#idk if any of this helps

[writtenonreceipts]

hey! I love your writing so much <3

I’m curious how you find / make time to write fanfic?

I’ve been on a long hiatus after realizing that I can’t rly find the time to write during college but now I’m wondering how to navigate it all after I graduate so… yeah. Any tips / advice?

Friend!! Hi!! How are you???

Oh my lands, its so good to see your username!!

<3<3<3 Thanks so much, you're too kind to me :(

Minor backstory because I can't stop talking: When I was in college, it never felt like I got much writing done. Really, the only original writing I did get done was when it related directly to a creative writing course I was taking. And by that point I'd already made the decision that I would be a published author. So, I made goals. I set aside time specifically during the day (and night) to write. I got to class early? Pulled up a document. I finished a reading or study session? Pulled up a document. It wasn't until I was enrolled in a few higher level/intense workshops that I was able to find a rhythm. I joined a critique group and for the last six (maybe seven?) years we've been meeting consistently sharing chapters of out work and giving feedback. I've learned so much and I still have a ways to go

Truth be told? I'm the worst. HA!

The biggest thing that I have learned to help me when I am trying to write, to meet a deadline, to see a change or improvement: goals. Give myself goals and a timeline. Especially out of college. You don't have as much pressure (some, but different types). And being out of college I've done my best to hold myself accountable for my writing and the progress I make on my stories. With my writing group, I have to have something ready, so that gets me writing.

I time myself and check word counts for a given period of time. Usually I do half hour to one hour writing sprints. I look at my project and think about what needs to happen in this scene and where I'm going with it as a general guide and then go for it! I look at my project as a whole and see where I want it to go. I try and get an idea of when I can reasonably have it finished.

It's so hard. I fail a lot of the time. But I keep trying. I surround myself with good people, good authors to follow (and many authors either have podcasts, tips and sites, books etc). I give myself grace. I try again.

I am nowhere near where I wanted to be. Am I disappointed? Yeah. Do I beat myself up? Constantly. But I try again. It takes practice to meet goals. It takes practice to love yourself. But you can do it!

You don't have to write thousands of words a day. YOU DO NOT. Wasn't it Terry Prachett who only wrote like 300 a day? If you find extra time to write extra? Go for it! But don't hold yourself to a standard that is not feasible for you and where you are. You do what works for you. Always.

I rambled tooooo much. SORRY. IDK what came over me. Did any of that help??

[chloesimaginationthings]

Michael Afton draws FNAF tape girl for Vanessa,,

[namarikonda]

Jesus showing off his top surgery scars to the boys (John. 20:27)

[shepscapades]

[dbhc flavored] Hermit a Day May: Day 14 — Doc!

Featuring both a current-day s10 doc and a verrry early s8 post-deviant doc! :]

[haunted-xander]

I made this AAAAGES ago and forgot to post it and now I'm annoyed by how it's rotting away on my phone so here. Bratty teen Thancred being a menace to Fourchenault (and a bad influence on Urianger lol)

[scamoosh]

hi guyz i made a quiz abt which horror trope/theme i enjoy you are!! cws are in the description so please mind them!

[meamiki]

silly comic based on a time i struggled to read live on stream :thumbsup:

context clip compilation below ASDASDFASA

(cw for brief mention of hospitals/strokes)

[riskhour]

they're cosplaying. i guess

[fuckterfs-deactivated20221212]

If getting a partner is important to you, maybe moving could help, since that refreshes your potential dating pool and depending on where you move also increases its size. That might not be an option for you depending on your situation, so another option, if physical affection is not as important to you as emotional connection, would be to get closer to people on the internet and maybe do a long distance relationship with someone? Some couples chat or videocall to spend time with each other if they live too far apart, and if you wanna have a ldr you could have that with basically anyone on the internet, from tumblrines to people on discord. If physical affection is more important to you then getting a cat might fulfill your needs.

Ultimately you gotta ask yourself what you want out of a relationship, and depending on what that is you might be able to get that somewhere else

if a healthy relationship is what you seek, hiding parts of yourself as long as possible is the wrong approach. In order to be loved, you must subject yourself to the mortifying ordeal of being known. That might mean having to leave your comfort zone, but it is also probably worth it

Yeah see I know all that but it also doesn’t seem to be working. People just don’t want to date me.

