#also don’t limit yourself to one thing !! if you’re good at illustrations and not so good at coding/3d modelling/etc. learn the other thing

[rococospade]

Have some Letho attempts, in oil paints(!)

Art, life and cat updates under the cut.

Art update:

I’ve opened commissions again for the next two months (October-November 2023). The last one in my queue is nearly finished, and I’m excited to share it — though I’ll have to crop the tumblr version substantially. I’ve also been working on tutorial content for digital painting. Monie’s been poking me for years to do one on sheer fabric, and I’m trying to edit that between other tasks. I’ve thought about doing one for scars as well — is there anything you struggle with that you’d be interested to see a tutorial or tip-sheet for?

In terms of personal work I’ve struggled to connect with my digital painting in the last few months, so I’ve been working more with traditional mediums. I love watercolour, I’ve been fiddling with my oil pastels since I don’t want them to go bad (they keep for about 3 years past opening, apparently) and I’ve wanted to try oil painting for years. Last week I finally took the leap and bought some water soluble oil paints: pictured above is my first attempt with them.

Oil paints are slippery little bastards — I had a teacher tell me “it’s like painting with colourful mud” over a decade ago when discussing them, and that sort of prepared me. I finally get it. They move constantly, even if it looks dry it’s likely not, I have no idea what I’m doing, disposal is a pain, I am wrong at every step, and I love them. Oil painting looks so cool! It’s so much easier to rework than acrylics! This is not always a good thing! I’m having a great time :)

Naturally, upon getting a new and notoriously difficult medium, I dispensed with looking up guides (surely things I watched or read months and years ago are sufficient for right now?) and sat down to screw around with the paints a few evenings ago. This resulted in a muddy mess even with a limited palette, but I’m a toxic goblin who doesn’t learn, so I shrugged and started working with the muddy tones to try and fix it.

@silverscalestudios was kind enough to give me a quick and dirty explanation on workflow when they found out what I was doing. Thank you again for that! I spent a while last night reading about various forms of underpainting because of you, and will give brunaille a try. I knew underpaintings were a thing but I didn’t know *why* or how important they really are — it didn’t occur to me the oil colours would be so transparent. Hopefully the next picture will be a little bit neater as a result of your intervention — thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me about it!

I found some useful videos on YouTube as well, but I’m struggling with colour temperature shifts. Some studies might be in order.

As usual I’m not satisfied with anything I do for long. My current goals are to learn more of the body’s simplified muscle groups, simplify my compositions more, and make more illustrations with character interaction as the focus. Also, I guess, to gain some competence with the mediums I’m playing with — but that’s a bonus more than a goal. Oil pastels especially are just so pleasant to work with that even if I hate the result, the process is too enjoyable to complain. And failure is how we learn.

Potentially useful tip, buried for anyone who read this far: assign yourself studies for the projects you’re currently working on. This took me far too long to learn, but if you struggle with doing general studies for the sake of them, do them to prep for a specific painting instead. If you suspect something will be difficult (the hand gesture, the colour scheme, lighting, expression, whatever) grab or make some ref and doing a couple of studies, so you can fail quickly and make ugly versions. It’s a huge timesaver when it comes to the final piece. My big, detailed paintings usually take 10-20 hours, so I’d like to get any difficult elements sorted before I start whenever possible.

For an example of studies for a painting: the four roughly scribbled Letho’s in coloured pencil on this post — those were done after I had my composition sketched onto the canvas, to figure out what I wanted to do for colours. And I’m glad I did! I tried the analogous scheme on a whim, and if I hadn’t done this study, I’d have played it safe and gone with a mostly neutral palette. Next time I’ll also do some lighting studies so I have a detailed plan for those before I start painting. Traditional media in general involves a lot more concrete planning than digital, and working with it is underscoring how many bad habits I have — especially with massively reworking paintings mid-process.

I did have a photo reference I was using for this painting (one of the images from the rogue warrior reference pack by Noah Bradley) with the lighting and hair modified to try to resemble something I’d seen another digital artist do, and by awkwardly tilting an asaro head in my kitchen to figure out how the lighting would work. There’s a relatively common lighting scheme in anime-esque art where just the tip of the nose is lit. It’s cute, but playing with the asaro head, I found that the top half of the area around the mouth should also catch at least a bit of light. The lighting ended up being repainted into something more standard for this, but you can see the triangle of light on the upper mouth area in the wips.

Life update:

Well, it was a nice run, but spouse and I finally caught corona last month >< that was horrible. I got lucky, in that I only had for a week or so and it was a mild case. Now I’ve mostly recovered except for a cough. “Mild” is still probably the sickest I’ve been in my life. Do not recommend. Will be going for the booster as soon as I’m able to, I do not want that shit ever again.

I’ve been doing a bunch of new things like sashiko (satisfying), trying to make pie crust (hard! But delicious, and the ingredients are cheap enough that I don’t cry over failure. Please give making pie crust a try, if you haven’t, it’s really not that complicated — the recipe I’m using only calls for 3-4 ingredients, and it’s so versatile. We’ve had like four quiches in the last week and a half) and trying to cook more. Adulting is hard. I’m also considering more decorative embroidery attempts, because I’m reentering my goth phase and want to customise my clothes with little mushrooms and skulls :) it would be cute.

About the cats:

Cloud is cancer-free! She has to get rechecks every three months, but the little monster made it. She celebrates by trying to sleep with her butthole on my face, which is terrible. I love her dearly. I wish she would stop with the butthole thing though.

Sheik is currently taking her turn as the cat with medical problems. She couldn’t eat for a few days and the vet rushed us in when we called. The vet came in and informed me that she wasn’t eating… because she had gas. It’s in her small intestine, which isn’t supposed to have gas in it for cats? Good job, you little weirdo. She’s getting further checks or it this month.

We also adopted an adolescent cat. He’s bonded very well with Tez, whom our other cats — well, they don’t hate him, but they’re a bit aloof. Tez is very big and a bit like a bowling ball with teeth, and most of our cats are old (or Jetta, who is full of bitter hate) and do not appreciate being tackled by said bowling ball. The kitten loves him, and Tez seems much happier for the company. He’s more gentle with kittens than adults. Not all of the cats are thrilled, but our oldest queens have accepted the kitten, so it should be smoother sailing from here. Unfortunately they like to play at 8am, so I am suddenly on an adult sleep schedule for the first time since working from home. Nothing like a teenage cat launching himself onto your abdomen to get the day started :) They were yelling at each other as I typed this, but now he’s laying beside me like a prince. … and attacking my cardigan. Nevermind.

Currently trying to find more ways to install cat climbs and enrichment, since we’re running out of corners for cat trees. Debating the merits of a cat run — we have very tall walls, which is neat but also I don’t trust these guys not to fall off. If we could spring for a modular system that would be neat.

If you’re getting two cats, pro tip: get two with similar coat patterns but different sizes. You will hate yourself. It’s very funny, and you can disorient any house guests!

[n7punk]

"Children of the Crystal" Fic Notes: Season One

I’m breaking up the fic notes for Children of the Crystal into two “seasons” because there’s so much to cover. “Season one” ends with Halls That Make a Home, but I couldn’t post it until now because there were spoilers in these notes. I recommend not reading this until you've finished fic 10 (IDJtBS).

Season two will have all the rest of the fics as well as stuff like my usual discussion of the original outline. This post has the notes up through fic 7.

General Notes:

⦁ Before this idea came to me in… March? Maybe? I had never actually considered what would have happened if Light Hope’s plan… worked. Like, never occurred to me for a second, hey, what if Light Hope actually did bring Adora through and succeeded in raising She-ra? So I explored that. And of course, instantly, it was obvious Catra is going to be part of this too and then it became oh I… can give them a good childhood? They can be happy? Obviously, as explored in the fics, this childhood wasn’t sunshine and roses and still left them with issues, but it was better than growing up in the Horde, while also managing to preserve a lot of the character traits growing up in the Horde gave them due to a combination of Light Hope’s pressuring replacing Shadow Weaver’s manipulation (like, not great for the mental health, but she’s still way nicer and a better authority figure) and growing up a little feral to replace the whack conditioning of the Horde.

Beckoning to Break the Seal [one shot]

⦁ I had to make a lot of calls early on about what Light Hope would “risk” telling Adora about her origins and such. I’ve never fully decided if she intended to lie to Adora about her origins (in canon), though I’ve generally leaned towards her genuinely not knowing Adora wouldn’t remember (mostly because not knowing such a simple fact about the species she created to serve really illustrates how she was just a weapon to them as well). In this AU, though, Light Hope is very aware of this fact either way because it became apparent as she raised Adora. I decided Adora would know the truth, because 1) Light Hope probably wouldn’t think about it upsetting her, 2) Light Hope might not know she didn’t already know it and thus wouldn’t even consider lying about it, 3) Light Hope was raising her, so she could mold her into someone who would believe her origins were for the best (which is what ended up happening), and 4) Adora having always known what she is and her supposed place in the universe really worked for me. It isn’t just: you’re She-ra and you don’t get a choice. It’s: you’re She-ra, you’re a First One, the last one ever, who can never quite fit in with the rest of the world so you must prove yourself by filling the role of the only thing people want from a First One, She-Ra.

⦁ The rations they eat are the same kind of ones from Darla, with their apparently miraculous preservation technology. They’re not as good as regular food, but miles above Horde rations. However, since all they have experienced are these rations and regular food, their reaction is still “aw shitty rations” because they don’t have that perspective and just know these are worse than what they’ve had at festivals.

⦁ It’s called a “meal replicator” not in the Star Trek kind of way but because you put in ingredients and it “replicates” cooking a full meal with them. Like dumping in pasta, water, and sauce and a plate of spaghetti coming out. Only it’s very bare bones, there’s not a ton of seasonings included (notice: I did not list even salt), and it’s selection is very limited. It’s better than, say, MREs, but it’s not great. Think microwave dinners.

⦁ Honestly, I misremembered Glimmer tugging on the sword and not being able to move it without Adora pulling it free first and trying to run for it (she didn’t, Glimmer teleported in, grabbed it, and teleported out with it) but I’m going to stand by the defense mechanism and just say magic was the only thing that could have gotten around it.

⦁ I’m pretty sure retractable staffs… aren’t. It just seems like something that sounds logically possible but is actually very flimsy in practice. Regardless, the show has them, so the fic does too. They could have all kinds of alloys on Etheria, who knows.

Wild, Weird

Chapter 1:

⦁ The “Adora’s birthday is exactly two months before she arrived in their time” line was my first groundwork to FINALLY get my time portal headcanon into one of my fics. A lot of things are different due to the set-up for this AU, but I also got to finally showcase some of my headcanons that never  make sense for an OotW fic.

⦁ When the little girls says their clothes “shimmer weird,” she’s referring to how the light catches on the synthetic fibers (think spandex) versus the natural ones she’s used to (think linen). Their clothes aren’t shimmer fabrics or something, they’re just a different composition. Also, white is called expensive here just because keeping something white is such a pain. Not to mention bleaching something out damages the fibers. It might be cheaper to produce than many dyes, but it can be more expensive to maintain.

⦁ Caprellia comes via Clare, via the SPOP marketing team, and means “she-goat.”

⦁ “… a weird training dummy draped in clothes” Adora sweetie… That’s a mannequin… My little child soldier baby. Even when I fix things I leave them broken.

⦁ I really enjoyed doing little things with young!Adora’s narration like “thinky-frowny face” but also I couldn’t stop myself from using words like elasticity so it only went so far.

⦁ The “machines” are things like a peddle-operated sewing machine (they’ve been around since the 1800s at the very least, I think earlier), looms for weaving, etc.

⦁ Basically all the adults in the village have a kind of silent agreement to keep an eye on the forest children when they do show up. When one of them learns something important, they often pass it on to those they know, who pass it on to the people they know, etc. By the end of week two it’s common knowledge that Catra and Adora’s minder is disabled, which clears a lot of things up for the villagers, because they were seriously worried they had made her up and were just running feral in the woods. The general information the villagers have is: Catra’s parents were killed by the Horde and Adora + her guardian took Catra in. Their guardian educates them and trains them how to “survive” in the woods (the villagers interpretation of what the girls have said about their training to be soldiers), but never leaves their home herself (now explained by her being disabled in some manner that makes that impossible/impractical). They know they don’t have money and they’re self-sufficient in the basics but lack a lot of luxuries, but also weirdly have some others, like clothes that are made from fancy materials, even if the clothes are fairly simple. There’s no consensus amongst the villagers on who their guardian is. Some people think it’s the weird old lady who is rumored to live in the woods (often only appearing to children, the lost, or the hungry), but that doesn’t make sense with her being disabled. The villagers worry about the young girls running around on their own, but they never go anywhere without a weapon and do seem to have been taught effective self-defense. They should be more worried about their social skills, honestly.

⦁ IRL, ALL fashion is produced by hand, even mass produced fashion. Machines that can produce finished garments just don’t exist and would be near impossible to create. This is the future with space travel, though, so anything could be possible, I’d just feel remiss to not acknowledge that when it leads to human rights issues and the sweatshop industry.

Chapter 2:

⦁ “…a kindness they’ve never done much to earn. They’ve never provided much for the village” Yeah this was a lead-in directly to the next fic where they save it.

⦁ Uh, mild Nimona spoilers I guess? but “rearranging the weapon racks by deadliness or some other unhelpful metric” is a Nimona (movie) reference.

