#finally wrote something i like prose wise!

[philtstone]

some pairs: peter/gamora, bucky/sarah, han/leia, aishwarya/vikram

some words: literary, aromatic, windswept, proximity

sarah/bucky, windswept

Two Boots River was not ever a river but in fact a marshy channel that got bogged up by water reeds and slime in the summer season. The residents of St. Bernard’s Parish had called it such before there was a parish for St. Bernard anywhere in sight, and at this point it was a long abandoned fisherman’s route; the overnight shacks lining dotting the route were decrepit and all the best spots for crab traps were infested. No one knew by what, but nobody went there anymore anyway, if they were smart. Unless they were taking a shortcut home, to get back in time for a meeting with a potential investor, which Sarah Wilson had scheduled for tomorrow.

“Fuck,” says the woman in question. “Shit damn. This is what I get for being an idiot.”

She isn’t leaning over the side of the boat because that would be terribly unwise in a gale. It could be a hurricane. Nothing about one in the news, but Sarah wouldn’t bet against that just being her luck. 

“Maybe I’ll find those boots,” calls out her companion, over the roaring rainstorm. 

“You will not,” Sarah says. She keeps having to swipe water out of her eyes. God, it is terrible out here, and the St. Grace is stuck. She is in one of those positions where she cannot be thankful that they made enough money in the last quarter for her to be able to buy a second boat – not when they could possibly lose it in a freak storm of her own idiocy. “You’ll find a bunch of ghosts, that’s what those boots belong to.”

He eyes the churning muck below them with a detachedly contemplative precision that doesn’t make sense given the hurricane. “It’s not a hurricane,” Bucky says.

“I’m gonna lose my house,” says Sarah, wiping her face again and holding down a rope for dear life, lest the whole thing pick up and fly away. “Please God let my children be in the neighbour’s storm room. You haven’t lived here.” 

“I can do ghosts,” he says instead of answering her, and then jumps into the water. 

If Sarah were a better person she’d have stopped him, for the sake of his general health. This kind of bog muck in the middle of a storm can kill a person, just as sure as it can get a boat stuck in the middle of fucking nowhere. Sarah throws the line down anyway and swears a bit more to herself because there is no one there but God and the ghosts to hear. After three minutes of the wind’s interminable howling she is sure Bucky Barnes is dead and she has killed him. Then the line goes taut and St. Grace lurches and Sarah nearly falls so hard she breaks her nose.

“Jesus,” she says. They are moving forward, by inches. The braken sludges away around St. Grace’s hull. She’s gonna miss her meeting for sure. “Bucky?” she calls out into the howl of the storm. “James?” They’re moving forward in earnest now. But she can’t really see him. If they’re moving he hasn’t drowned. Sarah is being practical about it.

“James B you better not be dead,” she says.

Bucky pops out of the water about a yard away, black with mud. He’s the wettest equivalent of windswept, like the gale winds were going at him under the water too.

“Fuck,” he says, and spits out muck. The rope is wound tight around his left arm and she can see the strain of exertion in his neck, under the muck. His eyes look frightened by something that is not the storm. Ghosts, probably. The fool. He didn't think, did he. Regardless, Sarah wets her bottom lip, unnecessarily given the storm, and doesn't know why she didn’t fully believe him when he said he'd pull them out by hand. Wildly, for a moment, Sarah wonders: if were her house really to be blown away, could Bucky build her a new one?

But just now his eyes still look frightened -- they are the only part of his face she can really make out -- so she puts that thought out of mind and calls directions out to him over the wind, so they can find safety together.

Blessedly, he hears her.

An hour later they are sheltering in one of those abandoned fisherman’s shacks. Except it’s not abandoned, as there was a can of beans in the pantry and wood for a fire by the stove, also non-moldy blankets closed up in a pretty modern plastic bin. 

“I feel like I’m camping,” Sarah says. “Guess I’m not the only person stupid enough to take Two Boots. My meeting …” she sighs, trailing off. She is wrapped in one of the blankets but still has her shorts and t-shirt on, as they didn’t take too much damage under her parka. Bucky’s across from her on the other side of the table, wrapped in the two remaining blankets, which he’s mostly using to cover his left side and damp boxers. They watch his sopping clothes drip slow slow slow onto the floor by the stove fire, together. 

“Those are gonna be gross tomorrow,” he says.

“It’s okay,” says Sarah, tired, rubbing one eye and not thinking about it. “I don’t mind you being a little naked.”

She cringes then, because that’s not really fair or appropriate. Bucky came with her because he is technically her employee or something. She’s not sure. Of course he is family, and he isn’t out there superheroing with Sam at present, which he has not called retirement but certainly hasn’t talked much about in a different capacity either. He just showed up one day and Sarah started giving him things to do because Lord knows they needed to be done, and she liked having him around. 

She chances a glance at him and he looks mildly amused, save for the traitorous pink flush on his neck, which she figures he can’t help as a white person. Poor thing.

“Sorry,” she says.

“It’s fine,” hasty. “I’m just – the mud brought back bad memories.” She realizes he is trying to apologize for being quiet, which she now realizes could have maybe been read as taciturn or even completely dissociated, but she was so caught in her own worries she really didn’t notice.

“Oh, James,” she says.

“The house will be okay, you know?”

“Will you?”

He grunts. Looks at her a long time. The fire goes on crackling. She looks at the crates in the corner, which hold the engine parts they’d gone to pick up for a little skiff that’ll help St. Grace with the fishing. Sarah is terrible at delegating; someone else could’ve run this route. At the same time, she seems terrible at refusing help lately, too, specific help from a specific person, and it is making her skin itch. Neither of them should be here right now. What if the house blows away? As if to drive this point home thunder cracks outside, so loud it makes itself known through the wind.

“You better not be here because you’re running away,” Sarah says abruptly. Maybe the thunder scared the words out of her. Or the reminder of his ghosts. It’s very hard suddenly to stop herself from climbing over the table and touching him. It would be a grabby touch, the kind that would hold him in place. The thought is embarrassing but Sarah is grown enough to admit to it, and to be righteously angered by the evidence that compels her in that direction, too.

“Running?” Bucky asks. His hair sticks up at the top, in a tuft, where he dried it roughly with the blanket’s edge.

“Cause you’re not out there, you know, but I think you still like superheroing. I think you’ve always been that kind of person.”

That's not the full truth, but the full truth would be callous. And anyway, he can think and understand what he likes about Sarah, too.

“Is this because I said to come with you on this trip?”

“Yeah, Mr. Helpful. Not just me though. Everyone in town. If it was just me I’d say sure, I know the way you look at me, whatever. Men show they like you with all kinds of stupid. But everyone else, too.”

“I’m not a superhero, Sarah.”

“Then what the hell are you, Bucky Barnes?” To me, she means.

He tilts his head and stares at the floor. The light from the fire carves out his cheekbones and lashes and the smudge of bog muck still covering his temple. Sarah is overcome by the urge to cry. 

He shrugs. “Family man, I guess.”

“You guess.” Oh. The tears do come.

“Sarah?”

“Yeah, baby.”

“I think I love you.”

Sarah wipes hard at the wetness on her face, annoyed that it is persisting even now that she’s safe from the gale outside. She takes a few deep breaths. “You mean, not just like family.”

“Oh. No. In love, I guess.” His voice has gone terribly soft. “In love with you.”

The fire crackles. The wind gales. They can hear the bell on St. Grace dinging outside where she tosses a bit, even tied down so nicely.

“Yeah? I’m halfway there.” Sarah is surprised by the tenderness in her own voice, considering how this has complicated her world. “Maybe two thirds.”

“I know.”

“So why’d you say it? You could’ve waited.”

“I didn’t know I could. Felt good to say it, I guess.”

“What?” She realizes, “love somebody? Oh my God, Bucky, a blind crab could’ve told me you could love someone.”

He frowns, but there’s humour in his voice when he says, “Yeah, but you could tell ‘cause you’re good at it. I haven’t been any good at it in a while.”

And you just thought to try with me? Is Sarah’s next thought, which is more hateful than he deserves. The wind picks up outside quite suddenly and it feels the shack is about to fly away with it.

“Sarah,” he says again. She does love how he holds her name in his mouth. Sarah gets up and goes over and sits beside him on the chair. It’s not really big enough to hold both of them and their blankets, but they make it work. They both smell. And his left shoulder is uncomfortable to lean her head against, so, after a moment of contemplation, she kisses it instead. 

“I’m gonna miss my meeting,” says Sarah, almost in a laugh, and then doesn’t think about much else: the hungry yearning in the room has stopped existing as a ghost. One too many acts of tenderness have breathed life back into it. "Boots are still wet though," she adds, tugging his urgent hands around her waist. The blanket has slipped mostly away from his shoulder now, "yours I mean. Maybe we can split my clothes between us tomorrow."

And it is a silly thought, so they both do laugh, properly this time, like a brighter version of the St. Grace's bell being tossed around in the storm.

[tc-doherty]

TC's Practical Writing Tips

Like I said before, I'm not gonna sit here and pretend that I can teach anyone how to write – that's a level of hubris even I'm not capable of –but in honor of my rapidly approaching ~quarter century of writing original fiction anniversary~, I did figure I would share the tips that I live by when it comes to the act of writing.

So without further ado:

Write it now, fix it later

2. It is always permissible – and usually enjoyable – to write the stupidest possible version

3. "Inspiration" is great for poets, but poison for people who write prose

3.1: if you want to write often, you need to write often, and then you will find that you don't need to be "inspired" because you will have made a habit of it and it will come naturally 3.2: even one sentence a day is still one sentence a day. And even one sentence a week is still one sentence a week. It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop 3.3: believing in the concept that you need to be inspired to write will trap you into believing in the concept of writer's block 3.4: if you are having difficulty getting out words that satisfy you, lower your standards and keep writing (see point one)

4. A few months down the line you will not remember which words came easily and which words did not

5. It is always permissible to set a project aside for now, or forever, if you need a break

6. Read widely and often, both in your favorite genres and outside of them

6.1: pay special attention to both things that you love and things that you hate - study them, engage with them, learn what makes yourself tick and your writing can only get stronger

7. Never write for the lowest common denominator, via wise words I once heard: "if you open the window and make love to the world, your story will get pneumonia", have an audience in mind and the people who like what you write will find it

8. Never write for the bad faith critic, those people will always exist and you will need to deal with them at some point if you put your writing in the world, but they don't matter and you cannot live in fear of them

9. It's fine and normal to want engagement and praise, however you must find a way to make the act of writing joyful in and of itself – make the praise the cherry on top, not the entire sunday

9.1: writing is hard work, and it's a lot of work, if you lose the ability to enjoy the journey and are proceeding only for external rewards from others, you will gradually write less and less if the ratio of work to rewards is unsatisfying

10. For anything other than final copy editing, always write a new draft into a new document, or else the words you have already written will trap you from being able to make large, sweeping changes

10.1: any change you make will invariably snowball, and you must give space for that snowball to roll

11. If someone tells you that something doesn't work for them, believe them, because people know what they like. But if people try to tell you what to do to fix it, take that with an entire serving of salt because you are the author, not them

12. It is always morally correct to look at a critique that you received, even if you asked for opinions via beta reading, and decide that it's bullshit and doesn't apply to you

13. "write what you know" means "write what you're interested in"

14. "Show don't tell" applies to screenwriting, not novels. This is the thing that drives me the most insane every time I see it. Novels are words on a page, not images on a screen. They require a lot of telling. Not all telling, but a lot of telling. Become comfortable with that.

15. It is always, ALWAYS acceptable to use "said", do not listen to the lies of others

16. Have fun, do it out of love and you will never go astray

17. Become comfortable with who you are. Your work is always going to be yours and it is always going to sound like you wrote it, and this is a good thing! No one else is ever going to write exactly like you, and you should be proud of that

17.1: the concept of "originality" is vastly overrated, every culture has some version of Cinderella and we still love it. Your writing is yours because you wrote it, and it will always be unique because of that

[child-of-hurin]

I am actually going to ask these right back at you:

🦀 What is your favorite fanwork you've made this year and why?

