#i might keep following them if i consistently enjoy their work but i don't think about their real lives beyond basic human empathy

[lasnevadaslaborunion]

I have never understood the hostility that (some) fans of big streamers have towards people who are enthusiastic about lore.

I only got into the DSMP because I liked the characters and wanted a change of pace from the kinds of books I was reading for my English degree. I get so much more joy out of watching and analyzing interesting storytelling than I do from almost anything these people do out-of-character. I don't see anything wrong with that.

It's not disrespectful to the streamers to engage only with the parts of their content that you enjoy, as long as you're not being rude about it and pressuring them to produce content that doesn't make them happy to create. Somebody else will be entertained. That doesn't have to be you.

[anim-ttrpgs]

drow rpg thoughts

Yesterday I got excited and did a design outline for another game, this time about drow. Don't worry, the Eureka Patreon updates will keep coming monthly and we are even close to another free public beta release, but i have been under a lot of stress and might need to work on something else for a few weeks after that, even if only because i think it could actually be something i could make fully playable within a short time.

It is based on a particular setting written a while back by me and a close friend, the purpose of which was to reimagine drow with reasonable post-hoc explanations for the way they are portrayed in Forgotten Realms. It would be a very specific game, sharing a few design ideas with Eureka's rules, but not as broad and generalized.

This rpg will certainly come with a bunch of lore, but for right now the only thing you need to know is that in this setting, "Drow" is a title and referrs only to the female warrior-caste of dark elf society.

Many of the mechanics will be asymmetrical. A “party” will consist of one Drow and any number of her servants, with the goal of surviving incredibly dense hierarchical social situations

>problem will come up that could embarrass the Drow, threatening her Reputation (stat)

>Drow has to delegate tasks to servants that will fix the problem

>due to stupidly dense and impossible etiquette, actually delegating these tasks is not very clear or easy. Screwing up tasks and failing etiquette will reduce a servant’s perceived Competence (stat)

>due to high pressure, impossible working conditions, and garbled instructions, these tasks are not easy and are very likely to be screwed up

>the Drow has to contend with and smooth over the screwed up tasks. She can lose Reputation if she doesn’t discipline incompetence, but harsh discipline is only going to make the servants less able to complete the task.

>Failure state for the servants is if their Competence ever reaches 0, and failure state for everyone is if the Drow’s Reputation ever reaches 0.

Half the Game Master’s job will be keeping track of the strict and deliberately impossibly overcomplicated etiquette by which servants have to address Drow, and docking their Competence when they screw up(and possibly docking Drow Reputation if anybody else sees her letting that slide), and keeping track of the strict militaristic code of honor and (evil) morality that all Drow are expected to exemplify whether they actually enjoy being cruel psychopaths or not, and docking Reputation when the Drow fails to uphold the right standard of evilness in front of other Drow.

The servant part of the “party” will either have to humorously manipulate Drow while hiding that anything is wrong, or they and their Drow will all have to all work together to maintain a facade of this brutal hierarchy

Drow lose Reputation and servants lose Competence when they fail to adhere to social etiquette that covers like 15 pages of instructions (designed to be impossible to follow). In that way, it might be considered similar to Paranoia, with a similar sense of humor.

Some of the servants��� etiquette would be like

>don’t speak out loud to a Drow unless told to by that Drow

>at the same time, don’t remain silent when a Drow expects them to answer a question even if she didn’t explicitly say they could speak

And this is why the Drow has to be a PC, because this same servant etiquette is a pitfall for the Drow. if she doesn’t make her expectations explicitly clear, it puts the servants in an impossible situation, where they will embarrass her with their incompetence(even though it’s her fault) and she will be socially obligated to go out of her way to discipline them. Of course in the in-setting society, the fault lies with the servant, because they should have intuited when they were being given permission to speak or not. Some Drow will be self-aware enough to realize that they caused this situation, most won't.

The structure of their society will often incentivize a tactful Drow to "roll with" mistakes made by servants, e.g. "No, my servants did have permission to address me out loud, you just weren't clever enough to catch it."

Each will have to cover for the other, and/or hide things from each other and the Drow's social rivals.

[theladybrownstarot]

YOUR VIBES ~•☆°○•°○°

Pick a card reading~

~☆°○•SOME WORDS AND THINGS BEFORE YOU BEGIN:-

♡》Hi everyone I'm brown ♡ and back with an another pac to amaze and hype you with!

♡》Do support Me by comment/like/reblog/follow to help me grow here ♡🤍🖤♡!

♡》Love you bye bye so let's begin with your reading ~ so choose a pile(s) you feel drawn to most ~♡

Pile 1. Pile 2. Pile 3.

Pile 1.

🖤 okay , i see that your vibes are giving like as of rise of Phoenix or wake up or glow up or the rise of great✨️ .

🤍 pile 1 . people think you as someone who is now rising or we say they think and feel that it's your time now to shine and do great 😆. People used to think that you won't show up or have something inside you so great but now you have realized that what you have got and what do you want and need to do 😃😎. People think that you are kinda someone who gifts themselves a lot like such things which are your requirements only 📦 🎁. You keep your plans to yourself but you are open to talk to people and guide them too . You don't show a lot of facial expression plus your face gives the vibe of someone mature also . you people are grounded too~ and must have big 3s in earth sign also.

🖤 People get that clear ,concise , straight forward and to the point kind of person 📈. People feel your vibes as of someone who is fast and knows what to do and how to do now like you aren't indecisive at all ; you know how to make clear decisions and give good judgements . You see more deep , you are curious and tries to know more . People wanna approach you and ask you that how did you do it ? 😏

🤍 They think of you who doesn't rush into things and work🌱 . you take things slowly and calmly for sure and try to maintain your consistency by making little-little steps 🍂also that you must be observant and someone who is cautious just to make sure you aren't taking risks at all in your work .

🖤 You people vibe as a dry to green tree🍁 . You are a home person and travels less also . Might like village areas far from city . You people are workaholics but at times you get kind a away from your path maybe because of of health issues also 😯.

🤍you people are mysterious and have high patience and endurance of things . You might day dream a lot also . People get the vibes from you as like this person is fated to be great now ! btw get an evil eye protection charm for yourself😇 .

🖤 You people have learnt to take control on your pessimistic thoughts and life too ~ you have the blessings from your god and if you are an indian don't worry take the name of lord ganesha🙏🇮🇳 to remove obstacles. people you are clear and strong minded -it's hard to defeat you but i sense some people are still in the progress to make themselves up ! just leave your past and face your fears ~!🫰🏼💪

Pile 2 .

🤍 Hi pile no. 2 ! hru ? enjoying your life or every moment of it ?! yess ! that's what i'm getting from you my sunshine, you shine like sun ,star and moon ~ 🌚☀️⭐️

🖤 you know people get that vibe of you who is jovial in nature wise, likes to enjoy every second of life or trying to enjoy the present with gratitude and happiness rather than being sad oho people you know your shine sometimes makes people jealous of you too😃😊😏🫰🏽 ~ but don't mind them because you are a good person who isn't interested to take hurt and take advantage of others 🫂 knowing that in this world of harshness and darkness people struggle to come as happy individual too ~ you are a beauty with with brain , someone who is motherly , caring or your face could be motherly , who is a marriage material , dream person , a lot feminine and romantic ❤️ .

