to the central area that I missed earlier.

And lo and behold, there's another panel! I was probably supposed to do this one first, but- eh, too late now, let's just…see what happens this time.

Wha-? Wait, that's Corey again, hold on-

…Oh my gosh- this screen, and the one with Agent Grass(?)...these are death scenes. These are those characters’ death scenes. Wh…What!? How did Shade manage to broadcast those!? And- And Agent Grass isn't even dead, assuming that one screen was depicting her! So what was that all about, huh??

Unless…wait, don't tell me- if this first screen depicts Corey's death, which we did see…and Agent Grass(?)’s death, which we haven't seen…which hasn't happened as far as we know…are these screens showing events that are going to happen? Showing the future? But Corey's already dead, unless- unless that was just to communicate to the player that these are death scenes, allowing them to conclude that these are future events-

Gah! This is rattling all my brain cells! What is going on with this place!? What's Shade trying to do, here…? Nevermind, there's still the left side to explore-

Maybe the next panel will provide more insight, assuming the pattern continues. Let's see…there's a hallway right here, just like on the right side.

And sure enough, another panel. Let's…see what happens…

Amaria? Well, she's definitely still alive last I checked (pretty sure), no doubt about that…

Oooh my gosh- it might be hard to tell with screenshots, so uh…I'll explain. Basically, Amaria…jumped off of something? Kinda like Corey did? And that person behind her, with the red hair, tried to stop her- key word being “tried”. 

So since Amaria is still alive as far as I know- these screens are showing the future? If that's the case, then- then what's gonna happen to Amaria, huh!? Why did she go down the same route as Corey?? And who the HECK is the red-haired person??? Are they gonna do something to her? This is horrible, why is Shade cursing Xera with knowledge, what does it mean-

Ah…the last panel, I assume…what horrible future event is Xera gonna be witness to now?

…Okay, no idea who that person was, but clearly that Garchomp…beheaded them? Or just slashed them to death? But the moral of the story is: if we see someone with a Garchomp, we'll know they are BAD NEWS.

So Shade can…broadcast past and future events on these screens, somehow? Interesting, and…even more interesting that he's forcing Xera to watch (or, in Corey's case, relive) such things…for what purpose, I still wonder…? Does he think Xera can prevent those tragedies? Because given what happened to Corey, her track record isn't looking so good right now.

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[chayscribbles]

chayscribbles’ monthly writing update ☆ february 2023

☆ STATISTICS.

words written: 11 606

projects worked on: Andromeda Rogue; The Gemini Heist; and a Third, Secret WIP

proudest accomplishment: i'm about halfway through with AR1 draft 2! and i finished like, a bunch of drawings

books read: Architects of Memory by Karen Osborne; All Systems Red (Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells;

☆ GENERAL COMMENTS.

why do i feel like i wrote a lot less than i actually did. like i looked at my total and thought "now that can't be right... there's no way i wrote that much."

things are going better for some wips (AR) than they are for others (GH) so maybe my head is cancelling it out lol.

reading comments: Architects of Memory was basically "a corporate war over alien weapons featuring messy sapphics in space" and i liked it but it wasn't quite a coup de coeur, 4/5 stars. All Systems Red was an absolute delight, 5/5 stars, will be reading the rest of the series once my holds on Libby come through.

(also i started reading Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo this past weekend, and i blame it + it's precursor Ninth House for putting me in the mood to work on Third Secret WIP lately, as Ninth House is partially responsible for the genre shift in Third Secret WIP.)

more specific wip-related comments + featured excerpt below.

☆ COMMENTS: ANDROMEDA ROGUE (draft 2)

i'm about halfway through this draft! i've passed 40k this month!

things are going super well. when i have the magical combo of time and energy and motivation to write i can get through scenes pretty easily, now that i don't have to worry about overall plot as much. plus i get to add little things here and there to beef it up.

i've mostly worked on the second act this month, which is where the team really starts going through things together.

there's one particular Azami chapter right before the midpoint that's a monster of lore-dropping. i had to rework it several times as i had an entire page of editing notes to make sure everything is coherent... and i'm still not entirely sure i've gotten it right 😭

☆ COMMENTS: THE GEMINI HEIST (outlining / draft 0.5)

not much to say about this one. didn't work on it as much. the plot for this wip continues to frustrate me. i'll find myself coming up with little ideas for the characters and the world... but when i try to sit down and come up with actual scenes and plot, my brain turns to soup.

☆ COMMENTS: THIRD, SECRET WIP

this wip is consuming me. devouring me with its teeth. i'm surprised to find i may actually have a plot. turns out letting it hibernate for 3 years and tweaking with the genre has done some good.

i might cave and post an intro in the next month. stay tuned...

