#definitely jotting down that little scene idea for later

[imagineitdearies]

I know that anyone under 100yo is considered young among elves and vampires. But I do wonder. Do you think Astarion or Tyrus ever trully noticed their age gap?

Hey anon!! Great question. As per usual, our boys have very different mindsets about things, so I'll talk about one then the other 😂

Astarion: At the start of their first true meeting (in ch4), Astarion already goes in with assumptions about Tyrus being young, both because Tyrus looked young in their brief crossing-paths in ch2, and because Cazador generally likes his spawn young. Considering he's a drow/full elf, though, there's a good amount of room for error--Tyrus could look the way he does and be anywhere from 20 to 140 years. And after learning Tyrus is almost a century (96 years) younger than him, Astarion does feel a bit guilty for finding him attractive, but his actual horror when Tyrus says he's 24 and Astarion calls Cazador "that fucking monster" isn't just about the number. It stems more from the fact that Tyrus hadn't even left his childhood home behind, or experienced any true hallmarks of adulthood before being imprisoned eternally. In that sense, Tyrus is Turned with the least amount of life experience of any of Cazador's spawn (save Amanita).

Throughout part 1 and part 2 of PS--whilst Tyrus is just learning how to survive and then acclimate in Szarr Palace--Astarion is mostly just wrestling with the problematic aspects of their inevitably-deepening intimacy, this included. Tyrus's youth adds yet another layer to the skewed power dynamics, after all. It takes a while (three years, to be precise) for Astarion to reconcile his feelings for Tyrus given Tyrus's stolen adulthood and sexual inexperience, on top of other things like Cazador's clear manipulation and the weakness Astarion thinks love can be. But by the time Tyrus says the big ILY in ch15, Astarion finds he can no longer tell himself the lie anymore that Tyrus only has fallen for him because Cazador made it all so. "Gods be damned, I even believe you," he realizes aloud.

From then on, these sorts of concerns fade into the background of his other growing concerns for Tyrus's wellbeing, their freedom/survival, etc.!

Tyrus: On other hand, Tyrus? He has zero concept of why this might matter. Astarion is obviously more informed about the hell they live in, more experienced in weathering it, but really that's true of everyone around Tyrus. And with a mixed race family (Dad being a full drow, adopted Mom and Cynda being half-elves), from a town that seems to have a lot of elf and human and intermixing between the two, I don't think Tyrus grew up seeing this as abnormal.

. . . that being said, I have thought for a while it'd be funny to write a little scene about Tyrus complaining in a big brother fashion about the Cynda/Halsin age gap (a much larger 224 years), then Astarion scoffing and pointing out their own to Tyrus at last 😂

Thanks a ton for this lovely question anon! Always happy to discuss Tystar 🥰🩵

[sloppysequinz]

hiii glitz [cool new nickname for you]

i was wondering if you could speak on your writing process? all your stories are so good and as someone who veeery occasionally writes i'm curious how you go about doing it? thanks !

[definitly not drunk-girl shh]

Ok definitely not @drunk-girl! I've been dwelling on this ask for quite a while. I really appreciated the question a lot :) This answer ended up being kind of long so I put it under a read more for courtesy. Also I loooove the nickname glitz <3

So generally my writing process starts with a little seed of an idea. It could be a text post or a photo I see on here, something that happens across my mind while I'm out and about, it could be a suggestion from a friend. Baby's First House Party came from being in a town where I used to go to school and feeling nostalgic about house parties, Step-Mom came from a story with drunken wetting on here that I just found unexpectedly hot, Meet Cute came from memories of when I lived in a place with a screen door that had a view of my whole living room. The idea just has to spark some kind of interest in me. Sometimes I recognize it right away, sometimes it takes a little bit.

Then I usually spend some time fleshing it out, just in my mind. For me, this usually happens right when I'm falling asleep. I tend to daydream about horny stuff in bed anyway, so it kinda comes naturally. I just spend some time figuring out character dynamics, what the "core" scene or scenario I'm getting at, and to be crude, what turns me on. I follow the turn on down the rabbit hole and let it take the wheel. Sometimes I don't realize I have a good idea until I'm lying in bed fantasizing about something I hadn't thought about before. Sometimes I think I have a good idea, but if I cant generate organic fantasies about it, it won't make a good story.

Usually by the time I sit down to write, I have a good idea of what the characters are, the key thing I want to get to, and how I'm going to get there. For characters, I don't necessarily have names, but a general personality and archetype. When I say key "thing", that's usually whatever I find hottest in the imagined scenario that I want to frame in the center. For Step-mom, this was the scene of her drooling on the table and grabbing her own tits while pissing. For Meet Cute, this was Mel staring in awe as Yvette chugged a whole can of beer. For the first Mona and Lacy story, it was Lacy drunkenly begging Mona to drink while calling her mommy. I have a rough idea of how I'm getting those characters to that big scene.

Usually I just sit down and start writing from the beginning, describing the scene as I see it in my head and writing any dialogue I've thought of that seems hot or in character. Sometimes the characters will surprise me and say something I'm not expecting. Sometimes I have enough momentum to just write the whole thing from start to finish and be done, but not usually. Usually I'll write the opening, then I'll just jot down bullet points for the rest of the story. As an example, I pulled this from a draft of a sequel to Meet Cute that I'm still working on:

Yvette's a little forgetful but lets her in

Mel has brought more beer and a bucket of fried chicken

Yvette has two of the 12 beers left and half a pizza

Wants Mel's help to finish the pizza

"Come sit."

Once I have a rough outline of all the events I want to happen, I go back and slowly flesh them out. Depending on how much time I've spent dwelling on the idea, I may take some time here to workshop what works and what doesn't, what's hot and what isn't. Also, sometimes I start with the juice scene I want to get to, then do bullets for both before and after.

Once I've gotten it all written down, I save it as a draft and leave it alone. I come back a day or two later and proofread it. Once I'm done tinkering, I tag it and hit post (sometimes I realize there are typos or mistakes and I'll just edit the post if I have to).

In general though, the strength of my writing comes from the fact that I am a 30 year old woman who writes for my job. My work writing is a very different kind of writing (which makes this a fun break), but all the same, I have a LOT of practice. On top of that, I have multiple academic degrees that required a lot of writing to get. I also love to read and have read a lot of books. My advice if you're looking to get better at writing is just to do a LOT of it, and to read a lot of books. When I first got into intox kink at 21, I couldn't even figure out how to write down my fantasies, and now I just can't stop.

[macfrog]

Could you possibly walk us through your writing process? I’m a beginner writer at best, and I usually jot down snippets in my notes app. I’m not the best at connecting plot lines, and most definitely struggle with writing filler content. I was just wondering how you start out + go through it from there? If not, that’s okay :) I love your work so much <3

absolutely i can. i have been told that my writing process is a little non-linear (read: unhinged), so please bear with me. it’s like a christopher nolan film up in my brain

most of my stories start with just an image or a particular line in my head that i can’t shake – so like, jet was built around a static image of a dingy motel room with two horses stood out front. and from there, i just map everything out.

that initial thought is the main seed, and everything else stems from questions i ask myself (and therefore gotta assume whoever’s reading will also ask). all the what where when who whys etc. and slowly this skeletal structure forms, where the bones are the answers to these questions, and the flesh becomes the story they tell, with as much attention to detail as i can possibly cram in. the devil is in the detail!!!!!

this means, though, that the process is not always linear (for me anyways lol), because depending on which thought/image has sparked inspiration in my brain, i begin writing at diff points of the tale. sometimes i'll start writing the end and go back and fill the beginning in, sometimes i write one scene in full and then jump back and forth to finish the story. it’s back to front, left to right, upside down on its damn head way more often than it’s once upon a time… straight through to happily ever after. i cannot say i recommend this. it becomes confusing and mildly painful when editing.

anyway. yes. using the notes app is also super helpful, keep doing that! it’s great for when inspiration suddenly strikes and you gotta jot it down. good for collecting little moments that you’ll wanna use in fics later on. little snippet notes are great for mulling over a particular idea and developing a story around it. just keep adding adding adding

as for physically writing/pulling a story together: you just have to do it. just get it out. don’t worry about it being good or bad, especially not your first draft. sometimes you gotta let the water run for a bit before it turns clear. just write. i like to hammer a first draft out (usually garbage), and then i pull up a blank second document side by side and redraft by retyping the entire thing. it helps me read it like a first-time reader would, which helps point out things that maybe don’t make sense or could be worded better. helps edit the hell out of it. i LOVE redrafting lmao

my biggest piece of advice is have fun with it. write stories you love, about people you love, and do it for you. and please send in anything you write, so we can all read and love it, too 🩵

(sorry for long ass response. u ask about something max is passionate about and she appears at ur window like the boogeyman)

[arizona2004]

Courts of Love and Hate. CH10

Nyx x Juniper (Tamlins daughter)

WC: 3166

Nyx

The morning passes slowly. After sleeping in we eat breakfast then lay on the floor, in what’s supposed to be a foyer, and make a list of everything we need to buy for the house. I can hardly stand not touching her at every possible opportunity so when another note from my parents arrives asking us to come over for dinner, I have every intention to tell them no and keep her all to myself. 

Juniper has a different idea, though. Snatching the note from my hand, she jotted down a quick response, allowing it to disappear on its own.

“Juniper,” I groan.

“What? We’ve been in here for nearly three days; we should go have dinner with your family. Besides, it would be rude for us to go out shopping today and not at least stop by.”

I relent when she gives me that sultry smile of hers and leans in to kiss me again. I want to get distracted kissing her and bending her over the countertop but she pulls away after a few moments. 

“Let's get dressed and go shopping.”

Out of the house within the hour, we head deep into the city to look at furniture. This is definitely Juniper's scene. Design is one of her favorite past times, her face just lights up when she finds furniture that will “bring the whole room together perfectly.”

I have absolutely no idea what she’s talking about but the happy expression on her face brings a smile to mine. We place several orders to have furniture delivered to the house and grab paint samples for a few of the rooms.

Then, before Juniper can drag me into another store, I pull her to a small restaurant with outdoor seating and force her into a chair. Within the minute someone is taking our order and rushing away to make it. 

“This is really pretty.”

“Mmm,” I hum, “it’s not one of the ones on the Sidra, though. Those are the best restaurants in the city.”

“Really? They’re probably extra beautiful at night then.”

“Yeah. I can take you to one for dinner tonight,” I offer.

“And skip dinner with your parents?”

“I was hoping you’d forgotten.”

She just shakes her head in response, smiling as the waiter sets her plate of food down infront of her. 

Hours later we fall into bed, virtually the only furniture in the house, and try to take a short nap but get distracted and end up more exhausted than before. It’s a rush to get ready for dinner with my parents and we still end up a little late. Juniper’s way more concerned about it than me.

“They’re gonna think I’m not punctual, or a flake.”

“No they won’t,” I sya, trying not to laugh at her unnecessary concern. “We never start dinner on time anyway. And they’ll be more than understanding since we’re newly mated.”

Her cheeks turn the most beautiful shade of pink, the same color as her rosy dress. “You look amazing, by the way,” I say, pulling her closer. “I don’t think I told you that yet.”

“You did. Several times actually.”

“Did i?”

She just rolls her eyes which then go wide as I pull us to a stop in front of the River House. 

“Woah.”

“Do you like it?”

“It’s beautiful,” she says, openly gawking.

“Be sure to tell my mom. She designed it.”

“Really?”

“Mhmm, she’s an artist. She designed and decorated just about everything. The garden’s my aunt's doing, though.”

We walk up to the house and the door swings open before we’re even five feet away. Juniper’s obviously still anxious besides me so I grip her hand in mine and resist the urge to punch my smirking uncle in the face where he stands in the doorway.

“I thought it would just be dinner with your parents,” Juniper whispers in my ear.

“No, it’s Sunday: family dinner night.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t worry, it’s probably easier this way,” I say, kissing her forehead before returning my attention to the door. “Uncle Cassian. Any particular reason for blocking the doorway tonight?”

“I was thinking about letting the creatures outside,” he jokes.

“What did I tell you about referring to the children as animals?” Aunt Nesta says, smacking him upside the head as she walks by.

He just rubs the back of it, smiling widely, and moves to the side for us to walk in. My three youngest cousins run by screaming as soon as we step in. One’s Cas and Nesta’s second and the other two are Uncle Azriel’s and his wife’s, all ranging four to eight years old.

