#also hopefully by posting this it will motivate me to get started writing lol

[uravitationalpull]

hey all! so you know how there's like inktober and like a thousand more october drawing/writing/crafting/etc challenges? well, i couldn't find any agere ones! so, i made my own ageretober! :) i wanted to share it in case anyone wanted to do these prompts with me so here you go!

the list is also under the cut! happy writing!

Pumpkins

Fireplace

Decorating

Blackout

Injured

Scary movies

Stimming

Magic

Skeleton

Leaves

Comfy

Ghost

Bedtime

Pranks

Spiders

Sick

Spice

Vampire

Uh-Oh!

Candy

Family

Angel/Demon

Potion

Hungry

Werewolf

Sweater

Rainy day

Pet names

Nightlight

Bite

Halloween

[ghostmoon1]

You know what, to start the year off, Imma make this lil appreciation post.

Now it's only been like, less than a year since I joined Tumblr about, I've been writing and drawing for years before this point, but the community here, especially the CoD community which I am mainly apart of just made me feel amazing. Everyone I've met here are some of the nicest people.

I have gotten my old hobbies back, giving me reason to write and draw again which have majorly helped with my own mental health, and now I just wanted to give the amazing people a shout out to start the year off, to hopefully make peoples days, and to just let them know that I appreciate yall!

In no specific order :3 and if you don't wanna be pinged again by me, please let me know and I won't!! No harm done, I hope this is okay :) and this is prob gonna be cringe or smt.. all sappy but like.Yeah here yall are lmao-

Putting them under the cut as there are a few :3

@gomzdrawfr - You've been a massive influence since I joined the CoD community, I adored your art from the very start, and your just such a sweet and kind person, one that I'm so thankful to have met, and so proud to be able to call you my friend. You're the first proper friend I've made here, and I can't tell you how much our talks make me smile every single time. And I'm also so thankful for the community you have sorta helped me get into, you've helped me feel comfortable interacting with more people here :3

@shadeops21 - You were honestly the person that got me to join Tumblr! I was looking for something to try and make my own Konig cosplay (that's been given up on bc motivation and Tik Tok just. yeahhh) and I found you, and all your amazing work! I basically made my account to see if you'd make any more, cause I just love what you do so much, it's got to be so helpful for so many people!!

@sleepyconfusedpotato - After Shadeops, you were the very second person I found here! And oh my gosh how much I obsessed (and still do) over your art, especially Jade. You inspired me to write my first ever fic on here, actually, where I made my first CoD oc ship with Soap, your art and what you do honestly helped me feel comfortable making something like that for myself, cause some of the toxic people on Tik Tok made me uneasy and unsure about that lol- And now, I finally have an OC I'm working in depth on, and you're my biggest reason to thank for that.

@soaps-mohawk - Your writing has inspired me so much, and I couldn't thank you enough for making your wonderful fic. I may not be like, a OG, but I've been there since around chapter 20 I think? I could be wrong, but half way through sorta. You are the biggest reason I started writing again here, you just create masterpieces. And this is the first time I've ever been hooked into a fic so much, and what got me into liking the Omegaverse (you hooked me and I can't let go of it now...) Thank you for taking your time with your writing, and thank you for all the inspiration you have given me.

@on-a-lucky-tide - Oh my gosh how much you have yanked me into the Nikprice community. I adore every single one of your writing pieces, and honestly, you are another who has helped inspire me to write more. All your writing is so filled with emotion and love, I want to be able to do that as well. Your a wonderful person, I've seen you interact with this community and everyone, and I just adore you as a person and all the hard work you put time and effort into creating.

@rainyrambles-overcod - I adore your oc's and rambles so much!! And I couldn't tell you how happy it makes me to have a friend that is okay with the tag games, I never know who to tag for those sorta things, but I actually feel okay tagging you and they are so fun and always brighten my mood :3 Keep creating, I can't wait to see what else you come up with. Thank you for all the tag games and fun!!

@nekrosmos - Yet another that has helped drag me into the Nikprice community or cult ig that too. Your art is absolutely amazing, I truly want to be able to draw like you do. Just everything about your art has me in awe, the emotion, the style, the love everything. Seeing your art brings me so much happiness! Oh and your writing is BEAUTIFUL. That also brings me joy to take a little time out of my day to sit and read the time and effort you put into everything, and how kind of a person you are. I always hope you'll keep creating, and always remember how much joy you bring both myself and others.

@daredaredoodles - I know we don't interact a whole lot, but you honestly mean a lot to me still. You were my first ever mutual on this site, and I will be forever grateful for this. Personally its anxiety that stops me from barging into peoples Dm's and talking, but yeah. Thank you for that, even if it is only a small thing.

@cricricorner - you were my first follower, and I still see you in my notifications from time to time, which always brings me joy! It's wonderful to see your followers still interact with your content, and I couldn't say how grateful I am. I couldn't tell you how happy I was to gain my first follower here, so thank you for taking your time to read my writing and see my art.

@daydreamsareallineed - You were pretty much the first person to show so much interest in my main fic!! And oh my gosh I couldn't ever tell you how much joy it brought me to read your comments, to have someone so interested in my writing, that personally I didn't even think was that good. I haven't given up completely on the fic dw, I'll hopefully update it soon! Motivation just go brrr. Thank you so much for all your support, it means the world to me.

And another shoutout to everyone who supports me, who follows me, and to every single one of you that like and reblog my content. I look through every single note I receive, I assure you none of you are left out.

And my final shoutout to everyone that creates on this site. The community here is like nothing I've ever experienced before. I adore scrolling through everyone's art, it all makes my day. I've never felt so comfortable and unjudged before. Thank you to everyone who contributes to this, you all make my day <3

This turned out a lot longer than I meant it to be- but I just wanted to share how I felt with this new year. I'm sorry if you'd rather not be pinged-

But have a lovely day :3 I love you all!!

