#and saved them all to drafts like ''okay good it's out of my system i don't need to yell about this.''

[theoceansluvr]

Multi-Character x Ice Skater! Reader

warning; small injuries bc sports ! author's notes; i have a whole stockpile of fics in my drafts send help😿 also ! this is inspired by a moodboard from the lovely @/ssparksflyy bc i had to get inspo bc im uncreative at the moment😞 plus it's almost winter !

PERCY JACKSON-

despite the chronic skater boy energy he holds and his amazing coordination, he FUMBLES on ice skates.

not even in an attempt to be funny, he's just struggling to stand up.. so he grips onto the rail, your hand, or an unlucky kids assistant roller(y'all know what i mean right ??)

once he gets the hang of it he SWEARS he can out skate you

which is until you pull out a fancy trick and leave him utterly speechless for a good couple minutes !

he probably ends up taking "breaks" just to watch you all lovingly from the sides and what not

oh ! if you compete, you better believe he's showing up even though he hardly understands the scoring system !!!

all he knows is that you look graceful, pretty, and you did amazing

all in all, as long as he sees that you're having fun in your element, then he could care less about anything else

JASON GRACE-

despite his last name, i also think he'd stumble on skates for a bit before grasping it fairly quickly ! he's a fast learner afterall

definitely asks you to teach him tricks and such because he wants to get them down to impress you :(

he also considered learning to skate more often so he could be your partner in competitions !

you taught him how to do a bunny hop and he thought he was the coolest guy on EARTH for it

if you ever manage to sprain your ankle in the middle of practice or just free skating, he's on FULL panic mode

and gods forbid you get hurt during a performance.. they're dragging him off of the ice as you kinda just limp over towards the edge with a massively confused look

but ! the minute your better and able to get back on the ice, he's right there beside you till you want to take a break :3

very supportive boyfriend, but also overly concerned so try and avoid injuries when possible😓

LEO VALDEZ-

something tells me he spent a good couple hours learning how to sharpen your ice skate blades the moment he found out you skated

he also started selling a bunch of trinkets that he made to save up enough to buy you ice skates on your favorite color ! + they have both your initials embroidered onto them

doesn't even TRY to get on the ice, but he always, and i mean always, watches you practice !

he'll be tinkering with something while you do it or maybe just leaning over the rail and admiring you

likes picking out your dresses for performances even though he always picks out one with red in it so "you'll have him in mind" (he's corny.)

dare i say that he sits with you for hours while you find a song to perform to !?

like he's heard about 20+ different songs in the past 30 mins and he's bearing with it because it's you

he's more of your biggest behind the scenes supporter but STILL your #1 fan regardless !

i'm so proud to announce that i have finally posted after DECADES of swearing to myself that "okay im gonna finish this today !" and not finishing anything.. i missed my moots too so i thought id make sure they know im alive T^T

[rehnwriter]

Tag Game Here We Go!

My good friend @girlfromthecrypt mentioned me in her recent writeblr tag game and I decided to join in the fun!

1) What motivates you to write?

To be honest? Anything. I've written ever since I was little, and have enjoyed it ever since. I'm a very creative person, and I'm constantly thinking about stories, ideas, and what not, and putting them to paper always feels great. I'm also a very driven person, and like to work on projects / keep myself busy, and writing definitely ticks that box.

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)

I'm currently working on the final edits of my novel 'New Haven,' based on my series 'A guest at my motel asked me to post his story. He looked like he went through hell…' It's been quite a ride, but I'm finally on the final stretch and the end is in sight. Here's just a random little snippet from a dream sequence that I quite enjoyed:

At that moment, Mom got to her feet. She was impossibly tall and towered high over every other member of the congregation. Her face was stern and her appearance was that of a stoic believer. Around her head, a halo of dark, hellish flames had formed. In a bellowing voice, she answered that there was indeed yet another sinner.

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

It's got to be Ethan from my 'New Haven' novel. He's your typical loner, rebel-type (and loosely based on James from Twin Peaks). He's quite the interesting character, one who might seem half mad and angry all the time, but he's got quite the depths to it. I just really enjoy writing him and his dialogue.

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

The first draft hands down. While I usually outline a story beforehand, the first draft is the most creative part of writing. The best thing is that after a good ten to fifteen minutes, I get fully immersed in the story and things just come to me. It's almost as if the process of sitting down and forcing myself through those first minutes hands me the muse's kiss (as weird as that sounds).

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

This is really a tough one since I'm very bad at judging myself. I think I've gotten quite a bit better when it comes to writing dialogue and I enjoy it a lot. On the other hand, I think I've got a hand for otherworldly, and weird imagery/descriptions.

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

Gotta be honest, I'm not really a part of the community. I guess even when I'm on social-media, I'm a rather anti-social person who keeps to himself and just shares/rebolgs his own stories. I'm, however, always happy to see other people interacting with one another, and motivating each other to keep on writing and pushing forward. You guys are all the best!

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

I really, really love WriteMonkey. It's a distraction-free writing software that essentially gives you nothing but a black screen on which you type. I've got serious focus problems and pretty much anything can distract me, even if it's just a menu with formatting options.

Another piece of software I've recently started working with is Scrivener. It doubles as a writing and organizing tool, but the best thing is that it comes with an export and formatting function. It means you basically just type out your story/chapters and the program puts it into a publishable ebook or submittable manuscript. This honestly saves an incredible amount of time and headache, since there are so many things you've got to look out for and keep in mind otherwise.

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 really like the backstory of New Haven. It's essentially a small, unimportant religious town in the middle of nowhere, but as the novel continues my main characters discover that it's got quite a history. This includes Lutheran Christians, a German nobleman from the city of Gotha, and quite a few other things. I really love adding these tiny bits and pieces to make the settings seem more alive.

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

This might sound a bit harsh, but the best advice I can give people is to just sit down and write. Anything, really. If you're stuck on your current WIP, write something else for a bit, or maybe put out an entirely different story. I've been stuck before, and it's a terrible place to be in, and sometimes things just might become a bit too much, or you might grow to hate your current WIP. It's happened to me before. So just taking some time off, and writing something just for fun, is a great way to rekindle your creativity.

Another thing is, to allow yourself to take breaks! Sometimes, you've just got to recharge. Over the years, I've been extremely disciplined and forced myself to write every single day, even if I got home late, I'd force myself to put in at least half an hour. While I got a lot of work done, it honestly wasn't healthy, and I had to learn that taking some time off isn't a bad thing, and sometimes, it's truly necessary.

Just last month, I didn't feel things. All the stories I was working on were tough, a new novella I'd started didn't feel right, and I was in no mind to work on editing New Haven. And so, I took a few weeks off, until the spark was there again and I just help getting back into things.

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

Oh man, this is so tough. @girlfromthecrypt was the one who originally tagged me, so I've got to give thanks for this little break. Other than that, I'd tag @octoberconstellation who's been sneaking me little sets of questions that are quite fun to answer.

Well, that's about it! Hope you guys enjoyed this little look into my head. And I'm sorry, some of my answers might have gotten a bit out of hand.

[tonurseanopenwound]

hey im open to being uh a worshipper 😍 JSSJJEJSJ UR OCS R SO TASTY i must know them all inside and out

ill just dump the general plot of praelith 😍😍 in its early stages so there arent many characters yet bweh

copying and pasting this from my notes app

REVERE !!

