#because it’s hard to sit down and write one long cohesive thing.

[queenburd]

Lays face down.

Yeah okay brain really just said “let’s develop this whole thing in our head again it’s fine that you’re not gonna write it”

I don’t… I don’t even know how to start talking about this. I don’t WANT to start talking about this. I WANT my brain to calm down for five minutes.

Sighs. Maybe I’ll throw the idea down in the morning for people since every time this happens people seem to want to know. Goddamn.

[neallo]

i have many complicated thoughts on Mello's relationship with longing / yearning but they're overlapping and come with conditions and footnotes and caveats and so instead of writing something cohesive i've been writing a million little scattered things about it and not posting very many of them. however, at the core of all these thoughts is this:

Mello needs Near more than Near needs him— or, at least, he needs Near and he believes his own need exceeds that of Near— and this is absolutely agonizing to him. i think it's agonizing enough that he straight up cannot acknowledge it directly in many universes. he will go to great lengths to avoid acknowledging his feelings for Near for as long as possible, because once he looks that yearning in the eye, it goes from living in his peripheral vision to sitting right in his line of sight. it's all downhill from there, but the speed of his fall depends on how many times he tries to break it.

does he find other ways of justifying his fixation on Near? does he tell himself it's about competition? about sex? how many times does he lie to himself, and for how long, and how much can he get himself to believe those lies? does he know Near wants him back? does he know Near loves him? can he admit that he loves Near, even within the ‘safety’ of his own mind? can he convince himself that he deserves any of the things he wants most? can he stop himself from taking and keeping those things, even if he doesn't believe he deserves them? can he accept his need for Near, or does he pull him in only to push him away (and then, of course, pull him in again, because Mello is too weak to stay away)?

you can make a convincing case for all of these, depending on the circumstances and their exact history with one another. and this is without even beginning to think of Near's side of the equation, and how their behaviors impact the other.

ARGHGGHGHH!!! THEY MAKE ME SO UNWELL!!!

anyway. there is no one true dynamic for meronia. i just write what interests me the most, which is constantly shifting in small, fun ways. i have my hard limits of what i personally can see as “in character,” but a skilled author can tempt me into a lot of flexibility, especially in an AU. the important thing is that they are two halves of a whole, destined, fated, a matching set, distorted mirror images, and soulmates. fucking hell. i have to go lie down

[void-ink-studios]

Gala of the Gods (Part 3)

Alright, Part 3 is here!

You get art this time around as well, as I couldn't resist drawing their fancy outfits! Hmm, nothing like attempting to draw these characters for the first time in fancy clothing with patterns and shit, I'm a smart one.

Hope y'all enjoyed this little 3-parter. If anyone have more ideas, I'd love to hear it, because I like writing these two.

Also, before you read, just as a heads up, it gets a little suggestive at the very end. It's a firm fade to black, but it is a thing that exists. Look for a line of dashes if you'd rather not read it.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 -You Are Here-

Word Count: 2,300

The Organizer was not a god of... standard form. She wasn't a god of standard anything, to be fair. Scarab couldn't recall many run-ins with her, as their work very rarely overlapped, but that did not make sitting in her office with her staring down at him any more comforting or less nerve racking.

There was a constant noise, as her many, many arms carried on with her daily tasks. Some were writing, others were stamping, some were shredding, it was all happening at once. Her many eyes free roamed around the office as she worked, but she had decided to keep maybe half a dozen glued to the two gods sitting across from her desk.

Lucky them.

No one spoke for a long time. Scarab just nervously fiddled with his can, while Prismo seemed to be doing his best to will the floor to swallow him, shoulders coming up to his ears.

"I thought I had made the policy of fighting at my Gala very clear." Her voice echoed all over the room, rather than coming from some visible mouth. The both of them flinched at the sudden break of silence. "Scarab, while I might be less surprised due to past behavior, I must say I'm still disappointed with your recent track record. Prismo, I can't say I expected to see you in my office of all gods."

"But-"

"I-"

They both started at the same time, but were silenced by a single raised hand.

"However. I am not all-knowing. That is the Observer's job. Prismo, you are not one to cause problems often. And Scarab, despite your difficulties with others, you always filed your paperwork on time. So, I am giving each of you a chance to explain yourselves."

Scarab waited for some signal from her that he was permitted to speak.

"...Prismo, it was you who started it, so you will be first to explain yourself."

Prismo audibly gulped.

"O-Okay... I'd just like to clarify, Scarab and I were not fighting, not in the way you might be expecting. It was my fault..."

Scarab's eyes widened, about to jump in, but was silenced by a hard glare from the Organizer. She gestured for Prismo to continue.

"I lost control over an aspect of myself, and started lashing out. Scarab was just trying to neutralize the threat and calm me down. He wasn't trying to hurt me. Just stop me from hurting others."

There was more silence as the Organizer mulled this information over. Her gaze shifted to Scarab.

"Scarab. Can you confirm this story?"

"Yes ma'am. I was not trying to do harm onto Prismo. I had never seen that aspect of him act out, and I was not sure if or when he could regain control. So I worked to put a stop to it. The only weapon I used was a glorified flashlight."

"I see." Scarab saw distantly a set of arms start sorting through a filing cabinet. "Can you tell me why this aspect of Prismo got so out of control? Last I understood, Prismo, you had achieved complete control and cohesion with all aspects of your dream form. Has this changed?"

"No, no! It's, uh, different..."

"How so?"

"Well... my nightmare aspect only flares up under extreme negative emotions... Stuff life fear or really bad sadness or... when I'm really, really angry. That's what happened tonight, ma'am. I hit a boiling point and it... blew up."

She gave a pointed gaze toward Scarab, causing the beetle to sink into his seat.

"No! It wasn't Scarab's fault!"

"It wasn't?"

"No! I mean, Scarab's related, but it wasn't his fault!"

"How is he related, but not his fault, Prismo?"

Prismo ran a hand through his curls, trying to collect himself.

"So, Scarab's been under my management after the whole Fionna and Cake fiasco, right?"

"Yes, I remember signing that change of management form. I must say, I was a bit confused when I heard you had volunteered. My understanding was the entire incident was caused by a conflict between the two of you."

"It was but... well, the whole thing was my fault to begin with. I did make a rogue universe, and Scarab was just doing his job. He went too far at the end, and it was definitely more personal than his other cases, but I still did what he said I did, and he was right to try and do his job."

The beetle sighed. This was a conversation they had had many times. A lot of confusing feelings had needed to get detangled if they were going to live together. They had forgiven each other for quite a while.

"So, what did Scarab's assignment to you have to do with what happened tonight?"

"Well, Scarab and I have been getting closer. Bonding. We're actually really close now." The Organizer have him a very knowing stare. "I consider him one of my best friends and... I've been learned a lot about him. A lot about how he's been treated by our coworkers and... it wasn't nice and it wasn't fair. I've been getting more and more angry at the others for how they've been treating someone they don't even know, particularly Orbo."

Prismo's hands clenched into fists as he took a deep breath. The Organizer hummed. "What happened between you and Orbo?"

"Orbo cornered me tonight and tried to convince me that Scarab was changing me for the worse because I've been less than nice to him and others who keep trying to act like Scarab's some sort of monster. I got sick and tired of people acting like I was stupid for helping him, that I'm being manipulated. I'm tired of hearing 'Poor Prismo, getting stuck with Scarab, it's so sad for him', like I didn't volunteer for it!"

Scarab felt his mandibles tense... that's what had happened...? Orbo said that...? Was it... true... was he changing Prismo for the worse?

"Orbo making these comments are... interesting."

Scarab raised a brow. "Interesting how?"

"Because he filed complaints and write ups for you every Glob Forsaken time he thought he could."

All color drained from Scarab's face. His heart raced, and he started shaking enough for his carapace to click together.

"He what?!"

"He's submitted thousands of these things over the years. Pretty much none of them went anywhere because the Observer never confirmed the infractions described in the write-ups. Of all your write ups, only three have ever been acted on."

"...Three...?"

"Yes. The first two had notes that Orbo had the authority to discipline as he saw fit within reasonable boundaries. The third lead to the decision to move you into Prismo's management."

Authority to discipline as Orbo saw fit...

He touched the cropped stumps of his former antenna... he felt the lingering burn in his shoulders from his ripped wings...

"Do you... know what those punishments were...?"

"I was not privy to details. Just that they were carried out, and you returned to your duties."

There was a heavy pause, as both Prismo and Scarab processed that news.

"Well, if what you say is true, and I will be calling in the Observer to confirm, then it seems a meeting between Orbo and I is in order. However."

Prismo took hold of Scarab's hand.

"You two did break one of my only rules of the Gala. While it might not have been a true fight, it did cause panic and damage in the Judgement Hall. While it was not either of you who instigated the conflict, it was you two who escalated it to physical violence. It needs to be addressed."

The Organizer pinned the both of them down with a withering stare. Scarab would never not feel like he was a child around her.

Especially now. He saw the way her hands moved, the relentless precision with which she worked. It would be... frighteningly easy for her to pull his arms or legs off... He cast a worried glance to Prismo. His mortal body was much... softer than Scarabs... it... wouldn't survive getting plucked apart...

"...As punishment, you two are going to be my assistants for the time being. Prismo, your job as Wishmaster is still in effect, and you both will be allowed to return to the Time Room. However, you should expect paperwork to periodically be teleported into the chamber. I expect you both to work to complete that paperwork in a timely manner, as accurately as possible. You will be granted limited access to the divine records room for reference. Failure to perform this new duty will have me dragging the both of you back in here. And I won't be as nice next time."

There was a decisive stamp suddenly in front of them, as the Organizer slid a piece of paper in front of them.

Scarab read it. He let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. He almost wept. Paperwork. He could handle that. He wasn't getting pulled part today. Prismo wasn't getting pulled apart today.

"Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes ma'am" they both said together.

"Good. Now, off you go, I have a Star Core I need to speak with."

Before either could say another word, they were warped away in a rainbow of light, and deposited quite ungracefully on the floor of the Time Room.

