#i too tend to write a lot of words when i'm not invested in something

[pricechecktranslations]

On the topic of Muzuri, was there a specific reason for why Msil was rejected? Or perhaps Mzil? (The second one is more for aesthetic purposes, my justification being that Banica only has one n iirc so a one-to-one conversion from lism doesn't appear to be necessary.) I know that was like a decade ago but I don't remember it ever being spelled out. Since it is just lism backwards, and thus a visual pun, the readers' interpretation of the pronunciation (eg "moozle", "[da]msel") shouldn't matter, right?

I wrote a lot of words for someone who's not that invested in a minor character's name localization, but I was curious nonetheless

That particular translation was either before my time or so long ago that I don't really remember what the real reasoning was, but I think it's just because Msil or Mzil look unpronounceable, or at least don't lend themselves to intuitive pronunciation from an American English perspective, which is where a lot of the translations are coming from. It does sort of matter how fans are saying it, even if it gets the pun right, because mothy didn't create the name "Muzuri" with the intention of it being difficult to pronounce.

In Japanese, you reverse syllables, not letters--(almost) every consonant is paired with a vowel, so you're never going to have something impossible to say. Banica's name is not "canniba" reversed in English, because that would be "Abinac". It's just the syllables backwards--we lucked out that "Banika" very cleanly and easily romanizes to "Banica", which contains most of the right letters. "Muzuri" has a pretty clear and possible pronunciation in Japanese, but Mzil is not intuitive in the same way to an English reader.

[mommyashtoreth]

what are your most hated popular aziraphale and crowley mischaracterizations

GREAT question I fucking love complaining

Not to sound contradictory right off the bat but for Az it's both like. "Aziraphale is mean" and "Aziraphale is SO cartoonishly nice that he can't even fathom of anything that could be construed by anyone as being somehow 'bad'", because I think both are really fundamental misunderstandings of Aziraphale as a dramatic character for the former and as a comedic character for the latter. "Aziraphale is mean" seems to be based entirely on the ending of s2 and I've certainly said my piece about that already, but to summarize I think it's a bad reading of that scene and I find "actually Aziraphale is manipulative and mean and Crowley is 100000% always in the right and never did anything wrong ever" to make for a much more boring story than what we've actually got. On the other hand, boomeranging right into the other direction and making Aziraphale way too nice is ALSO something I find boring, but in a more standard "fandom flanderization" type of way. Like, I'm sure you've seen something where Aziraphale is so nice and good and pure and soft and sweet and smol cinnamon roll needs protection that he passes out whenever someone says the word "penis." And I find that boring! It's a bad way to engage with his joke. Aziraphale IS nice, genuinely, and he's good to people and helps people and loves humanity, but also like, he's smug and he lies and he says guns lend weight to a moral argument and is kind of a cunt in ways people don't give him credit for. And that's good! That's awesome. He's really really really funny and I obviously really really like him. Basically I wish people knew how to balance "Aziraphale is nice" and "Aziraphale is a bitch" bc both are true and it's a fine-tuned craft managing to depict both at once

Crowley is harder to pin down... idk I just Also find a lot of fandom Crowley very boring in very similar ways, either stripping him down (God I wish) to form one half of a very basic very boring Good Guy Vs. Bad Guy dynamic, or making him this like Sexy Domineering Alpha Male Daddy Dom type that I find very boring. Not that I think Crowley can never be sexy or domineering, my url is literally, yknow, that, but I think all his "evilness" has an almost playful nature to it where like you know he's having fun with it, OR I like when it feels like he's doing it as a job. like Oh, fuck, have to make the quota today. Gotta go cause a pileup. I think people generally tend to make Crowley either too serious or too nice, and he IS nice, there's a guarded softness in like both renditions of the character that IS very important, but he's still Also kind of a bitch! And that's fun! Idk people always make "sin" out to be some huge thing like "Crowley has to literally murder a child" which makes for good conflict, but there's also little stuff that he's a) good at and b) likes doing, like causing traffic jams and moving construction poles around and just like, generally annoying people and I think that's really really funny. I read a fic once where she would order pizza for delivery to other people's houses, and I'm still workshopping mine where she, like, convinces this rich guy to invest in a bad industry so when his stocks plummet he'll be insufferable to be around (also bc greed is a sin. There are sins besides lust! Animals), and that's fun! And honestly Crowley's fun even when he's down in the dumps, he's funny when he gets annoyed with Aziraphale or when he gets angry at Gabriel or whatever. I wish people tapped into that more! Idk I also clearly like Crowley a lot I think we could hang out I could grab a beer with him and play Bowie and Brian Eno on the jukebox, and a lot of fandom Crowley does not feel like somebody I could grab a beer with. Let him loosen up! Misery is fun to write but all work and no play makes Tony a dull boy

[suzukiblu]

I know it's totally wrong for what you're shooting for but your stories make me feel bad for Clark. All these folks judging him, when as far as he can tell Kon doesn't even want to be around him. And honestly, he's had clones before. No one expected him to mourn when a Bizarro degraded

. . . okay, friend, first off I apologize, because I def got carried away with this response and it turned into a bit of a rant, hah. Please don't take any of this the wrong way or get the impression I'm annoyed by this ask or anything, I just fundamentally disagree with SO many things about how Clark's relationship with Kon has been handled in canon and apparently I had to word-vomit a lot of that out here and now in explanation of why I tend to write Clark as being Objectively Wrong about Kon/how he treats Kon.

A) There's no convincing reason I can think of that Clark should think Kon doesn't want to be around him, and if he DID, why would he have given him permission to wear the El crest to begin with, much less offered him either the name "Superboy" or "Kon-El"? Especially Kon-El, because that's a name that originated from a specifically ADOPTED member of his birth family, and Clark offered it to him while CALLING him family, but also . . . lying to him about having a secret identity? And whole-ass other life??

and also

B) I actually WOULD expect Clark to mourn a Bizarro degrading. That's like his whole deal, in my experience of him across various media: Clark Kent is a person who thinks that every person matters and is undeniably the kind of guy that would be upset by someone suffering from genetically-inevitable degradation. Especially if the people suffering that degradation only exist to suffer it because HE, Clark "I Am Personally Responsible For This Whole Damn Planet, And Yes That IS A Threat" Kent, exists.

Like, Clark always takes way too much on himself. So it doesn't really make sense to me that a dude like that would take one look at a kid with his own face who is actually at best about a month old and just decide "yeah, this person doesn't need me ever involved in their life at all" and STICK with that assessment even through repeated problems, near-death experiences, and straight-up disasters. ESPECIALLY because Clark already knew Matrix, and she was ALSO a genetic experiment who'd been made in his image by someone he didn't have any reason to trust. But he still took Mae to his parents' farm and let her live there pretty much immediately, trusted her with SO many of his secrets and even trusted her living with his parents without, again, having to jump through ANY of the MULTITUDE of hoops that Kon did to earn a similar level of trust, and she eventually started dating literal LEX LUTHOR and Clark still trusted her after THAT!

( I mean, I think everyone thought Lex was his own son at the time or something weird like that, Because Comics, but still! STILL!! )

Shit, Clark still trusted Mae after she had a mental breakdown ON HIS PARENTS and tried to attack him and had a severe enough psychotic break that she thought she literally WAS him! Mae very quickly proved herself to be WAY more dangerous and hostile than Kon has EVER been outside of being directly mind-controlled, but from the jump Clark is way more invested in her and her life and CARES way more about her and her life. And later he responds to Kara just as differently as he did Mae, despite her ALSO debuting as both a more dangerous and more hostile person than Kon. So like . . . there's a bit of a double-standard going there, it kind of feels like? Like, at least on a meta-level. And I'm sure most of it's editorial nonsense and the kind of narrative problems that lie inherent in like . . . what, thirty-plus years of comic history and about eight bajillion different writers and the like, obviously, but it just is REAL hard to justify that behavior in the actual narrative when Clark Kent is meant to be the moral paragon that the entire damn rest of the DC universe is meant to set its metaphorical watch by.

