#like i hate the way some fanfic writers write the reader but i just ignore it instead of COMPLAINING in the tags

[sexlapis]

complaining in the tags about writers not writing the type of fanfiction you want while not even being a fanfic writer is another form audacity i didn’t even know existed.

[ilys00ga]

𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀, 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗻𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀.

➞ pair: yoongi x reader.

➞ genre: hurt/comfort (why do I keep making these lmao), established relationships, I'm so bad at tagging sorry.

➞ warnings: angst and fluff cuz we all need that (we really do). reader has anxiety and abandonment issues, yoongi is trying his best for the sake of both of them, just relationship things.

➞ A/N: requested by @parkjennykim, this was very fun to write! thanks for yet another idea <3 I hope u like it. I'm organizing this blog/post (?) while listening to mono, and let me tell yall, it's such a vibe omg. I think you should read this while listening to that album, I love it sm, I can't even begin to explain UGH- if namjoon ever goes on a world tour, he better perform every single song in that album, cuz imma be losing my mind in the crowd, esp during moonchild. my vocal cords are already getting sore. yeah. if u want this to hit that spot, maybe u should do what I said (this is a friendly order, if u will). if not, just enjoy and pls ignore any mistakes, english has been challenging me recently (for the last 10 years lmao)

ps. I am in a dire need of a yoongi in my life. specifically the one I wrote in this one. oh how I love being a lonely fanfic writer <33

★ MASTERLIST.

ᵎᵎ 𖦹彡⋆｡˚・ ─ ・ ⋯ ・ ─ ⊹ ♡₊˚๑

God knows how long it had been after it hit midnight when Yoongi stood in the kitchen. His eyes were red and heavy with drowsiness, but he couldn't sleep that night.

How does one sleep through a restless, biting night?

Surely not with a bad headache, or overflowing thoughts, and especially not with guilt chewing on his core.

He gulped, throat begging to be quenched as it held onto a slight, delicious, yet bothersome burning sensation. He opened the fridge and filled a glass with some water, raising it to his lips when loud a cry of his name, followed with a thud and a number of sobs, disturbed the quiet of the night and made him jump, startled.

His limbs froze in their place, glass almost slipping his hand and crashing on the floor when his sleep deprived brain realized that the muffled cries were yours.

Wide awake, he dashed after the sound. Thirst and sleep no longer occupied his mind, all he could think of was holding you in his arms.

He found you on the stairs, trembling as you wailed into your hands.

He hated it so much: seeing you in pain. He wanted nothing more than to shield you from the rainfall of your gloomy sky, from his own rainfall, from the world. How could one be an umbrella and the rain at once?

He blinked, once, twice, then gulped and heaved a deep, tired breath.

One storm doesn’t require another storm to be calmed down, that he knew. One needs to be composed and collected to stand still during a storm, that he knew as well.

With worried eyes, he gently called out your name and walked up to you, “darling, what’s wrong?”

You looked up as soon as you heard his worried voice, some tiny sense of relief washed over you when you saw him right there. A hundred daggers digged so deep into his heart and bones, aching, the moment a broken whimper of his name fell from your lips.

Without a second thought, Yoongi hugged your face to his chest. One of his hands was patting your back and the other affectionately caressed your head.

As he listened to his name that never left your lips, Yoongi held you there on the cold of the stairs with nothing but sweet nothings whispered back to your ears.

Everything he did and said was so gentle and soft, like he was so afraid you'd crack and come to tiny bits and pieces at any given moment. It all made you want to cry even harder, to hold him so tight and never let go.

Soon, when your tears started winding down, pulled away and cradled your face with his hands, palms faintly pressing on your cheeks as if he hoped to share their warmth with you.

Tender eyes met your wet ones and stared as their owner’s voice made its way through the noise of your sniffles and hiccups. He said, “It’s alright. I'm here. Talk to me, hmm?”

You answered his plea with a small nod, before wiping your tear stained skin and hugging him again. He smelt like home. You took a deep breath, greedily feeding your lungs with his lovely scent.

He hugged you back, wrapping his arms around your waist and pulling your body closer to his. He pressed light kisses on your temple, patiently waiting for you to talk.

“I had a really scary nightmare. so, so scary- I woke up, didn’t find you there- then…then I remembered the fight we had earlier. I…I thought I lost you- I'm sorry. sorry for the stupid things I said earlier. I love you so much! please don’t leave. please..”

Your voice quivered with fresh tears ready to be spilled again. Yoongi started hushing you as soon as he noticed that you were working yourself up.

Squeezing you in his arms, he whispered “I never left, and I never will.”

“I’m all right, nothing happened to me, see?” he leaned away just enough to allow you to take a quick look at his body, then added, “a stupid fight is not going to make me leave. I love you way too much for that, and I'm sorry for hurting you too.”

He could still read fear and uncertainty all over your face, and he didn't like that. He knew that you trusted him, and he didn't doubt your love for him.

At first, he didn't get it. He didn't understand the insecurities, the anxiety and the nightmares you suffered from especially after the inevitably worst of arguments that happened between you and him. But after longer and deeper talks, with you expressing your feelings and him listening with careful ears, it made much more sense to him.

Sometimes he hated himself for triggering your alarms and making it harder for you, but he knew it was neither his fault nor was it yours.

Growth and pain are two key elements that come arm in arm with love, and fights are an unpreventable part of any kind of relationship. For all that, he always ended up blaming himself for making you question your worth to him when he can't even sleep without you happily cuddling his side.

Softly, lovingly, he started prepping tender kisses over your cheeks, nose, forehead, chin, temples, all over your flushed face.

It worked like watching waving fields of green wheat dancing with the wind, your storm started to slowly die down and your heart felt at ease again. slowly, but definitely.

Smiling ever so affectionately, Yoongi sealed his reassurance with a loving kiss that consumed you whole, and it left the corners of your mouth curving up in a dazzling smile. You nuzzled his chest and sighed.

“I really hate fighting with you.” you mumbled into his clothed chest, drained and light headed from all the crying and nearly-a-panic-attack you went through.

“I know, I'm sorry. I hate it too." he whispered back.

There was a pause of comfortable silence, with both of you breathing each other in, before he wondered aloud: “did you fall down the stairs? are you okay?”

You chuckled breathily at his question, recalling the hysteria he had to deal with just a few minutes ago. But Yoongi was there, right beside you. your arms were tightly wrapped around his torso, right by your side.

He had some kind of exceptionally irrepressible magic in those fierce eyes and that gummy smile of his, you inarguably couldn’t be more grateful for that.

“I'm alright. Was too busy crying, I didn’t even feel a thing to be honest.” you said, and he giggled.

“I love when you’re clumsy like that, but please be more careful, muffin. Can’t have you hurting yourself because of me even more." Even with your face buried into the crook of his neck, you could feel and hear the heavy pout in that comment.

Huffing, you leaned away with furrowed brows and a strict gaze. Yoongi gulped. Hesitation took over him, yet he knew that honesty is the only thing that must be present to drive this conversation to an end.

Honestly brings clarity, he found himself reminding himself of that very often.

"as long as we take care of each other, it's okay. I love you." you affirmed, and perhaps Yoongi almost teared up because of the way you looked at him right then and there. He wouldn't utter a word to spoil that information out loud, though.

The shy grin and the flushed cheeks you were met with were worth risking the entire world and its eight billion residents. You couldn't help but smile and pull him into another hug.

"This is great and all, but my butt is numbed. I think there's no blood flowing down there anymore," he said, his heart swooning when you giggled at his humorous change of topic, so relieved that he was finally able to hear your brightness again.

"Let's go back to rest, darling." He stood up, grabbed your hand and squeezed it in his, then gently pulled your body up and dragged you to your shared bedroom, where everything and everyone else meant little to nothing at all as you laid in each other's arms.

[hurthermore]

Hello! I found your page a few days ago, and last night, I completely binged on your Misconduct fic (I regret it sm cuz now I read it all T-T). And can I just say, wow, I think this has been my official favorite fanfic if all time. I can relate so hard to MC, and I've had similar abuse, and the way you write her is so authentic. Sometimes when fic writers portray abuse, it just doesn't ring true for me, but jeez yoir portrayal is SO fucking accurate. Anyway. Fangirling aside... I have a few questions for you!

1. Do you think part of the reason Alastor was so interested in MC is because she carries herself like his mother/has similar qualities to her?

2. Are we gonna see some of Alastor's childhood in this fic? I'm interested to hear about it since he hinted at it during the picnic.

3. (I know this question is annoying so ahndbfbfb feel free to ignore it, but do you have an estimate for when the next part is coming out? I only ask bc in a previous ask you said you like to plan things out haha)

4. Oh and! What do you think Alastor would do if during intimacy he notices MC dissociating/crying? What do you think he'd say if she voiced her thoughts about not being good enough?

Okok andjfnfn I don't wanna overwhelm you with questions so I'll stop here. But again, the way you manage to capture the abuse and the calmness Alastor brings is just- *chefs kiss* ilysm <3

Ahh tysm!!! I'm so glad you read misconduct and enjoy it so much!!<3 This kindddd of goes into spoiler territory SO.

Spoilers ahead!!

Onto your questions:

I thought I established it in chapter 10, but it will be become more obvious in chapter 11 that the reason Alastor is attracted to reader is not only because she is just insanely attractive, but because she has the same glint in her eyes that he does when he murders people; she has the ability to kill. Reader is neither elegant nor cute nor whatever, reader is your or your self insert, so whatever YOUR reader is, thats what reader is. (Does that make sense lmao??)

Honestly I wasn't planning on having Alastor's childhood in it because it would serve no purpose to the plot and I feel a lot of people would get bored if I did that. I might make him have some flashbacks of his mother, only snippets, but nothing in depth.

Honestly, I'm almost finished with this next assignment! LUCKILY ahaha. I've begun on Chapter 11, I just gotta focus on it, with the discord server and my assignment, i've been a bit too busy to focus on it. But I'm hoping to get the next chapter out by... Sunday??? Fingers crossed!!!

Ooof. He would stop immediately. If you seem uncomfortable or distressed whilst you're meant to be making love, he will stop. This will be established later, but Alastor can only kind of... get hard if you're turned on?? So yeah. He'd comfort you, asking you whats wrong, what he can do to help; he hates to see you cry, it breaks his heart! But hearing you say you don't feel good enough? He will be baffled; he's not good enough for you, if anything. So to hear you be so worried about that? He will remind you how you're a goddess in his eyes.

[sansaorgana]

It's not caused by any recent situation, I've been thinking about it for a long time now but I have some things to say about fic writing.

Being a fic writer in a fandom might be the most ungrateful "job" in the community. I have lots of gif maker friends and I make mediocre gifs myself so I will compare these two a lot but I want to make it clear I don't want to say fic writers are more important or suffer more or anything like that because I value gif makers more than you can imagine.

– First of all, the whole cringe status around fic writing – especially x reader fanfics – is awful. I often see posts that whine about the fact that these fics even exist. People don't think twice, they just hit "post" and in result they are shaming other people for having innocent and creative hobbies. We spend real time of our real lives writing fics we love for ourselves but also for other people's enjoyment. For free. I really don't want to see posts about how cringe and silly fic writers are just because someone thinks they're superior in a fandom. It's a fucking Tumblr. Also, would you say the same about a person drawing fan art? I don't think so.