As mentioned b4 mc gets isekaied into another world and falls through the roof of the cathedral in the middle of worship

And the priest ( to be named Amadeus ) Is like some really devoted follower right

In his past he was going to off himself but he (hallucinated) a voice telling him not to and believes it was his

Mc?? He doesnt know what the fuck is going on but he doesnt have a chance to explain himself and if he comes out now saying hes not the real god hes def going to get executed or so he thinks

Anyhow Amadeus is definitely parasocial

I know bro worshipped his mural everyday and fell in love with it

hes so delusional he makes himself believe that mc is the god hes been waiting for and that mc is the god that has saved him and helped him carry his life burdens

And when mc comes he forces all those expectations and devotion and gratitude on him even though he doesnt know whats going on 

percival is a good name for the foreign ambassador mayhaps

“Amadeus- no, you don’t understand. I… I’m not your god, I never was, I’m just-“

“Haha, what do you mean?

You’re a god. The god. My god.”

“I dont belong here, Deus!”

“…Do you wish to be a god. then?

A true god?”

And priest makes him undergo some boombastic satanic ritual

And even if mc never becomes a “true god” he will always be Amadeus’ god.

followers have to feed their flesh and blood as their “life essence” to the god to ensure his immortality

in the history of the religion the god made some sort of sacrifice to protect the people and lost a portion of his divinity as a result

..and mc. organ. nomonom

also ! deus dies. in part of the satanic ritual, he sacrifices himself 

this was a little bit i wrote ( was supposed to be written comedically so in later chapters you could see how much sadder mc got + was written in a shitposty format since i had writers block LMAO )

-> written in 2nd pov but itll be edited later !! just a first draft

┌──── •✧• ────┐

  System Activated.

  Welcome, User.

└──── •✧• ────┘

( make this one of those cool graphics)

Something was terribly wrong, and perhaps it was the fact that the moment you opened your eyes to witness the fantastic wonders of the earth this morning, you were met with air. Open air, that you were currently flailing about in like some fish out of water, headed straight for the roof of a very nicely constructed cathedral.

Your immediate first thought is to start tweaking. “What the fuck?????????”

Attempting to do what they do in cartoons - becoming a little seizure-victim-type helicopter of arms and legs - you only came to a conclusion that, much to your dismay, you were not slowing down at all. Splendid!

Rapidly approaching your imminent death, two things became very apparent.

You’d either:

a. Become some sort of cute meat slurry amalgamation and perish immediately

b. Become some sort of cute meat slurry amalgamation on the roof of a church and then slide through the glass panelling and grossly drip onto the carpet during a holy session with the lord

[ Or, TLDR: you’re ‘cooked.’ ]

… Pause, who the fuck just said that? 

Was it the voices in your head? Nono, that couldn’t be, they were all pussies, after all. All of them had gone quiet the moment you found yourself in this shithole.

“Get out of my head, whatever the fuck you-“

[ I am not ‘whatever’. ]

The voice you had been hearing now appeared as text, materialized in front of you in some blue, futuristic interface.

…Uhm, last time you checked, you weren’t schizophrenic. Had you forgotten to take your meds? Shit.

[ I am a system, or more precisely, The System. ]

“Okay buddy I really appreciate the autobiography here but I’m currently about to smash into a surface at some unholy speed and die a terrible death so if you can quiet that laughing gear for just a moment and let me cook-“

[ User, do you require assistance? ]

“… Uh, are you capable of that?”

[ I am capable of anything. ]

“By all means then-“

[ Transaction identified. Beginning Procedure. ]

(Make this a cool graphic, zalgo text )

[ What do you offer? ]

“Bitch why are there hidden fees I thought-“

[ Inevitably detected. Proceeding with automatic deduction. ]

[ 1 year has been taken. ]

 Erm what the sigma

Kaboom

YEA THATS ALL I GOT LMAO

[thedemonscrawler]

gonna procrastinate on writing by talking about writing woo

So, fun fact! Permission Slip is usually being written on two different documents at once, which should be but are not actually identical? And neither of them match the actual AO3 version you guys read?

1st Draft

The first draft is written with a combination of OpenOffice and Google Docs.

(I'll get to why that says Mobile Copy in a sec)

The OpenOffice document is meant to be the Master Draft of the fic. It's the entire story so far-- outline, notes, all the chapters written and the bits of chapters we haven't gotten to yet.

Yeah, it's lengthy. The reason it says 'Active Version' is starting around Chapter 5, I began saving a copy of the document up to the most recent chapter finished.

This is because of how I write scenes out of order, and having an older draft lets me go back for things that got rewritten. It's also really neat to see how various ideas evolved over the story, or how old some of the scenes are.

OpenOffice has the Master Draft, not just because it can handle it, but so I can put my laptop into airplane mode and write offline if I really need to focus. But the story doesn't stay there!

If you've seen the snippets I've shared, you know that sometimes they're highlighted in grey, like this:

(yeah you enjoy that snippet from Chapter 15)

The grey highlights are a system to tell myself 'this is a section that needs to be copied over to the other document', almost always a section I have just written that session. Feels good to have a whole page in grey.

So from OpenOffice, the grey sections are copied over to GoogleDocs, and become the 2nd Draft.

2nd Draft

..okay, so there are actually TWO GoogleDoc copies of Permission Slip. One of them is a 'master' version, just like the Open Office file. The other is the Mobile version. The master version has all of the chapters and outline and stuff, while the Mobile copy only goes back one or two chapters prior to the current one. Why?

Cos it turns out that when a document gets to be around 110 pages long, Docs starts being a little bitch and lags real bad on mobile, or starts crashing. So the mobile version was made so I could type on my phone. Same deal, new sections are highlighted in grey and copied back to the OpenOffice version when I'm on the laptop again.

Since the GoogleDocs version can be worked on from multiple locations, it's the one that gets the most edits. If there are substantial changes made they'll be copied back to the OpenOffice document, but minor edits aren't as crucial, and there are some sections that are pretty different between the two now.

From the GoogleDocs version on to the final(ish) version:

3rd Draft

The AO3 version should match the GoogleDocs version, and for the most part it does-- but not always. That last minute readthrough to catch all the spaces added after italics is also a time for minor edits. Missing words, dialogue rewrites, etc. There's one chapter that had a chunk written in the editor, but unfortunately I can't remember which one it is now 8'D only that it's between chapters 9 and 12. Naturally the AO3 version is the one you guys get to see.

Uuuuh yeah so. Overcomplicated system, go!

Also if you want a word processor for free, I recommend LibreOffice! Its based on the same open source software as OpenOffice, only it's actually still being updated and stuff (I still use OO just cos it's what I have 8'D).

Unfortunately I have yet to find a word processing app with cloud-based storage that can be edited from multiple devices, so I can't replace GoogleDocs with something better.

[romanceandshenanigans]

Writer Q&A Game

Thanks to @clairelsonao3 for tagging me!

1. What motivates you to write?

I'm not exactly sure tbh. It almost feels like a compulsion. There are days where I simply do not feel good in my body if I haven't written anything. Then there are others where I can't bring myself to write because I'm too tired or too distracted from life. Honestly the second I get a clear head and enough time to myself, I'll start writing.

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)

This isn't from my WIP, but from a fanfic I wrote a while ago. I want to try to find a way to incorporate it into something. Not sure where though.

