#more tips for if you want to learn

[dare-to-dm]

For those who are interested in using Spreadsheets for their character sheets, but don't know how to build them, you can usually find some for free just by googling "[insert system here] excel character sheet". Especially for the popular systems, you're almost certain to find an excellent tool that's already been made.

And if you are interesting in learning how to build your own, I still recommend you do this just so you can see how someone else did it and learn from an experienced example.

You don't need to own Excel - spreadsheets also work in LibreOffice, which is free. If you use Google Drive, you can also load and make spreadsheets using Google Sheets.

Some of the already created tools out there are a lifesaver. For example, ship building in Starfinder is kind of a hassle. So I looked up to see if someone had made a ship building spreadsheet and found the excellent Nickela's Starfinder Ship Calculator. You input how many buildpoints you have and then can select different upgrades for your ship. It keeps track of how many points you've spent and how many you have left, and also generates a finished character sheet with your choices. It works very well and looks sleek as hell. Saves me a ton of time, too.

[bilaudad]

experimenting with more simplified or cartoon styles, and practicing not being afraid of color and not being so self-conscious showing the process

[giantkillerjack]

Uh-oh! You are like, SOOO awkward!!

You're so awkward that it is occasionally mildly uncomfortable for people!

You're so awkward that sometimes people are confused by you and then there are awkward silences!

You're so awkward ...... that ultimately no one is harmed!!

Oh damn!!! What a vile crime you have committed! What an unforgivable thing it is to make a fellow human briefly confused!

Why, if *I* were ever briefly confused and kind of uncomfortable as a result, I'd be devastated.... by the absolute net zero change in my happiness and health! - From which I might never recover!! Yes indeed! No punishment can ever be enough for you!!

So you better absolutely hate yourself for it.

Better be SO MEAN to yourself about every single missed social cue so you don't forget your horrible crime! Meaner than you'd ever dream of being to someone else for the same thing! This is YOUR responsibility!

You need to show the world that you KNOW you are bad by punishing yourself constantly! After all, think of all the people who BENEFIT from you punishing yourself! - No, really! Think about it! Think about who benefits from your pain.

Think of alllllll the definitely-good people that your definitely-necessary self-torment definitely helps! I mean, you can't just cut off their definitely-life-sustaining supply of your suffering, right?? Sure, everyone else has a breaking point, but you're probably the only person in human history who doesn't, right? Best not to question it probably. Sure, it's a symptom that billions of people with trauma have had, but who knows? You could be a one-in-seven-billion exception. Anything's possible!

Instead, better just accept that idea that bullies carry like guns in holsters - the idea that people who have trouble with social cues deserve to suffer. Better carry on the burden they placed on you until you drop. Aid the cause of the callous by enforcing shame and suffering upon yourself extra hard; try your best to do their work for them. They're very busy.

Better not recognize that you need patience and kindness to heal from your trauma. Better not find out that it was trauma rather than personal weakness filling your head with self-hating thoughts. Better not find out it wasn't your fault.

Better not find out that awkwardness is not inherently harmful or unkind, and, in fact, the people who act like it is *are the ones enacting harm and being cruel.*

Better not get righteously angry when you realize just how much unnecessary damage this has done to you. After all, if you get mad, you might realize you deserve better. You might even feel brave enough to DEMAND better! You might build boundaries that keep you safe! You might make other people think they deserve to feel safe too! And we obviously can't be having that, so...

Better not show yourself even a little kindness a little bit at a time.

Better not make a habit out of it after all that practice.

Better not get confident.

Especially if you can't first wipe out every trace of awkward. (And you probably never will. Because people who experience absolute social certainty at all times tend to be insufferable assholes that enforce the status quo. And you just don't have the stock portfolio for that.)

