#does the apostrophe matter

[caiabresebun]

i found a world where i was happy. at least... a version of me was.

[barrel-head]

☆ see u space cowboy!! ☆

[revenancy]

the 'writing/imagining stuff in your head' thing is SO REAL like I can't picture anything up there? it is like the void in my mind <3

I really struggle with visual descriptions sometimes because when I'm writing, there is no visual! i really have to practice and focus on when i do write purely descriptions and often forget to write them altogether or their placement feels unnatural

glad to see someone else talk about a similar thing!

honestly it's something i don't see discussed very often, and it's the kind of thing where i feel almost -- not like i'm actually being stigmatized but like there's a very real possibility that people will judge me incapable in some way for not being able to "see" vivid things inside my head, like that somehow determines my worth as a writer which is honestly just an absolutely wild thing to type with my own two hands

and i'm not completely aphantasic, either -- i still have rough visuals in my dreams, and i can almost picture things, but it really doesn't matter how vivid the description is: for the most part, words evoke emotions and sounds and feelings, but while i can jumble together a rough idea of something based on a description, it doesn't come naturally.

but that doesn't mean i (or you or anyone else who struggles with this sort of thing) can't write well -- it just means that we get the fun (/s) of having to go back and intentionally add visual descriptions (and toss them at people who don't have aphantasia like "hey can you tell me if you can visualize something from this--")

anyway all this to say that i am ALSO in the "oops! no visuals" camp where i have to sit down and go "alright what does this person/place/thing look like and how is that important in any way to my point of view character"

[bmpmp3]

(little bit of silence at the beginning because it wouldnt let me upload otherwise RIP) quick plug-and-play this-mix-is-ass-session-terminated type shoujo-a cover but (said in a hushed voice filled with wonderment and awe) soyogi........................................

(ust by Taketonbo)

[margonaughts]

#gonna ramble in the tags #I understand why peeps ask for system variety #there are lots of systems that tell specific kinds of stories well #but the reverse is true too #5e does a *specific thing* very well #without spoiling the story #I want to simply say | *chose* 5e for this thing it does #not because it's the biggest or the easiest for the table or whatever other lazy reasons folks want to ascribe #the mechanics are a part of the story being told #that's always been true #it's still true here #DnD is the legacy of a certain kind of gaming #which came from the veneration of a certain kind of cultural lens #critiques of DnD and the stories told inside that system center on how the mechanics center those cultural perspectives #knowing that there's a wide world of systems to pick from #I just hope y'all trust that there's a point to this choice #and if you watch and think I'm trying to say something #you're probably right #and if you think I still could have made a different choice in the end #lemme know #| love being introduced to new systems

Tags by @quiddie

For those asking: It's 5e because Aabria is tired of playing nice and wants to kill some stoats

Hope this helps 😊

[valeriehalla]

actual writing advice

1. Use the passive voice.

What? What are you talking about, “don’t use the passive voice”? Are you feeling okay? Who told you that? Come on, let’s you and me go to their house and beat them with golf clubs. It’s just grammar. English is full of grammar: you should go ahead and use all of it whenever you want, on account of English is the language you’re writing in.

2. Use adverbs.

Now hang on. What are you even saying to me? Don’t use adverbs? My guy, that is an entire part of speech. That’s, like—that’s gotta be at least 20% of the dictionary. I don’t know who told you not to use adverbs, but you should definitely throw them into the Columbia river.

3. There’s no such thing as “filler”.

Buddy, “filler” is what we called the episodes of Dragon Ball Z where Goku wasn’t blasting Frieza because the anime was in production before Akira Toriyama had written the part where Goku blasts Frieza. Outside of this extremely specific context, “filler” does not exist. Just because a scene wouldn’t make it into the Wikipedia synopsis of your story’s plot doesn’t mean it isn’t important to your story. This is why “plot” and “story” are different words!

4. okay, now that I’ve snared you in my trap—and I know you don’t want to hear this—but orthography actually does kind of matter

First of all, a lot of what you think of as “grammar” is actually orthography. Should I put a comma here? How do I spell this word in this context? These are questions of orthography (which is a fancy Greek word meaning “correct-writing”). In fact, most of the “grammar questions” you’ll see posted online pertain to orthography; this number probably doubles in spaces for writers specifically.