Either way, though, I'm usually trying to write Clark as either sympathetic or at least understandable in his logic, even when it's flawed, so I wouldn't really say it's "wrong" if you feel sympathy for him while reading my writing. Like, I'm not saying he's in the right in those specific fics, but I do still want to be empathetic to his point of view. It is again just REALLY hard for me to explain a lot of Clark's canon relationship with Kon in any way other than "benign neglect due to just deliberately assuming that all Kryptonians are always Perfectly Fine, Thanks due to his own personal issues about what 'Superman' represents", and that's the KIND option.

Long story short, I really just don't care what DC says, It is NOT on the brand-new teenager with zero life experience who Clark deliberately LET put an S-shield-shaped target on their back to single-handedly foster a relationship with the perfect superhero idol that most of the damn world looks up to. I genuinely cannot think of a single significant occasion where Clark ever does anything for Kon that involves CLARK having to put in any kind of recurring effort, but we're supposed to accept that KON has to earn scraps of Clark's attention and the right to be considered a part of his family over and over again--while Clark, again, doesn't have to do anything to earn Kon's attention or the right to be considered a part of HIS family? Ever? Even ONCE??

Relationships are two-way streets, DC! That's just how relationships are, DC!! Otherwise it's just parasocial bullshit or someone taking advantage of someone else, DC!!!!

Don't get me wrong, I really love Clark, I think he's a great character in a lot of fascinating ways and that he is VERY interesting and affecting when he's done well ("you can do anything you want, and all you want to do is help people" HELLO CRYING IN THE CLUB RN), but like . . . come on, DC, what the fuck and WHY?

[olderthannetfic]

I've done some reading challenges before and I think they can be fun if they have a purpose: for instance, something like the Read Harder challenge, ones that encourage you to read from different genres or read more diverse books, etc. I have a sort of evergreen challenge where I encourage myself to read more books written by authors from different countries, and keep a spreadsheet of which countries I've "read." (I also do this with other kinds of entertainment like movies.) But it's definitely true that some of them just seem to be for the gimmick and aesthetic, and for people who prize quantity over quality of reading in a sort of commodity-fetishism (as they're prizing books as markers of intelligence over the actual experience of learning and expanding your world via reading). Like when the challenges start to be things like "read a book with an orange cover" that's where I start to roll my eyes a bit, haha.

I will say that while I try not to be a snob about reading, it does drive me nuts when I've had people lord over how many more books they've read or how many more pages when they're reading beach reads and YA and other easily digestible stuff whereas I'm reading stuff that is heavier. One time when I was working some crappy minimum-wage job in college, I was reading this big omnibus of all Jane Austen's works (because I was taking a class on her where I was required to read those, not that I wouldn't read Austen otherwise lol) on my break, and one of the other employees asked me how many pages it was and I answered and he was like "pfft, that's nothing, I read all the Harry Potter books in a week and they're more than that!" And I wanted to be like.... yeah, me too, dipshit. I mean, I didn't literally read them in one week, but when each one came out, I devoured it within a day or two like a lot of people did, despite it being 800 pages. Because Rowling's prose is really easy to gobble up like that. Not that Austen is impenetrable or anything (I don't think she is and I think that's precisely why she remains so evergreen popular), but she does require more effort than *that*, particularly when you're reading her work for a literature class where you're expected to write a paper analyzing it, so you want to linger to make sure you really deeply understand it.

I've read academic monographs that were 150 pages long that took me weeks to get through, and I've read 800-page bestsellers that I ripped through in a few days. Pure page length does not determine how long it takes to actually read something. I mean.... in fandom we should all be aware of this, how many of us have devoured some 100k fic in a night or two? As someone who has written some of those academic monographs myself and therefore is familiar with how word count tends to relate to book page length, I can verify for you that that is the equivalent of devouring a novel in the same time frame. But it's a lot easier to do that when you're reading relatively invisible prose and are invested in your OTP getting together (or whatever) vs. if you're trying to digest someone's very dry and convoluted argument about Foucault.

--

I just read all of Scum Villain in about five minutes, yeah. And it was great, but nothing to brag about as an achievement.

I've got this friend who goes on about reading sooooo fast but then admits to often rereading to catch things that she missed the first time. It came up when I was explaining how seldom I reread or rewatch anything. I tend to remember it far, far too keenly after one time through, and it just doesn't hit the same a second time. I still read pretty fast, but not that fast.

I don't think it's snobby to roll your eyes at people who clearly don't grasp the difference between different difficulties of reading and—this is key—who are trying to wave their dick at you about how great they are. They started it!

The time I do roll my eyes is when people think you should read mega hard prose in order to learn, especially in order to learn vocabulary or get faster at reading. That's not what the science says. (Apparently, the fastest way to improve on that kind of thing is to read mass quantities of faintly hard-for-you stuff, not stuff that's hard hard.) But to learn how to decode confusing arguments? Yes, absolutely.

I do wish people would put a little more effort into unwinding their own tortured syntax on Foucault though.

[fluffydice]

I'm bored so I'm bothering you. Do you have any Saiki K psykickers headcannons you feel like sharing? It's ok if not 🥰

What have you done,,,

I don't have any specific headcanons, but I can talk a bit about their dynamics because I've thought (and written) about it more (and we'll inevitably get headcanons mixed in!)

The Pyskickers are interesting characters all on their own, but when you put them together, you get a mess that really shouldn't work as well as it does. Which is. The same for most ND friend groups asdfghjkl

A big thing that's important to me about them is that they have to be able to work without Saiki. Maybe not be functional, competent humans—especially because, like all of Saiki's friends, the more they group up the more braincells they lose—but they need to work as a friend group. Saiki, unlike with his other friend group, doesn't always feel the need to babysit the Psykickers. Toritsuka, maybe, but he's in a weird spot since he joined so early. Saiki and him were the only ones for a while, so he's kinda an in-between. But for the most part, Aiura and Akechi are usually actively helping Saiki with something. Toritsuka, too, even if 7/10 he's being threatened and/or bribed, 2/10 he's trying to help but failing—him succeeding that 1/10 already puts him in a separate category than most of Saiki's friends.

I went on a tangent there; point being, Saiki isn't constantly mother-henning and helicopter-ing them. Ergo, Saiki can't be the only reason they stick together. I don't want Saiki to be the only reason they stick together in my writing, mainly because I do like reinforcing the fact that not everything is about him—even if it's subtle. Things happen around him that Saiki is not always privy to, and this includes his fellow and honorary psychics' dynamics.

Akechi and Aiura are easy for me. Funnily enough, despite likely having the best relationship, even including Saiki, I have little to say about them. It's likely because they lack a lot of the complexity the others have: they're just really fucking cool with each other, and get along swimmingly. Honestly, when I write them, it's often with at least a hint of a romantic undertone. They're comfortable with each other physically and emotionally. Akechi trusts Aiura's judgement on when he should keep it short out of necessity, not because he's being annoying. Aiura thinks Akechi is wicked as hell, and also trusts his value judgements on people and situations.

From a literary standpoint, Aiura as a character tends to get in over her head and overly emotionally-invested in things—Akechi can provide a good counterbalance to ensure things can remain on track in the story, as well as help avoid any potential mini-conflicts that might arise from characters clashing due to simple communication incompatibility.