“I know this seems like it’s coming out of nowhere,” he said, “but promise it’s not. I’ve had a long time to think about it.  A few years, actually. I guess, I just didn’t realize how deep I was in it until about five minutes ago.”

She kept silent, but the simple fact she hadn’t told him to get out gave him the confidence to keep going. . 

“I meant it when I said I’m crazy about you. I like that you take your sugar with a drop of coffee.  I like how you sing to yourself when you’re happy.  I like that you never seem to get cold.  I like that you never lose your head under fire, but still need me to get rid of spiders. I like that you can laugh at yourself.  I like that you can laugh at me. Hell, I like that you’re perfectly willing to slap my face if the situation calls for it.

I like so many things about you Liz, and that’s just the stuff I found out on accident.  I can only imagine the stuff I’d learn if I started loving you on purpose."

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

I really do enjoy writing Finn. The boy just makes my smile.

Close second is another OC which I wrote for fanfic who I want to save and put someplace else, Lucy. She's my softest girl who has a lot of love to give. Might figure out a way to put her in this regency setting somewhere, but who knows.

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

The first draft spree. The moment when you get an idea and you have write it down as quickly as possible. It's rough and definitely will need some editing, but that rush cannot be topped. It just feels satisfying to exorcise even the smallest of scenes out of my body.

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

Dialogue, hands down. It's at least the part I've gotten the most compliments on.

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

I've only just started to dip my toe in, but I really do love answering asks. I like seeing other writer's process and knowing I'm not alone. It's just fun!

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

I've been using Scrivener and it's really helped me keep everything organized. I have a very conspiracy board way of drafting, so having all my random snippets in one place really helps.

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)

Not sure world building is my strong suit for this current WIP. I suppose I'm enjoying expanding the world of the theatre, but I admittedly need to do more research.

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

Write anyway. It doesn't have to be the scene that's giving you trouble. It doesn't even have to be for the piece you're trying to focus on, just don't get out of the habit of writing. Once you lose that momentum, it takes a long time to get it back.

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

Gotta give a shout out to @clairelsonao3 for being so welcoming in my introduction to the writeblr community. And @janec23, for being one of the few specifically romance writers to reach out.

But I really can't begin to thank all the people who have followed me from my fanfic blog over to this one. It really means so much to know people are interested in reading anything I put out there.

@flapjacques, @jo-harrington, @can-of-pringles, @handahbear, @auroramagpie, @justanothersadperson93, @sad-cat-hours, @ghostface001, @theowlwhocameback, @mattmurdocksscars, @roruna, @everything-intertwined, @sweetjedi, @arcanerazil, @vibratingbonesbis, @delirious0pandemonium, @llovelykenobi, @geek-girl7, @mixedupanddown

Know that I love and appreciate you all.

I'm also going to leave this an OPEN tag to anyone who wants to do this, and especially invite everyone who I have tagged above. (and

[squarebracket-trickster]

Writer Q&A Tag Game

Thank you @sunset-a-story for ALSO tagging me way back in August. I AM SO SORRY

1. What motivates you to write?

It itchy, itchy urge to create something. I NEED it OUT. I MUST make sense of it ALL. The thoughts need ordering and putting together to maximize the happy chemicals. I see something I like that someone else made and I get jealous so I must do something like that, but MY way, and BETTER. It all makes me very itchy (restless).

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)

I skimmed my entire 3rd draft (so far) to pick a line. There are a lot of good ones but none I liked more than the rest - I couldn't choose. So... I know I've already shared this one but dammit. It is a kickass line. It's also the first line of WIPVII - and you do not know what devils I sold my soul to to escape THAT writer's block.

I will live, I tell myself through the salt water in my eyes and the sting of the south wind on my face. This will make for a good story one day.

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

Banter and wit. Which is funny because I always thought that was the thing I would struggle most with - I was the academic overachiever who took herself too seriously in school. But when I reread my drafts there is something that makes me laugh in nearly every scene. Most of my highlighted lines are banter or retorts.

6. What do you enjoy most about the Writeblr community?

I love seeing writeblr content on my dash and I looooove getting interactions when I liveblog my writing. It is so nice to be able to share this with people who love it too (rather than inflicting it on my poor irl friends who are not writers). I just love all you Writeblr friends so much!

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

A 2x3.5' and a 3x5.5' whiteboard with a rainbow's worth of whiteboard markers in different thicknesses for brainstorming, family trees, timelines. My sketchbook, a mechanical pencil, and YouTube drawing tutorials for my maps and concept art. MS Word, dark mode, Times New Roman pt 11, with comments enabled for my manuscripts, outlines (bullet points), and worldbuilding notes. Subfolders within subfolders stored on my PC to organize all my Word docs. Two separate USBs which my completed manuscripts are saved to (in case something happens to my computer AND one of the USBs).

I have yet to find any worldbuilding or map making software (and it hasn't been for lack of looking) that gives me enough flexibility. I have yet to find any writing software that has features Word doesn't but that would actually help my process rather than overwhelm me.

I do want to write out a draft of WIPVII by hand at some point (though with my penchant for writing hand cramps this might be doomed). I also want to try an electric typewriter.

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)

WIPVII doesn't have very complex worldbuilding (there is no magic and most of it is ripped from real world history) but I do always love it when authors tell us what way the wind is coming, what smells it carries, what the view is in the distance, whose lands those are... that kind of stuff. Really creates a sense of place. I spent a lot of time mapping all this out in my own novel and I am very happy with it! The description feels so rich!

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

Learn more about the craft. Writing is problem solving. If you aren't happy with something figure out why - the mechanics and technique behind writing. If you're still stuck learn even more. There are so many great, free resources on tumblr, youtube, blogs, pinterest (though it is most stolen from tumblr) even twitter and tiktok.

Also, learn how to filter out what advice is helpful now versus what should wait for later so you don't get overwhelmed. If you haven't even written a first draft yet don't bother with pacing, exposition, line editing, or let alone how to query. Just focus on the macro-stuff like plot and character arcs.

Tagging with the lightest brush on the shoulder these nine alleged humans: @cheeto-flavoured-pasta, @alnaperera, @bluberimufim, @daisywords, @boundedsea, @full-on-sam, @writernopal, @ashen-crest, @surroundedbypearls

[piniatafullofblood]

A Comprehensive Guide To The Ao3 Tagging System

There may be other ways to do it, but this is the way I do it. I see a lot of people on, like, wattpad and ff.net who don’t go on ao3 because it’s tagging system is intimidating, but speaking from an ao3 perspective, wattpad and ff.net’s tagging systems are almost unusable. So, here’s a guide to fix that gap!

Okay, so when you get to the home page it should look something like this

There are multiple different ways to do this, but the easiest way is to click on the search button in the top right hand corner. You don’t need to put anything into the search bar to be able to search. After you do that, it should look something like this

After this, you click on the search bar again. That should take you to a page that looks like this

From this, it’s pretty self explanatory, and you can press on the blue question marks if you don’t understand.

Here are the kinks: if you use the title and it doesn’t turn up the fic you want, it doesn’t mean necessarily that the fic isn’t on the archive. Sometimes it glitches and doesn’t show it up, which means if your trying to find a fic you’ve already read your better chance is to memorize the authors username, because that doesn’t happen with usernames.