– I know there are some gifsets that take literally weeks to make but in most cases fic writing takes more time to create and at the same time it takes more time to consume. It's easy to hit a like or a reblog button under a gifset that you consumed in under a minute just like it's easy to ignore a fanfic because consuming it would take you more time. It's understandable but at the same time, if you read fanfics, reblog them at least. Leave some sort of feedback. Even one word or a reaction image. It really means a lot... And, once again, the lack of reblogs bothers gif makers as well, but I think in the case of fic writing it's mostly caused because y'all ashamed of admitting that you read these fics. Like who the fuck cares? It's not Facebook, no one here knows who you really are, who the fuck cares?

– Speaking of reactions under fics. Being like "Part Two" is considered to be extremely rude. We are not AI bots and we certainly won't force ourselves to write a second part because you demanded it without even commenting on the work itself or hitting a reblog button. If "Part Two" is all you have to say, then it's better to stay quiet.

– Also, readers who comment rudely under fics written for free like ??? So what he's out of character? So what he's a sad little meow meow in the movie but a ray of sunshine in this fic? You are not being forced to read it and there's a whole community of people preferring fluff to angst. If some fic is not your type, just ignore it. I guarantee you, there are other fics that are your type and if there are not, you're welcome to start writing yourself. I've also seen people starting dramas about some details in the smut fics. Like Jesus fucking Christ... Go touch some grass.

– What hurts the most is the prejudice from other content makers. I've seen some posts hating on/mocking fic writers that are coming from gif makers themselves. We're all on the same boat, we create fan art for the media we love. Why do we have to bring each other down? I am aware of the problem of gif stealing in the fic writing community but it mostly is caused by the fact these people don't know how to properly credit gifs with the gif tool. Believe me, most of the fic writers have a huge respect for the gif makers and I wish it went the other way around as well, even if you don't read fanfics, you don't have to be rude about people who do.

– Fan fiction writers are not desperate ugly teenagers locked in their parents' basement. Some of them are mothers, some of them have PhDs, some of them are doctors, some of them are just simple people who want to relax after a stressful day. The same things y'all be thinking of fic writers can be said about any content maker on this site because they also spend hours in front of a computer making fan arts or gifs of their favorite characters.

[twisted-wonderland-but-gayer]

I am answering this ask like this to prevent any potential harassment towards anyone

Don't wanna seem aggressive but idk abt the "Malleus has to marry a woman to continue the bloodline" in a fantasy magic setting or even in fanfic. Esp in a Disney game where you can wish on a star for a kid or love each other so much a Bio baby can appear. There's magic bullshittery going on too so you can make one. Also if any if the twst dudes do get a gf I don't get why people can't just pretend she doesn't exist or be poly? Maybe make a dramatic divorce fic?? Idk.

I do agree with you anon, a small minority makes everyone look bad (if I'm understanding this correctly)

Its the number one thing I hate abt the TWST Fandom or fandoms with this sort of premise in general. There's always this weird minority that ends up being the most vocal, especially as younger people are discovering Fandom but that's another story.

Usually the best thing to do to make your fandom experience the best is to block ppl you don't like and ignore stuff you don't like. It's what I do and I've been having a great time. Something something community fridge.

Glad u kinda brought this up cause I have a mini rant of my own that's related as someone who's been in fandom/fanfic for a while ll put under a read more— just noting my experiences and stuff I've noticed. I hope this doesn't come out wrong cause I worded stuff incorrectly.

This is not to attack or shame anyone. Don't be weird. Don't harrass anyone. If you don't agree that's fine. Just don't be assholes. This is just my experience as a male insert writer. This is very incoherent and all over the place l'm tired.

l esp notice this in self-ship x readers from my years of running different masc/male reader blogs. No one wins in situations like these. I have seen people ask other people online to not draw/ship their Mc with their fave because they ship their Mc with the same character and all. They get really upset and toxic over it too.

Here's some other stuff I've seen:

WIw/bisexuals/ect are made fun of for wanting fem characters and chances are these fem characters will be torn apart by some of the toxic ones in the Fandom.

People with male yuus are sometimes attacked because "they're not gay!" Or are think Yuus roles more feminine or are accused of misogyny

Female Yuus get in the way of the yaois or have to be a certain way or in the test fandom they have to be boys cause everyone at NRC is a boy.

Most x readers are Female (not afab which is different) so a lot of trans/masc ppl are left out and a lot of fem readers being tagged as x gn or x male

Male x Readers don't take off as well and chances are the author will sorta quit for that reason- it's hard to want to continue writing if no one cares abt it and it can just be in your head

Ive see a lot of F/M writers sometimes feeling like they have to apologize for writing such things.

A good chunk of x readers also end up very y/n in nature with the "weak perfect messy bun" thing and that's totally fine but a lot of the time it's not very x reader. (That being said dont be an asshole to the writer cause its not your cup of tea. Just ignore it. Community fridge.)

I personally try to make sure I make Yuu completely androgynous and give warnings about if Yuu is more muscular, has hair, is tall, ect.

It's also why I tend to write stronger-personalied Yuus or those that are taller/buffer in appearance. This doesn't make me better than people who write y/ns, shyer readers or fem readers but I have been compared and said that I write MCs 'better" when that "better" is just preference. Don't gotta tear the others down you know?

It's why l've been doing mainly gn or masc gn because I notice a lot of fem x readers tend to not include personalities that I personally prefer/imagine with my ocs and all that I see more in male x reader fics and I notice that all sorts of people want more of that

I've even gotten fem readers send asks abt it I the past on this blog abt this too

Not to mention the off aggression of Masc Aligned DNI!! For female writer inserts or Fem Alligned DNI! In very toxic or ignorant ways like Women can't like male x male cause fetishing and all that.

I do agree with your points anon, but I have seen this stuff before. I have received death threats on previous blogs for writing male and trans readers. I have had people tell me that I am misogynistic for not writing fem. This isn't even including AroAce ppl in fandom esp those who actually like smut or romance fic or those who want something besides it.

I also don't think that all women or people in general want their f/o to always be 100% available. (It prob just came off more strongly worded in the post than intended) I don't think that most would truly care aside from a "aw man", and I think that if it truly does distress someone, fandom may not be for them and they may need to take a break from it. I also don't like how us vs them it is. It's not a women issue, it's an immaturity/toxicity issue. It's just a small part of the Fandom that are the loudest and the absolute worst and you should block them and be done.

I like making spaces for masc/trans/gay/disabled readers since we're not often repped in fic, but this doesn't mean I think I'm better or that I hate fem insert writers. I follow many and they're wonderful people that are also safe spaces.

The only people I blame for harassment, are the harrassers. No one else. It's a slippery slope to rope everyone into a specific category just because of a small minority and I'm not interested in that waterside.

Idk if this is making any sense but I hope I got one point across.

[popawritter12]

Hey hey heyyy im back with another request (im the same anon who requested that yandere morgana piece u wrote, absoutely loved it btw ate it up) and i was wondering if you could write some yandere! Hwei x reader? (fanfic or headcanons is up to you!) maybe the reader is an artist as well and they bond over that? Idk man up to you, also love ur takes on characters ur legit one of the best LoL writers ive seen!!

Btw if you dont mind can i be the 🍊 anon? Ive seen other blogs have their emoji anons and i wanna be one so bad fhdbfh

Hope youre having a nice day!!

Author's Notes: Of course 🍊 anon! I would love to <3

I also got tired of making so many headcanons (believe it or not, I have more saved in my drafts), I'm going to write a one-shot. I hope you like it <3. I also appreciate that you like my work. It's especially nice to know that there's someone who enjoys what I do besides me. By the way, I think Hwei is not in the Yandere “tier list” of LoL, so from how I write him and how I see him, I assume that he is a “Normal” type, because his personality reminds me a little of Ayano from Yandere simulator jjjjjjjjjj

Ｏ(≧∇≦)ＯＯ(≧∇≦)ＯＯ(≧∇≦)ＯＯ(≧∇≦)Ｏ

Yandere! Hwei x Fem! reader

Yandere character: Hwei From the videogame/anime/manga/movie/series: League Of Legends Case: Mention of stalking, allegation of theft, robbery and kidnapping. Part: 1 of 1 Warning: Excessive text LOL

Ｏ(≧∇≦)ＯＯ(≧∇≦)ＯＯ(≧∇≦)ＯＯ(≧∇≦)Ｏ

Obedience.

You had heard that word for so long that it was already embedded in your memory. But not in the way most expected.

You hated that word, and for that same reason you almost never hung out with the teachers or students of the temple you went to.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves, we better go to the beginning.

You had been born into a family that had never been close to other nations apart from Ionia, your mother was a strict woman, sometimes bordering on abusive, who always hated temples. Especially religions… Let's say she never had good experiences with it.

And your father, oh your beloved father… He was a saint in every sense of the word. He was kind, a joker… And a smile was always on his face. He had never yelled, in fact even when he was angry, he would just sit in the corner, ignoring everything around him until his mind cooled down.

And, being an only child, your life around them was quite chaotic. While your mother always tried to stay out of her entire family situation—a rather complex issue even for you—your father was the “husband of the house,” so to speak. He was in charge of teaching you both cooking and home care in general, including carpentry and, mainly, the art of home decoration.

He always dreamed of being a great artist, but in his family it was never frowned upon for a man to make the decision to undertake such a complex world of art, because, you know… that's a “women's thing.” But anyway, a lot of things have happened since the last time you talked to your uncles and cousins so… They aren't very important in your life right now.

But do you know that it is important? Where did you study.

Your father insisted a lot on your talent with sculptures and the human form; You really liked making ceramic vases manually, so much so that from the age of 8 you made your first sculpture; It was the strange shape of a dog with small eyes and a giant nose. At the time you barely knew how to paint sculptures, and your father barely knew about sculptures, and the shape of it so… Let's say it looked more like an "alebrije" than a dog with a big nose.

But that was a long time ago, and now the only proof of that memory is the figure on your father's furniture; kept as a beautiful memory.

As time went by your sculptures became more complex; from simple vases for flowers to sculptures with human figures of such a level that, at this point, we could compare them with the statues of Michelangelo.

And your father wanted that talent to be exploited to the fullest. So, after years of arguing with your mother, they both agreed that you should go to the great temple where you would learn about the art.

But there was a small problem, one that was going to haunt you a lot.

You weren't used to how strict that school was.

The first and second day at that school were quite chaotic for you. It wasn't just because it wasn't as you expected, but because everything was very limited.

If you wanted to make art, you had to do it how they wanted, when they asked you to, and how they expected it. However, not only was that not your style, but it seemed like the teachers (especially the principal) always had one eye on you. And only for a few weeks did you endure that strict issue of obedience.

But there was one boy who was particularly kind to you, and he was a young man of always unkempt appearance. His dark circles always stood out on his face, along with his hair that was rarely organized in a linear manner. From the first time he saw you, he felt charmed by the way you expressed yourself; You were good at painting and using magic, but when he saw the ceramic sculptures you made…damn, you really drove him crazy.