⦁ Okay fashion being the only thing that is truly Catra’s makes the jacket a really big deal. I went into this thinking “maybe one time when they’re older Caprellia sees Adora looking a little wistfully at Catra’s new clothes and decides making her one (1) unnecessary thing would be fine” but that wasn’t the right call. That would have been Adora getting another special thing on her mountain of special things. The jacket is so much more meaningful as a gift from Catra, and that meaning is why Catra got inexplicably (to her) mad when Adora surprised her. Catra didn’t understand right away why she was angry, but as she processed she comes to that line about how this is the only thing she can invite Adora into. Not only is it the only thing she has, but she’s still trying to share it with Adora, who Catra only lives by the grace of. She has some bitterness about that, but she has more love for Adora, so she wants them to have this thing together, and then Adora shows up and stops her from doing it on her own terms.

The Start of a Legend [one shot]

⦁ “the Crystal Castle will be vulnerable without them” babygirl the spiders are to fight YOU if you catch on too quick and won’t set off the Heart.

⦁ The change the Crystal Castle goes through, especially the introduction of the threatening and invasive guardians crawling through their home, does a lot to start changing Catra and Adora’s feelings of comfort and familiarity with the Crystal Castle. It reminds them that what they have always treated as their home is actually a war facility, and is some of the first hint towards its true sinister nature as the control hub for the Heart of Etheria.

⦁ The mention of a giant building in the woods that turned out to be someone’s home is a reference to the (then-upcoming) fic with them stumbling across the library. At the time, it was fic 10 in the outline (following the current fic 12), but I was desperately wanting to write it.

⦁ The “something going on” Catra suspected from Light Hope saying Adora had to stay behind was actually that she had already heard  Horde forces closing in on Elberon. When Adora started running to stop them, Light Hope told her she had to stop because there were people at the door who could discover the castle (Glimmer and Bow had bad timing). This led to a lot of arguing that took place while Catra was doing her spooky kitty routine before Adora refused to be delayed any further and ran up.

⦁ The descriptions of the Crystal Castle were running entirely on memory and what I needed for the story, but tbh I’ve never been certain if the ruin from the first episode is the same exact chamber of the Crystal Castle as we see later because there’s inconsistencies and if the show can change its mind I can make some shit up lmao.

⦁ In case it’s been awhile since you watched that part of the show: Light Hope shows Adora silhouettes of all the princesses, which is how Catra knew what Glimmer’s outline would look like. Because Light Hope’s focus was on balancing the planet and thus the princesses connected to the runestones, Bow was beneath her notice despite being more involved in the war than many of the other princesses at the time.

⦁ In the first (second, whatever) episode, Bow says that Glimmer’s mom knows more about the First Ones than anybody? I can’t remember if it’s just “the First Ones” or “First Ones tech,” but either way this is befuddling to me since it’s obviously Bow’s dads for the first or Entrapta for the latter? But, whatever, you get the line about Glimmer’s mom being interested in the First Ones.

⦁ “She has to remind herself that a lot of girls have moms” Catra… Baby…

⦁ In the show, Adora is the one who questions why they’re attacking a civilian settlement (“there must be a mistake”), but she was doing it from a place of disbelief that the Horde would do this. Bow is asking from confusion rather than surprise; Thaymor isn’t worth capturing, why waste the resources? And that’s why Catra answers how she does; Thaymor is simply the beginning, at least to the Horde.

⦁ “Catra releases Glimmer’s scruff” obviously Glimmer doesn’t have anything near a scruff and Catra was just holding onto her cape, but she was instinctively doing it where Glimmer’s scruff would be if she had one, and tbh it kind of looked like it too with her cape.

⦁ “She notices Adora’s gaze catching on her teeth. It’s not her fault no smile seems all that innocent to humans or the human-adjacent when there are fangs hiding in it.” Catra. Baby. She was being horny. She was on an adrenaline high from winning and having Thoughts.

⦁ Originally I included a line about it and then it was too clunky, but the mayor thanked Adora and Glimmer basically because they were the ones right in front of him. Everyone saw Catra, Glimmer, and Bow fighting, and so they just assumed when they later saw Adora that she was somewhere else in the chaos, because why would she ever be far from Catra? There was so much going on basically no one had thought much about the new princess who appeared yet, and those who had weren’t talking through it out loud. It was a big shock to most of them when Adora transformed, but it also made that whole sequence of events (and a lot of things over the years) make sense.

⦁ The scar on the boy’s arm is, of course, the same one mentioned in Wild, Weird.

⦁ Adora says she’s not “just a human” because she learned a long time ago to never say she’s a First One and has generally begun to think of herself as human because of that.

⦁ In the show, they take a horse from Thaymor, and then in the next episode Adora turns him into Swift Wind and only find out he’s sentient later. That… didn’t happen here. This was intentional, because Swift Wind’s (lack of) existence actually has very important ramifications. It seems like he doesn’t do a lot in the show, but there is one episode where he’s pivotal, and that’s the episode where Adora and him repair the broken Watchtower using their sacred bond (“Ties That Bind”). Without repairing the Watchtower, Mara’s emergency signal never goes out, and her ship in the Waste never wakes up. The First Ones messaging tower in the town of Alwyn never comes online either (“Signals”), so they never get the message from it that turned out to be a constellation map to Mara’s ship which they decipher in the library in “Reunion.” No one ever steps foot in the Crimsone Waste, Yeah, without Swift Wind they’re missing a MAJOR piece of the puzzle.

Maze (Literal, Metaphorical)

Chapter 1:

⦁ You know those “Purple” mattresses with the annoying ads that are made from rubber. Yeah the bed in the castle is made from something like that but with fancy ~future rubber~ so it didn’t break down into nothing over time. Listen, none of this shit should be here after 1000 years, I’m doing my best.

Chapter 2:

⦁ Adora calling the chaise lounge a chase long was because I don’t think it’s a word she would realistically know (at least well) at this point, so I leaned into her weird pronunciation stuff from the library episode (“Reunion”) for it.

⦁ The mention of Adora “forgetting about dictionaries” is because she hasn’t thought about them since George and Lance tried to teach them reading.

⦁ “eighteen-and-a-thousand years of planning” is referring to both Adora’s lifetime and the thousand years it took Light Hope to gather the resources to bring her here, showing just how much weight Adora has accepted on herself.

⦁ The mentions of them handholding a lot, especially around other people, is because of their dependence on each other.

⦁ The language around Adora stammering (“Catra hits Adora in the face with her tail to reset her.”) is influenced by them growing up with a slightly buggy Light Hope, so they’re a lot more used to tech stuff in this AU.

⦁ The board game goes horribly. Everybody is feeling awkward, except for Catra who has progressed to angry sulking, and somehow she dominates the game through a combination of spite, only knowing half the rules and not being “held back” by preconceptions, and wanting to get it over with.

⦁ Adora puts “tactile” in quotes because she was just discovering the word for the first time.

⦁ “[Glimmer and Bow] don’t even act that different from her and Catra” gee I wonder why THAT could be.

⦁ My general headcanon is that magicats have great memories (because different species would encode memories differently, and it feeds into my angst headcanons for Catra remembering every horrible thing Adora suppressed) but my headcanon has also always been that Catra’s memory basically starts the moment she meets Adora because she was very young when that happened, Adora was there to echo the memory back with her over the years and thus reinforce it, and everything before that was traumatic enough that her brain wanted to let it go.

⦁ When I was writing Adora’s POV for this chapter I was careful not to actually say what her feelings for Catra were even if it was obvious, because Adora herself is doing her best not to think about/process it. She knows, but in the way where she has seen it in the distance, half-registered what it is, and then quickly looked away so she could pretend she never saw it.

⦁ “Getting some one-on-one She-ra training reminded her what her priorities need to be.” AKA “Light Hope could tell she needed some more brainwashing done and used emotional manipulation to keep her on track.”

Be Honest (for the Very First Time) [one shot]

⦁ In regards to the first author’s note, I really don’t like “rewriting”(/transcribing) episodes from the show into canon divergent AUs. I used to be in a video game fandom where rewriting entire missions but with your take on the MC (since there were branching choices) was really common, and that shit gets old fast, versus when I was in the Mass Effect fandom and it seemed more common not to include the story missions and instead effectively pick up on the “next scene” after, which would be original dialog between the characters and happen to include mentions of which branches had been chosen on the previous mission (when relevant). That’s the style I went with for this fic because yes, there are a lot of changes in, say, the Plumerian episode, but those changes are primarily to dialog and then instead of trying to infiltrate the camp using Horde knowledge, they try to Be Sneaky and then go in guns blazing when that doesn’t work. It’s fundamentally not that different and writing within the constrains of the show is chafing. I still covered episode one (the meeting), the library episode, and the portal because they were so different and I had ideas I found fun for them, but I’ve watched the recruitment episodes so many times and didn’t feel like retreading them.

⦁ This fic is one of the first things I outlined for the series. I did a little outlining for The Start of a Legend, but this was the first proper outlining written done I think. Next was the final scene in On Stumbling Feet and then it jumped straight into the angst stuff.

⦁ The nature of this AU is that things go really well for a while, with victory almost seeming like it could be on the horizon, and then the Horde gets desperate, the portal happens, and the entire world falls to shit, which feels like being brought lower by the lack of major setbacks so far (with the greatest being losing Entrapta, a big blow but still just one, and they never thought she was dead before).

⦁ Adora is down so bad in this. She suspects her feelings are “wrong” from what Light Hope says and tries to avoid them, but she also convinces herself that she isn’t feeling anything because (then that would be bad) these are just friend thoughts, and having never experienced even a casual friendship with anyone else, she gets away with it until Bright Moon slaps her in the face with context.

⦁ I have outlined and written out in my head so many scenarios, in so many canon or canon divergent story ideas, where Adora and Catra have a big “fight” and Catra runs away into Bright Moon Castle in the middle of the night and Adora runs out after her, panicking about what she can do to fix this. It has finally ended up on paper and it feels so good to get it out of my system. This series lets me get a lot of things out between this, [major story thing later that’s spoilers], and finally being able to put my backstory headcanons for them into something.

⦁ “They have a mountain of issues to work through but they’re trying” sometimes trying is not enough (◡‿◡✿) LOL every time someone commented like “wow such progress!” I was just sitting there like. I can’t even reply to this comment you have NO idea what’s coming.

Girls Talk [one shot]

⦁ This fic got added in at the last minute, actually while I was writing Maze. As I was writing Maze, I realized I needed to feel out Catra’s relationships with Bow and Glimmer in this AU more so that spawned this fic, which I really enjoyed doing.

Halls That Make a Home

Chapter 2:

⦁ Catra mentions the woods seemingly not trusting them without “adult supervision” and then the woods immediately lead them to the adults perhaps Most concerned by them just wandering round. Catra isn’t quite right but she also isn’t quite wrong.

⦁ Okay, so I like, have a lot of headcanons about the Whispering Woods. Well mostly one headcanon that effects a lot, but basically they are semi-sentient. Most forests are connected via roots in vast networks underground, stretching miles or more sometimes, and the Whispering Woods is a magical amalgamation unbothered by its own movement. It’s magic working in concert with some level of awareness. The forest moves on a rotation that can change over time, like a river changing direction, just by the consciousness shifting its preferences or needs, but its also capable of moving outside of that pattern, as seen when Adora finds the sword or they need to reach Thaymor quickly. The woods show some level of favoritism and don’t move settlements as long as the people living there respect them. The woods have disrupted their pattern when necessary to avoid anyone from reaching the sword for generations, keeping She-ra safe until she could return and free them from the meddling of the First Ones. After the Heart went off the first time the First Ones began to register as a potential threat just like the Horde does, and the woods tries to mitigate threats.

⦁ Light Hope doesn’t really understand age and just didn’t “know” to baby them. She knew their faculties had to develop, but she never treated them like adults would for someone their age and it made going into the “real world” and no longer being treated like an adult really frustrating.

Chapter 3:

⦁ Incredibly catholic of Adora to take on the “sins” of her ancestors despite not having anything to do with them and only being harmed by them too, but the show had a lot of religious trauma themes so I did it too lol.

⦁ Until the full truth came out (like seconds later) George and Lance thought Bow might not have mentioned his dads because he didn’t want to be treated differently because his dads were academics, in case people might use that to diminish his own accomplishments because clearly it’s just ‘in his blood’ or he had access to more resources or something.

⦁ When rewatching the library episode I registered that Bow said Adora was an art major for the first time so I have to do artist Adora at some point now I guess XD

⦁ Okay, so the time portal thing. In the show, I initially thought back in seasons 2/3 that the reason portals didn’t work in Despondos was a feature of the dimension itself, rather than being because the runestones were out of alignment as implied by Light Hope in season 4. Because of that, I came up with the idea of dimensional portals not working, and thus time ones being the only viable method of travel to Etheria, which would mean both Adora and Hordak were time travelers. This would explain why Horde Prime thought he had wiped out all the First Ones, why Hordak’s technology was so much less advanced than Prime’s (although an easy answer to that is he isn’t as smart and doesn’t “remember” the knowledge base in the hive mind), and why it took Light Hope a thousand years to make her move: as explained in the fic, it took a long time to figure out how to reach back in time and then where to reach back, getting Hordak the first time and Adora the second. Now this… could be viable in canon? Basically, we don’t actually know when the Black Garnet went offline, so it could still be true that it needed to be a time portal and when Light Hope said she “reached across the wider universe” for Adora she meant back in time as well, I just don’t think that the runestone was offline that whole time. I’m also 99% sure Light Hope says at one point that it was Mara who threw them out of balance, implying something has been wrong for a thousand years and thus portal capabilities could have been offline that whole time, but she easily could have been lying. I always kind of assumed that the Garnet went offline when Scorpia’s mom died without Scorpia bonding with the runestone. We don’t know either way on that, but that’s why this time portal idea is showing up for the first time in a canon divergent AU where I can really tweak whatever I want. It’s also plausible that, regardless of her portal capabilities, it still had to be a time portal because all the First Ones really were gone, but it’s all a big “we don’t know” and in that case I get to do what I want.