Speaking of communication incompatibility, Toritsuka and Aiura are full of it. Despite them seemingly being the most similar on the surface-level, their motivations, intentions, and moralities conflict. A lot. Take this scene I wrote of them, for example:

“Of course they were mad! You can’t just act like you don’t have emotions whenever you feel like it. Or, if you do, you can’t get depressed when they start treating you like it.” “If you don’t shut up,” Aiura hissed, grabbing a fistful of his sleeve. Toritsuka yanked his arm away to no avail, then settled for glaring at her. “I’m gonna—"

Here, we have Toritsuka actually making a good point about something; it's his wording that muddles it up. Aiura is quick to defend against him because she's protective of her loved ones, and is also aware that their beliefs differ sharply. Neither are quite in the wrong here; or, neither of them are any more right than the other. Aiura is right to assume the worst because that's typically what Toritsuka shows. Toritsuka is right to point things out about the situation. These are the mini-conflicts that Akechi smooths over by being essentially a bridge between their ways of communicating:

“Wait, Mikoto,” Akechi piped up. His fingers were in front of his mouth, his thumb cupping his chin, in a classic sign of thinking. “The wording was harsh, admittedly, but Reita is, in fact, not wrong.”

At the end of the day, though, they are friends. Aiura might be a tiny bit more willing to admit it, but both her and Toritsuka do care about each other. When they work together, big things happen. They just need a bit of oil to help smooth things along between them. Most of their dynamic, however, comes from their utility in stores:

From a literary standpoint, Toritsuka helps balance out Aiura's optimism to a reasonable point. Saiki's cynicism is often a big contributor to conflicts in my stories—he's unreliable, both in dialogue and in narration. Toritsuka is a milder version of that cynicism (albeit rough around the edges). Aiura can't always be right about the way of things, but Akechi is too prone to taking the middle ground; essentially, pointing out all the benefits to her way of thinking while also providing the downsides. Sometimes, though, it's necessary to just have someone completely shut it down, and fast. That's where Toritsuka comes in.

Also, Toritsuka and Aiura often act as the representation of the doubts and hopes of Saiki, respectively. They're essentially foils to each other, which is helpful when your main character is a hot-and-cold tempered little bitch. A sort of good-cop bad-cop for him, if you will. By having them verbally duke it out, it helps guide the reader a bit about what's true about Saiki's view and what's distorted by his way of thinking. Chances are, if they manage to agree, it's a lesson he's going to have to learn.

And finally, Akechi and Toritsuka. Though they're comfortable with each other to an extent, they lack the romantic undertones I put in for Akechi and Aiura. Akechi makes Toritsuka uncomfortable: it's hard to argue with him, for one, and he often calls out Toritsuka in a way that's hard to hide from. Akechi is the most successfully mentor-like to Toritsuka out of the rest of them—Aiura is too automatically competitive and Saiki can smother. There's also the fact that Toritsuka can sometimes trigger his trauma in certain ways, so Saiki tends to lash out. Akechi, however, is patient and steady. Anything Toritsuka says rolls off of him like water. Akechi is hard to catch off guard with words or actions, and deep down, Toritsuka really does need stability and an unwavering personality to help him grow as a person. I think Toritsuka is fascinating to Akechi as well, as I don't think Akechi is a naturally sexual being. He's not averse, but the kind of brain-rotted attraction and horniness that Toritsuka often exhibits can teach Akechi a lot about other people. The biggest thing that Toritsuka offers Akechi is a better understanding of other people. His down-to-earth nature can help Akechi connect his practical knowledge about psychoanalysis and anthropology to actual people.

From a literary standpoint, Akechi acts as a milder reign for Toritsuka. Aiura may be right to disagree with him, but sometimes a defter explanation is needed than Aiura's often emotion-driven responses. This is where Akechi comes in, especially because Toritsuka's language and laziness can make it seem as though he's not to be trusted as a rational view. He is, and Akechi helps uncover that.

Also, Toritsuka can sometimes act as the audiences natural reaction to Akechi's tangents. Akechi obviously likes to ramble, but Aiura won't interrupt him and Saiki won't confront people. Toritsuka cuts through a lot of that easily and naturally, which helps keep them both in character while still allowing the story to move on.

Overall, it's kind of easy to see what utility I get out of these characters. Akechi is an intermediary who bridges gaps of understanding, both between characters and the audience and the happenings of the story. Aiura is the outgoing one, the one to get things started. She provides a force against Saiki's heavily biased world-view and acts as a moral compass for her group. Toritsuka helps cut through a lot of bullshit and acts as healthy dosage of reality these personalities need to keep their heads on straight.

Plus, I think they're in an unofficial QPR. So.

[focsle]

You've expressed this sentiment before, so I'm not sure how to start this ask. I've been catching up on Mr. Havilland (he's my age! As are many of the other whalers whose journals you read) and it made me think of that post of yours, on how whalers would write down the names of other deceased whalers, even those they never sailed with, just so they wouldn't be completely forgotten, and a lot of what you do feels like that. I know some of them didn't want their journals read, and you didn't publish them and I think that was a good idea, but it's so crazy to go around thinking about some lad from 18xx doing this or that and then just disappearing, god knows what happened to him, and more than a century later here we are, on other continents, living a completely different life, thinking about them. And crazier still when they're your age and you can understand why they signed up (the ones that do it for vague reasons at least. I also know that I wouldn't have done it had I had the chance but I get it). I don't give much stock to being remembered by history, but so many of these lads worried about whether their families remembered them or cared enough to, and I don't think they would have minded to know that some people, somewhere, would listen to them talk about their day to day nuisances and their more serious troubles, wishing them the safest and most successful voyage even though they know it has all already happened

That’s partly why I feel compelled to read their journals and share them, because it’s me giving a personal acknowledgement to an ordinary lad that his life happened and I see it. I tend to feel that need much more strongly with the ones who died quite young either at sea or ashore, like Buel, Boodry, or potentially Haviland, rather than the ones who ultimately settle down comfortably with families and/or security like Abbe, Newman, or Langdon…because I feel like they maybe had less people in their life to acknowledge that existence (or just…less time in their life to BE acknowledged). It’s why I sometimes feel like they’re MY family or friends because I develop this investment in their well being even though they’ve all been dead and gone for quite sometime.

It can also be sometimes hard—even when making a point to humanize history—to fully acknowledge that these were people for better or for worse. Like, it’s one thing to look at a census record and see that someone is in their teens or early 20s and hypothesize what their life might be like or what they might be thinking about. Same goes for the cautioning against not putting a modern personal lens onto the attitudes and actions of people in the past which, while important to keep in mind and is something I agree with, I sometimes think that attitude swings too far into itself and leads to people considering people from the past as completely alien to us. I think, when viewing history from an academic OR a nostalgic lens it can sometimes get too easy to reduce someone’s life down into themes and trends for a specific aim and forget that…that’s just a whole person!

And then you get hundreds of pages of their own words and really see that so many of them were worried about the same things that 20-somethings worry about today. They worry about not being married yet when all their other friends ashore are, and other such life milestones they feel they’re falling behind on, they worry about their girlfriend breaking up with them because they’re gone for too long and she finds someone else, they worry about what they’re doing with their life, and they worry about having nothing to show for it. A 23 year old riddled with anxiety about their future and sense of worth spans across time, it seems. And then all the other little human bits I share from them ranging from the books they’re reading and what they thought of them, to the little jokes they’re making and pranks they’re playing on each other, to getting woken up in the middle of sexy dreams and being put off about it, to being freaked out about cockroaches, to thinking the moon looks pretty, to grumbling about having to do their laundry, or only getting 2 hours of sleep and having to power through it.

