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beck-nightengale · 2 years ago

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Summer Reading/Writing/Arting Tag

Yo, I was tagged by @chennnington over here to do this thing and it does look like fun, so why not!

But I'm also going to be boring since idk who to tag, so anyone is free to fill this thing out if it hits your dashboard. ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ Go knock yourselves out.

1) Describe one creative WIP project you’re planning to work on over the summer.

Thanks to Enderal kicking my creative nuts into gear and being recently liberated from certain "game-master" obligations (long, long ass story that'd probably go over most Tumblr folks' heads, anyway), I finally started diving back into a sapphic-flavored dark fantasy book series that I'd been planning since like around 2016 or so. It was mostly born out of some frustrations with the lack of WLW in general, and while I have some WLW elements in my existing works, I wanted to write something that was more overtly WLW with a leading lady who was outgoing about her sexuality than my previous protagonists (who are either repressed as fuck or too dead to hold a relationship that would function) and wouldn't take her four dang novels to finally kiss a girl.

Anyway, Morane Soraya was created from a whole mess of complicated feelings about women in media. I describe her as a combination of Julie D'aubigny and Anne Lister, with a bit of Christina of Sweden (all of who were badass women in history. Look 'em up!). I wrote a lot about the basics of who she is/what she's all about here.

Morane is a good bean:

Book 1, Bloodtithes, will go into her venturing into a scarcely-visited icy continent to investigate a possible cure or effective treatment to the painful condition she had been forced to live with, which gives her the proficiency she has in Blood Magick (which isn't inherently evil in her world, but very often misunderstood because of its side effects). She's from a mercenary group who all share the same condition and propensity for Blood Magick, so they're interested in this so-called "cure" as well, but not many make it to this country and survive, so Morane is sent alone instead. Along the way, she meets a horned jackal-man named Darius ka Dir, and gets entangled in a plot with a strigoika named Viorica Avanas who has a whole buttload of inner demons of her own (side note: I once played Vio in Skyrim to mess around with Kaidan and they got into some... Situations).

A friend drew Darius and he has a single giant and glorious curl that he is very serious about.

I've also talked a lot about Jade for my Enderal stuff, who was already based on an existing character, and I've figured out how to work her into Morane's world. She won't factor in until Book 2, Cloverleaf, because she's essentially gonna tear down a wall and break freaking everything.

You know. Like she do.

It's still in the planning stages but I'm feeling pretty good about it.

2) Rec a book!

I just started reading Dreams of the Dying by Nicolas Lietzau, which I'm enjoying a lot, but haven't read enough yet to form a coherent recommendation on it. I just got the audiobook though so I'm looking forward to that!

Otherwise, House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski is one of my favorite novels of all time and was a major writing inspiration for me. It's creative in how it gets you to feel uneasy while you're reading the book itself, a huge mindfuck, and one of the few novels that actually made me feel a sense of dread while I was reading it.

If you'd like some seriously bonkers reading material, I'd suggest giving it a looksee.

3) Rec a fic! (outside your character tag)

Iiii don't actually read fanfiction that much, so I'm not sure if I can rec one!

On the flipside, feel free to rec me some Enderal fics (or your own, if you have any). I'll read the shit out of it.

4) Rec music!

I can't recommend Murder by Death to people enough. They're my all-time favorite band, one of the few I've ever made an effort to go see live when they were playing in my city (just before lockdown hit, no less), and deserve more love. I've been listening to them since I discovered them high school and their albums just keep getting better and better.

Also it's not hard for me to find some character-centric songs from them because the topics they write about is very versatile. I tend to think of Lost River for Jade's story, and Ditch Lilly and Rumbrave for Rey's.

5) Share one piece of advice!

Writing women! Because I guess this one needs telling as there are people who still find writing female characters daunting or somehow more difficult than it is to write men. Which, fair, I was the same way. Despite having mostly female protagonists in the novels I'd written, the dudes in my earlier stuff somehow ended up taking the spotlight and stealing most of the development. I really struggled to work through some of my own internalized misogyny and "there are no good female characters in media" mindset, and it took a lot of opening my mind up before it got easier. Now I predominately focus on writing women to be that change I want to see - this includes not killing certain ones off to enhance manpain like I used to, which I learned was called "fridging", lol.

My advice for writing them is to just write them as characters. It sounds simple and stupid, but I'm surprised how much people get wrapped up in the "she must be a strong girlboss" brainrot that they end up with a very flat, boring character that literally no one can relate to, so she still gets outshined by the dudes because the writer tried to overcompensate her badass womanliness without giving her actually compelling character traits.

I feel like one of the main reasons why I absolutely adored Ellen Ripley when I was a kid was because she was written to be a man in the first Alien movie, but they changed the character into a woman without changing the script and it just worked. I didn't know that when I was young, but finding that out just made me appreciate Ripley so much more, because the writers didn't treat her like a "strong female character" but as just a character. I think if writers approached this mindset more, we wouldn't have the "no good female characters in media issue" that doesn't need to be an issue in the first place.

These days I approach character-building by not restricting certain traits by gender, and finding a balance between strengths and weaknesses. Just shut off your critical analysis brain to create a "strong female character" and just write "strong character" instead.

I could word vomit more about my own ladies and how much I love them now than I used to but I feel like this has gone on long enough. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#tag game #writing #bloodtithes #morane soraya #darius ka dir #look at him #look at his beautiful curl #guess i can babble more about this series in the future if anyone's interested #friend's art

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queenofbaws · 2 years ago

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Do you have any headcanons for Kaylee and Caleb? I'm writing a fic about these two and the way you wrote Kaylee in my last ask was so fascinating cuz it's like the complete opposite of how I write her and now I'm just really curious about how you interpret them in your works.

kdjfhsjdkfh oh man, DO I EVER!!! honestly, a HUGE reason i started writing like wringing blood from a stone is because after playing the quarry, i just had...too many hackett headcanons and needed to put them all in one place, but ahhh i'd be thrilled to talk a bit about how i headcanon the hackett kids!!!