[shellshocklove]

just a heads up (i’m not sure people will read this lol but anyways):

i probably won’t be able to publish any writing this month. i’m proud of myself for being able to post at least once a month this year. but i’ve just started a new job and all my energy and brain capacity has been spent on that.

i’ve been meaning to finish the farm!joel story for so long now, but it’s going to be a long one and i haven’t had the motivation to start the last part (i also want it to be a worthy ending so i don’t want to rush it + i have series ending trauma from iwbyl 💀). i also wanted to do a brat christmas blurb, but i don’t think i’ll be able to finish that before christmas. and lastly part two of only fans!logan is also on my wip list and i’m not sure when i’ll be able to update that either (although it’s currently my first priority)

i’m sorry about this, but i just need time to get into my new routine. every single thing i do right now drains me so much of my energy. hopefully i’ll be able to write something again soon!

[perry-fics]

Hello! Here I am again, I've finished reading "So you think you're lonely" And I have to say that I LOVED THE STORY! You're a wonderful writer, I have become your fan!! I have to tell you that I hated Greg from the fanfic lol. I have to thank you for writing Steve x Neal fanfics. I'm a Journey fan since 2021 and ever since i saw i'll be alright without you MV, i loved the chemistry of this couple. The problem was that there were no Steve x Neal fanfics (there were maybe 10 on the entire internet). I wanted to write a fanfic about them but I felt like there were no active fans of that couple. You've motivated me to try and write a Steve x Neal fanfic 💕

Oh no! How can you hate Gregg? Lmao. I love the guy so much, I feel so bad for him and how he got edged out of his band. But of course, in my story he totally comes between Steve and Neal...or at least tries to

Please, write the fics!!! I’d love to read them so bad!!

The same thing happened to me. I started writing some fics for myself in spanish (I'm from Argentina), but a few months back, I thought, what the hell and decided to translate and post them. I had a hard time translating at first, but now I mostly write in english ( still use spell checkers and translators to make sure everything makes sense lol)

I also thought no one would be interested, but people have reached out since I started this blog. Even if we're a small bunch of fans, it's enough to enjoy creating and sharing. Hopefully, more people will get on board when they see content being created for this ship/fandom ☺️

[freakinator]

question about uu if that’s okay! I saw your post on how to get into the content and figured you’d be pretty knowledgeable, since you had talked about stuff about the character’s inner story and stuff like that. Hopefully this doesn’t sound too demanding—so answer only if you want! I appreciate it a ton!!

I know it’s heinous to read a wiki instead of watching the source material, but dude I simply do not have time to sit through 20+ hours of content just to find characterization references for my fic writing. (And even then, the UU wiki doesn’t have much yet.) Though I’m almost caught up with the second arc—kill me, I know—I still can’t seem to place Wemmbu’s motives. He clearly wants to get stronger, and doesn’t particularly care about mafia dealings, but why? Why does he do any of the things he does? What on earth is going on with this guy 😭

I know the answer is in the previous episodes, but I have adhd and I cannot stay present long enough to pick out the details I need lol

its okay dw! i have. very low standards as to who i answer cause i dont like ignoring ppl unless im taking a long time to answer lol

i havent caught up with any episode beyond wemmbus sky civ one so if this is in regard to anything past that then idk but wemmbus motivations for eps 1 & 2 was to catch and kill spoke because wemmbu thinks hes an existential threat after listening in on a conversation he had with jamatoP

for ep 3 it was to return a favor to zam cause he thought he owed her at least until he figured out for sure that zam was planning to betray him

for eps 4 & 5 he wanted to get richer and stronger so he can destroy zam's life just as she destroyed his even if it meant destroying his own in the process as well which he managed to do at the end of ep 5 but then he and zam both got captured by clown

in ep 6 he went back and forth between wanting to be friendly and hostile to zam (and pangi somewhat) while they tried to escape clowns prison, they ended on a hostile note and everyone who got imprisoned, including egg, got taken by the invis mafia (tho at this point wemmbu had No idea who the invis mafia actually were as he did not have any real direct contact with them before this and they were essentially framed as just regular guards who happened to be invis)

in ep 7 for some reason wemmbu and zam became buddy-buddy and also got captured together so his motivation was to get out of the escape room together with him so that he can go find egg, at the end of it clown threatened wemmbu by threatening egg

in ep 8 wemmbu was actually planning to retire at a lil skyblock island at spawn before some invis mafia members accosted him, this was the first time he ever made direct contact with invis mafia members and was naturally confused about what they were up to so he decided to follow them. unfortunately for him he found sky civ instead, at the end of it is when he actually had any real idea what an actual threat the invis mafia really were although he still didnt get to witness it

so yeah ep 8 was when he started really figuring out what a threat the invis mafia actually were so naturally he didnt really care about them until that point, well that plus he doesnt really care about the server in general that much -- thats not to say he Only cares about his direct interests, he isnt really appreciative of things he deems overly cruel for example even if he tolerates them at first (disapproving of zam preferring prisons over executions, stepping in when ro fighting for his civilization even if he knows it would kill him when it became overtly clear he was gonna die, keeping jarons secret despite the fact he despises him), but if it doesnt concern him or his interests (the prison breakers going missing, spokes wherabouts after he started hard focusing on zam, what the treasure hunters do for a living) generally speaking he doesnt care about it but if it does then he'll take action to solve it even if it kills him (revenge against zam, going against clown) and he will Always prioritize his direct interests (was supposed to blow up rek's tree in ep 4 for a job that would get him a fuckton of money and didnt care about the fact that rek was missing or any of parrot and wifies' reasonings and pleas until parrot pointed out that doing so will make him just like zam, switched his plan of attack on the pze after egg got captured, works with ppl he hates and tries to get on their good side for as long as he needs them, has stated that he has a history of betraying ppl if its in his best interest)

tldr:

his motivation boils down to 4 things: revenge, safety, the ppl he cares about, and his own principles

while hes not Completely self-interested he does tend to value his own priorities over everything else and the reason he didnt really care about the invis mafia until way later in the show is cause they just straight up werent relevant to him until after the princezam arc aka the first 7 eps

[subzeroparade]

hello there, I would just like to say that you are an inspiration to me and my own writing journey. you have such a profound way of skillfully weaving a story, I adore your works. it really reminds me a lot of madeline miller and her amazing stories (I really like a specific style of writing, lol)

may I ask what your writing process is? I myself have trouble sticking to motivation and finishing my own works. hope this message reaches you well, cheers <33

(Long post warning, and sorry to the people still languishing in my inbox, especially anon who sent me a similar writing ask - I will get to it, but hopefully in the meantime you can glean something useful from this, too.) 

