#now it's 200k words later and i feel so much growth

[coleoffduty]

taking a break from lucemond to write rhaenicent then taking a break from rhaenicent to write lucemond is such a nice little cycle. tysm hotd characters for being the gay muses i didn't know i needed.

[matan4il]

Buddie 507 meta

The first thing that struck me about Buck and Taylor’s “detective” interaction is how much their lack of communication is spelled out. Buck and Eddie, as well as Buck and others from his chosen family (like Chim in this very ep or Maddie in 504) are shown to be bonded to such a degree that - even when it happens off screen - the show makes sure we know they share everything significant. And in this ep we have Buck and Taylor explicitly talking on screen about what they’re not communicating with each other. We already saw a glimpse of Buck not telling Taylor everything he witnessed on a call in ep 506, now it’s actually acknowledged between them. More than that, Taylor refers to him as a “source,” which shows he’s right not to share with her. After all, first responders are obviously free to talk about what they’ve been through with loved ones so they can carry on doing their difficult job, but not in order to expose and broadcast this info to the world. If Taylor has used info confided privately from Buck, it’s in that grey area we call “it’s kosher, but it still stinks.” That kinda adds to the moment where she grabbed Buck’s phone (which I mentioned in my 501 meta) as showing how limitless she is in pursuit of a story, causing her not to pay attention to other people’s boundaries. And then the ending makes it clear that Taylor’s drive in regards to her work comes from some personal history she hasn’t told him about, despite them being together for what, 4-5 months now? And despite supposedly being friends before that. IDK, but this does not feel like the friends to lovers, 200k, slow burn romance that shows love giving their popular protagonists. ~~~

I had to make this gifset when I saw Taylor working on her case and Buck serving basically as a soundboard (which is further emphasized by Athena, in her exchange with Lou, being a more active contributor). Buck also came across as troubled and reserved. It immediately reminded me of what Buck was like when he was playing detective with Eddie in 404: he was the one who initiated posing investigative questions, Eddie went along with him, and they played off each other. In other words, Buck felt like an enthusiastic partner in that case, more than with his actual girlfriend. It could be implied from the end of the ep that the reason for the difference is his concern over Taylor risking her life, but he only learns about the risk Taylor takes later on. It continues a theme I highlighted in almost every meta post for this season, where their relationship feels a bit off even during moments that should make it seem to grow stronger. ~~~

I found it curious how they handled Taylor in conjunction with the ep’s main call. Lou def doesn’t trust her and says he’ll leave a guard outside Edgar’s door because he’s sure she’ll try to sneak back in. In fact, her brush with Lou tells us the criticism is right, that she does go overboard when compared with others in the same profession, ‘coz Taylor’s not the first reporter Lou has had to handle, yet she manages to get a reaction out of him. Now the thing is, a lot of times this sort of mistrust is grounds for change and growth. Taylor could have somehow proven herself to Lou during her work on the case in parallel to him and ended up being invaluable to solving the case. Think, if you will, of Buck in 101. He annoys Athena right away, but ends up saving her life by the end of the ep. We learn she’s even said some kind things about him to Bobby… That’s not what happens with Taylor, she contributes nothing to the case, Lou’s impression of her at no point is disproven or changed. And let’s not forget, Lou’s presented as a good guy with sound judgment (NGL, I loved how he helped Harry in this ep). It’s clear to me that Taylor was turned into a part of the case as buildup for whatever her backstory is, but they could have used that as an opportunity to show us she’s better than how she’s perceived. But the show chose not to take that route. I point this out, ‘coz I think this has relevance for how her r/s with Buck will unfold. ~~~

An interesting moment is when Buck confronts her at the end of the ep, asking if her job’s worth risking her life for. He adds he knows he’s basically the same. The thing is, they’re not. And I’m not talking about the saving lives aspect. Clearly, to Taylor telling a story is no less worth it than to save a life. And that’s a totally valid POV. But the thing is that with firefighting, putting one’s life on the line is a given. It’s built in. Sure, you wanna minimize the risks, but you know they exist no matter what, and that there’s an unavoidable risk you take that you might not return from a call. That’s not journalism, though. Especially not when you’re just a TV reporter for a local station. You can easily do the job without any significant risk. In my 506 meta I mentioned the difference between Ali’s concerned reaction to the risk Buck’s in vs Taylor’s far more subdued one. With this ep, it’s Buck who ends up in Ali’s position, and he also has a pretty subdued reaction (especially when compared to how worried he was about Eddie in 501 and 502).

The thing is, when you start dating a firefighter, you know you’re dating someone who’s constantly risking their lives (even if it might take you a while to figure out whether you can handle it). Not so when you start dating a reporter. It’s clear we’re going to get Taylor’s backstory. Now what they do with that back story, that’s another matter. Maybe it’ll make Buck understand her more and stay with her despite the cracks we have seen in their r/s, at least for the time being, or maybe it’ll drive home the point that they’re not compatible. Either way, I find it interesting that based on the build up, her secret being revealed seems to be tied in with whether Buck and her can stay together for now. That says something about how even showing her past isn’t making her a character in her own right. Because in contrast, every other ‘begins’ story has been about the character itself, even Josh’s, not about their current romantic relationships. And without being a character in her own right, her time on the show is bound to be limited. ~~~

Another interesting point to me is that the most attention Buck and Taylor’s r/s has gotten is in an ep filled with stories about people being without their partners (Chim going after Maddie, Buck’s detective game being lackluster without Eddie), doubting their partners (Karen dealing with the ongoing effects of Hen’s cheating) and being enraged by their partners (the call). It sets a certain tone. Out of all of these, I couldn’t help focusing on Eddie’s absence. It’s almost like the place Eddie has in Buck’s life is so big, Taylor mostly gets to take up space when he’s not there.

In this context, I really wanna highlight Karen and her r/s with Hen, because there’s proof there that Taylor’s lack of development in her own right isn’t about being a minor character. So is Karen, but she has constantly been a wonderfully developed character, her r/s with Hen has been consistently invested in since s1 so people care about what happens with the two of them, and Karen has volume as a character including little quirks (turned on by… frugality? OK, Karen, I guess you get to, because you’re too damn cute), struggles (depression when they failed to get pregnant) and small yet significant contributions to the plot (for example, being the character who solves the mystery of the blackout). So far in s5, Taylor has had none of these things, she’s barely been there. And even when starting to get a backstory, it seems to be tied into whether she’ll even stay with Buck, so it still doesn’t feel like she’s really getting a spot of her own.

~~~ Thank you so much to the wonderful @judsonryder​, who’s a star for always making my meta come to life so vibrantly! If you like my perspective on Buddie, you can find more of my meta, gifs, humor posts and fics here. Thank you for reading and for any like, comment and of course reblog! A lot goes into these posts and it really matters when you show them any kind of support. xoxox

[sevensided]

how did you get into writing fic? i'd love to start but idk even where to begin! I loved adats so I was wondering do you have any advice?

Oh my goodness! I am so flattered you’ve asked me this. Yes, I can absolutely help. I’ll throw a bunch of rambling under the cut.

I started writing fic probably when I was... sixteen years old? A lot of my early works were oneshots. I couldn’t figure out how to do anything plot heavy for the life of me, so I just stuck to AUs or whatever I felt like. I wasn’t in any particular fandom -- I really wrote whatever I had ideas for. I remember I tried once to do a plot-heavy story and I received a review absolutely ripping it to shreds. Like, it was so cruel I cried lol. I ended up deleting the fic. Years later, I get what they were trying to say (basically, more substance, less style), but at the time it cut to the quick. Really, it was only when I was in my twenties that I started writing work that was longer and/or better.

The fandom that helped me actually write plot heavy work was a historical-based fandom. As I’m a historian, it was perfect. I got to use my research skills and knowledge to create works that, above all, aimed to feel authentic. I mainly read historical fiction, so I was familiar with how that genre worked. Miraculously, people loved my work. I think I wrote about ~200k in the period of a year? These were several short stories (20-40k) and a few oneshot filler fics. While I was part of this fandom I also helped organise a Big Bang which was a lot of hard work but was extremely rewarding. Along with that, I interacted mainly with other fic writers, so I spent a lot of time chatting to people about ideas and encouraging other writers, and it just created a lovely medley where no concept was impossible or any line of dialogue too difficult. We supported each other and it was truly like a little commune. I gradually stepped away from the fandom mainly because it was just a part of my life at a very specific time, and almost as soon as that time was over, my love for that story/ship faded, but I firmly believe I figured out a lot of how/what I do now purely through that experience.