But you obviously didn't notice, you were too focused on trying to get along with your surroundings in general that you didn't notice his desperate attempts to get along with you.

However, in the pleasant conversations you had with him, you always saw him as the stereotype of the exemplary boy; someone who dedicated his entire life to his art, to the temple and was admired by everyone for his great talent. You thought he was assured of a great future thanks to his eccentric abilities.

And you, unlike most, learned very well from your mother that you could not let yourself be trampled; especially by anyone you barely knew. So the blood that ran through your veins and the passion for your own art that you kept for so long was slowly being tied to be limited, but with barely strong ropes. It hurt a lot to know that you were in a place that didn't belong to you, it was as if you were a squirrel in the Freljord, or a mouse in a perfume store.

And in the end, when you mentioned all these things to your mother, she didn't take it very well.

—Did you really go through all this while you were in that temple? —She asked, a cigarette between her fingers as she arranged her needles on the table.

You just nodded your head, not looking at your mother at all. The woman, at this, clicked her tongue.

—I knew that those bitches are only good for the basics, they didn't evolve at all —The woman brought the cigarette to her lips, taking a gentle drag —so, do you know something, my child? Send them to hell.

You were used to her bad vocabulary, so much so that at this, you just nodded your head again.

—I know perfectly well that you are not like me, that you want to venture out and learn about “the ways of art” and that I know —The woman moved her free hand in the air, while with the other she only lightly squeezed the cigarette. —, but if you're going to go alone so that that bunch of nuts can do you less, I'm going to get you out even by kicking you in the ass.

Your mother was tough as a chain in the teeth, and you knew that she couldn't last long without making trouble in the temple if there was someone bothering her only daughter. She cared very little if it was a student, a teacher or even the founder of the temple himself —Even though she knows that she died a long time ago— she would go and give her her dose of shit if she messed with the pride of her as a mother.

She advised you to kick their ass if they messed with you, but your father later talked to you about it, advising that you couldn't take all your feelings and thoughts to such an extreme, but that you should think coldly, and not give importance to people that were not to your specific liking, regardless of their social status. You were no less for coming from a family that came from the middle of nowhere.

During your temple walk, you always walked alone, which gave you plenty of time to think about your actions; You had been passive most of the time, however, more than once you let out those classic off-color comments when they already crossed your limit. Words like “Fuck you if you don't like it” or “You're barely able to use colors and you're going to tell me what I have to do?” escaped you in very rare cases.

You entered the less traveled part of the temple, hoping not to encounter those looks that made you uncomfortable. The song of nature resonated in your ears harmoniously, while the sound of the materials inside your bag resonated from time to time.

In the midst of your ramblings, you remembered your lost sculptures, and your forgotten materials; You were not a forgetful pardon, and it seemed strange to you not to find your favorite materials —That were metal, so they were worth a lot of money —, and even though you asked and asked, you couldn't find it anymore, so it depressed you a lot to think that you had lost something that had cost yout parents so much effort, and the mere memory of it caused you to feel that pang in your heart.

Even if your parents said it was nothing that couldn't be fixed, it hurt to know that you had lost one of the most expensive things your parents had cost you to get you.

But it was curious to think what a surprise you would get.

However, you get to hear some noises; without being the whining of baby birds waiting for food or rodents walking in search of food, but rather it resembled the voice of two people talking. You recognized both of their voices, but you thought it wasn't too important to stay there, in fact, you were already planning to go somewhere else when you heard it.

—So that girl, (Name), right?

—Yes, I didn't think you realized that issue.

The second boy's shy voice reminded you of that young man you rarely spoke to, which took you by surprise. Hwei wasn't the type of person to talk bad about someone behind their back, or at least that was the idea you had based on your interactions.

—You don't have to worry, after all it's normal for you to feel attracted to someone —Jhin mentioned, almost in a mocking manner—. So why don't you tell me about her?

You had already noticed the intention behind that interaction, however, after what happened, you thought that maybe you could calm your heart with some sweet words that you weren't meant to hear at that moment.

—Well, she is… incredible —He begins, you hear how the young man sits on a log due to the sound of the hollow wood —, she is beautiful, kind, tender… and her way of expressing her art is so… unique.

You gently leaned your back against the wood, trying not to make any sound. Something in your chest moved abruptly, as if your heart was fluttering like a butterfly in glass.

—I adore her sculptures, I feel that they are the most beautiful thing I have seen —He continues talking, slowly his emotion rose more and more —. I looked sometimes at her work in class or in the room away from her, and they are… beautiful.

—So much so that you had the need to steal them, right?

It was a single sentence, one which echoed in your head for several seconds.

—What are you talking about? —Hwei asks, arranging his hair a little, trying to place several strands behind his ear —. I would never do that.

You didn't hear how Hwei's tone of voice changed, becoming staccato, as his hands clung to his backpack, which he had in his lap.

At this, the other student laughed, almost like a subtle laugh, while his eyes wandered to where your shadow was looming. A mischievous smile forms on his face.

—So, I imagine that the sculptures that are in your room were made by you, right? —He questions, looking subtly into Hwei's eyes—. Or you bought them from her.

Your thoughts slowly formed a thread of the events that had happened. A lump formed in your throat, almost painfully so.

—Or her favorite utensils, she asked me if I had seen them last week, since she had left them near you the last time she saw them —He continued, almost introspectively—, but when I asked you, you only mentioned that you didn't see them that day either.

You shook your head, from the depths of your soul you prayed that it wasn't true, that you didn't have the school prodigy after you in such an extreme way.

—Well, I admit that I have some of her sculptures in my room, but they are the ones that she forgot in class or anywhere! —The pale boy snapped—. And I don't know what you think I did with her utensils, I don't know how to sculpt.

Jhin laughs again, barely audibly now, as if he knew that now he would have to act more vividly.

—And why were they in the box in your room? —Jhin asks him —, it even had remains of dry ceramics. Could it be that they were already used?

Hwei gritted his teeth, while his gaze met Jhin's again.

—That side of you… It's so peculiar. —He smiles —, I thought no one would see it, but you risk being seen in exchange for getting some things from (Name).

Hwei knew that darkness within his soul had awakened since the first day he saw you. And that darkness spread throughout his soul, mind and body, to the point that it seemed to consume all of his heart and mind.

—Your paintings were always warm colors —Jhin changed the subject, the smile disappearing from his face —, they were never about anything specific, but since you met that girl, something changed —He bowed gently in front of Hwei —. If it was about her, you focused on her in a way that made her seem pure, you used colors that highlighted her body or her emotion on her face. But she never looked at anyone —He subtly changed his focus —, she looked at the painter, or she didn't look at anyone, tell me, do you just want her to not look at anyone but you? Do you want her to the point that you don't want her to look at anyone but you?

He remained silent, in such a way that you could feel the weight of the words lingering in the air, causing an almost inexhaustible tension there. It was such that you could no longer hear the song of nature that you longed for so much.

—I won't criticize you, Hwei, you know that I understand better than anyone the dark feeling inside you —Jhin tried to sound empathetic —. And, if you want, I can help you make (Name) yours. I can make her fall in love with you and make that she can never leave you.

The obsessed young man understood how wrong it was to have those thoughts terrifying his mind, but he couldn't stop it, it was a feeling that had already taken root in his heart, and he couldn't tear it out no matter how much he wanted to.

—I can't… —Hwei whispered, his voice breaking —…, I don't want to harm her; She is so nice to me, I don't want to put her through all my feelings.

You heard him sob.

—You're not going to hurt her —Jhin comforts him, a hand running over his cheek —. I know you love her very much, and you notice how others hurt her. But, tell me, don't you think about those people really hurt her? —He subtly wipes away the tear that slipped down her face—. You should take care of those people, you know? So she could express her art as she loves it. Maybe she could even make thousands of statues without anyone to pressure her, and you could “borrow” them for yourself.

You had heard enough, you couldn't stay there for another minute.

However, before you could move, Jhin leaned close to Hwei's ear, his lips close to her loose strands of hair.

—Or you could take it right now, you know? This opportunity is perfect. —Jhin's mischievous smile spreads across his face.

Hwei opened his eyes to her peak, at the same time he heard a rope move abruptly.

And you felt your foot being pulled up, forcing you to hit your face against the ground, causing you to moan in pain.

—Shit. —You whispered, feeling your head spin, a small wound on your head began to make small drops of blood come out.

—That is…? —Hwei whispers, his heart sinking in his chest —(Name)..?

Ｏ(≧∇≦)ＯＯ(≧∇≦)ＯＯ(≧∇≦)ＯＯ(≧∇≦)Ｏ

Today I came wanting to write. I loved how this one-shot turned out, and I hope those who read it do too haha.

I hope to receive more orders if any of you wish, until then, I will be dedicated to my hobbies and my studies.

[velourfant]

on fanfiction, fic authors, and the (misplaced) expectation that fanfiction should be an extension of the source material rather than…fanfiction

forgive the negativity, i promise this won’t be a norm :)

i’ve been writing fic as a hobby since i was in elementary, first for the TMI series, then 1D (lol), then haikyuu, genshin, you name it. for the most part, writing has afforded me unique opportunities to connect with fandom, even if many of my earlier fics never saw the light of day.

while i’ve received a lot of love from the communities i do publish fics for, i’ve seen an uptick in entitled fic readers publicly bashing fanfics because authors “mischaracterize” characters from the source material.

then, i watched a tiktok about a renowned bakudeku fic:

*i’m not a diehard bakudeku or my hero fan, nor do i consume any fan content for the series, so if i’m missing something regarding the bakudeku fic, you’ll have to forgive my ignorance. the point i wanted to make extends beyond mha anyway.

…and realized this problem was not endemic to the fandoms i’m active in, but a larger sign of souring fandom etiquette.

i don’t care how entitled you think you are to reading “good” fic. voluntarily consuming someone’s work and then complaining about it because it doesn’t meet your “standards” is a terrible way to interact with fandom spaces. you’re allowed to have opinions within your circles. everyone does. but the moment you publicize hate so you can interaction farm + round up other entitled fic readers (who often don’t produce their own fic), you’re inviting negativity into a space that you have no right to police. what gives you the authority to criticize someone else’s labor of love?

to begin with, the expectation that every fic writer’s interpretation of the chars must perfectly align w the source material imposes a skill/time barrier on fan work creation, draining all the fun out of the creative process. even if someone knows in their head how x and y are characterized, the disconnect between your brain and the words you put on a page takes time to mitigate. writing is a skill honed with practice. in other words, it’s difficult to convey what you want with words. by expecting fic authors to faithfully abide by source material characterization instead of allowing them creative freedom to INTERPRET ART (because believe it or not, these chars are just another piece of art that can be analyzed from different angles) as they see fit, you’re limiting the pool of creators to one of the following:

1) fic authors who understood the source material characters “correctly” on first read

2) fic authors who didn’t initially, “correctly” understand the characters, but could reread the source material and capture them through thorough study

i’ve missed some nuances, sure, but doesn’t that sound ridiculous? because i think it sounds ridiculous.

a suggestion, if i may: how about you just don’t read a fic you don’t like instead of lobbing unrealistic expectations at people who share their work out of love for the source material? how about you create your own fic since you’re soooo confident that deku wouldn’t wear this or that? legit why don’t you try contributing to the space instead of clout chasing and driving fic authors out? if you have so much criticism, then please, by all means, bless us with your vision. only through creating will you see how difficult it is to abide by your standards.

and if you’re a fic author who criticizes other fic authors’ works, shame on you. everyone in the space is interpreting art. congrats on being able to map out “canon-compliant” scenes or dialogue. stop holding other people who aren’t quite there yet/have no interest in doing so to the same expectations.

