#everything useful I can think of

[baratrongirl]

Hi! I wanted to know if you had any tips on writing fanfictions, especially hurt/comfort. I have so many ideas and I wrote down what I want to do but have no idea how :/

I've been thinking about this ask for weeks now, and I'm still not sure how to go about structuring the reply. So I'm afraid that this isn't going to be the most coherent response, because it's actually a much bigger question than it looks.

Who?

The first thing to consider is who you want to get Hurt, and who you want to do the Comforting. This might be simple (your comfort character is the one who gets Hurt and the one you like to ship with them is the Comforter), but it doesn't have to be. A story with two principal characters is obviously easiest to write, but you can have multiple characters Comforting. (I would only recommend this if you have a group of close people, e.g. the Wright Anything Agency in Ace Attorney fic.) Part of a good Hurt/Comfort is that it increases the relationship level between the characters. So you can write about an existing Romantic Relationship, or a close friendship, or acquaintances, or even strangers if you wish - knowing that they're going to be closer at the end. Having a character who Comforts the Hurt character in the way that they need can be a way of boosting a friendship to a romantic relationship, since the Comforter's responsiveness can be a way for them to show their love for the Hurt one.

Wow this post will be long.

What?

The nature of the Hurt will determine the length of the story. A small Hurt, like receiving homophobic or transphobic abuse from one stranger on one occasion, will not need a great deal of Comforting. A big Hurt, like being kidnapped or abused over a period of time, will need a large amount of Comforting.

There could also be a situation where one small Hurt reminds the Hurt person of other times they have been Hurt in the past, and they have an emotional breakdown that is disproportionate to the size of the current Hurt. (e.g. Klavier's history with his brother Kristoph, or Apollo's history with being in foster care)

Think about what you feel like writing. Emotional abuse? Physical abuse? An injury? Sickfic? etc. And also whether you need to vent about anything in your life. Give your own chronic illness or disability to your favourite character, so it gets written about authentically. Or write about an injustice that is bothering you, with as much understanding as you can muster.

What do you Enjoy? What do you Need?

Is there something that you really like to read about in fic? I personally like it when a usually strong character breaks down emotionally or faints. I'd hate it if one of my actual friends fainted in front of me in real life, but the whole point of fiction is that you can explore "what if"s.

If you're writing about your own illness or disability, is there a way that people can help you that they never seem to think of? Can you write the Comforter doing the exact thing that you yourself want people to do?

Do you want to write something really extreme, like having a Bad Person point a gun at your favourite character? And have their Comforter come in to scream at the Bad Person and karate-chop them? Do you want to have your Hurt person get Hurt by jumping in front of a bullet aimed at the Comforter? Go for it! It's fiction, no one is really getting hurt, but you can explore real feelings through the writing.

Balancing the Story

I always feel that the amount of time/number of words spent on the Hurt and the Comfort need to be relatively balanced. It isn't usually half and half, but maybe more like one third to two thirds? Two fifths to three fifths? Hard to say until you start writing, of course.

I've definitely read stories where the Comfort part turns into a Budding Romance, and it's left the story feeling unbalanced, because that Romance part would have been much better as a sequel. I've also read other stories where the Hurt/Comfort has only been one or two chapters in the entire thing, and it's worked fine that way.

Comforting

I always feel that the Hurt is easy to write but the Comfort less so. It's easy to write a factual account of Klavier breaking his fingernail on a guitar string and how it's the last straw on a shitty day. It's harder to figure out how Apollo is going to help him feel better.

So here are some things that the Comforter needs to do. Listen - The Hurt person may well know what they need. They might need physical affection like a hug. They might need to be left alone. They might need the other to be present in the room but not touching them so that they can breathe. Or they might not know what will help, in which case the Comforter needs to guess at things.

Help - Things which might help in various situations include physical touch, a blanket/pillow/plushie, a drink of water, ice cubes, etc. The Hurt person might also need to scream or yell for a while about the situation until they can calm down. Are they unconscious? Do they need medical attention or to be taken to hospital? Are they sick or injured enough to need an ambulance?

Talk before Doing - Consent is INCREDIBLY important when a person has been Hurt. "Would you like a hug?"-type language if the people are not so close. Ask whether they want to be held loosely or squeezed tightly. If the Comforter has to leave the Hurt person, e.g. to get a first aid kit or some water, have them explain verbally what they are doing.

If the Hurt person is having a panic attack or something similar, then have your Comforter talk them through it. Have the Comforter ask the Hurt person to put their hand on the Comforter's chest, to feel their breathing, and to try to match their breathing. Lots of talking from the Comforter is especially important if the Hurt person is incoherent or unable to speak at all.