If you’re a native speaker of English, your grammar is probably flawless and unremarkable for the purposes of writing prose. Instead, orthography refers to the set rules governing spelling, punctuation, and whitespace. There are a few things you should know about orthography:

English has no single orthography. You already know spelling and punctuation differ from country to country, but did you know it can even differ from publisher to publisher? Some newspapers will set parenthetical statements apart with em dashes—like this, with no spaces—while others will use slightly shorter dashes – like this, with spaces – to name just one example.

Orthography is boring, and nobody cares about it or knows what it is. For most readers, orthography is “invisible”. Readers pay attention to the words on a page, not the paper itself; in much the same way, readers pay attention to the meaning of a text and not the orthography, which exists only to convey that meaning.

That doesn’t mean it’s not important. Actually, that means it’s of the utmost importance. Because orthography can only be invisible if it meets the reader’s expectations.

You need to learn how to format dialogue into paragraphs. You need to learn when to end a quote with a comma versus a period. You need to learn how to use apostrophes, colons and semicolons. You need to learn these things not so you can win meaningless brownie points from your English teacher for having “Good Grammar”, but so that your prose looks like other prose the reader has consumed.

If you printed a novel on purple paper, you’d have the reader wondering: why purple? Then they’d be focusing on the paper and not the words on it. And you probably don’t want that! So it goes with orthography: whenever you deviate from standard practices, you force the reader to work out in their head whether that deviation was intentional or a mistake. Too much of that can destroy the flow of reading and prevent the reader from getting immersed.

You may chafe at this idea. You may think these “rules” are confusing and arbitrary. You’re correct to think that. They’re made the fuck up! What matters is that they were made the fuck up collaboratively, by thousands of writers over hundreds of years. Whether you like it or not, you are part of that collaboration: you’re not the first person to write prose, and you can’t expect yours to be the first prose your readers have ever read.

That doesn’t mean “never break the rules”, mind you. Once you’ve gotten comfortable with English orthography, then you are free to break it as you please. Knowing what’s expected gives you the power to do unexpected things on purpose. And that’s the really cool shit.

5. You’re allowed to say the boobs were big if the story is about how big the boobs were

Nobody is saying this. Only I am brave enough to say it.

Well, bye!

[pearlean]

arcadia - a gshade preset

after much tweaking, i give you another preset! - a blend of mango's feel and gleam's vibrant hues, arcadia brings a dynamic, comic atmosphere, breathing life to both cas and gameplay

more previews here

download + info under cut ↘

download: patreon (free)

disclaimer:

- incompatible with edge smoothing as it conflicts with some effects

- if the preset looks off -> check the repository for missing fx - here is arcadia's fx list & order (order does matter!)

notes:

- untoggled effects = not recommended gameplay

- this preset uses vyxated's clear ui shaders; i highly recommend downloading it for gameplay use

- avoid using bright cas backgrounds, as 'bloom' can overly enhance the glow - adjust/toggle to mitigate

toggle keys:

depth haze: 7

magic bloom: numpad 7

quint bloom: numpad 8

chromatic aberration: numpad 5

relight: numpad 6

adof + cinematic dof: semicolon ;

comic: apostrophe '

halftone + posterize: O

kuwahara: F12

mxaos: L

tracking rays: forward slash /

clear ui: numpad decimal .

tou:

feel free to use it as you please - please do not steal/claim this as yours, place it behind any paywall, or use it as a base.

[writingwithfolklore]

Punctuation Rules

Punctuation is like the very last thing I actively think about when writing something (what's the point of fixing the punctuation of a sentence you'll end up taking out or editing anyway?) but it is still an important step!

Having proper punctuation increases your credibility and the overall quality of your work. Also, it’s doubly important in professional work, emails, and resumes. With that, let’s get into it!

Commas

We use them all the time. We get them wrong all the time. There are six rules for where you can use commas:

Use to separate items in a list or series:

The book was long, tedious, and painful.

The comma after tedious is called the Oxford’s comma. Feel free to debate if you need it in the reblogs, but you won’t get in trouble professionally if you use it or leave it out (in most cases.) It always comes before ‘and’ in a list to prevent confusion of the items:

I ran into my mother, my best friend and a scientist. (1 person?)

Is very different from

I ran into my mother, my best friend, and a scientist. (3 people)

2. Use to separate independent clauses, with a coordinating conjunction.

An independent clause is just a sentence that makes sense on its own.

A coordinating conjunction is: and, but, or so.

