#also if you put anything in quotation marks in the tags it makes it a separate tag before all the others

[antimony-medusa]

Hi! To preface: I don't think there's any one right or wrong answer to my question necessarily, but I value your opinion as a level-headed adult in this fandom who can probably provide sensible input on the issue I'm having, so I thought I'd ask.

If a CC asks for their character not to be drawn (specifically referring to fanart, which they likely saw on Twitter) in a sexualised way, what does that mean for written fanwork content? Is it "wrong" (putting this in quotation marks since that's a loaded word, to say the least) to write nsfw content about said character and post it on Ao3, considering the differences in visibility/CC knowledge of those platforms, as well as the general consensus/expectation that CCs don't generally read fanfic anyway? Where is the line between "you should respect the CC's wishes" (avoiding the word "boundaries" since that's also very loaded in mcyt spaces) and "you can do whatever you want forever; fanworks are created by and for fans, not for the creators" drawn? Does "just don't put it where they can see unless they go looking" (i.e. correctly tagged on Ao3, not on a CC-frequented site like Twitter) apply? Would it be better not to do it at all, or only create and share said content in private spaces like Discord? Or is this all a "there is no single 'morally correct' answer, make your own personal judgement" thing?

(Sorry for the long-winded question but this is genuinely something I'm struggling with right now, lol. As I said I value and respect your opinion and views about these kinds of things in fandom, so if you have anything to say on the matter I'd appreciate your input!)

Alright so, obligatory warning for discourse on this one right at the top, and possibly also long post. These tend to be me rambling.

This is a situation that I think it's fair that a lot of people disagree. Your personal comfort level with making NSFW content in general is not where my comfort level is, we can come to totally different equilibriums. And then you add in creators expressing that they don't like seeing NSFW content of their characters, and people end up in a whole lot of different places, whether that's a complete no on shipping or NSFW, or people feeling fine to consume it but not create it, or only if it's archive locked, or only specific ships or smps, or whatever. I think it's fine that we don't all agree on this, creation is a fickle beast and we are in a weird place as a fandom of being not rpf but kinda cousins, and we can get *really* close to the creators with twitch and twitter, so people's comfort level in meshing all the parasociality and roleplay and real life of it all can end up in a lot of different places.

I just think that the most important thing for the fandom being a healthy place to spend time on the internet is that we don't go aroud sending hate/abuse to those we disagree with. a) i don't agree with internet mobs or suicide baiting or anon hate in general, b) the number of times I have seen internet games of telephone happen when it comes to this subject is unreal. To use an example from literally today, I saw someone saying that Pac of qsmp pacmike was uncomfortable with shipping art and fic and we all should stop shipping immediately, and once I tracked it back to its source, it turns out that what had happened was the creator said that he wasn't a fan that all the art was of him in the jumpsuit that used to be his skin, he has a new skin now, which turned into sexy jumpsuit art was the problem, which turned into pac hates all sexy fan art, which turned into "pac is being bombarded with nsfw art and shipping and he hates it". Now he might actually also not like NSFW art, but that's not actually what he was adressing, but it was certainly what was being circulated! So like, people warning me off of certain subjects— how do I know that they're actually accurate or if twitter just went twitter on a passing mention of something someone said on a twitch stream?

So I think it's way way way healthier for us as a fandom to sometimes disagree on the subject of "what we're drawing/writing about" and when that happens we implement Don't Like; Don't Read, and we just ignore that, or block if necessary. Don't Want To See it? Simply Don't See It. It's a bad idea to start hate campaigns for sinners, and half the time it's based on bad information anyways.

But in cases that you do know that the creator doesn't want to see that, you found an accurate clip? So this is a case where I think that there's no single moral answer to this that everyone is gonna agree on. We're all coming at it from too many different cultural backgrounds and different streamers in mind and comfort levels with NSFW in general. I don't think there is a firm answer that is gonna make you morally safe. But my personal feelings is that in cases where we know the creators doesn't want to see that, I think the important part there is that the creator never sees that, not that we stamp it off the internet entirely.

I do think, personally, ymmv, that you are not necessarily doing anything morally wrong with drawing or writing NSFW of someone's character, even if they think it's weird. There's a long history of creators saying "you can't do [this] with my characters," and it happens to be you can't [make them gay] enough to make me uncomfortable in general principle with saying creator of the character gets to call the shots in all settings forever. This happened with Anne Rice and with the supernatural fandom and like— it's the internet, we get to make the characters be gay together. This is the making sex jokes about fictional characters website, and Ao3 is the making porn about fictional characters website. I think it's fine if it exists on the internet, the question comes down to one of what we're forcing the creator to see, or what we're putting where they'll stumble upon it. Like, examples from real life— if you have a friend who's vegan, it's polite to not spend time rhapsodizing about how good meat is around them, and if you know that meat makes them sick, it's polite to do a meatless meal around them. That's a human person you want to be okay around you. But that's their boundary for their life, not yours, so even when you're being polite you have no obligation to go vegan when they're not around. And they have a politeness obligation to not walk into a steakhouse and freak out because there's meat there. They have a boundary for their life, and I'm going to respect it, but my life is a different story, and they need to take reasonable steps to protect their boundaries and not just expect everyone else to conform to them.

Or walking by someone on the street and waiting till they're out of earshot and then going "jesus christ that guy was hot" to your friends— that's fine. That's normal human behaviour. What becomes rude is when you make it hot guy's problem and yell at him. Being attracted to someone in your own space is not a problem. I'm aroace, I am not going to be in a relationship with anyone. I'm not going to ban having crushes on me, as long as you don't make it my business. Talking about an attractive person in your own space is not a problem. Being sexual in your own space— and again we are talking about fictional characters, the way I see it, these are lies we're telling about folks that are not real, who live in little minecraft worlds— that's fine. The problem is if we start catcalling people about it.

When you walk into fandom spaces you are walking into a space where we all like taking fictional guys and telling stories about them and a good portion of those stories are going to include kissing. That is not necessarily baseline normal for like, all of humanity, but people talk about tv shows they watch as one of the classic work small talk techniques. Fandom takes the "I hope ted gets together with jessica" "no he needs to work on himself first" discussion and writes stories, is all, to share with each other. Privately. On our special private website where there's a button you can click to hide your work from search engines and another one to hide it from logged-out users. If you log into the website and search things up, no tags blocked, what you find is on you for saying "I will see literally anything that exists on this subject in a space meant for literally anything". You will find gore. You will find kissing. You literally just opted in to seeing it. That's on you.

So like, there's my little defense of nsfw work existing in general, I think it existing is not a problem. I do think that we should keep it FAR AWAY from streamers. They get to set the rules for their spaces, and if someone doesn't want to see sexualized fan art, I do think we should make sure that in a reasonable way, they never have to see sexualized fan art/fic.

So like me personally, I'm going to hit that Ao3 button to hide my work from search engines, and anything NSFW (or shippy, depending on the person) is not going to go into the main tags on tumblr or twitter or anywhere I'm aware that the creators ever check that tag, and I'd probably archive lock it if the creator had publically mentioned being uncomfortable with it, and if I was regularly posting NSFW I'd block the creators on social media with any account I discuss NSFW with. I want to make sure that I am talking to my friends about the cubitos, not catcalling someone.

And I would probably err on the side of caution when it comes to social media sites that creators are on? Okay so the fandom has a habit of saying that NSFW and Shipping is BAD and can't exist, on the one hand, but on the other hand it says that anything that isn't Bad Wrong Shipping/Explicit NSFW is fine, which leads to like— extremely sexy thirst trap art being drawn and then the creators are tagged. People putting family dynamic fics that really pushes that envelope in the main tag. Gahhhhhh????? No? Don't do that?

I think it would be healthier in the fandom if we did a lot more going "this is for the fandom, not the creator" and we don't tag creators on twitter, and we took our little kissing fics, or gore, or kidfic, or neurodiverse headcanons, or anything else it might be not for the creator to see, and we kept it in fandom spaces and away from creators. But Ao3 is that fandom space that you have to opt into, it's literally archive of our Own, for fans, in that space as long as you tag it you're good.

So the TL;DR of this all is that my opinion is that if you tag it correctly on Ao3 you're fine. Maybe archive lock it. Keep it off twitter. Don't make it the streamer's problem, and you're good.

[m4ds-ba1ley]

“ Show me your hands ! “

Hi Tumblr!!!! Oh my gosh, Steph told me to get this app, and I am SO excited!!! Okay, what did she said I should start with..? OH! Right, the intro!!