The date field doesn’t work, it’ll show you up nothing.

For the word count, you can’t do specific numbers. If you type in 10,000, it will only pull up fics with exactly 10,000 words, which is why you have to use < and >. But the thing about that is that they’re switched around. So if you typed in >10000, it’ll show up more than ten thousand, and vice versa. (It won’t understand if you use commas.)

For the character, relationships, and additional tags- when you type anything in, it’ll bring a drop down menu of the sites predictions for what you might mean. But the thing is, if you just typed in, for example, ‘parental aizawa’, and put that in as a tag, nothing would show up, because there are no tags that are exactly just ‘parental aizawa’. There’s no AI involved, it’s not gonna predict you. If you wanted to get the parental aizawa tag, you’d have to type in the whole “ Parental | Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead | Dadzawa” tag, otherwise it’ll search for exactly the tag you searched for and nothing will come up. (But obviously, no one types in the whole tags. You just use the recommended official tags that come through the drop-down.) Not all ao3 tags that are in use are official, though. There are, sort of, ‘tropes’ for ao3 tags that translate to multiple different ideas for different characters, but there are too many of them to list out, and we don’t need to because you’ll start memorizing without even trying the more you search.

Oh also, unrelated to the search terms: if you’re writing a fic, don’t write it in the official ao3 writing box. If you exit the site, there’s a good chance it’ll erase the work. (Oh and choose your font before, otherwise it’ll glitch and erase all your paragraph breaks.) this glitch is noted in the site. Oh also- drafts are only saved for a month after the original editing date. Your better choice would just be to write in a third party app.

Back on topic. Most of the tags are really self explanatory if you just look at them, so it feels a bit redundant to me to explain them, but that’s the main reason it feels so overwhelming to people, so I’m going to do it. Disclaimer: you don’t have to fill out every section of the form before searching for a work.

The ‘any field’ tag is tricky and finicky, and tbh, it’s better left alone if you’re just learning the tagging system. Your least important ones, (at least by my experience,) are the date, title, and the work stats. They’re more trouble than they’re worth.

The author/artist tag is exactly what it sounds like. You put in someone’s exact username, (it has to be exact,) and it’ll show you all of their works (that match with whatever other specifications you’ve put in.)

The ‘completion status’, ‘crossovers’ and ‘single chapter’ are easy, because you just click one. If you don’t click that you want a single chapter, it will give you both single and multiple works.

The language section is a giant drop down, it’s organized a-z. Most of the archives fics are in English, so you probably don’t really have to worry about it. If you don’t click on any language, it’ll show you every fic that ,atches your other specifications, and they might not be in English. (But most of them are, so you really don’t need to worry about it.)

Personally, I find I don’t usually specify on the ‘ratings, warnings, and categories’ options, but it really depends on what you’re looking for. But those are fairly easy, you just choose an option if you want to. If you don’t specify, it’ll factor that out and show you everything.

That’s about it. You can look at the little blue question marks next to the sections for more details.

Happy reading!

[ilovedthestars]

7, 9 and 13 for the Writer Asks? 🥰

(2023 in review writer ask game)

Oooh you've picked SUCH good questions. Thank you! 🥰

7. What character(s) captured your heart?

This was a year of OCs for me!! It's hard to believe, but I started posting Old Unit, Young Unit back in January--I think it's going to turn a year old before i finish it. OldUnit and Niri, and the world I've built around them, has become a major focus for me. It's so cool to think about how they've developed over the course of this year. I have so much of their story left to tell, and I suspect I'll still be telling it this time next year!

I'd also be remiss if i didn't mention Yuma and Crowbar, who were actually created this year and made their first appearance on ao3 (Salvage or Repair) as well. I've been a big fan of "A SecUnit and its Human" duos, but they've never clicked for me as much as Yuma & Crowbar did. Their story went from a seed of an idea to several thousand words in like 24 hours (shoutout to WyvernWolf for helping it along <3) and before I'd even finished Salvage or Repair I was writing follow-up adventures. I've got many more stories to tell about them, too!

9. What fic meant the most to you to write?

Oooh. If we're counting meta, I know what my answer has to be--On System Collapse, Sanctuary Moon, and saving one another, my meta about chapter 8 of SC. I won't talk about it in detail so I don't have to tag this for spoilers, but it was an outpouring of all my strongest emotions about System Collapse that I wrote during & immediately after reading it. Honorable mention to the artist's statement for Ghosts of the Pressy, which was similarly written from the heart.

But okay, this question is about fic. I think it has to be Old Unit, Young Unit again. That's the fic that has kept me up late so many nights this year, the one I've been pushing myself the hardest to finish because I'm dying for other people to get to read the story in my head. And it's the one I've gotten the most encouragement and help on along the way, which I am incredibly grateful for.

13. What fic was the easiest to write?

I'm pretty sure Hints (SC spoilers at the link!) was written in one day, so that probably takes the prize. The sequel to An Unexpected Quarter (which is posted as a chapter 2 but feels like a separate project in my mind, because that fic was originally just a one-shot) was written in about 3 days. Fast is as close to easy as I get--I either pour a fic out of myself in a few hours and clean it up and throw it out into the universe immediately without looking back, or i slowly agonize over drafts of it for months, there's no in-between.

[kiwibubbles5]

I hope you don't mind if a Socially Anxious Individual expands some on #3?? :)

Booping is awesome. And all of Tumblr's other interaction buttons range from a little bit to a LOT scarier..

My social anxiety is loads better online vs in person, but it's still there. The prospect of getting to know someone new is still terrifying. (Fair warning, I'm very aware that everything I'm about to discuss worrying about is unrealistic and unreasonable. ✨a n x i e t y✨)

The comment button is scary - I don't know what to say, what if I look stupid or sound mean?

The reblog button is extra scary. I don't like to rb stuff without proper tags for my organization system, and on low energy days, proper tagging can take a lot more effort than you'd think. I also don't want to make anyone feel bad if I rb their post without any comments/compliments/etc in the tags, because what if they come to my blog and see other posts that I have commented on in the tags, and they get sad because they think I didn't deem their art or writing or whatever it is worthy of saying anything about. But, again, figuring out what to say can be really hard and scary.

The like button is scary - likes don't spread the post around or boost it or really do anything, so I really really don't want to press 'like' on anything without reblogging it. So many posts highly encourage reblogging over liking stuff, and for good reason!

But y'all. I have over three hundred and fifty drafts saved right now. Because when I see a post I enjoy - art, writing, even just a relatable or funny thing - if I don't have the energy or time to fight back the social anxiety and reblog it, I save it to tag and post later. I don't leave a like, I don't know how long it'll be till I can get back to posting the reblog. I wanna be a little more social. I want so badly to show people appreciation and give them a lil happiness. But I'm so introverted and anxious.

Boops were a way to connect with somebody without any of the above fears. April 1st was the most active/social I have been on here since... (checks notes) A LONG ASS TIME alright, idk.

A boop says so many things without having to piece together the words to say them. A boop says, "Hi." It says, "We are sharing in this silly little thing together, and that is beautiful." It says "I see you," and "You're a part of this community," and "I care enough about you, random stranger, to send you a cute lil boop or two. To join you in the spirit of something fun." It says "You showed up on my dash! 😄" or "I know that you follow me I appreciate you!" or "Hi moot ily!"