Miley had a ton of work to do, so she set her alarm early.

3. Use after an introductory statement.

Introductory statements begin with many different words, but typically: Before, after, when, while, as soon as, etc.

Before her first class, Stacy looked up her prof on Rate Your Teacher.

Main point about this, “Before her first class” is not an independent clause, it needs a second part.

4. Use to surround info in a sentence

This info is not essential to the sense-making of the sentence, but it should be relevant.

Parents, no matter how skilled, cannot function at 100% all the time.

5. Addresses and Dates

6. And with direct quotes

Important for essay writing.

Casey said, “I hate this house!”

Colons:

Introduce a list after a complete sentence:

I have three favourite foods: spaghetti, chowder, and garlic bread.

2. Use after ‘the following’ or ‘as follows’

Please provide the following information: your date of birth, full name, and address.

3. Don't use with sentence fragments

A sentence fragment is an unfinished sentence (that doesn’t make sense on its own).

My favourite foods are: spaghetti, chowder, and garlic bread.

This is wrong because, “My favourite foods are.” Isn’t an independent clause.

4. Introduce an explanation

My parents ask one thing of me: that I try my hardest.

5. Introduce a quotation

Mom always quoted the bible: “The truth will set you free.”

6. And times (12:00)

Semi-Colon:

Not super common, but makes you look good if you can use it properly.

Separate two related independent clauses

I never drink Starbucks; it tastes burnt.

2. Similar, but with conjunctions: however, moreover, therefore, nevertheless, etc.

I don’t like Starbucks; however, it does the job.

Agatha didn’t witness anything; nevertheless, she was called in to court.

3. Use to avoid misreading in a series

The invited guests are the club leader; the treasurer; the new member, Jason Tanner; and Wanda Johnson, the investor.

Semicolons clarify the separation between the four people. Had it been, “The club leader, the treasurer, The new member, Jason Tanner…” it would seem that the new member and Jason Tanner are two different people.

Apostrophes – Possessive

‘s shows possession of a singular noun

The girl’s parents were quite rich.

2. S’ shows possession of a plural noun

The students’ books were all over the place. (there are multiple students who have books)

3. ‘s to singular words ending in s, and nouns that are plural

My boss’s office My children’s toys

Apostrophes – Contractions

Use to combine two words (they are, he is, there is, etc.)

It is -> It’s a beautiful park They are -> They’re really good friends You are -> you’re good at this and so on.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

more commonly confused words

this time, with examples

affect vs. effect

Usually affect is a verb meaning "to influence," and effect is a noun meaning "result." But effect occasionally is used as a verb meaning "to bring about."

Example: Social activities may affect your grades, but the effect should be small!

than vs. then

Than is used to indicate a difference between two things and is usually used in the phrases “more than” or “less than.” Then indicates a sequence of events or items.

Example: The data indicates that Americans work more hours than Europeans.

Example: Add the butter then the sugar to make the cookie dough.

farther vs. further

Farther refers to additional distance, and further refers to additional time, amount, or other abstract matters.

Example: You may be further from an "A" than you think, so when you study, go no farther than the best place to concentrate.

loose vs. lose

Loose means that something is not firmly in place or could be removed easily. Lose means to no longer have something or to have misplaced it.

Example: This bracelet is loose on my wrist; I hope I don't lose it again.

its vs. it’s

Its is the possessive of “it,” and unlike other possessives, does not use an apostrophe. It’s is the contraction of “it is” or “it has” and is never used to mark the possessive. 

Example: It’s been many decades since the college changed its graduation requirements.

less vs. fewer

Less refers to bulk amounts and uncountable items, or nouns that can’t be quantified by just putting a number in front of them. Fewer refers to countable items, or nouns that can be quantified just using a number.

Example: After inventory, there are fewer guavas and less flour than we ordered.

entitled vs. titled

Entitled means to have a right to do or have something. Titled refers to the name or label of something.

Example: I feel entitled to own this book, because it is titled “Dimitri” and that’s my name also.

between vs. among

Between is used when two things are concerned (the word comes from "by twain" in Middle English), while among is used when more than two things are concerned.

Example: Between you and me, these mistakes are common among all of us.

feel vs. think

In common usage, feel means to sense, to be emotionally affected by something, or to have a general or thorough conviction. Think means to use reason or to examine with the intellect.