I pull Juniper toward the sitting room, ignoring the creatures, and search out the only other person close to our age- Nesta and Cassian’s other daughter, Lenny.

We saw her briefly during the wedding, but I’m eager for her and Juniper to get to know each other more. “Lenny. You remember Juniper, yeah?”

“Was I supposed to forget your sudden arranged marriage?” She raises her brows at me and stands from her seat, gently setting her book to the side.

“He again,” Juniper says from my side. “If I recall correctly you’re Nyx’s closest friend and cousin.”

“Yep, and I used to be his closest confidant too, but it seems he moved on once I moved out to the steeps.”

“The steeps?”

“Illyrian Steeps,” I say. “My Dad offered her a chance to run one of the camps when she turned eighteen last year. She’s there more often than here now.”

“Yeah, I’m only here for a whole week so that those idiots can realize they’re barely surviving without me.”

Juniper

I smile, immediately deciding I like Lenny. I barely saw her during the wedding, but being able to talk to her I realize we have a lot in common. 

I especially enjoy when she tells funny stories about Nyx and he turns beet red from embarrassment. I’m certain he’s grateful when his mother calls us all into the other room for dinner.

We file into the dining room with a large oak table running through it, to find everyone already seated, pulling out chairs, or struggling to get children to hold still. The only seats with placements in front of them remaining are two at the closer end and, to my surprise, the seat at the head of the table.

“I suppose I’ll leave the two of you then,” Lenny says and walks to the end. 

“If we have an even amount of people then no one really sits there, but there's thirteen of us tonight,” Nyx says, answering one of my many silent questions.

“Speaking of,” Cassian starts, “should we be worried? Isn’t thirteen a bad omen?”

“Oh, shut up, Cassian,” the woman I recognize as his wife says.

Nyx pulls out the end seat for me and takes the one between it and one of his younger cousins. “Hi!” The child nearly shouts, leaning forward to look around Nyx. “I’m Baz. I wasn’t allowed to go to the wedding.”

“Oh,” I say, “nice to meet you, I’m Juniper.”

“Yeah, I know. Everyone’s been talking about you,” the Eight year old says.

My cheeks burn in the awkward silence that follows and I have no idea what to say. A few long seconds pass.

“What have they been saying?”

“Oh, all sorts of things,” he says, beaming. “Aunt Feyre said you were very pretty and kind, and mommy said you and Nyx would be a good pair, but Aunt Mor said you can’t be trusted and this is the worst thing to happen. She’s not here because she's mad at everyone.”

There are another few seconds of silence, a few of the adults noticeably cringe and I can feel Nyx’s rage boiling beside me.

Baz continues, probably trying to change the mood, “Uncle Cas said we probably wouldn’t see you for a month because Nyx would be busy fucking you,” he shrugs after laying that detail out there, “whatever that means.”

“You said that in front of my child?” Azriel yells across the table at the other male.

Nyx grips his fork tightly, staring daggers at his uncle, while tiny blue flames lick to life in his hair. 

“Nyx,” I murmur his name and rest a hand on his arm. He calms down after a few seconds, but the shouting between the adults continues.

“This is relatively normal for family dinners,” Nyx says, deciding to ignore everyone and scoop food onto my plate.

“Are you upset now, Juniper? Mama said I might have upset you.”

I turn to the faeling, who I’m already starting to like, with a smile. “No, I’m not upset.”

“Good, then we should be friends.”

The yelling settles down after a few minutes and conversations continue between smaller groups of everyone. At first anyway. After a little while, everyone gives up on trying to mind their own business and I’m dragged into almost every conversation.

Feyre asks about my childhood and siblings. Cassian wants to know if I’ve trained at all but when I say I haven’t and don’t really have an interest in being a warrior he becomes almost completely bored of me. Nyx said not to think anything of it. 

The shadowsinger is silent through most of the meal but all of Nyx’s aunts have questions about one thing or another. You like to read? What books? Adventure.  Do you ever write?I love to. What flowers did you see the most in the spring court? Just about every kind depending on where you are. Do you like to cook or bake? Not really. What music do you like?

Minutes passed like this before Nyx took some of my food and forced me to eat, then not so subtly, told everyone to stop talking to me while I ate.

My favorite part of the evening was talking to Nyx’s cousins, it was then too that I realized how much I love kids. I had to make a mental note to ask Nyx if he wanted any, later, while mildly panicking about the prospect of him not wanting them.

On the way home I’m practically buzzing with anxiety, no longer able to keep the question of whether or not Nyx wants kids in the back of my mind. The possibilities race through me until Nyx stops in front of the house and turns to me with a look of concern in his eyes that practically forces me to confess my thoughts.

“Tell me what’s bothering you. I know my family can be a lot, but I figured after you jumped past the quote bombs Baz passes you could handle anything,” Nyx says, rubbing up and down my arms.

“It’s not that,” I say, remembering what their Aunt Mor had apparently said, “but I do want to talk to you about some of that later.” Nyx just nods in response, already knowing which part I’m referring to. “I was just wondering- We hadn’t talked about whether-” I struggle for a long few moments, not knowing how to phrase this. I’m usually so good with words.

“Go on, love. You can ask anything.”

“Do you want kids?” I blurt the question out, glad it’s finally done but kind of wanting to take it back.

A smile spreads slowly across Nyx’s face. “Yeah, Juniper, I want kids. Do you?”

I nod, biting my lip, relieved to have his answer.

“Right now?”

Shocked at the thought, my eyes widen and I take an actual step away from Nyx. “Mother above, no.”

Nyx laughs suddenly at my response and I can feel his humor down the bond, it warms me from the inside out as he grabs my hand and gently pulls me toward the door of our home.

Five months later

Nyx

Waking, I roll over and reach out a hand for my wife, but find an empty bed instead. I blink my eyes open, noting that the sheets aren’t cold yet, but not warm enough for her to just be in the bathroom.

I groan as I sit up, wishing she were by my side. I climb out of bed, not bothering to pull pants on, and amble down the hall to the stairs. Before I arrive her frustrated sounds fill the silence. She must be trying to put some more of the furniture together.

Most of it’s been sitting in boxes for the past couple of months, neither of us wanting to do anything but lay in bed.

“I was planning on hiring someone to finally put those together,” I say, when I finally get to the top of the stairs, and lean against the banister in all my naked glory.

She doesn’t look up. “Yeah, but I was bored and you were sleeping so I figured I’d try.”

“I’m not sleeping now,” I say, smirking. “And there are a few activities I’ll never complain about being woken for.”

Junipers cheeks pinkin and she starts to chastise me as she looks up but the words never make it out. Her gaze immediately catches on my half hard cock and she turns an even darker shade.

“Come back to bed,” I say, my cock hardening faster the more she looks at it.

“Why don’t you make me?” Her tone is laced with humor and her eyes sparkle, but before I can retort or grab her the front door of our town house swings open.

In half a second I’m standing protectively in front of her, weapons in my hands as my uncles fill my foyer.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I snap.

“Why are you naked?” Cas asks.

“This is my house!” I yell, moving one of my long daggers to cover my cock.

“He has a point.” Az.

“We came to get you for training,” Uncle Cas says, smiling broadly, “but I guess you had a different form of cardio in mind.”

I clench my jaw, wishing they would leave. “How’d you get in? The door was locked.”

“Your parents have a spare key for emergencies,” Az says as if that explains everything.

“Yeah, I know.”

“We stole it!” Cas practically cheers, eyes lighting up. 

Even Uncle Az smiles a little. “Stealing from your dad isn’t easy. It took us a while.”

“You must be exhausted from all the hard work, then,” Juniper says sarcastically over my shoulder, smiling as widely as my uncles. “We can have coffee in the kitchen while Nyx gets dressed.”

I winnow upstairs, quickly putting on clothes. Juniper laughs downstairs at something one of my uncles said, and the smell of coffee is already floating through the house.

In a matter of seconds I’m downstairs again, standing in the kitchen as Uncle Cas pours milk into his coffee and Uncle Az looks on, cringing at the sight and sipping his black.

“Why the hell are you guys still here?” I grumble.

“We’re hanging out with your wife, obviously,” Cas says, smiling. Winning my family over has practically become a hobby for Juniper and she’s extremely good at it; they all love her. Even Mor is coming around.

I roll my eyes at my uncles and reach for the pot of coffee as they continue their conversation. 

“What are you two up to today?” Azriel asks.

“I’m meeting with someone from the theater to potentially work as one of their writers!” Juniper announces excitedly, just the sound of her bubbling excitement makes me grin, happy she’s happy.

“We’ll all come to the opening night of your first production,” Az promises as Cas nods enthusiastically.

“That’s if I get hired.”

“You’re a good writer, Juniper, they’ll hire you.”

“You’ve read some of her writing, Az?” I ask.

“Mhmm,”he says around a mouth full of food.

“He likes to read, you know? I figured he’d be a less biased reader than you.”

I roll my eyes, knowing full well I’m terrible at giving my mate proper criticism. My uncles leave soon after that when Dad shows up, hitting them over the head for taking his key. He makes a promise to come to dinner tonight, having something important to tell the family, and leaves soon after too.

The rest of the day is uneventful, but something in my stomach stirs, wondering what news my parents have. A part of me already knows and that feeling in my gut is unease or maybe guilt.

Juniper

I hold Nyx’s hand loosely in mine as he swings the door to the River House open, the sounds of his rambunctious cousins greeting us. My smile instantly grows as Baz runs up to hug me and, not to covertly, checks my wrist to ensure I’m still wearing my friendship bracelet. He has several different bracelets crawling up his arms, all for different friends, and everyone in the room has one too.

He pulls me away from Nyx to talk and play with the other kids and I find myself wondering how long I do want to wait for kids. The thought of having them right away all those months ago felt outrageous, but being near these kids makes my hormones crazy.

Nyx seems to pick up on this and smirks wickedly from across the room. Thankfully Feyre interrupts moments later, calling us all in for dinner, so my mate can’t send any of her dirty thoughts down the bond.

The entire meal goes smoothly but I can feel Nyx’s anxiety as he sits by my side. It’s radiating off of him and his parents are far from oblivious to it too. They don’t make an announcement during the meal, though, but Nyx and I both pick up on the fact that the Highlady isn’t drinking wine.

I grip his hand as we move to the sitting room and Feyre smiles broadly, grabbing everyone’s attention as her and Rhys remain standing. Rhys clears his throat, everyone goes quiet. “I’m pregnant,” Feyre says simply. 

No one in the room is surprised and though we’re all happy we all know what this really means.

“It’s still early, but Madja thinks the baby’s a girl.”

The kids seem thrilled, the only people in the room saying anything for a long moment, before a few of their friends get up to congratulate them. Nyx remains, frozen beside me, though, even as we stand, and I wonder if he’s wishing he could take back what we did now that it’s real.

“This is good news,” Rhys says, smiling and gripping Nyx’s shoulder. “Your mother and I made this choice, Nyx, not you,” he reassures and low enough for only the two of us to hear.

Nyx relaxes slightly after that, hugging his mom for a long moment before returning to my side.

“This is good news,” I whisper into his ear, trying to convince him or myself, I don’t know.

We go home hours later, the peaceful bubble we’ve been living in for the last several months popped by the consequences of our actions.

There are defiantly going to be edits made to this story, but for now I just wanted to post it. Also, eventually, I’ll post a story about the other half of the deal between their courts, as well as a story around Junipers other sibling!

[jazzythursday]

hi hi for the fic ask game hmmm 1, 20, 35, 48, and 74! <3

ahhh friend! Hi Sparrow!!!

1) Do you daydream a lot before you write, or go for it as soon as the ideas strike?

I just answered this one in another ask, so I’ll paste in what I wrote for that here ;3

So much. So so much. I come up with so many little bits and moments for fics to find places for later. Usually they end up in bullet pointed lists that eventually make sense. Sometimes I spend weeks just jotting down random ideas or lines of dialogue before I try to write a single paragraph. Other times I go straight in with no outline or planning though, and those fics always feel particularly raw to me because they came straight out of my feelings in the moment.

20) Do you prefer writing AUs or canon fics?