Meta:

Catra’s clothes (Wild, Weird)

Season Two fic notes

Series Directory/Share Links

[asheskyler]

Mind, Body, Spirit

Daily writing prompt: What strategies do you use to maintain your health and well-being?

Health and well-being is a big topic that can’t really be limited to just one thing. There are several overlapping factors to it, yes, but overall health is your overall life. Self-care is a necessity, not a luxury. You are worth investing in yourself if you want to be happy and at peace.

I am a very physical person, so diet and exercise is high on my list.

An ideal week of exercise for me is four hours of karate, three hours of jiu jitsu, running a few times per week, a little bit of boxing and muay thai, and a few hours of strength training and stretching, yoga (I recommend Yoga with Adriene), t’ai chi (I recommend Terrence Dunn), or qigong. I enjoy going on nature walks, hikes, or visiting botannical gardens.

Lean meat, fish, fresh fruit and vegetables, beans and grains, dairy, a sparing amount of sweets, and a low sodium diet can take care of a multitude of minor illnesses can be handled with diet, including depression and anxiety. When I’m on top of my own diet, I have oats, peanut butter, and milk in the morning. In the mid-afternoon, a large lunch of plain rice, and some mixed vegetables and skinless chicken heavily seasoned and stir fried in a tablespoon of butter. Sometimes I’ll have a tuna sandwich, and my guilty pleasure is homemade chicken or pork fajitas with guacamole. I usually drink just water throughout the day. At night I may have a small snack of peanut butter and crackers. I drink medicinal teas for minor illnesses and for general well-being.

A healthy lifestyle goes a long way for my mental health, including keeping a clean and tidy environment. Or as tidy as us artists are ever able to be. I organize my clutter into specific piles!

I listen to a broad range of music including classic rock, gothic rock, alternative, grunge, metal, power metal, symphonic metal, pop, country, classical, neoclassical and instrumentals (I love “ambience” mixes), a variety of folk music (Celtic, Gaelic, bluegrass, folk metal such as The Hu or Tennger Calvary), and some ’70s R&B.

One part of my mental health I have neglected for a few years is artistic creation and expression. Life has been hectic and I’ve been unable to draw more than just commissions and work-related stuff, but soon I’ll be remedying that and getting back to illustrating and writing.

I’ve recently been getting back into reading, and the escapism feels good, as does indulging in my grammarian side by studying the writing style of what I’m reading. I’m careful about what I allow on my social media feeds as part of my mental health. I have little interest in drama or negativity.

Never stop learning. There are always interesting things to study and poke at to enrich your mind. It’s also important to maintain your cognitive abilities. I personally enjoy jigsaw puzzles, logic puzzles, and sometimes board games. Not that I’m very good at it, so if you want an easy win at chess, hit me up!

Spiritual well-being can arguably be a subcategory of mental well-being depending on how you feel about it. I am a very spiritual person, and quiet prayer, grounding, study, philosophy, and reflection helps me. When I’m indoors, I’ll meditate to something soothing, but when I’m outdoors, I like to meditate flat on my back in the grass just listening to the wind and wildlife.

Don’t underestimate the value of good people in your life. An exercise buddy, reading buddy, music buddy, prayer buddy, study buddy, whatever you’re in to, a friend or relative as passionate about the things you are can make an activity that much more fulfilling. I am very fortunate I have a good partner in my life who enjoys nearly all the same subjects as I do, so to a degree he is my one-stop-shop for a friend in art, martial arts, hiking, music, reading, food, and spirituality!

Work/life balance is not my forte and too often I’m working over 40 hours/week. Especially during tax season when I’m usually hitting 60-90 hours/week. On the bright side, I can usually keep my stress low enough my blood pressure doesn’t stay high and I don’t lose sleep from ruminating thoughts.

So that’s generally how I take care of myself. Not perfect by any means, but I’ve about gotten myself figured out!

[vampire-wizard-solidarity]

ok but:

1. many times autistic people who refuse to go to certain restaurants or try certain foods is because by the time they’re adults, just like any other person, they develop a sense of their own taste, their own aversions and general patterns. they know what food they like, they know what they dislike. so they’re able to make predictions about what they will or will not like or tolerate based on experiences. just how if a person knows they dislike crowds and loud noises, they will probably say they don’t like clubs, even if they’ve never probably been in one. and they don’t have to be forced to go to one to find out if they’ll really actually dislike it, because, well, they’re allowed to judge their own possible enjoyment of an experience based on their general personality and preferences.

and, more importantly:

2. it’s not just about “it’s new and scary”, it’s often about the context of the social experience. let me illustrate a scenario: you’re visiting your friend, and they suggest to go to a restaurant you’ve never been to. you agree. since you’ve never been to this restaurant, you look at the menu, and it’s all unfamiliar so you pick something that looks okay to you semi-randomly. you get the dish. you try it, and it feels horrible. physically painful. this dish, for whatever reason, triggers your sensory issues, and now you’re stuck in this restaurant with a dish you physically can’t eat, feeling terrible because you’ve just experienced physical pain upon trying it. you don’t want to send it back, it’s not the restaurant’s fault this dish just isn’t for you, you can try to pick another dish but it’s likely the same thing will happen because you don’t have any experience with any of the dishes. so, you just wasted your money on a dish you can’t eat, your mood is ruined, the collective mood is ruined as well, because how can it not be when you’re sitting there poking your food and looking miserable, and you’re going hungry. would you rather have this experience while visiting your friend for a limited period of time, or just go to a restaurant you know you will be fine eating at? it’s not just that it’s new and scary, its that there’s a social context that can make a moment of food aversion into an entire vibe killer. autistic people tend to be much more open to trying new foods where there’s no such context, where there’s no necessary commitment to eating the food if they don’t like it, where they don’t potentially have to waste money and time on a dish they won’t eat.

“putting yourself outside the comfort zone” is an easy thing to recommend when the consequence for that risk failing isn’t this dire. if you don’t have food aversions, and are fine to eat a dish even if you dislike it, disliking it isn’t that big of a deal. the thing is, for many autistic people, it is a big deal. in fact, i’d say that part of the reason many autistic people refuse to do it is because many of us were, at some point, forced into this situation. a situation in which somebody forcibly makes us eat something we have an aversion to, and then is upset when we have a big reaction to disliking the food.

personally, i like pushing myself out of my comfort zone. i like trying different foods, branching out into different cuisines and eating new things. but part of the reason i’m able to do this is because i’m able to do it at my own pace, take into consideration my own preferences and sensory experiences. when i have a food aversion, it’s not just me not liking something, thinking the texture is icky, or whatever. when i force myself to eat something i have an aversion to its a matter of literally throwing up. it’s very much a physical reaction.

so, yeah, if i was visiting a friend and they suggested an unfamiliar restaurant, i’d probably also refuse. because i’d rather have a good time with my friend than have to ask the question “do i want to throw up or do i want to ruin the evening for both of us?”

every time you say you dislike a certain kind of food someone will invariably chime in like "thats just because you haven't had it from [country i live in]" and like, first off, when an autistic person tells you they don't like a food it's often vastly deeper and more encompassing than just thinking it tastes bad, but also american cuisine is like the only exceptionally good thing about this place. im sorry but i've probably already had the best of it.

[ackmate]

December 12 2022

Hello void of the internet.

Have you ever felt like the whole universe, energy itself is against you? This hollow feeling of maybe something similar to hate and distrust just festers in your chest as more and more unfortunate things keep happening to you.

That’s how I feel lately. I want to enjoy this year’s Christmas more stupidly joyful than any previous year of course. But that nagging feeling that everything is going wrong and going to get worse just won't leave me alone.

As of today when my school held its yearly vOicE oF sTuDenTs (they say) literally could not have picked a more fake, empty, cringy name. The first year we were informed of its shallow intentions and the non-existent change it serves to us... the actual students... filling these things. “Don’t write things like: I  wAnt A Locker!” well why not...bitch...? I say that with full respect.

You gave us once a year to “voice” our opinions and still! Limit! Our! Voice! or what little left of it. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!!!! If someone was going to ask me how (capital capital capital) I feel about this I would say I think it’s a fucking dumb concept and you should just go **** yourself. Not fuck, not piss, more sinister. I am so full of hate for that right now.

Anyway back to this year’s round of bullshit VOS. For the last remaining, two, most important questions: 

1. Do you believe that this school has helped you in achieving your goals and dreams?

2. What do you think of the school’s overall performance?

I just wanted to say, or well, circle. “Not at All. Not Satisfied. Fully Disagree.”

I was under no influence but just the truth of what I witness everyday for three years. AND! Lo and be-fucking-hold there he was, the teacher in charge of my class’ VOS proofing me right.

I feel validated when I say this school is shit and should burn down yes. But also so, so, so, so, so, SO FUCKING PISSED OFF.

He started by calling my last name to which I responded “Yes?” then he approached me at my desk.

“These last two questions. I think you’re mistaken.”

He handed me my survey slip to let me see again with my own eyes the answers I so willingly chose, with my own operating brain.

“No, it's not mistaken. I personally think so.”

“You think so? Really?” cue passive aggressive laugh. “That’s a problem, I mean in the three years of being hear you really didn’t think you achieved some growth?”

I still feel so bad. For him. For the small person that he is. In his small world. With friends as small as him, and not big enough to turn him into a sensible person.

Is that even a question to ask from any institution? Are they so full of themselves that they think my growth is dependent of my being at that school? You are so full of shit.

I grew a lot. I still have a lot to grow. But it was never by virtue of going to school. I’m not even friends with anyone in my class. I’ve never had a single meaningful conversation with anyone there.

I grew because it was my decision to do so. My growth came from myself. In second year after the mistreatment I received from one of the teachers at the school itself (surprise) I decided to seek even more grow, to be above whatever the fuck shit-show is happening at school. I reached out to independent cafe, bookstores to meet new people, to actually find good people.

I sought for challenges, on my own. I spoke out and found my own internship. I spoke out about racism in this country for a speech competition. I spoke out about my desire to learn the shamisen and have went far in progress from last year, earning me a chance to perform live in a professional Shamisen event in Shibuya city. I spoke out to a well known magazine company in Japan and proactively offered to illustrate as much as I could.

I grew then because of me and the people that I met. And I’m going to grow more not because of toxic small minded institution such as this school. Where my voice is limited, where no one is courageous enough to speak out, where I had to advocate for myself.

SMH... I mean... I’m never going to give up. I feel like shit right now because of editorial mistakes I made during internship, just relationship stuff, finding a job, and now this little bitch decided to make a fuss about me simply filling in according to my will.

But as Lady Gaga said, never give up. If there’s a hundred people in the room... umm or something... I just need one person who believes in me...

Plus I am never going to work in a full on Japanese company because I know shit like this is going to turn up and I would probably kill myself in a world where no one would be on my side.

[swordmaid]

I know you’ll probably answer things like ‘hell ;))’ (and probably you’d be right too), but can you describe both your high school and university experience? Bc I have to choose what I want to do with my life and I’m considering to go to an art academy. love u ✨

In high school and university I honestly focused an Art right LOL I legit skipped classes (esp in high school) to sit in my art class. Before you consider going to art school though, consider if you selling art/working with other people/working FOR other people’s projects and less of your own is something that you want to do since there IS a difference with wanting to learn art formally/doing it as a hobby, etc. and making it as your career.

I’ve met people who’s good at art and who’s been doing it for so long but absolutely loathes working for other people’s projects bc most of the careers you’ll find in art (I’m speaking about digital art mostly since that’s what I’m studying. Sooo in terms of animation, concept art, etc.) is all about collaboration and doing things for clients as opposed to doing your own projects. You CAN do your own projects obvs but even then, you’ll probably be working with a whole group and it’s just a whole lot of collaborative work

But as for experience— I can’t really say much for high school ?? I mean I went to it and had fun but it wasn’t eye opening or anything LOL. I had a friendship with my art teacher and she suggested that I look into animation since I like illustrating. But for uni def consider what you want to do in the future before studying since it’s pretttyyyy broad. If you want to work with games, def look into coding as well as 3D modelling. For animation, it’s super useful to practice doing it. One thing tho is that you def don’t need to learn how to draw !! Idk if it’s just my school or what, but having the knowledge IS useful but they pretty much teach you how to draw lol. The most important thing is that you have ideas and that you can execute them. Drawing, illustrating, etc. are things that you can develop over time but the most important thing is having ideas and a story to tell !

[adhd-asd]

Anonymous asked: "i have ADHD and ASD, I don’t know if they really play a role in my difficulty to write scripts or outlines, but it seems like whenever i want to start a story project and visualise it into writing and art, it just…..doesn’t work? Like, i have story ideas, but the way they come out never meet my satisfaction or, at least, the way i write them, feels too restricting and….i don’t know?

writing scripts, the dialogue feels very bland and tedious - writing outlines is fine for me but i put too much thought into them to the point they are restricting. but, also, when i try to make up a story as i go with a basic plot in mind, i lose a massive sense of direction if i don’t have an outline or script. and i just feel very, very stuck."

If you're just looking for a short-form list of tips and tricks that might help make creating easier, I have a post here that offers advice on writing with ADHD that you may find helpful.

However, I found this question really interesting and wanted to do a more in-depth exploration of the topic of creating with ADHD/ASD and the difficulties that can come with that, as well. I have a lot of thoughts on the topic as an ADHD/ASD creator myself, so it got quite long, but I hope you might find some of them interesting or useful.

-

Do ADHD/ASD Play a Role?

Firstly, I believe that my ADHD and ASD affect just about every part of my life, including my creative process, and I imagine the same is likely true for you. It's entirely plausible (and I would even say likely) that they're playing a part in the conflict you feel when trying to create.

