#i literally wrote 6 pages double spaced

[reading-comp-posting]

Have you ever considered using AI tools to assist with writing your responses?

Well no, because I'm doing this blog for fun. I'm enjoying writing out reading comprehension questions for posts, so why would I automate that away?

But let's say that I saw myself as some sort of arbitor of reading comprehension who needs to post as much as possible to enlighten the lowly tumblr masses. Let's say that I'm interested in upping my output of questions by any means necessary.

I opened up chatgpt and input a certain request, which would hopefully make it write questions about the last post I responded to:

Write reading comprehension questions about a Tumblr post, written by a user named "echoeyee," that reads as folows: "my take on shipping aromantic characters is that if you're aro you get to do whatever you want and if you're not you have to write me a three page essay 12 pt font times new roman double spaced explaining in detail why you believe entering a romantic relationship would be an interesting and worthwhile storyline for the character and how you believe their aromanticism would affect the way they experience said relationship"

And it certainly did write a lot of questions about it. Let's go through them, one by one.

1. What is the primary stance expressed by the Tumblr user "echoeyee" regarding shipping aromantic characters?

This one is good. If you look at the set I wrote, my first one is basically the same, just with different words and a less formal tone.

2. According to the post, what conditions must non-aromantic individuals fulfill if they wish to advocate for romantic storylines involving aromantic characters?

Again, this one is good. It's basically my 3rd question but, yet again, more formal.

3. Describe the format and specifications outined for the essay mentioned in the post.

This is the part where the questions get bad. The exact details of the essay are irrelevant, other than the fact that they imply a formal, academic setting.

4. In your own words, explain the user's perspective on the autonomy of aromantic individuals in contrast to non-aromantic individuals when it comes to shipping characters.

This question seems to genuinely be a product of chatgpt pissing on the poor. The purpose of the post (and specifically the essay within) is to ask people who ship aromantic characters without being aromantic themself to consider said character's aromanticism instead of erasing it.

Meanwhile, chatgpt seems to think that the OP thinks that people who aren't aromantic should be forced by law or something to write an essay if they want to ship an aromantic character.

5. How does the Tumblr post reflect the user's views on representation and storytelling in relation to aromantic characters?

I think that this one is a bit too speculative, but it does actually relate to the OP's intended takeaway.

6. Discuss the potential implications of the requirements set forth in the post for writers and creators in the realm of fiction and fanworks.

This one is just a bit confusing. Chatgpt seems to be going off the assumption that OP is issuing a decree as the emperor of the world.

7. Reflect on whether you agree or disagree with the sentiments expressed in the post and provide reasons to support your viewpoint.

This could have been a "discuss with a mutual" question, and I actually did initially write a question like this one, but I ended up removing it.

Aromantiscism is already controversial enough and I fear that a discussion of whether OP's take on shipping aromantic characters is valid could quickly devolve into discussion on whether aromanticism itself is valid.

8. How might the user's approach impact discussions and representations of aromanticism in media and popular culture?

Yet again, chatgpt is taking the essay thing way too literally. Yes, forcing every single writer who isn't aromantic but wants to ship an aromantic character to write an essay about it would most likely lead to a decrease in people erasing their identities, but the essay isn't the point.

9. Consider the broader societal and cultural context in which this post is situated. How might prevailing attitudes towards romantic relationships influence reactions to the user's perspective?

Obviously historical context is important to keep in mind when you're reading/listening to/watching/whatever a text, but this question has almost nothing to do with reading comprehension. You need to understand the post to imagine how people would react, sure, but understanding how people would react to the post doesn't help you understand this post very much.

10. What insights can be gleaned from this post regarding the importance of diverse and inclusive storytelling in media and creative works?

This could be a discuss with a mutual question. The issue is that it's a bit to broad of a topic.

[1shirt2shirtredshirtdeadshirt]

I woke up this morning and saw I had a message in my inbox on AO3, presumably about by new fic, and was excited to see the feedback.

When I read what they wrote it was a small comment that said "stop using sudowrite".

Had no idea what that even means, so I had to look it up and found out it's some form of a writing AI.

Absolutely fuming.

I want to make something abundantly clear right now:

I have not been hand writing and editing all of my own stories, hundreds of pages worth of personally hand written or hand typed content for the past 16 years, only to get accused of using any form of lazy ass writing AI now.

This is what I love to do. For fun.

I put in a lot of unpaid time, creativity and energy into my writing and editing. The only thing I ask for in return is participation from the fandoms I love, be it via thoughtful feedback or valid criticisms.

But this is neither of those things. This is just an outright, baseless lie against the art that I have worked so hard to make myself, and I won't be undermined or discredited.

There's anger, and then there's whatever space I am occupying well past it right now.

It's infuriating to pour hours of my love, thought and creativity into original content only to have someone come out of nowhere and try to tell me I've been having an AI do it, especially 16 years deep.

Bitch please.

I also found out that app came out in 2020 . . . As I mentioned, I published my first K/S story in 2008 as Ruby JW on the K/S archives, and my first fanfic on fanfic.net was published in 2007 as luigi_is_stellar.

I invite anyone to peruse my decades-long collection of independent content that I have single-handedly accomplished well before such an app even existed, then come back to me and try to tell me that what I do here isn't authentic.

I don't usually get spicy, but when it comes to the art I spend hours writing and drawing independently with my own blood sweat and tears, yeah. I'm going to get spicy.

I do far too much unpaid work out of passion and love for this fandom to have such a serious accusation flung my way out of nowhere.

It's the first time in my 16 years of writing for this fandom that I've ever been accused of plagiarism, and you best trust and believe that I don't take that accusation lightly. I work too damn hard to let someone discredit the work I do personally in such a baseless manner.

Anyway, that was discouraging AF. I am boggled to learn that AI writing is even a thing, no less someone coming out of the woodwork to try to accuse me of using it 16 years into story publishing when I literally teach academic honesty and writing ethics in my line of paid work as an English professional.

Genuinely: Do you know who you're talking to?

A bit of background on me:

I come from a not-so-wealthy family who could not afford to pay to put me through school -- I paid for that all on my own. I had to earn my University English degree, one of four University degrees I hold on my own work and pay alone, without so much as a tutoring session or handout from home.

Not once would I have jeopardized everything I worked so hard and paid for out of my own pocket as a poor ass uni student working two jobs and doing night classes just to phone it in plagiarizing, not on one ounce of my work.

That was all me.

I've handwritten 3 MLA essays in under three hour exams BACK TO BACK, immediately followed by back-to-back Biology exams & a final lab where I ALSO had to write multiple essays and switch from MLA to APA mode within the span of 6 hours.

Those were all bound in handwritten yellow booklets well before we ever had Google Docs, Grammarly, formatting suggestions, or even regularly brought/had access to laptops in UNI. I did my work by hand.

I earned my degrees in English and Biology AT THE SAME TIME before I even turned 24. I earned a double major handwriting my own work papers like my life depended on it, and you actually think I'm about to phone it in now?

Step to me like that again, young blood. I ain't the one.😂

Anyway, I digress.

Ya girl ain't here to fight BC y'all know I tend to be very easygoing, full of humour, and I love to joke around in the fandom. I'm pretty wide open to opposing opinions or even criticisms. But this is unfounded slander, and I won't be taking that on the chin.

When it comes to my work, I take that very seriously, and I don't play around. My late father once told me that "The work you do and the degrees you earn are yours and yours alone, they can never take that education from you." I live by that sentiment, and have done so by putting forth honest work.

Be it paid or unpaid work, it's my work. Periodt.

It is an unfathomably disheartening and insulting message to receive as someone who writes all their own stuff themselves, draws all their own fanart themselves, does their own photo edits themselves, edits their writing themselves, and has never even used so much as a single outside beta reader/editor for my work. Not once. The art, the writing, the editing -- It's all me.

Bottom line:

Say you do or don't like my work, that's cash money and we good, whether it's your cup of tea or not.

Butt know that it is my work.

I will not put all of this free time, effort and love into my work only to be accused of lazily ripping the content that I have spent hours writing and personally editing from somewhere else.

And on that note, consider my PSA rant ended.

[interestsofabookwormbitch]

Bakugo and Endeavor Are Not the Same.

Look, I know this isn't gonna get a lot of traction because I don't have a lot of bnha followers, but I still feel the need to elaborate on my feelings. Also warning: long post. I also made it on mobile so I can't do the read more thing. You'll just have to scroll really fast if you don't want to see it. Sorry.

I've seen many people on Tumblr still hate Endeavor, and don't want to forgive him, which is fair. I personally love where the story is going with him and his family, and how everyone has a different stance on how they feel. It's cool, and they've even established how forgiveness is not necessary, so that's good. But again, if you don't like it, or you do like it, but won't ever consider thinking anything nice of Endeavor, I 100% understand and support that. It's your life and your opinion. Hell, I'm not even sure if I'll forgive him, I just like the story.

Anyways, the issue I wanted to address were some comments I've seen on people hating Endeavor. Basically they say that if you forgive and like Bakugo now you HAVE to forgive Endeavor. This is what I want to talk about, because no you don't.

First of all, and the most glaring reason of all, if the age difference. Bakugo was an asshole 14 year old bully, whereas Endeavor was a wholeass adult. That right there makes their situations leagues different. You can't even convict kids of murder at that age (usually). (I'm not saying Bakugo would murder anyone. Despite his frequent use of the word he wouldn't. I was just giving an extreme example). That's because it is widely understood that kids at that age are not fully developed. They oftentimes don't understand the gravity of their actions, and are extremely selfish beings. I'm only 18 now, but I'm a completely different person from when I was 14. I may not have been a bully, like Bakugo, but I was kind of a bitch.

Yes Bakugo was a horrible 14 year old. Yes he was a bully. Yes he made Midoriya's life hell. And yes he did tell Midoriya to kill himself. All of these are horrible, detestable things. We can agree on that. But the thing is, Bakugo never for a second actually thought Deku would do it. Never. He barely understood that bullying was wrong. As far as he was concerned that was how life was supposed to work. The strong conquer the weak (makes me wonder how his home life is. Like is Mitsuki abusive or not? Idk, but that's a whole other can of worms we're not getting into).

Bakugo's an aggressive asshole who hasn't fully developed as a person. He's still got plenty of time to grow and change. He has made leaps and bounds in the right direction, and is starting to become a better person. Yes he still has plenty of room to grow, but he's doing much better, and I, for the most part, forgive him. He will be a good hero and person one day, despite his initial rocky start, and I can't wait to see that. Really the only thing in Bakugo's storyline that I still want, and am not certain I'll get, is an apology. Just one Bakugo apology to Midoriya and it'll be perfect (Although that would come at the end of the series almost certainly).

On the flip side of things is Endeavor. Endeavor who was an adult and at least 23 years old since he had his first child (off topic. This makes me believe the twin theory more. Now I may have to make a separate post on that). Well admittedly he is still not fully developed mentally, he is way way closer, and can definitely understand that what he was doing was wrong. On top of that when he had Shoto he was 31, so 35 when he started training him. By that point he is fully developed and still doing that shit. Anyways, Endeavor knew full well what he was doing during this time. He understood the gravity of his actions and he still chose to continue. Unlike Bakugo who, as a child, was almost certainly not thinking his actions through, Endeavor had time to plan and carefully construct this life.

That is where they differ really. For Bakugo everything was a heat of the moment passion and hate fueled rage, mixed with a lot of childhood selfishness on top of his already selfish nature and a definite dose of just lack of awareness of the gravity of shit, which we can attribute to his age.

Endeavor on the other hand took his critical thinking skills he's gained over the years, and instead of looking at himself and thinking maybe being number one wasn't the most important thing, went and created this whole vile plan to beat out All Might in the long run. He forced a woman into marriage (how much did she agree to their marriage? Because where she is now it would be no I believe, but also like, if you really think of the implications of her being unwilling to marry him, that also means he'd have raped her. Likely not in the usual forceful screaming way the media portrays, but still.... When I think of that I get a really gross feeling) and abused each and every one of his children. Never once over the 23 years he's been with them did he stop to think about what he was doing and how that was wrong. Never once did he take the time to look at his actions.

As a child, like Bakugo, that is somewhat excusable. The actions that followed it may not be, but the act of not looking critically at yourself is not inherently wrong in childhood, as I don't think that children really have the skill to do so. And yes, even 14 year olds, because, despite how much they want to claim otherwise, they are in the height of "the world revolves around me and nothing else matters" stage, which makes them blind to their own faults.

When you're an adult, however, the whole situation is completely different. You now definitely have the skills and tools required to take a look at yourself and realize what you're doing is wrong. The reason Endeavor didn't is because who chose not to. He chose to ignore his faults and force his wife and kids to bend under his rule. He didn't stop and think about his actions after the likely countless times he's left his kids broken and crying. He didn't stop to think after Rei poured the boiling water on Shoto's face, even after Shoto called him out. He didn't stop to think after he became estranged from Natsou. And he didn't stop to think after his first born child died! 

No, Endeavor did these horrible things, and never once stopped to look at them. When shit happened he blamed other people and other things. He never once considered he could be at fault. Even Bakugo, at the age of 15 has begun to realize that his issues lie in himself and not others. Another area where they differ greatly, because it took Endeavor getting everything he ever wanted in the worst way possible for him to see that. It took Bakugo being beaten down to learn this. Bakugo was able to, eventually, admit his losses as his own, and realize he needed to change. Endeavor was blinded by his own refusal to see his losses as his own, and thus was unwilling to change.