I want to get into writing AU fic, but for now all my posted works are canon. AUs kind of terrify me to be honest. I also just... don't get that many ideas for AUs. So much of how I see my favourite characters is rooted in their canon backstories, so taking them out of it has never been something I've been that interested in. Maybe once I exhaust myself of filler scenes and canon continuations I'll catch the AU bug, but for now I have waaaay too many ideas that are set in canon.

.....That being said, I still think about the sun summoner!Jesper au I wrote the first chapter draft of pretty often.....

35) What’s your favorite fic you’ve posted?

This should come as no surprise to anyone, but it’s Everyday, Just a Little or a Little Bit (shamlessly plugging it again here lol) It’s the first fic I started for soc/wesper and the last fic I finished, and definitely the one I’d recommend highest!

48) Who is your favorite character to write for?  Has this changed since you’ve started writing for that fandom?

Again, no surprises here---it's Wylan!

The funny thing is that just yesterday I was ranting about how much I miss writing from Wylan's pov. Because I really miss it. The last few things I’ve worked on have all been from Jesper’s, and then I randomly went back to work on a Wylan wip and realised that it was sooo much easier to connect emotionally and know what I wanted to say. Wylan's has been my go to from the get go (woah, that's a mouthfull), but I don't think I clocked how much I was struggling until then.

(It’s getting to the point where I considered trying to pre-write Wylan’s pov of a scene just to figure out where it was going so I can put it in Jesper’s. Which is crazy, and probably not worth it, but it's where we are  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

Another thing I noticed is that a lot of writing I do for Jesper inevitably ends up being about Wylan (to be fair, a pretty large amount of my Wylan povs are about Jesper too) or else they rely heavily on dialogue, whereas my Wylan povs get paragraphs and paragraphs of inner monologue and thought, which doesn’t come as naturally to me for Jesper.

74) Do you have a fic you wish got a bit more love?

hmmmm... Familiar Strangers is my least popular wesper fic, so maybe that one. I get why it might have been a harder sell since it's pre-relationship and unresolved, but I do really like it as a little peek into Jesper's head between ep 1 and 2.

Also, not wesper (gasp!) but Homewards, to Land is a Good Omens fic I wrote few years ago that I reread the other day and really liked. I just went back and added a few lines/fixed some typos, so if anyone wants to go show some love to it, I'd definally apreciate it!

Thanks for the questions! <3

[criticallyacclaimedstranger]

I have so many questions for the fanfic ask so strap in 😏 I really want to ask all of them but I should limit myself to like, 10.

12, 17, 18, 22, 26, 27, 29, 34, 36, and 77

Anyways I'm a little drunk so thank for answering these in advance and Ily 💙

(GAAAAH I HAD ANSWERED FOUR OF THE QUESTIONS ALREADY WHEN I SLIPPED ON MY GODDAMN TABLET AND CLOSED THE TAB AND I LOST ALL OF IT.)

Ziz, my drunken angel. I want to get drunk too, but I'm too tired. Now I have to copypaste all of these suckers for you instead.

12. Do you outline your fics? If yes, how detailed are your outlines? How far do you stray from them?

Mostly not. For longer fics or multichapters I might have some stuff jotted down just to remember to include it later (because I forget shit) but no, I don't really outline my fics.

17. Do you have a writing routine?

At the moment, I mostly work during down time at work. I have other things I'd rather do during my spare time, so in order to write anything at all - and I want to write, but not enough to use my spare time for it - it's going to be on company time. Front desk duty days are the best because we don't get many customers, I usually don't have anything pressing to work on while waiting for customers to show up, so I write smut. Perfect. It's a huge privilege, and I intent to enjoy it for as long as I can. So my routine is mostly "check if anyone's behind me, then open up my private email, and go to drafts, where I save my wips", haha!

18. Do you enjoy research? Which fic of yours required the most research?

Um, yes and no? Because I don't allow for writing to take a lot of time, I don't really feel like doing research at the moment. But if I feel like the fic requires it, a bitch will definitely google some shit. The most research I did in this fandom was for What Spring Does To The Cherry Trees. I had absolutely no idea about what life on a Texas cattle ranch would be like. I expected there would be cows and Stetsons. So I did a fair bit of reading up on that, plus what the military looked like in the early 1990's. (Nothing like I needed for my OFC, so I still made things up. It's fanfic.)

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

AFTER. Omfg, after. Listen, I will have created the post on both Tumblr and Ao3 and be ready to hit that Post button, if it wasn't for the teensy tiny little detail that I LACK A GODDAMN TITLE. Titles are the worst. I very very rarely have a title from the start, or at least one that sticks with me throughout the process, and makes it until the end. I usually go for song lyrics (simple but somewhat easy), or something descriptive and boring (um, "The Artist and the Builder", anyone? Scoff!).

26. What’s your least favorite part of the writing process?

The title. And the sex scenes. Ugh.

27. What area of writing do you feel strongest in?

I feel like I write relationships well. I write female characters well, I like them independent and headstrong, not too sentimental or dependent. I like writing the day-to-day of relationships, the kind of boring stuff, the banter. Two people who rib the bejesus out of each other but will never be mean to each other and will always have each other's backs and also have phenomenal sex. Also she doesn't cook.

29. What’s something about your writing that you’re proud of?

I am proud of finishing fics that I've worked on for months or even a year. I'm proud of not compromising my ideas, even when I suspect that taking the story another way would give me more notes. And I am so, so proud of my chubby!reader x Frankie series. The comments I got on those fics still make me tear up. I am so humbled that I could give readers the experience of really seeing themselves in that reader insert. I honestly never thought it would be so huge, that people would actually see themselves in it, but they did, and they told me, and I am just. Wow.

34. How much of your personal life/experience do you include in your fics?

I did a lil day trip with my two doctor friends yesterday, and they talked about different medical professionals/originals that they met during their internship. And I listened, and told them: "You know that one guy is ending up in a fic, right?" They laughed, and said "Go right ahead, he deserves to be in a one!" So I do pick up stuff from around me, and from my own life. But most of it is make-believe because hahaha I do not have a Frankie of my own and I do nothing interesting with my life honestly :')

36. What fic are you proudest of?

As already mentioned, the Forever Starts With You series. But also What Spring Does To The Cherry Trees. And Jay and Frankie. Heck, I'm proud of almost all of my fics! Some are written with a lot of integrity, some I'm just proud of finishing, some have resonated so beautifully with the readers. Don't make me choose.

77. Why do you enjoy writing fanfiction?

I am a creative person. I've always written stuff. Fanfic in "easy" in the sense that you are served a world and characters that people already know, so you don't have to spend time setting all of that up. It's also a communal experience, something that brings people together. And of course I love the responses! I'd be lying if I said I did this for myself: if I did, I wouldn't be posting. I post my fics to share the, and I love it when people tell me I did good, yes, but mostly I love it when I make people feel something. Maybe I made them laugh, or cry, or horny (seriously, people: you have got to be more open about that! TELL ME MY SMUT MADE YOU MASTURBATE, I WILL BE ALL HEART EYES!). Maybe they recognized themselves in the fic, felt seen, felt appreciated. That's the good stuff. That's the reason I write. I'll continue to post stuff for as long as I have stories to tell but if I'm completely honest: I wouldn't bother anymore if I didn't get comments. This is fandom, it's supposed to be a community with interaction.

[sassykattery]

Dissolution of the Fire, Pt. 8

Welcome to the final part of the prologue chapter, Dissolution of the Fire. Get the tissues out. Let's talk at the end.

CW: MC is afab, uses she/her pronouns. MC is human, is nonpoly. *Smut scene: f receiving fingering, penetration. Intense arguing, callback to Diavolo's Date, Part 5. Signs of depression.

Themes: relationships, intense argument, LuciferxMC

Characters: Diavolo, MC="you", Lucifer, Mephistopheles, all brothers implied or individually mentioned

Minors and ageless blogs DNI

18+ only

Masterlist

Enjoy~

And I'm sorry.

------

Several weeks went by, and things were blissful again. You were doing better, and everyone else noticed it too. Diavolo was happy to see you well, however, he noticed Lucifer was in better spirits too, so he wondered what had transpired between you both, but ultimately stayed out of it.

Things in the House were getting better too. The brothers all noticed the tension slowly dissipating with the progression of time while simultaneously receiving slightly lighter punishments. They wondered if you two were on good terms again, but no one wanted to be brave and actually ask.

-

"MC and Mephistopheles, you'll be paired together for this project," your professor said. You recoiled internally, knowing you definitely weren't Mephisto's favorite person, especially as a human.

You heard a huge sigh from his direction, so you already knew this would be, well, interesting. More like a challenge, really.

After class was over, you approached the purple haired demon, sitting next to him. "So, what do you want to do for this?" you asked politely. He simply said nothing and walked out of the room, leaving you alone.

That evening, you sent him a text saying you're open to any of his ideas for this project and want to make this as seamless as possible. That seemed to have opened a door for you, as he started listing some of the things he wanted to use. You jotted them down and started brainstorming. After an hour, you fell asleep at your table in your bedroom, and Lucifer walked in to talk with you, but realized you were asleep. When he approached, he saw your D.D.D. was still open, and he saw all the messages between you two. It frustrated him that Mephisto was keeping you awake so late, and it was suspicious.

The next day, after the same class as the one with Mephisto and the project you were working on, you approached him again and started talking about what you thought about last night.

Mephisto looked down at you, another demon who towered over you even when sitting. "Well, I suppose we could use your human perspective for the beginning, and then that could give our project an edge. What do you think?" he said quietly.

Mentally, you were rolling in your grave to see him work with you, but you didn't want to put him off, so you nodded, taking the seat next to him. "I think that would be smart. So, what if we did this..." you said as you drew on your notebook, showing him your ideas. He scooted in closer and used his own pen to make adjustments, adding his ideas too. At one point, his head was next to yours and he talked more quietly as you two worked together. You giggled, pointing out how silly your drawing now looked, and even Mephisto gave a light chuckle.

Imagine Lucifer's surprise when he sees the very demon who despises every fiber of his being is almost cuddled up to you, giggling with you. Mephisto whispered something in your ear, with a sly smile on his face, and you chuckled more.

"Are you two quite done?" Lucifer grumbled behind you and Mephisto. You turned to see Lucifer, arms crossed, eyes sending daggers to both of you.

"Oh, sorry, Lucifer, I guess I lost track of time. I'll text you later Mephisto," you said replied shyly. Lucifer escorted you to your next class, avidly trying to calm himself down. He placed a very passionate kiss on your lips before letting you go into the classroom, and he whispered,

"My little dove, I'll see you later," before turning to leave.

After your next class, it was lunch time, and Lucifer was right by the door as you left, to which you followed him wordlessly. You two wandered down the halls until there was one that was empty, and then he quickly snatched you by the waist, pulling you into a supply closet.

It was completely dark, to you at least, and you had to completely rely on your other senses.

*"My dove, I don't believe I can wait. I need you to indulge me," he murmured in front of you. While this was somewhat hot, you were worried about someone walking in on you two, so you hesitated. You saw the door briefly glow and then die down again. "No one will interrupt us," he said, answering your silent question.

"Take me," you whispered back.

Lucifer pushed you into a wall, placing fiery and needy kisses on your lips and neck. One of his hands shot down to reach between your legs, finding your core underneath your skirt. He massaged your lips over your panties, eliciting small moans from you. Quickly, he moved them aside and found your clit immediately, rubbing it just how he knew you liked it, earning more moans from you. Slipping a finger inside of you, he murmured to you,

"Do try and be a little quiet if you can, dove. Though I love hearing you, just not right now." You nodded and breathed through the pleasure. Feeling you getting slick, he removed his hand and slid your panties down around your ankles, helping you to step out of them. He pulled away from you and you heard the rustle of clothing and a zipper.

"I'm going to lift you up. Wrap your legs around me," he instructed. You nodded again and when you felt his hands on your ass, you grabbed a hold of his upper arms.

With little effort, he lifted you and you instantly wrapped your legs around his hips. Simultaneously pushing you into the wall again, his cock slid right into your entrance. Just the smallest gasp escaped your lips. Your face told Lucifer everything as he could see you perfectly fine, and you looked completely lost in rapture.

He gave you a couple of slow thrusts to let you adjust, and once you relaxed into him, he gave into his needs and pounded into you, hard and fast. Sweet but quiet whimpers left your lips as he drilled into your soaked cunt. He captured your lips again with his and let his tongue ravage your mouth, further telling you just how much he needed you. When he broke the kiss, he left you breathless, and your walls were clamping down on his cock already.