That being said, I also believe that there are ways we can accommodate or work around our unique challenges rather than putting effort into trying to overcome them or letting them get us down. I also don't think your difficulties are exclusively a result of ADHD/ASD, either, and I'll be discussing both points in more detail below.

-

On Meeting Your Own Expectations

I think, at least to some extent, your first paragraph could apply to most creators, regardless of ADHD/ASD.

Very rarely do I find that my works end up matching what I visualise in my mind, and it can often be frustrating and demotivating when what I produce seems inferior to the hypothetical version I had planned or envisioned. And I've seen this same sentiment expressed by a lot of artists and writers.

When those feelings crop up, I try to remind myself that it's okay, nobody else has seen the hypothetical 'perfect version' of what I was trying to create that's in my mind, and they'll be judging the work on its own merits instead. I think an important part of being a creator is consciously working on accepting that things will almost never go exactly as envisioned, and that's okay. It's not a reason to abandon the work, and the more you keep creating, the more practice you'll have getting your ideas down.

It's definitely easier said than done, but as with all creative pursuits, feeling beholden to perfection will ultimately prevent you from getting anything done or growing as a creator, and sometimes you have to just let things go and keep moving forward. A work doesn't have to be perfect to have value and be worthy of praise.

-

On Perfectionism

All that being said, I wouldn't be at all surprised if your ADHD and ASD were compounding on this common experience to a degree. It's very common for people with ASD to be inflexible and extremely detail-oriented, and many an ADHDer can struggle with perfectionism (which I've briefly discussed in the second half of this post). Falling into the trap of obsessively tweaking things until they're just right is pretty easy.

The good news is that I think when you're aware that these are pitfalls you're likely to experience, you can better notice them and implement measures to help you work around them. Better understanding your symptoms and being kind to yourself when you experience them can make the situation less hostile, and researching how to cope with/compensate for them could help not only with your creative process, but other areas of life as well.

-

On Finding Your Creative Process

A big part of creating is finding a process that works for you.

Some people plan in meticulous detail while others fly by the seat of their pants; some prepare outlines and tough drafts and follow the steps in order and others bounce around and make it up as they go.

From the way you're describing things, it sounds like your current process isn't working for you, and you may benefit from changing your approach to creating entirely. You already seem to be consciously aware of the parts that are causing the most difficulty and frustration for you, so the next step is to brainstorm how to modify them to make your creativity more accessible to you.

I, for example, write scenes out of order and constantly go back and add to them as I get new ideas. I also draw my lineart in random sections, moving on to a new one anytime I get bored (even if the current section isn't finished) until it eventually comes together like a patchwork quilt. These are some ways I've found to keep things interesting and keep me engaged in the work, and they may seem weird, but they sure do work!

-

So Let's Do Some Brainstorming

If you overthink your outlines and then feel stifled by them, try deliberately limiting how much detail you allow yourself to include. It's not an 'all or nothing' situation, and you can practise and experiment with varying document layouts and amounts of detail until you've found something that feels more approachable.

If you're currently writing paragraphs, try bullet points, or a flow chart, or sticky notes that you can rearrange. If you plot out every detail, try starting with only the most major events so you always have some direction for where the story is going but still allow for more freedom and creativity. If you spend hours on an outline, try setting a timer so you only have a set amount of time for each point.

And remember that you can change your outline as you go! If you're so caught up in following your outline that it's stifling your creativity, maybe it's an issue of perspective rather than process. Remind yourself that your outline is a tool to help you and that you're free to adjust it whenever it's not serving its purpose.

I don't know what your current process looks like so maybe these specific examples aren't helpful to you, but hopefully they can illustrate how to look at the areas where you're getting stuck and find a way to change them so that they suit your needs. Even if it seems unconventional or doesn't align with the process other people use or have told you to use, it's important to do what works for you.

-

In Summary / TL;DR

Creativity in general often comes down to experimenting until you find a method/process/style that works for you, and that's true for anyone. It's also true that art rarely goes exactly as planned, and sometimes you just have to accept that you've done well enough and move on.

But when you're a creator with ADHD/ASD, it can be extra difficult to do so because of our unique challenges related to internal motivation, perfectionism, and staying focused and flexible. Being aware of your symptoms and the challenges that they might present, and specifically tailoring your workspace and process to account for them while being kind to yourself when you find yourself struggling, can allow you to create with a lot less frustration.

None of these changes will happen instantaneously, but hopefully being aware of them and making the effort over time will help you to start seeing a difference in your work. Good luck!

[sparks-joy-imagines]

Bestie, I loved your Sukuna smut! Give us some more, perhaps something with some praise? 😌

hello bestie✨

I am so very happy you enjoyed the Sukuna smut! (I still try to tone him down a bit, ‘cause let’s face it – who’d actually survive him? lol) hope you enjoy what happened here~ - mesu. ps: if you want a 2nd part where he's not as tame anymore ask away😘

Ryōmen Sukuna x f!reader

warnings: vaginal penetration, unsafe intercourse (pls don’t do this), Sukuna (albeit he’s rather tame in this one? idk)

The very moment you crossed paths with Sukuna you should’ve known. Only that it wasn’t a question of life and death, rather a question of control and surrendering such. Back then, you didn’t run, found him fascinating and his intrigue with you intoxicating. Sukuna had given you every single thing you asked for, and didn’t ask anything in return, or so it seemed.

You didn’t mind surrendering control to him since he never gave a reason to let you think that you couldn’t claim it back at any given moment. That is until you mis-stepped one month ago and he had very clearly shown you just how much you had submitted to him and how distinct his expectations were for you to follow his lead.

One month.

One month had gone by and Sukuna hadn’t laid a single finger of his many on you. Neither had you been allowed to even think about touching yourself. No matter how needy you became in the aftermath of your debatably excessive previous sex life with the king of curses. I’ll know if you do as much as think about it, he had warned you with the same aloof smirk of his you had once found appealing. Right now, you would very much like to punch his teeth out because he had effectively put you in time out like a damn toddler.

It didn’t help much either that you had just been caught up in Sukuna’s domain expansion, effectively making you sit pouting with your arms and legs crossed on the futon in his temple.

“Oh come on dear, aren’t you happy to see me in the flesh?”

“Go to hell”

You couldn’t bear looking at him so you closed your eyes in protest. The tone of his voice illustrated his smug expression enough to make the tiny hairs on the skin of your bare neck stand up and you fought the upcoming shivers longing to run down your spine.

“Now you don’t really mean that, do you, pet?”

His voice. Right next to your left ear. Your eyes fluttered open and you felt the tip of Sukuna’s nose follow the line of your jaw as he pulled back to face you. You knew you had lost this fight even before it had begun when you looked into his deep eyes and shook your head a simple no, not willing to share how much you had missed him close to you.

A satisfied smirk tugged at one corner of Sukuna’s mouth as he grabbed your chin with his sharp nails and turned your head a little to get a proper look at you, “I see you’ve kept your part of the bargain up.”

“What makes you think that?” you mused, trying to grasp Sukuna’s thoughts.

Now, also the second corner of his mouth tugged up in a pleased expression and he gave you a nudge to make you fall on your back. The next moment he had untangled your arms and legs and got comfortable between your thighs, taking his sweet time to tear your clothes out of the way, one of the reasons you didn’t invest in expensive clothing anymore. You let it happen for now.

“Simple,” Sukuna hummed as he casually discarded shreds of clothing, “you’re looking at me like a starved wolf hungry for a meal. Like I knew you would. Like I wanted you to.”

You furrowed your brows and glanced at the mirrored ceiling. Indeed your eyes had a certain darkness to them. Primal lust. You had never seen that expression on yourself before. You knew you had nothing on him but it irked you that he was just doing as he pleased.

“And as you have been so very obedient for the past couple weeks, I’ll grant you a reward,” Sukuna continued as he slipped out of his kimono, already done undressing you completely.

He didn’t answer your questioning look and instead started kissing down your neck deeply to your chest. Your torso rocked up instantly when Sukuna’s teeth connected to your collar bone, but the curse was quick to press you down to the sheets again, making you groan in frustration.

“Shh, babygirl, you’ve been so good for the past month. Don’t ruin it for yourself on the brink of bliss,” Sukuna teased and was about to continue his way down your torso, when you pushed against him with all of your might and… actually succeeded in making him falter, allowing you to roll on top of him.

Swept up by the momentum you felt a rush of unknown superiority and leaned down closely to Sukuna’s amused face and purred on his lips, “Not this time, darlin’. You don’t get to starve me of this for a month and then just decide for me what I want.”

“Fine, then show me, (Y/N),” Sukuna muttered back against our lips, a splash of curiosity in his tone, “show me everything you’ve pent up.”

“I will!” you exclaimed as you rubbed your soaked cunt on Sukuna’s crotch. You could feel his member twitch excitedly against your folds and it took every last bit of self-restraint to withhold your moans from ebbing over your lips as you lowered yourself on him.

You threw your head in your nape and took a moment to get used to feeling so filled up. Granted, Sukuna had always pushed your capacity to its very limits but feeling him for the first time in what felt like forever triggered all of your senses into overload.

If it had been a different time, a different day, you would have given credit to actually give you time to adjust, but right now you just wanted to feel him corrupt every single piece of your body.

You barely noticed how you began moving on him, your hips circling on his in a rapidly accelerating pace. More and more lewd sounds escaped your throat as you started touching yourself, one hand at your clit, the other cupping your boob. You didn’t care though. This felt right, this felt like what you deserved.

Sukuna was all but a fraction of the euphoria you built for yourself as you reclaimed the control you had missed for so long.

You only realised he was moving against you when he thrust up in exactly the angle that made you see stars. Your body jerked up in an almost unnatural twist as you became unravelled, your juices spilling all over Sukuna, your voice echoed through the domain.

It took a few moments before you were able to gather yourself again. You were surprised to find yourself cradled up in Sukuna’s lap with him sporting his usual smug expression again.

“I knew you had it in you, pet,” Sukuna gloated as he let you lean to his chest. You could feel his cock poking at your arse.

“What? Using you as my personal sex toy?” you chuckled.

Sukuna scoffed, “Being assertive enough to change things up a bit with me.”

You smirked, “Then let me be assertive enough to suggest that we continue?”

[jiminrings]

hi hannah !! can i request a drabble where jungkook visits florist!y/n and he went “hi i’m here to get a flower for my girlfriend” and the girlfriend is y/n. i’m sorry if it doesn’t make sense 😭 love u <3

full blooms

love u too bestie <3

aka jungkook really should’ve thought this through!!

...... oh no

there are so many people in the shop

not just any shop though :D

sometimes you collectively forget that this is yOUR shop and you’re the literal owner of it and you’re not just working it

and sometimes, you forget just how influential things could be

case in point: kim taehyung !!

kim taehyung as in the hottest musician in the scene rn, who happens to be vante on spotify, AND someone who you just happen to know as kim taehyung!!!

kim taehyung as in the friendly customer who comes into your shop more oftenly to look at your flowers than to buy them

and you just let him look at them without buying anything because there’s no harm in it!! the guy is just straight-up Vibing looking at the flowers

(and he also leaves a handsome tip in your jar even when he doesn’t buy anything!!)

you just knew him to be that pleasant customer,,, not exactly a world-renowned musician you couldn’t exactly piece together

but apparently, you’re now more aware than ever lmao

taehyung sneaked in the name of your flower shop somewhere into the lyrics of the mOST famous song from his newly-released album

flowers from spring day on my mind, corner of the street with the neon sign, heaven on my mind and i spent no dime

goddamn

it just so happens that you letting THEE vante look at flowers as he pleases has become his favorite routine and it just makes him so happy in general

so happy to the point that your shop is specifically mentioned

— so, so happy to the point that your shop had become fully-packed and was making single-file lines that stretched all across four blocks overnight

so sO happy to the point that he had unknowingly become a catalyst for your shop to be almost fined because so many people were clogging sidewalks and a warning to get it together so that there would be better organization

YOUR SHOP WAS LITERALLY FEATURED ON THE NEWS?????

anyways, taehyung slipped in from the staffroom you mentioned to him in passing two days after he dropped his album, and then could you properly freak out about him

he was giggly the whole time when you were spouting out your disbelief for him but tHEN he also apologized for all the (positive & money-making) trouble he’s gotten you into

and he managed to sales-talk you (u swear u are the boss here) into collaborating with him for a limited collection with all the favorite flowers he’s taken note of so he could share it with his fans

he even brought you a notebook with all the illustrations and ideas he’s conceptualized so yeah,,,, there’s that

not only do you serve more than a full house in your flower shop and spend much more hours and energy, you’ve also agreed to add something big into your plate that’s easily getting crowded

what a good thing you have jungkook :D

you could literally not ask for a better boyfriend than jungkook

he’s been so supportive the whole time and he kept sHRIEKING when you casually told him that the frequent sight-seeing customer turned out to be vante himself

“all this time?! all this time and you fORGOT to mention to me that he wears a leather watch and a pearl necklace??? baby, those are basically his trademarks!!”

he supports you in ways you can’t even fathom <3

he was supposed to help you in the shop to help tackle the horde of vante-loving and flowers-from-spring-day enthusiasts, but he got an even better idea

he spent the whole week designing and building an online website for spring day from scratch!! he wanted it to be perfect for you and everything you stand by

also even him, a computer sciences graduate, had to back up the website extra nifty because he already predicts that it would get so much traffic (!!)

he took it upon himself to hire from his friends to be your helpers for the shop because ur severely under-staffed

he has tHREE more-than-willing candidates!!!

jimin’s summer job in college was him being a cashier in goddamn music festivals :D OF COURSE he’s gonna be the greatest cashier you’ll ever have!!! he can whip up change even before the customer hands the bills; he’s that good

he also has a great stern voice of making people stand in organized lines and not cut it so that would come handy

hoseok has a great instinct for color theory!!! he just knows what works and what doesn’t and you need an extra mind to help conceptualize arrangements in the blink of an eye

namjoon is a master of small talk and an all-rounder!! you have a loT of customers who have no gist whatsoever on what they want, and you don’t want to risk giving them an arrangement they loathe!! he knows how to hit it

he was actually so excited when jungkook pitched him a job offer

he could literally go “y/n, the lady in yellow has a dalmatian. i could tell she would tulips in her arrangement along with hydrangeas.”

so that’s that, basically

you and jungkook have been hectic and apart for a whole week because you practically sleep in the shop trying to keep up with everything

he’s actually keeping the website and sneaky hires from you as secrets in the meantime because he wants to surprise you!!! like literally right now

he enters from the staffroom and make sure none of the people waiting by the entrance see him because that would be utter chaos

the shutters are all closed so no one from outside can see what’s inside, but you actually fAIL to realize that your shop would still be closed for another ten minutes

the moment you hear a voice, your mind automatically goes to “hi! welcome to spring day. what blooms would you like?” mode :|

jungkook frowns because you look so haggard under his trained eye even if you still look well-kempt!! you can’t have your shops and yourself appear ratty in the eager instagram stories that taehyung’s fans take

but that’s okay!!! he’ll coax you to come home with him tonight because he’s gonna tell you about his hires this morning

“hi! welcome to spring day. what blooms would you like?”

you briefly look up to send a smile, already fetching your paper on your left hand and twine and scissors on the other

“hi! i’m here to get flowers for my girlfriend.”