Example: I think that you can write better than you have, though I feel encouraged by the improvements in your writing.

which vs. that

Use that in restricting (limiting) clauses: "The rocking chair that creaks is on the porch." In this sentence, one rocking chair is singled out from several – the one that creaks.

Use which in nonrestrictive (in effect, parenthetic) clauses: "The rocking chair, which creaks, is on the porch." In this sentence, the fact that the rocking chair creaks is tossed in; it is not added for the purpose of identifying the one chair out of several. 

Important Note: Use who for people, in both restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses.

A technique that can improve your writing is proofreading, which can show you unintentional errors.

since vs. because

Since is often used to mean because: "Since you ask, I'll tell you." Its primary meaning, however, relates to time: "I've been waiting since noon." Most people now accept since in place of because; however, when since is ambiguous and may also refer to time ("Since he joined the navy, she found another boyfriend"), it is better to say because or after, depending on which you mean.

Example: Because you are intelligent and careful, your writing has improved since the beginning of this course.

commonly confused words part 1

[arecaceae175]

Hello! I noticed that some of your fics on Ao3 are tagged "Screen Reader Friendly," and I wondered what makes a fic screen reader friendly. Is it just about formatting, or does content matter too?

Hi, thank you so much for asking this question!!! Disclaimer I am not visually impaired so all of this information I have learned by seeing blind or visually impaired people talk about this issue.

It’s primarily formatting! I’ll list everything I do to try to make my fics accessible here.

Line breaks!!! Use the ao3 line break code instead of adding a bunch of symbols. This is the biggest thing I had to change once I realized my fics were not screen reader friendly.

HOWEVER some screen readers won’t pick up on the horizontal line, either. Another good option is to use a short series of symbols, for example: “~~” or “- - -“

Basically, just don’t use more than three symbols in a row. I used to use “~~~/\~~~” with a delta symbol in the middle to look like the triforce, but a screen reader would see that and say “asterisk asterisk asterisk delta asterisk asterisk asterisk” which is pretty annoying lol

Most screen readers don’t differentiate between regular text and bold/italics. It’s fine to have those in your story, but if the bold/italics significantly changes the plot or the implications of a sentence then it is not screen reader friendly

Screen readers can’t describe a line break that is just an empty space. For example, in one of my fics I have a character reading a note, and I have an extra ‘return button’ space before and after the note to make the note distinct from the rest of the text. To make that fic more screen reader friendly, instead of just an empty space, I wrote “[Line Break]”. That way, a screen reader can say “line break”, and readers still recognize it as a line break

If you have any sort of chat fic (AND this goes for hashtags on tumblr too!) with screen names, be sure to distinguish the separate words in the screen name. You can do this with by capitalizing the first letter of each word like this “ScreenNameHere” or with dashes in between each word “screen-name-here”. That helps screen readers and also people with things like dyslexia who have trouble distinguishing words if they aren’t capitalized or separated in some way.

Screen readers can read image emojis like this smiley face 😁 because they have embedded alt text, but they can’t read text emojis as an emoji, like this one “:D”. If you use any of those in your fic, add a description like this: “ :D [Image description: text emoji of a smiley face with a big, open mouthed smile. End description].”

Also, this one doesn’t have to do with a screen reader, but if you have an image embedded in your story, keep these things in mind:

Be sure to describe the image so anyone who is blind or visually impaired can still experience the image. I don’t think it’s possible to add alt text to the actual image, so I usually put this below the image: “[Image ID: description of the image. Note the important details, but be as concise as you can. /End ID]”. Including the image description instead of some sort of alt text is good for DeafBlind people who can’t see the image well enough but don’t use a screen reader.

Some blind or visually impaired people don’t use a screen reader and instead zoom in on the text. If an image is embedded in the story, be sure it is sized correctly. If it isn’t, it can make scrolling sideways to read zoomed in text more difficult because it makes the webpage much wider than the text itself.

Not all my fics have the screen reader friendly tag because 1. There might be a few I haven’t updated yet, and 2. I didn’t include the tag on fics that have weird formatting or are accent heavy. For example, in Kinship I wrote Twilight’s dialogue to represent his strong accent, and those kinds of things with apostrophes and half-words don’t come through well with a screen reader.

I personally don’t think it’s good practice to include a ton of apostrophes or shortened words to distinguish an accent. Even for people not using screen readers, it’s hard to read. For me, if I see a fic with things like that, I won’t read it. Maybe try having a few words that the character’s accent comes through on, or write something about their heavy accent outside of the dialogue.