Thank you! Also, yes - I came back to creative writing a few years ago (after many years of nothing but academic writing, grad and post-grad) around the same time Miller published Circe, and my ER work definitely pays tribute to that. In the genre of modernised(not modern)-greek-myth-retellings, hers are the only ones I tolerate. (That’s not true, I do like Pat Barker’s work to an extent, though she’s much less lyrical than Miller. But sometimes you need that). 

To answer your ask, here's my writing process - but first, a couple of disclaimers:

Disclaimer 1: Everyone’s method is different, etc etc; this is a given. But I also have a decade’s worth of disciplined professional writing under my belt, which is very helpful when it comes to sitting down and just choking something out on paper, even when my brain is unwilling, or the spark is not there. This takes time to cultivate. 

Disclaimer 2: No writing method or process is going to work if you are not actively reading. All the time. There is never a time I don’t have at least one book going. When I am feeling cheeky, I commit to four or five at once, all very different: novels (from disparate genres), edited volumes, anthologies, non-fiction; regardless, a wealth of different voices to draw from. If you are super busy, and we all are, at least try to read a bit before bed, it’s good for you. 

Anyway! Process:

STEP 1: A thing I might want to write: a scenario. A scene. An interaction between two characters. A short sequence of events. A long history. This particular climax, and its aftermath. The POV of that particular character. How am I going to do that? What do I need to know? What are the possible approaches - which POV, past or present, told or retold, and in what manner? 

Ex: before I sat down to write Litanies (Bloodborne), I knew I was interested enough to commit to a fic about the Fishing Hamlet. There are a million ways to do this. It was only while reading/watching certain material - journals, accounts of 19th century expeditions, a book about piecing together the mystery of a murder on another planet through conflicting eye-witness testimony, watching AMC’s The Terror - did it make sense to do an “interview” style, slow-burn mystery-box-esque piece, in which an interviewer has to piece together first-hand accounts of what happened (just like us, the Hunter!). Could I have done it another way? Yes. Would it have been nearly as interesting from a storytelling perspective? Not remotely. 

Tdlr; Who and what will I write about? In what way, and how will that approach make the work even stronger? How many things do I need to clarify about where and how this is going before I start writing? The tighter your plan - it doesn’t even need to be written down - the less likely you are to hit a wall later because you don’t know where you’re trying to go or what you’re trying to say. 

STEP 2: I start plotting scenes. For Vanitas (Elden Ring), I knew I wanted to write the history of Godwyn’s war and subsequent allegiance with the ancient stone dragons. I would need battle scenes, political intrigue and broader worldbuilding, alongside more intimate, dialogue-focused exchanges with Fortissax. On my shitty little notes app, I started writing these as they came to me, as I mulled over the ways to make them fight, meet, agree, quarrel, separate. Mostly, I start with the core of a scene - what is the question being answered, the main point, the crux of it? - and then build the rest of the scene around that. In that way it’s rarely, if ever, meandering and useless. Especially in short works - every scene should matter, and keep its focus where possible. You will be surprised how many disparate scenes you can merge into a single one for more impact.

Tldr; elevator-pitch style, what’s this work actually about??? And what scenes do I need for my readers to get it?

Big huge disclaimer here: at this stage, if I am starting to construct little bits and pieces in my notes app (everything from swathes of dialogue to jumbled “then he does this” reminders) they are in a very raw form. HOWEVER, at this point, I need to know how the story will end, especially if it is multi-chapter. I need to have outlined how these scenes flow into each other, and why. If it’s a vignette or one-shot, I need to know exactly what I will show, mood and message, so that it never becomes any longer than necessary, or loses the thread that holds it together, so to speak. 

STEP 3: I have a lot of material in my shitty little notes app (this will vary, depending on the size of your piece. The outline of A History of Iniquity (Elden Ring) was about 8k, which makes sense for a work that’s gonna top out at 80k). It’s time to bring it over to proper writing software. There, I start sorting my notes into scenes, as well as supplementary material (stuff that feels useful, or important, like worldbuilding tidbits, but that I have yet to weave into the story progression). Personally, separating all my notes into these individual scenes makes me feel like I have a better handle on the work, and can bounce around from scene to scene without having to work in linear progression, which I almost never do. 

Tldr; organise. Today I feel like writing scene 4, tomorrow scene 2. Because I have a handle on the work’s structure and I always know where it will end up, this is easy to do. 

STEP 4:

Write it.

Sloppily, badly, plainly. Commit to writing a scene, or x number of words per day, and get it done. A bare minimum of what happens in that scene. Dialogue. Actions. This then that and then this. Just put it down.

This is my big secret: I am a good writer, but I am a better editor (alas, a thing you could never tell from the state of some of my Tumblr posts). Writing is the painful part. Editing is a joy. It’s all there - what is left for me to do but to make it smoother, shinier, more polished? Remove what is superfluous, add a punch where needed. I much prefer making a drab paragraph sing than the initial act of writing that paragraph. 

I spend more time on editing than I do writing. I read, I reread. I go away. I come back, fresh, and reread again. I reread my work until I know enormous amounts of it by heart, then I go away, put it out of my mind, read something else, come back and edit again. There is no way around this, especially if you are writing fic and you don’t have a beta (or at least a first/second reader). It can always, always, always be better. The more aggressively you edit, the better you train your critical eye, and the sharper you are on your next first draft, or if you’re kind enough to beta for someone else. I am a ruthless editor (and I can and should be even worse), only because that’s what helped me, and I’d hope anyone better than me taking the time to look at my stuff would do me the same courtesy. 