[winterinhimring]

20 Questions for Writers

Thanks for the tag, @musewrangler! This looks fun.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

94.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

852,051. (Holy cow.)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

A lot! Tolkien, Star Wars, Marvel, and Hornblower are the ones I've written most for, but I've also written stories for the 1985 movie Silverado, and for The Three Musketeers, Dune, The Hunt for Red October, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Jat'ca'nara, The War of the Ring, Pirunir Sur'haaise, break my bonds and be bound to me (what. the. heck.), and Ba'slan Shev'la.

I will admit, I was not expecting all of those. The Star Wars ones (all the Mando'a titles) make sense, WOTR is my first and longest fic and also in the Tolkien fandom, but break my bonds is one of the RAREST of rare pairs and despite it being in the Star Wars fandom too, it's focussed on some comparatively minor characters, so I am...very surprised by that.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! Always. I love receiving comments so the least I can do is respond to them. Also, I nearly always have thoughts to share with my readers in response to their thoughts on my fic.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Unquestionably Cuyan'e. It's a character study of two very deeply broken men who have both lost everything, one at the hands of the other, and it earns its 'hurt no comfort' tag. The title means "Survivors" because they're both the last survivors of their families. It's very unusual for me to write a fic this painful without putting in a happy ending, but that story pretty much showed up to my brain written the way it is, and when that happens I write what I'm given.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

That's much harder to answer than the last one! A significant majority of my fics have happy endings, or at least happier ones than canon. However, I'll have to go with Tegaanal, the climax of my Star Wars fix-it series, because it's such an earned happy ending and we watched the characters fight for it every step of the way.

8. Do you get hate on your fic?

Nope! I review my comments on the first couple of fics of any series, until I have an idea of what my reader base is like, and that seems to ward off the weirdos.

9. Do you write smut?

Heck no. I don't need that in my head.

10. Do you write crossovers?

On occasion! Usually because the muses show up and start jumping on the table banging pans together until I write them something.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to the best of my knowledge.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but I HAVE had a piece of music inspired by a fic. I wrote a poem (in Mando'a and in English) for Partaylir, and the absolutely fantastic Siena_Alexandria actually wrote a tune for it and recorded the result. If you like Mandalorians, Mando'a, conlangs, or just good music, listen to it here! (Each chapter is a different version of the poem.)

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Yep, several! Mostly with @musewrangler.

14. What‘s your all-time favourite ship?

I don't really have one, as I don't tend to get all that deeply invested in ships. Characters, yes, but not specific ships. I guess I have a soft spot for Walon Vau/Shmi Skywalker, though, since it's a canoe I launched all by myself (see my boggled reaction to break my bonds and be bound to me being one of my most-kudosed fics above).

15. What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

*grits teeth* I. Will. Finish. All. My. WIPs. (There's only one that is arguably in danger of abandonment, Of the History of the White Tree, and I'm going to come back to it as soon as I've reread the source material.)

16. What’s your writing strengths?

Hmm...I would say it's my character writing, above all else. Once I have a clear mental picture of what someone would or wouldn't do, I can basically drop him into situations and just let them play out and see what happens, pretty much trusting the character to respond the way he should. A lot of my fics consist of this, and the consensus from my readers has been that I do it well.

17. What’s your writing weaknesses?

Strong emotions, and people who are open with their emotions, are difficult for me to write. Whenever I write a scene that involves feelings and vulnerability, I have a holy terror of becoming kitschy. And people who actually show their emotions voluntarily by default are kind of a mystery to me, so I don't really write them because I don't understand them.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Fun to do when I know the language and/or enough of it to get by! I put in quite a lot of Mando'a for my Star Wars stories and I enjoy working within the constraints of its limited vocabulary because it forces me to pare down my usually verbose writing style into just the core of the meaning I intend to convey.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Tolkien! My first, most lasting, and perhaps dearest fandom.

20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

HOW CAN I PICK JUST ONE???? My favourite fic is nearly always the one I'm writing now, though, so right now it's So We Can Learn to Pick Ourselves Up, the latest instalment of what started as post-Endgame MCU fix-it and has now grown into a live-action Spider-man multiverse fix-it.

No-pressure tags for @ramblingsofachristiannerd, @hollers-and-holmes, @lady-merian, @ghosts-and-blue-sweaters, @thatonebasicfan, and anyone who'd like to jump on!

[jacksprostate]

Was just wondering how you manage to replicate palahniuk’s style so well and also obviously write his characters?

Love your blog btw!

There's a few things that go into it!

Firstly, I have the advantage of, according to my friends, before I read any of his stuff my style was already kind of Chuck adjacent. I tend to be very rhythmic in my writing, I do like to have little repetitions, I like fun descriptions — similar to how he focuses on things reading aloud well, and favoring offbeat descriptions, his little ritual words, etc. That's my biggest secret, I just already wrote pretty close to it without knowing, so I didn't have a whole lot to change. Similar dog learning new tricks sort of deal. That said, there IS stuff I actively think about, especially with regard to character voice:

There's some things I'd call window dressing — minor changes that make it more recognizable. This would be things such as: the narrator does not get put in quotes, slips into 2nd person, using a rhythm where the dialogue tag goes in front (generally Tyler says, blah, not blah, Tyler says). That also makes it feel more active and present. I also like to outright include the occasional line from the book as a referential repetition, or a spoof on a line, I think that's the fun of fanfiction. But if those lines stand out glaringly it can be a sign you either need to change your style or maybe you're just trying to stick it somewhere it doesn't belong.

There's some bigger things: sentence variation is another thing I've invested pretty heavily in on my own and something I highly recommend any writer get in the habit of, but in trying to match his character voice I do consciously feel for when something is getting too long, specifically. The key with Chuck is he can have long sentences, but they're made out of short ideas. Long sentences often become grammatically incorrect as they're separate ideas jammed together for rhythm and sense.

He also shies away from adjectives; I kind of ignore this because I love a good adjective, but I've learned from it by making sure each one is impactful in its own way. Avoid superfluousness, keep things moving. He also shies away from stereotypical descriptions, I enjoyed building my confidence making weird ones. It's something I'm keeping going forward.

Another thing with his style is he loves fun facts. Fortunately I also love fun facts. To do those you have to keep it relevant, symbolic/metaphorical, purposeful, and simple. You can totally get complex, but only using simple building blocks. It's not to show everyone you know something, it's to build a little cliff to push the narrator off of. People don't need the detailed rockwork.

He often has little... almost like an aside? The narrator will ramble or think about something else for a little bit before getting back to the present. That shaky hold on the Now contrasts with how action focused everything is and allows moments of rest even if its still action.

As for character voice, the narrator; by following the above, you can get most of it, and then remembering his general view of the world to keep things in theme. He shouldn't be happy. He should have a lot of surpressed rage. Etc. Good character writing starts with a good understanding of the character, and that's real important for whoever your pov is. Always important to check if stuff passes the "he wouldn't fucking say that" test. When I have dialogue for him, it's almost an extension of his thoughts. I mentally read it to myself with the dull affect Ed Norton used for the movie monologue, really that shit was perfect. I usually can't keep a voice in my head like that but that one... yeah.

Tyler on the other hand I have to be pretty conscious about, sometimes I'll go back through the book and read some of his lines. He tends to be very direct. Very rarely uses names, it's tempting to use psycho boy or ikea boy all the time but it's the devil speaking. Tyler is direct, always serious even when he's laughing, his statements are not mitigated at all, if he is saying a pet name it is for its own impact not to soften any sort of statement. Rhythmically I find this directness difficult sometimes, but the 'Tyler says' dialogue tag makes it feel like a religious call and response on the narrators part and serves to soften things — but have that be the narrator's perspective and choice, not Tyler's. It's pretty heavily repeated in the book. Tyler also requires a "He would not fucking say that" test and I think I've gotten better at his dialogue over time (ex: retroactively, Tyler's dialogue in my psychoactive fish story s u c k s. I mean, it works, but I didn't really have a strong grasp on him at the time and while the actions sound like him, the words and delivery don't. Now though I think my snippets and the dildo fic are pretty strong!) A lot of it is just practice and tuning your ear. Reference the original material and try to dissect it.