Better not be confident and awkward because then you might confuse and delight people

- you might accidentally end up making other people feel less shame for their social difficulties

- you might make isolated, traumatized, and shy people feel like they deserve to be included in social situations

- you might even make them feel they can be themselves around you

- you might start loving the effect you have on a room

- you might enjoy conversations more

- you might forgive yourself and bounce back from shame more easily and frequently

- you might come to enjoy some of those moments of harmless confusion you cause because NOBODY expects the Confident Awkward, and that can genuinely be an advantage in social situations

- you might stop apologizing so much.

- you might find that socializing is like a video game: it requires practice but also a safe space for it to be fun and positive.

Or if you can't become assertive and confident, better not remain awkward and shy and quiet, and then love and forgive yourself anyway!

Why, it would be carnage!!

In either scenario, you run the risk of finding out that it's not your fault that safe spaces full of kind people can be really hard to find, create, and nurture. You could end up building a skillset that helps you do those things if you're not careful!

If you start giving yourself even the tiniest amount of grace at a time, you will find that you've accessed a gateway drug with extreme long-term side effects:

- You might realize that it was never your fault that it took so long to like yourself.

- You might realize that you were always worth talking to, even when you didn't like yourself and communication felt impossibly difficult.

- You might realize that you'll still be worth talking to even if communication becomes harder as you age and/or experience disability.

- You might come to know that you deserve to be heard even on bad days when words come slow and blurry.

You might discover that you were always deserving of kindness, first and foremost from yourself.

So. As you can see, it's FAR too much of a risk to start granting your awkward self free pardons for your many heinous and harmless crimes. Better to just leave it there.

[polariscroquis]

So, while I'm working on the Majesty illustration this time, I finally put together another video with a timelapse on the lineart and a voiceover from yours truly (a still blabbering mess yours truly, but here nonetheless).

I'm talking a little bit about lineart, coming up with the idea, what software I use, some studies you can do to improve your lineart (that I also did and helped me a LOT, so passing on the knowledge!) and a couple of other things along these lines.

This one though is 30 min long, 'cause the lineart took me a while :') (it's Terzo sitting on a throne, I went overboard with the details and it cost me TIME no regrets though)

Oh, I talk through 20 min, I think I should note that. And the intro is the most HORRIBLE intro you'll hear in your lifetime, I was nervous, apologies

Hope the tips actually help someone and I hope to see you guys soon with the whole illustration done, 'cause I'm actually pretty happy with this one!!

I'm a sucker for details, it's been a while I don't do something like this :')

[icewindandboringhorror]

I find it kind of silly that so many of those "time based life rule" sayings are like ~deep serious guidelines~ of some sort, but then there's that one other Well Known Rule that's just like "hrmm can I eat something off of the ground or not"

[pastafossa]

how long did it take for your fanfiction to start getting some recognition? did you "advertise" it or "promote" it in any way?

i know that people say this doesn't matter, but i feel like even if you love writing the feeling that you're just talking to yourself gets pretty exhausting at some point. so i'm not talking about having thousands of readers but rather like. what's your advice to have readers at least?

- someone who hasn't even started writing their ideas yet...

LONG POST INCOMING.

First I want you (and everyone else reading who may be struggling with this) to know I'm absolutely with you and generally think 'it doesn't matter' is a horseshit answer. It's this weird thing we do in fanfic that we generally don't apply to other artforms that I've seen. If you're a painter, a playwriter, a novel writer, and you say, 'I want at least a few people to love my paintings, I want some people to come see my play, I want my novel to be published and do at least ok' we all support them, we nod, we agree, we talk about how they can do that successfully. It's considered normal to want some amount of success. But hold up fanfic instead and it becomes, 'how dare you want that praise, you're being egotistical, you should be writing only for yourself'. I'm not saying you can't do that - there are some who do - but it's definitely this bizarre switchup to say there's this single artform in which we can't want attention on our work and that there's something wrong with us if we do. That can be an absolute creativity killer depending on what kind of writer you are (hi, extrovert writer here who only gets writy writy juice from social interaction - aka comments and discussion. So I totally get it being exhausting just doing this on your own).