My name is Madison!! Most people just call me Mads or Maddie, but really anything works ^^! I’m seventeen years old, and I go to Hatchetfield High! I’m bisexual, and I use she/they pronouns :) My older brother is a police officer at the Hatchetfield Police Department, and I volunteer there!! Sometimes as a cop, sometimes as a detective.. either way, it’s super fun!! You guys probably know my brother as Officer Bailey!! I’m SUPER into police stuff. I love true crime, and my dream since I was eight is to be a cop!! Although, I do really like the dance classes I take.. and Dance Moms. Me and Steph love watching that together!! Anywayssss I hope I can make lots of friends on here :) I was also told to answer questions? So if you have any, send them my way!!! I’m glad to talk ^^

OOC ;

HI!!!! Um, soo……. this is my oc!! Full name is Madison Bailey! IM SUPER EXCITED FOR THIS ROLEPLAY BLOG SHJASG PLEASE INTERACT I BEG 🙏🗣️ My main is @royall-ass in case you wanna know more about ME (i also post a lot of art on there and it would mean a lot if you interacted and reblogged…….)

When it comes to stuff I will and will not do, I’m practically up for anything! Unless it’s any of these ⬇️

Incest

Pedophilia

NSFT (I am a MINOR!!!)

If you do want to do a ship roleplay, I’m fine with kissing and stuff if that’s what you wanna do!!! However, I am not doing full on roleplay sex 😭

I’m up for shipping!!! Although, again, if it’s under any of this stuff, it’s automatic no

If you have any au’s you wanna do, please dm me or comment underneath any post with information!!! It makes it a lot easier than just jumping into it lol

There will be differences from interactions that are on Tumblr, over text/call, and in person!

Tumblr ; Just regular text!

Text/Call ; ‘ like this!! ‘

In person ; actions will be in plain italics, “and speaking in person will be in quotation marks” ^^

I will put my ooc comments in the tags!!

Other than that, stay safe, and have fun on this blog!!

dividers from @saradika-graphics

[answrs]

Readmores And You - A Really Great Tumblr Feature!

(this is technically directed at stuff I've seen in a specific tag because of the content of said tag makes it more likely to spoiler things, but it applies to anyone likely learning the ins and outs of a new site. speaking of which, hello! welcome to tumblr!) (this got. longer than anticipated. apologies, I get bogged down in trying to make things as clear as possible. ^^")

I've seen this a lot recently in the VC tags especially, where the post goes something to the effect of "tw bloody animal!" then like six periods and the images of whatever dead thing the post is about.

I recognize this is probably being carried over from some other website (...reddit probably? maybe insta?) but please. I appreciate y'all so much for trying to do what you're doing. but this method of hiding pictures isn't effective on tumblr, but there is an infinitely better option!

"but why? it works fine on other sites?" firstly, a few extra lines typically don't even take up enough space on mobile (let alone desktop) to hide your pics, so even at a glance anyone is likely still seeing at least the top half of whichever picture you posted before even noticing the trigger warning on top. second, because you have to scroll all the way past the images at the bottom of your post anyway to get to the next one on your dash/in the tag/etc. so if someone comes across your post and the trigger warning is applicable as something they want to avoid, unless they have access to a keyboard to use a keybind shortcut that ive been here 12 years and still cant remember, they can't see any other posts after it without either having to scroll through the pics or outright block you. which is... not the most ideal of options I would say.

"but what else am I supposed to do then!?" I hear you ask.

READMORES!

tumblr has a wonderful feature known as a "readmore" that's built into the site! it creates a break in your post, which hides any content - be it words, images, whatever - that you place underneath it, not showing it unless the person viewing it clicks on the words "keep reading" (formerly "read more" - hence the name :D).

Cool, how do I do that?

on mobile you can place one by tapping an empty line and clicking the grey squiggle icon from the selection that allow you to insert an image/vid/link

which will place a squiggly line into the post you're making:

(desktop uses the same icon, it's just in a more compact row of icons.)

you can drag it around after placing it too, just like photos. (note: mobile can get finicky with this and it's usually just easier to remove it -click the big red X- and add it in the new place you want it.)

EDIT: some of the versions of mobile editor are broken and don't show the icons. to add it in manually type ":readmore:" (with the colons, but not the quotation marks) on its own line. Thank you for the reminder, LovingTogetic!

this is also a nice way to keep your blog tidy and not swamped in long and/or spoilery posts (say if you're posting 5k word fics, or extensive meta, or gushing over the ending of the latest game or TV show most people probably haven't seen yet)! it's not required, obviously, but it's generally considered a common courtesy for others that will be seeing your post cross their dashboard.

finally, an example of the readmore in action:

(ta-da!)

have fun out there y'all, I hope this is helpful ^^

as an aside (I wasn't sure where to put this but under the break seemed appropriate), you may also see a lot of personal/vent posts be fully under readmores as well, even if the post is only a sentence or two long. this is mostly so followers don't necessarily see it unless they specifically click, but there's a more frustrating history to it becoming a thing: when a post is reblogged, any content above the break is permanently frozen as it existed at the time, but anything under it will reflect edits made to the post. while not common, a certain type of user sometimes browse the various "do not rb" tags and will purposefully reblog personal posts in order to upset and distress the users. putting those things under a readmore make it so even if that happens, the text can be deleted from all iterations of the post. recently the site rolled out an option to lock a post to reblogs, but you gotta mess with the settings and it's mostly a habit after a decade here dealing with the nonsense.

[ephhemeralite]

writing pattern tag game!

post the first line of your last ten posted fics and see if there's a pattern! thanks for the tag, @ful-crum !!!!!

not quite sure how i got here, real glad i've got more than ten fics posted (if only barely), excited to see how it goes

"Aziraphale bustles back into his shop with all of the energy of a raccoon holding a goodie they never expected to stumble across." – no skin like the skin you woke up in (gomens canon divergence au)

"Ed has spent the vast majority of his life as a pirate. Get as old and experienced as he’s gotten – far older and more experienced than he ever expected, mind you – and you form some opinions, about salt and the sea and the way of things." – and i feel so proud when the reckoning arrives (this is two lines so it's cheating but whatever 💚. very dumb black sails/our flag means death crossover)

"The first time Dick notices himself call for Batgirl and the wrong sibling respond, he doesn't think much of it." – no difference between the past and the ground (dick grayson thinks he's going crazy until he realizes [REDACTED])

"Tommy thinks that finding himself stuck through the Blood God’s sword – stuck through – should come as more of a shock to him than it does." – this is mostly what happens in dallas (au of my dsmp hero/villain major character death series where the major character death doesn't happen but it's still not great! hence the wtnv if he had lived title)

"Wilbur drops onto the couch with a groan and some sort of weird, histrion-type flail." – a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun (dsmp hero/villain au, companion piece to the actual mcd, probably my best piece of posted writing)

"He isn't looking for trouble today, but he isn't surprised when the blade of a sword finds him regardless." – the truth is like a sickle (it'll cut you to the middle) (dsmp hero/villain au with the mcd)

"The flickering lights of the tavern seem soft, in the late hours of the night." – drunk in a field (on dandelion wine) (unfinished 5+1 from a folk witch!jaskier universe that i got super super attached to but eventually let go of because my life kept getting more insane and the concept more intricate)

"Peter had spent a lot of time trying to psychoanalyze Neal Caffrey before his capture." – acquainted with the saint of never getting it right (white collar/batfam crossover, dick grayson is neal caffrey, my most popular fic by a chunk)

"Geralt can already tell that Jaskier plans on dragging them both out tonight, probably with quilt, to force him into a night of 'stargazing and communing with nature like we used to!'" – it could feel like an end (to have to keep going) (immortal/modern times geraskier au fic i haven't read since i wrote and posted it in a day. i think it's contemplations on mortality, helplessness, and the climate crisis?)

"Briefly, he contemplates sitting up on the couch to give himself better lung capacity for his incoming tirade, but figures that he may as well put his vigilante training to good use, and continues to lay back." – more like me (less like you) (technically the second line of an emotional conversation between dick and jason, but the first line was dialogue and it is too early for me to mess with quotation marks like that)

so, full disclaimer that i don't post a ton (no skin was last updated in august of last year and more like me was posted in july of 2021) so a lot of this writing is kind of old, but! i did notice that i've tended to open in media res, but recently i have been incorporating more exposition. i've never tried to make my first lines great hooks — i'm honestly more concerned with giving myself a good jumping-off point than anything else. it also struck me how many fandoms i've written for that i no longer engage with, basically at all. maybe i've just been really focused lately, but i don't think a few of these fandoms would hold my attention anymore! ironically, i'm talking about the more recent fandoms like dsmp/gomens/ofmd and not the older stuff like the batfam or the witcher.

this was really fun, i loved looking back through my work like this!! thank you again ful-crum for tagging me :)! i'm gonna tag @doingthewritethings, @b10000p, and @alavenderleaf !!!!!!