"Ugh, that sucks a lot when someone else is warping me... Paperwork's gonna suck though, right Scrabs?"

Prismo rubbed the back of his head as he sat up. He spotted Scarab in the corner, huddled down, making himself as small as possible. His heart squeezed as he crawled over to him.

"Hey Lovebug..." He tried to put his hand on his shoulder, but the beetle shied away from the touch. "...Are you okay...?"

Scarab sighed a tired chirp. "No Prismo... I'm... not okay. You were... so angry... you were angry because of me... You're... you're very frightening when you're angry..."

Prismo frowned, rubbing the back of his neck. "No, Lovebug. That wasn't your fault..."

"But it is... You've been so... so kind to me, Prismo... So accommodating and forgiving and sweet... You're making enemies out of friends over me... And... what have I done? What have I done to deserve any of that..."

"Scarab, no-"

"Look at me, Prismo" he snapped. "I'm... not worth this... I'm not good, not like you. I've just been... a problem. An obstacle. Something to work around..."

Scarab's voice sounded so small... Prismo wrapped an arm around his shoulders and squeezed.

"Scarab. You are not an obstacle. I do those things because I want you to feel safe and cared for. And... tonight, you've done more than anyone really has before."

"...How...?"

"Look... When Nightmo takes control, there's not much hope for me coming down on my own. He's a protective measure, but he works too well. He feeds off of negative feelings, the fear and anger around him. He just gets bigger and bigger and more hostile, until there's nothing left to feed on. He has to be subdued or he'll destroy everything around him. I've... I've never seen him back down willingly. Not until tonight."

Scarab looked into Prismo's eyes, wide and uncertain.

"But... but he didn't back down, I had to neutralize him..."

"Scarab, you talked Nightmo down. Yeah, you had to get him small enough to pay attention, but it was your words that got him to fall back. He... He knows you're safe. He'll retreat because he believes you'll protect me. And that's... never happened before. Ever."

Scarab saw the tears pooled in Prismo's eyes, a sad and tired smile spread across his face. He pulled the beetle closer to give sweet kisses to his cheek and neck.

"You've been opening my eyes, Scarab. I was only everybody's pal because they thought I was... in on the joke. I didn't even realize what complete and total wads they were, because they thought I was "cool" or whatever. I don't want to be friends with people who could do the things they've done to you, just because they think no one will care. I have standards. And now I know they don't meet them. I'm not losing friends over you, I'm just finding out who really is and isn't a friend."

Prismo placed a soothing hand at the base of one of Scarab's wings.

"So no, Lovebug. You're not making me worse. You make me, even the worst parts of me, feel safe. I love you. All of me loves you."

Scarab should've been a bit embarrassed by the noises he was making, but it didn't particularly matter now. Not when the two trapped each other in a tight embrace, and a loving kiss. Mandibles threaded through gray hair, talons touched the soft skin they found, and gentle hands soothed aching shoulders.

"I love you too, Prismo" Scarab whispered as they separated for air. He chirped softly as the Wishmaster continued kissing at his neck, his wings twitching and fluttering as best they could.

-----------------------

"...You're so beautiful. You look so beautiful like this..."

Prismo's hands held his waist firmly, thumb rubbing at a seam in his carapace.

"Hmmm... What are you planning, oh great Wishmaster?"

"Well... We do have these bodies. For a little bit longer. I've got no plans for right now. But I could. Or, we could cuddle. Up to you, Lovebug."

Prismo busied himself with Scarab's neck again as the beetle thought. Or, well, as he tried to, but his own shell was suddenly feeling a bit warm. One of his claws traced around the Wishmaster's neck and shoulder.

"I... I think you're quite beautiful as well, Prismo. I'd be... willing to explore whatever plans you might come up with."

Prismo gave him a peck on the cheek, a maybe slightly smug grin on his face.

"I think that can be arranged."

And he closed the door of the Time Room.

[wingsdippedingold]

I couldn’t reblog this normally since I have the og poster blocked, but this is a pretty common sentiment in the community that I want to put my comment on:

Now I’m not gonna sit here and argue that there aren’t people who like Feyre more in the first book and consider her to be “better”, because people do, and I think it’s valid to think that as well as valid to not think that. To clarify I think neither, but more on that later. This is also a decently long post, I tried to make it concise but it’s anything but that 💀

I think comparing her character in the first book to her sisters (this post is specifically Nesta, but I’ve seen it done with Elain) is purely made in bad faith. Equating them in this manner blatantly ignores the obvious differences in characterization and nuance in their writing.

It is widely known that SJM has said that Elain and Nesta were just made to be caricatures and cartoon evil sisters and that she didn't initially plan for them to become anything more than background characters. They were meant to be flat and evil, because that’s all the purpose they had at the time. They were there to give Feyre a hard time and make us sympathize with her, and they did that.

No one is saying that that it’s silly to get hung up on Nesta’s actions because they “happened a long time ago and she had development”, they’re saying that because her actions were literally meant to be cartoonishly evil and not to have any actual depth or reasoning to them.

However, Feyre at the time was still a fleshed character that was supposed to be in the spotlight. Her character traits and depth were continuously shown off, whereas her sisters only existed to give her a backstory and struggle. Her character in the first book cannot be written off to the same degree as her sisters, and it’s false equivalency to think that it can be.

At the time the way Nesta and Elain was written was fine, but in deciding to change them to be actual characters with thoughts, feelings, and backstory, Sarah majorly fucked herself over. This is why she had to retcon things and add their own struggles later on and why you’ll see a lot of people defending them for their cabin actions; and as a side of the fandom who take her retcons as canon, you can’t pick and choose which ones you don’t want to take as canon solely because they change the your notion of the character. It’s a packaged deal, either you’re down with SJM’s narrative and story, or you’re not (I’m not), because guess what? The other characters around said character will also comply by these retcons.

But when you hammer it down so hard that these girls are horrible people in the first book because you couldn’t give the time of day to make sure you’re actually creating a cohesive storyline, rather than just trying to push out a character for people to immediately sympathize with, it’s hard to rectify that, and I often find it the mark of a bad writer (and poor planner) regardless if you weren’t planning on ACOTAR being a series.

I 100% understand Nesta hate, it’s hard to change your idea of a character when you’ve already been made to dislike them and like the character they initially antagonized. If she, or any other character, is not your cup of tea, that’s fine. Like what you like. Hate what you hate (assuming you stay in your lanes and tag correctly, which many of you do not do, and instead tag specifically to push your anti content into pro spaces and make people mad, but that’s a different topic) u, this circles back to my original point that you cannot equate the validity of the characters and writing of Nesta and Elain to Feyre in the first book.

Now do I agree that Feyre was her '"true self" in book 1 vs the others? No.

I think a lot of people, and a lot of antis, earlier Feyre lovers, and probably some of my mutuals, will disagree with me on this, but Feyre's character progression has always made sense to me. That's not necessarily to say that I like it, but considering her circumstances, the people around her, the environment, and her own personality and beliefs, her change and progression from ACOTAR to ACOSF makes total sense to me. I do think there's some inconsistencies, and I definitely think there’s a lot of situations where ACOTAR Feyre would react differently than later Feyre, but that’s just a product of her being a character with an arc and overall I can understand how she got from point A to point B.

I won't get into the details here, but if anyone's curious on why I think so, Imk, l'd love to talk about it

There’s also a good chance that the original poster of this will try to argue my way directly from my account, which is weird because I have you blocked, so I won’t see it, nor do I care to… so don’t? Idk man, save your energy, the stalking is crazy

[barbswo]

(For the Q&A, or not, whatever you like 🤍)

I know as an author it might be hard to rank events from your own work but can you rank these essential (in my opinion) Lucemond interactions in Tides so far?

1. The Unburnt (chapter 3: Blood in the Water)

2. Tyrosh (chapter 4: Black Emeralds, Green Ravens)

3. The Wedding (chapter 6: Between the Devil and the Danger)

4. The Brothel (chapter 8: In the Dead of Night)

5. The Library (chapter 10: How Does a Ripple Become a Tidal Wave?)

6. The Balcony (chapter 11: Skin and Bone)

7. Under Borros’ Roof (chapter 16: Death Looks Down)

8. The Flight from Storm’s End (chapter 16: Death Looks Down)

9. Mad Luke (chapter 19: The Seventh Day)

10. The Kiss (chapter 24: Castles Crumbling)

11. Lucerys vs Cole (chapter 26: Marks and Markings)

12. 😏 (chapter 26: Marks and Markings)

I tried to do this during Q&A but failed miserably, so here we go:

1) 9. Because Mad Luke has the vibe and the sass and I just love him

2) 3. Aemond’s panic over Luke’s prettiness was ✨

3) 1. This scene was one of the few that started it all for me. I remember sitting on my bed and plotting, and then my mind just went “and what if...” and the rest is history

4) 7. Who said that politics and passion can’t coexist?

5) 2. Time-jumps and long-awaited reunions are scrumptious

6) 8. I love it whenever these two play with the Stranger

7) 11. When Cole suffers, I cheer

8) 12. I had to go back and check because my genuine reaction upon reading was “there was a kiss?”, but then I got it. This whole enemies-to-lovers thing is getting the best of me, because realistically it can’t happen in one second, so this scene was definitely a break-through of sorts

9) 😏 - same reason⬆️

10) 4. Not quite an interaction, but I guess this is the first time Aemond feels jealous, and it was sort of... cute

11) 6. Whenever Aemond is all over him, and Lucerys just goes ‘nope’, I celebrate, cause it’s funny. I know I’m evil

12) 5. Don’t hate me pls, but I don’t really like this scene. I actually didn’t rank any spice-related scenes high, because while they are fun to plot and write, I prefer dialogues and verbal fights and knives. It’s a fun observation I talked about with my bf: it’s like the older I get, the less thrilled I am to write spice overall. I’m boring, I know)

It doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy writing it—I just have to be in a very specific state of mind to do it, otherwise I hate it and delete it all. Meh.

