#note i have a bunch more writing asks in my inbox right now

[bettsfic]

Hi,

I’m working on developing a writing routine and a detailed writing process at the moment, that will keep writing fun. So far I’m reading things (I.e. quotes, chapters) that inspire me to write, then listen to my story playlist and imagine the scene in my head, and then write it. I don’t know if this is odd or what. But I would love to hear about your process?

i don't think it's odd, i think it's great! having a story playlist is a solid way to switch into writing mode. and i like to call thinking of a scene in your head before writing it "brain writing."

the only writing i'm really consistent about is my morning writing that i do between 10am and 12pm every day. otherwise i write between tasks or really any time i get a few minutes to myself. i write 20ish hours a week usually. for me it's less "sitting down to write" and more "getting a little bit done here and there." lately my sister and i have been going around to all the coffee shops in our city to work for a bit in the afternoons, which has been a lot of fun. i wish i had a cool routine like yours though!

as far as my actual drafting process, i wrote about it in detail in my newsletter!

part i: planning & plotting

part ii: drafting

i'm working on part iii: revision which i hope to have finished in the next few months.

[violetrainbow412-blog]

Tango in the Sky [W. W]

Willy Wonka x fem!reader

word count: 1.6k

[Timothée masterlist]

note: LISTEN, first of all I want to say a huge apology because I was literally stuck on this. I had like two weeks with the document started and I just didn't know how to do it, so I'm sorry if this is horrible. I think the problem was that I wanted to make everything the same as the movie and aaagh, I don't know. I know you wanted a kiss but I also had a hard time writing that because they barely know each other haha 😫

I will catch up more these days with everything on my inbox (which is quite a few, thank you for that beautiful people) and I appreciate the nice reception, I love you!

Special thanks to @fivesumbrella5 for leaving their name, it makes me happy to know who requests it :)

“Have you done this before?” you asked, gently petting the snout of the giraffe in front of you. Willy was downstairs, milking her so he could get the milk needed for her chocolates.

Noodle was supposed to have helped him that day, but the poor thing had caught a cold and you had been the lucky one (not really) to be driving the delivery cart. Although it had been a drastic change of plans, you had to adjust to it.

"Once. In Africa. Magnificent beast”

“Was she wild?”

“Wild? She was absolutely furious! But once my hands warmed up, I think she kind of liked it” Willy responded and then you giggled.

It was nice to have his company, that most eccentric guy who had come to rock everyone's world at the laundry.

“The way you left your coat makes it look like a person,” you pointed out, looking down at the coat rack on which he had left the red piece.

“Huh? It's true,” said the boy, smiling. Willy got up from his seat, humming a song, and then approached the structure taking a few steps and turns that ended in a mocking bow. “May I have this piece?”

You were watching his occurrence from above and when he started dancing you couldn't contain your laughter. He even started singing, showing you that he had a really beautiful voice.

"You like dancing?"

“I love it, actually,” he confessed. He had already put his coat and hat back on. “Especially when my partner is human.”

How curious, you were a human. And now that you had seen him dance, you were sure that you could become that dance partner he needed.

You started to go down the stairs, trying to ignore the vertigo that doing so gave you, and when you were two steps from the floor one of your feet slipped. You screamed as you fell, but you were lucky that he reacted quickly, managing to stop the impact by holding you by the back.

"My God…"

“It was close, right?” he laughed, still sounding agitated. “You have to be careful.”

You only managed to nod your head, slightly embarrassed, and then he helped you to step completely onto the floor. He was smiling, he always did, as if his cheeks were made to handle that.

“Do we have what we need?”

“We have it, my dear lady,” he replied, showing you the metal can that was filled with milk. At least something positive had come out of it all. “So it's time to go.”

“Thank you, Abigail!” You exclaimed towards the giraffe. She shook her head as if she really understood and the two of you got out of there.

It was cold outside and you felt strange seeing the zoo so desolate, although at the same time you were happy. Before the arrival of the chocolatier you could barely leave the laundry and now in a single day you had done wonderful things.

"No way…"

"What?"

“Have you ever flown?” He said with enthusiasm reflected in his bright eyes. You, as was logical, immediately denied, “Do you want to do it?”

"What?" you repeated, this time more acute and convinced it was a joke.

"It will be fun! Come on, trust me” he murmured and without giving you time to respond he took your hand to start running on the snowy road.

You were learning that you had to be careful with these occurrences and you had a feeling that this would not be the exception. You understood what his idea was the moment the bunch of balloons entered your field of vision and when you tried to react, he had already taken them with his free hand.

“It's not what… no, no, Willy…” you tried to stop him, but he wouldn't let you.

You ran out of pure inertia, knowing that if you slowed down you would probably trip and everything would turn out horribly. You were heading towards the lake and you closed your eyes as you imagined your destination, but it was nothing like you expected because the tips of your light feet barely touched the edge of the water. A second later you were already lifted into the air and then you clung to him with all the strength that existed in your body. You didn't even want to breathe for fear of falling and he noticed it.

"Open your eyes! You miss the show” the boy laughed, as if flying at night was the most normal thing in the world.

You ignored him and continued hugging him while the wind hit your face and ruffled your hair. You thanked God when your feet finally touched a firm surface, thinking it was the floor, but when you opened your eyes you noticed a glass floor illuminated from below: the panic returned when you realized that it was not a floor, but a ceiling.

“Willy, we're going to fall and die…” you half-screamed, launching yourself into his arms again. He was still holding his bunch of balloons and looked as cheerful as at the beginning.

“Nothing is going to happen to us. It's like walking on a tightrope."

“I have never walked a tightrope!” you replied fearfully. He let go of you and started to walk you away from him, slowly, and then he saw the terror in your eyes.

“If you've never walked a tightrope then it'll just be like dancing, okay?” he smiled, while he took your hand without getting rid of your means of transportation yet. “Do you know how to dance?”

Of course you knew how to do it, but this wasn't exactly what you were expecting when you wanted him to ask you.

“Look, just take one step forward,” he continued, pulling you towards him and moving in the opposite direction. “One back, one forward, two back…”

The boy hummed the instructions kindly and you tried to look him in the eyes just to avoid noticing how many meters high you were. After a couple of sequences you had begun to relax, but when he suddenly placed the balloons in your hand and let you go, you let out a little scream again.

Thanks to his help you did a couple of turns in the air and then he held you again, by his waist, until you were right in front of him.

“Don't let go of me” you asked in a whisper and Willy promised that he wouldn't.

Under that commitment you continued dancing to the rhythm that your friend set and little by little you were feeling more excited about what was happening. You had literally flown through the air and now you were on the damn roof of the gourmet galleries dancing with the most handsome chocolatier you knew; How likely was it at the beginning of the day? None, in short, so it was a pleasant surprise.

Willy guided you to the top of the dome that adorned the galleries, using the balloons to fly again, and suddenly you two stopped to hold onto the metal rod at the top of it. You were smiling from ear to ear and his hand had ended up on yours, while he also had a happy face.

“Didn't I tell you you'd be fun?”

“You are completely crazy, Mr. Wonka. I mean it in the best way” you sighed sincerely, managing to get a giggle out of him.

The man seemed to love heights, unlike you, and he wasn't about to let the moment between you last so short. So, careful not to let go, he began to bend over himself, taking you with him, until you were left sitting on the glass ceiling.

“Just breathe and take a second to appreciate the view,” he asked you, still holding your hand in an attempt to keep you calm.

If you looked down you could see the interior full of shoppers and if you looked forward you could see the entire city. However, the best view was to the side, right where Willy could be seen closely. Until that moment you noticed that the flamingos seemed to have followed you through the air and were now flying freely.

It was actually nice to be in that position once you had put your absolute terror of heights aside and as if you were suddenly aware of everything, the hand holding yours made you blush. Like this you were silent for a minute, with only the sound of the wind filling your ears.

“You know, Willy?” you started to say, not really looking at him. You were focused on the bright lights of one of the mansions “I haven't felt like this in a long time. It's nice to go out into the world."

Were you happy perhaps? If so, then he had achieved his goal. The truth was that one of the reasons he had done everything he had done was in the hope of making you smile and even with the difficulties that had arisen along the way, he had achieved it.

He was about to respond when the feeling of your lips placing a kiss on his cheek stopped his breathing and stirred his thoughts.

“I only worry about one thing though,” you exclaimed again. He looked at you carefully to listen to what you were going to say to him. “How are we going to get down from here?”

The boy laughed and the hand with which he was still holding the balloons waved in the air. You let out a whimper.

“Did you expect anything else?”

“An emergency staircase or something,” you joked. “But I guess it will be flying.”

If you had thought that going up into the air had been a nightmare, going down to the ground again turned out to be much worse.

taglist: @dyieying @reallysparklychaos @silverchainbee @amethyistheart @shadowygladiatorlight @lavendarhearts @lou-multifandoms

[writingquestionsanswered]

Outlining has always been a major issue for me. I don't have any idea how to do it properly. It bores me and most of the time I quit halfway. I also don't find any of the outlining methods on the Internet enjoyable. Any tips?

Outlining Isn't Enjoyable

Here are a bunch of things to consider...

1 - "Outlining" Just Means "Planning" - I'm not sure what outlining methods you've seen on the internet, but the truth is, as far as writing goes, outlining really just means "planning." And if you want to plan your story in advance, you can do that via whatever means works for you. Beginning to end written summary, verbal summary in audio notes app, mind map, timeline, scene cards, scene list, chapter summaries, scene summaries, mood boards, academic outline, story structure map, method template, playlist... you could outline your story through interpretive dance if that's what works for you.

2 - Outlining Isn't a Requirement - Like pretty much anything related to process, outlining isn't a requirement. Outlines are mostly done by so-called "planners" who prefer to flesh things out before they start writing. Many writers consider themselves "pantsers" in that they like to "write by the seat of their pants" or "wing it." These writers like to let the story develop organically, as they write. They understand their first draft might be extra messy, but they know it can be cleaned up and refined in the second draft.

3 - Outlining Isn't Really Meant to be "Fun" - If you're a writer who needs to plan your story in advance, and so you need an outline of some sort before you start writing, please know that for the most part, the majority of us aren't always approaching the outlining process with glee in our hearts and ticker tape falling from the sky. I mean, outlining can be fun, but a lot of the time it's just work. It's just something that some of us have to do before we start writing, and it's not particularly grueling or mind numbing work, it's just not the most fun thing we could be doing in that moment.

4 - Is the Problem with Your Story? - If you're a writer who needs to outline your story, but you find yourself bored to ears when you outline--to the extent that you can't even finish your outline--it is worth taking a step back to consider whether the problem isn't with outlining but your story. No matter how excited you might be about elements of your story, if you're boring yourself to tears while planning it or writing it, that may be a sign that something's not working. In other words, if you're bored planning the story, there's a good chance the reader will be bored reading it.