But a boop also feels safe. There's nothing I can phrase wrong or fuck up about a boop. (I mean, I suppose besides spamming someone with too many boops who doesn't want that, but I tried to be super careful to not do that at all, just looked for the posts welcoming spam boops. Oh and I also only sent evil boops to people I knew a bit better, just in case. Okay so clearly even this was not entirely worry-free but it was SO MUCH LESS SCARY.) It just felt so much easier to navigate than all the other, more complex socializing options. Boop. 🐾 Boop back. 🐾 It made me happy to give boops, it made me happy to get return ones. It was. Really fun. (And, to anyone who didn't have a good booping experience - maybe you didn't get lots of boops or return boops - I'm really sorry, I promise I would have booped you if I could. You matter to this community, too 💖🐾💖boop)

The other thing I liked about boops was that they don't necessarily invite nor require any response outside of booping. (And there even comes a point when a booping chain needs to end, so it doesn't feel super anxious to not boop back every single received boop.) A boop could lead to further interaction of some kind, and that's great!! But it doesn't create an automatic expectation of further interaction. I didn't feel pressured to follow people or connect more, or to have a conversation through comments or reblogs/tags - all stuff that I often don't have energy for.

(Fair warning again, no, this level of social anxiety is not healthy, I am trying to work on it guys listen 😅 The boop system certainly isn't a replacement for all the other, deeper ways to connect on Tumblr and I want to get to a point where I'm not so scared someday. But the booping system is really good for low energy days and/or high anxiety levels.)

So, yeah. I can't speak for anyone but myself, but this is why I personally loved the boop buttons and would love for booping to become a permanent function.

((P.S. Oh, I suppose I forgot to mention the ask button. Yeah the ask button is more intimidating and terrifying than any monstrous eldritch entity I could ever come across 😅))

petition for tumblr to make the boop feature permanent. reasons:-

so i can shower my affection on mooties and followers without any limits

validates my sense of appreciation and does not make me feel unwanted

every introverts' dream who loves a blog but is scared to talk with them

feels like an actual physical boop

online love language

[my-castles-crumbling]

Do you have any advice for advocating for yourself re: mental health? Or just general positive vibes would be good. Anyway, here's the story, very edited. You're lucky you're not getting the first draft of this omg.

There's something more going on than my current diagnosis. I won't go through the whole story but the whole triage process with my insurance and the therapist (?) that I saw was wildly unhelpful. And not what I have consistently said I need- which is to figure out what is happening and have actual support in place. So I put in a complaint to get a referral to see someone else. And now it's been almost a month and I need to follow up. Except now I'm feeling mostly okay.

When I started this there was so much bad coping happening and I felt like I had a reason to be a bit pushy but I didn't get a chance to actually explain anything to anyone. Now I'm scared I'll accidentally say I'm fine or they'll ask how long it's been since xxx and it won't seem like anything is wrong.

I've almost been to the ER once because of how triggering this process is and I don't want to get there again. But I keep thinking that might be what's needed, like showing is better than telling. Which is a whole separate spiral I'm trying to avoid. It's so frustrating and I'm getting less and less confident that I even know how I feel or why I'm doing this.

Hi! The mental health system is shit. Full stop. I am SO sorry it is failing you.

When it comes to advocating for yourself in any sense, here are a few really important things to do:

Document everything. Write it all down, and save it in multiple places. And let them know you are documenting it. For example, you say you filed a complaint. Ask for a physical and digital copy of your complaint. "For your records." Ask for copies of your chart. Every time they make a decision, ask for it to be noted in your chart, and ask for a copy of the chart.

Often, people will try to take advantage of people who don't know what they don't know. But having all of it written down holds people accountable. And when they know you are documenting, they're more likely to do what they're supposed to do, simply because they know they're being watched.

Second, be kind, but firm. Do not back down, but don't be rude. You're not being a Karen by doing this, as long as you don't yell or throw a fit. For example, when dealing with the complaint you put in- yes, call back. If the person who answers says they have no news, say something like, "I completely understand that you might not be able to do anything more for me, but I'm very frustrated by this situation and I think you can get that I've been dealing with it for x days and I'd like some answers, since it's my health. Do you think I could talk to someone who could give me more information?"

Document. Hold people accountable. Don't back down. And remember, you deserve care.

I'm here if you ever need to vent <3 I'm naming you advocating anon if you want to write again!

[talenlee]

Prototype 23.02 - Bakarina

Prototype 23.02 - Bakarina

Okay, okay, I need to do another one of these posts, the ones where I talk about the monthly prototype for February, that was Smooch Month, okay, that means it’s a standard template at this point, complaining about how hard it is to make smoochy games. Oh wait, what do you mean this time I got inspired and had a cool idea and wanted to build on that? Well, snap, what did I make?

Inspired by My Next Life As A Villainess, All Roads Lead To Doom, I devised something that was really nagging at me as a problem. See, smoochy games don’t feel to me like they benefit from being competitive (mostly). I was stuck on the question of, hey, how do I make a romantic narrative game that focuses on a relationship and choices that lead to that, that doesn’t pit players at odds with one another? How then, do I make a cooperative game about smooching?

I did it!

The game in question is currently just saved as ‘bakarina,’ a reference to the main character of that anime. The idea of this game is that you’re playing the main character of an otome game – a group of players piloting one character. Each player represents a mood of the character, so you’re all working together to try and find a partner that matches your style or appeal as it is, and also trying to avoid getting involved in a ‘bad ending’ of the game (by winding up with a bad date, or some kind of deadly end).

The game’s primary play experience is drafting. Players are drafting cards that become resources you can spend to solve problems, but the problems are the cards you didn’t draft. After a round of drafting, everyone works together to offer cards to solve those problems, and people can see what resources you have so they might see the things you choose not to address, while you’re trying to guide the group towards a good match.

I consider this game in pre-prototype. I think that with a little bit of time dedicated to it in a day where I don’t have to do tons of other work, I could belt out the resources necessary to get a prototype of this game delivered from Gamecrafter. It’s definitely doable. And what’s more is that all that I need to do from here can actually be automated. I need to create card faces, art standins, and iconography, but the rules system is complete and the card template too!

The bulk of what goes into the game is a deck of cards that look like this:

If you really want the rules, don’t worry, I’ll post them at the end, so you can see rules in that state.

What about the accounting of the steps of the making of the game idea?

I did a Mastodon thread tracking my thoughts on this game over time, if you want to read it step-by-step. I tried to demonstrate thought processes at each stage of things, and tried to do more direct, clear explicit statement of choices and why I made them.

There’s more, too! I took notes in a physical notebook, which I shared on my instagram (1, 2, 3, 4). Think of my instagram as a diary space, where I try to take a maximum of one image a day, so that makes it a great place for me to put notebook pages I can share. This is where the game started out, first examining the needs and possible mechanics that could address those needs.

Now, you wanna read the rules?

Okay, here you go:

[BAKARINA]

A Cooperative Game of Otome Conflicts

Overview

The protagonist of an otome game is trying to navigate complex situations to work out who she loves, who she’s dating, and who she’ll wind up with, made more complicated by her personality being played by multiple different players who can’t communicate with one another!