There you go. Hope this was somewhat cohesive.

[starlightkun]

sorry if you've gotten this ask before aljrksjd

you don't have to answer this, but I just wanted to know how you write longform fics or just long pieces in general. it's one of the things I've struggled with as a writer, and I'm having a hard time trying to figure out how I could go about it or do it.

I'd be so grateful if you could provide some advice or suggestions 🥹🥹

i want u to know that i saw this ask when u sent it, but i had a 5hr drive today and wanted to make sure i had time to answer this!! it's under the cut bc i yapped a bit <33

so one thing that i feel the need to say up top is that i never go into pieces with a "goal" length/word count (often times my fics end up being longer than i expected/intended). because i never really write with the goal of a specific length in mind, these are things that i think have helped me write more cohesive and narratively fulfilling pieces in general, which tends to make my fics longer

my first thing is planning/outlining!! i used to just write my fics start to finish in one go with little to no planning, and since i've started slowing down and taking my time outlining/planning beforehand (and even during the drafting process i continue adding to my outline), i've seen the average lengths of my fics go up a lot. you don't have to have every single scene, moment, and piece of dialogue planned out before start writing (lord knows i never do), but you should have a pretty good idea of the major story beats, character dynamics, and any important conflicts, and make sure it's written down in a way that's easy for you to refer back to while you write. never think you're gonna keep it all in your head

build out your characters' lives!! i love introducing a good b-plot involving the main character's friends (see: strawberry sunday) that doesn't take too much attention away from the main plot that it seems out of place, but instead complements the main plot and allows there to be space in between those major plot beats for the readers and the characters to breathe. it also helps make your characters feel more well-rounded and real to the readers if you throw in a scene of their daily life at school or work or with their friends/family both to add texture to them but also to your world. it can also be good to use an establishing scene towards the beginning of their daily life, then a similar one towards to the end that shows any character development, or some other impactful change that happened during your story. instead of just telling us that everything in your character's life changed, show us how it did (or didn't! or maybe it only changed a little, but the little change was important, too)

in a similar vein, build out your world!! im not saying to spend ten pages describing an intricate magic system to us that has little bearing on the plot itself, but feel free to weave in extra details about where/when we are and how the characters interact (or dont!) with the world around them (even if its our normal old world in the modern day)

and i mean i guess my last thing that's really helped me is just sort of getting out my head when it comes to writing? like, not forcing myself to write everyday, not having any sort of word count goals, no posting schedule, etc. just letting myself sit with my ideas for a while and really play around and have fun with them. it's made writing fic something that i look forward to doing when i come from work, or when the weekend is approaching, and i genuinely am making probably my favorite things that i've ever made right now. and they happen to be pretty long!!

i've talked some more about my writing process in some other asks (x, x, x, x, x, x) and i have a writing tag where i post about more general writing stuff if you want to hear me yap some more

[bellaxgiornata]

Hey!! I dont know how to start this but i hope you doing great after all the chapters and dialogues between Mikey, Matt and Frank that you have been gracing us for the passed few days, i am obsessed with it.

I also want you to know that i'm so thankful, I stumbled on your blog and read the series FTAD. It will always be near and dear to my heart as it is the reason it awakened my sleeping desire on our lovely Matt.

You are truly an amazing writer. I'm a little shy on sending this cause mostly i'm lurking on the comment section.

But if you ask me, on a scale of one to ten, how much i regret being your follower? (FTAD, The Night you Met reference).

10 will always be my answer. 🥰🥰

Hi friend!! 💕

I'm so glad you enjoyed all the little internal dialogue things I posted over the past week! And ahh yes! I'm glad you've been enjoying the new updates I've put out since returning home! I've been doing great, though I'll admit that I am in a bit of a writing slump these past couple of days, but I think my brain is rusty from so much time away from it this past week. Pretty much I have written almost every single day since last November 😅 So that was a long break to me!

I am so incredibly thrilled that you found my blog, too! And I am BEYOND EXCITED to hear that FFTD awakened a dormant love for Matt Murdock that you had 🙌🏻❤️ Omg what a compliment! But FFTD Matt is like...such a perfect Matt, it's hard not to fall for him 🥺

Thank you so much!! ❤️ That means a lot to me to hear you enjoy my work and that always makes my time on these stories feel so worthwhile. Please do not feel shy at all! I absolutely love chatting with all of y'all! It is probably my favorite part of sharing my writing. Though I totally understand, I was always a lurker until a few months ago (which probably seems hard to believe because like, I'm such a wordy commenter 😅).

AND OMG YOU DID NOT JUST MAKE THAT REFERENCE!!! ��❤️

Just me over here emotional, don't worry about it. I'm truly happy you're here, friend! And thank you so much for taking a moment to leave such a wonderful message. You and this message are the reason my ass is sitting down to see if I can form some cohesive paragraphs and write tonight!

[americanrecord]

hiya! do you have any writing tips to share ? i love your writing and your journey is very inspiring to me as a new writer!

hiii, darling! this is so sweet, and i love hearing about new writers <33 welcome, welcome !!

anyway, as for writing tips, i have a few, and some of them are about just like — prepping — whereas others are more writing or editing-focused. also, a lot of these are contradictory, meaning you really have to exert a case-by-case sense of judgment. a tip that make work in one situation/with one piece, may not work with another.

before we break into that — if you or anybody reading this knows they are best writing off the cuff and/or are a pantser who detests making writing a routine/ritual + works more successfully in what is akin to random spikes of energy, some of these tips won’t be super helpful. what works for me is being very constant and thorough.

also, disclaimer, i have no real certifications (yet).

write everyday, or: as often as you can. seriously, practice helps. not only with the cohesion of your work, but with your writing. playing around and engaging with words in some way every day is my biggest tip. and i don’t care if you sit there and churn out 8,000 words in one day or write a 47-word paragraph and call it a night, just touch it. write! sometimes i write 5k in a day and revisit it & it’s terrible, and sometimes i write 24 words before i decided i was too tired & return to some of the world’s prettiest 24 words. if you have time, always try and write.

planning, outlining, editing, etc. is writing. it absolutely is, and don't let anybody else tell you otherwise. however, if you are only planning, outlining, and editing what you have already written, then you will never finish anything. sometimes, you have to take your hands off the work & give it a week. sometimes, with outlines, you have to say fuck it, we ball, and start typing and see what happens. i am an excessive planner, so this is hard advice i had to learn, but there is almost never a necessity for every single comprehensible detail to make it into the outline as a.) the work will start to mirror that bullet-y feel of an outline b.) many of those little details will get cut anyway. just write. get off pinterest and write.

on that note, if you are an outliner, do try to include as much detail as you can into that outline - namely things you know are important to the overall scene and that you may forget by the time you go and write it. most often, for me, that means writing down lines of dialogue as i first hear them in my head, even if they are ultimately changed by the time i go to type/edit. sometimes simply saying: "then valerie explodes in anger" is enough of a cue, other times, i have to remind myself how, exactly, she explodes in anger. this is often because i plan and make outlines in clusters.

speaking of, planning in advance—while bothersome to the pansters of the world—will save you a lot of work in the long run. it's definitely guaranteed to slash your plot-holes in half. what i specifically do is make the outline for like 4-5 chapters at once, or however many chapters apply to maybe one "plot beat" or arc. this ensures that they're as smooth as possible and all connect well because they were all sort of penned in a continuous motion.

share your work. it's scary, i know!!, but share it. i don't mean post it - unless that moves you, then please do - but share it. ask a friend to read it, source out a mutual, search for beta readers on the internet, etc. depending on what level of criticism you ask for, other people's feedback is invaluable. writers are always too close to their work and their characters so things may seem like they make sense and/or are realistic when they may not be. other people may catch what reads awkwardly but otherwise goes unseen because you've read over the piece too many times. they can pick out typos, confusing moments in plot/characterization, or—positively, funny/cute/sweet/riveting/interesting moments that kept them wanting to read more and therefore might serve as some motivation. writers often love criticism, and they like to know how they can make the work better, but they also love knowing what makes the work good and what people want to see more of. for any invested readers or betas tuning in right now: the more specific you can make your feedback, the better. i don't know a writer that wouldn't appreciate some lines/passages/moments being specifically honed in and celebrated, because sometimes a simple "yeah, it was good" is nice, but...not enough.

give some space between writing and editing. a lot of writers will advise somebody not to edit something until they've finished it in its entirety (not to applicable to people like fic writers who are sometimes writing without a schedule, on a post-write-post-write-rinse-repeat schedule), but i don't personally follow this rule...? i don't feel complete moving on from a chapter that may be teeming with typos. i am, however, somebody who would write a chapter, call it a night, and let myself sleep before looking at it again. with this rewrite specifically, i would also only edit lightly knowing i had a massive overall edit later in the pipeline. but do give space. words start to blur when you've been writing for a while, and what reads smoothly when you're sleep-deprived might be alphabet soup when you're not (or vice versa!) [and if you are working on a real book, do try to save as much of the editing as possible for a finished draft, as i can guarantee you'll have to do some rewriting anyway, so there's no use in killing yourself for the shiniest sentence so early on.]

editing is also done best when it's done by somebody else, but don't be the writer that puts word vomit on somebody's desk and expect them to make sense of it. what you give somebody else to edit should always be in its best stage possible (unless it's like: hey, just read over this rq, which isn't really an editing task). wordy is okay. full of red spaghetti, as i like to call it, is not. spell check is FREE. for self-editing purposes: i recommend some grammar aids like grammarly, prowritingaid, and hemmingwayapp. the latter, even the free version, is really good for pointing out things like overly complex sentences/run-ons, an over-abundance of adverbs, too much passive voice, etc. i don't always listen to that last site when it highlights some of my sentences as too complex, however, as...sometimes they are just big sentences while not being difficult to read. always exercise your best judgment or ask for a second set of human eyes.