He then completely laid his body into yours, his mouth and chin rubbing into the side of your neck, scenting you. Your tiny moans and pants filled his ear, and he railed into you faster as his own release approached. You heard a low, quiet groan escape his mouth, vibrating into your neck, and his teeth grazed your soft skin. He gave a few final hard thrusts, sending you over the edge along with him, and you both shuddered together as the pleasure racked through your bodies.

Carefully, he peeled himself off of you and looked you over. He helped you settle back onto the ground, and putting you back together, not allowing a single hair to be out of place. Satisfied with your appearances, Lucifer released the hex on the door and you two quickly left to go to lunch.

He saw your D.D.D. light up next to him as you got your food, and he saw a text from Mephisto:

Mephistopheles: I liked some of your ideas and went ahead and implemented them into the project. I'd like to hear more of your ideas on some other things some time over lunch if you wouldn't mind.

Lucifer instantly stiffened. He knew he would be having a chat with you when you two got home.

-

"Lucifer! You cannot keep getting upset with me every time Mephistopheles talks to me! We are working on a project together and we have things to do," you said, exasperated at this point.

"I'd rather see you fail than see you work with that power-hungry, pompous, prick of a demon," Lucifer retorted.

"You don't mean that, you're just being jealous. You'd chastise me all the same if I failed anything!" you replied.

"If this is just a school project, then why is he texting you at eleven o'clock at night? Isn't that a tad late for a project?" he asked, changing the course of the argument.

"It's just a project, and if you want to snoop through my texts, fine, have at it. But I will not stand here and be berated by you any longer over something that's not even true," you ground out. You began to walk toward the office door when Lucifer shot up from his chair to you and grabbed your shoulders.

"Don't touch me!" you yelled as you whirled around, seething.

"MC, wait," he started to say.

"No, I will not play this game with you anymore. I'm done," you turned away and started walking. He grabbed at your hand and stood firm, like he dug his heels in, causing you to stop short.

"Lucifer," you warned, turning your head toward him.

"I will use the pact if you don't stop," you said in a seething whisper.

Lucifer finally let go.

The tears that threatened your eyes finally spilled, and you ran out of his office as quickly as possible. You ran by all the youngest brothers who heard you yelling at Lucifer, and they looked at each other with concern. Mammon started to get up and check on you, but Asmo blocked his path and shook his head. Asmo knew what had happened, and you needed time to be alone, to process your feelings.

-

You refused to leave your room after the previous night, or even unlock the door. None of the brothers had seen you in almost a whole day. You were grateful it was the weekend, so that no one would have to see you. Though, many of the brothers tried, knocking on your door, calling to you from the other side. They even started trying to text you, but you simply did not answer. You never even came out to eat, but you didn't even have an appetite, so it didn't matter to you.

Lucifer proceeded as normal; his pride demanded it. Mammon refused to speak to him, knowing what transpired. He was so angry with the eldest, it took everything he had to not start yelling at him every chance he got.

You saw the texts lighting up on your lock screen, reading them without opening the device, but you just couldn't reply. The tears wouldn't stop falling, and the aches in your body from sobbing all night made you so tired, you didn't want to move. Your chest also hurt, the pain of heartbreak feeling all too real.

This time, it felt more real – more permanent. With all the other fights, you still had hope. You still believed this could be fixed, that things could get better. This time, you didn't have that feeling. Retracing your steps led you nowhere, unable to find the path that brought you to this point, or pinpoint where exactly things went wrong. But that was because this wasn't your fault. You didn't do anything to deserve being treated like this.

Though you didn't know it, this was the result of a demon who hadn't been in a real relationship in centuries, and he didn't quite know how to act. Far too often, he let his demonic tendencies for possession and ownership get in the way when it came to you. It's not an excuse, because on other occasions, he most certainly didn't always act on his impulses, but it was a reason. Lucifer needed to understand you were a human who deserved agency, and you deserved someone who would give it to you.

Diavolo: Would you like to come to the castle? I'd like to have dinner with you again tonight.

You saw your phone light up, interrupting your thoughts. Looking at it, you thought about it, and realized maybe that would be better than being here. You opened it and replied.

MC: See you tonight.

Diavolo: Yay!

You somewhat smiled at his reaction, and then closed your device again to roll back over, wanting to sleep to numb the pain again.

Sometime later, you woke up again, and looked at the time. It was almost time for dinner at the castle, so slowly, you got up and got dressed. With copious amounts of makeup, you covered up the pain, the heartbreak on your face. Asmo would be proud, you looked amazing. You found one of your nicer dresses and put it on. When you looked in the mirror, you were a little stunned to see how pretty you felt considering the ugly turmoil churning in your soul.

After grabbing your purse with all your necessities, you left your room. The boys were just sitting down for dinner, and as you walked by the dining hall, they saw you.

"MC! Where are you going?" Satan call to you, head tilted. All of them looked at you curiously. The eldest crossed into your line of vision, but you kept your eyes trained on the fourth-born.

"I'm having dinner at the castle," is all you said, voice low and hoarse sounding. You slammed the door behind you and made your way there.

All of the six youngest brothers frowned and snapped their heads to look at Lucifer, to which he "tched" and left the room, suddenly losing his appetite.

-

"MC! Wow, did you get all dolled up for us?" Diavolo beamed, looking you up and down.

"Thanks, and yes I did," you replied. Normally, Barbatos welcomed you in at the door, but it was Diavolo who met you this time.

"Well, you look beautiful," Diavolo stated, which caused you to flush.

Dinner was lovely, and it actually contained a few of your favorite dishes, and you thanked both royals for doing so. They appreciated that you noticed. During the meal, Diavolo was subtly analyzing you. Your voice was rough, almost thin sounding. You lacked fullness and warmth. Though your makeup hid a lot, Diavolo could still tell your eyes were swollen, and your movements were slightly lethargic. When you laughed, it was a coarser laugh, as if you didn't really want to.

After dinner, Diavolo took you to the common room, and sat with you on the sofa. Not being able to take it anymore, Diavolo moved closer to you, to your surprise, and his voice dropped to a very soft rumble. His knees were angled toward yours, and he was almost shoulder-to-shoulder with you.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Diavolo asked.

Your gaze shifted away, indicating your answer. "You don't have to, then, but I am here for you," he stated. You nodded, but still gave no reply.

Without any word of warning, you simply just laid your head on his outer shoulder. Diavolo looked down at you, and you had your eyes closed. He wondered if this was another bid for comfort; it seemed so. And much more to his surprise, your hand found respite on his thigh. The Demon Lord was frozen in place, unwilling to move in case it would cause you to leave, because truthfully, he didn't want you to leave.

After all these dinners, afternoons playing chess and video games together, he found himself falling for you. He loved your smile, your sweet voice, how you looked up at him, how you treated him like anyone else. You were a friend to him first, and now he felt like he could open up to you for more. It saddened him to no end to see you torn up over anything, and he wanted to make it all go away for you, to make you smile again.

Yes, the Demon Lord, Diavolo, had managed to find himself completely enamored by MC, the human from his exchange program.

From the moment you arrived, he knew you were special, and now, his right-hand allowed himself to fall into the folly of jealousy and drive you straight into Diavolo's hands. Because now that the prince was infatuated with you, he would do anything within his power to keep you safe, keep you happy, and keep you for himself.

----

Thank you for reading <3

I hope you enjoyed the finale. The next chapter will be the final prologue chapter before we return to the present time. We will see how things play out for our trio following the developments we've read thus far.

Post made by sassykattery. Do not repost. Reblogs and comments appreciated.

Masterlist

Tags:

@delphi-dreamin @leavesandflowers @frozengoldie @itsmeninerz @obeymediasimp

[verfound]

I might be late to the party but If you're still taking WIP game questions I'd like to know about a couple! Winters: -I want One -Keep Your Mate Warm -Scratchpad - The Stairs House Band: -Papa's Ink -Harold the Glitter Cow -Maman's First Maman's Day

I was gonna add a couple other from the dingo files and the main folder but I didn't wanna be too greedy 🤣.

Ha ha, definitely not too late! Let's see what I got here...

So I am gonna start by saying any file/folder labeled "Scratchpad" is exactly that: scratchpads. I don't like to completely delete stuff, because I might find whatever was happening doesn't work there but might work somewhere else? Or there's a line/idea I liked but wasn't working out right at the time. So I have little Scratchpads with old drafts/nixed ideas. I was struggling with Luka's reaction in Some Scars Run Deep, so that's the majority of that scratchpad - a few versions of the latter half of that fic where things weren't coming together right.

"I Want One" is set around that last chapter of Winter's Fury and focuses on Juleka and Rose. Specifically, Rose meeting Clara and immediately going home and telling Juleka "I want one. Now." After WF wrapped up I had like three or four fluffy ideas that all got jotted down as "Owed Fluff", but then Princess Heartmaker took over and nothing beyond notes has come of them yet. 😂

Same thing with "The Stairs". In the last scene of WF, remember how Tom mentions what Luka thought was a closet was stairs/a second floor? And Luka was asking Marinette about it, but she was like "later I'm sleepy"? I wanted to go into a bit about how that was Marinette's next project once he finally started sleeping again: she is trying to move forward and look ahead to their future, and they both have said they still wanted more snakelets (even with everything that happened with Clara/Lila), but her cottage was only ever meant for a single person. So she made a second floor so they'd have room for their family to grow. It was becoming too much to include in WF, though, so I had it set aside as something to play with later.

"Keep Your Mate Warm" is actually "Keep Your Mate Warm (and Your Friend's Mate Warmer)". Quick found this prompt:

“Because, your house is freezing. What’s with the weird possessive thing around the thermostat? Let her be warm, for fuck’s sake. And, before you get weird. Yes, we were naked in bed. No, we weren’t doing anything sexual. We were watching cat videos. She wouldn’t cheat on you. I offered, but she said no.”

“Leave - before I kick you out of my house.”

“Gladly, it’s warmer out there.”

And made the comment how it would be a great Dingo prompt - specifically Winters Dingo, if I hadn't...y'know. So it starts with Marinette out by the river around the turn of season, when it's still cold enough to be an issue, and Perry runs into her, startles her, and she falls into the water. Hits her head or something so doesn't immediately come out, and she's freezing when he fishes her out - so he takes her back to his home, because it's closer, and sets about warming her up (getting her wet clothes off, shoving her under a million blankets, cuddling up in wolf form bc body heat). When she wakes up it's awkward but she gets it, only when they get her home and tell a half-awake Luka what happened he starts to overreact - until Perry gives him shit for that time Brielle went to check on him in the winter and found him asleep and half-dead outside his cave and did the same thing. Which was all done to get us some Winters Bri, really. 😂

Aaand for the HB fics...

...a common theme you will notice with a lot of HB prompts is "Quick sent me X and..." 😂 There's a reason we call them Dammit Quicks. 😂

"Harold the Glitter Cow" is from a video she found where this girl is grooming a cow, and the final step is adding a coat of glitter? Which got this idea in my head of this one older cow named Harold (it's not even a bull - it's a cow, and for some reason the kids named her Harold) that Mellie wants to make pretty, so she gets her with a glitter bomb. Which makes Luka go, "Ok, Mel, we're teaching you how to do this right." So it's all about Mellie learning how to properly groom a cow, and yes, there are ways to coat them in glitter, but don't use your maman's stash what were you thinking.

"Papa's Ink" is Bloody's fault. 😂 She found this BNHA picture of Aizawa grading papers while Eiri colored in tattoos on his arm, and it Sparked Things. Luka, before his sleeve was complete, working on something when he feels something tickling his arm. Looks down and Mellie's there, coloring in his sleeve with her markers. It's keeping her calm/occupied and is cute as hell, so he doesn't say anything. And it keeps working, so maybe he gets a few outline tattoos specifically for that purpose? He takes pictures of the colored ones before he washes them off to save (maybe hangs 'em on the fridge like a Dad or saves 'em to use as Embarrassing Baby Photos when the kids start dating).