So let me say this categorically: you're allowed to want things. You're allowed to want kudos, comments, and hits. You're allowed to want messages and asks. You're allowed to want some readers you can talk with about your story.

You. Are. Allowed.

Ok, now that that's out of the way.

Edit: more below the cut cause I didn't realize the length of this on mobile

TRT definitely didn't get popular overnight. The first four chapters were sporadic, and then I took a hiatus due to life things for a couple years. During that time, it kept slowly ticking up bit by bit on AO3, with occasional comments. Iirc it was hovering somewhere around 700 kudos by the time I came back in Jan 2021 - and that's a awesome! It's big! But it's also a number that was gained over a few years, to put it in perspective. It absolutely took off after I came back though, and over the past 2 years both TRT's popularity and the stats of my one-shots in the fandom have grown. Part of that's just the time frame (TRT's been up about 6 years), but it's also due to a couple things that I think built up TRT's popularity.

Building a tumblr presence was huge. Ironically I didn't really intend to do it for advertising; I just wanted a place readers could ask questions or we could all freak out about Matt or I could post some drabbles or updates on the fic. But considering the fact that AO3 and tumblr are the top fic sites online, I wound up promoting my fics unintentionally just by being a friendly, happy tumblr user and fandom goer. All I did was follow the courtesy rules I knew - post stuff regularly, reblog, comment, make friends with other writers, just be friendly in your neighborhood because you love the lady with the gif flower shop on the corner or the wise old pizza maker who serves hot fandom takes all day long. I built familiarity with my writing and name by posting short fics, and by taking part in challenges and prompt lists and short requests for drabbles if I saw them, though that's something that's hard to do if you don't have time (I've got less time now, but I started this blog in the early pandemic so I had aaaaall the time in the world to write and was using it to stay sane). I tagged religiously because I LOVE tags, but that helped, too. Tumblr's search system is half broken but the half that works means people CAN find your writing even if they aren't following. Doing all this over here got me a huge boost over on AO3.

I will say that if you can have a fandom tiktok presence, there's a lot of fic reviewers, edits, and good stuff that can get your fic some readers (I've had some people do this on tiktok for TRT and it sent a surge over). I personally haven't done anything there yet, in part because while I'm on tiktok I try to keep my actual, real person accounts separate from my fic/fandom accounts and i haven't bothered to make a second account solely dedicated to the Pasta name yet.

Longfics on AO3 have the advantage in fic stats in the sense that every time you add a chapter, it gets bumped to the top of the front page and you get seen again. Eventually a lot of people will click out of curiosity. They may not, however, give you a lot of user subs or add to your other fic stats at first, whereas if you do a bunch of oneshots you're more likely to get user subs but less hits on each fic. This is a decision you'll have to make, and I know folks in both camps who built their followings using different methods on each. Either way, it helps if you're posting regularly, either in a long fic or one-shots. I call this the Stephen King method, who said he just writes a ton and throws it all at the wall, and eventually you get enough good despite the bad that you start building a following.

Learn learn learn. This is standard fic advice I always give, but it's still relevant. I think one of the reasons imo TRT has done so well is that I've spent a lot of time over the years learning how to write and edit - I read a ton of books (sometimes just to figure out HOW good authors structure their stories), I took a lot of English classes, I've taken some creative writing courses in my spare time. That two year hiatus was heavily spent doing a lot of research and practice around an original novel I want published one day. And I used ALL of that in TRT, just to see what it was like to put it all together. Be hungry for knowledge, be hungry to learn. The more you learn, the better your fic will be, and the more people that will click.

That learning also includes a looooong string of fanfics that started at a very novice level (hello 12 year old me), to fics that were ok and did moderately well but weren't anything huge. Hell, I had a tumblr account for my previous fandoms before I wandered over to Pastafossa, and while those fics did decently, I never had the huge reaction I've gotten here. But I used each and every one of those fics to learn and grow and adapt. Treat your own fics the same way. If it doesn't get hits, try to learn from it before moving on to the next idea a little wiser and a slightly better writer than before. There will always be people who start to follow you along the way.