🤍 I sense that you spread kindness , compassion to others rather than hate and grief alas i hope people may get the shine like you people do ! also that you are someone who is a lot recognized by higher people and authorities also that you could be authoritative and strong headed . You are transparent also someone who is ready to give their hand to people to come up . I love you pile 2 . you are humanitarian! you are selfless ♡.

🖤 People vibe with you with rose and sun flowers and also that you like taking pics with flowers for sure . you love flowers and like to live around nature too ~ 😃😯🌹🌻

🤍 People think of you also as a prankster , someone who is bit lazy😆 to take responsibilities and someone who gets blamed also mostly🥲 . People are jealous and angry because they think you aren't serious but reality is something else pile 2 . isn't it ?;)

Possible that you don't take nonsense from other and can handle a lot of people at once! 💪🏼

🖤 You could be in a certain community , group or club that has people like you or in the community , place or work you are mostly loved and given attention to most as you could be a lot vocal and expressive too . You people must be into law of ♡♡ manifestations a lot i see and believe in universe so much that it has helped you to take your burden off also .

Pile 3 .

🤍 People think of you as someone who isn't judgmental regarding anyone . They feel comfortable around you because you are those type of people who doesn't make people feel like outsiders . You like to share your happiness with others irrespective of age , color , gender or caste vice-versa 🫂🫰🏽. You believe in sharing of things . People might feel that you are the center of attention and you give attention to everyone equally ⭐️. you present yourself as a good and gentle being. You people and grounded and strong - which makes people think that they can't defeat you 💪🏼.

🖤 You are a person who has a lot of achievements - not especially some awards or medals but achievements of your own that you made in your life by yourself😌. You people take life in a flow not in a hurry or mess 🌬🌊. You people can even enjoy alone like you can dance at any place , you can start speaking like a politician or a debater at any place without thinking much of people 😆😃. You give yourself chance first or keep yourself as a priority like you have your own voice and opinion in things 🫰🏽.

🤍 You people might me psychics like tarot card readers , astrologers, intuitive or you can a strong 6th sense 🔮 . People think that you have the answer for everything 🤓 . Some people think and vibe with you as their random guide at any point of time 😁 . Your feelings and gut are strong for sure plus i can see that you are spiritual and read a lot of text and holy books and can practicse mindfulness for sure 🙏🫰🏼🌱.

🖤 People might feel that until and unless they don't approach you , you won't approach them 🫡🤐😑 . People might vibe you with a tree - mature , silent , helpful ,selfless , knowledgeable and someone with extras , you might keep a bunch of things with you in your bag let's say i carry medicine , face wash and cucumber water when i go outside ; people think me as someone who is full and got everything that they need and wish for so goes same for you 🫂.

🤍 People think that you will be a great personality in coming time or in near future because you are developing and growing yourself by hiding from the world. I think you love peace and unity among everyone .🤫 🧿

🖤 You people are a warrior like you have experienced few major events in life and a great lover too ~ You will have great options in terms of love soon . You people are perceived as someone beautiful and graceful for sure . Don't be insecure regarding your looks because what matters is the personality and inner-self 😊🌹 .

End of the pac☆°○••°

SO, HOW WAS THIS PAC ? DID IT RESONATE ?

MAKE SURE YOU SUPPORT YOUR FAVOURITE READERS BY A LIKE/REBLOG/COMMENT/FOLLOW !

FOLLOW ME FOR MORE CONTENT THAT WILL HELP YOU TO GROW AND KNOW YOURSELF MORE ♡

[jedineedlove]

LMK VS Legend

The Guardians of Knowledge

I know that in the show these two are just call the guardians of knowledge,but after an interesting find I THINK I know who that actually are and if this is true it might make season 5 more interesting or not be effected based on the shows perspective, hope you enjoy.

LMK:

In the show these two dont get much screen time they are not given names either. They act as both guardians and keepers of knowledge. They have the physical and vibe of a celestial being. But they actually seem to be more librarians they say that knowledge is for everyone you just need a card. (Hilarious)

Their home the cloud seeming to be a magical /technological connected place out in a desert it’s very hard to tell its location the cloud glitch and the place has a lot of sand around.

These two look like giants but don’t have the size they have the coloring of demons but no horn or fangs but they could be hiding it. They wear what seems to be celestial armor but Azure wore some two along with Peng and Tusk. so there demos that wore them if they worked for the celestial realm.

Legend:

Who, I think these two are actually interesting I think they are Qiānlǐyǎn (Thousand-Mile Eyes), and Shùnfēng’ěr (Wind-Following Ears).

Does this seem similar to anyone?

It's very similar to the door of the cloud. Two brothers in a special pose holding golden weapons and wearing golden clothes, One is red while the other is green. "One is usually depicted as a green demon with large all-seeing eyes. He keeps a weather eye on the horizon, scouring the sea for sailors in need of the sea goddess’s assistance." that is the main physcill description of each of them. They don't wear the right headband but that could be explained because the image of the statue is from Taiwan, not China The two are normally depicted wearing "flowing clothing or open armor to show off their muscular physiques. Apart from their divine sashes, they are commonly shown wearing golden armbands, bracelets, and/or anklets, as well as a tiger skin at the waist." These traits appear to be consistent with all other examples I've seen. Some of these missing parts could been the show's decision. Remember I'm just speculation not stating.

Qianliyan is a Chinese sea and door god. He usually appears with Shunfeng'er as a guardian of the temples of the sea goddess Mazu. Qianliyan's sharp vision is employed to help protect sailors at night and during fog and other inclement weather.[12] In some accounts, he is capable of seeing everything in the world. Qianliyan typically appears as a green-skinned demon shielding his eyes from the sun's glare.

Shùnfēng’ěrThe god's role in helping sailors distinguish favorable winds also prompts the translations "Fair-Wind Ears"[3] and "Favorable-Wind Ears" In some accounts, he is capable of hearing everything in the world, no matter how quietly spoken, and was therefore also worshipped as a witness and guarantor of oaths and contracts. Shunfeng'er typically appears as a red- or brown-skinned demon cupping a hand to one of his ears.

Both demons depicted in art have a hand raised to a part of their heads or faces which is also similar to the Guardians of Knowledge Door mural.

History:

The brothers "Thousand-Miles Eye in the disguise of a lovely girl, lures men into a cave and then devours them. When With-the-Wind Ear sees this, he starts a fight with Thousand-Miles Eye, but in the end the two monsters pledge to become sworn brothers. Guanyin, seated on Mount Potala, orders the Dragon’s Daughter to tell Mazu to subdue the monsters. With the heavenly warriors helping her, she was able to defeat the two. After that, the two become her loyal servants. First, they help Mazu fight a man-eating lion, and subdue the Evil Dragon Monster Later down the timeline of their legend they would reach the JTTW.

