#just needed to correct the grammar and add a few details

[lynaferns]

No because this is literally me writing my single chapters of the only two fics I have written to date.

I just reada really good fic but halfway through I realized "oh shit this is really familiar.... didn't I write something like this once?" And as I kept reading I kept predicting what happened next and the further I went the more convinced I was that they'd ripped off my story-

like, copied the ENTIRE plot and re-written it, just better than I had? The characters were more fleshed-out than mine were, and the POV was more interesting, and the pace made more sense- but it was MY STORY?

So close to the end I was like "holy shit.. do I message them? Ask if my story inspired theirs? Should I be angry? Flattered?" Cause their tags and description didn't mention me AT ALL, which, sure, it's fanfiction to begin with, but if you're using my work than at least credit me as inspo, right? Just to be courteous?

But I get to the end of the final chapter, and it's not finished, and I'm kind of disappointed cause I never finished my story and I was really immersed in their version now and had been looking forwards to seeing how they tied up my loose ends- so I scroll to the bottom to leave a comment, and.

It's MY URL.

IT WAS MY STORY THE WHOLE TIME.

THE ONE *I WROTE*.

In *2013*.

And FORGOT ABOUT

BECAUSE I WAS SO INSECURE ABOUT MY SLOPPY, SHALLOW, AMETEUR WRITING

And I'm just sitting here now staring into space thinking about every shitty story I've ever written now like

IT WAS ALL GOOD?

IT WAS GOOD THIS WHOLE DAMN TIME??

I'M A GOOD WRITER?????

[kuiperblog]

The grammar lesson that made me a better writer

Here's something that sounds like a lesson about grammar, but is really more of general principle about how to write effective description:

Transitive verbs need a direct object. A transitive verb without an object implies a question, and you should probably answer that question rather than trying to dodge it.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

"Fear" is a transitive verb. You can't just write "I fear." You have to add an object to complete the sentence, like "I fear spiders," or "I fear the unknown."

There are some people who, seeing this, will say, "Ah, you're right! I can't just write 'I fear.' I will fix this by instead writing, 'I am afraid.'"

"I am afraid" is, technically speaking, a grammatically correct sentence. But conceptually, it still has the same problem as "I fear." It's a disembodied emotion that doesn't answer the question of what you're actually afraid of.

Sometimes, the disembodied nature of the emotion is intentional, but most of the time I see sentences like these in amateur writing, the ambiguity is unintentional, and it's just robbing the audience of information that would have helped them to understand what the author was trying to convey.

It's often an example of "telling" rather than "showing," similar to the difference between "I was sad" versus "I fought back tears as I remembered the faces of the children I had left behind." One sentence conveys the disembodied emotion of sadness, while the other tells you what caused the sadness. And by telling us why the character is sad, the second sentence comes a lot closer to taking the audience on the same emotional journey that the character is experiencing.

That's the problem with "I'm afraid." When you write that sentence, we're just looking at a person who is experiencing the emotion. But if you told the audience what the character was afraid of, then maybe the audience would be afraid, too!

Transitive verbs require an object, while intransitive verbs don't. (That's the literal definition of what "transitive verb" means.) But there are lots of verbs that can be intransitive, but still often benefit having an object, and this is almost a freebie -- with just a few extra words, you can paint a much richer and more detailed picture of what is going on! Just compare:

I spent the afternoon reading.

versus:

I spent the afternoon reading about World War II.

Or alternatively:

I spent the afternoon reading a romance novel.

The first version is, technically speaking, a complete sentence. But when you compare it to the other versions, it becomes clear that you could have painted a much more detailed picture of that afternoon with just a few extra words. Failing to do this feels like a huge missed opportunity!

You can (and often should) add objects to verbs, because even if you don't "need it" from a grammatical perspective, the audience still wants that information. "I ate" is a complete sentence, but it's going to leave the reader wondering what exactly it was that you ate. (Even if you don't want to describe the details your latest meal, "I ate dinner" feels like a more complete sentence than just "I ate.")

"I write" is technically a complete sentence, but I really wish you'd spend a few extra words telling me what it is that you write!

[esoteric-joke]

Interview with BoosBabycakes

(#Interview2)

Welcome to the next interview of The Dear Writer Project. This time I had the pleasure to interview the wonderful Morgane/BoosBabycakes.

Morgane about planning out her works, working with deadlines and more:

What does your writing process usually look like?

Well, usually it’s always kind of the same process for me, whether I found a prompt on fest’s list or if I have an idea of my own popping in my head.

When I’m drawn towards a prompt, I then have to write down ideas for the story as they come to my mind. Like I will write them randomly in my notes and then, when it’s time for me to start writing, I have to lay out a plan. I can’t go in blind, that’s not how I work. I need to lay my plan, the number of chapters, what will happen in each chapter (not very detailed, but ideas for example).

I also can’t write two stories at once, so I have to fully focus on one before I can start a new one. I usually write when I have the time obviously, when I’m not working and so it can take more or less time for me to write one chapter.

When I’m done with a chapter, I reread it and then I send it to my betas. I have two that read the chapters when they’re done. They mostly help me with the grammar and syntax. I have one or two other betas (depending on their availability) who also read the chapters right away, but their mission is to help me with the story itself, if there are plot holes, inconstancies and such.

Then when the story is done, I have proof-readers that read the entire story and correct things that might have been left out.

After that stage, when they’re both done, I reread the entire story myself one more time and then put them out.

How much time do you invest in writing?

I definitely can’t write everyday and I can’t really sit down and write knowing I’ll only have an hour. I need to know I have time.

I like to write scenes entirely if I can, and not cut them in the middle. But sometimes I don’t have a choice. So it’s mostly on the weekends when I have a full day I can dedicate to writing.

On which of your stories did you write the longest?

I don’t really remember but I think You’ve Got A Higher Power, You’re Once In Any Lifetime did. It usually takes me a few months to write a longer fic, and when it’s for a fest and you have a deadline there is a bit more pressure so you have to kind of push yourself to write sometimes.

You’ve Got A Higher Power, You’re Once In Any Lifetime is also Morgane’s longest fic to date.

Does the aspect of having a deadline make it easier for you to write?

I don’t think it does.

Sure it gives a goal and it can help with the motivation, but sometimes it can also be stressful because you know you have to put out a fic in a certain amount of time, and that adds pressure.

It’s nice to also have no strings attached and be free to write and go at your own pace when you’re not writing for a fest.

Do you have an idea which of your works came together the fastest?

I honestly don’t know.

I want to say Invisible String, because I wrote it outside of a fest and the story just came to me so fast in my head.

What work of yours was the hardest to write?

I have to say They Say That Time’s A Healer for obvious reasons.

I don’t think any of my other works were hard to write, but this one is very personal and some chapters were very difficult to write and not cry at the same time.

If you’ve an idea in your head, how do you decide if it’s going to be a oneshot or a longer story?

I mean some prompts speak for themselves and I know if it’s going to be long but for others, I’m convinced it’ll be a one shot… and I end up with over 40k… Just like the one I’ve written for the blff.

I’m really awful at planning the number of words, because I always end up writing more than what I originally thought I would. As I write I often get inspired and add things or I write a scene and it is way longer than what I had in mind but I go with it.

What inspires you most while working on a story?

Sometimes it’s music. For some fics, they are inspired by a song. One that I heard in my car and had the idea popping into my head. That’s the case for Love In Slow Motion and my next fic which will be for the angst fest next year.

Apart from that, I get inspired by movies/tv shows or just my own head.

Morgane also often gets inspired by things she sees in real life and sometimes even searches for places while she travels that she could potentially write about.

For Clear Blue Water she chose an actual painting that exists in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It’s called La Trahison des Images (The Treachery of Images) also known as This is not a pipe.

The rooftop cinema is also a real place in West Hollywood, California and it’s called the Melrose Rooftop Theatre.

Also, the Cité de l’Espace (City of Space) in Satellite is a real museum in Toulouse, France.

Did you ever experience writers block?

I’ve never experienced it really.

I’ve had moments where it has been harder to get in front of the computer because in my personal life it was kind of hard as well at that moment, but it was never a moment where I couldn’t write at all. I’ve never had that.

Are there things you find frustrating, annoying or just really difficult to write?

Oh for me it’s the smut part. For reasons that I will keep to myself, I find it very difficult to write smut in a way that I always think it’s not good enough. I feel very insecure about those scenes.

Also the scene where there are a lot of characters at the same time, like OT5 scenes for example, are fun to read but man they are hard to write.

Finding the pace, the banter, it’s very hard.

Is there anything you can tell me about any future projects of yours?

Oh well, I have a fic coming soon for the blff, and I registered for the angst fest for next January.

I also have a couple of ideas for potential sequels… I won’t say more about this hehehe.

I also have two ideas that I don’t know if they’ll ever see the light of day, because I easily get caught up in fests.

In the next part of the interview, Morgane answered my questions that were more specifically about her works.

Morgane about processing grief through writing, experimenting with different tropes and weirdly named ice cream flavours:

What work of yours is your personal favourite?

I love all of them and I have a few personal favorites I’m not gonna lie.

Though if I had to choose one, I think I’d say Invisible String. This one was such a “love at first sight with the prompt” kind of thing. For the little story, I had registered to the blff in 2021 and saw the prompt that will later become Invisible String, but at that time, I wasn’t ready to get into such a story and I also fell for another prompt. So the next year, I registered again, and the Invisible String prompt was still there… But I fell in love with the prompt for Satellite and took that one.

However I couldn’t get the other prompt out of my head, it was stuck in there. So I waited for the registration to be over and asked the fest if I could write the story outside of the fest.

They accepted and while I was writing Satellite, the entire story for Invisible String came to me. I threw it down in my notes. Ideas, moments, plot lines, and when I was done with Satellite, I threw myself into it. It was just so much fun and complicated to plot and plan at the same time. I don’t know I just have a soft spot for this story.

What fic of yours would you recommend to someone who isn’t familiar with any of your works at all and why?

Oh god that’s tough as well, um…

I wouldn’t recommend an A/B/O because not everyone likes that dynamic, but if they did I would recommend either Invisible String or War of Hearts. Invisible String for the story in itself and War Of Hearts because it deals with an important theme in my opinion.

A/B/O aside, I think I’d recommend Satellite. It’s a very fluffy one and I think it represents my writing quite well.

But I really think this question should be asked to the readers really, I think they’d know better which one to recommend than I do.

Is there a work of yours that was planned to go completely different than it came out in the end?

No, I don’t think so.

How did you come up with the idea for Clear Blue Water, Came And Brought You In and the unusual characteristics for their species?

This was a prompt for the rom com fic fest. It was specified that Louis should be a vampire and Harry a mermaid and that they had to hide their identity to the other.

After that, it’s kind of hard to explain because usually it just comes to me.

I had the prompt and the ideas came and I knew I had to have them in a place where there is water of course and where it doesn’t rain that much, but then I had to come up with ways for Louis to be in the sun, and so it just follows after that.

I inspired myself with characteristics from the vampires in Twilight, The Vampire Diaries and my own mind.

As for Harry, I searched on the internet the characteristics of mermaids and I kind of made up my own traits for him and his species in this story. I thought: Well, it’s my story and it’s a fantasy so I can do whatever I want with the characters.

I didn’t want Louis to be the bloodthirsty vampire stereotype, I wanted him to be different and so I was a bit scared of the reaction of the readers because I usually see people asking for lust and vampire Louis biting Harry and all that and for me it wasn’t even an option in this fic.

Then I came up with this kind of legend about the two species and the rest is history.

Morgane also told me in a conversation outside of the interview that she wanted to show that Louis didn’t have a choice and that he had to struggle a lot with his new identity after he was turned. She didn’t want it to look like being turned into a vampire was a blessing in this story.

Clear Blue Water, Came And Brought You In is your only fantasy-themed fic (if we let the a/b/o ones aside). Is anything fantasy-themed like that planned for the future or if it’s not planned, would you just like to write another one?

No other fantasy fic is planned for now, but I’m not opposed to writing another one if a prompt in a fest or an idea appeals to me.

They Say Time’s A Healer, How Long Is This Burn Supposed To Last? is based around your own horse’s story. Why did you decide to but your pain and your experiences with grieving a pet in a story?

I think at the time I hadn’t really dealt with what had happened and it felt like it would be therapeutic in a way for me to put it down in writing. It was a way to externalize those feelings.

Not a lot of people feel the same or understand what it means to lose a pet so I also wanted to show the relationship between a horse and their rider, so people could understand a bit better, maybe.

[🚨big spoiler alert for people that haven’t read the story🚨]

How much of that story (besides Kartoon being sick and passing away) actually happened?

Harry’s fall and injury happened to me exactly like it did in the story. Except that for me it was only about two years after I got Kartoon. I also couldn’t ride for three weeks after that.

The moment where in a flashback, Harry takes care of Kartoon’s abscess happened as well. He really had one and it was hell to treat.

The time where he got stuck in his stall happened as well. He had scratches on his hips and all, my poor baby.

Also, the part where Harry learns about Kartoon’s condition after the party and everything that happened after that to the final moment of Kartoon, happened exactly that way to me.

I described it exactly as I remembered. The call, the chase on the road, the moment he came down and out of the truck, inside the warehouse and being by his side, saying goodbye and finally the waiting room and the final decision. I didn’t have a partner, but my Dad was with me, so that part is different obviously.

The box in which Harry keeps the plaques and the hair of the tail is real as well, I have the box on my nightstand. I never really open it but it’s there.

When Harry cries in Chapter 9 after getting the bill for the operation was a real moment as well.

The river spot is a real location and of course Kartoon did some competitions, but never at a national level like in the story, so I changed that too for the purpose of the plot.

The aftermath and when Harry tries to ride another horse, it was what happened to me as well, the name of the horse was the same and I couldn’t go through with it. The end of the story, regarding Harry’s feelings and his journey through grief and towards riding again is what I’m feeling.

Morgane never felt ready again to ride another horse and so, even if people told her that they would’ve loved it if Harry took that step of riding another horse in the end of the story, she decided to not do that. She wanted the story to represent her feelings and her grieving even if her readers would’ve preferred it differently.

The story does have a bittersweet ending.

After the interview, Morgane told me that Ice Tea and Dusty the cats are also very much real and sent me a few very cute pictures of them.

How did you come up with all the ice cream names in Summer Sun, Something’s Begun?

I searched for weird ice cream flavors first, then I searched for puns around the flavors.

As you know I’m French and English isn’t my first language so finding puns can be a bit tricky.