Theme

The players are each playing different aspects of the personality of an otome game protagonist. Each round, players draft cards to gather resources, in anticipation of dealing with dramatic moments in the story ahead of them. Then, players have to spend the cards they drafted to try and romantically match with partners they want, or to avoid accumulating Death Flags. Players win when they get to a relationship 6 with a single partner, and then check to see if that character is a good match, to see if they wind up in a tragic or heroic end.

Components

5 dice

8 tokens

5 Value tokens representing how much you like the boy

3 Death Flag tokens

90 cards

16 each of 5 suits

10 Death Flag cards

6 Jumbo cards

1 Hot Boys card

5 Player info cards

Rules

Setup

Give each player a player card

Set the smoochable card where everyone can see it

Set each of the dice next to the smoochable boys, set to 1

Each player looks at a single Value token and puts it face-down on the player board. Players cannot tell one another what they know about that token.

Then, shuffle up the deck of cards and and set it where players can easily access it, and a discard pile can be easily seen. Each player draws 3 cards.

Play happens simultaneously.

Play

The game takes place in two phases; the draft, then the problems.

Each player, on their turn, picks one of the cards in their hand, and turns it face down, keeping it. This is a Resource.

Then, of the remaining cards, that player puts a card face-up in the Problems pile.

Then, pass the last card to the next player.

Draw two cards from the deck.

Once you’ve drafted a number of cards equal to twice the number of players, it’s time to sort out the problems.

Sort the problem deck and find the highest value problem cards. Pick a number of cards equal to the number of players, plus one. Set the rest of the cards into the discard pile, face-up.

Then, players need to determine which of the Problems cards they want to deal with or not. Players can’t tell why they may want to ignore a Problem, but they can be clear about which ones they want to contribute to.

Players spend the resources they have available;

Problems either offer a potential reward or a compulsory reward. Problems with compulsory rewards (symbol) give you their reward if you don’t spend resources to prevent them.

The players then get to have the rewards for any cards they resolved

A heart lets you increment the appropriate dice on the play board

A peek lets one player look at a face-down token on the board

A swap lets one player swap a face-down token with another token on the board

A death flag adds a death flag token to your board. Then, if the players have three death flags, they lose

The players then put their cards in the discard, and each draw three cards, starting a new round of drafting.

If at any point the deck is empty and players can’t draw from it, shuffle the discarded cards and make that a new deck

Winning

When at least one of the dice hits 6, at the end of turn, the game ends; players can pick one of the dice at 6, and then players choose which of the 6-ranked boys they marry. Players agree on a character, then flip the token to see if the character is a Great Match, a fine match, a bad match or another death flag.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Games #Making

[autumnalwalker]

Tag Game - This or That

Thank you for the tag, @novel-emma.

Passing the tag to @epnona-the-wisp, @theprissythumbelina, @words-after-midnight, @rainbowbokchoy, and, as always, an open tag for anyone else who may wish to join in.

1. historical or futuristic

Looking at my bookshelf, it's s close to even split, slightly favoring historical. That is, assuming that pseudo-medieval fantasy counts as "historical". It would be an even more even split if we lumped the third category of "modern day" in with "futuristic."

2. the opening or closing chapter

Giving this one to "the opening," if only because it's usually the two or three chapters before the actual closing chapter that are the real meat of the ending. That said, while I've found closing chapters often have lower lows than openings, they also sometimes have higher highs.

3. light+fluffy or dark+gritty

This one's a close call, as it mostly depends on what I'm in the mood for/in need of at any given time. That said, I'm going to give it to "light+fluffy" because a) I think I've come to be able to enjoy "light+fluffy" that's merely okay while I think I'm a little more demanding of "dark+gritty," and b) I like my "dark+gritty" to have some element of hopefulness that things will get better one day.

4. animal companion or found family

Found family by far, and I'll go the extra step and say that an intelligent talking/psychic bonded animal is really more of a person than an animal and therefore actually falls under found family.

6. hard or soft magic system

Whichever fits the story being told, so long as it's handled well. If you're going with a hard magic system make it an organic part of the worldbuilding and plot that flows as naturally/logically as anything else and keep it internally consistent. If you're going with a soft magic system, please don't abuse it to get lazy with the plot.

7. standalone or series

Both is good. At their best, a standalone can neatly and concisely say what it needs to say without growing bloated, while a series can invest you for a long time, letting you really get to know the characters and world and becoming part of your life. At their worst, a standalone leaves you unsatisfied but knowing that answer/closure/etc. will never come, while a series will leave you cursing your need to see how it all turns out and compulsively keep going long past the point where you've stopped enjoying it.

8. one project at a time or always juggling 2+

I must both consume and be consumed by a thing until nothing is left before I can feel comfortable moving on to the next. That goes for both creative endeavors and leisure activities. I've never understood how some people can read multiple books at a time or start a new game before finishing another while still having the intent to finish both.

9. one award winner or one bestseller

The award winner side of things tends to fit my tastes better. That said, I suppose the two aren't mutually exclusive and things do get popular for a reason.

10. fantasy or sci-fi

Again, referring back to my bookshelf, it's a pretty even split; maybe 55:45, with a slight skew toward fantasy and some that blur the line.

11. character or setting description

Do we mean characterization or physical description of characters? The former is typically the far more important to me, but the latter I often have a tendency to forget about/ignore unless it's plot relevant or a big part of their personality, to the point where the way I picture characters in my head while reading tends to have more to do with the general vibes I get off of them than the canonical physical descriptions. So, I suppose Characterization > Setting Description > Character Physical Description. (Caveat: a sufficiently cool world can, on very rare occasions, make up for shortcomings in character or plot.)

12. first or final draft

I write as a fun hobby rather than any serious intent for publishing, so my first draft of anything will generally be my only draft, save perhaps for a few minor spelling/grammar/typo errors that I might happen to catch on a reread. If I'm reading someone else's work, I prefer the final draft, but if the first is all I can get my hands on at the moment for an intriguing story then I'll take it.

13. love triangle in everything or no romantic arcs

I don't tend to be big on romance in general (although in recent years I've found subsets of it that I like better than others), and most love triangles I've personally encountered just feel like frustrating distractions. There are exceptions of course, and the triangle ending in polyamory has the potential for being especially rewarding, so long as it's a matter of everyone actually developing feelings for one another and not a vaguely creepy horny author-insert fantasy of one character getting multiple partners who are just sort of tolerating eachother for the sake of being able to share the protagonist.

14. constant sandstorm or rainstorm

It seems most of my favorite things that I've written happen during the rain. Case in point: Day 140.

[ranahan]

@kad-dala

Okay, so I’m just going to preface this by saying I’m an EMT. So if I get pedantic about shit it’s not personal, it’s just me knowing this stuff saves lives and consequently being incapable of being chill about it. If you don’t want to commit to medical realism in your worldbuilding, feel free to ignore me.

First of all, I want to note that there are several triage systems, both across the world and in different situations (in the field vs. in the hospital). I’m going to assume you refer to a triage system like START (used in US and with some modifications in many other parts of the world) which is used by first responders at the scene of a mass casualty incident. TCCC uses a modification on this scheme as well (TCCC is also your google buzzword if you want to learn more about tactical medical care).

I have in my drafts triage as oribru’solet/kadale’solet, lit. emergency/casualty count. Triage comes from French trier (‘to separate, sort, shift, select’): separation/classification is one useful function of triage (but we don’t really have a good root for that), getting numbers is another (which we do have a root for). I’m not married to this word, it’s just the best I could come up at the time it occurred to me.

