#i wanna write more stuff for omgcp

[bittysfoodbaby]

i'm just realizing i haven't posted any original content since the spring 😭 maybe i'll post that radio station au soon but there's no fics just lore dump 😭

[pastelle-pvnk]

Why I Started Writing Again, or:

The Pretty True Story of How The Raven Cycle Saved My Life. 

--This is long, so thank you in advance for reading if you do.--

I wanted to take a minute to talk about the importance of fandom and feeling like you belong and how that’s a very powerful thing. 

Before I participated in the @pynchpromptweek 2019 Secret Santa exchange, I hadn’t written anything since January of 2015. The last time I posted was two days before 24th birthday. I can tell you exactly what was going on in my life at that time. 

I had just been told that I wasn’t going to make it through law school. My choosing to go to law school had less to do with the actual desire to practice law and more with the drive to do something that the world and my parents would accept as worthy. I had a writing degree from a good four-year university; continuing higher education by getting my J.D. was just something that was expected. 

2014, however, saw my grades slipping because - surprise, surprise - I wasn’t interested in what I was learning. The kicker to this is, of course, I wasn’t used to failure. I never really needed to study in high school and college; as long as I was on track to graduate with honors, my parents were pleased and I could do as I liked. It didn’t hurt that my degree had me writing fiction all day. Granted, it was very bad fiction, but it was still writing. 

I wrote all the time in high school and college. I wrote fanfiction and original fiction - anything wordy I could get my hands around, I did. I wasn’t really involved in fandom because, though I have the personality of a golden retriever, I also have a friend named Anxiety and a friend named Depression so I tend to be very cautious when joining things because I’m afraid people will immediately perceive me as being annoying. Yes, I’m going to therapy. Yes, it’s helping. 

Here’s the thing: law school is unlike any academic experience you will ever face. Law students are a strange breed of cryptids, foaming at the mouth for the love of justice and copious mounts of alcohol. You have to completely throw yourself into the first year of law school to even stay afloat and let’s be honest - I was mostly in it so that I could study abroad in Ireland that first summer (which I DID and it was AWESOME).

When I got the summons to appear in front of the academic board and was told that I probably wouldn’t be allowed to continue law school - that I had failed - my desire to write dried up. 

It didn’t help that someone made a reappearance in my life and his reappearance was not helpful. Like, at all.

Depression moved in with me like a bad roommate. Anxiety was its unwelcome, unhelpful partner. My relationships grew strained. I had a hard time talking to my dude. I had a hard time talking to my best friends, many of whom were either still in law school or had found jobs and were successful. I didn’t see where my place in the picture was anymore. 

I worked in a restaurant and I worked in a bookstore and I didn’t write. 

And I worked for my parents and I got a salaried, “big-kid” job and I didn’t write. I got married! And I didn’t write. 

I didn’t write for almost 5 years. Sure, I jotted ideas down. But the thought of seeing those ideas through was exhausting and terrifying. What if I failed again? What if, just like law school, I had imagined my desire to be a writer and I was actually very horrible at the very thing that had been bringing me joy for 10+ years? 

Two very important things happened in those five years: I rediscovered my love of reading for pleasure (a thing that gets sucked out of you quite viciously after five and a half years of higher education), and I read The Raven Cycle. 

I know that there are a stunning number of people who love Maggie Stiefvater’s writing, and I’m one of ‘em. 

(I’m getting teary thinking about this, hang on.) 

Okay. I was working at a very big bookstore chain in the children’s department. My focus in college had been YA lit, so when I had the opportunity to recommend books to kids and teens, I jumped on it and didn’t let go. Part of my job was shelving books into their appropriate sections and I had seen The Raven Boys, The Dream Thieves, and Blue Lily, Lily Blue more times than I could count. In April, 2016, The Raven King hit the shelves and I decided it was time to read this series. 

I was HOOKED. Not only was this a vibrant, incredible world with these super dynamic characters but the fandom was active and thriving. There’s something uniquely special about jumping into fandom when it’s established, healthy, and active. You actually feel like you can contribute and want to. 

Here’s the disclaimer: I only dabbled on Tumblr between 2016 and 2019 (my depression had me delete my blog twice, which was unhelpful), so I probably missed some things, but I’ve never known The Raven Cycle fandom to be anything but welcoming and open. Everyone has their ships, everyone has their tropes, and everyone has their opinions but the people I’ve interacted with have also practiced this wonderful “You like what you like, I like what I like, let’s talk about the overlap” mentality that I adore. I adore this mentality so much that when one of my best friends said, “You wanna start a book podcast to talk about stuff we like and don’t like?” I said, “YES.” 