[lovl3igh]

You know, it be preferable if certain Jily artists would bother to tag their art with poc/desi james potter tag. Cause not all of us consider that headcanon to be ‘canon’. The author is problematic and all, but that doesn’t mean race swapping existing white characters is any better/makes y’all superior. It works for Hermione because she’s a muggleborn and the added subtext of her being picked on by a racist, pureblood white prick like Draco and the garbage Malfoys. And this doesn’t fucking mean Jily=Dramione! Fuck no. If anything, James being the reverse of Draco, but similar in he too was a white, pure blood privileged boy raised and pampered but was actual taught to not be a complete dick to those who’s blood status isn’t pure. Changing his race to fit a certain headcanon is bs and makes Dursleys hypocritical and worse(but skin color logic, they should hate Kingsley too). And it’s always James & Harry. Never Sirius, Remus, or Lily(who has the most reason to be race swapped). So overall, this fandom is a joke

overall after reading that i think every word you wrote is a joke (yeah, i'm answering just now, i had no time in last few weeks whatsoever)

"not all of us consider that headcanon to be 'canon'" what. putting canon in quotation marks doesn't make that sounds any more sensible. people know that poc james isn't canon even if they don't like idea of him being white. no one makes it canon or 'canon', it's fandom thing. no one calls it canon for real. no one can argue canonically white james

no one feels superior because of making race swap to any character but there's also nothing wrong with that as long as it's not harmful. there's bunch of white characters in hp, most of them. james is canonically white so there's no problem that he stays this way for you. but the thing is most of the things about marauders is headcanon because jkr didn't do much with them and one of those is poc james. and it's okay! there's canon white james and there's desi james and asian james and black james and biracial james and there's no way that could be harmful to you to the point to write long ask referring to my old post

harry potter universe has a canon black character that comes from muggle family. he's called dean thomas. there's also canon white character that is muggleborn. hermione granger. there are white and black characters born either in muggle family or magic one or mixed. because yes, blood purists in hp can be seen as racists. and looking from our world into what we're reading and watching it can be a good analogy. but characters in hp can be both racists and blood purists. dean could have been hated for beeing black and for being muggleborn, jkr just never wrote anything like that in her work but to the moment when dean was haunted in book 7 for being muggleborn. ted tonks was haunted as well and he's white. it wasn't about race, it was about blood. jkr made basically everyone white there and pretended that the only problem in the universe is purity of blood as if racism didn't exist

so no, it doesn't "work for hermione because she's a muggleborn". it doesn't work for lily "who has the most reason to be race swapped". it works for any character in the universe. in universe when you can see how muggleborn and mixed blood people are treated worse than those with pure blood . and if you need added subtext of muggleborn being poc to see a problem with blood purists, that's on you. as if black hp character couldn't be a blood purist. blaise zabini anyone?

headcanoning james and harry as poc doesn't make dursleys seem worse than they are. they are already horrible people. they were abusing A CHILD. canonically they were abusing white boy because he was a wizard, not other reason. making harry poc in headcanon doesn't make them worse because they did that canonically to white kid. it's terrible enough. making lily and harry poc instead of james and harry doesn't work better. vernon canonically still is white, with poc petunia abusing poc harry wouldn't automatically make vernon non-racist. it's giving "i have black friends, i can't be racist". you can. but we know that whatever color harry would be, vernon still would hate him because of his magic

[i-can-even-burn-salad]

Writeblr Positivity Tag

I was not technically tagged by @winterandwords but I'm still grabbing it from the open tag, and leave it as such :)

1. What motivates you to write?

If I don't do it, no one else will write what I want to see.

2. A line/short snippet of your writing that you are most proud/happy of. If not maybe share a line of someone else's work you love (just please credit them)

Gonna pick the lines that finished a 300k words project spread over 2 novels and 2 novellas :D

“But are you?” he asked after a moment, a hint of uncertainty on his face. “Happy, I mean. Is this how you imagined it?” Merridy looked from the airy, creme-white curtains to the shimmering rainbow glass shards, and out the window, where in the distance the ocean sparkled in the sun. She raised her gaze to Damien, his eyes fixed on her as if nothing else mattered. “No,” she whispered. “It’s better.”

3. Which OC makes you smile every time you think/talk about them and what are they like?

We all know how obsessed I am with Damien, but another char that makes me happy is Riordan. I mean — how could a char I introduced as "fancy boots" not make me smile?

Between all the sad guys and tragic backstories, he's just happy and kind (and a bit naive and rude :D), with a nice family, a good life and some fun quirks. He's absolutely the friend Merry and Damien needed.

4. What process of writing do you enjoy the most?

Finishing. Finishing a chapter. Finishing a book with the last little piece fallen into place. Finishing formatting. Just. Being done with something. I am constantly haunted by the fear my interest might vanish before I am done, so being done is... awesome.

Also then I get to make my friends cry then, so that's that.

5. What part of writing do you think you are the best at? (Yes stroke your own ego it's okay)

Sadness :)

6. What is something in the writeblr community is most enjoyable?

Writing can be so very lonely. Spending hours upon hours putting silly little words into a silly little document, no I can't show you anything because I am not done, but listen to me talk about my char you don't know so you don't understand anything about what I am saying.

But here, we all understand the struggle and share the excitement.

7. A writing tool/device you use that helps you with writing? (It could be speech to text, a writing program etc)

Uh. Nothing really exists. I used to write in txt files, now I am in google docs so I can share more easily, which means I have at least a basic spell check now (which is nice, but also no google, I'm not talking about his sons.)

I guess InDesign (some shitty version from 2007) and Calibre are closest - I use them to format my books for printing and as ebook. Calibre is a rock star. InDesign is also the only program I've found so far that correctly fixes straight quotation marks in existing text when pasting in.

8. A piece of worldbuilding that you like in your own story? (It could be the magic system, a particular place in the story, a law etc)

I am a sucker for tying all stories together in some way — recurring characters and places through standalone books, stuff like that. A lot of it is conveniently put on the back of the Order of Fire. It's an order dedicated to gathering and preserving knowledge. They have citadels all over the place, they need scientists, scholars, mercenaries and housekeeping staff, they can connect people from different parts of the world when I need it.

9. What piece of advice would you say to encourage others to write if they are having a rough patch?

I don't know. There's so many reasons for a "rough patch", and every single one requires different advice. For example, "take a break" would be the worst thing I could do right now.

Your story is worth it. Only you can write it. Yes, even if it takes time. Yes, even if similar ones exist. Yes, even if it contains unpopular tropes. Yes.

10. Tag some people whose works you love/have been your biggest supporters

I have a list of my fav works here and I appreciate everyone who ever read my stuff and left a like or comment 💜

But as for support, @alittlewhump @verkja and @starlit-hopes-and-dreams are single(triple)handedly keeping my sanity up. I've found my people in more than one way, and I will stick to you like chewing gum you stepped into. I love you.

Template below the cut:

1. What motivates you to write?

2. A line/short snippet of your writing that you are most proud/happy of. If not maybe share a line of someone else's work you love (just please credit them)

3. Which OC makes you smile every time you think/talk about them and what are they like?

4. What process of writing do you enjoy the most?

5. What part of writing do you think you are the best at? (Yes stroke your own ego it's okay)

6. What is something in the writeblr community is most enjoyable?

7. A writing tool/device you use that helps you with writing? (It could be speech to text, a writing program etc)

8. A piece of worldbuilding that you like in your own story? (It could be the magic system, a particular place in the story, a law etc)

9. What piece of advice would you say to encourage others to write if they are having a rough patch?

10. Tag some people whose works you love/have been your biggest supporters

[lusiibeingcute]

...suppose i should be makin' a real introduction...

...prefer not ta share my name online ... y'all can call me pasque ... or just about anything else. i've been called dad a couple times ... 'pparently it's an alien word for lusus or somethin' ... don't bother me none :} ... i use he/him :}...

...i made this blog so trolls could share cute pictures and stories about their lusii ... and cuz one a' my cullees told me i should get grumblr...

...speakin' of,,, i'm a little old for this social media thing ... 19 sweeps young,,, haha ... i'm also beforan (apparently some trolls on here ain't...? nice ta meet ya, non-beforans) ... 'm a culler of two an' a former cullee myself (lifelong,,, haha) ... this blog ain't about me or about cullin',,, but if ya got any questions about either i'd be happy to answer 'em ... my cullees might talk on here sometimes, but y'all better be nice ... an' before ya ask,,, one of 'ems too young for an account an' the other don't want social media...

...uh,,, some other stuff 'bout me ... please don' yell,,, i got sensitive ears ... i understand if yer quirk's all caps,,, that ain't the same thing,,, don' worry ... i also don' talk in real life,,, but i'm real verbose when i write :} ... i'm an oliveblood,,, m' sign's lesces ... all my quads're open (too busy farmin' and cullin' to really get out there,,, haha) i live on a lusus farm,,, an' my lusus is still alive an' kickin' (no,,, they don' always take away yer lusus when yer culled) ... i'll post pictures of 'er eventually :}...

...so uh, yeah ... send me stuff about yer lusii or ask me questions,,, jus' be nice to each other's all i ask :} ... oh, an' ya can't offend me,,, so don' bother,,, i've heard it all...

...tags i use:...

#...cute lusii... - ...what this blog's really for,,, cute pictures and stories about lusii...

#...me... - ...me...

#...pictures... - ...photos,,, either from asks or if my kiddos can ever teach me how this ding-danged palmhusk is s'posed to work...

#...kiddos... - ...my cullees ... love 'em lots...