(fair warning, i am POSITIVE this will end up being a long, rambly jumble, haha!)

before i split them up, i just want to say that genuinely i think the most important piece of how i characterize the hackett kids is...they're best friends. while we see some (read: a lot) of friction between the rest of the hackett fam, in my heart of hearts and soul of souls, kaylee and caleb are best, best friends who would do anything for each other and always have each other's backs. i think they fight sometimes, like siblings do, but they never stay mad, and a lot of the time they rely on each other to balance each other out and keep each other in check in an otherwise dysfunctional household.

them being besties is just really important to me personally 😭

kaylee - athletic, considerate, lonely, defiant

so, obviously with kaylee, we get...just about nothing, right? very, very little. we have tidbits like travis saying she's one of the kindest people in the world, we have constance's explosive response to losing her, and we have the letter she writes to constance. for me, a lot of how i picture kaylee comes from that letter - she wants to tell people about what's going on with the family, she thinks the world will understand if only they can stop keeping it a secret, and she keeps having nightmares about the fire.

she does not, however, mention feeling any kind of guilt (past "wishing it never happened"), which i think is a very important thing to note for the hacketts in general, BUT is sort of the key aspect that i find so fucking INTERESTING about kaylee specifically. she wants out. she wants to be free of all this. she wants to be anywhere else but in hackett house...

and she's fucking angry. PERSONALLY, i don't get the sense that she's angry AT anyone in particular - she's not BLAMING constance in her letter, even acknowledges that the family's just trying to keep them all safe - but boy, she's MAD, and for me, all that stuff mashed together formed the image of a girl with a hell of a chip on her shoulder. that isn't to say i don't think she's still kind, or sweet, or any of that - i do! i do, in fact, think she's very likely the hacketts' buoy, so to speak - but i also think she's probably got...one hell of a temper on her.

so in my head, kaylee is sort of a wildcard, and a risky one to play, at that - she's the baby of the family and (judging by constance's...everything) is probably used to being spoiled to a certain degree, her desire to get away from the life they're living combined with her kind/helpful nature leads me to believe she's probably something of a people-pleaser, or at the very least, quick to try and make friends with, say, the campers/counselors...and if you cross her, she might forgive you, but she will not forget, and she probably won't feel too bad about doing whatever it takes to get even.

(sidenote: a LOT of how i headcanon kaylee aaaaaaactually depends very heavily on how i headcanon chris. i imagine the two of them are very, very, very similar. people love them! but watch out! there's something not entirely pleasant hiding juuust below the surface, if you go poking around.)

caleb - brooding, responsible, sensitive, creative

oh caleb. OH caleb. my sweet summer child.

i don't want to reduce how i characterize him by saying "whatever kaylee is, he's the flipside," but it's not TERRIBLY far off. it's not totally right, it's just not totally wrong either.

i think the trait that i hinge caleb's characterization on the most is, uh, guilt. when i think of caleb, i think a lot of guilt. different kinds of guilt, too - guilt because of what happened with silas, guilt because he was the one to bite chris and kaylee and make them sick, guilt that everything the family is going through comes from something he did when he was too young to really think it through, and just your plain old run-of-the-mill eldest sibling guilt that we're ALL dealing with and definitely not projecting onto fictional characters, right? right???? ;P hehehe

what he and kay definitely have in common, at least insofar as i see them, is that anger. that temper. i think all the hacketts have it, i just think they present it differently. so while i imagine kaylee is more prone to sudden outbursts, i feel like because of his guilt, a lot of caleb's anger is the quiet, slow-burning sort that he mostly turns inward, at himself...until the full moon. then you better watch out, you better watch out, you beTTER WATCH OUT, YOU BETTER WATCH OUT...

outside of that, though, i imagine him to be the quieter sibling, and the more even-keeled. he's sort of kaylee's edit function, and is very used to being the one who gets to cash the checks her mouth writes. since he's the older of them, he wants to be the more responsible, and he's always trying so, so hard to prove himself to the rest of the family. because of that guilt.

(sidenote related to my previous sidenote: a lot of how i headcanon caleb is, SURPRISE, based on how i headcanon travis. maybe it's just for my own fic-writing motivations, maybe it's a healthy dollop of that projection i mentioned before, but i very, VERY much imagine that the caleb - kaylee dynamic echoes the travis - chris dynamic...but since we don't REALLY see travis and chris interact much, this is just headcanon inception, huh??????)

#jeyfeather1234 #asks #the hacketts #the problem with supermassive giving us blank npcs is that i IMMEDIATELY want to write novels about them every time #IT NEVER FAILS!!!! they give me a blank slate and psychologist mode just turns on - idk how to stop it XD

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comicaurora · 3 years ago

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hey red, I wanted you to know that Aurora is a huge inspiration for me and my webcomic that I'm working on, it's really incredible. On the flipside I got really into reading this blog and the worldbuilding that's in it yesterday and now I'm doing worldbuilding for the world of my comic that is very fun but frankly NOT important to the actual story. Any tips on cultural worldbuilding that both makes sense and also remains relevant to your story?

That's great to hear!

Worldbuilding is a delightfully inescapable vortex. It's like putting together a puzzle you're drawing yourself and also there aren't any edge pieces because the ride never stops. Essentially, you have to decide which approach is better for you personally: to build a world that serves the story, or to write a story that explores that world?

If you're building a world around the story, you basically just need to focus on worldbuilding the parts that engage with the story and making sure there's enough connective tissue that the cohesive whole kinda holds together. If you just need a setting for a really cool swordfight that advances the plot from point A to point B, you can worldbuild a towering ancient ruin or a floating sky-fortress or whatever to have the fight in without having to go too in-depth on who built it and why, but you also can go more in-depth with those things if you want to make the setting more than just "place where swordfight happens." Maybe the sky-fortress is a Laputa-style ancient superweapon or the ancient ruin was abandoned after being overrun by sentient skeletons or something. Maybe you decide that an ancient group you've already worldbuilt for other plot reasons was responsible for building this too, so you can loop in whatever lore you've already made for them. The possibilities are pretty close to endless, as is always the case with fiction you're writing yourself - in this approach, the challenge is mostly making sure that the disparate chunks of worldbuilding you're shaping around the plot actually fit together cleanly, rather than clashing or leaving plothole gaps between them. For this reason, it's good to have a base skeleton of Things You Know For Sure About The World so that there's consistency between worldbuilding chunks - fundamental principles of reality, magic systems, major historical events, stuff like that. They don't need to be super detailed, they just need to serve as anchor points to hold all the story-centric worldbuilding together.

This is why some people prefer the other approach - building the whole world and then writing a story to explore it. This is a favorite of sci-fi, spec-fic in general, magical otherworld stories and almost every TTRPG ever made, as the whole premise of those genres is "what would it be like if the world looked like this instead?" In these stories you can worldbuild to your heart's content with no regard for plot or characters, since the plot and characters will arise from the exploration of that world once you've got it fleshed out. This is a great idea if the world is probably the most interesting part of the story, and a less-than-great idea if you really want the plot and characters to shine as the stars of the show. Larry Niven, prolific hard-SF writer, took this approach almost exclusively and came up with some incredibly unique settings and alien races - my favorite being Ringworld, a book entirely about exploring an ancient alien megastructure rotating around a star. It has characters, but, like, barely. They're just a vehicle to explore the worldbuilding, and it is some very cool worldbuilding.

This approach is a good way to get a very cohesive world that fits together well, but it also runs the risk of getting away from you. Anchoring the worldbuilding into a linear plot or single region or relatively small cast of main characters lets you stay focused on what actually matters for the story you want to tell, rather than burning years or even decades building out the tiny fractalized details of what exactly this long-extinct civilization wore on their second-best festival days. Coherent large-scale worldbuilding is fantastic if you're designing an open-world game or setting - Breath of the Wild's worldbuilding is a standout example of this, as the entire map and the items/creatures in it paint a very beautifully detailed picture of this environment and what happened in it, from ancient ruins with several very visually distinct architectural styles, to a fireball-slinging wizzrobe hanging out in a burned-out village, to a massive tree that collapsed down the side of a hill, to a huge fuckoff hole carved through a whole-ass mountain, to the battlefield Link later finds out he died in being absolutely carpeted in an army of completely destroyed inert Guardians, cluing us in that whatever battle went down here was rather more crazy than what went down in the other battlefields we pass through, where only a few guardians are scattered around and some sneaky ones are actually still active. The world isn't just there to serve the linear narrative of the main questline, it's there to present the player with a very big picture and let them piece it together themselves.