Regarding ADATS

With ADATS, it stemmed entirely from wanting to “explain” three months in canon (at the end of season three). I was interested in the idea of season four setting up Will/Mike in canon, and I wanted to test the source material to see if I could draw from what already existed to create something authentic. I began with that simple idea: what happened from July to October in 1985? Then I thought about the major themes I wanted to hit -- family, friendship, coming of age, sexuality -- and I nested them around the bigger concept: how do I get Mike from being ostensibly straight to realising he is gay? That meant thinking of two steps: Mike discovering his attraction to guys; Mike discovering his attraction to Will. Those two concepts were separate “arcs” that needed addressing in different ways. Balance was key to weaving them together and making the reader feel like they knew what was coming (and that they felt smart for putting the pieces together) without just rushing through and going “now kiss!” That’s partly why ADATS needs a sequel, lol: because it’s not finished!

Writing process

The first thing I do when I start to get an idea is I write it down. Sounds obvious. But when you have a killer line of dialogue come to you in the shower and you think “I’ll remember that” -- reader, you will not remember it. You gotta get it down ASAP! I do that the whole way through, as generally I’ll be thinking of scenes I’m stuck on and then it’ll just come to me and I’ll quickly jot it down.

The next thing -- or what I do in the meantime -- is start structuring. I plan. I try to plan a lot. Sometimes it’s okay to write “and something happens here to get them here”, because you’ll figure it out later, but for the most part I’ve discovered that planning is like gold and you can’t get enough of it. I break my work up into generally 3-4 parts/sections, and I treat each section like a mini story. So each part needs a conflict and resolution, and it needs to flow into the next section. You need to have a feeling of things evolving and maturing. Once I’ve planned those little bits, I start thinking about the bigger plot arc and how I can drop in hints along the way. I’m probably not a subtle or skilled enough writer to yet pull off that sort of gasping twist you get in really excellent books, but I’m trying to get there. It’s hard, is what I’m trying to say, but that’s okay, because we’re all learning.

Then I generally do aesthetic stuff. Sounds stupid, probably. But nothing helps me get more into a mood than doing a Pinterest board or -- most of all -- making a Spotify mix. I start thinking about the vibe and the general atmosphere, and then I almost exclusively listen to that mix when I’m working. Sort of like muscle memory? Just to get the creative juices associated with that particular selection of songs.

Another thing I’ll do along with plot structure is character structure. This is a biggie. I mean, a story is nothing without characters. So I’ll just jot down a bunch of bullet points of characters and particular aspects that I want to highlight or remember. I hate continuity errors in fiction. Like, if someone says they work on Maple Street but later in the fic they’re working on Pine Street. I hate that. So I keep note of specific things that my main character might notice at repeated points in the story (colours, places, smells, names, sounds -- so they’re all consistent even as the narrative evolves). That’s another thing -- your characters’ motivations. Not everyone is going to be a huge player, but they all do serve a purpose. The most important character is obviously your main character. I personally think it’s important to let your M.C. be an arse at times. They’re going to be mean, they’re going to misinterpret things or fly off the handle... just let ‘em. Let them be wretched humans, and then bring them back and make them realise what they’ve done. Let them learn! I love consequences in fiction, lol.

At the same time, I’ll probably start writing. We’ve already written down some snippets of neat dialogue or descriptions, but now we should start the actual process. For me, I used to start at the beginning. Usually this was the most fleshed out anyway: I’ll have a clear idea of the beginning and the end, but nothing in the middle. These days, if I have a scene in mind that I can’t forget, I’ll just write it. It will possibly get scrapped or rewritten, but that’s okay, because at least you’ve got it down and now you can devote your brain power to something useful (like figuring out what the middle is supposed to be). I’ll have half a dozen of totally out of context scenes just littered in my Word document that I’ll add to as I go along. Eventually, though, you’re going to start writing properly, and that’s when you write your opening scene.

Opening scenes: super important. Every time I write a scene I think: what is the point of this? What do I want the reader to learn or takeaway? Sometimes you do have filler scenes, but they also serve a different purpose (perhaps to establish a group dynamic or to explore/describe a character’s surroundings). Mainly, though, every scene should push something forward in some way, whether it’s character development or a plot point. So, with an opening scene, I always think you have to establish: where you are; who you are; what they are doing; where they’ve come from (in a philosophical and practical sense); and where they’re going (ditto). That doesn’t have to happen in the first paragraph -- that would be silly. But if you sprinkle that information in over time it’ll gradually build up a picture of your character and that way the reader can get an idea of who they are. You basically need to give a snapshot of what your story is about. This also goes back to the character creator stuff: where they are at the start should be different to where they end up. How that happens is, of course, because of plot, and because you’ve structured everything to the nth degree, we’ve got a very clear progression of that character’s growth (/s easier said than done lol).

General advice

Write down everything: every idea, a bit of dialogue, a description, whatever. Write it down. Doesn’t have to be neat. Just has to be on paper. You can’t remember everything, so if you’re spending time trying to hold those things in your head, it’s taking up space for new ideas to come along.

Structure, plan, structure, plan. Sometimes it’s boring and I hate it. Other times, when I’ve not written in a few days and I open the Word doc and think wtf is this supposed to be, I am very grateful for Past Me for leaving such detailed notes. Seriously, it helps so much. Oneshots don’t really need planning, in my experience. You just get those out there. But multi-chaptered stories really do, even ones that “just” focus on a relationship.

Whatever you want to write, commit to it. Space goblins invade Hawkins? Do it. Eleven and Max find themselves in a cult akin to Midsommar (2019) and must escape? Yes. Just... whatever you want to do, remember that you’re writing it for you. Write what most interests you, what makes you when you reread it go AHHHHH I LOVE THIS!! Because that makes it a thousand times easier to actually get on with the writing when you enjoy what you’re doing.

Write a lot. Every day, if you can, or at least at designated times. Occasionally I have a very specific headspace/vibe I have to be in, but sometimes it just hits me and I’ll say to my partner “I need to write now” and just disappear, lol. The more you write the more you write. It’s so, so, so true. Cannot emphasise this enough. When I wrote that ~200k in twelve months? It was because I literally wrote every. day. Or near enough. Remember that some days you’ll write 200 words, and other days you’ll write 20k (this happened to me with ADATS -- part of the reason I finished it so quickly was because I had sprints of writing 10k+ at a time that only happened because I was in the rhythm of it). Write, write, write. Who cares if it’s crap! No one will see it until you are ready. In the meantime, just write!

Probably last of all (although I could go on and on) is connect with other writers. If you’re struggling to start, sometimes just talking about it can help a huge amount. I hope it goes without saying that you can message me whenever you want, anon or not, and I will talk to you. We can talk about ideas or I can beta stuff, whatever you want! Find like-minded people and talk to them about what you want to do. Another thing this helps is in advertising your work when you do publish. I see a lot of first time fic writers get super down because they publish their magnum opus on AO3 but no one comments. Honestly, it’s because no one knows you’ve published! You don’t have to be tooting your own horn every which way, but just actively talking about your work and even collaborating with other content creators with get you hyped and other people too (and the input and encouragement other fandom members give is just... out of this world. Anon messages helped me finish ADATS when I was really worried I wouldn’t [that’s the truth]. Seriously, support is everything). When you have people excited about your work, you get excited. It’s really as simple as that.

I could go on but this is already horrendously long. I hope even a bit of this helps! If you want to chat or have any more questions, just hit me up any time.

[shinneth]

subject to future deletion

Normally I wouldn’t resort to that and I might end up being too lazy to do it anyway, but between getting sick again, dealing with some very intense verbal abuse every day irl, and the monthly burdens of the gender, I’m really not in a good place right now and I need to vent something. 

It’s officially gotten bad enough to interfere with my ability to write, even though I’m at a point in my current story that I’ve been very eager to reach... and every step of the way I’m struggling to write it and I hate what I currently have and it’s taking everything in my current power to not just scrap it entirely. 

Basically, I think I’m failing as a writer.

The irl stuff is actually not what I’m gonna get into because it’s really nothing new and it’ll probably resolve itself, but the side-effect of suffering that kind of negativity is that it enhances lingering negative feelings you’ve had about other things.