JTTW:

That's right these two were in the JTTW you might have recognized their names in the being for t eJTTW readers if you remember them great for those who don't they were the ones that announced Wukong or just Stone Monkey at the time of birth they were sent by the Jade Emperor to find out why his place got set on fire from two laser beams. They are depicted as personifications of the Jade Emperor himselfs' own hearing and sight. That was why I was saying it would maybe be entering in season 5 if the Jade Emperor is gone and they are a part of him does that mean that they're gone?

But then again the show might not have gone that route they have changed a lot of the mythology of the original novel. They could have changed that as well I could not see the Jade Emperor personification of two of his senses living on the mortal plane and as kind-loving librarians or ones that play video games.

Notes:

That along with their origins and roles originally based around the sea why in a Desert and Why Librarians, I could see the show editors taking more of the JTTW versions and seeing the beings that personified ears and eyes they must be involved in knowledge right. They can see and hear everything in the world they must be knowledge-based beings.

Also, everyone else in the show so far has some sort of JTTW connection somewhere. The two must follow that formula.

But if I'm right then these two were literally the first ones to see newly hatched Wukong. So many questions.

Thank you

Hope you enjoyed :)

PS: how I thought of this well I was watching VR gameplay of

The Pirate Queen: A Forgotten Legend

And I saw the red and green statues of the two demons and thought "WAIT............ Hold up.........deja vu ......is that you?!"

[sitp-recs]

Hello!

First, I hope you're doing quite well and having a good day!

Second, I haven't been able to stop thinking about the post re: the writer who felt discouraged about not getting comments despite readers loving the works in quiet and gushing in other places (and would likely leave their fandom). More specifically, your tag about how your blog may fit in to all that.

Like you, I'm not a writer, in the sense that we don't come up with a story and put it out there, heart in our hands, hoping for someone to see it and enjoy it and maybe even to say as much to me. I won't discount OP sharing their friend's very valid feelings of seeking some validation and connection with their audience. I think that's a very human thing to want. And it's okay to be so disappointed that you stop interacting with a thing that doesn't make you feel good.

But I also don't want you to discount what you bring to fandom. Your blog is a big reason WHY I read in this fandom, and I think that's true of a lot of people, just based on the asks you get. Personally, your insight has helped me find some of the most beautiful stories and insanely talented writers and artists. For those of us old enough to remember a world without social media/smart phones (or even the internet as an easily accessible thing), one way people often found new media (and artists) is by reading reviews. And they weren't always kind. Reccers like you only share kind reviews. And they often say that one way to consistently find media you enjoy is to find a reviewer whose tastes seem to match up to yours and follow their lead when looking for new things to enjoy.

You (and all reccers) are a valuable part of the fandom ecosystem, helping introduce new fans to fandom as a whole. And your blog also often encourages being a better human in fandom. Because the reality is that newer, younger fans won't know the etiquette to being in these spaces. And that's just as important.

Thank you to all authors and artists for being brave enough to share a part of yourself through fandom. And reccers, thank you for your work on helping us find them. May we all go forth and treat each other very kindly.

Thank you so much anon, this was really special to read! To be completely honest I am just coming back after a fandom break, and I was not in the right headspace to interact with that kind of post (that’s on me!). I regretted reblogging it as soon as it was out as I did not want it to come across as “Liv’s self-pity party” because the discussion is much bigger and layered, but @eleadore’s ask triggered a very interesting discussion with great insights (strongly related to @garagepaperback’s comment about how some of us who have lurked for years might have a different understanding of fandom, and how the introduction of kudos etc by ao3 is re-shaping this culture at large 🤯)

I think it’s a nuanced discussion because of how fandom is structured and the way stats influence newcomers (both authors and readers) but I was talking with my friends last night and one key takeaway for us was what we saw in someone else’s tags: “don’t outsource your happiness”. I think it’s important to validate our craving for interaction and belonging, after all this is a social space! I love making friends with people who are just as obsessed with these two idiots as I am! But the moment this craving becomes our primary motivator, the moment we link our self-worth to external validation, we’re giving someone else the power to ruin our experience, our relationships, our passion. There’s nothing wrong with taking a step back when something that’s supposed to be fun and chill starts making us miserable instead. I wanna cultivate a healthy relationship with my hobbies so that I can still find comfort and refuge in them. That’s something that resonates with both creators and readers, I think, and something I wanna keep in mind as I move forward with the blog, in whatever shape or form it takes ❤️‍🩹

I appreciate your love letter to all reccers and the kind words about my recs. I’m so happy to hear that the blog had a lasting (and positive!) impact on your fandom experience. Thanks again for taking the time to write this message. Take care!

[wazzappp]

You write fanfics, right? Would you mind giving a newbie a few tips for writing their very first fanfiction ??? 🥺

FIRST OF ALL WOAH. IM HONORED YOU WOULD ASK ME FOR ADVICE AND SECOND OF ALL AKAKKFJGKHKHSKSGG I uhhhhh. Kind of????? Write?? I make plans and then I draw comics I'm actually trying to WRITE write something right now (key word being 'trying') but INEXPERIENCE ASIDE I guess I can try to tell you about some stuff I like to think about when planning a comic?

I like to start by knowing both where everyone is starting out and where everyone is going to end up. It's also helpful to know what everyone WANTS. I make sure to separate those two because they aren't necessarily the same thing. It's good to know both before you get to the details. If you don't know where you're going, you cant have fun getting there!

When I'm planning something out I like to start with the big parts as bullet points and then fill in the gaps. That way, if you realize one point doesn't flow into the other the right way, you can rearrange things before you're 5 hours deep and realize 3 hours worth of it doesn't work.

Try to think up multiple different ways a scene/situation could go! I replay something in my head a dozen times in a dozen different ways until I land on one I like. If you have something solid its totally cool to stick with it, but it's also fun to explore possibilities in your head before committing. That way you can pick out what the most impactful version is and go with that.

TALK!!! TO YOURSELF!!! FOR DIALOGUE!!! Find somewhere private where you wont be judged or interrupted and just go for it (my personal favorite is in the car on my drive to work but don't do that if you think it will get you into an accident lol). Try and get into each characters headspace and think about how it feels to say the things you're saying. Does it make you feel sick? Choked up? Tense? Notice it and think about how it will change their body language and how other people perceive them.

Know what your characters flaws are! Perfect people are BORING. Not to mention unrealistic. Also its really important for how people interact with each other! If someone is distrustful, judgemental, naive, defensive, blunt LITERALLY ANY CHARACTER FLAW it will play a role in how they deal with both people and problems.

Working on biographies + character designs (if you draw) for characters to make sure you understand them as well as possible is really helpful. I do it for almost all of my AU's that I make. But also I'm incredibly detail oriented so yk. Take that bit of advice with a grain of salt. I like picking my favorite little guys apart with a scalpel but if you find that demotivating don't worry about it too much.