5 - Is the Problem Something Else? - If you're a writer who needs to outline your story, and you're really excited about your story and feel that it all works very well, but you're still getting bored and frustrated with the outlining process, then something else is going on. Things to consider: are you well rested and feeling well when you sit down to outline? Are you nourished and hydrated? Do you feel like you're in a pretty good headspace? Are you in a reasonably comfortable space that's relatively free from distraction? Are there other things competing for your attention? (Social media, texts, friends hanging out in the other room, someplace else you'd rather be, something else you'd rather be doing?) Are there other important tasks you're putting off that need to be done? Is there anything about the story that is difficult for you emotionally right now? Sometimes it's just a matter of trouble-shooting what's going on in your life, your space, and your body/mind before you start working on your outline.

I hope something here clicks with you!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[soaps-mohawk]

hi hi hi !!! i’ve already expressed to you in your inbox how much i love your writing and here i am expressing it again!! you’re an amazing writer and i love rereading your new series. but i do have a question. (a couple, sorry)

i’m new to the whole alpha/omega verse thing and i could just go on google but i’d rather get an answer from the author writing the story.

what’s a heat and how does it work?

i’ve kinda pieced some bits together but i’m still confused. is it like a monthly thing or is it like losing one’s virginity?

and does the menstrual cycle come into play at all or do female omegas not get it at all?

and are omegas only females? are there no male ones?

thank you in advance, cheers

Hello!! Thank you!! I'm so glad you're enjoying the fic!! Don't apologize for asking questions I love explaining things!! (Also I do have a running tag right now, if you search 'crcb lore' on my blog it'll bring up a bunch of asks and such with world building/lore/explanations and stuff if you're interested. I meant to put a note about it on the masterlist but I forgot)

To answer your questions:

A heat is sort of exactly like what some animals go through. It's basically an intense period of arousal where, the omega in this case, is fertile. The exact details vary depending on the version/author but in this one, omegas are only fertile during their heats and they happen about every three to four months. They don't have a menstrual cycle as we do irl, the heat cycle is their menstrual cycle basically.

To break it down, omegas experience something called a pre-heat, basically signs that a heat is coming. In the reader's case she gets more clingy, her appetite spikes, and usually omegas will start to nest more than usual to prepare for it. Once the heat hits, the body temperature spikes and basically they just get insanely horny to the point it can get painful. Their scent changes and becomes basically an aphrodisiac for alphas which is why they can be dangerous if you're not somewhere you can be safe from alphas. Alphas kind of lose their minds once they smell an omega in heat (like animals) and they slip into a rut and want to breed the omega. If there's multiple alphas in the vicinity, they will fight each other over the omega, even if one of them is bonded to that omega and the others aren't. Heats last about a week, and while alphas can take the caretaker role during that time, packs with betas will usually have a beta that helps keep the alpha and omega fed and hydrated during that time because, of course, they're not really going to be considering that.

I did touch on gender in a different ask, but status is not dependent on gender. So there can be male and female alphas, betas, and omegas. Identifying as non-binary or trans won't change how you're seen in your status since anybody can be anything, and transitioning will not affect ones status either.

Thank you for the questions!! I always love a discussion and some world building!!

[king-bumis-armpit]

hihi, let me just say i love ur writing omg it’s so good

i was wondering if you could write a maiko fic about fire lord Zuko and fire lady Mai, post war, where zuko was put to do business and he comes back early after finding out mais been attacked by another assassination attempt (obv) and he goes borderline insane even if she’s just really chill about i, you don’t have to ofc just thought it was an idea 💗💗

You're my Peace

Summary: “Kiyi! It's good to see you again. Where are Mai and Izumi?” The Fire Lord was eager to see his wife and daughter. He had been forced to travel urgent diplomatic business, and it had been nearly a week since he was home.

Kiyi refused to break their embrace, “Izzy’s with mom and Mai… is okay. There was another attack.” Zuko’s world shifted. His inner fire turned to ice. His mind stopped.

Author’s note: HELLO!! Thank you, @darkacdemiasworld I absolutely loved this idea! Thank you so much for suggesting it <3 And thank you for your kind words! Zuko is such a protective person and if there’s one thing we all know about Mai it’s that she doesn’t need any protection, lol. I changed the premise just a tad. I thought it would be more dramatic if Zuko didn’t know what had happened until his return. But I hope you enjoy! Again, thank you so much for the ask!

My inbox is always open! Sometimes I take a while to respond, but I love all of the ideas!! I’m terrible at writing from scratch so they really help me. 

ALSO! Thank you to everyone who's reading right now. It brings me so much joy that I can share what I write with all of you. So thank you <3

This fic is cross-posted on Tumblr and ao3

TW: Stabbing, strangulation, death of a side character, and one raunchy joke. 

Expanded warning: Somewhat detailed description of an attack on Mai’s life and the resulting injuries, specifically stabbing and strangulation. It is also mentioned that a minor character dies. If these topics are triggering, please sit this one out. I’ll be posting something fluffy on Thursday or Friday for everyone to enjoy.

WC: 2,798

“Zuko!” His youngest sister barrelled into his arms as soon as he entered the palace. It was hard to believe she was already twenty.

“Kiyi! It's good to see you again. Where are Mai and Izumi?” The Fire Lord was eager to see his wife and daughter. He had been forced to travel to Yu Dao on urgent diplomatic business, and it had been nearly a week since he was home.

Kiyi refused to break their embrace, “Izzy’s with mom and Mai… is okay. There was another attack.” Kiyi finally pulled back and Zuko could see the anxiety in her eyes. His world shifted. His inner fire turned to ice. His mind stopped.

— —

“I need you to take a deep breath, Zuko.” Kiyi clutched the long sleeves of her robes so she wouldn’t fidget. She didn’t want Zuko to think she was upset, even if she was. 

“Where is Mai?” His voice sounded calm. Impassive, even. But Kiyi knew better. She could see the slight quiver of his bottom lip. He was blocking out every emotion in order to deal with the situation as quickly and efficiently as possible. It was a coping mechanism he’d picked up from his wife.

“Mai’s okay. She's gonna be fine.” 

“Good,” he was grinding his teeth. “Where is she?”

“It was another assassination attempt. The assailant was one of her father’s most loyal followers. All that stuff with the New Ozai Society happened so long ago that he wasn't even on the watchlist anymore. But–”

“Kiyi!” Zuko interrupted, “Where. Is. Mai.”

She put on her stern voice. “Fire Lady Mai told me to debrief you before letting you go to her. She said she would be too tired to answer all of your questions.” Zuko humphed but Kiyi could tell this put his mind at ease a bit. He knew that Mai was conscious and communicative at least. 

“This guy held a serious grudge against her for betraying her father. His journal had a bunch of misogynistic stuff about how she should have been prepared to sacrifice everything in her father's name.” 

He grabbed her shoulders, “Please, just get to the point!” Zuko was begging now. Kiyi really didn't need to be going into so much detail. She hated keeping her brother in suspense, but she was hoping he would regain some more of his composure before she told him what happened. And Mai really had asked her to explain everything to Zuko before she saw him. She didn’t want to make her sister-in-law relive her own attack in another round of questioning.

“He posed as a member of the kitchen staff, and took a tea tray up to Mai’s office. It seems she had fallen asleep at her desk. He stabbed her in the right shoulder, but Mai woke up before he could remove the knife. He– he tried to–” Kiyi felt tears sting her eyes. She had wanted to be the one to tell Zuko because she knew that if anyone else did he would probably light them on fire, either on accident or intentionally. But she hadn't accounted for her own feelings. She loved Mai too and this awful man– “he tried to strangle her. She has bruises…”

By this point Zuko's face was buried in his hands. He let out a strangled sob, and repeated his refrain, “Where is Mai?”

“She's in the spare room in the West Wing of floor 2.” The location was chosen because it was private and easily defensible, but still close to the Royal Healer’s office. However, Kiyi did not have the opportunity to explain as Zuko was already moving in that direction. Kiyi watched her brother run, formal robes trailing behind him, and she said a silent prayer to Agni that everything would be okay.

— —

He ran with abandon and burst through the door. “Mai!”

“Zuko, you're back.” She sounded as unaffected as ever. Hearing her voice for himself again jolted his world into focus once more. He stopped to catch his breath. Mai was sitting in the center of a large bed that he remembered well. This was the very same room where Mai delivered their child. So much pain, but in the end even more joy. 

He couldn’t say the same for today. Mai was wearing a white robe so that the healers could spot it if she began to bleed through her bandages. The wrappings peeked out through the collar of her clothing, and he wondered how far they extended. As Kiyi had said, Mai had haunting bruises on her neck. He could almost see the patterns of fingers. He inhaled sharply and looked away.

Azula and Ty Lee were in the room as well, sitting on either side of his wife. There was another chair halfway between Azula and the door, but Zuko strode past it and perched himself gently on the edge of Mai’s bed. He didn't want to cause her discomfort, but he would also die inside if Azula was sitting at his injured wife’s beside while he was relegated to the corner. He sat on her left to minimize disturbance to the wound.

“Are you really okay, darling?” Zuko searched her face for the slightest bit of pain, but as usual her expression betrayed nothing. 

Mai gestured for him to move closer to her. “I'm truly fine. I trust Kiyi filled you in?”

“She gave me the basics. I was… eager to see you.” Zuko forced himself back into composure. He needed to be strong right now. For Mai. He gently tucked her hair behind her ear and kissed her forehead.

“Bleh!” Azula made a face. “I thought you two would grow out of your sappy phase.” In the past years, his sister had a change of heart morally, but her attitude remained intact.

Zuko clenched his fists and felt his anger invigorate his chi. “I can and will have you escorted out of here right now!”

Mai took his right hand in her left and brought his knuckles to her lips for a quick kiss. “It’s okay, Zuko. Azula and Ty Lee have been looking after me.” She moved their joined hands into her lap. Zuko felt awful. His poor, injured wife was comforting him because he couldn’t keep it together around his sister.

Ty Lee stood from her place. “A calm aura is important for convalescence. I’ll have the servants bring us some–” she remembered the manner of Mai’s attack and her face went pale.

Zuko felt queasy, but Mai laughed. “Oh c’mon, we can’t let this ruin tea for us. What will Iroh say? The assassin could have just as easily been bringing dinner and I would still eat.”

Azula nodded, “We can’t project fear. In the next few days, we will have to make a public statement about the incident.” She eyed her brother warily. “Do you think you’ll be up to it?”

“Of course,” he stated with more bravado than he was feeling. “But I didn’t really let Kiyi explain the whole thing. When did this happen?”

Mai looked down at their hands. Azula answered for her, “It happened two nights ago. The day before yesterday.”

Zuko blinked. “You– you didn’t send word to me immediately?” He tried to keep the hurt out of his voice. He didn’t want Mai to feel guilty or anything, but he also felt genuinely confused.

Mai leaned into his side, not meeting his gaze. “We didn’t want the public to know, and you were coming home so soon anyway. I didn’t want to worry you for nothing.”

Zuko pursed his lips. He wasn’t satisfied with that answer, but he also knew that it wasn’t the time to argue.

“Okay.” He managed a small smile and tilted Mai’s chin up so she was finally looking him in the eye. “Do you want me to write to Aang and Katara? They can probably be here in a day or two.”

Mai bit her lip, and Ty Lee piped up. “We already did. According to their return message, they’ll be here in a few hours.”

She told them before she told me. Am I really so useless as a husband? Zuko pushed the thoughts away. “That’s good. Hopefully Katara can speed up the healing process a little bit.”