Morgane’s favourite ice cream flavour is a classic creamy strawberry. Bonus points if it has chunks of strawberry in it.

In Invisible String Louis writes his own book at the end to tell their story. He mentions it’s going to be a trilogy. Is that supposed to be a little spoiler for two more parts that are maybe coming in the future?

I’m going to disappoint a lot of people but no it’s not…

But never say never I want to say…

In my mind, Louis was writing his journey without Harry in the first book, the second book was Harry’s story without him and the third one, my fic, is their journey to coming back to each other.

So yeah maybe one day I’ll be brave enough and will do it, if people are interested to read that…

Morgane told me that if she’s ever going to write another part, it wouldn’t be about the villain of Invisible String coming back.

You don’t stay in one trope or genre but rather experiment quite freely with them. Why is that?

I just like to challenge myself and experiment.

I want to write different things, different tropes, so there is a bit of everything for anyone who wants to give my stories a try.

I also think, it’s more interesting to change things up and not stay in one particular trope, but that’s completely personal as some other writers might feel more comfortable with sticking to something they mastered.

What was your favourite trope you wrote to this day?

I don’t know…

I love a/b/o for sure but otherwise I don’t think I have a favorite one.

Is anything completely new planned genre or trope wise?

I’d say that the angst fic I’m planning is something different because it will deal with heavy bullying and homophobia.

Also I’ve always wanted to write a fic where Harry is a ballet dancer and this one will be it.

Satellite is your most popular work. Why do you think it got so popular?

I have absolutely no idea.

I was genuinely, and still am, surprised by the love and enthusiasm this fic generated. I honestly didn’t think it would have this success.

It’s a moderate success compared to other writers and popular fics of course, but for me it was pretty big when the story hit 1000 kudos. It was my first and my only fic with that amount of kudos.

Maybe it is the link between Louis and his son, or the growth of Harry and also the growth of his relationship with Adam that appealed to people. I don’t know.

Is there a work of yours that you’d like to get more attention than it has right now?

My new fic is just getting out there so I will give it some time.

But otherwise, obviously They Say That Time’s A Healer is one that I’d like people to discover but I have to say that I’d really like for Clear Blue Water to be a bit more noticed.

Is there a work of yours that you would have rather not published in hindsight or have you already deleted one of your works because you didn’t like it anymore?

I’ve never deleted any of my fics and I don’t think there are any that I regret.

I mean of course I’m a bit embarrassed or rather insecure of my first ones because I was a baby writer back then and I’d like to think that I’ve improved since then, but I’d never delete them because they are part of my journey.

Now we’re at the part of the interview where I asked Morgane a few personal questions about her becoming a part of the fandom and her preferences when it comes to fics she likes to read.

Since when are you in the fandom and what made you become a fan?

Okay this is a long story…

So obviously I knew about 1D when I was younger but I never really listened to them because I thought I was too old… I know it’s ridiculous but yeah.

One day I was on YouTube looking at videos and I stumbled upon a video that was about Harry and Louis and Larry Stylinson. I got really intrigued with it all, these two boys and the band itself and I started to listen to 1D a bit, and I realized I kind of liked their music.

After that, I got very curious about Harry and Louis and typed Larry Stylinson on YouTube and that was the start of the downfall, you could say.

I found Freddieismyqueen and well, I never came up the rabbit hole after that.

I also got curious about their solo music and tried Harry’s, then Louis’, then Niall’s and here I am.

I officially came into the fandom in 2018, so rather late compared to some OG fans.

Did you ever got a weird/funny comment under one of your works or other social media about your works and if yes, what did it say?

I don’t think I’ve ever got a really funny one but the majority of the comments I get are so sweet and loving really.

I got a harsh one one day, which wasn’t really a comment but a note someone put on their bookmarks… But I can see them…

It was about They Say That Time’s A Healer and let’s just say that it made me cry and definitely not in a cool way…

Did you ever get a good/sweet comment that stood out and that you still have in mind sometimes?

The comments that say that I’ve somehow helped them or made them feel better just for a little while always stick with you.

Harry or Louis?

I often get the question, even with my friends. They usually ask me, but I genuinely can’t choose between them.

I know some people will say that there must be one you love more than the other, but I really don’t. I love them both so much, for who they are, and I can’t imagine choosing one over the other. I’ve loved Harry first, but then I discovered Louis and they just have a place in my heart.

Your favourite Harry era and your favourite Louis era?

My favorite Harry era is long hair Harry and for Louis the Made In The A.M. era I would say.

Morgane also told me that if she could, she would absolutely write all of her fics with LHH.

Your favourite movie with H?

My Policeman of course.

Who’s your favourite writer in the fandom?

I would say seducedbycurls because my favorite fic is from them.

Morgane’s favourite fic is Cold Little Heart.

Is there a fic that is not necessarily your favourite or from your favourite writer but is still kind of stuck in your head?

Take Me To Church by wickedarcher_08

What makes you want to stop reading something?

Oh I don’t read sad endings in fics, in books (like outside of the fandom) I don’t really mind but for Harry and Louis I can’t.

I also can’t read a fic where Harry and Louis cheat on each other or are abusive towards each other, it’s a no for me.

Your favourite Song and your favourite artist at the moment?

I’m a swiftie (sorry everyone) and the last few months I Can Do It With A Broken Heart is kind of the soundtrack to my life and in general I’ve been listening to Taylor a lot and Louis’ live album.

You do mention the series Friends and the movie Love Actually a lot throughout your fics. Are those your favourite movie and series?

Yes! Sorry about that, haha.

Friends is my comfort tv show and it’s the same for Love Actually. I watch it every year at Christmas and I rewatch Friends every year, too.

The most unusual thing that inspired you?

Huh… I don’t know if this can be considered as unusual, but I often get inspired by real life things. If I experience something or I’m just doing something random and then, bam! Something pops up and I’m like “wait a second, this could work”.

For example not long ago I was on a plane back from Louis’ festival and right there in the plane I had an idea for the fic I was writing. Nothing happened particularly, just the context inspired me.

Morgane also told me that she often gets inspired by little videos she sees on TikTok or Twitter/X.

I’ll Reach Out My Hand To You, I’ll Have Faith In All You Do, the second part of her Ballet Recital Series was inspired by video she saw on Twitter/X where a dad went onstage to help their child with their performance.

Her little canon series It’s A Larry Life was inspired by a few TikToks that her best friend sent her.

Who would you most like to read an interview from?

Oh, maybe stylinsoncity. They said they were leaving the fandom but still, their fics are simply iconic.

I also asked Morgane to give every fic of hers a colour and a season. Here is the outcome of that:

Welcome to Scotland: I picture it blue and in Winter

You Are My Dancing Queen: It’s black and white for me obviously and Winter as well

I’ll Reach Out a Hand For You (the entire series): I picture it powder pink and Winter

With My Body And Soul I Want You More Than You’ll Ever Know: I picture it Yellow and Spring

Summer Sun Something’s Begun: I picture it turquoise and Summer of course

You’ve Got A Higher Power, You’re Once In Any Lifetime: For me it’s yellow and purple, I don’t know why and Winter, too

They Say That Time’s A Healer, How Long Is This Burn Supposed To Last: For me it’s brown and black (Kartoon colors) and Summer

Love In Slow Motion: It’s Gold and Autumn

Satellite: It’s purple and Winter (the fic goes over more than six months but yeah)

Under The Paris Sky: Light pink and Summer

Invisible String: Gold and brown and autumn/winter

My Arm Might Be Broken, But I Won’t Be Broken Down (the It’s a Larry life series): Royal blue and autumn

War Of Hearts: Red and autumn

Love Me If You Dare: Mint green and Winter (the fic happens over several years but winter is an important part of their lives)

Clear Blue Water, High Tide Came And Brought You In: Pink and blue and Spring

You’ve Taken My Heart By Storm: Orange/gold/silver and Summer

A huge thank you (again) to Morgane, who was just the sweetest person ever.

I really appreciate that you wanted to participate and therefore support this project so much.

Thanks for being so patient and curious throughout the whole process.

[mindthedocent]

6, 16 and 17 :333333

omg eden hiiii edennnnn :333

6. the word that appears the most in your current draft (wordcounter.net can tell you)

I'm fucking embarrassed that my most used word is "MIN" and my second-most-used word is "RYAN" and my third-most-used-word is "MIN'S" and my fourth-most-used word is "LIKE"

so idk what you want man. i write at an 11th grade level according to this website LOL

16. favorite place to write

in a word doc DUHHH

no uhh i havent written in a while (basically since getting the new job) but it Used to be, at the desk at work while i was supposed to be standing and running around and working haha,

i also like writing in bed on my phone, and on the couch on my phone :3 is the computer better? absolutely. do i pull it out ever? no <3 <-guy who is on their computer right now hence the lack of emotes

17hold on post paused why did it do this

anyway 17. talk about your writing and editing process

so ive definitely talked about this before! but each part is difficult in its own way i think. if im not feral about a story its gonna take me a long time to write. but when i AM writing, i have to make an effort to set aside time to do so. i usually will try to aim for like, 100 words when ive made a decision to write. but sometimes its just a sentence! and thats okay, it happens! im glad to get something down when the going gets tough. but yeah what happens a lot is that as it goes on i get less excited about writing it and i have to really push to get it finished. i DO like finishing fics guys i PROMISE.

once its done i let it sit for between a week and a month. i dont look at it. i dont even Think about it (try not to anyway, lol). once ive decided that its editing time, i read through it again. this first time is not Really the time for spelling and grammar, but i do correct those things as i see them anyway. no the first read is for flow. do i need to add more detail? did a scene drag on too long? did a story feel too short?

(fun fact, in committing to the bit, i reread through it when i thought it was done and felt pretty bad about my contributions to it and felt like id have to go through a rewrite, complained to my cowriter about it, fell asleep, woke up to them giving me a lot of positive feedback, reread it again, and then added in a couple short scenes. and that fixed it.) (points to whoever can guess which parts i added in last)

uhhh and then after reading for overall flow, ill let it sit again for another few days, and repeat the process. if it feels good, ill go back in and read for smaller things. spelling, grammar, awkward sentences. let it sit again, read it again. once it feels upwards of 85% good to me, i decide im done.

WHEW. its a lot of letting it stew and rereading it. i think thats what it takes sometimes. that, and letting it be imperfect. its never gonna be Perfect, but there comes a point where its gotta be Done, u know? u know exactly what im talking about

thank uuuu for this ask ily!

the quastions

[wakeofvultures]

what is your writing process?

Alright, this is a bit long and a little all over the place. If anon would like me to expand on anything in particular, I would be happy to!

Step One: Spend a lot of time thinking about characters that I like.

Step Two: An idea grabs me by the throat (usually an OC that is metaphorically married to a Theme/Concept.)

Step Three: Daydream a lot, and when I realize the idea is not going away, I begin to outline an actual plot.

Generally speaking, I must know the ultimate ending of the fic before I begin getting serious about it. I don't need the exact details, but I need to know the conclusion in broad strokes.

My outlines are not very detailed either. I just want to have a general idea of what is going on. Usually, I brainstorm things that should happen to relate back to the Themes/Concepts that I associate with the character/story I want to tell. Then, I also outline the points that should happen to get from each major point.

Step Four: Begin drafting.

I draft pretty fast and loose, but I also draft chapter-by-chapter, edit, and then post. Move on to next chapter. Therefore, I have to look at the outline and where I want to go to make sure I'm laying the right foundations, but most of the fun of the process for me is the discovery while writing. The loose outline makes sure there is a lot of stuff I am coming up with in the moment while the strong Theme/Concept and loose outline are there to keep it all cohesive in the long run (hopefully.)

Step Five: Edit. This part is both the bane of my existence and the love of my life.

I begin editing after my draft of a chapter is done, (for Cracks in the Crypt, that is usually once I hit all the points I want to and get to 3,000 words. For Neither Snake nor Dragon, it was once I hit all the points I wanted to or I thought the chapter was going too long.)

Now, what happens while I edit depends on how rough the draft is. Sometimes, there is a lot of rearranging a lot of sections that I wrote out of chronological order. Sometimes, it is filling in sections and scenes that I just marked as "WRITE LATER."

I add more details to certain sections that I brushed over.

I also delete a lot of stuff. Usually, its information that I realize my POV character would not care about or would not notice (mostly in Myrtis' case) or stuff that they would think is self-explanatory and doesn't bother to go into depth about (in Elayne's case).

I feel like I delete at least 1,000 words while editing (most of the time more), but I add enough that it usually evens out or exceeds what is cut.

Then, I write a vague summary (if it's Cracks in the Crypt) and also write the Author's Notes.

Then, I internally go through a crisis before I remember that you just have to accept that you can work on anything forever, and sometimes, part of the creative process is knowing when to walk away. I hit post. Cue internal (sometimes external) screaming.

Occasionally, a minor thing will be changed when I am re-reading past chapters. This can be correcting grammar/typos, shifting a few small things around for flow, or changing a small inconsequential detail that I've changed my mind about.

[translationwala]

Unleashing the Power of Assamese Language Transformation: English to Assamese Translation

People who speak Assamese are very proud of their language because it has a long past, beautiful sounds, and a unique writing system. It is very useful to be able to translate English material into Assamese correctly and with style in a world where information and conversation are becoming more and more linked. This blog will walk you through the details of English to Assamese Translation, giving you the power to connect people who speak different languages and find secret meanings in Assamese texts.

Understanding the Nuances of English

A good translation starts with a close study of the original English text. Pay close attention to these things:

Idioms and Cultural References: For example, “raining cats and dogs” is a phrase in English that refers to popular culture. There aren’t always direct Assamese words for these. Look for Assamese words that say the same thing, or think about quickly describing the connection to make it clearer.

Sentence Structure: The order of words and the pattern of grammar are very different between English and Assamese. To make sure your Assamese translation runs well, be ready to move words and sentences around.

Tone and Style: Is the tone of the English text serious, funny, or technical? Try to get the same tone in your Assamese version by picking words and sentence patterns that have the right range.

The Art of Assamese Translation

If you already know the English text well, it’s time to look at the Assamese translation:

Vocabulary Richness: The Assamese language has a large and varied set of words. Choose words that exactly say what you want them to say in English while also showing how serious you need to be.

Assamese Proverbs and Sayings: You should use appropriate Assamese proverbs and sayings in your version, just like a local speaker would. These add a sense of realism and cultural depth.

The Power of the Script: Don’t forget that the Assamese writing is beautiful and one of a kind. Make sure that your translation tools or fonts support it properly so that the end result looks good and is true in terms of culture.