[iloveyou-writers]

Hi! I'm sorry this ended up longer than I intended to. I really needed to let it out, and I hope you can share some wisdom with me.

I am feeling hopeless about my writing today. Lately I've been fighting with thoughts about how I'm not getting better, and some jealousy completely pushed me to the edge.

For the past couple of months, I've been working on one of the biggest fanfic projects of mine. Normally I don't read on a fandom if I'm actively working for it, exactly because then I compare my writing to others', but since this is taking more time than my other stuff, I allowed myself to take a look today. I immediately found a story that I haven't seen before, and I was exited the whole time! It was great, and have me so much joy.

At first I was full of admiration towards the writer, and inspired to continue woekint on my own story. It was one of the best things I've ever read, and I immediately sat down to write a comment. Then something clicked. My story can't compare to this. The topics are so much different, but the way they write the characters, dialogues, everything, it's so much better.

I tried to tell myself I'm going to get better, but I just hate that despite having great ideas, the finished work will never live up to stories such as the one I read today. Because even though I know I've gotten better in the many years I've been writing, I never had any work I'm proud of, or one that fit the idea I started with. That what makes me feel the most hopeless.

This broke my heart, so I don't want to ignore it, even though I'm "technically" retired from tumblr.

I do want to offer my utmost respect to you for giving yourself boundaries due to knowing yourself well enough to acknowledge that you have an issue with envy.

It is so healthy that you try to work with what you know your attitude tends to be and that you set a boundary for yourself not to read fanfic while you're writing. It isn't that you're not allowed to ever read it, but while you're writing in the fandom. That's great. That's wonderful. I'm proud of you for that.

It can be really easy to fall into the hole of "I'm never going to be good enough." You read something and you can be so amazed by others. I'll bet, though, that if you wrote the exact story you just read, you would likely feel differently about it. Why? Because we artists are HARD on ourselves. It really is true when they say that artists are our own worst critics. We judge every word, every movement our characters make. Why? Because we know the story we're trying to tell. We know what we envisioned when we started typing.

To us, we're comparing our writing to what we wanted it to be.

Readers? Yeah, they can have expectations or hopes for writing, but they ultimately didn't know what we were envisioning while we wrote it. They only know what they read. So they see it with fresh eyes and they see it for what it is, not for what it was supposed to be.

So it's really easy for readers to see the amazing aspects of a writer's work when a writer might only see what they did wrong or what they had to change in order to make the story work.

It's still the same incredible piece. It's still wonderful and I'll bet you're a much better writer than you feel like you are. 💗🫂

Maybe take a step back. Maybe take a few days off, so that the feeling of being "worse" isn't so fresh. Maybe do something else or work on a totally different story. Busy your mind so it isn't focused on what you feel you're not doing right.

No one's perfect. I guarantee the writer that made the story you read is nitpicking the things they wish they didn't have to change or that they feel they could have worded better.

So cut yourself slack. Remember to love your writing, to love where you're at. Writing is a journey. It isn't about getting to the destination. It's about enjoying the ride there. :) You'll get there, just remember to appreciate your writing for what it is now. And one day, you'll be where you want to be. Just keep working at it and loving yourself and your work.

Thank you for reaching out and I really, really hope you find comfort in this response.

Happy writing, my dear nonnie. 💗 I'm wishing nothing but happiness and pride in your work.

~Hannah

[paula-in-dreamland]

Fanfic writer interview

Thank you @errruvande for the tag!! :))

My AO3

How many work do u have on AO3?

Officially 3 - 1 in-progress multichapter, 2 "one-shots" (cause I'll probs expand eventually)

What's your total AO3 word count?

~42k (estimate cause some the stuff being counted towards the word count are from nav pages in the fic)

Your top 5 stories by kudos/likes

I mean if we included ff.net in this...that would be completely different. But we are not. So it's literally the three I've posted:

1. A Game of Revenge and Loyalty (HG AU, Sigtryggr x Stiorra centric) 2. Some News Isn't Meant To Be Shared (Canon Universe, canon divergence, Sigtryggr x Stiorra) 3. Vorres Lille Dukke (Vampire AU, Sigtryggr x Stiorra x Reader)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes, or at least I try too! I think it's important to engage with your readers when possible to not only thank them but also because engaging with someone about you work is fun! I've been dying to talk to people about my fics so you better believe I am going to take the opportunity when it comes! It's why I post them in the first place!

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

Maybe Some News Isn't Meant to Be Shared ?? Cause it is fluff, but if you read between the lines and think about what transpires in S5 after that moment...yeah. Angsty/Whumpy as fuck. Other than that, I have yet to write something with a truly angsty ending. Unless you include one of abandoned WIPs on ff.net.

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

I have a bunch of WIPs with truly happy endings that I'll eventually write/post. Very romcom. Very sweet. As for current? LOL I guess Vorres Lille Dukke ...

Do you write crossovers?

A true crossover where characters from two different fandoms interact? No. But, I have done crossover AUs by putting TLK characters in those universes (a la my Hunger Games fic). And, I guess, you consider some of my fics crossovers in that I draw from Vikings and TLK when worldbuilding. Like Sigtryggr (and Stiorra but we ignore that in modern aus) is descended from Ragnar Lothbrok. So, I tend to draw from that show for depictions of those characters.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not on AO3. But, on ff.net over ten years ago. Broke me. I was 14, 15? Posted my first multi chapter fic. Within the prose, I had littered ANs throughout it rather than keeping it to the beginning and end. Why did I do that? Because I'd see a few other fics in the fandom do it so I figured it was the norm as I was a newbie to writing/fic writing. I think they also had a few other things to say. I end up eventually taking the fic down, and now I think it's fully gone as I don't have it on my laptop anywhere :/ But yeah. Be nice to fic writers. English could be their second/third/fourth language. They could be a preteen or a teenager. They could just be starting out.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

HA. HAHAHAHAHA. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. Yes. It's mostly M/F. Just recently M/F/F for the first time. As I work through my WIPs, also exploring kinks a bit more. So, more on the vanilla side.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope. Don't think so.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I think someone reached out to me on ff.net to translate one of my fics from ages ago? Have had people ask to print them out before! But not on AO3 (yet)

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Okay I VAGUELY remember maybe doing it, or starting to do it 10+ years ago? But I also use to be an avid RPer on here, so uh...yeah we co-wrote a lot of fics that way ;)

What's your all-time favorite ship?

Oh fuck you can't ask me that. *pulls open junk closet door and gets covered in characters/ships* *Proceeds to grab one at random, then sticks arm out from pile* UH!?!?! THIS ONE?! *holds up Rosalie and Emmett from Twilight*

No, but like in all seriousness: 1. Rosalie/Emmett 2. Stiorra/Sigtryggr 3. Padme/Anakin 4. Kim/Tommy 5. Caroline/Klaus & loads more.

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

So, I am really hoping I get to all my WIPs for Sigtryggr/Stiorra because I love them and want to put them in all the scenarios. As for past fandoms/dormant fandoms, I don't think there are any that I want to finish, more so ones that I wish I had given more time too? And now it's too late cause I did not leave myself detailed enough plot notes to trigger my memory? Nor got that far in the first place?

What are your writing strengths?

I think I write some kickass dialogue. I also think I'm decent at writing scenery.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Introspection. is. so. hard. And being concise. And you know...allowing subtext to speak for itself instead of telling the reader directly.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I think it's awesome! But, it can make reading hard if you're not familiar with the language as you have to scroll down to find out what the hell they are saying if it's more than a few words. I also personally think you should stick to languages you actually know/have studied unless it's like a tiny little phrase/nickname. Or, ask someone who actually speaks the language. Because google translate is not reliable lol.

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

None currently. But did consider writing a reader fic for Bleach at one point lmao.

What's your favorite fic you've written?

I don't have a favorite because the one that would probably be my fave isn't written yet ;) But, I tend to like all of my fics even the poorly written ones from when I was 14/15.

Tagging: @azriona @holy3cake @ladyaldhelm @whitedarkmoonflower @gemini-mama and anyone else who writes :)

[aliteralsemicolon]

Hey there,

I totally get where you're coming from about Spencer being a fictional character open to interpretation. Fiction gives us the freedom to explore characters in new and unique ways, and it's part of what makes writing fanfiction so fun and fulfilling.

The beauty of fanfiction is that it allows us to explore different facets of a character that we don't always get to see on screen. That said, I do believe there’s a line between creative interpretation and taking a character so far from their established traits that they become unrecognizable.

Yes, the show has inconsistencies, and no character is written perfectly at all times, but there’s a difference between exploring new dimensions of a character and ignoring their fundamental nature. Just like any well-crafted character, Spencer has a set of core traits that make him who he is, and deviating too far from those can sometimes feel off-putting for readers who love him for those exact reasons.

Writers should absolutely have the freedom to explore and reinterpret characters, but it’s also fair for readers to expect some level of consistency with the established canon, especially with such a well-defined character like Spencer Reid.

Hi lovely, while I agree with you to a certain extent I think you also have to keep in mind and be honest to yourself about what those traits are. Here are Reid's canon established traits that don't change throughout the show and a long ramble (let me know if I missed anything):

IQ of 187

eidetic memory

can read 20 000 words per minute

carries a brown satchel everywhere

loves: reading, play chess, excessive sugar in coffee

can count cards (banned from ever casino in Vegas)

tendency to ramble / go on tangents

socially awkward (this decreases as the show progresses, also circumstantial to the situation he's in)

technophobe

germaphobe (inconsistent, Mathew shakes hands on camera when Reid normally wouldn't. also changes slightly after the prison arc)

Fear of being perceived as mentally ill, having schizophrenia especially.

Those are the one's I can think of right now, but the list for established (as in set in stone, these traits don't change at all throughout the show) traits is pretty short. Anything else you associate to him changes throughout the show and depends on the season.

They're not very defining in terms of Reid as a whole human being, because like I said, people are complex. The traits above do not explain how he would behave in every aspect of his life.

For example: I get anxious in social settings with large groups even when everybody in that group is my friend but I'm very confident when the friend groups become smaller. And I don't behave the same way with any partner I have as I do with my friends. A lot of the traits my friends associate with me aren't there when I'm with my partner.

Anything traits outside of those mentioned traits (minus a couple I may have missed) can't be counted as "established" traits because they're either fan associated or change with the season of Reid (S2 and S5 Reid are not the same). Expect consistency, by all means, but also be realistic about your expectations for that character.