☆ FEATURED EXCERPT.

this is from the like, one scene i wrote for gemini heist this month. i just think it's funny. for context, Leo and Gabi are trying to get access to some archives in a university library, and are posing as students.

As [Leo and the archivist] talked, Gabi slipped her hand into the pocket of her ridiculous jacket. Her fingers closed around a small round device. She glanced around. While Leo was doing a great job at keeping the archivist distracted, the commotion had caught the attention of nearly everyone in the room.

Just be normal, she told herself. She inched her hand out of her pocket.

“Which archives exactly do you need access to?” [the archivist] asked.

“Art of the early Viheldan Empiric era,” Leo said. “My paper is on the Gemini statuettes.”

“Ah, that might be why. You need a special authorization form from a professor or another faculty member to access those.”

Leo pouted. “But my professor said he got access for me!”

“Perhaps you can message him—”

“Ugh— can’t you just call him right now and ask? I don’t have time for this.”

“Alright. I’ll give him a call.”

Shit. Gabi wasn’t ready. She fumbled to take out the device, concealing it as best as she could in the palm of her hand. All she needed was to place it on the archivist’s computer terminal without him seeing a thing before he made that call.

The archivist’s fingers hovered over the screen for a second before pressing an icon at the bottom. With a starburst motion of his hand, he expanded a search window and began typing in the name of the professor. Panicking, Gabi slammed the device in her hand onto the side of the terminal.

The already quiet room went completely silent. All eyes turned towards her. The archivist’s were wide and stunned. Leo’s were sharp and furious.

“I, uh,” Gabi sputtered, awkwardly keeping her hand glued to the terminal. The device whirred to life, vibrating softly under her palm. “I-I thought I saw a bug.”

☆ TAGLISTS. let me know if you want to be added/removed to any of them.

general taglist:

@nicola-writes @dgwriteblr @the-orangeauthor @retrogayyde @quilloftheclouds @ashen-crest @writeblrfantasy @celestepens @stardustspiral @pepperdee @extra-magichours @avi-why @lefttigerobservation @chazzawrites @bardolatrycore @innocentlymacabre

andromeda trilogy taglist:

@bebewrites @nicola-writes @dgwriteblr @the-orangeauthor @retrogayyde @akindofmagictoo @quilloftheclouds @nora-theteawriter @ashen-crest @corpsepng @writeblrfantasy @toboldlywrite @celestepens @stardustspiral @pepperdee @cheerfulmelancholies @extra-magichours @writeouswriter @cilly-the-writer @lefttigerobservation @rose-bookblood @drowsy-quill @chazzawrites @cynic-and-chief @enchanted-lightning-aes @aesa

gemini heist taglist:

@florraisons @akindofmagictoo @cream-and-tea @nicola-writes @memento-morri-writes @antique-symbolism @rose-bookblood @afoolandathief @pepperdee @avi-why @zonnemaagd @chazzawrites @analogued @enchanted-lightning-aes @innocentlymacabre @kahvilahuhut @celestepens @cilly-the-writer @extra-magichours @retrogayyde

[geekthefreakout]

I want to start writing again, but can't pick what to work on, so here is a list of WIPs I have going that I haven't done much with. What should I put effort into first? Poll under the cut. Also, you can suggest things! Please vote and reblog?

Coming Clean (At Least I'm Trying)- Fandom: Supernatural. Pairing: Destiel. Alternate ending to s15, where Castiel struggles with his new humanity and Dean struggles with his nascent sobriety. They both try to make their new relationship work. Features Jack and Sam in big supporting roles. Multi chapter, some already up on AO3 here. I lost half of the next chapter because my computer crashed, and I have been struggling to get back into it.

Blood Brothers- Fandom: MCU. Pairing: Winterfrost. The sequel to my fic Pieces of Me Fit Pieces of You. AU: Canon-divergent after Thor: Ragnorak, ignoring credit scene. Loki and Bucky adjust to life in New Asgard, the people who love them adjust to each other, and the shadow of the Mad Titan looms on the horizon. Features Einar, the best horse ever, and many Avengers in supporting roles. I don't have anything posted yet, but I've outlined a lot of it. Hyperfixation brain has not let me work on this in a while.

The Autobiography of Una Chin-Riley- Fandom: Star Trek. Pairing: Garashir. After Julian's augmentations are revealed, Garak comes to him with a most interesting book. Intended to be a one-shot where Garak and Bashir discuss eugenics and civil rights, and what effect the legacies of both Una and Khan had on Bashir's decision to join Starfleet. I have about 1300 words of this so far.