Namely, things you do to get away from the pains of the real world. The things you do to have fun and get some enjoyment out of life, no matter how challenging it is to be in this thing because it’s so wrongfully derided and demonized by the majority of your peers.

I try to keep telling myself it’s just because I’m still relatively very new to the fandom compared to my contemporaries, but as I’m typing this right now and listening to my favorite wrestler Shelton Benjamin in an interview, immediately I see the pit I’m starting to fall into. 

Like, it’s uncanny. This is what he said as I started on the above paragraph:

“If I sit and constantly compare myself to other people’s successes, you would drive yourself crazy. Because no matter what, there’s always someone who’s gonna be more successful.”

“I need to remember where I come from; how far I’ve came.”

Basically, in the very small world of Stevidot (and to a lesser extent, SU’s fandom as a whole), despite my efforts, I feel very much like the Shelton Benjamin in a small, dedicated group of talented Stevidot content creators.

Which is to say, I’m basically a midcarder in the mix with a bunch of top-tier legends. Shelton graduated from the same group as some modern very well-known mainstream stars that I can easily associate with a very well-known and accomplished Stevidot contributor.

Shelton graduated with the likes of John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Dave Batista, and Randy Orton. At least half of those names should be at least vaguely familiar for my followers as most of them have had such great success that they’re known in avenues beyond wrestling (save for Randy Orton, but he’s well past outshined his father as a legendary wrestler who’ll never be forgotten). 

I could easily say Watcher is the John Cena of Stevidot, while Platon’s probably the Brock Lesnar... sinderella0069′s the Batista. But I honestly don’t feel like I’ve done enough (or stood out enough) to even be a Randy Orton for this pairing. I’d at least give that honor to Ig just for being so active with it on Tumblr despite the wave of hatred thrown her way (even though she’s shifted focus onto Stevinel now). 

Again, I keep trying to tell myself that it’s because I’m not even remotely as tenured in the fandom as any of them are. 

Then I see this said in a review on a very recently-made Stevidot story...

And said reviewer has not once ever left a review on any Stevidot story of mine. Not even a follow or a favorite or a goddamned kudos. Considering I currently have an actively-updated Stevidot story going on (and a two-shot that I just did last month), I highly doubt my stuff was just overlooked.

Now, is it true that Stevidot is hard to come by? Of course it is. But this isn’t the first time I’ve seen a fellow Stevidot fan lament about the lack of Stevidot content while completely disregarding anything I contribute.

I know there’s one that outright doesn’t like my content based on personal taste (nothing to do with Stevidot itself, just how I execute it). There’s another big-name who shows no interest whatsoever in reading what I have to offer - and at this point I feel that’s for the best, because I have a feeling they’d hate my execution as well. 

While I’ve always primarily written for myself, I also felt a great fulfillment for providing content for a niche crowd that really deserves more than what they have. I think Stevidot’s a fantastic pairing with tons of unexplored potential and should be much more readily available than it actually is. Even if I tend to not get many reviews, I keep track of the site traffic every day on my stories and I know for sure that there are people reading my stuff. Since I’m really bad at leaving reviews myself, I go out of my way not to whine about not having very many overall for my series since I’d be a huge-ass hypocrite to do so. 

However.

Statements like the the aforementioned review and statements I’ve seen elsewhere by those who I know are at least aware of me are like stakes through the heart.

Because it can only mean one thing: my content doesn’t count.

I’m honestly not sure which is worse for me; being critically panned for the stuff I’ve put my all into over the past year, or being treated like my stuff doesn’t even exist. 

I prided myself on contributing as much as I did for Stevidot over this past year. Quantity doesn’t = automatic quality, but I’ve got 20+ years of writing experience in, so even someone with a shit self-esteem like myself can’t just say I’m an objectively bad writer, because I’m not. 

But apparently it doesn’t matter that I put in over half a million worlds in the name of Stevidot to a good chunk of the very tiny Stevidot fanbase; according to them, my contributions are irrelevant.

Is it my fault?

One thing I will admit is a detriment to my particular brand of Stevidot is that, save for one story (which happens to be by far my most successful Stevidot story in terms of recognition numbers), the rest of my series follows a continuous narrative that greatly deviates from canon as of Change Your Mind. I’m also notoriously a very verbose kind of writer - I have the tl;dr curse something fierce. 

So all stories I’ve written since my main 3-act series (which ended up being nearly 200k in length on its own) have been direct sequels to that. Because of the heavy deviation from CYM, the environment of the following stories is very different and easy to get lost in if you skipped GA entirely. 

Because there are so many dangling threads and new opportunities to be had after GA ended, I basically committed myself to my AU.

It’s not like anyone else is going to explore these possibilities.

Beyond that, honestly, I just don’t want to rewire my brain back to the canon status quo - not after the shitloads of character development I’ve not only given Steven and Peridot, but nearly everyone at this point has had a moment or two of really intense character growth. 

I like having Peridot co-star with Steven. I like having her become a more competent and active teammate than she’s portrayed in canon (while still giving her comic relief moments). I like that I didn’t redeem the Diamonds and instead had them killed off to force our protagonists to deal with the fallout of the collapse of a mighty empire on a much grander scale than what’s going on in the actual show.

In a way, this AU of mine has helped me cope with the shortcomings of the show itself. I already went on a stupid tirade once about how the sadistic nature of my writing has basically made me no-sell whatever trauma Rebecca Sugar’s throwing on Steven and upsetting everyone else. I’m still fairly certain I’m still outdoing her in that department. 

And because 100% of my passion for creating Stevidot is through this narrative I weaved, I have no desire to leave it. 

So I’ll admit my stories aren’t exactly the most accessible to the average reader who hasn’t been following my work since Day 1. 

Then again... I first got into Sinderella’s series completely ass-backwards at first. I eventually read it in the proper order, and like many of the great Stevidot epics, it’s canon divergent from a much earlier point in the series, so it was very easy to get confused about why certain things happened differently at first... but ultimately, I wasn’t that bothered by it because I just wanted some good Stevidot. I’d figure out the finer details later. 

I really do owe this author more props than I’ve actually given - she’s one out of two readers I know for a fact have been following my series since the beginning without missing a beat. I’ll probably review her newest story sooner or later now that it’s complete. 

Not gonna lie, though... when I saw our numbers side-by-side like this:

Considering they’re very similar stories (Stevidot smuts that were originally meant to be one-shots), mine is over a month old and hers is only a few days old and there’s already that big of a gap in our numbers? 

It’s hard not to feel like a failure; like I did something horribly wrong to suck this bad by comparison. 

I really should stress that I bear no ill will against Sinderella or any Stevidot author; this isn’t a competition, so this isn’t a matter of popularity. I knew coming into this that I wouldn’t get popular overnight; especially not with such an unpopular ship being the focus of my story. 

But when other Stevidot stories get frequent reviewers that I’ve never seen once acknowledge my stories even passively, I can’t help but feel like I’ve massively fucked up somewhere. That despite all my efforts, I might as well be invisible. When they say “Oh, good thing your story is here! It’s been such a Stevidot drought around here until you came along!” to other authors after I’ve written half a million fucking words in under a year for this ship...

You know, is it unreasonable to feel that I utterly fucking failed in several ways? 

I guess it’s no wonder why I’m struggling to keep writing. I still want to - like I said, I’m at a part I’ve been eager to write for a while now - but ever since I started it, I’ve just hated almost all of what I have so far (almost 8k words). And I’m really having trouble trying to salvage it.

I’m honestly not the type who’d scrap all my progress and start from scratch once I’ve gotten this far in. But maybe I’ll have to make an exception this time, because I think I finally made the mistake of trying to write while being mentally and emotionally distraught.

I thought I’d calm down once I wrote all this out, but honestly, I’m not really feeling it. Now I’m wondering if I should have just reached out to someone instead of making this, because now I’ll come off as a whiner with my pansy-ass first-world problems. 

But then again, I’d be an asshole to subject anyone to my idiotic woes. 

Maybe this’ll pass. I’m hoping it’ll pass. I really, really really really don’t want to lose my drive to write again. I was used to it coming and going in short and random spurts for almost all my life - then it finally came to me and stayed with me just a little under a year ago, and I’ve been desperate not to let it go because I’ve been more productive now than I’ve ever been in my 20+ tenure as a writer. 

