#fuckyeahwriting

[fuckyeahdindjarin]

How it started vs how it’s going tag game for writers

I don’t know if anyone has done this, but I thought it would be fun for writers to share and compare their earliest fics with their latest, and tell us what has changed in between! Hopefully this game will give older fics some love too ❤️

Kicking off with mine:

It Would Be vs Seams

The biggest change in my writing style over the last year is the swing towards fluff and comedy. It Would Be is proper angst and conflict, whereas Seams is light and comedic. My fics definitely got (a lot) longer too!

Tagging: anyone who wants to share ❤️

Np tagging some mutuals to get started: @prolix-yuy @psychedelic-ink @mandoblowmybackout @the-scandalorian @jazzelsaur @radiowallet @iamskyereads @imaswellkid

[fuckyeahdindjarin]

I’m not very good at writing kissing scenes so this really helps 😘

How to write a kiss scene

requested by: anon request: How do I write a good kiss scene? As how do I describe it? What details or words would make it good?

What goes into the writing of a kiss scene?

details to incorporate:

the sensations in their stomach, their chest, and their knees

the way their breathing changes shortly before the kiss

the feeling of the other's hands

the texture of the other's clothing

the moment they realise they've reached the point of no return

the feeling they're left with after the kiss

words to use...

... to describe the kiss:

tentative

tender

hesitant

quick

soft

gentle

delicate

languid

feathery

familiar

exploring

hungry

heated

fiery

frantic

impatient

sloppy

messy

aggressive

... to describe how they feel about the kiss:

nervous

excited

giddy

anxious

apprehensive

ambiguous

surprised

reassured

certain

confident

relieved

eager

greedy

... to show what the lips do:

exploring each other

brushing over each other

locking

devouring

touching

sealing

pressing against each other

capturing

lapping

tasting

crushing together

travelling (the other's body)

trailing (down to the other's chin)

grinning into the kiss

caressing

lingering

... to show how their body reacts:

feeling warm all over

buzzing

humming

pumping/palpitating heart

clenching lungs

joy bubbling up

tingly stomach

warm chest

burning cheeks

sweaty palms

blood rushing through their veins

... to describe what their hands are doing:

tangling in their lover's hair

wrapping their arms around their lover's neck

intertwining their fingers with their lover

resting on their lover's hips

pressing into their lover's shoulder blades

cupping their lover's cheeks

touching their lover's chin

curling their arm around their lover's waist

resting on their lover's shoulders

grabbing their lover's collar

sneaking up under their lover's shirt

brushing over their lover's bare skin

lightly squeezing their lover's butt

focus on:

the sensations instead of what's physically happening. (the protagonists might very well not know themselves what is happening exactly, but they feel very precisely)

I hope this helps <3

[ddoubleparkd]

I wish there were more of these, they’re all so true!

[fuckyeahdindjarin]

HAPPY FRIDAY! These are fun if anyone wants to play 💕

Fanfic Writer Emoji Ask

😅 What's a story or scene you've created that you're a smidge embarrassed exists?

🥺 Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?

🤡 What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh?

😈 Has there been a point in a story where you did something just to be playfully mean to your readers?

✍ Do you have a beta reader?

🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.

🎢 Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉

💋 First kiss fics. Love em or hate em?

🎶 Do you listen to music while you write? What song have you been playing on loop lately?

🛠What tools/programs/apps do you use to write?

⛔ Do you have a fic you started, but scrapped?

🙋‍♀️ Do any irl people know you write fanfic?

🍦 What's the sweetest fic you've created so far?

🍷 Do you drink and write?

🍆 Do you write the spicy stuffs? If so, what's your most popular nsfw fic?

🌞 Do you have a preferred time of day to write?

💖 What made you start writing?

💌 How do you feel about comments and feedback?

❌ What's a trope you will never write?

💲 Would you ever open commissions?

🧐 Do you spend much time researching for your stories?

🏆 What's your most popular fic?

🎃 Do you write fics for certain holidays? Which is your favorite holiday inspired fic?

🎯 Have any of your readers accurately guessed major plot points? Care to share which?