also for editing, if possible, printing out your work and doing it by hand is a really good way to visualize the work and to reduce screen-induced distractions. i find it especially helpful for cutting words. i don't know why. sometimes, it looks great on a screen, but then i read it on paper and picture what people would be snuggling up in their beds to flip through and have a new sense of "oh, that's not needed," "that's redundant," "that's gratuitous detail that can be summarized in one sentence instead of four," etc.

for massive rewrites, however, i typically abandon a pen and just open up two side-by-side computer tabs and go at it. i end up cutting words this way too usually!! or adding, depending on...

another editing tip: reading your own work aloud is always good. your ear really does pick up on things that your eye doesn't. but if you're like me and you don't want to sit there and read off thousands of words to your poster of insert favorite celebrity, or if you're in public environment/a home environment with too many overhearing ears, then text-to-speech software is amazing. i swear by it, particularly for determining if the flow of the text is good, and there are a bunch of free ones out there. the most realistic voices (AI) are typically ones you need to pay for, which i don't do (looking into this, however, just because it's so helpful for me), so i will make do with voices that sometimes sound like siri — but it works!!! when writers read, especially their own work, i think they have a tendency to edit and rearrange words in their head like a passage is an endless word scrambler, so turning off your visual cortex (besides like, following along with the audio) and just listening to the words as they are read to you sort of cuts that instinct off at the knees and shows that, no, it doesn't sound as awkward as you think it does. there will never be a reader who scrutinizes your words as deeply as you do, so it's reassuring to know that it sounds nice off the lips of somebody else. even if it's a robot.

lastly, don't neglect snacks, water, entire meals, homework, your social life (to an extent, sometimes i get it fr), your health, sleep, the bathroom, etc. you can't write when you're dead.

lastly, part 2, have fun with it!!!!!!

[themournwatcher]

For the ask meme, give me more on Mahanon and Zev 😌

Somehow my dumb ass missed this ask in my inbox (but I guess that's what being on mobile for most of the day does for me). I'm either busy at work or running around my apartment doing little tasks that I have to catch up on the internet lore once I sit down at my desktop.

Mahanon and Zevran--I didn't go into much detail about them the other day but I have rambled about them sooo many times to my mutuals and my besties in DMs so I will go ahead and try to put my thoughts together as to how I feel about their relationship.

I talked in one of my previous posts about how Mahanon has a lot of built-up resentment due to the fact that he is always shouldered with the burden of decision and yet is often criticized after he makes those hard decisions. One thing that I appreciate about Zevran is that (unless it comes to the matter of slavery), he does not judge or criticize a decision that Mahanon makes. In fact, in the DLC when Mahanon chooses to engage with Sophia Dryden (to later double-cross her) Zevran is impressed by Mahanon's willingness to test his own limits of acceptability in order to do what has to be done.

So overall this great theme in their relationship is the idea of accepting each other without judgment; Mahanon is not going to change for Zevran because Mahanon is very staunch in his own identity and Mahanon will not ask Zevran to change for him, either--instead they come to know each other well and tend to each others' wounds without any inclination that they will become better people because of it. Love can be revolutionary but for a long time, what they share isn't love; it's trust.

Trust is, after all, the backbone of any great relationship. And they do eventually fall in love; there's this theme of having each others' backs and Zevran covering Mahanon's blind spot when he loses sight in one eye and it's so sweet but such a slowburn build up... at the end they don't marry, but they still have an exclusive commitment to each other and Zevran travels with Mahanon for a long time thereafter--even when apart, there's a piece of them bound together.

Another big thing that I like to focus on when writing them is the fact that they both enter into their relationship with a lot of trauma and it's not expected that either of them can kiss it better. Zevran's hypersexuality where he comes onto the Warden to try and endear himself to the party actually puts Mahanon off at first because he is so repulsed by physical intimacy. They are both two deeply wounded people who walk a long path together but they are side-by-side at the end of it.

other thoughts that don't cohesively fit above: i made a post abt zevran's hypersexual trauma responses and how people treat him as a racialized fetishization here and i stand by that and try not to write into those stereotypes because i LOATHE them; mahanon was really endeared to zevran once they started their little relationship because it was his first romantic interest who affirmed his gender; mahanon is the top bc i was mad at bioware for assigning my m!warden pc as the bottom when i first played origins.

[callsignbaphomet]

I have been watching SO FREAKING MUCH Elden Ring lore videos that it's just inspired me to finally sit down and write down info of my own content. I'm in the word vomit stage where just every bit of info gets written down out of order and with little structure but it makes sense to ME so putting it in an orderly fashion in a structured document later won't be an issue but it's super funny to see that mess. I've had a lot of challenges throughout the years when it comes to world building. Like obviously shaping up Oracle to be as cohesive as possible, shaping the mythology, biology, whatever-logy of my werewolves, the rules and structures of the arcane and so on. Don't even get me started on Jelani's original self origins and how to fit an entire creation origion complete with deities and pantheons and justifying it in a way that can be easily digested. That was an undertaking that has been developed for over 10 years. Don't get me wrong, Jelani's original self story is really solid as it stands now and I poured so much of myself into it without really realizing it till recently. It was arduous work and I scrapped and changed so much that even characters involved in it were discarded due to how I was evolving the story. Don't know if any of y'all remember Jet but she's gone. She's been gone for long years now as I myself came into realizing my own self and discovering things about me. Jet just outlived my own perception of me which allowed Angelus to evolve and change as I did too.

However, shaping an entire people and a culture has been so much work and so much research. It's been equal parts fun and a pain in the ass. I like taking inspiration from real world things and adding a twisting shape to it. Long ago when Oracle was taking shape I wanted to represent not just myself in it but the rest of the world too. I wanted to add those who go under represented or if at all in it. To be honest the hardest but most rewarding part is doing it respectfully, I've had to peel away so many layers of negative and bigoted stereotypes we see everyday in media. 14-year-old me could have NEVER ever created a good character of color that wasn't from the same background as me because I had no access to the internet as I do now much less was privy to all the knowledge that I've come across. I'm not saying I'm perfect now but I know to sit back and analyze before creating a character for Oracle. I know that what is okay for certain people to be shown as is not okay for others. I have to give myself crash courses in history lessons to double check that I haven't given a character of color a trait that's seen as racist or any type of phobic. It's hard but there is NOTHING better than seeing people voice their concerns about a movie or game with a poc that's portrayed in a bigoted way and seeing people list off racist and harmful stereotypes to avoid in (insert culture/ethnicity) people and I managed to avoid each and every single one because I did my research and listened to people's concerns. That alone is amazing and I'm just one guy with the only tool available to him being Google cuz he's broke and can't pay people for information. I can't believe literal companies with millions in budget still can't get that right. It just boggles me.

But back to the point, the second biggest challenge has been forming the culture and history of the Nyota tribe. You know, it's far easier to readily find all kinds of information about Vikings than it is to find information on medieval Africa and I'm not talking about Egypt, I'm talking everything aside from Egypt. I can easily trust Google Translate to give me a near perfect translation of a short sentence in Norwegian, Finnish, German, Spanish, French or Italian. Hell, Latin which is a very dead language is easy to Google for translations! But finding translations--good translations--for Swahili, Xhosa, Zulu or much of the thousands of thousands of languages spoken in Africa is challenging. Gee, I wonder why that could be.

I'd love nothing more than to have a non-English name for Starheart which is THE HOLIEST of all holy relics to the Nyota. A tribe that came together from different cultures (Maasai, Bantu, Swahili, Kikuyu and more) and in just those there are a ton of different languages but translations are hard to find. At least in MY experience anyway. Need to learn to search better. I'm currently working on a zodiac with roots tied to the phases of the moon and I wanna use the actual languages spoken in the area where the tribe is located. Gonna be honest it might take a while. Plus I admit when it comes to things I really take a liking to I’m a perfectionist, it has to be JUST right. There’s so much I wanna write down about the Nyota because biases aside I believe them to be a really interesting bunch and the most rooted in fantasy, which is my favorite of the genres. True, I do refer to Oracle Corp as weird espionage but whatever, it has a lot of stuff just thrown in. I have all this floating around in my head and I’d love nothing more than to neatly put it together to show off because I’m super proud of it, it’s been one of the most fun subjects to work with and the culture is base on some of my own thoughts too. Slow going but I’ll get there, besides, I’m constantly making changes to things and updating character profiles to meet better quality so I can always go back and change as I get better information. I just wish it was a bit easier sometimes.

[sirowsky]

Since I needed to stay up all night to prepare for a weekend of night shifts, I decided to go ahead and answer all of these questions, just for fun.

Do you prefer writing one-shots or multi-chaptered fics?

I like both, but I really suck at keeping things short, so I usually end up writing multi chaptered stories or miniseries. I do like to challenge myself with short stories and drabbles, though.

2. Do you plan each chapter ahead or write as you go?

Oh, I can’t plan a story to save my life. Nope, in this house we put our fingers to the keys and blindly hope the words string together into something cohesive and entertaining.

3. Describe the creative process of writing a chapter/fic.

Well, I usually get an idea at random. Depending on how inspired I am to write, I’ll sometimes get started on it right away, but if I’m in a low streak, I’ll jot down the basic premise, or scene I’ve envisioned, in one of my notebooks, and come back to it when I’m in the right headspace. When it comes to chapters on ongoing stories, I generally just sit down at the computer, open the document and start writing whatever my mood directs me towards, within the confines of the story.

4. Where do you find inspiration for new ideas?

My own head, mostly. Some of it comes from things I watch or read, but for the most part, daydreams will lead me to new ideas. Although, one thing I’ve always loved to do is write based on prompts. I’ve had some of my most inspired short stories come from being sent just one or two words and attempting to formulate a story out of it.

5. Do you like constructive criticism?

In a word: Yes. But there are still good and bad ways to give constructive criticism, and I’ve encountered both. Poorly worded critique, although not meant to be hurtful, can still come across that way, and depending on who it comes from, it can completely destroy my confidence in what I’m writing.

6. Do you have your work beta'd? How important is this to your process?

No. I have never had a beta, and it’s not something I’d look for either. I understand the advantages, but if I make mistakes in my writing, I’ll find them eventually and correct them since I reread my own stories now and then. I don’t mind if a reader points out any mistakes they find in my fics, though, I appreciate being made aware of them.