[egophiliac]

Ego how do u draw the shroud bros hair? Its so hard 😔

Atp i might as well draw them bald😭🙏

I don't draw them at all consistently (let alone anywhere near on-model), so I'm not sure how helpful this will be. :') but I can share how I break it down, if that helps at all!

standard disclaimer that this is just how I draw them, take from it what you will, et cetera and so on and so forth. I really don't draw them close to canon at all, so this is sorta specific to my process, I guess? (and I am SUPER bad at putting things into words, so my apologies if this all comes off as a bunch of incomprehensible "you just, you know, ~*~*draw it*~*~" nonsense. 🫠 I can make no promises, but I'll try!)

I always start by establishing the shape of the skull and roughly where the hairline is -- the Shroudbros especially don't look anything like themselves without their hair, it's terrifying. :(

really can't overstate how much drawing hair is helped by thinking about it as different sections! even you have a less cartoony art style, it helps a LOT to start out with it as big, simplified shapes and then breaking it down more and more as you go.

the thing about their hair in particular is that the closer it is to their face, the more hair-like it is, and then it gets progressively more fire-y as it goes back. so their bangs pretty much act like regular hair! Idia has long, downward-and-outward-swooping bangs in that classic Yana M-shape, while Ortho's are shortier and spunkier (they kinda, uhhh, "lean" more to his right in general).

Idia also has these little short spiky sections that cover his ears and ring around the back of his head. these also act more like regular hair than fire.

them they have these big sections that are brushed back from their bangs and stick up -- this is where their hair really starts acting more like fire, so it doesn't have to be super consistent, just getting some nice flame-reminiscent shapes. I think of it as being in three sections: a bigger center flame, then two sections of smaller flames that kinda frame that center one. (I tend to treat this bit as being kind of flat/frond-y, although that's probably not really how it's supposed to be. ( ᐛ )

then I kinda just...fill in the back of their heads with more flame-y shapes that layer over each other. Idia does consistently have this one longer curvy bit that sticks out on his left; otherwise I just try to keep his hair feeling brushed back and with that sorta downward swoopiness he has in general, with just the little flame-ends sticking up. Ortho, meanwhile, has shorter clumps with an upward swoopiness (and note that his hair is under his headphones, so it gets a little compressed by them).

Idia's longer hair is where it gets to be, like, just pure fire, so it's all about whatever Shapes I feel like doin'! it kinda just...flows down from the back of his head, if that makes sense? sorta like a cross between water and a stream of fire. (length-wise, it goes down to either the back of his knees or down to his feet depending on which reference you're looking at...it really isn't super consistent, so I'm not either. :')

and that's how I draw their hair! I don't usually shade it beyond that just 'cause I'm lazy, but the shading does help sell the fire effect a lot -- their hair shading uses a lot of curvy and weird shapes that darkens from the center of their hair clumps out, with highlights/transparency on the tips (and just a little bit where hair highlights would normally be, to get the feeling of the curve in there).

SO yeah, hopefully you're able to get something helpful out of all this! 🙇

[vibinginthebg]

Still some doodles of them :DD

[cherrirui-official]

I hope u guys don't mind me posting these au doodles while I work on things ahaha

I also gave JD slightly longer hair in these doodles as a funny haha but I don't think it's funny anymore he looks genuinely good with his hair like that ahahaha I hope you're not mad at me for changing his au design a bit

[swampybogg]

[themirepirate]

was reading Sherlock holmes and this popped into my head

[starkspi]

"why, I had no part in that. you've always been this way!"

just a little something from @morningstarwrites fanfiction "of saints and sinners" which i'm obsessed with

[thevoidstaredback]

How To Balance Your Daytime and Nighttime Activities So That You Don't Burn Yourself Out More Than You Already Have

It was halfway through his shift the next day, just after he'd come back from lunch, that the anonymous tip came through. Dick had frozen when he heard it, but only slightly because the others were brushing it off as a prank call.

"'Blockbuster's after someone named Oracle,'" Officer Diaz had scoffed, "What a joke. Aren't kids supposed to know that their stupid prank calls clog the system? What if someone who actually had useful information had needed to call, huh?"

Dick didn't mention that that isn't how the tip system works, nor did he eve attempt to scold the officer for brushing it off, no matter how stupid it seemed. No, instead, he was stuck in his thoughts.

Blockbuster is after Oracle. Why is he after Oracle? It doesn't make sense! No one in Bludhaven, save for himself, should no who she is! Besides, he'd kept all of the attention on himself. No one was able to even think about the heroes or rogues in Gotham without him knowing! Or, so he'd thought. How does Blockbuster know Oracle's name? More importantly at the moment was who sent the tip.

