#i should make an outline document for fun. i Should.

[lakesbian]

re heartbreaker’s death: the most interesting aspect of this wouldn’t even be the act of murder itself, it’d be. like. for the last 5 years, he’s wanted to get revenge. he gets up every day largely just because he wants revenge. so he’s sixteen, and he kills his father. and then it’s done, and he got his revenge. and he has to go wash the blood off his hands. and he’s realizing it didn’t fill anything inside of him.

so what the fuck does he do? 

if you’re alec, what the fuck do you do with your life now? 

in my head it’s about catharsis and very wandering and at times violent healing and never being able to go back to how you used to be as a kid but finding a way to become something else instead ♥

re planned relationship status in the AU: you’re misremembering how taylor interpreted their relationship, fyi. to quote her, “They’re together. I don’t know if it’s romantic, but… they’re together.” + an assumption that it could become solidly romantic in the future. 

the real reason as to why their relationship isn’t particularly romantic is that wildbow has very much stated he Doesn’t Like Writing Romances, and that shows in worm. most of the featured romantic relationships are some form of overshadowed and dysfunctional, and the one exception (parian + foil) is insufferably twee w/ no real personality to it. i don’t think he would have known how to write alec & aisha in a romantic relationship w/o it scanning as weird, because they don’t fit the mold of dysfunctional Or twee.

i, not wildbow, have taken the liberty of deciding that alec has a vague crush on aisha. he is not aware of it, because he has even worse emotional literacy than taylor, and it’s significantly overshadowed by their connections on other levels in terms of importance. aisha thinks he’s kinda cute but has no reason or intention to escalate their relationship beyond “friendship that’s also kind of a Thing in the way early-teen relationships are often Things without actually dating.” they kiss one (1) time and make occasional sex jokes but that’s about it.

they do end up dating somewhere along the line post-behemoth, but it’s nothing like how someone like, say, taylor would conceptualize a romantic relationship. “heart to heart btwn two people without much heart left to go around” applies and that makes it weirdly more functional for dating while being supervillains w/o it ending up like brian/taylor. 

re healing process: this is not Alec Becomes Neurotypical, The AU. healing for alec involves learning how to be more in touch with the feelings he does have & continuing to develop his giving-a-shit abilities. he’ll be significantly more well-adjusted by the time he & taylor are 18, but he is still going to be a shithead.

re ward: ward is not real and it cannot hurt me. everything i hear from people reading wards indicates that it sucks at worldbuilding and is bad and furthermore not good. i don’t know what the fuck happens in wormverse after GM ends, but it’s not ward, i can tell you that! they would not get married for tax benefits though. they don’t need tax benefits they just commit tax evasion.

Does Alex still have a near-death Behemoth experience in your au, or is he just lucky enough to avoid the whole Situation

oh, he abso-fucking-lutely has a near-death behemoth experience. alec killing himself for aisha is an incredible culmination of his character arc. it's like.

his dad fucked him up. his dad fucked him up so badly that he can't feel things in the same way as everyone else anymore, so badly that he has no emotional literacy for what he does feel because he had to repress every last drop of it to survive. everyone else gets to have a fire inside, and he's running on smoldering charcoal and fumes.

he's seven and he hates his dad. he's eight and he hates his dad. he's nine and ten and he really fucking hates his dad. he's eleven and twelve and he's high all the time so he doesn't have to think about how much he hates his dad and his life. and then he's thirteen, and he's running away, and he wants revenge. he wants to be able to look down at his dad from a throne and know that he's better than him, and he can't hurt him anymore, and he's free and safe and stronger now.

he's trying to heal, although he doesn't know enough about himself to realize it. he's trying to be a better person than his dad, one who cares about people, although he doesn't know enough about himself to realize that, either--he just knows that sometimes he does things for other people he doesn't feel like doing just because it feels like he should.

there is still very little that keeps him getting out of bed every day. he's alive because he semi-enjoys the smallest things, like good food and video games, and because he wants revenge.

he can't imagine why taylor wouldn't want revenge on sophia. he doesn't understand why he wants to hurt sophia for abusing taylor so badly, doesn't understand why he's thinking about his dad while he's doing it. he doesn't understand why it bothers him that sophia has a family that loves her and she doesn't even appreciate it.

but anyway. Then He Meets Aisha. and then he has just one really good thing going for him, and it's the best person he's ever met. she's funny. she's interesting. she's the only person that ever talks to him. as aisha put it, they had heart-to-hearts between two people who didn't have much heart left to go around. they shared each other, just by talking. she even lets him use his power on her--intimate in the closest way he knows how, intimate in a way that lets him feel something.

and then he's at the behemoth fight, and the best person he's ever met is about to die.

and he doesn't really see a point in being alive anymore, not if she's gone. the revenge wouldn't be worth never getting to see her smile again. the best person he's ever met deserves better than going out like that.

so he kills himself for her. it's not a guarantee that she'll live. he kills himself for the fractional chance that she'll make it.

he'll never know it, but she does survive. and, to be clear, that was an Absolutely Fucking Insane situation for her. she's thirteen, and alec was her first Thing. but more importantly, he was the first and only person who's ever really seen her. and he liked what he saw so much that he killed himself for her right in front of her.

so. she kills his dad for him.

she says that the best part of him would've killed his dad, and she's right. she knows that the part of him that would have killed his dad is the part of him that cared, that had a drive for something. she knows that his impassivity is a tragedy, and she puts that into his memorial statue--comedy/tragedy masks, but the tragedy mask is replaced with a bored mask. she's not the type of person to care about revenge, but he gave up his life for her, and so she returns the sentiment best she can by doing what he always wanted to do with his life for him. she kills the person who fucked him up, and then she leaves all of his wedding rings at alec's memorial. proof that she has gotten back at the cause of the tragedy for him. she tries to become everything they could've been together if he hadn't died for her.

the fundamental question of this AU, then, is this: what would have happened if alec hadn't died? how would he have turned out if they were allowed to finish growing up together? what would he be like if he was allowed to keep healing, if he had taken that culminating action for aisha and then kept living?

it does Absolutely Rock on a storytelling level that he dies, and that's because of what the action which leads to his death Means for him as a character. this AU isn't about sidestepping that, it's about "okay, so you do the biggest thing. and you're still here. what the fuck do you do with your life now?"

(answer: get kicked in the shins twenty times by a very upset aisha, go on a road trip to kill your dad, learn how to cry again for the first time in 7 years, do the only thing you ever wanted to do with your life and experience the new and wonderful terror of having to find something else to keep living for, accidentally reluctantly adopt your 13ish siblings, and, most importantly, pull some mad fucking pranks on taylor when she visits brockton bay for her 18th birthday)

[prettieinpink]

NEW YEAR, NEW ME

( A collab with thee lovely lele @bloombabydoll )

If you want to reinvent and rebrand yourself, or just continue to make positive improvements in 2024, the first thing is to evaluate your current year. 

EVALUATION

Reflect on how things went for you. Was there continuous growth? Were there many difficult times? Did you discover anything major about yourself and so on. Try to summarise your year in (a) paragraph(s) at least. 

Oversee your goals. Which ones you didn’t, did achieve, difficult ones, easy ones and the impacts it had on your life. 

Compare your dream girl then and now. Is your visualisation of your life currently different to the one you have now and why? 

List any major losses or successes you’ve had in your life, and how they have helped you or why it matters to you. 

This evaluation can be as detailed or simple as you like, but as long as you have a decent outline of your year. 

PREPARING & PLANNING

To prepare for 2024, you want to know what you want life to be like in 2024. Something realistic to a point, but still is a growth journey. 