🦀 Do you have any fanworks projects for next year? What?

🦀 Did you have any fanworks projects for this year that you ended up giving up on? If so, why?

🦀 Is there a fanwork you made this year that, looking back now, you would have done differently in any way?

🦀 Is there a fanwork you made this year that you wish had gotten more attention?

🦀 Did fandom this year surprise you in any way? Do you have any wishes for next year regarding fandom?

Thank you, that's very sweet! (and lovely to see him again > 🦀🦀🦀🦀)

🦀 What is your favorite fanwork you've made this year and why?

Definitely my Queen's Thief/Turandot AU "Come Dawn", it was truly just so much fun to write and tinker with! I like that Queen's Thief allowed me to play around with the elements of Turandot that I love and that I hate, and I just had so much fun visualizing everything as I wrote it. I also did something ambitious with the prose and tried to emulate a writer I like, that I'm not going to name because I don't want to embarrass myself hahaha. I really liked the process as much as I liked the final product.

🦀 Do you have any fanworks projects for next year? What?

Nothing concrete, I just really want to draw more :/

🦀 Did you have any fanworks projects for this year that you ended up giving up on? If so, why?

A bunch, but top of the list: I wanted to get back to making end-of-year greeting cards to send online friends, like I used to...this has been my "new year" project for 5 years now and I never get around to it ;/ TO BE HONEST, we moved recently into a place that needs a lot of work and between that, regular chores and normal working hours, I haven't had the energy for drawing...makes me really sad

🦀 Is there a fanwork you made this year that, looking back now, you would have done differently in any way?

My Hamiathes's Gift Exchange gift, "A picture's worth" -- I just wish I had had more time to polish it and tinker with it.

I think sometimes you see the problems in your work and you understand they are due to your own limitations as an artist, and that's ok. But sometimes you see imperfections that are in your power to correct and develop, and that's a little harder to accept. It was an ambitious project, I had fun working on it, but I really wish I had had more time. Oh well!

🦀 Did fandom this year surprise you in any way? Do you have any wishes for next year regarding fandom?

Queen's thief-wise, I was pleased to see some fics exploring darker/less visited corners of the canon, which is something I'm always interested in!

More personally, I was surprised by the positive reception of my Tolkien fic "In-Betweens", which was maybe my second favorite thing I wrote this year. I honestly never expect to get much attention for any of my fics in general, & especially for the Tolkien fandom, which is such a splintered fandom where everyone is ultra-specific and picky about their preferred versions. It's also a fic about menstruation, not necessarily a popular topic. 27 kudos is not a lot but it's about 25 more than I expected, so I'm happy about that!

[definegodliness]

Hi hi. I hope this finds you well. Haha.

Your work is fucking riveting. Just the perfect amount of Perplexing, relatable and You.

I keep wondering, given you mentioned you didn't ever expect or perhaps want, to get into writing how did writing find you and how is your experience. Writing. What does that feel like for you?

And your writing voice. Its so eloquent so... artful..is that something you cultivated or was that simply a natural happening.

Personally I find nyself very disconnected from my work and the experience when i try to actively cultivate or "play around" with technique and prose etc. I naturally have a keeness to word play of sound and feel. Cadence. But the eloquence of your word choice is beauteus. Its something I would love to see in my own work im not quite sure though how to approach that goal whilst staying connected and thoroughly immersed in my experience when writing.

Hello there, Anon,

Thank you for your glowing, upbeat words. They have found me very well today, and I will cherish them. I did not expect to get into writing, because as a young adult my aim was to be successful in a rather narrow- corporate-minded way. I aimed for a job that paid well. So, writing absolutely did not fit my ego-fueled ambitions. A simpleton I was, but fortunately I can blame my inexperience in doing this living thing. I have always been a logophile. A word sponge. I care not for archaism or rarity, what matters is descriptiveness. When I find a word that is oddly particular, specialist, and above all precise, I experience a sense of elation. Even more when I finally get to use such a word. I guess you could say I favor precise communication over clear communication. Ironically, this is instigated by an innate longing to communicate clearly; as to achieve the purest possible connection, with as little as possible noise on the line between sender and receiver.

So, even when I had abandoned my love (for writing) to climb the corporate ladder, she has always kept seducing me, and has always remained part of me. Life, since then, has been slicing away at me. On the one hand, unfortunately, because life would be so much easier if I still had the same ambitions as then, but on the other hand I feel fortunate to have been chipped away, and ongoingly ever closer, to my core-self. Now, I can honestly say The Writer is a core-part. A part of me that blew up when I met my first love.

Without consciously setting out to write poetry, in hindsight, I wrote poem after poem for that girl. Of course, back then, it felt like simply sharing my heart with her. And it was such an overwhelming outpour of love, that, when she was not near, I had to canalize it through writing.

When she shattered my heart, it was very much the same. I developed scribomania, and for years I could not go without writing without suffocating. I always say writing helped me to learn to breathe underwater. However, it was more than catharsis. Prose turned to poetry, and I fell in love with this art form. Aside from getting emotions out, I also soaked in every bit to do with the craft. In that, poetry has given me a sense of purpose. What I love most is that you're never done learning, and therein you are never done evolving as a poet.

Curiosity is key. Reading-wise, when I like a poem, I am always keen to learn the whys. Then, try my hand at it. So I tried a lot of different styles, and when I finally wrote a satisfactory poem in that style, I went back to my own. Still incorporating the things I have learned. I have tried (nigh) every type of fixed verse similarly. Yes, sometimes fixed verse feels mechanical. But when I reread old work I do see my, then subconscious, emotions resurface. It may feel as if you are more disconnected than when writing free verse, but I assure you you are not. The set boundaries of fixed verse should not be seen as shackles, but as a lens; you utilize it to create a focal point.

Still, if you are truly averse to fixed verse, it has been mostly beneficial to me, because counting syllables, utilizing meter, and searching perfect rhymes has often sent me to my thesaurus and dictionary. It helps to hone your inborn skills, like lyricism and cadence. I do think my writing voice is natural, and that any writing voice is — I have never searched for it, doubted, or questioned it — but I also have cultivated it, longing to make it resound as clear as can be.

I think it's great you are confident in your own writing voice. That you know your strengths, and can play around with them. Never let anyone take that away from you. Never be hesitant, worried, or ashamed to write what you feel, need, or just plain simply want to write. Like I said, I love poetry because you can continuously keep evolving, and even if you feel a poem turned out subpar, or bad, or great for you but it turns out nobody else likes it, it is always a step in your evolution. There are many roads that lead to Rome. I now shared a glimpse of my path. But if you stay curious and just keep doing what you love, you will always get where you want to be.

Long answer, but I haven't written for a week, and I guess I am still a bit scribomanic. Your message offered a welcome distraction, and reason to pick up the pen.

For which you have my thanks,

Best wishes,

Mark

[nonsensefromtheabyss]

I wanted to ask you, do you have any writing tips? I love the way you write descriptions. Do you write them however it feels right or do you take inspiration?

Omg!!! Describing is my favourite <3 I can’t promise to be helpful because, for all I love writing, I’ve never really worked out a formal structure for how to do it; I just have at it and have fun! … Actually, that’s the only tip I can offer with full confidence; have fun, don’t be nervous to experiment with styles, prioritise enjoyment over perfection. I’ll say some other stuff as well because I’m incapable of shutting up, but that’s the takeaway I’d like anyone to have.

I'm very good at visualising things, so I like to just mentally sit in an environment or run through a scene as many times as it takes to get familiar with what I 'see', and then go from there. Sometimes I write a setting or scene multiple times. Then, I either choose the version I like the best or edit the good bits together into a final copy. If I do the latter, it does mean I have to be careful to avoid repeating things, cutting important things out, the scene feeling completely incoherent and disjointed, etc, but that’s just a matter of proofreading. Both methods take away the imagined pressure of having to get it ‘right’ first try, which is something I struggle with.

Unless I'm looking to be absolutely accurate for some reason, I tend not to worry too much about precisely what a place would actually be like—beyond broad strokes I'm more interested in conveying something thematic or atmospheric. Big fan of metaphors! And juxtapositions! And similes! And anything that lets me skirt around the difficult bits of language. One thing I really enjoy doing is using two unrelated concepts to describe a very specific idea; those either come to me in the moment and are perfect or I spend forever trying to decide what’s most apt, no in between, I’ve either got it or I ain’t. “Diz drove the way a man having a seizure paints—badly.” That’s one I distinctly remember being fond of.

Sometimes, if I’m stuck on how to convey a vibe in a section, I read a few passages from a book which has the tone I’m looking to embody. Some of my more ornate descriptions are inspired by Edgar Allen Poe, for example. The works of Frances Hardinge are a big reason for my love of weird metaphors. Hell, some of the more colloquial bits of prose are literally just how I speak when I’m doing a bit. I wanted the section to be mildly amusing and just… did it as a bit. Did it work, you maybe ask? Well, I amused myself, so it counts for something!

I think, technique-wise, I might advise writing dialogue separately (I tend to do it first) and then work on other things; otherwise I feel like I lose my flow. I do dialogue and tone markers, positioning and action, then description around it where it's needed and where it fits. But I don't know if that's a universally good method or if it's just what works for me; I know some people who can write it all out at once in one go—never got it down myself.

The best writing advice I’ve been given is to avoid deleting things! Maybe something didn't fit in the project you initially wrote it for; it might be absolutely perfect for something else later. Or it might not; keep it anyway, and you get to see how far you’ve come. I have whole documents like that. And notebooks full of concepts and half-sentences—unironically, those are the best for flicking through if I’m feeling uninspired. No commitment to any one concept! No pressure to be meaningful! Just vague musings about pigeons! Miscellaneous pigeons always turn out more useful than initially expected.

[masakousuke]

Fanfiction Prompts #6, 27, 79!

Thank you for sending in the ask!!! I like the questions you picked eheheh c: Gives me a chance to talk a little ^^

6. What’s the last line you wrote?

"It wasn't long before the cold finally got to him and the naivety of his t-shirt, and forced him back inside and under the sheets of his freshly made bed."

This one is from the July fic I've just started writing. The theme is Stars and uh the working title is a reference to Dante's Inferno. I know.

I'm struggling a little on this for multiple reasons, but, hey, my beta reader seems to like this first bit I've written, so that's something ^^

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

Mhhh, that's a tough question in the sense that it can be interpreted in multiple ways. So I will respond in every way I can think of >:)

It's hard to say anything without sounding conceited or full of oneself, probably, so let it be known that I'm not trying to say I'm a master in any of these areas.

In terms of styles, I believe that what I'm best at are one-shots of about 10-30k. Chaptered stories naturally come harder to me, since they require actual planning. I believe it worked out well enough when I tried with "As in spring on stems the petals", but it was a month long effort and it was, at times, very frustrating. I write as I write, I'd say, I make no stylistic effort in the prose outside of setting a theme for myself and, at times, attempting to reflect certain specific types of storytelling (there was the case of the fairytale with "The Lucky Man" and one I have planned that would read like a script for a play) so I'd say that I'm a prose person. Long and thick prose. Long sentences and an abundance of descriptors. That's what I like to write.

Genre wise, it's very easy. Character studies. I feel like all that I ever write are character studies with extra steps. So that and romance, of course.

In terms of parts of the prose itself, I want to say I'm decently good at dialogue and character interactions, since I overthink so much in my daily life that I just have a library of exact feelings and situations that kinda feel natural and pleasing to write. I think I'm good at that, making characters more human than they are characters, since that is what they are to me. I like to give them worries that go beyond the scope of the story while still tying into the themes and make them speak like human beings who live their lives like their actions and words have consequences. Everyone has more than just "things they would and wouldn't do", they also have "ways they'd do and say things" and, sometimes, that is what one should consider first and foremost. A good example of writing that makes me want to die, actually, is the: "You look like you want me to fuck you," scene in hmh.

That's another thing. I'm good at reinventing ways to quote that thing to poke fun at it.

I think maybe I'm good at writing Kousuke and character povs in a way that feels organic in general. I'm working on making a good unreliable narrator out of everyone!!!