#...cullin'... - ...posts about cullin'...

#...talkin'... - ...havin' conversations with folks...

OOC: run by @upward-centrifuge :D

NOTE: if you wanna send an ask on anon but you want it to have a picture, just send me the picture separately and tell me which anon you want me to attach it to.

I wanted to make a gimmick blog and for some reason I went hey, let's make the gimmick blog the only character i have with actual backstory and shit. anyway i'm not giving background for him like i do for my other blogs you're just gonna have to find out for yourself. what i will say is cowboy dad is transgender as hell. He's... technically nonverbal but only in the most literal sense? Idk if there's a word for that? He'll talk your ear off when he's able to write, type, or sign, it's just talking out loud he can't do. He's only 40 but is basically a grandfather. He for sure thinks lol means lots of love.

typing quirk: starts and ends paragraphs with ellipses, puts spaces around punctuation that ends a sentence and turns punctuation into ellipses (...? , ...! , ,,, , etc). Capitalizes nothing ever. Has a southern accent that shows itself in his typing quirk. Uses a bracket for a mouth in his emojis like this :}. Refuses to swear but will very willingly make things up or use ridiculous expressions to replace swears. Misuses "quotation marks", usually for """emphasis""". Similarities in his typing quirk to a certain canon bronzeblood's are entirely accidental I swear. It's based on how old people text and is also supposed to convey that he hates it when things are loud.

anyways enjoy Pasque he's for sure one of the guys ever.

[unclefungusthegoat]

So I've been thinking about THIS:

for like a whole day now, and it's got me like:

So here are my notes and questions and thoughts:

Gonna be long, going to put under a 'keep reading'

THE PEOPLE INVOLVED

Simon Mirren. He created Versailles, and him posting this image suggests that he's working on a project related to Versailles or the Louis XIV period of history.

'He's back'. The word 'back' here absolutely suggests a return of someone we're familiar with.

Alex Vlahos is INVESTED in whatever it is - suggesting 'HE' is Philippe. He liked the post and commented 'Makes you wonder why he ever went away'...

... and then David Wolstenscroft, the OTHER creator of Versailles, replied saying 'And how'.

This is so cryptic. They all know who 'he' is. Alex seems perhaps wistful, maybe about the end of the show and therefore the end of Philippe. 'And how'... I've no freaking idea what this means. How 'Philippe' went away? How he's come back?

How he went away... the show ended.

How he's come back... well I have a theory later.

This screenshot above is taken from Gabriella Petrillo's Twitter account - as you can see, Alex shared the pic to his Instagram story captioned 'Oh, who invited you?'

Which is in QUOTATION MARKS.

Meaning that this is either Philippe asking the audience, or a general character tagline for the project.

OTHER PEOPLE WHO LIKED THE PIC

Anna Brewster (Montespan), Sarah Winter (Louise de la Valliere), Raphael Roger Levy (The Masked Man in S1), and also Nicki Oebel who works with Alex as the second half of his film company Cowhouse Films

TAGGED NAMES

Tagged in this picture are:

ALEX VLAHOS (and his tag is directly on the man's head, which might not mean anything, but suggests it's him)

EVAN WILLIAMS (not him, Chevy is blond)

GEORGE BLAGDEN (the only other real candidate as to who this could be, but compared side by side to the Versailles promo photos, and with the lack of response from George, I doubt it)

STUART BOWMAN (too young to be him)

Also tagged: Versailles Series, MonChevy Love, Versailles fan club.

Bonus: Helen Mirren (Simon Mirren's aunt), Bella Thorne, both actors, and also Louis Vuitton Official and Harris Reed, both fashion houses/designers

THE IMAGE

OK, so lets assume this is meant to be Philippe.

COSTUME/HAIR

The jacket is the wrong style for 1600s Versailles. It's more 1700s, and the real Philippe died in 1701. The costume designers for the original show were METICULOUS in their choices and the way things were worn. Including COLOUR PALATTES. Every character had their own. And Philippe only wore white like this once... at the costume party in S1 E9 when he dressed identically to Louis. Generally, Philippe wore more grey and silver.

If the figure is Philippe, the hair is the right colour, but shorter, and also half up, which is not a style Philippe ever wore in the show. His hair was sleeker with much looser waves, whereas this man has quite thick hair.

LOCATION

I think the Chateau in the photo is Fontainebleau, where some of Versailles was filmed, but I can't find a direct parallel photo from the position 'Philippe' is standing in. However, Fontainebleau has lots of water near it, like in the photo. (And I also feel like I saw Alex visiting there on Instagram within the past few months but I don't know if my brain is playing tricks on me)

IS IT AI?

My sister pointed out the image could be AI generated and honestly? I agree. No hands on show, and the bottom of the sleeves look a bit weird. No location tagged either. Historical costume that isn't quite right for the period we're assuming it to be, or for Philippe's character, which wouldn't be inkeeping with the series' aesthetic.

Could definitely be AI.

REALITY CHECK

Versailles was the most expensive show Canal+ had ever produced. I think it still is. And a new series, or spinoff series, would be just as expensive to produce. This isn't Game of Thrones we're talking about. The show has its hardcore fans, but it wasn't exactly a household name, which studios would throw masses of money at to reboot.

The story of S3 of Versailles also ended in the early-mid 1680s, just as the cast were reaching the point where it seemed ludicrous that they all still looked so young. The cast are now all doing different projects, several have married and had children since. They've moved on with their lives. To think they'd all return to a reboot or spinoff show... is unlikely.

However...

SAINT CLOUD

Alex Vlahos tormented us all with this snippet of a 'Saint Cloud' concept trailer a couple of months ago. Saint Cloud was the name of Philippe's chateau, and his spinoff idea was always a MonChevy comedy show about their lives and debauchery and stuff at their home.

But let's face it, this whole thing feels unlikely, and more just like a bit of a fun idea than something that a studio would actually produce, and he's only just started writing a concept trailer...

BUT.

SPEAKING OF...

ALEX VLAHOS

I'm gonna do a whole section on Alex Vlahos, because there's no way he's not involved. He, in fact, announced something at the convention that gives me my biggest theory about what this is.

Alex is obviously a driving force for the Versailles fandom. He was a key figure at the conventions and at the con in May I went to, and on Instagram shortly after, he announced he is going to do a Versailles podcast next year. It'll be a 30 episode thing, one for each episode of the show, and he said he'll have guest stars to chat to... including other actors and the showrunners, Simon Mirren and David Wolstencroft.

So.

That is a CONFIRMED upcoming Versailles project.

And so this image?

MY THEORY

I'm running with the theory that it's is a promo image for Alex's Versailles podcast, possibly made with AI.

It would make sense.

It's something for the fans, hence the tagged accounts. It'll feature the tagged actors to talk about the show. It's not something that is going to cost a million euros to make, so is more realistic. It's not a long term commitment for actors who have other jobs now.

It shows a man who looks a bit like Philippe - looking back at the chateau, as if reminiscing about his time there... just as Alex is going to do on his podcast.

BUT'S

Of course, this is just my theory. If it is the case, the fact that this podcast had already been announced twice makes the mysterious nature of this pic/conversation weird. And the fact that it was Simon Mirren posting it first, not Alex Vlahos, would be weird too, although maybe it's just because it's going to be quite an 'official' thing, with the support of the showrunners.

But I digress.

Anyway, on a final note, I would VERY VERY VERY willing to be proven wrong, and have a Versailles S4 or a MonChevy spinoff happening, I might actually cry if it does hahahaha

[nebulouscoffee]

15 questions 15 mutuals*

*but I don't actually have 15 mutuals so we're just gonna have to make do lol

Thanks for the tag @bijoumikhawal!

Were you named after anyone?

Nope- though I almost was, first after my mom's little sister (who sadly passed away when they were children due to health complications) and then after a yoga teacher who turned my mom's life around- but in the end my parents went with some random name they just thought I "looked like" haha

When was the last time you cried?

*dramatic hair flip* well, I don't wanna brag, but, uh- I did cry myself to sleep last night💅💃🏾🙈 (no hugely tragic reason really lol it's just been a rough month)

Do you have kids?

Nope

Do you use sarcasm a lot?

I definitely can be sarcastic sometimes, but idk maybe not to the extent where I feel like people who know me would describe me as "sarcastic"? Thinking about it, I guess I usually reserve it for commentary on stupid conflicts and like bigots and stuff, not for everyday interactions with people just being harmlessly sincere

What’s the first thing you notice about people?

Faces I think? Not like any kind of evaluation, I just think that's the first thing I look at. Also I guess, do they look/sound like they're okay, or like they're having a bad day/in a bad mood

What’s your eye color?

Black. If you wanna get really technical, then really, really dark brown, but honestly it just looks black haha

Scary movies or happy endings?

I don't see how they're mutually exclusive! But if I had to answer, I do like horror but it's not my top watched genre, so happy endings I guess? Idkkk I don't really get this question

Any special talents?