The “Screen Reader Friendly” tag isn’t an officially recognized AO3 tag yet, but the more people who use it, the sooner it will be!

Those are all the things I can think of right now. If anyone has any other tips to add, please do so!!

[janmisali]

the official jan Misali styleguide

so uh I decided to compile together a bunch of rules that I've come up with over the years for myself for how I write videos. this is not comprehensive and is unlikely to be genuinely useful to anyone (very few of these are things I'd consider to be "good advice" for anyone else who wants to make videos, they're mostly just how I personally do things), but here we go anyway!

text

text should be typeset in Noto Serif by default, using other fonts for their specific aesthetic effects on a case by case basis, always presented in contrast with Noto Serif

text should be white, on a black background, with keywords highlighted in teal (#008472)

text should use justified margins, unless this looks bad or is too hard to do with the specific program being used

the pronoun "I" should always be capitalized

proper names should usually be capitalized, but may be left in lowercase to convey a less formal tone when appropriate

the name "jan Misali" should be written with a lowercase "jan" and a capitalized "Misali", following toki pona capitalization conventions (and in general, all toki pona text should follow toki pona capitalization conventions, only capitalizing proper names)

brand names with irregular capitalization such as "YouTube" should always be in lowercase ("youtube") as a sign of disrespect

words may be capitalized for Emphasis, but this should be avoided sentence-initially

avoid capitalization for any other purpose (such as sentence capitalization or all caps) unless this is done to imitate a specific style meant to contrast with the default Misalian style

in addition to the aforementioned teal-coloring and capitalization, words may also be marked as emphasized using italics

these three styles of emphasis should be used for different purposes: teal for keywords (emphasis primarily to aid in reading), italics for spoken stress ("normal emphasis"), and capitalization for the Other Kind (meant to get the reader to slow down and pay attention to the Specific Wording of the emphasized section, but without drawing immediate visual attention to it in the way teal text does)

punctuation should only be used when it is strictly necessary for the text to be parsed or when it conveys meaningful information about how the text would be read out loud (the apostrophe does not count as punctuation for the purpose of this recommendation; it is included as part of the spelling of words it appears in)

the word "amateur" should be spelled "amature" without explanation

numbers should be written out in full as words, unless they're being used for alphanumeric codes, entries in a numbered list, years, or a video about math

text should be written word for word as it would be pronounced out loud, including filler words ("um"s and "like"s) and contractions, following the manner of speech outlined in the next section

narration

everything should be written in a formal but conversational tone, with hesitations, filler words, and stutters carefully inserted to make it sound less "written", as though the narration is one continuous unscripted infodump

however, nothing should ever genuinely be unscripted. everything should be phrased very carefully to convey information precisely and efficiently in a way that is easy to understand

there should be some sort of attempt to pronounce non-english words authentically, especially with proper names (unless there exists a common-enough anglicized pronunciation that you can be confident is more likely to be understood)

nothing should be written in a way that assumes that the audience knows less about the subject matter of the video than the narrator, except in very rare cases where this assumption is appropriate (such as when using an explicitly educational style, or when the subject is so niche that acting as though everyone already knows about it would be actively detrimental). information should always be presented as though it's a recap of common knowledge ("right?"), something that the narrator only learned relatively recently ("apparently"), or something that the narrator is unsure of ("I think")

jokes should never get "in the way" of the actual video. they should serve a purpose just like everything else. (the key question to keep in mind here is "if someone doesn't find this funny, what could they take away from it instead?". the answer should be something like "it would just be information presented in an unusual way" or "it would just be an awkward transition between two unrelated topics" or something. if the answer is "nothing, it would just be a joke they're not getting" then it had better be a really funny joke to justify its existence.)

calls to action should be avoided. the video should respect its audience members to make decisions for themselves, and only directly tell them what to do in exceptional circumstances

[kirexa]

I THINK!!! THEY COULD BE FRIENDS!!!! THEY HAVE A PETTY RIVALRY AND THEY GET INTO FIGHTS ALL THE TIME BUT THEY COULD BE KINDDA FRIENDS!!! BUT NOOOOOOO

ITS NOT EVEN THE LEON THING WITH SAYAKA,, like if she was on Tumblr I woulda blocked her. LOKE she just annoyed the hell outta me from the get go. She made a bad first impression and consistently annoyed me

