#i actually love paragraph breaks because it makes it easier for me to read

[convex-solos]

As someone whose first language isn’t english, when I found out in class you had to use a new paragraph for every single new topic you wanted to cover I was shocked.

Every language has their different grammar and even writing rules, so when I see walls of text in fics I usually assume it’s someone who, like me, used to have no idea about this rule, it’s just what makes the most sense in my head.

i don’t understand why some fanfiction writers will put all of there work in one giant paragraph. i am constantly abusing a paragraph break. i use it every five seconds. new subject? new paragraph. slightly different angle? new paragraph. any sentence that holds any amount of weight? boom new paragraph. i will use one word then do another paragraph break. you can’t stop me.

[colebabey888]

Stop Giving A FUCK | The IT GIRL DIARIES

🩷loving myself unconditionally

i learnt to love myself unconditionally, i did this by first accepting my flaws. there was a time that i was someone i didn't like, did things that present me, would be disgusted by, but nonetheless I had to accept that girl that I was before, because it sounds cliché, but without her, I wouldn't be who I am today. So, accept the parts of yourself that you don't/didn't like and then you won't find the need for anyone else to.

🩷comfort in solitary

most people have a hard time being alone and this can actually be a very negative thing, when it comes to growing within and gaining independence. i used to be one of those people. being alone scared the sh!t out of me and this caused me to often mold myself into others perspective of who they wished me to be, just so I could be accepted and not be left alone. because of this, if i lost someone, a friend or a lover, i would break down and become so lost. eventually i grew out of this habit and it changed me entirely. being alone is not a bad thing, in fact, it's a pretty positive attribute to mental growth and stability. learn to be comfortable with yourself, in your own presence. a cliché saying "life is like a book, each chapter comes with different characters, some old and some new". when i began to find comfort in my own solitary, this phrase helped me a lot. everyone in your life is just side characters, no one is permanent. some people might stay and some might leave but the one who always remains, is yourself. be happy with just you. find peace within your own presence. this way, you will accept those who arrive, openly and walk away from those who leave, graciously.

🩷nothing is personal

it's human nature to project. whatever it may be, negativity or positivity, we as humans always project and the amazing about that is, we can choose whether to accept the projection or not. ( nothing other people do or say, is because of you. it's because of themselves - Don Miguel Ruiz ). i often used to take a lot of things personally, from people who didn't even know me personally. which is straight up stupid, because in reality, if someone doesn't know you, it is IMPOSSIBLE for them to judge or have an opinion of you or your character. if someone's insults you, it's not because what they're saying is true, it's because they're projecting their own negative mind. your mind is made up of thoughts you create regarding yourself, the way you see yourself, speak to yourself, is the way you see and speak to others, so in this case, if someone insults you, it's because they hate themselves, not you. you're just a vessel they're trying to pour into because they're too full of hate against themselves already, that they have to begin using others as their negative thoughts keeper. if they don't know you personally, don't take it personally. ( this paragraph is especially important to me and i learned a lot from reading THE FOUR AGREEMENTS By Don Miguel Ruiz and i urge you to do the same if you're struggling with taking things easily to heart )

🩷mistakes are just lessons

i often tend to hold myself accountable for a lot of mistakes I've made in the past. I live with a lot of regret, but as cliché as it may sound, the mistakes you've made in the past are what made you who you are today. In order to grow for the future, you have to accept all the mistakes you've made in the past, this can often be hard at times depending on what mistake it was that you made, but the way to make this easier, is to take your mistakes as lessons. If you do not agree with an action made by yourself from the past, do not repeat it for the future, if you ever find yourself in a similar situation as to when you made that mistake, go about a different route and the outcome will be different. you cannot change the past, all you can do is accept it, for the future.

mwah! xoxo, colebabey8.88

www.thedigitaldollar/gumroad.com

[imagionationstation]

Hi IS!! I seriously hope you're actually taking a break from Tumblr and social media instead of reading this haha, but I've been a follower for a few months now and couldn't help but send in a little post after seeing your rant. As someone who grew up with 2012 and adores it, and also as someone who respects Rise for what it is, I understand. 2012 is a huge comfort show to me and I've definitely gotten upset when all people do is go out of their way to tell you how horrible the show is without reason. 2012 is by no means perfect!! I am extremely aware of its flaws, but I don't believe that gives anyone permission to go out of their way just to ruin it for you. To target the one criticism that drives me a bit nuts, the "real brothers" thing. Rise has a very valid interpretation of brothers! But as someone with 3 other siblings, it is not sunshine and rainbows all the time. My older siblings would make me cry, we would fight and get hurt and hurt each other all of the time, my younger sibling would tattle on me, etc etc. But we also look out for each other, and have grown out of many of those things since then. I see a lot of my own sibling situations in 2012. Sure, it doesn't get everything right (and can be purposefully exaggerated because it is a cartoon!!), but it isn't wrong either. Everyone has different family experiences, and believing that Rise is the only correct interpretation of siblings would just be a bit narrow minded. I have many, many more points I could make in regards to the sibling ordeal (and other criticisms you mentioned!) but I'll leave it here for now. Overall, just enjoy what you want to enjoy! This goes for everyone. Someone is always going to want to rain on your parade, don't give them the power to do it. It's so much easier and less tiring to spend your time enjoying something you love over dunking on something you hate. :)

Thank you <3

As I mention over here, not really in a place to drop it yet, but I may sometime in the future. Your support is greatly appreciated!

As someone who grew up with 2012 and adores it, and also as someone who respects Rise for what it is, I understand. 2012 is a huge comfort show to me and I've definitely gotten upset when all people do is go out of their way to tell you how horrible the show is without reason.

Exactly! I have nothing against rottmnt. RISE is a great addition to the TMNT fandom. It has its highs and lows like anything else. It didn't deserve the dislike that many fans gave it in the beginning.

So why does 2012 deserve the exact same treatment after its time is over? Why doesn't it deserve the same respect for its diversity?

They experimented with some awesome and iffy things.

Some things worked and others didn't. Why can't we leave it at that?

I try and read the opinions that say "I like this, this, and this, but-" and ignore anything that is pure hate or comes from an account that has never said a single nice thing about the show.

But even then, it's often always the same old list of complaints.

And, like, Donnie is downright awful with his comebacks but sometimes I find myself doing the daily quote thing to the screen when I come across someone who is being supremely unreasonable.

(Not that I'd ever actually say that to anyone. It's my stress vice.

But. I definitely think it. Very hard.)

To target the one criticism that drives me a bit nuts, the "real brothers" thing.

EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH BRINGS ME AN UNNAMABLE JOY.

You hit the nail right on the head!!

My family dynamic is so similar to these boys. One of my siblings very seriously told me a few days ago that I am not at all attractive, but a few weeks ago, the same sibling also reassured me that I deserved a love interest so much better than any person the world has handed me. Freakin' Raph impersonator over here.

Literally, I have siblings who interact like Leo and Raph. Constantly trying to be the superior in the relationship and hating when the other bosses them around. But you'd almost never find them apart because they are the other's shoulder to lean on.

I'm not anyone innocent either. I've said lots of things that I didn't mean in the past and I still slip up from time to time. I'm the type of person to be annoyed with a sibling and smack/shove them. My siblings do the exact same! Teasing and mocking and crude words aren't anything crazy. It's just how our fam do family.