And here comes the pedantic part, I’m going to nitpick on your classifications:

Red, immediate: ge’tal. The Russian dictionary has linjyc, ‘urgent’ if you want to use that; you could derive it from oribru, ‘emergency’ > oribru’la, ‘emergent, urgent’; or jii, ‘now’ > jiila, ‘immediate’.

Yellow, delayed: shi’yayc. You could use one of the words above for reds and one of the less-immediate for yellows (I don’t know how Mando’a would compare e.g. oribru’la vs. linjyc, same or different as emergency vs. urgent?).

Green, minor/walking wounded: vorpan, kemyc/kem’la kadale (haven’t worked out which adjectival suffix it’s supposed to be). “Walking wounded” is imho a pretty good description, so I chose to calque it (lit. “walking casualties”).

Black, deceased: ne’tra, kyradyc

I don’t know how much background/training you have in triage, but as a quick recap for anyone who doesn’t know what these classifications mean:

Reds are patients who have a problem in one of the major life supporting organ systems: brains, breathing, or bleeding. That’s stuff that has the potential to be immediately life-threatening.

Yellows are patients who aren’t red (i.e. can wait), but aren’t capable of walking. They don’t have to be severely injured: a broken leg won’t kill you, but it will prevent you from evacuating yourself (and will therefore need resources allocated for the evacuation to happen). Or their injuries may be more severe, but they’re holding steady enough they’re not in immediate danger of perishing without medical care that can’t be administered in the field.

Greens are patients who aren’t red and can evacuate themselves. You’ll still need to keep a count of them and give them checkups at some point, because otherwise you’ll miss the guy who’s been walking off an injury with the power of adrenaline, but later keels over from an unchecked bleed. In combat situations, these guys can usually be treated in the field (by medics, or by self- or buddy-aid), and they should be utilized in helping to treat/evacuate the more seriously wounded, securing the scene, or being put back into the fight.

Blacks are deceased. Nothing you can do for them, but you’ll need to check and mark them to make sure you haven’t overlooked someone who you could help.

tldr: The way I see it, the function of triage is not to assign a severity classification, but to assign the order in which casualties are treated and evacuated. The goal is to evacuate and treat everybody, but in mass casualty incidents where there are more casualties than resources, we need to allocate resources in ways which do most good. Or, save most lives and limbs, if you will. Triage classes are also very handy for communicating with people higher in the command chain. Your superiors don’t want or need the medical details, they just want to know what resources they need to assign to your scene. So they’ll be happy if you can tell them you have X people who need urgent medevac (reds); Y people who need medical assistance/evac but can wait (yellows); and Z people who may need non-urgent transportation and checkups/minimal care—or in a combat situation, can continue fighting (greens).

I also think you could use just the first letter of G, S, V and N (or perhaps Oribru’la, Linjyc, Naas (as in the answer “fine”), Kyradyc) as the sigils—easier and faster to write. Ideally—and actually—you’d spend less than 30 seconds per patient when doing your first round of triage. Triage is also a continuous process, so you will need to be able to cross over and rewrite the sigils when you need to move a patient from one category to another. So I think simpler sigils would be more readable. Idk, I’m visualizing mando medics using some kind of paint markers (since they apparently write acronyms like MS on patients) that won’t be washed off by rain/water/mud, but come off with some common solvent like alcohol. But here experience tells me that if it can leave behind a messy residue/unreadable mess, it probably will.

Some other random related vocabulary from my notes:

Adol b’adol (phrase): through and through (of wounds); clear cut (of situations etc)

Agol’shupur (n.): flesh wound, soft-tissue injury

Epan’shupur (n.): gut wound

Casualties (wounded) is kadale, so casualties (deceased) would probably be kyradyce

My take on basic Mandalorian triage terms and symbols

Shupur'sur - damage list, triage,

Ge'tal - red, DAR'KYR'JII not yet dead/urgent,

Shi'yayc - yellow, SHUPUR severe trauma,

Vorpan - green, KADALA injury,

Ne'tra - black, KYRAYC deceased,

Feel free to add on and comment

@ranahan

@quicksilvermad

[fixyourwritinghabits]

hey, i have an issue when it comes to physically writing things down. i've basically memorised all my worldbuilding, and if people call on me to explain a part that i already know, i can explain it. but the problem here comes with writing these thoughts down. every time i go to type up dossiers of my cultures, i draw up blanks, despite not lacking anything to write about. all my ideas take the form of feelings and vibes that i dont know how to capture. anything i can do to fix this? thank you

The blank page writing dilemma is extremely common and regularly trips up many authors, no matter how many ideas they have. I'm not able to write directly on a Word doc. I'm not able to put my ideas in an Excel sheet, even though I can do that for work, and I'm not able to use Scrivener, as helpful as it is. I can use the computer for everything but novel writing.

And yet, despite in my mid-30s with probable ADHD, I've been able to write a number of novels and short stories. I've got a literary agent, and maybe someday will actually sell a book, who knows? But the point is if I can do this, so can you. In order to get anything done, I turn it into an art project.

Now, I'm not an artist. I can't draw, and I don't have much patience for learning beyond the basics of other art forms. But I can take a bunch of differently colored sticky notes, assign each color meaning, and slap them to a huge project board laid out with an outlined plot structure (I personally use Save The Cat as a starting baseline). I can use some macaroni to make a fantasy map. I can create character flash cards and add vital information to each.

Gather Your Tools - It takes some trial and error to find the method that works for you. You can try flash cards, you can try sticky notes, you can try colored pencils or fancy pens (I have to use Uni Power Tank pens, nothing else works). If laying out your scenes on flash cards doesn't work because you don't like things out of order, put them on sticky notes. Give yourself enough room to expand out - on a table, on the floor, on your bed. As long as you're creating something, you are making progress.

Start Small - You have a big whole world in your head, of course it's going to be hard to write down. Pick one thing - a character, a setting - and focus on that. Make a character sheet, create a playlist, spend way too much time on Canva creating a moodboard. Whatever gets the idea out of your head and onto something concrete that you can see helps.

Your notes can be as detailed as you want - Know how a scene goes to the very last detail? You don't have to write it down in full. Alternatively, however, I find my scene notes tend to be what amounts to my first draft - I get an outline in there, some dialogue, notes on setting and mood. But it's entirely up to you and what suits your needs!

Look, just make those playlists and moodboards - It feels like it's wasting time, it's not. You're getting those ideas flowing any way you can. Use every tool that helps.

This is all good and well, but how to get from preparing to write? Well, this is where it gets challenging. A detailed book, like Book In A Month, can help, writing advice is not one size fits all, and writing books are not rigid structures to stick to, but guides.

Make a reward system - I use stickers . Seriously. In addition to my notes, I have another sheet pinned above my desk with each chapter listed, the goals for each (draft, edited, etc), and a spot for a shiny sticker (also, I used to be a teacher, and you never get over the joy of using stickers). But any system will do, as long as you keep it to something that's easy to maintain and won't break your bank.

Chuck your goals - Can't get a chapter done? Focus on a scene. Can't get the scene to work? Focus on a chapter. Write your dialogue in script form, sketch out fight scenes with notes on details to add later. Everything is fixable, as long as you have something to fix.