ABD I WAS SO ANGRY AT THE FIRSTTRIAL I PICKED A FAVORITE ONLY TO LEARN HHE WAS FUCKING DOOMED. THE ONE I HATED TRIED TO KILL HIM AND HE FOUGHT BACK!!! IK HE DIDNT HAVE TO KILL HER BUT HELL HE WANTED OUT THATS OKAY!! (I am very heated abt them. /nm at u ofc tho)

THAT’S COMPLETELY FAIR THIS GAME MAKES ME SO MADE IDOL GIRL AND BASEBALL BOY SHOULD BE PLAYING MARIO KART AND HANGING OUT NOT TRYNA MURDER EACH OTHER FOR THE SAKE OF THEIR BASIC SURVIVIAL D:

[looseduke]

okay insane thought about names and the feelings i have about them as a transgender blended family kid. it requires a leap of logic where the fantasy high parent couples remain dating and get married or otherwise legally bind themselves together but follow me on this for a moment. also i don’t know or care if this follows canon im just deciding it does

gilear took sandra lynn’s last name

could not afford to change it after the divorce

gilear is just one of those ppl who really likes having the same last name as his life partners, doesn’t have to be his name, he just thinks it’s nice

(sandra lynn liked her name and though she has Many Issues and might have changed her name in an attempt at normalcy gilear’s name was definitely something outlandishly stupid and he suggested it first anyway so it worked out)

do u see where im going with this

gilear seacaster.

fabian is furious but this ain’t about him

something so funny about taking your (way funnier if they don’t even get married) girlfriend’s dead husband’s last name

he keeps faeth as a middle name bc it’s still a connection to fig that he values and wants to keep

anyway. jawbone hears about all of this. absolutely loves it. thinks it’s awesome

jawbone o’shaughnessy-faeth!

yes with the apostrophe and the hyphen. yes every time.

he likes the connection to gilear and fig as much as he does the one to sandra lynn <3

when consulted fig was SUPER enthusiastic about another dad. gilear was like sigh. that might as well happen. im already being dunked upon by my mean stepson. go ahead.

okay the grand finale. the reason i even made this fucking post

adaine kills her dad, gets adopted, and starts to wonder if she should change her name

adaine makes amends with her sister, and starts to wonder if she should keep it

jawbone lets her know right away that he’ll support her decision no matter what, but it takes a long time for her to decide

it takes watching gilear and fabian bicker over their shared last name, watching fig get sappy over gilear holding onto the name faeth, watching fig and jawbone get sappy over THEIR shared last name, watching sandra lynn hide a smile whenever it comes up, watching, watching, watching

watching her sister learn and grow and love her unconditionally

she makes her decision, and when her dad brings her home from the fantasy dmv, there’s a new name on her ID

adaine abernant-o’shaughnessy-faeth. yes all three names. yes with the apostrophe. yes with the hyphens. every time

it’s for her dad, yes, for the man who gave her a home, who helped her find her strength, who is always her safe space, but it’s for more then that too

it’s for her sister, who for better or worse is in all of her earliest memories. who never underestimated her. who’s trying, every day

it’s for her sister, who called her awesome on the first day of school. who’s always there for her. who wears her heart on her sleeve and teaches adaine it’s okay to be emotional. who’s her best friend

it’s for the man who took her in when he had next to nothing to offer, who shared his extra garlic knots and vending machine snacks, who hosted his daughters strange friends night after night without question or complaint

and it’s for the elven woman sitting across from her at the dinner table, who understands her greatest fear better then anyone else and has built a life for herself despite her mistakes. who protected her on their quest. who opened her house for about 6 teenagers to live there permanently and anywhere between 3 and 10 more to hang out as much as they want

adaine abernant-o’shaughnessy-faeth, the people’s oracle <3

[randomfoggytiger]

I started watching X-Files a couple of months ago and finally finished the whole show, plus the movies and revival. Jesus. I started looking at fanfic but am totally intimidated by HOW MUCH OF IT there is. Like. 30 years worth of it? Where do I even start? Do I read old stuff or new stuff? Are there any authors that have been writing since the 90’s? Who’s stuff should I be reading? What should I be reading? There are so many different kinds! (Okay, but not fluff, because The Ick.) (and only the shippy stuff because I am not a monster.) Where does one even start in this fandom?