I have a sibling who is just as insane and annoying as Mikey, but it's so frustrating because he's either purposefully stirring chaos and then laughing when we get upset, or so innocent and confused when I'm getting mad at him for doing something similar a while later.

We get so tired of it. But it's not his fault. He's untreated ADHD and lives his life to the fullest. What you gonna do? Stifle that? Please.

We get so tired of each other.

But we're always the first to have each others' backs.

Overall, just enjoy what you want to enjoy! This goes for everyone. Someone is always going to want to rain on your parade, don't give them the power to do it. It's so much easier and less tiring to spend your time enjoying something you love over dunking on something you hate. :)

Thank you so much. I always try to remind myself of that, but some days it can be hard. I really appreciate your kind words! I hope anyone reading this is also making note of them.

I don't ever want to be a hater.

Going giddly over the boys being themselves is so much more fun.

[feedthefandomfest]

Hiya!

I love this blog and just wanted to ask- do you know any advice on formatting and tagging for AO3?

Or just general etiquette!!

I'm not new to AO3 (reading or writing) but I haven't interacted with the actual community much and would love to know more :)

oof, I still feel like a newbie posting stuff on ao3, and tagging is something i've always struggled with. and actually formatting is also on ongoing issue 😅 so with that in mind, here's what i try to consider:

TAGGING

relationships -> tagging the main is obvious, but i'm sometimes torn about tagging side relationships that feature in the fic, especially since it's annoying to be searching for that pairing and get a bunch of results where they're not the main focus; unless the other pairing is a prominent feature, i leave it out of the relationship tags and at most add it to the additional tags

characters -> i remember updating the character tags on my early fics every time another character popped up in the story, but now i'm of the same mind as the side pairing issue; unless the character is prominently featured, i leave them out of the tags

content warning/advertising -> if i know the fic features an element that some people might wish to avoid, i always tag it and also always fret that i've forgotten to tag something in that regard. when it's more about advertising what's in the fic, especially sexual content, i sometimes feel silly listing every flavor of physical encounter unless the fic is pwp/smut (in which case i gleefully list all the depravity); i sometimes worry that over-emphasizing the sexual content in the tags is misleading? like of this 100k fic, if 15k is spent fucking, how do i get the tags to reflect that while also tag cw appropriately? is there an established tag for that?

sometimes i see fics with TONS of tags, like an exhausting amount, and sometimes i see fics with very minimal tags... sometimes frustratingly few. i also know some writers add chapter-specific warnings in the author's notes. in the end, so long as you're making it possible for people to find or avoid your fic as needed, then you're good. Here are some good posts that dive into it more!

(i remember when people on tumblr would scold writers for monologuing in the tags on ao3 like we do on here, claiming it was a strain on the system, but i believe that's been debunked?)

FORMATTING

i've noticed some MEGA annoying quirks with copy & pasting over from Google Docs and Word, and I know there are some tricks to get around them, but i tend to just slog through the Rich Text window fixing everything manually 🙃 OKAY I FOUND SOLUTIONS LINKED BELOW.

spacing problem #1 -> pet peeve of mine, but i dislike it when the paragraphs have massive spaces between them (ditto for indented paragraphs). idk why, but it's tiring for my eyes to constantly leap the chasm between paragraphs. so whenever i copy and paste from Word, which for some reason ALWAYS appears with double spacing between line breaks, i go in and manually fix it. SOLUTION

spacing problem #2 -> when copying over from Google Doc, whenever there's a punctuation mark following an italicized word, a random space appears between them. and yep, i have to go in and fix every one because typos make me twitch. (this might not be an issue for everyone; i overuse italics and dashes like it's my job) SOLUTION

spacing problem #3 -> again probably a me issue, but i tend to include song lyrics a lot, and it's always a headache to format because when pasting from the doc, ao3 embeds these spaces between the lines that i can't remove by backspacing. only fix i've found is to copy and paste lyrics directly from a website, and then it formats fine. random and annoying and weird. (no solution 😔)

since this section has just been me whining about finding SOLUTIONS for formatting issues, i'll offer one tip that's more about general editing: i try to proofread best i can in Word/GDocs, but it's always easier to spot errors when i'm reading the draft on my phone. the typos always jump out at me from a phone screen. it's now my favorite way to edit!

every writer has their own preferences on formatting, and every reader has their own level of tolerance for formatting quirks. in the end, so long as the formatting doesn't interfere with the reading experience, you're all good.

[ms-demeanor]

Any tips or hacks on how to go about writing the introduction and the conclusion of an academic text? I have finished the body of the text but introductions and conclusions always stump me. The deadline isn't until october but I worry I will piss away the entire summer agonising over how to do this last damn thing.

The simplest advice is "tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em, tell 'em, tell 'em what you told 'em."

I like to start from an extremely straightforward position on writing introductions and conclusions. I'm writing a paper now about the US healthcare system and my placeholder introduction paragraph is "The US Healthcare system is bad for X, Y, and Z reasons and should be changed." My placeholder conclusion is "Now that I have illustrated that the US Healthcare system is bad in X, Y, and Z, ways, I hope we have all learned something and take A, B, and C steps to change it."

Basically I write out the most basic thing I want to say in each paragraph and then embellish it. Sometimes this will actually lead to restructuring the paper a bit as I organize paragraphs to make sure that X, Y, and Z are in the proper order.

I have more trouble with conclusions than I do with almost any part of a project, but one of the things that has helped me with more academic-y texts is recognizing that if you've done your job properly the reader should know why you're making the argument you're making so you don't have to have a rabble-rousing, inspiring conclusion, you can functionally just say "Hope that clears things up! Here are the implications I want you to leave this paper with and my policy suggestions for the future."

Intros are a little easier for me because I just see them as scene setting. Treat it almost like an abstract, if that helps. "This paper is about this subject, here is my opinion on this subject, here is a brief summary of the evidence that supports my opinion on this subject. Here are some considerations to keep in mind, and here is why I think you should agree with my opinion."

Depending on the norms for the subject your intro can also include a brief history of the scholarship around that subject, biographical matter about a person under discussion, or a short explication of theory. I personally love multi-paragraph intros that spend a while getting me up to speed, but I also read literary criticism recreationally so I may be a bit biased. I would definitely say to find some field-specific papers that you liked and found useful to read and see how they constructed their introductions and conclusions and take some cues on structure from them. You can even go sentence-by-sentence and break down what each sentence is saying in the conclusion of a paper you liked ("As you can see from the previous paragraphs on SUBJECT, there is ample evidence of THESIS. We have responded to counter-arguments by addressing ISSUE and OTHER ISSUE. Our findings support THESIS, and you should agree for REASONS.")

Actually you know what that's my advice to everyone having trouble with intros and conclusions: find some intros and conclusions that you like and turn them into mad libs because that's basically what they are. That's a really good way to practice seeing what parts of your paper are unique (to fit into the blanks) and to figure out the structure of an academic intro or conclusion (the frustrating bit that is difficult to write).

[rigelmejo]

I'm linking some of MoonIvy's reddit posts, in case you'd like to read about their language learning journey. They are awesome! They're one of the authors of the Heavenly Path Reading Guide! That guide is super helpful, and I followed a lot of it's advice (and Heavenly Path's recommendations) once I was starting to read more. Heavenly Path also has a ton of recommendations of things you can read that are different difficulty levels, so I suggest browsing their suggestions if you have no idea what to read.