STEP 5: Publish, go away, cry. If it’s fanfic, come back and read it for some last little edits. If it’s in an academic volume, cringe and hope no one reads it (/jk. Mostly). 

To come back to your initial point about motivation and sticking the landing -  some of that is going to have to come from you, personally. On my end, I finish what I start for three reasons.

I do not truly start the honest-to-god writing unless I have that body of notes already, and it’s hefty enough to serve as a skeleton. If I’m unsure, I’ll often leave ideas in this nebulous state of notes/ideation until I can come back with a clearer vision of what it would look like as a finished piece.

I do not start unless I am 100% committed to putting this work out there. If it’s too daunting, I’ll write it as a vignette or a one-shot, which is great practice, and there’s no excuse not to finish one. 

I do not start a work unless I know exactly how I am going to finish it. I more often than not know the last sentence of my work before I make it to the first draft stage. I know in amateur circles/fic writing it’s fine to just see where the work takes you, or leave the chapter count open, or whatever - it’s all practice, anyway - BUT I do think that if your main goal is closing a piece, then you need to be strict about how you get there. There’s plenty to do along the way, but at minimum know the scenes you need to make it to the finish line, and give yourself the tools to get there. 

THIS IS SO LONG I am terribly sorry, clearly I lied about being a good editor. 

Hope this helps! 

[bevebevo]

decided to do some yearly maintenance on my blog and i ended up scrolling to the very bottom of my posts (featuring art up to... about 4? years back).

i started this blog by posting a lot of extremely ambitious pieces but as college hit there was a pretty noticeable decline in quality (especially in my 1st-2nd yr) lol... but after getting a hang of clip studio i feel like my art has vastly improved since then. while my work nowadays isn't as ambitious as it used to be i'm happy with it! i hope i find the time this year to really sit down and finish some wips that've been sitting in my backlog for the past 2 years

there's a few pieces i wanna sort of... redo? not because i hate them but because i have some ocs who've changed so drastically over the years so it'd be nice to see how far i've come along w them. i also really hope i can start posting info about all my ocs. god there is a lot. but i'm grateful people have shown interest in them even if my audience is very small <3 it definitely motivates me to continue writing. hopefully soon i'll be able to start writing out their stories proper

anyway back to silently dropping posts and dipping for weeks on end lol

[tryingtimi]

Another year, another fun little event by @the-wip-project to participate in. This time it's #gettingtoknowyourstory, and, miraculously, I'm not late with the update, hehe. Starting off with laying out the basics — I'm going to be working on Project Sasin for this event, althought it is already an on-going something. Don't mind the number in the intro post, it's false as I'm re-writing the beginning, lol.

The real update though: time is close to non-existent for writing in my area too, but if you don't have it, then make it, right? So I've came back to the good old "writing on the road" habit I needed to shed when I had my workplace 20-30 minutes away. However, with the new job in the horizon, I need to travel about an hour, which gives me time, surprising (or not, given the past experiences when I wrote whole chapters on the go) motivation and space for writing. I could kick off the event around 2k words because of that, so bless.

I'm currently re-writing the prologue, which is now from a character's POV who was not inteded to be in the first try. So, it's kind of a knew territory, but I love her very much. Trying to get into her head, I realised that being a veteran, kinda leader doesn't mean you don't care about a single thing. My character is worried despite being experienced, and gives surprisingly much leeway for people who want to just mess things up. I still need to find why, though, so hopefully that's where we're going next.

I also got a boost from this very fine article about turning off the tv brain while writing, and switching the prose brain on. Which helped me realise why I hated my writing in the last few month — only the tv was on. And now that I could switch a little bit, I feel like I got more into this POV too. Refreshing.

[rachelsfav-queer]

So beyond the emergency room trip I had last night, I actually had really good news yesterday that was almost overshadowed by everything lol

But… ya girl finally got proper ADHD meds!! YIPEE!! I got this stuff called Strattera to help with my focus issues so hopefully that’ll start taking effect soon and I’ll start making progress with my life again lol.

And I’m also hoping that it’ll help me with writing so potentially I’ll be able to start putting stuff out again. I lost pretty much all motivation and energy for writing after my ex ghosted me but I feel like I’m slowly getting back to my status quo mental health wise. So that along with all the new meds I’m taking, I might be able to find my passion for writing again.

Either way, I’m endlessly grateful for everyone that’s stuck with me during this very dark period of my life. Being cheated on wasn’t something I thought would ever happen to me and that with everything has turned me into quite a miserable version of myself. I know it’s reflected on my posting here but the fact that everyone’s stuck around despite this is something I’m so very grateful for. Thank you all.

Much love, Rachel <3

[n7punk]

2024 Writing Wrapped

Buckle your asses in because this is a long one (when has it ever been a short one)

Stats:

Fics posted this year: 32 (it honestly feels like way more)

AUs: 25 Canon: 7

Updates (chapters, one-shots, etc): 97 (damn I thought that was higher too lol but that's an average of posting every 3.14 days for the 10 months I wasn't on hiatus and and posting 1.87 times a week if you include my hiatus period, and my goal this year was to hopefully update 1.5-2x a week on average, so that goal was definitely met!)

Total word count: 600,179 (my goal was 600k and I got it in with only a few hours left)

AUs: 400,695 Canon: 41,235

Fandom events: 4! (Big Bang, Sapphic September, AU-ctober, Sheratober)

Novels: 1

Personal projects: 2 (misc)

Writing streak: 730* days

I haven't actually written every day in there, I have a couple of rest days thrown in that I only allow myself if there are extenuating circumstances (power outage, sick, etc) where I give myself a word count of 0 because my counter still picks that up as writing. Having this streak is extremely motivating to me so it's worth the "inaccuracies" to have it force me to write on the days I normally wouldn't because I don't want to break it. Removing the freebie days from this year, they're 6, and going back to 2023 it looks like I had 1 since the streak started, so the "real" count is 723. When I port over my streak to next year I'll use the reduced number so it will be more "accurate". I want to keep those freebies in the single digits every year and I'm happy with that.