One of the reasons we chose to do The Raven Cycle, and subsequently Call Down the Hawk, for @shelfcontrolpod is because I’m so grateful to this series and this fandom for bringing the joy of unabashedly loving something back into my life.

When I saw the Pynch Prompt Week Secret Santa come across my dash last winter, I felt like I was in a good enough place to join in. I was so, so nervous. More than the fear of not being a good writer, I was afraid of failing. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to find the words and I would disappoint and be disappointed. But I managed to squeeze out As If I’d Choose Anything Else - the first thing I’d written in almost 5 years. 

Then I did @bittysvalentines Gift Exchange. I signed up for @trcbigbang. I signed up for @rwrbbigbang. I kept jumping into fandom and joining discord servers and putting myself and my writing out there for people to read. In the last four months, I’ve written more than I wrote in that last, horrible year of law school. Even with all the craziness going around and things in my personal life that aren’t ideal, I’m still inspired to create. 

A huge part of all of this are the people I’ve met doing these challenges. The people I’ve let myself come to know through fandom. By sharing a little of myself with them and happily embracing what they share with me, I’ve found a community where I feel very much at home. So thank you, OMGCP fandom and RWRB fandom. Thank you, TRC fandom in particular. There’s a lot of overlap in there, but you all have brought joy into my life, and I’m so grateful for it. 

Thank you to creators like Maggie Stiefvater and Ngozi Ukazu for creating these worlds I adore.

And thank you, law school, for teaching me about failure and what it felt like to have all the wind taken out of my sails so that I could redirect my ship and find new winds to take me to better shores. 

(Okay, now I’m actually crying.) 

[insertatitlehere]

Hi everyone!

Someone on Discord had asked me how I made my Chose Your Own Adventure fic - Hey there Ghosties, it’s us, ya boys! - It’s a OMGCP fic about the tadpoles and ghosts and jokes

I guess it could maybe interest some other people and maybe motivate a few to write CYOA fics themselves! I’d love to read some, so

Basically to write it, it was easy: I made it from top to bottom.

More under the cut 

There’s also some code to copy/paste to make that pictures won’t deform your browser on mobile !

The prompt came from an edit by @omgtranspoindexter.

From there, I mapped the entire scenario, the different arcs and different endings in one afternoon - I taped some paper together to make a vertical flow and I used what I remembered from technology classes in middle school to make a flow chart

It’s not a real flow chart bc i didnt remember how to make them correctly but the idea’s here. As long as you understand yourself all’s good. The sheets on the side are also taped, in a way that make the whole thing easy to fold and to show any sidesheet with any middle sheet - one side is notes about the story (what happens in X paragraph, dialogue I’d like to add, etc) the other side are technical notes (paragraphs that are doubles, differences between two routes, where I should put clues about the secret ending and the good ending, etc)  

What I did is I numbered all choices and arc starts had roman numerals - those would become the paragraph numbers when writing.

Then I began to write. I did it once again, from top to bottom, paragraph number after another. In case of parallel arcs I did one arc after the other. 

^example of an exploration arc

Once all was written, began the fun part - coding. I used MohnblumenKind’s code that I adapted a little to suit my own preferences, also their code is a bit broken. Basically, you need to make a work skin with the CSS they propose - I don’t remember if I changed stuff in mine regarding sizes and colors but here is my own workskin. Go wild if you wanna personalise it

#workskin .storycontainer {  margin: 0 auto;  overflow: hidden;  width: 100%;  height: 600px;  text-align: justify; } #workskin .page {  margin-top: 25px;  height: 550px;  overflow-y: auto; } #workskin .page::-webkit-scrollbar {  -webkit-appearance: none; } #workskin .page::-webkit-scrollbar:vertical {  width: 12px; } #workskin .page::-webkit-scrollbar:horizontal {  height: 12px; } #workskin .page::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb {  background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, .5);  border-radius: 10px;  border: 2px solid #ffffff; } #workskin .page::-webkit-scrollbar-track {  border-radius: 10px;  background-color: #ffffff; }

Don’t forget to turn on the skin for your work

The HTML is a bit trickier because MohnblumenKind’s has a mistake but basically you should be good using this:

<div class="storycontainer">

<p></p><div class="page"> <p><a name="pageone" rel="nofollow" id="pageone"></a>Text of page one</p> <p><a href="#pagetwo" rel="nofollow">Link to page two</a><br /> <a href="#pagethree" rel="nofollow">Link to page three</a></p></div>

<p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p>

<p></p><div class="page"> <p><a name="pagetwo" rel="nofollow" id="pagetwo"></a>Text of page two</p> <p><a href="#pageone" rel="nofollow">Back to page one</a><br />  <p><a href="#pagethree" rel="nofollow">Continue to page three</a></p></div>

<p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p>

<p></p><div class="page"> <p><a name="pagethree" rel="nofollow" id="pagethree"></a>Text of page three</p> <p><a href="#pageone" rel="nofollow">Back to page one</a><br />  <p><a href="#pagetwo" rel="nofollow">Continue to page two</a></p></div>

</div>

This last </div> is very important - it’s the one closing the “storycontainer”. It MUST be at the very end of the text, otherwise all will be broken! Keep it at the very bottom and make sure it stays here. 

Also I’m not sure of how it works exactly, but when you first open the fic the story container is off - it’s on only when you first click a link. So if your first paragraph is longer than 600px - the size of the container -, your page will be broken. You don’t want this. My fic was supposed to begin In media res but I had to put an intro that’s just three emojis and a link to the actual first paragraph so it’s not broken :( 

So all’s good, I had the basic code, but - I had 70+ paragraphs to code. It took me around 25 hours and I worked on Notepad++, with frequent checks on AO3 to make sure it worked. I first purely coded, with just the links worded:

once I made sure on AO3 that the whole thing worked, that all links redirected you to the intended paragraphs etc, I added the text of the paragraphs

do yourself a favour and add the text via AO3′s rich text option.

That’s basically it!

One more thing, the banner: I put it above the story container so it’s always on the page. I also wanted to code it in a way that wouldn’t deform the page on mobile (you know those pictures too big. You know the pain.) but would still be big on desktop, so i made this CSS to add in your work skin:

#workskin img.banner {  max-width: 100%;  max-height: 100%; }

to use it it’s the code:

<img class=“banner” src=“source of the pic” alt=“description of the pic” />

Thanks for reading, good luck if you wanna try ! Don’t hesitate to ask questions

Here is the link if you wanna see on AO3

[rowingviolahere]

a wrap-up (ha!) of my new hockey experience

i’ve played (field) hockey for more than 10 years but i just started playing ice hockey and thought i’d write some of the stuff down. basically a group at my uni were looking for people interested and i joined up knowing NOTHING about ice hockey except Knife Shoes. but in summary: im now four different hockey players in a hoodie (indoor, field-field, field-goalie, ice ice baby)

(before anyone asks, yes, this was highly motivated by a recent reread of check please, but turns out ice hockey is heaps fun). rest under a cut to save your dashboards because i know that most people on my dash don’t care about (penumbra voice) spORTS! SPORTS! SPORTS!

the good:

you’re allowed to use backstick? WILD

also you’re allowed to stick check!! what the hell!!! one of the guys at off-ice grabbed the puck off me w what in field would be an ILLEGAL stick check and i was like “ok stop. hang on. i need some clarification. are you allowed to do [stick checks/obstruction/tackling from behind/swing tackles]” “yes” “there are no rules and i am UNSTOPPABLE” *immediately steals the puck back from him*

like two months of Actual Ice Hockey Training Weekly and starting from “can go forwards turn-ish and do hockey stops on one side sometimes” my skating skills are while not top noch, Muchly Improved. i can now do crossovers forwards and backwards in both directions, hockey stop both ways, and i know OF mohawks though they still elude me

having your own skates means edges actually..... exist. wild. i’d used hire skates all my life and got on the ice w my new ones and i was like. Oh. This Is It. Can Never Go Back Now.

wax for stick wrapping smells Good Actually. kind of want to. chomp it. (Forbidden.)

women are just. heaps allowed to play in the men’s league in my city w no issues so! if i end up medically transitioning i wouldn’t have to jump through hoops about it unlike field where i guess i’d have to start playing for the men’s club (which is a Separate Club to my current one and is from what i’ve seen super disorganised.)