It also stands to note that Bakugo is still only a child, and could better admit his faults, even if only to himself, than a 45 (now 46) year old man.

Now, I should note that Endeavor has finally figured out he has been a complete and utter piece of trash his whole life, and is genuinely trying to better himself. I ripped a lot on him, but I do appreciate that, but there is the problem of "Too little too late" which Natsu definitely has taken as his stance.

This is a kind of iffy point, but basically what I'm gonna say is Bakugo had one target/victim (that we know of). Obviously that was Deku. The thing is, Bakugo has turned over a new leaf and started working on bettering himself at a time where he can maximize his potential atonement to Deku. By this I mean, Deku has started working through his deep seated issues already, and is growing in confidence, Bakugo and him have made up in such a way that Bakugo can even help him with that. It was not Bakugo's intention when deciding to change, but it is what is happening. At the point where the manga is now Bakugo respects and treats Midoriya like worthy adversary (despite what he would say) and actually is willing to give Midoriya advice. He is starting to help Deku grow into his own and better himself (in his abrasive Bakugo way that is). That is a huge step in the direction of atonement. It doesn't excuse what he did, but it does go some way in making up for it.

Most of Endeavor's victims, however, have grown on their own, and he has no way of contributing to fixing what he broke, which makes it harder to forgive him. It's like if I went over to someone's house and destroyed their stuff, denied doing so, only to come back a few years later and try and fix it. Like no. They don't need my help. (In this example Bakugo would be snide person who begrudgingly admits what he did helps a little after you and your friends have already started the process. Not the best, but at least he's helping now).

Anyways, Touya is either dead or Dabi, but either way Endeavor is not gonna be able to help him (for obvious reasons). Fuyumi is leading a happy and healthy life now, no thanks to Endeavor, and nothing he could do will really make it any better. Nastu is also pretty happy now to, again now thanks to Endeavor, and his only issues lie with seeing his father, not something I see him really thinking as an issue (And they're really not). So no fixing there. Rei is almost completely better now according to the doctors, and Endeavor has never seen her in all that time. It's true he sent her flowers, but those really didn't make a difference in her progress (I believe Shoto visiting might have though. But that's neither here nor there in this post). Really the only one he can try and help to grow and move past his abuse of is Shoto, but idk, it seems unlikely. For one Shoto has already begun the healing process because of Deku, and for two, I don't think the issues Shoto have now are something Endeavor himself can fix.

So there's also that to, as weak as that point may be.

Overall though they really are in entirely different situations. Sure the manga likes to compare them, but they barely use the actual abuse storyline as a point of comparison, just the drive to be number one, and the failure to do so. There's too many differences to really compare those parts of their individual storylines and use one to justify the other. And anyone trying to force people to forgive Endeavor just because they forgave Bakugo should really stop and think about why there situations are different. It's more than just the age thing that everyone talks about, but even if it wasn't, that alone is enough to completely change just how wrong the situations were.

And I'm not saying you can't forgive Endeavor either. Go ahead and do just that, I'm not judging, just don't go trying to force other people to do so. And I'm also not saying you have to forgive Bakugo. He was a prick, and I understand why some people wouldn't. I'm just illuminating why these two situations are so completely different from each other.

(Wow. I just wrote two thousand words on this. Yet I still struggle to write thousand word essays. Fuck man)

Sorry again for the long post

[sw1mmingfoolz]

A SLIGHTLY DISJOINTED LIST OF WRITING TIPS

hey peeps 😌 a whole zero people asked or showed interest and true to my style I'm posting anyway lmao :) this is a collection of writing tips I remind myself of all the time! some are from online (mostly reddit), some are from writing workshops and classes i've taken, some are just commonly traded around by famous writers and some come from my own experience! i've been writing for 15 years, since i was a literal child, and i think it's safe to say i've learned a lot since i wrote 15 pages of what i was absolutely sure would be my debut novel "The Ratticator" when i was, like, 6. so i think ik what i'm talking about 😎 without further ado, here is the list!! it isn't very organised, for which i do apologize :')

If you have writer’s block, change your document font to Comic Sans. No idea why this works, but it’s a known tip and it really does!

DO NOT edit as you go. If you just can’t seem to stop yourself, set your document to Wingdings. This is especially helpful in your first draft. I personally call my first draft document WORST VERSION JUST PURE GARBAGE or some variation to take the pressure off.

Treat all writing as practice. It’s better to write pages and pages of pure garbage than to be too paralysed by fear of failure and not write at all as a result. At least with garbage you can edit it, see what issues you have with your writing, etc.

If you struggle with editing, try writing everything longhand on paper or printing out a particularly hard chapter (double spaced so you can annotate it) and rewrite it. Also, run your work through text-to-speech to catch typos or little errors you might otherwise overlook!

Google “filter words and how to avoid them”, especially if you write in first person. Focus on showing and not telling, and be wary of using too many adverbs (I’m so guilty of this) and verbs after dialogue. Also avoid epithets! By all means necessary! For example; “the short haired man”, “the brunette”, “the [job title]”. These are common in fanfiction but do not sound good or flow well. They’re often used by novice writers. (I’m guilty of this too! Again, these kinds of things take practice).

If you’re struggling to plot, it can help to write “draft zero”, in which you write out chapters in the least words possible without needing it to sound good. This can give you a skeleton to fill out. You also don’t have to write chronologically; write the fun scenes first or whatever scenes you already have in your head out and build around those!

Speak your dialogue out loud. If it doesn’t flow well, it doesn’t read well either.

Similarly, come back to a chapter / work after a minimum of a day has passed. Looking at it with fresh eyes after a break away can help immensely with weeding out awkward parts, errors or parts you’d like to change.

“Said” is not a bad word; don’t go to insane lengths to avoid it!

Not every piece of dialogue needs a tag; trying to add one to everything without having dialogue by itself makes writing clunky.

For both dialogue and inner monologue, have your characters miss the mark just slightly on what they're trying to say. In reality none of us express ourselves perfectly off the cuff, and you can even communicate a lot about a person through what they omit or avert or misread. (from u/frozenfountain on Reddit)

Usually when people talk, they’re not just talking. What facial expressions are they making? What are they doing with their bodies? Are they just ‘saying’ something or are they stuttering, shouting, or whispering (don’t go overboard with this kinda description, though). You also don’t always have to specify who is speaking; you can establish the people initially and, especially if they speak in distinct ways, it should be clear. Also, learn correct grammar for dialogue. A new speaker should be on a new line.

Vary sentence structure. This is probably the main cause of people feeling that their writing feels "off." A lot of people try to solve repetitive sentence structure with epithets or with unnecessary synonyms, but it only masks the problem, it doesn't solve it.

For example:

"What's going on?" said Bob.

"I don't know. Jill just stormed out of here," said Abigail.

"That's weird. She seemed fine this morning," said Bob.

"I think the stress is finally starting to get to her," said Abigail.

It's boring, right? How NOT to improve it:

"What's going on?" said Bob.

"I don't know. Jill just stormed out of here," said the blue-eyed woman.

"That's weird. She seemed fine this morning," pondered the older man.

"I think the stress is finally starting to get to her," surmised the greenette.

Instead maybe something like:

Bob looked around at the confused faces in the room. "What's going on?"

"I don't know," said Abigail, fidgeting with her necklace. "Jill just stormed out of here."

"That's weird. She seemed fine this morning."

Abigail shrugged. "I think the stress is finally getting to her."

The other problem I see: unless you understand what third person omniscient is and are using it intentionally, it's probably best to pick just one point of view per scene and stick to it. (u/DemyxDancer on Reddit)

Don’t focus on stuff your character wouldn’t just to fill a word count.

Try not to use the same word twice in a paragraph unless they’re connecting words or names/pronouns. At the same time, try not to overuse the thesaurus and use a million synonyms for something - find different ways to describe things. 

Write as though there is no formatting available to you. Adding bold or caps or images or footnotes is cool, but the story should be understood exactly the same without them. This is also an accessibility consideration, since screen readers will miss this extra context if it’s purely visible.

Localised spell check! I use British spell check on Google Docs because I am British but sometimes accidentally use the American versions of words. This can also be immensely helpful if you’re writing dialects / a different form of English than what you’re used to. 

Let go of perfectionism before it kills writing for you. Coraline took Neil Gaiman over a decade to write. Ursula K Le Guin banged out three Earthsea books in 4 years before taking a 12 year break between the third and fourth books in which she took a big interest in feminism and entirely changed the way she wrote female characters. Nothing is going to be perfect initially, and expecting it to be so dooms you before you can start.

Paragraphs!! Punctuation!! So many times I have clicked on a promising looking fanfiction but backed out because I couldn’t read it properly - commas, semicolons and hyphens (and em dashes!) are your friends :)

If possible, shut out everything else during a designated time period and just write. I know this isn’t possible for everyone but should you be able to set a window and have a schedule you’ll find writer’s block to hit you less!

Starting with a lot of exposition can be boring. Short, snappy first lines and/or coming right into the action at the beginning can help hook the reader better. Or alternatively, have a prologue if there’s important exposition that needs to be established at the start!

Writing is inherently hard, even for well established writers. Accepting that will help you more than you’d expect.

Read as much as you write, if not more! Reading makes writing a lot easier. A lot of writing is being inspired by other writers. NOT copying, or plagiarising, but drawing inspiration from them. For example (as we spoke about a couple of days ago), my lovely mutual Livvie @greenlivvie has a colder, more direct and more formal writing style as a lot of what she reads is nonfiction, whereas I read so many gooey romance webtoons and poetry anthologies that my style is extremely warm, probably too descriptive, and rather poetic.

Find the joy in writing! I know engagement is extremely important, especially in fanfiction, but if it’s your only drive you’re destined to burn out. You should write first and foremost for the love of writing. That’s not to say you shouldn’t want engagement, however, and that readers should not give it (PLEASE readers, learn that likes on Tumblr are absolutely useless compared to on other platforms and start reblogging, tagging, and commenting! Here are some relaged posts with creators expressing their frustrations (x) (x) (x) so you can understand WHY it matters so much to us. On AO3, comments mean the world!)

Bad writers tend to think they are amazing and infallible, while good writers tend to think they are terrible. It’s about not letting that self doubt stop you from creating entirely! Also, if possible, find someone to beta your work and give their concrit, especially if you find yourself hating your work but not knowing why.

“Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day. It helps.” - John Steinbeck

Write through the eyes of the character, not the lens of a camera (for third person).

“No matter how worried you are about that chapter, no matter how badly you think you botched something, do not tell your readers this, and if you can't help it, put your notes/concerns at the end of the chapter. If you tell a reader at the beginning of a chapter "this chapter is not my best", they will read it in a different light than if you had said nothing at all. If you're looking for feedback on the chapter, put your notes at the end. Let the reader read the chapter "fresh". They'll form their own thoughts and opinions, and then only after that, they'll read your comments/concerns/questions and are more likely to respond to them candidly, rather than having the chapter flavoured by worry or doubt. Your work is good, don't tell people otherwise.” (from u/Panoramic_Vacuum on Reddit)

Don't write your scenes/chapters differently than you originally wanted just for the sake of ''censorship'' to be able to maybe target a larger/different audience! Always write stuff exactly the way you always imagine(d), no matter how dark, bloody, sexual, whatever it might be. A story that is deliberately ''pruned'' will never have the same significance an ''uncensored'' one has. And for characters, always remember the one tenet:

''It doesn't matter how small or unimportant a character might seem at first, they always should be interesting and compelling in their own right, not just be means for the purpose of another character.'' (from u/JokeyZockey on Reddit)

Always remember the five senses as you write

Note down ideas or lines you think of when you think of them. You will probably forget them otherwise. I am totally not talking from experience 😭

In writing fanfiction, you’re writing for free! No apologising for slow updates, no apologising for hiatuses, again Coraline took OVER A DECADE to be finished and published yet you feel bad for not pumping out work every day? Readers do not get to be entitled, they are consuming free content from you and that in itself is a privilege. Readers, please be mindful that we are regular ass people with school and work and other commitments, and also be mindful that if you do not interact with our work that’s only going to serve to motivate us even LESS.

Reward yourself! Wrote a chapter, or hit a word count goal, or finished a plot? Watch a film you like, or buy your favourite snack, or have a long ass bath with a bunch of shit from Lush that makes your house smell like a perfume shop for years afterwards. Rewarding ourselves pleases our primal little monkey brains and makes it a lot easier to get past writer’s block, knowing there’s something in it for us at the end. 