Also, if you use Readibu app, the app can give you a rough estimate of the HSK level of the chapter you're reading (you'll just open the chapter you're reading, click the book icon in lower middle of screen, then click Stats. You'll see a Comprehension % by reader's HSK level). For beginners, I suggest you try to find novels that say 90% or more over the HSK 4 level, or at least 80% and up if you can't find anything easy at first. Once you've moved from graded readers to simpler kids novels like 秃秃大王, novels with a 90%+ comprehension at HSK 4 level above will be the next easiest for you to read. (Later on: if you're looking to extensively read and barely look words up, look for 95-98% comprehension at the HSK level you think you're roughly at). For example, I'm reading 盗墓笔记 and it's 93% comprehensible for HSK 5 level, 98% comprehensible at HSK 6 level, and my vocabulary range is between HSK 5-6 roughly so it makes sense I can read dmbj extensively if I want (without word lookups and still understand it), but still have several unknown words I could look up if desired.

From intermediate to native webnovels in 18 months (Some wonderful mentions of what MoonIvy read. I also read 秃秃大王, 大林和小林, and 笑猫日记 by 杨红樱 and felt they were really good novels to read after graded readers but before novels like 盗墓笔记 and 撒野).

21 months of reading native books, and breaking into native platforms

Learn Mandarin Chinese to read danmei — it will be challenging but worth it

I can read novels without a dictionary after 3 years of reading danmei (Chinese boy love)

I reached 3,000 unique character knowledge by reading children's books and danmei (Chinese boy love) 

Some little notes of my own experience, I guess in relating to the journey others took. So: for me, I read stuff WAY harder than graded readers, when I initially tried to read webnovels. It was hard, and it probably made me feel more exhausted than I needed to feel. But it was motivating. So if you really enjoy X difficult novel, you can try to read it whenever, and keep reading it as long as you feel the desire to.

There was one person who shared their reading experience on the chineselanguage subreddit (I'm trying to find the post again) who read 撒野 after like 3 months of initial study. That's way faster than I would've tried! That's a huge spike in difficulty from knowing nothing to reading a novel with thousands of unique words in a few months! But some people just will find that they enjoy doing that, and it works for them, so don't be afraid to just TRY doing what you want to do and see how it goes. It might go awesome. And if it's so hard it's demotivating, you can always go look for something easier for a while.

I tried to read 镇魂 from pretty much my first month, and never got farther than a couple paragraphs until over a year of study. I'd take a glance at it once in a while, and see if it was easier to read, until one day it was 'doable' to actually try reading (while looking unknown words up). I tried reading 默读 from like month 5 onward, usually using a parallel mtl text and only picking up a few words, it was not doable to read until maybe 1.5-2 years into learning. I was already reading the mtl of 默读 because the english translation only had like 20 chapters back then, so I just would try to read the chinese original in small sentence pieces at times. Around 8-10 months I started trying to read 天涯客, and it kind of was doable in Pleco app's Reader as long as I looked up a lot of words. It used to take me 1.5-2 hours to get through a chapter, then over the next 6 months things got better and it'd take 1 hour then 40 minutes then finally 20-30 minutes per chapter. At the same time as reading 天涯客, I also read 小王子 around month 12 extensively (looking no words up) because I had the print book and wanted to practice reading extensively, I read 笑猫日记 by 杨红樱 read in Pleco while looking up words (which was easier for me to read than 天涯客 and helped me build up reading stamina and basic vocabulary a bit), and I read a pingxie fanfic called 寒舍 by 夏灬安兰. I read around 60 chapters of that fanfic, and 30 chapters of 天涯客, over those 6 months. 寒舍 was harder to read than 笑猫日记, but easier than 天涯客, so I would switch between all 3 stories depending on how hard/easy I wanted my reading to be. Eventually 笑猫日记 felt readable without word lookups, so I used 寒舍 as my 'easier' read and 天涯客 (and added 镇魂) as my harder reads. Then 寒舍 became readable without word lookups if I wanted (still had unknown words but they no longer affected my ability to follow the plot and most important details), so 镇魂 became my harder novel to read.

And that's pretty much the strategy I continued to use: I would bounce between a 'easier' novel I could read extensively, a medium difficulty novel I could just look keywords up with (if I didn't feel like looking up a ton of words) to understand, and a 'harder' novel I had to look up words in order to read. Maybe 2 years in (I don't quite remember now), I picked some 'easier' novels from Heavenly Path's recommendations with only 1000-2000 unique words, and read some of them to fill in gaps in my basic vocabulary (so looking up unknown words) and practice extensive reading with some of them. I think that was a really helpful decision, and improved my reading comprehension and stamina a LOT. If I could go back, I would've read a lot more 'easier' 1000-2000 unique word novels before trying to push right into the novels I did. But then, on the other hand? I think pushing right into 'difficult' novels helped me learn vocabulary to read priest's writing in particular, much faster, which was rough going at the start but now pays off because I find that author's stories have more words/phrases/sentence structures I'm comfortable with, and also a decent murder mystery/investigative vocabulary base which is helpful since it's a genre I like reading. Without all the 镇魂 reading I did in the past, I think 破云 would be almost incomprehensible to me. But instead, since I did read those investigative words a lot early on, novels like 默读 and SCI are now 'medium' feeling novels to me, and 破云 is harder but readable if I look words up.

[its-all-papaya]

hands on your keyboard cowboy i want to hear about the rest of your directors commentary pls !!! i LOVE the last landoscar convo in AN i absolutely need to hear more about it

likely place for you to be !!

(me, frothing at the mouth waiting for someone to ask me about this convo after I told you I was staying off tumblr for the rest of today)

ask me anything about my writing and read anybody, nowhere

OKAY. so. the LAST last scene of AN (fan stage) was like one of the very first things I wrote for that fic. I think the paragraph that starts "Lando's not online much these days" was first, followed by the Silverstone podium thing I used in the blurb, then it was fan stage. (Not to keep russian doll nesting asks, but the fan stage scene is a WHOLE other topic I could ramble about, I won't get into it too much here.) Anyway, other than those little anchors, I essentially just typed everything in chronological order and included what felt right when. So it was building in Lando's brain and building with Oscar and I KNEW I wanted it to end with the fan stage, so I KNEW I had to give some mental and emotional like... break? payoff? for Lando before then so that the fan stage would read like I wanted it to.

(break bc this got disguuuuusting long)

The other thing though is that I originally fucked up the Austria sprint finish order? So like 2/3 of the way through I realized I had to switch Lando and Oscar and that obviously like REALLY changed the entire tone of that passage and the bits right after, because the whole thing NOW is Lando getting beat by his teammate, but that super didn't exist until after I'd written all of Austria and started Silverstone. So I added the stuff about Lando battling Oscar and losing, and I loved it bc I think it gives the whole thing more depth, but then I was like... I need to write Lando out of this. I can't finish the fic without resolving the "Lando resents Oscar for beating him" plot-line. And I hadn't actually drafted anything for the last scene, but I had vague ideas of how it was gonna go that changed drastically when I started thinking about how to include some resolution for the on-track stuff.