The conversation here is about the random hate and unhelpful criticism towards fanfic writers because certain readers don't agree with the writer's portrayal. It's unnecessary and a waste of everyone's time when they could just not read that writers work. And really entitled behaviour considering this is content they're getting for free.

Now I'm not going to go and reply to every single reblog on the original post I made (every single one had such a valid point and I agree with them all), but I will quote the genius @/lavenderspence (she takes after our husband Reid, look at those stats)

"As of today, there are 4497 fics under the Spencer Reid/Reader tag on AO3, 1509 fics under the Aaron Hotchner/Reader tag, and ONLY 236 fics under the Derek Morgan/Reader tag. There's more than enough fanfics out there for you all to find the right one FOR YOU, without BASHING SOMEONE ELSE'S representation of the character."

That's it from me about this topic, I think I've said everything I've needed to.

[smosh-fessions]

this isn't a smosh-specific thing, smosh is just the fandom i'm currently most actively interacting with at the moment, but i struggle to get into real person fics cause some of the writers of fanfics do not know how people talk or interact on social media. this is fully just me being a hating ass bitch, but any time i see a fanfic and the dialogue is either so far removed from real human speech patterns or so distinctly different from how that person speaks in real life, and ESPECIALLY when every single character talks the exact same, i really want to send that writer to a creative writing class. becauelse there's always an obvious love and passion for writing behind all the fanfic i see and at the end of the day, i'm just someone who has a specific pet peeve for that. i genuinely just want these writers to PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD stop writing dialogue like that.

i'm not going to mention any fics in specific because it isn't about any specific one, just something i've been ruminating on for months. i also worry that a fanfic writer will see this and think this is about them, but i hope any fanfic writer knows my opinion matters so little i'm doing this on anon. i also hope that all the writers whose first language isn't reading know that this is very much not about them. every time i've read any piece of writing from someone whose first language isn't english, i am profoundly affected.

i'm so sorry i just need to talk about this to someone or i will explode.

I'm on the 'hater' train with you. As someone who has been writing since I was a child, I know that practice makes perfect, and writing is no different. I think a lot of these people who struggle with this need to do some exercises on capturing the voice of people.

My suggestion is and has always been this: Pull up a video of the people you're planning on writing about. Transcribe the video dialogue and either write out what you imagine their expressions are like and what they're doing(such as if it's a video with no facecam), or write out everything you see. It helps you understand connection of dialogue to tone and body language, and writing things out helps your brain register it better. Writing out that dialogue will help you find the 'voice' of the person and the manner in which they speak.

Another good tip is to just read your dialogue out loud! Does it flow well? Does it sound natural? Or does it sound like you're reading out of a pamphlet? I also recommend finding a beta reader so that someone else can give you feedback.

My personal biggest issue is when people don't understand the way dialogue is supposed to be written, Aka they ignore every rule about punctuation ever created. It makes it beyond difficult to read and comprehend. In my experience, these people are commonly the same types of writers you're talking about.

My suggestion is always to know the rules of dialogue, sentence and paragraph structure, and other general writing rules. You obviously don't have to follow rules about formal writing (such as never beginning a sentence with 'but' or 'or' despite that being how people actually speak), but you should know how to make your writing legible and comprehensible to others.

[ozimagines]

feel free to ignore this if it makes you uncomfortable (completely understandable, cus tbh i'd feel uncomfortable if someone sent me this request) but...:

sch*ll*ng*r. i fucking hate that inbred degenerate nazi scumbag with every fiber of my being... but i have a terrible crush on jk simmons. and i just have a thing for asshole men who'd call me a slur in general.

so with that in mind... please. schillinger/reader content. pretty please. sfw or nsfw, i don't even care. i'm literally insane and i cannot keep this deplorable fantasy to myself any longer. help me

Okay, so there’s really not a short way for me to answer this. I want to say this before I say ANYTHING else; I am 100% not judging you. Like not at all. J.K. Simmons is hot as hell- I’m more of a Terrance Fletcher gal myself (and a little J. Jonah Jameson… I’d get him pictures of Spider-Man…😉)- but yeah I get it. Also I’ve been totally open on this page that I find James Robson to be attractive, despite him being one of the more (if not the most) vile characters on the show. R. E. Rodger’s makes me feel some type of way, I said it. And I don’t want to ignore it, because I think it’s important you know why I came to the conclusion that I did.

All that said, while I sympathize with finding vile characters attractive (Niragi, Lecter, Lestrange, DeLarge, Macbeth, the other Lecter, etc.) I also understand MY limitations as a writer. I’m white. I’m Italian American so I feel comfortable using those slurs, as I’ve had them thrown at me from time to time. I’m a feminist woman and use the word cunt every ten seconds because I like reclaiming that word… and binging lewd British comedies. I’m a severe bipolar schizoaffective so I use anti-mental health words that have been used at me, some by professionals. I’m gay (pan-sapphic) and I use faggot irl because I think it’s important to reclaim that word… but I’m a part of the community that’s reclaiming it. Other slurs I’ve used on this site to do Nazi characters, I’ve bleeped out mostly. I want to keep the realism, because this show depicts real, awful, abject life. But I’m white American, middle class raised even though I’m a poor young thing now. I’ve had advantages and privileges, I’m sure everyone here knows that. It’s not to say I haven’t had my struggles or that my life hasn’t gone down the shitter with all my severe mental health troubles but they don’t exist on a one to one ratio like that. I’m not sure I’M the right writer for this piece, because these aren’t my words to reclaim.

Also totally not kink shaming you. I like things in the bedroom that are a little alarming on paper, and have been fairly honest about that. I think as long as everyone is able to consent and does so, and people are respectful, it’s fun to experiment with taboo things, even consensual pseudo-consent play. There’s a great quote by Jhonen Vasquez, who wrote the comic Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. He said, “I avoid from going over the edge by writing a character that has taken a flying leap off it”. I feel the same. I don’t always write what should happen. I write what does. But there’s another quote I want to submit as evidence, and it’s from Neil Simon’s Biloxi Blues. He said “you have to be careful what you write down, because then people assume it to be true”. I’m hesitant to write these words down and romanticize/sexualize them. What I would hate more than anything is for a follower (or random internet user) who is a person of color to be reading this and understandably feel hurt or devalued or betrayed if they like my work. It’s not my intent to hurt anyone. Anyone. And I’ve written a lot of fanfics that dance on or go over the line. But I can’t romanticize or sexualize Schillinger, anymore than I post any of my self written Robson fics on my site. I know the damage they could do if people assume them to be true or my feelings about life.

All that said, I’m not ever gonna turn a request down flat. You took the time to ask. I’ll take the time to write. Only I’ll do it by my rules of comfortability. I do a lot of datings would include… except I made an exception for Cyril O’Reily. I did being friends with would include. I can’t see why I can’t make another exception for Schillinger with a being enemies with would include. Some Schillinger and reader content but not romanticized or sexualized where he’s still obviously the villain and I write in his voice so you can do what you want to with that… I can’t stop ya. Deal? (Sorry if you totally hate this I just wanted a compromise. There might be accounts by POC who would be willing to write it sexualized, but I don’t think that’s my place if that makes sense.)

Also deeply sorry it’s taken me this long to respond. I’ve been candid about my mental health stuff and my diagnoses and meds have been flip flopping back and forth so my body always feels like it’s just run a marathon. I’m still writing for this account I just have so much to deal with irl that I’ve fallen behind.

Being Enemies with Vern Schillinger Would Include…

He had only gotten one sentence out and you’d already gotten the ick

“Saw that n*gger was fucking with you, if you move into my pod-“

“Imma stop you right there.”

You’re not world hardened by any means, but you had the sense of a bird near a cobra’s nest… something was wrong

“Not that you don’t seem great, in a skinhead, boomer, 80s rapey kinda way… but hard pass on the odd couple roommate situation, mkay?”

You’re gonna be very sassy in this fic it’s been decided

He’s taken aback. It’s not like anyone’s not gotten mouthy before with him, it’s just he usually makes them pay

But you kinda went down the mountain lion make-yourself-big-and-loud road and he was a little stunned by it

His grimace appears and his eyes go hard

“Watch your mouth, Prag.”

“You’ve wildly underestimated which one of us is the bottom bitch here.” You shoot back, turning your back to him and walking away as if he wasn’t worth your time.

From that moment, Schillinger decides that you’re his enemy.

Like one does, you sort of team up with his enemies like Keller, Beecher, Said, and O’Reily. You do it less because you like them, and more just to fuck with Schillinger.

He’s seething after seeing you all together with his son in the Gym, eyes narrowing and scowl forming.

“Good to see ya, Vernie.” You taunt through the chain linked fence.

“Lotta balls hitting a man below the belt like that.” He answered, his voice dripping with venom.

“Balls of steel that ring when I walk.” You sing song.

“So it’s a dick measuring contest you want? Okay, tinkerbell, you’re on.”

You just smile. You love getting a rise out of him considering how much he’d got a rise out of everyone else

You sort of have a few “and everyone clapped” moments with the other prisoners cheering you on when they hear you breaking his balls.

You’re not scared of him, or if you were, you never let it show.

There was a sort of promenade, having an enemy. A dance in your every day life between you and him.

He takes shots at you whenever possible, consigning a jealous Robson

James has always hated you; you took up too much of his father figure’s time and mind for his liking.

Robson almost messed with you more than Schillinger because of this, always sort of yapping like a puppy looking for approval of the big dog.

You bitch slap him in front of Vern as much as possible.

“Hey Y/N” he calls, mouth already curling into a smirk. “Was wondering if you think Said and Bitcher would visit you in the hospital… y’know, after we have a little fun with you.”

You start making a bunch of swallowing and gagging noises. He sort of furrows his brow at you.

“Sorry,” you clarify “that was my imitation of you polishing Schillinger’s balls like the pathetic, approval seeking bitch that you are.”

He immediately tries to shank you and gets thrown into the hole, as Schillinger’s angry face glares at you in the background.

He didn’t think it was possible, but he hated you even more than Beecher.

Lots of the Aryan’s take shots at you for Schillinger, and all of them have to return with their tail between their legs like kicked dogs when they failed whether due to you or your friends intervention.

Said and Beecher consistently warn you about underestimating him, citing all of his cruelty in example after example.

Your response is always the same;

“I don’t bow to tyrants.”

One day, he’s walking through the hallways with the mail cart, and spots you talking with Cyril in the hallway somewhere. There are COs with both of you, but that doesn’t mean Vern can’t have a little fun.

“Well, hello, Cyril.” He reached out and slid his hand down Cyril’s back. “Looking for a good time, Y/N?”

You sort of piece together what he’s inferring you did with Cyril, and you actually do get angry this time. You always hated that they picked on Cyril. Talk about hitting below the belt.

“No, Vern, I’m not a kiddie raper like you.”

His face goes red. That was the one place where he drew the line. He sort of made a move that the CO anticipated.

“The fuck are you-“

“He’s got the mind of a kindergartner, Vern, what would you call it?” You snap back, making a move that the CO closest to you anticipated, both COs holding you both back. “Pervert, lowlife, bitch tit.” You called out to him as you were lead away.