Think of something that you can associate with 2024. This can be a word, a symbol, art, a song, a book, a movie, a place, or even just all of these things. When you think about your goals and your journey, this is your theme. This is something that should relate to your goals or your dream girl somehow. 

For me, I chose a word and a song. My word is growth because, for me, 2023 was a year for just being able to shed my old self which I did achieve however I just felt there wasn’t much growth as an actual person and not just in my environment. 

For my song, it is Mayflowers by Proleters and Taskrok. This song is the epitome of what I would imagine, is the most polished mindset. I would say perfect, but having a perfect mindset is near impossible. I want to have a mindset glow up because I’ve just been hard on myself lately which has caused my confidence to plummet. 

Before we get into the fun part of the preparation stage, we have to do some organisation in our life. I want you to take a look at your daily lifestyle and your habits, and be completely unashamed about this. 

Then categorise these habits into two sections; Leave and Leap. Leave habits are habits that you are leaving behind in 2023, leap habits are habits that are leaping into 2024 with you. 

Any habits that are self-destructive, addictive or generally harmful are leave habits. Beneficial habits and self-building are leaping with you into the new year.

I want you to do the same for people in your life, all environments (school, work, online etc) and anything else you believe needs to be sorted out. 

This works better if you can reason with yourself why it is a leaping or leaving habit, but don’t try to convince yourself a bad habit is good or vice versa. 

Now, I want you to document an honest paragraph about who you are right now. List your bad and good habits, your strengths and weaknesses and your behaviours. This one requires a bit more detail. 

Then, write a paragraph about who you will be in 2024, your dream girl. List her habits, lifestyle, behaviours, mindset, strengths and anything else extra. I’ll explain later but do not include materialistic desires in this your dream girl. Once again, this one also requires details. 

Stemming from those paragraphs, I want you to create specific and achievable goals. SMART goals are best, but I want to introduce you to how I set goals. 

I divide my year into quarters. For each 3 months, I have 3-5 goals for those months. Usually, it’s one from each area of my life. Then, I break down these goals. 

Questions and How They Help 

Why do I want to do this goal - For motivation and commitment. 

How it’ll benefit me - For the sake of improvement. 

How can I involve myself in this goal - To achieve your goal.  

I prefer this method because it is a lot simpler for me, as I am just a young girl and my bigger goals are more in the future in which I’ll utilise SMART goals. 

To create good goals; Make sure they align with your current values and life principles first. Try to avoid creating goals that you have just taken from the internet. Those goals just aren’t it and you most likely won’t follow through with it. 

Be specific. Don’t say you want to eat more healthily, instead say you want to include (a certain group of veggies/fruits) in your diet and reduce the intake of ( food/drink). 

E.g using eating healthy example

I want to eat healthy -> I want to start including foods that boost my immunity system and support my skin while reducing those that have the opposite effect. 

Then break down those quarterly goals into monthly, weekly and daily goals. Make these habits that you can establish in your lifestyle and have a way in which you can refer back to your progress. 

EXAMPLE GOAL BREAKDOWN

Quarterly Goal - Read 6 books.  

Monthly Goal - Finish 2 books.

Weekly Goal - Be or near half way of one book.

Daily Goal - 20 minutes of reading per day. 

AREAS TO SET GOALS IN YOUR LIFE

Academics

Spiritual

Fitness/sport

Health and wellbeing

Mental health

Personal life

Relationships

Hobbies and recreation

Now for the best part- vision boards! Collect all of your favourite images that embody your quarters or the whole year, then put them in one place where you can see them regularly!

Some ideas are a scrapbook, Pinterest boards, mood boards, playlists etc. 

Choose your theme; It can be your healthy girl era, your academic come back or whatever you want. You can have more than two btw.

Use quotes! Then actually say them in your daily life as a way to shift your mindset to reflect said quote.

Include inspirational people. It doesn't even have to be a millionaire or a very well established person, it could be your friends or someone on the internet.

Be imaginative. Your vision board doesn't have to realistic in my opinion, as the whole point of it to me is that viewing it daily and considering it to be part of your life one day allows for you to open up to those opportunities.

Materialistic Wants

I feel obligated to make this a separate section. This section is practically tangible objects that you want.

However, when choosing this said object that you want, mindfully think about why you want that thing specifically.

It doesn’t have to be meaningful, but as long as each thing on that list has got a purpose to you, and will serve you, I think it’s all good!

Conclusion

If you want, you can definitely start implementing habits before January. However, I believe that as long as you go into 2024 at least knowing who you want to be and shedding away any limiting beliefs, you’ll be fine.

Make sure to incorporate some self care rituals into your daily life as well✨

To end this, I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas! And that 2024 they will achieve to close that gap with their current selves and their dream girl selves! 💖🙏

[throughtrialbyfire]

NoSkipNovember

in light of the NaNoWriMo… trash fire, i decided i'd make my own event for myself. and if you want to participate, feel free! i know i'm making this post late as it's already november 1st here, but it happens AHAH. this is just a personal challenge i thought up yesterday evening, and it may help some other people!

Rules of NoSkipNovember

write every day of november, whether 1 word or 10,000.

that's it.

the point of NoSkipNovember is to build the habit of writing, even things that are small. it's to get you to sit down and, in whatever medium you write, to get in the habit of continuing to write.

what can you write?

anything! poetry, songs, outlines, plotting documents, books, short stories, as long as it's creative writing in some form, you are doing it right.

can i set a word goal?

yes!! if you want to set a daily word goal or the usual month goal, go for it! mine is the traditional 50k words, but you could set it for 500 or 500,000 or whatever you want. just be sure to take your time, and take breaks to stretch and move around.

does it have to be original fiction?

not at all, fanfiction is what i'm going to be focusing on, so if you wanna write that, you should!

i have another question

feel free to leave it in the replies or my inbox! i'm always happy to help. this is a very spur-of-the-moment, loose challenge, so feel free to make your own personal rules or stipulations. as long as you are having fun, getting some writing done, and feel accomplished, that's what matters.

that's it. have fun, hope you have a lovely NoSkipNovember!

[seirindono]

two questions.

one, HOW DOES ONE COMIC/STORY BOARD??

IM OBSESSED WITH HOW YOU DO IT ITS SO BEAUTIFUL

two, HOW DO YOU SO IT SO FAST( that’s question is more just me being super impressed oh my goodness)

you’re very good😳

Aw, sweet, a board question *puts on serious glasses*

Ok, bring it on anon.

So, the first thing to ask yourself when starting a comic, as I see it, is what type of board are you dealing with. Webtoon? A4 pages? 4 panels? There are many ways to go about it, and each involves different processes. For example, pages will allow for more superfluous scenes, whereas the webtoon format has to be super succinct because of the reading direction. I personally think that's the main reason I do pages, among other advantages: •narrative density •variety •Tumblr-friendly format

There are quite a few disadvantages too but you have to go through the process of trials and errors to really find out what suits you best!

Then there's the ambition of the sequence you're boarding for. And it goes from 1. how used I am to boarding this kind of sequence/drawing these characters/setting and backgrounds, to 2. is it an emotional sequence? Dialogue-heavy? Or more contemplative?

It changes the way you work and how you should approach your board! For example, in TMS, the very wordy chapters (4 and 5 for ex) generally called for simple and narrow framing. Of course, you don't want to bore the reader so you can spice things up to match the characters mood and reactions once in a while, but you have to bear in mind that the sequence aims to provide dialogue and information = the text bubbles are key and WILL take a lot of place. So let them.