7. How do you choose which POV to write from?

For short stories, I imagine the events from several points of view, and decide based on which character I find has the more interesting or provocative perspective. Whereas for multi chapter fics, I’ll usually write from both main character’s pov.

8. Do you prefer the beginning, middle, or end of a story?

Beginning, definitely. I love the world building and setting up the characters, getting to know them and exploring their relationships and histories. And while endings are always hard, there is a great deal of satisfaction in bringing a story to a close, especially when it’s been a long one.

9. Do you comment on stories you read?

If I like them, I always reblog with a comment, but I don’t actually read much fanfiction. I can be extremely picky in terms of what I like to read, so if I find something in the tags I’m not interested in or in the mood for, I’ll scroll past it without a second thought.

10. Cltr+f "blinks" on your WIP & copy paste the first sentence/paragraph that comes up.

Between them, he and your mother had stolen almost your entire childhood and teenage years, and you weren’t going to let them take anything more from you.

11. Link your three favorite fics right now.

I’m afraid I would only be able to link my own fics because I’m not currently reading any others, and while I have read wonderful stories from other writers over the years, I don’t remember the author’s handles anymore. I would however recommend practically everything written by @deadhumorist or @dornish-queen

12. How does receiving or not receiving feedback/support impact you?

In answer to that, I have an entire file on my phone dedicated to screen shots of every positive note I’ve ever received on something I’ve posted here, currently containing nearly a thousand images. I open it and read through some of them whenever I start doubting myself as a writer, and it makes all the difference in the world. I would probably still write and post my stories even if no one read or interacted with them, but every time someone does, it’s like getting the warmest hug on the worst day of my week. It’s like bottled sunshine, or a puppy falling asleep on my arm, or unexpectedly hearing my favorite song.

13. What’s a common writing tip that you almost always follow?

These days, avoiding the word THAT. I have a 370 000 word story riddled with the word, and I will have to go back an correct this at some point because it now irritates me to no end.

14. How do you write emotional scenes? Do you ever feel what the characters feel? Do you draw from personal experiences?

I would say it’s more like my characters feel what I feel. I’m an emotionally driven person, and very empathetic, so my writing follows my mood, which means my characters suffer when I do, and have fun when I’m happy. I draw some elements of emotional scenes from personal experiences, but I have no trouble imagining what my characters are going through or feeling, even if I haven’t experienced those things specifically, myself.

15. How do you write smut scenes? Do you get very visual or detailed? How important is it to be realistic?

I think I vary a bit. I try not to get too detailed, since I don’t feel like every detail is necessary for a reader to be able to enjoy what I write, but there also has to be enough detail that a reader can track what’s happening and understand why characters react in certain ways. Depending on the story overall, I don’t think smut needs to be entirely realistic, especially not in fanfiction, as the whole point is to create and enjoy a fantasy. But there are also fics who are incredibly realistic in their entirety, and if you throw completely unrealistic smut into a story like that, it’s gonna stick out like a rusty nail.

16. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Share one of them?

Well, I’m currently working on updating some of my older stories, so I’m actively trying not to indulge any new ideas, since that inevitably would lead to me abandoning the updates for months at a time, and I hate leaving things unfinished. However, I did watch a really good Korean tv-series recently, which gave me a minor inspiration for a potential romance/fantasy, but I don’t have any solid thoughts on that yet.

17. What do you do when writing becomes difficult? (maybe a lack of inspiration or writers block)

Hate myself? No, not quite, but I do get so disappointed with myself, especially if I’m working on a series, because I’ve noticed that half the readers who jump on the story when it’s new will vanish the moment there’s a delay in updates, and that’s just so demoralizing. What I try to do whenever I lose desire to write is to not let the computer become my enemy. I’ll start looking at it and find myself not wanting to touch it because if I open a document and don’t manage to start a new chapter or finish one, I’ll just feel worse. So, I try instead to challenge myself to write just one sentence and then put it away. One tiny victory each day, until I’m suddenly writing entire paragraphs again.

18. Do you title your fics before, during, or after the writing process? How do you come up with titles?

Mostly, the title will come after the story is finished, particularly on shorter stories, and I always try to base them on the heart of the story. For longer series, though, the title has to be there from the first chapter, even though I never know where the story will end up, so I’ll look for something simple but still accurate for what the story actually is. I like to name chapters as well, and I’ll almost always come up with those titles last of all, right before I post.

19. What is the most-used tag on your ao3?

I do have an Ao3 account, but I haven’t used it in a very long time, so I honestly wouldn’t know.

20. Have you noticed any patterns in your fics? Words/expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?

Oh, yes. Too many. I can’t think of any expressions right now, but I know I recycle a few in almost every story I write. And as for themes, I tend to write strong female lead characters with extremely troubled childhoods. Whenever I write fantasy, I always end up incorporating nature as a source of magic or supernatural strength, and love is always a powerful entity. I also seem to have a thing for transformation, either physical, spiritual or mental.

21. Would you ever collaborate with another writer for a story?

I honestly don’t know. I’ve offered advice to other writers on occasion, and I have written parts to what someone else has posted once, which wasn’t an unpleasant experience. But I wonder if I’d enjoy a full collaboration on a fic, given how hard it is for me to write towards any predetermined goals or set parameters.

22. Are there certain types of writing you won’t do? (style, pov, genre, tropes, etc)

Yes. There are certain tropes I avoid, both as a writer and a reader, such as daddy kinks, breath play, best friends dad, age gaps and probably many others I can’t recall right now. Like I mentioned earlier, I’m quite particular. But this is not because I feel these things are wrong, I’m merely restricted in what I’m able to enjoy because of things I’ve been through in my life. In terms of style, genre or pov, I’m not that picky, though. If a story is well written and engaging, I’ll enjoy it.

23. Best writing advice for other writers?

Ooooh, tough one. I would say, get creative with how to identify a character without using their name. One thing that really puts me off a story is when every other sentence contains the name of the character/s I’m following. I always try to keep mentions of names of any character at least three paragraphs apart, using descriptions or nicknames in between.

24. Worst writing advice anyone ever gave you?

Happily, no one’s ever given me any bad advice on writing, but that’s probably also because not many people have wanted to help me with my writing, either irl or here on tumblr. I’m usually the one giving the advice, having learnt everything I know by making all the mistakes myself.

25. What fic do you wish you got more of a response on?

Easily the one I’m currently updating, The Flowers Always Know. It’s a Marcus Moreno story, 48 chapters long, and although the original version was full of holes and messy plotlines, the updated version is turning into a true favorite of mine.

26. Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

Oh, The Lost Island, for sure.

27. What is your most and least favorite part of writing?

I love crafting characters. Figuring out who they are and why they’ve come to be that person, as well as creating the world they live in. What I don’t like is the pressure I always end up putting on myself whenever I don’t meet my own expectations. I generally try to write one chapter per week, if I have a series running, and the moment I don’t manage to deliver, I get very hard on myself.

28. On average, how much writing do you get done in a day?

Averages are not kind to writers like me, because I can churn out 20 000 words one week, and then nothing at all for three months.

29. What’s your revision or editing process like?

I self correct as I go, meaning I read back every single sentence I write before moving on to the next one, so generally, any mistakes I make are due to fatigue. I will usually read through a finished chapter from the start before posting it, to make sure I haven’t made any grave errors without noticing. And short stories or one shots I’ll probably read through completely about three times before I post it.

30. Do you share rough drafts or do you wait until it’s all polished?

Polished all the way. I don’t like posting anything unfinished.

31. Do you start with the characters or the plot when writing?

Good question… I never have a finished plot in mind when starting a new story, but I will usually decide on genre and tropes before I settle on which Pedro character to use. Occasionally, it does happen the other way around, but only when I come across an image of a character that’s so strong I’ll end up crafting a story based solely on that character.

32. Name three of your favorite fanfic writers.

I did mention two of them earlier, so I’ll simply add @lucrezia-thoughts as well. Sadly, she’s not around much anymore, but her writing is still available.

33. Do you want to be published some day?

I’ve been trying to write a book for about 8 years now, and it’s my dream to one day finish it and manage to get it published.

34. Five years from now, where do you see yourself as a writer?

Probably exactly the same as now, although hopefully with even more accumulated skills and wisdom.

35. What is one essential thing to remember when writing a villain?

That simply making something evil doesn’t automatically make it interesting. A villain needs a backstory that’s just as complex and rich as the hero’s. 

36. How do you write kissing scenes?

Depends on the situation. Are they kissing for the first time? Are they kissing goodbye? Are they about to make love? I let the situation decide how a kiss happens.

37. How do you choose where to end a chapter?

Hah. Anyone who’s ever read my series will tell you I delight in cliffhangers, so I’ll generally stop at the most dramatic or stressful point.

38. Would you ever write commissions?

I have and I would happily continue to do so. But I like variation, and I’m governed by mood, so I will ignore any ask that doesn’t tickle me creatively.

39. Share a snippet from a WIP.

Unfortunately, I don’t have anything in the works at the moment.

40. If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

Oh, gosh… that’s almost too hard to choose. But it would have to be something from Driving Mr. Tovar. Pero’s and Belleza’s dance together at the benefit which is also their wedding, even though they don’t know it yet, might be my favorite scene ever. I might actually faint if I ever got to see that brought to life.

41. Do you tend to reread fics or are you a one-and-done kind of person?

I reread my own fics all the time, since they cater to all my interests and favorite tropes. But it would have to be something really special for me to revisit someone else’s writing here. I’m much more likely to reread actual books that I can hold in my hands, but for whatever reason, fanfiction just doesn’t draw me in the same way.

42. What’s the last fic you read? Do you recommend it?

I read a short story about Dave York yesterday, which started out good, but unfortunately I didn’t understand the ending, so I can’t really recommend it.

43. Do you take a sadistic joy in whumping your characters, or are you more the "If you hurt them I would kill everyone and then myself" kind of person?