“You’re dead, Y/N.”

He consigns Robson into making the move, trying to shank you in the showers. Nothing could have prepared him for when you exited and Robson was carried out by four CO’s, still fighting them as blood poured from his broken nose.

“Nice job subcontracting. Next time, come at me yourself, chicken shit.”

And come at you he did. He waited until you were alone, paying the Hack to lead you to a closet and leave.

You turn to see him standing there with a blunt shank in his hands.

“You ready, Y/N. No more talk. This is make or break time.”

“I talk a big game because I play a big game. Bring it on, boomer.”

He lunges at you, and you grab his wrist and try to knock him off balance. He slashes the air around you, trying to catch any part of you with his blade.

You slam his wrist against the wall once twice thrice until he drops the shank into your waiting hand. He pushes your hand so that you catch your side a little with the blade, but. Nothing could have prepared him for what you did next;

Dragging the blade back across your skin, you hit his wrist enough to press the shank into his side, digging in as hard as you could.

“Fuck… you fucking piece of shit fag bitch ass whore…” he presses your hand back and pushes you away, a large red patch forming on both of your right sides; now twins in your scars.

“Love the nicknames you come up with for me.”

“You’re fuckin’ annoying as shit.” He closed his eyes, hissing at the pain in his side.

“And you fucking ate Beecher’s shit. I know I’d rather be annoying than an actual shit eater.”

“One day, Y/N. One fucking day…” he limps out of the room, trying to flag down a hack and get medical attention.

As soon as he leaves you almost collapse

Fuck, that shit hurt

You both had scars in the same place now.

When he sees you next to Said, he always has a comment.

If you’re a POC, he’ll remark something about “birds of a feather”, and if you’re white, he’ll regard you as some sort of race traitor.

It’s almost like he’ll hate you no matter what and it’s not about self preservation

It’s almost like that, because it is like that

You do interactions together, at Sister Pete’s request

It’s largely you two insulting the other

Even Sister Pete is tired

“Fuckin’ shanked me…”

“I’m sorry, after who came at me with said shank…?”

It’s not super productive

One day, you learn he’s planning something against Holly Beecher, that’s where you draw the line.

You come up with a plan with Keller

You go to Schillinger one day

“I’ve got a proposal…”

“Yeah, does it involve you sucking my cock?”

“Actually, yes.”

He’s stunned. You lay it out for him.

“Holly Beecher. Don’t touch her, ever.”

And what are you offering?”

“Complete sexual obedience.”

It’s a tempting offer. He considers.

“In secret, of course. Your aryans wouldn’t approve and Beecher and Said would just try to talk me out of it.”

“You got a deal, sweet cheeks.”

You pleasure him regularly, committing to your long con as much as possible, putting on a show when you could to make him feel like it was worth his while.

When he starts to trust you, you make your move.

You give him, what had been affectionately named in Oz; “the Beecher Special”

His screams could be heard throughout Oz as the tip of his dick came off cleanly in your mouth, his off balance movements being the perfect time for you to shank him.

Between the blood loss from his crotch and his chest, Schillinger is no more.

The rest of the aryans are easy

The jizz you get is unmatched

And it all started with Schillinger treating you like his bitch.

[ultimate-marysue]

A part of the AFTG fandom acts awfully entitled when it comes to Nora. I would assume it's because they're not used to interacting so casually with their fav authors, but I don't see people talking like that to fanfic writers either (for the most part).

Reviews are for the readers goes both ways and I don't understand why you tag and @/ her on Twitter just to bitch about the things you dislike. For starters, If you're a fan of the books it means you must like them. So why on earth would you choose to complain about the "bad things" when faced with the opportunity to talk to the author? I would ask her questions, fangirl about my fav moments, share my fanworks... Not talk about the specific singular thing I didn't vibe with. Because, guess what? I didn't write the book

I really don't understand it. I've criticized some elements of the books but I don't tag Nora. I'm not commissioning her for a story. She wrote the books, we bought the books. We got what we paid for, she doesn't owe us anything else. If you want more, write it yourself or commission a writer. Especially the Thea shit. My problem with that character is that she exists for less than one page, you could easily ignore it. I don't get the need to @/ the author saying "you should have edited this two paragraphs out because given the near non-existing info we get on her I think she's a bad person" (as if aftg isn't full of bad and questionable people, as if characters can only be good instead of interesting, as if we know anything about her).

I hate the way people talk about art and creative works as if they are, not only something to consume, but something that is owed to you. Like the author's owe you making all your headcanons canon. You people have lost your minds, that's not how it works. You're allowed to have your headcanons and share them with the fandom, but so is the author??? Only the books are canon, and not even the author can prevent you from skipping over the Thea parts if you want to pretend they're not there.

I'm hoping this is just kids getting into the books now, because I cringe at the thought of adult people seriously expecting their fav author to make their whims canon. Canon divergence is the beauty of fandom! Taking something you already like and giving your own two cents. Creating something out of love for the source material even if it's flawed. Harassing the author because you dislike a character that's barely there sucks the joy out of fandom. We don't deserve Nora, and she definitely doesn't deserve having to deal with this shit.

[shallanigans]

So, you want to write fanfiction? Here's some advice from someone who spends too much time on ao3, Part 1:

Hey everyone! This is a bit of a deviation from my usual shitposts. I was looking at the "#writers on tumblr" tag today, and I got inspired to post this after some interesting discussions. I'm someone who has read a lot (and I mean A LOT) of fanfic, as well as written some myself... so I thought I'd make this little (no, I lied, it's Very Long) post with some writing tips that I find personally meaningful for those of you who may be getting started or want to try something new.

My qualifications? Honestly, because I said so. This is just my opinion. Feel free to ignore, disagree, hate, ask questions, whatever. I'll be discussing some common fanfic writing advice and what I think about it, as well as giving some general pointers.

Disclaimer: What is "good writing?"

Good writing is effective writing. There is no one way in which everyone should write. Effective writing compels the reader; it makes them interested in your story, keeps them turning the pages, makes them click that "next chapter" button and stay up all night to finish your 500k epic. Some people achieve this through flowery, descriptive prose. Others do so with their quick wit and snappy dialogue. Others write all their fanfictions in second person epistolary format only and make you cry harder than you ever have. The first thing to know is that 1) tastes vary and 2) confidence matters. Find your voice, and be proud of it. If you feel that what you are doing is working for you, and you love it, then keep at it. Someone has already made every "writing mistake" and made it well. Don't fall into the trap of getting bogged down with 674835 contradictory tips and being too terrified to write at all. The only real writing sin is being boring.

Furthermore, this post is for fanfiction specifically. A lot of this advice might be useful for traditional fiction, but it's not a 1:1 carryover. A lot of fanfic advice will be irrelevant for traditional fiction, and vice versa.

That's all fine and dandy, but what do I do?

Good question. First, let's break down what makes a fanfiction effective. Most people searching ao3 for a story probably want:

A compelling premise

With in-character characters

Good spelling, formatting, grammar, and syntax

Stylistically strong writing

A coherent plot

With a certain degree of wish-fulfillment sprinkled in (this is fanfic, after all)

In this series, I will be mostly discussing elements 2-6. Number 1, unfortunately, comes down to "don't be boring," and I can't tell you how to come up with an idea that's going to hook your reader. However, assuming that you already have The Coolest Idea Ever, and you only need the reader to see that, then here's what you can do:

Effective Summaries

No, seriously. Tell people what your fucking story is about. One of my favorite stories on ao3 has the worst, vaguest one-liner of a summary I've ever seen. It is a gem, and if it hadn't been for a friend's recommendation, I would have never read it. You may think that your epic out of context quote from the paragraph you spent hours perfecting will make people care, but it will probably just confuse them. This is likely to be the most controversial thing I say today, so I'm starting off strong.

When I say effective summary, I mean a summary that will tell people the basic premise of the plot while also making them want to learn more. I don't mean something fancy. I mean something like:

When Blorbo started his new tech development job at Tumblr, he never expected to have Blorbette for a boss. She is smart, cold, calculating - and, to his horror, totally irresistible. In order to win her heart, he decides to make her jealous by fake-dating his colleague and frenemy, Blorbinson. But he soon finds that there is more to his mysterious friend than meets the eye. Could it be that the real Tumblr sexyman has been next to him all along?

That's a pretty standard summary for a relatively long fic. It's nothing fancy, but it tells the reader what the story's about. Now this same summary, in the hands of someone who refuses to inform the reader about the premise of the story, would probably say something like:

His eyes are the color of spring.

You can get away with that kind of stuff more often in a one-shot, but best practice is always to tell your reader what the story is about. Say to your reader:

Blorbinson's eyes are too easy to get lost in. Blorbo cannot find his way out.

If you MUST include a quote from your story, then do it alongside your informative summary, in the much-loved format below:

"What do you mean Welcome to Nightvale is winning the contest?" --- In which things get heated at Tumblr dot com, and Blorbinson's the one making Blorbo get all sweaty.

I can already hear you arguing. You say to me, "But there are people who choose quotes that are both pretty AND informative! But writing anything is better than writing nothing in the summary!"

True. My response to the first point is this: if you had mastered that skill, you wouldn't be here. A simple, to-the-point-summary is almost never going to make the interested reader scroll past your story. You know what will? An out-of-context block of text about how much Sans Undertale loves the player from chapter 3, paragraph six.

To the second point, I say: obviously. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't seek to improve. No one is perfect. I'm certainly not. But you're doing yourself a disservice by spending so much time and effort on the content of your story and then fumbling it on the home stretch. If you take pride in your work (and I'm assuming you do, because you posted this story for a reason), then make like a chef at a five-star restaurant and start caring about presentation. It goes without saying that there shouldn't be any typos in the summary.

A note on tagging: I will make a separate post on tagging your stories appropriately. This is a writing-related rant.

Now, onto characterization:

If you're one of those people who thinks that there's no such thing as "too OOC," congratulations. May you enjoy fanfiction free from the shackles of the narrative. Tag appropriately and have fun. If you're like the rest of us haters, you probably want to keep your characters as faithful to canon as possible. Yes, even in an AU.

I've included this wonderful addition because entryn17 said it better than I ever could have. There's difference of interpretation, and then there's Severus Snape deciding that James Potter was actually just misunderstood.

Being "in-character" is an elusive ideal that we all strive for, but no one can quite tell you what it means except for "the vibes." The way I like to define it is this: If you asked yourself the question "Would He Fucking Say That/Do That/Feel That?" and the answer is "yes, absolutely," then it's in-character. If the answer is "absolutely not," then it's out of character. If the answer is "maybe?" then your goal is to move that needle firmly into the Yes camp.

To do this, you must first determine what is making you unsure. Is it the dialogue? Is your stuffy Edwardian speaking like a Gen Alpha well-versed in Cocomelonese? Is your overconfident flirt stammering and stuttering through a conversation? Often, the content of what a character is saying agrees perfectly with the source material, but the how doesn't match it. Beta readers can help with this, as can going back to the source material to study a character's speech patterns in canon. You don't have to get it perfect. Just make sure it doesn't stand out. Would Snape perhaps say "Come over here!" in a much wordier, snarkier manner? Maybe. Maybe not. But he sure as hell wouldn't say, "Yo! bring your ass over and check this out!"