For a game as freeform as Breath of the Wild, this is a great call. For a linear written narrative with only one plot, it's completely unnecessary. It's best to find what balance works well for you so you can stay focused on the point of the story without getting bogged down in the stuff that ultimately won't matter. Worldbuilding can also be super fun, though, so like - do whatever makes you happy, really.

#asks #worldbuilding

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hiccanna-tidbits · 4 years ago

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this is a genuine, curious question! what's appealing 2 u about jackunzel :^] ??

Sure, I can talk about why I ship Jackunzel!!!

@gryffindorkxdraws has some posts about why she likes Jackunzel here, here, and here, so those are a pretty good rundown of reasons to supplement mine. But I’ll make a list of my own!

Why Jackunzel Owns My Entire Soul: An Essay in Disorganized Bullet Points ~I dig the sun/moon symbolism! Like Jack was chosen by the moon and Rapunzel has the powers of the sun. It’s such a nice contrast, and it also lends itself really well to star-crossed lover-type fantasy/fairy tale AUs (which I am ALWAYS a sucker for!) ~From what little we know about Jack’s preference in girls (i.e. the slight crush he seemed to have on Tooth), Rapunzel seems like EXACTLY his type--bubbly, energetic, optimistic girls with a bit of a maternal streak. I think even the RotG director confirmed Punz is the kind of girl Jack would like! ~Jack also absolutely seems like Punzel’s type--if Flynn/Eugene is anything to go by, she’s kind of into sarcastic troublemakers with a hidden soft side XD And she also seems to like guys who are good with kids, if Eugene reading “The Adventures of Flynnigan Rider” to the younger kids at the orphanage is anything to go by! ~They both seem to be naturally pretty social people who suffered a lot from being isolated for a really long time--Jack had it worse, obviously (300 years--OUCH), but it was rough on Punz as well, growing up for 18 years with no one for company but Mother Gothel and Pascal. Jack, spending all that time with no one able to see him and only the guardians (who weren’t even really his friends from much of that time) for company, would understand that pain a lot. I feel like they’d be able to connect on a really deep and intimate level about the pain they felt at being isolated for so long, and this would give them a really strong bond that I can easily see turning into something romantic. ~They’re both just such genuinely lively and fun-loving people, and I can imagine them having a ton of fun together and just genuinely really enjoying spending time together. Like imagine the snowball fights!!! The ice-skating!!! The sledding!!! Chasing each other through the forest!!! Jack grabbing onto Punz and her wrapping her hair around a tree and swinging them around Tarzan-style!!! Like literally the entire scene where Punzel leaves her tower for the first time and is goofing off and doing Silly Shit for like an hour straight??? Like man...if Jack was there, they’d have the TIME OF THEIR LIVES together. Idk I just really love couples who I think would have a lot of fun together, it’s so pure <3 ~They’re both so loving!!! Like Rapunzel goes out of her way to be supportive to an entire tavernful of terrifying “ruffians and thugs” because they have dreams, and she’s so sweet to Flynn/Eugene no matter how many times he snarks at her and tries to alienate her!!! And Jack loves loves LOVES entertaining kids, and it genuinely makes him so happy to give them snow days :3 I just feel like they’d shower each other with love, and it’s honestly no less than they both deserve!!! ~Rapunzel especially is such an affectionate person, and I can see her doing just absolutely everything in her power to make Jack feel as seen and as loved as possible after 300 years of being alone. And god, does he NEED it, too. Like no way is this boy NOT touch-starved, and with some MAJOR self-esteem issues (although he’s good at hiding them). Rapunzel would do absolutely everything in her power to build him up and make him feel wanted and validated--and since it’s in her nature to do so, it would never feel like a burden or an effort for her. And she’d love him so much that hyping him up just comes naturally! She’s just got the kind of nurturing personality that someone as affection-starved as Jack really needs, and I think she could help him feel safe, comfortable, and loved in a way a lot of people couldn’t. ~For all the fun they’d have together, I also feel like Jack needs someone to ground him a bit and provide the Brain Cell to perhaps reign in that Unchecked Chaotic Energy of his sometimes XD Rapunzel certainly has a smart and rational side--I mean, she charted STARS as a teenager!!! She figured out how to get this stranger she captured to take her into the kingdom to see the lanterns!!! Girl can be spontaneous and goofy, sure, but she’s got smarts and kind of a mature streak that I think mesh with Jack really well. He’d never feel like she was a wet blanket stifling his fun, but she’d also have a sense of when to transition away from goofing off and focus on responsibilities (princess and guardian responsibilities in this case, I suppose?) ~On the flipside, I don’t see Rapunzel as being someone annoyed or irritated by Jack’s antics. She might like...gently scold him if he takes a prank too far, but she never finds his shenanigans to be grating and tiresome the way other people might. Rather, I think she’d be endlessly entertained by him. Like in his memory reel when he’s dicking around pretending to be a deer, she’d get a kick out of that! Jack would always be trying to make her laugh and make her smile, and Punz would love that so much about him! ~They’re both searching for a deeper meaning and a deeper sense of purpose in their lives. Rapunzel entertains herself with hobbies, but doesn’t feel like her life has really “begun” and is desperate to find out if her hunch is right and the floating lights really ARE meant for her. Jack has no idea why he was chosen by the moon or what he’s meant to do, and he’s determined to find out so he can finally have a sense of purpose. Rapunzel clearly wants a sense of purpose too, since she wants to do more with her life than pass the time with hobbies. I can definitely see them bonding over this! ~They’re both just so adventurous, and love to explore! Rapunzel is curious, and loves to read and learn, and she wants more than anything else to see the world and all it has to offer. Jack loves adventuring and flying around the globe spreading winter and fun, and he could show Punz everything she ever wanted to see. A perfect match, honestly! ~Aesthetically I LOVE the similarities!!! Like they both like to go barefoot, kinda showing their free-spirited natures. And I love how they’re both naturally brunette, but had their hair turned a different color by magic. It’s a little thing, but I think it’s a really neat parallel and it helps cement me thinking they really ARE perfect for each other in every little way! Haha XD AND they both have small green companions, and as of Ralph Breaks The Internet, they’re hoodie buddies as well!!! Not that surface-level parallels like that are actually that significant BUT I just think they’re neat XD ~While I am fond of Flynnzel/Eugenzel (still my favorite canon Disney couple!), finding out their age gap is around 8 years admittedly made me a bit uncomfy and just pushed me further into loving Jackunzel as an alternative option. I still really love Eugene as a character and adore his and Punzel’s dynamic, but these days I prefer their relationship as more of a big bro/little sis type thing. Jack I think is the best match for Rapunzel romantically, and Eugene I prefer with Elsa--or poooossibly Tooth, Astrid, or Zarina, if I read a fic that sells the pairing well enough! ~On a related note, I was into Jack x Tooth the first time I watched RotG, but after discovering Jackunzel, there was no going back--I was hooked! Rewatching the movie, Tooth strikes me more as a mom figure/”fun aunt” for Jack, and I actually prefer her with Bunnymund (I am WEAK for “the grumpy one is soft for the sunshine one” lmao)

