#and by working I mean it’s been marinating in my WIPs folder | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

autumnslance · 4 years

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Staring at my WIPs and various draft folders (I keep things really organized...) I realized it’s been awhile since I had any new input, to try to keep up my output. Like anything else, the muse needs some care if it’s going to keep flourishing. So here’s a checklist.

First, stop fighting the drafts. Let them have a bit of a rest. Save/backup and close. It’s OK they’ll still be there.

Now. When did you last eat, even just a snack? Are you keeping hydrated? How’s your sleep schedule? We all have different biorhythms, but it may not always be feasible living by our natural one with school, work, home life, etc. Do your best to adjust your schedule to match whether you’re evening or morning and try to get close to enough sleep each night if you can. Tryto get out for a walk now and then, even if it’s just around the yard, or to mailbox, or to the corner and back (wear your mask).

Now that’s out the way, when’s the last time you consumed other media besides your current fandom you create for? Played any other games, or are your Steam and console libraries gathering dust?

When was the last time you watched/listened to a Broadway play or their soundtracks? New albums by favorite musicians—especially any with their own stories, in each song or through the entire EP. For that matter, when was the last time you read or listened to poetry?

Got some books you’ve been sitting on reading? Maybe some graphic novels or comics have come out lately on comixology. Even a book on how to write can be encouraging and inspiring, as they talk about the way words work. Maybe there are some old favorite stories you can revist; remember how they sparked joy before? Do they still? Maybe rereading them at a new point in life, after one’s own creative experience has grown, shows you something new. Maybe books you thought you were indifferent to, or even hated, hit differently now with time and changes. And there’s always something new to borrow or buy.

What’s the last movie you watched? An old fave, or something sitting in the “to watch” queue? A series you’ve been meaning to watch? Don’t binge it; the current definition of consuming an entire season or series in a short time leaves no room to process, to consider, to think about the plot and characters. Depending on episode length, stick to 1-3 at most in the same day. Let it marinate in your mind, then continue the next day.

Do some research; when’s the last time you lost a few hours in a wikipedia dive? Check up some educational or how to Youtube channels. Go find some nonfiction about history, fashion, electronics, whatever floats your boat. Maybe try a hands-on craft or two while at it.

Limit consumption of fanworks. Don’t stop entirely! Keep commenting and encouraging friends! But don’t go binging through your faves tags, especially if you’re feeling down about your own lack of content; seeing others producing while you’re feeling stagnant is an easy way to feeling resentment, jealousy, inadequacy, and other negative things. The point is to step back from fandom a bit, with the rehashing of too-familiar material (and all the discourse around it) to see and learn and do something new and different.

When you get plants, you have to make sure they get the right amount of sun, the right temperatures, the right amount of plant food and water. Or they just wilt and wither. Same with our creativity and ability to produce new content; we have to take care of ourselves and feed our muses new information and content to inspire ideas and concepts.

This is an especially hard year with quarantine and the postponement or suspension of a lot of media we may have been looking forward to. But there’s still some made despite the changes—or because of them!—and we can but try to take care of ourselves. Be kind to ourselves, especially if no one else is. Take some time out for ourselves, and not feel like we must constantly produce only. No one can do that consistently forever.

These are things I think about when I realize I have various WIPs in limbo and some sitting untouched for too long, despite being open. When prompts don’t spark new scenarios or ideas and seem like an effort, a chore, rather than a fun thing to participate in. It’s time to take care of myself and not worry so much about how the words won’t come; the well is currently dry, but that just means I need to spend some time in the rain, maybe dig a new channel to divert the flow.

Not going anywhere; simply taking a breath and taking the time I’d normally use to (try to) write to do something else, until the writing comes as naturally as breathing again, because something’s sparked an idea and the well’s flowing again.

#writing #blogging #about me #musings #media #creativity

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crqstalite · 4 years

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stargazer.

just a little something from the wip folder. i started writing it months ago and i honestly have no idea where it was supposed to be going. you might be able to tell where earlier!andre stops and now!andre begins.

otherwise, a drabble about kodelyn and her mother, hannah shepard. no warnings.

She used to love the stars.

She used to be a child who knew nothing more than the skies of Rio, curious and wide eyed when they'd say goodbye to her new stepfather and siblings. Then, out into the warm and humid air with her mother, who'd braid her hair back in cornrows and pick her up to a piggyback style. So far outside the city, she was amazed by the lack of noise, lack of light. The way the sky would be speckled with white and gold, the way they'd twinkle when she lifted her head just right.