I don’t want this to go away. There’s still so much more I want to tell. 

But then my logic goes... if you tell the story and no one’s there to hear it, is it ever really told?

[azurehyn]

I hate to sound like a toxic 'fan', but there's probably no other way to describe this, because this is a rant of everything I personally found wrong with Voltron, as a fan who does love the show but isn't blind to the fact that...they fucked up.

I know someone's going to say "well if you don't want to be a toxic fan don't post stuff like this" well excuse me but fuck off, i need an outlet after that emotional trainwreck

If you're here for positive allurance you ain't gon get that

If you're here for positive klance you ain't gon get that either

Because why? This season was a fucken mess and screwed most us over. Hello and welcome to my poor and angry Ted Talk

They shouldn't have introduced so damn many plot points and leave over half of them hanging

They lied? Multiple times? Example: was Keith's suicidal moment properly addressed like they said it would be?

THEY FUCKEN BAITED US WITH KLANCE. IF YOU WEREN'T GOING TO MAKE IT CANON WHY DO ANY OF THAT SHIT?? LM AND JDS I AM GODDAMN LOOKING AT YOU

Lance being Altean? You handle that well with good clues scattered throughout the seasons and DON'T EXPLAIN HOW HE IS ALTEAN TO BEGIN WITH?

Lotor. Was. Wrong. I'm turning to @astralscrivener on AO3 with their fix-it fic because yeah Lotor's arc was good one but felt fucking off because he deserved a redemption arc and I DON'T SEE THAT ANYWHERE

Rift monsters anyone? There is a whole beautiful avenue of story there and y'all just left it hanging

Allura was also kinda wronged? Her character started off inherently hating Galra and quick to jump to the worst conclusion about them. What Lotor did was shitty af, but the way Allura handled that entire situation invalidated her growth from hating Galra for being Galra. If she had properly grown as a character and the writers/showrunners actually showed that, she maybe would have reacted differently to SHOW it, to show that growth. This is just my personal opinion, the situation might have ended up the same either way, but i dont like how it was handled.

Call me a Klance fan for hating on the show but i am never going to get over or forgive this; KLANCE WAS WRONGED AND WE WERE FUCKING BAITED. I feel like many Klance fans wouldnt be as bitter as we are now if only we werent fucken BAITED

Tim Hendrick is the real MVP

Which reminds me; how is it good rep to show us Shadam, and we only know it's Shadam from the comic-con because it is not even PROPERLY PORTRAYED IN THE SHOW ITSELF that this is a gay relationship which could/would have been construed as roommates/friends NOT LOVERS, kill Adam so that so that we know little to nothing about him, then AT THE END OF THE SHOW pair Shiro with someone, again, we have little to no connection to? I feel like Dreamworks or whoeverthefuck was trying to squeeze too much rep into one single character, with Shiro being Japanese, disabled, mentally scarred from his trauma, oh and also gay but still a great role model. Look, i have no problem with Shiro being any and all of the above, but as has been mentioned by others, they relied too much on our love for Shiro, and tried to fit in too much rep in a single character when it could have been evenly spaces out between all or more than (1) one of them.

You know something ain't being done right when a plethora of fanon is lightyears better than canon. Again, dont get me wrong, i do love the story of vld, BUT that does not excuse the smell of the stanky shit they pulled multiple times.

...y'all there's 200k word fics out there better than what the beauty of Voltron derailed into

They had a chance to be a groundbreaking american animated show in terms of represention and instead they chose to skate close to the ground instead of shattering it by screwing up on multiple accounts.

LANCE WAS A WASTED CHARACTER. SO MUCH POTENTIAL, BEAUTIFUL POTENTIAL THAT WENT TO COMPLETE AND UTTER SHIT

As a hardcore Klance shipper, i say Allurance would have made more sense and sent a better message if it wasn't some half-assed shit sprinkled into s7 and shoved down our throats in s8. By making it canon you're essentially saying its totally fine for a guy to make repeated attempts on a girl when she's said no, and he'll eventually get her through dogged determination. LANCE WAS A FUCKIN REBOUND. WHY SAY HE'S GOING TO BE SOMEONES FIRST CHOICE (do not @ me about The Feud) THEN GET ALLURA TO 'CHOOSE' HIM AAAAFFFFTTTTEEERRRR LOTURA BECAME A CANON THING???

"Better an open-ending for Klance than a definite no possibility of it" bitch the fuck, don't bait us with Klance and make it such an obvious ship from FUCKING SEASON 1

"You'll be happy with the lgtb rep" *insert most deadpan expression in existence* does this look like the face of a happy camper

If you could make Korrasami a thing on freaking Nickelodeon, how did you fuck up so badly with Klance on NETFLIX?

"Voltron was targeted at 7-12 year old boys" KIDS WERE SEEING THAT KLANCE WAS HAPPENING. MY 6 YEAR OLD BROTHER SAW IT AND THE KID'S MORE INTERESTED IN FOOTBALL THAN LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE IN LIFE

Unrelated but also related: if the Dragon Prince doesn't deliver on the GOOD lgbt rep they promised within the next 1 or 2 seasons, i am never trusting any american animated show that throws out the "oh we'll have lgbt rep just you wait n see" bone ever again

As someone who identifies being both demisexual and bisexual (demibi? Because apparently demigay Keith is a thing which just hurts now), i am sorely disappointed by, and hurt by voltron. The show isnt even bad! Its a good fucking story with good characters, a number of whom were utterly wasted. I think the whole mess vld derailed into in later seasons could have been avoided if they just didnt try for any romantic angles. Because, as they said, this is a show for 7-12 year old boys. Do you really think boys that age give an actual shit about romance.

Do you guys who read fanfics notice there is no 'fix-it' fics for the first 3 seasons? Those only turned up season 4 onwards. Does that say something? Hm...

I am just so angry and SAD and disappointed with THIS being the end to our journey with voltron. Just what the fuck. I know there's the comics but it's kind of not the same? And after what happened with the show i am wary about the comics now too.

Fucking KICK forever, fuck all of you haters and shit writers of the latter seasons, and bitches i can say that because I AM A WRITER AND HAVE BEEN ONE FOR 10 YEARS, I CALL IT LIKE I DAMN SEE IT

Finally, to end this rant, I leave you with what Tomoe from Kamisama Hajimemashita (dub) once said: I AM SEETHING. SEETHING WITH PURE RAGE.

*sits back and prepares for the hate*

[runicmagitek]

Hello there! Thank you for taking the time to read this. I've long been an admirer of your work. I was wondering if you had any advice on writing? Especially for someone just new to writing? Or, like, in regards to outlining stories?

Why can’t I give hugs through the internet why. Thank you so much for such sweet words and I apologize for the wait. I spent the past couple of days concocting some writing advice for you and it turned into a thing. Hope it’s worth the wait!

I want to preface this: below is my writing process. It works for me. It may not work for all writers and I highly encourage others to figure out what does work for them. It took me several years to come to this conclusion, so don’t be discouraged if everything doesn’t click for you. Writing takes time to develop and we all learn and create differently. Try things out and see if it’s beneficial.

Also, while I know you asked specifically for writing and outlining tips for beginners, I am including editing tips. A lot of people might view writing and editing in a different light, but I believe that they go hand-in-hand; getting used to editing will help you become a better writer and vice versa. I know countless people who bang out stories and then let the drafts collect dust, because editing is daunting.

Lastly, a massive shout-out to my partner-in-crime, beta reader, and braintwin—Amie @wingsyouburn . She helped contribute to and refine this and is also a brilliant writer and has helped me become the writer I am today. Endless thanks to you, bb!

On that note, let’s jump right into this.

OUTLINING

I can’t write without some vague idea of where I’m going. It’s like having a map with you on a road trip; you might deviate from your route along the way due to pit stops or traffic or simply wanting to go the scenic route, but you at least know where your end goal is. And it can vary depending on what you’re writing. If I have a oneshot idea, maybe I jot down a sentence or two about the plot, usually with a “problem” and then a “conclusion”. For example: Character A is doubting herself and decides to vent to Character B, who offers comfort and kisses. Sometimes I jot these down if I have an idea hits me at work or in line at a café. You can always refer back to it later on. Filling in the blanks of said outline is where the fun of writing comes in!