Well, I think that just about covers it!!! I’ll add more reasons if I think of them! Thank you for the ask, and I’m always happy to answer more ship asks about CGI crossover pairings :3

Also @ the anon who asked for Jackunzel headcanons--fear not, I shall provide them!!! I just wanna make a complete list and accumulate all the ones from my various fics so it’s gonna take a while XD

#jackunzel #jack x rapunzel #rapunzel x jack #jackxrapunzel #rapunzelxjack #jack frost #rapunzel #rotbtd #rise of the brave tangled dragons #the big four #rise of the guardians #tangled #crossover #my askbox

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reyescarlos · 4 years ago

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all through the night || a tarlos fic

❄️ @911giftexchange fic for @buckieys ❄️

happy holidays, sy! i'm wishing you a wonderful and prosperous new year. i hope this fic helps to usher in 2021 right!

word count: 5.2k || read on ao3

All through the night I'll be awake and I'll be with you All through the night This precious time when time is new

When Carlos envisioned winter in New York, his elaborate fantasies had somehow managed to eclipse the reality of what it might actually entail. He had enjoyed his brief stay, taking in the window displays along Fifth Avenue. It had long since been something he wanted to see for himself and the storefronts had more than delivered. But on the flipside of such a picturesque scene has come the downside of what heavy amounts of snow could mean.

It’s why he finds himself now planted in a too hard seat at JFK Airport, wondering how he’ll possibly fill his time now that his flight has been delayed until morning. Outside the blizzard rages on with no real end in sight and Carlos mulls over the merits of his decision to leave Texas in the New Year and make this city his home. This is a far cry from Austin. He’d once thought winter temperatures there could be bad but it’s been nothing compared to the arctic blast in the North.

He tries to keep busy with a book but his attention is split between the words before him and the cute guy across from him frantically digging inside his backpack, a phone teetering dangerously on his knee.

“God, where is that stupid thing,” the man mumbles to himself. “Come on charger, where are you?”

Carlos looks away, burying his head in his book to hide the smile that breaks out on his face. The guy is obviously peeved but Carlos can’t help but to find his muttering endearing. After another moment of fruitless searching on the stranger’s end, Carlos takes mercy on him.

“Here, you can borrow mine,” he says, unzipping his own backpack and fishing out his charger.

The man sighs in relief. “Thank you. I really appreciate it,” he replies, reaching over and taking the cord from Carlos.

He settles back and plugs it into the wall, the screen lighting up a moment later. Carlos smiles politely and gets back to reading, only to be interrupted.

“So, I take it you’re heading down to visit family before the new year comes, huh?” the stranger says.

Carlos looks up from his book, head tilting slightly. It hadn’t been expecting the man to strike up a conversation.

“Sorry, awkward small talk. I’ll let you get back to it,” he says, face scrunching as he gestures to the book in Carlos’ hands.

Carlos waves him off, bookmarking his page and closing it.

“No worries. We’re here all night so...plenty of time for that.” He licks his lips and drums his fingers against the front. “To answer your question though, no. Austin is actually my home so I’m just heading back.”

“Oh, cool. I’m going to see my dad. I thought he’d want to do the whole white Christmas, New York for the New Year thing but ever since he moved down to Austin last year, I think he’s gotten spoiled by the warmer weather.”

The man looks out of the window where the snow is swirling so heavily it’s hard to even see the sky or planes sitting idly on the tarmac.

“Guess I can’t exactly blame him.”

Carlos laughs. “It’s disgustingly cold here and all of that,” he says, gesturing to the storm, “doesn’t help. I don’t know how you guys manage.”

“You get used to it. I’ve only ever grown up with it so while I like to complain about the snow at times, I can’t picture this time of year without it. It’s been a few years since it’s been this bad though, I’ll admit.”

Carlos smiles a bit, looking out of the window briefly. “This is actually my first time experiencing snow. And the city was gracious enough to give me a blizzard to commemorate.”

The man smiles at this thoughtfully. He sits up, stretching his hand out across the aisle towards Carlos.

“I’m TK, by the way.”

Carlos touches his fingertips to his forehead before shaking TK’s hand.

“God, my mother would be so ashamed of my manners right now,” he laughs. “I’m Carlos. It’s nice to meet you.”

He lets go, his palm feeling extremely warm from TK’s touch. TK smiles at him, a slow grin that ultimately reveals his teeth. This man is very good looking, there’s no denying that. He’s got an easy way about him that makes Carlos feel comfortable in his presence as if they’re old friends catching up and not perfectly good strangers meeting for the first time.

TK’s phone buzzes, stealing his attention and Carlos is all too grateful for it. TK types something on the device for a few seconds before pausing.

“Sorry, excuse me for a second,” he says, putting his phone to his ear.

Carlos nods and gestures for him to go for it.

“Hey, Dad. I—,” TK starts out but stops short as his father speaks. “I bet it’s all over the news but I’m alright. Not looking forward to being stuck here overnight but,” he continues, his eyes landing on Carlos and away so quickly Carlos is sure he’s imagined it. “I guess there are worse ways to be trapped for a few hours.”

Carlos looks away then, cracking open his book again to keep himself occupied while TK chats with his father. He tries not to dwell heavily on TK’s look or what the implications of that glance could mean. It could’ve been a coincidence and nothing more. All the same, it doesn’t make his heart race any less to think that TK feels a spark too.

TK ends the call with a sigh, stretching out his legs before bouncing one of them. The gesture is distracting but endearing. For the second time, Carlos closes his book, this time putting it back into his bag for good as TK speaks to him again.

“Are you hungry? I could go for a bite.”

“I could eat,” Carlos says. He rises from his seat as TK does, both men dragging their carry-ons along with them.

They follow the winding path down from their gate, Carlos taking notice of all the fellow flyers now forced to wait out the storm. Some have taken to stretching out on the ground, laying on top of jackets like makeshift sleeping bags, others keeping busy with phones and tablets, hunched over in chairs.

Carlos isn’t looking forward to the uncomfortable sleep he’ll have tonight but as he looks over at TK, he wonders just how much rest he’ll actually manage to get. The guy is already proving himself to be a good way to pass the time and Carlos can’t say he wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to keep chatting with him.

As they approach the cluster of food stands, TK groans and it’s easy to see why. Many of the shops are already closed, no doubt the employees hurrying home before the worst of the storm kicked in. All that’s available now is Cinnabon but Carlos supposes that can suffice as dinner.