79. Do you have any writing advice you want to share?

That's an interesting one, because writing is something that kinda comes naturally to me? Not to say that I am a natural at it, just that I write as I would speak if I were properly eloquent and that I have no particular method outside of writing what sounds good to me, both meaning and sound wise. Of course I have some ideas as to what makes good writing and how I approach things, so I'll talk about that a bit.

I think writing is essentially very simple, when one isn't trying to make it into a more abstract art form, but rather using it as a means of communication. We're writing fanfiction and, yes, it can be incredibly elaborate in its own right and I've seen people craft stories that were incredible both in content and in form, but, at its core, you will be telling a story. You can relax and just write.

Writing as it comes can be better than trying to sound good, so that is something to consider. Scavenging for words you'd never use only makes sense at times, and is entirely not worth it and overall counterproductive in every other case, I feel. I personally like words a lot, I like thinking in terms of sound, I like considering the subtle differences in meaning between one word and its synonym, but that is essentially a matter of personal taste and I never spend that much time racking my brain for words. I just kind of write as I'd speak, yes. I'm just a linguist, in that sense.

Oh and it doesn't matter if English isn't your first language and stuff like that. Most native speakers butcher their own language like nobody else ever could. A special fuck you to the person who treated me like I was lesser for that at some point without even reading anything of mine.

Write what you think, write what you feel, write what you know. Your brain is more of a resource than you think. Use the internet to fact check, use it to do research, yes, but ultimately relate everything back to that which you understand. What you have to tell, in that way, will always be worth reading, because it will be true and felt on some level.

Rapidfire round.

Purposeful repetition is good.

Grammar only matters to make things comprehensible, fuck people who say you can't start sentences with "and" and "but".

Spacing stuff is nice, but if your fic looks like single stray lines on a piece of paper I will kill myself before I can say I've enjoyed reading it.

Long sentences are okay. People are supposed to be reading the words to understand them anyways. People skimming isn't the author's fault, it's theirs.

Inspiration doesn't exist. Just write. Of course there are good times and bad times (ex. Your dog died: you do not write, my brother in Christ, not unless it helps you get through it), but there is no inspiration you can wait for. Just write if you want to. Don't if you don't.

Writing doesn't have to be fun. Any reason to write is good enough.

Don't rework your stuff into oblivion. Sometimes the first is good enough.

Write as only you would because other writers are doing that. Emulation can only bring you dissatisfaction in the face of what you've written not being "yours".

Watch movies. Read books. Read manga, watch anime, look at people in your local grocery shop, talk to human beings, feel things for yourself. Write what you know is only a limit if you don't make it your purpose to know what you write (aka the world around you).

For dialogue: how do you talk to a stranger? Awkwardly? Write that. How do you talk to your friends? Without any proper grammar? Write that.

Making characters bond and showing the chemistry is better than saying they are attracted to one another.

Write what you want to see written, even if it's just for yourself. Someone just might think it as important.

Don't overwork yourself. You're a hobbyist. Stop treating everything like it's the sole purpose in your life (looking straight at myself on this one).

Longer isn't better (stop competing with your own WCs Ulri).

Don't overplan, not if it turns out to be restrictive. Just write.

Write anything and everything on a blank page. Starting can be easy if you just let yourself.

If it doesn't come straight away, try and then come back to it later.

Ultimately, you are in control of what you write. Whether it's good or bad, if you made it and saw it through to the end, that's an achievement.

Okay. I'm done, I think.

[ren-shonen]

For the fanfic ask meme – I: Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)? (or just a theme/motif/etc. you enjoy, guiltiness aside)

I mean, I think I've discussed this before in your hearing, but I don't really think about things in terms of being "guilty pleasures" — guilt implies that I think I'm doing something wrong, or something I shouldn't be doing, and imo that doesn't really apply with fic. I have plenty of things I read that I wouldn't necessarily advertise, but that's more because it's nobody's business or because it just isn't something to bring up out of the blue except certain spaces. But my AO3 bookmarks are, I would say, not particularly shy.

As far as themes or motifs that crop up a lot, though, hmm.

On a broad level, hurt/comfort is probably the thing most likely to draw me in with a fic. There's something about "things are bad, but not entirely bleak, and we're not alone" that just resonates with me really hard. It balances and contrasts sharp and sweet in a way that is satisfying, too. I particularly like that it has the potential to explore things like the paradoxical pain that comes with relief: with the difficulty finally lifting, but when it all fully lands — when a character has space and safety enough to "lose it," and to grieve.

Some more specific motifs include: food as an expression of love; touch as a vitamin/nonsexual physical intimacy; and ambiguous relationships — especially relationships that are close but aren't easily encapsulated by an established category. I feel particularly strongly about that last one, actually. (And I doubt any of this comes as a surprise to you whatsoever! lol)

Specifically as a writer, I think all of the above definitely fits. My favorite fic of what I've written so far is also the one where multiple people said it made them cry! So I think there's probably some notion of enjoying evoking strong, resonant emotions in the reader. Intimacy, resonance, intensity — all apply.

Format-wise, I tend to write a lot of vignettes, little isolated moments in time, but that's more due to the fact that I have yet to develop my plot-writing chops than from any innate preference, maybe? (I think it mostly stems from the fact that, as a writer, I started out writing poetry! Long-form prose is honestly still very challenging for me.)

Perhaps in that sense, writing straight-up verse is a bit of an indulgence for me specifically, mainly because I have less confidence that others get as much out of it as I put in. (This bears out, so far: my two actual-poem fics get the least interaction out of the whole batch of works I wrote for heart sounds. The person I wrote them for loved them, though, and that's enough.)

[margridarnauds]

Top 5 medieval texts/stories, perhaps, if you’re still doing those asks?

Thank you! I am always willing to take the opportunity to talk medieval texts. 

1. Cath Maige Tuired - Sometimes, if you’re lucky...you come across a text at the right time in your life, and it just manages to change everything. And that’s CMT with me. I’m never going to ask someone to understand why it’s important to me, but I feel like...it’s the sort of text that you can slowly digest over the years. The way I read it now is very different from the way I read it when I was 14 or 18, and I hope that, when I’m forty, I’m going to read it in a different way than I do now. I know that there’s a perception of me, both in the field and on here, that I’m a bit of a one trick pony who’s obsessed with this one text, but I’m kind of okay with that because I decided a long time ago that I would devote myself to it if I had the choice. (Also that I’ve blown a lot of that perception out of the water with my actual body of work.) It’s very human, it’s very much...a story that is taking place in a certain cultural context at a certain time, but there’s such a surprising richness in everything, all these little details that make it something you go back to. 

2. The Mabinogi -- Not just one of the best medieval texts of all time, but one of the best stories in general. Four branches, four interlinked narratives, telling separate stories that all intertwine and intersect with one another and that carry on similar themes and ideas. The dialogue is....it doesn’t always come across in English translations, but it sings. It’s lively and bright and meaningful, the pacing is perfection, with battle scenes often being written in long sentences jam-packed with action that give you a feeling for the immediacy of it. The characters are all so individual, so intelligently written, especially the women, who are arguably, in my own opinion, some of the best written female characters in the entirety of medieval Europe, and they get so much justice from the text. They might not all meet happy ends, but the text gets them, it understands them and cares for them and sympathizes with them and lets the reader sympathize with them. 

3. Beowulf - The first time I ever read Beowulf (not including the Wishbone story), I was about 19 years old, and I was an undergrad at a tech school, taking a class on Dangerous Journeys in Literature. Our instructor had, perhaps wisely, decided to only include selections from Beowulf as our required reading, knowing that this was a class mainly for STEM majors (I was the lone Humanities major in the class), and I dutifully read that. Then, the night before the final, I decided to reread the sections, this time using the Heaney translation (which, in my professor’s defense, was what she’d recommended us in the first place -- I was just cheap and used a Gutenberg edition.) And I would keep reading a little bit more past the required section, like “well, it isn’t all too long until the next section” “oh, there’s another section coming up soon, I might as well read on through to that” “oh, I’m almost halfway through, well, might as well finish it.” Like, I was up until about 2-3 AM just reading Beowulf, taking in this epic story. It still holds up, all these years later. 

4. Dafydd ap Gwilym’s Poetry -- It’s hard for me to choose, because I was also considering something like, say, the Prose Edda, but I really, really love Dafydd ap Gwilym’s poetry, ever since I did a paper on him a little while ago. He wrote a number of wonderful poems, many of which have been translated into English, and which are available on dafyddapgwilym.net, but my personal favorite is “Y Bardd a’r Brawd Llwyd”, where a friar castigates Dafydd for his occasionally stormy affair with the married Morfudd, which forms the basis for a LOT of Dafydd’s poetry, and Dafydd tells him:��

'Nid ydyw Duw mor greulon Ag y dywaid hen ddynion.” 

“God is not so merciless

As the old people say” 

“God is not so merciless as the old people say.” In the 14th century. That’s why I love Dafydd. 

5. Tochmarc Ailbhe -- This is a surprise, I know, given that I talk MORE about my work with, say, Lebor Gabála Érenn or the Dindshenchas on here, but, while I love them dearly, and while they’re very useful for my research...they’re almost things to be respected more than liked. Don’t get me wrong, they have some wonderful bits in there, but they’re so large, almost reference material more than anything else. Tochmarc Ailbhe, meanwhile, is a complete prose story, telling the story of Cormac’s other daughter, Ailbhe, who chooses to marry Fionn mac Cumhail after her sister, Gráinne, elopes with Diarmaid. And it’s a unique text for multiple reasons -- It contains a strong emphasis on paternal love and affection towards a daughter that is unusual in an Irish text, it has Ailbhe explicitly choose to marry Fionn for his age and experience, and, unlike Emer and Cú Chulainn’s sparring match in Tochmarc Emire, which is defined by its use of somewhat esoteric knowledge that would have been mostly confined to the learned class, Ailbhe and Fionn court via riddles that require quick thinking and skill more than aristocracy. 

[polizwrites]

WIP Update - 15 Mar 2023

aA more normal week, writing wise.   I touched 4  fics (1 WIPs & 3 new works)  for a total of  2139 words.  

On Ao3, I posted:

The second and final chapter of  Wraps Around My Heart (Refusing to Unwind)  [WinterIron hanahaki]

The Captain and the Soldier   [Stucky prose poem double drabble]

On Tumblr I posted: 

Not Having Fun Down on the Bayou   [SamBucky mission shenanigans]

I have  13  active WIPs  with my current  deadlines being  the Stucky and Avengers bingos.  

See below cut for what I’m working on/planning to work on - arranged more or less by bingos/challenges/etc.  As always, feel free to send me prompts or plot bunnies as well as asks regarding any of these projects  or any other WIPs I’ve got out there.   Interaction really helps feed the Muse and keep me motivated!

Seek & Destroy Collab

After reading @psychiccatpanda‘s amazing  Morguna and the Green Queen, I got the itch to explore the Soldier’s POV and talked  Faustie into collab’ing with me!  We’re working on a new part of the series, and I’ve contributed about 478 words so far.   

Stucky Bingo Round Four [SB_R4] (Ends 31 May 2023)

Fourteen fills and one WIP with a couple of other vague ideas.

* B1 - Mutual Pining -  no specific idea, but it’s so On Brand for me I’m sure I’ll come up with something!  (maybe  the Centerfold fic idea I’ve been toying with)

* B2 - “Hold on. You can’t even drive a car.” - Used this for the March Stucky Bingo Discord party Round Robin this past weekend.  I kicked off a wartime  mission fic by writing 325 words - will share the link once it’s posted. 

* N1 - AU: Fairytale - Posted  The Captain and the Soldier  to Ao3 this morning - I stretched this prompt a little to combine it with the FFC23 Day 15: Ice prompt for a double drabble that is vaguely inspired by The Snow Queen (Hans Christian Andersen).    

* O4 - AU: Supernatural - got inspired by a dream to start a Stucky fantasy AU (magician!Steve/ensorcelled!Bucky) that @bill-longbow  is collaborating on with me. We’re currently sitting at 1640 words  (984-ish of which are mine).   Will probably continue on this sometime in March.   Current Last Line:  "My men will accompany you back to Brookline in the morning.”