If you're following along with a game or a movie, it's good to know ahead of time how closely you are sticking to the established story and universe. Keep track of any new rules you make. Working within a set of constraints helps to get both you and the character to think more creatively, and keeping those rules consistent makes the world feel more real. In a way, setting limits makes your world bigger!

Its also worth mentioning that I like to pay attention to what I enjoy reading when I'm figuring out a story. What pacing do you like? What level of description? Do you like things phrased more straightforwards or more poetic? I'm not suggesting you copy people of course. Just know what you like and try to apply it to yourself!

Damn that was way more than I thought I had to say lol. I'm going to also tag @moosemonstrous @rokhal @kermit-coded @cannibal-wings sin case they might have some tips to add because they are all absolutely exemplary in their craft (bring out the FANCY words today just for you) and I HIGHLY suggest looking at their works.

<3 Thanks for your ask!! I cant wait to see what you make!

[alianoralacanta]

Ahhh I want to kiss your brain. Thank you for that absolutely BRILLIANT analysis, I love your essays :) You are brilliant!

I hesitated in sending this ask because you've explained so much so well already, but you mentioned you're open to clarification 🫣 I hope you don't mind, I was wondering about this part, this especially caught my attention...

Mattia Binotto in 2022 had a problem. His plan was progressing faster than he’d anticipated. Ferrari was supposed to mount its title challenge in 2024, not 2022.

Mattia had not put all the systems in place to support the title bid that he had intended. Instead, he chose to stick to his plan. Keep building systems and manage down expectations.

There were times when it felt like he was favouring Carlos Sainz because his driving was closer to the plan. However, Charles Leclerc appeared to be convinced, from the beginning, that a title fight was on due to Ferrari’s performance level.

Forgive me this might very well be a stupid question but what do you mean by systems that he hadn't placed yet to support the title bid? I read up about the 2022 season around last year since I wasn't actually there to witness it (I became a fan mid-2023), clearly there is a lot more to the picture than I anticipated!

What other systems are there? Was he planning for new recruits to the team, or something different...?

Thank you once again! :)

Warning! Long post alert! (This time it is only a 2-parter) I am so happy that you enjoyed my essay :D The question is a sensible one. Section 1: Defining a system (eventually)

By "Mattia had not put all the systems in place to support the title bid", I meant that the organisation as a whole had still not coalesced into something that consistently gave the same, helpful response when encountering difficulties. The part of this we see most often expressed is in race strategies. When everything goes to plan, Ferrari could and still can execute a race strategy absolutely fine. However, it just takes one unplanned change to break the system. (This may also be why strategy fails happened to Charles Leclerc more often than Carlos Sainz in 2022, for Charles is the one most likely to have discovered something outside the pre-calculated strategic parameters - usually that discovery was good, sometimes it was bad, but the Ferrari strategic team seemed to be just as bad at handling it either way). This specific pattern is often a sign that the right people are in place, with a valid "Plan A" system, but don't yet have systems behind them to adapt. (This is also why Charles Leclerc defended Xavi Marcos Padros so much despite Xavi being linked with many of these errors. There is more detail in Section 9: China 2004 of the original essay about Charles accepting more fractious interaction as problem-solving than might be expected, and in addition both Charles and Xavi probably agreed there were systematic issues behind at least some of the problems we saw). Departments we see less may or may not have had the same problem, though it's realistic to believe they did. Mattia Binotto called Ferrari a "young" team in 2019 because many of its staff had not worked the positions they were in before and were still getting used to the processes and people in those new positions. So, what is a "system" in these contexts? It is how the actions taken within the team fit together to get particular things done. It considers: - the individual components involved - the goal(s) to which they are employed - the nature of the links - and the conditions that make these change When we are told that people have been hired into a team, that is part of the system, but only part. A person is (for the purpose we're considering) the smallest complete component of a system, but different parts of what someone thinks, says and does will interact with different systems in different ways. It is also necessary for a F1 team to do, at minimum, the following for these people: - teach them enough about their new team to let them buy themselves the time needed to do everything else in this list - help them work with their new colleagues - give them a worthwhile and useful task to aim towards - link that goal with the other goals needed to eventually win the title - plan everything out so that things happen in a sequence that makes sense to everyone. This may require putting in/removing intermediate steps, swapping round goals, exchanging less useful goals for better ones, figuring out the carrying capacity (amount of goals can be done simultaneously) of the team and its departments, deciding what counts as "good enough" and having some idea what needs to change if a given goal is at "good enough" rather than "ideal" - or indeed is missed. - making sure all the resources that are needed are in the right place at the right time. - monitoring the situation surrounding the team, its departments and people - knowing when and how to intervene in internal issues - protecting the team from negative external influences where possible - mitigating against harm done by issues from which protection could not be provided. It is not just F1 that is like this. Pretty much every large enterprise is the same way. There is an upper limit as to how many resources people can marshal effectively without this sort of planning, and even small companies often benefit from proportionate planning. I've emphasised "plan everything out" because I this is the part where Mattia Binotto's plan came unstuck.

[autumnslance]

Search, Tags, and Tumblr

Tumblr's search functions are notoriously weird, but there's a few common things to know about how it works in conjunction with Tagging. First things first:

-Tags are for searching but also personal blog organization as desired. This is why some folks have weird/funny personal use tags. Tags can use dashes and spaces, but not regular double quote marks ("), though single marks are fine (').

-Tag for what's in the post; adding other, unrelated tags "for visibility" is against Tumblr's TOS and gets you reported for Spam!

Example: if you make a post for your new Clive Rosfield screenshots, make sure you're only tagging terms relevant to Final Fantasy XVI and Clive Rosfield (and any personal organizing tags like "screenshots"); don't add tags like "Star Wars" and "SpongeBob", as Clive has nothing to do with those!

-Tag without censoring words! We use filters/blacklists here to avoid things we don't want to see. Can also work for words in the body of a post. There's no rules here against using "kill" or "death" or other terms defining common human experiences determined "too negative/dangerous" on other sites (stay civil to each other).

-If you do alt-spell things, it's only in the body of a post and usually when it's dislike of a fandom thing as a courtesy to those enjoyers. If I make a shipping post and say, for example, "I can't stand R3y|o", that's when I want to use weird spelling and symbols--and no common tags for that fandom! If you do use tags for organizing, keep it to things like "#anti (thing) or "#(thing) critical", again spelled correctly for others' blacklisting purposes and to keep it out of the Reylo Search and Tags so those fans can enjoy their ship without seeing negativity. Because...

-General Search pulls from Tags and Also terms found in the body of a post. If I just put "Thancred" in the Search bar at the top of the page, it'll show me any and all posts with "Thancred" in them, including 1) if the name is in the body of the post, 2) if the name is in a tag that's a sentence/includes other words, and 3) even if not tagged for Thancred.