Can't write on a computer? Try something else - Okay, look, I can't draft anything if I don't do it by hand. Is this the greatest idea? Maybe not, but it allows my brain to slow down and get the words to where I want them to be. I don't draft fast, but I do draft well because I'm handwriting, and my first attempt often resembles the final version.

Form habits and rituals - I have to write with a certain type of pen (hello, Uni Power Tank I have to buy online because they only make them in Japan). I have to write on a certain type of paper, with specific margins, because any size deviance between pages will drive me nuts. Is this stupid and arbitrary? Yes. Does it work for me? Also yes, which is why I do it. Find that kooky writing habit that works for you, and keep to it. If it works, it works.

There's nothing wrong with you. Your lizard brain knows writing is hard and it doesn't want to do hard things if it doesn't have to, so you have to find ways to trick your brain into wanting to do the hard thing (by hiding the fact that it's hard). It won't be easy, and you'll still have a lot of moments of frustration, but creating the right writing habits that work is the first step to getting those worlds out of your head and onto the page. Good luck!

[tanadrin]

the idea that corprations are people is preventing corporatiosn from being punished for their horrible abuses of human rights (such as coca cola hiring death squads to kill protestors). therefore it should be abolished regardless of legal or philosophical reasoning. just like how the idea that an criminal can go free just because an district attorney says so should go to hell.

the legal system of america in general should be abolished entirely. in it's current form it's nothing but an tool to allow pedophiles cops and rich people to get away with crime. trying to "reform it" would require centuries and centuries of legal legislation to do so. it'd be nigh impossible. only an COMPLETE abolishment like the banning of slavery can save lives. a new constitution of legal rights should be entire drafted by minorities (i.e. black, gays, natives) and only minorities.

okay, so, first off:

the idea that corprations are people is preventing corporatiosn from being punished for their horrible abuses of human rights (such as coca cola hiring death squads to kill protestors).

boy, that's not true. international human rights law is complex, and using courts in one country to deal with malfeasance that occurred in another is always difficult for various reasons, but hiring someone to commit murder is still a criminal offense. in fact, it makes it easier to punish Coca-Cola as a firm if you can prove "hire hit squads" was company policy, because then you can go after corporate assets to recover damages. without a single coherent legal identity you can only recover far smaller damages from individuals with far fewer resources.

I haven't worked in human rights law personally, but a close member of my family has; based on their explanations, there are a myriad of factors that make these kinds of malfeasance difficult to deal with (including that, for instance, courts in the US generally can't prosecute someone for a murder that didn't happen in the US; civil suits are more complicated), but that corporations exist as a legal object is not one of them.

and remember: when we say "legal person" what we really mean is "legal object that can be a party to contracts and have property ownership assigned to it." that's it! That's all! No other mystical properties or privileges are attached to "corporate personhood." Nothing about being able to be a party to a contract (and thus be sued in the first place) and own property makes it not a crime if you hire a hit squad to murder union organizers. Still super illegal!

the idea that an criminal can go free just because an district attorney says so should go to hell.

Prosecutorial discretion is a good thing. Yes, it can be used to protect bad people. It can also be used to protect good people; and I don't know about you, but a state that mechanistically imposed punishments latae sententiae on every single criminal, no matter how minor their violation of the law, without any capacity for either mercy or prioritizing resources on important kinds of cases (say, murders over jaywalking) sounds like a fucking nightmare to live in.

What you object to is prosecutorial discretion being used on behalf of the wrong kind of people. That's fine: but be honest about that. And the solution there is to vote and/or do activism in ways aimed at improving the quality of the criminal justice system, not to go full Judge Dredd.

the legal system of america in general should be abolished entirely.

Do you have anything to replace it with, or do you think trusting mob violence to lynch the right kind of people is going to cut it?

a new constitution of legal rights should be entire drafted by minorities (i.e. black, gays, natives) and only minorities.

Yes, because as we all know, no person of color has ever had a bad opinion about anything.

Likewise, constitutions don't cause criminal justice systems to spring into being whole, out of the ether. The US constitution did not create the common law: common law predates it, and the US constitution is embedded in it. You (I don't mean people in general, I mean you, anon) would be totally incapable of creating a constitution that wasn't immediately subject to the exact same forces we're already struggling to deal with.

Frankly, this all seems like hurting the right "sort" of person as political praxis, and seeing "justice" as retribution against whole classes of people who are undifferentiated, without individual identity or moral responsibility. It is authoritarianism. It is probably also fascism. And you do not get good politics by taking bad politics and reversing the signifiers of good and evil--the problem with fascists isn't that they just kill the wrong sort of person.

[carletes]

good eve hibi, i was wondering if you, as an academic queen, have any advice for dissertation writing/planning?? im starting mine this week and am bricking it tbh

also, do you have a ko-fi or similar?? i tried the present at on your blog but i didn't really wanna give your dash crabs lol

ahhh first off please don't worry about ko-fi!! i briefly had tips enabled but i got rid of them since i'm getting paid at my job and am very secure right now Alhamdulillah <3 but thank you so so much for asking!

re: advice......SOOOO much advice. pre-diss writing bricking-it is so fucking real. it's genuinely paralyzing lol. couple of tips to start so you're not overwhelmed:

PREEMPTIVELY take a look at your sources. make sure you're using a good citation manager! i've been using zotero for six years and i would die without it. read your sources before you start writing in earnest! annotate generously and make sure you have a decent organizational system--either color coordinated for argument or section, or otherwise pulling out useful quotes and concepts with page numbers in a separate document. this will save you when you're in the middle of writing and suddenly forget what you're on about/get stuck. tagging your sources will be helpful here too!!

write a skeleton of your paper! think of this as a slightly more fleshed out (hah) version of an outline. i'm actually working on this right now so i'll put that below. but basically, you want to have your arguments, at least your draft arguments, written out either in bullets or in a sentence. This is going to save your LIFE. make sure it's a separate document that you can keep referring back to and, as you review your sources and think things through, that you can add stuff into. It's okay if your arguments change. Just write SOME arguments as a starting point.

create a plan for every day/week working BACKWARDS from your deadline and build in BREAKS. the reason i say work backwards instead of forwards is bc it helps you reverse engineer a perfect progression. building in breaks does two things: 1) literally you need a break from your diss especially if you're pissed off at it you nEED to be able to walk away for a FULL DAY at least otherwise you're going to panic and never want to write ever again lol; 2) if you fall behind on your plans, you have some overflow days that you can tap into so that you don't fall too-too behind. usually the thing about paralysis is that you just don't really know where to start? this tells you exactly where to start and where to end.

don't spin your wheels on one section. you don't HAVE to write your paper in the order that someone would read it. if you don't want to write an introduction, that's fine; start mid-paragraph in a different section. this is especially helpful if you're like working on washing the dishes or brushing your teeth and you have a really good idea all of a sudden and need to put it SOMEWHERE.

DO NOT LEAVE CITING UNTIL THE END DO NOT DO THIS DO NOT DO THIS DO NOT DO THIS you will inevitably do this. to make it slightly less painful, at least put in a [CITE X HERE] rather than just [CITE]. that way you have a rough idea for where to look for your source. if you've done the first tip well, this will be made EVEN less painful.

ok this is enough for now oajglkajg i have so many feelings lol GOOD LUCK LET ME KNOW HOW IT GOES!!!