“that sounds lovely. what would you-“

wait

hold on a second

that’s jungkook’s voice....??

that’s your bOYFRIEND’S VOICE???

“j-jungkook?”

you mutter and the boy beams in return, registering the blank look on your face to be surprise instead of what you’re thinking

the tears suddenly pool at the corner of your eyes even before you realize

“is this your way of breaking up with me?”

...

.....

“what? nO!”

your shoulders visibly sag in relief but jungkook’s clearly perplexed on how you even came to that

“why would i ever be dumb enough to break up with you?” he immediately consoles you when you bury your face in your hands, hopping over the counter to put you in a massive hug

“i-i haven’t slept, dummy!! and i figured that you hate me because we haven’t seen each other for a week and-“

you say in between sobs and chuckles, giggling when your cheeks are smushed and jungkook keeps peppering you with wet kisses

“ten minutes before opening,” kook sweetly reminds you, kissing you on the lips after an entire week that the sheer euphoria he’s getting now is enough to last another

“mhmmm,” you hum when he presses his warm hand on the small of your back, “tell me about your week in ten minutes.”

“sounds good,” he affirms, scratching your scalp that makes you relax even more until he stops red-faced —

“but like, while multitasking, y’know? kiss me while i tell you about my week.”

[perpetual-stories]

How To Fight Writers Block

hello, hello. hope everyone is doing well. as you can all tell, this post will be about how to fight writers block.

it’s really annoying to me when I hear people say “oh you don’t have writers block, you’re just lazy.”

first of all, yes, I am naturally lazy. second of all, how dare you. writing isn’t as easy as many think. granted, all you have to do is write down words on paper, but it’s not always easy to find the right words to express what you are feeling, or what you wish to say.

I have had terrible writer’s block for the last few days and it’s horrible! as a business owner or a small writing store, I have to be ready to write and fulfill my clients’ ideas and orders.

it’s not easy. It takes a heavy toll on my imagination, and digs me a deep pit of blockage, drowning in the lack of originality because of the constant writing and repetition or certain phrases and sentences in different projects.

i am making this post in the hopes to remind myself about over coming the dreaded and sometimes skeptically believed writer’s block.

What is writer’s block?

Yeah, I know. We all know what that is, but let me define it.

is the state of being unable to proceed with writing, and/or the inability to start writing something new

some people believe it to be a real problem, others believe it's “all in your head”

What Causes Writer’s Block?

in the 1970s, clinical psychologists Jerome Singer and Michael Barrios decided to find out

they concluded that there are four broad causes of writer's block:

Excessively harsh self-criticism

Fear of comparison to other writers

Lack of external motivation, like attention and praise

Lack of internal motivation, like the desire to tell one's story

How to overcome writer's block: 20 tips

1. Develop a writing routine:

Author and artist Twyla Tharp once wrote: “Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is a result of good work habits.”

it might seem counterintuitive

if you only write when you “feel creative,” you're bound to get stuck in a tar pit of writer's block

The only way to push through is by disciplining yourself to write on a regular schedule. It might be every day, every other day, or just on weekends — but whatever it is, stick to it!

2. Use "imperfect" words:

A writer can spend hours looking for the perfect word or phrase to illustrate a concept

You can avoid this fruitless endeavor by putting, “In other words…” and simply writing what you’re thinking, whether it’s eloquent or not

You can then come back and refine it later by doing a CTRL+F search for “in other words.”

3. Do non-writing activities:

one of the best ways to climb out of a writing funk is to take yourself out of your own work and into someone else’s

Go to an exhibition, to the cinema, to a play, a gig, eat a delicious meal

immerse yourself in great STUFF and get your synapses crackling in a different way

Snippets of conversations, sounds, colors, sensations will creep into the space that once felt empty

4. Freewrite through it:

free-writing involves writing for a pre-set amount of time without pause — and without regard for grammar, spelling, or topic. You just write.

The goal of freewriting is to write without second-guessing yourself — free from doubt, apathy, or self-consciousness, all of which contribute to writer's block. Here’s how:

Find the right surroundings. Go somewhere you won't be disturbed.

Pick your writing utensils. Will you type at your computer, or write with pen and paper? (Tip: if you're prone to hitting the backspace button, you should freewrite the old-fashioned way!)

Settle on a time-limit. Your first time around, set your timer for just 10 minutes to get the feel for it. You can gradually increase this interval as you grow more comfortable with freewriting.

5. Relax on your first draft:

Many writers suffer form perfectionism, which is especially debilitating during a first draft

“Blocks often occur because writers put a lot of pressure on themselves to sound ‘right’ the first time. A good way to loosen up and have fun again in a draft is to give yourself permission to write imperfectly.” — editor Lauren Hughes

perfect is the enemy of good,” so don't agonize about getting it exactly right! You can always go back and edit, maybe even get a second pair of eyes on the manuscript

6. Don’t start at the beginning:

the most intimidating part of writing is the start, when you have a whole empty book to fill with coherent words

instead of starting with the chronological beginning of whatever it is you’re trying to write, dive into middle, or wherever you feel confident

7. Take a shower:

Have you ever noticed that the best ideas tend to arrive while in the shower, or while doing other “mindless” tasks?

research shows that when you’re doing something monotonous (such as showering, walking, or cleaning), your brain goes on autopilot, leaving your unconscious free to wander without logic-driven restrictions

showering is my favourite thing to do if I may add

8. Balance your inner critic:

successful writers have in common is the ability to hear their inner critic, respectfully acknowledge its points, and move forward

You don't need to completely ignore that critical voice, nor should you cower before it

you must establish a respectful, balanced relationship, so you can address what's necessary and skip over what's insecure and irrelevant

9. Switch up your tool:

a change of scenery can really help with writer's block. However, that scenery doesn't have to be your physical location — changing up your writing tool can be just as big a help!

if you’ve been typing on your word processor of choice, try switching to pen and paper. Or if you're just sick of Google Docs, consider using specialized novel writing software.

10. Change your POV:

great advice from editor Lauren Hughes: “When blocked, try to see your story from another perspective ‘in the room’ to help yourself move beyond the block. How might a minor character narrate the scene if they were witnessing it? A ‘fly on the wall’ or another inanimate object?

11. Exercise your creative muscles:

Any skill requires practice if you want to improve, and writing is no different! So if you’re feeling stuck, perhaps it’s time for a strengthening scribble-session to bolster your abilities

12. Map out your story:

If your story has stopped chugging along, help it pick up steam by taking a more structured approach — specifically, by writing an outline

13. Write something else:

Though it's important to try and push through writer's block with what you're actually working on, sometimes it's simply impossible

feel free to push your current piece to the side for now and write something new

14. Work on your characters:

It follows that if your characters are not clearly defined, you’re more likely to run into writer’s block

15. Stop writing for readers:

write for yourself, not your potential readers

this will help you reclaim the joy of being creative and get you back in touch with what matters: the story.

this is something I really need to do. because of my etsy business i don't write for fun anymore, but instead as a business and a deadline. i'm going to have to pull out my old crappy wattled fanfics or write some new ones.

16. Try a more visual process:

when words fail you, forget them and get visual. Create mind maps, drawings, Lego structures — ideally related to your story, but whatever unblocks your mind!

17. Look for the root of it:

writer’s block often comes from a problem deeper than simple “lack of inspiration.” So let's dig deep: why are you really blocked? Ask yourself the following questions:

Do I feel pressure to succeed and/or competition with other writers?

Have I lost sight of what my story is about, or interest in where it's going?

Do I lack confidence in my own abilities, even if I've written plenty before?

Have I not written for so long that I feel intimidated by the mere act?

Am I simply feeling tired and run-down?

once you identify what's wrong, it'll be so much easier to fix.

18. Quit the Internet:

If willpower isn’t your strong suit and your biggest challenge is staying focused, try a site blocker like Freedom or an app like Cold Turkey

19. Let the words find you:

meditate, go for a walk, take that shower

Word Palette is a great app that features a keyboard of random words, allowing you to simply click your way to your next masterpiece.

You can also try AI auto-completers like Talk to Transformer, where you can enter a phrase and let the app “guess what comes next.”

even though they often produce nonsense, it's a great way to help that writer's block.

20. Write like Hemingway:

And if your biggest block is your own self-doubt about your prose, Hemingway offers suggestions to improve your writing as you go

it's a pretty cool app if you ask me.

it highlights your sentences (if need be) and makes suggestions on how to improve them!

well, there you have it! a lengthy post on how to fight writer's block. now i just hope i can combat my own soon.

like, comment and reblog if you find this useful! feel free to reblog in instagram and tag me perpetualstories

Follow me on instagram and tumblr for more writing and grammar tips and more!

[five-rivers]

Hobbies

Phic phight! @idiot-cheesehead-archenemy

A series of vignettes about Danny having various hobbies.

(Master the Orb)

Danny exhaled slowly as the ice built up between his hands.  Each new layer glittered in the ghostlight cast by the overhead ambient ectoplasm, embedding complex patterns in the overall piece as new layers built up over it.

“Very good, Great One,” rumbled Frostbite behind his shoulder.  “Your control has improved immensely.”

Danny inhaled equally slowly, examining his work so far but not adding to it quite yet.  “I don’t know.  It looks a little lopsided.”

“Mmm, it looks fine to me.  Especially for such an early attempt.”

Danny sighed, exhaling the ice he had built up with his breath.  “So, it is lopsided.”

“Consider it practice,” said Frostbite, encouragingly. “It takes time to master art of any kind.”

“Humans do ice sculpture, too,” mumbled Danny. “They get really good, too.  I’ve seen pictures.  And videos.  They don’t even have ice powers.”  He rubbed his thumb over the surface, smoothing over a slightly rougher patch.

“That may be true,” said Frostbite, “but, again, you just started, Great One.  You have only had your powers for a little while.  Give yourself some support.”

Danny shrugged.  “I guess it isn’t something my life depends on, so I can relax about it.” He built up another layer of ice. “This is oddly therapeutic, and I don’t say therapeutic lightly.  You know Jazz.”

“I do indeed,” said Frostbite, somewhat ruefully, head half-bowed.  

Jazz could be a force of nature, even more so than ice powers.

He held the ice orb up to the light.  It caught on the patterns he had placed there. Fractals were the easiest.  He was hoping that if he got better, he’d be able to make real sculptures with patterns in them, instead of just orbs.  

But, first, he had to master the orb.  Just like how when drawing you had to do circles first.  Circle. Orb.

Ooorb.  Yep.  

The controlled application of ice.  The evenness of the internal patterns.  The solidity, density, and durability.  

His orb was… not very orblike, despite what Frostbite said.  Frostbite probably thought he was making so flat on purpose.  

Yeah.  He was terrible at this.  

He was having fun, though.  

.

.

 (Furnace)

“You’re taking up glass blowing?” asked Tucker, surprised.

“Yeah?  Is there a problem?” asked Danny, reaching over to stop his friend from accidentally drawing a line of orange sharpie across his poster on the themes in Macbeth.

“No!” said Tucker, quickly.  “But, like, why?  It just seems… unlike you.”

“Exactly,” said Danny, nodding sharply.  “It has absolutely nothing to do with my powers and nothing to do with my family.  Plus, I had a coupon.”

“For glass blowing?”

“It was a groupon,” said Danny.  “For making Christmas tree ornaments.  I’m going to do it with Jazz.”

“But, Danny,” said Sam, looking over from where she was working on her own poster about Twelfth Night, “glass blowing, uh, involves a lot of heat.”

“Sure?”

“Danny, you have an ice core.”

“Ah,” said Danny.  “Well.   I’ve got to use that groupon.  If it doesn’t work out, it’s only the once, right?”

.

“Oh my gosh,” said Danny, wringing sweat out of his t-shirt.  “That was awesome!”  He giggled to himself and peaked into the annealer again.  “So awesome!”

“Uh huh,” said Jazz.  Her attempts had been… rather less successful than Danny’s, partially because she was trying so hard to make them perfect.  But she had managed a few little baubles, nonetheless.  “I think these’ll all be good for the tree. Assuming we get one.”

“And it isn’t set on fire.”