( then again, it's all about pacing and balance. A page full of dialogue and one with too much happening are equally hard to read and boring to do)

Only dialogue, simple squares, no compostion, the focus is on Mel's reaction

On the other hand, parts 7 and 8 are all about action and atmosphere! This makes for wider and more varied shots!

They're fighting, things are going fast so why not use a single line to show many actions! They're still basically squares and rectangles but the pacing is totally different!

Or why not give the action a full page to really show its sheer impact

You can also split things, with a zoom or small time gap, depending on if it's a gag or if you want to put the focus on a reaction. Here, the asymmetry helps reinforce the unstable, jerky aspect of the scene. The situation is getting out of hand, and visually, the pages are affected too.

Now, these are case-by-case examples. And I never work on my pages separately.

For context, this-

-is the "first" board I did for part 8.

The drawings are very small and frankly difficult to make out, but the intention is what matters at this point lol I have the script (very important) next to my canvas, and I scribble the pages one after the ither. This allows me to see if the actions flow well, if the compositions are varied and also whether certain passages are too long or too short in regard to their importance. Which scenes can be merged? Removed? Toned down or if they deserve more bite?

This is a really fun and creative part but, I'll say it again, made a lot easier with a solid scipt. And I'm talking about a text document with clearly defined dialogues (or at least outlines) and actions.

I can't really explain how to write a script, it really depends on your work flow and how confortable you are with writing, but it's too important to just rush through it. No matter how much it changes before, during or after your finish boarding (cuz you gotta break your own rules sometimes and you'll often realize some things don't work as well once you put them on paper/sometimes art block can be resolved by writing the scene and just taking the time to imagine) but it's still your one guideline.

Aaaand, that's about it.

Other than that, I can only highly recommend reading lots of comics, Webtoon, books, watching movies, paintings, illustrations, animatics or listening to music, to inspire you and expand your own "personal library of references". Professional or not, anything your find inspiring and well executed. Boarding is at its core, telling stories. No art skill involved, just pure subjectivity. At the end of the day, it's all about squares, rectangles and bubbles so you gotta work on your creativity. The rest is gut feeling!

Constantly ask yourself how to tell this story, and how you want to tell it. How this sequence should be perceived? What do you need to show to make pages and pages of words appealing and interesting.

Be patient, be bold. Start with easy stuff to get some confidence if you need to. Accept that "boring" pages are smt necessary and that it's up to you to build up tension for a scene to really pop. Try new ideas and be ready to scrap many of them, the result will be worth all the work!

Now, concerning the "fast" part, I'm flattered but I personally think I'm super slow xD You prbly get that impression bc I finish the whole chapter before posting it, but behind the scene, I'm just working at a very regular pace.

Thank youuu anon ♡( ◡‿◡ )

[drarrypotterrenaissance]

the day you were sentenced to azkaban

When I saw this fantastic piece by @longdaytogo I couldn't stop myself from writing - look at Harry's face! Draco's tension! The hands! So, here's 1.3k words of artsy, self-indulgent angst wrapped up with a hopeful ending. If you like it, thank my betas, @wecanthavenicethingx and @starlitsilvereyes for making it so much better, and being so encouraging that I was able to share it 💜 Read on ao3, or below!

The day you were sentenced to Azkaban, you were all alone. Your father had already been taken away to a life in prison, starting with a year of solitary confinement; and your mother had been sent back to the Manor to begin her house arrest. You were on your own, stoic and pale and thin and drawn in the chair in the center of the room, darting glances around the court and staring at the floor in turn. You flinched when the Wizengamot announced your fate; five months in Azkaban, a strict parole after that. You were silent, just bowed your head and trembled, but the Wizangemot chastened you anyway, reminding you of your crimes, and outlining exactly how severe your punishment would have been if you had been a year older when you took the Mark, one of them shuffling their papers and mockingly wishing you a happy birthday a day in advance; you didn’t say anything, so I did, standing up because I couldn’t stay seated anymore and trying to protest, so tired of all the hate and vitriol that hadn’t stopped even after everything.

Hermione stopped me, of course. She pulled me back down onto the bench and she and Ron kept me there until the Wizengamot had all but filed out, trying, I’m sure, to keep me from making any more headlines or forcing the court to give me an official censure. But once the worst of them had left the room, and only a few plum-coloured hats could be seen at the door, I broke free, and reached you before the Aurors coming from the edges of the room did. You were still standing from when you were required to out of decorum for the magistrates, and your hair had fallen across your face, so I couldn’t see the look on your face, but I could still imagine it. I’d seen it on enough other faces during the previous few years, and by that point, I knew exactly what despair and fear and panicked isolation looked like.

We had both been children, caught up in a war from the first year of our lives, and I felt that youth more in that moment than any before. I was so young and powerless, you looked so small and fragile, and I wanted to cry for how tired I was from being angry all the time for all the problems that hadn’t yet been resolved. I don’t even know what I thought I was going to do, why I was approaching you in the first place - you were just all alone, standing there, and looking at you in that moment felt like looking into a mirror, because that was how I felt too, even surrounded by so many people. Everyone else seemed to have their name intertwined with someone else’s; Ron-and-Hermione, Molly-and-Arthur, Bill-and-Fleur. Ginny and I had never really been Harry-and-Ginny, we hadn’t been given the time to forge that link properly, and it fizzled out before we could solidify it; when she moved on to be Ginny-and-Neville, I was left alone as just Harry. And in that moment, when I saw you standing by yourself in the middle of the room, you were just Draco, just like me.

I didn’t go up to you because I wanted to become Harry-and-Draco (although I am so glad to be linked with you now, our names connected on every legal document and letter we sign), I just walked over to you because you were all alone and I was too, and it made sense in that moment that we should be all alone together.

I think I started trying to apologize, for not doing more to help you, for how the Wizengamot treated you, for my part in our petty, schoolboy rivalry; I think I started to tell you that it would be okay, that it would only be a few months, and the dementors were gone now and so it wouldn’t be fun, but you would be alright, but I don’t think I got any of those words out of my mouth.

You shook your head, a small no, and the sight of the tears pooling in your eyes silenced me before I could begin. You were so absolute, so determined to be proper even after everything, and you told me… you told me no. You said, “Thank you, Potter, but you’ve done more than anyone could have asked of you already.” Your lower lip trembled a bit on the last word, despite your best efforts, and I couldn’t stop myself from acting once more, despite my best efforts (although I didn’t really try my best to stop myself).

I hugged you, and you trembled like a leaf, frozen other than the little tremors that wracked your whole body. You kept your arms stiff at your sides, and I could feel you tightening your chin where it pressed into my shoulder, determined not to let your tears or defenses fall.

It took a few moments, but then you inhaled, deep and shuddery, and you grabbed onto me like we were still fleeing the Fiendfyre, and I held you back, just as tight. I saw the Aurors start moving in again, coming to take you away, and I pulled you even closer, watched them falter with uncertainty as I held you and let you cry out your tears and put yourself together again.

I didn’t cry, but I did a good deal of self-repair for myself while we stood there. You were holding me like I’d never been held before, like you needed me, like you wanted me to be there, like you cared about me and wanted to give as much comfort as you were getting. I thought, at the time, that might have been wishful thinking on my behalf, just more of my loneliness striking out at an empty void, but I was so glad to hear you tell me, later, whispering under cool linen sheets on a hot summer night that you felt the same way then. I just wanted to comfort you, and be comforted myself, in a way I hadn’t previously known.