🎨 How do you feel about fan art of your stories?

📈 How many fics do you have?

🦅 Do you outline fics or fly by the seat of your pants?

👀 Tell me about an up and coming wip please!

🤗 What advice would you give to new fanfic writers that are just getting started?

💞 Who's your comfort character?

🧠 Pick a character, and I'll tell you my favorite headcanon for them.

🤩 Who is your favorite character to write?

🤲 Would you please share a snippet of a wip?

😬 Which of your fics would you be most horrified for friends, family, or coworkers to stumble upon?

🎉 What leads you to consider a fic a success?

✅ What's something that appears in your fics over and over and over again, even if you don't mean to?

📚 Would you ever want to turn writing into a career?

⌛ How long does it take you to write a fic, or a chapter?

🤯 What's a genre you struggle with as a writer (ex. romance, action, etc.)?

💔 Is there a fic of yours that broke your heart?

💥 How do you feel about criticism?

🤭 Do you have a favorite tag to use when posting your works?

🥰 How do you feel about reader interaction? Are you open to receiving questions about your fics?

[itsmyonlytaco-blog]

Synesthetes: I have discovered that creating a mature and usable plot tastes like amaretto and whiskey. The internet tells me that a cocktail known as the Godfather is comprised of equal parts amaretto and Scotch. Perhaps I will try it! Perhaps I will substitute Irish whiskey. Perhaps I will stop wasting time and go back to writing my things.

[yohoawriterslifeferme-blog]

The goats were loose, and it wasn't my fault. This time. Maybe. Honestly I couldn't remember who had been there last. Was it me? Was it Holly? I can't be totally sure, but I was sure going to get hell for it anyway. Mr. Greks goats were his pride and joy. Kids left the gate open frequently and a goat or two escaped. But this time? This time they were all gone. Mr. Greks goats were also my responsibility. They were the summer job I needed, it was relatively easy. "Take a job caring for Greks goats," they said, "it'll be fun," they said. Now I was standing in the middle of the highway, baked out of my mind, wrapped in a sheet, in the middle of the night, trying to find seven goats before Grek gets back in three hours. Not fun.

[lauradanan]

Unable or unwilling

[endlessmeghan]

Opened an old notebook and found this note. #fuckyeahwriting

[fuckyeahdindjarin]

I wanted to chime in when I saw this post, but I forgot to save it as draft the first time round, so I'm glad it's popped up again! Sorry I’m going to butt in unsolicited!

This is a beautifully written and thought-provoking thesis on humour in writing. I just wanted to add a point about physical comedy in writing.

Personally, I adore comedy in physical movement as much as comedy in lines. Characters like Ross and Chandler (Friends), Nick and Schmidt (New Girl) and Sookie (Gilmore Girls) - they are all great physical comedians. Their movement adds so much to the comedy without being contrived.

I've only started exploring the physical comedy side of things in my writing. It doesn't have to be a lot, but personally, I think giving readers a snapshot of a physically funny scene is just such a fun thing to do when the occasion calls for it!

While some characters seem made for comedy (i.e. Dieter Bravo), unexpected comedy I think works just as great for more stoic characters (i.e. Din) to make them human.

Off the top of my head, Mari @mandosmistress wrote the funniest Dieter oneshot recently, Overworked and Underpaid. It's unapologetically hilarious from start to finish, the physical comedy is off the charts, and it works perfectly with Dieter.

Another that comes to mind is @mandoinevarro's Rule Maker, Rule Breaker, especially the first chapter No Refunds. It's a masterclass in physical comedy for a character like Din, and I remember it for the humour as much for the smut.

And of course, Ash's @mandoblowmybackout and her Vibes series. SPOILERS: the vibrator dying on Din and Reader is still one of the funniest things I've read on here.

Last but not least, LJ’s SW!Frankie is so addictive because of the humour he shares with Ms Jackson. These two make each other laugh as much as they love each other, and that’s what makes their relationship so real and beautiful.

Ok I’m done. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk. YES to humour in writing and thank you LJ for this thread! ❤️

LJ, do you think people like humor in fanfiction? i LOVE it but i feel like i don’t see it too often… that makes me wonder if it’s just not something people look for.

do YOU like a fic to be funny?