TK orders a hot chocolate and a classic roll while Carlos opts for a cold brew in addition to a roll as well. TK eyes the drink with raised brows.

“I’m fully committing to the cause of being awake until we board, apparently,” Carlos muses, pushing his straw through the lid and taking a sip. “Worth it.”

The two head to a nearby empty table, settling into their elevated seats before unloading their food. The scent coming off the baked goods is incredible and Carlos’ stomach suddenly feels desperate for a bite.

“So, Carlos, since we’ve nominated each other for the buddy system while we wait this storm out,” he jokes, “Why don’t you tell me more about yourself?”

Carlos drums his fingers on the tabletop as he tries to decide what to share.

“Well, you already know that Austin is where I’m from but the whole reason I’m even here now is because I’m going to be moving to New York soon. I’ll be transferring next month.”

TK’s brows raise. “Seriously? That’s awesome. Do you mind if I ask what you do?”

“I’m a police officer. I’ve been with the Austin Police Department for a few years but I’ve been considering leaving Texas for a little while now and I’ve been exploring my options. For some reason my mind kept coming back to the idea of New York and I figured I should just take the chance and see what happens.”

TK laughs and shakes his head. “Oh man, well, we have something in common, more or less. I’m with the NYFD myself.”

Carlos holds up a hand. “Wait, wait, wait. You’re a firefighter?” he laughs.

TK puffs out his chest jokingly and nods with a grin on his face. “That’s right. Ladder 252.”

Carlos does his best to push the image of TK in uniform from mind but the picture is an appealing one. He can see it so clearly, the way he’d look in suspenders, not to mention full gear. It’s almost unfair just how much hotter the man becomes as if Carlos hasn’t spent this whole time finding him attractive. He picks up his drink again for something to do with his hands, swirling the straw inside of the cup.

“Small world. Outside of my own little bubble, I can’t say I casually meet many people who are first responders. We seem to be a pretty special breed to get into this line of work.”

TK laughs. “I fell into this because of my dad. He’s been a firefighter for years. He, uh, actually was on site during 9/11. I always thought he was incredible but knowing the full scope of what he and so many others did that day and for people in times of crisis, big and small in general, it just made me want to be like him.”

Carlos frowns, unsure of what to even say or think. “Your dad’s a hero.”

“I like to think so.” TK draws in a breath, squaring his shoulders. “Anyway, now he’s kicking ass down in Texas so, even though I miss him as my captain, I know he’s doing great work with his crew down there.”

Curiosity gets the better of Carlos as he asks, “What station is he with?”

“The 126,” TK replies, taking a sip of his hot chocolate.

Carlos’ eyes widen. “Captain Owen Strand is your father?”

It makes sense the longer he looks at TK. Captain Strand is an attractive older guy and TK clearly got handed some solid genes. Still, it throws him for a loop to realize they have a legitimate connection to each other.

TK tilts his head to the side. “You know him? Shit, okay, wow, small world just got a whole hell of a lot smaller.”

“Unbelievable,” Carlos laughs in disbelief. “I don’t know him that well but we work together sometimes on calls. He’s amazing in the field and he’s really turned that station around.”

TK practically beams. “Guess this means we’ll be seeing each other again soon once we finally make it to Austin then.”

“Uh, yeah. I guess so. Assuming you don’t get sick of me before this night is through, that is.”

TK holds Carlos’ gaze for a moment and if it were anyone else, it would be unnerving but something in TK’s stare just sends a thrill through Carlos, excites him in a way no stranger has ever really gotten under his skin.

“I don’t see that happening,” he says plainly, as if this is an irrefutable fact and not something that’s truly subject to change.

Carlos doesn’t argue the point. He merely enjoys the next few hours, seeing just how easily TK’s theory pans out.

~*~*~

The contrast in weather between New York and Austin is one of the first things Carlos’ remarks on as he steps outside of Austin-Bergstrom. He’s never been more grateful for a forty degree afternoon. He’s kept Michelle updated about his new set time and he waits patiently outside of arrivals. Beside him now, TK types out a message on his phone before smiling over at him.

Carlos has had hours to get used to that look on TK’s face and yet he’s still brought up short. Last night and the early morning hours were spent talking to TK about everything imaginable, trading stories about crazy calls they’ve been on and even touching on personal things like their families. When they grew tired of talking, they watched movies on TK’s laptop, fighting off the urge to sleep for the mere sake of hanging out.

It isn’t rare for Carlos to become friendly with a person but this connection to TK feels different in a way he can’t quite parse.

By the time their flight boarded, Carlos knocked out for the entire length of the trip but it had been worth it in his eyes to stay up and take advantage of the uninterrupted time that stretched before him with TK. It was safe to say a bit of a crush had formed, as absurd as Carlos felt for it. TK was going to be in town for the next few days and that prospect was both thrilling and terrifying. If he could feel this close to TK in one night, there’s no telling what could happen in a few days.

Before he can get lost in that thought, Carlos sees Michelle as she pulls up to the curb, the trunk popping open.

“Are you good out here?”

“My dad’s coming in just a minute. I’ll be just fine,” TK muses as Carlos puts his carry-on inside and slams the trunk shut.

“Alright, well. You have my number now so text me whenever you’re free. I’ll show you a few places while you’re here.”

Carlos extends his hand but TK rolls his eyes jokingly and pulls him into a half hug instead.

“We’ve spent the night together, Carlos. I think we’re past handshakes now.”

Carlos’ face burns with TK’s wording but the man merely laughs.

“See you soon?”

Carlos just nods and finds the wherewithal to get inside of Michelle’s car. He waves after he buckles himself in, TK lifting a hand in response.

“Okay, who is that?” Michelle asks immediately, head turned to take in the sight of TK.

Carlos tips his head back against the seat. “You won’t believe the night I’ve had.”

~*~*~

Carlos has spent two days showing TK some of his favorite stomping grounds. TK relished in all that Austin had to offer and Carlos has been happy to see that their closeness from the unexpected overnight at the airport hadn’t been a fluke. If anything, these outings have only made Carlos feel closer to TK.

Michelle has been relentless in her teasing, finding it all too amusing that Carlos managed to cross paths with Captain Strand’s son of all people. She’d clung to his every word during the ride home from the airport as he filled her in on how he waited out the storm.

The 126 meets at their usual bar and Carlos is glad for this post-work gathering. It’s the perfect time to show TK what a real honky-tonk is like, further immersing him in the culture of the state his father now resides.

TK sits next to him at the table, the large group so packed in that his leg presses against Carlos’. It’s light but it’s enough to make the point of contact all Carlos can focus on even as everyone else at the table engages in conversations that overlap, laughing amongst themselves. He does his best to ignore it but it’s difficult not to take notice of each shift TK makes. Michelle keeps looking at him and Carlos, to the best of his abilities, avoids her gaze knowing that it’ll make it just that much more difficult to act as if he isn’t freaking out internally.