A few moments more, and I started to think too much. I could see the Aurors moving again, and their motion in the corner of my eye made all my thoughts come back, moving too fast and looming too big to focus on them. I didn’t want to let you go, and yet I was going to have to, I would have no choice in what happened yet again. I wanted to keep giving you comfort, I wanted to let you take everything you needed, while you held me right back, and that was warm and safe and terrifying, because you were Draco Malfoy and I was Harry Potter, and I didn’t know what that meant anymore.

(I know what it means now. But we weren’t Draco-and-Harry then. There were still two more years ahead of us before we got the first letter addressed to Mr. Potter and Mr. Malfoy, together, and it was another ten months after Luna’s baby shower that we even talked about making that link permanent. It took us five years from that first hug in the Ministry for us to return there to sign our names on the license that made us legally Draco-and-Harry Malfoy-Potter.)

I held you, and I held you, and I held you. I didn’t figure anything out then, and I don’t think I fixed any problems in those too-short seconds either, but I felt better, even as we clung to each other tighter still in the moments when the Aurors reached us and started to gently pull us apart.

The day you were sentenced to Azkaban, I watched you walk away between crimson-robed Aurors, and I started counting down to December, when I could see you again, and when things might start to feel alright.

[north-noire]

what's your process for writing? :3

my writing process: I stare at my document file for hours and weep, repeat until writing gets miraculously done.

In all seriousness I tend to already have outlines ready for future chapters and stuff like that ready (and an idea of what I'd like to happen in the arcs/timeline of events). I've already had like a vague outline of my entire fic as a whole, but that's just kind of my own version of what happens in FNAF LMAO. I also just sometimes brainstorm, imagine new scenes that seems fitting for future chapters and list it down for me to write!

Though sometimes, even my writing execution just sometimes makes me have to divert/change plans up for chapters since sometimes writing's a bit unpredictable and sometimes some ideas I have just come out of nowhere/don't work anymore!

I talk back and forth about ideas with some friends/my alpha reader and bounce back ideas between them! It's really fun brainstorming with people and being able to put my ideas into words before writing it down. I also sometimes draw it out as concept art since it's fun visualizing some of my ideas!

Of course I still base most of the ideas from the actual source material (the games, some parts of the book trilogy) but since this is an AU I'm allowed to explore some "what-if" ideas and be able to have some creative freedom with it without worry since it is an AU after all! I get to do/explore things the way I want without worrying about judgment since this isn't really canon-compliant.

I take very long in actual writing stage (for obvious reasons), and after completing my rough/first draft I let it sit for a few days or a week before reading it again with a fresh pair of eyes and edit/revise/add new scenes accordingly. Sometimes I just make scenes out, no matter how bad it may be at first, and then just let revising/editing do my work for me. Sometimes I also have readied drafts for some scenes of future chapters that I can come back to, put it in the document and just rewrite it/rework it to be better suited for the narrative.

I tend to take my time longer during the editing/revising stage for a lot of things; I'm a perfectionist, I tend to sort of heavily criticize my work, and I worry a lot about its quality at the end of the day, and sometimes I realize that I need to fully revise the scene or fully rewrite a scene since it's lacking something/I'm missing a scene that should essentially be there. It's a hard battle, and an admittedly frustrating process.

That, and irl responsibilities makes it hard to just read through it sometimes.

During those breaks I sometimes read books/literature so that I can come back to editing/revising with fresh new knowledge on how I can improve or be able to know how I'll handle writing again.

After editing/revising is done, I just hand off the beta-reading to my beta readers, which also takes a while; we're all having irl responsibilities after all, and I mostly go to them back and forth about their feedback since it is nice having fresh eyes on your work WHILE also getting feedback from "first-time readers" of my work and what the readers might think of it when I publish it. They also help me with minor editing stuff since I'm not an English speaker (English isn't my first language) and their feedback really helps!

And then I usually draw out the cover chapter, and when my chapter's published, I do a nice little celebration for myself, since I take very long on chapter updates/making the actual chapters! It's important to celebrate the little victories we have, after all :]

Sorry for the SUPER long post, but since it is the writing process, I might as well share the ups and downs of my own writing process anyway XD Hope this helps?

[c-c-cherry]

Return of the king!!!!!!

For the ask game, you know I’ve gotta ask about the slayage #beachepisode

Hello everyone. I got two asks on this one so it's time for a story. (Ask game in question)

"#slay #beachepisode #reigentraintrauma" is the name of a google doc I created around 5am during Fall midterms last year that I never actually filled. This fic in question was manically story-boarded by myself and my roommate in one all-nighter because we needed a fun little reward during exams (but we apparently found some better reward because we never ended up writing it).

I have looked everywhere and cannot find a SINGLE TRACE OF THIS OUTLINE. This document is EMPTY. But the gist of it is under the cut. Buckle up. Does it still have potential?

◇◆◇◆

Picture this. A well-needed vacation. An expedition to the wonderful Rice Prefecture. A fantastic view of Mochi Mountain. A vacation home on the beachside of (insert another silly rice-related location I've forgotten). The cast is having a well-deserved holiday.

I can't remember how they even got into this situation. I have vague memories of Teru entering some kind of sketchy sweepstakes that won them this place for a few days? I have no idea. All I know is that it's free, they're all invited, and it's definitely not Reigen's idea.

This is supposed to be a calming vacation, but Reigen just cannot relax about it. For some unknown reason, every fibre of his being is entirely against making this trip, and he can't figure out why.

The cheapest transportation option is so clearly the train (which brings up some iffy memories), but he's been okay on them for the most part. Train trips are fine. There's no reason for him to decline a free vacation when everyone is this excited. He's been fine with this before—he should be fine.

The more veiled problem is this goddamn mountain.

Mochi Mountain is supposed to be one of the region's wonders. Instead, even the idea looms over him incessantly during the days leading up to the trip. The mountain is logically harmless. Beautiful, even. But looking out the train window and over to that towering peak on the way to the vacation spot makes everything click as to why this terrible gut feeling of his is so insistent. If you're familiar with the ova, it's no surprise. The combination unlocks some kind of trigger that he didn't even know was possible. Like, serious alarm bells are ringing. The type that tell him, "You are totally gonna die alone staring at this thing." The trip there is torturous, but he conceals it (for the most part).

When they finally arrive, Reigen finds that this holiday was more than a fatal mistake. That mountain did not stay with the train like in his past experience. In fact, he has a perfect view of it from the beach house's lounge, wrap-around deck, living room, kitchen, and is it really possible for the mountain to be in every single window view he can find?

He doesn't sleep. His silly businessman sparkle is gone. He opts to stay home while Serizawa takes the others out to do stupid tourist things that should have been fun. Even the isolation from staying inside is just as suffocating as a train car. He's the worst vacationer ever, and he hates it.

And worst of all? He can't stop thinking about what might happen on the ride back. The dread of the future completely ruins the whole point of this "relaxing" trip. He spends the rest of his time tailing the others on the beach or sitting off to the side while they all watch TV or play games, doom-scrolling on his phone as it seems like the only thing that distracts him from this weird limbo of anxiety (it is doing a horrible job).

The espers and Dimple start to notice, and someone finally has enough of Reigen being half-present. We couldn't decide on this next part. Do they take his phone and hide it? Does someone go way too far and accidentally drop it into the sea? Or maybe they pull some kind of light-hearted prank on him where they've all disappeared from his peripheral, just waiting for him to notice? Or use their psychic abilities to launch him into the ocean for a quick dip?

Whatever it is, it is definitely the wrong thing to do. Reigen totally loses it. Everything (embarrassingly enough) bubbles to the surface, and he starts to dissolve. His reaction concerns the kids the most, who feel like its totally come out of nowhere. Meanwhile Dimple's like, "jeeeez I'm used to talking Shigeo down, but how am I supposed to do damage control with something like this?"