Oh no, I torture them. Repeatedly and with increasing intensity. But not because I’m sadistic, I don’t think. I just know from real life experience that finding your way through painful and difficult things makes you appreciate things differently, and if there’s someone there, sharing those burdens with you, it brings you closer together in ways nothing else can.

44. What mistakes do you keep making no matter how many times your beta corrects you?

As mentioned, I don’t have a beta, so I wouldn’t know.

45. Do you want to break your readers‘ heart or make them laugh?

Both. Always both.

46. How would you describe your style? (Character/emotion/action-driven, etc)

Um… all of the above? I don’t think I’ve ever written a story that wasn’t driven by all those things, to a greater or lesser extent. But I suppose my stories are slightly more character driven than anything else.

47. How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

At least once, but also continuously as I write.

48. What do you look for in a beta?

Don’t have one.

49. Do you ever get rude reviews and how do you deal with them?

Not so far, thankfully. But if I did get them, I’d probably try to ignore them since a person’s opinion can’t be changed unless they want it to be.

50. How long is your longest fic?

370 000 words.

51. What’s your total AO3 word count?

I haven’t posted anything on Ao3, but I did do an overall wordcount on everything I’ve posted to tumblr, up until March 2024: 1 294 946 words.

52. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Of course! If someone takes the time to interact with something I’ve posted then they deserve to know I’ve seen it and that I appreciate it.

53. How do you spend your time when it comes to fanfiction? Are you primarily a fic reader, writer, or a perfect 50/50 split of both?

I’m almost 100% writer.

54. What’s your favorite part about the fanfiction writing process?

Didn’t I answer this question already? I love creating the characters and the world building.

55. Of the characters you write for, which is your favorite? Has that choice been swayed at all by your followers/readers’ reactions to certain ones?

My favorite would have to be Pero Tovar. When I first started writing fanfiction, it was Din Djarin, but I never felt very confident writing him in the beginning. It wasn’t until Driving Mr. Tovar started gaining attention that I began to feel like maybe I knew what I was doing, at least enough for people to find it interesting, and ever since then, Pero has been my go to. My comfort character and my safe place to return to after going on adventures with some of the others.

56. What’s something about your writing that you pride yourself on?

World building. I always try to create a very comprehensive image of the world my characters live in, but I also love to do that slowly, gradually revealing more about the history/environment/buildings/people around the main characters and story.

57. Do you prefer editing as you write, or waiting until it’s finished? 

We’re just recycling questions now, aren’t we? I do both.

58. What part of the writing process do you enjoy the most? (Brainstorming, outlining, writing, editing, etc) 

Well, since I don’t brainstorm or outline anything, it would have to be the writing itself. Editing is a necessary step to keep mistakes to a minimum, and thus, not something I’d say I enjoy that much.

59. Does anyone in your personal life know you write fic? If not, would you tell anyone?

I’ve told just about everyone, but no one gets it or wants to hear anything about it, so I’ve stopped trying to talk about it.

60. Have you had a writer you admire comment on your fic? What was that like?

Yeah, I have. The person who wrote the first ever story I read here on tumblr later read one of my first stories I posted here, and that was a huge boost to my confidence at the time. Sadly, I’ve since decided to block that person after realizing they have very prejudiced opinions on what Pedro Pascal chooses to wear to red carpet events, which I find incredibly rude and unbecoming of anyone calling themselves a fan.

61. Why do you continue writing fics?

Because it’s the only way I’ve found to get the daydreams out of my head so I can move on to new ones. Also, it’s allowed me to make friends around the world, and that inspires me.

62. Thoughts on cliffhangers?

Love to write them, hate to endure them myself.

63. Something you hate to see in smut.

Many, many things, which is why so much fanfiction is ruined for me. BDSM, breath play, daddy kink, dbf, age gap, rape play, non-con, a-b-o, power dynamics (dominant/submissive), exhibitionism, voyeurism, mmf, ffm, poly… the list goes on.

64. Something you love to see in smut.

Basically everything I wouldn’t see in a porn film. In other words, tenderness. The ability for two characters to enjoy each other’s bodies without needing/wanting to resort to any form of degradation.

65. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project.

I’m enjoying upgrading one of my older fics at the moment, but I’m also looking forward to finishing it so I can get started on something new, although I have no idea right now what that might turn out to be.

66. How do you deal with writing pressure (ie. pressure to update, negative comments, deadlines, etc.)?

I’m generally the one putting that pressure on myself, so for the most part, I just try to let myself off the hook and keep the writing as a positive in my mind. I’d say it works about half of the time.

67. Do you prefer prompts and challenges, or completely independent ideas?

I like to create things from scratch, especially if it’s a series. But if I get stuck on a series, the best thing I’ve found to keep the creativity flowing, is getting a prompt or entering a challenge, because at least then, I’m still writing.

68. What, if anything, do you do for inspiration?

I just daydream. I let my mind wander, looking for interesting things to explore, and whenever I come across something I can’t stop thinking about, I try to write it.

69. What work of yours, if any, are you the most embarrassed about existing?

Ooof. Maybe the first story I ever posted, The Legend of Mar’Sol. It’s not a bad story, in my opinion, but I was so ignorant as a writer then, it makes me cringe when I read it now.

70. When asked, are you embarrassed or enthusiastic to tell people that you write?

I’m never embarrassed, but it does break my spirit every time someone looks so intrigued and wants to hear more, only to then completely lose interest when I tell them I write fanfiction.

71. When it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, ect.?

Notebooks. I currently have three, and which one I happen to scribble in depends entirely on which one happens to be closest, meaning there’s very little order to them. I have notes from the same story written down in each of them, so to find what I’ve written later on is a bit of a hassle.

72. What order do you write in? front of book to back? chronological? favorite scenes first? something else?

Chronological. I kinda have to, since I never know where the story’s going.

73. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works?

No idea. Hopefully a unique perspective on the things I create, making them somewhat original even if they’re essentially the oldest stories in the book.

74. You’ve posted a fic anonymously. How would someone be able to guess that you’d written it?

My cliffhangers, maybe. Also, I’ve been told I’m a word magician.

75. What scene in [Fanfic Name] took the longest to write? What was difficult about it? 

It’s not a specific scene, but there’s a segment in The Stranger in the Bar which involved piecing together a very complicated timeline over several chapters and involving both the present and past events, and I remember scratching my head over it for weeks. It came together really well, though, so it was worth it.

76. Did you have any ideas that didn’t make the final cut of [Fanfic Name]? 

I don’t hold on to scrapped ideas, so I don’t remember. I’m sure there’s plenty of little things that got discarded along the way, but nothing I was so sad to see gone that I still think about it.

77. Do you have a favorite scene you’ve written from [Fanfic Name] story/chapter? 

I have many, so I’ll list a few. The first conversation between Snow and Pero in The Lonely Castle. The overbearing innuendo between Reader and Din during their first encounters in A Little Menace. The moment Sam and Marcus Pike are reunited in Wrong Way Home. Just about every scene between Reader and Pero in Christmas Special. The dagger scene in the beginning of Driving Mr. Tovar. I still get breathless every time I read it…

Well, that’s it from the list that no one asked for. If anyone does read this, congratulations! You now know everything about me as a writer, lucky you!

Get to know your fic writer!

Do you prefer writing one-shots or multi-chaptered fics?

Do you plan each chapter ahead or write as you go?

Describe the creative process of writing a chapter/fic

Where do you find inspiration for new ideas?

Do you like constructive criticism?

Do you have your work beta'd? How important is this to your process?

How do you choose which POV to write from?

Do you prefer the beginning, middle, or end of a story?

Do you comment on stories you read?

Cltr+f "blinks" on your WIP & copy paste the first sentence/paragraph that comes up

Link your three favorite fics right now

how does receiving or not receiving feedback/support impact you?

what’s a common writing tip that you almost always follow?

how do you write emotional scenes? Do you ever feel what the characters feel? Do you draw from personal experiences?

How do you write smut scenes? Do you get very visual or detailed? How important is it to be realistic?

How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Share one of them?

What do you do when writing becomes difficult? (maybe a lack of inspiration or writers block)

Do you title your fics before, during, or after the writing process? How do you come up with titles?

What is the most-used tag on your ao3?

Have you noticed any patterns in your fics? Words/expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?

Would you ever collaborate with another writer for a story?

Are there certain types of writing you won’t do? (style, pov, genre, tropes, etc)

Best writing advice for other writers?

Worst writing advice anyone ever gave you?

What fic do you wish you got more of a response on?

Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

What is your most and least favorite part of writing?

On average, how much writing do you get done in a day?

What’s your revision or editing process like?

Do you share rough drafts or do you wait until it’s all polished?

Do you start with the characters or the plot when writing?

Name three of your favorite fanfic writers.

Do you want to be published some day?

Five years from now, where do you see yourself as a writer?

What is one essential thing to remember when writing a villain? 

How do you write kissing scenes?

How do you choose where to end a chapter?

Would you ever write commissions?

Share a snippet from a WIP

If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

Do you tend to reread fics or are you a one-and-done kind of person?

What’s the last fic you read? Do you recommend it?

Do you take a sadistic joy in whumping your characters, or are you more the "If you hurt them I would kill everyone and then myself" kind of person?

What mistakes do you keep making no matter how many times your beta corrects you?

Do you want to break your readers‘ heart or make them laugh?

How would you describe your style? (Character/emotion/action-driven, etc)

How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

What do you look for in a beta?

Do you ever get rude reviews and how do you deal with them?

How long is your longest fic?

What’s your total AO3 word count?

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

How do you spend your time when it comes to fanfiction? Are you primarily a fic reader, writer, or a perfect 50/50 split of both?

What’s your favorite part about the fanfiction writing process?

Of the characters you write for, which is your favorite? Has that choice been swayed at all by your followers/readers’ reactions to certain ones?

What’s something about your writing that you pride yourself on?

Do you prefer editing as you write, or waiting until it’s finished? 