“I’m gonna get another. You want anything?” Carlos asks TK.

TK shakes his head. “No, I’m alright but thank you though.”

Carlos nods once and gets up, finding it much easier to breathe already now that he’s no longer sitting beside TK. Michelle catches his eye as he leaves from the table and he can hear her shoes as she follows behind him to the bar. She rests against the counter facing the room at large as Carlos gets the attention of the bartender and asks for another beer.

“You sure know how to pick them,” Michelle laughs at his side.

“Chelle,” he groans, shaking his head.

She merely laughs again, bumping her hip against his. “When did your life become a romantic comedy?”

“I must’ve missed the memo myself because this sure snuck up on me.”

The bartender sets a bottle down in front of him but Carlos doesn’t move. This little reprieve away from everyone but Michelle right now is welcome.

“I like him. He’s nice. Really cute too.”

“Oh, so you’ve noticed?” he deadpans, looking over his shoulder at TK.

He looks so at home here, hanging out and laughing with these people he’s, up until now, only known secondhand from his father’s work stories. TK is personable as ever, Carlos knows all too well. Had he not been swept away after one night in the man’s company?

“I think this is so great.”

“Funny, I think it’s the universe trying to mess with me.”

Michelle scoffs, finally turning to face the bar like him. “There are worse things in the world than a seemingly perfect guy practically falling into your lap. We should all be so lucky.”

Carlos casts the mental image aside, taking a sip of his drink. “The timing though. I can’t think about guys right now. I need to be figuring out my next set of moves for New York.”

“If those plans just so happen to include an attractive new friend…,” she trails off with a grin.

“I don’t know. I don’t want to screw this up because yeah, he is a new friend and we get along well, it’s a good feeling.”

“Do you like him?”

Carlos falters. “I barely even know the guy.”

“That’s not even remotely close to what I asked you.”

Carlos scratches at his forehead before letting out a sigh. “I do. Which hardly makes any sense at all. It’s only been a few days and yet I can’t stop thinking about him. That’s strange, isn’t it?”

Michelle shakes her head. “No, actually. I don’t think so. You guys had such a cute introduction to each other and you clearly hit it off. Some people just click and are meant to meet. The fact that you two had a connection to each other beforehand without even knowing it? I think there’s something to be said for that.”

“What, you think it’s fate or something?”

Michelle shrugs. “I wouldn’t rule it out. Your flight could have been a day earlier or even a few hours before his. On a plane filled with hundreds, you connected with him, Captain Strand’s son who just so happens to live in the city you’re about to move to. I think it’s worth seeing just how far it could go. If you ask me, you’ll wind up with a boyfriend in no time.”

Carlos mulls it over for a moment. He can admit he is in fact curious. It’s been a while since he’s felt this drawn to someone and with TK, it’s been as natural as breathing since they first met. The timing is less than ideal but it’s been so long since Carlos has felt this urge to get close to someone, since he’s felt safe enough to even open his mind and heart up to the possibility.

“Maybe you’re onto something.”

“One of these days you’ll learn to just accept my brilliance, no questions asked. But this will do for now.”

Carlos rolls his eyes but drapes an arm over her shoulder, pulling her into his side and kissing her temple.

“I’m going moments like this with you,” he says.

Michelle sighs and pats his back. “I will too but we still have time on the clock, right? Let’s not think about that now.”

Carlos sighs, knowing she’s right. It just feels as if these moments are slipping through his fingers, the new year and all its changes lurking just around the corner.

~*~*~

As customary, the Ryder house is the staple for parties among the team and New Year’s Eve is no different. Carlos has lost track of how many times he’s sat on their couch or been treated for Grace’s incredible home-cooking. It’s always been a source of comfort for him, being surrounded by these colleagues who have become an extended family to him.

This time next year, he’ll be in another time zone, familiarized with a new group of people. Carlos knows he’s jumping the gun. There’s no doubt in his mind that he’ll be able to visit back home and that this collection of people will still love him as they do now.

Carlos looks around the living room, taking stock: Marjan blowing into a noise maker in Mateo’s face and bursting into laughter, Paul shaking his head and dropping his face into his palm. Over by the kitchen he sees Grace and Judd swaying to the music playing as Captain Strand takes Michelle’s hand and begins dancing alongside the other couple. It warms Carlos’ heart and breaks it too, seeing this all for what will be the last time with this city being home.

Suddenly the room feels too small and he finds himself heading for the door, grabbing his jacket off of the coat rack. It’s cold out but Carlos remembers just how bitter the weather in New York was. This is nothing compared to that. And it’s this thought that twists at his heart a bit more, one more reminder of how much his life is set to change sooner than he thinks he’s ready for.

The new year is biting at his heels and time is just slipping by. Logically he knows that he shouldn’t be outside now, that he would be wise to savor these memories with his Austin crew while they’re here rather than lament later. But it all feels like too much and the last thing he wants is to let his pensive mood be a dark cloud over a celebratory and joyous time.

Carlos keeps walking until he reaches the park nearby the Ryder household. Naturally it’s abandoned as everyone is tucked away inside their homes either enjoying a quiet night in or throwing parties like the Ryders. Carlos draws in a breath and takes a seat on one of the swings, his fingers clutching on to the links. He quickly stands up the second he hears footsteps approaching, a figure walking towards him.

“It’s just me,” comes TK’s voice and sure enough the man’s features come into focus the closer he gets until he’s settling into the swing beside Carlos.

“I saw you take off. I just wanted to check that you were okay.”

Carlos smiles a bit. “I appreciate it. I’m okay. I’m just...thinking about a lot right now.”

TK sways on his swing, letting a comfortable silence fall between them before he speaks.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Carlos’ heart and thoughts feel so heavy now, such a contrast to how lighthearted and hopeful this holiday is meant to be. But TK looks at him with such genuine care that he finds himself almost desperate to unburden himself a bit.

“Sometimes I wish I could just stop time, you know? But hell, it’s New Year’s Eve. What more proof do I need that life is always moving forward?”

Carlos sighs and rocks slightly back and forth.

“I’m sorry. I’m not trying to be a downer. You should head on back inside, have fun with the others.”

TK is silent beside him, long enough for Carlos to pull his gaze toward the other man. TK is eyeing him thoughtfully.

“You’re scared about what comes next. That’s totally normal. Moving away, starting a new life somewhere else, it’s a big step. A huge change.”

Carlos frowns as he nods. “I wish I could see the end, you know? I wish I could see if it’s all worth it, that I’m making the right choice.”

TK hums in thought. “Well, the best way out is through, right?”

“So you don’t think it’s a mistake to move out to New York?”

TK shrugs. “I don’t know you well enough to say one way or the other for sure. But no, I don’t think it is. I think the fact that you’re even considering it at all should tell you something about how you feel about where you are now.”

Carlos grows quiet, considering the man’s words. But TK isn’t done dishing out his opinion.

“You’ve got an amazing team here, there’s no denying that. It’s a real family, not to mention your actual family is here too. But—and mind you I’m super biased here— New York is an amazing place to be, to live. If you’re feeling restless in Austin, I think New York is the perfect alternative.”