This caused some wank a couple years back for certain fans when someone tagged a lascivious picture set with what they knew was a triggery NOTP for many...but they also put the characters' names in the post body, not realizing simply searching for either of those characters would pull it up (They also, IMO, should have put the images under a Read More to be doubly safe, for themselves and for others they knew might be upset stumbling onto said images, but the crux was not realizing how Tumblr Search worked).

-Tag Search specifically pulls from the tags; per Tumblr's info pages, the first 20 tags (out of 30 total allowed) now will show up in search. Common, consistent tags first are good for visibility. You can also Follow tags you want to keep track of; there's even a tab on your Dash for it.

-Reblogs do not show up in the searches, even with additions and new notes. However, a blacklist filter will catch tags put on the original post, even if the reblogger doesn't add it when it ends up on your Dash.

-You can also blacklist blog names/URLs. Think of it like Twitter's muting rather than a full block (though one can do that too, and should as needed).

Example: someone following Seanan McGuire doesn't like frogs, but she reblogs a lot of frogs. The follower blocked and blacklisted the blogs she often reblogs frogs from to minimize the number of frogs they see while still following a favorite author for her book info.

-If people ask you to tag a thing cuz it's a squick or full-on trigger, you can just do it, or you can politely say no; that's valid. It's up to that person then to decide if they want to blacklist or unfollow or block or what. Just be civil either and both ways.

In summary: if you're talking about bunnies cuz you took pictures at the local farm show, just write "bunnies" normally in the body and/or tags of the post, so anyone with "bunnies" blacklisted can avoid it--and folks who want to see cute pics of bunnies can find it!

Even if you use proper tags, or no tags, or only use alternate spellings in the post body to keep things out of the tags/searches, consider still using a Read More as a last line of courtesy to any followers or random folks you don't want to catch in the crossfire. Also consider hiding your blog from Search results, and/or Private posts.

Tumblr's Help Center (On Desktop browser, go to the "About" link, and then the "Resources" menu; on Mobile App, go to Account settings, General settings, scroll down to "Help" under "Account") has further info about Searches and Tagging (and everything else!), and as that info changes, it's a good idea to keep track of those page updates, as well as the @changes blog to keep track of new updates, bugs, recent fixes, and upcoming info.

[peachymilkandcream]

What about knight Levi and princess Evelyn's parents had put him in charge of protecting her but well, we know him...

Your Wish Is My Command|Levi and Evelyn AU

(A/N: I love how everyone's gotten the personality of Levi so well with these requests. I've got this one and another in my inbox which I'll tackle tomorrow so hope you enjoy!)

WARNINGS: implied noncon/dubcon, yandere themes/behaviours, misogyny, domestic violence, forced marriage, forced pregnancy, etc.

================================================

"A bodyguard?" Evelyn nearly rolled her eyes. "Some asshole to watch me all day like a creep."

"That's the attitude that will make you never find a husband Evelyn." Her father warned. "It's for your own good so might as well not be difficult about it."

She sighs, annoyed at how her freedom was always being taken away. Deep down she knew it was for her own good but that didn't change anything, it still annoyed her. She was capable of taking care of herself, something her family clearly didn't see. But at this rate it wouldn't do any good to fight them on it so she might as well follow along. Pretend to comply and then rebel when the moment was right, like she always did. That's how she got out of having a personal nurse and maid follow her around.

"Alright, I'll follow your advice father."

============================================

Of course they had to choose the most intimidating man, Levi looked like he had never had fun in his life. Always scowling with a gross scar on his face his stare followed her constantly. Now she was regretting getting rid of her maids.

The only time he spoke to her is when she went to do something he deemed foolish. Before she was able to explore by herself and do her own things, now she was forced to remain where he saw fit doing what he saw fit. His methods usually consisted of just telling her not to do something, but she was tired of obeying him.

"I'm going out for a ride." She announced.

"I don't think so." Was his reply.

"I'm the princess here, not you. And I'm tired of you ordering me around, I'll do as I please. You work for me, don't forget that."

"I won't permit you to do this. Your parents entrusted me to make sure you didn't do anything unladylike and this counts as one of them."

"I don't care what you think, I'm going out, and that's final."

Evelyn tries to push past him, usually she would have given in by now but she had a spark of rebellion well up in her, and she wasn't backing down. "Goodbye Levi."

His arm grips around her waist tightly, restraining all movements. "I said you're staying here."

"Unhand me, you have no right to touch the princess."

"I have a right to do whatever the hell I want to make sure you do as your told, brat."

She scoffs and tries to push past him, but his grip is firm. "Let me go."

Without any effort Levi lifts her off the ground and carries her to a chair, setting her down roughly before returning to his post by the doorway. "You're going to stay in here until you can behave yourself."

Evelyn wanted to throw back a retort, but the level of his strength was intimidating, she had never tested it before now and it was quite frightening.

"Fine, but only because I want to, understand?"

"It's as you say Highness."

==============================================

Sunlight had become scarce to Evelyn's life, Levi demanded that she spend her time almost entirely indoors doing whatever "ladylike" activity he chose. She was tired of it, she wanted to run barefoot in the grass without anyone telling her not to lift her skirts or to keep her hair neat. He was driving her crazy and she had to get out.

So when her father summoned Levi to his side for a report on his daughter's behavior Evelyn took her chance and snuck out of the castle.

She had missed this, this was true freedom. No one judged her or told her what to do, and that leering and uncomfortable presence of Levi over her shoulder. Now that she had tasted this there was no going back, she'd beg and plead and pout until her parents gave in and got rid of him, like they had for everyone else.

A smirk appeared on her face, so long to that smug bastard, thinking he was an untouchable god, she'd show him.

Just then a hand grabbed her hair and threw her to the ground. The shock and pain came crashing together all at once when she stared into Levi's angry face.

"Just what the hell do you think you're doing?!"

"You can't treat me like this! I am a princess, royalty, and you're just a-"

"You're just a spoiled brat." He interrupted. "Thinking you can do whatever the hell you want. Your father is a weak man who never taught you your place as a woman. You should respect and obey me for no other reason than I'm a man and you're not sweetheart."

The words shocked her, she'd never been spoken to like this. And she didn't like it one bit.

"I'll speak to my father, you'll be thrown out for being so rude and disrespectful. That'll teach you-"

Levi grabbed her by the neck, pulling her up and pushing her face against the tree. "I think you're the one in need of a lesson woman." The sound of rustling clothes and dropped metal started to scare her. "You need a lesson on who owns you, who you need to look up to and fear."

"Stop this, this instant! Do you hear me!?"

"Shut your mouth princess. Maybe if I put a kid in your you'll learn that you belong to me and do what I say."

"You'll never get away with this, I'll have you hung-"

"Oh I will, because you won't say a word. Do you think either of your parents will be able to continue their long reign when they trust me enough to know all of their security? How long do you think it will be until someone finds them dead in their sleep."

