#also it deleted a bullet point and i don't care enough to add it again

[ruegarding]

hi!! i was just reading your faq??? thing about your blog and i noticed the bit that was like ‘i would run fanon percabeth over with my car’ (also fanon nico which is so fucking real) and i was wondering if you wanted to talk about anything that specifically annoys you?? not like in an ‘I WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK SO I CAN TELL YOU YOU’RE WRONG’ type of way but like an ‘i also would like to run over some parts of fanon percabeth but there’s such a diverse range of takes that idk if we’re running the same ppl over’ type of way. sorry of this made no sense 😭😭

hi! dw u make sense. many of my issues w fanon overlap w criticism i have w rick's writing, so u can find some of them in my rr crit tag if u want elaboration. the disclaimer is mostly there so that hardcore shippers don't follow me bc i'm definitely not the blog for them lol

anyway, here's a list

the inability to treat percy and annabeth as two separate characters. every one of these takes sucks no matter what it is.

anything that thinks hoo is a good representation of their dynamic and uses hoo moments to contradict pjo characterization. u might notice that most of these takes are based on this.

percy does not have a six-pack. he is not suave. who is this guy u are talking abt

"percy is the cynic and annabeth is the idealist."

"percy is the dumb bf who can't do anything without his competent gf." bonus points if it includes annabeth needing to "control" percy.

the whole rachel thing. also ppl apparently think percy needs to be punished for talking to rachel or something idk. this take is so stupid it's unreal.

"annabeth hurting percy is ok bc it's written to be funny/romantic" rick had piper wear feathers in her hair as a fun quirk.

i've literally never gone in the percabeth tag, so these are popular enough takes that i'm seeing them anyway.

[zenkindoflove]

Do you have any advice for making yourself just sit down and write?

I really want to start writing again (I have not written since high school[and I’m old]) and I have so many ideas in my head but for some reason I can’t make myself write them. It’s not even writers block. It’s like fear? And not even fear about the quality of the writing. I’m super delulu and think I’ll be good at everything on the first try 😅

It’s like stage fright over writing even if it’s only for myself. I think if I can just make myself start I’ll find a groove. But I can’t make myself start.

Hey anon!

First of all "I'm super delulu and think I'll be good at everything on the first try" - Hello are you me? LMAO, this is me and my big, unnerving ego. I'm always like "oh, I think I'd fucking EAT." Even counter to evidence.

First, I want to say I relate a lot to the state you are in now. I wrote a ton when I was younger. First original stuff as a pre-teen/teen and then when I was around 16, I started writing fanfic regularly in my first fandom. I would say I wrote and posted (though I've deleted a lot of these fics since then) regularly from 2006-2012. I then had some pretty big life altering stuff happen, and I only wrote very sparingly up until late 2023 after I finished ACOTAR.

I've always thought of myself as a "writer" but during those 10 years where I wasn't really writing (fiction that is. I was writing plenty as an academic scientist going through graduate school, postdoc, and then the few years of adjuncting trying to keep my career afloat) I kind of thought that it was all just something I used to do. And then I got a new obsession with Elucien and felt like "oh, I can definitely write about this." And here I am. And I think I'm doing really well. I've really shown myself that being a writer never really leaves you. You just need the motivation, space in your life, and some discipline to do it.

Okay, but to your question, how to get started writing? Well, the answer is truly "just start writing". Which sounds like I'm blowing you off, but I think I have a few tips that might help you.

Take those daydreams that you keep having to chase away the crazy pain of life and jot down little details about them. Don't think of it as you're writing the story down. Maybe you're just making a bulleted list of the things you like to fixate on. Maybe it's capturing a cute moment with a few vibey words. Maybe you're really inspired and you write out a outline of a basic plot. Some of these may end up becoming a story down the line as you build momentum.

And if you do feel the urge, just sit down and write 100 words of a scene. No one is watching. No one will read it. It's just you and your computer. Who cares if it's fragmented sentences and half baked thoughts? And then when you return to it, maybe you realize "Oh, I could add some here, and maybe a bit there." And suddenly you're actually writing out a one-shot.

I also highly recommend looking up prompts for when you feel like your ideas are tapped out or you need just a little push to get the ball rolling.

For me, I have also made it a point to write a little bit each day or every other day. Some days nothing will happen and that's okay. But now that I've started again, writing has become a rush for me. I've really found myself again. I had such an identity crisis during the pandemic. I became a mom completely alone and isolated from friends and family. I became disillusioned with becoming a professor which I had been working towards since I was 18. And sure enough, coming back to this hobby that I did in my teens/early twenties really grounded me in the person I always have known. I just needed something that was only mine to have again.

I hope you can start that journey too, anon! And if you ever want to come off anon and chat, my DMs are always open!