Special? Hmmm idk... I can do a pretty solid gollum impression, does that count😂 (okay maybe impressions in general, yes unfortunately I was That Kid in class who could do all the teachers and some of my impressions were even Teacher Approved😂😂)

Where were you born?

*pulls a Garak and tells you six different answers*

What are your hobbies?

Writing, cooking, music, reading, movies- is it weird to say researching? Love researching

Have any pets?

Yuppp she's a mutt she's a stray she's a queen I love her <3

What sports do you play/have you played?

LOLLL okay back when I was a teen and I used to play sports For Fun (as in, I was never part of any teams or anything, just messing around VERY non-competitively with my friends) I dabbled in basketball, badminton, football (as in the kind where you kick a ball with your foot, not whatever y'all got going on in the US), frisbee & volleyball on the beach. But I cannot stress this enough- I sucked at everything across the board and it was all just for fun lmao, literally you cannot put enough quotation marks around "played" when saying I "played" sports😂🙈 Anyway those days are all gone, now I walk my dog ig

How tall are you?

Smol (juuuust about 5'3'')

Favorite subject in school?

Ahh I could never choose!! I love you science I love you social studies I love you literature everything was so interestinggg (I was a terrible student though, failed exams All the time😌)

Dream job?

I actually would love to write novels and instrumentals and stuff... And I guess I could probably see myself working in wildlife conservation too, maybe later on in life

Tagging: uhhhh @fancy-a-dance-brigadier @lorenzobane @enterprisery @sapphosewrites @cordrazine-official ummmm @wanderingwriter87 @trillscienceofficer and YOU!! Yes, you, seeing this post, consider yourself tagged (cheating😌)

[chaosciara]

I posted 7,787 times in 2022

427 posts created (5%)

7,360 posts reblogged (95%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@freshpickle

@frenchsiren

@wizardpotions

@emmamountebank

@wickedangels

I tagged 2,522 of my posts in 2022

#ciara’s convos - 306 posts

#i bloody love artists - 196 posts

#ciara's convos - 119 posts

#love between fairy and devil - 115 posts

#ciara watches lbfd - 73 posts

#snek - 64 posts

#snoodle - 63 posts

#i bloody love fan artists - 59 posts

#the ocean and me - 50 posts

#ciara just says things - 45 posts

Longest Tag: 124 characters

#🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

hi okay I need more people to know this because for……….reasons (my thumb gets tired even though I’m trying to be so brave about it)

if you use the mobile app a lot and you post fanfic or really long headcanon lists or literally whatever and it’s too much effort for you to go onto desk top and add the “keep reading” tab so you just don’t do it even if you want to, then here’s the mobile version:

If you type “ :readmore: ” (the stuff within the quotation marks but not the quotation marks) and then press enter it will add a “keep reading” line break

colon (:) no space, the word “readmore”, no space, another colon (:), enter

and when you post it will post as a normal “keep reading”

mobile users <3 please use this feature <3

genuinely you do you if you know about this and just don’t like the keep reading but if you didn’t know, now you know!

165 notes - Posted March 14, 2022

#4

hello mi cielos! I am back with the first uquiz of the new year squeee

go on a picnic with me and I’ll tell you what “thing that humans do that make me believe we’re magic” you are!

CW: alcohol mention, food (as this is a picnic, there are three questions where I ask you to choose food)

it took me an embarrassing amount of time to finish this but listen okay in my defence finding the exact right pics always takes my full attention and about 16 hours of my day! fully worth it!

as always there’s 10 q’s, poetry (hah I snuck it in there), clothes, and delicious food!

enjoy and let me know what you get in the tags <3

175 notes - Posted January 7, 2022

#3

the new bears in trees song is soooooo driving down the highway on a saturday afternoon and getting ready with your friends for a day at a garden market and screaming in your bedroom at 2am and the intro scene to the main character in a coming of age movie circa 2004 and also for having a concert in your shower

213 notes - Posted October 9, 2022

#2

how to "get shit done": uni work addition

hi loveliest people so this is a sort of guide to how i get through uni work without going completely insane (make no mistake there is still some insanity present). I hope you find it helpful, or at least entertaining,

(disclaimer cause this is the internet: these work for me, they may not work for you)

table of contents:

a. date it

b. set reminders

c. how to stay on top of it

d. how to get on top of it if you aren't already

e. learn when your brain needs a break

f. uni is a full time job, treat it as such

A. date it

okay the first thing i do at the beginning of every semester is put uni dates in my calendar.

Term dates: when your term starts, when it ends, and your holidays. this is not just for information purposes but also so you have something to look forward to. additionally, it helps later on when you have to plan out assignment and test dates.

Assignment/ test dates: scour through the course outlines of all your courses and put every single date into your calendar. every assignment, every test, anything you have to submit goes in. that includes things like "weekly quizzes". make it a recurring date and chuck it in there.

B. set reminders

so i usually do this in my calendar but if you have a reminders app, or prefer other ways to set reminders then use that.

these reminders are not to make you feel bad for not doing work, it's to hold you responsible for your work. if you know you spiral at the idea of seeing a reminder when you haven't done work, this strategy may not work for you. don't give up, something will work. keep trying and have patience with yourself

if you know something is approaching it's easier to plan your life and your tasks around it. if you never know how long you have or you're always scrambling to figure out when something is due your mind is so focused on the dates it has no time for the work

Assignment reminders:

2 weeks before // 1 week before // 3 days before // 1 day before // 10 minutes before // on time of event

Test reminders:

1 week before // 3 days before // 1 day before // 1 hour before // on time of event

I know this may be excessive but if you're someone like me who constantly forgets things, it is very helpful to keep yourself on track

okay trust me you got this! i promise it's not as bad as it looks. right onto readings and assignments.

C. how to stay on top of it

do one reading per course per day: this is non-negotiable. trust me it is the easiest way to get through readings for a week.

if you have four courses of five readings each you will end up doing four readings a day from Monday to Friday. it is workable and you can do it. uni is fucking difficult and everyone has a story about why they're there but i promise you if you're there, the selection processes decided you were capable enough to handle it. and you are. if you can, start a week earlier so you're a little ahead otherwise it's totally okay.

2. start research for assignments 2 weeks before it is due. this will give you time and space to sort through what is relevant, useful, or should be discarded.

i have a folder for each assignment where all my research goes. within this folder there are three other folders: a. done and dusted b. too long/ not relevant c. could be helpful if i cared enough

and as i go through each paper/article/etc. i sort it into one of the three folders

See the full post

365 notes - Posted May 30, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

hi tumblr i made another uquiz. i've lost track of how many i've made at this point hehehe

anyway it's seven q's, no celebrities, and descriptive results. there's of course poetry, some clothes, and general fun things. anyway take it and let me know what you get in the tags.

it is worth mentioning here: i'm gonna ask that if you do not like men (as in you think negatively of them), do not take this quiz. you will most likely not be happy with it. pertaining to results: there are no descriptions of physical appearance, additionally, all of them apply to trans-men as well. i will eat you if you're transphobic on my quiz.

okay i love you byeeee

535 notes - Posted April 22, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

lmaooooo it’s been a year indeed <3 mwah! I love you all thanks for being my tumblr humans :) I’m here again next year, cause I can never leave this brain rot

[voidcatdoll]

FYI, you can also search by tag and get those filters! Either find a story with the tag you want and click on the tag, or go to the tag search, enter the tags name at the top and make sure to sort by uses and descending (it defaults to names and ascending for some fucking reason). I assume there'll be a tag (or tags) that'll fit the type of story you're looking for pretty closely.

Also, you can exclude things in the "edit search" menu! put "-[thing to exclude]" in the Any Field option at the top and that'll be sorted out. You might have to put it in quotation marks if the tag contains spaces or special characters used for filtering options, just click on the question mark next to the field to look up what those are.

I'm afraid the only thing you'll have to deal with is people not always tagging stuff. AO3 is very loose there by design. Its an archive, and its mission is to make preserving fanworks as easy as possible first. Thats why the only thing it really enforces with tagging is the correct fandom tags and putting appropriate warnings on your work. This policy also makes it unlikely that AO3 does what e621 just did and pulls the rug out from under everyone by going and deleting everything belonging to a objectionable category of works. AO3 was created and it was put in place explicitly to prevent that happening again.

(its also just impossible to enforce the kinda policy e621 has on AO3. e621 is images, its easy to quickly look at and make a judgement call for a moderator. Imagine you get a report on AO3 and now you need to read a novels worth of fiction to figure out if the report is legitimate & if anything else is missing. Its just a limitation of the prevalent format as well)

fwiw I'm sure a lot of authors will add a tag if you ask them nicely, & I think making that part of the culture is the best bet at improving that aspect of the reader experience on AO3.

i flipping hate ao3's layout there's too many goddamn words

[soubhagyaside]

OpenAI’s Guide To Prompt Engineering: 10 Tips To Know About ChatGPT

OpenAI released a guide to better search and generate good results from large language models like GPT-4 also known as GPT models.