Even for my drabbles, I will write very brief sentences of what I imagine would happen. It helps me stay concise and stick to that main point instead of meandering.

For longer pieces, I try to write out each scene I want to include. Some people I know do this by writing on notecards. I used to make a bullet list, but now I use Scrivener to map outlines. With a bullet list, you can do it like this:

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

It doesn’t need to be extremely thorough. Just get those ideas out of your head and onto paper. You can always go back and switch up the order later and if you don’t entirely know what would happen in a scene, but for example, you know the end result? You can easily write something like, “a bunch of shit hits the fan and then the gang run off into the sunset.” Maybe when you start writing, you’ll have a better idea of what shit hitting the fan includes. And when you do figure it out, go back to your outline and make a bullet under that particular scene with the details. I’ve done this plenty of times. Hell, I have an outline for a 200k story I did where the last 1/3 of the outline just never happened in my draft. A better idea came along and I went with that. And that’s ok!

Your outline is there to help you and not hurt you. It’s flexible and bare minimum, when you’re done with a story, you can look back on it and see how much you’ve evolved since your initial idea.

WRITING

Consume art. Read. Read some more. Keep reading. Watch a movie. Go to a museum. Take a walk at the park. Listen to music. So many things inspire people and the tiniest instances can spark an idea for a story. Always be open to them. Figure out what you love and what you don’t. Consume both of those. Inspiration can come even from genres we don’t particularly like. Don’t be afraid of something new. When I was in art school, we were required to take non-major studio classes. I ended up in a weaving class, filled with other textile students when all I ever knew was graphic design. I learned a tremendous amount in that semester to carry over into my graphic design work and I’m sure my peers learned a lot from me, too. That concept carries over into so many creative fields. Embrace that.

Also, if you’re the type that benefits from reading books about writing, here are some A+ resources:

On Writing by Stephen King

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg

No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury

Take care of yourself first. This tip simultaneously has nothing and everything to do with writing. For me, I have a handful of health issues. I work a full-time job. I have a ton of other hobbies that eat up my time. Before I write, I need to make sure I’m doing well before I even bother to sit in front of my laptop. I can’t be overly stressed out or in pain or distracted. Sometimes you need to calm down and relax and not write. I can’t focus otherwise and the few times I did write when I clearly shouldn’t have? It was evident in my writing and thus triple the amount of editing work. I know it’s stressful not being able to write. Trust me… I’ve been there numerous times. But I believe that in the long run, you’ll be happier with yourself and your writing if you learn to treat yourself with respect and not beat yourself up when you’re unable to write every waking minute.

Set times to write and then do it. Some people might have inspiration strike them and that’s the only time they write. Yes, that can be helpful, but there’s also something to be said about developing a schedule and sticking to it, even if you’re not motivated. So you’ve done everything mentioned above: your tummy’s full, no one is around to bother you, you got a delicious cup of something beside you, it’s your favorite weather outside, and you’re in your favorite chair. But you’re staring at your monitor and just… uuuuuugh you don’t feel motivated. You know what? Fuck it. Just write. Write something. Anything. 75% of my writing was done out of the sheer willpower. Write! Even if it’s a page, so what?! That’s a page more than what you initially started out with! Squeezing in some scribbles on your lunch break every day can add up by the end of the week. Those 30 minute sessions are suddenly 2 ½ hours!

Again during my art school days, I would be up until 4am trying to do 40 posters in time for the morning’s critique and I’d be on those last 3 poster designs and I was tired with no inspiration and ran out of fucks at 11pm, but I pushed through. You know what? My teachers and peers alike loved those 3 designs I did at fuck-this-shit o’clock. I’m serious. Every single time.

Start writing and never look back. This is your time to write. Not to edit, not to try and craft the perfect sentence Of All Time. You’re writing. You are word vomiting whatever nonsense is in your head. It’s a first draft. It’s going to be messy. It’s probably going to be shit. Who the hell cares? That doesn’t mean you or your writing is shit. Everybody, even the most seasoned writer, doesn’t write a perfect first draft and you can’t fix what isn’t written. So write, write, write! Smack your inner editor each time it tells you to go back and edit a paragraph. Disable your wifi if you think you’ll get distracted. For me, I put on some quiet, ambient music to drown out the world and go into Scrivener’s full-screen mode. I highly recommend checking libraries in your area if you want some quiet time. The librarians are also way more than happy to show you where designated quiet/study areas are if you’re not sure.

Write what YOU want to write about. Don’t write something just because it’s popular and that’s what everyone else is doing. Do it for yourself first and foremost. It doesn’t need to be for everyone, but let it be for you. It will show tremendously in your writing if you’re excited about a thing. Likewise, it’s beyond evident if you’re bored with a scene in your story. Write about what excites you and I promise your writing will display that excitement. On the same note, if you’re stuck on a scene and just don’t know what to do with it, move along. Maybe that scene isn’t needed. Skip to the next, more interesting thing. Write the story you want to read.

Incorporate your experiences. The expression “write what you know” gets tossed around with the assumption that people will go, “Ooooooh, yeah that makes sense.” Think on all your life experiences and draw upon them. You may not be the commanding officer of a prestigious military, but maybe you’ve been in a group project in school where someone needed to step up as leader in order to get shit done in time for the oral presentation. Remember your emotions during times of struggle, elation, anger, and sadness. Channel it into your writing.  

Write in chronological order. Some people have mastered the art of writing that one middle scene they’re super stoked about or writing random scenes out of time and then stitching it together later. I am not one of those people. For a beginner, it might be less daunting to write everything in chronological order. That way you can build up things like character development/growth and tension and so forth in a natural way via passing time. If you start writing a scene where the main pairing finally kiss, but don’t write the ten chapters leading up to that, it’s a lot more difficult to flesh out all that tension in one scene when you hadn’t written it yet. I’m also of the opinion that it’s better to write all the things before that One Scene you’re giddy about; it can speed up the writing process because you want to arrive at that One Scene, so hey, anything to motivate you, ya know?

EDITING

After I wrote my first novel draft after years of not writing, I had this massive feeling of, “…shit, now what?” For every single guide to editing, there’s a hundred more for writing. Editing is an extremely personal process. It took me over two years before I became comfortable with editing my own work. Let’s be honest – it’s terrifying. And I wish there was a more concise guide about it when I first started, so hopefully this helps.

I edit in rounds. My first round involves just reading, no editing. I keep a journal to take notes, mostly plot, characterization, redundancies, and cuts/additions I’d want to make. My second round combs through it to fix those bigger problems along with any glaring grammar/spelling errors and mild line edits. I will send it to a beta to read after that for additional commentary/suggestions. My third round addresses all of that on top of hardcore line edits—I want every damn sentence to be the best version of that sentence ever. One more time it goes back to the beta to nitpick the hell out of it. And my last round is spent reading what I wrote out loud. If my tongue trips over anything, I change it. Apply some spit and polish, give it some lunch and a backpack, and then off to AO3 it goes to make some new friends.

Maybe you edit in less or more rounds. Maybe you have more rounds of sending content to beta readers. Maybe you need to rewrite the whole thing three times before it ever sees a beta reader. Do what feels good to you. Only you will be able to figure it out and you won’t know until you try. I promise once you get your feet wet and test it out, you’ll feel more confident about your writing over time.

Here are some more specific tips that no one ever bothered to tell me until after the fact. These might be overwhelming for a beginner, so don’t feel the need to master these immediately. Take it one step at a time and try them when you are comfortable doing so.

Walk away from it. After finishing a first draft, let it sit. Go do something else and forget about your draft. For oneshots, I’ll go back to it after a week. For longer pieces, anywhere between 2-4 weeks. Returning to a draft with rested eyes and a fresh mind will only benefit you in the editing process. You’re still two inches away from your work when you finish the first draft. Walk away from it, come back, and then you can see more, whether it be the strong points or the holes.

Describe what is happening, not how something looks/sounds/feels. I’m sure you’ve heard of “show, don’t tell.” First off, fuck that noise when writing the first draft. Tell to your heart’s content if it means getting it on the damn page. Second off, sometimes telling can be helpful. That’s up to you to decide if it’s beneficial or harmful to your story. I typically go about “show, don’t tell” in the editing phase. Now most people will give this advice and not further explain. So here’s an example:

She was mad at him for once again not doing the dishes.