Hope this makes sense :) if there's anything specific where you're like "how'd you write that" I can try to answer. Glad you enjoy my blog!

[celestie0]

Hello!! I wanted to ask some advice 😞 I have a fic idea but I've never posted any writing before and its like a very very specific band au and I'm scared no one will care to read it because of how much music context it requires 😭 I really admire your writing so like...what do you suggest...

(Also super excited for next kickoff ! I've never been this invested in a fic)

hii my love!! omg a band au sounds like so much funnn are you kiddinggg i would eat that UPPP. my advice would be to just go ahead n write it!!! it's super nervewracking to share work, especially if you've never shared before, so for the time being you can just write w the idea that no one else will read it except for yourself! that'll help you establish a healthy relationship w your writing & your hobby in general even before you post should you choose to post

as for the specificity n music context, i personally think thats SO FUCKIN RAD!!! i love a story where i can enjoy a romance but also have aspects outside of it that i can learn something new from or take something away from. i have read some pretty incredible fics & books, but the ones that have always had a lasting impact on me are the ones i went into knowing nothign ab a specific something, but then i leave it feeling like i've learned something i wouldn't have ever known before!!

it's a totally valid feeling though, esp in fanfiction where you might think readers want to read ab only their fave characters or specifically romance. i felt this way a lot with including the film major & photography aspect to kickoff, i feared readers would find it boring and would just want to read ab gojo x reader. i think in ch9, gojo only had like 40% of the chapter screentime and didn't even make his first appearance until like 5k words into the chapter, but i'm still really happy w the chapter and the response i got was great too. i see some of my writer mutuals break the norms n experiments w their stories all the time too, and honestly, i think that makes for some of the BEST and most MEMORABLE stories :)

as for fears that people may not see your story, i totally get that. keep in mind, i think the jjk fandom specifically doesn't really have too many long fics, at least compared to what i've seen in other fandoms, n tends to steer towards oneshot content (i could be wrong ab this but it's just what i've noticed! at least on tumblr. long fics always get lots of love on ao3 tho) so don't worry too much if you're not getting as many notes or reblogs etc as some other authors, bc if you choose to post series content, then you'll technically be in a niche category for this specific fandom. BUT i have noticed that the quality of interactions w longer stories is very amazing and totally worth being a part of this writing community for that reason!!

when i first started posting, i really didn't know what to expect since the last time i had a fanfic blog was for like two months when i was 12 on deviantart LOL. and now i'm just extremely blown away n humbled by the support. but that's the thing- you'll never ever know unless you try! again, just write and picture it that you're the only one that's going to read it, so put all that juicy music context in there n really write w that passion in mind!! (i'm assuming you're into music or bands n that's your inspiration? don't be afraid to let that interest show!!) and that's really the only thing you need to get started, after that it's just simply copy pasting n then posting :)

if you do get around to posting or sharing it then feel free to tag me bb!! i'd love to read it n support you. good luck to u n much love!! <33 i hope this helps in anyway

and thank you for looking forward to kickoff :)

ps. in case you want any specific writing advice i have some on my page here (sorry bb i just realized i wasn't sure if you were asking for actual concrete writing advice haha my bad if i misinterpreted)

[sadistpet]

Meet the Writer

it's munday everybunny you know what that means

ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴍᴀᴅᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴘɪᴄᴋ ᴜᴘ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴜʀʀᴇɴᴛ ᴍᴜꜱᴇ(ꜱ) ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴠᴇ?

i love choosing muses that aren’t very. canonically fleshed out. it gives me a lot of opportunity to make them into my own ig :3

raikov is generally a pretty blank slate besides the little we know about him ( being violent / sadistic, being in love with volgin, u kno ) and i think he's potentially a really interesting character from what little we see of him. im personally not ascribed to the eva theory bc i think its kinda silly and robs him of a lot of his personal agency, but it is a common theory, so i kinda wanted to build up a characterisation that was more. faithful to canon rather than fanon u kno. plus sometimes my autism just latches onto specific random characters for no reason and in this case it was raikov JDSFHDFKJ my partner loves raiden and when we were scrolling his wiki page for the funnies obviously raikov's page comes up at the top as a "maybe you meant this" and i just kept coming back to him

ɪꜱ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ᴀɴʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴡʀɪᴛᴇ?

SURPRISINGLY ENOUGH i hate writing anything with like. eating?? which is ironic considering . raikov . but i just never know how to word it BUT aside from that i think combat is really the only thing ! just cause i feel like it relies heavily on input from both parties and i constantly feel like im overstepping kjshkfjhg

ɪꜱ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ᴀɴʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ ʀᴇᴀʟʟʏ ᴇɴᴊᴏʏ ᴡʀɪᴛɪɴɢ?

fluff angst smut grins. they just come a lot easier to me, especially angst because i always have a LOT to say about silly little internal thought processes and i love writing sadness and pain ^-^ it makes me very gleeful ironically jdkhfdjhg i get very emotionally invested in angst especially. smut is a little bit harder? kinda like with combat ironically it heavily relies on the input of both parties but i do feel for the most part its pretty open ended fun :3

ʜᴏᴡ ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴜᴘ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʜᴇᴀᴅᴄᴀɴᴏɴꜱ?

i just know. BUT NO SERIOUSLY sometimes it's just Vibes, sometimes it's through reading canon stuff and linking it back to my backstory for him, sometimes it's through interactions with others. there's a lot :3 i do put a lot of thought into my headcanons though, maybe like. too much lmao. but i enjoy it i really love doing a lot of analysis to get to my headcanons

ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡʀɪᴛᴇ ɪɴ ꜱɪʟᴇɴᴄᴇ ᴏʀ ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴘʟᴀʏ ᴍᴜꜱɪᴄ?

a bit of both ! rn i'm writing in silence and i think last night i was mostly writing in silence on my phone and then listening to music while i finished stuff on pc. i think it depends ? sometimes i just get really distracted when listening to music and end up completely neglecting actually writing HDFJGHED so i think overall i prefer silence, or something in the background that i've already seen before so i don't need to pay much attention to it

ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴘʟᴀɴ ʏᴏᴜʀ ʀᴇᴘʟɪᴇꜱ ᴏʀ ᴡɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇᴍ?

i love winging it :3 i like the unpredictability of it but i think i tend to like. outline ? replies before i actually write them properly. ive never really plotted with anyone besides a vague kinda outline or premise, because i do really like the unpredictability :3 but im always open to plotting grins cutely.

ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴇɴᴊᴏʏ ꜱʜɪᴘᴘɪɴɢ?

Yes. not just romantic shipping; sexual, enemies, rivals, whatever, idgaf I LOVE CONNECTIONS!!!!!!! i love being able to write relationships between characters. even if its like, familial relationships or whatever, i think it's SO FUN like ourgh. grins really big

ᴡʜᴀᴛ'ꜱ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴀʟɪᴀꜱ/ɴᴀᴍᴇ?

frances ! it’s not my irl name but the one im most comfortable using online. i also go by rosalind, neo, and vanya :3 one of these is closest to my irl name but youll never guess

ᴀɢᴇ?

22, 23 this year somehow

ʙɪʀᴛʜᴅᴀʏ?

september 17th !

ꜰᴀᴠᴏʀɪᴛᴇ ᴄᴏʟᴏʀ(ꜱ)?

pink. fairy tale pink. baby pink. any shade of pink

ꜰᴀᴠᴏʀɪᴛᴇ ꜱᴏɴɢ(ꜱ)?