Thanks for coming here, Anon-- I'll do my best~. ;)))

TLDR: If you want to read the classics-- the multi-chapter beasts hailed across The X-Files fandom-- I'd go to @lilydalexf's page and sort through her pinned Masterpost of recs; if you want my personal favorites, I've got my own complied Masterlist pinned, as well. If you want author suggestions, I listed a few below (but not all-- even of my personal favorites.) Older fics have a more "walled-off" approach to Scully and an edgier, distant approach to Mulder; newer fics have a more open approach to their exchange and dynamic. I prefer the latter, but that's likely because I was able to watch the show as a whole rather than episode by episode with a lot of guesswork in-between.

It's hard to pinpoint where to recommend you since I don't know your preferences; but here's a very loose attempt to do so:

I'm more of a short fic reader, but I'd recommend @melforbes, @slippinmickeys, @cecilysass, and @wexleresque for long chapters; @teethnbone, @leiascully, @aloysiavirgata, @enigmaticdrblockhead, @dreamingofscully, and @sarie-fairy for "atmospheric" writing; @baronessblixen, @welsharcher, @agent-troi, @television-overload, @invidiosa, @swinging-stars-from-satellites, @thescullyphile, @msrafterdark, and @edierone for well-balanced fluff/angst/humor/comfort fic/etc.; @o6666666, @ghostbustermelanieking, @mappingthexfiles/Apostrophic, and Lapsed_Scholar for their wonderful shorts (but especially Lapsed's Requiem AU compilations); @settle-down-frohike, @suitablyaggrieved, @amplifyme, @wtfmulder, @freckleslikestars, @lyndsaybones, @numinousmysteries, and Jenna Tooms/misslucyjane for their focus on Mulder and Scully as a "mature"-- for lack of a better word-- couple (no matter when their fics are set); @xxsksxxx and @writingwell write long-chaptered casefiles (my writingwell fic recs here might help?-- sorry for the codes, I was rushing out those notes); and if you want the authors everyone recommends, then @mashnotesofthemythopoeic/Penumbra (Masterlist) and prufrock’s love/plenilune (@lilydalexf links/descriptions here) are two of the many that fit the bill.

Other fic recs you might be interested in: @cecilysass's write more of these and Milagro recs, @enigmaticxbee mytharc and Scully family recs, @pennyserenade's reading recs, @two-microscopes shorter fic rec list, @nachosncheezies's slightly psychic Scully recs (describes three of the big x-files fics), etc. You want beautifully short poeticesque ficlets written and recced by @leiascully? Boom. You want Deadalive fic reccs? Kachow. You want opinions from the OGs? The aforementioned aloysiavirgata, amplifyme, baronessblixen, leiascully, suitablyaggrieved, cecilysass, settle-down-frohike, dreamingofscully, msrafterdark, as well as @iconicscullyoutfits and @myassbrokethefall (who write amazing meta, btw.)

Are you interested in AUs that write in Gillian Anderson's pregnancy? That have a storyline sans baby all together? That stick to canon all the way through the Revival? That stick to canon mostly, except for a bit of branching off here and there? Multiple Monday fics? Post Pine Bluff Variant processing? Mulder or Scully PTSD or panic attacks or hurt comfort? The many different flavors of Mulder's abduction or return? Casefiles (admittedly I stink at those)? My own fics (also in my pinned masterpost)? An author whose style you're interested in but would like a description of their work before making a long-term commitment? Lemme know~! :DDDD

Gotta run! Hope you like! (And sorry for any spelling errors~.)

[whoiwanttoday]