Conveying Culture and Context

True translation greatness goes beyond using the right words and correct phrasing. Here’s how to deal with the cultural parts:

Respect and Sensitivity: It’s possible that some words or sentences mean different things in Assamese than they do in English. Pay attention to these subtleties, especially when translating things that are personal or touchy.

Regional Variations: Regional forms of Assamese exist. If you can, make sure that your translation is done in the accent that the audience will understand best. For example, use languages from Kamrup, Goalpara, Upper Assam, and so on.

Names and Titles: In Assamese, titles and honorifics are used in a different way than in English. For a regionally suitable version, make sure you address people in the right way.

Tools and Resources to Refine Your Skills

A good English to Assamese Translation uses a variety of tools and resources to make their work better:

Dictionaries: Get a good English-Assamese dictionary, and if you’re translating expert material, look into subject-specific glossaries.

Online Resources: Check out online groups and other tools for learning Assamese. These can tell you a lot about slang and how people talk these days.

Machine Translation with Care: Tools can give you a rough idea of where to start, but you should always check and change machine-translated output to make sure it is correct and flows well.

THE IMPORTANCE OF EDITING AND PROOFREADING

Don’t forget how important the last few steps of translation are!

Second (and Third) Reads: Read over your version a few times. Does it sound like it was written in Assamese at first? Make changes to make it smoother and more natural.

Native Speaker Feedback: If you can, have a native Assamese speaker read it over and let you know if there are any small mistakes or places where the translation could be more culturally acceptable.

In Conclusion

Learning how to translate from English to Assamese is like going on a trip through language and culture. If you follow the tips above, you’ll not only be able to translate words, but also thoughts, which will help connect countries and make knowledge available to more people who speak Assamese.

Source: https://translationwala.wordpress.com/2024/02/28/unleashing-the-power-of-assamese-language-transformation-english-to-assamese-translation/

[visionlanguageexperts]

Practical Tips for PTE Essay Writing and Summarise Written Text

We all know how to write an essay and what a summary of the written text is. We'll show you how to do it in 3 easy steps. Here are some practical tips for PTE writing an essay and summarizing the written text.Explore prompts and plan Before starting your essay and abstract, we recommend that you evaluate the prompts to get the key information. Please check your question. Also, examine the topic of the essay and the content of the given text to summarize and discuss the main points that need to be covered. After that, you have to decide which side of the argument you want to write about in your essay. Next, create a rough plan of the content and structure you want to add to your essay. Write down some ideas about your opinions and thoughts that you would like to include in your essay.

You can structure your essay as follows: Introduction - Briefly introduce the topic and add relevant information. Paragraph 1- Present ideas to support your claim. Paragraph 2- Add another supporting thought to your argument or provide a counter-argument in support of your idea. Conclusion - Conclude your essay by summarizing the ideas that led to your conclusion and why.

Planning your essay writing and summary is an important part of your exam task. The thought process makes writing essays and summaries much faster and easier. You don't have a lot of time, so keep it short and sweet.

PTE ESSAY WRITING TIPS Once you have a plan in place and know what you are going to write, execute the plan. Demonstrate to the PTE examiner that you have the ability to write academic essays and abstracts in English. When writing, provide clear explanations, avoid ambiguity, and express thoughts and ideas that support your point in your essay, and when writing a summary, be meaningful and use stylistic features. Communicate your ideas coherently. Do your best by presenting vocabulary and grammar in essays and summaries. Correct use of complex sentence structures and vocabulary will likely lead to better results. Additionally, using idioms and colloquialisms is the icing on the cake, but don't overdo it. Remember that the best answers contain academic terms and use synonyms wherever possible to avoid repeating words.

Carefully review and double-check your essay and abstract before proceeding to the next section. This final step takes a few more minutes to check for spelling errors, correct use of punctuation, and correct grammar. As you proofread, also make sure you answer the questions that are asked in the prompts. Make sure you make your point well enough in your essay, frame your content accurately in your abstract, and reach the right conclusions in PTE Preparation.

Last but not least, make sure you read the flow of your essay and abstract, make sure your word count is between 200 and 300 words, and don't exceed the word count limit. Practice compound and complex sentences

Remember, to summarize the given text, the answer must be expressed in one sentence. Therefore, you should have enough vocabulary to use complex or compound sentences, summarize the main points of the text, and be concise. Please provide additional details.

Write in the correct form Write your answer in one sentence, starting with a capital letter and ending with just a period. Answers must be between 5 and 75 words long, so check the word count on the word count counter below the PTE test answer box. However, answers with less than 5 words or more than 75 words will not be evaluated and will be deducted.

Here's a checklist to keep in mind to make sure you've covered all the important points before completing your work.

Source: https://visionlanguageexperts.blogspot.com/2023/01/practical-tips-for-pte-essay-writing.html

[amewinterswriting]

Seconding Scrivener as a one time paid tool. I'm fairly certain I'm not even using half the features it has, but I've been using it for years for both fanfic and original fiction.

In Scrivener, you can write each scene/chapter as it's own mini document within the project, and use those as notecards to adjust what order they're in or just get an overarching view of the plot and it makes it really easy to change what order events happen in or write out of order.

Using a fanfiction project for an example (no sneak peeks of original fic here!):

You can add a synopsis for each scene/chapter which I largely use to make notes and outline what needs to happen. If you leave it blank, it populates it with text from the chapter (the grayed out sections). If you move them around in notecard view, it'll move them around in the project, too.

You can also have two documents side by side which is super handy for second drafts - you can reference the original while you rewrite, which is something I've been doing a lot for my current original WIP lately. The original drafts were very very messy (changing tenses, viewpoints and a combination of script and prose) and I knew it wasn't going to be a simple 'tweak some phrases and correct grammar' but more an entire rewrite. I haven't seen anything else that lets you see two documents side by side inside the same programme before and I just think it's really neat.

You can also customise the layout a lot - both sides are collapsible if you want a distraction-free workspace (I just like having notes available right there at all times, same with the chapter names - I jump around and double-check details from previous chapters a lot).

Also, Scrivener can compile projects to multiple formats (.pdf, .rtf, .doc, .odt, every major ebook format and a few more niche programme uses like Final Draft) and you can choose what to include and exclude and it makes it look really sleek and professional. I mean, look at this! This is just fanfic!

I also think they are very unlikely to implement AI features because a) their customer base is a lot of writers who are vocally against AI features and b) they announced they were working on an Android app years ago and still seem to be nowhere near to launching it, so I get the feeling that they're just focusing on keeping Scrivener up to date and stable on the platforms they already have (Windows, MacOS and iOS) and don't have a lot of spare time to mess around with adding new and unpopular tools.

I can't speak for the iOS app since I'm on Android phones, but the idea is that you can sync work between desktop and phone, which I would love and I might be slightly bitter that there's no Android app yet. But desktop Scrivener is great, 10/10, definitely recommend.

i have always used MS Word for writing, but my laptop wheezed and went into a coma last fall and took my MS 2007 with it.

i carefully switched some projects to Google Docs, but now it's promoting its "AI" software to me.

so i just downloaded LibreOffice and moved my GDocs over to that.

anyway, if anyone has bad news for me about LibreOffice, tell me now, please, thx

[officiallyisagibrainrotted]

+ My Clumsy Bitch +

G: 🍓-fluff (I guess)

Warnings: Sae being mean, grammar errors, might possibly add a few more details, Cuss words.

God you were so nervous to have this meeting, You were already 15 minutes late which was not a good thing for wanting a position.

There was already a long line of girls outside waiting patiently, You were quite shy so cutting in front of them was a bit of a hassle.

'Making my way to the front desk was like walking on stage with over a trillion eyes set on me'. Some whisper and shake their heads in annoyance'.

You finally made it to the desk .

"Um excuse me?". You ask politely. "I'm here for the assistance position".

The man behind the desk didn't even glance at you.

"There's a line sweetheart". He gruffs.

"Exactly" .Some girl from the back said.

This caused you to flinch.

"Uh, but um , I-I was scheduled for 2:40 today though". You said this nervously , already being in a slightly awkward position. The older and obviously annoyed man let's out a sigh before going to his computer.

"The first name is (F/n)". You told him before he types it in.

"Your last name". He commands the obvious as he impatiently taps his foot waiting for his answer.

"Oh yeah obviously". You tried to joke the situation but the man doesn't even smile.

"(L/n)". He types it in. "Ah". He stated, "The one who's late". He says this loud for everyone to hear.

Causing you to grow even more uncomfortable as more sets of eyes are on you now.

"Alrighty, it's gonna be the third door on your left, knock first I think another meeting going on".

You shook your head before you took the directions he gave you.

You were getting closer and closer to the door, with ever step you took you had to tell yourself to relax. Just as you were only feet away the door opens showing a girl running out of the room, with her hand covering her face as tears stream down her face along with her mascara.

"Good luck with this one" She whimpered to you not looking at you while say it .

The scene only made you panic,why was she crying? Is he really that mean? Or was she just crying for the lost position?. This series of questions ran through your mind as you try to answer them as a way to possibly get your heart to stop racing. But your thoughts were ruined when a voice spoke from the other side .

"Next".

You swallowed nervous before entering the room.

There were two men , one sitting cross legged , he had reddish-brown hair and turquoise eyes. Sae Itoshi.

The other stood slightly hunch over, he had glasses and straight black hair and a tired expression.

Itoshi spoke first , "You must be (random name)".

"O-oh no I'm (L/n) (Y/n,)". You corrected. "Uh I was scheduled for 2:40".

"Oh the one who wasted my time". Itoshi spoke with no filter.

"I'm very sorry!".You bowed your head slow. For to long apparently.

"Well hurry up and sit down I don't have all day". Sae says impatiently.

"R-right". You were quick to sit down on the chair across from him.

It was only a 25 minute meeting, you barley got anything about yourself out and he only glanced at your file.

"You're hired". Was all he simply said.

"Huh, B-but im not even ha-".

"Do you want the position or not?".

"Yes I do but-". You stop yourself mid sentence, realizing how lucky you are.

Sae turn to the man who was standing next to him

"Giroland,you can dismissed yourself, you've been replaced, you're no longer needed here as my assistant".

Your mouth dropped as you watch the man just got fired right in front of you.

That's how you got hired as the young famous football player's assistant

Approaching this man with something is like walking on egg shells...

He's not exactly suuuuuuper mean it's just that when he tell you to do something or whatever he aspects it to get done ASAP. Other then that there'll be almost no problems at all.

When you don't get work done ASAP:

"(Y/n) did you read the manual sheet I told you to read and sign".

"Uh I forgot them on my desk at home but I swear I'll have them tomorrow first thing in the morning".

His eyes narrow a bit . " You said that yesterday and the day before that ".

''Yes I know but-”

"Yea yea I know you're sorry, that's all you've been ever since I hired you, it's only been two weeks and you're already a fuck up".

His words stung you for sure as you avoided eye contact with him.

He sighed before dismissing himself. "And the mail I told you to pick up is on my desk I assume".

You nervously looked up at him before getting up from your seat . "I-i'll get them right away".

He rolls his eyes before exiting your room .

When you fuck up big time :

"Not again not again not again" . You repeated to yourself as you ran into the airport.

Which was crowded meaning you had to push people out of the way.

You felt bad but you were already late, you see you would usually sleep at a hotel room that's right across Sae's but you decided to go home instead since you had forgot something but it would be a hassle to go all the way back to the hotel.

Which was a bad idea since now you're late, you slept through your alarm and missed 7 miss calls and texts from Sae.

As you were approaching your flight area you could already see your manager impatiently waiting while checking his watch.

But when you finally got to him you immediately apologized and tried to explain why you were late but he ignores you by walking away to the lady waiting at the desk. Leaving you to try and catch up .

"Sae Itoshi and (Y/n) (L/n), Um hey I'm not seeing your names on the list for this flight, I mean I can check again but it's not popping up".

Sae's eyes twitched as he looks over to you.

"You did remember to book our flights did you?". He asked. And your mouth fell open.

''Um i-I swear I did". You stutter as you fish out your planning book from you bag and began to skim through pages that had list of previous request he had asked you to do that were already crossed out meaning you accomplished some them .

All accept one, the very last thing he asked you to do.

IMPORTANT :'Schedule flights '.

"I-". You started as you look up at him. But he wasn't having it .

"How the hell do you have a planning book but you can't remember jackshit". He cussed.

"We do have two seats available and they're first class too and they're right next to each other ". The lady at the front desk seems nervous as she said this.

"We'll take those then". The already on the verge of exploding male grumbles.

The flight was silent as you wrote in your book you usually don't write in public but after the recent events you needed to jot down your feelings.

Till you felt a small amount of pressure hit your shoulder you looked to see that none other then Sae Itoshi had fallen asleep on your shoulder. The grip you had on your pen tightened. Should you wake him up?. You decided not to as you began to relax on the outside yes, but on the inside you were fangirling like crazy.

He was so at ease, his face was to relaxed. You pressed index finger and ring finger against your lips before pressing them against his forehead.

When you're late, again:

"What's your excuse this time?". Sae commands as he hears you stumble in .

"I slept past my alarms, again" .

He shook his head , not even looking up at you .

"I'm sorry".

'' I know, don't just stand there you have shit to do don't you and you're already behind on the things I asked you for from the days before no to mention the shit that's I need for today ".

"Yes I know".

"Maybe if you got here on time you wouldn't have so much work piled up onto yourself and me on the verge of firing you".

You flinch." That won't be necessary I promise I'll do better!". The girl said as she bows her head in an shame .

When he confronts you about your screw ups

"You were late 7 times later week 3 times this week , you somehow cancelled one of my appointments, you forgot to schedule an appointment, you left all your important files back at America, you lost my phone and yours". He listed all your screw ups.

"You know I should fire you right?,A long time ago at that ".

"Yes I'm aware and I'm really sorry, I'll try and do better. If you'll keep me that is".

"..."

"But um, why haven't you fired me yet?"

He sighs before he gets up from his seat and approached you till he was right up against you .

His tense eyes met yours before you felt something soft press up against your forehead.

After he does his deed he walks past you, leaving you confused.

You gently rub the spot that was recently touched.

"That one was for the plan and you're lucky I like you a lot or else I would have been fired your ass".

Reblogs are highly appreciated 👍

[serendipitous-magic]

What is your writing advice for young people who want to write fanfiction and original stories in the near future?

If this is just Way Too Much, skip to the end (#16). My most important piece of advice is there. I also happen to think #5 is pretty good.

-_-_-_-

1) Literally just write. Write whatever you want, and do a lot of it.