That’s not a terrible sentence. Though it to make it pack more oomph, take a step back and think. When you’re mad, what do you do? Are you clenching your jaw? Are you grumbling to yourself? Is a headache forming? And when you imagine dishes not done, what does that look like to you? Is it flies swarming around a sink? Is it overflowing from the sink? Is the sponge sitting in five day old water and reeking of mold? Is there a broken dish on the floor because a cat decided to knock it off from the stack of twenty uncleaned dishes? With that in mind, the sentence can possibly be rewritten like this:

Countless plates and silverware wobbled on one another, each encrusted with a previous night’s dinner. She drew a breath, balled up her fists, and glared at him. “Really? I gave you one job.”

Find your descriptions that are comprised of the character feeling or seeing or hearing something and reword them. Breathe life into your words. Make them paintings. I know, it’s not easy. It might even break your brain a little (mine did when I first gave this a serious go), but it will make you think differently and your writing can only grow from that.

Rephrase weaker words. I once had this assignment back in high school where we were given a hundred sentences, each one with “get” in the mix, and we had to rewrite all of them with a unique word replacing “get”. Find words like “get” and forms of “to be” and replace them with stronger words. Something like he got out of bed can turn into he rose out of bed or he jumped out of bed or he slumped out of bed. It rids the sentence of something weak and is more descriptive of what’s going on.

Another thing to look out for are verbs ending in “-ing”. She started walking over or she was walking on over aren’t as direct as she walked over. Trimming out instances like this help make the action more immediate instead of feeling like it’s going or starting or beginning to happen. Just let it happen!

Adverbs are another instance that people will suggest to cut out. They’re at least easy to find (most end in –ly) and when you do spot them, ask yourself this: is there a better word to sum up what I’m trying to express? Something like she said quietly can be she whispered or she murmured or she mumbled. Or something like they ran quickly can be they rushed or they sprinted or they booked it. These all can help get a better idea of what is going on. Plus it can help strengthen your vocabulary by searching for more ideal words!

If your vocab is shaky or you just can’t pinpoint something better, here’s a resource I use all the time. Just remember: always double check the definition of the word to make sure it fits instead of spinning the thesaurus wheel and picking at random.

Lastly, don’t feel the need to go on a witch hunt to purge your story of all of these things. Sometimes it’s best to keep that use of “to be” or that adverb, because there isn’t something better to convey what you’re describing or it distorts the flow of the narrative. And that’s completely okay. It takes time to figure this out.

Cut out redundancies. I tend to overwrite in my first drafts. Editing is where I bust out my figurative chainsaw and kill the extra nonsense. Is there a phrase you keep using over and over? Kill it. Is there a section you read that just bores you to tears? Kill it. Is there a sentence that is proceeded by a paragraph that rephrases that exact sentiment four times? Kill it. Is the process of something we as human beings understand, like opening a door, a three-sentence-long affair? Kill it.

I love poetics in stories and sometimes it can get out of hand. The more concise you are in your delivery, the clearer of a picture you will paint for the readers and the smoother the overall pacing will be.

Never delete. So with all of that in mind, please, for the love of tea and chocolate, never ever delete your work. Doesn’t matter if it’s a conversion from a first to second draft or if you end up hating it, don’t delete it. You never know if you’ll return to it five years down the road or you need to refer back to something from your initial draft when you’re on your third wave of revisions. I keep a folder dedicated to all of my writing on my laptop, which is also backed up to Dropbox. In Scrivener, you can take snapshots of your work for each new draft you start and can always revert back to older snapshots. There’s also an actual editing mode in it, but I believe it’s exclusive to Mac OS. Or if you’re using something simple like Word or Google Docs, make new documents and title them based off of your drafts. Another thing to consider is making a document strictly for lines you love but weren’t able to include in the final version. Don’t get rid of them – keep them. Maybe you revisit it and find a new story for it to fit in or perhaps that lovely line of yours sparks a new story to write. You won’t know if you delete your work.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Make writer friends. Writing is a solitary activity (well, not unless a pet decides to keep you company, but anyways). Having friends who are also writers or even enthusiastic about writing are a blessing. Bounce ideas off of them or vent to them when you hit a brick wall. Maybe said friends will turn into beta readers when you wish to cross that road. My recent writer friends are people I chatted with on comments with fics, either my own works or their stories. You don’t need to be friends with an entire fandom; find those you resonate with. I’m sure they’ll love gushing about things as much as you do.

And if you ever converse with someone who acts above you and everyone else in regards to writing? Fuck ‘em. They are not and never will be worth your time or anyone else’s.

Keep writing. Like any form of art, writing’s a craft and it will only improve the more you devote time to it. There’s always room for growth. Be humble. Accept change. Allow yourself to learn. I guarantee you that your writing will change for the better in the span of a year if you keep at it. Don’t worry about it being perfect or if it’s telling the “same story” someone else has written—you haven’t written your version of it. You haven’t added your personal touches and experiences and insights to it. Think of how many times Romeo and Juliet has been done in storytelling. People eat it up. To use the cake analogy, you might feel like you’re bringing another cake to the party when there’s already one, but others look at it and go, “FUCK YEAH TWO CAKES!” Lastly, I’ll leave you with a quote from the eternally badass Carrie Fisher, “Stay afraid, but do it anyway. What’s important is the action. You don’t have to wait to be confident. Just do it and eventually the confidence will follow.”

You got this, anon. I believe in you.

[adhdvane]

Anon back again, don't worry about delay in answer! I'm not expecting you to reply in a matter of seconds and I'm patient anyway! (●'◡'●) (and yeah, tumblr's notification system kinda suck so really, not your fault haha)

I understand your struggle with fics all too well lol I'm sure a time will come when it just clicks and you can write the good stuff ( •̀ ω •́ )✧ And no need to feel bad if you haven't posted a lot on ao3! You don't have to have 1000 fics or 200k word-long fics for your works to be enjoyable!! Even little ficlets and drabbles are good to have around ♥

It's good of you to have taken time for yourself if you needed it ♥ And yeah, completely understandable to hesitate and come back to fandom in general with the current state of things (a couple years ago I made an IE/Go sideblog and I'm still terrified that someone is going to come up and yell at me for shipping the characters lmao And that's without counting the Problematic™ fics I wrote when I was 16 lmao)

Regarding your tags, I'm just sitting there like starry-eyed because YES TenKyou. I'm DELIGHTED to know that's your preference because that's mine too for the ship asklhjkh

As for Todd and Prof Mirror, that's a tough and personal question, so good luck! (I'm thinking Todd topping's nice but does it make the prof kink better or not is the question!! ALSO in the french version, I know there's a line from Todd going like "Mirror was already being called Professor before he was a professor" so maybe he's not the only one with a prof kink, just from a different angle, hah)

(you say sorry for rambling, but joke's on you, I ramble too! Sorry for clustering your blog though woops Have a good day! (´･ω･`) )

rip, okay, once again i apologize about this one being even later, mostly bc i saw it early, but i haven't been able to sit down and respond to it. this week was the last week of the month so i actually had a lot to do at work and was able to go in every day (as opposed to 1 - 2 days bc business is still so slow). but at the end of the month i do invoicing for inventory charges for that month for each customer. though i was able to actually get a lot of it done sooner than usual (bc i actually started the process on tuesday instead of thursday), there were still three big ones i couldn't even do until thursday bc they had several orders in production that didn't get shipped until thursday. I was going to finally get to this ask on friday when i got home (we only work half days on friday and close at noon)… but the new gbf event had started… and uhg… a sho centric event. g od.

rest of the word vomit under the cut

before i just—IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ ABOUT THIS GBF RAMBLING FEEL FREE TO SKIP BELOW TO THE END THE GBF OF RAMBLE—this event askjdsjkdfslkdjsdjg talk about giving the antag his redemption art event. the emotional growth in sho. so many new assets to save… there are fricking 6 different versions of his character labeled _painful (_painful, _painful2, etc.), and like so many zoom in's that basically every one of his images has an _up version (the battle ones ((the ones of him on his gearcycle)) also have a bunch of _up2 versions that are zoomed in between the default and _up close up) anyways these in particular kill me.