was able to answer not one but TWO ice hockey-related questions at field trivia night. (admittedly one was a wild guess and resulted in me just going through all the NHL team names i knew until i went “i think that one sounds right”)

swapping which hand goes on top of the stick means that i can just do backstick stuff without my brain going “NO!!! THAT’S WRONG!!!!” which is a real good brainhack

i now exist in a weird position in the omgcp fandom where i have PLAYED and therefore have at least some experience to draw on wrt THAT but still very little idea of anything involving like actual NHL-related stuff (oh god does this make me bitty?)

the bad

oof ouch ow my LEGS

god that’s so much money. so fucking much money. i have a full kit of ice hockey stuff but god at what costs

(i know the costs. at least 900 plus travel expenses. cost of playing a comparatively niche sport that requires a lot of gear i guess)

so. much. cardio. why offside. there’s no offside in field. (don’t @ me i know why there’s offside in ice. i just hate it.)

im still not sure about whether “shoots right-handed” means you have a “right-handed stick” or if it’s like. the opposite. idk idc my left hand is on top bc otherwise i’ll start importing nonsense into my field game

[pokes bruises] how did THAT get there

no one told me how long shifts were meant to be in my first game so i was on the ice for like. a full five minutes. d e a d. (although my only point of reference was field hockey and again. that’s like. five-ten maybe fifteen before you get a sub.)

still don’t have a jersey because shipping to australia costs like. $50 extra? why this (still need to get one tho)

we’re probs not going to get any more games until next semester and tryouts for actual teams aren’t until like. october. h h h. gotta make do w pickup training till then

having a different hand on top of the stick means i have to relearn how to shoot. i want to be able to do these wrist shots people keep talking about. i can barely flick in outdoor anyway but. c’mon. wanna be able to pass strong.

the probably unnecessary but worth mentioning

i’ve been using my goalie smock as a jersey and look. it works. (bonus: it now smells kind of like the ice rather than just. goalie stank.)

have started wrapping bits of my field stick with hockey tape (and i hear you all booing but look. it’s an old stick i’ve had for about 7 years and it cost $40 bc i got it in the middle of the season and also it’s wood which i did not realise when i bought it but yeah the edges have started to shed a bit more than usual and while im not worried about it shattering like i was w my indoor stick because it’s wood it IS chipping at an increased rate and i literally just spent $30 on a new grip so i don’t want to get a new stick until next season at LEAST so. tape.)

most wild of the wild: my old indoor coach was at pickup training and i recognised her name bc it was kind of distinctive and she was like ‘how do you know that’ and i was like ‘i think you coached my indoor team when i was 12′

im trying to start fitness training for my field team and it is Not Working so far but i’m going to try.

[enchantedanny]

help your local broke-ass college student (COMMISSIONS!)

So basically I haven’t been working for like nearly 5 months now, and I need a job like yesterday because I have bills to pay for and I have to pay for school, so i’ve decided to-do commissions and hope and pray that someone wants me to write something for them. See bellow for more information! 

Types of Commissions + Prices + Other stuff 

Types

So basically as stated above the types of commissions I’ll be doing are writing. So one shots or a short multi chapter story. Pretty basic stuff. As far as the content if it’s a fan fiction I will write for the following fandoms: 

Hockey RPF 

Harry Potter 

PJO and HOO 

OMGCP! 

ATLA and LOK 

I will also write for a given prompt or off a simple idea. However I would prefer at least two options to write from incase for some reason I have difficulty with one of them. Along with Fandom writings I will also do originals writes as well. 

For original writes you will have three options. The first option is to pick from a stock pile of characters and give a general outline of what you would like or any specific plot points you would like me to hit. The second option is pick from a stockpile of ideas. With this you can make minor changes to characters or plot points however the overall of the idea would stay that same. The third and final option is to provide me with characters and a plot that you wish for me write. However this idea would require a lot of effort on the part of the person re- question the commission. You would need to provide a detailed plot and a detailed description of character(s) that would be going into the story. I am more than willing do this option, but it does require more work form the person requesting than the other options do. 

What won’t I write? 