I also adopted the Writing Format: Remix one of your fics  square  – am thinking of taking one of my Stony or WinterIron  No Powers fics and adapting it to a Stucky pairing – if you have any requests - hit me up!  

WinterIron - No Powers AU  –  Stony No Powers AU

Avengers Bingo Round Four [AvB_R4] (Ends 2 June)

This time around the card is a 3x3,  so am looking at writing different pairings for my two favorite Avengers - Tony and Steve.    I have 3 fills completed and two WIPs, with a couple more ideas in play.

* B3 - Mistaken Identity -  I’m planning a third chapter of my Tony/Rhodey  Western AU   Decision at Sundown   based on the ficlet I wrote to fill the “Wet Your Whistle”  FFC23 prompt.   The expansion will make both this square (and probably the fic itself) more explicit.  😁

* C1 - Babysitter AU - will probably combine with ACB  babysitting square for some sort of Stucky or Stony  shenanigans;  over on the STB Discord server, MagicaDraconia16 and I are talking about a potential collab. 

* C3 - Dog Tags - seems like a good  Steve/Bucky  (or Steve/Sam?) square.

All Caps Bingo [ACB_R1]  (Ends 30 Sep 2023)

This new bingo focuses on Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson as its main characters - paired up with each other or anyone else!    I’ve got five  completed fics, two WIPs and  will be pursuing the One Fill, One Bingo Challenge -

* B1 - Knotting - Working on a Cap!Steve/Modern Sex Worker!Bucky A/B/O AU fic - up to 1296 words and they’ve barely even touched... 

* B2 - AU: Fugitive -  I combined this with the FF23 Pirate AU prompt to write  Flying the Flag of Freedom.   I plan on expanding it to bring Sam aboard (so to speak) but need to do some more research first.  

* B4 - Walk on the Beach - squished this into  Chapter 3 of   Make My Heart Come All Undone -  No Powers AU selkie!Tony / Bucky meet-cute. It came in at 948 words.

* N4 - Deserted Island -  combined this with last week’s  Flash Fiction Friday’s prompt  [#FFF192 Sea and Sun]   for Not Having Fun Down on the Bayou - Sam & Bucky missionfic  shenanigans.  It will get posted to Ao3 before the event ends.

* G4 - Babysitting - see  AvB Babysitting AU above.

* O3 - Pararescue Sam Wilson - may try to squish this into an expansion of   A Rising Star -  a previous Flash Fiction Friday fill. 

Sam Wilson Bingo [SWB_R3]  (Ends 15 Oct 2023)

Finally got my square incorporated into my Master Bingo tracking workbook and have one fill.  I have a few squares I want to swap & will probably start tacking this and the All Caps bingo in earnest this month.

G1 - Rescue Mission  -  I combined this with last week’s  @flashfictionfridayofficial​ prompt [#FFF190 Trapped in the Dark] to write a Sam & Bucky mission fic  hurt/comfort ficlet:   Down in the Hole (Some Emotions Are Hard to Hide) It came in at  525  words and will get posted to Ao3 sometime next month.  

* G3 - Joaquin Torres - see ACB Pararescue Sam Wilson above.

WinterIron Bingo  - [WIB_R1]   (Ends 16 Dec 2023)

A brand new bingo event that I’m helping mod!   Signups for custom cards began on the 10th and will run through the 10th of April.   For more info visit  @bingowinteriron or PM me. 

Still getting my thoughts together on what to match up with other cards, but I think I’m going to try to combine my B column squares for the Iron Soldier badge (complete a bingo with a single work). -- Alpha Tony Stark,  “That was not my intention.”, James Rhodes, Alpine loves Tony and  Blind date

————

On other creative fronts:  I have a  Neptune the Turtle  figure in progress -  still working on the figures/props for my three Marvel Trumps Hate  auction winners as well (7 of 8 done so far) – thanks so much for your generous support!!  I also have multiple commissions from the Hall of Heroes Comic Con to work on and am prepping for a con in June  so am pretty well booked up through early summer.

That said, if you’re looking for one of a kind gifts for birthdays or other celebrations later in the year, check  out Stuffed With Character   over on Facebook for a full list of my designs (now over 100!).   They’re  mostly Marvel and monsters, but I have some Star Wars, Star Trek, DC   and Disney figures as well. Plus I love to take custom design  requests  for any fandom!

[daryascurse]

Hehe I saw your ask, so I wanted to give it a go :D

1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, 17, 19, & 20

I would've added more, but I didn't want to stress you out over answer more questions. 😭

:,,)) it is so kind of you to ask i am soo honored!!

1. do you know how you want the story to end when you start, or are you just stumbling through the figurative wilderness hoping to find a road?

more often than not it's just as much a journey for me as it is the reader! though i do sometimes think of later scenes, and i will immediately pause wherever i am and write out as much as i feel necessary to flesh out; then thread them back in later.

3. on a scale of 1-10 how much do you enjoy incorporating romance into the average story?

(◍•ᴗ•◍) honestly it's an even 50-50 split if I feel like writing an angsty smut or sweet romantic smut. i love either way. (since my average story these days are all smutty fics hehe!)

4. what is the plot bunny you’ve been carrying for the longest? optional bonus question: do you ever wonder why you haven’t written it yet and experience deep existential dread?

OH Man OkAY. it's what i would like to eventually be the final piece in the 10 Commandments x JJK series, with the First Commandment (Thou Shalt Not Have Any Other Gods Before Me) and it be Sukuna and a Reader with a god complex. this would be extremely different from my normal, more-submissive Reader roles, but i have actually thought of it and had flashes of it for two years. it's kind of a chicken-and-egg situation with why I haven't done it yet; i still have one more Commandment to go before that one, which i don't really have motivation/ a strong narrative inspiration for, and then, once i do that, i'll have to write the Sukuna one...

7. tell us about the plot of the first fanfic you ever wrote

honestly... it would probably be in junior high, "rewriting" Sweeney Todd but with the main character "Sweetey" who was his niece and basically just the same but she was looking for her little brother.. afsdjgdfhgjksf 💀

8. what’s your relationship with constructive criticism and feedback like? do you seek it out? how well do you take it?

hmm. i don't mind it as a whole, but i think with fic writing / ao3, there's a weird line that can be toed between constructive criticism and outright re-writing. i remember on my original account when Unholy Land was first posted, there were a lot of comments about what "should have happened" with various ideas of that. some of those endings / continuances were good suggestions, sure, but.. it's my fic to write? it kind of made me uncomfortable. not sure what to do with that.

11. what’s something neat you’ve learned while doing research for something you were writing? also, how much do you worry about doing research in general?

this is a SUPER interesting question to me; i personally really value research / work being put into fics to make them realistic in the sense of immersion. (fics can be FICTION, of course, but if there's something that's insanely unrealistic that stands out, it gnaws at me as both a reader and writer.) so - if i am writing about something i don't know with confident familiarity, or, i even want to brush up on an accurate detail, i'll do so.

but this is a fun blessing and a terrible curse. i've had a floating wip idea for a victorian-au story that i actually have all skeleton-ed out, but, i am currently tethered by my research demands. currently learning about business incorporation laws and customs of victorian london; which i am sure that the accuracies of NO ONE would care about in a story about the jaeger brothers and a husband and an affair. !! it is what it is.

17. what is your favorite line you’ve ever written?

ohhh ohh I'm not sure. hmmm!! i know i used to have an answer. ! i think across the board my prose / imagery in Matcha is perhaps my favorite fic writing-wise as a whole; but a favorite line might come from an early chapter in Chainsmoking His Love.

19. what are some books or authors that influenced your style the most?

i'm so sure that lemony snicket / daniel handler's style is a huge influence; i loved the series of unfortunate events books in a ravenous way as a child.

& i just answered 20! :)

[duckprintspress]

How to Edit an Over-Length Story Down to a Specific Word Count

One of the most wonderful things about writing as a hobby is that you never have to worry about the length of your story. You can be as self-indulgent as you want, make your prose the royalist of purples, include every single side story and extra thought that strikes your fancy. It’s your story, with no limits, and you can proceed with it as you wish.

When transitioning from casual writing to a more professional writing milieu, this changes. If you want to publish, odds are, you’ll need to write to a word count. If a flash fiction serial says, “1,000 words or less,” your story can’t be 1,025 and still qualify. If a website says, “we accept novellas ranging from 20,000 to 40,000 words,” your story will need to fall into that window. Even when you consider novel-length works, stories are expected to be a certain word count to fit neatly into specific genres - romance is usually around 80,000 words, young adult usually 50,000 to 80,000, debut novels usually have to be 100,000 words or less regardless of genre, etc. If you self-publish or work with a small press, you may be able to get away with breaking these “rules,” but it’s still worthwhile to learn to read your own writing critically with length in mind and learn to recognize what you do and do not need to make your story work - and then, if length isn’t an issue in your publishing setting, you can always decide after figuring out what’s non-essential to just keep everything anyway.

If you’re writing for fun? You literally never have to worry about your word count (well, except for sometimes in specific challenges that have minimum and/or maximum word counts), and as such, this post is probably not for you.

But, if you’re used to writing in the “throw in everything and the kitchen sink” way that’s common in fandom fanfiction circles, and you’re trying to transition only to be suddenly confronted with the reality that you’ve written 6,000 words for a short story project with a maximum word count of 5,000...well, we at Duck Prints Press have been there, we are in fact there right now, as we finish our stories for our upcoming anthology Add Magic to Taste and many of us wrote first drafts that were well over the maximum word count.

So, based on our experiences, here are our suggestions on approaches to help your story shorter...without losing the story you wanted to tell!

Cut weasel words (we wrote a whole post to help you learn how to do that!) such as unnecessary adverbs and adjectives, the “was ~ing” sentence structure, redundant time words such as “a moment later,” and many others.

When reviewing dialog, keep an eye out for “uh,” “er,” “I mean,” “well,” and other casual extra words. A small amount of that kind of language usage can make dialog more realistic, but a little goes a long way, and often a fair number of words can be removed by cutting these words, without negatively impacting your story at all.

Active voice almost always uses fewer words than passive voice, so try to use active voice more (but don’t forget that passive voice is important for varying up your sentence structures and keeping your story interesting, so don’t only write in active voice!).

Look for places where you can replace phrases with single words that mean the same thing. You can often save a lot of words by switching out phrases like “come back” for “return” and seeking out other places where one word can do the work of many.

Cut sentences that add atmosphere but don't forward the plot or grow your characters. (Obviously, use your judgement. Don't cut ALL the flavor, but start by going - I’ve got two sentences that are mostly flavor text - which adds more? And then delete the other, or combine them into one shorter sentence.)

Remove superfluous dialog tags. If it’s clear who’s talking, especially if it’s a conversation between only two people, you can cut all the he saids, she saids.

Look for places where you've written repetitively - at the most basic level, “ ‘hahaha,’ he laughed,” is an example, but repetition is often more subtle, like instances where you give information in once sentence, and then rephrase part or all of that sentence in the next one - it’s better to poke at the two sentences until you think of an effective, and more concise, way to make them into only one sentence. This also goes for scenes - if you’ve got two scenes that tend towards accomplishing the same plot-related goal, consider combining them into one scene.

Have a reason for every sentence, and even every sentence clause (as in, every comma insertion, every part of the sentence, every em dashed inclusion, that kind of thing). Ask yourself - what function does this serve? Have I met that function somewhere else? If it serves no function, or if it’s duplicative, consider cutting it. Or, the answer may be “none,” and you may choose to save it anyway - because it adds flavor, or is very in character for your PoV person, or any of a number of reasons. But if you’re saving it, make sure you’ve done so intentionally. It's important to be aware of what you're trying to do with your words, or else how can you recognize what to cut, and what not to cut?

Likewise, have a reason for every scene. They should all move the story along - whatever the story is, it doesn’t have to be “the end of the world,” your story can be simple and straightforward and sequential...but if you’re working to a word count, your scenes should still forward the story toward that end point. If the scene doesn’t contribute...you may not need them, or you may be able to fold it in with another scene, as suggested in item 6.