AND FINALLY! Ignore everyone as much as you want to. You should be writing for fun, for yourself - hell if you wanna ignore these points that’s entirely your prerogative. People will tell you not to write certain tropes, or leave unnecessary criticism, or be demanding when they could totally just go write the fics themselves if they care that much. Write because you like to, and you will find your audience :)

i hope you could find even one tip in this list helpful! reblogging with your own tips is encouraged actually :) much love to my fellow writers, it's thankless sometimes and difficult basically all of the time but it's fun and i meet absolutely lovely people on here doing so 💞

[outropeace]

elotito tagged me on this so i’m gonna do it for her <33333

1. describe how you first started writing and when you first posted

i began to write in general since i was around 14 like any other emo kid kdjdjsks and o began to write fics when a friend asked me for one as a birthday present. it was written in a hurry and it’s not my favorite but i really enjoyed doing it. i posted that exact same fic on their birthday

2. which of your characters do you typically resonate most closely with? do you base any characters off of yourself?

it depends the fic i guess. and not really, i think the closest i’ve been to do that is in the rockstar au (coming to the @bottomlouisficfest very soon), i put one or two of my old insecurities in h so he could connect better and wouldn’t be persieved as just an asshole-y dude cause i don’t like that and louis don’t deserve that uwu🌸

3. where do you often find inspiration?

music, movies, tiktoks (DONT JUDGE KDKDKS)

4. has quarantine helped or hindered your writing process?

before the quarantine i had around 3 wips, now i have 8

5. do you listen to music/noise while you write or do you prefer silence?

i listen lofi youtube playlists shjdkld

6. what is your biggest writing pet peeve in your writing or in general?

me repeating “Oh...” over and over again through tall my fics, it shouldn’t be legal

7. describe your ideal writing setup

rainy day, good coffee, comfy sweater, my cat besides me, arely sending texts about teeth/imessage games, snacks

8. favorite time of day to write?

nights (it’s usually when i have time)

9. favorite genre to write + one you’d like to try writing in the future?

i’d LOVE to write a thriller

10. do you struggle with writer’s block? how do you typically overcome it?

i just leave the fic for a bit, i don’t really like to push myself about this cause i’m just doing it for fun

11. what is the easiest part of your writing process and the most difficult?

the easiest is the dialogues, i could write pages and pages of just dialogues in hours and the hardest is the smut dhjdd

12. how do you come up with original characters? (if applicable)

it depends, is the antagonist? i ask myself how’d i feel if i were them, like a third party just trying (and usually failing) to get in between

13. what is your favorite and least favorite word?

i like “wet” i just... yeah.... and least favorite i don’t really know tbh

14. what is one thing about your writing that you’re really proud of and one thing you hope to continue working at?

i like that people conect with the characters because i always put a lot of effort in making them realistic (as much as i can), i make them flawled and sometimes even messy but with good hearts and intentions, all of them are (even the antagonists). and my grammar OH MY GOD MY GRAMMAR

15. what work of yours has your favorite ‘verse/world building? how did you come up with it?

hands down the ice prince fic. and funny thing is, i already had my prompt for the fic fest but i just couldn’t stop thinking about one particular prompt about a bratty prince and an alpha who hated omegas and the amount of POSSIBILITIES that had. two days later or so, the mods of the fest gave us the opportunity to pick another prompt if we wanted and the rest is HISTORY

16. what font and size do you write in? single spaced or double?

11 and single

17. what is a typo(s) you find yourself making consistently?

baby do we have TIME FOR THIS ONE?

18. (if applicable) do you separate fic writing from fandom?

yes, always 100000000%

19. what emotion is your favorite to write? which is the most difficult?

angst, sadness, anguish, sorrow, jealousy, i love to hurt hearts. and it’s not an emotion but after they get together it’s really difficult to me to actually keep going (oh god dkdkdkkdd)

20. what is one thing you hope readers always take away from your works?

that that’s okay to fuck up, that no matter the circumstances you have to respect your partner and TALK WITH THEM and that a person can be successful, independent and a badass while being soft and a c*mslut

21. what is the best and worst writing advice you’ve ever received?

i think “write whatever you like, you’re not being paid for it anyways” is the best and only advise i’ve actually listened to

22. which one of your works would you most want to see turned into a film/television show?

it’s complicated cause my two favorites are abos and idk how that would work dkskkss but the ice prince and the alpha/alpha fic

23. do you write scenes chronologically or out of order?

chronologically but i have a document apart where i write everything that comes to my mind at the moment, that one is A MESS

24. how do you handle criticism?

i think good, if it’s respectful

25. what is the advice you would give to someone who is looking to start writing?

trust yourself, have fun

26. what kind of feedback on your work always makes your day?

ANY type of positive feedback makes my day tbh

27. which fic ‘verse of your own would you most like to exist in? which fic’s characters would you most like to befriend?

none tbh dkdkks and louis, obviously

28. what do you always enjoy getting asks about/wish people would ask about more?

about my stories, i love when people just come to rant to me about certain things the characters did and ask me why they did it

29. what has writing added to your life? how has it changed you?

it relaxes me a lot. i just can write for hours and hours and it just feels nice and in some way exciting

30. why do you write?

refer to question 29 kdkdkxk

boost yourself + tags!

1a. share the last sentence you wrote

from the exes to lovers au:

The second hiccup of the night came in the form of his ex smiling to a boy sitting next to him on a couch. The boy had gorgeous, dark and wild hair, clear hazel eyes and a pretty pouty mouth. Their body language screamed attraction and that they both were ready to devour each other. Louis was familiar to the smile Harry was giving to him, bright and seductive, ready to give anything you asked for.

2a. describe the wip you’re most excited about

right now i’m very excited for the happiest season au, my “cliche story” au and for my exes to lovers au dksks i’m excited about a lot of my wips i’m so sorryjdjd

3a. share the piece of dialogue from one of your works you’re most proud of

from the alpha/alpha au:

“I’m not giving up on love,” He softly touched the hand that was still grabbing his thigh. “To me, love is like flowers. Each one needs a special treatment, if you give an orchid the same treatment you give to an iris, the orchid will die. Same thing with love. I’m not giving up on love, I’m just changing the treatment. We might not be an orchid, but we could make such a pretty iris.”

4a. share the best first and last lines from your work(s)

favorite first line from the sugar baby au:

Powerful people only end up with powerful people. The rest are just playthings in their lives. Louis Tomlinson was many things, but he wasn’t anybody’s plaything.

favorite last line from the ice prince fic:

“Who would have guessed…” Harry whispered after a while, smiling against Louis’ lips. “the dragon finally got to keep the princess.”

5a. link the last fic you read

HAYLEY’S MASTERPIECE

6a. link the last work you published

that’d be the ice prince fic

7a. link to your ao3 (if applicable)

hereee

8a. someone that inspires you

louis teheeee

9a. a comfort fic/work that you’ve been grateful for this year

god, again, there’s so so many of them, like the amount of authors i’m so grateful for, the list is infinite but these are a few that comes to my mind

all elote’s (@defencelesst) fics makes me really really happy and never fails to give me a cozy/wintery feeling, her louis IS THE MOST PRECIOUS THING ON EARTH AND HER HARRY IS JUST PERFECTION, i’m in love with her descriptions and how she just takes you THERE. hanis @loulicate-recs always makes me smile so fucking hard. ris @falsegoodnight fics NOW.... well.... ris fics they make me smile but also make me want to throw my phone to the other side of the room BEST OF BOTH WORLD IG. MAR’S FICS (loubellies on twitter, idk their @ here i’m sORRY) ARE LITERALLY ONE OF MY FAVORITE AUTHORS AT THE MOMENT, such a pretty louis IM SO IN LOVE WITH MAR’S LOUIS ITS UNFAIR

10a. other writers that you’d like to tag!

omg i’m probably so late to this and idk how many of you have actually done this so here goes nothing @allwaswell16, @runaway-train-works, @greenfeelings, @kingsofeverything, @thepolourryexpress, @larents

[eldritch-essor]

the Christmas Switch

Prompt: Satan gets Christmas letters from kids who misspell Santa’s name. 

It’s one strange day in Hell indeed when someone dares to interrupt Satan’s afternoon nap. 

“Ex-Excuse me, Sir—” Satan cracks a single eye open, studying the postman in front of him who’s somehow managing to simultaneously sweat like a broken water fountain and tremble at the near frequency of an electric toothbrush. Rather understandable, the Devil thinks, considering that the poor man’s standing in Hell, directly within blasting range of the ruler of said land. 

“Yes?”

The postman jumps at his voice, lower than usual from his recent nap and twice as menacing, though Lucifer would probably just dump a cup of water onto him. Trembling even harder, he involuntarily retreats a few steps away. Not like it would help him in any way. 

Satan sighs, rubbing at his temples with a clawed hand to ward off the incoming migraine that’s sure to set in sooner or later. 

“What brings you to my domain?” he asks slowly and clearly, making sure not to move too quickly lest the postman gets a heart attack. 

“I— There’s a— no, I mean—” the man starts, stumbling over his words as he frantically roots through his satchel, spilling several letters in the process. Satan raises a single eyebrow as he watches. The postman finally manages to produce a neatly stacked set of envelopes of varying sizes and colours, and Satan vaguely muses at how miraculous it is that he hasn’t dropped any of the letters into the pond of lava right next to him yet. Clearing his throat, the postman starts again, proffering the stack towards Satan with a hand that’s trembling so hard he’s actually amazed the man hasn’t managed to shake the words right off the paper itself. “I mean to say, you have— your post, S-Sir.”

Satan nearly chokes on his drink. 

Letters? He wonders, internally backtracking. And for me, of all people? It’s only when the postman replies that he realises he said it out loud.

“Yes, Mr. Sa— I mean, sir.” The postman tentatively takes a step forward, eyes honed onto the Devil for any sign of movement that would presumably send him running like the wind. After detecting no threat — or at least, as minimal of a threat as one such as Satan could pose — he quickly lays the letters down at Satan’s feet, holding out a clipboard and pen towards Satan gingerly. “N-now, would you please sign here to declare that y-you’ve received your mail?”

The second Satan manages to scrawl what should resemble a signature onto the space indicated — it’s not as if he’s ever needed to write, that’s Lucifer’s job as the accountant — the postman snatches everything back and disappears in literal seconds. Satan watches the man’s rapidly receding back and contemplates how he made his way into Hell in the first place.

After he’s certain the postman’s long gone, Satan picks up the stack of letters thoughtfully wrapped in a length of twine string. “Letters for me, huh.” he mutters as he picks apart the knot, dumping the five envelopes onto his lap.

For lack of a better term, they were all covered with the brightest colours that a crayon could conjure. And they were all labeled in the shaky handwriting of children who have just mastered how to write their first letters. 

tO sAtAn, the envelopes proudly declared, in various colors. Unable to hold back his curiosity, the Devil slit open one of the envelopes with a pitch-black fingernail and glanced at the letter within.

dEar saTan, the letter starts. mY name iS EmiLY, aNd i am 6 YERs Od. (It took a few moments to adjust his eyes to the assorted sizes of the letters. ivv bEN a GOOd GIRL THis YER, aN i wOULd ReeLy LUvE a pupy fR CRissmass! pRETTY pLEasE?  YOU COULd COmE OvER aNd pLay wiTH HER, two!   Satan finds his lips cracking into a smile as he decides the brown coloured blob on the bottom of the page is most probably a drawing of a dog. 

Picking up the other letters, he opens them more eagerly, devouring the content within like a man who’s been deprived of water for a long time. Except, he doesn't exactly need water to survive (demon and all) but that’s beside the point. Timmy would like an action figurine (whatever that was), Ann wanted a new teddy, and the other two letters were written in penmanship that the Devil simply couldn’t decipher, even when he took out his reading glasses and squinted at the crayon scribbles so intensely the letter nearly went up in flames. 

And no, the Devil certainly did not accidentally singe a hole into one of the letters in the process. 

“LUCIFER! I DEMAND YOU READ THIS FOR ME, THIS INSTANT.” 

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Out of everything he’s put up with over the past few centuries — not that Santa would ever admit that he was ancient — getting ambushed by a cloud of ash and sulphur was definitely a first. And that was saying something, considering how often he’s been tripped up by a devious string of bells wrapped around the kitchen in a childish attempt to catch him out during the job. And just don’t mention the cookies and milk. Santa didn’t know who started the ridiculous notion that he’d like twenty million cups of milk and double the amount of chocolate cookies during one night, considering how they’d forgotten one crucial fact: he was lactose intolerant. Also, who in the world in their right minds would think one man would be able to stomach enough cookies to sustain a small army in one night? Ridiculous.

Well, there was a reason why Santa didn’t sneak into houses via the chimney anymore. Not that Satan seemed to care, that is.

Santa blinks. Wiping the soot off his glasses to the best of his ability, he squinted hard at the figure in front of him, internally wincing at the scolding Mrs. Claus would definitely give him for getting his suit dirty again. That was Satan, all right, with an innocent ‘deer in the headlights’ look that had no business being on his face. 

“What are you doing here, Satan?” he asks, furiously wiping his glasses, as if he’ll be able to banish the sight of the Devil in a crude mimicry of his own outfit. Satan shrugged nonchalantly, with a grin so big Santa half expects to be eaten whole. It certainly looked… ominous. The barely disguised, unadulterated glee behind was even more so.

“I’ve been asked to deliver some Christmas presents!” he chirps, and Santa swears, if Satan’s smile was creepy, Satan chirping was horribly terrifying. Had he managed to overthrow God or something? He should just— wait. 

What?

“Little Emily has specifically requested for me, so you can just move along,” Satan says smoothly, leading Santa to the door. 

Santa finds himself standing next to his reindeer — who are coincidentally having a staring match with Cerberus and Hades, who are somehow perched on the roof — when he finally processes what’s going on — oh no. 