A small one, but important: I swear to god, do not shit-talk yourself. Not in the summary, not in the tags, not in the A/Ns. I'm not talking, 'this is my first fic!' That's fine. I mean trashing your own work. Shit like, 'ha ha this sucks, it's terrible but oh well' will absolutely lower your stats, because people will believe you and will ditch your fic. On top of that, it's just mean to yourself, and as I said above, you want to be a good person in the fandom neighborhood. That means not breaking the windows of your own house.

People generally think of summaries as a side note, but a shitty summary can absolutely tank your stats. Treat it like the rest of your fic - this is the trailer before the movie, and it's a huge element of what gets people interested in the first place.

Lastly, like I said at the top, the biggest factor is time. There are people who post one fic and explode in popularity, absolutely. But far, far more little followings are built on the bones of time, of abandoned fics, of muttering and highlighting phrases in books in the middle of the night, of trying and trying and trying until we have at last have a breakthrough and then drag that breakthrough forward with us to the next fic. TRT is absolutely one part lightning in a bottle - the biggest success I've ever had anywhere with my writing, a confluence of fandom factors and world events that gave people (and me!) time to write and read. But it's also standing on the back of whole lot of fics I wrote that look like everyone else's: ones with no comments, low interaction, insults; ones where I had precisely zero idea of what I was doing, but wanted to try anyway. And the way I got through that, as a writer who needs interaction in order to create, was by building friendships in fandom so that even when a fic didn't do all that well, I still had friends I could talk to about the characters, the world, the fandom itself. I asked friends to look them over and give advice. I had friends being my cheerleaders. And if you're an extrovert like me, or just a writer who needs that to create, then those connections are vital as you build up a following.

That's a lot of what I've done. I know there are other ways to build a following, but this is generally what I've done, what I've learned to do, and it seems to have worked. Just remember that there are no bad fics - just learning opportunities. Learn something, and that fic's a success, and work as hard as you can to make those fandom connections to carry you through the process.

I absolutely hope to see your work around one day, so that I can be on of those followers!

[lupins-hehim-pussy]

I think I accidentally made Wriothesley AuDHD. fuck

[vellichorom]

What age did you start drawing? And what did you do to help you improve?

You're a big inspiration to me btw!! ^>^

oh god, I was drawing out the WOMB !!!!!!!!! i've been doing it since day one !!!!!! ( the earliest i can feasibly recall drawing is 4-5? ) from the most incomprehensible stick figures to ponies to WHATEVER THE HELL comes out of me now ~ !!! so i imagine the pipeline goes for most artists?

to improve? besides having drawn SINCE the womb? ....practice & study.

i KNOW " just practice " is a tired suggestion when it comes to these questions but i PROMISE, study & continued practice is the ONLY way you're going to get better, so you just have to buckle down & do it & realize changes are not going to happen overnight but it's STILL WORTH IT.

look at professional tutorials, look at non-professional tutorials, look at artstyles you like & analyze what makes you like them / what makes that artstyle trademark, & INTERNALIZE IT. use ALL the elements you like in your art until you equally enjoy what YOU put out & improvement will naturally churn from that, i promise.

also take random popular youtuber art tutorials that are like " NEVER do this NEVER do that " with a hefty grain of salt unless there's a specific style you're going for because holy SHIT art is subjective & there's not really a right or wrong way to go about doing it.

except sometimes there's idiots that tell you the lining tools in your respective art programs are " cheating " or color theft & artstyle theft is real or " don't draw ugly people draw beautiful people when you're starting out because their proportions are symmetrical & anatomically accurate " & i don't think i need to tell you why those are the dumbest things to ever say ever, but don't listen to that.

be SO kind to yourself, be open to criticism if you want help & are able to take it, study references & even trace on occasion ( just don't trace over someone's art & present it as your own work / give credits to the original work ), & try EVERYTHING. & have fun with it; enjoying what you make is so much more important than improving by the end of the day, honestly.

both are obviously important of course but you Need to like what you make first lest you be miserable with yourself.

also bear in mind i'm not a professional, i've never attended an art school, this is all mostly self-taught; this isn't a flex, i'm Telling you that i'm some random unqualified stranger giving you personal tips so please don't hail me as an art messiah with all the knowledge;

BUT THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ENJOYING WHAT I DO, I HOPE I'VE BEEN ABLE TO HELP OR SATISFY THEE IN SOME WAY OR ANOTHER !!!!!!!