SO. I'm done with the whole fic minus the conversation scene. We've had the Lewis Silverstone podium (probably my favorite part of the whole fic, and again, one of the original theses of it) and we're trying to get to the fan stage (probably my other favorite part) and I just like... sent Oscar to Lando's room with him? I didn't plan on all of their relationship development being in that one room, but I liked that it ended up that way because it felt really safe and contained for Lando, so I wanted them to get their payoff there, too. I don't really have anything to tell you about the first bit because it REALLY wrote itself. Like I was IN Lando's brain while writing this fic, all of his stuff was kind of me blind reacting to my own lead-up and then polishing it. Oscar was a bit harder to write, and this scene is the first time I felt like I had to actually make him like... do anything. Other than passively react to what Lando was doing. But even his dialogue just sat really right with me, and once I started the conversation it just felt really true to how they'd been all fic.

PAUSE for me to say I was so paranoid all fic too that I wasn't letting Oscar be enough of a real person with real emotions? I was like... some of these races sucked for Oscar too... ESPECIALLY silverstone... am I just going to make him Fix Lando anyway and not address his race? But THAT felt kind of true to Oscar too. Like he's not burdened the way Lando is and he at least seems to let things roll off easier, so I don't think it's OOC for him to not bring it up or be especially affected by it when Lando was a more pressing issue for him at the time.

Okay anyway. I really really loved the weird fight/not fight energy where Lando was fighting Oscar but Oscar just was not fighting back at all, like the one-sided argument was exactly what I wanted. I got through the part where Lando's like "I'm just not winning because I'm not" and then I got. So motherfucking stuck. Because at this point I'm like... okay. Lando has to give something back. We have to address Oscar's races. And I wrote the end of the convo no less than five times and it took probably three hours. I actually have a draft that I liked (I'll include it at the end) where they did address the Lando-hates-Oscar-beating-him thing, but then I had NO IDEA how to get them out of that. Like Lando admits that he hates losing to Oscar, but then wtf is Oscar supposed to say to that? Like... okay? Yeah? And I tried a bunch of stuff and hated it all, so I literally started a new word doc, dumped everything after "I'm just not winning because I'm not" in there, and started completely over from there in my actual WIP doc.

And from THERE I was like. You know what? We actually don't have to fix this for them? Like LANDO thinks this is a huge deal and makes him a horrible person, but does Oscar give a shit? Obviously they all hate losing to each other, that's like... the whole thing. Their whole goal is to beat everyone. So I was like "I'll indulge myself and just let them not deal with it right away" and I'd already written the "oscar's hand is out, palm up" paragraph for that original draft I liked, so I slotted her back in instead. And again, I am IN LANDO'S BRAIN, and I was like if EYE am thinking too much about how this conversation "should" go in a perfect world, Lando is DEFINITELY thinking about it. And I was like oh I need to stop thinking? Lando needs to stop thinking. And it sounds insane now because when I re-read the fic now, the through-line of Oscar calming Lando's thoughts is so so so obvious, but I promise that until writing "I need to stop thinking" it had never ever occurred to me that that's what Lando and Oscar's building relationship was doing for Lando the whole time.

Oh ALSO, in my original concept, they were never going to kiss because I felt like it would be forced bc I hadn't built to it enough. But once I hit on "I need to stop thinking" I was like OBVIOUSLY Oscar will kiss him to shut his silly brain up. Which, fun fact, is where "Lando isn’t even surprised. At any of it, really. It was always going to end up here" came from. It was just me, Soph, being like... oh. OBVIOUSLY THEY WERE ALWAYS GOING TO KISS.

So then I finished the kissing part and I was like... how will we get to fan stage for REAL. And I was still kind of worried about not resolving the on-track tension thing, so I was like... Lando is probably worried about that too! And the last "No, babe. That's your job." came to me straight from heaven or something, idk, but it was so perfect for ending the scene. Like I had spent HOURS AND HOURS worried about how to make them authentically address this and still stay soft and warm with each other and Lando's been panicking about it for eight straight days and we finally get the nerve to bring it up and Oscar is like "you silly silly goose, of course you hate losing to me!"

hahahahaha okay final notes then scene draft: as I said in the answered ask after I first decided to write AN2, I feel like I ended up with a version of this scene that was.... SO accidentally foreshadow-y of Hungary?? I was watching the team orders situation play out during that race and I felt like that dodgeball "the gift of prophecy" meme because I was like... holy fuck, this is EXACTLY the kind of thing that AN Lando was afraid of. The other note is that the line "we don't have to fix it right now, Lando" in the hollow hereafter is a direct result of my fight with this scene in AN and the topics of it. AN2 was destined, it's literally the only thing I can think of with the amount of weird pre-work I'd already done for a situation I didn't know was going to exist ever when I published AN????

oKAY THANKS FOR ASKING CLEARLY I HAD THOUGHTS!! Here are your demos/deleted drafts !!

this is how the austria sprint scene finished when I thought it was Lando P2, Oscar P3:

As he clasps Oscar’s gloved hand in parc fermé, he wishes for a blind second that it was a grand prix so he could remember how Oscar’s eyes looked squeezed against champagne spray up close. Then he remembers that place in the back of his mind and the ugly, twisted relief he felt passing his teammate for the final time, and he shoves the idea away. He doesn’t deserve that, either.

And this is how the final convo went when I was trying to make them discuss things (picks up after "It’s just me. I’m just not winning because I’m not.” and the rest of that paragraph didn't exist yet):

“We drive the same car,” Oscar says and Lando already knows he’s not going to like the rest, “and I’ve been qualifying like shit the whole month, too. It’s not just us out there. You know that. You’re being really hard on yourself.”

Lando remembers then that Oscar’d had his race ruined too. Worse, probably. Without a choice in the matter. And instead of wallowing he’s here comforting Lando, who should know better by now. Who should be better by now.

“I’ve been here three times as long as you,” he’s teetering on that precipice, deciding between anger and the other thing. “And I’m still making stupid mistakes. It’s worse because I should be better by now, and-” he stops. Considers.

“And?” Oscar prompts and Lando still can’t look at him.

“And you beat me. In Austria.” He says, quieter than anything since they’ve entered his room.

Oscar takes a breath so deep Lando can hear it. When he finally glances up, Oscar is already looking at him. His eyes still have that stupid warm, fond look in them and Lando’s afraid he’s going to do something dumb, like apologize, but instead what he says is “I beat you in Monaco.”

Lando scoffs, eyes back on his feet. “That wasn’t the same.”

“Why?” and he’s still asking like he doesn’t know the answers.

“Because it wasn’t, Oscar, people weren’t saying things in Monaco.” He’s losing the thread of the conversation a little bit, brain wrung dry from hours of thinking these things over, and it feels ten times harder to do it all out loud.

“Is this about what people are saying?” Oscar asks, then, and maybe they’ve both talked themselves in a bit of a knot.

“It’s not about anything.

“Lando,” Oscar says. “C’mere.”

His hand is out, palm up, and he’s taken his cap off at some point so his hair is messy and ruffled and he looks soft even though he’s got his damn polo neatly tucked in like always. He should be mad. Lando’s selfish, he’s so… he’s always taking what he shouldn’t from Oscar, but he goes anyway, puts his hand in Oscar’s and lets his teammate pull him down next to him on the bed.

“Are you upset about Austria?” he asks gently. He’d let go of Lando’s hand as soon as he was sitting, so his arm is free to curl around Lando’s waist, drag his palm up. Hip to ribs.

Lando sucks on the side of his thumb where it’s started to bleed. When he brings his hand to his face, it’s shaking a little. “Not…” he pauses, concedes, “Kind of. But not at you, I don’t think. I like when you do well.”

Oscar laughs a little and Lando’s eyebrows pull together, but it doesn’t feel mean. Lando’s not sure Oscar has a mean bone in his body when it comes to him, and that should be an issue, probably.