Retrospective:

1% of Catradora fics!!

that's how I started the year, posting 'stardust, glitter, and love', which let 'freak occurrence: confluence' become my 117th Catradora fic that took me to 1% of the tag (as of writing this I'm 1.17% even after taking nearly two months off lmao). This was a huge goal of mine I was honestly hoping to hit at the end of last year, but kicking the new year off with it was great too.

In late January/February I was working on EtB(LtF), but I got a little ahead and as I was slowly posting the final chapters, I also joined my first fandom event EVER! and wrote Lightbeam for the Big Bang.

The Big Bang was so fun. I want to shout out karo-lynn again for the absolutely GORGEOUS art that went above and beyond with multiple illustrations. Kitten Catra is soooo cute and the way the glowing effects came out is just 🤩 Getting to do Lightbeam for the Big Bang was really great because it was a "milestone" event for the 4th anniversary and the fic I got to write for it was almost a follow-up to my "milestone" fic because they were the only couple in freak occurrence: confluence that hadn't had their "home universe" fic come out, and Lightbeam was the genesis of a long-standing idea (kinda headcanonish) about Adora being the goddess of Etheria that I had, so thank you so much to Tippenfunkaport for arranging it because the final fic and art means so much to me <3 (and also even if I'm still working my way through them, there were a lot of good other fics that came out of it I loved reading!)

To my memory, February/March was a little slower working on MMaM and SYE, but I went a little crazy with OLIG in April/May and had so much fun on that project. I really, really needed it. I'm not going to get into it, but with stuff that happened in my family... this was honestly one of the scariest years of my life. I was trying to figure out why I have vague negativity associated with the OLIG project and then I remembered what was happening around then and realized it had nothing to do with the project itself and in fact that was the only thing that kept me sane. That's probably why I was having one of my troughs in mid/late-May through July. Everything I picked up after OLIG/the Big Bang I just couldn't spark my interest the same and I was tired, but I eventually settled on Slipstream and slowly wrote that for... ages. But I don't want to make it sound like I was depressed that whole time. March-June were really hard, but the main reason I didn't write much in July was actually because I was having so much fun, because I got to meet up with a bunch of friends IRL for almost two weeks. It was so incredible and ugh, I'm committed to making a meetup happen again because I miss them so much.

I think I finally finished Slipstream in August, and that's when it happened. I saw the Sapphic September prompts. I already did individual retros on Sapphic September and Sheratober/AU-ctober, but needless to say: I went fucking insane. The unhinged era returned. And I had a fucking blast. I do want to do more fandom events in the future, but we'll get to that in the future plans section.

I will say, after those events, I honestly felt a little tapped for solid fic ideas. So like, I have a list of 7 ideas I'm interested in (and 1 WIP I'll try to finish and post in January), but I have no thoughts for an actual plot for those 7, it's literally just a tagline, like "Wedding Crashers AU" and that's it (using What a Beautiful Wedding as an example). So there's something there but plot calling to me. The Catradora whirlwind combined with future plans I'll get into later (I promise I'm not going to keep saying that) motivated me to finally pickup my novels again as my next project after the month was over.

I also did something new this year and wrote fanfics without the intention to publish them at any point. I talked about how I lied to myself I wouldn't do it with SB,WCFM to make me start it but lowkey knew the whole time I was going to. That wasn't the case with these other two. One I knew would be bad and had no interest in making good, and the other was for my OCs. For both I wrote 10k in one day. And it was bad. But it was also good. It felt good and the quality or missing scenes didn't matter since no one but me would ever read them. I'm not going to make this a "habit" but I'm definitely open to doing it again, especially for my OCs lol. And though one day I would love to turn them into published characters, I think there's some kind of conflict of interest issues or something with me posting fic of them on the internet, so they will probably continue to stay just for me, but hey, let's talk about novels!

Novels: Oh My God What The Fuck is NaNo Doing

Alright. So, if you don't know, NaNoWriMo used to be a huge thing for me. I won it 4 years straight 2012-2016, and picked it back up in 2020 when I got into writing again because of Catradora. In 2020 I just did a collection of fanfic for it (SLAS/OTOS/misc), and in 2021 I did my first original novel since 2016 in it. When 2022 came around I was burnt out from writing a whole novel that year already, revising the one from NaNo, and trying and failing to start a third novel that summer, so I didn't do NaNo. And, uh. Well. In 2023 there was no way I was finishing even a fanfic project at 50k with adjusting to my new job, so I ignored it.

And can I say, what the fuck. Shit went down. If you don't know, there are plenty of rundown posts and like a 2 hour video essay on it. It's fucking insane. A lot of people lost the motivation to participate, and thus the motivation to write at all for some of them. Not me. I got these emails throughout the year begging and pleading they've changed and it made me actually consider writing a novel on my own - outside of Nano - for the first time in 2 years. I hit my stride and was feeling really high during Sapphic September and was like you know what I can actually do this, and god knows NaNo is continuing to pull garbage every day to keep that motivation up. Once I knew I was doing the events for October I thought it was perfect to do those two theme months and then take a break for my novel on my own.

I now have a week to finish the last two chapters by the end of the year (my goal) and I swear to god I'm going to do it. I'm at almost 90k (I know, I'll trim it in revisions, y'all know how I am). My Novelember 2024 retro post has more details on how that has been going. I just hit a run of writers block over ONE SCENE, but I'm past it now and hopefully these last two chapters will be fast. That's like 3 days each I should be able to do that.