There was another scoff from one of the others. Did he say that out loud? "Look, I know you're new and everything, but shouldn't you know the mean of 'anonymous'?"

He forced himself out of his head, rubbing his neck with his left hand with a fake smile. "Yeah, I do. I guess I'm just a bit out of it today."

"Well, get your head back in the game," Detective Soames snapped, hitting a file on the back of Dick's head, "File that for me, then file the rest on my desk."

"Yes, sir," Dick took the file, ignoring the snickers and snide remarks from his coworkers.

He knows he's not going to be able to fully focus on anything for the rest of the day, possibly not even until after he finds out who sent that tip and how Blockbuster knows Oracle's name.

Oracle. Dick knows she can handle herself, but he doesn't like the fact that anyone knows her name. Not even B knows about Oracle! Babs had spent so much time and energy keeping her online persona from B so that she could have at least something of her own that Dick had taken it upon himself to erase traces connecting him to Oracle. She didn't deserve to have Batman on her ass, nor did she deserve to have Nightwing's enemies go after her!

He shook himself back into the present with a soft sigh. He'll call Barbra as soon as he gets home.

***

"Danny!" Dick calls into the apartment, knowing full well that the kid is in the kitchen, "I'm home!"

"Welcome back," Danny responds from where he's standing at the stove. He, Dick realizes, does not sound happy.

He hangs his coat up on the hooks he installed beside the door, his shoes going on the rack below them. "You good? You sound a bit upset?"

"I am upset." Danny, after getting comfortable around him, has stopped sugar-coating his words, being brutally honest. Dick blinks. "I was going to message Tim, but I saw a lack of apologies from you."

Oh. Dick had meant to do what Danny said last night and apologise to that Tim kid for snapping at him, but he had been a lot more tired than usual and it had slipped his mind. "I was going to use my phone?"

"You don't have his number."

Another thing Dick had come to learn about Danny in the few weeks they'd been living together was that he can't be lied to. He somehow picks up on lies, so even Dick's best efforts - that have fooled even Batman! - are always thwarted.

"I meant to," Dick said, sitting on one of the new barstools at he island counter, "But I was really tired last night."

Danny sighed. "Because you were out longer than you're now used to." He turned the burner off, moving the pan to sit on the hotpad beside it. "You're body's gotten used to only being out for eight hours during the day and six hours at night. You going out for eight hours last night wore you out more than usual because you're no longer used to your seventeen hour work days."

Dick tilted his head, accepting the bowl of soup he was given. "But it's only been a few weeks?"

"It only takes eighteen days for your body to get used to a routine." He said, placing a bowl of homemade rolls on the island. "After about sixty-six days, it becomes habitual."

"But it hasn't been sixty-six days."

"No, but it has been twenty-one days."

He hesitated for a moment. "Has it really been only that long?" Then, "Have you been counting?"

Danny blushed, sitting beside Dick with his own bowl of soup. "I've been keeping track of your schedule, which means I gotta keep a calendar. I haven't been counting on purpose."

Dick smiled, eating the soup. As usual, it was really good. The first week of Danny's stay, he'd asked where he'd learned to cook, but Danny had given a non-answer, saying only that his parents couldn't make anything edible that wasn't fudge or cookies.

After they had both finished eating, Dick's portions and appetite being larger than Danny's because of the calories he burns as Nightwing, they settled into a nice quiet. Dick had changed from his uniform into sweats and a T-shirt while Danny had chosen a movie. Then, Dick cleaned up dinner and Danny changed into a hoodie and sweats.

"We still need to take you shopping," Dick pointed out when they were both sitting on the couch, ready to start the movie.

Danny shook his head. "Letting me stay here is already enough. Besides, your old clothes work perfectly fine."

"But you're room's so empty! And my clothes don't even fit you!"

There was a pause like Danny was thinking. Dick had the feeling he might not like whatever was going to be said next.

He was right.

"I'll let you take me shopping next week," Danny agreed, "if we go to Gotham tomorrow so that you can apologise to Tim in person."

Dick's jaw twitched. He didn't want to go to Gotham. Going to Gotham meant that he'd inevitably run into Bruce. He wanted to stay far away from that man.

Then again, he'd promised Alfred to come by some time. And, it'd be nice to see Barbra and Jim again. Maybe he could have Alfred make sure Bruce wouldn't be in the Manor?

"So?" Danny promted.

He sighed. "You're evil, y'know that?"

His grin said it all. "I could be so much worse."

"Please don't."

"Don't give me a reason."

Part 9 Part 11