"Maman's First Maman's Day" is another DQ. She found this vid of a daddy taking his toddler to Target to pick out Mother's Day gifts, and one of the things the girl grabbed was a sexy nighty bc "it was pretty". So it's set when Harm's still little, like the Mother's Day before Mellie comes along, and Luka takes her out to get Marinette something for Mother's Day. And it's mostly safe, until Harm finds a black underwear set or something that she thinks is pretty/likes the feel of, and Luka's like "No no no Maman won't like that" - so Harm grabs for a pink one, because of course Maman will love that one. 😂 It's mostly just daddy/daughter fluff, but Luka totally sneaks the underwear in as his gift.

(If you want more feel free - going through these helps me remember which ones I need to get cleared out. 😂 Some of them can be short/quick and just get buried under Other Projects, so yeah totally help me get a checklist going! 😂)

[industrialisland]

writing process

Tagged by @red-sky-in-mourning

do you write in order?

man I wish. I usually start in order, at least. I write until I hit a block and then skip to a part that I feel more excited about, whatever it takes to keep myself writing. I’ve gotten up in the middle of the night to jot down some random collection of sentences that I might use later. Tying those scenes together later is definitely something I struggle with. This is why I don’t post fic til I’ve got it completed.

The nice thing about co-writing Home Sweet Home with my sister is that I’m forced to write with some structure- no skipping ahead, because what she writes is based off what I write, and vice-versa, and I have to be timely about it because she’s waiting on me. Being given an open-ended prompt is really helpful. Writing on my own gives me too many options and maybe too much leeway as far as getting it done timely.

how fully formed does your writing come out the first try?

Fairly. I’m a big reader and I’ve always had a good grasp on writing, and I edit as I go. And I like to re-read my work so I catch little errors and things that don’t make sense. My beta reader complains she has nothing to do, lol. I’d like to be good at outlines but I’m just not.

how many drafts do you go through?

I don’t write in drafts. Occasionally if a scene isn’t working/is too long/is sort of what I’m looking for but not quite, I’ll rewrite it, but I don’t rewrite the entire story. For example, in my original first draft of everything broken, Stede punches Ed in the face immediately upon arriving back on the Revenge. Changing that to a kiss meant a lot of softening of their interactions. There was a much longer interlude of Stede’s thought process in getting back to Ed that just wasn’t flowing, so I had to rewrite to keep the important bits and make everything more succinct. I also did some POV switching- originally the entire fic was from Ed’s POV, but making it switch back between both of their POVs rounded it out so much better.

tell me about your process.

I clear out time to write and I use Write or Die to set myself a word goal. Some days it’s just barely scraping by, other days I don’t even notice that the timer has stopped, the key is to make it a habit. I use Spotify to find some chill/focus music, no TV, especially not the source material because that gives me the creeps, like I’m perverting it somehow, lol. I have to be really excited about an idea to write, though, I always have this weird lingering embarrassment about starting a new fic for no real reason!

It takes me a long time, though. I’m in awe of the people who can write a novel length fic in less than a month. Both of my fics took me ~3 months each.

[sillylildude]

Re-reading my fanfics tonight for the first time in a while and it feels like I’m reading a love letter to myself. They’re not perfect, I’m editing a few little mistakes I catch here and there, but man it is such a good feeling to read a sentence and think “wow, that’s really good. I MADE that.” It’s so neat to notice all the common phrases and words and structures I keep coming back to across each work. It’s fun to laugh at my own jokes, to smile at my own romantic scenes, to feel my heart rate go up as I read my own action scenes. It’s just really rewarding to sit back and enjoy these stories that I made for myself.

I was so damn embarrassed when I started jotting down my BOTW-inspired daydreams last year. I told myself it was a silly, one-time thing, that I wasn’t going to try hard to make the story good, that I’d never tell anyone I was writing it, and that I DEFINITELY wouldn’t share the finished product anywhere. A year and three posted fics later, I’m proud of what I’ve produced. I still don’t really consider myself a good writer, and as of writing this I genuinely have no idea what I’m going to write next, but I have had so much fun trying this new activity and sharing it with strangers on the internet. This has been a really fulfilling hobby for me, and I’m really thankful I took the plunge and tried it out.

Idk why I’m writing all this. But I do want to say to my like, 10 real followers and 78 spam porn bots, if you read anything I’ve written or encouraged me in this endeavor in any way, I really appreciate you. I think I’m gonna keep writing. Again, not sure what I’ll write about next, but I do want to keep this going. So, thanks for reading, if you did. This post or the fics. Thank you.

[geltears]

movie nights

Ran Haitani x Reader

Ran thinks you and Rindou talk too much

cw: disturbing themes ? (talk of superstition etc.) Last night, Ran asked you to watch a scary movie with him. Rindou had recommended the movie because he thought you would like it but barely 15 minutes into the film, Ran realized that you actually had no prior interest in any of the topics showing yet when he glanced at you, you were staring intently at the tv, not even acknowledging his fingers that were rubbing circles on your bare thigh. He realized that what Rindou had meant wasn't that you liked anything in the film but that the film would make you like them because the moment the hour and however many minutes had passed, you could not (for the life of you) stop talking about every intricate detail of what happened. Ran, for the record, did not pay attention to the movie at all but it's obvious that you payed close attention. So much that he thinks you might have taken notes but he later learns that you waited til it was over to start jotting down notable scenes in your notebook. He wishes, though he doesn't dare say it, that you could pay mind to something besides the show for at least a few minutes but he doesn't stop you from rambling because who is he to tell you not to speak? Besides, he likes hearing your voice and maybe, he'll learn a thing or two from your talking. Even now with a strawberry tart tucked into your cheek, you are still rambling about something to do with bad omens and the signs in the beginning of the movie. And though he has no idea what you're going on about because he payed (absolutely) no attention to the show, Rindou is nodding and adding in to your observations so he assumes that it's something smart and it's right but it's too much for him to grasp. "Babe, slow down or you'll choke," he says, his only input to the conversation since you both sat at the table, for the matter. You murmur an ok, ok and your hand that's hidden under his larger one squeezes ever so slightly. You go back to your incessant talking, (ironically) your pace a little faster than before and Ran is now sure that you will definitely bite your tongue. And then you'll look at him with your glossy eyes as you rub your cheek because you simply cannot handle pain and he'll only shake his head because he told you so. But he won't say it aloud. Never, ever will he taunt you about it. A bird, specifically a black crow, swoops over your heads and for the first time in about an hour, there is silence and Ran has to blink for a moment because it is just too quiet to be true. When he looks over at you, you and Rindou have both turned your heads to watch the crow soar, your eyes tracing its movements. The crow flies straight into the window of a building about 2 lots over. It falls and once the body is gone, there is a trail of red on the once shinning glass. Pure amazement flickers over your face and then when you turn to Rindou who Ran now realizes has a shit-eating grin on his face, he thinks the two of you are very weird and this cannot possibly be normal. "You know what they say about dead crows," the younger brother says, his voice unusually calm for someone who has just seen a bird kill itself. Though, Ran figures, it's not an usual occurrence. Birds cannot tell it's glass so he guesses it's just an unfortunate way of nature after all. But the way you and Rindou are practically overflowing with interest, suggests that it apparently means something more to you two— something that Ran just needs to know. "What do they say about dead crows? Hm?" Ran decides to ask because the unknowing air is going to drive him insane. You smile so hard that you think your cheeks are going to burst but it doesn't matter because you're just so happy that he actually wants to know. And maybe, just maybe, if you explain it well enough, you and Rindou might have a new partner to talk about the movie with, of course you'd have to make him actually watch the movie first. "It's bad luck," Rindou says, "You'd know if you watched the movie." There is a hint of sarcasm in the younger brother's voice and while Ran found nothing funny, you

giggle softly at the supposed inside joke and Ran feels something churn in his chest. Whose side are you on and why is this an argument in the first place? He begins to wish that he had payed just slightest bit of attention to the show, maybe then he wouldn't feel so left out-- or perhaps he's just annoyed. "It was just a bit...boring, y'know?" he says lazily. He misses the way you and his brother exchange glances of hurt and shock but he does catch your soft sigh, then when your hand slips from his— he misses the warmth of your skin. His hand reaches out to grasp yours before you prop it under your chin and in the process he just so happens to knock over the salt shaker, which leaves both you and Rindou wide-eyed. You glance at him and he thinks there was a hint of sympathy in your eyes, sympathy for what (?) he is unsure of but he's sure that you'll tell him soon. You're practically itching in your seat and he realizes you can barely hold your tongue when it comes to the topic. "Oh. That's 7 years bad luck," you tell him as you lean over to scoop the salt up. Ran does not understand why it's bad luck or even the simple context of these 'bad omens' that you and Rindou cannot seem to stop talking about but he does understand that you take it quite seriously, even though you're somewhat humoring him about it. He only sighs and rubs his temple because the two of you just don't make sense and it's all just nonsense. Right? Luckily, the waiter returns with his tea that he now realizes he ordered a long time ago and he should probably be complaining about customer service but he really can't bother to right now because he just needs a break from you and his brother. His eyes don't open til he feels a burning pain on his thigh and only then does he realize that the waiter dropped the cup and there is scolding hot tea on his leg and you are panicking but why is he now realizing this? Rindou, however, is very calm and Ran thinks about what you said before. 7 years bad luck, are you serious? He thinks you just might be, from the way his brother seems to have expected it or maybe he just payed the lady to do that. But he wouldn't stoop so low, would he? Ran doesn't know so he decides, at the expense of his thousand dollar watch that is now soaked through with British tea, that he will take your bad omens seriously. And so he shoos the waiter away, letting you do your thing to take care of him as usual before he finally asks you to explain, again, what the omens mean and he swears that this time, he'll actually listen.

[leoneliterary]

hi! was wondering how you plan and outline your if games? i don't know where to start but i do want to plan before i actually start coding yk :/

Hey! I definitely started planning before I hopped into coding so I definitely feel you!

How about I break down part of my planning process by giving some examples from one of my work in progress google docs?

Before we get into it, I would also like to throw out there that as you get started you'll find a process that works for you, so don't feel beholden to doing things the way I do!

Beginning

I start out with these main categories:

Premise- This may not always come first, but I try to get it visualized and sorted before I get too far into anything else. I usually jot down a mangle of ideas and then whittle it down into a sentence that makes sense.

Setting- This one can be added to as you go, but I find it helpful to understand where your story and characters are because it shapes who they are.

Characters- These sometimes pop up before any plot or setting. Jot them down, whether it's just a vibe or a detailed character outline. You might not end up using them for your project or they may change later on, but capturing them on the page now, means that you can move them later.

Premise

Now let's focus a little bit more on premise. I'll include an example from Honor Amongst Thieves and compare it to the premise of another WIP.

Here is my first paired down premise for Honor Amongst Thieves:

It's hella vague, it's more of a description of the inciting action than a summary of the plot, but it's all I needed at the time to remind me of what would be happening. Corruption, orphans, thieves, guilds, thieves guilds, etc. My current game description might be better than this brief premise, but it does the job for me.

Now here is a more detailed initial premise for another WIP, Aim of Eros:

The Premise

You are the child of Eros and Psyche. You fulfill your duties with skill and dedication, but soon you are drawn into the conflict between Zeus and Hera, as well as the quarrels of mortals. This leaves you with a target that might be harder to hit. What kind of olympian will you be?

This one has a bit more meat on it because I needed to write down more to serve as a reminder of the plot. With Honor Amongst Thieves, I thought about the story long enough that a vague premise was enough, but Aim of Eros had to be zeroed in a lot more from an abstract idea.

Remember that any idea can be organized later on, so write it down even if it doesn't fit anywhere yet.

Adding More

Once I have a base for my story, I'll start adding to it. I like creating these additional sections as headings, so that they show up on the side bar.

Honor Amongst Thieves has a good amount of sections:

I redacted a section (no peeking), but this helps me organize the way I'm breaking down the story.

I like to create the Scene Ideas section early, that way any random scene idea has a home!

Timeline is also important because it helps you manage pacing and also put those scenes in order.

Now let's compare this to the sections for Aim of Eros:

It's very early in the planning process, so it's a lot shorter, but this is ultimately the core of everything. Who,What, Where, When and Why can tell you a lot.

Stats

You'll notice that there aren't any stats for Aim of Eros yet because I need to know the story, the motivations, and events that might happen in order to start putting in stats.

For Honor Amongst Thieves, I knew there would need to be an honor stat and a thievery stat, but for Aim of Eros, it wasn't as clear cut.