He let his eyes wander to the bruises on her neck once more. Rage lit a match in his heart, and it took like dry kindling.

Mai, sensing the shift in his mood, reassured him, “Really Zuko, I’m alright.”

“As long as you’re alright, Firelily, then everything is fine.” But everything was not fine. He was going to visit that man in prison and light every single hair on his head on fire until he told him everything he knew about everyone who could be a potential threat. And then he was going to find those people and he would–

“Izumi missed you,” Mai said calmly. 

Some of the heat left Zuko’s body. Their baby girl was only six, and Zuko despised being away from her. Ever since her birth, his absences were few and far between. Of course, an assassin would capitalize on the opportunity. “I should check on her before bedtime. Poor thing. I’m sure she’s worried about you.”

“She is, but she acts so brave. I talked to her as soon as I was stable so she could see me, but I don’t want her to spend too much time in here. I don’t want her fixating on my injuries and having bad dreams.”

“Have you seen her today?” Zuko asked. 

Mai nodded, smiling in the radiant way she reserved for talking about her daughter. “We had breakfast together. She tried to feed me with her chopsticks so I wouldn’t have to move my right arm.”

Zuko felt tears welling up in his eyes again. Family breakfast was such a mundane thing. He didn’t realize how much those moments meant to him until he was faced with the prospect of their end.

Ty Lee was still standing awkwardly by Mai’s side, unsure if she was joking about wanting tea. But Azula took control of the situation. “How about we all have a family tea? Ty Lee, you can bring the tray. Zuko, you and I can get mom, Noren, Kiyi, and Izzy. Mai, you’re due for a check in with the royal healer. They said they should be able to dress you in something more substantial by now. If you’re feeling up to it, we’ll regroup here when the Healer leaves.”

Mai nodded again. “That sounds really nice, actually. Thank you, Azula.”

Zuko wished he had his sister’s confidence and calm. He should have been the one to think of that and get everyone in order. It was a very Fire Lord-ly thing to do. He, on the other hand, was about to cry or commit a felony. (Could you commit a felony as an absolute monarch? He was going to find out.)

— — 

As he and Azula made their way through the palace halls, he realized she was leading them off course. “Where are we going?”

She looked at him sharply. “We’re taking the long way. You need time to pull yourself together. I’m not taking you back to Mai until you’re fully under control.”

He huffed. “I thought I was doing a good job, all things considered. I had half a mind to march to the prison myself and find the pathetic–”

Azula raised her hand, stopping his tirade. She had led him to the fountain, where he had tackled Mai as children. His heart seized. If his sister was trying to make him less emotional, this was a bad choice.

“He’s not in prison, Zuko. I killed him,” Azula reported in a disinterested tone.

That brought him up short. “What– When– How– Are you… okay?”

Azula shook her head dismissively. “Of course I’m okay. Ty Lee and I were entertaining Izzy, but she started getting fussy. I volunteered to go find Mai. When I opened the door, that bastard had his hands on her throat. She pushed him off and I… I filled him with enough lightning to arc across the ocean.”

Zuko’s mind was racing. He hadn’t been there, but Azula was. Would he have been able to do what she did? To take a life? In his anger, he’d thought about it, but he had never followed through. Even in the war. When Uncle spoke about his experiences, he could tell they haunted him. 

He put a hand on Azula’s shoulder. “Umm… Thank you. And I’m here if you need to talk.”

Azula rolled her eyes. “Mai’s my friend too, remember? Even without you, she would still be a sister to me. It was the least I could do after everything in our past.”

Zuko withdrew his arm. “I know that. But I’m still grateful. If you hadn’t been there…” He choked on his words. “Azula, I wasn’t there! I’m her husband and I wasn’t even there! She didn’t even tell me. I don’t understand. Doesn’t she trust me? Why can’t I do anything right?” The tears were flowing now and he collapsed on the ground. 

Azula lowered herself awkwardly beside him. Comfort was not her strong suit. “Listen, Mai loves you very much and she trusts you completely. Why she does those things is beyond me.” Zuko shot his sister a watery glare, but she continued. “But she made the decision to not contact you because she’s the Fire Lady. She knew you would be forced to choose between her and your duty to the Nation.”

Zuko took several deep breaths until he trusted himself to speak. “I still don’t get it, Azula. Doesn’t Mai know that I will always choose her over everything else? I took a vow before Agni to put her first in all things.”

Azula patted his back, hesitantly. “Yes, I think she knows that quite well. In fact, I think that’s why she made the choice for you. Whether she was right to do so or not, Mai wants what's best for you and for the country more than she wants what’s best for her. She’s not someone who thinks of her own pain as consequential. Her wounds aren’t fatal, so she’s hardly taken account of them.” 

Zuko sighed. When did his wife get so altruistic? No, she was always like that. She always put him first, even when they were angsty teens who hated the world. When had he stopped noticing? He needed to be attentive and start listening to the words that she left unsaid. When she was fully healed, they could have a long conversation about communication. Again.

He wiped away his tears. Mai was alright. The man who hurt her was dead. His family was safe. And Azula… was empathetic now? Perhaps life wasn’t so bad after all. 

“Change of plans,” Azula’s voice brought him back to the present. She was standing above him now. “I’ll find Ty Lee and tell her to delay tea. You go back to your wife and sit with her for a bit. But we’ll be joining you in an hour so don’t do anything obscene.”

Zuko rolled his eyes. “She’s injured. Have some decorum. But, thank you. That was almost sweet.” 

“Yeah, yeah.” Azula offered a hand and helped him off the ground. “Don’t get used to it.” She punched his arm, harder than playful, and the two went their separate ways. 

— —

When Zuko was readmitted to Mai’s room, he found she was indeed wearing a slightly heavier red robe. He took it as a good sign that the bleeding was under control. The healer had also secured loose bandages on her neck, purely to hide the marks.

“Hey,” Mai greeted him with a small voice.

“Hi.” Zuko resumed his place next to her on the bed, even though they were now alone and the chairs were vacant.

“Are you mad at me?” Mai asked. “I didn’t want to hide anything from you but I knew you would worry and get all worked up for nothing.”

Zuko didn’t think an attack on her life was nothing. He took a lock of her hair and twisted it around his finger. “I could never be mad at you. Not really. I’m angry at myself.”

His wife looked surprised. “Still? After all this time?”

“No,” he laughed humorlessly. “Again. I wish I was better at anticipating your needs. I want to always be exactly what you need. I wish I could have been by your side and prevented all this.”

Mai held his cheek. “You are always exactly what I need. You’re Zuko.”

“And you’re Mai. My fearless Fire Lady.”

“And we’re still here.” Mai brought him in for a kiss, and for a few minutes he felt peace.

[elderwisp]

hi! Im so sorry if this is the wrong place to ask, I've looked for answers for this before so I'm just not sure,,

i absolutely adore your sims and your story! Its completely inspired me to create a story w/ my sims as well! the only thing is I'm quite overwhelmed with it all and I don't know where to start :(

do you have any tips? Whats your process? there's so many things to use and I'm just curious what you use! Thanks in advance and no pressure to answer if this is the wrong place :))<33

HAI :D OMG EXCITING <3 no worries! my inbox is always open for assistance and i'd love to help! here's a bunch of tips ranging from writing to technical to artsy stuff:

the start:

⟡ i should preface this story did not begin as one typically would which is say following the example of how to write a novel in a year. my writing style for this project started out with my interest in the characters created. my desire to wanting to know why certain oc's acted the way they did and that's where it all began. what started out as short stories of certain individuals reworked into something much more authentic. this was the hook for me so you gotta find that one sliver of interest and run with it. you can most certainly utilize tools like character sheets, pinboards, storyboards to assist you but i find that if i'm not connected to the story, it's difficult to use them

⟡ with that being said LOL invest the time in fleshing out your character because when you understand how they work, when you believe in them, the easier it'll be in creating scenes and writing dialogue. for me, it's almost intuitive writing for characters to the point where i will easily check myself and rewrite a scene because it didn't align with a certain character

⟡ while the influence of your own ideals/experiences eventually bleed into an oc, it's important to identify that, otherwise a cast of diverse characters eventually feel the same. this was something i struggled with for years which is why i could never really begin until now!

⟡ it's good to ask yourself what sort of story do you want to create. the best question is is it plot driven or character driven? what sort of tone do you want to set? do you want to blend them? i think there's a huge stress on just doing things for fun and not taking things seriously but i do want to challenge others to consider what that might look like for others. sometimes people like to create grand posts or fun slice of life posts and neither is more valid than the other. it's truly up to the author

technical stuff:

⟡ i'm gonna be honest with you, i'm not as organized as i once was in how i go about plotting things however! in the beginning, i would utilize sticky notes with ideas written on them and then shuffle around how i wanted things to play out. now i use a dingy little notebook LMAO but i've heard good things about milanote! as for dialogue, i do use google docs but i do think they're under fire for using your things for ai training or somethin O_O

⟡ i do use photoshop to edit my photos and that usually looks like cropping, color/contrast enhancing and sharpening. i do add dialogue last because when i sharpen it all together, the font looks cwispy! there's this mini tut by @/stinkrascal on how to format the text so it's all even if that's the style you're going for! anyways it changed my LIFE lmao! right here are some free alternatives. also this is an older post in which i shared my process and it includes some tips and tricks with photoshop (you can also see how i used to format text lmaooo)

⟡ knowledge is power. if i find myself really struggling with certain aspects, like maybe the logistics of a character, i'll set aside some time to learn from certain authors, commentators or directors. even if it's a short clip of seeing how they approach something as simple as their thought process behind how a scene supported a character to something as small as the significance of Isha's hat from Arcane

misc writing tips:

⟡ ooh! because tessellate is such a large group of characters, it can be challenging to structuring a plot. so i started off by slowly introducing characters rather than all at once. i also break up character plots into arcs but with that comes filler episodes to help space out big moments. i like to utilize filler episodes as bite sized pieces that introduces the readers to newer characters while also allowing there to be breaks in between. those filler posts highlight certain events, ways of living, etc that might influence how things play out in the future. a good example is kai, we're nearing the end of his arc but all of those little moments in between really helped shaped how things played out!

⟡ when i think of conflict, i think of it a lot like a boiling pot. it starts out at a neutral temperature (your foundation), before bubbles begin to form (minor annoyances between characters), steam hissing (the lead up) to an eventual lid popping off (the conflict). the build up is the most important part to the pay off!

⟡ my best piece of advice for darker themes is really understand the topic and stray away from stereotypes as it diminishes a lot of depth in certain subjects as well as does more harm than good. recognize that at the end of the day a weakness does not define a person as they are a person through and through. approach it with compassion rather than judgement.

⟡ i know i know everyone says to read your dialogue out loud and that is incredibly important however while doing that, think about the flow too. as a writer, because we are goal oriented, sometimes dialogue can be turned into what will progress the plot which makes things feel a bit unnatural and sometimes lacking the proper flow. remember to consider the personality of a character. how is a line delivered through a character who is brash versus one who is a bit more reclusive? also! here's a great video about the stiff dialogue in veilguard that shows what unnatural dialogue can sound like.