Oscar’s palm slides back down, ribs to hip.

“At what, then?”

And that’s the question, isn’t it.

And then I couldn't get them out of it so all that went to the graveyard! But I like the way it ended up, so I'm really really not mad about it.

KAY THX CHARLIE love u <3 if anybody else made it this far, ask about other scenes, I dare you >:)

[offmychest-official]

I may have inattentive adhd? haven’t got diagnosed (don’t plan to either because I hear it makes finding a job difficult) but a friend got diagnosed and her symptoms sound a lot like mine:

(executive dysfunction, difficulty transitioning tasks and focusing, hyper-fixations where I cannot think about much else and forget to do basic things like eat and go to the bathroom, terrible memory, ‘weird’ trains of thought)

(I also have a couple symptoms I didn’t ask her about like my love of lists and decision trees and another one I forgot while trying to spell decision)

I haven’t told anyone about my suspicions but I can’t help but feel like I am faking it. (mainly because I didn’t suspect adhd until tiktok blew it up and I feel like diagnosing myself because I relate to people/memes is silly, everyone feels something like this to an extent right?)

(also if anyone has any advice you think could help regardless of if I have adhd or not (like how to function w/o meds or advice to help me focus on something I’m not hyper-fixating on or anything really please share)

((now that I think about it if I have adhd my dad might have adhd too (if I have it I mean)? when I complained about some symptoms like difficulty focusing, spending forever re-reading a page and not actually reading/getting distracted by literally nothing, and wanting to study but not being able to move my body he told me that it’s normal and he felt like that when he was my age (could be nothing tho I tend to overthink) ))

aaaaa sorry i wrote a lot (I tried to break it into mini-paragraphs to make it easier to read)

.

[kitkatt0430]

not quite an assumption but i am terrified of you how do you find the motivation (and TIME) to write as much as you do + with the quality you do???

I admit... sometime i write during work hours, something made easier because I can just work from home with my home laptop setup on one side of my L-shaped desk setup and my work laptop on the other.

While code is compiling or during a tea break I can write a few sentences or a few paragraphs or do a little editing. I don't write during work often, but on a slow day I can sometimes get a lot done on a fic. (I'm more likely to read or play music off my plex server, but writing is an option I enjoy having available.)

But overall I'm just a fast touch-typist. Slowed a bit recently by my switch to one of those split design ergonomic keyboards for my home office setup. Because, uh... I gave myself some very mild carpal tunnel symptoms this year presumably primarily from my typing. Though I think a few other things contributed. (Thankfully my wrist brace for sleeping in has largely cleared up the worst of my symptoms. No surgery needed!!!) So perhaps I should be viewing my own amount of output fic-wise to be a bit scary too. 😳

I'm not totally sure where my motivation to write comes from, exactly. Sometimes a fic idea comes to me and my imagination spins it like a microwaved plate enough times that I just have to write it. Because it's funny and I want to share or it's serious and it feels like I need to tell it or because my fingers just have to type it out so that it'll stop spinning in my brain. I think some of that is potentially ADHD related, tbh.

Honestly, every year I look back on how much fic I've written and go no??? I didn't write that much. Did I? Obviously I did but... wow. O_O Sometimes I focus so much on the fics that I haven't written, like series continuations, that I forget just how much I have actually completed and posted and that i should be proud of that work. I've really liked things such as the Ao3 Wrapped and other finished fic ask games here on Tumblr that remind me to look back and be happy about everything I've accomplished.

As for the fic quality... I have been writing fanfic since I was very young. The first fanfics I wrote were entirely for my own enjoyment when Star Trek Voyager was first airing. I still regret those fics were lost when the computer crashed. Though I also wrote a lot of plot ideas and story intros to those ideas in various notebooks at that age too, with homages to Snoopy's 'A dark and stormy night' type intros and influence from whatever I was reading at the time. Those are lost too, but all of it taught me things along the way about what worked for me and what didn't and how to improve my spelling and grammar. (Though re-reading my own fics is, to this day, an exercise in patience every time I find a minor error.)

So I owe my writing style and fic quality today to eight-year-old me who saw herself a bit in Naomi Wildman while playing imagination games. To my eleven(twelve???)-year-old self who identified with feeling like the odd one out the way Seven of Nine did and started writing my own stories about her as result and who didn't give up writing when my hand-me-down computer crashed only a few months after it was moved into my room, taking with it all the writing I'd saved. To my fourteen-year-old self who fell in love with reading fanfic and my sixteen-year-old self who tried to break out of the internalized misogyny and queerphobia with my writing despite not even realizing I had those things inside of me. To my college age self who didn't let busy schedules and calculus (ew) stop me from making time for my writing.... to every version of me I've been along the way who kept writing and improving my technique, often without even realizing that's what i was doing.

I'm thirty-five now, so my writing ability has had a lot of time to grow. But really, that's all my fic quality comes down to. All the time I've spent over the years telling lots of stories.

[formulapookie]

17/24/30 for the fic asks (((:

thanks for asking :)) <33

17) Talk about your writing and editing process -> oh dear. Uhm. ok I'll try but it's actually really random. As per the writing part -> I usually have to be at home, preferably on my bed and on my laptop, I sometimes use my phone if for example I write un my Note App or if my pc is at home and I'm away.I do not use music during the writing process because it takes my mind off it and I need to be very concentrated on it, so door closed, comfy outfit and no sounds. Concerning the editing one I simply revise all my doc for grammatical errors first, then check my paragraphs to make sure they're good and eventually I have that poor soul of my friend act as a beta reader, but sometimes I don't want to bother so I just read it myself entirely. For the editing part ALWAYS with my computer, it's a lot easier for me to see things and correct mistakes with the computer (here I sometimes put on music but it's rare)

24) How do you recharge when yoiu're not feeling creative? -> I read! I read my old works or wips, other's people works which align to the one I'm currently blocked on but I also read classics (I love classics) and idk why but especially French ones in French because the way those authors have with words usually lighten the creaativity spark back :) This is a bit more dumb but I try to recite my wip/s too, like sometimes as self insert with an outside perspective sometimes as one of the characters

30) Share a fic you're especially proud of -> well absolutely the one I consider to be one of my best works is I'll commit your every scar to my memory because yeah, self introspection, fear of ageing, of not fitting in and being replaced is something I feel a lot, because by practicing a sport where I am constantly meeting younger people ready to surpass me is stressing and having people close to me comment on how I'm beginning to get old for them and how the new ones are faster and better it's uhm a lot. Like sometimes I need a break and I know I should get one but I fear I'll fall behind and that training less will get me fucked up.