And then... let's talk about

Future Plans:

For the first part of January, I'm actually going to be working on outlining a second draft for that novel I wrote back in 2021. It's a sister book to this one so I want to get it to a stronger place. I do want to finish and post the one Catradora WIP I have tho (brace yourselves it's very stupid). Once the Femslash February prompts go up, I'll start working on those and posting throughout February. I miiiiiiiighht do the Big Bang again if I have an idea I think will be long enough and "cinematic" enough for art. I know I'm going to be super busy 2025-2026 (doing a training course for work 6 hours a week this spring, probably changing roles in the summer, hopefully going full-time in winter of 2025/2026, definitely moving in 2026 and maybe doing a smaller move in summer 2025, etc) so I'm trying to be realistic about what I have time for while also trying to set myself up to hit my big goals anyway because I'm honestly so scared to go full-time because I worry I won't have any motivation or time to write. After the last year and a half of letting my novels languish I'm really concerned I'll never write them if I'm fighting through the difficulty of a full-time job while disabled too, so I want to set myself up for success with being ready to query by then because if I had an actual agent/book deal I think it would keep me motivated (or at least force me to work on them lol) and I want to get these novel out there, the characters are super important to me and the thought of never trying is horrifying.

My big goals for next year are this:

Participate in Femslash February of course, hopefully for at least 20 prompts, though I'd love to do them all if they're good ones for me (After February, I'll either work on Big Bang fic - which means I won't be posting anything - or I'll go back to revising novels).

Participate in one more writing/fandom event (whether it ends of being the Big Bang or something else like Sheratober).

Update/post fic at least 32 times (usually my goal is 1-2x a week, but I'm probably going to be on hiatus working on novels for a few months, so I'm kind of halving 52 weeks and then adding a bit more to it for this goal, hopefully I actually still end up with a weekly "average" but I don't want to set up myself for disappointment).

Revise my novel from 2022 at least once.

Get one novel to the state where it's ready to query by the fall (probably requiring 2-3 revisions, unsure if it will by my current novel or the 2022 one yet).

That's all I can think of right now, but I do want to end as I always do with my thank you for reading because without y'all I don't think I ever would have gotten the confidence to actually pursue publishing but all your kind comments and messages have really changed my life and helped with my imposter syndrome so much <3 Ignoring the confidence thing, I would not have written as much as I do with the motivation I do without those comments, so thank you so much 💖

[ell-arts]

Just some talking

Not quite a life update, but not quite an activity post either lol, just a plain post about some general things I guess?

I've slowed down quite a bit on content and activity on here. Ever since graduating and moving back in with my parents, I've been hit with art-lethargy and burnout fully settled in, and so I just kinda allowed myself to be stagnant for a while, recovering from the harrowing year that was 2023. It's been helpful. Of course, I couldn't rest for too long because I had to finalise my portfolio/CV and prepare for the working world. Good news is that starting today I'm working on a concept art/storyboard internship for an animation company for two weeks. I don't know if I'll stick with them after the internship ends, but I do have my eye on some other job offerings. We'll see.

I also just realised that 13 Jan was the 1-year anniversary of me returning to being active on Tumblr again. Since then, I believe I've made more content for PMATGA than ever before, and its all thanks to your support! Hoping for another year of PMATGA fanworks.

That being said, I want to get to the main point of this post. In the next few days (weeks?) I won't be talkative or very active for a bit.

If I may be honest, there's been a heck of a thing going on with my family and in my personal life right now. It's sucking at all of my energy and driving me to the point of having an anxious/depressive episode. Outside of work, I really don't have the motivation or will to work on any content at this point in time.

I've been trying to at least do small bits of writing, hoping to get a few fun drabbles out. But they're uninspired and being done haphazardly, because of emotional lethargy and feeling drained regarding irl drama. I am still barely recovering from last year's burnout from uni. So I'm not going to force it. My drive will come back in time, I just need time to readjust to a new work schedule and deal with personal issues first.

I know that Call Me Cyli is much anticipated. I know that The Veil has now gone precisely a full year without an update, equally as anticipated, if not more. I know how much you guys love these stories.

I am not giving up on them. I just need some time.

Hopefully, after I've landed a permanent job somewhere, I'll be able to have a bit more stability in my time and schedule.

Thank you all so much for being so kind and supportive during my first year back on Tumblr 💙 I'll see you when I see you :)

[ciminarin]

wfh job means wfa (working from anywhere), the best for a girlblogger thought daughter like me.

as someone who works remotely, i love how i can be literally everywhere as long as i have my devices and can deliver my work on time. i have went on holidays multiple times while still working and it's the best thing ever lol. the work-life balance is definitely balancing. this post will be about my experience, pros and cons!

now playing... ▶︎ ၊၊||၊|။||||| 2:58 | NEMONEMO by YENA

ᯓ★ let's talk about the pros!!

i can take breaks at any time i want, have my breakfast or lunch at any time without anyone micromanaging me. the next best thing is i can just be myself without worrying how other people perceive me at work. no worrying if i looked bad or if the way i sit, stand or walk is not 'ladylike' i can do wtv tf i want.

i can take naps. like LONG naps. it's heavenly.

i don't have to get ready to work. i literally wake up and go on my laptop. i can do anything before i start too, like playing with my cats, exercise, and never be late for work. how can i be late? i only need to log in on gathertown (a site/app where you can be in the office with your co-workers, in pixel game style) when my work hour start. lol

i'm literally at a cafe rn as i'm typing this. like i said, you can be anywhere as long as you have the money haha

can watch kdramas, movies or horror podcast during work. awesome.

more time to take care of yourself. i have been trying to get back to my self care era after my mental health deteriorated so bad because of my last job. when i say bad, i mean like REAL bad. my self esteem is just gone. i keep trying to find my old self again but i keep getting more and more anxious. by getting into wfh job, i can focus on this side of me more and hopefully be able to feel like myself again.

ᯓ★ now the cons.

it can get boring sometimes because you're stuck at home. i get too lazy to even get ready and go out even though i know i can be anywhere. the library suddenly feels so far away, resulting me to just stay home. this can go on for days.

yeah more time for self care.. but also more time to be lazy. because it's a desk job i don't be moving around anymore unless i want to. and unless i have the motivation.. i will just lay down on my bed.

backaches from sitting too long. leg too.. and my whole body basically.

unless i do intermittent fasting, i WILL eat uncontrollably. having access to unlimited free time and food can make me gain weight AAAHHHH

more money out since i keep buying fancy drinks and food now as i have too much free time... this is a self control problem i know. this is on me.

okay i definitely have more pros & cons but i can't just think of more as of rn. maybe next time i will write part 2 if there is anything i want to add!