⟡ remember, comparison is the thief of joy. it's easy to get caught up in recognition and likes. there was a time where i consistently got 3-5 readers and that was it. there are moments now where certain posts are incredibly inconsistent in engagement and sure, it can be disheartening but then i think about the handful of individuals that consistently comment, the specific asks about how a certain post made them feel seen and interact and i remember why it's i chose to write. it isn't the recognition i seek, it's the connection. it's important to have that one thing that gives you the strength to continue because truthfully, things can be inconsistent and that's okay.

the artsy stuff:

⟡ i am a huge fan of cinema, animation and photography. i think consuming a lot of media and art has helped train my eye especially if i feel as if my screenshots are becoming repetitive. it's good to see how different directors go about framing dialogue. comic panels are amazing as well since artists find new unique ways of captivating an audience through levels like coloring, framing, posing and such! it's honestly why i introduced some vertical shots to black out bars in story posts because of that unique angle! remember, media is meant to inspire you! after watching the latest season of Arcane (haven't finished it yet tho) it genuinely relit a fire under my ass LMAO

⟡ different angles, lighting and positioning can help elevate a story. the aesthetics of a story can really add another layer of depth however it's important to remember that it is a supporting role, not the entire role

⟡ i do use my own reshade and i've formatted it to have similarities of a film camera as well as my preference of color correcting. i lean heavier towards contrast, colors and shadows however i always encourage for people to look into what supports their vision the best! the lightroom shader by quint and pd80's contrast/brightness/saturation shader help with color grading in game as they do have sliders that tweak certain colors. the sepia shader is great for adding a cinematic tint but it can conflict with relight and the way the lights are presented. relight of course can add those shadows in lighting. i'll sometimes have two presets, one for up close shots to further shots because sometimes zooming out can create inconsistencies in your preset as things might look to muggy or like a disco ball LOL (ps what helps with that is adjusting bloom if used and messing around with shadows/midtones/highlights/saturation with that lightroom shader)

last but not least, a story is a labor of love, it's a tool in which authors can utilize the pen to their own manner whether it's to communicate ideas or to simply tell a tale. don't be afraid to dive deep into the layers of your story and remember each piece can be important factor but it's entirely up to you as to where you want that focus to be. it does take a lot of courage to start but i truly believe if it's something you cherish, it'll always be worth it!

i do wish you the best of luck! thank you for trusting me enough to give you some tips and tricks! i tried to lean more into the more finite details as i felt like this is what truly helped me throughout the years! <3 also here is a complimentary meme i made:

[mypoisonedvine]

I hate hate hate having to talk about this stuff because I know 98% of y'all are not the problem, and the remaining 2% are probably not going to care in the slightest. but I need to set some boundaries and explain why I'm getting frustrated before any more resentment builds.

I've been writing for cillian murphy characters since july 26 when I posted 'thoughtless', since then I've released well over one hundred thousand words of content for him. I'm not exaggerating, I counted. it's been five and a half weeks and I've posted 14 full-length one shots which means I'm posting more than twice a week. that's not even including drabbles/requests.

I'm getting concerned that this has set a precedent that people are holding me to and I'm getting annoyed by the entitlement in some of my asks and comments.

first things first, and I know nobody means anything bad by this but it's pissing me off: stop using the phrase "full smut" in your requests, it's driving me crazy. this started abruptly after I posted a bunch of drabbles in one sitting based on y'all's ideas and requests. I did that as a way to try out new ideas and appease people who hadn't had their concepts written about yet. instead of people being happy with what I wrote for them, people got frustrated that the drabbles were drabble-length and not thousands of words long like my full fics (which take me several days to write, rather than an hour or less which is the point of short requests). ever since, people won't stop coming into my inbox talking about making a "full smut" for a certain character or idea as if they're terrified that I'll only post something short. I usually don't post short things. I feel now like those drabbles were a colossal waste of time because all they did was make people afraid I wouldn't write longer stuff; I wanted to open requests again because I had fun, but now I feel like it's a bad idea because it'll just leave people frustrated when they see it's not whatever a "full smut" is and then tell me it's incomplete and I need to write more. a short drabble can very well be a complete story. stop asking for "full smut" PLEASE. just tell me what you're interested in reading and trust that, as the author, I will tell the story in the correct length of time.

secondly, the way people are asking for stories about new characters is getting out of control. I think you guys don't realize that I only post less than half of the asks I get, because they are so repetitive and constant. I have literally over 2000 unanswered asks currently. if I answered all the asks I received, I would lose followers because it clogs the dash and half of them are the same questions.

and I'm just gonna say this one explicitly: please stop asking me to write for cillian's character in the movie 'anna'. I'm not saying that I won't or that I don't want to. but I need you to understand that I get easily 3-5 asks a DAY about this character and I am exhausted. I'm not particularly interested in watching the movie. not only does it look like it's probably just not that good, but on a very personal note, I am in recovery for an eating disorder (and relapsed recently) and I just... don't wanna watch a movie with a runway model in the leading role right now. I'm sorry if that feels like body shaming or something but I've been waiting until I feel like I can watch it without feeling sick or enraged. it should come as a surprise to no one who is familiar with my work that I'm not a particularly mentally healthy person. but that's only part of it; I answered asks about this character for a while saying I wanted to write for him eventually, but I had to stop because people just asked about him every day anyways without reading my very recent posts with the same question. I'm still not ruling it out. I'm just warning you guys that it will be a while.

people are now commenting requests for new characters ON MY CURRENT FICS FOR UNRELATED CHARACTERS. how entitled and dense do you have to be to do that? I can't believe this has to be said, but comments on my fics should be... related to the content of the fic you're commenting on.

to be clear, I'm not mad at anyone for doing this stuff (except that last one, that's unforgivably ridiculous) because I think the intentions are pure. but now that I've explained why this stuff bothers me, I'm asking you to put a little more thought into how you phrase your questions and comments. to be clear: for the most part I feel incredibly supported and appreciated here and I've been very impressed by this fandom's ability to not be morality police and manage their own content consumption. a lot of you have reached out with concern about the speed at which I was producing and I totally understand and value that. I honestly think I can keep up that pace for a little while longer... I just wanted to explain why I'm getting a little irritated and hopefully decrease the amount of asks I get repeating the same two or three things.

so, tl;dr -- I've been having a lot of fun writing and I plan to keep doing it as much as I can. some people are spoiling the fun for everyone by being (usually unintentionally) entitled and impatient. I don't mind you guys showing enthusiasm for things you'd like to see from me, in fact it's helpful because it tells me what might get a good reception. but please be thoughtful in how you make these requests and please support what I've already written if you want to see more. I think non-writers have a hard time understanding how inspiration works (hell, even writers don't really understand it in ourselves lol) and so it kinda just seems like if I can write about one thing I can write about any thing. but I only write so much and so fast because I write what speaks to me and not other people's ideas. again, thank you so much for all the love and support this past month!!

p.s. I also get asks multiple times a day asking when I will post a fic, especially if I've announced it. I always post fics between 4 and 5 PM central US time. I would recommend calculating when that is for you and I promise you'll find me posting very reliably at this time on days I have fics announced. hopefully this saves us all some trouble in the future lmao

[ymnfilter]

Hey I'm new and I'm a huge doctor who fan, You do not know much of a shock it was to go on to the Rose/Doctor tag and just see a basically a 100K story I got so excited! Until I realized it wasn't complete, So I'm jumping on here before I get by hopes up too much—because unfortunately I read the one shot where the doctor is a simp in all regenerations And I adored it, Like normally in these stories when they meet out of order Rose is the one falling in love and he's the one with all the info Which adds a difference to them power dynamic that I never liked. But I love the twist on it. And I always adore the doctor as a simp for Rose in any context! is this just you reposting an old story that you don't intend to finish or reigniting an old passion for an old work? And please don't take this the wrong way, I am in no means trying to be nosy or pushy. And I'm truly sorry if this comes off that way! (You can't really get tone from text, So I'm always a little bit nervous when asking these questions) Thanks for answering if you can! 😁

Hii!!! It has been a while since I've been able to go on either ao3 or tumblr. (Life got in the way big time 😬😬) When I logged in yesterday, I saw that there were a bunch of messages asking about my dw fics, daffodils in particular,

I honestly thought, at the time, that deleting those fics was the right thing to do. I had given up on becoming a writer, and i did not want any reminders that would make me feel bad for giving up.

It was such a stupid decision, especially since I did end up writing again, and now am alhmd writing professionally.

There were wayyy too many asks in my inbox for me to answer them all, and some were so old that I would just feel awkward replying to them all. So, instead I mass uploaded all of daffodils that I had saved on my drive.

I do miss writing for the dw fandom, but I am also currently working on an original fiction that takes up most of my brain space. I remember daffodils in particular took a lot of time to plan and write. I cannot definitively say if I will update it or not. I'm sorry I can't give you a straightforward answer.

Though, I will say I did leave the fic on a good enough note that you won't be frustrated by a cliff hanger or anything like that even if it takes me a while to update.

Again, thank you for reading my fics!

(To all the people who did write to me about the fics, I am so sorry if it felt like I was ignoring you. I saw most of the submissions just yesterday and the first thing I did was reupload daffodils. I will also reupload all the rest of the fics in due time. Thank you for reading. You guys have literally made me the writer that I am. I love you, and though I could not answer you all individually, just know I read every single one of your asks, and I will try my best to be a lot more active on here from now 😘😘)

[waywardstation]

WOW! What a way to return back here!

With lots of treats and possibly some asks answered in the upcoming days (no worries if this gets lost in the shuffle during all of this)

Just wanted you to know that it’s good to have you back here and that you’re back with a big update as well! Felt like receiving a bunch of presents when I read the new chapters!

I love the dynamic between Ingo and Phione and how much different the overall atmosphere feels and changes before and after Ingo finds out. And how each chapter emphasizes how frail, small and vulnerable Phione actually is. It’s only fitting that the Murkrow chapter being the last of the bunch!

Also Ingo's voice being worn out after all his searching really tells a lot. I kinda imagine it takes a lot to make him hoarse since he is rather loud so his voice being pretty worn out also shows how much he pushed his limits as well. It’s been obvious overall but this kind of makes the picture complete.

I could go on and on about how much I love all the little things that I‘d be here for days. But I want you to know how much I appreciate your updates and how grateful I am that you took your time and rested when you needed to.

I hope you’re doing also better overall. Try not to overdo things for now. Do take small steps. As you’ve planned right now actually sounds not too bad.

Alright enough from me! Looking forward to seeing you on my dashboard more frequently in the upcoming days! Thank you for the treats and have a great day!

Take care and stay awesome!

in regards to my recent works for my Phione Akari AU

Thank you so much friend!! I'm very happy you've enjoyed all the fics; I have many more WIPs coming that I'm cleaning up right now as well, so more will be here soon!

And likewise, it's felt like a bunch of presents seeing all of the notes and comments you have left on my reblogs and works and all the encouragement you've given me; I still very much enjoy creating and sharing this content just because I have so much fun with it and will keep doing it regardless, but reading your thoughts and commentary have felt really rewarding and motivating ;w; (and I will respond to them as soon as I can too!)