Alternate Communication - Some neurodivergent people may go mute in extremely stressful situations and they may have a card which says that it's hard to communicate right now, or multiple cue cards, or a workaround like typing on their phone. Think about how your characters will communicate when Hurt and when well. If the two people in the story are incredibly close, then they might use body language rather than verbal communication. The Hurt person might drop their head onto the Comforter's shoulder, signalling that that they need to be held. Consent CAN be non-verbal and it can seem clunky if an established couple are still expressly asking for consent verbally. (Some smut stories make this mistake, having the couple ask for everything with words, making it seem like they're having their first time together rather than being two people who know each other extremely well.)

Stay Calm - Even if your Comforter is absolutely freaking out inside, have them attempt to stay as calm as possible. If you write from their point of view, you can show the internal freakout as well as the attempt to stay calm. It's often easier to write from the Comforter's point of view especially if the Hurt person is going through something like a faint or a panic attack, because their mind will be blank.

Anything Special that ONLY that Comforter can Do? - Here's an idea you can have for free. I've seen a fair number of authors write Apollo's Perceive as an actual medical condition, that it gives him a headache or migraine or makes him overload. What I've never seen anyone do is have Klavier give him a pair of sunglasses! Migraines make a person sensitive to light, Klavier is a rock star and carries sunglasses everywhere. It would make total sense for him to put his rockstar shades on Apollo's sore eyes.

Try Not to Write in Therapy Speak. Unless your character talks about having been in therapy in the fic, or is known to have been in therapy in the canon, try to avoid overly psychological language. It sounds clunky and unrealistic to have a character analysing themselves - unless they are a person who would authentically do that! (e.g. Miles Edgeworth post-"death") This is triply important if you are writing in the past (e.g. Victorian times, before most therapy was even invented).

Dealing With Commenters

So you've written your story and published it, and now you have people commenting on it. Hopefully they will be polite, enthusiastic and encouraging you to write more.

Sometimes they will be flipping weirdos, coming into your nice Klapollo sickfic and asking you to write a story where Athena is pregnant and having morning sickness, and not only do you have any particular interest in Athena, you are squicked like mad by pregnancy! YOU CAN SAY NO! "No." is a complete sentence, but you can also say "Sorry, that idea isn't for me, I hope you find someone else who can write it for you."

Okay, I think that is literally everything I can think of for now. Some other people might be along to comment on this post, see if they have anything interesting to add. Good luck with your writing! Sorry it took so long to answer you but honestly, it's a hard question :D

[icewindandboringhorror]

(also feel free in the tags to clarify Why you made the choice you made!! :0c)

[batcavescolony]

Katniss is such an unreliable narrator. She says "Then something unexpected happens. At least, I don't expect it because I don't think of District 12 as a place that cares about me" girl you deliver strawberries to the Mayor, you hunt and trade for the district, when you fell at Prim being chosen someone caught you, when you went to Prim people parted for you, when you volunteered EVERYONE stopped. Idk how to tell you but I think you're a pillar of the community.

[sophiebaybey]

Not to preach to the choir but I wonder if people generally realize that AI models like ChatGPT aren't, like, sifting through documented information when you ask it particular questions. If you ask it a question, it's not sifting through relevant documentation to find your answer, it is using an intensely inefficient method of guesswork that has just gone through so many repeated cycles that it usually, sometimes, can say the right thing when prompted. It is effectively a program that simulates monkeys on a typewriter at a mass scale until it finds sets of words that the user says "yes, that's right" to enough times. I feel like if it was explained in this less flattering way to investors it wouldn't be nearly as funded as it is lmao. It is objectively an extremely impressive technology given what it has managed to accomplish with such a roundabout and brain-dead method of getting there, but it's also a roundabout, brain-dead method of getting there. It is inefficient, pure and simple.

[mynnthia]

was talking with a friend about how some of dunmeshi fаndom misunderstands kabru's initial feelings towards laios.

to sum up kabru's situation via a self-contained modernized metaphor:

kabru is like a guy who lost his entire family in a highly traumatic car accident. years later he joins a discord server and takes note of laios, another server member who seems interesting, so they start chatting. then laios reveals his special interest and favorite movie of all time is David Cronenberg's Crash (1996), and invites kabru to go watch a demolition derby with him

[luoce]

hey emo boy.... (gender neutral)

at this point im using them as just a dress up doll bro but this is so fun oh artfight is soon and the mac art shall slow down but perhaps not stop

[xxplastic-cubexx]

obligatory beach divorce doodling

bonus rough cover redraw of x-men #41 (1995) But Beach Divorce below cut

[hinamie]

i'm exactly as normal about him as I thought I'd be

[skull-pun]

Literally my biggest problem with the current state of things.

Atrocities and corruption are just met with a "eh" and that is just insane to me.

Like, have people always been this way? I really don't think they have, it really does feel like Trump and the pandemic caused the vast majority of people to become apathetic to the most inhumane shit.

Also we don't talk enough about how actually fucked up it is to have a generation of kids who have instant access to porn and gore and how that may have a negative impact on shit like empathy.