"You wouldn't-"

"Darling you don't know how far I'll go. Ever since I laid eyes on you I knew you needed to be taught your place." His free hand lifted her skirts.

"And I'm going to teach it to you."

[snow-ii]

is it the feeling or the desire?

I've been reading lots and lots of posts here and there, in tumblr, twitter everywhere searching for an answer and has finally discovered what i think is the answer

so what is it that you actually yearns for ? is it the desire u r manifesting or the satisfactory feeling that is received after manifesting your desire?

I'd say it is the feeling.

Now i'm pretty sure you've seen this same debate by 100 different bloggers with 100 different answers, and as predictable and dull as it sounds I too would answer that it is the feeling that you long for.

I know you are probably tiredddd of hearing this again nd again, i was too once. I was confused too as to why loabloggers kept pushing this statement.

I kept questioning what it really means until I read these two wonderful posts. and it clicked

Think of it like this,

you want cake, u buy cake

now you have lot of cakes, you get to eat cake everyday. Eventually won't you get tired of it?

So was it the desire (cake in this case) that u really wanted or did you just enjoy the feeling u got after knowing u got what u wanted?

Another scenario,

It's a sunny day, Mark is hot ( not the sexy typa hot the sweating kind of hot ykyk?) ( he might be sexy hot too idk ). he turns on the fan. Mark is happy

Few hours has passed. It is freezing now, Mark is shivering. So he turns off the fan.

So if fan was the thing that he yearned for, why did he turn it off? Cause it is not the fan but the feeling of content that he wanted.

and how does that correlate with manifesting, you may ask?

same logic, now as you may already know 4d is our imagination and where every belief, assumption and thought lies on. While in 3d lies our sensory, visionary, auditory etc feelings(?).

We think what we want is the desire, but deep down it is the feeling of satisfaction that we lacks.

This is why we have such hard time manifesting, it's cause we keep waiting till i appears in our 3d, but if our inner man too is waiting for it to appear how will it come to u?'

I don't think lot of people understand how powerful our imagination is, you can look at a picture of a food and feel how it tastes, you can imagine something happy happening and feel the serotonin kicking innn vice versaa

Now how do I apply this info to manifesting?

understand that all you need to do is to accept that your manifestation is done. this wont click immediately for most of you im pretty sure, and im not blaming u at all. but keep on rereading everything that's mentioned. not only this, think of scenarios on your own and try to apply this logic to them. you'd soon understand.

go crazy with the fulfilled feeling in your imagination, and persist on it. it might be hard at first, you'll catch yourself wavering and giving up. But with consistent practice and discipline it won't be impossible.

I promise I'd make a better explanation post than this again but for that I need to finish my states post that I've been working on so

As always I feel like I'm obligated to mention that just because this is what i believe, I'm in no way asking you to follow this to, at the end everything roots down to ur assumptions...

[autisticlee]

I want to stream on twitch more. been a month since I streamed. I tried to come back and wanted to be more consistent. but been failing. been super exhausted and burnt out from life in general. i'm always told streaming with no mic is bad and people hate it when a streamer isn't speaking. this is probably why I domt get many viewers/followers. I don't talk as much as others. talking is hard. there's nothing to talk about easily. even saying repetitive words (mostly saying "ow/oops/oh no/what the heck/why/what do/where go" etc) exhausts me. I tried a stream where I read everything in the game and it got so exhausting so fast I had to stop and started skipping all the dialogue instead.

so keep thinking about a sort of AAC app or simple text to speech to use for streaming so viewers get words from me, but I don't have to exhaust myself through speech. but I don't know how that would work? can't type into an app while in the middle of intense video gaming. don't know what phrases to save if saved any because game and chat are not predictable. people probably won't like quiet while playing then random breaks in between gameplay to wait for me to type to give them a text to speech. i'm slow at typing too. and slow at reading chat. so interaction would be hard and a lot of work. it would also interfere with my ability to enjoy game

people might say "just do what you want/don't care what people think" but I want viewers that chat with me on twitch because interactions make streaming more fun and want make friends to play games with if they chat enough so I get to know them like other streamers do. streaming game is easier with others. they do the talking so less for me therefore less tiring. and want also be able to get trusted regular viewers so can have mods. if I scare people away because they get bored with no speech, then I lose that. but can't get it with no stream. been streaming off and on since 2016? go on many long breaks because talking too hard and can't always force self to narrate what I do in game and say repetitive words to pretend i'm talking to chat. can't always force self to stream when needing to speak.

wish speaking was easy and can do hour long talking intro before game like streamers I watch, then always have things to talk about during stream. how they always have stuff to talk about and always able to speak nonstop for many hours???? ahhhh confusing. what dooooo.

[kneelingshadowsalome]

Hello friend! First off... LOVE LOVE LOVE your work. You're everything I want to be in a writer holy shit 🫠You've actually inspired me to start my own writing blog here, and I just got page all set up and pretty but I have NO IDEA how to start. Do you have any suggestions/ tips for a writer just starting out here on Tumblr? How to get your work seen, best tagging practices, should I introduce myself as a first post, stuff like that? I have a few works that I'll be posting soon, but I wanted to ask a few pros (aka you ❤️) how I should get started! Anywho, you're amazing, ilysm, hope you have a day full of sunshine and good thoughts 😘

Hey and thank you so very much, what a compliment! I’m so happy to hear that I’ve inspired you to share your writing 🩷

I started from scratch here this year myself and got more “traffic” only after like… 3-4 months of persistent, consistent writing and tumblring? So I’m not sure if my tips are of any help but here they come (such a cute ask!) 💕

Put your work up on Ao3 too if you haven’t done that already. Encourage people to come and talk to you on Tumblr, and share the link in the author's notes of your stories or at least in your profile. It helps if you have the same username, I made the mistake of choosing a different username here and people are sometimes surprised that I’m the same author they’ve read stories from on Ao3... So it's a wise move to keep your usernames consistent! :D

To get your work seen is sometimes only a game of luck, and it might take months before people start to identify you and your works. So don't get discouraged even if there’s not much going on at first, you will find your audience eventually. Just keep creating (and please create what you want and enjoy, not what you think others want to see) ❤️

Tagging is an art on its own but I think it’s also an etiquette thing: as long as you don't use tags that are unnecessary for your post, such as other character tags if they don't make an appearance/have dialogue in your story, you're good! I rarely if ever tag my fics with a simple #cod or #könig tags because I think people are usually searching for other content like pictures with these tags. I might be wrong! But I usually use a set of very specific tags when I share a fic: for example, if it’s a König story featuring x (fem) reader, the tags start with a simple: könig fanfiction, könig x reader, könig x you, könig x female reader, könig x fem reader. People use different tags to find fics, others follow the character x reader tag and others might prefer the character x fem reader tag. So include all the tags that are relevant to your fic/post, that way more people can find your fics. Then after those tags you can include what the fic is about: #historical au if it’s a historical au, or #könig angst if it’s clearly angst. You can try and see which tags work best for you!