I'm really happy you appreciate all of the details I've put into it, it's been fun picking different points where their dynamic is different based on what they do or don't know at that moment! And I really emphasize just how fragile a phione is because whenever I look the pokemon up for information, I just get SO MANY videos and posts about how terrible and useless and disliked phione is as a pokemon (viably, at least). It's kind of funny to me haha

And about Ingo losing his voice in one of the chapters - EXACTLY!! I did give it to him cause I was dealing with a sore throat myself at the time of writing it and was taking it out on him lol, but Ingo obviously has a very loud, strong voice. If he used it to the point of losing it, he used it A LOT. He's not maintaining himself, and I did think taking away something of his that is normally so strong would sell that well. I'm glad it did!

Overall, thank you so much for the supportive and genuine things you always say in my inbox and reblogs. It means SO MUCH to me and it makes me happy that I've seemingly been able to give you something back that you enjoy after you've given me so much patience and understanding when I couldn't!! I plan to still take it easy as I continue getting better, but I'm happy I'm at a point where things can actually move again ^^

You're welcome, but honestly thank you just as much!!! I hope you have a wonderful day too!!

[wqnwoos]

im not the same anon as earlier but help ur grades are amazing 😭😭 im sitting psych and english in october and can i ask what ur study schedule or method is like? how early did u start studying + what did you do?

HII thank you soo much!! i worked my arse off for those stupid grades 😭 i’ll put the tips under a cut, i really hope they help, and good luck for october!! u got this <3

find out what time u study best at!! i somehow trained myself to become a morning person (naturally i am nocturnal LMFAO) but during study season i usually wake up 4-5:30 or something. it feels so much better getting to 10am and u have the whole day in front of u and you’ve done most of the things u need to do, but that’s just me!! i have friends who worked best from like 11pm - 4 am

pomodoro technique — excellent for my adhd ass brain. i genuinely thought this technique would never work for me, avoided it like the plague, and then used it during a study group session w friends and Love it. (i use the flora app btw!! i feel too bad to kill the little plant so i always study to the end 😭) i recommend the usual 25 mins, 5 min break but it’s up to u <3

FLASHCARDS!!!!! i cannot stress this enough flashcards genuinely saved my ARSEEE especially for psychology!! i always phrase mine like a question, so that if you get something similar in the exam it kind of jogs your memory? anyway. for psych i do not recommend remaking notes, i went straight from class notes and the textbook to flashcards, and repeated them All The Time

past paper questions!!!!! unfortunately the education system is fucked and doesn’t want us to learn for the sake of learning, they want us to be parrots so!!! really recommend past paper questions.

for english literature (i’m assuming you’re taking literature and not language?? idk anything about language past gcse level i’m sorry 😭), i wouldn’t recommend writing out essay after essay; plan a bunch of past papers, write maybe one paragraph per past paper question. ummm idk if u guys have to include context and critical interpretations because i believe that differs with exam board, but we did, and i used flashcards for those too!! (also. please make sure u know the text 😭 even vaguely knowing quotes helps so much bc searching for them in the exam takes so much time)

for english my friends and i also used to time ourselves — fifteen minutes per paragraph so that you weren’t going on too long about one point, and you weren’t wasting all your time on one question.

study groups!! this is ONLY if u work well with other people if u know ur gonna get distracted then please don’t do all the time 😭 also for things like english study groups r sooo helpful because a lot of the time, other people will bring points to the table that u have never thought of (and u can do the same for them!!)

EAT WELL!!!! SLEEP WELL!!!!!!!!!!!! i’m so serious . if u don’t do this then nothing will go well. idgaf what time u sleep because maybe you’re more productive at 1am - 4am, but make sure ur getting ENOUGH sleep. and don’t skip meals. pleaaaaseee don’t skip meals.

i also used to use a lot of mindmaps for english, for themes / characters / context!!

for psych i also used to do blurting — writing as much as i know about one topic, going back and adding everything j missed in a different colour <3

OKAY that is allllll i can think of right now!! if u need anything else pls slide into my dms or jump back into my inbox i am happy to help !!! good luck with exams bb i know ur gonna crush them 💗💗💗

[warmhealerr]

18+ - Minors Do Not Interact.

Adult content sometimes. Even if it weren't the case I just don't want minors here. My Instagram is not my Tumblr.

I am Barnabas, though you can also call me Barney! I use he/they pronouns interchangeably.

I'm a hobbyist who writes and draws. I am currently deep in a DND phase kickstarted by BG3. I am fond of all things Gith- peoples, though Githyanki especially. I also love Deep Gnomes, and undead, go figure.

I am otherwise writing The City Of Dust aka TCOD (name to be changed) which I might post about from time to time. It has been my personal passion project for 7 years now.

If that information matters to you I am a French in France who stays awake at ungodly hours and wants out of here HAHA.

BOUNDARIES/"DNI"

I feel childish adding more to this section for some reason but it is necessary, so might as well get on with it.

I know how to curate my online experience like any other, and I also love dark media and kink, but I genuinely politely ask that you do not follow me (assuming you've read this) if you post or reblog fetish incestuous content. I like quickly checking and/or following people's blogs when it seems we've common interests! There's only so much curating I can do when someone with no specific warnings anywhere on their account does not tag it, which has been a more common occurrence than I'd prefer. This also goes for adult/minor fetish content. Please and thank you.

No gen AI.

I otherwise block whoever I please for reasons completely unrelated to former points. My blog history and bio might give you insight as to what. I also do not like people who revel in being the most shocking, mean spirited, judgemental and edgy in the room.

Finally, petty intercommunity validity discourse is the bane of my existence.

TAG INFO AND MORE UNDER THE CUT

NOTE 1

I suffer from serial social media liking disease. Apologies, I don't mean to spam/be obnoxious.

NOTE 2

I am ND and very mentally ill. My casual everyday (like you are reading right now) writing might be noticeably overcompensating, too cold, too warm, far too descriptive, or redundant alongside suffering at times from poor punctuation and vocabulary (though that is also on the fact English is not my first language). I am well aware though I'm trying to avoid awkwardness, sorry about that.

TUMBLR STUFF

ASKS

I welcome any ask no matter its content (that includes asks of an adult nature).

TAGS

I am God awful at tagging things even though I have been using Tumblr for at least 5 years now. I am especially forgetful when it comes to character or ship tags. This is an attempt at changing that.

#rambling for when I talk about... Nothing.

Feel free to request ship or character tags (as I usually forget them) in my ask inbox. My ship tag format usually goes #x/y.

I usually do not tag suggestive content (I just don't think about it, this blog is already 18+). I will tag explicit sexual stuff with #nsft.

Content warning tags will use a single word, like #gore. This is to avoid typing gore cw instead of cw gore (for example) in case someone doesn't have that former tag iteration blocked.

I usually do not phobia tag (I might sometimes tag specific living beings like #bugs or #spiders. It is for archive navigation purposes but perhaps you could find it useful to hide them).

Feel free to request CW tags in my ask inbox.

MY TAGS

#myart for my visual art : from sketches to fully rendered, anything goes. I describe my rendered art for the visually impaired, and/or comprehensive visual clarity for an easier analysis. I usually do not describe sketches especially if posting a bunch of them.

#my writing for any kind of writing I put out. I don't write lots of polished stuff though. It's mostly summaries, script drafts and ideas I use to communicate with myself first, and then other people. It's hardly literature imo.

My individual OC tags go "#charactername tag" for easy navigation purposes.

"#Fist of the Comet" additional tag for Ta'rath post BG3 campaign

"#underdark siblings" for Joufos/Oulmat/Zilkon, their other family members and Oulmat's patron.

#TCOD for TCOD (until name changes).

I will add more tags here once relevant. Thank you.

Ta'rath spin...

[mephitsguidetothemultiverse]

A figure, tall and completely dark save for a blank white comedy mask, approaches the camera. "Welcome, future travelers, allow me to introduce myself," it says with an unnaturally polite candor and a distorted unrecognizable accent. It gives a sweeping bow before looking down the barrel of the camera to speak. Rather, one assumes it is looking that way, its mask does not have eyes visible in the eyeholes. "My name is Mephit, and I am a traveler of the multiverse, and this-" it makes a grand sweeping gesture to the darkness slowly illuminating with rows of fluorescent lights turning on with a clunk to reveal... endlessly many books behind it "- is my library, also known as everything one could ever need to know about traveling the multiverse."

Hello all! I am Jax, I am a writer who uses they/them pronouns and loves to write about weird interesting ideas in science fiction, horror and fantasy. More to the point, I'm really bad at writing random chunks of worldbuilding and never do anything with it. So to help me try and organize this stuff better, I've decided to turn it into an ongoing writing project!

This project will be about a mysterious and learned figure named only Mephit (it/its pronouns) who travels the multiverse to study new and interesting things and people but has become bored with its seemingly endless life as of late. As a result, it has taken on a project whereby it releases articles and videos about all the different things one could research in the multiverse to various points in space/time! For our universe, it chose this blog where you will get to read all about the many weird and wonderful universes and their different denizens, flora, fauna, buildings and more! For those who wanna play along with this story, I will be making as few posts as possible in my own voice as possible for effect, with one exception! I do intend to use the AMA feature from time to time to answer big questions about the blog as "Curator Jax" at my discretion. I won't have an answer for every question asked this way right away as I'm coming up with everything as I go along, but also I may just decide a question's answer would be too boring, inappropriate, irrelevant or spoilery to answer at a given point in time. If this happens, do not spam a question for interaction. If I don't answer a comment or an AMA, don't ask it on every video until I do, don't send it a dozen or more times to any inbox of mine in a short time, and don't start leaving a bunch of negative comments and asks as retaliation. I will block on the first offense for these behaviors in order to curate a good experience for all readers as well as to protect my mental health. On a lighter note, feel free to leave as many positive comments as you want ANYWHERE! Included in positive comments are excited tumblr noises, memes, excited gremlin behavior, fanart (but please don't comment fanfiction, post fanfiction and @ me in it instead) and references to characters and scenes from your other favorite works. Seriously on that last one, if you wanna make a reference to the 1983 science fiction and swashbuckling fantasy film and box-office flop Krull on a random post you can, and do not police people on the references they make unless it is actually offensive. Uploads will be done on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for now as I can, but I am new to this and don't know what I'm doing so I may change that schedule as I need to prevent burnout, engage more, etc. Please bare with me, I'm excited about this project and hoping I can stay with it long term and make something I'm proud of and that you all will enjoy! Now, without further ado,

Welcome to the Multiverse!!

[sideordertheories]

hii i'm gonna use this to share a bit of my own side order theories but i'll also share any theories that people send me thru asks!!

my theories aren't the most well thought out & mostly just consist of speculation & loose ideas because i'm not a major theorist who does a bunch of digging & research but i do wanna share the things i've thought

also: if you are going to mention the leaks, please don't do it in the notes or anything cuz while i have seen them & i don't think they're anything crazy i know some other people might not want to hear about them. if you send me an ask mentioning them, or i myself make a post mentioning them, i will tag it #sideorderleaks or #side order leaks

i'll also tag things that aren't really theories as #not a theory and i will tag things that are submitted via inbox #theory from the inbox

edit: i've already addressed this in a post, but i'm also writing this here: when the dlc is released, i will likely begin to post about about it, since i plan on playing immediately when it comes out. i'll probably decide what to tag the posts as to avoid spoiling the game for people later but as of right now i'm thinking of using multiple tags just in case people have one thing blocked but not the other. the tags would be #side order spoilers (and a variation without spaces, yk, just in case) and #side order gameplay (same as the previous one). in the first week i'll probably also format my posts by saying "gameplay spoilers for side order!!!" and then a read more.