UM im not sure ?? of all time maybe dysph.oric reverie by [redacted] and the art of suicide by emilie autumn and valley of the dolls by marina atm though its a stranger i remain and holding out for a hero

ʟᴀꜱᴛ ᴍᴏᴠɪᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀᴛᴄʜᴇᴅ?

the thing (1982) !! oh it was so fucking good i really really enjoyed it. theres a bunch of old classic horror films ive never seen so im glad i could tick one off the list :3 the effects in it were absolutely stunning my goodness

ʟᴀꜱᴛ ꜱʜᴏᴡ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀᴛᴄʜᴇᴅ?

i think it was blue eye samurai ?? i gen dont remember

ʟᴀꜱᴛ ꜱᴏɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ ʟɪꜱᴛᴇɴᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ?

im so sorry for my crimes but it was the stains of time and then holding out for a hero

ꜰᴀᴠᴏʀɪᴛᴇ ꜰᴏᴏᴅ?

meat. and sweet things. i dont think i really have any favourites in particular besides liiiike caramel

ꜰᴀᴠᴏʀɪᴛᴇ ꜱᴇᴀꜱᴏɴ?

spring ! all the other seasons make me depressed in some way somehow

ᴅᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴀ ᴛᴜᴍʙʟʀ ʙᴇꜱᴛ ꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅ?

i have avoidant personality disorder so im too scared to explicitly call anybody my friend in case they hate me so unfortunately i will not think of us as friends unless yuou tell me we are. but if i talk to you / interact with you regularly just know i consider u a friend ok. snf

[toxicanonymity]

Do you ever struggle with feelings of discouragement or inadequacy if your fics don’t do as well as you had hoped?

I’m struggling with that myself. I try not to get so hung up on it but it’s very hard, especially when something I’m so proud of doesn’t do as well as my other works.

I don’t even feel motivated to write bc I don’t wanna set myself up for disappointment

Discouragement, sure, I think that's natural sometimes. But I really don't feel like stats have anything to do with adequacy. Baring my soul, yuck. But fuck it we ball. Sorry it's a long answer.

I don't think I've ever answered a serious ask aside from the time i created Dr. rock which hardly counts but I've seen a lot of people struggling with this lately and hope this might be idk comforting to a person or two without leading to debate/discourse.

You mentioned something you're proud of isn't doing as well as your other works, and I can see how that would be disappointing. For laughs, I'll compare 2 of mine. These fics are impossible to compare (as are most, I think) but I def understand the urge to measure yourself against what you see as the potential. Aches: <1k popular trope I banged out in no time, wasn't sure about it, literally thought "people don't have to like it" before I hit post. >4 notes per word. Left in Lincoln: >22k posted so far, challenging, writing it for months. Has possibly driven me crazy bc I had this passing thought the other day and not about TLOU. (I didn't feel like re-reading it all): "I should just rewatch the movie. . .wait." 🤡 The whole Lincoln series combined has fewer notes than Aches lmao. But it's far more rewarding in getting to see it come to life, quality of engagement, and stretching myself 😏. It's not for everyone, for various reasons. Surely would have better stats without the twist I went with. But at what cost??

-------

Often, if people don't read or like something, it's a reflection of their own interests, limitations, and assumptions. And the right "fit."

I don't rly read much in general, but specifically, I rarely read long stuff (if I do I prob scan a lot tbh). I normally only want, if any, just enough plot/premise to build sexual tension. I don't read fluff or angst. I don't have the attention span / commitment to get invested in original characters. I tend to avoid stuff similar to what I'm working on. I make assumptions - If there's no word count, maybe it's too long. I know a lot of the fics I skip for these reasons must be fantastic. Assumptions I experience - I've seen very popular fics in the wild that strike me as dark, creepy, or pervy but aren't tagged that way. So some things that are tagged dark, etc., including plenty of mine, might not be dark in the way people assume based on their own ideas, or based on what others do tag. Also some people think I only write dark when sometimes it's just horny (see master list).

I've sometimes found myself thinking "It sucks more people don't read this bc i bet they would enjoy it" (not just my own fics). It might sound egotistical but I think it's often true.

------

Of course I want engagement because that means more people reading something which can mean more interaction, discussion, learning what you liked, what you think, etc. that's what I love.

But notes aren't rly near the top of what I care about, even though it does feel great to get them and I truly appreciate every single one.

Night walks doesn't get nearly as many notes as some of my other stuff, especially these days, but it's fun to write and I like to feed his feral fans who only get more into him with time. Same with raider: among those who do read and engage, I sense rising enthusiasm, thirst, and rate of falling in love with him (my bad). That's all worth more than 1000 likes to me. I have a good time writing these guys, so I write them more than other ones that get way more notes 🤷. I'm not saying notes don't matter at all, I know they affect exposure and engagement. But if just did what gets notes, I don't think I'd have such high quality engagement bc I'd just bang out more stuff with the most popular tropes instead of our fave Joels and those destined to become our faves bc they offer something special.

My outlook was the same before I had so many followers btw. Rock Bottom (22k) was what I felt like writing, still more ambitious than anything I've done in the Halloween fandom. I was disappointed it got way less attention than my one shots, but I know it's a banger, just certainly not for everyone lol.

-

I'm sorry for what you're experiencing and feeling, but I think it's very common and hope you can reframe it to not feel inadequate. I especially hope it doesn't discourage you from writing. ❤️

[dutifullylazybread]

I am so in love with your story Deeply and Immovably So. I am heavily invested, I am a bit embarrassed to say that right as I found your story I was writing my own fic falling into the same theme of Tav and Rolan living in the tower together. I am currently rewriting my story to make sure I keep our stories different.

I guess I wanted to ask you a question, how did you mange to write a story all in one go? I tend to write in fragments and post my chapters one at a time. I guess If you could give me some advice on writing series and how you approach it?

Your amazing and can't wait for the chapter update on Friday!

I'm so glad you like the story!! :D. I'm honestly not worried about there being similarities between our fics. One key point for Rolan's character is establishing a home for his family after what happens in Elturel. On top of that, Tav (even a Balduran Tav) doesn't actually have a home that we can ever visit, so gravitating towards staying in the tower makes a lot of sense! So if that is a big part of your story and it would be strongly affected by you changing that part of it, don't feel like you must make those revisions. I'd rather you be happy with where you story is than worry about similarities like that. Regardless, I'm really excited to read your fic! If you'd like, please drop me a link when you begin posting! :)

As far as how I wrote the fic all out? I won't lie, I haven't really ever thought about my process, so when you asked, I sorta resembled Patrick (more below the image, I promise!):

That being said though, I can definitely share how I wrote the fic and how I am working with the story now, but my big rule with writing is that writers should do what works best for them--what works for me might not necessarily work for someone else. So if what works best for you is posting as you finish chapters, then absolutely do that. There are some extremely talented writers in the Rolan x Tav corner that do the same or something similar. If you haven't read @underdark-dreams's A Strand to Climb, @lemonsrosesandlavender's Sharp Teeth, or @graysparrowao3's What If Rolan Was A Companion? I highly recommend them (and not just these fics--the rest of their repertoires are delicious too!).

This is my tl;dr for my explanation below--I can be super long-winded (I'm sorry about that!!). Like I said, this is what works for me, but if you don't think these things jive with you, then do what you feel is best for you and your story. :)

Write the story out first. Don't edit until you have finished the fic.

If you run into a writing wall, work on a different scene and come back later.

While it's fun to add in details, a lot of that can be supplied during your editing/revisions stages. Worrying too much about this can bog you down when you're in the middle of writing.

Don't immediately jump into editing your story after finishing a chapter. Take anywhere from a few days to a week to let the draft sit before you work on it again.

Avoid burnout - take care of yourself and take brain breaks.

Here are the longer explanations:

Write the story out first. Don't edit until you have finished writing the fic.