Do I need a wrath stat? Marksmanship stat? Do I care more about interaction based stats or skill checks? These are important to ask yourself and really make managing a stat page easier! I'm not that into pass/fail skill checks. I think failing successfully, or just not being suited for the situation and having to think your way out of it is fun, so my stat page reflect that.

Summary

Whew, sorry for such a long post, but I hope you found something in it that could be helpful! Let me know if you'd like to know more. All in all, the take away is:

Establish a premise or the story you want to tell

Write down every idea or character that pops into your head

Section things off as you see fit and add more categories as you go to keep from getting overwhelmed

Ask what you want your story to focus on and what stats you need to accomplish it

Above all, don't worry about having to make changes!

[scripturiends]

anchor up to me, love

Read on ao3

Summary: Prosecutor Jin forces an unexpected confession out of Joonhwi during Yeseul's trial.

Rating: T

Word count: 1226

Notes: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve received the same request over the course of two weeks. It seems like a lot of people really want a proper courtroom confession scene, so this is my best interpretation of it right now. I say ‘right now’ because ideally, I’d set aside a schedule to write this well, but given the inevitable time constraints in my life thanks to uni, I feel inclined to tell you all that as soon as I woke up, I wrote this on my Notes app in bed for one hour because that was all the free time I had. The idea came to me in a dream, so it just felt right to jot it all down at that very moment.

As usual, this fic is unedited so all mistakes are mine. Hope you enjoy!

~

"Who is it?" the prosecutor urged.

Han Joonhwi knows that Jin Hyeong-u would never let him off the hook if he didn't answer. That if the man on the opposing side of the courtroom didn't ask now, he'd just ask again later. So as much as he hated it, he’s stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Prosecutor Jin is cunning, Joonhwi will give him that. And after all that the law student has done to rile up this supposed well-meaning law enforcer in the past, it was pretty much inevitable. The man has him right where he wants him.

Joonhwi swallowed his pride. One deep breath, and then, "Kang Sol."

From the audience, he could see his long-haired brunette friend perk up, stealing a very long and very obvious glance at their black-haired classmate with the bob.

Of course she thinks it's B, Joonhwi thought. Always the selfless Kang Sol A. He made a mental note to make fun of her for it later, but not until —

"Which one?"

The dreaded follow-up question.

"There are two Kang Sols in your study group," the prosecutor started. "Yes or no?"

Joonhwi resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Yes."

"So which one is it? A or B?"

Prosecutor Jin's eyes were unyielding on Joonhwi's, so he knew this was a challenge. If he were doing this on his own, he'd be quick to respond. But after that mishap with Seungjae, he's learnt his lesson: never run your mouth mindlessly. That's how Prosecutor Jin gets you. That's how he wins.

Breaking eye contact first, Joonhwi looks towards the platform. "Judge, I don't see how this is relevant."

And before they could even say a word, Jin was already quick to retaliate. "When the defendant was hospitalized, you called on a friend to assist you with obtaining photographic evidence to prove that Ms. Jeon wasn't trying to flee. That friend was Kang Sol – A, was it?"

Turning to the jury, he continued, "Depending on his answer, we might have to call on Ms. Kang to the stand to verify her relationship with Mr. Han, and depending on her answer, she could either be acquitted, or be a secondary accomplice for attempted murder."

The jurors nod while Jin wraps up his explanation. “But if it were Kang Sol B... that might be enough to clear the suspicion."

Joonhwi mentally cursed. He was running out of cards to play, and Prosecutor Jin's little nod towards his direction, mouth smeared with a bragging smirk, was not helping.

The judge pulled his mic close to him. "Witness, please answer."

Think carefully, Han Joonhwi.

He could feel the entire audience's eyes on him — which usually doesn't scare him, but right now he feels boxed in. Cornered. The smallest he has ever felt, and not because it was his own life on the line, but because he fears dragging the person he loves into this mess.

It's funny how a simple letter can make or break this case. A or B. Fact or fiction, true or false. Love or not.

If he told the truth, he'd be setting himself up for failure. But if he lied, he'd be committing perjury.

Prosecutor Jin is good. He's managed to slip into the cracks of Joonhwi's personal life and possibly ruin any chances he has at a lovelife. Needless to say, as a 28-year-old man who is still single to this day, his self-esteem has taken a hit.

But there's no way Joonhwi is letting that happen. This is a trust fall exercise between him and the person he cares for. If she cared for him back, even just a little bit, he'd have nothing to worry about. He could just protect her the moment he gets called in again.

Now is not the time to falter. If she feels the same, he'll know when she testifies.

On the plus side, her parent is here so it's like killing two birds with one stone.

Joonhwi straightens his back, and with a wave of confidence he leans into the mic, finally answering, "I'm in love with Kang Sol A, your honor."

—

Joonhwi sat at the very back of the courtroom, ridden with anxiety.

With Sol A being called in as a witness last minute, he couldn't catch her at the right moment to apologize for what he did. For publicizing a confession, for making her go to the stand a second time, for everything.

This must be the end of our friendship, seems to be the only thought in his mind. And that's the thought that scares him the most. Not going to jail, but the thought of possibly losing Sol A in the process.

He watches her take her oath, demeanor blank unlike the first time she was there. Joonhwi's fear was taking over — was she annoyed? Was she mad? He couldn't tell. Her face normally said it all, but right now he can't read her whatsoever.

All of Prosecutor Jin's questions flew over his head, especially the ones about the night of Ko Yeongchang's accident. All, except for one.

"Han Joonhwi's feelings for you..." Prosecutor Jin trailed off. “Do you reciprocate?”

Sol A scoffs. "You tell me, big shot. You're the one who forced a confession out of him and made me go up here."

Joonhwi's lips twitched into a small smile. She's defending him.

"Just answer yes or n—"

"I wanted to protect Yeseul so badly,” she began, "that when she fainted, I was dead set on following her to the hospital no matter what. But when Joonhwi said I shouldn't, I didn't even question it. I trust him that much."

Silence enveloped the courtroom, but Sol A didn't even pause one bit. "Don't misinterpret my actions. I care about Yeseul, but I care about Joonhwi more."

And Joonhwi knew that wasn't true, that Sol A definitely loves Yeseul more, but that was enough to solidify their narrative to the jurors.

—

Despite the empty seats in front, Joonhwi spotted Sol A walking towards him with her head down. She didn't even look him in the eye as she sat next to him, their shoulders barely touching until she cleared her throat and inched closer.

Joonhwi did a double-take when he saw that her ears and her cheeks were red, but he chose to ignore it for now.

"Sorry for making you lie on the stand," Joonhwi apologizes.

Fiddling with her nails, she mumbles, "I wasn't lying."

Then, she added, "Unless you were."

He scoffs half-heartedly. Until now she's still doubting his sincerity. "I would never commit perjury. Not when I'm still trying to impress you."

Sol A scoffs in return, covering her face in her right hand, embarrassed. Like she couldn't believe this was happening. She lightly bumped his shoulder with her own. "I'm impressed."

Joonhwi may not have completely overturned the case in Yeseul's favor yet, but he was extremely lucky to have at least outsmarted Prosecutor Jin in the process. More than that, he was lucky to have the quick-witted girl right next to him. To have not just her trust, but also her heart was enough luck for more than a lifetime.

Joonhwi was right.

This was a trust fall exercise, but instead of him catching Sol A, turns out he was the one who fell instead.

Thank God she caught him.

~

Send me your thoughts here!

[bagadew]

The Great Ace Attorney Playthrough: The Adventure of the Runaway Room (Part 1b)

Last time: We (and by we I mean Ryunosuke and Susato) arrived in England, and were almost immediately sent to play lawyer by Daemon Gant’s ancestor, who is definitely going to either die or kill someone later. Despite our client being only the richest of able bodied white men, we quickly found ourselves on the ropes thanks to the worlds least impartial jury. Fortunately we now get to put the buggers on the spot and demand they give us their reasons for convicting my client (and boy had they better be good).

Ryunosuke, the more we learn about that man the more of a cad he becomes. I say we should be very thankful we aren’t doing that.

Let me get this straight, instead of smashing their half baked ideas to smithereens and laughing as I go, I have to use the worlds weakest bricks to build my argument.

Susato, one of them knows one of the witnesses.

Oh, so that’s what we’re doing.

Ok, Ryunosuke, lets get shit stirring!

Well firstly, either the drunk juror’s wrong or Beppo’s overcharging people, so jot that down.

Ooh, we’re pacing!

(Also, I’d like to thank Juror No.4 for backing me up, ma’am you are the only member of this group bothering to make even the slightest bit of effort. For this I thank you.)

Of course! Thank you for putting two and two together like that for me!

(Wait a second, I’ve just realized that we’ve got the KBS slung on our hip! That’s amazing!)

And this lady’s and gentleman, is why we don’t let people who know those involved stand on the Jury.

GET HIS ASS JUROR NO.4!

(You are my favourite juror, you can tell the others if you’d like.)

Excellent work Ryunosuke!

Have you not even been listening?

(Susato is explaining the last ten minutes to him because she has more patience than I ever will.)

>:D

And Juror No.2’s crossed over to our side as well!

>:D

And she’s doing it for much better reasons than Juror No.5!

Juror No.2 you’re winning me back!

Just two more jurors to convince now, so let’s go on to the discrepancy about how the victim was stabbed, and maybe point out that the body was left in the seat it was stabbed it.

Old Lady vs Jack the Ripper, here we go!

(Ten guineas on the granny!)

Haha! His knife got stuck in the table!

(I put it again that this man should have that knife taken away from him.)

Yes judge, and if we’d been allowed to go through the whole trial before the jurors jumped the gun, you’d have known that already.

Yay! We’ve won Granny Thickle back!

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE JURY IS SUPPOSED TO DO YOU NINCOMPOOP?!?

And he’s being really racist now.

Fortunately he’s also rubbing the rest of the jury up the wrong way!

Well I consider this to have been a success Ryunosuke.

Well given that the body was found on the seat and there was no blood on the floor... I’m going to say no.

He wants evidence.

Ok then.

As a wise man with a cool sword once said: I will shove it down your throat and make you choke on it.

(Yeah, we should really have seen Kazuma’s moral dubiousness coming...)

Anyways, let’s show him the crime scene photo then.

WRONG???

Of course! The autopsy report shows he was only stabbed once!!!

Meaning that there was only one incident where the witness was stabbed!

VICTORY VICTORY VICTORY!!!

YEAH!!!

Yes, kill each other!

My Lord, Juror No.3 has started licking his knife and threatening the witnesses now...

I’m a little bummed we didn’t get to convince Juror No.4 seeing as she’s the one putting in the hours up there, but never mind. We’re back on track baby!

HE CRUSHED IT!

Oh my god Ryunosuke, we’ve got a prosecution shut up button!

HE THREW OF HIS DRACULA CLOAK!

Oh please, we all know perjury doesn’t exist in this here!

Oho, so apparently Beppo’s been overcharging his customers. Given the conditions he’s been working in I can’t exactly blame him though.

Unfortunately that does kind of rule out the possibility of an extra passenger though, so I’m not sure it helped us much.

Damn right I do!

‘Absolutely’ Ryunosuke and I share one mind.

Now let’s see if we can clear up that whole ‘I saw the victim stabbed on the floor’ bs.

You know, I’m rapidly warming to Mr Furst. Unlike the other witnesses and the god damn jury, he’s not telling lies, or overinflated by his own self importance. He’s actually taking it seriously and doing his best to be as clear and close to factual as he can.

I mean he could well be the killer for all I know, but right now I’m just enjoying him as a nice gentle guy who’s trying his best. It’s refreshing.

Barok’s trying to point out that we still have one witness who saw the stabbing, to which I say: Yeah, a witness with a reason to lie!

Still, Beppo’s the one I should probably be focusing on here, as he’s saying he saw the victim stabbed in places he couldn’t have been.

Well that was easy.

Mr Fairplay on the other hand is going absolutely ham on his cane.

What’s the matter Mr Fairplay?

Got something to say?

Again Mr Fairplay, being a banker in an Ace Attorney Game is not the commending statement you think it is.

Anyways new statement time!

And what’s this I see? Both his hands were covered in blood? That looks like a new contradiction to me!

You know he’s weirdly insistent about this, and I can’t work out why?