[davidmariottecomics]

Ask Me (Almost) Anything 2023, Pt. 1

Hello!

This week, I'm answering a bunch of questions about comics from you, the reader! There will also be some non-comics-y questions that'll pop up too, just for fun. I actually got so many questions, this is going to get spread out over 2 weeks to cover them all! As a reminder, I didn't have a lot of rules, but I did ask that people keep in mind there are some things I can't answer due to confidentiality (or just plain don't know!) and that I'm not fielding requests for work. Without further ado, let's get into it! 

@BillijoFreeze asks: "Hi David! Will you be attending New York Comic Con?" I actually don't know! I'm planning on being at a few more shows through the year but the only one I can say is 100% set at this point is San Diego Comic-Con. 

Because this might be interesting, I attend cons 3 ways myself. There are conventions that I attend as promotion for my own work--like I tabled as myself at the Arizona Comic Book Arts Festival earlier this year. Those shows are all things that I set up/am sometimes asked to do/set up with Becca (my fiance & sometimes creative partner). There are shows I attend as Becca's booth babe or otherwise just an attendee, like WaifuExpo earlier this year, where I'm not really there for my business, I'm there to act as Becca's support or, occasionally, primarily attend as a fan. Then there are the shows I attend on behalf of/in conjunction to my IDW work. Those shows, often I'm getting my badge and potentially my travel covered by IDW. Because of that, my attendance is dependent on their needs and when they let me know they need me there. If IDW sends me to NYCC, I'll happily go, but right now, I can't speak to if that's happening this year. 

Billijo had a couple other questions, so let's knock those out, too! 

"Will you be doing portfolio reviews in upcoming months?"

I'm sure I will be, but I don't know how publicly accessible they'll be. Something I've certainly learned the past few years is just how difficult it is for me personally to do portfolio reviews digitally. A big part of that for me is that I find the most valuable parts of a portfolio review tend to come out of conversation, which unless you're in person or on a video call with someone, is slowed down by the act of actually reviewing the portfolio and the time between responses. Like, the real time conversation of "here's why X doesn't work" and then an artist is like "but I was thinking Y and that's why I did it" and then I can say "okay, well doing Z is going to be better for you in the long-run" is I think a lot handier than writing out corrections and slowly building the back-and-forth of conversation around notes and then things get buried in my inbox and new things end up taking priority because that's the periodicals business--there's always something new (all of which is to say, I do know I still owe a few people responses and I will get back to you very soon. I appreciate your patience). 

Here on my website, I've actually changed the policy to be that you're fine to send a portfolio along, but I just can't guarantee a review of it (though I will always link to Steve Lieber's sight-unseen portfolio review because it is a lot of the sort of general notes I would give).

With that all said, I do think it's worth mentioning that I have often found artists outside of portfolio reviews and do contact people without them. Portfolio reviews are great for getting professional feedback and strengthening your skills, but you can get jobs without them. 

And finally, "Is there a limit to how many artists you can hire for a comic?"

Functionally, yes. There is a limit. However, to answer the question I think you're asking, no, there isn't. It is very dependent on the project. Let's say I'm working on something very short, like our Godzilla Rivals one-shots or a Sonic mini-series. Generally speaking, I have a pretty set limit on the number of people I can hire for those. I have X number of covers, plus an interior art team, and that's all the openings I have. Sometimes those numbers do go up, like things are running behind and I need to bring in an extra person to help out on an issue. Sometimes those numbers go down, like an artist is hired to do a cover for each issue so by hiring them for multiple projects, I can't hire someone else on that particular book. And also, sometimes, there are projects where I have even less creative control--some Original titles, for example, might have the creators bringing in the majority of the talent and I might only be able to bring in/suggest one or two people. 

But when it comes to an ongoing project--say Godzilla or Sonic comics generally--I'm often looking for artists for future projects. I may not have any availability at the moment, but I can add to the pool of talent available. The only limit I have there is actually being able to provide those folks with a job (and, to some extent, making sure people I bring in have the opportunity to continue working).

Another batch of questions, this time from @ziggyfin: "How do you like your steak? How do you like your eggs? How do you take your coffee?"

I prefer my steak medium to medium rare, but when I'm cooking a nice steak, I usually end up making it closer to medium-well because that's how Becca prefers theirs.

I don't eat eggs by themselves in any form. I'll happily cook with eggs as an ingredient when I'm baking or as a binding agent when I'm making like katsu or fried chicken or whatever. 

I'm very basic with my coffee tastes. I like it with half-and-half and regular sugar. I tend to drink medium roasts and prefer to grind my beans every morning. And I only drink it hot. 

@PeterClines asks: "Possibly silly question--how do artists and writers tend to get paired up on new projects? Do folks usually come to you as a pre-existing team, do you keep writers and artists hip-pocketed and connect them, or is it a mix of the two?"

Not a silly question at all! Whether we're talking licensed or original projects, it does tend to be a mix of the two. And sometimes even on a single book it can be a mix of the two. When Canto by David Booher and Drew Zucker came into IDW, the team pitched it together and when we started working on it, they had also brought Vittorio Astone and Deron Bennett in for colors and letters. It came with the creative team and made that part of my life really easy. But on something like, say, Paul Allor and Adam Bryce Thomas's Samurai Jack: Lost Worlds, that was totally me being like "I like these two guys and I think they'd make a good book together" and I was right! Or most issues of Sonic, we look at our schedule, our artist pool, and figure out who can hop on those issues while the writers for each issue are set up further ahead of time. 

But, like I said, it can also be a mix of the two on a single book. When Sonic: Scrapnik Island was getting pitched, Nathalie Fourdraine did some early concept art as part of the pitch and so when that became a reality, we had Daniel Barnes locked in as writer, Nathalie locked in for designs and coloring, and then editorial brought Jack Lawrence in for the lineart. 

When we're talking about acquiring a comic project, often having a creative team in place is a good thing. Anything that makes the pitch closer to the reality of what the book will be is helpful for reviewing the project. Sometimes it's not so locked in, but say a writer will come in with a short list of artists that are in the stylistic wheelhouse they're thinking of, and that's helpful too. And, less frequently than a writer coming in without an artist, occasionally you'll get an artist who comes in looking for a co-writer/scripter.

I'll also say that sometimes a book comes in with a creative team, but shifts over the course of the acquisition. Again, not a super common thing, but sometimes it'll be a situation where for whatever reason, someone has to step away but gives their blessing for the project to continue. I have a project I can't say too much about where the writer pitched it with concept art that they commissioned from a pal who started out as sort of a question mark of attachment and pretty quickly was like "I like you, this seems fun, I can't commit to this longterm" and so we figured that out. 

@DigammaFWau asks: "Hi David! Cross referencing your credits on other books at the time, when Sonic started development in mid-late 2017 and you and Joe Hughes got attached to it, were you initially assistant editor, and ended getting promoted partway through production of the earliest issues?"

Ahh, the complicated world of comic editorial credits. The short version is pretty much. I came into IDW in 2016 as an editorial assistant and pretty quickly over the next few years ascended to assistant editor, associate editor, and now editor. So when Sonic started development at IDW, yes, I had not yet been promoted to editor as my job title. However, sometimes credits are not strictly tied to the title so much as the work put into a title. And pretty much from the get, Joe and I were doing equal amounts of work on Sonic and co-editing the book. And the exact nature of what that looks like can change too. While I would say we were co-editing the book from the launch, the division of duties that went into it was very different than how it is co-editing the book now with Riley Farmer. 

The other big push here--as well as when I took over Transformers--is my role really shifted when Joe left (and when Carlos left TF). My title may've been associate editor, but in function, I was the editor on those books and the credits reflected that. I am a big proponent of credits reflecting the work, rather than the title. 

@TheIllustriousQ asks: "When putting on your socks do you start with your left foot or your right?"

I don't usually notice/think about it, but in testing this morning, shoes & socks lead with the right, pants lead with the left. 

@lizislife2 asks: "How do you choose artists for Sonic comics? When can you submit a portfolio for IDW Sonic?"

To answer the first part, I start out by looking at my artist pool. These are the approved artists that (semi-)regularly work on Sonic. A lot of that initial determination is based on availability--the more regularly I'm working with someone, the more I know their schedule in the first place, so it's easy to be like "oh, Adam Bryce Thomas can't draw X cover because he's only midway through Y issue." Then if there are any other factors, those are considered, and if everything's good, the person's hired for the project. 

If we're talking finding new artists, that happens a bunch of different ways. Nathalie Fourdraine posted some good Sonic art on Twitter and both Joe Hughes and I had someone send us her stuff (simultaneously) and we were like "yeah, she needs to draw Sonic for us" and she's been doing it ever since. Gigi Dutreix first came in on Evan Stanley's recommendation. I think Reggie Graham (who asked about steak and eggs and coffee) is someone I found on Twitter and we DMed and the rest is history. And someone like Jack Lawrence, well, Jack was a new-to-Sonic artist, but he and I had worked together on TF for a while and I thought he'd be a good fit (and, again, happy to have been proven right time and again). There're folks who either I reach out to or who reach out to me who I've worked with on other projects who express interest in Sonic and sometimes that works out too. 

Here's where we enter the "things I can't talk too much about" category: There are specific requirements that I do need to get people approved to draw Sonic. I do have a set of guidelines that I use in my reviewing of portfolios (and generally when I'm looking at artists that I'm interested in) and if someone's approaching/meeting those criteria, I may reach out. 

I do not have set periods for portfolio submissions. As mentioned above, I'm also not really doing digital portfolio reviews at the moment. Know that I am both often looking for artists and also  when I actually have the ability to try to on-board more people, am the one reaching out to people I'm finding and interested in. You can also send a portfolio to letters@idwpublishing.com and direct it to my attention and if you're a good fit and I am able to try to on-board more people, I may reach out. 

@CraterLabs asks: "How does one get into comic editing? I see people talk about comic drawing (showing editors portfolios) and comic writing (getting lucky), but I never see people talk about starting editing. Also do editors look for new projects, or is that someone else in a comic company?" 

I find that there are two ways into editing, and it really depends on if you're freelance or if you're working at a company--though they do kinda overlap, especially as there are editors who move between the two. 

I got into comic editing the old fashioned way--I applied for a job that I was unqualified for, happened to apply to a place that already had goodwill toward me and had a position I was qualified for opening up, did an interview, and got hired. There is a longer story there, but that's the short version. And a big part of what got me in the door, in all actuality, was the fact that I came from journalism school where I had been doing editorial at the school newspaper and in my classes. And that often is what companies are looking for, someone who either has an editorial background from a different type of publishing/creative field or someone who has been in the trenches of comics in other regards: former store owners, writers, artists, etc. 