[morallygay]

Hey let’s share our little personal cooking quirks/tricks! :D

Next time you make rice, try pouring an egg yolk on top of it before eating, add butter, and ground sumac if you have some :) (you can and in fact should go nuts on the butter and sumac. the yolk too in theory but one doesn’t always have too many eggs to spare)

Also I always mix my chocolate spread (like nutella etc) with almond spread, on toast/bread!

I add jam/syrup and pieces of banana in (bircher)muesli (my go-to is carrot jam. you should check it out too if you’ve never heard of it!)

[spacephrasing]

hello sorry if this is really long and tmi but besties i need some advice

[aroace-cat-lady]

I won't cut my hair short cuz I want to donate it I won't cut my hair short cuz I want to donate it I won't cut my hair short cuz I want to donate it I won't cut my hair short cuz I want to donate it I won't cut my hair short cuz I want to donate it I won't cut my hair short cuz I want to donate it I won't cut my hair short cuz I want to donate it I won't cut my hair short cuz I want to donate it I won't cut my hair short cuz I want yo donate it I won't cut my hair short cuz I want to donate it—

[kinnards]

I thought it was a bad thing to use Spanish in fic. I always heard that was racist, especially if the author is white. Is that not true?

not necessarily, i don't think. what is disrespectful is to use it as a way to fetishize the character, or if you just don't care enough to get it right, like if u use google translate for it.

we've seen in movies and tv shows (and specifically 911 canon) that foreigners and immigrants and such speak spanish regardless of the 'official' language of the movie, because that's just how life is. why would we not want that for our reading? in a way, it makes me (a latine) feel connected to the characters and their stories. i LOVE when eddie diaz speaks spanish, and in my mind chimney speaks korean more than he's ever done in canon (they've shown his father speaking korean though!).

but just like on tv- make an effort to do it right!

you don't see script writters using google translate, why would you? i love to see proper spanish in fic! i grew up reading kpop fanfic where it's very common for authors to sprinkle a bit of korean here and there. i don't find it racist- unless the author (white or not) treats it in that way. so, if the author is not willing to put in the effort, if they're going to disregard the importance of doing it right, if they're doing it for fetish reasons, then it's racist. if not, bring it on! the more people learn other languages the better!!

you don't need to be fluent to use that language in your fic. if you dont speak it, then ask someone who does, it's simple as that.

[uygfiug]

ughhhh

[sanstropfremir]

✨🎥! Forgot to say, I have a wedding in April but no dress/suit/clothes. I’m desperately looking but every single day I’m more disappointed in the quality of the fashion industry. Even the most basic thing is shit quality and cost 5 times what it should. So yeah, if anyone has recommendations on clothes (not necessarily for weddings or events, but in general) that are good quality, let me know

i know how you feel, affordable decent clothing is fucking impossible right now. honestly my best advice is thrifting/secondhand. idk what the situation for that is like in spain so maybe it's not possible, but it's always worth a shot, especially if you've already been looking for a while. it does obvs take more time than shopping new bc you have to sift through racks, but you're more likely to get a good find of better quality for a more reasonable price. my general thrifting advice (honestly this applies to any clothes shopping also) is first look for the colour and shape that you like, and then look at the material content. this is very important. do not look at brand that means nothing. always always always check the material content on the tags. ideally you want to be looking for garments that have 100% natural fibres; wool, cotton, silk, linen, rayon/viscose (yes it is natural despite the name). if you can't find 100% than something with an 80/20 ratio or more (to the natural side) can also be a safer bet, but my rule of thumb is the more polyester is in a garment, the worse it is in every way.