OpenAI tries to give better results for searchers, so they have released the documentation

Here you can see the tactics that you can use to generate good results via their LLMs and you can also see the prompt engineering guide.

What Is Prompt Engineering

Prompt Engineering often refers to skills of crafting better results from large models or computer systems with some set of precise instructions.

Computers can’t read your mind or know what you need but if you write precise instructions then LLMs can give you the desired results.

Let’s say you want Dalle to draw a picture of a cat. If you just say “Draw something”, it will randomly generate anything.

But if you say “Draw a beautiful cat with green eyes with a pink bow standing next to a dog”, then it will give you specific instructions based on your prompts. They are called Prompts.

Let’s look at some other examples:

Normal Prompt: “Translate this sentence.”

Engineered Prompt: “Translate the following English sentence into French: ‘Hello, how are you today?’”

Normal Prompt: “Help me with this code.”

Engineered Prompt: “I’m trying to create a loop in Python to print numbers from 1 to 10. Provide a code snippet and explanation.”

Normal Prompt: “Solve this math problem.”

Engineered Prompt: “Calculate the area of a right-angled triangle with a base of 8 meters and a height of 5 meters.”

Now you know the basic understanding of prompt engineering. Let’s look at the guide of OpenAI to understand more about prompt engineering and this will help you to better interact with ChatGPT and other LLMs.

1. Write Clear Instructions For LLMs

Models can’t read your mind or know what you want. You have to give them a proper set of instructions.

If you don’t like the format, tell them the format you want. If you don’t like the replies or it’s too long, ask for another reply or to make it simpler to understand.

Include more details in your prompts to generate relevant answers.

Ask the model to adapt the persona you want.

Use delimiters like quotation marks, and XML tags to demonstrate a prompt to treat differently.

Specify the steps required to complete a task briefly

Provide the type of result you want with examples

Specify the length or any other output to give to the chatbot.

2. Provide Some References

Language models can give you fake answers or fabricated citations, URLs, and answers.

You have to give some reference text to these models so they can help you answer less fabricated or more accurate answers.

But you can’t fully rely on an LLM to give the important questions answer, so fact-check these results and them if it is correct or not.

Instruct the model to give answers using reference texts.

Instruct the model to answer with citations from a reference text.

3. Split Multiple Tasks Into Simpler Sub-Tasks

Like, you divide your complex or hard tasks into some simple tasks, the same way you can instruct the large models of the complex tasks into some simpler subtasks so that the chatbot can give you better results.

Complex answers tend to have high error or misinformation so you can give prompts with some simple tasks to give you the result.

Use intent classification to figure out what the user is asking for in a query.

For long conversations in chat applications, give a short summary or filter out unnecessary parts of the previous chat.

Break down and summarize long documents part by part, and then put together a complete summary step by step.

4. Give Time To Generate The Result

You can’t suddenly multiply some complex math problems, but with time you will be able to solve them.

Similarly, LLMs make more reasoning errors when you try to answer fast rather than taking time to work out answers.

Encourage the model to find its solution first instead of quickly deciding.

Make the model think through things internally or ask a series of questions to keep its reasoning hidden.

Check with the model if it overlooked anything in previous attempts.

5. Use Necessary And Useful Tools

LLMs perform best when you give them plenty of references. You can feed the models from the outputs of other tools.

OpenAI has another tool like OpenAI’s Code Interpreter that can help you do the math and run code.

So, if another tool can perform better and give a much more reliable answer, consider using tools and language models to generate better results.

Efficiently find information by using embeddings-based search for knowledge retrieval.

Enhance accuracy by allowing the model to execute code or connect with external APIs for calculations.

Enable the model to use specific functions for better performance.

Wrapping Up…

In conclusion, mastering the art of prompt engineering is the key to unlocking the full potential of large language models like GPT-4.

OpenAI’s guide tells you the importance of providing precise instructions to these models to get better results.

Remember, computers can’t read minds, but they excel at following well-crafted prompts.

Use these tips and tactics to generate much more specific and satisfying results with ChatGPT or any other chatbots.

Get to know the latest AI tools with the AI Newsletter — Subscribe HERE!

[frogsare-friends]

idk if anyone needs this tip, but dialogue! (you totally don't have to follow this stuff here, everyone has their own creative style but for those who want to challenge themselves or mix it up! anything i say "should be" one way doesn't mean it's wrong if it's a different way!)

if you're putting a dialogue tag in the middle of a sentence, separate with a comma or em dashes.

"Commas are really important," she told them, "and you should pay attention to them."

"Em dashes are really important" — I announced — "and you should use them when necessary, but not too often."

when putting a dialogue tag at the end of a sentence, there are some rules about punctuation: if what is in quotation marks is a question, use a question mark; if what is in quotation marks is an exclamation, use an exclamation point; if what is in the quotation marks is a command ending in a period or a declaration, use a comma before the end quotation. (only for end of sentence dialogue tags).

"He's a pirate!" the toddler yelled at his mom, unaware of her hand in hiring the party performer.

"Do you go to Jefferson High?" she asked the girl sitting across from her, recognizing her uncanny face.

"I wanna go home," Jessica whined as she took her seat next to me.

nobody walks away or stands up a sentence, make sure you're using dialogue tags correctly

add a period if you're explaining what someone does during or after something is said, not about how they're saying it. "I gotta get to work," he said, standing up. (notice the comma because of the dialogue tag at the end.) "I gotta get to work." He stood up. (notice the period and capitalization because "he stood up" is it's own sentence, he is not standing up "he has to get to work"). if you need help you should (almost) always be able to put a dialogue tag into "they were ___ing "(whatever the dialogue says)" format.

said is NOT dead, and it can be beneficial to let your audience infer things (show don't tell) but don't be afraid to use other words you feel work better. remember, dialogue tags are to explain how someone said something, not explain what they said. (and yes, people murmur and mutter, but most people do not murmur and mutter everything they say. it's not just talking quietly, they both have a connotation that generally make them not usable more than a couple of times)

"While not everyone has to write their dialogue this way, it makes it easier for your audience to follow," she elaborated. vs "While not everyone has to write their dialogue this way, it makes it easier for your audience to follow," she said (but announced or continued would also work, the main point is to say how she said it, not explain what she said). — rather than putting attention on the fact she's elaborating, you're drawing attention to what she's elaborating on; the audience will infer that she's elaborating.

however, "I hate you," I said. vs "I hate you," I spat. — but recognize that you're still leaving something for the audience to infer (i spat with animosity, anger, hatred, indignation, etc. is being a bit redundant, you spat, we know you're mad)

ask yourself if a character would really say that, ooc dialogue is fine if that's what you want to write, but it can really make or break a fic!

someone that represses their trauma or has a hard time talking about it isn't gonna have perfect therapy speech about their trauma. in fact, even characters that can and do talk about their trauma don't usually use therapy speech. they also might have broken speech with a lot of filler words (like, uhm, uh, or even skipping words entirely, ex (dialogue from 13 reasons why, tw rape/csa): "He'd touch me, and he'd... make me touch his- and uhm, he'd be hard.") and how in depth they go really goes back to that "what would this character do" question.

"She manipulated and abused me, and she'd gaslight me about it," he admitted. (there's nothing necessarily wrong with this, but it's ooc for a lot of characters and not a common way people talk about their trauma)

"She'd uh- hit me. Sometimes. And she'd make me feel like I was stupid. Like I was going crazy or something," he admitted.

or even "Yeah, he sexually assaulted me when I was a kid." She laughed it off, but I had a hard time doing the same.

i think that's it for now and one of the best parts of fanfiction is that you don't have to follow every word every time, but here they are if yiu want them! just some tips, and lmk if you want more ig

[steven-and-james]

Save your fic, skip the indentation.

Indentation may be necessary in a high school essay but on Archive of Our Own, indentation can make the reading experience unpleasant, especially if your paragraphs tend to be shorter. 

When it comes to line alignment, go left. 

While making your text justified may look best at first, it is hard on the eyes to read for longer stretches of time (especially when late at night—which is when most people tend to read fanfic!) So, for the sake of your reader, consider using left alignment.

Use quotation marks, it’s in the name. 

Even though it may be super obvious and easy to some, formatting dialogue into your fic can be tricky; let me save you some time. Indicate what is being spoken by bracketing it with quotation marks (these guys → “”) and refrain from using any other method, especially italics. 

Shut up, I’m thinking (not talking) 

So what do I use italics for? Glad you asked: Italics are typically used to demonstrate a character’s thoughts or emphasize a word or statement. Additionally, you may want to italicize a quote, song lyric, etc. Really, feel free to italicize anything you want, except, of course, dialogue.

Meet your new soulmate, horizontal lines. 

No longer are the days of thirty identical emojis and “POV SWITCH” spelled out in bold in the middle of a fic. If you are cutting to a new scene or switching points of view, just insert a horizontal line and call it a day. 