_-_

2) You don’t have to post everything. In fact you don’t have to post anything. You can, don’t get me wrong, but it can be intimidating to sit down and think “I will now write something that other people will see and read and judge with their eyeballs.” Because that’s probably gonna lead to nerves and writer's block. Just write down the ideas that you have, the things you want to write, whatever’s in your brain that you want to explore and expand upon and make into something. And then if you want to, share it. Or don’t share it. I have plenty of half-baked ideas and documents and random story chapters and shit hidden away on my Google Drive that will never see the light of day, for a whole number of reasons. I wanted to write it but it wasn’t ~Spicy~ enough to warrant posting, or it’s only like an eighth of a good idea, or it’s like one scene with no story around it, or it’s just something incredibly self-indulgent I just wanted to write for my own enjoyment.

Point being, don’t write for other people. Don’t write so that other people can read it; write what you want, write for yourself, and then if you want to share it, do.

_-_

3) You can pretty much ignore any and all of these for fanfiction. In fact, you can ignore pretty much any rules or guidelines you want for fanfiction. Fanfic is a sandbox. You don’t have to be a “professional writer” to post fic. No one expects you to be Stephen King or Margaret Atwood. Fanfic is just for playing in a fandom and having fun. If you wanna write a 50 chapter slow burn with very little plot aside from the OTP slowly getting to know each other, and no real stakes or central conflict, I guarantee people would read that. Really, fanfiction is the Old West of writing: lawless, wild, unpredictable, and free.

However, here are the rules you must follow:

-Separate your paragraphs. (I’m sure you know this already, but I’m gonna say it anyway just in case.) Do not post one big block of text. Make a paragraph break when someone new is talking, when the characters are in a new place, when a new event occurs that changes the scene, when a chunk of time has passed, and when there’s a major change in subject.

-I know it’s obvious, but... grammar, punctuation, and capitalization. They exist to make writing easy for readers to read, and more people will read your stuff if they don’t have to stop and try to figure out what you meant.

-Use tags and labels, as is possible with whatever site you’re using. Especially if you include possibly triggering content in your story. Again, I know it’s obvious, but it’s common courtesy. Bonus: tagging the themes and content of your story helps readers find it and read it :)

-If possible, limit the use of all-caps and exclamation marks / question marks. 99% of the time, one ! or one ? will do. If you overload the page with a lot of all-caps and long rows of exclamation marks or question marks, it hampers readability.

... That’s literally all I can think of. And, like I said, it’s all pretty basic stuff. You were probably rolling your eyes like, “Uh, yeah, Gwen, I know.” But that’s literally it. You can pretty much do whatever you want in fanfic.

That being said, here’s my advice for both fanfiction and original work...

_-_

4) A quick and dirty rule for coming up with a plot, starting a story, keeping up pacing, or maintaining tension: figure out what dreams, desires, and goals are nearest and dearest to your main character’s heart (see #16). Then set up the main conflict to be directly in opposition to that goal. It doesn’t have to be in a tangible way, though it could be. But, if your main character wants more than anything to reach the ships on the southern coast of your world and sail to a new life, make sure the main conflict immediately prevents them from doing that - in fact, make sure to send them north. If your main character just wants to keep their loved ones safe, kidnap the loved ones. If your main character just wants to date their best-friend-turned-crush, make sure they think they have no chance - or, make them cocky about it, and make sure it makes Person B determined not to ever like them. You get it. Figure out what your character most wants, and then keep them from having that. Boom - your conflict now ties in with your character's motivation. It's like instant yeast for plots.

_-_

5) If you’re anything like me, you want your first draft to be Good, despite all that advice about how the first draft doesn’t have to be good and it’s just to get words on the page, yadda yadda. And if you’re somewhat of a perfectionist (like myself), it’s easy to get stuck looking at a blank page because you don’t have The Perfect Words, and you want what you write to be Good the first time.

Here’s how I cheat that:

Instead of trying to write a Good First Draft from a blank page, hit the enter key a few times, skip a little down on the page, change your ink to red (or blue, or whatever - just something immediately identifiable as Not Black) and just thought vomit. Write whatever the hell you’re thinking, exactly as you think it. Don’t worry about it being readable, don’t worry about narrative flow for now, don’t worry about covering all the details, don’t worry about anything except either a) getting all the details of your idea out onto the page, whether that’s a lot or whether it’s just a sentence or two, or b) if you don’t have an idea yet, finding your way there.

Because this method is also very good for finding your way to ideas when you’re stuck in writer’s block.

Because of how human brains work, getting this stuff out onto the page - in all its messy, stream-of-consciousness glory - will likely spark more thoughts. As you write your original idea about the scene, it’ll likely spark more ideas. Creation begets creation. If you just start thought-vomiting your ideas onto the page, chances are you’ll think of more things as you go, and you’ll start filling out description or dialogue or tone or action or whatever, and pretty soon the scene starts writing itself.

Not sure where you’re going with the scene or which ideas you wanna use? Use a lot of ambivalent language in your “thought-vomit draft.” My pre-writing notes are chock-full of the words “maybe,” “perhaps,” and the phrases, “At some point...” and “...or something like that.” In this way, I don’t tie myself down to one idea; it’s just an idea, and I’m keeping it on the page in case I use it, but I might chuck it in the trash or change it or whatever.

And then, once your ideas for the scene (or story, or chapter, or whatever) are on the page, then go back to the top and start translating them into a “real” first draft. Use black ink, and start copy-pasting chunks of the thought-vomit up into the top part of the document and translating them into Draft 1. Separate out paragraphs where paragraph breaks should be. Add the correct punctuation and whatnot. Change “describe the lobby here - include potted plants, fancy carpet, blood stain, etc.” into an actual description of the lobby. Flesh it out, or condense, or whatever it needs. And if you’re still stuck, change back to red ink and ramble some more until you find a path that feels right, then plug that in. This keeps you from looking at a blank page, and it allows you to generate a kind of Draft 0.5, somewhere between a plan and a first draft.

You don’t have to use every idea. Like I said, jot down whatever comes to mind, put a “maybe” before or after it, and keep working. If the idea grabs you and you wanna keep expanding on it and exploring it, cool. If you just wanna jot it down so you don’t forget it and then move on, also cool. Red-ink draft / “thought-vomit draft” is your time to jump around in the timeline, add or finesse details at whatever point your brain moves to, etc. Don’t try to do it exactly in story order, because you will get tangential thoughts and ideas, and you will not remember to write them down five pages later when you finally get to taking notes on that scene. Trust me. On that note...

_-_

6) Write everything down the moment you think of it. Seriously.

“I’ll remember it when I get around to writing that scene in a couple days / weeks / months (/years).”

You won’t.

Write it down.

Phone, journal, google docs - hell, my family regularly laughs at me for grabbing a napkin during dinner and scribbling thoughts down alongside pasta sauce stains.

And then, once you have it written down somewhere...

_-_

7) Consolidate your writing ideas in one place.

Maybe this isn’t really your style, and that’s totally chill.

Buuuut, if you’re Type-A like me - or if you tend to be somewhat unorganized and you know you’ll lose track of your writing notes if they’re scattered across multiple notebooks, journals, napkins, phone notes, etc. - having one consolidated document of notes is a life saver. I keep mine on Google Docs so I can access it, add to it, and look through it for inspiration anywhere at any time. When I have one of those Shower Thoughts that I jot down on my phone or on a napkin during dinner, I set myself a reminder on my phone to type it up in my Story Ideas document later.

(Or, if the idea I had was for a story of mine that I’ve already started planning / drafting / whatever, I put it in the document for that story instead of the Big Random Story Ideas doc. You get it.)

_-_

8) Have other ways to collect and save writing ideas, besides just writing stuff down. If you like Pinterest, make pinterest boards of your characters or stories or settings or whatever. If you’re big into playlists, make a playlist for your character / setting / story / etc. Or both. Or something else. I’m not good at drawing, but maybe you are, and maybe you like to draw your ideas. Whatever form it takes, having another way to save ideas and think about your stories is invaluable.

_-_

9) Some writers can just start writing with no idea where the story is going, and they just kind of figure it out as they go. I envy those writers. And I do that sometimes for fanfiction, where the stakes are somewhat lower and the audience is reading more for scene-to-scene enjoyment (and to see their OTP kiss) than for a Driving And Compelling Narrative.

But here’s the thing: especially if you’re just kind of starting out, writing without some sort of plan is really, really hard, and will likely lead you into a slow, meandering narrative that will likely frustrate you.

Even if you think you’re someone that just can’t write with a plan (and again, I have the highest respect for pansters out there - I don’t know how you do it, you crazy bastards, but you keep doing you) - even if you think “I can’t work with plans, they’re too prescriptive, I just want to write and see what happens -”

Try at least making the most skeletal of plans.

Even if you have no clue what 90% of the story is, yet. That’s fine. But you need to have some idea of what you’re building to, even if that’s nothing more specific than a feeling, or a turning point for your character. Even if your entire plan for everything beyond Chapter 1 is, “At some point, Charlie needs to realize that Ed was lying to her.”

This is where those Draft 0.5 notes come in handy. Because, more than likely, working on your current scene that way will spark ideas for later scenes, which you can put down at the bottom of the document and save for when they become relevant. In my experience, the line between planning ahead and making a Draft 0.5 is exceptionally thin. One can quickly turn into the other.

If you’re really, really resistant to the idea of planning ahead, that’s okay. It’s not everybody’s style. But for the love of all that is holy, write down your ideas for future scenes, even if you’re a person that doesn’t like to plan and writes only in story order, because you will not remember that idea once you get to that scene.

_-_

10) You don’t have to write in order.

Here’s the thing: I’m a person that can only do my Draft 1 in story order (meaning, chronological order). I just have to be in that flow; I need to write in story order for me to best channel where the character is at from scene to scene, both narratively and emotionally.

But my Thought Vomit Draft is another thing entirely. By using the brain hack of putting my notes in red (or another color, it doesn’t matter) and going down to the bottom of the document / page and taking notes there, and then integrating them into whatever plan I have, and then translating them into Draft 1 once I get there in the story - by doing that, I can get my good ideas onto the page (and expound upon them and let my muse carry me and ride that momentum while I’m in the moment of inspiration) without writing out of order.

Maybe that’s just me. But if you’re a person who really prefers to write in story order, that could be hugely helpful to you. It is to me.

_-_

11) Emotion and motivation will do more for your story than technicalities of plot.

If your characters really care about something, and their journey through the (shaky or weak) plot is emotionally engaging, it will be a much more compelling story than a story with a “perfect” plot and unrelatable or unmotivated characters.

If your characters care about what they’re doing, and it means something to them, and their goals and actions are driven by dreams or fears or emotions that are integral to who they are, your audience will care too. If you have a perfectly crafted plot that hits all the right beats and has high stakes and fast pacing and drama - but your characters don’t connect with what’s happening in a way that’s deeply meaningful or emotional for them? You’re gonna have a hard time engaging readers.

When in doubt, prioritize character emotion and motivation over plot. Emotion is what drives story.

This power is highly exploitable. (Just look at pulp novels and shitty but entertaining movies.) You can even use it to glaze over plot holes or reinvigorate a limp narrative. Use it that way sparingly, though. It’s a band-aid, not a surgery. 

_-_

12) Evil villains are hard to write - mostly because there are very few truly evil people in the world. (There are a few. Billionaires and several big name politicians come to mind.) But by and large, there aren’t that many evil people. There are plenty of bad people, but bad people have some good in them, somewhere in there. Trying to write an evil villain is hard, because they often turn very cartoony.

Here’s a tip: it’s much easier to write antagonists who aren’t evil. Even if they’re bad people. Of course, there’s no reason you can’t write a villain that’s just truly evil - a serial killer, or an abuser, or a billionaire, or someone who legit just wants to hurt people or blow up the earth or stay in control of an oppressed population, or whatever. But chances are, it’s gonna be really hard to make them feel real, and even harder to create a plot around them that doesn’t feel forced or contrived.

Instead, try writing an antagonist / villain whose motivations and goals directly clash with your protagonist’s - but not because they want to take over the world or see people suffer. Write an antagonist who’s chaotic good, but whose perception of the situation is completely opposite from your hero’s. Write an antagonist whose only desire is to save people, and who will do anything to achieve that goal - anything. Write an antagonist who believes in the letter of the law, and will hinder and oppose the hero’s methods even if they agree with the hero’s motivation. Write an antagonist who got in way over their head and did some things they regret, and now they don’t know how to get out, and they’re doing their best but whatever they set in motion is too powerful for them to stop now.

Write villains who are human. Write a killer who thought they were doing the right thing by taking their victim out of the equation, who vomits at the sight of the body and sobs over the grave they dig. Write a government leader who truly believes she’s doing what’s best for her people in the long-term, even if it might hurt them in the short term, and is willing to endure the hatred and belligerence of the masses if it means securing what she thinks is a better future for her people. Write a teenage bully that thinks they’re the one being picked on by the world, and they’re just fighting back, standing their ground. Write a scientist who will break any code of ethics and hurt anyone he needs to - in order to bring back his baby sister from the grave, because he promised her he’d protect her and he failed. Write an antagonist who is selfish and self-centered and capricious - because in order to survive they had to look out for Number One, and that habit ain’t about to break anytime soon.

Write villains who aren’t even villains. Write antagonists who oppose the hero because of moral differences. Write antagonists who are trying to do the right thing. Write antagonists who treat the heroes with kindness and dignity and respect and gentleness.

They don’t have to be good. They don’t have to be Misunderstood Sweethearts who “deserve” a redemption arc. They can be cruel and nasty and dismissive and callous and violent and etc. etc.

Just hesitate before you make them Evil-with-a-capital-E. Because evil is hard to write, and honestly, boring to read. Flawed human beings with goals and motivations that directly oppose the main characters’ are much easier to write and much more interesting to read.

Ask why. Why is your villain trying to take over the world? What does that even mean? Are they trying to create a Star-Trek-like post-capitalism utopia, but they know that won’t happen in a million lifetimes, so they’re trying to do it by force? Are they actually super in favor of human rights, but they got very impatient waiting for the world to do anything about poverty and war, so they decided to take it into their own hands? Are they determined to fix the world - no matter the cost? Are they terrified and overwhelmed, but committed to see it through to the end? Or - maybe they’re just doing it on a dare. Maybe they don’t really give a shit about world domination, they were just a mediocre rich white guy who decided to fuck around and find out, and now he’s kind of curious how far he can take this thing. And now he’s kind of an internationally-wanted criminal, so he’s kind of stuck living on his hidden private island in his multi-billion dollar secret base, strapping lasers to sharks’ heads for the hell of it. Gross, selfish, uncaring, and dangerous? For sure. Evil? Depends on your definition. See, now we’re getting somewhere.