Lovely Eash! What a great question! And I have many many thoughts around it. The quick answer is yes! I love humor in a fic. It feels real and true to have people find the comedy in life, whether it's ironic or ridiculous or purposeful. I'll put some more detailed thoughts on humor in writing below the cut so not everyone has to listen to me wax poetic on this topic:

To start, these are my opinions mostly based on how I feel about writing fic. Other fic writers may have different feelings about this! I'm also coming from this as both a writer and as someone who did improv comedy for several years, where we were "writing" the comedy in real time and getting live feedback on it. So here we go!

Fic writing, to me, is an outlet for exploring feelings and situations in a safe way. It's fiction! It's words on a page! It can be a way for a writer to explore an experience they wished had turned out better, or one they wished would happen. Or they want to see a romance that wasn't explored, or imagine what being part of that would be like. I'm sort of double-talking here, since these feelings can both apply to the writer as a vehicle to create the content and the writer as a participant in the case of reader inserts, but the point I'm getting to is that fic writing often is an outlet for wish fulfillment and processing.

So it stands to reason that many of the themes of fic tend to fall into more serious topics. We want to act out the things that hurt, or that are scary or out of our comfort zone or highly improbable in a safe way. Fic is a great way to explore that! It is highly improbable I am going to seduce a Hollywood actor, especially one that's so hopped up on drugs he might OD, but I love playing around with what that might look like with Dieter. Same with falling in love with Din, or Frankie, or anyone I've ever written about. But joy can come from crafting a story that explores the themes I'm unable or unwilling to experience in real life.

Now here's where comedy comes in. As weird as it sounds, writing the heavy emotional stuff is easier. A shaking hand, a fervent glance, the pain of heartbreak, those topics have a lot of universality. Comedy, on the other hand, can be SUPER subjective. We feel it fall flat and we cringe. We're taught to scold bad comedy, but not to help build it up, so comedy becomes a scary, difficult beast to conquer. And writing comedy is a completely different beast from things like action, adventure, romance, etc. Where should it live? Is it in dialogue with a character, making them the voice for your jokes? Or in the tone of your prose, making the narrator almost become a character themself? What kind of comedy is it? Dark humor, observational humor, absurdism? Is it "really funny" or "just you think it's funny"? There's so much!

This is why I think comedy is not always explored in fic writing. It's complicated! It can throw the mood, feel forced into a scene, or if you keep it as a constant throughout you might feel like you're not being "serious" enough of a writer (which is wrong, btw, I've lost my shit laughing over beautiful writing).

I personally like both. I love a story that lets a comedic tone bleed through (beskarberry's entire masterlist is a masterclass on comedy and levity blending with serious topics, and The Things We Do for Love is a perfect example) and I love little lines scattered through a story. I personally have some favorites in my own writing, including just a silly as hell one coming up in Westworld Whiskey.

The thing I would love to see writers do is use comedy to enhance their story. Sometimes a heavy tone needs a break. Or the tension needs to snap. Comedy is a wonderful way to do that. Then you can jump back in to the angst or drama or action and it allows you to ramp back up and feel that rollercoaster of emotions because you got a taste of what not feeling it constantly was like.

I love comedy as a way to play with voice and plot and tone. I hope more fic writers embrace it and use it both as a tool, and as a way to give the audience one more emotion to explore. Because as much as making someone cry, or get horny, or feel loved or hated is an amazing review, making someone laugh is my absolute favorite thing to do.

I hope this at least entertained you, Eash, and I hope you find some of the comedy you're looking for with more creators. I'm sure there are a crazy number out there doing the Lord's work cracking jokes in battle scenes, and they deserve all the praise too!

[futsin]

Had a dream, wrote an outline

My dreams have been very story-worthy lately. This one in particularly was a strange combination of Drive, my own film Opportunity, Jeepers Creepers, and Highway to Hell (the 1991 film with Rob Lowe's brother).