“Oh, yeah, that was a bad year.”

He squeaked open the annealer again, only closing it when the instructor lightly scolded him.  “They’re so terrible and lopsided,” said Danny.  

“Hey,” said Jazz.  “Mine are fine.”

“I know!  I was talking about mine.”

“Ah, okay then.  I agree.”

“You aren’t supposed to agree.”

“What, you want me to lie?  And after you said it first?”

“No,” said Danny.  “But you could be nicer about it.”

“I’m your sister, what do you expect?”

.

.

 (Lung Capacity)

Danny let the last note trail off to complete silence. He stared apprehensively at the assembled student body.  Curse Mr. Lancer’s extra credit talent show assignment.  Any minute now, they’d start laughing at him.  

What was he thinking?  He’d just watched a few YouTube tutorials on breath control, and he thought he could come up here and sing in front of people?  He was a moron, and—

Sam and Tucker started cheering wildly, followed rapidly by everyone else in the gym.  

Okay.  What?

Sam and Tucker, following impulses known only to overexcited teenagers, swarmed up the stage and attacking Danny.  

“Why didn’t you tell us you could sing like that?” demanded Sam.  

“When did you learn?” asked Tucker, doing his level best to noogie Danny.  “Why did you learn?”

“I wanted to improve my, you know, wail,” muttered Danny, “and all the breath control YouTube videos either had to do with diving or singing, so…”  He did a little head wiggle to illustrate his point and also dislodge Tucker.  

“I just can’t believe you kept this a secret from us,” said Sam.  

Danny snorted and took a sort of half bow before attempting to leave the stage.  “My dudes, I am basically made of secrets.”

“Encore!” screamed someone who clearly hated him.  

“Oh, no,” said Danny, bracing himself against Sam and Tucker who were pushing him back into the middle of the stage.  “No encore.  I don’t do encores.”

But now people were chanting.  Chanting.  

“Come on, Danny,” said Tucker.  “Just once!”

“Yeah, these are your fifteen minutes of fame!”

“I had those already!  Multiple times!”

“That was Poindexter.”

“And now it can be you.”

Danny reluctantly took the microphone back off the stand.

.

.

 (Letterhead)

The ink was thick, almost creamy, and paint-like. It was the ectoplasm mix, which also gave it a rich, rosy glow.  

Danny was practicing ghost calligraphy.  Well, one particular subset of ghost calligraphy, one which put special emphasis on the color of the letters as well as how they fit together.  

It was a totally useless hobby.  But it was… not exactly calming.  No.  He’d gotten way too angry about poorly formed arcs and crooked lines a couple of times.  So. Yeah.  Not calming.  But… meditative.  Meditative. And there was something satisfying about seeing the finished product.  

Plus, if he framed his better finished work, they made for good presents for weirdo ghosts.

“You misspelled this,” drawled Ghost Writer.  

“No, I didn’t.”

“Keuwii only has one kei.”

“This is only one kei.”

“What’s this, then?”

“It’s a flourish.”

“A flourish.”

Danny rolled his eyes.  “Everyone’s a critic.  If you don’t want it—”

“I didn’t say that.”

Danny raised an eyebrow.  

Ghost Writer made a show of rolling his eyes. “Very well.  Do you have one for my half-brother Randy.  Perhaps one that says something along the lines of ‘idiot?’”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

.

.

 (Babies on Fire)

“Danny,” said Jazz.  “What are you doing up at three in the morning with a lighter? And… yarn?  Is that yarn?”

“Dad wanted me to learn how to sew,” said Danny, “but I don’t like needles, not the sharp ones, anyway.”

“You get stitches every other week,” pointed out Jazz.

“Exactly,” said Danny, gesturing with the lighter.  “So, I decided to look into, you know, knitting. And I was on knitting websites, and having, you know, a pretty good time with that, but then I found out about the babies.”

“The babies.”

“The babies,” said Danny, seriously.  “And the blankets that are on fire.  It depends on the yarn, you see.  If the yarn is the wrong kind of yarn, if it catches on fire, the blanket can melt onto the baby.  It’s terrible.  Just terrible.”

“I kind of think that if the blanket is on fire you have bigger problems,” said Jazz.  She took a step closer to her obviously insane younger brother.  “Are you… testing the yarn?”

“I have to, Jazz.  It’s for the babies.”

“Alright,” said Jazz.  “You are going to limit it to just the yarn in our house, right?”

“But we don’t have any babies.”

“Okay, that didn’t answer my question, but, like…” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Since we don’t have any babies here, why are you testing the yarn?”

“Because we might have babies here in the future,” said Danny.  “Or I might knit something and give it to someone as a gift and then they give it to their baby.  Oh my gosh, I’d feel so guilty.”

“I’d be more worried about the toxic waste in our basement,” said Jazz, which was exactly the wrong thing to say to a sleep-deprived half-ghost on the edge of an Obsession-fueled breakdown.  Danny vanished in a blur, trailing yarn behind him. Jazz, who had only gotten up for a glass of water, cursed under her breath.

.

.

 (Before the Ball)

“I’m so, so sorry, Dora,” said Danny, holding back something adjacent to laughter.  

Dora laughed, more openly.  “It is fine, Sir Phantom.  Even now, you are better than my brother.”

“Am I really?  Your brother?  Who was raised to do this?”

“Well,” said Dora, letting go and stepping back out of the range of Danny’s feet.  Which were, evidently, both left feet.  “No, I’m afraid, but it is amusing to say, isn’t it?”  She pressed her fingers to her lips, suppressing more laughter.  

“Yeah, it is,” admitted Danny.  

“In any case, you are far more graceful concerning your mistakes than he ever was.  More gallant. A better representative of chivalry altogether.”  She patted the shoulders of his shirt.  

“Thanks,” said Danny.  “Do you think that I’ll be, uh, ready in time for the party?”

“It’s more than a party,” said Dora.  “You’re being officially knighted.  You’ll be a peer of the realm.”

“Aha,” said Danny.  “Yeah.  I don’t… what?  Really? That’s a thing?”

“You thought I was joking?”

“No,” said Danny, drawing out the word.  He had, in fact, thought she was joking and only accepted her offer to teach him how to dance because he thought it sounded like fun and like it might take his mind off his problems.  “Of course not.  So. Dancing.  Important.  For first impressions?”

“Everyone already knows you, Phantom,” said the knight assigned as Dora’s bodyguard.  “But dancing is surprisingly useful for swordplay.  Which you need all the help you can get at.”

“You said I was getting better.”

“That doesn’t mean you’re good.”

“Ouch.”

.

.

 (Time)

“I don’t have time for a hobby,” complained Danny through the Fenton Phones.  “Maybe if the ghosts let up a bit—” He zapped one of said ghosts.  

“Danny, are you fighting ghosts right now?”

“Yeah.  That’s my point.”

“Oh my god, get off the phone.”

“No way!  This is the only time I can call you, what with all of your classes.”

“Danny…” said Jazz, clearly exasperated.  He took advantage of the lull in the conversation to blast a few more ghosts.  

“I’m fine Jazz.”

“You are not fine.  You are, like, ten thousand miles away from fine.  When was the last time you even slept through the night?”

“Eh,” said Danny.  “Recently?”

“You need to take more time for yourself.”

Danny sighed and captured the last ghost.  “Maybe catching ghosts is my hobby.”

“Catching ghosts is your self-imposed penance for doing something that isn’t even your fault.  Not a hobby.”

“Okay, okay.  I’ll talk to you on Wednesday, same time.”

“Danny, don’t—”

He hung up.  

“Ugh,” said Danny.  “I guess I need to find a hobby.  Have to find time to find a hobby.”

“Perhaps I could be of help.”

“Ah!”  Danny jolted forward, dropping his phone.  

Clockwork gestured with one hand, and the phone dropped back into Danny’s hands from above.  

“Ohhh my ghost, why are you here?”

“You were just talking about finding time.  And now I’m here.”

“Good timing, I guess?”

“Only the best,” said Clockwork, evenly.  “But we were speaking of hobbies.  Might I suggest ice sculpture?  Your friends in the Far Frozen would be more than happy to teach you...”

[thechekhov]

Hi Chekhov! Really enjoying your white diamond au! I had a quick art question: How do you start comissions? I've been improving my drawing skills and thinking about drawing for others after having fun in artfight, but I don't know where to start? How much to charge, how to get paid, etc. Do you have any tips? Hope you're doing well! :)

Alright, since a few people have asked, I’ve decided to put together a few things about how to get started on commissions - what you need, what you should make, and how to keep things organized. 

This will get a little long, so I’ll divide it into 4 main sections:

1) Draw Art - Getting started

2) Get Commissioned - Making a commission sheet, Advertising

3) ??? - Communicating, Setting Limits, Running the Business

4) Profit - Pricing Yourself and Getting Paid

* Disclaimer: I’m an artist, so this How-To will be illustration-focused. I’m sure many of these tips can apply to ANY types of commissions, but I will be focusing on the type I know best. If you are proficient in other types of commissions for other types of art - music commissions, photography, etc - feel free to chime in and leave a comment or make your own tutorial!

1) Draw Art

I think this is probably the most obvious part, but it needs to be said:

Before you start making art for other people, you must first be comfortable making art in general.

I’m not saying your art has to be Disney-quality, or industry-level! Not at all. 

BUT! You must be comfortable creating what you sell. If you try to sell something you have little confidence in, you will stress yourself out and possibly end up losing time AND money.

Don’t shoot for the moon if you haven’t landed on it even once. Sell what you know you’re good at. Your commissions don’t HAVE to include full-body illustrations if you don’t know how to draw feet/solid stances. Limit yourself to what you can do.

Things you need to should probably have before starting commissions:

1. Access to art materials or a fully downloaded art program

DO NOT - Use a free tutorial version that will expire in a month and leave you without a way to draw! If you are having trouble finding a program, try free ones like MediBang Paint Pro. 

2. Free time to complete the amount of commissions you want to take.

DO NOT - Take on or offer commissions if you KNOW you’re going to be overwhelmed with school or personal life for the next 2+ months. Pace yourself, otherwise you’ll burn out, get stressed, and get discouraged.

3. A reliable way to communicate with your customers like a commissions-only email 

DO NOT - Use your friend/family/college email. It’s hard to keep track of things as it is, and creating new emails is easy and free. And keep it professional if you can! Not many people will reach out to dong-wiggles20434 to ask for a design. Ideally, your email should be close to your brand - however you want to brand yourself. Usernames are fine!)

DO NOT - Use Instagram/Twitter/Tumblr to collect commission info unless you are ready to do the organizing yourself. Some people make it work, but in my experience, if you use these SNS sites to communicate with friends and network... you’re going to be losing commission inquiries right and left and accidentally ignoring people. Email is much easier to organize and sort into folders.

4. A portfolio or at least 2-3 pieces of each type of art you’re planning to sell. 

DO NOT - Advertise commissions without having any examples of the art you plan to sell. People will find it difficult to trust you if you can’t even give them a vague idea of what sort of drawing they’ll be getting. 

Disclaimer: These are not hard ‘do not’s. If you have had a different experience, I respect that. I’m simplifying for the sake of streamlining this advice. 

.

2) Get Commissioned

So - you have your art, you have your art program, and you’ve got all the time in the world. That means.... that’s right! It’s time to let the world know you’re taking commissions.

One of the most common ways artists signal to their audience that they can do commissions is by creating a commissions sheet. There are MANY ways to make this - and they range from simple and doodly ones to VERY complex designs. For example, here’s mine! 

There are many ways to organize a commission sheet. At its core, a commission sheet should display the types of art you WANT to be commissioned to make. Let’s go over a few ways they can be done!

#1.... Body Portion Dividers!

This sheet is most common with those who want to capitalize on drawing people and characters. If you want to draw lots of characters, this is a great way to offer several tiers of pricing based on how much of their character your customers want to see. 

#2... Complexity Scale

If you’re open to drawing many things but want to base your pricing off of how complex something is, you can split your tiers into done-ness. This type of commission is popular with those that draw characters AND animals, furries, etc.

#3....  Style and Type

If you’re more on the design side of things, or if you have various niche art styles that you can’t quite lump together, display a variety of your skills alongside each other! It helps if all the ones you have can be organized under a common customer - like those looking to advance their own business and get logos, websites, or mascots made for them!

.

3) ???

You got your first commission... what happens now???

Well, ideally you have the time, tools and motivation to make things happen! Now all you have to do is... sit down and... draw.......

I’m going to say something that may be a little controversial: 

Commissions aren’t fun. 

No, no, hear me out: I have fun doing commissions! I genuinely enjoy drawing characters and coming up with designs. But even with all that said, commissions are, first and foremost: WORK

I’m not saying this to discourage you, I’m saying this to keep things realistic. When I first began commissions, I thought it would be just like any other type of drawing. I would sit down, imagine a thing, draw it... it would be fun! 

But then I realized that I couldn’t just draw what I wanted - another person had an idea in mind and had asked me to do it. I stressed over getting the design correct from descriptions. I stressed over not having the right reference for the pose the commissioner wanted. I stressed over not being able to draw the leg right in the way I had promised I would do. I stressed about billing. I stressed about digital money transfers. It was difficult, and time-consuming, and I did not enjoy it. At all. 

And a part of that is definitely on the commissioner - we, as artists, NEED to demand proper references or descriptions. We, as artists, NEED to limit the amount of changes we’re going to make at the flick of a finger. We NEED to demand clear instructions and set boundaries. That’s also super important. 

But also - don’t be discouraged if you find yourself exhausted drawing your first commission. MANY artists go through this. Adjust your rules, fix up your limits, practice putting your foot down on finicky commissioners who expect you to read their mind! It does get easier, but you have to communicate and put in the effort and act as your own manager AND your own customer service AND your own accountant. That’s what you’re looking at. 