Quantity ≠ Quality

*Not applicable for fics under 1,500 words*

Having more chapters may seem more appealing on the surface, but having to press the next chapter button every minute can be a major deterrent for readers, especially those who use ao3 on their phone. Thus, if you have a 20k fic ready to go, think about splitting that baby into ten chapters instead of twenty. Remember, ao3 does not have a sort by chapter number option—only word count. 

Yeah, yeah, it’s summary time

Man, summaries can be confusing to navigate no matter if this is your first or fifth fic. Here are a couple things you should not do when writing your summary. 

Writing the word “summary” in the summary

Putting a really long author's note in the summary 

Saying “this is really bad” or “this is my first fic” and the like. (they can go in the end notes if you really want to tell your readers, but also, be confident!)

The same goes for “please give kudos and comment” and “please read” 

Having a “explainer” summary. 

An example of a explainer summary would be saying something like, “this is basically my take on what i think happened after [blank] because [blank] broke my heart and sucked. [blank] essentially is sad when [blank]  breaks up with [blank] so they gets revenge and starts a ~relationship~ with [blank]” 

Having a really long summary. At most a summary should be 8-10 sentences but I would aim for shorter. 

Putting a disclaimer in the summary. The great thing about ao3 is that you do not need to include a disclaimer for reasons that a far too complicated for me to sum up here, but if you would like to read up on it click the link: https://www.transformativeworks.org/faq/

Additionally, below are some examples of good and easy to read summaries. One is an actual summary while the other is a carefully chosen excerpt from the “fic”

O Rich Text! My Rich Text!

The rich text option on ao3 is a life saver and I highly recommend you take advantage of it. Not only is much more user-friendly, but when copying and pasting your fic, the line spacing won’t come out all wonky like it does when you copy and paste into the html box. 

On Tagging

Tagging on ao3 is one of those things that, like summaries, seems daunting at first but is actually pretty easy once you get the hang of it. Now, I feel it would be best for me to explain tagging in another post as there’s a lot to cover and this post is already pretty long, so look out for that in the next couple of days.

And always remember the golden rule of fanfiction...

WTPDI

Write in Third Person, Damn It!

(unless it’s a stylistic choice, of course.)

[getbeyondthebooks]

the “problem” with Mike’s character arc

i’m putting “problem” in quotation marks because i don’t think it’s a problem at all, but it’s something that would make it hard for the general public to notice that a character arc exists in the first place. I’m saying this because I also had the same problem and I only saw the light when I came to the Byler tag and started putting 2 and 2 together. 

I’m talking about continuity through seasons. This whole time I failed to realize what Mike’s character arc was and most importantly I failed to see that it was in developing through seasons without reaching an ending. 

I only started wondering what was going on with Mike in S4, when his weird behavior with Will made it obvious that there was something and it wasn’t just a teen being a teen, like I assumed in S3. 

And still it took me so long to figure out that his weird behavior is not something that came out of nowhere in S4, but it’s actually something that they have slowly built up through the seasons. That no, Mike’s queer character arc hasn’t magically started in S4, but has been going on from the start and that we got it very much presented to us in S3, both for Mike and Will. For Will it was “it’s not my fault you don’t like girls” and the destruction of Castle Byers, for Mike? Hands down the ending of S3. 

My biggest mistake going into Mike’s character, contrary to Will’s, has been to assume that all his arcs started and ended in the same season and that there was no continuity with it, because I was too blind to realize that there was some place they were going with him and that they had yet to reach. I don’t even know why I didn’t realize, Mike is literally our MC, he starts off as our protagonist, if anyone had to have a character arc it would be him?? So why did I just take his character at face value? Istg I feel so stupid right now.

I’ve been waiting for Will’s character arc to take center stage, I knew his queerness was going to be a focal point for him sooner or later, but Mike’s changes completely felw me by because the Duffers never made them obvious. It’s all in the details, and if you’re too taken by Mileven, you’re bound to miss (or dismiss) them. 

For example, when the end of S3 happened, I assumed that the reason why Mike made that weirded out face after El kissed him and told him she loved him was because he was just taken aback that she had heard him confess in the first place and nothing deeper than that. Perhaps it was a bit exhagerated for confusion, but, again, I assumed it wasall for laughs. S3 treated the whole Mileven relationship very lightely and humorously, so it made sense to me that even such a scene would be a bit comical. 

S4 forced me to reconsider everything. 

Rewatching it now, knowing how Mike is behaving 6 months later, that scene takes a completely different connotation and meaning. A lot of similar occurrences do. 

The Duffers have done this before, multiple times. Think Jonathan and Nancy in S1, for example. Their story begun in S1 but by the end of it, Nancy was still actively in a relationship with Steve and the consequences of the time she spent with Jonathan only “hit” in S2. There was continuity there. It was just way less flashed out, it all happened pretty fast although spanning two seasons and it was way more in our face. 

Mike and Will? Have been built up for 4 seasons. From the very start. In the slowlest way possible. In the tiniest details. Their storyline has been constructed one moment at a time, hidden, almost, in the background, but there nonetheless. 

Putting all the pieces together I can clearly see the picture now. I assumed it was just Will, I never really expected Mike to have a character arc per se. I assumed we knew all we needed to know about Mike, I was never expecting any big revelation or anything. But now I can see that his character arc has been going on for 4 seasons and has yet to reach completition, just like Will’s AND El’s (independence arc). 

There IS something going on with Mike. There has always been. I just couldn’t see it until they made it pretty obvious in S4. Some people still think it’s nothing but it was immediately clear to me that they were trying to tell me something when they decided to 1) bring up Will’s feelings for Mike when they could have made it puppy love and give him another love interest 2) have Mileven have ILY problems when the whole audience assumed that was solved at the end of S3 3) have Mike be extremely conscious of Will’s presence for no apparent reason. 

The fact that Mileven are STILL dealing with a problem they introduced in S3 that we all (at least the general audience) assumed had been solved by the end of it is telling us that whatever storyline had been going on in S3? Is STILL ongoing. No, the issue wasn’t closed there. Mike’s character arc didn’t find resolution there, in fact, in hindsight, I could say that’s where his character arc actually properly started. Not to say that nothing happened before then, but I think that’s when he was hit with some kind of realization. 

So the more I look at it, look at the big picture without dividiving the story in seasons, the more I realize that there can’t possibly be anything but Byler at the end of it all. I’ve been saying this since I’ve watched S4. The decisions they took with the story were too deliberate, they can’t lead anywhere else, but I was still 50/50 because I felt like they took it out of nowhere for Mike. But if you put his whole experience into perspective and not divide it into seasons, it’s actually all right there. 

It’s hard because we get years of pause between seasons and the ending of one season stays with us for a long time before we question it so it all feels way more dragged out than it really is in the show. Plus details get lost in time and the Duffers were EXTREMELY delicate with it all. Will’s sexuality included. I picked up on it early but I know for a fact that most didn’t. It was never explicit, it was all very gently introduced. I just never realized they had done the same for Mike. 

I don’t know what Mike’s sexuality is and I’m not even gonna argue (I headcannoned him as bi for a while but who knows) but from a writing perspective, I know that the only possible and logical conclusion of his character arc is Byler. 

I’m so confident in them being endgame at this point that it’s scaring me. It just feels so obvious now, I can’t unsee it. HELP. 

Istg S4 was more about Mike’s feelings for Will than it was viceversa. We got Will’s pov but the real source of their tension was Mike the whole time. He initiated it all. He knows he has feelings for Will and he doesn’t know what to do with them. He’s a queer mess. I just know it for a fact at this point. It just makes SENSE. 

My only doubt for Byler was that there wasn’t enough time to show Mike going through his identity crisis, but that’s because I was too blind to see that he HAS BEEN going through his identity crisis for this whole time. I was so distracted by Mileven and Will that I just never noticed. So now that I have noticed... I have no doubts anymore, but that’s frighteneing. 

[house-of-laminations]

A not-so-quick how-to for Ao3 work skins

Ao3 has some pretty powerful customization tools at your disposal - if you know how to use them. Did you know this entire time you could change your text colors, size, background colors, outlines, underlines, overlines, and even fonts of your works? It's fairly easy to do - you only need a little knowledge about markup languages to get started. The way this is done is through classes and the clever application of some simple CSS. Though I've written this guide around using my Obey Me coloring and work skin, the principles are applicable across anything you may want to do with your Ao3 styling.

I've done all the heavy lifting this time around, and have actually created a very, very simple skin that you may want for the purposes of your Obey Me fic including:

Unique colors for each character (sticking to WCAG 1:3 minimum contrast ratio for accessibility)

Heading font and size styling (separate from character colors)

Styled 'pullquotes' for written letters/passages/quotes (at 75% size)

Make sure to keep checking back for updates - I'll put word out here on my tumblr whenever I update, but I've also created a codepen (work skin CSS found in the CSS tab) with the latest version of the skin that you can use to play around in.

Just a heads up before you start: there is a bit of a learning curve, but I have tried to make the explanation as simple as possible, and hopefully provide enough tools and knowledge that you can run with what I've given you and start creating your own styles.