Immediately, he runs back into the house, making sure not to wake up the inhabitants of the house when he proceeds to have a whispering match with the Devil.

“Look, Satan,” he starts, trying his best to be reasonable. “You don’t have to strain yourself like this. I’m sure I can manage to cover the five kids who’ve accidentally written your name on their letter on my rounds. How about you just head back to Hell and, I don’t know, take a dip in one of your lava pools?” He was interrupted by a barely suppressed growl and oh, that was why people don’t usually like Satan; he mused as he was confronted by a rapidly reddening face and glaring red eyes. 

“She wrote to me, Santa.” Satan hisses, waving a piece of paper that’s somehow singed in a corner and covered with crayon but the word ‘sAtAN’ is vaguely distinguishable in the top left corner. “Me.” Satan puffed his chest out in childish triumph. “Not you.”

Santa sighs, pinching his nose with a still soot-covered hand. Of course, this would happen.

“This happens every year, alright?” he says in an attempt to pacify the beast. “Some kid misspells my name, and the post office is usually smart enough to redirect it my way. One of them must have slipped up this year, and that’s why this happened.” 

This, however, seems to be the wrong thing to say, as steam metaphorically — or is it literally? — starts pouring out of the Devil’s pointed ears.

Santa quickly decides that he’s not paid enough to deal with Satan on top of delivering presents to another couple million houses before dawn — and that’s already five minutes he could’ve used to get that done wasted — and so he just roughly jerks the basket out of Satan’s hand before ruffling through his sack — a little girl would probably love a doll or something — when sharp needle like teeth latch onto the hand that was holding the basket.

Satan watches calmly as Santa frantically pries the teeth of the small creature off his finger.

“Down, pup.” he says once he’s decided Santa has had enough punishment — the insolent brat — and the creature obediently lets go, diving back into the basket before Santa can see what it is.

“It’s just a puppy,” Satan says soothingly. “Nothing wrong with that, right?”

“I suppose.” Santa concedes as he bandages his bleeding finger. “Now, no giving them anything inappropriate, alright? Or I’ll make sure never to let a single letter reach you again, no matter how many typos there are. Deal?”

Santa’s never seen the Devil grin so widely before. And so, he reluctantly allows Satan to leave his present at the Christmas tree. He supervises as Satan carefully leaves wrapped presents that look somewhat safe — a plastic sword, a teddy bear, a few figurines — under others. 

At last, all the houses have been visited and dawn is peeking across the horizon. Santa lays sprawled across a particularly overgrown roof as he watches the sunrise with his reindeer — and never in a million years would he ever imagine — Satan, Hades and Cerberus, who’s still staring at Rudolf, growling.

“This was a good year,” he says, satisfied with his work. After all, he managed to deliver all the presents, and on top of that, Satan didn’t burn anything down! It was an accomplishment in itself. “Next year, if you want, I’ll teach you how to make gifts, so you don’t have to buy them from stores.”

“Buy gifts?” Satan looks at him quizzically. “Why would I have to do that? I’ve practically got everything they could ask for stowed away somewhere in Hell. A sword was just plain easy. I did have to bribe Hephaestus to make some of the figurines, but it’s pure luck that Cerberus’ kit had pups this year.”

Santa feels a sinking sensation in his stomach as he processes this. 

“You did WHAT?!”

-vrei.essor

[sunbellylou]

ask for writers !!

thank you @tomlinvelvetfics​ for tagging me! and thank you @soldouthaz for making this tag!

1. describe how you first started writing and when you first posted: i’ve been writing for years now, i started with het (ew!) 1d fics in portuguese back in 2011, it was actually those little imagines we used to write, don’t know if anyone remembers hehe. i posted them on a facebook page i was part of and i remember the first thingy i wrote was something with niall, but i really don’t remember any details (but was probably bad as heck since i was 11).

my first larry fic i probably wrote around 2012 when i found out the gay fanfics world haha, i don’t remember what it was or anything tbh, in my head i always wrote and posted gay fanfic.

my first fanfic in english was a little one shot (like 400 words honestly), it was a translation of a previous work i wrote portuguese. i posted it a year and a half ago and it’s called playground love (please don’t look).

2. which of your characters do you typically resonate most closely with? do you base any characters off of yourself?:  i usually write from harry’s pov because i love love l o v e describing louis and how angelic he is, so usually i tend to see louis as this ethereal ish character, cause it’s usually about harry falling in love with him. so whether i like it or no, i tend to be closer to harry’s characters in my fics, i always like to put a bit of myself on him and make the character real, you know?

3. where do you often find inspiration?: honestly? anything! i’ve written fics inspired by tumblr posts, tweets, pictures, songs, movies, things that happened in my real life, books. i literally wrote a pwp because i couldn’t stop thinking about leather pants (go read my robin hood au).

4. has quarantine helped or hindered your writing process?: in the beginning it was really helping me, i’d stay up till 4am everyday just writing like crazy, but then i got into the worst writer’s block and didn’t write shit for months. (and of course right when i started getting new ideas, i started working so i have no free time).

5. do you listen to music/noise while you write or do you prefer silence? always listen to music, all the time. i can’t do anything without music. mostly because my brain is a mess and music helps me concentrate. i usually go for some chill songs, some indie pop and stuff.

6. what is your biggest writing pet peeve in your writing or in general?: oh my god, when i’m writing and two or more paragraphs start with the same word, one after the other. it drives me crazy!!!! and sometimes i spend hours looking for ways to word differently the sentences, just so i don’t have two paragraphs starting with “the”.

also when my paragraphs are two (or one) lines long, i can’t! it has to have three or more lines.

7. describe your ideal writing setup: at the dining table, in the middle of the night, with some soft music playing in the background and some popcorn with me!

8. favorite time of day to write?: well, just said it hehe i like writing at night.

9. favorite genre to write + one you’d like to try writing in the future?: woah, that’s tough because i literally write any genres! i really love writing fantasy and horror stuff, but i feel like it’s not really well accepted in the fandom? (spec horror). and when people like it, they only read from bigger authors so i usually keep myself from writing those. aaand tbh i probably already wrote most of fic genres out there, so there isn’t much left to try.

10. do you struggle with writer’s block? how do you typically overcome it?  i’m writer’s block bitch and i do not know how to overcome her

11. what is the easiest part of your writing process and the most difficult? outlining tbh, i usually don’t (and it comes back to kick me in the ass). i always have too many ideas at the same time and can’t stick to one, so outlining and finding the right plot is really hard.

12. how do you come up with original characters? (if applicable): lately i haven’t really had the chance to come up with ocs, but when i wrote original books (not fanfics and stuff), i usually started with the gender and one outstanding personality trait and went from there.

13. what is your favorite and least favorite word?  i love the words ethereal and breeze, omg you’ll find them A LOT on my fics. and my least favorite word is growl.

14. what is one thing about your writing that you’re really proud of and one thing you hope to continue working at?: i think i describe the vibez in the scene really well, it’s my favorite thing to do. and i need to work more on building my sentences, because theyre always supermessy.

15. what work of yours has your favorite ‘verse/world building? how did you come up with it?:  definitely the fic i’m working on right now! i’m putting so much work on the world building since it’s a fantasy fic, so i’m planning every little detail about it. i hope other people like it too when they read it !!

16. what font and size do you write in? single spaced or double?: comic sans, 12pt, single spaced. don’t come at me.

17. what is a typo(s) you find yourself making consistently?: because english isn’t my first language, i always change like ‘th’ for ‘d’ (because it has a similar sound in portuguese), so catch me typing ‘de’ instead of ‘the’ or ‘dey’ instead of ‘they’.

18. (if applicable) do you separate fic writing from fandom?: i didn’t understand the question so i’m pretending i never read it hehe

19. what emotion is your favorite to write? which is the most difficult?: my favorite to write is probably,,, love/adoration, like harry looking at louis like he’s the whole world and thinking about how amazing he is? i love it.

and the most difficult is probably anger, i find it really hard to write like fights and stuff like that because usually i make the characters sound more sad than angry.

20. what is one thing you hope readers always take away from your works?: i never thought about that but,,, i hope they start finding joy in small things that happen in their day. that’s something i use a lot in my fics and i think it’s very important to bring it to real life. like enjoy that late night tea, showering in the morning, spending a summer day in the house, cleaning, etc.

21. what is the best and worst writing advice you’ve ever received?: i think the best advice is one i got from someone i no longer talk to, they told me this when i first started writing in english and it is to stop trying to write fancy or like native english speakers, because it’s much better to write simple sentences that i’m confident about than write sentences with words i barely know how to use.

and the worst advice is TO OUTLINE! i know i should maybe i dont know but leave me alone, i hate outlining bye

22. which one of your works would you most want to see turned into a film/television show?:  ok so,,, it’s a book i wrote like three years ago with original characters. it’s called great evil and i wrote it in portuguese. it’s full of violence and acid humor, about a very evil and sarcastic demon and an angry hunter. (one day i’ll translate that book and turn it into a larry fic)

23. do you write scenes chronologically or out of order?: chronologically. always

24. how do you handle criticism?: really bad. please be careful with what words you use. i’m already really hard on myself when it comes to my writing, so sometimes someone says something and (it might be dramatic but) i feel my world crumbling and i want to stop writing right away.

25. what is the advice you would give to someone who is looking to start writing?:  just,,, do it. there’s no right or wrong way to do it. there’s no such thing as too much or too little, bad or good plots. every idea is a good idea. write it for yourself, write something you like. go ahead and just do it. there’s always someone out there who will enjoy your work, no matter what.

26. what kind of feedback on your work always makes your day?: any comments make my day tbh, if you comment on my fic i’ll be forever grateful and will be smiling like a fool the whole day. honestly, even a “omg i loved it” comment can make my day.

27. which fic ‘verse of your own would you most like to exist in? which fic’s characters would you most like to befriend?: the one i’m writing 100%, please i want to live in a fantasy world. i wanna live in the water kingdom and have faerie louis as my king please.

and i’d like to befriend louis from my fic kiss me in your chevrolet, he’s a sweetheart and i must protecc.

28. what do you always enjoy getting asks about/wish people would ask about more?: anything! i rarely get asks so anything is good hehe

29. what has writing added to your life? how has it changed you?: it’s such a big part of my life, i spent all my teenage years writing and it really is what built my personality. it helped me being more creative with all aspects of my life and take life lightly, enjoy little things and moments. 

30. why do you write?: i just love having ideas and putting out there, playing with words and finding new ways to describe daily things.

boost yourself + tags!

1a. share the last sentence you wrote:

The path through the dense forest, covered in slippery rocks and burning trees is already difficult enough, but it becomes ten times worse when you’re being pestered by small, demonic creatures. 

2a. describe the wip you’re most excited about:

i’m honestly only working on one fic right now and i’m super duper excited about it

3a. share the piece of dialogue from one of your works you’re most proud of:

"I mean, I still don't plan on watching Star Wars, so…" 

The boy groans playfully, throwing his head back and Louis' eyes are suddenly really interested in the column of the guy's throat. 

"Americans really have no culture." He shoulders Louis slightly, warmth spreading through Louis' dainty shoulder and making him trip to the side lightly. With a faux outraged scoff, Louis waves a dismissing hand. 

“What do British people know about culture? All you do is drink tea and talk about the weather all day,” Louis teases with a mischievous gleam in his eyes. “Also, Star Wars is American, just so you know.” He rolled his eyes playfully, feeling surprisingly comfortable in his presence.

Skater Boy sighs comically, shaking his head, his wavy locks falling gracefully on the sides of his face and Louis can’t stop thinking about how soft his hair must be. 

“You got me there.”

not posted but i kinda like it (i’m not really good with dialogues, so it was really hard to find one lmao)

4a. share the best first and last lines from your work(s): I will do only those that are already published:

best first lines are from a halloween fic i never finished: 

Louis’ blue eyes snap open. His heart pounds fast inside his rib cage, making something as easy as breathing almost impossible. Sweat drenches his body and he feels like drowning. He feels too awake and wary as his breathing calms down, as well as his grips on the sheets under him loosen.

best last lines are from my 2019 BLFF there’s more than one place to call home: 

Their life was utter chaos, and they were definitely complete opposites, and sometimes Harry wished Louis would just shut the hell up, but at the same time, Harry wouldn’t change a single thing about his life, because he had Louis, and that was all that mattered to him. 

5a. link the last fic you read: it was the devil's in the details by @raspberryoatss​

6a. link the last work you published: you could take a lick (but it’s too cold to bite me)

7a. link to your ao3 (if applicable): cinnamons

8a. someone that inspires you: louis hehe 

9a. a comfort fic/work that you’ve been grateful for this year: tbh i don’t read a lot of fics, but there’s this work a friend of mine wrote. it was in portuguese and she ended up deleting it but it’s amazing.

10a. other writers that you’d like to tag! @bottomlwt @raspberryoatss 

[sineala]

Author Meme

Author Name:

Sineala

Fandoms You Write For:

Currently, Marvel Comics. You may also remember me from The Eagle.

Where You Post:

AO3.

Most Popular One-Shot:

As measured by hits, technically, the answer to this question is Slipping off the Page into Your Hands (616), my first Steve/Tony fic, which is a soulmates + identity porn retelling of about twenty years of comics canon. However I didn't really understand posting stories in chapters at the time and technically this is a 70,000-word one-shot. I'm very sorry. I won't do it again.