They'd never had the time before her sister was born. It'd always just been them, her and her mother bouncing between stations. Hannah Shepard and her daughter, Kodelyn, with the endearing habit of typing her own reports with nonsensical subjects that the crew would take in stride. One had started giving her stickers for each one, much to her happiness.

She saw the stars outside her window on Arcturus, wondering what lay beyond the twinkling lights in the distance. She'd used to make up stories that there were aliens, like any good child would in the years preceding the First Contact War. It'd fascinated her, so far away, yet they sped past them with the usage of the mass relay network. Anywhere she could, she stuck glow in the dark stickers. Whether that be in the crew cabin or elsewhere, she loved the way they looked. The nebula of purples and blues and black mixing into a vision of what she lived to see. Her curiosity about the galaxy before her made many believe she was simply a carbon copy of her mother, someone who asked just about all the right questions and maybe a few that weren't relevant. They saw Hannah in her, a few officers referring to her as simply 'Little Shepard'. A little clone that was constantly on her heels, but it was more endearing than annoying. Most of the time. As long as she didn't get underfoot too often. And that was fine, she liked it. Loved it even. Would've been happy if it stayed that way.

Then all of sudden (well, to her it was all of a sudden), she wasn't living on stations anymore. It seemed sometime between all the childish fantasies of being a spacefaring heroine, domesticity had settled in and didn't seem like it was leaving. Someone who took care of her when her mother was on tour, a 'proper' father. Then, a sister that hung onto every word that came out of her mouth. Then a brother who thought she was the best thing since the Mars relay had been found. It wasn't just her and her mother anymore, a family had grown around them.

At first, she was confused. Why she didn't accompany her mother on cruises anymore, why she was rarely home. Nearly upset even, until she came back through the door with a smile on her face and tired crinkles around her eyes after months on missions. A warning not to dirty her dress blues when she'd been away at the garrison, but never minding to bend down and hug her daughter. The stars became her connection back to her, wondering which one had her mother's ship behind it. As much as the megaopolis' bright lights drowned out those in the sky, she still stayed up to watch the city sleep and the stars find their way to her window. Watching as the ships came in at the dock, becoming adept at identifying each model, growing excited when she recognized the one she'd been looking for. Her mother always said she didn't have favorite children, but considering the shiny models of Alliance ships brought back for her, only her, she had reason to believe otherwise.

Well, most of the time. She'd never tell her baby siblings, but she was pretty sure she was the favorite.

"Do you have to go back?" Kodelyn asks, voice small as she rests her head on her mother's shoulder. The last day of her shore leave, and she wasn't excited to let her just go again, "Let them have Mr. 'Quin, then you can stay home with me all day."

Her mother chuckles, adjusting her hold on her small legs, "If that were how the military worked, I'm sure he'd be gone already, Dee. But you know I have work to do, and I'll be right back here for your birthday."

"But that's forever away!" Kodelyn exclaims, incredulous at the notion. April was a long time from then, nearly a whole year from that July. She believed she was completely justified in her reaction to the absurd amount of time her mother would be gone. In the grand scheme of things, it was decidedly absolutely unacceptable, "You're gonna miss Mason's birthday, and Mr. 'Quin's."

"I wish I could be here for them all, you know that, bug. Shore leave doesn't always come easy to us marines," She responds, stepping out of the way of a bush, the crinkling of leaves underneath her boots, "Tell you what, how about we get a dog for him and Mason? They like dogs, don't they?"

"There aren't pets in space, mom. Everyone knows that," Kodelyn giggles, her mother shaking her head and surely smiling herself, "Are we there yet?"

A pause before they step out from the tree line, Kodelyn craning her neck to stare up at the sky. Her mother gently puts her down, sliding to the ground to sit. Her daughter unceremoniously does the same, eyes wide. It was true, then, you could see so much more from the forest than you could from her house. Gently, she lays down on her mother's legs, Hannah carefully drawing her fingers through her scalp. Names of constellations come to her in waves, pointing out each one to the woman who smiles.

"There's an entire galaxy out there for you to explore," Hannah smiles down at her, hands resting on the ground before she looks back up to the sky, "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yes," Kodelyn responds, playfully exasperated. She already knew that, and she knew that she wanted to be a ship captain just like her mother when she grew older. Of course she was going to explore. She'd get back up into space someday, even if she was only twelve right now, "It's pretty from here, right? So you can just stay here, with me."