Actions and feelings are a bit trickier. There's always some leeway in personal interpretation here, and most of the time your reader won't question this very much so long as the rest of the story keeps them engaged. One OOC action or thought is easy to brush off. Ten, not so much. Read up on the wiki pages for whatever you're writing, go back to the source material, and maybe get the opinion of a willing beta reader. Ultimately, if your characters start feeling like featureless puppets subject to your whims rather than people with established personalities, you might want to go back and revisit what made them stand out to you in the first place.

Keep things consistent within your story. Especially in AUs and canon divergence fics, there are certain character traits that are malleable. Maybe Draco Malfoy wouldn't have been such a dickhead if he'd had caring adult mentors in his life. So, justify that within your story. You don't necessarily need to keep the characterization faithful to the canon, but you do need to convince the reader that their beloved character has a reason for their behavior. Keep things consistent. Whenever a character deviates from their canon behavior, make sure there's a valid explanation for it in your narrative.

Don't fall for the trap of confusing canon and fanon. Fandom is like a game of telephone. Someone writes one story of Blorbo adopting a cat, and suddenly he's the biggest cat person in the universe. The poor author who posts about Blorbo's canonical love of dogs gets trashed for writing OOC. You can't prevent people getting mad at you, but you can always grin smugly and go to bed happy with the knowledge that you were right. Someone will love you for it.

SPAG

Ew! It sounds like something your dog spit up. Spelling and Grammar might be boring, but they're necessary. You shouldn't break the rules until you know the rules. One day, you will write a run-on postmodern epic to rival the worst of Wallace's page-long sentences. Today is not that day. No one wants to open a story only to be greeted by a massive block of text, a lack of punctuation, and a heretofore undiscovered form of there/they're/their.

In the modern age, we have many tools at our disposal to clarify our SPAG doubts. Dictionaries! Spellcheck! The weirdos on those Substack forums! Oh, my. If you wrote your story at 3AM directly onto the ao3 editor, perhaps take a moment to run it through some kind of spellchecker before posting. Microsoft Word has a pretty good one, but Grammarly and other such software can help you if that's not available. There's also nothing quite like a beta reader. There are people in this world who love picking apart every comma, period, and quotation mark, and they'll be happy to do it for you. I am one of them, and I volunteer. There are many of us.

Here are some SPAG mistakes common in fanfiction.

1.Your/you're, they're/their/there, "could of," and "lie" vs "lay."

"YOUR" means that something is yours. You possess that thing. YOUR story is going to be great if you fix the grammar. "YOU'RE" is a contracted form of "YOU ARE." If you fix your grammar, YOU'RE going to be a great writer.

They're: Shortened form of "they are." They're going to the beach. They're very nice people.

Their: They possess a thing. A thing belongs to them. They're going to the beach in THEIR car.

There: Related to a place. You are going to be THERE. THERE are many pretty horses in the field.

"Could of" does not exist. It is an incorrect way of writing "could've," the shortened form of "could have."

The verbs lie and lay are tricky ones. You (a person) LIE down on your bed. You LAY an object down on a surface. However, the past tense of LIE is LAY. I know! Who invented English, am I right? Blorbo LIES on his bed in the present tense. He LAY on his bed in the past.

The past tense of "lay" is "laid." Blorbo LAID down his water bottle.

2. Run-on sentences.

Sometimes, when we're writing, we get a little excited. We have so many thoughts and we never know how to end them. You might think the solution here is to just keep throwing down commas, but you'd be wrong.

Run-on sentences can be effective if used intentionally, but a lot of the time, they're not. The period isn't your enemy. In general, you want to make sure your sentences have a subject, a verb, and an object, and that they end when you've finished your thought.

Blorbo was the most beautiful of all the tumblr sexymen. He really liked to show off his sick gains at the gym. He had a hot wife and an even hotter side piece.

This writing isn't very exciting, but it's correct. Contrast that with:

Blorbo was the most beautiful of all the tumblr sexymen, he really liked to show off his sick gains at the gym, he had a hot wife and an even hotter side piece.

Finish your thoughts. There are ways to connect independent clauses (a group of words that can work on its own as a sentence) correctly, like the semicolon; the semicolon is a great piece of punctuation. There is also the em-dash. Sometimes, you really need to add clarification to a thought — you really want to emphasize the second part of what you're saying. Em-dashes also work like a cooler version of parentheses — because who uses those, am I right? — and can help you seem like a chic and seasoned writer. Don't overuse them, though. I know you want to. And no, I don't heed my own advice here.

Look, these rules aren't intuitive. I can't possibly go through all of them in a way that's easy and digestible. There are smarter people than me who have written all about it, and I use incorrect punctuation all the time. Misplacing a comma isn't going to be the end of the world for your story, but at least give it a once-over with a beta or spellchecker to fix the worst of it. At the very least, make the reader think that run-on sentence was totally on purpose.

3. Paragraphs

Make sure your paragraphs stick to a single theme or thought. Fanfiction writers love to have one-sentence paragraphs for the impact, but you don't need to do that. Just keep them coherent. For example, if you're writing about Blorbo's weekend, you might say,

Blorbo loved Saturdays. On Saturdays, the world seemed to sparkle and sing with the whole of the city's shared happiness over not having to work. He would wake up on those mornings and leap out of bed while singing a jaunty little tune. Then, he'd text Blorbinson a string of heart emojis and plan to meet up for their weekly ice cream date. But Sundays — oh, how he hated Sundays! Sundays were the day before Monday, and he'd always spend so long worrying about going back to the office that, by the time he decided to do something, it would be dark outside already.

Each of the paragraphs above, clumsy as they are, have a clear idea that starts and ends within the same paragraph. If you talk about Blorbo's Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday all within one paragraph, your reader will be confused!

On the other hand, if you make every single paragraph one line, your reader is going to resent you. You have unwittingly made them take part in a bad action thriller. One-line paragraphs are supposed to be impactful and create suspense. When writing, a good tip is to consider the word "impactful" a synonym of "sparing." See below:

Blorbo loved Saturdays. On Saturdays, the world seemed to sparkle and sing with the whole of the city's shared happiness over not having to work. He would wake up on those mornings and leap out of bed while singing a jaunty little tune. Then, he'd text Blorbinson a string of heart emojis and plan to meet up for their weekly ice cream date.

Doesn't it suck? Not to mention all that scrolling!

3. Dialogue

Right off the bat, I'll say that the best way to learn how to format dialogue is by reading books. Not fanfiction. BOOKS. They have been checked by an editor, so you know you're getting the real deal. Generally, well-formatted dialogue achieves an engaging and seamless conversation between your characters. Poorly-formatted dialogue forces your reader into a game of Who's Who?

See for, instance, the following abomination:

"I can't believe you cheated on me with Blorbette!" Blorbo had been crying about it for a week. His tears would soon erode a riverbank down his cheeks. Blorbinson sneered at him, "I can't believe you ever thought this was real." "I was only with you for the tax benefits." No! How could you? Blorbo said. Blorbinson laughed a wicked laugh and looked at him. "My heart is shattered into a million tiny pieces. Love isn't real!"

Did you follow that? Because I sure didn't. Generally, here are the rules of dialogue:

Start a new line for each character that speaks, and keep a single character's dialogue within the same paragraph.*

Use dialogue tags to CLARIFY who is speaking. Note: I said clarify. If it's redundant take it out. I will write more about good (not merely correct) dialogue in a follow-up post.

Put a period after or before an ACTION tag in dialogue, but a comma before a SPEECH tag. The reason you do this is that ["Here is an example line of dialogue," he said] is a complete sentence, but ["Here is an example line of dialogue." He looked at his watch.] is TWO sentences. The quotation marks are merely to indicate speech. Whether or not something is a sentence is determined by the content of what the writing actually says, not by any punctuation it may have.

Use quotation marks to indicate speech. If you want to quote something within quotation marks (in American English), you put it in single quotes, like so: "And then he called me 'a lost cause who's doomed to be single forever.' Can you believe that?"

By following these rules, we get the much nicer:

"I can't believe you cheated on me with Blorbette!" Blorbo had been crying about it for a week. His tears would soon erode a riverbank down his cheeks. Blorbinson sneered at him. "I can't believe you ever thought this was real. I was only with you for the tax benefits." "No! How could you?" Blorbinson only laughed a wicked laugh. "My heart is shattered into a million tiny pieces. Love isn't real!" Blorbo said.

Obviously that's still pretty bad, but now it's readable. Formatting your dialogue properly will fix a lot of problems with your story, make it clear who is talking, and make the reading experience much nicer for everyone.

* An Important addendum: sometimes, characters will speak for a long time, and you'll want to split up their dialogue into paragraphs. To do that, you start the dialogue in quotation marks, but you leave them open until the character is done speaking, like so:

"My favorite thing about Blorbinson was that he always knew just what to say. He had this magical ability to always tell when I was sad, and he showed up with ice cream every single time. It always made me feel better," Blorbo said. "I can't believe our relationship is over now. I should probably tell you all about how that happened. "I walked into my house one day to find another pair of shoes by the door, where Blorbinson's usually are. I knew Blorbinson would never wear those shoes, because his style is more boho-inspired. Anyway, my worst fear was confirmed when I walked into the bedroom and found him there with Blorbette! My two loves, betraying me so callously!"

This is common in fantasy stories where you need to impart some deep lore knowledge on the reader, or for characters who like to talk a lot.

4. Verb tenses (edited after posting, in true fanfic writer fashion)

Us writers tend to have very strong opinions about verbs. You could even say things get a little bit... tense sometimes. Ok, but seriously; whether you write in past or present doesn't matter. What matters is that you keep things consistent.

Nothing takes the reader out of a fanfic faster than abrupt tense switches in the middle of the narrative. If you are writing in a specific verb tense, stick with it.

Don't say:

Blorbo is never sure what Blorbinson is thinking. He watched him chew his pencil from across the office, that beautiful face scrunched in concentration as he stares at his computer. Blorbo knows he's in love the minute Blorbinson looks back.

DO say:

Blorbo was never sure what Blorbinson was thinking. He watched him chew his pencil from across the office, that beautiful face scrunched in concentration as he stared at his computer. Blorbo knew he was in love the minute Blorbinson looked back. or Blorbo is never sure what Blorbinson is thinking. He watches him chew his pencil from across the office, that beautiful face scrunched in concentration as he stares at his computer. Blorbo knows he's in love the minute Blorbinson looks back.

When we write in past tense and we want to talk about events that happened prior to the narrative, we use the past perfect. When we write in present, we can use either simple past or past perfect. This one's kind of iffy. As you write more, you'll get a sense of what "sounds correct."

Ultimately, your choice of verb tense is personal opinion and what you feel best fits your story. Just make sure that you keep whatever you choose consistent. A beta reader can help you with this.

And that's it for Part 1!

This post dealt with some technical, basic things about fanfic that will mostly be useful to new writers. I will be going more in depth about making your prose stronger at the sentence level in Part 2, where #4 is getting an entire post. It'll probably be even longer than this one. I hope it was able to help someone!