If you'd like one-shots with more reasonable word counts, I've got Think of This as Solving Problems (That Should Never Have Occurred) (616), a Steve/Tony amnesia + identity porn fic at 35,000 words, and also Follow in Your Footsteps (616), a Steve/Tony soulmate story at 7,000 words, which probably counts as a one-shot by everyone's standards.

You'll never guess what my favorite tropes are. *covers face with hands*

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story:

Thrust Issues (616), a 130,000-word Steve/Tony story in which Captain America has an extremely large penis and his BFF Iron Man would like to help him lose his virginity. I write only the finest and most classy of literature. It has eight sex scenes.

Favorite Story You Wrote:

Straight on till Morning (616), my Steve/Tony Star Trek AU. You mean I get to take two of my favorite fandoms and paste them together? I basically just had a whole lot of fun throwing in all my favorite tropes from both canons and trying to come up with a way to translate the Avengers characters into the Star Trek universe.

I'm also pretty proud of Double Time (616/Noir) because I feel like it was one of those stories that came off exactly how I imagined it in my head and that almost never happens.

Story You Were Nervous to Post:

Chosen Man (The Eagle), which I wrote when I first got into the fandom, then waited about two years without posting it, and then finally posted it when the fandom was mostly dead. I didn't have an outline and I actually didn't have a beta and I just kept writing until it looked like somehow I had an ending. (I also did pretty much the same thing with Arcadia (Pros). I guess I like to finish novel-length stories and then wait years before posting them. I have a lot of anxiety, okay? I sign up for challenges because otherwise I would literally never post anything.)

How Do You Choose Your Titles:

I was going to say it's all song titles but maybe it's more like 50% song titles. Most of the Eagle stories are quotations in Latin. I have a rule for myself that I'm not allowed to title the story in Latin unless it's actually set in Ancient Rome.

Do You Outline:

Definitely. I wouldn't be able to remember what was supposed to happen without it.

Complete:

263 stories. Ha. Um. Yes. Well. No, wait, there's that unfinished Eagle space AU story. 262, I guess. Maybe I should just mark that complete. It kind of has an ending? A couple of the stories are translations of Latin fic (mostly mine) into English.

In-Progress:

When My Heart Bleeds: The Madame Masque story that was going to be one of my RBBs this spring before RL intervened. An established-relationship Steve/Tony AU of the Avengers v3 Nefaria Protocols arc. Featuring Whitney Frost (of course), a whole lot of hurt/comfort, a very familiar flophouse, Tony's alcoholism rearing its ugly head, a very protective and occasionally terrifying Steve, and a bunch of Avengers attempting to do the right thing based on extremely limited information. Status: done, currently in beta. 150,000 words.

Untitled Star Trek AU Sequel: Steve and Tony are on the worst shore leave ever, and it's getting worse by the minute. The fate of the Federation hangs in the balance. It was supposed to be a nice relaxing shore leave and then everything went wrong. Currently 100,000 words and I am supposed to be working on it now so we will see how this goes. Still near the end of chapter 3 (out of 6). I’m going to finish! I swear! I wrote some words last night!

MTH 2018 Collaboration With Kiyaar: We've got... ideas. Definitely we have several of those. We're gonna destroy you.

Coming Soon/Not Yet Started:

My ideas file is huge. Here are some of the more complicated ideas and not the ones that are just, like, “Steve in his commercial art days ends up drawing gay porn for rent money" or “the RT node breaks Tony’s dick.”

1930s Thoroughbred racing AU: Steve is a jockey. Tony is an owner/trainer. Together, they're going to try to win the Triple Crown. And, you know, fall in love. And there will probably be some h/c as Steve will probably fall off a horse or two.

All-Time Low sequel(s): I swear I'm going to fix them, and that means h/c all the way up to the blizzard.

Double Time sequel: I don't know if I'm really going to write this, but it would be fun. It would be 616 Director/Commander -- Secret Invasion but this time it goes better because Steve is alive and that way Tony can actually focus on things that are not all-consuming grief. Also, this time Steve would know the Illuminati exist.

Other Star Trek AU: Assuming I am not completely burned out on Star Trek AUs after finishing the SotM sequel, Phoenix keeps drawing art for an entirely different Star Trek AU (trust me, it would be an entirely different Star Trek AU) and I would very much like to write something for it because it delights me so much.

Secret Sub Steve: That D/s AU I posted the premise of a while back, in which Steve is a sub (frankly, a pretty terrible sub) and Rebirth is intended to make him a dom. It does not, and Steve has to lie about who he is as he falls apart more and more... and then he meets Tony, who turns out to be the dom he has been waiting for.

Another D/s AU: In which Steve and Tony meet on an anonymous hook-up site and, gosh, they get along so well, these two complete strangers. It's like they've known each other for years.

Time-travel identity porn: A ToS-era story after Tony is Iron Man but before the Avengers show up, in which he is visited by a man from the future who says his name is Steve Rogers, he says he needs Tony's help to get home, he knows a whole lot of things about Tony that no one else does, and he's very, very easy to fall for.

Do You Accept Prompts:

Not outside of fannish auction situations; it stresses me out too much to try to write fic to specifications, but I make an exception for charity. Speaking of which, I am offering another story for MTH this year, and this time I promise it's going to be a short one (5k or so), so I will definitely finish it. So if you’ve ever wanted me to write you something short and sweet (or short and heartwrenching, you know, whichever), I can make that happen.

Upcoming Story You Are Most Excited to Write:

I dunno, man. Either the sub Steve story or the ATL sequels. Honestly, I will just be happy to be finally done with the WIPs I am working on now. They are SO LONG.

Tagged By:

@mizzy2k

Tagging:

Anyone who wants to do it!

[hegglespeggles]

How to write an essay you could not care less about in 10 steps

Hello. I have an essay to write.

I am also, (unfortunately) the kind of lazy, apathetic burnout who will only do my FUCKING work if I get really worked up. Usually that ends up meaning all of my papers are spite-fuelled tirades but my profs seem to like them so fine. I hope you find this particular raging tirade useful.

Today, I would like to educate the 4 of you that will actually see this on a fine art I have perfected over the years. Writing a paper, about which, you do not give a single, solitary, crumb of a fuck about. This is (you may have guessed) and excellent way for me to procrastinate doing a paper that *I* do not give a single solitary crumb of a fuck about. For best results, I recommend doing this NIGHT-BEFORE-PANIC like, a week in advance so you can fix all the NONSENSE that your more reasonable brain will undoubtedly find. But if it’s the night before and you are shit outta luck, this will get ‘er done. And with practice, you can even pull good grades outta these bitches.

 Dissociating? I gotchu. Woke up the day of the deadline to feel like absolute utter garbage? Search no more friends.  

  FAILING GRADES ARE BETTER THAN ZEROS JUST FUCKIN DOOOOOO ITTTT

1.    Go get the prompt.

I fucking mean it. Even if you are like 1000% sure you know what the prompt is asking, go to the FUCKING assignment, and copy that shit into your word document. Got the assignment on paper? TYPE THAT SHIT UP MOTHERFUCKER.

(Do you see what I fucking have to deal with)

Boom?

BOOM.

Congratulations, you now have a document, and whats more, there are WORDS in it!! You aren’t starting from scratch anymore kiddo. Fringe benefit, you always know EXACTLY what the assignment wants because its fucking Staring You Down. Not saying you have to do exactly as it says, mama didn’t raise no BITCH and I aint scared of fuckin CALLING PROFS OUT but if you wanna break the rules you gotta know what they are first

(Disclaimer: I have also been kicked out of class on numerous occasions for fighting with the prof and had full classes where the lecture WAS me arguing so maybe take my opinions of conformity with a grain of salt.)

2.    Math THE FIRST

I know, this is an essay and not a fucking calculus test. But some of this shit is USEFUL OKAY

Take the paper in question. How long does it have to be? Mine is 5 pages. A page is generally accepted to be 250 words (double spaced because we FUCKING LOVE OURSELVES) so 5 x 250 = 1250 wds. That’s the goal. That’s the pinnacle. That’s your new holy grail.

Time to split this bitch up

  3.    Yarrrrrr, CONTENT

And finally, we get to the part that is the reason why you are being an absolute bitch baby about this essay (maybe. I might be projecting. Your life is your life and im sure youre doing your best.) I Hate this part, but now with our magic number we don’t need to pull 5 pages out of the ether.

This part really requires you to know your vibe. Is this something that you have a lot of little opinions (read: evidence) about or like, only 2 or 3 big bois? Look deep into your soul and figure out which is the easiest for you to shit out, a rant or a list. a  great way to do this is to WRITE ANYTHING YOU GOT OUT

Here you can see I’ve put all of the thoughts I have about the question into a list, slapped some standard “opening” and “closing” shit around it so I can FUCKING FIND IT AGAIN and given it a good hard look. Whats the common thread in all of my opinions? That the prompt is fucking stupid and makes no sense is asking 2 different questions. Congratulations: you found your thesis. This essay, like many of my essays, bears the thesis “this is a weird question to be asking” (which falls under my broader category of “bitches aint shit” essays.)

Congratulations you have the bare bones of your skeleton.

  4.    MATH THE SECOND

 The magic number returns. All hail our glorious leader. 1250 right?

So heres how I break this down. Break off a small chunk at the beginning. For this essay im gonna split off the 250. Split that baby in half. Congratulations, now you have a word count on your opening and closing. Personally, I know I like a lil extra space at the end to get all ranty, so Imma split this puppy up 100 for my opening and 150 for the closing. WARNING: You will think that you will be able to write enough in your opening and closing to take up lots of space. You will feel the urge to give them both the same amount of words that you give your points. This is misguided and foolish. Not only will you 1) not be able to do it but 2) even if you did, that’s like getting a sandwich which is all bread. No one wants that. Don’t be that dude. Fight the urge.

 RIGHT SO. We’re still left on the other 1000 words.

If you have an idea that like, is bigger than the others, go ahead and give that puppy more of the word count than the others, fractions are your friend here and you wanna think about how much of your final product each of these babies will be. If you, like me, are an utter buffoon with no clue what youre doing, open your calculator up. Divide the remaining word count by the number of points you have. Congratulations. Youre doing the essaying.

If this is enough to get you started, GREAT! See you at step seven. BEFORE YOU GO I would like to give you this tip

5.    CITE YOUR INFORMATION AS YOU ADD IT IN.

It doesn’t need to be a full citation, just literally a footnote with something that will help you remember where its from and for the love of god WHAT PAGE IT IS ON. The you of 3 hours from now will thank you.

  6.    Filling in the skeleton

 I don’t know about you, but I cant exactly riff off of a single sentence. Like, I know what the VIBE of my point is, but like, I cant pull it out of a hat. The name of the game here is whittling down your arguments into thinner and thinner chunks that are easier and easier to bullshit. This is how you avoid that “burning building found in flames during Brooklyn fire” bullshit that memes. You don’t wanna meme. You wanna pass. So, figure out what the things you are gonna say and in each bit, keep track of how many words you are gonna write. EITHER

a)      You put how many words you think you can write on any point beside the point as you go and just keep developing points and shuffling word counts around until it matches the total for that section

or

b)     You evenly breakup the word count between all the points and keep breaking them down until you look at a subject and a word count and go “yeah that’s doable. I can do that.”

I prefer the second so LEGGO.

Ta-Da!

7.    Write ‘er up

Ahhh glad to see we’re all back together again. Try-hards who can ACTUALLY bullshit papers, glad to see you’ve rejoined us! This is the part where you take all that shit you’ve broken up into nice little chunks and you turn it into something worth reading. You can do it. I believe in you. Try and keep your citations in place.

I like to do this as a question answer thingy, like an exam, so halfway through writing mine is gonna look like this

 The handy part about the numbers is that it gives you a frame of reference for how your bullshit is going. Realized you had a lot more to say here than you thought? Dope! Less bullshit somewhere else, take it out of a weaker point. This point didn’t give as much as you thought it would? Split the difference elsewhere! This way you have checkpoints and you can see how your essay is going

And then you can go ahead and delete your skeleton work. Its time. Its served you well. For extra drama, whisper menacing nothings to it as you send it into the darkness. Personal favourites include “no one will mourn you,” “your fate belongs to me,” and “so this is what you have come to”

  8.    Citations

Theres like a million ways out there to find out how to do your citations and its gonna depend on what kind of a paper you are writing. I use Chicago most of the time, including here. My advice? Use a site like, bib.me or something to do your bibliography, and then plaster that in the bottom of your document. Use that as the building blocks to do your footnotes. Let Purdue Owl be your guide. Purdue Owl Style Guide Is A Mighty Friend Indeed.

 Also your welcome for that, “putting the page numbers in as you put the info in” shit. That took me alarmingly long to figure out. It’s a wonder theyre giving me a degree.

  9.    Proofread that shit, ya bougie bitch.

If you wanna be time effective, getting a friend to proofread while you do your citations is a great way to go. If you have a few days, put your paper away and come back to it. If you are out of friends and time then https://www.paperrater.com/ is your last hope.