_-_

13) It’s tempting to let the plot control the characters. It’s easy to drop your characters into a situation and see how they react. But here’s the thing: that doesn’t drive plot. In fact, it bogs down pacing. Instead, try to build you plot off of your characters’ actions and decisions. Let your character build their own situation. Not to say it should go they way they wanted it to go; in fact, usually, their grand plans should go to hell very quickly. But having the characters take action and make decisions, and letting the plot develop based on that, is much easier to make compelling than making a rigid series of events and then trying to herd your characters into them.

_-_

14) Having trouble justifying a character’s actions? Consider having them make the opposite decision, or having them approach the situation in a different way. For example: you need your character to go meet the bad guy, for plot reasons, even though there’s no way it’s not a trap. If the character goes, readers are gonna be groaning with their head in their hands, because c’mon man, that was really fucking stupid. But he’s gotta go, because the plot needs that. Two ways you might handle this: a) He knows it’s probably a trap. He decides not to go. The plot conspires to get him near the villain anyway. Or, b) He knows it’s a trap. But he needs to go, for (insert reasons here). So, he approaches it in an unexpected way. He brings backup, recruiting a side character we met earlier in the story. Or he arrives on the back of a dragon, because ain’t nobody gonna fuck with a dude on a dragon. Or he goes - early, and ambushes the villain. It may work, it may not. He may get himself kidnapped anyway. But it moves the plot along without having Stupid Hero Syndrome.

_-_

15) This is a legit piece of advice: if all of this sounds overwhelming, literally just ignore it and write what you want. For real. Writing should be fun, and every single writer operates differently. If you’re sitting here like “I’m getting stressed just reading this,” just flip me a good-natured bird and get on with your life. I promise I won’t take it personally. Same goes for literally any other writing advice you see. Lots of rules and guidelines can very quickly make anything thoroughly un-fun. Just write. If you’re passionate about it and you do it for long enough, you’ll start figuring out the tips and tricks on your own.

_-_

16) Here’s the best piece of advice I can give you: know your characters. More importantly, know what’s important to them. Build their personality and decisions off of that, and build your plot off of their decisions.

I see a lot of character building sheets that ask a shit-ton of questions like “What’s their most prized possession?” “Do they like their family?” “What’s their favorite food?”

And while these are good questions, my problem with this type of character building is that if you start there, with the little stuff, you’re building on nothing. IMO, to make a truly strong character (not strong like Inner Strength, strong like effective), you need a strong foundation.

Here are the things you must know about your character:

a) What are their greatest fears / deepest insecurities? And I don’t mean “wasps” or “heights.” I mean the deep shit. I mean fears like “living a meaningless life,” or “turning out just like their parents,” or “that no one will ever love them,” or “being powerless.” You may say, “But they’re really scared of wasps! They fall into a wasp nest when they were little and got stung so much they almost died!” Great! That’s a fantastic bit of backstory. They should absolutely be afraid of wasps, and that should absolutely be an impediment later in the story. But dig deeper. What about that event actually scarred them? Was it the helplessness? Stumbling around, swatting at the air, not being able to do a single thing to stop what was happening to them? Was it that they were alone, and no matter how loud they screamed, no one was coming? Was it the bodily horror of feeling themself turn into an inhuman creature as they swelled up from the stings, unable to move their fingers or face normally anymore?

And don’t forget insecurities, because those factor in, too. Are they deeply insecure about their identity? Do they believe, deep down, that they’re ugly? Did they grow up poor and they’ve always been really touchy about that? Why? Dig deep. Figure out what really, really bothers them.

b) What are their hopes and dreams? What do they truly want out of life? What do they consider the most valuable to their experience here in this thing called life? Is it the freedom to forge their own path and be independent? Is it the approval of their family or peers? Is it a home? Is it knowledge, or understanding? Spiritual fulfillment? Is it deeply important to them that they contribute to their community, or protect those they love? What do they need in order to feel truly and deeply fulfilled in life?

Figure out those two things (each one encompasses several things, btw, you don’t have to stop at just one for each), and then use that to inform how they behave and the types of decisions they make within the story. 

It also informs character behavior and personality. 

Let’s say we have a character who’s afraid of helplessness. They’re probably gonna be the person that always wants to do something, try something, no matter how hopeless the situation seems. They’d despise just sitting and waiting, probably, because it makes them feel powerless. They might even be the person that makes rash decisions and acts impulsively and puts themself in danger unnecessarily, because in their mind it’s better than being at the mercy of fate. This is one way you could use a character’s personality to inform their decisions, which in turn helps to inform plot.

Or, let’s say we have a character whose greatest fear is being left behind or forgotten. We may have a chatterbox on our hands. They might be obnoxious. They might love the spotlight, constantly vying for attention no matter the situation, because deep down they’re so afraid that they’d be forgotten otherwise. Or, it may go the opposite way. They may be so afraid of people leaving them that they’re terrified of bothering people. They don’t want to do anything that could annoy people, anything that might give people a reason to leave them. They might be exceedingly polite, quiet, accommodating. A push-over, really.

These are two nearly opposite types of personalities, both stemming from the same core fear/insecurity. You can go a lot of different ways with it. But if you build on that strong foundation, you’ll have a strong character, and a stronger plot.

Likewise, the structure of your story can and should inform the design of these character traits. If you need your characters to team up near the end, it may be impactful if you give your main character a deep fear of commitment, an insecurity about being unwanted or left behind, and make them highly value independence and freedom. That could make their team-up for the final battle very meaningful. Conversely, you can use your character’s deepest fears and desires to help design the plot. Is your character deeply insecure about voicing their opinions or taking a stand, because of trauma they faced in the past? Make them face that. Build that into the climactic third act. Give them the big inspirational speech where they stand up and talk about what they believe to be important, what they think the group should do. And then design that character arc to run through the story, giving you more handholds and stepping stones, more pieces of foundation on which to design the plot.

In this way, character should inform story as much as story informs character. It’s a feedback loop.

Bonus: if you build your character and your plot off of each other in this way, it automatically starts to build in the foundations of that emotional investment I mentioned earlier. If your character’s decisions are based on what they most want and do not want in life, you basically have your character motivation and stakes pre-built.

Note: you need to know these things about your villain, too.

-_-_-

I’m genuinely sorry about the length of this, lmao. But you did ask.

Best of luck!

Edit: I forgot an important one:

17) Start when the scene starts and end when the scene ends.

What do I mean by that?

If your notes say “Danny asks Nicole out after school and majorly flubs it,” start the scene when Danny approaches Nicole after school. Better yet, cold-open the scene on “I was wondering if, you know, you’d wanna. You know. Hang out some time?”

Don’t start that morning when Danny goes to school, unless you’re gonna cover the school day in like one or two sentences. Don’t spend whole paragraphs going through the school day, unless it’s to cover other plot points first (in which case apply these same guidelines there), or if the paragraphs are there for a specific reason, like to illustrate how stressed he is and how it seems like every little thing is going wrong. Even then, trim the fat as much as possible. Expounding and describing everything Moment-to-moment is for the meat of the scenes, not the leading-up-to and coming-away-from.

Here’s my rule of thumb: study how and when movies cut from scene to scene. Movies have exceptionally strict, limited time for storytelling; they’re excellent examples of starting a scene when the plot point starts and ending when it’s over. If you can’t picture a movie showing everything you showed, start the scene later and end it earlier.

[sandycookie]

TWST’s Translation Spell

I’ve been following the novel translation, but there has been one question that I cannot stop asking:

How the hell does the translation spell work? 

(Long read under the cut...I got a bit carried away. Also if I get my facts wrong, feel free to correct me; I’m no linguist. On the flip side, if you have anything to add, that would be pretty cool)

Before we start, here’s an excerpt from Yuuya himself on how it feels to experience the spell (he’s speaking Japanese):

Expressing himself was easy and the words were discernible, but once he actually paid attention, something about it seemed a little off. His lips didn't seem to match what he thought he was saying.

"But then, what am I... ?"

Even if his mouth moved too much for the briefest of phrases, the words still traveled to his ears like always, revealing that everything he thought was being said and heard was being translated into some unknown tongue.

It’s a confusing passage, to say the least, but what he’s getting at is that whatever he is saying, or conveying, is automatically being converted into some other language. Or from what we can discern, into whatever language a listener understands, since he’s able to understand Crowley. Simple enough.

...Or is it?

You see, sometimes in my free time, I’ll dabble in language. I’m no linguist or language though, my interest is only something I act on sometimes, but I do know a few things at least. And I have more questions than I did answers for this plot tool to explain how students can communicate without a lingua franca.

From what we can tell, it seems that the translation is done as the speaker talks. That sounds fine on paper, until you consider this:

Grammar. 

Grammar is the system a language uses to structure. For example, English is a subject-verb-object (SVO), so it would go: 

I got a present.

And since Yuuya is speaking Japanese, Japanese on the other hand is a subject-object-verb (SOV), so in this case, the Japanese sentence of that would translate directly to:

(I) Present(s) got.

On that note, something also to note is that English mentions subjects a lot more than Japanese or Chinese. In the latter languages, the subject can be omitted since it’s clear in the context of the situation. This can happen in English ([You] Wanna come?), but those are the exceptions. Even if there isn’t a need to mention the subject as often as we do in English, it just wouldn’t sound right. Also to note is that English for the most part lacks any conjugation based on subject like Spanish and French do with their verbs. Subject omission may not affect the translation spell much as it could just add the subject markers you’d need, but I thought it would be nice to add. 

And there are others like how adjectives are placed (Red shirt in English, Shirt Red in Spanish, etc.)

That’s a basic rundown; grammar can get really complicated depending on the language. But the point here is that every language has its own grammar system. Some may share very similar ones, others may have completely different grammar. And because of that, certain details could either be omitted due to context or would come up later in a sentence. 

So let’s go back to our English Japanese example. Let’s say the Japanese speaker is saying a long sentence, that, of course, has a verb at the end.

How would that be interpreted in English? Would that mean that the English listener gets the sentence directly translated? Would that mean that the English speaker hears a blank where the verb is suppose to be, only for it to be filled when the Japanese speaker mentions the verb? But alright. Let’s say that the translation spell only kicks in after a sentence is said so that it can be translated with all of the details. But what if the Japanese speaker gets cut off before they can mention the verb? Then something like The running dog. Would be cut short to The dog. And if the sentence is compound and more complex? The English listener might be confused; what did the object do that was, say, so horrific?

On the flip side, the Japanese listener might be left wondering what object did the horrific thing. 

Now, I want to move on from grammar and onto the languages themselves. We can dive into how the translation spell could feasibly work after that. 

Now my main question here is: is the translation spell limited by language?

What I mean is: does the translation spell operate within a set amount of languages? Does it only work for languages commonly used in Twisted Wonderland? Does it only work for any language in Twisted Wonderland? Well, I think there the answer is yes...kind of.

In the excerpt, Yuuya mentions that whatever he was saying was being translated into a language he’d never heard of before. So I think it’s safe to say the translation spell isn’t limited by language (...kind of), and just, well, translates into whatever language a person understands.

But there is one major flaw with this logic: Rook Hunt. This is self-explanatory. He’s constantly speaking French, and it’s never translated. ‘Roi du Poison’ never gets translated into ‘King of Poison’, and ‘Oui’ never gets translated into ‘Yes’. The simple answer could be that French is just some made up language in TWST that Rook uses, and is therefore gibberish; something that you can’t translate, and something that the translation spell could let be and not translate.

But that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. No one ever really questions or thinks what Rook says is gibberish. Their surprise mostly comes from Rook himself. Plus, his use of Monsieur to strangers outside of NRC is never questioned and easily accepted. That would mean that ‘French’ (because I’m sure it’s called something else) is a relatively known language (and if the English in the backgrounds of the game confirm that English is a language in Twisted Wonderland, then that would be even more confirmation that French exists since 29% of all English vocabulary is either French or of French origin, such as ‘gourmet’  and ‘reservoir’.)

So in order for Rook to have his translation-spell-ascending French, he has to...bribe the spell? Put some special charm on himself? Ok, I’ve got no clue how it’s done. The only way for that to happen is that there’s some means of which Rook’s French is an exception to the spell. At least he can swear without getting flack for it; though he’s not much for those words as he can wax on and on about beauty with no difficulty. 

Also, since we’re talking about the novel, does that mean Japanese honorifics are universal in Twisted Wonderland? I read from a post (since the entire novel has yet to be translated) that Yuuya goes through a bit of an arc regarding using honorifics, particularly with Ace. He refers to Ace as ‘Ace-kun’ (iirc), and Ace tells him to drop the honorifics with him. Yuuya is eventually able to simply call him ‘Ace’. As I assume that the translation spell was in effect here, that means that Japanese honorifics are for the most part universal in Twisted Wonderland. Of course, I do have questions on how a system so nuanced and rooted in Japanese culture was able to enter into widespread use, but that’s a discussion for another day. 

Since we’re talking about different languages, let’s talk about those.

As language is something inherently tied to culture and concept, that means that different languages will have concepts that don’t exist in other languages or are difficult to communicate in other languages. 

Have you heard of Pirahã? 

It’s a very fascinating language, and for good reason. It’s spoken by the Pirahã people in Amazonas, Brazil, who mostly are monolingual with a few who understand Portugese. I won’t go too in depth with Pirahã, only enough to get my point across. But it does stand out among most languages I’ve seen due to it lacking any word for abstract concepts. That is to say, and it is culturally upheld, that Pirahã does not make generalizations beyond the present. That means that concepts such as freedom, honor, justice, failure, etc. do not exist within its language. And the most significant of all of these is the lack of counting in Pirahã. Even the words for small or large quantity of items are tricky, as the only difference between the is the tone you use.  So in Pirahã, the concepts of 1, 2, 3 simply do not exist. There was a linguist who attempted to teach the Pirahã people how to count. However, it’s not the lack of number words that’s fascinating; there have been other languages out there that lack numbers. There have been linguists who were able to successfully teach numbers and counting to the people using those numberless languages. What makes Pirahã unique though is that even after 8 months or so, the Pirahã people were not able to successfully learn counting, and couldn’t even do equations such as 1 + 1. 

There’s more to Pirahã than what I’ve put out, and if you’re even mildly curious about it, I implore you to go do some research on your own. The topics and questions it brings up are truly fascinating.

But what does Pirahã have to do with this post? 