Review the worldbuilding you’ve included, and consider what you’re trying to accomplish with your story. A bit of worldbuilding outside of the bare essentials makes a story feel fleshed out, but again, a little can go a long way. If you’ve got lots of “fun” worldbuilding bits that don’t actually forward your plot and aren’t relevant to your characters, cut them. You can always put them as extras in your blog later, but they’ll just make your story clunky if you have a lot of them.

Beware of info-dumps. Often finding a more natural way to integrate that information - showing instead of telling in bits throughout the story - can help reduce word count.

Alternatively - if you over-show, and never tell, this will vastly increase your word count, so consider if there are any places in your story where you can gloss over the details in favor of a shorter more “tell-y” description. You don’t need to go into a minute description of every smile and laugh - sometimes it’s fine to just say, “she was happy” or “she frowned” without going into a long description of their reaction that makes the reader infer that they were happy. (Anyone who unconditionally says “show, don’t tell,” is giving you bad writing advice. It’s much more important to learn to recognize when showing is more appropriate, and when telling is more appropriate, because no story will function as a cohesive whole if it’s all one or all the other.)

If you’ve got long paragraphs, they’re often prime places to look for entire sentences to cut. Read them critically and consider what’s actually helping your story instead of just adding word count chonk.

Try reading some or all of the dialog out loud; if it gets boring, repetitive, or unnecessary, end your scene wherever you start to lose interest, and cut the dialog that came after. If necessary, add a sentence or two of description at the end to make sure the transition is abrupt, but honestly, you often won’t even need to do so - scenes that end at the final punchy point in a discussion often work very well.

Create a specific goal for a scene or chapter. Maybe it’s revealing a specific piece of information, or having a character discover a specific thing, or having a specific unexpected event occur, but, whatever it is, make sure you can say, “this scene/chapter is supposed to accomplish this.” Once you know what you’re trying to do, check if the scene met that goal, make any necessary changes to ensure it does, and cut things that don’t help the scene meet that goal.

Building on the previous one, you can do the same thing, but for your entire story. Starting from the beginning, re-outline the story scene-by-scene and/or chapter-by-chapter, picking out what the main “beats” and most important themes are, and then re-read your draft and make sure you’re hitting those clearly. Consider cutting out the pieces of your story that don’t contribute to those, and definitely cut the pieces that distract from those key moments (unless, of course, the distraction is the point.)

Re-read a section you think could be cut and see if any sentences snag your attention. Poke at that bit until you figure out why - often, it’s because the sentence is unnecessary, poorly worded, unclear, or otherwise superfluous. You can often rewrite the sentence to be clearer, or cut the sentence completely without negatively impacting your work.

Be prepared to cut your darlings; even if you love a sentence or dialog exchange or paragraph, if you are working to a strict word count and it doesn't add anything, it may have to go, and that's okay...even though yes, it will hurt, always, no matter how experienced a writer you are. (Tip? Save your original draft, and/or make a new word doc where you safely tuck your darlings in for the future. Second tip? If you really, really love it...find a way to save it, but understand that to do so, you’ll have to cut something else. It’s often wise to pick one or two favorites and sacrifice the rest to save the best ones. We are not saying “always cut your darlings.” That is terrible writing advice. Don’t always cut your darlings. Writing, and reading your own writing, should bring you joy, even when you’re doing it professionally.)

If you’re having trouble recognizing what in your own work CAN be cut, try implementing the above strategies in different places - cut things, and then re-read, and see how it works, and if it works at all. Sometimes, you’ll realize...you didn’t need any of what you cut. Other times, you’ll realize...it no longer feels like the story you were trying to tell. Fiddle with it until you figure out what you need for it to still feel like your story, and practice that kind of cutting until you get better at recognizing what can and can’t go without having to do as much tweaking.

Lastly...along the lines of the previous...understand that sometimes, cutting your story down to a certain word count will just be impossible. Some stories simply can’t be made very short, and others simply can’t be told at length. If you’re really struggling, it’s important to consider that your story just...isn’t going to work at that word count. And that’s okay. Go back to the drawing board, and try again - you’ll also get better at learning what stories you can tell, in your style, using your own writing voice, at different word counts. It’s not something you’ll just know how to do - that kind of estimating is a skill, just like all other writing abilities.

As with all our writing advice - there’s no one way to tackle cutting stories for length, and also, which of these strategies is most appropriate will depend on what kind of story you’re writing, how much over-length it is, what your target market is, your characters, and your personal writing style. Try different ones, and see which work for you - the most important aspect is to learn to read your own writing critically enough that you are able to recognize what you can cut, and then from that standpoint, use your expertise to decide what you should cut, which is definitely not always the same thing. Lots of details can be cut - but a story with all of the flavor and individuality removed should never be your goal.

Contributions to this post were made by @unforth, @jhoomwrites, @alecjmarsh, @shealynn88, @foxymoley, @willablythe, and @owlishintergalactic, and their input has been used with their knowledge and explicit permission. Thanks, everyone, for helping us consider different ways to shorten stories!

[sass-and-suspenders]

Inquiry

GIF from plutoandpersephone

Pairing: Dr. Frederick Chilton x Reader

Author’s Note: In vain I have struggled …with the formatting of this story. Did I use html? Yes. Does it show up correctly when I preview it? Yes. Will it show up correctly when it’s posted? Knowing this website, probably not. I’m posting despite the (possibly) faulty formatting because I will snap like a stale rubber band if I have to fiddle around with it for a minute longer. That said, I hope you enjoy because this was fun to write (but not to format)

Frederick Chilton’s heart was beating far too quickly for something as mundane as writing an email. Normally, he could compose a message in a matter of minutes with little concern for how the recipient would react to his autocratic demands.

This time, however, you were on the receiving end.

And Frederick deeply cared what you thought.

It would have been easier if this was for a work-related matter. As the hospital administrator, Frederick often sent you updates about policy changes or questions regarding your patients. He wrote these emails effortlessly, addressing you like any other member of his staff while ignoring how his heart fluttered whenever your name appeared in his inbox. With the small exception of inquiries about your weekend (something Frederick never did with other employees), his correspondence to you remained strictly professional.

Until now.

It had taken months, but Frederick finally worked up the nerve to ask you on a date. It was non-traditional, asking someone out via email, but Frederick considered asking over the phone or in-person too risky; the chance of rejection was already high, he didn’t need to add to it by stumbling over his words or blushing in your presence like an imbecile. An email allowed Frederick time to organize his thoughts and select the right words to convey just how much you meant to him.

Writing may have been the safest medium, but it wasn’t the fastest. Fifteen minutes had elapsed and Frederick was still struggling with the salutation: ‘My dearest’ seemed too intimate, ‘Good afternoon’ too formal, ‘Ciao’ too pretentious, ‘Ahoy’ too …nautical.

Frederick fiddled with his pen and leaned back in his chair, refusing to acknowledge that he was out of his depth. His love life was preternaturally dormant, yes, but he was a man of science, not to mention a patron of the arts -he could write a simple email. He was just overthinking it, attaching too much significance to every word as if selecting the wrong one would result in rejection.

Sighing, Frederick left his desk to fetch some alcohol, a time-honoured cure for writer’s block. As he poured the amber liquid from the decanter, Frederick reassured himself of his literary prowess: he’d written a myriad of scientific articles, many of which won awards, and there was growing interest in a manuscript he was working on about the Chesapeake Ripper.

He sat back down at his desk with bolstered confidence and a glass of brandy. The opening still eluded him but, rather than dwell on it further, Frederick used a placeholder and began to work on the body of the email.

As he wrote, Frederick likened himself to a suitor in a Jane Austen novel confessing his fervent desire to his beloved. He only hoped that his prose would convince you to give him a chance since, considering the weather in Baltimore, he wouldn’t be strutting out of a lake anytime soon.

Inspired by this little reverie, Frederick soon finished. He took another sip of brandy before looking over what he had written.

To:

From: frederick.chilton@bshci.com

Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Subject: Inquiry

[Insert salutation]

Ever since we met, I have ardently admired you. Your warmth, beauty, and quick wit are just some of the ways you brighten my day whenever I am graced with your presence. Would you do me the honor of accompanying me to dinner?

I await your reply with hopeful anticipation.

Yours,

Frederick

Satisfied, Frederick turned his attention to the greeting, lightly tapping his pen against his lips as he thought. It took a few moments, but Frederick finally settled on ‘Dear’, a classic opening. After switching out the salutation placeholder for ‘Dear’ followed by your name, Frederick read over the email one last time. He took a large drink of brandy before selecting your email address and pressing send.

Contrary to his belief, the beating in his chest didn’t slow once the email was dispatched. What if you rejected him? How would he bear to see you at work every day? Worse, what if you never responded, leaving him to perpetually wonder whether it was a silent rejection or a lost email?

The familiar ping of an email notification snapped Frederick out of his self-made purgatory. He took a few deep breaths, a half-hearted attempt to quell his rapid heartbeat, as he wondered whether it was a good sign that you responded so quickly. His eyes flicked to his inbox: there, sitting atop of messages from psychiatry journals and irksome colleagues, was a reply.

Only it wasn’t from you.

Frederick’s brow furrowed. Why was a nurse replying to the email he sent you? It didn’t take long after opening the email to realize his mistake: choosing the hospital’s listserv rather than your email address, effectively sending out his declaration of love to the entire hospital. He let out an almost inaudible whimper, knowing it was too late to retract the message.

Apparently, he could control the content of the message, but not its audience.

To: bshci.listserv@bshci.com

From: angela.ramirez@bshci.com

Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Subject: Re: Inquiry

Ask them out in-person, you insecure little weenie!

Frederick hastily deleted the email, but two more popped up in its place like some sort of electronic hydra. It didn't take long for the wolves to respond, and Frederick could only stare at the screen in horror as the replies began pouring in. He swore he could hear laughter in the hallway and began debating whether he should move out of the country or just the state. Depending on how widespread knowledge of his blunder became it may even be wise to leave the continent. Vienna was supposed to be nice this time of year.

 To: bshci.listserv@bshci.com

From: phillipa.canter@bshci.com

Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Subject: Re: Re: Inquiry

Girl, you can do better!

 To: bshci.listserv@bshci.com

From: jackson.doyle@bshci.com

Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Inquiry

 To: bshci.listserv@bshci.com

From: valentine.anderson@bshci.com

Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Inquiry

Please remove me from this list. Thanks

 To: bshci.listserv@bshci.com

From: kevin.fishburne@bshci.com

Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Inquiry

EVERYONE STOP REPLYING ALL!

 Sent from my iPhone

 To: bshci.listserv@bshci.com

From: gillian.coverly@bshci.com

Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Inquiry

‘Ardently’? Who does Chilton think he is, Mr. Darcy?

 Gillian Coverly, M.D.

Psychiatry Resident, BSHCI

gillian.coverly@bshci.com

 To: bshci.listserv@bshci.com

From: jonas.dhavernas@bshci.com

Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Inquiry

More like Mr. Collins, am I right? LOL

 Jonas Dhavernas

Security Services | 555-3193 ext. 0315

Frederick harrumphed (he was definitely not a Mr. Collins) and made a mental note to schedule those two for the night shift for the foreseeable future. However, his indignation quickly gave way to woe as he continued to scroll through the other emails in his inbox.

To: bshci.listserv@bshci.com

From: luis.torres@bshci.com

Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Inquiry

lol desperate much

 Luis Torres, PhD

Director of Forensic Psychiatry

(Tel.) 555-3193 ext. 0583 | (Cell) 555-2391 | (Fax) 555-8942

 To: bshci.listserv@bshci.com

From: hettienne.moreno@bshci.com

Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Inquiry

 To: bshci.listserv@bshci.com

From: ralph.chlumsky@bshci.com

Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Inquiry

I’d like to remind everyone that this listserv is for work-related emails only.

Please be professional.

 Ralph Chlumsky, Patient Care Manager

 To: bshci.listserv@bshci.com

From: kevin.fishburne@bshci.com

Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Inquiry

SERIOUSLY STOP SENDING EMAILS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Sent from my iPhone

 To: bshci.listserv@bshci.com

From: bryan.dancy@bshci.com

Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Inquiry

 To: bshci.listserv@bshci.com

From: judith.mulrooney@bshci.com

Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Inquiry

As a member of HR, I would like to remind you that you are not obligated to say yes to a date just because Dr. Chilton is your superior.