Carlos laughs at this. “So, so biased,” he muses.

TK jokingly puffs up his chest. “Hey, it’s not my fault people have written songs about it and flock to it from all corners of the world,” he jokes. “And all of them, like you would, find home.”

A soft sigh escapes Carlos’ lips as he grips the chain link of the swing.

“That does actually sound pretty nice. I’d miss everyone here like crazy but maybe it’s time for something new? I don’t know. I keep waiting for something extraordinary to happen but nothing ever really changes around here. And there’s nothing wrong with that, of course. I just—“

“You’ve outgrown it,” TK says simply. “And there’s nothing wrong with that either.”

Carlos smiles at him and nods. “I suppose not, no.”

“At least you’ll come to the city knowing someone; you won’t be alone or completely starting from scratch.”

“You? You would take that on?”

TK rolls his eyes. “Of course me. You think I’d leave you high and dry? Damn, I know New Yorkers have a bit of a rep but jeez,” he teases.

Carlos laughs. “I only meant...you barely even know me. You don’t owe me anything.”

“Maybe so but I’d like to get to know you better. And if we’re gonna be calling the same city home, it’s kind of perfect. You get a new job, a new city, a new friend. Pretty sweet package, if you ask me.”

“You’ll be my tour guide then? You can take me to all the hot spots, Central Park and Times Square for starters.”

TK shakes his head in dismay. “God, Times Square,” he groans. “Hell on earth but sure, just for you I’d make the exception.”

“I’m honored,” Carlos says, placing a hand over his heart.

“As you should be. There aren’t many reasons I’d willingly go there so you should be patting yourself on the back right now.”

Carlos raises a brow. “But you’re thinking I’d be worth it?”

TK’s face grows serious. “In a lot of ways I’m thinking you would be, yes.”

Carlos' face flushes a bit and he looks away, down at his feet as he begins to kick out in earnest to start swinging.

Not for the first time since meeting TK he isn’t sure if there’s more to his words just below the surface, if he’s flirting or just being naturally charismatic. It shouldn’t matter either way, Carlos tells himself. Starting up a new relationship when so much in his life is already about to change doesn’t seem smart.

And yet it’s difficult to bear that in mind when he looks over and sees that TK is still watching him. The man smiles softly and follows Carlos' lead, swinging a bit.

In the distance Carlos can hear the rise in voices from houses where everyone is celebrating, just waiting to usher in the new year.

“One minute to go,” TK says, looking at the time on his watch and digging his feet into the ground to stop himself.

Carlos keeps going, breathing in the last dregs of this year before it’s gone with the tick of the clock. He looks up at the pinpricks of stars above, almost glistening in the clear sky. He closes his eyes, soaks in the moment, the last few seconds of this year winding down.

The New Years party goers can be heard shouting their countdown and beside him, TK joins in quietly as well.

Carlos opens his eyes once more and holds his breath as he upward, counting down the last few seconds in his head. This year is going, going...

Gone.

He exhales as shouts from the neighboring houses rent the air. He stops swinging then, digging his feet into the hard earth beneath him as he looks over at TK. Beside him the man’s face is flushed, the tip of his nose pink from the cold but his gaze is unrelenting as he leans forward.

Carlos’ body seems to move on its own accord, closing the distance between them as well. He doesn’t think about anything other than what TK’s lips will feel like and before he realizes it, he’s getting his answer.

It’s a chaste kiss, truly just a meeting of mouths in a gentle press but it warms Carlos from the center all the way through his entire body. TK’s lips are soft and warm despite the cold.

“Happy New Year, Carlos,” TK says softly.

Carlos doesn’t have the slightest clue of what the road ahead will look like exactly but it’s enough to know that in some capacity, TK is going to be a part of it. Be it as a friend or something more, it makes Carlos hopeful to see how life will unfold, what other surprises it may have in store.

Carlos stares at him for a moment and it seems as if TK and the whole world is holding its breath as they sit in silence together. This feeling in his chest is so unlike anything Carlos has experienced before. He likes to think things through, to anticipate at least three steps ahead but his future is such a blank slate that it’s truly anyone’s guess as to what will happen next. All he can do is control this present moment and as Carlos sees it, kissing TK is the only thing on his agenda for right now.

He leans in again and kisses the man once more, deeply this time, hand cradling the back of TK’s neck.

Maybe this is risky, maybe this will only complicate his life further when he settles in New York and has to figure out what this all means. But in this moment, that all feels like a lifetime away, a page from a chapter that hasn’t been written yet. There’s only the here and now with this beautiful man that fills him with possibilities.

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yellowocaballero · 4 years ago

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ok so I know you said you weren’t gonna explain daisy and then you did, and I want u to know I love when you explain your stories, almost as much as the stories themselves. I both envy and admire the way you think about characters and the way you build your stories and put all these elements together. bc this was a silly story and I laughed almost the whole way through, but there were moments with genuine meaning (ok gertude and jon conversation and about being a very nice boy and all that really got me bc like when am I not having feeling about jon lmao). So then I have Many Feelings about this silly story that are both heartfelt and just pure amusement and I go to you tumblr and then you talk about this story in a way that just makes me love it more. I think it’s bc you write stories where the pov is generally from only one character and when I read the story it’s like I can tell the other characters are having thoughts and feelings deep enough as the pov character, but for the most part, these rich inner lives or just lives separate from the pov character can’t really be perceived. Like it’s all there, but bc we are only seeing it from one characters pov, then there are things we aren’t going to see. And that’s really cool bc like, your characters are real enough that even tho things aren’t outright stated, I can tell there is so much happening “behind the scenes” so to say. It’s neat bc to read what your processes that went into writing a story is satisfying bc it’s like, ok here is what’s happening without the unreliable narrator. Idk as someone who is perpetually confused on why people do what they do (even myself sometimes lol), I like coming here where you explain things so well. Idk this is getting too long so just gonna say that I just really like what you do haha

;_______; Thank you so much. I’m always stressing out that I talk too much and go on too long about stuff nobody cares about lol. I’m also always pretending that I’ve thought stuff out or that I know exactly what I’m doing when I really don’t. I do objectively talk quite a bit about stuff here, but in my defense almost nobody irl knows that I write, at all. They think I don’t have hobbies.

I’m glad it heightens the experience, though, I didn’t think about it that way. Rise of Skywalker Rule: people shouldn’t need to hear your word of god to understand what’s going on. But I really do hate writing multiple POVs (I only do it when it’s absolutely necessary) for a lot of reasons, but definitely it means that a lot of the behind the scenes character work you do goes unseen. But...even if you don’t see it, you know when it’s not there. A lot of technique in art is like that - invisible unless it’s bad lol. Take Daisy in TCF - it is blindingly evident that I did not really know what was really going on with her until much later in the story. My #1 frustration with that fic - just because Daisy will never tell Jon what’s going on, that’s not an excuse for me not knowing.