[discardedsys]

long post ahead, its a rant (big space between paragraphs because its easier for me to read)

yeah dti might be cool and i might love drawing but i think I'd Love to actually get a psychiatrist that bothers to listen to me instead of just making my anti psychotic dosage higher until we inevitably have to change it because they can't make my dosage any higher. Fun.

uheegdgshs i know this post is kind of incomprehensible but being dx with psychotic breaks before trying to get a did dx was the worst thing to have ever happened. the awfulness of living in a third world country with one of the highest suicide rates in latam 😮‍💨😮‍💨😮‍💨

no, dear psychiatrist, the voices™ have not gone away with your foolproof solution of More Medication and 0 therapy, btw could i get screened for did? yes? great! let me know when it'll never happen because this always leads to nowhere.

i dont care if i turn out to not be a system because my experiences and symptoms are still there, they're just not plural, that's okay!!! I'd be glad if that's the case (still want help with my dissociation, identity issuses, amnesia and conditioning!!!!!! thx!!!!!)

alas, i shall never know because psychiatrist #9 (im not joking they keep leaving) wont bother to even hit the 1 hour mark of the session my mom paid for, and instead leave at 28 minutes

fucking hell my mom got dx with asd like. 3 years ago after being in therapy for around 15 years iirc? because she got diagnosed with bipolar disorder first. i loooove how functional the healthcare system is here 🥴

whatever, i guess I'll survive off yuri and fashion

[slocumjoe]

usually when people apologize for something being long its like...two paragraphs, but i admire that you actually come through on that

I personally lay hexes on people who post very long text blocks without a readmore, so I did have to go through and just copy+paste so I could put a readmore. Also, I italicized quotations/parentheses and italicized+bolded+colored the names, as I usually do, just because it’s easier for me to read. sorry for like, hijacking your stuff

anyway, @dontletyourchildrenwatchthis’s band au

Sole: is the director of the band. It’s more of a community band that they formed up after being medically discharged from the marines. Always wanted to be in a concert band/have their own band, and was in college for music education before enlisting due to financial disparities. Allows anyone and everyone who has a passion for music to join, and is a very open and free director, does their best to be friends with everyone in the band so the members don’t just see them as a director. Has even reached out to many people (some of the companions) to join. Though they’re fun, they take the band very seriously. If someone doesn’t take the band seriously with their commitment/dedication they very firmly ask them to consider their involvement. Does their best to help out anyone in need (practice, transportation, etc). Does their best to put together community concerts to raise funds for charities or funds for the band so they can travel/have music or instruments. Will put together specific pieces to show allow people to show off their skills.

Cait: I think she would be a trombone player. She used to be a trumpet player throughout grade school, as it was one of the only escapes from her abusive home life. After school practices, concert nights/trips, spending time in the practice rooms after school to avoid going home. Though it was originally a tool to escape home, she grew to love playing in a band, the support of her director and the friends in her section/bandin general. Though, when she was in high school her parents stole her instrument (which was loaned to her by the school since she couldn’t afford one of her own) in order to buy drugs. This made Cait very understandably upset, and it caused her a lot of trouble since the trumpet belonged to the school, so she wasn’t allowed to play anymore despite it not being her fault. She never forgave her parents for that, and without the support of the band, and her lack of stability at home caused her to fall off, much like her parents. Drugs, fights, etc. It took several years of her life, but after one-too-many arrests, she was forced to join NA (narcotic anonymous), and saw a flier for Sole’s community band. She wanted to pick up trumpet again, but too many fights ruined the dexterity of her hands, but Sole helped her pick up trombone, since it doesn’t require finger movements, and since she had past experience with a brass instrument, she didn’t have to learn an entirely new embouchure, just adjusted it to the new instrument. Being in the band has helped her stave off any relapses, as she knows Sole relies on her to be the principal trombone player, and she’s also grateful of all the help they offered her when she was at one of her lowest points.

Curie: I think she would primarily play violin, but her eagerness and desire to learn has caused her to attempt to pick up just about every other string instrument. Though, her primary job as a pharmacist already makes it difficult to dedicate a ton of time to the band, which has caused her much grief and has even caused a minor break-down, because she wants to dedicate herself to your band, and wants to learn so many new instruments. Sole, doing their best to be a good friend and director, allows her to learn on the donated instruments they’ve gotten, or the few they've bought and restored themselves. This allows Curie to try a new instrument every few concerts, which involves months of learning while they practice the new pieces. So far, Curie has picked up viola, and cello. Though, Curie is more than happy to play the violin if Sole really needs her for a specific piece or two.

Danse: Is also a veteran, in fact, it was through the service that he met Sole. They were under his command for the first few years of their service before being transferred to put their skill elsewhere. He was medically discharged after a mission went wrong. Danse entirely blames himself, because he believes it was his decision making that led to the deaths of his entire team, sans himself for being in power armor, despite the fact that his mission was doomed from the start. He completely lost his self-confidence and his purpose in life after his injuries made it impossible for him to rejoin the service. He reconnected with Sole at a veteran association, where they told him of their band. Sole offered Danse to join, as there were a few other veterans from the community in. He refused at first, since he didn’t know how to play a single instrument, but reluctantly accepted their offer to be taught one. I had a bit of a hard time choosing which instrument he would play, since I think he would be either a french horn or euphonium player. Sole let him try out both, and since I’m more partial to him playing french horn, that’s what I’m gonna go with him choosing. Being in Sole’s band has helped him regain his self confidence, and has given him a purpose. He is a dedicated and quick learner, which has made learning the instrument very easy for him, though he has a tendency to over-play when practicing. He was also a little hard to get along with at first, since he treated his section like a unit of soldiers, barking orders and sharing his not-so-nice opinions towards players who weren’t as dedicated as he thought they should be. Though,after a meeting with Sole, he became more mindful of his behavior. Speaking of Sole, he is extremely proud of them, growing into a leader/director/teacher, as he remembered how they were when they were first under his command years ago.

Deacon: Deacon is adaptive, and loves to move around, which is why I think he would be in percussion. He is a sort of jack of all trades, knows how to play most instruments that involve mallets, drum sticks, chimes, etc. If it involves a stick and something to hit, he’s on it. This may involve him having to move around to different instruments throughout a concert or even in a single piece, but he’s got it under control. He moves so fluidly and quietly you sometimes don’t even see him transfer instruments. He is just suddenly playing when he comes in. He can even play piano in a pinch, though he isn’t a fan of being that close to the edge of the stage, so far in the front of the band, which is why he is particularly fond of percussion, because they’re in the back. He is sort of hidden back there, that’s something he very much vib(raphone)es with. He will also lightly make fun of Sole for the faces they pull while directing after practice/concerts. He has even made faces back in the middle of practices, which has caused Sole to get distracted more than once, to which they will lightly scold him afterwards.

Hancock: Saxophone. When I think of Hancock, I think of smooth, really mellow and slow jazz. He is an amazing player, but prefers slower songs, songs that don’t require much technicality or any strong concentration/practice. He is a very lax person, not much of a fan of hard and rigid genres of music. He much prefers jazz, pieces that have interpretive solos/duets up to the players. I think at first he didn’t take the band seriously, would occasionally not show up for practice and a few concerts, because he either didn’t care or got too high (more than just weed with this guy, he does harder drugs usually). After Sole had a talk with him though, he initially quit. He originally joined the band because he liked how fun and free Sole was, and how loosely they managed the band. When Sole had that talk with him about needing more dedication from him to be in the band, he initially was upset, believing that went completely against the “freeness” of the band. But, he very much missed playing for Sole’s band, and worked out an agreement with them. He helped Sole form a full jazz band, which was much more lowkey, and comprised a smaller section of the band, purely for those that wanted to play full on jazz pieces. The smaller band had less practices and would usually play 1 or 2 pieces at the end of a normal concert. Out of respect to Sole’s dedication to the band (and to Cait’s triggers) he no longer shows up high, and doesn’t not mention his drug use/habits during meetings.