Please let me know if you would like to file a complaint against him for harassment

Sincerely,

 Judith Mulrooney

Senior Human Resources Manager

(Tel.) 555-3193 ext. 3598

 Nothing is impossible. The word itself says ‘I’M POSSIBLE!’ – Audrey Hepburn

 To: bshci.listserv@bshci.com  

From: it.admin@bshci.com

Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Inquiry

Can everyone please stop replying all? Our servers can’t handle the load and might crash if this continues.

Thanks,

Your friendly neighborhood IT Department

 To: bshci.listserv@bshci.com

From: dennis.abrams@bshci.com

Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Inquiry

 To: bshci.listserv@bshci.com

From: alfredo.rohl@bshci.com

Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Inquiry

 Hi, can anyone give me a lift to work tomorrow? I’m in Federal Hill

 To: bshci.listserv@bshci.com

From: ellen.ostrowski @bshci.com

Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Inquiry

Everyone please stop replying all! It’s not that hard, and IT said our server will crash if we keep on doing it!

 Warmest regards,

 Ellen Ostrowski

Administrative Assistant for Dr. Bryan Dancy

 To: bshci.listserv@bshci.com

From: shawna.neill@bshci.com

Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Inquiry

Ellen, your “everyone stop replying all message” was also a reply all!

Ugh, I work with IDIOTS!

 To: bshci.listserv@bshci.com

From: ellen.ostrowski@bshci.com

Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Inquiry

Don’t get all high and mighty with me, Shawna, you also used reply all! Frankly, your use of reply all when the server is unstable is just what I’d expect from a lunch thief.

Warmest regards,

 Ellen Ostrowski

Administrative Assistant for Dr. Bryan Dancy

 To: bshci.listserv@bshci.com

From: shawna.neill@bshci.com

Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Inquiry

FOR THE LAST TIME I DID NOT STEAL YOUR LUNCH!

 A groan escaped Frederick’s lips. How could this have happened? He wasn’t a tech genius, but he kept au courant with the latest gadgets and even implemented smart technology throughout his house. Of course, there had been small mishaps in the past, like when his iPhone autocorrected his last name to ‘Chicken’ and he couldn’t stop it, but nothing of this magnitude. As much as he wanted to blame his snarky colleagues for his misery, he had only himself to blame.

His iPhone was right: he was a chicken.

Frederick was in the middle of researching jobs in Austria, the dramatic part of his brain having overpowered the rational part, when your name appeared in his inbox. His eyes flicked to the now empty glass of brandy on his right before clicking on your reply.

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Inquiry

I would love to, Frederick. How about Friday?

-Your Elizabeth Bennet

P.S. Judith, no need to get HR involved

Frederick blinked, not quite believing it. Despite his cowardice, and the mortification which ensued, you’d said yes. A smile slowly spread across his face, unaffected by the multitude of emails flooding his inbox in reaction to your answer.

He was still smiling when the hospital’s servers crashed a few moments later.

Tag list: @madpanda75​ @obsessionprofessional​ @madkingcrowley​ @im-like-reallythirsty​ @burningg-red​ @nikkijmorgan​ @misssirenlove​ @zoeykaytesmom​ @mommakat32​ @thatesqcrush​ @southern-magnolia​ @evee87​

[artie5o5]

I am finally writing(!!) - A Short Story Collection “Overture”

I've writing stories for almost all my life, since I learned how to string words together and form a sentence. My first ever memory is crying on the floor of my childhood home, complaining to my mother that I can’t write in the notebook she gave me because it’s not lined (I wasn’t old enough to write in blank paper yet)

And yet, if you asked me to produce a body of my work, all I’d have to show for the years of my writing is one(1) novella I wrote when I was 14 and a thousand unfinished novels that I abandoned after 10 pages.

I had resolved in 2020 that I would commit to finishing things as Neil Gaiman had so wisely adviced. But the only thing I finished in 2020 was a 10k word short story called “Nathaniel O’Neal and the Death of Jenny” I started that story on March 9, 2020 and finished on December 6, 2020. Stephan would’ve had written three whole novels in that timeframe

In 2021, I did not finish anything. I did write parts of short story. In my defence, I had a pretty bad year. (So did everyone, get over yourself)

But... (!!!)... at the end of 2021, I saw this video from Rachel

And this was literally godsend.

I had so many short story ideas just whirling in my mind, I had them scattered between my notion and my google keeps notes. But after watching Rachel's video I decided to finally, actually, dedicate myself to writing something I think I can actually finish.

Writing a novel is a monumental task, and I shall never again dunk on Stephanie Meyer cause she at least finished the Twilight books. I really don't think I have it in me to finish any work of fiction over 20k words.

But short stories I can do.

And I have decided to do it. Below is my notion page of short story ideas that I had accumulated over the last two years. The 2 shorts that I actually did finish, I've choses not to include in this post. These are 11 shorts that I currently think are workable. I have more ideas stored in google keeps - I will only touch that pile once I've finished all these. And and the end of the year, hopefully, we will have a short story collection

Why "Overture"?

Well, my go to mental breakdown song is "Achilles Come Down" by gangs of youth and there is a line there "Overture bold and beyond" and I just like the melody of that line. It's kinda stuck in my head

"Overture" also means "an introduction to something more substantial"

And I would like to imagine, rather arrogantly, that after I've finished this collection - I would emerge out of the other end a better writer and perhaps go on to write more substantial work. Amen.

I would like to just briefly talk about each story and what they're about. I would make individual writing updates in the future. Just to capture my thoughts and process, more like a journal.

1. I See You in every shard of glass

A 19 year old girl who stayed home after high school while all of her cool friends went to fancy east coast school goes on a long drive at midnight with her high school on-again-off-again, currently ex-boyfriend - and realises she might have overly romanticised her entire relationship with him

Originally inspired by Taylor Swift's iconic song "Style". The opening image to me was that of a dreamy James Dean-y boy stopping outside of her house at midnight and from then on I was just gonna write down the plot of the song in fiction. But as I went on writing it kinda got out of hand and became reaally fucked up

I would really love to tell you this has a flimsy, dreamy vibe because I really wanted this piece to have flimsy-dreamy vibes - but girl the vibes are off

CW: Date rape (??!!)

I really don't know if I can write it as respectfully as the subject material demands. I'm really afraid of giving off the wrong message or accidentally ending up victim blaming but there's a lot of nuance to the events that I'm just not a good enough writer to do justice

I've been struggling to write this story for a whole year now (2021 was baaaad). The prose doesn't have the dreamy quality I wanted it to have. The subject matter seems too heavy on my chest like a boulder from hell. But I've decided to just finish in before January 31st. Things could be changed to my liking in edits (hopefully 🤞)

2. Work Song (Working Title)

I don't have a title for it yet, but as you can clearly see - it was inspired by Hozier's work song.

I was just gonna follow the plot beats of the song but again, as I went on the story got progressively fucked up.

The vague foggy image of the story now in my head is this:

A very beautiful young man in his early to mid 20s is rescued by a woman who had very recently lost a child (the child's father never mentioned)

The first few paragraphs is just basically the protagonist telling his buddies (who he now works on a farm/field with) about the hazy fever dreams through which he saw her caring for him after. She never asks him about the drunken state she found him in or how he had gotten there, she never asks him about his past and all that Hozier Work song stuff

But then the plot deviates from the song - he starts to internally think about things that he doesn't say to the audience

There's the church, and she's church going though not strictly a believer so he goes to church with him. Big Shaelin-Hold-Me-Under-Till-I-See-The-Light Vibes

The church talks about the sins of adultery and homosexuality, talks about Soddom and Gomorrah and he clearly gets super agitated

So, Spoiler Alert: the past that his "baby" never asks him about is that he used to be a street hustler. (Trying to channel My Own Private Idaho but can we ever)

Kinda gothic????

The story basically ends on

If the Lord don't forgive me

I'd still have my baby and my babe would have me

When I was kissing on my baby

And she put her love down soft and sweet

In the low lamp light I was free

Heaven and hell were words to me

3. Drown my woes in a lake of fire

Title borrowed from that one Elle King song

I don't know much plot wise - but I want to achieve that History of Wolves vibes

The protagonist is a tween girl, the youngest in her family of 7. Her parents. Her oldest sister, then a brother one year junior, then the twin girls and finally her

She is hella lonely because the twins always gang up on her and exclude her, her olderst sister and brother are close too. But she has no one and nothing but her siblings hand me downs.

I don't know what the catalyst is yet but she drowns her family's pack of dogs, all 5 of them, in a lake that's turned into ice. But she knows where the ice is thin.

4. A girl accidentally kills her parents and her addict older brother gets framed, also accidentally

It's probably gonna be an accidental gas leak. Like she forgets to turn the stove off or something

Her older brother becomes a suspect in the investigation and gets convicted on double homicide

She feels guilty for not speaking up, but she's also unhinged so there's that

5. A PhD student goes to meet a homeless person

I don't have a title for this. Can you tell?

This one came to me in a dream.

I'm not kidding.

There's was a 2nd person narration going on inside my head and I wrote down as much as I remembered upon waking up.

But the material I got was so scattered and meaningless that I had to keep digging at it - like I didn't even brush my teeth, just kept typing on my phone like a maniac

Logline: The story starts with a PhD student taking a cng towards an impoverish area - he struggles with the power hierarchy of his highly beaurocratic world, the mindless selfishness of his fellows and superiors and reaches out to find a human connection

It is the tamest of all my stories. So much so that it feels like it doesn't belong with the rest

6. A 20 something boy goes to a whorehouse and pays a prostitute to pretend to be his sister for one night

Shaelin's Zugzwang meets George Martin's Meathouse man

I only have vibes no plot

7. Let me drown slowly

Another song inspired story. (Thank Dionysius for Alec Benjamin)

I've written like the beginning of it in Google Keeps

Basically the inner monologue of a guy who knows his girlfriend is about to break up with him waiting for it to happen

I haven't started writing yet but I can't wait to see how this innocent song turns into something extremely fucked up, yet again

8. Grave of Bird

A girl has been burying the birds that her cat catches under a tree for years

The tree was a little sapling the same height as her when she was 6, now that she's 16 the tree has far outgrown her

The catch is.... it's not only the birds that are being buried there.

9. Dear Charlotte

I've actually written some parts of it

2nd person, accusatory

Basically Isabel is writing an apology letter to her older sister Charlotte but instead of an apology the letter is bloated with why everything was Charlotte's fault and Charlotte is a horrible human being

18th century Feudal Europe

A Gothic Manor, a pausible ghost of a dead brother

Scandals (!!!)

Painters and Scuptors and rumors of incest

Isabel is jealous and bitter but god is Charlotte unreadable

10. My Immortal

I'm gonna write this in October. (Halloween!!)

Gothic. Supernatural

A human being (pet?) is in love with their vampire but not in a twilight way

More like the vampire needs a human to run their errands through the day until they come alive at midnight

The errand boy/girl serves the vampire in exchange of their supernatural favors and a dim, dim hope that maybe someday the vampire would turn them into a vampire too (A bit like a witch's familiar??)

Again, just vibes, no plot

11.

12. Children in Snow (Working Title)

I was trying to write that half heartedly in 2019. But then last year in 2021 I tried to actually finish it but lol

Sci-fi

A heavily beaurocratic world sends off their unwanted children to be raised by 18-20 year olds (Basically other childrens) in government funded facilities

They have robotic doctors at their disposal, a mechanic robot to repair heaters and stuff like that, a vast physical and digital library, a curriculum to study and artificial robotc teachers, so that when they finally get out into the world world at age 21 they have enough marketable skills to earn a living- everything except human contant

Those who want to persue a University education can sit for a test at 18 and if they pass can then be admitted public unis

Once a month, their supplies are dropped of at a watchtower that is directly in the middle of all 10 such facilities in the area (each facility housing about 50 children)

The oldest in Garfield's facility who chose to stay instead of go to uni go out to gather their monthly supply as usual, but get stuck in a snow storm

Low magic

The characters are ✨ immaculate ✨

But alas no plot- so every time I attempt to write it, it keeps on stretching and stretching but there isn't enough material here for it to be a novel

I want to write this in December. So I'll have to find a new short story idea to write in November

That is All!