Fake Dating/Fake Relationship 

Gender-Bent 

MPreg (I can’t do well it) 

ABO (another I can’t do) 

No Career Ending Injuries (specific to RPF) 

Cancer Fic (it’s just really fucking sad and I’ll end up crying and it’ll just be train wreck) 

Major Character Death (again like sad, and I don’t want that) 

Certain types of Smut *contact for further information

*to find out about certain ships I won’t write please inquire for more information

 Pedophilia 

 Abusive Relationships 

Incest 

Suicide 

Graphic Violence 

Prices and payment 

(The payments options are PayPal and PayPal)

1k words + original option one or two = $10 

2k words + original option one or two = $20 

3k words + original option one or two =$30 

*so every 1k words is $10 with a $5 for an additional 500 words 

1k words + fan fiction = $10 

2k words + fan fiction = $20 

3k words + fan fiction = $30 

*so same as the original works it’s $10 per every 1k with a $5 for an additional 500 words 

1k words + original options three = $15 

2k words + original option three = $30 

3k words + original option four = $45 

*for original option three it’s slightly more with $15 for every 1k of words however it’s still only $5 for an additional 500 words 

contact information: either shoot me an ask, or email me @ samnfosterr@gmail.com 

*there is a link to my AO3 on blog and Hockey Games and Bubble Baths is the most recent thing i’ve written solo if you wanna a writing sample 

[antarcticbird]

7, 17, 27, 37

7. List your NoTPs from each fandom you’ve been in.

oookay, I’m not sure I remember all of them. All my friends in the ST Voyager fandom shipped Janeway/Chakotay and I never really saw the appeal. Can’t think of anything from SGA or other older fandoms. Glee . . . uh, okay. Don’t wanna open that can of worms again but I almost stopped watching season 6 because of it (and will never rewatch that season again). For OMGCP that would be Jack/Kent. I love them both, but I don’t want to see them together again. Can’t think of anything for Eyewitness yet...

17. Who was your first OTP and are they still your favourite?

The first one I got really into must have been Tom/B’Elanna from Star Trek Voyager. They’re not my favourite anymore, no. But I still love them a lot.

27. What do you hate more: Coming up with titles or writing summaries?

TITLES. Summaries are pretty okay compared to titles. HOW do people come up with titles? I don’t understand. So many people have AMAZING titles for their fics and I have literally no idea where they find them? I DO NOT UNDERSTAND TEACH ME PLEASE

37. First person or third person - what do you write in and why?

For fanfic always third person. I can’t even read first person fic and I really don’t know why. But fic has to be third person to me. I like first person for original stuff though. Actually . . . all my original things are in first person? But fic is third person because that’s just the way it is.

[crashing-into-the-sun]

Get To Know Me

I was tagged by @satanicslushie ((thank you for the tag, love ❤️))

Name: Matti/Matti Lea

Gender: Girl (demigirl? I’m still figuring some stuff out)

Star sign: Cancer

Height: 4'11" (am smol)


Relationship status/sexuality: Single and ready to mingle (just kidding I have social anxiety), gay asf🌈🌈


Favorite color: pastel blue!!


Pets: a fuzzy black demon (cat) named Lizzie


First fandom: ……one direction (shh, that was a dark time) (I still like them but I was a creepy obsessed twelve year old)

Hobbies: Writing, reading, singing, playing instruments (guitar, piano, ukulele, and clarinet), cheerleading, gymnastics


Books I’m currently reading: Perpetually retreading Carry On, currently reading Naked by David Sedaris


Favorite TV show: *clears throat* WANNA BE ON TOPtopTOPtopTOp ((America’s Next Top Model))


Favorite place: My room, far from all human interaction


Favorite fictional character: The short list is like twelve thousand people long. Simon, Baz, Penny, Agatha, the entire OMGCP crew, Dante Quintana, Lowercase will grayson (from Will Grayson, Will Grayson), Katniss Everdeen, Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood, Fred Weasley, Hagrid, Cath Avery, Levi from Fangirl, Lincoln from Attachments… I’m going to stop now 😂😂


Number of blankets I sleep with: 3 on a good night, more if I’m cold (who am I kidding I’m always cold)


Favorite band/singer: Troye Sivan!!! 😍😍 Hayley Kiyoko and TØP tie for second.


Dream trip: ~NEW YOOOOORK, CONCRETE JUNGLE WHAT DREAMS ARE MADEEE OFFFF~


Dream job: can you support yourself on the consumption of oreo cookies


When this blog was created: Early February 2016, I believe, in order to suffer but not alone in the glory that is Carry On (also as a place to post fanfic, which I haven’t done in a while- forgive me!)


Why did I choose this URL: Because I am Carry On Trash Number One™

I tag @theduchessofmint @romanqynch @thecruciblegavemeyou @billsydoestuff @korporeal @captainpirateninja @anyberry and @crowleyimlivingacharmedlife 💖💖😊 y'all are lovely creatures