Like, regardless of whether or not he committed the murder, he’s clearly hoping that Mr McGilded’s going to be taken out of the picture as a result.

But if he wants that to happen then this is such a weird thing to lie about. It doesn’t add in any way to Mr McGilded’s ‘guilt’, in fact thanks to his gloves it kind of does the opposite.

But if he’s not lying then he has to be mistaken and I don’t understand what that would mean either.

Wow, Juror No.6 is ready to throw down!

(Juror No.3’s going off as well, but I don’t think that’s anything to write home about.)

NOT IN THE WAY HE REPEATEDLY SAID IT WAS!

I’m no longer so sure. After all, if he was it would be far more in his interest to keep quiet about it or say he was mistaken as soon as we bought the gloves out.

What I’m beginning to wonder though, is if there was a mysterious fifth passenger after all, and their hands were the ones Mr Fairplay saw covered in blood.

Come to think of it, he did say that he didn’t see the victim or killers faces, so that’s a good chance, and one that actually gives some hint as to what our suspect looks like: i.e. small.

Debt time.

IT’S A HUGE DEBT!!!

Good to get proper conformation on that theory then.

ORDAAR!

(If you don’t know about the House of Commons cry of Order you should look it up on YouTube. It’s basically the one good thing to have come out of that place.)

So he did lie about seeing the moment the victim was stabbed then. I guess that leave more room for the idea that the fifth passenger did it.

Actually, come to think of it did Mr McGilded ever tell us where he went to sit in the carriage? Could he have been on the open side, the one Mr Fairplay and Mr Furst couldn’t see from where they were?

Huh, he’s still doubling down.

Again I really don’t think he’s lying here, but I do think he’s mistaken about who’s hands he could see.

Also given how much this statement relies on him being a witness I should probably rule him out of my enquires.

I’m rapidly going back over my notes to see if I ever accused him, but let’s be honest here I did. The False Accusations counter is up to a nice healthy 5/5.

Of course Mr Furst, you’re an angle and we’re all thrilled you’re here.

Ok, well now any doubts I had that Mr Fairplay was telling the truth have been put to rest, thank you Mr Furst. You, me and Susato should form our own breakaway courtroom, Juror No.4 can come if she likes.

Anyway time for more testimony.

Certainly looks that way doesn’t it My Lord?

Now Barok want’s to examine the Omnibus again.

You know what, sure Barok, knock yourself out.

Barok, keep up. It literally a huge contradiction sitting right there.

YES IT MATTERS!!!

Well thanks to Mr Furst, the one good witness, we know that the real killer wasn’t wearing any gloves. Again Mr Furst I thank you.

Wait a second, there was a space under the seat opposite the victim wasn’t there. I know it was full of stuff but was there any room for someone to fit themselves?

Barok’s telling me that there was no trace of blood on Mr McGilded’s actual hands. I’m glad you’ve finally caught up Barok but stop talking now so I can examine the omnibus again.

Yes! A space!

And whoever it was who could fit inside there definitely fits the category of small!

And right on cue it’s time to bring their blind spot to light.

Now, I need to work out if they want to know about the space under the seats or if they just want the seats themselves, because from where Mr Furst and Mr Fairplay were sitting they couldn’t see either.

Fuck it, I’ll just put my cursor half way between the two and hopefully it’ll except whichever one it wants.

Haha, yes... exactly what I was going to say...

MY EVIDENCE IS THE FUCKING BLOODIED GLOVES!!!

Anyways, given that the killer was by all accounts sitting next to the victim with no gloves and bloodied hands, the only person who could have been in the concealed seat was Mr McGilded. Again, did anyone actually bother to check which seat he sat in?

Well done Judge. Still as sharp as ever I see.

Wow, that one hit the light!

Barok, that’s alcohol. If you start a fire in here I’m not going to put you out.

Oh he’s being racist again.

Racist stuff Ryunosuke.

Ok, well let me brake this down into words that a stuck up prick like you would understand. The witnesses never saw the attackers face, but they did see his hands and all agree that they were covered in blood. My clients hands were not covered in blood, and therefor he doesn’t fit the one thing we know about the killer. However we know he was on the omnibus, and the only place he could have been is in the seat that can’t be seen.

... you guys, I think this man might be the OG “protégé” prosecutor. Hugh O’Connor and Sebastian Debeste were simply trending in this mans footsteps.

I’m not really sure how much clearer you want me to be My Lord!

(Also ORDAAAAR!)

Van Zieks is still crawling blindly towards the light, and I suggest we just move on without him.

I know (or at least I hope) he’s just deliberately putting up barriers as the prosecution, but the way he’s doing it really looks like he’s packing his intelligence onto a bus and sending it out to destinations unknown.

(Credit to Ryunosuke for spelling it out for him though.)

Thank you Mr Furst, I knew you’d have my back.

THEN LET’S BRING HIM INTO COURT!!!

(ORDAAARR!!!)

Yeah on what grounds?

I mean this is literally the solution to all our problems.

Yeah, well he probably lied (though I can’t work out why).

Excellent point Ryunosuke!

Now Van Zieks is pointing out that if Mr McGilded lied in his statement there would have been a deliberate reason for doing so. To be honest, as the prosecution, this seems like all the more reason to bring him in.

Anyway we’re demanding his testimony.

WHY THE HELL ARE WE ASKING THEM?!?

Well luckily for us the jury seems to finally be getting its arse in gear and has agreed (fairly unanimously) to let the god damn defendant make a statement in his own murder trial.

Nothing to say here. This just feels like a meme.

HAHA!!! THERE WAS SOMEONE!!!

EAT MY SHIT BAROK!!!

Wait an urchin?

Ace Attorney, I’ve already had a ‘don’t feel good’ case regarding who I’m accusing, don’t make me do that again.

STOP MAKING ME ACCUSE POOR AND FRIGHTENED CHILDREN!

Yeah, they probably would have done, and unlike you I don’t think she’d have been able to pull the ‘I donated a park to this city you know’ trick to win hearts and minds.

I wonder if she was there as a passenger or as a stowaway? Because I’d say that gap under the seat could fit a child pretty easily.

Now Barok’s saying we have no reason to believe Mr McGilded. And he’s right except for, you know, all the evidence...

Wait what.

A smoke bomb just went off!

I really don’t like the face Mr McGilded pulled just then, and he definitely gave a signal for it to be dropped.

...Ah fuck, he’s guilty isn’t he.

And he’s using some kid to cover it up.

Well shit...

[creativecollaborationsupdates]

Week 8, let’s start to create!!

Hi guys, welcome to my blog CreativeCollaborationsUpdates, I’m super excited to bring you guys along for this creative, short film making process and hopefully we can produce a piece of art that has a little piece of everyone in it!

First, I’d like you to meet the team and get to know our roles a little better – this is something we were proud to discuss and delegate within our group, as we want to create an environment in which allows everybody to creativity express themselves.

As I like to call it, the art of filmmaking collaboration.

Down below I am going to list all our roles within the group and then a little later, how this week, we discussed what each role could be responsible for in early stages of idea creation and production timelines.

Roles:

Taylah (me) – Producer and Cinematographer.

Alyssa – Art Director.

Astrid – Editor.

Kendall – Script Writer.

Lochie – Sound Designer.

As you will come to find out, each team member holds a significant role in the creation of our film making process, let’s get into it!!

In class, Kendall suggested the idea of a Wedding Murder Mystery Film, where the wedding party is secluded on an island and has to try and figure out who the murderer is. We all enjoyed the concept as great idea and starting point, however, we agreed it may be difficult to accurately display the “secluded island” element.

As producer, in charge of locations and transport, I suggested setting the film near King Edward Park rotunda, with the murder scene taking place in the field of roses. Whilst it is only early days, we all agreed this would allow production to remain relatively close between scenes, aligning with the secluded element. Kendall jotted down the ideas for scriptwriting development.

Upon ‘mind mapping’, we came up with adding a satirical, comedic touch, as you see in movies and shows such as the ‘Scream Franchise’, where whilst it is a horror film, they purposefully overexaggerate the stereotypical, cliché horror lines.

As creatives, through attempting to cross the genres of horror and comedy, the typical Australian bogan lifestyle stood out to us– a small town such as Newcastle, where a murder happens, yet for some reason, is not taken seriously and it’s just “a mate messing around”.

I suggested op shop, tacky wedding costumes, Alyssa, our art director agreeing this would be perfect for costuming and highly accessible.  Lochie, in charge of sound design, approved that he would be able to add in sound effects. For example, the cans trailing behind the car reading “just married”.

Whilst It is still definitely early days, with the group already running into hindrances, such as our valuable team member, Astrid, being away and Claire suggesting we take careful consideration with crossing genres, as it is a process that needs to be done correctly.

This is a matter in which we will discuss and problem solve with next week, should we go through with this idea?

Hopefully next week we can continue to flesh out ideas and logistics, such as confirmation of director, location, and the associated risk assessment, and specific’s such as our art director, Alyssa, potentially developing storyboards to bring out visuals to life!!

Remember to stay creative, see you next week!!

Taylah Gray

C3399124

Tutorial Class- Tuesday 11-1pm, Claire Pasvolsky.

[weaverofthreads]

On the process of writing a novel...

Ok, so this began as a DM to a very dear friend who had said they were super excited to work on a novel of theirs that they'd abandoned for years, but they felt a bit lost when looking at the project again. They had "too many characters, too many intrigues" and they didn't "know how to create order" for all their ideas. They didn't know "what to keep, what to remove, what to change" and wanted to know if I had any tips.  

I began to reply in messages and then realised I needed to make a whole post out of it, so here it is! All 3k words of it. This is for you, darling! I hope it helps.

Things I found extremely helpful when planning my novel for NaNoWriMo this year, after also taking some time off from it.  

Most of this comes from Alicia Lidwina’s Four-Part article on her NaNoWriMo prep process, and setting up a writer’s notebook, for 2018. You can find the link to the first part here and I highly recommend you check out the whole series of articles for a more in-depth read. 

Content of this ‘essay’: 

Preparation, Groundwork, and Materials

Project 'Stats' & Overview  

Mood, Moodboards, and Key Imagery

Things to Consider, and Important Bullet Points

Get to Know Your Characters  

Chronological Order

Tangential and Preceding Events

Basic Premise, Plot Definition, Sub Plot Ideas  

List of Locations

Scenes

Chapter Outline

NaNo Plan

Additional Notes and Tips for Writing

Ok. Let's begin.  

First of all, I'm not saying that this is the only way to write or organise a novel. It can be tackled in as many ways as there are writers in the universe. This is just the method I used to get my ideas crystallised and organised. 

Preparation, Groundwork, and Materials.  

Take your preparation seriously. I bought a cheap but still nice A4 sketchbook with blank paper for maybe £2 at the local hobby store, and used it solely for the purposes of being my Novel Notebook. It doesn’t have to be a pretty, perfect, Aesthetic(TM) journal at all. Its function is to act as a route-guide through the process.  

I bought a cute sticker from Etsy and used it as the front cover design so that I liked the book and that it felt a little bit special, without being too intimidating to put a mark in. Then I left the very first page blank, and opened it to the first double page. On the left, I wrote ‘Contents’ and then moved on to the right and wrote ‘Project Stats and Overview’.  

I used a pen that was comfortable to write with, which for me was important. I’m a very tactile person, and having nice paper and pens (not necessarily fancy), made the process feel good.

Project Stats and Overview

This is the bare bones of the book, and includes details such as:

Project Working Title: (in my case it’s Weaver of Threads)

Targeted Wordcount: (to give yourself an idea of the scope, but it’s not necessary. For me it’s 50-100k)

Genre: (for me, fantasy)

Series: (will it be one book or more? For me, probably more than one, and at least two).  

Inspiration: (here you can jot down all sorts of things which inspire your world and your writing, and it can be anything. In my case, I began with “density and lore, and feeling of being grounded in a real world from LOTR and Tolkien.” And I went on to include other writers and novels in the fantasy genre, as well as elements from our own world, such as Mongolian herding communities and way of life, the history of the Persian Empire, and Renaissance Florence!).  

Project Timeline: Give yourself a structure, and be realistic. If you know you’re a slow writer who’s prone to distractions, be generous, but if you’re someone who responds well to short deadlines, tighten the time frame up a bit. I said “November 2020 - November 2021 for the whole manuscript” because I know I’m a procrastinator who gets dejected if they shoot past intense deadlines….