[girlsgutsandgore]

Writing Communities: Toxicity, Requests, and A Cesspit of Minors

PLEASE READ IF YOU'RE A READER OR WRITER!

I've never made a Tumblr post before and I doubt anyone will see this, so I'm going to rant into the void. This came about after a fanfiction writer I dearly loved, Muzanswaifu, was in a nightmare of a community (not sure if I should tag her). I've noticed that, among fanfic writers, being a writer on this website can be hell, something that seems to be predominately created by a disconnect between the writers and their audience.

While I've never posted any piece of fanfiction myself to Tumblr, I have been a long-time user of this website and regularly follow writers. I've watched far too many writers quit or abandon their accounts because of the pressure they face to regularly post or to write for a certain audience/genre.

Statistically speaking, you'd think that most people would have the decency to realize that some people might not be comfortable writing certain things or that if you're not comfortable with it, leave it alone (or report it if it involves legal issues, bullying, harassment, etc). The Tumblr user base is primarily made up of people between the ages of 18-34, give or take. Of course, there will always be minors in just about any space, but knowing that the majority of Tumblr users are within the 18-34 age range makes things... sad. If you're actively sending death threats to someone because they wrong canon x OC smut, then... why do you have that much time?

Then there's bullying someone because you don't like what they're writing about. Most writing blogs tend to have rules, the basic dos and don'ts when it comes to a blog. Those rules are there for a reason. They aren't there as a suggestion of what the writer will/won't do, they're firm and set in stone unless the writer makes a post stating otherwise. Way too many people ignore rules when making a request or when they go to DM the writer. Please, read the rules before submitting anything to the writer. I've seem people answer some really weird requests on this website/app.

On a similar note to that: content warnings. Again, some people will zoom right past that and then get disgusted by what they read. Like all things on your average writing blog, the content warnings are there for a reason. If you go on reading the content after reading the warnings, then you're responsible for the outcome. You willingly signed up to read this content, you made the conscious choice to interact with it. If it makes you uncomfortable, then you have to deal with that. There's a lot of weird or gross things on this website, so it's best to ignore it or report it if it's dealing with illegal content.

That leads me to my next issue: minors. Even though porn is no longer a thing on Tumblr (sort of), there's still a lot of explicit material, especially in the fanfic community. It's hard to stop minors from reading it when the only way to stop them is the "read more" button in most situations. What minors don't seem to realize is that 18+ content isn't for them. I can't stop you from reading it, but you shouldn't be interacting with it more than the basic like and/or reblog. Sending harassment to a writer makes you look exactly like what you are: a child. You lack the maturity and knowledge to know what a real job is like or how stressful college/university is.

With life comes responsibilities. One of the things that Muzanswaifu points out on her farewell post(?) is how she got a lot of hate for running a Discord server and people thinking she wasn't active enough. Discord is confusing, really damn confusing, especially when you're trying to run an entire server with dozens and dozens of people while warding off minors. Her main job isn't to make sure the Discord is seamless and aesthetically pleasing or to answer every demand someone has, and this applies to any writer or artist with a Discord. That should be a place where people can share ideas, writings, art, or random thoughts. If you have beef, then take it out of the server into somewhere private. Sure, free entertainment is fun, but it isn't fun when you start dragging in other people to pick sides and get upset because they don't want to pick.

One of the big issues I also see fought over is whether a writer writes for xFem, xMale, or xGN content when it comes to reader content. I've seen a lot of complaints that [Writer] should write for [gender/sex] because it's what someone in their audience wants to see. Just because you want to see it doesn't mean that the writer has to cater to your specifications. Frankly, they might not be comfortable with it or know how to. I know as a Genderfluid AFAB person, I would probably suck at writing xMale content and, while I certainly can practice, I'd like to stick to what I know. There are other writers or communities where you can find the kind of content you want. Hell, here's a wild idea: you write it. If you can harass and bully someone else, then you sure as hell have the time to write the kind of content you want.

As for requests, it's a similar situation to what I mentioned above. Most writers have actual lives, like school, work, or simply hanging out with friends. They don't spend every waking moment writing something you asked for to deliver. This content is free. While it might be a priority if it's a commission, it sure as hell isn't if you're going to whine and yap about it when it's been a week since you asked for something. Some writers will take months until they post another chapter or a fic. Life gets hectic and it's not predictable! The health of the writers should take the forefront, so if writing is bringing them no joy or is burning them out, then it's time for them to go on hiatus. It's a normal and expected process.

This post is probably incoherent and sounds like the angry ramblings of a nobody who'll get no traction on their post. I wrote this in, like, an hour and I can't think right now. Any comments/advice to add would be appreciated if there is anything. All I ask is that there's a better community for writers on this app. Since I've never written anything other than this post, I only know the bare minimum of what these people go through. I might make a part two or something of this to rant, but for now, I have calc homework I need to do.

To any writers/artists out there who want someone to write to, my DMs should be open. I'm a very open listener. If Muzanswaifu or any writers in the KNY fandom see this, DM me for a Discord server I'm in. It's centered around Renkaza but we mostly do whatever on there. It's the least toxic Discord server imaginable and people there are super nice. Also, free beta readers and a fanfic book club.

If anyone sends me hate for this, I'm framing it (deadass). You can yell at me all you want for supporting [insert taboo topic] when I'm not. Just stop bullying people online and maybe focus more on yourself. If you're taking out your anger on a faceless person possibly hundreds of miles away over an attempt to call out toxicity, then you've got too much time to think.

Anyway, that was GGG, I'm out (HOW TF DO THESE TAGS WORK SOMEONE HELP ME).

[fandomsbyladymelodrama]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

I haven't been tagged in this one (yet) but I'm in a major procrastination mood this morning so answering tumblr questions is currently way more appealing than actual writing so let's do this XD

How many works do you have on AO3? 67 1/2 - the 1/2 is because I have a very little Obidala-ish thing which is currently sitting in my files waiting to be published when I find an extra minute (like right now, for instance, except that I'm doing a survey instead oops ;))

What's your total AO3 word count? Ummm...let's just say if I had a dollar for every word of fanfic I've ever written, my bank account would be very, very happy.

What fandoms do you write for? Mostly Game of Thrones. But my full fandoms list has 25 unique fandoms, some major, some minor, and some where the entire tag is owned by me.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Île Aux Ours, Jamais T'oublier, Sunrise on the Jade Sea, La Nuit Venait, The Heir of Riverrun which are all Jorleesi fics except for THOR, which I'm pleasantly surprised to find so high in the rankings (although to be fair there's Jorleesi in that one too :)). And just because I was curious, my top five excluding any Jorleesi content are: New World Symphony (Vicbourne - oh I loved them so, history be damned), Dreams and Dragonglass (Viserys x Alicent from HotD), A Girl, A Drowned Man (ahem, Jaime Lannister x Arya Stark - don't even ask XD), over time and tide and death leaping (Obidala4Ever <3), and Easily onward, thorough flowers and weed (Siegfried x Audrey from the new All Creatures Great & Small - S5 is our season friends, I can feel it)

Do you respond to comments? Yes, all of them (except for the obvious trolls). I heart my readers and have had such good times in the comment section <3 Speaking of which, I'm behind with replies again. Just know my inbox is glaring at me.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Ummm, that's a hard one because I usually reach for the fluff endings with both hands. But I suppose...right now it's got to be my Hunger Games fic, and she gained the willow tree. I mean, it's intensely angsty, even more so than the source material, and may remain that way forever (at least until I update it and fix what I broke lol)

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Almost all of my Jorleesi fics have unabashedly happy endings but I think Île Aux Ours edges out the others just because basically everyone (spoiler alert: except for Viserys, Rhaegar and the Night King) live! And all my ships survive! And House Mormont is flourishing! And the Seven Kingdoms are at peace for once! (at least until I write the sequel ;))

Do you get hate on fics? Only on the Game of Thrones fics, and relatively speaking, very, very rarely. It was slightly more common right at the end of Game of Thrones (people had feelings) but it's almost completely died off in recent years...which is a relief. Because trolls are easily ignored but they don't make anyone's day brighter.

Do you write smut? Again, rarely. But, ya know, sometimes things happen ;)

Do you write crossovers? Yes, but usually it's not what I would consider a true crossover. More me adapting one film/series to the setting/plot/characters of another. The only true crossover I've ever written is, I believe, this one: light goes the weather-wind and the feathered starling (where Tom Bombadil and Melisandre of Asshai meet up and make a trade - sometimes writing brains are weird)

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not to my knowledge?

Have you ever had a fic translated? Again, not that I know of? Although I had a reader request permission to translate a couple of my Jorleesi fics into Russian so that may have happened and I just never received a link from them.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Ohhhh, yesssssss. My forever partner-in-Jorleesi-crime is @salzrand <3 9 fics and counting :)

What's your all-time favorite ship? Based on my writing activity over the last 5-6 years, I think there's really only one correct answer here and it's the lobsters. A bear and his dragon-girl. A princess and her steadfast knight. They're perfect, they're dreamy. And forever inspiring. I cannot. But other than Jorleesi, I have to give top billing to Jane/Lisbon, Obi-Wan/Padme, Dickon/Mary, Jean Valjean/Fantine, Christy/Neil, Lexie/Mark because these are ships that have stayed with me for at least a decade or longer and are part of my DNA at this point.

What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Ugh. Don't talk to me about unfinished fics. They judge me with their Chapter 1/? eyes. They glare at me disapprovingly each time I log into AO3. And I know that there are a few that have been waiting on an update for a long, long time (and some of you have probably given up hope that I'll ever return to them), but never say never...at least until I'm dead XD

What are your writing strengths? I think I have a flair for writing scenery and believable multi-generational family dynamics. I also think I'm fairly good at fixing canon disappointments with some fun and unique twists (it's the soap opera training, I swear XD). I try to keep dialogue very natural, characterization at least partly canon-based and do a lot of research for my fics on time-period details, with mostly successful results...lol well, that's the hope anyway. And I think another strength that has made me successful in writing age-gap ships especially is that I can write character relationships in a way that might go beyond the whole attraction thing and touch on deeper connections (or something).

What are your writing weaknesses? Endings. Aren't they everyone's? Titles. And my pacing can be off sometimes. I think I get away with it in fic-writing for the most part but I have a few fics that aren't as "tight" as they could be. There are a few words/phrases that I rely on too much. And I'm sure I have a bunch of others that I'm unaware of.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I haven't done this much and I really don't venture outside French if I try it. I rely on friends who are native speakers to make sure I'm not saying anything off the wall.

First fandom you wrote for? Titanic 😍 I had to save Thomas Andrews. He looked so sad and despairing winding that clock at the end. I should have probably saved Leo too but let's just assume in my version, Kate scooched over let him share the door XD

Favorite fic you've written? Impossible to choose. I love them all. Okay, okay, Sunrise on the Jade Sea. But only because you're forcing me to answer <3

Tagging: @clarasimone @gettingovergreta @toas-tea @bridgr6 @crushermyheart @heatherfield <3 Or be like me and tag yourself ;)