Hey guys, it is @wildflagsure birthday today and last night she demanded I make a "really good" post for her for her birthday. She can't help it, she's from Greece but lives in the UK and what I have heard is immigrants there are always coming in and demanding things, it's why as a country they decided to set their economy on fire, because if you make your little island completely unlivable then no one will want to move there. Not that tactic I would have taken but then I try not be a hateful bigot, so who am I to talk? Anyway, besides blaming @wildflagsure for all of England's problems (and like… where was she when they lost the Empire? She can't account for her whereabouts) I do want to celebrate her birthday. By talking about myself. I mean, it is my blog, I tagged her twice, I am not sure how much more giving a person can be. I'll drive literally tens of people to her dead blog. Anyway, my favorite thought about Andi, which I will call her from here out because first I am tired of tagging and second I think it looks cooler with the E not on it but also it's short for Antigone and I can change a T to a D for a friend but I'll be dead and buried before I leave off the apostrophe if you insist on shortening Antigone to Anti'e. Anyway, my favorite thought is when she was doing a small radio show live (and doing it wrong, rather than use the service that paid for the songs rights they just played shit off of spotify because literally no one cared) I used to listen every week cause it was fun to support her but also she likes good music. There was a listener request form and I used to submit requests. I did this for a few reasons. One, I learned on tumblr every single person in the world wants more asks. It is exciting and makes them feel special. Also, by sending multiple requests or messages a show it meant they would seem very popular to other listeners and you know, fake it till you make it, that way everyone else would go, "Wow, these guys must be more famous than I realized. I should tell my friends to listen and also send in requests". And then, obviously, I like to control women and tell them what to do, so it was a real rush to send in a song title and then make her do it. Anyway, there was a time when the person she did it with referred to me as, "Our fan". And that got a snap back of, "Actually, is MY friend". It was very defensive and I appreciated that in part it came from the fact that her cohost was trying to diminish me in a way that person liked to do and Andi was willing to stand up and protect me even though honestly, I didn't care. She did, that mattered. I mean, there was a lot going on there because her cohost was one of those lowkey monsters you meet in your late teens and early 20's who you find compelling because you are too young to know better but also because you are insecure and the fact that they have absolutely no moral center is appealing because it sure must be nice to not be insecure and upset and worried about things all the time. Andi eventually moved on, don't worry. Actually, it's really cool to see that she has matured into just a totally cool as fuck lesbian bad ass. I mean, she was always those things but now she has the confidence and a really cool life that she always was going to have but I bet she was unaware of. Like, she has her own place, she has a hot girlfriend, she eats cool meals, and she can get you any drugs you want. It's pretty cool.

Anyway, today I am posting Georgia Ellenwood because in my experience Andi loves Olympic Athletes. She always goes on that she's glad someone is honoring Zeus properly. Now, sadly, Georgia Ellenwood is not going to the Olympics this year because she is still recovering from an injury. That kind of thing is always sad, athletes only have so many chances but I think she has a good future ahead of her even outside of sports because she is charming and friendly and well… looks like she does. It's not hard to imagine her being successful doing other things. And even if she felt like a good pick today because even if she isn't going to the Olympics I am willing to bet @wildflagsure would be willing to burn down a second island nation to sleep with her. Today I want to fuck Georgia Ellenwood.

[wheresurboytonighthelookslikeenj]

murdoch characters and what they would call tim hortons

murdoch : the full tim hortons. murdoch would call miles gilbert horton by his christian name if he could. but also deep down i think he desires a simpler time where he can say timmy’s

ogden : tim’s rolls off her tongue like it was made to be

george : tim’s, the full tim hortons when feeling extra, timothy hortons when making a point. proceeds to be shocked upon learning that tim horton’s name was in fact not timothy

brackenreid : does not go there ; has personal beef

henry : look me in the eye and tell me this man ISNT saying timmies. george objects to this spelling bc it implies that the products themselves are called timmies (singular timmy) like at least timmy’s keeps that meaning that the restaurant belonged to tim horton. henry points out that it’s spelled tim hortons w/o an apostrophe so timmies should technically be considered the correct spelling and george informs him that they only got rid of the apostrophe bc of a language law in québec and henry is like why do you care you don’t even call it that and george is like it’s the principle of things and by the time henry’s asking about his opinion on the name timbits the person at the drive thru window is sick of them bc their coffee’s getting cold

semi related remember timbiebs. henry wouldve gotten the merch.

violet : tim’s but she doesn’t go very often, she has way better options

effie : effie is such a timmy’s girlie you’d hear her say « i think i want timmy’s » and think yeah that’s such a thing she would say. truly it’s the most logical option in the world. rest in peace effie newsome you wouldve loved calling tim hortons timmy’s

watts : tim hortons or tim’s but like violet he doesnt go very often bc he knows better places to get coffee and donuts, mourns the pretzel bagel constantly

margaret : tim horton’s, way used to the apostrophe and when one she goes to frequently changes their signage she mentions it to brax who’s like why does it matter bad coffee is bad coffee doesnt matter who it belongs to lmaoooo

choi : tim hortons but only bc he hasnt been canadian long enough. in due time he will start to adapt tim’s i believe this to be true