  10.       Slap a title page on that shit and GET IT SUBMITTED

 No joke, I have been using the same template for a coverpage all through highschool and my undergrad. There is only one title page and every time I write an essay I take the title page from the last paper I wrote. There is no beginning. Only title page. Title? Topic of paper: point of paper. For example, If I had to title this screed I’d call it Essay Writing: An exploration of mediocrity. slap the date and your name and the course and instructor on there and BAM. YA DONE.

 Anyway submit that shit an go to bed youre done goodnight

EPILOGUE

I’ve gotten this essay back, and when I wrote it, I was barely a human being. Barely capable of human speech let alone a coherent argument. I would forget the end of the sentence by the time I typed out the beginning. But I still for a 70%! is it the best mark I’ve ever gotten? no! but it is a hell of a lot better than the 0% I would have gotten if i hadnt done this. I get it. And i hope this helps. 

[veganmikehanlon]

10 and 25 for hanbrough if you please! otherwise any pairing will do ♥

you know that thing where u can’t even search ur own blog for something you /literally/ tagged? this was something like…idk something but it reminded me of something i already wrote so i Really have no reason for not posting it sooner other than procrastination being my middle name so anyways, this:

Mike doesn’t mean to start writing a sex scene while sitting in a Starbucks, but he’d tried writing at home, well it’s just his parents house now, and his mom kept walking in trying to talk to him. So he left the old farmhouse and drove into his newly modernized hometown of good ol’ Derry, Maine.

It’d started with a piece of his story inspiring a memory from his own sex life. Something he’d done forever ago with an ex. Secretly, in a tent. Surrounded by friends. Not their most shining moment but it was hot and applicable to his current story.

He’s in the middle of writing about tongues sliding together when his eyes are drawn to the sound of the shop door opening. He almost chokes when he sees who it is walking in. Well, daydream about sex with your ex and he shall appear. Mike ducks behind his things to hide because he’s panicking.

Mike watches Bill walk to the counter, he observes the broad lines of his shoulders move under familiar flannel; and how the end of his short blond french braid, mostly held together by multi-colored bobby-pins, brushes the collar in a physical reminder of how long it’s been since they’ve seen each other.

He walks through the room with the same gentle confidence that he always had, and it still draws the same admiring gazes from those around him. Mike’s eyes flicker between Bill and his computer screen, the incriminating words screaming at him, and then he catches sight of Bills’ smile and the perfect adjective pops into his head.

Just like that he’s writing again, more caught up in his story than he’s been in the last 30 minutes. Words stream from his fingertips and a scene unfolds, bits and pieces of Mike’s past slipping through, and just as he’s writing a description of how exciting it is to make someone moan as loud as you can make them laugh, he’s interrupted.

“Hi,” a soft voice calls, startling Mike from his head making him jump and hit his knees against the table, a move that almost sends his coffee toppling, but two pairs of hands shoot out to catch the wobbling cup. Bills’ hand settles warmly over Mike’s before he draws it back with an awkward chuckle.

A shiver runs through Mike as Bill’s fingers brush over his knuckles, and he looks up at the man before him with wide eyes. “Hi,” he squeaks, this entire situation sending him careening out of his comfort zone. Bill clears his throat before speaking (an old habit) “sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” he says with a wince.

Mike chuckles nervously, his voice coming out a bit high and strained, “it’s okay I was just, um, writing.” This might be the most uncomfortable he’s ever been in his life. But Bill looks excited and he falls into the chair opposite Mike, setting his coffee and a notebook down on the open space.

“You’re writing?” He asks, a smile spreading across his face, and Mike has to smile back because oh yeah, they’d once shared everything with each other and Bill knows all about Mikes’ commitment-phobia to writing.

Mike quickly switches programs, an attempt at putting the niggling guilt in his chest away. “Yeah, just this story for this thing,” he answers vaguely, and they pause for an awkward second before Bill starts to ramble. “I’ve been working on drawing (a sentence that makes Mike proud too), I’m in a portrait class right now at school, and I came here to people watch and I saw you, and I was wondering if you’d mind if I practiced drawing you?”

Mike gasps softly in surprise at the request, “uh, what? You want to draw me?” The words fall from his mouth without his input, any functional part of his brain currently caught in a dumpster fire, set by this stupid story that is making an already uncomfortable situation of running into an ex just that much worse!

And then Bill is talking again, “well my art style has changed and I thought it’d be cool to get a comparison, you  know, a then and now? It’s cool if you don’t want me to, no biggie, just thought I’d ask, but actually? Never mind,” he starts gathering his things into his arms, “sorry for bothering you, it was nice seeing you, bye!”

He starts to get up but stops when Mike bursts out laughing, his cheeks reddening, and he stays frozen uncomfortably. And Mike doesn’t mean to, but seeing Bill so obviously out of his comfort zone has him cracking up, the situation making him feel hysterical, and he can’t quite stop the laughter bubbling out.

Mike manages enough words to get Bill to settle back down. “Hey man it’s cool, it’s good seeing you too, you know me, I love to help.” Bill settles back into the seat and flips his sketchbook open with an eye roll. Mike can’t help but tease him, he starts shifting through different dramatic poses, making Bill laugh loudly. A hand behind his head, his bicep bulging, Thinking Man pose, his smile barely suppressed-

And Mike ends his display by lewdly flicking his tongue between his fingers. “Jesus Mike!” Bill sputters out between laughs and Mike raises his hands in an innocent gesture, his own laughs ringing out through the space between them. “Sorry, I’m done!” He surrenders with an amused snort.

Bill sticks his tongue out childishly at him and flips the pages of his notebook to a blank page, “just go back to what you were doing weirdo,” he says softly and Mike lets out another laugh before following his directions. Well, not exactly since he’d literally been writing about his and Bill’s sex life. Oops.

He fucks around on his computer for a bit, opening and closing a few homework assignments (yeah right like he’d be able to concentrate right now), editing bits and pieces in other stories, he even plays a couple rounds of solitaire. But his attention is scattered after three lattes (that’s 2…4…6 espresso shots) and the adrenaline rushing through him from Bill sitting across from him drawing him which requires Bill to look at him with his blue as fuck eyes-

“Hey you wanna go somewhere?” The question bursts from Mike and he cringes at the abruptness. “Wait, you’re drawing, never mind,” Mike amends with a shake of his head. But Bill just flips his book closed with a simple “yep,” and starts chugging the last bit of his coffee.

Mike packs up quickly and, swinging his backpack over his shoulders, follows Bill out of the shop.

“Holy shit, is that Silver?” Mike exclaims incredulously when they walk outside. Bill laughs and leads the way to the old bike where it’s locked up by the building. “Yeah, Georgie didn’t wanna give up the car, so I’m stuck with her.” Bill explains. Mike runs a hand over the handlebars with a small smile, “seems smaller than she used to,” he comments, nostalgia rushing through him. Bill hums in agreement, “easier to handle too,” he comments steadily belaying the nervous shake in his next words, “and still big e-e-enough to ruh-ride double.”

Mike grins excitedly, “why Mr. Denbrough, are you going to show me a good time around town?” Bill’s face lights up with a wide grin and giggling, he unlocks his bike quickly, “it’d be my puh-pleasure, Mr. Hanlon.” They drop their things in Mike’s truck before racing recklessly out of the parking lot, Bill pedaling frantically and Mike hanging on tight to his waist, praying he doesn’t go flying off the back of the bike.

It’s weird spending all day with an ex, but they’d been best friends for just as long as they dated, and it’s as easy as it’s always been. They ride through the streets of Derry just like when they were kids, taking turns too fast and speeding over bumps. Mike’s teeth click together but it barely registers over the barrage of other sensations. The softness of Bill’s waist under his hands, the warmth between his back and Mike’s chest, the soft blond hairs flying into his face where they come loose from the braid and bobby pins.

It’s a lot of old and new sensations that has Mike’s head spinning.

They ride until Bill complains of shin splints, his face red and a little sweaty. Mike totally doesn’t think of licking the sweat from his brow because that would be weird. They ride back to Starbucks and load Silver into Mike’s truck. They sit in the cab, unsure where to go from here. They decide to live out the nostalgia further, and head to the barrens.

“Can you help me get all these out?” Bill asks gesturing to the many bobby-pins in his hair. Mike pats the spot on the truck bed next to him and Bill sighs a “thank you” as he sits with his back turned to him. Mike begins to gently pull the clips from his hair, doing his best not to pull knowing full well Bill is tender-headed.

He brushes the hair out with his fingers as it’s freed in sections until all the pins are out and Bill’s hair is a wild mane framing his face. Bill had shifted to face him when Mike got to the sections held back in the front, and Mike watches his face carefully. His eyes are closed and his face is relaxed in contentment. He’s always liked having his hair played with, no doubt part of the inspiration to grow it out.

Mike finds himself fiddling with the ends of his hair, carefully brushing it back from his face. He’s too distracted watching the soft strands fall through his fingers to notice Bills’ eyes have opened to watch him.

They used to lay in bed together, Bill on Mike’s chest, while Mike would drag a hand through Bill’s hair while they cooled down. Sometimes they would talk and other times they would lay in silence, just letting themselves feel the moment.

Lost in his thoughts Mike doesn’t notice Bill moving his face slowly closer, or how his hand has ceased it’s ministrations running through soft blond hair to rest gently on his cheek, he doesn’t realize he’s guiding Bill’s lips to his own until they’re barely a breath apart. And then soft lips land on his and awareness comes crashing over him.

They both freeze for a second, they’re mouths held stiff against the other, and then Mike opens his mouth slightly to pull Bills’ bottom lip in between his. And with that Bill is pushing forward and Mike unfolds his legs so he can slot in-between his knees. They kiss desperately, mouths moving together hot and slick. Mike moans softly at the feeling.

And then he’s pushing away because holy shit, “did you-“ he pants and Bill moves to kiss his neck at the interruption, unwilling to stop whatever this is. Mike is totally okay with that but, “you didn’t eat meat today did you?”

Bill stops his traveling lips, body going stiff in the not fun way. It may have been something they used to argue about when they were dating, Mike thought it was gross to kiss Bill after he’d eaten meat, and Bill didn’t get what the big deal was. Mike thinks maybe he ruined the moment but then Bill is grinding his hips down into him and he drag his lips up Mike’s neck to his ear, making him keen at the sensations, his own hips stuttering to meet the boy’s above him.

“Not yet,” Bill whispers grinding down into the v of Mike’s hips harshly, drawing a groan from the man that quickly turns into laughter. Throwing his head back Mike giggles loud and uncontrollably. “Seriously?” He laughs breathlessly, Bill sucking a mark on his neck. He pulls back to look into Mike’s eyes. “Seriously. Your nagging finally got through my thick skull.” Bill says with an eye roll followed by a wink.

“Wow, fuck, that was such a fucking turn on.” Mike says drawing Bill closer with a hand on the back of his neck and kisses him passionately.

[ddaenggtan]

Hello!!! Wow...Forever Rain. Just, wow. Took me on a complete emotional roller coaster. I read this at work and was crying in my office towards the end. I completely lost it at the last bit when the reader was continuing to hold onto Mang. One thing that really intrigued me though...did you intentionally choose for the reader to hold onto Mang because “mang” is the latter part of “huimang” which translates to “hope”? If so, mad props and kudos to for weaving that theme into your story. (1)

I am very impressed. Also, I was dying/crying from laughter too when the other 6 boys were literally sharing one brain cell when they thought Joon was telekinetic 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 You portrayed their personalities so well there. I could write an entire essay about how amazing this piece was, but I’ll keep it brief. This piece was phenomenal, excellently written and very engaging! Thank you for writing this and sharing it with all of us!!! 💜💜(2)

--

I swEAR I ANSWERED THIS BUT TUMBLR ATE THE RESPONSE SKLDJFLKSDJF FUK THIS HELLSITE BUT!!!! Thank you so much for reading and enjoying!!! I’m sorry for making you cry at work but also,,,,,,,,wHOOPS LMAO it’s a very cry-worthy fic imo!! 

And yes!! I did in fact make it Mang that she holds on to for that exact reason!! In the outline I wrote out, it was v v different and sad for much different reasons, but when I started writing it, I was like oh it would be cute if the bt21 characters had lil cameos even tho i didnt get to everyone rip im sorry cooky and tata pls forgive me and I was going to make that Koya, but then the mental image of Koya just sleeping everywhere fit with the idea of the hanging plant in the bathroom, and I remembered that Mang+Huimang+Hope thing and i was like ahaha :))) shes literally holding onto hope :)))) ahahahaha :)))))))))) the pain :))))

Fun fact!! The scene with the telekinesis was what birthed the entire fic!! I was scrolling through prompts trying to figure out what to write for the collab and for forever rain and that one stuck out and I was like “ahahah that would be fun!!” and then my brain went “now mAKE IT SAD >:]” and i am but a servant to my whims. 

If you ever did write an essay I expect in double spaced, MLA format, one inch margins, with your last name by the page numbers, thank you very much, have it on my desk whenever!! No but really omg thank you im a simple goblin who cant handle all this praise rip me 

Thank YOU for reading it and sharing your thoughts!!!!!!!! It’s made my entire week and truly encourages authors to continue!!!

[the-resurrection-3d]

Okay since @adhdbun asked earlier, I decided to try and get a new reading on long ETF is -- my files are so scattered that I had to find the right version of part four in google docs. 