Hannah sighs, though still good natured when she gently pulls Kodelyn into a soft embrace, "I'd love it if I could. Though I have a commitment to the Alliance, and I can't just walk away, little one."

"Then take me with you...." She whines, while Hannah chuckles.

"What do you have against being on Earth? I thought you'd like it, after all the time we spent on the Citadel, and the stations, and the ships," Hannah asks, leaning her head gently on her daughter's, "So much room to run around and play with kids your own age. You don't have to keep to the mess or medbay anymore, isn't that what you wanted?"

"Earth is...nice, I suppose. Too many bugs though," Kodelyn sticks out a tongue, reminded of her first experience with a spider only a few years ago. She shivers at the thought, but turns her big brown eyes back up at her mother, "I wanted to stay with you. And then you keep leaving."

"Oh." Hannah pauses, then squeezing her just a little tighter, "Kiddo, I'll always come back."

"And what if you don't?

"I will, and that's that," Hannah answers firmly, "And if you have your way, you'll be with the Alliance in a few years yourself. Just be patient, and be happy you still have solid ground under your feet for now, okay?"

"Yeah, okay." Kodelyn figures this is as much insurance as she's going to get on the matter, and relaxes her head back onto her mother's shoulder, "Space is still better."

"As if there was a question," Hannah brushes her hair out of her face, "Love what you have right now, kiddo. Please. You’ll never know if you’ll get this back.”

“You just said you’ll always come back, what do you mean?”

“Don’t take things for granted -- you could lose it in an instant.”

And that's how it would've gone. She probably would’ve lived out the rest of her days on Earth, had her younger sister not been swept up in the biotic tests that drove them to live on the Citadel more often than not. And that's how it would've gone had they taken it in stride and gotten her further treatment on-planet instead of the Citadel. Had Hannah's stations not moved further and further away from Earth. The list went on. And that's also, probably, how it would've gone had she made an actual point to stay on Earth. That didn't happen for a multitude of reasons.

Does she miss it? Not particularly. Spiders didn't follow her up, so that was a win.

No, she doesn't miss Earth exactly. She misses how she and her mother's calls end up being less and less frequent. There aren't anymore evenings that she drags Hannah out by the hand to stargaze. It isn't as if Kodelyn can't just look out a window and see them either, but it's a special sort of lonely that she can't quite put a finger on. Did she ever love the stars, the ones that eventually killed her, or was it the time spent together?

After her death over Alchera, the first thing she does once she can get her hands on a secured and encrypted channel is call her mother. She’s nearly clamoring for any real sense of reality, or part of her past that she can get her hands on.

Hannah nearly cries when she hears her daughter's voice for the first time in three years. She figures she’s lucky to get in contact with her at all, considering her current situation. Yet even though she still knows next to nothing of what Kodelyn is doing, she’s just grateful that she spares the time to speak to her.

“Hey mom?”

“Yes?”

“Remember when we used to go star-gazing out on that hill by the house, when I was still a kid?” There’s a muffled chuckle on the other end of the line, “After Alchera, someone in Cerberus had a sense of humor and decided I must love it so much that there’s a skylight above my bed.”

Hannah curses, “Great. Is there a way you can cover it?”

“I’m looking into it,” Kodelyn answers, “Still, I think it was far more fun when my feet were on the ground, and would stay that way. You used to hold me like I was the most important thing in the galaxy when we went out there. Hard not to miss it.”

“Hard not to,” Hannah echoes the sentiment, “I can’t stay for much longer, but please, stay safe. I don’t need to find out that your ‘death’ was only a trial run.”

“I will. At least to the best of my ability. Love you.”

#kodelyn shepard #oc #original character

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bearmustard · 4 years

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17, 19 (which is a bit diff since it’s rpf so don’t feel pressured to answer this one if u don’t want) and 20

@heriz asked 17 and 19 too so I’m combining the asks!