my general advice for wedding attire is unless you need black tie, don't worry about trying to find a full suit or a really fancy dress you're only gonna wear once. get a good pair of dark formal trousers (black/grey/navy), wear a dress shirt or a formal blouse, and throw on a nice tailored jacket that's in the same colour family. is it technically only semi-formal? yes, but who does true formal weddings and actually cares about sartorial rules. in this economy? psh. some visual aids:

it's a great combo for any 'events you have to look nice at' because you only have to buy individual pieces, you don't have to buy them all at the same time, and they can be reused for other events. just find out what the colour theme of the event is and get yourself a shirt or tie/pocket square/scarf/other accessory in that colour and you're good to go. also do not forget a good pair of shoes. this is also very important; always have a good pair of shoes.

hopefully this helps! i'm sorry i don't have better recommendations on where to actually go to buy stuff/what to buy, but i haven't shopped new in......quite a long time. but at least having some tips to go by should help. and tbh sometimes you do gotta cough up the money.....BUT only ever cough up the money for something that is 100% natural fibre and is a piece that will get use outside of a single event. otherwise you just gotta be patient and keep looking; if you are patient things have a way of coming to you.

[lillcarrionbird]

do you know that servers don't make close to a living wage and are expected to rely on tips? do you value the work they do? do you see them as whole human beings?

Hey, do you know other countries outside of shithole America exist? Places where servers make the same minimum wage as everyone else, yet benefit from this Americanized idea that they're the only ones who are suffering at a low paying job?

Do you know that every! single! job! that pays minimum wage ALSO doesn't make close to a livable wage?

And yet for some reason, I never see people like you campaigning or even taking it upon yourself to start tipping retail workers. Why is that? Don't you value their work? Don't you think they're human beings? Why should minimum wage retail employees be shamed into subsidizing minimum wage servers??

Why don't you explain to me, why I should value their work more than I value the work of every other minimum wage employee I interact with? Am I just expected to subsidize the salary of every single person I meet? Personally, I can't afford that.

I tip when I'm down in the states, cuz that place really is a hellhole, and I tip here cuz I don't want the drama, but frankly I don't think I should have to give servers extra money just for doing their damn jobs.

[gayemeralds]

quick question about your Sonic Forces rewrite since im curious; what would be the phantom ruby's origins and how would inverted chaos energy work? :0

my idea is basically like this.....

the REAL phantom ruby is essentially an 8th chaos emerald. the master emerald helps keep the other seven emerald in harmony- essentially, the master emerald is the emerald of positive chaos. the phantom ruby, however, has is powers based in negative chaos energy. the two of them are necessary to actually keep the emeralds in balance, but the phantom ruby is so harmful to people not chaotic in nature that it gets lost through history and time and space after misuses gone wrong

eggman comes in contact with it after sonic generations but doesn't have much time to study it until later

he creates these fake copies of it using inverted neutral chaos energy to try to mimic negative chaos energy. it creates very powerfiul but unstable prototypes. effectively, it's very similar to the fake emeralds tails made in sa2 except with negative chaos energy.

that's what infinite has- he has a prototpe lodged in his chest. the unstable energies ahve also been altering his mind, unraveling him and his body. his mental and physical homestasis have been unbalanced and he's almost literally insane by the time he makes his first apperance, overcome with wrath and hate.

because the phantom ruby is made of chaos energy, sonic's able to use the energy better than any machine eggman can make or any other mobian he can swindle into being his science experiments. when sonic uses the energy against infinite during an encounter (basically, infinite came to torture him while he was captured but sonic fought back easily because infinite is physcially weak after exposure to the unstable energy and because sonic has... fought gods...) eggman immediately puts two and two together and decides to combine the real phantom ruby with sonic

and that has........ potentially disastrous results