I started writing the Rolan x Tav story as my NaNoWriMo project back in November and I kept working on it through December. For those who may not be familiar, NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month, and the goal is to write 50,000 words in a month. These do not have to be good words, they just have to be words on a page. So already out of the gate, I knew that, if I wrote this fic, it might not be well-written at first, but it would be a story. I had to give myself permission to write a bad draft, basically, and that is sometimes the hardest thing in the world (I am still irked by it). If you're anything like me, the thought of not having perfection on the page during a first writing pass feels awful. BUT I do sincerely believe it is why I wrote as much as I did in two months. Because I just focused on writing and not editing. And, if I could tell I was getting close to hitting a wall, I would make a note in my manuscript to come back, and then I'd keep writing the chapter. My notes are parentheses that basically say (Add more detail here), (make scene more sexy), (Review dialogue exchange). It's really weird to write down, but when I'm writing and struggling, it honestly feels like my brain is coming up against an actual wall. Basically, I'm giving myself a headache. BUT this is my warning sign to come back later, because I'm getting too lost in the weeds and I won't be happy with the end result of whatever I force out.

2. If you run into a writing wall, work on a different scene and come back later.

The rationale for coming back and working through the wall later comes from a combination of reasons: 1) From past experience, forcing myself through a block can work, but it is the most agonizing experience ever. And it is exhausting. Writing can be exhausting, that is okay. BUT, what if I force myself through the block and then I'm unhappy with the result? For me personally, pushing against a block/wall can feed into burnout. So 2) it's better to take a break and work on a part of the story that I am excited to pursue and then revisit the wall later, because 3) if you let yourself take a brain break, you're going to come back and find that the wall isn't really a wall anymore. If anything, it's a really fun idea. You just needed to come back when the lighting was different.

3. While it's fun to add in details, a lot of that can be supplied during your editing/revisions stages. Worrying too much about this can bog you down when you're in the middle of writing.

I find that, while I am in the drafting stages, I often write at a pelt. I do my best to write the first draft well, but I write so quickly that I might not pause to ask, "So what does the setting look like exactly? What color is the sky? How does the Chionthar look at this moment? What does it smell like?" Some of those details might make it in while I'm drafting, but I think that I focus in on those during editing/revision, because that is when I let myself slow down and focus on the details.

4. Don't immediately jump into editing your story after finishing a chapter. Take anywhere from a few days to a week to let the draft sit before you work on it again.

Due to how I wrote this fic, I didn't actually revisit a lot of these chapters until about a month or two later. And that has led to a combination of "Hey, this isn't too bad," to "What were you thinking??" BUT, I do sit quite firmly in the camp that taking a few days to just breathe and not immediately jumping into editing helped give me a fresh perspective. When we spend so much time working on our stories, it goes without saying that we are very close to what we are working on, and sometimes that can work against us. SO, putting some distance between yourself and the chapter in question can help you identify what needs to be cleaned up/revised when you return to it.

5. Avoid burnout - take care of yourself and take brain breaks.

In my experience, one thing that stopped me from working on long fics was burnout. For previous fanfic projects I tried to work on, all of my free time would be poured into writing, and not a lot of it would be used to relax. I would work on these stories nonstop. I would argue that this is probably why several long-form fanfictions don't get finished by several writers (and that's not even considering how school, work, and family obligations might also take a toll on your energy). The last thing you want is to feel apathetic or frustrated over the thought of working on your story, so taking the time to relax and take care of yourself. While I think having a writing habit is extremely helpful, I also think taking an evening to just relax once a week is just as nice. Typically, I start writing around 7 pm every night, and I'll wrap up around 10:30 pm - 11:00 pm. BUT, I don't do any intense work on Mondays (since that is D&D night in my house).

I hope that this helps! But again, do what you think is best for you. I'm super excited to read your fic!!! :D

[allieebobo]

i've been having an itch to write an if game, do you have any tips? i feel like its a very bad idea to jump straight in head first yk?

Ahh! First off, that's so exciting, congrats!!! I'd say actually that jumping straight in head-first was what I did! I'd say it wasn't a bad decision xD I'm a big believer that a shitty first draft is a lot better than a perfect story that never gets written :)

Best of luck and have fun! I can't wait to read whatever you come up with :) Starting a new project (at least for me) always gives me such an endorphin rush. More practical advice under the cut.

Planning

Instead of just writing what you know, I'd say, write what you care about. It'll shine through in the writing :)

Coming up with a more bounded concept/premise helps to make the IF a little less 'unwieldy' to write, and you can always expand on it and branch out from the main (tight) skeleton—e.g. I love both my IFs but gotta say, Merry Crisis is a hell of a lot easier to plan.

On plot: Decide what the theme and main journey/narrative arc will be. What is the central goal of your MC, and what will they go through along the way? Who's invested (or opposed) to this?

On characters: I like thinking about how their experiences and background have shaped their personality, worldview, dreams, desires, and fears. Thinking of them as folks who have their own paths that happen to coincide with MC's helps me come up with the main emotional 'beats' of the IF.

Writing

I don't plan much before I write, but I do sketch out the main 'landmarks'/major moments (see above) and work around those. They're stepping stones that help me to thread the rest of the story tgt.

I tend to write the skeleton of the code first, then fill it in with words. I find the code gives me some structure—and as for the writing, I sorta just improvise/fill in words on the fly. It also allows me to come back certain scenes that I'm not 'inspired' to write at the moment.

Writing down good lines that occur to me in the middle of the day really helps. A good playlist also helps set the mood :P

And finally, if the words ain't flowing, I usually don't sweat it. Usually I pivot to doing something else, like planning, or reading, or coding, or fixing bugs/editing, or answering asks on Tumblr, or just doing something else completely!

Coding

If you're using twine, a useful starting point is @manonamora-if 's insanely useful collection of twine resources, and her equally amazing twine guide!

If you're using choicescript, this basic tutorial is a good place to start. Yi Weng's videos are nice as well. For testing, check out @csgt's mozilla extension (randomtest and quicktest are crucial as well.)

Beta-testers are also an invaluable way to get extra eyes on your work, especially when the IF starts getting too long.

Other things: I highly recommend checking out @interact-if and @writingwithcolor—they usually share useful resources for writing.

[spankingtheatre]

hey there! As a fellow writer, have you also noticed regressing reblogs on your stories? When I first started I had very few followers but my stories still got lots of notes. Now, I've gained more followers but still the reblogs get few and far in between. I'm interested if this is a me-problem and people just don't like my stories anymore of if it's a more global phenomenom.

I hope you have a great day! Love your stories and games and thank you for sharing them (I swear I reblog) :)

That is such a great question!

My answer is yes, I have seen a drop in engagement (reblogs and likes) since I started writing, even though I think the quality of my stories has actually improved, and the number who follow me has greatly increased (although one can never tell how many are bots!)

So I'd be very interested to hear what others believe is the reason for this, both creators and readers. Feel free to reply and add your own thoughts below.

Personally, I think the main reason is fewer people now engage with Tumblr regularly, especially given the hostile attitude to sexual content. Communities are fragile coalitions of people, hard to build and build and easy to shatter. Being a member of a community requires effort, and if we don't feel our interactions are valued, we stop commenting and curating, and become merely consumers.

I strongly suspect there are other contributing reasons too. One of my core mental principles is if I ever want to understand why something is the way it is, I consider whether it's due to the Matthew Effect first, (aka the principle of accumulated advantage).

Popularity begets popularity. Attention is finite, and people tend to invest theirs in the places with the highest social proof. We writers are the small independent bookshops in the backstreets, not the hot buzzy nightclubs. So we rely on people who share our taste to spread the word of our existence. Likes give content an algorithmic boost, helping newcomers discover new content, whilst following builds an enduring audience.