ᯓ★ what about my previous job?

it was a shift food & beverage job and it was... an experience i guess (i never want to go back again) i would rather just be a customer damn. i never thought i would ever feel this much anxious feeling until i got into f&b. the first few months was kind of fun and okay-ish, but after that it was hell. at some point i couldn't breathe at work and literally had to go to the clinic to get checked during my work hour.

the way people interact during work was something.. in front of them they play along and laugh together, but behind they talk bad about each other. it got me thinking that they definitely had talked badly about me too, and this made me anxious. ngl, i've been a people pleaser for so long (now i recognize that it can be really bad doing this) so i want everyone to like me.

this also made me think that maybe, other people i know outside work also do this to me? i became anxious of every single interaction i do, offline or online. i keep thinking that maybe even my friends don't like me...

i have now realized that i do not have to be liked my everyone. maybe this people pleasing behaviour is based on my trauma, so i have a really hard time to unlearn this. like what do you mean someone don't like me when i have been nothing but nice to you? you don't even know me that well... i'm so sad

but it has to be stopped. i can't just be out there trying to seek validation from people who are not worth my time. it's hard, but everyday i have to remind myself that there are literally so many people who like and love me for who i am.

i got a fiancé and he's the best ever. i have great friends who like how weird i can get, how loud, how annoying i am. they love me because they want to. and i love them because i want to. and i need to remember that there will be people that dislike me just because they want to, and i don't have to do anything about it.

slowly learning the art of letting them be.

────୨ৎ────

end of log. this was cut short as i need to go now, but thank you for reading, see you next time!

[lesbianspirirt]

My Manifestation Success

As the title says, I've had a very clear success with manifesting my desires! I'm so excited and grateful and just really want to share this with someone to hopefully motivate others<3

Not too long ago, I started actively manifesting through affirming my desires in a notebook and recently realized that I got my results almost immediately! I wrote about how pretty I am, and now I get compliments all the time. I wanted to be popular and now I have a big friend group and people wanting to be friends with me! I wanted to get a girlfriend and the girl I've been crushing on for not even a month started being more straightforward with her interest. Also, important note on the popularity one: I used to be the loneliest of lonely losers for almost all of elementary and only had like 2 friends in junior high and now I've got over a dozen people who actually enjoy talking to me.

I almost can't believe that this is my life, but it's basically impossible to believe that it used to be so different.

And for those that want to know how I did it, here are the steps that I took to get what I desired<3

write a clear list of what you want the most, my list was a girlfriend, lots of friends, good grades, beauty, popularity, and money

take your list and organize your affirmations positively! meaning, dedicate a whole page to affirmations related to one of your desires and title it something like "I'm so beautiful!" or "My life is so romantic!"

put in the work; listen to subliminals, meditate, visualize, etc

don't fight the universe! even if you put all your energy into manifesting something like popularity, you can't also push away the people who are being guided to you. I get that sometimes your desires and what you're familiar with are as similar as night and day, but like anything else in life, you need to push out of your comfort zone!

now you just need to live your life

other things i did that helped! 1. used affirmations that are almost exaggerated, some examples being: -I'm the most beautiful person to ever exist! -I'm so popular, people beg to be friends with me!

2. wrote affirmations on paper and in pen to be closer connected to the affirmations and symbolically make them 'stronger'

3. used guided manifestation meditations

4. didn't force myself to meditate and affirm every day! especially if I didn't feel like doing it

I hope my post was helpful or at least a little motivational for someone lol <3

[quiet-nocturne]

Hellooooo! Big Bang Ask Time!! I'm screeching about the premise of your story already and cannot WAITTTT for Oct 3!! (Also lowkey glad your fic was well over the 100k mark as well, so I don't have to feel bad that mine was too, at 150k+ haha! ':) )

It seems like you've answered a lot of the big questions soooo is there a question you haven't been asked yet but want to answer??

Royai fics can span such a huge range of time -- what era of royai do you find yourself gravitating toward? Pre-canon, during canon, or post-canon? Why? Is it different for writing vs reading?

hi!! thank you so much for the ask! 🩷

also omg thank you for saying that about your word count; I'm so glad it's not only me lol. 😅

and yes, there's one I haven't been asked that I would like to answer, so thank you for the opportunity! It's "Most fun thing about the event?", and my answer would be that being a part of the discord was the most fun. It was awesome to be part of a group of people who are as obsessed with royai as I am, read people's headcanons and takes, and just have discussions about anything. everyone was so motivating and inspiring too, super cool to work with such wonderful artists and writers! I also loved the writing sprints; they were super fun and motivating. I hope we can still do them afterwards. 😊

also no one asked me "Wanna share a moodboard or playlist that captures the feel of your piece?", so I'll plug that here too, since I posted my overcome playlist/pinterest board just last night, and they are a good indication of the vibes of the fic (and I literally painstakingly picked all those photos in the pinterest board because they were related to scenes in the fic because I'm a huge, hyperfixated nerd like that lol):

moodboard/pinterest/playlist post is here

for the era of royai I tend to gravitate to more, it's definitely post-canon royai. I'm obsessed with them, and I already have a second (much happier/fluffier) fic planned for them (some details here and here) that I've already started writing. I think because I just love character growth, and them growing beyond self-punishment and working towards their future in a happier way (and of course, also finally getting them together). but I think playing with canon in different ways can be really fun too! I tend to read more of a mixture of royai eras - more so than what I tend to write, I think!

however, I definitely want to dip my toes into during-canon and pre-canon royai soon (as I have a few ideas festering in my mind, including a spooky themed fic that hopefully I can finish in time for halloween!)

[moonstonediamond]

A lot has happened since I've been gone lol

Gravity Falls is back (I would love to post about that theories, art, head cannons and just a bunch of other stuff that I couldn't stop thinking about, especially that chaotic fancy top hat wearing Dorito man that was once a contestant for Tumblr sexy man, don't ask me what year, and may or may not be a little too into fire and just recently got a book that I have 2 head cannons/I think 1 could be classified as a theory if I get more evidence it's-), Error won 2024 sexy man (lol finally), and a bunch of other stuff has been going on...