And…Serizawa? Maybe he has no choice but to step up and take control of a situation he'd typically be a victim of.

All at once, this beach episode is in total shambles!!!

◇◆◇◆

And……..I can't remember how it ends. Or if it even had an ending. I'm not sure if we thought that far ahead. It's lost to the ages unless we uncover this outline in an archaeological dig. This would be fun to revisit and write up sometime, maybe as a long two-shot. Beach episode with a little twist? Who knows.

Thanks to anyone who stayed around to read this weird draft!

[mariyekos]

WIP Folder Game

Rules: make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Tag as many people as you have WIPs. People can send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, then post a little snippet or tell them something about it!

Okay so I didn't actually get tagged in this but it crossed my dash and seemed fun so I decided to do it! This does not count fics in my "Unfinished FF" folder, which includes the sub folders of "On Hold" and "Abandoned" (and has at least 3 dozen more fics). I'm also not tagging as many people as I have WIPs because there are uh. 79 of them. Which is a lot of people to tag.

What I've realized is I should really clean out my WIP folder again. A lot of these could be separated out into subfolders of Active, On Hold, and Abandoned. I'm definitely not working on 79 different fics right now. Now, am I hopping between 5 or 10? Yes. Do I have some "finished" fics in here that I might never post? Also yes. Are 2 of these fics actually finished and posted fics that I will be moving to my finished fic folder right after this because they shouldn't be in here? Yes the third! Anyway this is super long so I'll put it under the cut but yeah here are my theoretical WIPs, in order of when I last edited them.

Tagging @dithorba @mrmissmrsrandom @sunshades @basil-does-arttt @whitebeakedraven. Five seems like a much more reasonable number. Hopefully my memory is not failing me and you guys do write fic, but if you don't or would rather not share, no worries.

D/C Confessional

Qliphoth [and Copy of Qliphoth, and Qliphoth Redo]

second time's the charm

Flare VrEs

Clean

FFIV WEEK

Sparda Return

nero early adoption

effigy

Grub

Geryon V3 [and Geryon Outline, Geryon Outtakes, and Geryon]

Vergil TT

dmc ancient au

son's blessing

Ease

Stand-in MV

captive

fV remembrance [and Copy of fV remembrance]

Nelo 2

Mundus Rescue

Nelo Angelo's thoughts on Dante in DMC1

Untitled document

Drabbles - XIV Azemeteor

Raider

Sundae on Spardas

Forgetting / Vergil

Nidstinien

Estinien Drabbles

"Leave me be,"

XVI TT

first brood

Estimeric Week 2022 [there's a multichapter fic inside of this document that's sort of ongoing]

Seat of the Archbishop

Copy of ysenne garden 1 [and ysenne garden 1]

Vrtra Estinien stay

Eric Athena

Azem Meteor

Estimeric Week 2022 [Also has a multichapter fic inside of it!]

Rejoining Fragments [and R. Frag outtakes]

Marriage

Copy of Long AE [and long AE]

marriage nsv

Sleep

To me my knights

dimidue

Fic: first brood

jultena short

Outlines for FFXIV Fics

Estysayle

seteth

overlook side story - outlook

grief for the un(familiar)

[somehow my college honor's thesis made it into my fic WIP folder huh???? can you tell I never clean this out, I graduated 2 years ago]

"Are they not men most sweet, my dear brother

violence

Nid fic notes

obsess/adore

Throne Replacement

Various Fic Outlines

Aymeric Tempering

blood contract

Ysenne

Bygone

blessed

AE Replacement

Airship

Hum

shades

Alberic

Wyrmblood

Guilt and Rage

assassination

Touch

Admiration

Painting

ManaBy

Dimi Long v2.1

Fics

R&R Updated Party [but ironically not the actual fic itself, just the notes for the fic. the actual fic has its own folder]

[steddieunderdogfics]

This week’s writer spotlight feature is:  MuseumGiftShopEraser! They have 9 works on AO3 in the Stranger Things Fandom, and 6 of those are in the Steddie tag!

Our anonymous nominator recommends the following works by @museumgiftshoperaser:

Paint the Devil on the Wall

Conversations About Love

Now I'm A Stranger

An Exercise In Denial

Baby, You Were Meant To Follow Me

Her fics are BEAUTIFUL. When I first read Paint the Devil on the Wall I was so obsessed I immediately recced the fic to everyone I knew who would be vaguely interested in a steddie fic. -- anonymous

Below the cut, @museumgiftshoperaser answered some questions about their writing process and some of their recommended work!

Why do you write Steddie?

I stumbled into it immediately after season 4 came out. I’ve felt very attached to Steve as a character from the beginning of the show and I think I was subconsciously waiting for someone to pair him up with. I think they’re both such great characters to explore themes of dealing with expectation (either by conforming, or fighting against it) and that’s something I always love to write about.

What’s your favorite trope to READ?

Absolute sucker for fake dating. Can’t get enough of it.

What’s your favorite trope to WRITE?

Enemies to lovers! Though now that I’m looking through my AO3 I haven’t actually written that much of it. It doesn’t have to be very intense enemies, though. I just like it when characters don’t immediately get along.

What’s your favorite Steddie fic?

My brain has been forever rewired by took you for a working boy by pukner. It’s such a gentle, nuanced queer story. It feels vulnerable to me in a way that really only fanfiction can be. Can I sneak in another one?? Because everyone should also absolutely read the shame is on the other side by scoops_ahoy. It taps into this very specific kind of queer compartmentalizing, that I’ve never seen written this well. It broke my heart and patched it right back up.

Is there a trope you’re excited to explore in a future work but haven’t yet?

I’ve been stupidly busy with my masters lately so there’s probably not a lot of writing on my horizon. I do have a wip called Doll that I’m slowly chipping away at. It’s a little darker than stuff I’ve written before. I know ‘dark’ isn’t really a trope, but I’m excited to see if I can push these characters a little further. 

What is your writing process like?

Absolute chaos. I write non-chronologically, without an outline, all in the same document. I keep writing snippets and scenes until the whole thing slowly comes together. 

Do you have any writing quirks?

Italicizing words for emphasis. I love it so much, you can rip it from my cold dead hands. It accidentally makes its way into my academic writing for my degree sometimes which is a little embarrassing, but I just love the flair of it. 

Do you prefer posting when you’ve finished writing or on a schedule?

I don’t really do schedules, it doesn’t work for me at all. I try to make sure I have a decent amount of the story written before I start posting to give me a bit of a head start, but forcing myself to finish something by a certain date is a surefire way to kill my motivation.

Which fic are you most proud of?

Probably Paint the Devil on the Wall. It was the first time I’d written the entire story before I started posting so it went through way more rounds of editing than normal. I think you can really tell. It’s also the longest story I’ve ever written (in general, even outside of fanfic). The whole project gave me a lot of confidence as a writer.

How did you get the idea for Paint the Devil on the Wall?

I knew I wanted to participate in the Bigbang and the deadline was coming up, but I still didn’t have an idea. I decided to work backwards and try to think of something that would be fun for the artist(s) to draw. I had a vision of Eddie wearing dungarees without a shirt, absolutely covered in paint and I knew I had to write something to make it happen. I set the story in 80s New York because neo expressionism is really the only kind of art I could see Eddie making. I think it suits him very well. I do actually have a background in art, though! I’m currently getting my MFA, but I’ve worked full time as an artist for several years before that. I had a lot of fun working my passion for art (and all those art history classes I had to take) into the fic.