Editing Deadline: December 2021-January 2022. I know I can edit fairly quickly, so I made this one much shorter.  

Main Requirements Prior to Starting: What do you need to get sorted before you can get going? It could be purchasing a laptop or figuring out a magic system. In my case, it was the latter.  

What Happens in your novel?: This is not ‘what do your characters do?’, but what, in one sentence, actually happens in the book. For Fellowship of the Ring, you could say ‘a diverse group of people assemble and set off together with the goal of destroying the Ring’. LOADS more stuff actually takes place, obviously, but that’s probably the key thing that happens in that book. So, write the same thing for yours. I’m not going to tell you what happens in mine, because that would spoil it :).  

That took up the first A4 page of my writer’s notebook, and after that, I moved on to Mood and Key Imagery. 

Mood, Moodboards, and Key Imagery

On the left hand side of the page, I wrote down the words and concepts that sprang to mind when I thought of the novel itself. These were in no particular order or placement — just a random cloud of ideas in a rough column on the left hand side of the page — and they included: history, mystery, love, friendship, betrayal, nostalgic, homesick, sense of belonging, sense of place, searching, closeness, secrets… etc. etc.

Then on the right hand side, I wrote down five key words that I wanted to associate with the novel. These would form the ‘visual aesthetic’ in the background of my mind, and could be very easily expressed with a moodboard.

This same process (writing down words and creating a moodboard) could be achieved on a website like Pinterest. Take your time with it, find the right visual clues that really match the essence of your story, and create a final mood board with a limited number of panels that will be your novel’s ‘true north’ when it comes to feelings. If you're artistically inclined too, you could draw sketches of things relevant to your world too.  

While this stage is really important for solidifying the feeling and mood of the novel, don’t get stuck here and spend forever procrastinating on Pinterest or whatever. Once you’ve crystallised that ambiance, it’s time to move on. It’s also perfectly fine to come back to this at a later stage if you find yourself running out of inspiration or drifting a bit. Daydreaming, drawing, mood-board-ing are all great ways to work on your novel on days when you don’t feel like writing.

Things to Consider:

Alicia Lidwina asked herself some questions which helped me get past the ‘block’ that I’d created when thinking about the novel, and those were:

What scares me about this story? (in my case it was the scope of it - it was easy for me to get lost in over-thinking tiny details and get too overwhelmed to handle the big picture)

What will readers take away from it? (in my case, I hoped that it was a sense of friendship, people from desperate cultures finding common ground, and a sense of being grounded in a real, tangible world.

What is its selling point? (essentially, why would an agent/publisher choose yours over the next one in the pile?). Don’t be bashful about this. This is your notebook, so if you’re proud of a feature or aspect of the story, write it down. In my case, there is no ‘Big Bad come to destroy the world’, no Chosen One who is the only one who can stop it. There is an antagonist, but it’s on a personal scale, and that’s the selling point. It’s about two people going on a personal journey to uncover a lost piece of knowledge that’s arguably not all that world-changing on its own, but which means the world to them.  

What will be the three biggest issues in writing the first draft? Identify the three biggest roadblocks, and then take a bulldozer to them. For me, it was time management, getting mentally stuck, and the sheer darned effort of it becoming overwhelming!

Important Bullet Points  

These are five key facts about your novel, distilled from the sections above. They include: What’s at the heart of the story? How long is the story? What’s the narrative focus of the story? What are the maximum number of main characters? And the maximum number of supporting characters (this obviously doesn’t mean you can’t have other, less important characters too!)?  

Relationship between the two main characters is forefront

50-100k words

The novel’s focus is on the characters’ main goal (had to be more vague here so I didn't give it away)

2 main characters

3 supporting characters  

If you find you’ve got too many main characters (not necessarily a bad thing to have a lot of characters - look at A Song of Ice and Fire after all!), then figure out whose story you want to tell here. You can always write another story with other characters in a connected novel, or a sequel. You don’t have to tell everything all at the same time.  

Speaking of characters… 

…Get to Know Your Main Characters:  

Here you can write character sheets for each of your main characters and cast. There are hundreds of these templates available on the internet, asking questions like ‘how would your character react to [insert event]?’ etc. to get to know your character. If this isn’t your thing (it isn’t mine) then at least write down some useful information about them. Rough height and weight, hair, eye and skin colour, general temperament, and any other defining physical or mental traits. 

Next came the Chronological Order

This does not have to represent the final order of the novel’s structure, nor the order in which you write the manuscript, but you need to know what happened within the timeline, and when, in order to be really clear when you’re telling the story. You can write the manuscript out of order, and you can tell the story with flashbacks or in a different order, but you need to have the underlying chronology securely in place so that your writing makes sense and so that you don’t confuse yourself or the readers in the process.  

Preceding and Tangential Events

These don’t need to be in the novel itself, but it may be important to define the sequence of events that also led up to the moment where we pick up your story, and what is happening elsewhere so that you can be sure of these too. In my case, I defined the events that concerned one of the supporting characters’ lives so that I knew how and why they were at the point they are in the story. It relates directly to - and heavily influences - the events of the novel, so I needed to have this person’s history nailed down as well, even though I don't tell it all explicitly in the book (because that would be unnecessary and a bit dull).  

Basic Premise, Plot Definition, and Sub-Plot Ideas (plus writing a synopsis)

Alicia Lidwina defined the story premise helpfully with the following formula:

Story Premise = Main Character + Desire + Obstacle

Pick a different colour for each of these components, and write a short paragraph to explain them in the context of the novel. Alicia Lidwina used the following:

[Main Character] “Harry, an orphan who didn’t know that he’s a wizard, [Desire] got invited into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and wanted to live his school life to its fullest, [Obstacle] but a certain Dark Lord who killed his parents is trying to rise into powers again and kill him in revenge.

Do this for your novel, and keep it really short.  

Plot Definition: This is even shorter than that! It’s a single sentence!! It’s most closely tied to the desire of the character, and lies at the heart of the story. It’s most likely a distilled version of the ‘what happens in the story’ from the Project Stats page, so check that to see what you wrote there.  

Sub Plot Ideas  

Five bullet points (no more) for things that are happening concurrently and which are related in some way to the main story. For me, Kae and Tomas are doing their research, so that’s the main theme, but beneath that there are a few other related incidents.

Writing a Synopsis - developed out of the points in this section, and includes:

Who the main character is

What the stakes are (the story premise is your guideline)

What the main plot line is

How the MC resolves the problem in the main plot line

How the book ends.

List of Locations  

Start with the main ones and add to it as you go on. Write a little bit of information about them so that you have something to refer back to. I also drew a big old map which I found very helpful and also really fun to do.

List of Scenes

It’s very important to map out every single scene that happens in the novel. Use your timeline to help with this, but remember a scene is not necessarily a chapter. You can have more than one scene within a chapter, but try not to have too many.  

I used small post-it notes (sticky notes) and wrote down things like “M joins K’s clan at the fire and K learns about magic” and “K studies at Citadel, intro to Citadel, magic, and characters” as separate scenes. Once you’ve written down everything that is going to happen (this will take some time! Get a drink and some snacks ready, and go slow), you can stick them into your notebook in the order you’d like to tell the story. Some chapters may have just one scene, while others may have two or three. I didn’t have more than two in any of my chapters, and actually ended up splitting some scenes that I’d made too vague in this section into more chapters. It doesn’t have to be set in stone, but it will form a road map.  

Additions and Notes:  

I left a section of the Scene Outline bit of the notebook blank for things to add in as I went along. I haven’t used it yet, but I might.  

Chapter Outline

I arranged the scenes into the chapters already by sticking them in order, but you could do a chapter outline separately after this. It’s up to you. 

NaNoWriMo plan:  

I did this back in October, and wrote down the main goal for nanoprep, which was to finish the background info. Breaking that down further, I listed - magic (how does it work exactly), geography, and politics. 

After that, it was just a case of writing the 1667 words a day. *spoilers, I got distracted and didn’t do NaNo this year* . What I should have done, was break it up into chunks and write down my goals so that I had something tangible to use as a road map, and I will be doing that now for the novel as I take it up again outside of NaNo. Having check boxes and manageable goals really works for me. Find what will work for you, and if it turns out not to, adapt!

Some final pointers and tips:

Set regular goals for yourself. Whether you work by saying ‘I’ll write 1000 words a day’ or ‘I’ll write something every day’, make a structure for yourself. If you slip and miss a day, week, or month (I didn’t meet NaNo this year because I chose to work on another project instead *slaps forehead*), don’t beat yourself up. Writing is a craft and it takes a long time and a lot of discipline to master a craft.  

Your first draft does not have to be good. At all. Your first draft is just words on paper. A first draft is the block of marble taken from the quarry, and subsequent edits and reworking is the process of carving the sculpture itself. The editing that is done by the publisher or the professional you employ to edit it for you later, is the final polishing. Don’t be demoralised if the block of marble seems very rough when it first lands in your studio. That’s ok!  

Take regular breaks. Writing is hard work, and most people can’t concentrate on something successfully for longer than 55 min's, and if you’re doing that, you’re already doing really well. Personally, I’m at 15-20 on a good day. Write in little sprints of ten minutes or so, and then get up and stretch, look out the window, maybe leave the room, come back in with a fresh approach.  

Stretch your hands, and wear wrist braces when you work. Seriously. I gave myself tendinitis on my first major project, and couldn’t use either hand properly for weeks. The ones I have are these, and they allow me to work safely for much longer.  

Keep hydrated. Have a bottle of water on the desk in front of you between your arms as you type and sip it, otherwise you’ll forget. 2 litres a day is usually recommended, but know your body and drink accordingly.  

Treat yourself. Whether that’s something as simple as a decadent hot chocolate after your first chapter/chunk/sprint is done, or a new notebook or a pen or that sticker set you wanted on Etsy or literally anything nice, reward yourself for the hard work you’ve put in, with tangible things you can look at or experience and say ‘I have that because I did the work’. It’ll help with your sense of achievement, especially if the project is a long one.  

Join a local writer’s group for feedback. With the current Covid-19 chaos, this is probably not possible right now, but getting constructive feedback on your work from someone who hasn’t been cocooned in the project in the way you are, but who respects you as a writer and wants to help you grow, will be invaluable. It’s too easy to exist in a little isolated bubble and think you’re doing ok, when in reality you could be creating bad habits which will be difficult to break later. By these, I mean things like ‘filler words’ you don’t realise you use, or other pit-falls it’s easy to tumble into when you can’t see the wood for the trees…It’s intimidating, and it might take some courage to work up and do, but I promise it’ll help you grow. You don’t have to do what the people suggest, but it’s great to get outside opinions all the same.

Submit work to writing competitions. This will help with showing agents and publishers later down the line that you’re not only committed, but hopefully talented, and will help you to push yourself. Use the world of your novel for the setting, and get to know it by writing short stories on the competition’s theme set there.  

Read. Read the writers you admire, and read them ‘actively’ - figure out exactly what it is about ‘that’ sentence that made you shiver, and use the same techniques in your own work (don’t plagiarise, obviously, but if it was alliteration that made the sentence work so well, use it yourself! Perhaps it was the metre of the line? Great, now you know a rhythm that will drive a sentence forward or slow it down etc.)

Enjoy it. If you’re not enjoying what you’re doing, it’ll show in the work. Take a step back if you start floundering, and ‘interview’ yourself about why it’s not fun any more. Refer back to the sections in the notebook that helped to clarify the plot/process, and see if you’ve wandered away from them. Make yourself answer questions like: ‘What is the main reason I don’t want to do this?’ ‘What is the character’s motivation?’ ‘Should I scrap this section?’ (don’t delete it, but cut and paste it into another ‘scraps’ document, and then start afresh from the last place you were happy with. Nothing is wasted - it all goes into building the world and getting to know the characters, even if it doesn’t get explicitly told in the finished product, so don’t be afraid to do that last bit).  

Good luck!

I hope you found this helpful, and if you have any questions or things you’d like to add to this, please feel free to send me an ask here on Tumblr.

If you’re a new writer hoping to get an agent or publisher, you might also find this post on ‘talking to a published author’ helpful or interesting.

If you would like to keep up to date with my own novel’s progress, you can follow me here on Tumblr, as well as on my writing Instagram @rnpeacock