Hey everyone that has been following so far, sorry I've been gone I've gotten busy in the past couple days and I haven't had time or energy to post.

I keep saying I will post more often but I seem to not be able to lol

Anyway while I was gone in my free time I have been doing a lot of stuff that I wanted to post for the blog. So first off I made art, I wanted to post it while I was gone but like I said I didn't and I've been teaching myself coding, and blender so I'll be posting that soon (just the art and blender part)

I've also been working on a few of my comics the eclipse one (I've been trying to get the comic lettering on the 3rd page and just finished the drawing of the 4th page so now I need to do the lettering) and Overgrown AU (I'm just writing the plan of the story I know how I want it to start and who's the antagonist for the whole story but I need to write motives and plan out how that plan is going to go) I've also been working on trying to write something about that lucid dream I talked about (no promises though on that I've been stuck on the start I don't like it but at the same time I do like it)

Anyway that is most of what I've been trying to work on as well as my current posting plans and well I'm back from not posting as often and hopefully I can continue thanks for sticking around and thanks to the people that lurked on my blog while I was gone the hearts and a few reblogs I got were really nice and reminded me of a lot of projects I've created and never finished

[darlingpoppet]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Spread the self-love ❤️

Thanks Jo and also to @onionjuggler for tagging me, sorry for answering so late </3 (wait since I got tagged twice should I go ahead and self-rec 5 more fics after this or is that too self-indulgent even for me??) Ah well :)

I’m not really sure what order to put these in, so I’ll just list them chronologically!

Pressed Flowers (Shingeki no Kyojin, Eruri, T)

This was the first fic I managed to get over the finish line after years of having no idea how to build a bridge to the creative writing island in my brain, and thanks to the momentum created by this one I’ve been publishing new fics regularly ever since. In a weird way this still feels like my best written fic because you know that phenomenon when you’re in the weeds developing a skill and at times you feel like you’re getting worse, in a “the more you learn, the less you know” kind of way? This was the fic where I felt the least self-conscious about my abilities so I was able to just express all the ideas I wanted to convey without thinking too hard about any of it, and idk sometimes that can be an asset to the final product (the word flow probably needs improvement though lol.) But also I’m just fond of the perfect, peaceful moment I was able to create for Eruri here.

Upon A Lazy Bed (TSOA, Patrochilles, M)

Whenever I get into a new piece of media or a new ship I really just like to stew in it for a few months, because in a way whatever you post first will be a treatise of sorts on how you view the thing… and yeah so anyway this is what I came up with after snorting pure uncut Patrochilles for the first six months of shipping it (even if Once More ending up beating it to the finish line so I guess that’s the real Patrochilles treatise, lol.) I like this one because I was able to try something new, especially because the narrative voice of TSOA was still in my head at the time so it was a fun challenge to replicate it to some degree (this is still my only 1st person pov fic to date.) I felt myself leveling up as a writer as I was working on it too, which is always a cool feeling.

Where The Dead Forget (Hades, Patrochilles, M-E)

This fic is still ongoing and even what I’ve published so far is just the iceberg tip belying all the effort and ink spilled for it for almost two years now, but I guess that’s why it’s my baby haha. Usually when I post a fic, a huge motivating factor for me is I want to hopefully add something new with my perspective and/or otherwise give myself everything I want in a story. With WTDF however my primary goal from the beginning has been taking a popular fandom trope and just simply trying to stretch my wings with long-form storytelling (because of course as expected, it has only gotten more complex and bigger in scope lol.) I think sometimes I undersell it by saying this story isn’t that original and doesn’t have any hot takes, but tbh as time has passed I’ve started to gain a perspective and an angle for it, and it has already helped launch a lot of really interesting conversations with other Patrochilles fans, so that in itself more than justifies its existence for me! The best part of a serial fic is having others going on the ride with you so I’ll always be extending the invitation to have more come along until of course I finally finish it in 2069 :)

Closest To My Heart (Hades, PZA, E)

There’s probably an undercurrent of melancholy running through a lot of my stories, considering the source materials I like working with, but this was probably the first time I got to make a story outright unsettling. I think I’ve often talked this one up as my favorite to write as well as my favorite as a finished piece so I’m almost not sure what else I can say about it but there’s just something about PZA that lights up my brain like a Christmas tree, it gives me so many wild ideas and makes me want to keep exploring these highly intense emotional states. And I love that this one was born out of those unhinged fandom group chat conversations where it’s just riffing on pure collective id until someone goes “fuck it, I’m writing this!” (And that someone in this case was me lol.)

See No ****, Hear No **** (Hades, Patrochilles, E)

I think I’m lucky that most of my own writing I personally like have also been crowd pleasers (or idk who knows maybe the reception is indeed a big factor in my estimation of quality because the in the end the “popular=good” drug is a hard habit to break, lol.) But this is definitely one I can point to and say the audience here is probably much more limited and I still think it rules :) I had a lot of fun with the concept of creating essentially two different stories out of the exact same scene because different sensory deprivations affected how each character experienced it. And also I wrote it as a gift, meaning there was that much extra love put into it! I may do a lot of serious academic reading & research about classical texts for Patrochilles but at the end of the day I was raised in the dark fandom, molded by it, and sometimes that means you just gotta turn your blorbos into holes no matter how many millennia of highfalutin academic tradition exists behind them uwu I will say though this fic probably has THE highest kudos to bookmark ratio of all my fics so I tend to think Squidward DOES like krabby patties but no worries, y’all keep your secrets ;)

Honorable Mention: I think I’m with @baejax-the-great who said your favorite story is always the one you’re currently working on, which for me means my upcoming modern au pza fic, Liminal Spaces (aka the pza dreamers au). But since it’s still unfinished and unpublished, I can’t properly recommend it, lol. Who knows how I’ll feel about it by the time it’s done but I’m having a lot of fun writing it so I hope y’all will enjoy it too <3