MacCready: I see Mac as a violinist as well. He played throughout most of grade school, but had to drop out of school when he accidentally got his girlfriend pregnant. He had to drop out of school and drop the cello in favor of working to support himself and his son. His girlfriend’s parents thankfully watched Duncan while Mac went to work, but that stopped after his girlfriend died. They blamed it on him, and in a way, he blamed himself too. She had been on her way back to her parents when she was in a car accident, which she unfortunately passed away from. This resulted in Mac almost falling apart. It was a really tough time for him, and became even harder when Duncan became seriously ill. This is how he met Sole, through one of their charity events. Sole’s charity raised a ton of money for the families of sick kids, helping them afford treatment. Once Duncan got better, Mac felt like he had to thank Sole personally. This is where they offered him to join the band. He was hesitant at first, since he had very little time as it is, and thought he needed to find extra childcare for Duncan, but Sole encouraged him to bring Duncan to practices, and has even helped him with childcare, offering to watch Duncan for free while Mac was at work, and Sole even started teaching him how to play piano. It was very difficult for Mac to make friends as a single father, especially since his girlfriend died, but joining the band has given him a chance for friends, even some around his age with kids of their own.

Nick: When he was younger, Nick was a very good trumpet player. Though he hadn’t picked it up in many many years by the time he met Sole. As a retired detective that suddenly had a ton of time on his hands, he looked for ways to occupy himself. He heard about Sole’s band through the paper, and when he read that it was an open community band that required a little more than light commitment, he pulled his old trumpet out of storage and showed up to practice. Though it took some time to get used to it again, and after a few cleanings and tune ups, he was back to the star trumpet player he had been back when he was younger. Though he makes jokes about how difficult it is to keep up with the younger members, he is constantly impressing everyone with his range and speed. Nick has taken a very strong liking to Sole, due to their kindness and dedication to the band and the members of it. He tries to take them under his wing, helping them manage the band and concerts and charities and everything else. He worries Sole will overwork themselves, much like he had during his job, so he offers his help where he can, and reminds them to take breaks, both physically and mentally.

Piper: Played the flute and also picked up the piccolo throughout grade school, though it was more of a hobby and hadn’t played either since high school until she joined Sole’s band. She found the band while reporting on it during one of the charity events Sole put on, and liked what she heard so much she decided to pick up her hobby again. Her being a journalist for the local paper has its benefits, because she will write articles about the band, upcoming concerts, etc (she may or may not include how beautifully the flute section played, and write about how one unknown flutist in particular played so beautifully, it moved the crowd to tears). Her contacts and connections through her job have elicited larger donations for the band and the charities it supports, but has also gotten them very prestigious concert opportunities. Piper herself is a wonderful flute player, and since her job requires a lot of typing, technical pieces where her fingers are flying over the keys are her specialty.

Preston: Clarinet and assistant band director. Also a veteran, and was in an army band before his enlistment contract ended. He enjoys marches the most, but is also a fan of jazz pieces, which has allowed him to explore his confidence a bit more with all the interpretive pieces. Joined Sole’s community band for his love of playing clarinet. He offhandedly mentioned wanting to learn how to direct to one of his section-mates, to which Sole had heard and taken seriously. He was extremely unconfident throughout his life, especially in leader roles, but has slowly grown much more confident under Sole’s direction. They will switch out during concerts, with Sole picking up their own instrument and joining the band while he gets to direct. Sole has involved him in deciding the theme of the concert, picking out songs based on what strengths the band had/things they wanted to improve. Sole even handed the reins entirely over to Preston so he could coordinate his own concert and direct it entirely on his own. Preston has excelled with directing, but has unfortunately fallen victim to Deacon’s light bullying over his “director faces”.

Strong: Strong is a huge man, in every way. There aren’t many big-person friendly instruments besides the tuba, though he still manages to make the tuba look small. Strong had a somewhat rough upbringing, and very rarely had kindness in his life. So when he meets Sole, someone who is genuinely kind and does their best to offer help, not only to the members of their band, but their entire community, Strong is immediately transfixed. He has not known kindness like Soles’s someone who just gives it out, whether or not the person deserves it. And according to himself, he was not worthy of kindness for the things he’s done. As an ex-con, he struggled greatly to find places that would accept him, which is only strengthened by the way he looks. Big, intimidating, mean. But Strong is also kind at heart, and only wants to learn how to be able to give his kindness instead of the cruelty given to him and expected of him. When he heard of Sole’s band, he really wanted to join, but didn’t even know how to play a single instrument, though that has never mattered to Sole. They offered to teach him some instruments, starting with the tuba since it was the easiest for him to play, size wise. But then someone donated a harp to Sole, hoping they could put good use to it. Strong was mesmerized by the beautiful and large instrument, and was the first to volunteer learning it for the band. He fell in love with it instantly, to the point where Sole gave him an extra key to the practice room so he can come in and practice when he pleases. Sole does their best to find pieces that include harp, but Strong still plays tuba when needed.

X6-88: Growing up, his guardians brought him up playing piano. He was forced to play the instrument for the majority of his life. Practices almost every day, concerts, school band, church band, etc. His guardians were very strict, and didn’t let him quit or have any of his other hobbies. They told him he was made for piano, he had a gift. He was naturally quite good at it, and through the rigorous routine and harsh punishments of his guardians, he excelled at it. A prodigy, if you will, winning competitions, playing in state, etc. He even got a scholarship for a prestigious music school for it, and he went through with it because that was what was expected of him. That is where he met Sole. The college was near their community, and they were looking for students wanting to play in concerts, as many college music students were constantly on the lookout for opportunities like that. He took Sole up on their offer, because he knew it would be expected of him were his parents there. He did his role perfectly, playing piano, but Sole was able to pick up that it wasn’t something he particularly wanted to do. And it was through Sole X6 was finally able to explore different hobbies, different interests. Sole also helped him gain the confidence to stand up to his parents, accept that he was his own person, an adult at that, and that he could choose his own hobbies and interests. He changed his major in college and has decided to pursue an entirely different degree, but he still plays in Sole’s band as their pianist. Now that he was able to pursue his own interests, he found that he did like piano, and was now playing as a choice instead of an expectation.

[ravenkinnie]

GIRL give me some writing tips i love ur fics so much how do u do it???

aaah thank you sm!! I feel goofy giving tips because im a mid ass writer but i have some tips I gathered from other people that help evolve if not improve:

literally just write, it's the principle that fanartists learned of becoming obsessed with one weird guy and drawing him 100 times, eventually you will realise its not just better its also easier. if the first draft sucks that's fine, it's easier to work with something you already have than start from a blank page - there's also ways to make starting drafting easier like I'm not someone who just sits down and writes, I do detailed outlines and that makes the actual writing 10x easier

unless you have some inner talent for literature, I do believe its impossible to write well without reading, it also helps so much to see how other people do things. what especially helps is going the extra step of engaging with stories and asking yourself why you like a specific author/story, noting the paragraphs that stand out to you etc, breaking down stories already written helps imagine writing one yourself

I stole this tip from someone but I don't remember who - leave one round of edits specifically for making the story more of itself: more funny, more tender, more dark, whatever, just ask yourself if there's room to lean into what you're writing more

learn how to find a theme of your story!! a theme is what separates okay writing from good writing, this is a good video if you don't know where to start

subtlety and nuance are kings, it takes time to learn the balance between showing enough and leaving things to interpretation - this is definitely what I pay the most attention to when editing because it's a layer that always stands out to me with other writers

there's so much on character creation out there but few tips I like is breaking down what they want and what is the obstacle/what they want, what they need, what they are willing to do/say about it. you don't need to know their favorite color and they don't need to be relatable to everyone ever but it's key that they are understandable and serve a purpose within the story

[emberfrostlovesloki]

Hey

Please don’t take this as anything mean. I really want to read your story’s, but I can’t get my self to do that. Not because they aren’t/ look good, it’s more the layout. And of course if you like it this way, then just ignore me!