I grew up with best gore, I've seen some horrible shit, and I can tell you that it has definitely desensitised me.

But whenever you try to address the issue you just get called a boomer or a pussy or you get accused of trying to censor the Internet, like, what? No.

I'm not trying to censor the Internet I just don't think kids should have access to videos of factory workers being turned inside out.

*sigh* Idk man

[elodieunderglass]

And one amang, an Iyrysch man,

Uppone his hoby swyftly ran…

WAIT HANG ON - slamming the brakes on drawing this stupid picture - do you nerds even KNOW the etymology of the word “hobby”? The thing you do for pleasure? The thing you have too many of? The thing you spend too much money on and share with your friends? The thing tumblr probably is to you? Those hobbies?

It comes from a now-kind-of-extinct breed of Irish pony-horse. It was called the Irish Hobby. Supposedly the hobby got its name from the Gaelic word obann, or swift. They definitely were. They’d obann your pants clean off.

Fast tough little bastards, built for rough terrain and renowned for their speed and stamina, hobby horses belonged to the Celts, and their highly annoying style of mounted warfare. but their conquerors liked hobby horses a lot, kept them, used them for themselves, and found them useful enough, despite the fact that they also had famously useful things like mounted knights or horse archers. A lightweight Irish warrior, mounted on a hobby horse, was called a hobelar.

Reportedly and in depictions, hobelars rode without stirrups. Or saddles. Or bridles. Or - well - this is all sounding very improbable, because the hobelars COULDNT have just been charging around basically bare-assed on naked ponies, screaming, and somehow in the process undoing the composure of actual mounted armoured knights. Knights who, I remind you, had stirrups. Stirrups are useful! It’s quite likely the hobelars had some gear. And clothes. and weapons. And the ponies probably had some tack - I am picturing a bellyband that you could at least hang a saddlebag on, and a neck rope for catching the bloody thing, even if not a saddle. But the overall impression, somehow created by people on darling little ponies, was apparently quite striking and fearful.

I mean. God Forbid People Have Hobbies.

Anyway after a while, whatever people became the British had eventually conquered all of the rough terrain that hobbies were best at, and horse archers just got sexier, and mounted knights became aristos, and all the bog and forest people had been subdued, so it was time to sunset the hobelars. but WAIT! Hobby horses are still tremendously fun and appealing! They’re so fast! and you can ride them without a saddle! Sure, they’re not up to the weight of a mounted knight, or indeed a lot of guys… but surely we can still find a use for a hobby or two? In the back garden? Somewhere?

At which point an English king decided to keep hobby horses just for fun. No military application. No further development of the technology. Not for fun. Just as expensive, pleasurable, pets. Just for the joy of the thing.

And that is how hobby (activity done purely for pleasure) comes from hobby horse (small horse) possibly from obann (swift.) they’re very interesting and you should look all this up for yourself! because it sure sounds like Elodie doing a bit, doesn’t it?

Today, Irish Hobbies are functionally nonexistent. References for drawing include the Kerry Bog Pony, the Connemara, and (I personally think) Dartmoors and Exmoors. They’re said to have lent their speed to the Irish Hunter/Sport Horse and from there to the Thoroughbred, but every damn horse in the world claims relation to the Thoroughbred, and they can’t be THAT thoroughly bred.

At any rate - you can never have enough hobbies. Just be glad that yours aren’t expensive beasts with minds of their own, eating their heads off in the pasture! …Unless they are. In which case, you’re part of a proud tradition.

[egophiliac]

A-anime?

you know, sometimes I forget that Twst is actually an isekai that starts with the protagonist getting run over by an inexplicable horse-drawn carriage. and every time I'm reminded is a delight because that's AMAZING.

also. look. okay. there's a lot of very fun stuff in the trailer but I am obsessed with that Crowley surprised pikachu face. me when I spend all my keys and gems literally hours before they announce overblot SSRs and drop the anime trailer:

[the---hermit]

"we who study humanities are lucky because to us nothing loses meaning, of course we won't be reading a book from the 1400s the same way they did back then, but with time it acquired more and more meanings and we can still find things to reflect on today"

and with this random reflection this professor won me over

[gascreates]

a new star

[lyxchen]

I'M SORRY did they give Maxine ocd?? (not angry, more like just really surprised) like the light switch and then the "Wrong. Everyone I love will die" and having to flip the light switch again, like that's intrusive thought + compulsion. Was this intentional? Are the writers aware that this is an ocd thing???

[keferon]

Can't stop thinking about these @/spector-author's tags....

Imagine. Shockwave is educated but he doesn't have any experience with the actual fairies. He knows about safety rules but only on the level of someone who never tried to ride a bike knowing that they need to balance.

Therefore. Shockwave is slipping constantly. Saying stupidly dangerous things like "Whatever you want just please be quiet for five minutes". Not really registering that every wrong worded sentence is basically a "deal".

[holographings]

i could not prevent it