sho "i'm-not-going-to-cry-or-show-expresions-of-gratitude" awkwardly smiling and crying in this event (while also repeatedly getting the shit kicked out of him/getting hurt. having a moment of breaking down from exhaustion and pain, in the rain, before deciding he has to swallow his pride. every single english word that comes out of his mouth, cv: taniyama kishou is a gift (on a side note i can't believe he fucking played alpha in chronostone. like thats fucking hilarious a va and voicalist capable of such range and drama voicing alpha and his serious monotone ass). Sho (@tsubasa): You showed me the light before—[…] Tsubasa: Wait, what? Whaddya mean I showed you the light? ((you mean when he punched you in the fucking face at the end of the previous event of this series?))). I mean I already shipped bc of the their last event, how can you not ship the guy screaming he's going to kill the protag w/the protag esp after getting punched in the face by the protag at the end makes him calm down and be like fine i guess you win i'm not going to try to kill you know and our gangs don't have to fight. also they're both like 16 (or at least tsubasa is canon 16 (a yeas totally looks like a 16 year old) and sho is at least still in school and at least confirmed to be a minor (not age of majority, which idk what that is exactly in universe, could be 18, could be 20, bc it is fantasy, but it's also japanese, thoguh japan's age of majority is actually lowering from 20 to 18 next april (2022), drinking/smoking/gambling age will still be 20, and the comment in this event was about we're still minors save the smoking for when you're an adult). sho could arguably be 18 or 19 and still believably in school and be considered a minor legally (if in universe gbf follows japanese laws) considering the time he spent in juvie he could easily have been held back. gbf will probably just make him tsubasa's age if a canon age is release. but thinking about sho being 19 and tsubasa being 16 would make some ppl upset and that brings me joy. (also just how funny it could be thinking about (bc everyone is perpetually the same age) how later when sho a year older and legally being able to drink, and tsubasa not, and despite the fact sho being like i will break the laws about physically assaulting a guy but underage drinking, smoking, and drugs is a no-no is fucking hilarious. (the app is rated t so i guess there's only so much you can do…) (oh and one last note, a character in the event asking if sho enjoys the pain and is a masochist, to have other character be like dude you can't just ask someone that. sho saying no he doesn't enjoy the pain. only for later when they are escaping, a character noting "You look rather happy about all this. Now I'm sure youre a masochist." gbf first crushing my sho masochist headcanon and then building it back up in this event, thank u gbf). anways, rip that was a lot and not even everything, as you can see i have been… distracted by this event. apologies

—END OF GBF RAMBLE—

oh god worry about ppl like that in ina like, there really people out there who don't want you shipping ficitional children?????? and the main ina cast is roughly between 12-15. and got i started watching ina in 2013 when i was 19. which apparently for some people is like bad uwu because it's a show for young teenagers (like lol too bad i'm 27 and even though i haven't kept up with aries i still love ina and all the little babies and wont stop shipping). i didn't even know there was people out there who get UPSET AT AGING UP??? like wtf???? sorry i want them to be old enough to marry, adopt children, have a job, and also f.uck. the dpk au is my lifeblood (and has a lot of Problematic™ content that's never even been posted online anywhere bc it used to be an rp. my favorite is that out of all the relationships in the au, tenma and kyousuke's is probably the most unhealthy bc of kyousuke's mental health. some very bad things happened to fei (per request of my rp partner) (part of vanfeny and garsha's revenge on saru as they were sent to megun while saru walks around ''free'' (what exactly is free is a whole other lore mess in itself that i wrote up about post chrono stone future). and that just lead to more bad things fei then did to himself. problematic™ content 9492347 in the dpk au, shipping ozrock and lalaya. (even worse, bc of lore planning i did for the au and decided how their species worked, lalaya is about 6.5 cycles (faram obius years) or roughly 130 earth years and biologically similar to 13 year earth years, and ozrock is about 48 Ixal years roughly 48 earth years and biologically similar to 24 earth years. so like even a worse ship. i mean just ignore cultural norms would be different on an alien planet and also she's royalty and has an obligation to be wed even younger and is probably socially more mature than a human 13 year old. rip sorry i just like alien stuff. a lot of this was also because wouldn't it be great for lalaya to have a really long lifespan so the human friends she makes get older faster and also die way before her :) ina's gunna hurt me with the bug aliens then i'm going to… continue to hurt myself with more alien life span stuff.)

Anyways, With TenKyou, idk I think it's easy to paint tenma as the innocent ~pure baby~ and kyousuke as ~bad boy~ bc of the first inago… and seed kyousuke was a little bastard man (affectionate). which would idk explain the default to kyouten. but like kyousuke chills the hell out in chrono stone and galaxy. and just bc tenma is a dumbass with a heart of gold obsessed with soccer doesn't necessarily mean he's has to be ~innocent baby 受け~ trope. (not that these are the only tropes that decide) (maybe it's bc i sort of like messing with what it must be like to be the main protagonists best friend and watch him continue to overcome everything and be in the spot light and how everyone praises him. kyousuke with self-esteem issues, looking back at all the problems he's caused, tenma has flaws but they're either negligible or something to love about him and mine have only hurt others. disregarding his own goddamn plot armor in the past. complex, emotional, suffering kyousuke is how i like my kyousuke. need we even get into how god eden was canonically revealed to be physically/mentally abusing seeds and that whole can of worms) (also just "nervous baby i don't know how to approach tenma" kyousuke, "cheeky little shit doesn't have any regards to personal space and boundries" tenma) at least if anyone starts giving me shit about an ina ship or problematic fictional ina content, i can always respond with something i drew back in 2015.

back to the matter of new snap though… that line is so familiar (im pretty sure it's in the eng txt, i have it set to jpn audio tho). i recently started keeping a log of the messages that pop up on the camp, lab, and map screens (but haven't saved too many bc i get distracted or at least i know i'm missing quite a few i have vague memories of). (also idk why my first thought to that line was mirror responding with "That was because you were the one calling me that.") there actually were a couple messages i saved initially that would be useful for fic writing:

Todd: "The professor used to be kinda reckless back in the day. I suppose after 10 year he must've calmed down a bit."

and

Mirror: "Todd's calmed down since I last saw him. Or maybe he's just acting mature because you kids are around…"

possible implications from these that I'm deciding to consider for headcanons:

both reckless and wild in their early 20's but that's not unusual, so they were acting like reckless young adults when they were 20. makes sense.

because mirror mentions the last time i saw him (which is definitely implied not 10 years ago since todd had a research team pin so obviously he's been around a bit since the lab was established) meaning todd is potentially still a chaotic bastard but is just trying to act like an adult in front of the kids. beautiful.

and on that note another wonderful Tood message:

Todd: "I never invited Phil to be my pupil—he just declared himself my "number one student" and started tagging along! But honestly…I was kind of flattered."

the possibility that when todd showed up in game, after that cutscene he went to talk to mirror like "this 10 year old just started following me and wont go away, pls help. what do i do?????"

this unsupervised 10 year old just followed a ~30 year old man into the wilderness and somehow just declares todd is mentor (and took the research team pin from todd to ''borrow''). this is a hostage situation. todd is the hostage.

the idea that perhaps todd just got back from a long expedition and was glad to be back and spend time with mirror, except this kid started following him around and wont leave him alone or go away, and then when he got to the lab there were two more kids there. how the fuck am i supposed to get it on with mirror when we have little alone time and when we finally do we're constantly at risk of being interrupted and/or walked-in on. (that last part was mainly the premise of the fic i wanted to write. "these kids are a handful how are we supposed to have intimate time. especially bc they're all so young and have child energy levels and when they go to bed i am already fucking exhausted." i'm thinking it might work better as like a drabble collection, that way i don't have to adhere to a plot line and can pick and choose scenarios to write because i keep winding up with more scenario ideas that i can nearly piece together into a coherent timeline anymore.)

(also a bit that rita becomes suspicious that they are 100% fu.cking even though all that happened was mirror wasn't asleep up in his bed above the lab and fell asleep in one of the bungalows w/todd and then tried to cover it up like haha what no, i was checking on todd he's not feeling well uh… what? where are my pants? oh. oh i can't believe i just totally got out of bed and left the lab without my pants haha.) (todd and mirror just trying to keep their relationship a secrete out of fear of rumors spreading and it affecting the lab's funding, even though rumors definitely started ages ago but neither of them realize). (also todd doesn't trust phil to keep his mouth shut and doesn't like the optics of the random 10 year old who started following him (UNSUPERVISED) just blabbing to his parents about how his cool mentor is dating the professor at the lab like yikes that could end badly worst case scenario.)