Well, now, what if a person is using a language that lacks concepts others do have, such as numbers and counting?

If a Pirahã speaker were to communicate with others under the translation spell, what would occur when a concept that doesn’t exist in their language comes up? How would that get translated? Sure, there are instances where numbers could be replaced with ‘large quantity’ or ‘small quantity’, but even that’s a stretch. 

So would the translation spell find some alternative way to communicate these nonexistent concepts? Would it cut out the nonexistent concepts? Or would the translation spell somehow make them understand the concept? 

The first option seems fine at first, but there’s not much you can do when those concepts simply don’t exist. After some time, certain concepts may be mixed together, not to mention that trying to alternatively explain nonexistent concepts in the first place will already cause some miscommunication to occur.

The second would merely cause confusion and potentially miscommunication.

The third would mean that the translation spell is like some sort of god of concept or wisdom; so it could be possible as it’s magic, but it’s also, uh, well, I doubt that is the case. The nature of TWST’s magic doesn’t seem to me to be that all-powerful, and definitely not powerful enough to teach to people nonexistent concepts (to themselves). 

Since it’s a translation spell, it’s likely that it would go with the 1st option rather than the 2nd one, since it’s whole reason for existing is so communication at NRC can occur without problem between students of different languages. 

So if you speak a language where abstract concepts are nonexistent (in a world full of languages able to do detailed communication regarding those very concepts), you’re going to be screwed over and have a lot of confusion or miscommunication occur. So even if there isn’t a language limit or barrier on the translation spell, if the language you speak isn’t as ‘compatible’ per se with others, then it fails at its very job of allowing communication occur between students of different languages.

Now what about bilinguals or people who speak more than 1 language? How does the translation spell choose which language others translate to? If you’re talking with a two people that are speaking different languages from each other but languages that you are fluent in, would you hear them speak those different, distinct languages, or would you simply hear them through whichever language the spell decides to translate them into? Are you restricted to only hearing one language? And how is it chosen? Is it the language you decide to currently communicate with? Your native language? The language you understand best? Most of those options are super invasive! 

Also, Epel’s accent? Does the spell give him some sort of acceptation and translate his dialect/accent from his own language and assign some other accent/dialect of the listener’s own language when translating his words? If it’s translating, it should be able to translate his words clearly, especially if the spell is to use intent as a main way to translate. Epel is just...well, his accent isn’t weird just because it’s hard to understand.

Oh, and remember what I said about Rook? ‘People outside of NRC’?

There are events where our boys go to the outside world, places outside of the effects of the translation spells. And its even happened in the story, with the Dwarf’s Mines, Deuce and Epel in Book 5 and over half of Chapter 6. 

Yet, these guys communicate just fine. ??? Does this mean there’s some sort of lingua franca after all in Twisted Wonderland? But how the hell does Yuu get around then?! They’re a complete blank slate, you could have you Yuu be from Hawaii, Nepal, etc. and therefore only speak one language. So how is Yuu able to communicate outside of NRC? So that would mean Yuu would have to learn the lingua franca, unless the spell’s effect carry on outside of NRC (press x for doubt). So if there IS a lingua franca, then what’s the point of the translation spell?

TLDR; I have too much time on my hands and it’s getting late and I need to wake up early tomorrow and I do not regret a damn thing about it AAAA

[snailsweater]

This whole au is drivin me titts in the air insane. Like do you even know for how long this reblog is chilling in my drafts because I STILL find new things I want to add and analize? (I am so freakin sure I misspelled this but you know what, I don't even care about grammar or the correct vocabs at this point anymore)

For real, if you would have shown past me that I would say hello to a VegasKim fic, I would've laughed. But here I am, standing in my own clown costume and reread it. Again.

I stated a lot of times that I love your writing and that i am not over proving you why. Because with this scenes from Vegas and Kim, holy... It is like a big treasure hunt! You feel so much and it stays so long even after I finished reading so I try to find out WHY and HOW YOU DO THAT!

But I will start with something entirely different, this being the little glimpes of the entire universe of your story around the snippet.

Like in the start, Kim knowing how his family handles love, handles care and emotions and feelings in general. You can't imagine the pain I felt with the sentence that compared Kinn and Tankhun. The irony of Kinn being the heir despite him being the most inefficient one just because he is the one without the feelings, the one who is the most non-human is amazing!

Because in all of this snippets Kim feels raw, he feels frustrated, angry, alone, scared, filled with rage, he feels so much, his emotions are overflowing and dripping through every single sentence. It's not about him wanting to move out alone but about him, being the unfit chesspiece on this giant board and every single meeting with Vegas remembers us, the reader of this.

Every hit, every pain and suffering, every wound is filled with the confused feelings of him, wanting to get away from everything but finding a person that is just the same as him in Vegas instead.

Vegas... oh Vegas...

Better saying, your Vegas, I (and with "I" I mean we) talked an entire train ride only about the frequence where you let Kim remember, that Vegas himself is barely twenty.

"Make it count. Vegas is twenty and talks about torturing someone like Kim's friends are talking about writing music." You needed this two sentences to send me through the floor.

It just scatches exactly "that" spot, you know? You look at Vegas, you look at him through Kims eyes and he is there, powerful, filled with rage, a chesspiece that never fit better in the position of the king. He is cruel, calculating, mercyless if he needs to be. He is perfect for it but doomed to fail by the elder generation and this, his forced posture, his mask, his fists they all loose their effect in this scene.

Because we see Vegas. We see him like a broken doll. Like someone, that can get replaced with ease. And you enforce this point AGAIN after a few sentences.

"Nobody looks for Vegas. His phone stays silent the whole night." OUCH!

This thing!

Hurt!

Despite Kim wanting to cut ties and leave the family, he still feels somehow in touch with anyone. Like the saying of his friends who are writing music. It seems like, no matter how distant, Kim still has someone out there who cares.

Vegas? Not.

This two sentences made me realize while reading how utterly alone Vegas is. He may has Macau but he is not present. Vegas had a horrible night but no one is there to see, no one is there to care. Excluding Kim.

And Kim is there. And he stays. And he still respects Vegas and his boundaries that he learned and picked up in all their time together. Because he DOESN'T touch him. He lays next to hime and gives him a fucking choice.

He KNOWS Vegas. He knows he has to wear and make up the mask of the cold, emotionales men the worlds wants him to be. So he gives him the choice to dissapear to wash everything that haf happened off and never speak of it again. They would be back to breaking bones and sitting blood as if nothing happened.

AND THIS DETAIL MAKES VEGAS CHOOSING TO CUDDLE UP TO KIM SO MUCH MORE MEANINGFULL!

He has a choice!

He could do what he does every single time.

He could be "Vegas".

And he doesn't!

He allows the intimacy, he chooses to show his weak side towards Kim.

He isn't unconscious, he isn't drugged and he is, despite being beaten up to a pulp, in a stable shape (thanks to Kim btw) So his choice isn't made on accident. He knows what he does. And I can't calm down here, holy FUCK!

Kim and Vegas is a combination I had NOT in my radar but I like your portrayal of them so much because you leave it to us the readers to read it like full blown romance, a build up for more or a deep shared bound between them. You're giving the choice how to read it to us, without leaving evrrything open and this is friggn TALENT!

(At this point I am pretty sure I have your snippets in my drafts to find them faster.)

I love how you give us little sprinkles and Pieces with your snippets bit after bit, it is so refreshing and interesting because theoretically there is an open ending but on the other end it feels not like it? It's like getting a painting presented and the more you look at it the more you notice the patterns and colours and in detail structure about it.

I love how you play with the time of the narrative in these snippets. You stretch it to give us room to follow Kims thoughts and to paint the image of Vegas bleeding and beaten on the ground, you give us the time to let the underlying feelings sink in and get what is going on and what is building up at this moment. But close after that you shorten it with tiny little timeskips which are so subtle and naturally woven into it, that you don't even notice them by getting interrupted in the reading flow.

But I need to stop, I am writing in this draft for WEEKS and MONTHS now, and I want to get this done, so here, take this and I swear to you, I will blow up your asks and dm's as soon as I am done analyzing yet another aspect.

Bu-byeee

Dear writer, what happens after? Does Kim leave him in that gym? Do Vegas and Kim ever talk about it when sober? I demand more comfort! :D

well, i am in need of a whole lot of comfort myself, so i'll play. this is not edited in any way, so excuse typos, long sentences, and whatever else happens.

- - -

Kim gets himself together quickly. He wipes tears with his shirt sleeve and bites his lip hard enough that it hurts. The pain keeps him grounded. Showing emotions is like being honest. It gets you in trouble. Kim knows because Kinn has replaced Tankhun, who is more astute and a lot better at detecting treachery than Kinn, all because Kinn looks more competent and is less emotional. All because Tankhun could not bottle everything up like everyone else. All because Tankhun says what's on his mind. Kim wonders if Korn has three sons just so he can swap out whatever he deems to be the weaker link.

Vegas dozes off despite the pain within minutes and stays asleep as Kim carefully cleans his wounds and places patches on the bigger ones that ooze blood whenever Vegas moves in his sleep. Kim removes the bloody shirt and throws it in a trash bag with whatever he used to clean the wounds. He considers putting the shirt in some cold water in the sink, but it's probably a lost cause already and the least of Vegas's problems. 

Kim knows he can call someone to pick Vegas up and get him home, but Vegas must have left the house for a reason. Kim decides that Vegas has had enough trouble for the day. He gathers foam mats from the room that houses leftover equipment and puts them together in a makeshift bed near the entrance. It's not a great place to sleep, but Kim wants to move Vegas only a little to prevent his wounds from reopening.

He moves purposely and efficiently until he runs out of things to do and he no longer has a task to throw his full attention at. Staring at Vegas, who is still out on the foam mats with his bruised and battered torso on display, Kim exhales shakily. In the dimly lit lights, relaxed in his sleep Vegas looks his age, barely twenty. It's easy to forget how young he is when he punches or throws Kim on the ground, when he laughs maniacally before pulling Kim closer, either for a kick or a kiss. Or when he talks about where to shoot or stab to kill someone, where to do it to make it really hurt. Make it count. Vegas is twenty and talks about torturing someone like Kim's friends talk about writing music. It gnaws at Kim and unsettles him how much he cares about Vegas. It's stupid.

Kim forces himself to turn away and find something else to do. He texts his bodyguards to let them know he won't be home. These days they don't trail him silently at his father's orders and stay away when Kim demands. Then he finds his bag, headphones and a phone charger and sits down in the tiny office room, between cardboard boxes and broken chairs. Then he spends the next few hours listening to music and talking his way out of checking on Vegas.

Nobody looks for Vegas. His phone stays silent the whole night. 

Around four in the morning, Kim can no longer keep his eyes open no matter how much he tries. He considers going home but doesn't want to leave Vegas alone. Doesn't want to be alone either. 

Carefully, to not disturb him, Kim lays down on a foam mattress next to Vegas. There's still a scent of alcohol mixed with whatever perfume Vegas prefers these days and the wound solution Kim used. This close, Kim can see he missed a few blood splatters on the cheek and chin when cleaning up the split lip. It looks painfully swollen.

Sleep finally wins.

- - -

Kim wakes up because Vegas is making quiet, whiney noises. He's awake, sitting beside Kim, covering his face with his arms. Kim opens his mouth to ask how Vegas feels but stops himself. He wants to allow Vegas to leave while he thinks Kim is asleep. Vegas can disappear as he always does after their fights, and they can never mention this again. Kim can already imagine their next fight; Vegas will ensure Kim knows there is nothing soft or vulnerable between them, and Kim's ribs will hurt for days.

"Fuck," Vegas murmurs in English, as he always does around Kim these days. Kim guesses there's a hangover that's pounding Vegas's head and a layer of shame and regret on top of it. If their places were swapped, Kim would be mortified. 

Vegas doesn't move while Kim tries to focus on even, slow inhales and exhales. And he thinks he has the "pretending to be asleep" role under control until Vegas touches him. He takes Kim's left arm and moves it away from Kim's side. For a moment, Kim thinks that Vegas will do something insane, like stab him in the sleep, dig a grave and bury Kim with his secrets. He wonders if Vegas can feel his heart picking up the speed as he moves Kim's hand enough to lie down in its place. 

Kim freezes, only for a second, and wills himself to stay relaxed as Vegas wraps himself around Kim's body carefully, still making tiny pained noises. Once settled, Vegas presses his cheek against Kim's shirt and settles.

Kim tries to breathe normally, but Vegas can probably hear his racing heartbeat because he grips Kim's side and then pets it as to soothe a startled animal. 

"I'm cold," Vegas murmurs. "Move your arm."

Kim snorts at the audacity but obeys and moves his arm around Vegas's shoulder. "Better?"

"Much better," Vegas replies, yawning. He's unbothered with the whole cuddling situation, and Kim can feel Vegas's weight relax against his body. 

Like a kid who got away with stealing candy Kim smiles to himself and lets the even sounds of Vegas's breath lull him back to sleep. 

[marc-spectorr]

hi Callie! My tumblr is stuck on a random fic of yours so I’ll have to fix that later but I had question that’s been marinating for a while!!

Although I’m still new to this whole tumblr stuff, I was seeking some advice for newbies who want to start writing? I’ve always been inspired reading yours and other fic writers’ fics!

I’ve written fics in the past but never published them cus I didn’t know any platforms to post them on back then

One day I might post some and become a fic writer like you!!! Gotta build up that courage and knowledge somewhere first though 🤧🤧

love you always, hope you’re taking care of yourself these past few days 😮‍💨

woo!, moonjin xx

hiya moonjin !!!

sorry for taking almost an entire day to respond ;-; but wowoow i’m incredibly honored that you’ve come to me for advice as well as being part of your inspiration to start writing :))

okay, so i went through my previous asks about writing and tagged them as #writing advice. but here are the most important tips that i would say:

plan out your fic– to make the process easier, i would suggest creating an outline! outlining is a great way to visualize the story you’re telling and plan out any research you might need to do. it doesn’t have to be super detailed or anything. you can just put down what exactly you want to happen from start to finish, note any dialogue you might want to add, or describe the scenes you want to include. 

no matter how many times the idea has been done before, write that fic! when i first started, i remember not wanting to write a fic solely bc there’s already one out there with a similar plot. but don’t let this discourage you! everyone’s writing is one of a kind, which makes each fic special. for example, the best friends to lovers trope is something that’s been done a million times, but your take on it will be unique as it’s your words and your dialogue. 

quality over quantity always– don’t worry too much about how short (or long) your fic is! focus more on how you deliver the story rather than aiming for a specific word count. some writers can produce amazing fics in just under a thousand words. it’s all about the quality of your work, not the length of it. for any first-time writers, i would suggest writing something small to test it out, have a feel for what it’s like and use this to discover your writing style.

proofread your work– this one is obvious, but it’s essential! i know that feeling at the end after typing out the last line of the story. you’re happy that you’ve finally completed it and are excited to post. but don’t forget to read it over once or twice before uploading to make sure your spelling is correct and your grammar is the best that it could be. yes, no one’s perfect. you may not catch every mistake, but you can try fixing most! you can also run it through sites like grammarly to find those errors.

have fun with it– i can’t stress this enough, writing should be fun. remember that you’re allowed to step away and take a break. you can always come back to it once you’re ready! it might seem scary to post in the beginning, but it’s such a rewarding experience when you do. writing takes a lot of time, effort and love, and sharing it with thousands of readers on this platform is an outstanding achievement in itself. so far, this whole community has been lovely and very supportive! i can assure you that they’ll be thrilled for more stories!

hopefully this helps, darling! i can’t wait to read the wonderful fics you have in store for us :) i’m always here if you need any more help!