17. Describe a fic that is still in the ‘ideas’ stage.

Ok so I just checked my “2am fic ideas” folder and found the following:

Britpop AU

Always wanted to do one but then @portraitofalarryonfire mentioned Niall in lockdown had real damon albarn vibes and I ran with it Equivalent characters: Louis/liam - Oasis equivalent Niall - Basically damon (the right kind of asshole vibes) Harry is obviously Jarvis Cocker except not older but younger - Pulp-like with Mitch and Sarah Zayn is in some portishead or massive attack esqe group - It is 1996-7 - they have all done too many drugs and things are starting to fall apart The battle of the bands - extreme rivalry with niall, who just shows up at events with a different kind of chaos energy - HAVE to include Niall’s band making an absolutely stupid vid with D. Hirst and L & H cracking up over it Harry as Jarvis-esque is kind of removed from the whole scene, but keeps getting lumped with them all, hadn’t really interacted much with louis before because he and Li were in their own bubble but now that Lou is on the outs with Li he isn’t hanging around with the bubble as much - starts hanging with Harry who pushes him on his song writing - what it means to write about the working class lives they come from rather than just putting words in an order that sounds cool

So that’s the general idea and now that I’m thinking about it again I really fucking love it, though the problem is everyone obviously associates Harry with Jarvis but songwriting wise Louis is much closer. Ah well. I’ll work it out.

19. What’s your favorite character headcanon?

Ok so obviously I’m deep in the SPN hyperfixation right now but technically it’s only canon that Dean is Bi in spanish, so that’s a headcanon I obviously feel strongly about. I also love thinking about what dean could have done in the 4 years pre-series that Sam was away, the idea of him driving down to south america or up to alaska. I’m planning a GK crossover fic where he joined the marines.

I don’t have too many 1D head canons these days, so I’ll have to disappoint you on that one. That or I’m just drawing a blank. I do like hearing about other people’s headcanons though!

20. Do you have a favorite fanfic or author? If so, tag them/post a link and share the love!

So I do but there are many. I have 400 bookmarks, 160 of which are 1D fics lol.

My favourite fic in 1D fandom has, for a long time, been Things Have Gotten Closer to the Sun by starseas, aka the solar flare fic. It is actual perfection and I love so much fic but nothing as much as that one.

Right now, in 1D fic, I am really loving everything @helloamhere is writing, and @harrybridgers too. But they’re both writing WIPs write now so I’m waiting for more.

In SPN fandom I’ve just read komodobits’ So Says The Sword which is, honestly, breathtaking and if you are interested in spn/destiel, you should check it out.

Probably my all time fave fic is a Calvin & Hobbes yuletide fic from a long time ago called Theories About Nuclear Winter by hollycomb. I love it deeply and completely.

Other all time favourites are an old SPN fic from LJ days called A Good Man Is Hard To Find by kimonkey7, which has lived in my head rent free since 2007, and my fave drarry fics: Doing the Lambeth Walk by blamebrampton, and House Proud by astolat.

#fic talk #ask game #Anonymous #mine #fic recs #fave fics

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mego42 · 4 years

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For the WIP meme! Your monster looks like mine! Rio + Annie broTP! Annnnnd a number! #3!

ty ty welcome to the circus or whatever, hahaha. i’m still in sleep debt idk what i’m saying.

OKAY! so, rollerskating on, your monster looks like mine is the sex pollen fic I keep banging on about. I decided if I was going to do a widely panned trope I was going to go big vs going home (see also: dean pov, overdoing it in the face of perceived adversary is kind of my thing) and am trying to give it a theme and an arc and a truly unreasonable amount of angst.

it takes place not that long after s3 and the two of them are like, you know, fairly well marinated in their animosity for each other and get thrown into this situation where they have limited control over how they physically feel about their proximity (heyo sex pollen!) and by god if they’re forced to be even a little bit vulnerable with each other they’re going to make it count and like, forcibly rip each other’s secrets out of each other (the hitman! lucy! 213! 209!). the whole idea behind the theme (and title) is a kind of hazy like calls to like, they’re both monstrous in overlapping ways and how they recognize/react to it is at the root of how they act towards each other. also, it’s alternating POV.

idk, I have ambitious plans, a sprawling notes document, and probably like a third of it drafted but it’s super rough and I was in a weird place when I wrote it so it’s probs going to get reshaped a lot once I have the full draft out and see what I’m working with, but I have dug out a snippet under the cut!

He shows up a good twenty minutes after he told her to meet him, not bothering to park, just pulling up next to the van where she’s still fuming in the driver’s seat and telling her to get in. She gapes at him through the window, mouth opening and closing while she cycles through her options, deciding how she wants to play it. Curiosity must get the better of her though, because she hops in the passenger seat without a word—a fuckin’ miracle in and of itself.