Alright, so right now part two is just under 14k after having had 1k cut out during the transition from Massive Clusterfuck to Clusterfuck But in Chronological Order. I haven’t been updating my wordcount spreadsheet since..........literally all of April, but right now it’s 

I finally got parts 3-6 all together in gdoc if anyone wants that. Also put everything in one word doc and standardized the formatting (12p Times New Roman, doubled-spaced), and it’s 125 pages at 30398. The numbers don’t match up with the spreadsheet because I wrote something new for part three awhile ago and haven’t gone back to properly revise it in. This also doesn’t take into account TPOR, which is in part five’s universe, the oneshot I previewed Thursday or Friday night, which would branch TPOR and part five together, and the bits of a part four prequel I have floating around.

It looks confusing until you realize it’s all bullshit and no one cares.

[haydenstudiesblog-blog]

Paper Tips + Tricks in Lit(erature)

Sorry for that super lame title

Tip #1: Summarize in Lists

It’s always a good idea (BUT NOT REQUIRED) to include some sort of brief summary in your paper, but a common problem is allowing this summary to take up too much space on the page. We don’t need a run-down of the entire story; whoever is reading this paper has already read it. You just need enough to jog their memory. I suggest making a list of the important events in the story, the events that relate to your thesis, and pick the most important ones to use in the summary.

Tip #2: Include Author and Title 

It’s 100% required to mention both the author and title of the story you are analyzing or discussing in your paper. Like, non-negotiable. This may seem annoying, but there’s a super easy way to accomplish this... Just put it at the beginning of the thesis. Super easy, right? 

Here’s an example of an introductory paragraph I recently used in one of my paper, which got high marks (9.5/10 points) - 

Although many refuse to believe it, Christianity has a history of absorbing Pagan traditional values and forms. In her short story “The Company of Wolves” Angela Carter uses the fairy tale “Little Red Riding Hood” to demonstrate the complex relationship between Christianity and Paganism through the use of symbolic religious imagery.

So. Simple. And I didn’t even include a summary (which I did not get docked points for doing).

Tip #3: Include Genre

I took note of this the other day in my literature class. We cover up the name of whoever wrote the paper and project it onto the board to talk through together. One person included the genre in the middle of the author and title mention, so it looked something like this - 

In her fantasy-horror short story “The Company of Wolves” Angela Carter blah blah blah...

My professor commented on that, how she loved the inclusion of the genre, so I took note of it. It’s always nice to take note of the little things your professor likes to see in papers.

***However, I only recommend doing this if you’re super confident in the story’s genre. Or you can always look it up online.

Tip #4: Vampires Don’t Always Work

You may be thinking, “Uhh, vampires? When are there ever really vampires in literature? Why would I assume they always work?” Well, my friend, listen to this... There are more vampires in literature than we think. No, not the literal kind. I’m talking about literary vampire imagery. Example? You got it - 

Karen Joy Fowler’s “Heartland” is a short story about a young girl, Willina, who feels trapped in a tourist-trap version of Oz. She finds solace in a tourist who flirts with her at work, and she makes plans to run away with him. Then he leaves her behind, and she is so lost in anguish and longing that she decides the only way out is to take her own life. In this short story, Fowler plays with feelings of longing, ambition, and love; she successfully connects these feelings to victim-shaming and sexual assault through the use of vampire imagery.

Not my best introductory paragraph OR thesis, but you kind of get the idea, yes? It’s easier to understand if you read my paper, which you can; I posted it on my blog recently, the paper is titled “Vampires in the Heartland” and you can find it by going to my tag. But anyway.

Vampires in literature are any selfish character. They destroy others for selfish reasons. In the case of this story, the tourist is a vampire on this young girl Willina. He does not literally suck her blood, but she does end up killing herself so maybe in a way he sucked the will to live out of her. Vampires can be found in a lot of stories. But they don’t always work, so you have to be careful. If someone is acting purely out of desire and not selfishness, they aren’t a vampire.

Tip #5: Plan Structure

Let’s get straight to the point here - the best way to give your paper good structure is to just word vomit all over the page. But organize it into paragraphs. Word vomit everything you need to say about one point or one piece of evidence, and keep that all in one paragraph. Once you’re done, move on to the next piece of evidence or point and do it all again. Just keep it all separate.

I have a few ideas on how you can stay organized this way, whether you prefer to type or write everything down first.

Typing - Use a Word document, or your preferred place to type (I love Scrivener) and put each major point that you use to support your thesis on its own separate page. Word vomit on each page, then go through page by page and organize what you did until each page has a paragraph for that particular point that includes all of the evidence you want it to have. Once you’ve done that for every point, you can start organizing them in the order you want. The way they all flow together the best from one point to the other. After they’re in the order you want them, you have to create transitions between each point/paragraph. This is always the trickiest part for me, but once you have everything in the best order it makes it a lot easier.

Writing - Use a notebook and do the same thing; put each point on its own page and word vomit on each page. Keep it all separate. Once that’s done, mold each page until they are paragraphs instead of word vomit all over the page (also don’t worry about being neat with the word vomit, just make sure you can read it). Then consider ripping out all of the pages and physically laying them out in front of you, that way you can sort them into the desired order. Then of course you have to create transitions between each point/paragraph. 

If you are unsure about whether or not your points are in the best order, just hold tight...

Tip #6: Evidence/Points Order

Super basic advice here - decide what evidence is the strongest that supports your thesis and put that last. It’s easy to jump right in at the beginning out of excitement to talk about the best evidence you’ve ever found in your life that will make your thesis amazing and your paper a banger, but that leaves a very serious problem. What happens at the end, right before your conclusion? Your reader will be left disappointed. You got them all excited with that amazing evidence at the beginning, and left them hanging with the weakest evidence you had that really doesn’t do much. No. Leave them in amazement and put your best evidence last. Also a good reason to practice those structure processes I just talked about above.

Tip #7: Reevaluate Your Thesis

There’s a great chance that your thesis has somehow wound up in your conclusion. As you were writing, you probably got more and more excited and inspired and your mind created an amazing thesis and disguised it as a conclusion sentence. No. No. No. We’re not letting you get away with that. Hopefully you went ahead and waited until the end to do your introductory paragraph, because everyone knows those never hold up once you finished the rest of the paper, but in case you didn’t - go back and read it. Your thesis probably isn’t amazing anymore. Consider changing it.

Tip #8: Edit Forever

Up until now, you’ve just been writing your life away and organizing. Now, after you write your introductory paragraph (maybe before?), print out that paper and read it. It’s actually super important that you print it out to proofread it because our minds process it differently this way. You’ve been staring at it on the screen for a while now. Not only is your mind used to it, but our brains automatically skim things we read on screens. We read more thoroughly when things are in print. So print it out and proofread it. I recommend making marks in a color that’s NOT black, so it’s easier to see. And when you make a grammatical correction, circle it so there’s not a chance you’ll miss it when you go to fix it later.

Tip #9: Sentence Structure

Have you noticed that the rest of these tips are shorter? That’s because we’re almost done! But not yet.

You have limited space in this paper. You have a lot of points to make, and not a lot of room to do it. So you don’t have time for ramble-y sentences. Go through and get rid of those unnecessary words, like “that” (yes, 9 times out of 10 you actually don’t need the word). Where there are a lot of words where one will do, change it, but don’t do this so much that it doesn’t sound like you anymore. Your professor will notice if you sound like you have a PhD on paper and in person you couldn’t even tell them what half those words even mean. That doesn’t make you sound smart, it makes you look silly.

Also try to avoid going on long tangents in your paper. It can be hard, but try to notice them when you’re proofreading. Be concise in your sentences. Short, sweet, and to the point.

Tip #10: Double Check Citations

I’ll make a completely different post next week(ish) dedicated to citing literature papers. Until then, good luck. 

Tip #11: YOUR Title

You didn’t think I’d forget to address the title of your own paper, did you? Gosh. The key here is to just know your professor. I know my professor loves puns, so I try to make my titles appropriately punny. 

Here’s a secret - you actually aren’t allowed to just use the name of the story you’re writing about as the title of your paper. Annoying, right? Because that’s totally what I’d do if I could. You can use words from the title in your title. For example, the title of my paper of Karen Joy Fowler’s “Heartland” was “Vampires in the Heartland” but there’s a reason for this. The term “heartland” is actually what is used to describe the midwest, which is why it’s the name of the story. It’s used as a clue that this story takes place in Oz in Kansas, since that’s never explicitly stated in the story. There are just a ton of clues and hints dropped in that are meant to help you draw that conclusion. So I decided to use that in my title. And since my paper was about literary vampire imagery in this story, I settled with that name. My professor put a little heart next to it.

It’s fun to come up with punny names for your papers. Another example is my most recent paper, which was over a re-imagination of the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale as a short story that demonstrated the history between Christianity and Paganism (my thesis statement for this is above). So for the title of that story I used “The Better to Preach to You With” which is actually super corny and I didn’t get a little heart next to it, but I almost got full points on the paper so she must’ve been fine with it.

You have to take the time to come up with a name, you might as well have fun with it.

That’s all I’ve got for now. I hope this was helpful. Feel free to add your own tips. Most of these are tips straight out of my literature professor’s mouth. Look for my post next week on citing a literature paper, which will be 100% tips by my professor. Of course every professor is different, but I’ve been using all of these tips on another literature professor of mine and she’s been good with them as well.

[parapluiepliant]

Creator 2017 Tag Meme

I was tagged by: @tenthebookworm, @sly2o, @tracylorde, @stardust-blake and @pendragaryen.

Thank you so much, ladies! It's an awesome idea that boosts not only our confidence in our work but hopefully also the knowledge about well-deserving but maybe still overlooked content providers in the fandom. :)

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 favorite works you’ve created in 2017 (fics, art, edits, etc!) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you’ve brought into the world. Tag as many writers/artists/etc as you want (fan or original!) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works. <3

In no particular order:

1. Bellamy Blake Modern AU –  Blake returns with new album and band  “Patroclus Perish” (Fake Instagram page plus mini fanfiction):

First of all, I have no Photoshop so all the edits and gifs I do are made from scratch and for some features that are easily done in PS, I have to experiment to get the same effect (or to get it close enough) in my editing software.

That's the reason why this one in particular was pretty fun but also challenging because I wanted to include a video preview (and I also wanted to get the font close to the original). Overall, the edit as well as the mini fanfiction in form of a news article (did I get the tone right as someone who is a learner of English?) were done within a short amount of time because I had this weird creator's rush. You feel the spark and suddenly, you're in a flow and you're eager to finish it. One of the best moods to be honest!

Tumblr messed up the formatting at first which caused the text to disappear, so I had to make a new post. Bad tumblr!

2. Morning Routine (Fanfiction about Baby!Bellamy)

Morning Routine was born pretty much the same way after I had a spark of inspiration. It's also the fanfiction I consider a Parapluiepliant Original and which I consider my very first fanfiction I have ever written (and posted!) because Token , Faith and Foresight, were still inspired by dialogue bits from Lord of the Rings (even though the mix of LotR dialogue bit with Bellarke has some scenes I came up with). And I got some nice comments for that one which is a plus. ;)

The story is basically about Bellamy's father taking care of his son on the Ark before he is called to help out engineers on a routine check up. I really liked how I wrote the ending paragraph and it all came together in the end. It is bittersweet with all its implications, same as the title with its double meaning which only adds to the the feeling when you have finished the story.

3. Exactly how long does it take to tell someone you love them? (Gif Set to one of wellsjahasghost’s 5(+) fic celebration)

This one was inspired by wellsjahasghost‘s 5(+) sentence fics celebration. When I read that specific paragraph for the first time, I was hit pretty hard by all the Bellarke feels, something which only a few have managed so far with their writing. I was immediately struck by the idea of how I'd want to use each sentence.

You could say that I tried to visualize a fanfiction and to get the feeling right, I also played a bit with fonts and colours to indicate memories and text passages in contrast to Bellamy's thoughts.

4. “What if our hearts could be connected like constellations?” (A Bellarke Gif Set using a quote and a folklore about Altair and Vega/Hikoboshi and Orihime)

This is the one I'm really proud of because it is the first gif set where I tried to be a bit more creative. It combines a few thoughts I had here: I used an overlay of the Milky Way to indicate the separation of Bellamy and Clarke similar to Altair and Vega, thus having Altair's star on Bellamy and Vega's on Clarke.

In many stories all over the world, Altair and Vega were lovers separated by the Milkyway. And in Japan, there is a tale that Orihime (literally a weaving princess) and Hikoboshi (literally a star boy), coresponding to Vega and Altair respectively, are only able to meet once a year. Clarke Princess Griffin and Bellamy Starfreckled Blake had to wait 6 years to meet again. So basically their hearts are like stars connected like the constellations aforementioned.

5. The 100 Season 5 Poster Competition

I tried my luck but without any success. However, I'm actually quite proud of it though. Especially, the delinquents in space looking out of the window was challenging as heck (because finding decent pictures of their backs is hard!).