If you're doing freelance editing of any sort, a lot of it, like most comics jobs, is reputation based. Start out small with projects with your friends and peers, build your portfolio and relationships simultaneously, and as your reputation grows, hopefully so does your work. I know folks who've left companies and do some freelance editing and a lot of what they do is based on the relationships they established being in-house. But, yeah, if you're not coming in with an editorial background, the best way really is to do any other part of comics and start independently, as rough as that often can be, and work at it until you start to grow. 

Generally, yes, it is the responsibility of editors to find new projects and new talent at a comic company. Some companies will have additional people who act as support in those roles--be it doing some talent relations or business affairs or management who bring in new projects/new licenses and give them to editors (e.g. someone above my pay grade brought Sonic to IDW, but I have been editorially involved since day 1). Similar to what I was saying earlier, a big part of finding new projects is building reputation and relationships. Many projects come to me from creators and agents I've either worked with in the past or who know my work and think I'd be a good fit for what they have in mind. Or I'll be reaching out to a creator that I like and asking if they have a pitch for an Original project or a specific licensed project. 

Also, and I know you weren't being flip, so much as trying to communicate quickly, but I think understanding the ways in which editors at a company bring in new projects and talent beyond portfolio reviews and luck is beneficial to you as an editor too. The best editors are not necessarily a jack-of-all-trades, but understanding of the processes of each step of creating comics to better serve the people they work with.  

@Huwer14 asks: "What would be the best advice you could give to a writer looking to pitch for your books?"

One of the biggest complications of being a writer and wanting to work on a specific series is you can't really talk about what you'd do with the series, right? Editors and other writers can't read unsolicited ideas/pitches, so if you have a great idea for The Flash or whatever, you can't just float it out into the world and hope to get picked up. 

So what you can do instead is establish that you're interested in a book and that you're a good fit for the tone of it, right? Like I knew Gale Galligan was a big Sonic fan and from having read Gale's other work, I knew that they were good at writing the sort of stories I like to read and that work with Sonic as a property. Same with like James Kochalka or Daniel Barnes. So, make stuff that you like to make and stay on my radar and it'll help me figure out if you'd be a good fit. 

But the actual best advice I can give sounds really simple: read the book. There are a thousand complications to this, of course, and yes there are writers who are hired who are not fully caught up, but knowing what the book is like now goes a long way to making everyone's life easier. I'll speak to this more in the next question too, but, yeah, read the book. 

@SuaveGorilla asks: "What are red flags you notice in scripts or pitches that tell you the writer’s vision might not be aligned with what you can publish or that they might be challenging?"

Okay, so, this builds really well from the last question. That said, I'm going to talk about this very generally because it is sensitive and does border on some of the stuff that is more confidential/particular to each license. 

1. To me, there's only one outright red flag and that's sending an unsolicited pitch. This one I don't mind saying. If you send me something and I didn't ask for it, I can't read it. That is standard policy with editors across comic companies. At least ask if you can send it in first and once you get the okay, do so, but if you aren't following protocol in that way, it's a red flag for future projects and it kills that pitch there and then. 

2. I'd say this is a yellow flag--something to be discussed, but not always a dealbreaker. I can tell when someone is not staying current to a series. To use an exaggerated example: an editor gets a pitch for a modern day Batman story and Dick Grayson is still Robin. And, like, yeah, you can tell a Batman story with Dick Grayson as Robin, but it's a lot harder to have that line up with Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo's Nightwing run if they're supposed to be happening at the same time. 

3. A closely related yellow flag is not following the rules provided. When you're working on any sort of pre-existing property, there are some rules attached. Again, to use an exaggerated example, if someone has been asked to pitch the next arc of the main Batman book and it comes back and Batman never puts on the costume and both his parents are alive and he loves guns and it's to "make Batman cool again", that's not really in the spirit of Batman. Like... maybe there's a version where that's his worst nightmare or it's an alternate reality, but it's not great to get a pitch that is trying to break the rules. 

The specifics between a book and even the way a creator and editor work together can be very different. And rules can shift with editors and licensors and creators over time. As a final Batman example, there have probably been times when Batman couldn't pilot a robot or be a dinosaur because Batman was supposed to be a more "grounded" character. Notably, in recent years, both those things have happened. Policies can change and things that might not fly now may down the line. 

@CBDev95 asks: "What is a good way to reach more people outside of social media in regards to marketing your comic?"

That is a great question! The short answer, I suppose, is that social media is just one form of communication and ultimately all marketing is communications, right? I know folks who when they have a new comic releasing call or email comic shops and say "hey, you're the person who can order this/stock this/sell this. Do you have a couple of minutes to talk about it and I can tell you why it's cool and why your customers are going to like it?" And sometimes, that little touch is the sway that they need to place the order and gives them the tools to sell to their customers. 

I'm also a big proponent of events (huge asterisk: if that's something you're comfortable with/able to do. I understand it is a privilege in many ways to be able to travel and feel secure in your health, personal safety, and finances). Doing outreach at your local/semi-local comic shop, book shop, zine shop, little art market, library event, convention, etc is a good way to expand locally and sometimes bring in attention from people who aren't local. And, depending on what you're doing and who with, sometimes they're doing conventional marketing. You get on a flyer or maybe you're super lucky and they run a TV or radio ad or whatever. Similarly, occasionally that can beget a "local does good" story where you end up in the paper or on TV or on a podcast because you're the person in your area who made this thing. 

Something that is social media adjacent that I know happens but I only sometimes looped in on is creator review chains. Basically, a group of creator friends who get advanced PDFs and get to say good things about it and help build hype--online, offline, maybe they give you a blurb that helps get the book into a new hand.   

If all else fails, just drop a couple copies off at like... a bus stop or laundromat. Somewhere people might need something to read for a few minutes and might pick it up and become a fan. 

And also: "How does IDW scout for talent, especially when it comes to the various IP they hold? Any set criteria?" 

I think it's important to understand that even within a company, the way different editors (and talent folks) scout and find talent can be wildly different. I find a lot of people on social and through creator connections. I like person X's work on Twitter and reach out or creator Y says "hey, my buddy creator Z would be an awesome fit for this, can I put them in touch with you?" I also do the traditional thing of walking around artist's alley and the small press area and talking to folks and getting a feel for what they're doing. And I also sometimes reach out to people creating other stuff that I enjoy--people working in animation or podcasts or traditional publishing or whatever. 

But by the same token, I know editors who are inactive on social media, if they have it at all. I know editors who are much more active than I am in talking to managers and agents who bring them talent. And editors who primarily do it the old fashioned way and do in person portfolio reviews, con walk throughs, recommendations, and bringing the authors and journalists they like. I personally think that the right way is a combination of them all, but everyone has their own style, their own comfort, their own tastes and scouting is going to be unique, which is part of what makes books unique. 

That all said, and again, kind of continuing what I've said above, yeah, each IP is going to have different guidelines. And, frankly, sometimes different editors/talent relations folks will have different understandings of those guidelines or tastes within them. A good way to start to get an idea, if you're not talking to an editor about the criteria of a certain book, is to read the books they are putting out in that IP. Because at the end of the day, those are books that the licensor allowed to be released, which is a good sign that they and the editor probably liked it. 

@brainstorm_dr asks: "So once you’ve got a job writing, what’s the production pipeline like? Writer -> editor -> revision -> artist? Or are we talking an endless loop of potential back-and-forth?"

Endless loop! Endless loop! No, I'm... kind of joking. Like so many of the things I've talked about so far, it can really vary project to project, and even sometimes issue to issue. My ideal would be, yeah, writer sends over a script, editor does a single pass for clean-up and whatever notes, writer sends the revision back, it's perfect, it's off to the artist, the artist does great and makes things super easy for the colorist and letterer and the book happens. But the more people are involved, the less straightforward things are--often for the better, but y'know, not uncomplicating things. 

I'm going to talk Transformers because your name's Dr. Brainstorm. At certain points, a Transformers script would go through 3 editors at IDW on the first or second pass. Assuming revisions were all good and locked on the rd. 2 script, that would be reviewed by the nice folks at Hasbro. Their team would come back with any notes, the writer may have to do a rd 3 (or very occasionally, more) draft. If deadlines demanded it, sometimes the rd. 3 script would be coming in after art had started. Sometimes things would be set pretty early, but then the art would come in and a writer might end up doing more significant rewrites at the lettering stage (though, the hope was always not that). With various other books, you may have even larger editorial teams looking at it, you may have translators involved or copy editors or co-writers or someone else along the food chain who has to review the script and may make notes, and notes that may seem like they're going back and forth a lot. 

That is all assuming two things: 1. we're just not going to get into the weeds of artist/colorist/letterer/production artist back-and-forth and revisions and 2. you're writing full script style. You may've heard of Marvel or descriptive script style, where the script is looser and more focused on the action/emotion of each page, and then the final dialogue is added after the art is drawn. That whole process gets additionally wonky! 

The good news is eventually the comic has to go to print, so at some point the back-and-forth must stop. And, sometimes, it really does only take one or two rounds of back and forth to get everything set. 

@DesertLorenzo asks: "How have you been lately? Both doing and feeling (within what you feel comfortable sharing)." Most people are polite enough that they don't tell me that I look tired. Or, alternatively, are so used to the bags under my eyes, I appear as normal to them. But tired I am.

Some of it is normal tiring stuff. Tiansheng being a cat, does not really understand the concept of time and recently has been particularly active (and naughty) between the hours of midnight and 7 a.m., which happens to be when I am trying to sleep. Money's been a bit tight recently. Not "we don't have groceries" or "we can't afford bills" or anything, but tight. I got a lot of hot takes on things and thinking about them tires me out. 

A lot of it is what I would describe as unusual and despicable. From the anti-trans legislation that is sweeping the nation and contributing to a trans genocide to all the book bannings to library funding removals that are instead going to police to enact fascism to the challenges to the attempts to abortions by negating mifepristone use to the fucking bullshit that is the RESTRICT Act to all the people who are being killed so frequently by guns and a refusal to do the most basic care in not spreading a deadly disease. 

It is fucking hard out here. It is hard to even try to live a life that is normal. It is hard to feel like there's so much more I should be doing and to know that in a weird intersection of my own privilege and disadvantageous circumstances, there is only so much I can do. I am frequently sad and mad and scared and most of all uncertain. And it's not to say I don't have good days and good times too, just that the negatives are constant and at some point, I can only celebrate one step forward for two steps back so much.  

I am not doing well. I don't see how I can have a brain and a heart and be doing well. But I am doing the best I can and that is all I can ask of myself or anyone else right now. Sorry to go out on the downer, but that's how I feel.

Next time: RILEY QUESTIONS! And the rest of the questions not from my co-editor on Sonic/good friend Riley. If you weren't in this batch, sorry, I did try to do these relatively in the order they came in! 

What I enjoyed this week: Blank Check (Podcast), Honkai Impact (Video game), Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo (Anime), Mass Effect (Video game), Teen Titans Go (Cartoon), Craig of the Creek (Cartoon), Devil House by John Darnielle (Book), Chainsaw Man (Manga), a very good call of what I hope will mean good things to come, and there have been so many good art shares for Portfolio Day and stuff. It's nice to see artists and creators banning together to promote each others work in the face of a platform that is increasingly against them.  New Releases this week (4/12/2023): Quiet week from me! Enjoy another comic!