1. Markup: The Basics

I'm sorry - no matter how simple I try to make this work skin, you're going to need at least a little understanding of what markup languages are and how they work. But don't fret: I've had a few years experience now teaching this to absolute beginners so hopefully by the end of this tutorial you'll be feeling like a real Hackerman.

So what is Markup? A tl;dr

Markup is a set of instructions used to tell a program (in this case your internet browser) how something should behave. HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language and is likely the markup language you'll encounter most often. Ordinary text like you would type in a word document is meaningless to a computer browser - it doesn't know how to read. You need to talk to it in a language it understands so that it can translate your wonderful words into something that appears in your browser. This is done through the use of 'elements'.

Like how you know "words captured in these quotation marks" are quotes (or text written in parentheses is related to but non-essential to the main body), elements are essentially markers that indicate how a thing should be read. In HTML, these elements are denoted through angular brackets <> containing the necessary info that your browser understands. These often consist of an opening tag <[element type]>with content within, followed by a closing tag</[element type> denoted through the use of the "/" slash. Every element that has been opened must always be closed. Common tags include:

<p></p> for paragraphs

<em></em> for emphasis (typically displayed as italic)

<strong></strong> for strong (typically displayed as bold)

<h1></h1> for your highest headline (and subsequent-level headings use 2-6)

<div></div> for generic sections or blocks

<span></span> for specific selections of text.

<a></a> for anchors (links)

<img> containing images <- this one doesn't have closing tags because it's special

and more!

Everything you see on the internet rests within tags like these. You don't see them because they're only for your browser's eyes. Even your fics are formatted with this - though Ao3 does it automatically. You can freely switch between Markup (HTML) and Rich Text Formatting up in the top right corner.

Attributes

Attributes are additional information you can add to an element. Some attributes are essential, like a href (hyperlink reference) for anchor elements. Some are additional information used to differentiate between different identical elements like a class or id. It's this latter, non-essential attribute we're going to be utilizing for our work skins.

Once you have your fic in Ao3, make sure to switch over to the html editor. From there, you are going to find the element that you want to change the look of, and we're going to add a class.

We do this by finding the open tag of an element. That will probably be a <p>. Inside those angular brackets, after the name of the element, we are going to type class=""

What we've done there is create a field for the class, but we haven't actually given the element a class yet.

It's always a good idea to name classes that describe the content, not what you want it to look like. You could change your mind down the line, but then you're stuck with a class called red that's really changing the color to blue. So rather than calling a class "gold", you might instead give it the name "Mammon" as it indicates when Mammon is speaking. This is known as Semantic markup.

Here's a few things you need to know about classes:

Class names cannot contain spaces. We use spaces to delineate new classes in the same element (like commas to separate tags on tumblr).

You can use as many classes as you want, as many times as you want.

They are case-sensitive.

You can add classes to all most html elements. That means that you don't have to just make entire paragraphs a particular style.

I have already specified several classes in my existing work skin. These are [Luci Mammon Levi Satan Asmo Beel Belphie Dia Barb Luke Sol Sim Heading pullQuote] - remember that these are case-sensitive. Feel free to use any one of these, or use your own! Put your chosen class name between those quotation marks I had you make earlier like so!

These don't actually do anything just yet. For that, we need to now head on over into our work skin.

2. Introducing the work skin: CSS

Now that we hopefully have our heads wrapped around the basics of elements and classes, we can start using that to make things look interesting. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheet. HTML gives the browser structure, CSS gives the browser style.

But first, we have to create a new work skin.

Go to your Ao3 Dashboard and up in the top left underneath "Profile" and "Preferences" you should see an option for Skins. It'll land land you in "site skins" by default, so make sure to click on My Work Skins. From here you can click on Create Work Skin in the top right corner.

In the "About" section, make sure Work Skin is selected, and give your new skin a title!

Feel free to also include a description for your own sake. Now. Onto the fun part!

Below the "About" section, you should see a box labelled CSS. In that box, feel free to copy+paste the styles below into that box:

#workskin .Luci { color: #0071ed;}

#workskin .Mammon { color: #e5a71c;}

#workskin .Levi { color: #e26600;}

#workskin .Satan { color: #00c117;}

#workskin .Asmo { color: #ff00bd;}

#workskin .Beel { color: #e80b00;}

#workskin .Belphie { color: #4f08b5;}

#workskin .Luke { color: #00c0ed;}

#workskin .Dia { color: #9b0000;}

#workskin .Barb { color: #007215;}

#workskin .Sim { color: #c1ac44;}

#workskin .Sol { color: #757575;}

#workskin .Heading { font-size: 1.25em;}

#workskin .pullQuote { text-align: center; font-size: 0.75em; display: block;}

This can also be found in the CSS section in this codepen. (disclaimer: tumblr may or may not mess with the line spacing when you copy things over. After you've copied, save your work skin and then reopen it in "edit" - Ao3 will automatically format your work so that it's nice and clean).

So what's actually happening here?

Let's read from left-to-right, top-to-bottom - because that's precisely what CSS does. Feel free to skip this part if you're not interested in creating your own styles and you're happy to just copy and paste existing work skins :)

#workskin .Luci { color: #0071ed; }

This first part here is what is called a "selector". Here, we're specifying what exactly we want to target in order to change its looks. Every character, including the spaces, symbols, and capitals matter.

#workskin .Luci { color: #0071ed; }

#workskin is specifying a unique ID within the HTML - one that encapsulates everything that you want to apply the work skin to - so basically your entire work. This is absolutely necessary in order for the work skin to actually function. We didn't create this ID in our HTML because Ao3 (will) create it for us automatically down the line.

#workskin .Luci { color: #0071ed; }

Following the work skin id, we have a space, a period, and then - hey! That's a class name! The space between the ID selector and the next part indicates we're looking for things inside this particular ID. Periods are used to indicate classes. When targeting a class, you use the period, followed by the class name. So if you're targeting your Levi class, you would write #workskin .Levi . If you were targeting a class that you created in your html, you would write #workskin .[classname] (removing the square brackets, of course).

#workskin .Luci { color: #0071ed; }

Now it's time for the fun stuff - the rules. Once we've targeted what we want to style with our selector, we use curly brackets to contain all the "rules" that we're using to make the browser appear a certain way.

#workskin .Luci { color: #0071ed; }

We start with our property - or what we want to change. In this case it's the text colour, denoted through 'color'. Yes. It's American spelling. I have no control over this. Find a simple list of css properties here! There's loads, but the ones that are probably of most use to you at this point are color, font-size, font-weight, text-align, text-decoration, and display. Make sure to put a colon after the property - that links us into the next step.

#workskin .Luci { color: #0071ed; }

Finally, we have our value - or what we're asking the property to do. In this case, we're changing the color, so the value is a hex color value. Color can also be denoted through rgb [written as rgb(0,0,0)]. Different properties will have different values. For example, text-align can have a value of left, right, or center (note the Americanized spelling again). If you click on the property in this list, it will tell you what values you can use!

You can have as many rules as you want in your selectors, as long as you end each of them with a semicolon. I cannot stress the semicolon enough. If your CSS isn't working - it's probably a missing semicolon. An example of multiple rules being used within one selector is in the pullquote styling:

#workskin .pullQuote { text-align: center; font-size: 0.75em; display: block; }

You can even write rules that override each other, though we try and avoid doing that. When this happens, your CSS will read from top-to-bottom, prioritizing the latest thing it has read (typically your bottom-most). There are exceptions to this, but that's not necessary for this guide.

So by this point you should have copied over the CSS I've written into your work skin, or perhaps tried your hand at making your own. This would be a good point to save.

3. With our Powers Combined

Right! So we have our work skin. We have our work formatted properly, resplendent with classes. Here's how we get these things talking to each other:

Once you've saved and closed your new work skin, open up or post the work you would like to apply the styling to. Down the bottom of the Associations section, there is an option to Select Work Skin. Ao3 already provides some work skins by default - Homestuck and Undertale - but you should be able to select your new work skin from this dropdown.

Now here's the magic. Time to check if this worked. Go through and make sure you've applied your classes to each of the elements you want to change the look of. These can be <p> elements, <em> elements, <strong> elements, or you can even make new, unique sections using <span>. Save your work as a draft and preview it - if you've done everything right, you should see the sections of text you've added classes to have changed in appearance!

A reminder that you can add multiple classes to one element: say for example you want to create section headings unique to each 'character', you can name both classes in the class field, separated by a space. See the example below:

And that's about it! You can use the same work skin for multiple works - just remember that you should be using the same class names if that's the case. If you create a new class in your html, make sure to go back to your work skin and make some rules for that class!

I've created this codepen that you can play in that is using all the same classes - it also has the work skin in the CSS which you're also very welcome to mess around with.

Ao3 itself has a great guide to using work skins, explaining things just like I did here. The Modzilla Developer Network is a great resource for learning more in-depth about html and css if you want to do weirder and wonderful-er things!

I hope this has been informative and useful! Best of luck using skins in your own fics! 💛