But choosing to share on social media is a very personal choice, since you're effectively putting the words of others on your own blog. My Tumblr blog is a showcase of what I create, rather than what I curate, so I don't share much to avoid confusion. Whereas my Twitter feed does include content I retweet from others. People use different platforms in different ways, and that's OK.

So, in answer to the original question, I wouldn't take the drop in sharing personally. Sometimes great things go unseen.

I know I could get far more likes and reblogs if I "marketed myself properly". But I'm a modest guy at heart, who's uncomfortable shouting for attention. I just want to write, and excite the minds of those who read me.

The marvellous Maya Angelou once said, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you”. I've never been motivated by popularity, I write because it's agony not to write.

But we are social creatures, and validation still matters. Any performer who walked off a stage as the audience sat in silence would feel terribly anxious and insecure. That's why we have the social convention of applause. and why social media has likes.

So thank you to everyone who applauds what I do, it helps me feel so much less weird, especially when I write about weird thing we all do.

[emmithar-blog]

I was tagged by ,@whyyouacknsocraycray

How many works do you have on AO3?

81 currently. 77 completed, which means I have a lot more WIP than previously thought...

2. What is your AO3 wordcount?

987,989 words

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Red Dead Redemption. I don't have many obsessions...

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Forsaken (730)

Tears of Ice (372)

Silver and Gold (347)

Brotherhood (340)

Evanescence (328)

5. Do you respond to comments?

I do! Though sometimes I've been late on replying (Currently have 14 I haven't responded to yet, but plan on getting to them eventually...)

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I have a entire series of Whumptober fics that have some not so happy endings. Though I think Balancing the Scales might take that award.

7. What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Happy? What is this 'Happy' you speak of?

In all seriousness, there's a couple I feel that end on a higher note. Forsaken, Silver and Gold both come to mind. I have a few one shots floating around that lighter in humor as well.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I don't think I have on Ao3, no.

9. Do you write smut? If so, which kind?

That's a hard no, seeing as I'm ace. Sorry folks.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest crossover you’ve ever written?

I haven't no. I'm not a huge fan of them.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not on Ao3 no, but back on FF I have. Woke up one morning to a flood of emails from concerned readers flagging a fic that matched one of mine word for word in some areas. Issue was resolved quite quickly though. Bless my readers who kept an eye out for that.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I had some older Robin Hood fic that were translated into Finnish actually! That was a pretty cool experience. So long ago now I don't remember where it was posted (FF I think, and one other site), but it was big thing at that time, esp since I was still in high school.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Several times yes! It can be quite a bit of fun, esp when working to match styles of the other writer(s).

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Once again – Ace, so I'm not too invested in such a thing. That being said, for RDR2, other than canon ships, I do see the appeal of Sadie/Arthur as well as Charles/Arthur, though I write (nor read) either really.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

We're not going to talk about my four unfinished fics, because I'm going to finish them eventually.

When I have time.

And brain power.

And zero other distractions...

Moving on....

16. What are your writing strengths?

I've been told I tend to capture the likeness of certain characters, including dialogue and inner thoughts. I feel like I keep good pacing over longer stories, and that I have the ability to paint vivid scenes to help readers immerse themselves in the story.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I have the inability to write a short fic. Anytime I tell myself 'Oh yeah, that'll only be x words/chapters, it nearly triples in length. Looking at you, Silver and Gold, (aka minibang fic)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I've done this before with some Spanish when characters were in appropriate situations, where they weren't supposed to know/understand what was being said. I think I've done it once with German, but I could be wrong. I feel it add flavor when done a sparse amount, and not have it be too overbearing for the reader to muddle through.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Lord of the Rings was the first fandom I wrote and actually posted for, though Jedi Apprentice from Star Wars was what got the fanfic train rolling. I rewrote an ending to something that really annoyed me and I felt like I could write it better so I did. That was in the pre-internet era though, so it never made it online. (FF didn't even exist yet!)

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

I'm fairly partial to Learning Hurts. It has a mix of what I enjoy (Hurt, comfort, reassurance, growth) and I love the play of the title. Several characters end up learning something over the course of the story, and as implied, those lessons all come with a bit of hurting.

I'm tagging @darling-jack @sentanixiv @danger-r-98-5 . Share if you feel up to it!

[astrowaffles]

Answer all of them :]

JAMMIE I'M IN LOVE W YOU HOW DID YOU KNOW I WANTED TO ANSWER THEM ALL

anyways

Do you listen to music when you write?

no. my little animal brain must have complete silence in order to function. i'm very easily overstimulated and even if i have it on and manage to ignore it, the moment i leave the Writing Zone for even a second, i'm extremely irritated and frustrated. DOWN WITH BACKGROUND MUSIC

Do you have a trusted beta?

NO BETA WE DIE LIKE MEN!! honestly i'm too egoistic to have a beta, i tend to just assume i got it right the first time anyway. most of my fics are unbeta'd, although a few were done by hayla (@cauxtion)

First person or third person?

Third person. Personally I hate reading fics in first person so I don't write them either, but it has been known to happen.

Past tense or present tense?

Usually if I want something to have an emotional tone, I'll use present tense, whereas cracky or otherwise shallower fics are past tense.

How long do your fics tend to be? Multi-chapter or one-shots?

Short! Mostly one-shots, mostly about 1.5k or thereabouts. Plot is not my strong point.

Rarepairs? Yea or nay?

I don't tend to write them and usually don't actively ship them, but i'm not against them or anything. i just prefer the ships that make sense to *me*.

In character or out of character?

I try SO HARD to make everything in character, but the problem is, I write UA's (universe alterations) so the characters are in situations they have never canonically been in. it's a lot of guesswork, and i'm sure it turns out ooc regularly!

Favourite trope?

Well, obviously, i'm a SUCKER for a good old single father figure ... reluctant father figure ... doting father figure ... found family, y'all. found family.

Do you like reading/writing Omegaverse?

Have read it, will probably read it in the future. Would 100% never write it. Not my thing, really, but lots of love to the people who do!

OTP(s)?

It's endless, dear god. Just in haikyuu, there's iwaoi, ushiten, kghn, daisuga, skts, kyouhaba, matsuhana, kuroken, bokuaka ....... there is literally no end

NOTP?

y'all are gonna hate me for this, i can feel it, but I have two: ushioi, and kiyoyachi. detest them, tbh

Fluff or smut?

Fluff!!!! i literally do not give a flying flamingo whether the characters fucked or not, tell me what they did on their date to the amusement park fr

Does angst get you excited?

I literally hate it so much throw it away bury it put it in a nuclear reactor i hate it so much. i will only read it for the Greater Good of a fic i'm very invested in

How do you come up with fic ideas?

Usually i'll sit there and think, i want to write a fic. what shall i write it about? and then i get an idea and then i write it. simples.

Are you a planner?

Nope. there's a reason my fics usually peter out at about 2k words, and it's because i've run out of ideas since i didn't plan anything :D

Do you title your chapters?

Not usually, but it depends on the context. sometimes i'm trying to copy the style of a book (like percy jackson) or the chapters are essentially standalone stories, in which case there'd be titles.

Overused words or phrases that just make your eye twitch?

i don't have any! the only thing that annoys me is when native english speakers try to use common english-speaker phrases but get them wrong. how do you even manage that??

What's something you struggle with as a writer?

character/story depth. my writing it just ' they bantered and then they went home'. WHERE ARE THE FEELINGS??

Any writing advice?

Write what you want to write! there's no point forcing yourself to continue things or start things that you're not interested in. you're here to have fun, so let yourself have fun and don't feel obligation to do anything. and if you end up not writing for months on end, so what? you have to do what works for you.

thanks for the ask!