Tumblr is a very visual place, so I encourage you to use pictures when you share your fics. I used other people’s gifs at first, but lately I’ve liked to create a 3-6 pic collage/moodboard that I include at the top of every fic. Visuals spark the interest of readers & you can create your own aesthetic and play around with this as much as you like, the more “personalized” and creative you get, the more likely it is that people start to take note of you and notice your content as specifically yours.

Make friends with other people, especially other writers! This takes time also. When I started I knew nobody here, but now I’ve made many new friends (and precious ones too!) Of course you can't just go and *make* friends but it can happen if you talk to people and participate in the fandom by gushing in the tags or asks. Not everyone appreciates it but usually people are ok with or even like it that you talk to them in asks and dms, so no need to be shy! For example I don't bite (if people are nice to me :)

I wish you all the best with your writing and hope you have a lovely time here!

[dracononite]

How did you you make art your job online? I'm trying to do that, but I never get enough people to even see my art. How do you get people interested in your art, and keep them around??

I started doing commission and adoptable work to support myself through college. Building an audience has taken years but I like to think people follow me because I post art that I enjoy making. I don't post art for the numbers, moreso as an archive/journal of what I've done, but it is a plus to have more potential clients see my work. Also I'm just one artist so this is just my experience!

Interacting with other artists and sharing their work, posting art when you know people are active, re-sharing your own art, and paying attention to what posts your audience engages with is a good way to build up a community. People will come to recognize your username, aesthetic and art style..

If you're looking to do commission work you need to make it obvious that you're open for commissions - link to your prices in a pinned post, make new monthly commissions posts (people may get tired of seeing an old one or assume you might not still be open). Also make your contact info obvious even if it's something simple like "DM / email for commissions." People who want to commission you might not know where to start!

As a plus, once you have somewhat of a consistent work flow, there will likely be people who are interested in supporting you outside of commissions. Offering more of your work (personal, traditional, merch etc) on a subscription service like Patreon or Ko-fi gives people who are interested in seeing that the incentive to support an artist they already like.

[soulsxng]

The invitation envelope is sealed with blue wax, the outline of the Meriet royal seal carefully pressed into the the center. The invitation itself consists of a single letter that reads:

❝The kingdom of Meriburn cordially invites you to join them in celebrating the Festival of the Blue Moon. We humbly look forward to your presence in ushering in a new lunar season that is set to begin on at . We advise that you dress in light, airy clothing and have footwear that will not be damaged by any amount of water. We also advise that you arrive by sunset on the first day of the festivities in order to fully experience the welcoming ceremony.❞

Along the bottom of the letter, the words “Please dip in water and turn over.” is written in neat lettering along the bottom of the invitation card. Once done, the rest of the letter continues as follows:

❝An additional, private gathering will be held at the Aichon Palace throughout the entire event. Overnight accommodations will be provided to all guests with this invitation. We advise you keep it in a safe place, to bring it with you on your travels, and to present it to castle staff upon arrival. Your host, Princess Cassandra Tetrarch of Meriburn❞

(for those that are attending the Meriburn party!)

@sansloii

"It looks like she was able to get it approved, after all!" Ezra's face is lit up as he looks over the invitation. Reading it once, then again, before looking to his father and Evan with a grin. "Last year when I went to the festivities, it was amazing, but if this celebration is going to be as big as it sounds, then I'm sure it'll be even better. You'll both be able to make it, right? She'd be really happy to see you both!"

Of course, he knew that having all three of them away from Exulan at once was a bit risky, but...when was the last time they were all able to enjoy a festival together that wasn't in their own kingdom? That wasn't something that they had to organize and upkeep throughout the duration of the events?

"We don't all have to stay the entire time, but...I think it would be nice."

- - - - - -

"We're going to Meriburn...? Why?"

"Alsina is busy with her research, so Sivel asked if I'd like to accompany him. I'd rather not leave you three behind."

The three knew that tone. Baphomet thought that they might find Nesa there...and if that was the case, he wouldn't have to hesitate on taking them back home again. Not to mention that he was worried after the four of them...ever since the Aegis, their parent had barely let any of them out of his sight.

Admittedly, none of them seemed all that excited about the celebration, but...

"I'll go. Some of our friends will probably be there too, yeah? It'll be a nice change of pace."

- - - - - -

"...Are you completely certain that you don't mind watching them, Antale? I was at Vanystea's party; Raelin and Thelrin are perfectly capable of attending this celebration in my stead--"

"They're mine too, Lea...you say that as though I shouldn't have to watch after them-- just like you've done every day that I've been gone, in Ahnia"

Gone working. Eleare didn't even have to say it. The look that they gave Antale said it all for them. Though really, most of this was just for show. It had nothing to do with the kids. Nothing to do with "inconveniencing" Antale...

Going to Meriburn meant that they were guaranteed to at least run into Roderick's youngest son...if not Roderick himself. Something that Antale surely knew already, as well.

Ugh, and he was giving them that look. Apparently, they'd have to go looking for some more appropriate attire...dammit all.

[borntolurk]

I didn't like S2: a meta about metas

I didn't like S2, and I think there are a bunch of reasons why, which come down to three main bullet points of

pacing (oh god, the pacing)

plot decisions (including the decision not to really have much of a plot)

minisodes (except the Job one which I thought was mostly amazing)

But that's not really the point of this, though I might get into those at another time.

The point is that since I finished the show yesterday, I've been reading metas that make a bunch of the choices that I disliked make more sense retroactively, and there's a part of my brain that keeps making me think "oh okay so you obviously judged the season too harshly, and these other people Got It."

And, like, that's totally possible? But the fact that I didn't Get It, I think, is relevant too. Call me a philistine, and I'm sure some will, but I do think that some stuff DOES need to work as read. Like, I can, and will, analyze like the worst of them, but if you need someone else to explain to you why a particular thing works by going back and collecting random details, when it's something that felt like it came out of nowhere when you were watching the actual thing itself... it's not your fault.

(Or rather, it's not my fault lol.)

Like, for example, I did NOT particularly enjoy the ending. I thought it came out of nowhere, I thought it seemed unnatural and contrived while it was happening, and I thought that the entire rest of the season spectacularly failed to set it up.

But then, I started reading metas about out, very good ones, and I was like, hmmm, these make quite a lot of sense! And there was one meta that actually really kind of punched me in the gut on a personal level, because it really touched on some personal issues I'm working on when it comes to the religious environment in which I was raised. By the end of reading some of these metas I was like ok well what Aziraphale did TOTALLY make sense because it's what I'd have done if I had been in his situation and it's totally psychologically consistent based on these details.

I do agree, seeding in some kinds of clues, and psychological plausibility, are both very important. But they're only a part of the story. You also have to be able to make the story work rhythmically. You plant the third act in the first, if you can manage it (and while I see the arguments people make about how the first episode includes a bunch of clues, they're more retroactive ones, the kinds that make for good metas where you're like "ahhh that's what that [might have] meant). You have to progress the story and the characters such that the ending is something that flows naturally from the rest of the story. You can have a shock ending, but it has to be a shock ending that takes what you already know and have been mentally logging from the rest of what you've seen and follows consistently from there.