Killing Time and Killing Dads- Fandom: The Flash CW. Pairing: Coldflash, pre-relationship. Canon-divergent AU where after Zoom kills Henry but before Barry creates Flashpoint, Snart appears on the Flash's radar and the two discuss fathers, failures, and the things they can't change. I've been mulling this over for a while but haven't written it. It would probably be a one or two shot. If you want to know my voices for these characters, check out my other fic that also has Snart being around for Henry's death. I guess I just like the concept.

Untitled Bashir War fic- Fandom: Star Trek Pairing: none focused, but probably light Garashir because I can't help myself. I watched Band of Brothers recently, and the episode "Bastogne" prompted me to consider the toll being a battlefield medic took on Bashir, and meditate a bit on how little war has really changed through the centuries. I have 1100 words so far. I need to rewatch a few Dominion War episodes to make sure I don't have any glaring contradictions in my Star Trek medicine.

Not any particular fic, but some of my usual light stuff you might find in my "Sam Writes Stuff" tag- things like Garashir reacting to stuff, random head canons that may or may not become fics later, various fandoms. Most likely to be Arrowverse Flash, Star Trek, Dragon Ball, Supernatural, or Batfam.

Okay, so what do you think? Do any of these strike your interest? Or do you have something else you would like me to write? Vote below!

[green4allseasons]

Green! I've been wanting to ask you this for a few days, but I'm too shy. Today is the day. When did you start shipping Jason with Tim, and what dynamic do you like the most between the two of them? Also, how did you come up with the idea of taking advantage of the YJ series to write about them?

Have a nice week!

Ahhhhh! Oh my goodness, I am SO glad you woke up and decided today was the day! Seeing this message in my inbox gave me all the fuzzies and happy feelings🥺💕! But I also completely get it; there are so many cool people in this space that I want to send asks to, but I am also shy and have yet to. This may be the thing that encourages me to do so!

As for your first question, I actually found out about the JayTim ship in kind of a roundabout way. I've been a DC fan for many years (particularly the animated movies and shows) but never really thought more about the other universe-wide ships than a casual "oh, that's nice" for most of them. But then, a few years ago, I came across a stunning fanart that was actually JayDick (If you can believe it!!), and my thoughts were, "OH! That's nice!!👀" Insert many Google searches later, a foray into Tumblr, and my first experience getting into Fandom spaces, and that's where I found a fanart for JayTim, and let's say my mind just spasmed "ahdfdfdsfsdf," and I was sold.

As for "what" exactly sold me on their dynamic? It's funny because I am not usually an enemies-to-lovers fan (friends-to-lovers is much more my jam). But for Tim and Jason?? It just works. I also am a sucker for angst, and pining, and good old fashion snarky banter. But honestly? I think what really got me was the absolute "ride or die" way that they care about each other when depicted in fandom and even platonically in canon. I know "ride or die" could be applied to a lot of ships, but I think that these two would go to far more extraordinary lengths to protect each other than, say, some other characters (particularly those of whom are hindered by their moral code). Both of these characters are consistently shown to be greyer than not, but just go about it in completely different ways. I've always been more attached to gray characters in fiction, so when there are TWO of them? It's just the chef's kiss. TL;DR They are both just MESSY and yet competent AF and I love it.

But even with my attachment to them, I never considered writing fanfiction! I've only ever written original stories. I don't even know why I didn't consider it because I've loved reading fanfiction since I was as old enough to navigate a computer (a LONG time😅). But suddenly, a little over a year ago, I was re-watching all of Young Justice while simultaneously watching the new season, and BAM! Two very specific scenes came up in my head (One that has already been written about in Part 1 and another that has yet to be shown in Part 2), and I could just Not. Stop. Thinking. About. It. I'm serious. Those two scenes kept me awake at night, the brain rot was all consuming, and I got that feeling that all writers have felt a time or two where if they didn't jot it down in that moment, they'd just implode!!

So, of course my totally normal person response was to immediately sign up for AO3, outline an entire ~40-chapter story around those two scenes right down to the nitty-gritty details, and start uploading.

100K words later and here we are! The rest was history!!! I know this is probably WAY longer than you ever anticipated 🤣 but THANK YOU for asking me! I hope I didn't scare you away with the essay. I have just loved these characters, the JayTim fandom, and my first experience writing fanfiction so much, and all it takes is a little question for me to go on a gush about it!!

[toastytoaster22]

How do you plan out your stories/form an outline for what you’re gonna write? Any advice for it?