Honorary mention goes to:

> https://parapluiepliant.tumblr.com/post/156548344371/ice-king-baby-i-cannot-believe-that-aaron-and 

(Season 4 Countdown picture of Roan in which I gave him a E-guitar instead of a sword, so he can enter the song-clave to battle them all with his rendition of Ice Ice Baby and which might also be a good idea to get Zach's signature on)

> https://parapluiepliant.tumblr.com/post/162841250346/your-list-was-pragmatic-2x09-remember-me-4x04

(aka the one where I contrasted Clarke's way to tell people that the list was pragmatic and is offended that Jaha implies that other's misundertood it as her telling them they are without value with the famous 'It's worth the risk scene' because Clarke often has that problem to really articulate what she means...WHICH IS WHY SHE TELLS BELLAMY IMPLICITLY THAT SHE THINKS HE'S SPECIAL BY SAYING HIS SISTER WILL COME TO RECOGNIZE IT IN TIME AS WELL. MY HEART!!!!)

> https://parapluiepliant.tumblr.com/post/166082564056/inspired-by-lang-leav-lovers-paradox-from-the 

(really liked how I was able to make the list scene colours look warm but still maintained a bit of the blue light; I also thought that Leav's poem with a little change worked perfectly with some of the communication issues those two idiots in love have)

[btw I never noticed how much edits and text posts I already did! Maybe I'm going to reblog/queue them again because my tags are a mess(TM) and trying to find them all was a hassle...probably missed some due to that too]  

I encourage everyone seeing this to participate, no matter how small or insignificant you think you are. Let's make some noise and have fun! I really like to see some new blogs and boost their creative works, so please tag me in your post and I put it into my queue to keep it going. :)

No pressure tag: @blyedeeks, @thehundredbellarke, @as-inevitable-as-morning and @moonaskingtostay

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[bedlamsbard]

Organizing (Grad) School Applications

Applying to college or graduate school has a lot of steps, some of which need to be done in advance of the deadline.  I’m not the most organized person alive, and in the past that’s definitely come back to bite me insofar as apps go, mostly because I won’t get everything lined up and end up missing the deadline as a result.

This is the method I used last year when I was applying to graduate schools.  It requires a fair amount of advance planning, because I knew going in (this was my fifth round of applications and the first round of entirely PhD apps) that that was mostly likely to be where I was going to fall down, so I needed to bite-size it as much as possible.  This is aimed at grad school apps, but the same method should work fine for college as well; there are just a couple extra grad steps.

I really recommend doing this on your computer, because I ended up hyperlinking a lot of stuff so I didn’t have to google it and dig around the department website every time.  I actually just did it in my Tumblr drafts, but something like Google Docs or even Microsoft Word or Excel would work just as well.

KEY POINT: You can do all of this in five minutes a day if you start early enough.  You don’t have to dedicate six hours a day to it or do every step in a single day; in fact, I recommend only doing about 5-15 minutes a day, then putting it aside and doing literally anything else.  If that’s one e-mail?  Good!  If that’s looking up one school’s website?  Great!  If it’s filling in ticky boxes for five minutes?  Hurrah!

Whatever works, works.

Step 1

Narrow down your schools by whatever metric you’re using: my initial list was 13, I narrowed that down to 8 and ended up applying to 6.  Write down the school, the department (your area of specialty if applicable), at least one professor in the department that you want to work with, and the application deadline(s).  Hyperlink the program page on the department website.

Example:

Boston College - History (medieval)

Robin Fleming (medieval/Late Antique)

January 2, 2017

Louisiana State University - History (Late Antique/medieval)

Maribel Dietz (ancient/Late Antique)

January 15, 2017

University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill - Classics with Historical Emphasis

Jennifer Gates-Foster (ethnicity & identity)

December 13, 2016

December 21, 2016 (letters of rec)

Step 2

Go through each program and write down every requirement for the application.  Not all of these will be on the department website, so you’ll probably have to go to the graduate school’s website as well.  Every requirement.  Double and triple-check.

Things to check for:

Digital vs. hard copy transcripts

Also, which schools. If you’ve taken summer courses at another institution, they may be required; they may only be required from degree-granting institutions.

No graduate schools require high school transcripts as far as I know.

Number of letters of recommendation (the standard number is three, some schools will accept four)

Deadlines -- does your program have different deadlines for the application and for letters of rec? does your program have a different deadline than the main graduate school?

Program-specific requirements -- writing samples are standard; some schools also require a book review, a portfolio, or something else.

Does the program require or recommend contacting the professor within the department whom you’re interested in working with?

GRE scores -- if you’re in the States just assume you have to take the GRE, though not all programs require it.

Personal statement vs. statement of purpose (or both)

Resume vs. CV (curriculum vitae)

COST.  Almost everywhere in the U.S. has an application fee; make sure you know what it is.  Some schools will have a fee waiver deadline; in many cases you can also apply for a fee waiver if it’s financially difficult for you.

Organize everything by application date; I divided them up by month and put every requirement on there, as well as a hyperlink to the APPLICATION page (not the department page).  I didn’t go through each application 

Example

DECEMBER

Dec 13 – University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill - Classics

Application

transcripts (scanned)

letters of recommendation (3)

GRE scores

CV

note: separate requirements for classical archaeology

writing sample (20-30 pages)

personal statement (1-2 pages double-spaced)

professional goals?

why a PhD in classics?

particular interests UNC program and faculty?

any special circumstances?

application fee ($85)

JANUARY

Jan 2 – Boston College - History

Application

statement of purpose (1-2 pages, intellectual interests, why BC?)

official transcripts (scanned)

hard copy only required after matriculation

GRE scores

letters of recommendation (3)

writing sample (10-15 pages)

application fee ($75)

Jan 15 – Louisiana State University - History

Application

GRE scores

official transcripts (hard copy)

statement of purpose

letters of recommendation (3)

writing sample (10-20 pages – excerpt from MA thesis)

application fee ($50)

Step 3

Make your applications.  Write down your username (or e-mail address used) and password -- I kept these handwritten in the same notebook I used for a few other things.  Make sure your hyperlinks from the previous step lead directly to the application itself.

Step 4

I took the GRE several years ago, so I didn’t have to do it again, but if you haven’t taken the GRE yet I would advise you do so as soon as possible in order to get your scores in on time.  (I’m not sure if it’s too late or not for people wanting to apply in this round of applications.)

Step 5

Ask your recommenders.  I asked five professors; most schools only require three recommenders but I’m an untrusting sort so I lined up four (one said no because he had only had me for languages), three from my most recent graduate program and one from my previous postgrad program.  Since I wasn’t in town with any of them, I e-mailed them and said, essentially, “Dear Dr. So-and-So, I am applying to graduate school this year, would you be willing to write me a letter of recommendation?  I am planning on applying to programs in ancient and medieval history and classical studies; the deadlines are in December and early January.  Thank you, K.”

Generally professors will say yes!  They may ask for your statement of purpose and sometimes your most recent paper; I sent them all a draft of my statement of purpose (more on this coming soon), my CV, and for the two who hadn’t been on my thesis committee, a copy of my MA thesis.  (There’s a pretty good guide here, as well.)

Do this as early as possible.  Now, I have asked professors for letters of recs at the last minute before, but I don’t recommend it.  Try to give them at least a month’s lead time to write it.

Step 6

Order your transcripts.  Many institutions are now granting digital transcripts, which is great!  None of mine did.  If you’re a current student, you can usually just order them online and pick them up in a few days from the Registrar’s Office; if you’re no longer a current student you’ll want to have them sent to you.  Yes, you.  Most universities require you, the applicant, to upload a PDF file of your transcript to their application, so you’ll want to have one.  I manually scanned my transcripts and keep PDFs of them.

A few universities require transcripts to come directly from the degree granting institutions in hard copy, which means you’ll have to order them from your university and have them sent to the graduate school you’re applying to.  The receipt information will be on that grad school application’s webpage.  This unfortunately generally costs more money.

If you went abroad for university or graduate school, note that you’ll want more lead time because a hard copy will take longer to get there (and sometimes more processing time).  Since I did my postgrad in England, for the one graduate program that required hard copy transcripts I had to order them about a month in advance.  This also cost more than ordering them from my undergraduate university in the States.

Step 7

Sit down with your transcript and write out every one of your major and minor classes.  Every single one.  Make sure you also note down the grade you got and the number of credits it was worth.  If you did a double major or a double minor, as I did, do this for all of them.

Many graduate programs require your major GPA, which isn’t noted on your transcript.  This is pretty easy to figure out -- just plug it into something like GPA Calculator -- but it’s a time-consuming hassle.  Since I had a double major and a double minor, I calculated my GPA for each one separately, then together, and put down whichever of those three turned out the highest.  I only had one school ask for my minor GPA; same process.

Writing everything down will also mean you have a list to refer back to if a school asks for all relevant courses you’ve taken, thanks, Boston College, that was really annoying to do.

Step 8

At this point if you like -- and I would recommend it, since I didn’t do this and it came back to bite me -- you can go through each application and note individual requirements: major and minor GPA, relevant courses, work history, languages, etc.

Step 9

Start drafting your statement of purpose.  It can be very very rough at this point; you’ll refine it later. This is the thing where you give your academic history, your areas of interest, and why you want to go to that particular school.

Note that most universities won’t have the same word- or page- length requirement. I would recommend writing one general statement of purpose -- in my case I wrote one for classics/ancient history and one that differed slightly for medieval history -- and leaving the last paragraph to revise for each university.  In that paragraph you want to make it very clearly that you’re familiar with the program and the professors you want to work with; make it as specific as possible.  I sent the cleanest early draft of my statement of purpose to my recommenders (making it sure they knew it was a draft).

Step 10

Start actually working on your applications!  In whatever order you feel like; this is mostly a case of filling in boxes.  It’s time-consuming but generally brainless.

As many of you know, I’m a big fan of using timers and doing five to fifteen minutes of work a day, which is how I did my apps.  At least five minutes a day, aiming for at least five days a week.  I put stickers on my calendar every time I did something on my apps because (a) I like stickers and (b) it shows me that I’ve been working.

I think I started working on them in about mid-October, lost about a week in November because I wasn’t functional due to the election, finished the first half my apps in December, lost another two weeks because I wasn’t functional for personal reasons, and finished the second half of my apps in January.

Step 11

Figure out what you’re using for your writing sample.  In my case, I used a chunk of my MA thesis -- actually, several different chunks, because I tailored each excerpt to the program I was applying to.  Many of them had different word- and page- count requirements.

Here’s a “do what I say, not what I do” note: make sure you write down somewhere which writing sample you sent to which university, if you’re using different excerpts or different papers for them.  I still have no idea which chunk of my thesis I sent to which university and I wish I knew.

Step 12

Make sure you actually hit the “submit application” button once you’ve finished.  This is also generally the point at which you will have to give whatever university you’re applying to a large amount of money.

Step 13

Congratulations, you’ve applied to graduate school!  Your applications are in and finally you can know peace!  Actually that’s not true, you’ll be very stressed.  Response time varies a lot.  I got a rejection letter from one university less than a week after I submitted the application, but in general longer is better; you may not hear anything for a few months.

MAKE SURE YOU KEEP CHECKING YOUR E-MAIL.

I used my .edu address instead of my personal e-mail address because it looked more professional, and after I finished my last application I didn’t check it for a week because I figured it was early enough that no one would be contacting me yet.  Three days after this I got a frantic e-mail on my personal account from a professor at one of my applying universities saying she had been trying to get in touch with me, but couldn’t because I wasn’t checking the address I had used to apply.  (She contacted one of my recommenders, who was actually the only person at my previous university who had my personal e-mail address.)

I also got an e-mail from one university telling me that I had been waitlisted, did I want to stay on the waitlist or had I gotten a better offer?  Another e-mail told me I’d been offered acceptance into the MA program, but not the PhD program; did I want that?  Another wanted clarification on my GRE scores (they were right on the expiry line).  You never know what people will ask, so make sure you can stay in contact. 

Step 14

You may have an interview, which I did.  I prepared some things to talk about -- my academic background and areas of interest, both of which were on my statement of purpose, as well as some other academic interests I hadn’t put in my statement of purpose.  I also prepared some questions to talk about -- what kind of teaching training the program supplied, how much teaching I would be required to do, if the department got along with other departments in the university (because I’m interdisciplinary), questions about field work and internships, and also, what the professors interviewing me liked about the university and the city it was in.  You want to seem engaged and knowledgeable about the program you’re interested in.

These can be phone or Skype interviews; in my case it was supposed to be a Skype interview but ended up being a phone one because my Skype didn’t end up working.  (To this end, make sure they have your phone number as well.)

I did end up getting asked in my interview about the fact that I took a year off where I had no work history; I was upfront and said that because I had finished my program late, I had decided to concentrate on my applications and my health rather than trying to get into the job market, since it was financially possible for me.  Admitting I took a year off did not hurt my applications.

Step 15

Wait and cry.  You honestly can’t do anything about your applications at this point, so be gentle with yourself.  If you’re still in classes, concentrate on them; you don’t want your grades to slip in your last term.  If you’re not -- well, at the time I was busy being completely miserable about something else, which occupied about 90% of my thoughts at any given point in time, but other than that, it does sometimes help to come up with ideas of what you can do if you don’t get in.  Wait for the next round of applications?  Apply overseas?  (Different deadlines, many of them rolling.)  Put yourself on the job market?  Take a year off to lie on the floor?  There are options.

Good luck, and feel free to ask me further questions or clarifications.  I can’t promise I’ll know the answer, but I will try.