When writing Paint the Devil on the Wall, what was something you didn’t expect?

All of Steve’s character, to be honest. The fic is written from Eddie’s POV and for a large part of it he has a very hard time figuring out what Steve’s deal is. Right alongside him, I also had an incredibly hard time figuring out his character. It wasn’t until I was working on the final chapter that he finally clicked for me. I realized very late, just like Eddie, that Steve liked him from the very beginning. Most of the enemies to lovers premise was all in Eddie’s head.

What inspired Now I'm a Stranger?

Oh boy, that was forever ago! I remember I started writing it while I was camping with friends because I liked having something to do after everyone went to bed at night. I think I had the idea for that very first scene where Steve doesn’t remember Eddie and it all sort of spiraled from there.

What was your favorite part to write from An Exercise in Denial?

That was the very first fic I wrote, right after season 4 came out! I’ve never written something that fast, I think the whole thing took me less than a week. My favorite part was probably Robin being completely exasperated with both of them. They’re such complete idiots in that fic.

How do/did you feel writing Baby, You Were Meant To Follow Me?

Ahhh… I never got around to finishing that one. I probably never will, to be honest. I wrote the first two parts quite quickly and then the idea I had for the plot spiraled out of control and I realized I didn’t actually feel like writing the rest of it. There were going to be a lot of misunderstandings and I learned that I find that an incredibly frustrating trope to write (when done for drama at least. For comedy, I’m a sucker for misunderstandings.) So I guess I felt a little in over my head.

What was the most difficult part of writing Conversations About Love?

The ending! That fic is so incredibly personal to me and I knew from the beginning that I wanted it to have a very sappy, happy ending. It was important to me to write an aromantic character getting everything they wanted, but I realized as I was writing it that I don’t actually fully know what that means. So it took a bit more soul searching than fics typically do, but it was very much worth it. 

Do you have a favorite scene and/or line from any of your fics?

I still think the short little prologue for Paint the Devil on the Wall is the best thing I’ve written. “You don’t draw on things that aren’t yours, baby” is probably the best summary I have for that story.

Do you have any upcoming projects or fics you’d like to share/promote?

Not really!

Thank you to our author, @museumgiftshoperaser, and our anonymous nominator! See more of @museumgiftshoperaser works featured on our page throughout the day!

Writer’s Spotlight is every Wednesday! Want to nominate an author? You can nominate them here!

[corishadowfang]

😭 and❗️for the ask game!

(For this)

😭"what are the biggest challenges writing your WIPs?”

An over-arching problem that follows many (but not all) WIPs is that I'll sometimes struggle to hammer out the plot and/or keep the plot on track. I have. So many documents that are just. Me desperately trying to brainstorm where the story's going or re-outlining after the characters made a decision that drastically changed the direction of the story. While it can sometimes be frustrating, it is also really rewarding if and when you get a breakthrough and things start coming together.

Individually:

On My Heart: PLOT. This one REALLY lives up to the above, because while the beginning has always been very easy to write over its various incarnations, the middle and ending have always kind of eluded me. I have completely re-written this story, like...five or six times now? Literally thousands of pages and probably over a million words, man. It is my problem child of a story, and I may end up just doing a lot of shorts following the characters to see if that can help orient me in the right direction.

KH Folktale Story: Thankfully no challenges directly related to the story so far! The biggest thing has just been finding the time/energy to work on it, because uh...I am not actually the highest energy person in the world, and have also been very busy. (And also. My dog is pretty sure I should be paying attention to her at all times and Not Working, and she has no problems jumping up and closing my laptop if she thinks I'm not paying enough attention to her, haha.)

❗"how many WIPs do you have?“

Uh, I guess this is kind of answered above, but two that I'm actively working on!

On My Heart is an original story that I've written on and off for over a decade, which uh...the short summary is, "Kid is temporarily turned into a dragon to save his life, which is very illegal and very dangerous. Teams up with a former police officer and the local hermit to try and get out of the mess he's found himself in. Found family bonding, questions about identity and what makes someone human, and other shenanigans ensue." It's a story that's very dear to my heart, despite all its problems, and is where I really started honing a lot of things about my style, so I'd really like to create a version that gives these characters justice one day.

The KH folktale story (which is...still unnamed, and may remain that way for. a while) is basically me going, "Man, it'd be fun to really dive into worldbuilding and explore the mythos of the KH universe," and then just. Rolling with it. It's expanded a little to explore some additional cultural stuff too, haha. Basically, this is my excuse to go wild on worldbuilding!

Aside from the "official" ones, I have a couple of things I've been writing on-and-off. (Ex. I've been writing some snippets of future scenarios set in the Fallen Stars-verse.) But uh, nothing that I've delved too deeply into, aha.

[nerdieforpedro]

Heyy Nerdie <3

So since I'm relatively new with writing, I wonder how other writers manage their docs, like what tool is good for writing stories with multiple chapters. And I know everybody will have a different answer and solution for their writing process but I was just wondering if you had any tips for a newbie like me (I'm writing in my notes but that doesn't works so great, also no word count etc.)

Thank you in advance!

I appreciate you ❤️

Ooh! I'm excited1 A writing question! I feel honored that you're asking me. Full disclosure: I'm not the most organized person, even with my fanfic. I am trying to improve though.

I have found for all my fics, no matter if they're one shots or chapter series, I write them in Google Drive. The only reason I don't use Word or my notes app is because I find it easier to edit on my phone when I'm out and about having ideas randomly. (Always happens in places that aren't great to write in which is why I try and stay ready. Only works 50% of the time because of driving. 😭) I also tend to keep each fic even with all their chapters or parts in one very long document instead of a separate document for each chapter. That's just so I will be less confused. I get confused easily. 😳

Many writers use Google Drive so if you're brave enough to ask, you can usually send them what you have to review and they can either just look or comment on different parts depending on permissions you give them. To give your fic a good once over, you can pop it into Word for grammar and spelling corrections. Google docs does do that as well, but sometimes it misses things that Word catches. It's weird.

For on the go notes about vibes or random ideas, I feel your notes app should be good for that and also outlines if you want to plan out chapters or your one shot before writing it out. That way if you have it on your phone in your notes app, you can type in Word or Google while looking back at your bullet points to keep the story flow going.

Also if you like music, I highly recommend a writing playlist. It can be just your favorite songs, set to the mood of what you're writing, instrumental, anything that will help you focus and get your story out. it also could help inspire things (there's numerous fanfics written from songs - hundreds).

Maybe yourself a comfy space, enjoy a nice beverage (I like tea, hot chocolate or coffee if it's in the morning and a snack while writing) and remember it's supposed to be fun.

Sure frustrating sometimes especially when it seems like you have no ideas or the idea isn't coming out quite like you wanted. Take a break, might be hours, days or months, however long you feel you may need for it not to see like a chore. Writing, drawing and crating in general should be fun - in can require focus and work, but should still be enjoyable.

Try out some prompts, challenges or toss some ideas out to friends or people if you feel your creativity is lacking to you just want some different perspectives. We're all different, have histories that make us who we are so there can be as many ways to write a fic as starts in the sky. No one has thought of all of them, many reuse tropes (myself included) because they're fun and provide a template to work from and all sorts of themes can be explored. If you like to edit graphics and/or create moodboards, that can be a good way to distract yourself from writing while also focusing on a different aspect of your fic - visuals. It could help spark something too.

I truly hope I answered your question and didn't ramble too hard. Like this is... 8/10 rambling. 😆

[tarabyte3]

Fic Updates

It's been a while soo....