I would post writing updates as I write and hopefully, finish stories. If you made it this far, then Thank You Very Much for your time!! I'm really happy you're here..

[beeblackburn]

The Anti-TBR Tag

I was tagged by @books-and-doodles! Thank you! And poor you, for I am a long-winded bastard.

1. A popular book EVERYONE loves that you have no interest in reading?

On general principle, I feel like the really popular stuff (Twilight, Throne of Glass, Divergent, The Mortal Instruments) ends up being stuff I’m inherently not going to be attracted to and some of them have their own hatedoms going on, so going after them in detail would be punching down (though I don’t particular like any of the above). So I’m going to try to go off the beaten path with these seven:

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab = nothing against her personally, though I heard her The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue was baaaaad, but apparently, she’s similar to Sanderson in the magic system being better than the characterization and I heard her writing’s got a white faux-female empowerment sort of thing going that I’m growing increasingly... discontent of by itself. I might try it out later, but I also got hundreds of books to drill through first and I’m in no rush.

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo = I’ve been increasingly getting the sense that Six of Crows was a flash in the pan, Bardugo’s style more defined by fun than genuine substance. And given a rather scathing review that points out unearned shifts in characterization, lackluster supporting cast, and two really uncomfortable exploitative sexual assault fantasy scenes (one of which was underaged!), I’m gonna say no.

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik = I generally like Novik! She’s a very solid writer to me and I’ve bought most of her books, so this is purely me not taking to the Wizarding School genre. Sorry, Novik, "a twisted, super dark, super modern, female-led Harry Potter" isn’t the selling point it once was, and even then, I probably wouldn’t have taken to it. Especially when I’ve already got The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan to read.

The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson = I’ve got mixed feelings on Mistborn looking back: it’s hardly the worst of his oeuvre (Elantris is that and was admittedly his first book) and The Final Empire took a few narrative risks that I admire, I also found the resulting books a tad juvenile and I don’t take to steampunk, genre-wise. I’m not even that much of a Sanderson fan, so I’d rather just read the summary for all I care.

Storm Front by Jim Butcher = given what I’ve been told about The Dresden Files’ lessening of noir roots past the first few books, how it later became more flashy-and-bang magical, and how it’s pretty sexist early on (and from what I’ve been told, doubled down on it later on and having worse treatments of its female characters), I’m in no particular rush to read them. The urban fantasy genre on them only turns me off more.

The Doors of Stone by Patrick Rothfuss = hahaha, I’m sorry, I did read The Name of the Wind, and read select parts of The Wise Man’s Fear, but everyone, instead of waiting and devoting your time for this book to come, I would suggest reading Fitz, Who Is Actually Good and Can Wring More than Disgust and an Eye-Roll out of You in Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings, given she is far better at characterization than Rothfuss.

Anything by Paul Krueger, Sam Sykes, and Myke Cole = fuck all three of these men and the idea that I’ll pay for their stuff. While I can’t demand any of you not buy from them and I’ll hardly claim to be a saint in terms of ethics, purchase-wise, I would beseech you all please don’t buy from these three authors who have a history of inappropriateness.

2. A classic book (or author) you don’t have an interest in reading?

Charles Dickens = look, I know his word count is padded because of serial installments back then, but I’m sorry, I wasn’t that impressed by the child-sanitized versions of Great Expectations and Oliver Twist. They were easily some of the most boring of out of the child-sanitized classics I read. It was the pictures that kept me going and barely at that. No thanks.

Emily Brontë =  look, if I wanted shitty people being shitty to each other, I’d much rather read Joe Abercrombie because at least I’ll get some intentional dark comedy out of dumb shitheads being terrible to each other (Best Served Cold comes to mind). And I know we’re not meant to like these self-destructive people, but I’d rather not hate everyone that much.

Alexander Dumas = Three Musketeers really didn’t age well, just from the TV Tropes page and I’m not really looking forward to an adventure that goes out of its way to valorize its protagonists being adventurous assholes who dueled, drank, and womanized harder than anyone else and we should commend that because they were men. Ugh.

3. An author you have read a couple of books from & have decided their books are not for you?

Leigh Bardugo = like I said, I feel like Six of Crows (and Crooked Kingdom, to a lesser extent) was a flash in the pan and she’s been increasingly running on fumes ever since then. Good and fun with a decent eye for characterization, but hardly revolutionary, considering how I think Crooked Kingdom isn’t quite as good as Six of Crows, and the less said about Shadow and Bone, the better.

Neil Gaiman = I’ve read some of his stuff (and I didn’t quite see the hype over his writing, but liked it decently enough) but having heard that, in his Sandman run, he wrote in a transwoman solely to get killed for an emotional ending and how he defended that choice for awhile left a battery acid taste for me to read more. He’s a formative part of people’s childhoods, so I don’t blame anyone for being fans, he’s just not for me.

Steven Erikson = really nothing against the dude, I’m sure he's probably a decent guy, but I didn’t take to Gardens of the Moon at all and skimming Deadhouse Gates and Memories of Ice (which were admittedly better) made me realize its prose was something I would need a hard and sharp shovel to crack through, and the darting around of many, many POVs made me feel not invested in anyone.

4. A genre you have no interest in OR a genre you tried to get into & couldn’t?

I’ll answer both because I have the time:

I’m not interested in romance, mostly because it’s an entire genre built around the build-up. It’s usually the story about the beginning of a relationship, not the relationship itself. I’d genuinely like to read about the story of a romance that doesn’t stop shortly after the hook-up or before the honeymoon period ends. The City Watch parts of Discworld by Terry Pratchett, The Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan and The Sharing Knife by Lois McMaster Bujold all have romantic elements that are relatively undrenched in melodrama or frills, but none of them are pure romances, which is a huge problem. I can take romantic subplots in fantasy, but I can’t take the genre as-is.

Urban fantasy is a genre I’m not against having my mind changed on liking, but right now, I generally find it insipid, a shortcut to good world-building, short on great characterization, and an excuse to lampshade and pretense to being above fantastical clichés in a tongue-in-cheek attitude while still committing to them. I do genuinely like Rivers of London by Ben Aaronvitch, but that’s really the concession I can give the entirety of the genre. I took a crack at Rick Riordan and Cassandra Clare’s stuff, but it didn’t feel like my sort of thing. Again, would like to be convinced, but I’d much rather read a domestic or slice-of-life fantasy set in a more overtly fantasy world than the urban one. 

Also, sci-fi, but I’m trying again with the Wormwood trilogy by Tade Thompson, An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon, and either the Imperial Radch trilogy by Ann Leckie, or the Teixcalaan trilogy by Arkady Martine. I snoozed through Azimov’s Foundation and generally bored myself of hard sci-fi books, so I’m hoping contemporary sci-fi changes my mind on the entire genre.

5. A book you have bought but will never read?

A book I personally bought? Honestly, Traitor’s Blade by Sebastien de Castell. No particular reason, I just bought it at a closing-down sale at a branch of my bookstore on the cheap because the cover looked nice and didn’t really take to its blurb. I heard good things though, so if anyone else wants to read it...

I tag @vera-dauriac, @xserpx, @autoapocrypha, @kateofthecanals, @turtle-paced, @insecticidalfeminism, @secretlyatargaryen, @helix-eagle-hourglass-nebula, @xillionart, @jovolovo and whoever else that is following me and wishes to do this tag (I’d like to read your posts, so please tag me! :D)

[onlyhereforangst]

2020 IN WRITING

tagged by @indestinatus 💕

tagging whoever wants to go thru this journey with me & see their accomplishments in this terrible terrible year!

1. List of works published this year:

Oh god there’s a lot, like 70 total in just 2020. I’ll try to categorize them so this doesn’t get too long 😅but here’s a cut for aesthetic on your dash.

Sequels/Partner Fics: Risk It All (for @hellokaelyn), Finally Home (to Come Back), They Always Do & Could She?, Lucky Day & Completely Yours, Fiery Trance (Two Can Play series), Obsessed (Particular Taste), Soul (to Ignited)

Smut: My Turn (sequel to My Pleasure), Worth It, Maybe We Should, Make it a Double (also a fic request), Shall We (AU)

Fic Requests: Coffee Run, Hold Still, Typical, Deal, Needed It, I’m Home, For Science, Cry Me A River, From Your Dreams (AU), Crystal Clear, Tempt Me, Your Fault, Prove It, Silent Proclamation, A Hundred Suns (angst smut), Duly Noted

Stand Alones: No More, Never Let Her Go, Life is Fragile, Pandemics & Peach Drinks, To Need and Be Needed, Never Let Go, Coming Home, Priceless, Behind The Mask, Need a Hand?

Angst: My Daisy, Status Quo, Can I Stay, I Refuse, Deal

Series/Multi-chaptered: Back Off (Better Apart, Missed The Mark, Change Her Mind, But You Do, Layered Love), Electrified (Don’t Stop (Senorita)), Here By Faith, Forgive & Forget, Angstober ‘20 (Never Has & Never Will, Only In My Head, Long, Long Gone, Do Something, Take Care, Waiting to Burn, Survive the Hell, Find Her, Never Ended Well, At All Costs, One Thing Right, Stay Away, Echoed Back, Smart Man, Not Interested, Flake Again, Release, Slipping Away)

2. Work you are most proud of (and why):

Here By Faith mainly because of the topic. Pregnancy & Infant loss has been such a taboo topic for so long and something I have personal experience with so writing this was very therapeutic. 

3. Work you are least proud of (and why):

Shall We and only because I truly wanted way more plot in this and it turned out to be essentially just straight smut with a tiny bit of plot. But it is what it is 🤷🏻‍♀️

4. A favorite excerpt of your writing:

Ok I had 70 fics to choose from not breaking down chapters so I’m sure I’m missing something, BUT I do love - omg typing this out I realized it’s from a fic in 2019 so I can’t use iiiiiit 😩 ok so here’s a couple excerpts. I loved typing out this stream of conscious partner fics (They Always Do & Could She?):

They Always Do:

Yet this time, this time she didn’t have the chance to rebuild. Like a Trojan horse, he waltzed right up to her and slowly dismantled her defense. Joke by joke, smirk by smirk—Nick took each brick down with care. The worst part? It was so subtle, so thoughtfully done, she didn’t even notice it was happening. Didn’t see her chest being pried open, beating heart on display for him to see, and take. Never realized her greatest defenses were missing until it was too late.

That love- precious, fragile, delicate love- had managed to grow again. In her desolate, cold heart, Nick managed to bring to life an emotion she had long given up on. An emotion she was too afraid to ever feel again. Because with it came agony.

They leave, and you’re abandoned- picking up the pieces of a shattered heart.

When you love, you lose. Always.

Could She?:

But-

Even if that was love, even if he loved Ellie with his whole heart, his entire being. Was that enough? Was Nick enough? Was he deserving?

A resounding no clanged around his skull like a church bell in a Southern town on Sunday morning. He wanted to silence it, stop the shrill metal sound that started any time he pictured forever. Any time he truly thought he might deserve to love, even after all he’d done. After all the unimaginable things he’d done, the horrors he’d seen, the pain he’d caused. That bell sounded, loud and clear.

How did he deserve love when he couldn’t bear to love himself?

[...]

Could she love him despite all his misgivings? Could she love him even when he didn’t love himself? Could she love him when there was a risk he’d be taken from her too soon?

Could she?

Please love me.

But please be sure.

There’s been a couple of other inner monologues that I have absolutely loved (I like to think it’s semi my speciality? But maybe that’s super arrogant of myself?) but that’s a different post for another time.