(also i really love that pic of oscar *swoon*)

[weasleyswizardpleases]

And the Living is Easy (Fred x reader)

Summary: You spend the first night of summer vacation getting into trouble with the Weasleys + Harry and Hermione. Fred x reader. Fluffy mischief mostly, but sex is discussed and implied. 

Warnings/Notes: Light sexual content but not all out smut, alcohol, heights, language. I wrote this to be a stand alone, but I enjoyed it so much that it might become part of a loose series of slice of life-y reader x twins fics set at the burrow over the summer! ps i did not edit this at all after writing it at 2am so. uh

Summer at the Weasley’s is my favorite time of year. After my mother passed, you were tossed around from boarding school to boarding school, relative to relative, never really having a say in where you went, or with whom. But ever since becoming fast friends with Fred and George while repairing brooms for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, you’ve pretty much been considered an honorary Weasley.

You stow your suitcases in the overhead and squeeze into a seat next to Fred and George. Across from you, Ron, Lee, and Harry are packed in. 

“Do you reckon you’ll ever make it out to the burrow, Lee?” asks George pointedly. 

“Yeah, you don’t know what you’re missing out on. Mrs. Weasley’s hotcakes are out of this world.” Harry says.

“And there’s loads of space to play quidditch.” you say.

“And loads of secret spots not even Mum knows about where we can basically do whatever we like.” adds Fred.

“You know my mum will hardly let me out of her sight for a day. Merlin’s sake, she’s practically ass to elbow on me all summer.” Lee says, faking a pout. “Quit ribbing at me, would you? Or I’ll spend the summer in my room coming up with derogatory names to call you on the Quidditch pitch.”

Murmurs of “Come on, we’re only joking.” and “Fine, fine.” fill the packed compartment. You lift your rat Pansy up to the window to show him the scenery.

“Bet you’ve never seen the fine English countryside like this, eh Pansy?” you baby-talk at him, scratching his little noggin.

“You know that thing is never gonna talk back at you, right Y/N?” says Fred, rolling his eyes. 

“You never know. Look what happened to Scabbers.” you say, wiggling you eyebrows. “This rat could also secretly be a creepy little pervert who watches me undress at night.”

“I suppose it isn’t unprecedented in the rat community,” agrees George. Ron scowls in disdain.

“That’s my pet we’re talking about!” he says, causing everyone to burst into laughter.

“Yeah, fine pet he was.” says Harry, grinning.

“I will say, Ron-” Fred begins, clearing his throat. “You’ll never find another like him.” He claps his little brother on the back and stands up, peering down the hallway. “Oi, it’s the trolley, look alive Georgie.” George rises and straightens his coat. The boys have been planning for ages to charm the trolley witch into selling their skiving snackboxes. They run off down the car towards her. You tuck Pansy back into his cage and watch the scenery go by yourself. Before you know it, you’re being shaken awake by Fred and George. 

“C’mon, Dad is waiting!” says George. 

“Got you some chocolate frogs, but that means you owe us one.” says Fred, shoving a wriggling paper bag into your hands. Delighted, you expertly open the bag, catch a frog, and slurp it up before it manages to escape. 

“Tank -ou” you mumble, your mouth still full. Lugging your trunks over to meet Mr. Weasley, you smile with excitement. Every summer with the Weasleys is a blast, but you know this one will start off with a bang because last week Fred absconded with a jug of top shelf mead from Filch’s office. You’d all agreed that you needed it more, since you want to have fun and have no money, while Filch obviously dislikes fun and ostensibly has some amount of money squirreled away from all his groundskeeping or lurking or whatever his job is. 

After greeting Molly, you and the twins bound up to their room- and, when you’re here, your room- pushing and shoving your way up the narrow stairwell. You toss your things down and throw yourself onto a bed, spreading your arms as if making a snow angel. 

“Oh, boys, it is good to be home!” you say, laughing. Fred and George always joke that their mother likes you, Harry, and Hermione better than any of her own actual children, and you love teasing them about it. 

“Speak for yourself, she’s already got that sending-us-to-de-gnome-the-

garden-while-hungover gleam in her eyes,” retorts George good-naturedly.

“And get your shoes off my bed! Mum will have all three of us beating out the rugs if she sees that.” says Fred. You close your eyes and pretend to be asleep, baiting the boys into attempting to push you off the bed. You wind up making such a ruckus roughhousing that Hermione comes in looking concerned, seemingly appearing out of nowhere. You all three pause from your compromised position to look at her, you releasing a vise grip on Fred, George dropping your left leg, which he had been twisting violently.

“When did you get here?” you ask, running to hug her. 

“Just apparated over, my parents would never forgive me if I didn’t at least drop by for dinner before practically moving here for the summer!” she replies, turning to greet the twins. 

“Are you going to be participating in our little soiree tonight, ‘Mione?” asks George, raising an eyebrow. 

“What are you three planning?” she asks sternly, stifling an excited smile.

“You’ll just have to wait and see,” you say. 

“But don’t wear white shoes.” warns Fred. Hermione gives you all a funny look before running off to finish her greetings. 

“Where are we going tonight, Freddie?” you ask, looking up at your tall friend. He gives you a cheeky glance.

“Oh, out by the bog. There’s a huge hill between there and the house, so we can make a fire and nobody will see.”

“And there’s a huge stand of trees and a pond between that spot and the neighbors’,” says George. 

“You two have got it all figured out. And you’ve got the firewhiskey! What a night, what a night it shall be.” you say, your voice singsonging as you dance exaggeratedly. 

“Too bad nobody invited any girls.” says Ron from the doorway. He’s been standing in the hallway looking in the mirror for some time now, fussing with his hair.

“What am I, chopped liver?” Ginny shouts from her open door down the hall.

“YOU don’t count!” Ron replies.

“We know you’ve got someone else in mind, little brother.” George says, flicking Ron in the ear. 

“It’s pretty obvious,” Fred agrees.

“You get all flustered when she corrects your grammar,” you say.

“And you let her braid your hair.” says Fred.

“And you-” begins George, but Ron interrupts, his face beet red.

“Shhhh! Buzz off you two, or I’ll start blabbing on about who you’re interested in as well.”

The twins exchange a somewhat threatened glance, but say nothing.

“That’s right, I’m not as dull as you lot like to think, thank you very much. I notice things. So let me alone or I’ll sing like a canary!” Ron finishes, turning back to the mirror for a final glance at his hair before trotting downstairs. 

“You two have crushes?” you demand, turning to stare down the twins. Fred shrugs with his usual attitude but you notice a light blush spreading across each of their cheeks. You swat him across the chest. “Why didn’t you tell me? Who is it? You motherfuckers.” You grab George by the collar. “George, tell me who it is! A crush, my god.” You throw your hands up in the air. They’re being super weird, so you decide to drop the subject. “When you snog every girl and half the boys in the school, between the two of you, you practically hold us all down to tell us the details but now you’ve got a crush and suddenly you’re like a couple of mimes.” You look each of them in the eyes, and both avoid your stare. “Fine! Don’t tell me.” You throw your hands up in mock anger and lead the charge downstairs to begin setting the table for dinner.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~After dinner, you pass the evening playing cards and chatting until Mr. and Mrs. Weasley retire for the night. Then, you’re left with all your friends and Percy, who it has been agreed simply cannot know you’re sneaking out to drink in the woods, because he is a killjoy. Using a previously discussed maneuver, Hermione attempts to trick him into believing that she and Ginny are going to bed, hoping that he will get nervous about being bullied if left alone with you and the twins, and elect to follow them to bed soon after. However, Percy is in an unusually jovial mood, and so Ron and Harry are forced to retreat as well. As a last line of defense, you pretend to fall asleep on George’s shoulder, nuzzling into his sweater. When Percy gets up to go to the bathroom, you dash outside into the moonlit yard, covering your mouth so your giggles don’t give you away. You run to crouch behind the garden shed, doubled over with laughter. 

“I thought he would never stop yapping.”

“God, how are you two related to that bore?”

“We can’t help it.” Fred says, bending to gather rocks from the ground. 

“What are you doing?” you ask.

“Watch!” he raises his hand to throw a pebble at Ginny’s window, but you grab his wrist.

“Have you lost the plot? Percy will hear! And probably your mum too, with your aim. I’ve got a better idea,” you say, peeking around the garden shed while gesturing for the boys to stay put. You pop out of the shed with a dusty, rickety broom. 

“Does this thing still work?” you ask.

“Well enough,” says Fred, getting a running start and jumping on the broom. Wobbling a bit, he sails up to Ginny’s window and confers with the girls, then moves on to Ron’s window, where he perches on the sill, one foot dangling out the window.

Beside you, you’re aware of George’s presence beside you in the cool, sticky night.

“Bloody brilliant,” he murmurs, elbowing you gently. “How’d you even know that thing was in there?”

“Lucky guess. I mean, with a family full of Quidditch players, there’s bound to be a broom lying about someplace.” 

Fred jumps down onto the broom and turns a few experimental loop de loops overhead before nearly falling and coming to a shaky landing near your feet. 

“That one belongs on the rubbish heap, honestly,” he says, laughing as he tosses the old thing aside.

“Oh, sure, blame it on the broom,” you tease.

He’s soon followed by Ginny and Hermione on Ginny’s broom. They glide down and come to a halt next to you, stepping down gracefully.

“How are Harry and Ron going to get out? They’d have to go right by Mr. and Mrs. Weasley’s room, unless Harry has his broom up there with him, but I think I saw it in the foyer.” says Hermione, looking at Fred worriedly.

“Well, err, I told them to climb down,” says Fred earnestly.

“What?!” says Hermione. “They’ll be loud as bison, besides probably breaking their necks.”

“It’s not my fault they’re too dumb to pass their apparation O.W.L.S! They’ll be fine.”

As he finishes his sentence, Ron’s window slides open and Harry’s head pops out. He lowers what appears to be a rope made of sheets and blankets tied together. Hermione’s brow furrows as she watches, helpless, while Ron artlessly slips one leg out the window, before even checking to see that the “rope” is nowhere near long enough to reach the ground. Ginny giggles, biting her lip when she sees Hermione’s distress.

“Do something!” Hermione hisses, nudging her. Ginny groans and soars over to boost Ron onto the back of her broom, going back to do the same for Harry.

“Shite! The firewhiskey,” you whisper, smacking your forehead. Everyone lets out a collective groan, but before you can send someone back up to hunt down the alcohol, Ginny opens her backpack, revealing the gleaming jug. Everyone cheers, but then quickly realizes that loudly cheering may have blown your cover. Fred and George scurry off into the brush and you all follow them down a lightly trod path through the countryside, eventually reaching the open bank of a large, murky pond. This is a spot you’ve never been to before, probably because it’s a fair stretch away from the house, and apparently from any civilization at all. 

Hermione quickly conjures a large fire, creating a pocket of warmth in the chilly night air. You lean against a large rock and shiver when the cool stone brushes the back of your neck. Ginny pulls out the firewhiskey and hands it to Fred, who pops the cork, shouting with glee before knocking back a sip and passing it to George, who passes it to you. The familiar sickly sweet liquid burns your throat and warms your stomach, and you feel your (already barely existent) inhibitions begin melting away.

Before long, Ron suggests that you all play a game, and you run through your options: truth or dare, spin the bottle, a wizarding game you’ve never heard of, and hide and go seek. Hermione refutes hide and go seek on the basis of safety, and Fred refutes spin the bottle on the basis of the fact that four out of six of you are siblings. Not everyone brought their wands, so you can’t play the magic game, and you’re left with truth or dare as the apparent winner, which you were rooting for anyway, because you want to see what you can get the twins to do. It almost makes you wish Percy was here so you could put him in a compromising position, but knowing him, he’d find a way to make walking on hot coals boring. 

“I’ll start, I’ll start!” you volunteer, looking around the circle. “My first victim will beeeee…” you look at Hermione, who cringes nervously, then spin around to point at Harry. “Harry Potter. What will it be, Mr. Potter, truth or dare?” you ask.

Harry shrugs. “Hmm.. I’ll do.. Dare, why not?” he replies. 

“Alright Harry, I dare you tooooo.... Oh, easy. I dare you to smack Ron every time he says something you think is stupid tonight. And be honest, or we’ll smack you,” you say. The twins nod in agreement. 

“That’s not fair! That’s barely a real dare!” protests Ron. You raise an eyebrow at Harry, who turns and gives his friend a good wallop. 

“Alright Harry, your turn.” 

You play for nearly an hour, all the while passing the bottle lazily between you, until everyone’s good and tipsy on the strong liquor. Several good dares are exchanged: Fred is dared to give you a lap dance, which he does with gusto and an uncomfortable amount of eye contact. You dare Ginny to race you across the pond and back, and you both strip down to your skivvies and plunge into the chilly water. Ginny wins, of course, but you just wanted an excuse for a swim. Fred lends you his cloak, patting it onto your shoulders to dry them before you pull your pants back on. George dares Ron to walk back to the house and get food, which he reluctantly agrees to after everyone bullies him into it. By the time he gets back with a basket of pastries and jam, you’ve transitioned to mainly truths, because the well of dares has run dry. 

When it’s Hermione’s turn to ask Fred, she blushingly asks if he’s lost his virginity. 

“What, do you all think I’ve snogged every girl we know without scaring? Have a little faith, please.”

“Clever, but that’s not an answer!” slurs Hermione, pointing at him and grinning. “Have you actually had sex before, or do you just talk a big game?” 