I Want You to Show Me Weak — As I've stated before, there are only 2 chapters left in the entire fic. I'm going to be finishing both of them before I post chapter 26. Then I'll be posting chapter 27 the next day. Gonna end the fic with a bang 😏 I have everything outlined and thought out, I just have to finish writing it (I'm very excited about what I have planned/written for the final chapter, which includes the ending). Though I will admit, it's been difficult to write knowing I'll be saying goodbye to this story. I'll miss my boys SO much 😭, as well as this version of Kino x Reader, but I want to finish it for myself and for all of you! Besides, there's always the possibility of oneshots set in this universe in the future AND I'm not done writing for Kino. Not even close! I have no date estimate at the moment, but I'm trying to give this one my full attention so 🤞

The Devil Makes Us Sin — Once Show Me Weak is done, I'm going to give this one my full attention for a while. (Though, to be honest, even though I'm trying to focus on finishing Kino first, I still keep this document open and regularly pop in to write a paragraph or two. What can I say, David is VERY fun to write for 😏, I love him, and I must follow the serotonin). The next few chapters will be shorter so they should go quickly, and I already have around the next 4 of them half written (I actually have about ~25k of future stuff written last time I checked, including parts of chapters MUCH further down the road 😅).

Other Wips

While my focus has been on my ongoing stories, I do have a few other WIPs I have actual content written for! So here's an update on those as well. For fun.

Personal Trainer!Kino x Reader Modern AU — I have the beginning of this story and a few scenes written, and SO many notes for it. (My relationship with my trainer is fantastic. He's 50% big brother energy, 50% wingman energy, but he says THE most out of pocket shit so I immediately write it down after my sessions. Because him saying it does nothing for me, but imagining Kino saying it?? 😵‍💫🫠🥵) It will probably end up ~5 chapters total. Probably.

And Your Heart, Love, Has Such Darkness (David x Reader smutty Oneshot) — I started this one a year ago because I wrote something for TDMUS that didn't quite fit, but I liked it enough to keep it and make it its own thing. It's over half done right now, so it will likely be the next oneshot I post.

I Didn't Want to Hurt You, but You're Pretty When You Cry (Dark!David x Reader) — I think this one will end up about 3 chapters long and will contain a lot of content warnings. It's going to be more horror focused (with splashes of dark humor because I cannot help myself). I adore the opening chunk I've written. It gave me goosebumps.

Secret Andy Blorbo x Reader Oneshot — This one started as a joke on Discord about an Andy blorbo that is not only incredibly niche/unknown, but is actively not attractive (one of the very rare times Andy Serkis does nothing for me. In fact, when I see him, my vagina makes the windows shutdown noise). Except I made the mistake of saying, "I want to try to write for this character as a fun challenge just so I can sexually confuse everyone." And it, uh, spiraled from there and made me rethink my entire stance on this character (thank you for not only indulging me, Hannah, but encouraging me and giving me more ideas 💖 I loved [redacted] thirst day in TNBF)

Halsin x Tav — That's right, I'm writing for the sexy druid. It'll be 2 chapters, and it's about a third of the way finished. This Tav will be a human fighter, but is otherwise written more like a Reader Insert. (Side note: going back to 3rd person POV after writing a lot of 2nd person POV is harder than I imagined 🙃)

Paz Vizsla x Mando!Reader Oneshot — That's right, I'm also writing for the big Mandalorian. It's about a third of the way finished as well. (These last 2 are actually a little intimidating because the fandoms are MUCH larger, but I need to get them out sooo fuck it, it's happening.)

So as you can see, even though I haven't posted very much outside of Liam Black, I'm still writing a lot. Apparently I just have commitment issues and a lot of ✨thots✨ 😌💖

[irlmaeda]

Hiya! I found your blog through your neocities website! I was wondering if there’s any tips or things you read/watched that help you make your site. (Im heavily considering making one of my own neocities site it just seems fun)

hihi welcome !! i have quite a few pieces of advice, but the tldr is you should come up with an idea for what you want to make beforehand, and look up how to do each piece! your knowledge will start to fill in along the way :]

(this is probably gonna be long as hell so under the cut is all of the fun stuff /silly)

the way i personally started off was by sketching out what i wanted my site to look like! if you know what you want before you begin, you'll know where to look to figure out what you need to do. html+ css are extremely easy languages to read/write once you know what to look for!

^ this was the original sketch for my site, where i planned out everything i wanted to include. it's a bit different from what actually ended up on the site, but that's alright! it's just about having an outline to work from. i think of it like outlining before you write, it feels like such a pain in the ass because u just wanna start working NOW but u will thank yourself later for taking the time to plan.

once you know what you want to make, start looking for tutorials and resources to make it easier! the grid for my homepage and some of my other subpages was made using a css grid generator, since its one of the more confusing bits of css. you can make grids without it, but its a very easy way to make a more asymmetrical design if ur using the generator!

thats linked here, it gives you some css to put in your head or css sheet, and then the html for the different boxes to slap in your main document. it can be easier to understand what itll look like if you give each one a border while you work, even if its just temporary!

when looking for information about css and html, w3schools is your best friend. its a pretty comprehensive database of every little piece of html + css you could ever need, with examples you can play with yourself to understand what each variable does! it's been a lifesaver for me, ive watched basically zero video tutorials because everything on there is explained so well and you can find basically Anything.

they even have code snippets for things that take more than one or two lines of code, which you can use and adapt yourself! (the tooltips on the official art + my art sections on the hinata shrine were adapted from a tutorial on there!)

in general, having a plan and working from there will make ur life so much easier. the pages that ive sketched out beforehand or ive had a very clear vision for have been WAYY easier to code than the ones i tried to come up with on the fly, and ive been much happier with how they've turned out as well. though i do also have some smaller, rapidfire tips as well that ill go thru now!!

— inline css (the style="" tag) seems so so useful but really should only be used when you're resizing images like buttons. when u keep all of your css in the head or in a seperate document, its way easier to debug and read later. i cleaned up my homepage recently by removing all of the inline css and looking at the code stresses me out WAY less because i can actually read it LOLOL ... plus cutting the css out and putting it in its own document made me realize that id accidentally wrote some really weird code in some places

— this is very much 'do as i say, not as i do,' but use an external editor (like visual studio code) instead of editing live on neocities! you can set up a live preview, and generally wont be pushing out 100 updates every single time you change or add something. i tend to code directly on neocities but its a bad habit and i want to break it eventually v_v

— if you really like an effect someone else has on their site, you can peek using inspect element i promise the coding police won't get you !! dont steal code line for line, but you can figure out what theyre doing and put your own spin on it. things like border images can be really cool, and i only figured out about them because i looked at what someone else was doing and figured out how to adapt it for my own site! check linkbooks and credit sections as well, a lot of people will include links to any effect they didnt make themself or got help with. (including me! the credits section of the linkbook has a ton of little things i got from other places, including a really neat little music player, the rss feed for my status cafe, and the wobbly text on the homepage!)

— most stuff in html and css basically just... says what it does in the tag. so looking stuff up for it is extremely easy! if you've used carrd before you honestly probably already know more abt html than u'd think just intuitively. when ur adjusting the margins or padding in carrd, you're adjusting the margin: and padding: properties in the css of the website it's outputting!

this is getting way too long but!! my best advice is to just get started. you'll never be able to learn without trying, and it genuinely is so fun to have something that's truly your own!

(if u have any specific questions im happy to answer anytime as well! i love talking abt neocities, its a super fun hobby and way easier to pick up than u would think!)