Outline's done but given its similarities to other stories I've been wanting to do lately (meaning I'm beginning another "period" after Downcast is over), I'll shelve this for a rainy day sometime in a few years. Doesn't feel right yet. I need to know more about life and more about small town living.

But yeah. Another story outline. :D

[fuckyeahdindjarin]

Me: Great, I have time to work on Palomino tonight -

My cat: Not so fast *sits on my hands*

[fuckyeahdindjarin]

When an idea for a Frankie fic wakes you up at 4am and keeps whacking you in the face so you don’t get back to sleep at 6am on a school day 😒

[fuckyeahdindjarin]

Oooh this is fun, Kelli!

This is for Palomino, my dude ranch cowboy Jack AU solo holiday romance 🦄 It’s the first time I’ve relied so heavily on visual research for my writing.

reblog this with an aesthetic post of your own fic using pics you’ve saved and link your fic to it ❤️

[fuckyeahdindjarin]

I was downloading all my fics from FF.net when I noticed that I started my last completed series (before I joined this fandom) almost exactly 16 years ago.

I was 18 when I started it and 24 when I finished it. Re-reading it now, there are definitely bits that I cringe at, but looking back at how far I’ve come - I’m so fucking proud of myself for picking up writing seriously again last year.

Never stop writing if it makes you happy ❤️

[fuckyeahdindjarin]

Screaming because all of your fics are so incredible, i keep going back and re-reading them since i can’t get enough of them. 🤍

Sweet anon, this is just the kindest message 🥹 I remember when I first started out in the fandom, and I only had It Would Be and Consent to my name, I thought to myself - I would love it if I could build up a solid collection of stories one day.

Looking at my masterlist today, I'm honestly so proud of the fics that I've been writing these past 16 months, and even more grateful for the support that you guys have shown me. If I stopped writing today, I'd be happy with what I leave behind.

Ok I got unexpectedly emotional answering this ask. Thank you for reading and for taking time out of your day to send me this lovely ask, anon, I appreciate you ❤️

[fuckyeahdindjarin]

Girl. You wrote 65k words this year. WTFFFFFFF HOW DID YOU DO THAT. HOWWWWWWWWWWW. I rarely ever complete one chapter because then I start hating it.

Sweet anon, this ask is taking me ✨places✨ so please bear with me.

First, the how - I wrote 65k this year because I love writing (and there goes my comparing brain again - I'm sure my word count isn't even that impressive compared to others). There's nothing like the high of an idea striking you out of the blue like lightning, that compels you to chase the storyline in your head until you have a whole fic written out in your mind, even if it's 4am in the morning. Every single fic I've written has come from a moment like that, and it can be addictive.

Now, I kind of get you on the hate part - ok, maybe hate is a strong word, but there are definitely parts of writing that I don't love. And a lot of it comes from my own personality because I can't do anything by halves. When I started writing again last year, I would obsess over every single word and spend a whole week editing, moving the needle one word or one turn of phrase at a time. In the early days, I think I'd re-read a fic 10-15 times for edits before I would even think about posting.

I've mellowed a bit since, but I still have an incredibly long and rigorous editing process that honestly isn't much fun. But that's the way I'm built - deep down, I know a certain word or structure of a sentence wouldn't make much of a difference to the reader, but I owe it to the story to make sure it's as perfect as I can get it, especially when it's a fic as important to me as Palomino. The last edit for the finale alone took me 2 hours as I read every single word out loud during final revisions.

Writing just takes so much out of me every single time. I know we're meant to have fun, that this is a hobby, but for me, it's also way more than that? Like, yes, it's a hobby, but it's important to me that I give it everything I got. So yes, the stress is self-inflicted, but it's just who I am, and I don't know how to write any other way. And at the end of the day, that’s why I’m proud of everything I write, and why I’ll stand by my stories no matter what. Because I know I gave it everything.

Ok I don't know where all of that came from, excuse the word vomit, but I guess what I want to say is that I'm sure many, if not most, writers have a complicated relationship with writing. Sweet anon, I hope you find a way to write without hating it, know that deep down, we all have some sort of an antagonistic relationship with writing that ultimately comes from a place of love.