5. Share or describe a favorite review you received:

I said it recently but I *love* when people pick out specific line(s) from my fic and choose to comment on those. More often than not it’s a line I was so proud of either prose-wise or foreshadowing-wise or whatever and I get literally giddy with excitement that someone not only noticed it but also loved it enough to comment on it 🥰but truly any kind of comment is dopamine-inducing 😉

6. A time when writing was really, really hard:

As some people may have noticed (& maybe not because I did still semi-run the other main ellick blog despite it) I was somewhat absent for most of the summer/fall. I struggled for the first time in my life with mental health issues, borderline depression after being in a shit work environment, an essential worker with a company that claimed to “care” about us, a community that I once loved but showed their true colors in the midst of the pandemic & election, add in a rough pregnancy & it was a recipe for disaster. I didn’t want to even move from the couch most days let alone write. 

7. A scene or character you wrote that surprised you:

I had a lot of fun writing short excerpts from different characters’ perspectives (Jimmy, Kasie, McGee & Gibbs) in my Angstober series & honestly wouldn’t mind doing that again!

8. How did you grow as a writer this year:

Honestly not sure, I think I’ve just generally grown as a writer - better descriptions & descriptors, better dialogue, better plots. But that could all be me seeing things 😂

9. How do you hope to grow next year:

I’d love to look into writing more seriously. My husband is convinced I could write an episode script or a novel, so I may look into trying my hand at that (even though I feel I’d be god-awful at it 😅)

10. Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc):

Hmmmm I always appreciate the support I’ve gotten from the ellick fandom despite it being rough this year for us, wonderful people like @erinchristmaselvis, @thekeyboardninja, @hellokaelyn & @wanna-be-bold are always there to either hear me vent or cheer me on ☺️

11. Anything from your real life show up in your writing this year:

Haaaaah yes. Lots of it (but I bet you can’t tell because I only add mini snippets so have fun finding those easter eggs 😏)

12. Any new wisdom you can share with other writers:

Always, always, always write for YOU. Not for anyone else, the kudos, hits, comments, none of it. Write for YOU. And I say this as a reminder to myself as well, it’s so hard to get bogged down in that dopamine-induced craze we search for in recognition but it’s so important to not externally validate yourself rather internally validate yourself on baby steps of growth & accomplishment. 

13. Any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year:

LOL how about all my WIPs? All of those stories I started forever ago that people call me out on not finishing months later when I swear they’ve forgotten about them 😬

14. If you could recommend only one work from yourself published this year:

Hmmmm lemme pick one from each category because I’m indecisive 😉

Sequel/Partner Fics: Lucky Day & Completely Yours (the aaaaangst)

Smut: a tie between Maybe We Should & Make it a Double

Fic Request: A Hundred Suns (because I love me some angst smut)

Stand Alones: Pandemics & Peach Drinks (hahahaha because this was in an Insider news article at the start of the pandemic hahaha so on brand #2020)

Angst: My Daisy (I looooooove this one, but also all of the angst category lol)

Series/Multi-chaptered: literally not one of these is finished and they’re all heavy angst so take your pick 😂

15. Year word count: 103,050 in 2020 which seems like so little 😅

Here’s to 2021 being the year I finish WIPs! she says knowing she’s lying

[warrioreowynofrohan]

The Leithian Reread - Canto VI (Beren in Nargothrond)

While The Leithian-related plot of this canto focuses on Beren in Nargothrond, almost the first half of it is a brief summary of the Silmarillion from Return of the Noldor through to the Dagor Bragollach. Which I love, since those events for the most part aren’t coverered in Tolkien’s other poetic works, and I prefer the poetry structure of the Leithian to Tolkien’s other (non-rhyming, more Rohirric-sounding) pieces of epic poetry.

This is a good place to note, for readers who are new to the poetic Leithian, that some names are different from the Silm (Tolkien started a revised version with Silm-consistent names, but he didn’t get very far with it). The Noldor are referred to as the Gnomes - a rough transliteration of their elvish name into a human language, drawing from the Greek for ‘knowledge’. Tolkien later rejected this on the basis that the word was already too associated with entirely different mental images, but given how transformative his use of ‘elves’ was (typical fantasy elves are now almost all inspired by his ideas of tall, beautiful, long-lived immortals), we might have completely different concepts of ‘gnome’ now if he’s gone ahead with it. 

The second big diiference is that Finrod is referred to exclusively as Felagund - his Dwarven honorific - whereas his father Finarfin is referred to as Finrod. Tolkien had a lot of difficulty with Finarfin’s name and it went through a pile of different iterations. There are also other minor differences, like Finwë being referred to as Finn.

Returning to the poem - it’s hard to pick a favourite part of the summary section; I love so much of it. This is the closest I’m ever going to get to the Noldolantë (Tolkien wrote a couple pages of another poem focusing on the Return of the Noldor, but I don’t like it as much).

The mists were mantled round the towers

of the Elves’ white city by the sea.

There countless torches fitfully

did start and twinkle, as the Gnomes

were gathered to their fading homes

and thronged the wide and winding stair

that led to the wide echoing square.

There Fëanor mourned his jewels divine,

the Silmarils he made. Like wine

his wild and potent words them fill;

a great host hearkens deathly still.

But all he said both wild and wise

half truth and half the fruit of lies

that Morgoth sowed in Valinor

in other songs and other lore

recorded is.

There’s such a wonderful sense of place and of mood in those lines; the Return of the Noldor has always been one of the most compelling parts of the Silmarillion for me. In the same way that Elves have a different sense of time than Men, Valar must have a different sense of it than Elves; they’re acting, but within their own sense of time, and for the Noldor, in the wake of the Darkening, the desire to do something rather than wait around for the Valar (who are looking more deeply fallible than they ever have before) to fix things must be extremely powerful. And Fëanor’s presence and words and fury, brought into that environment, is like fire to oil. To be active and purposeful in the face of disaster, rather than passive and directionless - that’s a powerful force. The poem also acknowledges that Fëanor’s not entirely wrong (“half truth and half the fruit of lies”), however deeply distorted his ideas about both the Valar and the Secondborn are. As I’ve said before, I think that Eru intended for the Elves to be in Middle-earth, not Valinor; the entire Leithian is centred around the value and importance of an elf-human relationship that continues to affect the history of Arda down through the Third Age (and, in its symbolic meaning, even further).

There’s also a line about the Oath: Who calls these names in witness may not break his oath, though earth and heaven shake. The texts on the Oath are somewhat contradictory on its breakability, though they are united on its importance and severity (it is decidedly not just words, or something that can be casually laid aside). The Silmarillion says “so sworn, good or evil, an oath may not be broken, and it shall pursue oathkeeper and oathbreaker to the world’s end”. But that contradicts itself - it it can’t be broken, then there can’t be oathbreakers. Maedhros and Maglor’s final conversation at the end of the Silm is more illuminating to me: it’s not a matter of the Oath being physically or psychologically impossible to break (if it was, how did they go the 400 years of the Siege of Angband without actively attacking Morgoth?), but of fearing the fate they have called down upon themselves (the Everlasting Darkness) if they do break it. (Plus a lot of sunk cost fallacy, by that point.) Which is considerably less sympathetic: murdering innocent people in order to avoid the consequences of your own bad decision is, ultimately, the choice that innocents should bear the cost of your own choices, which is ultimately a form of cowardice. (Not to mention the inherently contradictory nature of saying “I’m going to do evil so that I won’t be damned,” which Maglor eventually realizes.)

(More of my thoughts on the Oath here.)

This is also one of the few texts we have that actually states the Oath (or rather, part of it; the invocations are not included) rather that describing it. I think all the ones we have are in Tolkien’s poetry; there’s no prose version.

The Kinslaying is not mentioned in this Canto; that’s saved for the Duel of Felagund and Sauron in the next one. But this canto does include possibly the only poetic rendition we get of Fingon rescuing Maedhros from Thangorodrim:

Fingon daring alone went forth

and sought for Maidros where he hung;

in torment terrible he swung,

his wrist in band of forgéd steel,

from a sheer precipice where reel

the dizzy senses staring down

from Thangorodrim’s stony crown.

The song of Fingon Elves yet sing,

captain of armies, Gnomish king...

They sing how Maidros free he set,

and stayed the feud that slumbered yet

between the children proud of Finn.

After describing the Siege of Angband and the Long Peace, the narrative moves on to the Dagor Bragollach, and specifically Barahir’s rescue of Felagund. (And in this account, as in the Silm, Orodreth is Felagund’s brother, not his nephew.) From there, it returns to the main story and Beren’s arrival in Nargothrond. It could not be more different than his reception in Menegroth:

When the ring [of Barahir] was seen

they bowed before him, though his plight

was poor and beggarly...

Fair were the words of Narog’s king

to Beren, and his wandering

and all his feuds and bitter wars

recounted soon.

Regarding Felagund’s fulfillment of his Oath to Barahir, and the betrayal by Celegorm and Curufin, and the abandonment by the Elves of Nargothrond, I’ve already written a fair bit in my (much earlier) posts on Finrod & Nargothrond and Celegorm & Curufin. I’ll add a few additional points here.

First, I do not think it was irresponsible of Felagund to leave Nargothrond to go with Beren. If his presence as king of Nargothrond was important (and I think it was; basically all of Nargothrond’s decisions after he leaves are bad, and he’s been the peacemaker and diplomat between different elven and human groups throughout the Silmarillion up to this point) that is all the more reason why Nargothrond is indebted to Barahir and his descendents, since Felagund would already be dead if not for Barahir’s actions.

Secondly - and I’m getting this from Philosopher at Large’s Leithian Script, which emphasizes it very heavily - Felagund, as liege-lord to the Bëorings, has certain obligations to them even outside of his oath, including providing military assistance in times of need. Usual chains of communication have been cut since the Bragollach, so Felagund’s only just now finding out that the Bëorings have, aside from Beren, been basically exterminated; and that Barahir and later Beren spent years fighting a very long-odds guerrilla war without ever asking or recieving assistance, while Nargothrond was safe and largely inactive. This is going to strongly enhance Felagund’s (legitimate) sense of indebtedness to Barahir’s kin.

Thirdly, Celegorm is often treated as something of a meathead (because he acts like one; all his decisions are terrible in both moral and practical terms), but this sequence makes it clear that both he and Curufin inherited their father’s rhetorical abilities; his speech is specifically compared to Fëanor’s speech in Tirion (Many wild and potent words he spoke, and as before in Tûn awoke his father’s voice their hearts to fire, so now dark fear and brooding ire he cast on them...) But ironically, the direction of Curufin’s speech is opposite to Fëanor’s - while Fëanor’s was about rallying the Noldor to fight Morgoth, Curufin’s is about discouraging them from fighting Morgoth, by frightening them, and he does it so effectively that it’s unlikely Nargothrond would have showed up at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad even without the additional motivation of being furious at the brothers. And continuing on that theme, the brothers are setting themselves against the first real attempt anyone has ever made to regain the Silmarils from Morgoth. A mission that resulted in Beren and Lúthien having one Silmaril, and the Fëanorians having the other two, would obviously be better in terms of their goals than all three remaining in Morgoth’s posession, but they don’t appear to even consider it. This is part of a long thread throughout the Silmarillion - every action taken directly in service to the Oath aids Morgoth and harms the Eldar.

The people of Nargothrond, by the way, really do not come off well here - they’re rejecting their king for someone who has just threatened violence against them all (Celegorm’s speech is basically threatening them with another Kinslaying here and now).

And as a final point - what Celegorm and Curufin do here is one of the worst crimes imaginable within their society. The sacredness of the relationship between guests and hosts (and they are guests in Nargothrond, having fled there from the Bragollach) is a major theme in a lot of pre-modern societies. People familiar with A Song of Ice and Fire will remember its importance there; for a more historical source, Dante places ‘traitors to guests and hosts’ in the ninth circle of hell in the Divine Comedy and goes beyond that to state that people who betray their guests or hosts go directly to hell even before they die, while their body becomes inhabited by a demon for the rest of their life. From this betrayal, to the usurpation of Nargothrond, to the attempted rape of Lúthien, to the attempted murder of Lúthien, to Celegorm’s servants leaving Eluréd and Elurín - young children - to die of exposure, everything we see from the brothers from this point on is them committing crimes that are literally unthinkable to elves. Which is to say that the Eldar might have found Dante’s explanation pretty credible.