But you write like this”: _y/n_'s shoulder. _y/n_  “ and I personally (idk about others) but I find it easier to read when it’s just “y/n” instead of the _y/n_. Especially when it’s used so often, and maybe some gaps between the text sometimes?

Again totally understand if you want to ignore this, I just feel bad because your writing just sound so good otherwise:)

Hello lovely Anon!

I didn't take this as mean at all. I often think about my writing and accessibility. I think a lot of my writing choices come out of my job as an academic. Much of what I read and write for my work has these big paragraphs of text. So I'm very used to seeing that, but I know that others might not be. I will try and add line breaks more often in my fics so it breaks up the big chunks of text more

As for the _y/n_ being formatted that way, I actually don't know where that came from. I must have been in fics that I read when I was younger and I just copied that format? I might put up a poll later today to ask others their opinion on it. I do find that when I am going back and editing it makes it easier reading it on my end. But once I'm done with the final edit I can always go into find and replace and get rid of the _y/n_ and change it to y/n.

Sorry that was a lot on my writing process, but I really appreciate your comment. I do think about these kinds of things when I'm posting as someone who is obsessed with aesthetics and the appearance of my blog. I want everyone to be able to enjoy my work and I'm happy you think it looks interesting. Let me go back and add some line breaks to my latest story: Dead Center, and if you want maybe you could tell me if it's easier to read after?

I hope you have a lovely day and weekend, Anon, and thank you for your constructive criticism! Love Levi - ❤️

[edit] I did add some more breaks to Dead Center.

I accept and appreciate all comments and constructive criticisms of all my work. As a teacher, it is highly appreciated. I also love mail, so if you wanna tell me something about our fav little guys or have a story idea or request, feel free to ask me.

Text Break Banner by: @cafekitsune

[idoodlestuffsometimes]

I just looked at your Owl House AU and I didn’t know that you had described the pictures already, I’m visually impaired and I never got to read a comic before. And you let me do something I always wanted to do. I love how you describe it and I would like to make comics too, I was wondering how you script them to describe them like you did?

oh my gosh!!!! This makes me so happy, you have no idea! I'm so glad you were able to have that and that you enjoyed it! I often don't really know what I'm doing, but I've tried to make these in such a way that as many people as possible are able to read them. (this is also why I avoid anything too inappropriate and mark anything that might be so, because the Owl House is ultimately a show targeted at kids, and even though Tumblr is aimed at an older audience, I would like those here to be able to share it with younger friends and family if they want.)

I haven't been sure about my image descriptions though. I've been fumbling my way through them, clueless and sometimes a bit dispirited because I wasn't sure if they were actually useful to anybody or whether I was doing it all wrong. Tumblr also makes it tricky for me because, on PC, long ALT descriptions have a tendency to run right off the screen and I have no idea whether screen readers can see them, or how read-aloud tech works at all. I'm extremely glad that it worked for you.

It does concern me that you couldn't tell at first that there were descriptions attached though. Is it easier for you if I write them under a read more instead? Also, if you use a screen reader, how do paragraph breaks work for you, because some of my descriptions include them and some don't, due to the off-the-screen issue I mentioned before. Also, if anyone else would like to pitch in and let me know whether they read the descriptions, ALT or otherwise, when the images aren't loading or something, please do!

As for the scripting in the descriptions, I try to describe things in the order that you would look at them if you were looking at the composition (not just the order of panels, but also the order you would see the parts of the image and dialogue inside the panel, according to visual hierarchy.) I also tend to think more in terms of how I would describe what's happening if I were writing a fic, even though I'm describing an image, and so I try to write in a way that reads smoothly like I'm telling a story, while also balancing the inclusion of visual details that impact the mood and understanding of the viewer. I'm fortunate to have studied both creative writing and visual storytelling, so the two are a bit married in my head. Ultimately I'm trying to use the description to tell the story rather than to describe every minuscule detail (other than the ones that help tell the story and set the mood).

Anyway, I'm so glad you liked it! Please never hesitate to ask me for a description if you ever run into an image here on my blog that hasn't been described and that you would like to see. Feel free to mention it in the replies or shoot me an ask, and I will reply privately to let you know when it's updated.

[open-hearth-rpg]

Usability: Great RPG Mechanics #RPGMechanics: Week Nine

Continuing my week of meta-elements which make for great games, I want to talk about physical presentation. There’s a weird mix in my collection of ttrpgs. I have 8-9 shelves filled with physical books and way, way too many accumulated in my badly organized “rpg e-files” folder which has migrated across five different desktops. I’d say pdfs have become the majority at this point. I usually read those on a crappy Samsung tablet, mostly because I have a hard time reading large amounts of text on a screen. So pdfs work better than others– and I appreciate when the designers have thought about these elements. 

Printer-Friendly: I love it when a ttrpg has a printer friendly mode. This can take a couple of forms. Some games, like The Sprawl, have a day-mode and night-mode versions. When I first saw the Sprawl’s white text on black background, I didn’t like it. Eventually I found out that was a more comfortable approach for a lot of readers. But I appreciated that Hamish Cameron eventually released a version with standard black on white page design. Other games publishers in the last few years have begun to do this more and more. Star Trek Adventures includes that with the pdf purchase. 

The other version of printer/reader friendly is to have layers available in the pdf. This allows readers to turn off distracting page elements: paper textures, watermark art, intrusive page frames. This allows for easier printing, but frankly for me, it makes for easier reading. It just makes me unreasonably angry when I get a pdf with page backgrounds that make it harder for my old person's eyes and I can’t turn those off. Sometimes a pdf will have layers but turning off the backgrounds removes the text as well because they’ve merged the two together. The best games have layers, cleanly separated and cleanly labeled. 

Give Me Text: Some games in recent years have offered text-only versions, like The Veil. I love this. It is hugely useful and makes it more likely that I’m going to run that game. I run the majority of my ttrpgs online. Usually that means I’m putting together materials for the players: setting background, cheat sheets, and character keepers. Extracting text from pdfs is a pain, even with a good program. You almost always have to deal with the paragraph breaks and formatting. When a company provides the text, it makes my job significantly easier. If you want people to play your game online, outside of a set VTT package, include the text with the pdf. A lot of folks on itch.io know to do this. 

Accessibility: There are a couple of elements which I can’t speak to from experience, but I appreciate when I hear about publishers who spend the extra time getting these things right. My father was color blind and the few board games he played with us often had to be modified to make up for that. Some companies use online tools to check how their material works for the color blind. That’s important where color is used to mark out important information: particularly different colors to indicate different things. 

On the other hand, one complaint I’ve heard about certain books is that they’re particularly dyslexia-unfriendly. They choose fonts which look cool but become a pain to actually read for people with this condition. I know tools and resources exist for checking which fonts work better than others. Of course it isn’t just about fonts, but general typographic elements, size, background bits, etc. When I designed the earlier Gauntlet Community revised logos, I had input from a couple of folks who encouraged me to move clutter away from the words and remove some extra type flourishes. It looked better and became more useful as a result.