[quaranmine]

Next steps for the AU:

-I have a couple of analysis-type posts to make. I love talking about this fic lol so I have a lot to say still. Included in this will be a review of art symbolism, setting as a character, and some selected real-life cases and research I ran across. I may also talk a little about fire symbolism as well as my fun fire-related words I purposefully scattered around (if you noticed me describe feelings as a spark a lot, it was on purpose lol.) I also may talk about a couple things that didn't end up happening, or did happen but almost didn't.

-This weekend I am going to revisit the fic chapters 8-12 to see if I can add more art to them. I had initially wanted more art pieces throughout the fic but the art would sometimes delay finished chapters for weeks (i have to both draw and color it traditionally, photograph it in good light, and then digitally edit it) so I started worrying less about it. If I do I will post those pieces and retroactively add them in the chapter.

-Speaking of retroactive edits, some earlier chapters of the story on AO3 have some issues with em dashes appearing smaller than they should be. This is corrected in my original document but I never got around to correcting the published chapters (i am always mildly worried the formatting will break lol.) When I do this I will also add cocoabats' cover into the first chapter. I also plan to retroactively edit some of my Fire Finder Math in chapter 3 because I think I made Grian's tower taller than it needs to be/at the wrong elevation. This won't affect the chapter outcome at all I just Need that to be accurate for myself

-I have a great many web weaving materials that I have slowly collected over the months that I would like to mess with again. I have been saving them in a #f tag on my main blog, but I didn't make any except for one because I wanted the full context of the story to be published.

-Going to upload the Letters from the Lookout drabbles into the AO3 series. Hopefully in the future I may add more. Or, I may not. We'll see. I also have a Scar-centric story called "Alpenglow" in my outline. based on its structure it may have multiple chapters, but it will not have any sort of through-line plot. It's selected scenes from his 8 years career as a lookout. I want to write this, but I don't know if it will be or not. With the main fic done I will be releasing my brain to work on other projects/ideas that I didn't want to get distracted by earlier. That doesn't mean it won't happen, it just means that it may not happen on a fast timeline.

[eyepatchdate]

It's like some kind of code but...👻🍄✨🥕🤔

👻 Is there a new genre you'd like to write?

i want to write more HORROR. i love writing horror and blood but haven't been doing so in soooo long. i really need to write more death and killing.

I have some pieces/ideas that go into horror a little but its never enough and never a primary genre. You'd think SM/TIV would cater well to it but im too busy doing other things in those pieces.

I need to do something with specific horror intent.

🍄 Are there any fandoms you've never written for but want to try?

I wrote so many bullet-point ideas for Somnium Files fics while I was replaying about a month ago.... so I really should write some of those. I also would LOVE to get something posted for Ace Attorney. I also have an idea/notes document for a Mouthwashing piece and a ISAT piece, both of which tempt me

There's more too... I'd love to write for a lot of things I haven't written for tbh!!! Fanfiction is so fun...

✨What's one area of your writing that you think needs the least amount of improvement?

Dialogue, tbh. I fuss around with it sometimes but I'm never insecure about my dialogue. I feel really good about character voices and the flows of conversation. I don't write with an extreme dialogue focus usually, but when I do I always feel really good about the piece.

🥕 What's one area of your writing that you think needs the most amount of improvement?

'Finishing stuff' feels like a weak point to make, but it is one of them.

But a better one is probably like...character expressions? I struggle with establishing the mood of scenes, it's something that's been bothering me recently, and I've been really aware of it while writing. I've been working on it, but it's a struggle.

🤔 Are there any new characters you want to write about?

Gonna piggyback off of the fandom question with this and talk about who I'm interested in writing per new fandom I want to do.

Somnium files - Date. I NEED to write about Date and [redacted] and all his PROBLEMS with himself. I also really want to write this speculative idea I have for So (the most unpopular character imaginable). I'd love to write about Tokiko too..my love.

Ace Attorney - I'm pretty interested in Edgeworth, but mostly in that I want to fuck with the plots surrounding him. Otherwise, Blackquill/Athena is suuuuch an interest, I'd love to write for them. I also would love to write a piece about Trucy. I think a lot of the fandom gets her wrong, because a lot of people don't explore the fact that she's always in a stage-persona even when at home.

Mouthwashing - Curly. next question

ISAT - the idea I have for ISAT is really complicated so I don't see myself working on it anytime soon (1.6k outline already), but I'm really interested in Siffrin and Odlie.

[redroomroaving]

2024 Writing Retrospective

Thank you for the tag @tavyliasin, I'll try!

What's been your biggest learning point this past year?

I learnt a lesson in over filling my plate. I've always had eyes bigger than my belly, quote my mother, and that apparently applies to my creative output too. I overstretch myself in many ways in life because I get frustrated by my limitations, but you'd think that after so very many opportunities to learn this lesson I actually would?

All of which is to say; it's ok for some stuff to just be ideas. My desperate need to make things exist is a good thing, but in moderation. I ended the year with way too many WIPS, and that was a problem.

How has your writing developed this past year?

I've learnt a lot about myself; the things I'm excited about writing, and the things I'm not. I learnt how to write smut! Then I practiced and got more confident in it. I've practised character voices and how to reflect alternative POVs not just in the way a character speaks but how they think; how I structure sentences, how I alternate observations and internal monologues. I've also come to take more risks and lean harder into following the stories as they go, and letting myself roll with the consequences. Now I just need to learn how to be like, organised - to plot and outline - that sort of thing.

Bad writing habits?

A zillion. Writing out of order; skipping to the good part. Not ending sentences when I should. Repetition. Starting things and then not finishing them.

Constantly going on about lilts in peoples chests.

Oh, and all the untitled documents and the general disaster that is my creative process. I called myself a bunch of monkeys with minaiture cymbals in a washing machine back in like March and I'm sorry to say that's NOT GOTTEN BETTER.

Favorite thing you wrote?

'Sufferer, I shall', which probably will remain the best thing I write. All downhill from there, baby.

'Conductor, Ringmaster' is shortly behind, because it's been so much fun to write and lets me stretch my legs a lot, creatively.

(More recently, I'm also really fond of my Bor x Geraldus one shot Stoke the Fire, which I found a very comforting thing to write.)

Biggest win?

Finishing my longfic 'The Harper & The Tower', my Rolan x Geraldus fic that is, to be honest, really an 150k monument to Harper Geraldus because I adore him and wanted to write him a big happy love story that explored his character, his history, his relationships. I'm proud that I achieved a lot of what I set out to with that story, and hope people enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Goals for the new year?

Finish some darn WIPS, especially 'Conductor, Ringmaster' and 'The Red Harp'. Write more Lae'zel. Write more women, full stop.

Get Bor at least 10 fics on Ao3.

Go outside more, be happier and healthier. Worry less about expectations and meeting them. Remember I write things, selfishly, because I want to write them, and it's ok that I don't always feel I fit in with what it feels like the fandom wants.

I pride myself in my love for the characters, and my belief in their love, as being what I pour into my work. It's a strength, not a weakness; and if I don't love it, I don't need to write it, because that feeling wont be there either. That's ok.

Your favorite words of the year, aka the words you check each chapter for, making sure you didn't repeat them 788 times?

Oooh so many. Lilt. Blush. Bright. Now. Stop saying 'now' so much, damn, people get that it's happening presently.

What are you excited for in the new year?

Working on some collaborations I've been plotting! Finishing some things! Spending more time on The Red Harp and Boraldus.

Getting married; living a bit. Hopefully having better health than 2024.

That sort of thing.

No pressure tags for @librivore42 @lizziemajestic @lemonsrosesandlavender and @ankhegs-in-my-salad