“Well, have you?” you ask, laughing as he tries to bluster out an answer.

“”Course I have. Ask anybody. Everybody must think George and I are the male sluts of the century, the way you people talk.” 

“Still not an answer!” you say, looking at him mischievously. 

“How’s this for an answer, then?” he retorts, pulling you to his waist and kissing you on the lips melodramatically, throwing you up against the rock, practically fucking but for the clothes. What’s probably thirty seconds of kissing at most feels like an hour. Everyone goes “Oooooh!” and when he finally lets you go you’re flabbergasted, but you recover your senses.

“Point taken, then. Alright Freddie, your turn,” you say, straightening your clothes and trying not to look like you enjoyed that. 

“I dare Hermione to let us play hide and seek, for fuck’s sake,” he says, lazily.

“Ugh! I might be drunk but I’m not letting anyone stumble around alone in the pitch black plastered out of your mind. Ask me a real question!” 

“What if we weren’t alone?” Harry asks, looking around. “I mean, we could go in pairs or little groups. Like team hide and seek, basically.”

“I call Fred and George!” you cry, throwing your arms around their sweaty necks. 

“Fine, but please be careful. And everyone should be on a team with at least one person with a wand,” says Hermione, who teams up with Ron. That leaves Harry and Ginny on the last team.

George produces his wand and casts an illumination spell.

“Not it!” You shout, immediately echoed by Ginny. 

“Alright, we’ll count to 50” says Hermione, but Harry and George protest until they finally agree to 3 minutes.

Fred tears off into the woods and you and George follow, bushes thwacking you in the face, vines snagging at your ankles. You break through the brush into a field, panting, and stop for a break. 

“Where are we going?” you ask, looking around. “And where are we?” 

“No idea!” Fred says gleefully. 

“What about over there?” George nods towards a patch of grass and trees down in a glenn. You lope down hill through high grass and crash to a halt in the stand of trees, crouching low. Fred huddles next to you and George clambers clumsily into one of the trees, flattening himself into one of its crooks.

You can feel your stomach churning after your run, but you manage to successfully push down the acrid taste rising in your throat. Above you, you hear George belch, and just manage to slip out of the way as he spits a pitiful glob of vomit to the ground.

“Oi, we’re down here, you lout,” hisses Fred, ducking.

“Look at the state of you,” you drawl, bumping into Fred as you readjust around George’s vomit. He groans from his spot up in the tree and lies back down sleepily. To your surprise, you feel the urge to pull Fred closer rather than pushing him away. The earthy smell of the forest floor calms your stomach, and you find your mind wandering to his lips, his hands on your waist and neck. Buzzing with drunken impulsivity, you wrap your arms around his slender waist and pull him to sit beside you. He looks surprised, but readily slouches against the tree trunk next to you. You can feel his chest rising and falling with each breath. The air is still and cool in that settled way characteristic of the night.

Overhead, you think you can hear George beginning to snore. 

“Freddie-” you begin, but before you can say a word, his lips are on yours, his hands tangled in your hair. You push him down and roll over so that you’re straddling him, gripping his jaw in one hand as you kiss him, hard, then gently. His lips are softer and more relaxed than they were when he kissed you earlier, and his body less certain. There’s no false bravado in him now, and you bite his lip gently, your tongues barely batting together. You reach down to unzip his pants but he pulls back.

“Y/N- I- Look, I may have lied earlier,” he says, his face flush with desire and embarrassment. You look at him quizzically, your drunken mind not connecting all the dots. 

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I haven’t… done this before. I’ve only ever kissed. Although I’ve done quite a lot of that.” he says quietly. You blink.

“Oh. Oh! You total freak. Why go to all that trouble to convince everyone you have?”

“Have you considered that maybe I just wanted to kiss you?”

This shuts you up. He pulls you back down to kiss you again, this time on the cheek, on the forehead, the neck. 

“Don’t do anything you don’t want to do,” you say carefully, brushing a bead of sweat from his forehead. 

“No… no, I’m ready. I want this now,” he says, tugging at your shirt. You pull it off over your head and toss it into the grass, the game of hide and seek forgotten. Let the shirt be a warning flag to any nosy passerby. Fred kisses across your chest. 

“Freddie, we’re drunk,” you remind him, your breathing growing heavier as his tongue flicks across your nipple.

“I want you,” he mumbles into the crook of your neck in between kisses. “I want you, I want you, I want you,” he says. You kiss him in reply, and move again to unzip his pants. You feel his hard member ready to burst out of his jeans, and it sends a thrill through you.

You had considered that you might one day wind up with Fred or George, and honestly, you had figured it would be on some less-than-sober whim like this, but you never really pictured it. You certainly never imagined Fred like this, innocent and tame, hoping for someone else to take the lead.

“Will you show me how?”

“Yes,” you breathe your reply into his mouth.

“Will you go slow?” he asks sweetly, his coy submissiveness sending tremors through your body. 

“Yes. Come closer.”

In the morning, you groggily open your eyes at the sound of birds chirping. You sit up, your head throbbing, and look around. Above you and a few feet to your right, George is sleeping soundly on his belly in the flat convergence of an oak tree’s branches. To your left, shirtless and smeared with dirt, is Fred curled on top of his cloak, also fast asleep. 

“Guess they gave up on finding us,” you mutter, running a hand through your hair to smooth it into place. You remember what happened last night well enough, although some parts are cloudier than others, and you don’t remember deciding to fall asleep at all. You suppose it just happened at some point. Your heart beats faster, wondering if you and Fred will be an item after this, or if he’ll want to keep it quiet, or if you just won’t talk about it. You’re not sure what you want, yet. It’s still purple pre-dawn in the countryside, the sun not quite peeking over the horizon yet.

You know you enjoyed yourself, and you adore Fred- as a friend, certainly. As something more? Maybe. You brush away your anxieties and trust that you’ll settle things when you’re less groggy. Suddenly, it dawns on you that you’ve got to get back to the house before Mr. and Mrs. Weasley wake up and notice your absence. You stand up as though the ground caught fire, kicking at Fred and shouting at George to get down.

You fetch your shirt from a nearby bush, and pluck a twig from Fred’s hair as he looks up, dazed.

“God, my head,” he says, squinting up at you. “What the hell time is it?”

“Never mind that, you’ll have worse than a headache if we don’t get back to the house by like, yesterday.”

“Merlin!” George exclaims, perking up and basically falling from his perch to the ground. Recovering he stands up, taking his surroundings in. “Hold on, what the hell happened to you, Fred? Where’s your shirt?”

“No time for all that, go!” you say, shoving George in the direction you suppose the house is in. You muster as fast a pace as you can and follow him, Fred scrambling to gather his cloak and tee shirt before catching up with you. With George’s back to both of you, you exchange a goofy grin and a wave of relief runs through you. He obviously doesn’t consider last night a mistake, either. You slip your hand into his and make your way into the breaking dawn.

[failedthetopikexam]

My Top Korean Resources [2020 edition]

I have been discussing resources with a few people on private message and have been thinking a bit about what resources were the best on my journey.... so here’s my final (maybe) compilation of resources for the year that will hopefully be helpful for anyone who is looking at resources between the beginners and upper intermediate levels.

NB. This list is based off materials I have used in the past and is not an exhaustive list of ALL the resources I have used - it is just a selection of some of my favourite. There are so many Korean resources out there so there might be some that work more for you that I haven’t even looked at.

Course Texts

In my opinion, the perfect course text isn’t going to teach you everything you need to know, but a good course text will at least give you a clear framework to chunk up and guide your studies. I have used a few but the most user friendly one is definitely:

Talk To Me In Korean - they set things out clearly so nothing feels overwhelming and provide a sensible framework to follow for self-study. Other course books tend to be better suited for in-class settings and not great for self-study.

Grammar

The course texts will teach you about grammar but I think they don’t teach you how the grammar structures are related to each other. So I think it is key to look at one or more of these books:

Korean Grammar In Use: Beginners

Korean Grammar In Use: Intermediate

The above series is incredible and a serious MUST for all Korean learners. They clearly and concisely set out the grammar points and show how they are all related to each other. There is an Advanced book as well which I have yet to use and will teach quite complex structures.

Basic Korean: A Grammar and Workbook (I have linked the forthcoming version being released in Dec 2020!)

Intermediate Korean: A Grammar and Workbook

The above Routledge series is great for its workbook feature. The layout is a little academic so it’s not super appealing but the way they explain grammar is clear and relatively detailed. The number of examples included in the workbook is fantastic, providing a lot of opportunity to practice. I haven’t used the Basic book but if it is anything like the Intermediate, it will be a winner.

Vocabulary

The part that people often miss out when learning Korean is vocabulary, because it can be so easy to just follow course texts and grammar books, but those will never teach enough words. To learn more vocab, it is really important to read around. There are so many Korean language books that you can pick up, but here are some books and resources that are catered specifically for language learners that I have loved:

Korean Culture in 100 Keywords - they give a paragraph on different cultural aspects of Korea in both Korean and English and highlight all the new vocabulary for you. The texts are graded from easy to more difficult.

News in Korean - lots of short news stories with translations in English and comprehension questions. Might be targeted more at intermediate learners

Mind Map TOPIK VOCA 2300 - this book sorts vocabulary into categories and shows them as mindmaps. It also gives readers sentences in context and has mini quizzes, HOWEVER it is written in 98% Korean so this is a book that is definitely more pitched at upper intermediate levels and above and teaches vocabulary that is a little less common 

Anki - my most used resource. Everyone has their own favourite for flashcards and this is mine. Anki do spaced repetition meaning that it will constantly test your knowledge on vocabulary, spacing the quizzes/tests depending on how difficult you find the word. It is more efficient than other flashcard platforms, but it is a little tricky to get started and create your own cards. If you want to download pre-made decks, you can, but this works best when you add the words you have learned yourself so that you get decks that are full of vocab that is relevant for you

Beelinguapp - This is an app that has some story books written in both Korean and English. It also has an audio function so you can listen to someone reading the stories in Korean. This is neat for pronunciation and listening, and also identifying new words, however the range of stories are limited.

Gloss - Gloss have a set of online lessons pitched at different levels which takes you through articles or texts (or audio and video), then asks a lot of comprehension questions. It follows a lesson format so it is far more engaging than your regular book, however it is a little on the difficult side.

[EXTRA] Your First Hanja Guide - you might not want to learn vocabulary this way and it is absolutely NOT an essential, but for me it is helpful to visualise the Hanja character when seeing the relationship between words, so if you like learning words like that, then this is the book for you

Listening / Watching

Like with reading, there are multiple resources that you can use to listen to native Korean, but here are some that are specifically targeted at learners

여보세요 - this app/website has a few short video clips and goes through slowly to examine the meaning and new words, then has a number of test quizzes through multiple choice or through speaking (via microphone). There are different clips graded by levels and the app tracks your progress and gives progress reports.

Real Life Korean Conversations: Beginners / Intermediate - this IS a book, but it is best used in conjunction with the audio files. The book gives the script, as well as the vocabulary, and also looks at key grammar points and structures used in the conversations

Speaking

There aren’t many resources that I find great for self-studying speaking - generally you need someone else to do that with you, but here is one that I thought was quite neat:

Teuida - I just did a very quick run through this app as it is definitely pitched at beginners, but I thought that it was a smart way of learning some basic conversational Korean. It teaches you phrases and you have to repeat them back through the microphone feedback function. Then to test your retention, they take you through a mock situation and you have to speak your answers - there is quite a strong focus on getting pronunciation correct. My biggest downsides of this app are that the free sections are really limited, AND they seem to have geared the lessons towards the idea of dating, which I just find so awkward and embarrassing hahaha!

Writing

I’m in the market to buy some writing books and have my eye on some but am waiting until I have the time to work on them, but this book is quite neat for learning different sentence structures and how to construct meaningful answers:

Korean Q&A Sentence Patterns - this book poses a question and looks at different ways of answering it. It also shows variations of the question, then examines form. It gives an example long answer and prompts you to think about how to construct your own response using the grammar and vocabulary given

[shanghai-lu]

Mine ~ Jung Jaehyun

Please listen to "Met a girl" by Tarune while reading ~  (◍•ᴗ•◍)✧*♡  It really adds to the whole scene and mood~ 

For: Jung Jaehyun - NCT

Type: Drabble / Scenario

Mood: Fluff / Wholesome

Word count: 391

Hope this helps make your day a little better Xx

| Thoughts are in italics |

He sat on the edge of the mattress on the floor, wearing only shorts and a t-shirt, still slightly wet after a shower. You sat at the other side of the room, watching him intently as he scrolled on his phone. The soft orange rays of the setting sun were filtering through the windows, highlighting his back and some of his face.

As you sat taking in the scene before you, you suddenly felt as if you were seeing Jaehyun for the first time again. 

Were his features always so handsome? Have his eyes always been so incredibly chocolatey brown? Were his lips always so soft and pink? His hands... were they always so slender and veiny? And his hair... has it always been so shiny? 

Of course, but those details, that you've gotten used to seeing every day, had caught you off guard suddenly. It felt like you were struck by a stranger's handsomeness and it stole your breath away - that feeling of falling in momentary love with someone on a train, or at a cafe, or the gym, but never to see them again.

He saw you staring. "Something wrong?", he asks, still scrolling.

You murmur a "Hmm-uh" and try to avert your eyes.

"What is it, mhh?", He sighs contently as he leaves his phone and comes to sit in front of you. 

"Nothing", you manage to quietly and quickly breathe out, now looking down and fiddling with your hands.

"Nothing? You can tell me...", he encourages.

"I...I was just.."

How were you supposed to tell him without making it awkward or weird?

"You're really handsome, an-and your dimples are really nice... and you have really pretty eyes..."

Nice dimples? Pretty eyes? Seriously?? I’ve really gone and done it now haven’t I, and why do I feel so shy around him all of a sudd-

He's beaming, and his cheeks and ears have gone all rosy.

"And you know what's the best part?", he smiles as he takes your cheeks in both hands, gently tilting your face up to look at him.

"It's all yours, and only yours".

Your heart does a warm twist. Now you're all rosy and beaming too.

"All mine..." you whisper, filled completely with adoration and love.

He places a soft, warm, slow kiss on the corner of your mouth.

Mine... All mine...

Xx

This was my first time writing something like this, so I hope you liked it and I sincerely thank you for reading (*/ω＼*) ! 

If I made a few errors with grammar or spelling, feel free to correct me~ Also, if you need credit for the photos used please let me know :)

Hope you have a good day! 

- Lu ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