Good limits and boundaries to set: 

Limit the amount of changes a person can ask to make. “I want blue hair.” Next email: “No wait, yeah, make it red.” Next email: “Actually I changed my mind, can I get the blue but like, lighter?” Next email: “No, not that light.” ... At some point, we have to stop. I personally allow 2-3 changes on the final stages of a commission before I start refusing or start asking for extra money.

Demand clear instructions and/or references. If something isn’t described, you have to take artistic liberty and design it, but that’s difficult! And if the customer is not happy with it but can’t tell you more? That’s not your problem - the burden of reference is on THEM. You cannot read their mind, and that’s not your fault.

Get at least half the payment up front! This is a good balance between the ‘pay before art’ and the ‘pay after art’ conundrum that will limit the amount of woes between artist and customer. (I’ll touch upon this a little more in the Profit section.)

Organization:

Where possible, create good habits! Tag your emails and organize your folders. I have a tag on my emails for active and finished commissions. I also keep my emails on Unread until I have time to sit down and properly look at/reply to them.

My Commissions in the folder are also organized chronologically and I mark down which ones are paid and which ones are not.

(I understand not everyone can do this, but if you want to give it a try, it does make things easier in the long run. Again, this advice is just what I have found personally helps.)

One last thing - I do not want to shame ANYONE for taking their time with commissions! Commissions are complex, and they take time and work. You can draw in 8 hours, but some things take research, materials, etc. Some illustrations realistically take up to half a year, or, depending on what’s involved, several years!!

THAT BEING SAID - it’s good manners to be upfront with your customers about how long you expect the commission to take. If you think you’re busy, just say that! Explain that you have a lot going on, and you will probably take (insert time period here).

And if your commissioners are worried, work out a system to keep them updated! I send my commissioners updates when I finish the lineart/flat colors/etc and I try to be clear about how long everything will take. I try to estimate with a +3-5 days buffer to give myself extra time... and recently I’ve been using it. Always say a bigger number than you think you’ll need. 

If someone wants a rushed commission... make them pay more. If ANYONE wants a commission done ‘by the end of the week’ - that’s an automatic rush-job for me because I’m juggling an irl job and several commissions at once. I WILL charge a rush fee and I won’t feel bad about it. 

If someone wants a commission within 24 hours...... Well, they better be paying you 3x your normal amount, or more. And remember - you CAN refuse! It’s perfectly reasonable to say ‘No, sorry, that sort of turnaround time is not realistic for me.’

Food For Thought - Invoicing

Many artists I’ve commissioned in the past have not used Invoicing, but I’ve recently begun to fill out invoices and file them in my Commissions folder just to keep track of things. It’s not necessary until you start getting into the Small Business side of Freelancing, but it’s not a bad idea to get into the habit early in case you might need to do it later for tax purposes. 

Here’s what my Invoice looks like, for example. 

I’ve optimized it to help me remember who, what, and how much is involved! It also contains important info for my customers like where to send the money.

Which brings us to...

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4) Profit

One of the hardest things for artists is pricing themselves. I’m not going to tell you which way is BEST - there is no BEST way, only the best way for YOU. 

One of the options available to you is pricing by the hour. It includes averaging out how long it takes you to draw a specific type of art (whatever you’re offering as a commission) and multiplying that by an hourly wage you’ve decided on.

When you do this, I stress - do NOT price yourself below minimum wage if you can help it. When you first start out, aim for the $15/hour mark and adjust accordingly. 

Other ways to price your art:

- Per complexity: Portraits vs full body should be scaled based on how difficult you find one vs. the other. You can also easily decide on a price for a sketch and double it for lineart, triple it for full color, etc.

- Per type: Look up for industry prices for website design and logo design. They may surprise you! You don’t have to charge that much, but it helps to keep things in perspective. 

It’s okay to change your prices! Keep your commission sheet image handy so you can update the amounts as you grow. :)

Payment up front or after completion?

Some artist take full payment up front. Some only demand payment after they’ve finished and sent out the piece. I personally think these are both risky for everyone involved. 

I recommend doing at least HALF of the payment BEFORE you start the commission. Calculate your full price and ask for half before you start working on it in earnest, to make sure the person can actually pay you. Then, when they receive the full piece and are satisfied, they can complete the payment. 

I personally work in this structure:

> Someone emails me with their idea/reference

> I send back a rough draft sketch that shows the idea/pose (only takes me 10-20 minutes so not a huge loss if they ghost) and quote them a price

> They can pay the full thing upfront OR pay half

> I finish the commission and send updates when I do the lineart/colors to double check anything so they have multiple chances to spot any errors

> If the person paid only half on completion, I send them a low-res version of the finished thing, they finish up their payment and THEN I send them the full-res version plus any other filetypes/CYMK proofs, etc. 

Many of the people who commission me pay me up front even though I offer they pay half - and I’m really flattered that they trust me that much! Because of that, I feel encouraged to update them frequently and ask for their input as I work, so they have the peace of mind knowing I’m actually doing their commission. 

Great, but how do I get PAID????

There are NUMEROUS ways - these days money is relatively easy to transfer over digital means, and you have a few options. 

Paypal is perhaps one of the oldest digital wallets and is geared towards businesses. By setting up a PayPal and connecting it to your debit card of bank account, you can tunnel a pathway from your online business directly into your hands in a matter of days. 

Paypal also offers Invoicing - you make an invoice, price it and send it to the person’s email and they can pay whatever way they need! (It also allows partial payments.)

Pros: transfers from PayPal to bank account are free, and take a couple of business days. It also has no upper limit to the amount of money you can move in/out each month. It can force refunds due to the nature of its business-oriented payment system.

Cons: Because it’s used by businesses for larger transactions, PayPal may demand a more rigorous proof of your identity. It may also take longer to set up and be harder to get used to. I’ve also heard that they can be a hassle when it comes to closing your account. 

Venmo is another type of digital wallet that acts much like paypal, except for a few key differences - it is NOT made for businesses (so depending on whether you’re officially registered as a freelancer, you may not be able to use it). I personally don’t use venmo, so I cannot speak to its usefulness, but I know a few people that use it for casual transactions. It’s easy and quick! :) 

Keep in mind that you cannot force a refund over venmo! The transactions are final.

There’s also CashApp, GooglePay (which could load gift cards but also allows peer-to-peer transactions) and I’ve heard good things about Due, though I’ve never personally used it.

Other ways to pay: I’ve had people pay me over Patreon by upping their pledge, and I’ve had people pay me over Ko-Fi by donating a specific amount. 

Many people even use Etsy - the website specialized for independent small businesses selling art - by listing their commission sheet and offering up several ‘slots’ of commissions, which allows you to track taxes AND allows your clients to pay using whatever they feel comfortable with.

If you’re in Canada, you can even pay by emailing money directly from bank account to bank account - check whether your country offers this type of service! There’s no shortage of ways to move money in the digital world.

Just like everything else, there’s no singular ‘Best’ way. It just depends on what works for you.

I think that just about wraps it up! I can’t quite think of what else to put here - but I’m sure other artists will chime in with their own advice. :) I’m very sorry this became so long but I hope it was helpful! 

Obligatory Disclaimer: I’m not qualified to give legal or accounting counsel. Please double-check the laws in your own country/state in regards to taxation of freelancing work and do your own research. If you are underage, DEFINITELY get an adult’s permission before you start doing commissions, and have the adult help you through the process.   

. . . . . . . . . . . . 

OTHER POSTS YOU MAY FIND USEFUL:

An Extended Post on Pricing Yourself for Commissions

Dealing with Imposter Syndrome/Feeling ‘Not Good Enough’

Growing Your Audience

Advice for Starting Digital Art

[nebulous-tundra]

Jumin for the character meme? 👋😮

YES, FINALLY! my man!

favorite thing about them

his struggle with loneliness. Cheritz took a man with wealth beyond our feeble imaginings and gave him a psychosis that made him so fucking relatable. for real though they really hit the nail on the head with him: hyper-focusing on your job, dismissing big familial issues, putting too much emotional weight onto your pet, these are things i think most people can relate to do, and Cheritz tied them together with loneliness, distilled them to their base issues, and fed them to Jumin on a silver spoon. his BEs reflect how horribly his life can spiral if he doesn't properly address(BE3 is actually more of a reflection of MC's character but i digress) the root problem: his inability to make meaningful connections to other, and a dating sim is the perfect setting to explore that! unlike Damien who i was talking about before, Jumin is a perfect example of executing a premise perfectly and to it's logical conclusion

least favorite thing about them

while i do appreciate Jumin's wealth being part of the appeal of his character, his capitalistic sympathies are kindaaaa the elephant in the room for me. why run a charity fundraiser when he already has so much wealth at his disposal- i mean he's donating too but considering the things he's mentioned buying for Elizabeth the Third i feel like he's pretty close to having enough money to end world hunger......well. if i can suspend my disbelief about Saeyoung flying i guess i can also pretend the economics of the MysMe world is fundamentally different i guess lol

favorite line

"You must be blind to not know where my eyes are. You can't even see with your left eye now?

Everything you're hiding, your secrets, they're all fine. I'll trust whatever you do and follow you. But please... don't lie to me! At least not you... at least not you...! Don't you feel ashamed to Rika? And to yourself!? When did you start living with so little dignity? Even my friendship... How dare you treat it like this!

You crossed the line, V... You made a mistake if you thought you could fool me. Think about all the years we spent together. You can't even count the numbers? You idiot... Drop the soap opera. Quit with the bullshit that you have cancer.

Damn it! Where do you have to go? Where at this point!?"

this is one of the few times we actually see Jumin call out V and reprimand him, and it is so worth it. Jumin has plenty of good moments but this one definitely takes the cake, especially after all we learn about what V has let transpire in his and Saeran's routes

brOTP

Jumin & Zen, such a fun dynamic, everytime you see them in chat together you know you're in for a treat, even if Zen takes it a little too far sometimes lol.

OTP

i mean.....if i said anything other than Jumin x MC i would expect y'all to shoot me- as is your duty

nOTP

Jumin x Jihyun. purely because i hate V. also Jumin x Jaehee, because i respect her too much to do that to her LMAO

random headcanon

i feel like we already have so much canon from Cheritz that i don't even need to have my own lil headcanons buuuuut i guess that he doesn't really mind how things taste too much, he'll eat anything once(if his dietician says it's alright). despite this he has a p good idea of what he does and doesn't like, even if he strays from it at times

unpopular opinion

is it unpopular to acknowledge that he had romantic feelings for Rika? i can't seem to remember where the fandom was at on that

song i associate with them

okay i actually have quite a few of these, i have a whole playlist from when i was a neet and would do nothing but draw comics about him

Jumin's Theme v.2 - Mystic Messenger OST

<-- this one's obvious but i would be remiss to not include it

Things Remembered - Kakegurui OST

<-- good Jumin work vibes

Meltdown [Jazz Cover] - Baguettes Ensemble

<-- a nice, luxurious cover to listen to whenever i think about the nice, luxurious life Jumin must lead

What You Won't Do for Love - Bobby Caldwell

<-- good husband Jumin vibes

Flame of Despair - Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion OST

<-- good song for illustrating Jumin's emotional turmoil

Deal with the Devil [Piano Cover] - CANACANA

<-- if there was ever a MysMe anime where Jumin x MC was endgame, this would be the op

regret song - Maya Kern

<-- the lyrics aren't wholy compliant to his character, but a good song for thinking about his prior experiences with love

favorite picture of them

again i can't limit myself to one so

this has wonderful angst, have i ever mentioned i love unrequited loves as a trope?

the expression on Jumin here.....fantastic

okay this one might actually be my favorite

thanks for the ask on Jumin! i swear to god i'm gonna have a 3rd Jumin era sometime whenever i get around to playing the Rika DLC and writing out my Jumin meta on his BE2 DLC(which i have played, WOW). he is top tier husbando material

[nanowrimo]

5 Tips for Finishing Your Novel

April’s session of Camp NaNoWriMo is drawing to a close, and you might find yourself nearing the end of your novel. If you need some tips on writing and polishing the ending of your story, author Derek Murphy is here to share a few! Plus, you can check out the rest of our novel-finishing resources on our #NaNoFinMo page. 

You won NaNoWriMo and have a 50k collection of scenes and sentences, but how do you clean it up and get it done? How do you make sure it’s finished, satisfying and enjoyable? Here are 5 powerful strategies for finishing your novel and some helpful writing tips that will push you past the finish line.

1. Give it a satisfying resolution.

In order to have a powerful story, your book should probably focus on a main character’s change or transformation. There’s an inner war, a.k.a. the character’s emotional healing, and an outer war: the conflict that forced the reckoning. If it’s a purely symbolic internal realization, you can mirror that with actual conflict in the real scene: the breaking of a dish, a fit of rage, a sudden ray of sunlight (or a storm… this should not be pleasant; It’s a breaking point and spiritual death/rebirth).

You can clarify the moment of change by setting up an illustrative contrast, a before and after, that shows how those internal changes have resulted in real-world consequences or benefits. Each character’s unique challenge will match their personal weakness or fear. The price for victory is the one thing they have so far refused to do, or something they cannot give up or bear to lose.

Make sure your protagonist has gone through a transformative struggle to arrive at deep insights, knowledge or awareness. Find a way to deepen the incidental scenes so that they become instrumental to a deeper purpose, leading towards an identity-shifting event.

The plot is what happens, and it’s important. But you can make it more dramatic and meaningful by making sure you demonstrate how hard it was and what it cost. It matters, it is remarkable, because it forced your protagonist to change.

Your conclusion might include:

Physical tension as allies perform a tug-of-war battle against resistance, that shows how difficult this struggle is, and how much force is required.