She holds it in for all of five minutes which, credit where credit’s due, is about four and a half longer than he was expecting.

“Where are we going?”

She’s got that pissy little holier than thou tone going on, the one that always makes him itch to knock her down a peg or two.

“Bet you find out when we get there.”

The silence that falls between them’s thick enough it’s nearly tangible. Somethin’ ‘bout havin’ her in the car, even as big as it is, makes her feel closer than sittin’ next to her at a picnic table.

Rio takes shallow breaths, trying not to notice the hint of her perfume coating every inhale—something floral but not sweet, makes him think of night blooms and creamy, lush petals, makes him remember how much richer it smells right up against her skin.

He takes the next turn harder than he needs to, throwing them both around.

Elizabeth huffs and readjusts, making the leather creak. The tension radiating off her loosens his shoulders, and he relaxes back in his seat. He can see her drumming her fingers on her knee out of the corner of his eye, then smoothing her palms along her thighs like she’s trying to wipe something off.

“Why bring me? Why not Mick or—or...any of your other guys?”

He scoffs, playin’ it up more than he needs to so she knows it’s a stupid question. “I roll in with back up, it looks like I think I need it. I roll in with you…”

He lets the sentence hang there, lazily turns his head to look at her and watch her bristle like a cat as she fills in the blanks. The funny part is of everyone he’s dealin’ with tonight she came the closest to finishin’ him off but he’s not about to tell her that.

“‘Sides,” he continues, just to rub salt in the wound. “I need someone to take notes.”

“I’m not your secretary,” she snaps, that fake as hell yes sir, no sir mask she’s been painting on lately slipping and the tips of her claws coming out. Rio’ pulse jumps in answer.

“Yeah? You ain’t a sharpshooter either but you gave that your best go.”

That shuts her up for the rest of the ride. He’s almost disappointed.

rio + annie brotp

this one is just a concept as of now. the idea is rio and annie are roommates who maybe occasionally hook up when they’re bored, but mostly kind of just bump along sniping at each other and openly judging each other’s lives and choices but in a functionally dysfunctional sort of way, and their equilibrium is thrown off when annie’s older sister needs a place to stay for a while bc her life is falling apart. idk if/when I’ll ever get around to writing it because there is uh, lol, obvs some major yikes potential depending on what choices I make with different dynamics and I know rio and annie is v much not most people’s cup of tea for obvious reasons. I def want to write something with them being friends at some point though bc there’s a lot of comedic potential there that v much appeals to me.

this is a dialogue prompt I wrote an opening for and then apparently abandoned it entirely with no notes to myself so thanks past!meg! you dick!

Beth knows that Annie and Ruby thought she was trying to be funny when she said Rio had a habit of popping up like a genie, and she was, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

She’s as used to it as it’s possible to get used to being caught continually off-guard. There’s a part of her that’s constantly on high alert every time she goes out, no matter where, scanning her surroundings, convinced that she’ll see him in the strangest of places. She never does though, and if she feels anything about that at all, it’s only relief and a continual low-level annoyance that he’s got her in a state of perpetual vigilance.

It’s easier to convince herself of that when she doesn’t take into account those three months he was gone. How she couldn’t stop herself from looking, her attention snagging on all the different pieces of him she’d see in other people out of the corner of her eye: short dark hair, a slender build, a certain way of walking more liquid than anything else. Her breath would catch, her pulse would trip, but then she’d blink and the picture would become clear. It was never him, he’d never sneak up on her again because he was—

But he’s not, he’s here, in her kitchen, in the middle of the night Beth discovers as she screams, dropping the water glass she was coming in to refill in a move eerily similar to the first time she met him but with less groceries and more potential to cut her feet to ribbons.

“What are you doing here?” She asks, pushing past him to grab the broom and dustpan from the mudroom. He grunts as he shifts to the side, trying to get out of her way but she doesn’t think anything of it. “It’s three in the morning.”

why is Rio there? who knows! not me!

my wip folder is a mess and a mystery to me as much as you but ask me about any that strike your fancy anyway

#more wip stuff!!!#actually looking back at the sex pollen draft it's not bad #it's just thin #and i think that was what was making my brain file it under ALL GARBAGE #but i can work with this it just needs a few more passes #and likee #you know #for me to finish it #wip sampler #ask me stuff #my fic #shut up meg

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