It's very probable that a lot of people think that GO2 managed to do all of these things. I didn't. To me, the ending was all kind of jammed in, I found the Gabriel ending completely underwhelming, the bookshop standoff was resolved through two very nearly literal deus ex machinas, I had no idea what to expect... and suddenly all that happened and I didn't feel like anything previously in the season had prepared me for it.

A bunch of metas have explained to me that I was wrong, but I guess my point here is- storytelling is about more than the bunch of data points that get turned into metas. It's about the pacing, the writing, the directing, the editing, the acting... and I think that there were multiple points of failure this season that made any logic of the ending really hard to see without going into the weeds and writing metas, or reading other people's.

If you need someone to explain to you why you should like something, it may just mean that you don't like the thing, or how the thing was done, and that's okay! Not only are all opinions subjective, but metas are layered on top of the narrative- they aren't a part of it, and just because you find a compelling one that makes you feel like you don't trust your first impressions, that doesn't necessarily mean you were wrong to have them. The story itself and its storytelling have to convince you too.

(In the meantime, I'll probably go on reading, and eventually writing, metas lol)

[rallamajoop]

Hi !! I've followed your fics across multiple fandoms, and I've always been really impressed by how quickly and consistently you're able to put out works. How are you able to write seemingly so quickly?! Do you use betas? Do you spend a lot of time planning, or are you more of a chapter by chapter writer? I'm always really fascinated by people's process. Thank you if you answer this, and have a good day!! :D

Well, thank you first of all ‒ it's always such an ego-boost to know anyone's following me across fandoms! But as for 'how I write so fast', I think 'seemingly' may be most of your answer. I do like to have some fic to post every week or so, but my consistency on that comes and goes. I've done okay so far this year, but only if you ignore the part where I posted nothing during the whole month of February, or in the entire last quarter of 2023 ‒ and there was a solid 6 month gap where I posted nothing back in 2022 as well.

Back before I hit my current stride in Witcher fandom a few years back, months or longer between fics was even more the norm for me. Productivity on the fic-writing front comes and goes in bursts for me for all sorts of reasons. But it's not unusual for several bits and pieces I've had not-quite-finished for months to end up getting posted close together though, even after I've been quiet for a while, which might help with the illusion I'm better at keeping up that schedule than is really accurate.

Even when I am actually managing to keep that weekly schedule, a lot of what I post is short (2K or less), and gets lumped together into anthology-fics like Spare Parts, Viscera or The Beast of Castle Heisenberg (and other stories) (which also saves on the minor hassle of thinking up proper titles for them all). Coming up with short concepts like that is something I've always enjoyed doing (going all the way back to my time in xxxHolic fandom over a decade ago). Occasionally, I'll come back later and expand them into something longer (another habit that started way back in Holic fandom, actually), but posting them as shorts means that at least I've posted something, even if the longer version never happens. Whenever a fic works as shorter chapters, I'll post it that way ‒ it's just easier to edit in smaller chunks (and I can't really overstate how big of a motivator positive feedback is for me, if it does go down well with people).

Obviously, not everything I post lends itself to being broken down ‒ smut particularly tends to require much longer scenes, but stories like that have often been in progress for months before they actually get posted. At 15K in a single chapter, Quarantine stands out as the longest thing I've posted in years that I couldn't find any way to break down into shorter pieces ‒ and I'd been working on that one on-and-off since around, oh, August last year? Having multiple different things in progress at once works for me, because if I'm not in the mood to work on one, maybe I'm more in the mood to work on another. I'll often bash out rough drafts of various parts of a few different ideas in one spell if I'm in a good mood to just sit down and write, then come back to finish and polish them later. A lot of my ideas build themselves around dialogue ‒ having a good sense of the characters' voices is really central to how I think about writing for them ‒ so a lot of scenes might start as just dialogue, and then I'll come back and flesh out the rest later.

Planning… really depends on the length of the fic? Sometimes you need to know exactly where a story is going just to figure out how to start it, other times you don't realise half of what's really going on in a scene until you're in the middle of actually writing it down. For example, I currently have about three more (very rough) chapters of Follow Me Home sitting in a word document, which is as much of that story as I had planned out in real detail ‒ the rest consists of scattered scenes I know I'm aiming for later on. But in the process of writing them, I realised more or less exactly what needs to happen in chapter 4, so that's encouraging ‒ we'll see where it goes from there.

For years now, I've done most of my writing on laptops ‒ before that, first drafts were mostly scribbled down by hand in notebooks. I own a desktop computer too, but that gets used for so much else (work, gaming, watching videos, etc etc) that I find it's useful to have a separate platform that's 'for' writing, that's portable, something I can curl up with in a beanbag with, and (crucially) presents less distractions. A notebook or a low-spec laptop (my current one is a tiny tablet computer) is also something I can get out on the bus on the way to work or in a cafe while waiting for a meal. I wouldn't say I do most of my writing out of the home like that, but it's definitely a long-established habit.

It does help that I've been writing long enough to be reasonably confident with the general process of sitting down to make a story happen. I'm reasonably lucky just having the time and energy to dedicate to all this fannish nonsense, and to have an enthusiastic beta-reader/BFF who's always encouraging about my work ‒ she's seriously a huge help (and probably too kind with her critiques, if anything). It has taken many years of doing this to get to the point where I can do something like (for a recent example) realise there's a week or two left before the a challenge deadline and go, "oh, sure, I can bash out a few thousand words worth of smut in that time to fill a treat for that prompt I liked." But as a rule, a posting rate of maybe a couple thousand words a week, not every week, isn't that much of an output (it's probably a lot more if you count all the fannish meta I churn out too, but I mostly don't think about that too much). But writing means a lot to me, even if it's mostly fannish nonsense that makes no money, so it's something I'll make time for.

If I've got any advice that might be useful to someone else, it's to suggest that getting yourself to write something is usually better than sitting on something you're blocked on, even if that does mean perpetually getting distracted by the shiny new idea instead of staying bogged down on the huge WIP you promised yourself you'd finish (and maybe you will come back to that WIP later, fresher for having given your brain a change of scene ‒ or maybe not, that's not the end of the world either). Short fic is fine, more words do not automatically make a story better, and unfinished WIPs are just a fact of fandom (or even original writing). Part of the joy of fanfic is that you can jump straight to the novel bits, trusting your readers already know who these people are and how the base story goes (seriously, the number of fics out there that spend chapter after chapter just retelling canon in prose form boggles my brain).

But like all writing advice, if that doesn't sound like it'd be useful advice to you, it probably isn't ‒ what works for people can be terribly individual. No-one's obligated to aim for a couple of thousand words per week (let alone per day, to hit NaNoWriMo or Stephen King levels of productivity) if they're just writing as a hobby.

And I hope you're having a good day too. *g*