The consideration phase, as characters are tempted last minute or the price for victory is revealed: the sweet memories that give them awareness that this fight is worth the cost or risk (you need to show them making the choice, knowing what they will lose).

The final flashback, as the full backstory is revealed so we can see exactly why this conflict is so difficult or meaningful for the main character.

2. Add (unresolved) conflict.

Your story is made up of the events and scenes, where something happens. Each new event will push the characters further into the plot. Slow scenes where nothing is really happening can be red flags, so the first thing to focus on is increasing conflict, drama, suspense and intrigue. This is what creates urgency. The full reveal, demonstrating why THIS challenge is so difficult and powerful, should happen just before the final battle or resolution.

You want to make sure every scene, especially in your conclusion, has enough conflict. I recommend these three:

Outer Conflict (threats): Challenges or obstacles that prevent the character from achieving goals.

Inner Conflict (doubts): Moral struggles, decisions, guilt or shame, anger.

Friendly Fire (betrayal): Strong disagreements between allies or supporting characters. 

You want to extend and deepen the potential conflict, without resolving it too easily. The biggest destroyer of conflict is conversation: when your characters just sit around and talk to each other. Most conflict involves a lack of information, and a desire for clarity. A lot of conflict is perceived or imagined.

The most important information needs to come last, and come at a great price. The information that has an emotional impact, and influences their actions and decisions, should be big reveals at dramatic peaks. A surprise or twist should be treated as an event: each scene is leading towards a change or new piece of information that provokes the protagonist to respond.

3. Fill plot holes with character motivation.

After you’ve made sure that “what actually happens” is intriguing (opening questions and raising tensions without resolving them) you can focus on making sure the plot holes are filled, and characters are properly motivated – these two things are usually adjacent.

You can find and fill plot holes by asking:

Why are the characters doing this?

Why does any of it matter?

Basically, readers need to respect the main characters enough to care what happens to them, so their choices and actions need to make sense within the given information. If there’s a simpler, easier solution, readers will get stuck up on “why didn’t they just…”? To fix plot holes and gaps in logic or continuity, or make the story go where you need it to, you can add urgency, fix the mood of the scene (bigger stakes require bigger justifications), show characters in a weakened mental state, or raise concerns but have them dismissed, with an excuse or justification.

You need rational characters to make plausible choices that lead to dire consequences. You need show why they don’t do something easier, or nothing at all, or why they face clear challenges, despite potential obstacles.

They’ll also require a deeper motivation, for why they’re willing to put themselves in identity-destroying conflict, rather than just giving up or running away. Why do they stay in THIS fight, when they’ve run from similar ones? If they weren’t ready at the beginning, why are the ready now – what changed in them, as a result of your story’s journey?

Your protagonist needs to have a strong, consistent internal compass, and it needs to be revealed through incidents that establish their character. This is who they are. Without this reliable core identity, we won’t be able to tell a story that forces them to change. 

4. Let readers picture your story with detailed description.

In the final stages of revision, you can begin improving the description with specific details.

It’s smart to start – or end – a chapter with a vivid, immediate scene. You want to leave readers with an image they can see in their minds, hopefully connected to the feeling you aim to evoke. You can close a chapter with a reference back to a motif or image, with a deeper or more reflective context; applying meaning to the metaphor. This will help readers feel engaged, be moved, and leave a lasting impact.

Vivid scenes are mostly a matter of detailed description, so add the specifics about the story environment. Be precise, not vague. Instead of “she put a plate of tea and snacks on the table” you can write “she gently placed an antique porcelain teapot on the table. I could smell it was Earl Grey from the scent of bergamot. The half-sleeve of Oreos and can of onion-flavored Pringles seemed incongruous with the fancy dishes, but I knew she was making an effort to welcome me.”

Focus on the sensations and feelings; but also zero-in on any potential sources of conflict or internal emotions or states of mind. In my example above, the host might be nervous or ashamed of her spread; or perhaps she has a degenerative brain disease and doesn’t notice the incongruity. Tensions are unspoken, potential sources of negative feelings. They hover in the background of your description.

Readers will remember the pictures you put in their heads, not the words on the page.

Description should serve and be bound to the story, not distract from it.

It should be squeezed into and around the scene action, when the protagonist is using or exploring.

Show what’s different, not what’s the same.

Leave space for readers to fill in the gaps, but get them started in the right direction so they aren’t surprised later.

Sidenote: be careful about your metaphors, analogies and similes. Each one will put a picture into readers’ minds, and it can quickly get overcrowded with imagery. You’re asking them to ignore your real scene and think of something else. Use them to confirm and amplify the scene you have, and limit distractions.

5. Prepare to publish.

Typos are bad, but perfectionism will ruin you. This section is about editing and proofreading, but I don’t have time for all that, and you don’t either. The real problem with a story is rarely the number of typos. A very clean book isn’t better if people stop reading.

You can solve a lot of common writing problems, with my big list of 25 common writing mistakes, and self-edit your manuscript to make it as good as possible. After that, a copyeditor or proofreader isn’t always the best investment (and it can also be the biggest publishing cost).

Instead, use an editing software (I like Grammarly) to root out obvious mistakes, but don’t dwell on the small stuff like perfecting every word or rearranging the commas. Spending a very long time wrestling a poorly-written manuscript in shape is less effective than getting something (actually) done to the point where you’re comfortable sharing it.

This may be difficult at first, but you can’t learn and improve without genuine reader feedback (from people who aren’t your mom or best friend; nor the short-sighted opinions of a self-proclaimed literature enthusiast). You need to find readers who enjoy your particular genre, and the sooner you find them, the more valuable feedback you can get.

Shorten the feedback loop: Get over the fear and focus on learning by getting feedback early and often. However, this doesn’t just mean joining a writer’s club: writers are brutal and might focus on trivial things. The safest bet is to make it public, on Wattpad at least. Or get a cheap cover and throw it up on Kindle, Draft2Digital or even your own blog.

Making it public is scary and vulnerable, but it’s better than letting the fear of messing up keep you from the brutal, necessary experience of allowing readers to tell you what they liked and disliked about your writing. Will some people be critical? Yes! But guess what, you’ll get negative reviews even if you’re a brilliant, famous writer. Those are inevitable. And the first negative reviews may teach you more about writing than 10 years attempting to self-edit, afraid of putting your book out into the world.

PS. You can use resources, like my 24-chapter plot outline, as a way to spot story gaps in your manuscript and improve the structure (especially if your book suffers from a “soggy middle.)

Derek Murphy has a PhD in Literature, writes urban fantasy and is the founder of the alliance of young adult authors. More recently, he’s started sharing writing tips on http://www.writethemagic.com

Top photo by Adegbenro Emmanuel Dipo on Unsplash.

[comicaurora]

Hi Red! I really admire your work and everything you do. Do you have any tips for someone who doesn't know how to art but really wants to learn?

Thanks! Boy, that's a tricky one. I've never been a very good art student, so I can't really speak for what teaching methods work.

For me, what worked best was sheer volume. My older videos are absolute Hot Messes for a reason - I was very inexperienced with digital art when I started out. But with dozens of illustrations in every video I ended up getting a ton of practice; I wasn't setting out to improve, but it happened naturally as I got a better feel for what worked and what didn't. No matter how iffy you are starting out, if you do enough art, you will become more polished. You'll look for shortcuts and simplifications, ways to make certain effects work, and in the process you'll build a style that works for you. This is why having a sketchbook is so useful - doodling a few things a day will make everything a lot smoother over time.

On a more technical level, I always recommend life drawing first and foremost. I'm also very bad at it, but it's ultimately the best way to improve. There's no better way to get a feel for musculature and anatomy, light and shadow, material textures - everything real and observable and frequently stylized. It's very tempting to try and learn by copying other people's styles, and I've seen a lot of very impressive artwork come from that practice, but you can almost always identify the source of the style. I've seen people who very clearly grew up drawing disney princesses, sailor scouts, and even one webcomic where the creator had very obviously learned to draw on Elfquest fanart. It's not bad, but it's limiting; it teaches you the shortcuts developed for that style and doesn't encourage you to find your own way to stylize or capture certain effects.

So: lots of drawing, lots of life-drawing. I think it's also important to internalize that no drawing has to be perfect. I had this huge problem when I was younger where I wouldn't want to draw anything if I didn't know I could do it right. Sketchbooks are for doodles, practice and half-finished concepts, not final "perfected" works. Don't hold yourself to an impossible standard or you'll be too stressed and frustrated to improve.

I also think it's ultimately most important to find a subject you actually enjoy drawing. I stalled out on art for years in middle school until I started developing ideas for Aurora and suddenly had a reason to draw. If you want to draw something, you'll want to get better at drawing it so you can make it look right. I know some people who love drawing environments, some who love drawing incredibly intricate and detailed objects from life, some who love designing characters, and several who love drawing fanart above all else. Like any art, it's important to find the aspects you're personally passionate about and encourage those. Especially if you're trying to get into the practice of art but don't feel confident yet, it's important to identify the things that energize you to draw so you can build up momentum without getting discouraged.

I also strongly recommend consuming a lot of art - comics, cartoons, illustrations, animation, etc. As you develop an artist's eye you'll find you engage with this media in a new way - not just appreciating it at face value, but seeing its style and how its creator handled certain forms of stylization and how they managed to capture and create certain visual effects. (I'm always intrigued by how various styles handle noses. Noses are terrible.) You don't need to reinvent the wheel, and seeing how other artists have done things you might be struggling with can give you a leg up in figuring out your own way to handle it. For instance, the current method I use to do forested backgrounds is partially derived from some pixel art foliage effects I thought were really efficient.

SO - draw a lot, draw from life, draw things you love drawing, don't sweat it too much, consume media, hydrate

[mensobrush]

its like almost 12 am where im at but fuck it imma ask; if you don't mind do you have any show/book/series recs? most specifically art related bc whelp im just someone wanting to draw and your style is really clean and i lowkey kinda want to diversify my art so uh.

yeh.

Oh BOY have I got a list for you my friend

SHOWS: I'm not too sure about shows that would teach you art necessarily, but i know of a few that are ABOUT art and artists (forgive me because most of these are all anime lol):

1. Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! - super cute anime about three high school girls working together to create an animated short film, there's a concept artist, animator, and manager and they have such distinct personalities! Highly recommend for anyone wanting to go into those fields 2. Blue Period - manga and upcoming anime about high school students trying to get into Japan's best fine art colleges. Lots of deep shit about what being an artist is about and delves into struggles like impostor syndrome and shit. Had to stop reading the manga because it hit too close to home and gave me nam flashbacks

3. Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki Kun - definitely less on the art side and more of a shoujo between a mangaka and his assistant - super cute

The next few are shows that aren't about art, but have distinct/outstanding art, animation, or cinematography and i highly recommend them for artists to watch:

4. Ping Pong the Animation - probably the most distinctive anime in terms of art style, definitely worth taking a look at!

5. Mob Psycho - highly mainstream but the animation for that anime is insane, especially for fight scenes!

6. Godless - live action western/cowboy limited series on Netflix, probably the show with the best cinematography I've ever seen

BOOKS

This I can probably give more info on! Keep in mind that most of these are geared toward concept art/illustration since that's what I mainly do, but all artists can benefit from having these:

1. Framed Ink and Framed Ink 2 by Marcos Mateu-Mestre - Books on composition, lighting, and storytelling! Must have for people interested in illustration and creating full pieces, and it goes into storyboarding as well!

2. How To Draw by Scott Robertson - THE book on perspective (disgusting, i know, but if you're a character person and you want to level up, perspective is worth learning)! It's definitely more on the advanced side, so I don't recommend it for beginners!

3. Stonehouse's Anatomy by Seok Jung Hyun - I don't personally own this one but I've heard VERY good things about it! I think it's also a pretty advanced level book, but feel free to challenge yourself if you wanna get it!

4. Bammes and Bridgman - Gottfried Bammes and George Bridgman are the people to go to when you're first wanting to get into human anatomy! They focus less on scientific latin muscle names or whatever and more on the gesture of the figure and simplifying body parts into simple shapes that are easy to put in perspective! You can get pdfs of their books for free online or buy them off amazon.

5. Any art book from games that you like - art books are literally a gift from amitabha y'all, they are so insightful into the concepting for games and some of them (coughs the Ghost of Tsushima one coughs) have ALL BANGER art in there and there's NO MISSES

The next ones are again, not necessarily art tutorial books but books with insane art in them:

6. Vagabond/anything by Takehiko Inoue - this man is a fucking god, a legend, his art is so fucking good and delicious and it never misses and he's cracked out of his mind and

SERIES

I don't really know what you mean by "series" so I'll just use this as an opportunity to highlight "series" of videos/channels that are highly helpful for artists:

1. 10 Minutes to Better Painting by Marco Bucci - Marco Bucci's videos are fucking awesome in general, but his 10 Minutes to Better Painting series condenses painting concepts into something concise and easily digestible, and they're incredibly helpful for general painting skills.

2. Proko's Anatomy Series - again, Proko is a great resource for everything art related but he specializes in anatomy and is probably the best resource for people starting out and wanting to jump into anatomy.

3. Draftsmen Podcast - Podcast by Proko and Marshall Vandruff, less direct art tutorials but more talking about artist mindsets (which is just as if no more important than practicing technique)

4. Sinix - not a series, but a channel on youtube! Sinix is great at condensing complicated shit into simple to understand, short videos! He also graduated from my college hehehe

5. Rossdraws - another alum from my school ;) I have many mixed opinions on Rossdraws, but he's pretty good for beginner artists! And his videos are fun to watch so there's that

I might add more onto this as i think of them but these are all I can think of off the top of my head! hope this helps :)