What part of the writing process do you enjoy the most? (Brainstorming, outlining, writing, editing, etc) 

Does anyone in your personal life know you write fic? if not, would you tell anyone?

Have you had a writer you admire comment on your fic? What was that like?

Why do you continue writing fics?

Thoughts on cliffhangers?

Something you hate to see in smut.

Something you love to see in smut.

Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

How do you deal with writing pressure (ie. pressure to update, negative comments, deadlines, etc.)?

Do you prefer prompts and challenges, or completely independent ideas?

What, if anything, do you do for inspiration?

What work of yours, if any, are you the most embarrassed about existing?

When asked, are you embarrassed or enthusiastic to tell people that you write?

When it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, ect.?

What order do you write in? front of book to back? chronological? favorite scenes first? something else?

What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works?

You’ve posted a fic anonymously. How would someone be able to guess that you’d written it?

What scene in [Fanfic Name] took the longest to write? What was difficult about it? 

Did you have any ideas that didn’t make the final cut of [Fanfic Name]? 

Do you have a favorite scene you’ve written from [Fanfic Name] story/chapter? 

[oncetherenowhere]

I wish I had one big problem. Something neat and tidy, that I could wrap up in a bow, and present to my therapists as The Reason. Here's why I struggle. Isn't it lovely, how cohesive it is? Doesn't it all make sense? The flow chart of my trauma goes from A to B! Not A, to Q, to R, to T, to B, to 27. Maybe then, I'd find someone who understands.

Or maybe not. It's not like society is kind to people who have One Big Trauma either. It's never as simple as that, and I know it, but still...

I feel like that's how society would prefer to see trauma. Just One Bad Thing. Even if it is a million bad things, as long as there's a theme, as long as it makes SENSE, then others understand it, to whatever degree they're capable of doing so. They're happy.

Hah. No they aren't. Nobody is. Even for those with traumas "easy to understand," they get the shit kicked out of them. There's no easy way to have trauma, no easy way to experience it- and I hope that isn't what's taken from what I'm writing. I'm talking about outside perception, and specifically from my own experiences and point of view.

See, when I've tried to explain my life to professionals, they cock their heads. I tell them my parents were abusive- okay, they get that. I tell them I was bullied- okay, they get that. I tell them I didn't have a single grown up or authority figure who cared about me as a kid, and their brows start to furrow. Not teachers? Not a doctor? Nope. Surely there was someone? No. That's why I'm here.

I tell them I was harassed for dating 'other girls,' I tell them I'm autistic and so are my brothers, I tell them I've questioned my gender from a young age- their heads spin. It's too much. It isn't cohesive.

I once dated a girl who had "too many disorders." She had the "audacity" to talk about them, even make jokes. Everyone hated her for it. It blew my mind. She had a lot going on, and was struggling, but because it was "too much" and "too many," nobody believed her, nobody sympathized. I still can't wrap my head around that, despite being in her shoes, despite hearing it over and over again. If you don't have problems of that caliber, and you hear someone talking about it, why is your first reaction disgust?

It feels like nobody has empathy, or sympathy.

When I was growing up, I held fast and firm to the belief that no matter what, people were good. Everyone had a spark of goodness inside of them. I promised myself over and over again to keep hope, to not grow cynical.

These days, the cynicism claws at my heart. I fight it constantly. I don't want to feel that way. I still want to have hope, to believe in the goodness of humanity, but do you know how fucking hard that is when you can count the kindness you've been extended on one hand?

I wish I had One Big Problem, and not 27 years of constant pushing and yelling and screaming.

I wish it wasn't childish to wish that people were kind, and that life was fair.

Some days, my brain feels like it's on fire. Why can't my therapist understand? I've seen so many therapists over the past decade. SO many. None of them seemed to get it. I once broke down sobbing in frustration in a session, and the therapist just...stared at me, without a word. She was quiet until the end of the session. Didn't talk to me again.

I want this therapist to work. I don't want to go through the song and dance again.

I've been trying. I do the self help, I take hard looks at myself, I see therapists, I take medication- I treat myself like a fucking pet. I make sure I eat well. I make sure I sleep as well as I can. I force myself to take showers, and brush my teeth, do the chores, I take stupid fucking walks, fuck, I even try to do yoga when I can, I meditate, and-

And it helps. I can't sit here and lie, it does all help. If I didn't tire myself out taking care of myself, I'd be worse off, and I know it.

I guess I just wish it would fix me.

I used to be an optimist. Did you know that? During the worst points of my life, I looked on the bright side. I had to, to survive.

Now, I'm here, and life is good, and my optimism feels like a cage. I still speak the words, but they feel grayscale, no longer bursting with color. I can't be outwardly cynical; nobody wants to hear that, and it isn't helpful. I've designed my whole life around being as unassuming and inoffensive as possible, I can't possibly be unpleasant.

FUCK this feels good. This feels so good to write down.

I don't vent to others; I can't. Nobody wants to hear this. But I can type it here, and I can post it, and poof, its out there, my little message in a bottle. Like I said a month ago, when I first started this blog, if no one ever reads this, I wouldn't mind. It just feels so good to get it out in the open, and not trapped in a journal I won't touch for months.

It takes a little weight off my back. It feels good. I can't hurt anyone by venting by just being an anonymous face on a website past its prime (no offense).

[grimsneverendingfuneral]

You've already written a book? Wow, that's impressive! I've always been writing but never quite finished anything. I have a lot of short stories stored in my computer and poetry in my various journals, but actually sitting down and committing to writing something for an extended period of time has always been difficult for me. I lose interest after a while, or get stuck on a scene and just give up on it. I have about three rough drafts of at least one hundred pages worth of material, but that's it. They stop there. How were you able to write your book? What is the story behind it? I know we writers hate when someone asks what our books are about, because it's not always about the plot, I would say, but more about the characters and the overarching themes present throughout the story, but I'm curious. I hope you don't mind me intruding in your ask box like this.

yoooo you're back!!! im so glad

yessss well i feel you really hard on the never finishing anything. I've always always been writing too, ever since i could but i never thought i'd get to write a book, quite honestly. i mean, i didnt even consider myself a writer until like last year and im fucking 25. i just kind of. wrote. didnt claim the "writer" title until one of my friends pointed it out like "hey, youre a writer" and i was like HUH?? so ya.

the way i wrote it was very circumstantial, honestly. i think in a way, thats what usually happens. a bit of circumstance, time, discipline, and most importantly PASSION is the perfect equation, at least for me. it was in a time when covid was coming to an end, i had a job but was out of work because i had broken my foot, and i had a whole room to myself cause i was living with my sister. i was also going through a david bowie obsession and listened to literally JUST THAT for three whole months. i wrote every day, all day. sometimes for 10 hours without really eating or drinking. i was OBSESSED. with this story, and these characters, and so im not really the person to ask how exactly you finish a book, because for me it was truly a near religious experience, like divine intervention type thing. it was like i was possessed. i couldnt stop. i loved it so much that it took over my whole life.

as for the stuck on a scene thing. honestly? like forreal forreal? you just have to change the scene that you thought you were gonna write. that's it. that's the answer. you just don't write that scene. you find something else. if its not coming to you like butter on a hot pan, sliding into your brain effortlessly and through your fingers, change it. or just don't write it. skip it. skip to another part of the story, or just straight up skip that scene and continue the story. im telling you, there aint not other way. you'll just stray further and further from that momentum you had, and get frustrated with yourself, and start overthinking your story, and all that, all for one scene that isn't even there.

and the dreaded discipline. look, we all hate it. the only thing you can do to combat the writers block is, and i cant emphasize this enough, write something else for a bit. put your story on pause, its okay, its always gonna be there, and write something with those same characters, but maybe theyre in an au, or another scene, or its just some little drabble of their lives. it helps immensely, even for your book. you get to develop their characterization, get to know them, their motivations, their speech patterns, and you get to have fun. it'll give you ideas, and once you're ready to kick yourself in the ass, go back to the book, and write one. fucking. sentence. just one. a shitty one. write a whole page without editing it as you go along. write simply and like youve never known what a sentence structure looks like, then when you're done, you can go back and edit. but its better to just write and have it be shitty but cohesive enough that its going somewhere, than to not write at all, right? thats my advice.

ok this shit is getting long as fuck and i didnt even answer your question as to what my book is about. i'll try to blurb it, for practice.

Set in 1973, it's about Percy, an astronomy loving eighteen year old Welsh guy with sleep apnea who moves to the city with his extremely religious parents. He finds a room through a new friend he meets at a bar, Gretchen, and moves in with Ren, a wearing-sunglasses-at-night sanguine type who's a storm about to ravage Percy's little village.

Ren has a secret room, secret hobbies, secret everything, and it drives Percy insane with prophetic dreams through his apneic episodes. With time, patience and a shared love of music, Ren begins to let Percy in on his tragic life, the person he lost and the reasons why he is the way he is, chaos personified. Percy begins to understand that he is a part of some equation, some mission Ren has been set on by the strange presence in their apartment.

The secret little room is the key to it all, and through the whispers in the trees and the voice in the walls, Percy will soon discover that Ren is not only someone who's happened to cross his path, but someone who he is falling in love with, someone fated for him. It's a story of self-discovery, mysticism, death, rebirth, redemption, friendship, and it's very gay. Very, very gay. Also set in the early 70s so there's the trials and tribulations of marginalized identities, good ass music, and a lack of electronic communication.

there are a lot of different elements to this story, like.... a lot of references to greek mythology, astronomy facts, sleep disorders, nightmare imagery, motifs, everything is all connected. Each character's name has a meaning to the story, and they all play a very important role. There's also like two plot twists and a secret character that i cant talk about heehee.

anyways FUCK this was crazy. i know you only asked like a couple of questions but im like sooooo into answering thoroughly. its honestly helping me understand some stuff, so thank you veryyyyy much for being curious, i really really appreciated. dont be shy if you ever want to come off anon and send me a message, im not gonna think anything weird of you lol. i know anon is like a safe way of lurking sometimes but id like to talk to you more if youre down.