Hi Hello! Thank you for the ask! I love talking about my weird process for writing long fics. Hopefully you find even a bit of this helpful. Everyone is different and my process isn't going to be the same as what might work best for you.

I went through part of this a while ago for a different ask, so I'll reblog that after I answer in case I miss something (my head isn't really on today) Forgive me if there's overlap.

OKAY!

The first thing I do once I've got a good idea in my head and its fleshed out enough that I think "This is good! I will actually write this!", I start a new notebook (if the fic will be long) or grab a couple pages from a partially filled one (if its going to be shorter). I am a visual person when it comes to writing, so I like to see my story built out in front of me. It helps me organize, plan, and keep track of character arcs/specific events/details I want to include.

Issho's original story map got nearly destroyed with the amount of edits and notes I added over the course of writing it, but here it is in it's delightful, disgusting glory:

As you can see, I am a messy person. This works for me. I am sure some people will see this and want to scrub their eyes out of their heads.

But the important thing is that I have noted down where events happen across the timeline, where the chapters are marked, the three main arcs (if you can see them, good lord) and have a note at the top about what the main theme of the fic is, and Points to Make. Below are some notes on Toichiro and Serizawa that should have been on another page but ended up there somehow.

I tried to be more ... legible... with Nightjar's story map, and even color-coded it by location. It keeps track of each group of characters, when they interact, when the big events happen in conjunction to those meetings, and bc i am like this, the weather.

Nightjar has a lot more moving parts, so I just put a couple words in each spot and wrote the notes for those events in full on another paper. Nightjar has a very organized notebook with labeled tags and everything, with sections on Character Arcs and Emotional Progress, The Government's Response, Counter Attacks by Claw, OCs, and a whole back section of maps that correlate to where in Seasoning they are.

When I have a basic idea of what I want to happen and when, I go ahead and get a word doc going with the whole outline in one place. I just shorthand write down everything I want to happen as messily as I want. It doesn't matter what it says so long as i know what it means. If i get an idea at any point that i want to include, I throw it in the appropriate place asap. It could be a cool scene, a specific line I want, or a point of progress I need a character to make. Anything. The Outline Doc gets LONG. like 30 pages.

When I sit to write an actual chapter, I go to the outline doc and copy/paste the selection of events I want in that chapter into a new doc and work from there. I keep both docs open so i can throw ideas in anywhere or move events around if I need to change where the chapter ends.

I try to be open minded and flexible with my story construction. And I sure do call it Construction. I tend to change events and move chunks of story and plot around like puzzle pieces until it feels Just Right and makes the most sense.

Sometimes I do this more on paper than on the word doc bc my brain likes seeing things a lot less... up and down? Than a computer can provide. Like this section of notes I have on Issho Teru's emotional state after his parents leave:

I wanted to have a map of Teru's 5 Stages of Grief along with events that move him along toward accepting Reigen into his life and which chapters those events happen in. This got abandoned before I ended up writing any of it, so the top part about him acting out against Reigen never came into play. Originally he never went to the Children's Center, but I couldn't pull that off, so i had to send him away for his Angry period. It worked better.

Obviously not every story needs this level of attention and mapping! My Issho side stories get a few notes in the notebook and then go straight to a word doc. Anything that's only a couple chapters tends to go right to the computer bc I don't need to move events around or map out arcs.

My brain has run out of juice at the moment, but I got more out here than I expected. If you have any follow up questions, feel free to ask!

[scar-crossedlvrs]

16, 11, and 3!

I LOVE YOU TEA KISSES xoxoxoxoxoxo

fic writer asks~

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

currently i have like three?? at least three that i'll be going through with and then one request in my inbox. the one i've been thinking about the most lately though is a boring lil office romance au thing that came from rose nope nuh uh not at all. ( just figuring out how i want to go about it )

11. Link your favorite three fics right now.

this is genuinely so hard because there are so many good ones but here's a few 1. 2. 3.

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

so i'm a very go with the flow type of writer. i don't outline anything and instead just write. it starts with an idea, then i take my time and think about said idea, microwave it in my head and maybe daydream a little bit. then comes the hard part, actually writing. i tend to get the most motivation when i'm at work so i'll hide away in the cooler and type a few sentences here and there as they flow through my brain! Only some of my writing actually gets done when I'm at home in front of my computer. I'm also very much an edit as I go person so I'll scroll back up to parts I had worked on earlier and add / subtract things from what had already been written to fit my current end goal. once i'm *done* however i don't edit because i have a really bad habit of overthinking what i've written so i will just post and hide from the world a while.

I LOVE YOU TOO ELLE THANK YOU FOR THE ASK 💜