(i like the idea of mirror playing along with todd's ki.nk, albeit a little awkward sometimes (not very good at being intentionally 'sexy' about it, but that's not what todd wants anyways bc it's already inherenty sexy for him). Phill has a message "I barely get half the stuff the professor talks about. Do you?" and i can only image if he said that to todd

todd: （人*´∀｀）i know it's hot

phil: what)

anyways i hope you don't mind me rambling even more on your asks like this. last time i totally just cut chunks out to be smaller but this time… i'm going to leave things in rip.

[paulckrueger]

Moore rate cuts or a world of Cain?

President Trump’s Legacy on the Federal Reserve

President Trump had been presented with the opportunity to make a profound impact on the Federal Reserve (Fed). Since his election in 2016, he has had the ability to appoint new individuals for five of the seven Board of Governor seats that make up the permanent voting members of the FOMC, as well as appoint a new Fed Chair. Such an opportunity has rarely been available to a President so quickly into a first term because it is unusual for so many spots to be vacant at once. However, during the second term of the Obama administration, a number of prominent and long-standing members of the Board departed and as a result of political gridlock, the seats were left largely unfilled: no new Board members joined between July 2014 and September 2017 despite the departure of 5 members during those same years.

President Trump started to stray from tradition early by first deciding not to reappoint Chair Janet Yellen (opening up yet another spot). New Presidents have historically reappointed sitting Fed chairs for additional terms, even if the chair was appointed by a president from the opposing party (ie both President Bush and Obama appointed and reappointed Ben Bernanke while Alan Greenspan was first appointed by Ronald Reagan and reappointed by Clinton and Bush). Following the decision to appoint Chair Powell to replace Janet Yellen[1], only two of the seven seats on the Board of Governors predated Trump’s election:  the new Fed Chair Jerome Powell and Governor Lael Brainard. Since then, the President has brought on Richard Clarida, Randy Quarles and Michelle Bowman. These appointments were all broadly accepted by the economic and political majorities and were mainly bipartisan. Randy Quarles was appointed to focus on bank regulation; Michelle Bowman filled a need for a community banker and Richard Clarida who was chosen for the Vice Chair position brought experience as an established economist but also a market practitioner.  With the Board feeling fuller than it had in many years, but significantly more green, the FOMC continued on the trail previously blazed by Chair Yellen: gradual rate hikes and a slow balance sheet rundown that would be like watching paint dry. And just like that, it appeared that President Trump’s great opportunity to shake things up at the Federal Reserve had come and gone with little fan-fare. With GDP averaging 3% in 2018 and job growth averaging of over 200k per month, hardly anyone could complain – even with the Fed raising rates quarterly and slowly shrinking the balance sheet by 50 billion a month at its max pace.

President Trump has been consistently more vocal about his views on the Fed and monetary policy compared to Presidents of recent history – even when things in the economy were running relatively smoothly[2]. That being said, criticism of the Federal Reserve is not really unusual – the Fed has been a target of political critics since its creation in 1914 but has managed to credibly build independence from political influence since the Treasury-Fed accord in 1951. Trump has managed to break many unwritten rules, including tweeting about the outcome of the payrolls report (of which the President gets an exclusive early look) before it was released in June 2018[3]. President Trump’s tone really started to shift in Q4 2018 when the stock market took a dive briefly into correction territory. Since then the Fed has set forward a plan for ending the balance sheet rundown by September 2019 as well as indicated rate hikes would likely be on hold for all of 2019.  Arguably President Trump’s vocal criticism may be in itself Trump’s largest legacy on the Fed. The textbooks will debate the extent to which his words truly did impact the Fed’s decision to pivot more dovishly this year. Beyond his rhetoric, he has no direct control over the FOMC and even his legal ability to remove the Chair is questionable[4]. As Trump has admitted himself, “I guess I’m stuck with you”[5]. However, he still has two more Fed seats to fill! Trump’s nominees during the last Congress, Nellie Liang and Marvin Goodfriend, both got lost in the shuffle. This was perhaps to Trump’s advantage because both of those picks came from within the Federal Reserve system and were unlikely to provide the change of direction Trump was yearning for. Now, he has two new names: Stephen Moore, a writer and economic advisor to the President and Herman Cain, a former Presidential candidate.  For the first time, Trump’s appointments have been in line with an agenda to choose less mainstream candidates with backgrounds that are more political than academic or market focused. But even if they are confirmed by the Senate, will they be able to deliver for Trump? The short answer is it is unlikely.

Despite the Fed’s unambiguous pivot towards easier monetary policy this year, President Trump has been pressing the Fed for even more policy easing by recently stating rate cuts and quantitative easing are now needed[6]. While both nominees have criticized the Fed’s policy decisions to raise rates and run down the balance sheet last year and prefer policy to be easier going forward (in line with Trump’s view), neither Moore nor Cain’s record clearly indicates they would be willing to juice the economy in the near term with the risk of losing credibility or creating instability over the long term. Cain has been a proponent of the gold standard[7] and Moore has recently written an op-ed about a monetary policy rule based on commodity prices[8]. Neither of these ideas provides much confidence that these candidates have an understanding of the basic tenants of monetary policy or macroeconomics. What is perhaps more concerning is that while Cain & Moore were advocating for a hard money stance during the Obama administration, with the backing of President Trump they are both now advocating for easier policy; this abrupt shift highlights the political nature of their views. The political connections between the candidates and President Trump are numerous: Moore advised Cain on his 9-9-9 tax policy proposal only to later advise the President on his 2017 tax overhaul. Both Moore and Cain have been faced with intense scrutiny from politicians[9] and well-known economists[10] since their names have been brought forward suggesting that their nominations and Senate votes may not be straightforward.

It is understood that the Chair is quite influential in swaying the direction of the committee and the addition of two more members are unlikely to influence the majority – in fact, it may actually have the unintended effect of making the majority unite even more strongly. For instance, if the two new appointees were to choose to frequently dissent at FOMC decisions and serve as a mouthpiece for Trump economic policy, it is likely that other FOMC members who would have considered dissenting would refrain especially to avoid a symbolically large number of dissenters which would signal a loss of confidence in the leadership of the Chair.

Trump should not despair; the Fed has adjusted its policy in response to tightening financial conditions in Q4 and moderating growth appropriately such that the economy should continue to run strong and the cycle should extend to be the longest in history. In addition, the Fed’s current monetary policy review has the potential to set the Fed on an even more dovish path focused on boosting inflation.  Trump may end up getting what he wants – in fact, the Fed has already moved much of the way there by ending balance sheet normalization and having shifted their rate policy bias to equal likelihood of rate hikes and rate cuts. However, rate cuts will not come because Trump tweeted it or his new appointments were directed to vote for it but because the economy and the market signaled it should be so.

While my outlook on the political influences within the Federal Reserve remains relatively benign for now, the growing impact of politics on monetary policy is clear, and exemplifies our current political climate. Within not only the White House but across Congress as well, there is a growing desire to stimulate the economy in an effort to solve or mask structural economic challenges that currently exist in the United States such as wealth inequality and low productivity growth. Democratic presidential candidates and congress members are talking about MMT, the Trump administration is talking about QE infinity while even the Fed is considering a strategy to engineer higher inflation. Reflecting on the coordinated rise of all of these discussions, it is clear that the timing of these theories it is not a coincidence but a window into the issues policy makers across the developed world are grappling with.

______________

[1] https://blog.jpmorganinstitutional.com/2017/10/who-wants-to-be-the-next-fed-chair/

[2] https://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-ramps-up-criticism-of-powell-reports-2018-08-20

[3] https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-says-he-is-looking-forward-to-jobs-report-1527855202

[4] https://www.wsj.com/articles/q-a-can-trump-remove-powell-as-fed-chairman-11545871547

[5] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed-trump/trump-tells-fed-chair-powell-he-is-stuck-with-him-wsj-idUSKCN1RE2K3

[6] https://www.apnews.com/5310e8c9d20c405586737f10e24c3f52

[7] https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304070304577395891113592150

[8] https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-fed-is-a-threat-to-growth-11552518464?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=2

[9] https://www.marketwatch.com/story/herman-cain-himself-expects-cumbersome-scrutiny-if-his-fed-nomination-proceeds-2019-04-06

[10] https://archives.cjr.org/united_states_project/stephen_moore_heritage_foundation_paul_krugman_kansas_city_star.php

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