New Releases next week (4/19/2023): Sonic the Hedgehog #59 (Editor)

Announcements:

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY! I'm going to be at Geoffrey's Comics (see the Pic of the Week for the address) for Free Comic Book Day this year. As always, it's the first Saturday in May (the 6th). I'll be there with Becca and a number of our friends including Nick Marino, Rosie Knight, Mark Martinez, and more! It'll be a cool little event and I hope you can come out and see us. 

Also, relative to the very first question, looks like I'll be playing booth babe for Becca again soon too. More on that after they have shared. 

At time of posting, you can still come and hang out for Becca's Twitch stream tonight. It's at 7 PST. They're playing Genshin. It should be fun. 

If you're at all interested in that silly little comic redraw thing I mentioned last week, the scripts are available here still. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, more info on last week's post! 

I was hoping to have something announced this week, but not just yet. I am looking into building something that'll allow for a little direct support for me, provide some extra content beyond the blog, and maybe even start to fund some cool new little comics projects, but that's all TBD. There are a few services that I've decided against, but I've yet to find the right platform for it. And if nothing ever comes to fruition... well, it's a nice idea.  

Pic of the Week: FCBD info and a cute (?) picture of Nadja! 

[retro-memo]

I posted 1,749 times in 2022

42 posts created (2%)

1,707 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@winter-turtle

@joyful-soul-collector

@superherotiger

@kitcat992

@milstrim

I tagged 354 of my posts in 2022

#nwh spoilers - 18 posts

#peter parker - 18 posts

#sky children of the light - 18 posts

#tony stark - 16 posts

#irondad and spiderson - 14 posts

#irondad - 12 posts

#sobbing - 10 posts

#ask game - 10 posts

#sky cotl - 9 posts

#thatskygame - 8 posts

Longest Tag: 136 characters

#if they aren't dating by the 3rd movie i'm gonna call sonic to be that one friend that pushes these two idiots together so they can kiss

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

i know your url is probably pronounced memo as in memory but i keep reading it as mee-mo and i can't stop help

Omg, now that's stuck in my head 😭 I'll never look at my url the same ever again

14 notes - Posted June 9, 2022

#4

All of your prompts seem so cool 🥺 the "oops ? What do you mean oops ?" seems super fun if you feel up to writing it ��

Well, I'm finally answering this... almost a year later. I'm so sorry for that, I didn't ignore any of the asks in my inbox, I just forgot about 'em. Sorta. Anyways, the good news is that I plan to finally start emptying my inbox. Honestly, these prompts have been sitting there for way too long.

While this doesn't exactly start with the sentence that was given, it does use it. Kinda. Let's just get started.

Also, special thanks to @winter-turtle for giving me inspiration for this fic!!💜 💜

“Kid, what are you doing here?” It wasn't the first time Tony had caught Peter sneaking into the Compound. In fact, on more than several occasions he’d woken up in the mornings to find the kid raiding his kitchen and being a fire hazard to society by trying to bake a dish that vaguely resembled something out of a mad scientist horror film.

Tony refused to call anything Peter cooked food. The kid was worse than his aunt when he was near a stove.

Said kid who had his back turned to Tony, jumped, spinning around to stare at Tony with eyes blown so wide they almost seemed to swallow his entire face. He looked like the exact definition of a child being caught red-handed with their grubby fingers halfway into the cookie jar.

Not only that but for the first time since the kid got here, Tony noticed that he was, in fact, not wearing one of his infamous nerdy science pun t-shirts that were part of his usual civilian attire but instead, was in his Spider-Man suit.

That wasn’t even the weirdest part.

Tony felt his eyebrows shoot up well past his hairline as he took in the kid. More specifically, what was sitting snugly in Peter's arms as if it had every right to be and not sending him through another stage of existential crisis. “What the fuck is that?”

His death was going to be caused by his disaster-on-two-legs kid. Tony knew it. He was going to keel over from the stress one of these days. It was the only way to go out.

“A turtle?” If it was any other time, Tony would’ve probably asked the kid if that was a question or statement but instead, couldn’t help the borderline hysterical laugh that escaped him.

Gods, aliens, genocidal maniacs, hydra soldiers - he thought it would always be one of the former or some fucked up ‘sacrifice himself for the greater good of the universe’ bullshit that was going to get him killed him but nope.

“Uh, yeah, I can see that, kiddo.” Tony waved his arm out, probably trying to gesture to the sheer ridiculousness of the situation “I mean, why the fuck did you bring it here?”

“Oops?” The kid’s shoulder’s bunched up to his ears in what Tony had to guess was some sort of half-shrug.

“Oops?” Tony tried not to sound like less of a madman but that was a feat in itself, especially whenever Peter was involved. The kid was trouble walking around with ’kick me’ written on the back of his shirt with disaster not too far behind him. Sure, Tony kinda knew that things weren’t ever going to be the same again after the whole Vulture and plane crashing incident. He expected a few supervillains here and there, maybe a stab wound but still.

He never planned for a whole goddamn turtle. “What do you mean oops? This isn’t an ‘oops’, Parker! Start talking!”

The kid’s lips thinned as he pressed them together, obviously not planning on spilling the beans on why he brought a turtle into the Compound. Okay, that was fine, it was fine. Two could play it that game and if Peter wasn’t going to come clean, Tony was just going to have to use the ace up his sleeve. “Alright, fine, if you won’t talk to me, I’m just going to call May.”

Tony already had his phone out in the open when it happened. Maybe later, a part of him would’ve wondered why he didn’t expect the kid to put up some sort of rebellion. Still, it’s not everyday when one’s phone suddenly disappeared from their hand.

“Did you just web my phone from me?!” Tony looked up from his now empty hand to where the kid was standing, whose eyes had somehow blown even wider than they were before while said stolen device sat perfectly in his free hand while the other was still holding up the turtle in what was clearly a feat against all known human possibilities.

Right. Sticky powers. Gotta love ‘em.

“No, uh, yes, I mean-” On any other day, Tony would’ve found the kid’s ability to stumble over his own words adorable, endearing even. “I can explain!”

Today, however, wasn’t one of those days.

It wasn’t that he minded the kid’s company, in fact, on a good day he enjoyed having the bubbling ball of energy to bounce science off of in the lab or when they binged any sci-fi movie they could get their hands on until they both passed out on the couch.

Except, after being forced to sit through a couple dozen meetings courtesy of one scary-and-should-definitely-not-be-teaming-up-with-May-Parker and soon-to-be-wife, Pepper Potts, Tony was not in the mood to deal with the kid’s babbling.

“Then please, explain.”

“I mean, it wasn’t my fault!” Ah yes, the sinner’s plea. “Well, it is. Sorta but I couldn’t just leave him there!” There we go.

“You know what?” Tony raised his hands, shaking his head. “I don’t actually want to know. Just please, tell me why you bring it here to all places?”

“Donatello isn’t an it.”

Tony did a double-take at that. “You’ve named it?”

See the full post

48 notes - Posted March 3, 2022

#3

Three people who I don't want to see in the irondad tags here on Tumblr:

Anti-irondad: This speaks for itself, you don't like irondad or Tony Stark? Fine, but don't tag your crap as irondad then, tag it as anti-irondad or anti-tony stark. I don't want to see your shit when I'm looking for wholesome content of my comfort characters.

St*rkers: I think this speaks for itself.

Anti-Ned Leeds: No. You don't go hating on my baby. Especially in one of my favorite tags. You can take your edgy reddit ass out of there and go bitch somewhere else. YOU DON'T PUT IT IN THE IRONDAD TAG SECTION. FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING THAT IS HOLY.

I don't appreciate hate on Ned, of any kind. You don't like him? I don't care, keep it to yourself and out of my favorite tags.

Rant over.

122 notes - Posted June 1, 2022

#2

So, you remember this picture of Tony and Peter in Endgame?

And we know thanks to the latest extra scene of No Way Home, all pictures of Peter are altered or changed. Which also would include this picture and now no one can see Peter with Tony anymore :)

150 notes - Posted September 19, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Help.

1,001 notes - Posted June 15, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[cherimoyatea]

Hello! I'm writing you anonymously out of embarrassment because the subject is quite sensitive for me. You don't need to reply, I just want to share with you the comfort that your words answering a post accusing people who receive a high % of AI content in the quillbot detector gave me (note that I say people who receive a high %, not people who actually use AI…).

I'll tell you my case. I'm a person who has always liked English a lot, but I'm not a native. I'm not a native by a long shot. I've recently found myself in a very stressful period of my life and I've found a lot of comfort writing fanfiction and sharing it in this community. I don't publish in my original language because it would mean reaching a very small community, and it's a real challenge for me to do it in English and that way I learn a lot.

The thing is that I write in the following way: I write ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING in my language. Then I translate with google translator (pretty dull), and I use chatgpt to look up single words. Yes. I search in chatgpt. Because for me, it's not so clear if scowl is more aggressive than frown, and I need that help. But the help I ask for is that, some vocabulary. I have never, ever asked for help to create the story itself. In fact, each fic takes me a lot of time and work. I've spent up to a month editing some because I'm a perfectionist.

When I saw the post yesterday criticizing ai, I launched the bot out of curiosity… and when I received percentages of between 25-50% on some fics, I started to cry. How was it possible that after all the work behind it, that tool makes me feel like a fraud? I thought about deleting everything. I was ashamed and thought about deleting my tumblr account… and then, I saw your post. And I understood many things.

So, THANK YOU.

PS: I'm using Google Translate right now :P

Hello Annonie!

First of all, thank you so much for reaching out and sharing your feelings with me. I'm so sorry to hear that you cried and even thought about deleting your blog. There is nothing wrong with using tools to improve your English or to check your grammar and sentence structure.

You did nothing wrong 🫂

People need to understand that these AI detectors, including Quillbot, are easy to manipulate and can be easily confused by a combination of factors, such as typos, commas, non-native writing patterns and so on...

Even Quillbot itself includes a disclaimer on their page, stating that their detector is not 100% reliable so please don't think too much about the results it gives you.

There's a huge difference between 25-50% and 50-80%

But this is exactly why @chaos-in-deepspace and others need to reconsider their approach to this subject. They're effectively harming people's mental health under the guise of spreading awareness. Even if unintentionally. (I tagged you to have a look at this, not to call you out, mind you).

In fact, you are not the first person to reach out to me about this. My inbox is flooded with messages from users who are terrified of being falsely accused, and my heart goes out to each and every one of you.

I'm sharing this publicly now because you wrote me anonymously; I hope that's okay.

For clarification: I'm not enabling AI writers. This is a matter that should be discussed, but not by throwing people under the bus.

Anyway.

Annonie, if you're reading this: Please promise me you'll take care of your health, alright? Log out, spend time with loved ones, do something that feels good to you. And if you feel like talking, you can always reach out to me anonymously 🩷✨

Remember: This is not the real world. This is just the internet, with a bunch of strangers sharing their insights on a game that's supposed to be fun.

Don't stop doing what you love. Share your stories, keep working on improving your English skills. You don't need to be perfect; just be patient with yourself, and someday you won't even need to rely on translators. 😊

Love, Cheri 🍒