[a-girl-called-bob]

If you pose a question in the first sentence and you neither meaningfully answer it nor link to something that meaningfully answers it, have you written a good post?

Gesturing to the people in your movement and saying that the current system perpetuates violence does nothing to answer the substantive question. Saying that the current system does not answer this question either DOES NOT ANSWER THIS QUESTION. Abolitionist thought 'has meaningful answers' according to your FAQ - these meaningful answers should've been the first AND ONLY answer to this question, with none of the pontification included.

What does it say about the abolition movement that this question is a perennial stumbling block which every abolitionist is trained to respond to with a knee-jerk 'that's what they all say' but when pressed to actually answer they all fall back on 'read the literature'? Is the concept of transformative justice so dense and esoteric that nobody can provide a succinct, broad overview in a couple of paragraphs?

So, what are those answers? Based on a cursory skimming of the material - which, as someone who's broadly interested in the movement, I will be reading in more depth in the future - the proposed solutions seem to involve:

Violence de-escalation training taught with a similar or better level of ubiquity to first aid

A level of community cohesion that would support the development of tailored procedures and tools for handling interpersonal violence in the community

People who do harm, commit violent acts, in the community are still members of the community; thus, the community needs to work with the perpetrators of harm in order to understand the conditions that led them to act and make those conditions better - a transformative sort of justice

What I have yet to find in my hour or so of digging is *any* conceptualization of what that community support looks like, what sitting down with a rapist and trying to convince them not to rape anymore looks like. Which, it's hard to conceive of in the theoretical, but considering these are writings from people who've been in communities trying this stuff, you'd think they'd include anecdotes or case studies showing what that's like in practice. Or maybe those exist and I just haven't found them yet.

Every abolitionist whose writing I've read seems to fall into a similar rhetorical trap, where their concept of society is so centered on the thing they seek to destroy that you get the sense that all violence, all assault, all of those things that harm one another, exist in society because of prisons. That given ideal societal conditions, nobody would ever feel the need or want to cause harm to someone else. If you put it that way, they'd scoff and say you're putting words in their mouths, or they'd bluster and say 'well, a lot of it is', and they wouldn't be wrong on either account. But they tend to give off that sort of impression, which is PRECISELY why they keep getting badgered with questions about rapists and killers and folks who Just Do Crime for No Reason.

But the thing is, the answer is complicated, and if you outright say, 'no, we're not removing people who commit sexual assault from society - we're actually not removing anyone from society, you see,' then a vast proportion of otherwise-allies who haven't yet done the reading will immediately and irreversably balk, and your coalition is dead before it can even breathe. But then, most people don't read theory.

The prison abolition movement cannot go mainstream until there is a simple (ideally one-sentence), rhetorically effective motto that can be deployed in response to this type of question. If *this* is the best that can be done, we've got a long road ahead of us.

What is your suggestion for rapists and murderers tho? If they shouldn't go to prison what should be done with them?

“One topic that almost immediately comes up anytime abolition is under discussion is what will be done about violent or harmful actions, especially people who enact sexual violence or violence against children; there seems to be a common concern that a post-abolition world will have no way of preventing or addressing harm, or that violence against women and children will be accepted as an inevitable price to pay for a world without prisons.

It feels important to me in those conversations to point out that abolitionist movements have and are still heavily led by Black women, a demographic that experiences disproportionately high levels of violence in general and sexualized and gendered violence in particular. It seems at best misguided and at worst undermining to imagine that Black women, of all people, would create a framework that forgets or doesn’t understand such a major element of lived experience.

To that end, two things. First, the prison industrial complex as it stands is a powerful and unchecked site of sexualized violence, not an antidote to it; rarely, if ever, does the justice system actually address rapists or pedophiles, and when it does, they are not prevented from causing harm, but moved into a prison system to cause harm to a caged population of people.

Prevention of sexual violence is one of the most important reasons to dismantle the prison-industrial complex, as sexual violence against incarcerated people is rampant and unmitigated, as is sexual violence enacted by the police; it’s the second most common type of police misconduct reported. Do you know any survivors of sexual harm who have been healed by the prison industrial complex? Is it effectively addressing this harm now? If not, what is actually lost by ending it? What could be gained by imagining understandings of “consequences” that don’t include prisons?

Second, abolitionist thought is not only very aware of the reality of violence and has considered the need to address harm, including gendered and sexualized harm, but has worked hard to imagine meaningful ways of preventing, addressing, and healing harm and violence outside of frameworks of punishment and cages. Living in a carceral culture, it can feel impossible to imagine that there can be meaningful consequences for harm without a criminal justice system; abolition asks you to try.

Abolitionists have done enormous amounts of work to provide potential answers to what it would look like to address these things without prisons, and provided resources and actionable toolkits and guides on making them a reality.” — Police and Prison Abolition 101: A Syllabus and FAQ

[elisabethswritingcorner]

2022 - A Writing Year in Review

A look back

2022 has been a quite emotional year for me. My responsibilites at work grew significantly, and what little free time I had got eaten up by that. But despite everything I did get some work done on all my projects, which makes me very proud.

Welcome to Lucia Island (aka “The Telenovela”)

For this year’s Nanowrimo (which I finished two days ahead of time), I worked on the first re-write of Welcome to Lucia Island. I had completed the first draft three years ago, and it took me a long time to get back into it. But now that I accomplished it, I am very proud!

There are still two or three scenes left that I have to add, mostly in the beginning of the story, but then I can send it off to my first beta readers to get their feedback.

I am excited and scared at the same time. But I know they will provide good feedback and insight, and the story can only get better. There is already a rough outline for the next part in the story on my computer, just waiting to be written.

Random Fantasy Story (aka “The Story that still has no English name”)

The rewrite of a fantasy novel I wrote with a friend at age 14 or 15. Or, well, a novel we started writing, but never finished.

I got quite far into the story and into the rewrite, about one third I’d recon, given the outline. I am happy with the characters, their relationship, and the general outline of the story (although the beginning is still a little too long and too slow for my liking). It makes me really happy working on it, because every line I write, every dialogue, every description, even if it’s not good, shows me how far I’ve come compared to the original version, and how far I’ve grown as a writer.

Initially I wanted to use this as my Nanowrimo project, but then I hit a huge road block with it in late October, so I went for Welcome to Lucia Island instead.

The motivation has not come back yet to continue, the road block is still there. But I hope once the work stress dies down a little, I can get back into it again. It would be a shame to not finish it and have it sit on my computer for another 20 years or so...

Kolibri (aka “The New Story”, working title)

It started as a silly writing exercise in late summer, when I had some trouble with the outline of my fantasy story. To distract myself from the problems with the outline I randomly decided to write something a little urban fantasy, a little hackers, a little action story. Just something to keep my fingers busy while I try to work through the pacing issues of my main project.

Turns out, I got quite invested in the story, and it’s been growing into it’s only little thing. I am not sure if it will end up as a full project or not, but for now I enjoy working on it when I have a little time, but not enough time to fully invest myself into one of my main projects.

It’s basically just writing for fun - and fun it is!

The Discord Story

A few weeks ago, people in a writing discord I’m a part of decided to start a fun little project: everyone who wants can join in writing a story (in German), 100 words at a time.

I’ve enjoyed it so far - it’s fun and everyone comes up with new crazy stuff to introduce that is then suddenly canon. It was also fun two rite something in German again. At the moment we are taking a break for the holidays, but after that I hope we will continue. Not sure if we will come up with anything remotely cohesive, but even if not, it’s nice to just come in, write 100 words, and then hand the story off to someone else.

What will 2023 hold?

Looking back at 2022, work has definitely killed and muted my energy and motivation to be creative. It’s kills creativity. But I have bills to pay, and my job is still mostly okay, so that won’t change in 2023.

I have planned a vacation for April, one week, to focus on myself, recovering from these last months (and the very hard months still ahead of me), and focus on writing.

I can’t wait to see what next year brings. Here’s to 2023!

[rozinaaa]

"How's it Going?" It's Going

Honestly, there's just so much going on at the moment that I don't even know what's going on anymore, but I'll try to break it down as much as I can. I'm doing the long essay, I'm doing my final major project, and now there's an exhibition to deal with. So much to do in such little time.

Ironically, I'm finding writing the long essay pretty hard, maybe because I want it to be over and done with already so that I don't have to think about it, or so that I don't have to do a lot of research for a paper. Perhaps it's the overall technicality and predefined expectations of it, which is essentially putting me on the verge of dealing with writer's block at this time of all times. Maybe it's because I have to conform (yuck) to standards, which I think is what's hindering me, where I have to write in a formal and cohesive academic tone, and make sure that everything's right before I submit it, not to mention that the deadline is literally 3 weeks away from now, which I'm both looking forward to and dreading at the same time, since I know that once I submit my essay, I can go home for a whole month and just forget that university even exists for a while.

Sometimes, I wish I could just write freely for the long essay, because at this point, as interesting as the subject matter is, it's starting to feel like a drag, where I have to essentially force myself to get the essay done, something which is completely unlikely for me, especially knowing that I've done this before, just on a smaller scale, so I still don't know why this feels so damn hard when it doesn't have to. I guess this is the result of having done a placement year, where I try to get back into academia again for one year before being released into the working world once again.

Pair this with how shit winter is in general, and I'm just ready to hibernate (I'd say die, but I want to see how my life will play out at first), trying to find a way to just simply sit down and Get Things Done, something which is really impossible for me to do, no matter how hard I try. As for the long essay, all I've done so far is write the introduction and the 2nd chapter, which isn't enough considering how much time is left, since I'd also have to do some reading for the first chapter, actually write that chapter, and also write the third chapter as well as the conclusion, with just 1.5 weeks left before I submit the full draft to my supervisor and make some (hopefully) minor edits to my work before actually submitting it and not having to worry about it anymore.

Honestly, Friday the 16th of December 2022 cannot come sooner enough and I'm equally terrified as much as I am anticipating it, but with how plots generally go, things will come together in the end, I hope.