But I do think a lot of a story is a supporting cast. I really sincerely hate it when a story is winnowed down to Main Character and Love Interest, and everybody else is a flat prop for that. I was reading a super fabulous Stucky fanfic the other day that was gorgeously written, but...none of the supporting characters had conversations with Steve that weren’t about Bucky. It was like some kind of terrifying Lotus Eater Machine hellscape. Imagine if nobody around you had rich inner lives, that they didn’t have their own rationales for what they did, that they had lives outside of you - that literally their only role in your life was to get you together with your boyfriend. Disturbing. (This was another parodied thing in Sucker’s Bet) A lot of Jonmartin fics are guilty of this too, frequently even worse.

So, it’s kind of this dual thing for me - I have to know 10 things about a character and only 1 of those things will appear in the story. This is why I spent so long going on about how I know character’s religions lol. And even if you don’t know these things, it’s obvious when it’s not there. My stuff gets bloated because I insist on giving every major character a character arc and it is terrible of me (Solitaire was a hellscape). Even in the joke arson story - Jon, Sasha, and Tim all needed their individual character arcs, and even though Gerry and Daisy were more plot based characters you still got a strong sense of their lives.

But the flipside is that as I’ve mentioned I don’t do OCs and I just adjust everyone based on the needs of the story. Character is fluid and flexible for me so rarely anything is set in stone. I’m always spinning a ton of plates. I think when you know too much about your character and their background you end up stubbornly forcing a square peg into a round hole sometimes. For all I’ve talked about knowing characters - sincerely please don’t think about it too hard it’s useless. I don’t get too attached to any one characterization. Most of the time, the characterization in the story organically grows as the story develops. Some of the time I only really get a character as I write the final scene, then I have to go back and rewrite a bunch. There is a tremendous amount of characters who only really clicked for me as I wrote a final climactic scene (HR!Jon, TCF!Daisy and Web!Jon but specifically in Evilcon are the worst offenders, but also TCF!Annabelle, BBC!Gerry, SC!Daisy...).

Anyway if you want the reason why I write so many side stories it’s because I finish a story and I just GOTTA tell you EVERYTHING I know about Agnes and Gerry or whatever (how did they meet? Jon will never know!). Legitimately for anyone who’s read Solitaire I highly recommend the Tim side story because Melanie is probably the most unreliable narrator I’ve ever written and there is this entire fucking storm of shit going under the surface of that Tim. Just because he got so complicated. I’ve been churning out a shitton of HR!Jon stories just to fucking try and get the character to click for me. It just goes on and on. As usual I’m both putting too much thought and not enough thought into things - the only way I really hammer out these things is by writing just an insane quantity of words, which is not the most. efficent way.

Sometimes I feel as if I’m hindering myself by not writing multiple POVs but also fuck that. Thank you for the super sweet ask I loved it!

#my writing #me crying over being validated for my insanely long posts:#yeah honestly the best POV characters are the ones like Melanie and Jon who are just so oblivious to everything #yes if I write a martin story I can have him notice things #but where's the fun in that #Melanie is the single most influential person in her universe and she has no idea #she has an archive defense squad and she has no idea #every time she talks daisy is standing behind her flashing her gun and she has no idea #tim and sasha individually swear loyalty to her WHILE SHE'S BULLYING THEM and she has n oidea #solitaire was so traumatic it burned out all desire to write side space cadet stories but #haha unless?

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nihilnovisubsole · 5 years ago

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Do you have any tips considering fanfics with original characters as protagonists? Specific issues to look out for? I admire your writing and your writing advice, you put everything so well into words. Perhaps you've thought about this in more detail as well. I feel like fanfics with original characters are difficult to make intriguing or worthwhile for readers.

yeah, i have thought about it, and i wish i had some kind of sagely, concise answer to give you. this is going to be another long post, sorry. i mulled it over for a few days and i’ve got a lot on my mind.

i don’t know if i could tell you anything from a prose standpoint about “how to write better fanfic with OC protagonists.” i think writing a fan character is, with a few exceptions, pretty much the same as writing a canon character. they have to talk and behave like a real person. they have to be consistent, or have a good reason for it when they’re not. they have to go through events in the story that challenge them. basically, they have to be flesh and blood. if you can find the spark of life in a canon character you love, you can put one in an OC, too.

the only material difference is that they belong to you, and because of that, there’s no “bible” of canon content to refer to. you’re on your own for things like their character arc and dialogue voice. sure, there might be people who are skeptical of them based on their preconceptions about OC fic. but that’s not something you have any control over, so if you ask me, it’s not something that should sway your writing decisions.

on the flipside, a lot of the “issues” i could tell you to “look out for” could just as easily apply to an original fic. “have a cohesive plot arc with conflict, rising action, and a conclusion that makes sense?” that’s every story. “make the premise interesting?” that means three different things to three different people. there’s not much, at least to my eye, that’s only relevant when you’re introducing an OC into a canon universe.

so, when it comes down to it, i feel like writing OC fic is less about how you do it and more about your attitude toward it. it’s not an undertaking where you can bring your shame to the table. every writing project i’ve done, most of all fanfic, has started out with me planning not to tell anyone about it. i always go, “this is ridiculous, i can’t admit i made this OC,” or “i’ll write one passage to get it out of my system, but i won’t publish it.” once i’m in, the fun takes over, and i peel off those layers of embarrassment as i grow more and more fond of the premise and characters. there’s prudence, of course, and good taste, but at the risk of sounding corny… at some point, you just have to let your enthusiasm lead the way.

so, that said:

is there another side to the story/world that interests you enough to explore?

is there a side character you think has untapped potential? was there a mission or episode detail you wanted to explore in more depth? did you ever wonder how the big, heroic main plot might have affected people and places that you didn’t see? if you want to write about big pairings and big, popular subjects and your OC is just the lens the reader sees it all through, great! but if something else grabs you, pursue it, because nobody else is going to have a take on it that’s exactly like yours.

if the story is good, it won’t matter whether an OC or a canon character is the protagonist. it’s just a good story, full stop. if someone won’t take a chance on it because it has an OC lead, it goes back to what i said earlier - that’s on them, not you.

are you writing from a place that is emotionally meaningful to you?

you don’t have to lift something whole-cloth from your own experience. i know it’s annoying to hear people say that you do, and with many fandoms, it’d be impossible. i mean, who among us has fought aliens? but what do you feel strongly about? what emotions have you been through? is there a kind of character or relationship you really want to see? what’s the small, glowing grain of truth within the character that’s going to take them from being a puppet to “a real boy?”

some people will tell you to keep your main characters at arm’s length in case you have to do something nasty to them down the line. i don’t. i always fling myself into it. i’ve talked about that before. does it hurt more when people don’t like them? sure it does, but it forces me to be a more compassionate writer, and i feel the results are worth it. irina, jo, sabrael, marcus and livia, everyone else - i carved a piece of my guts into all of them, and now i’ve served it to you. gross!

and lastly, but most importantly:

do you love the character?

of course you love your character! what kind of a question is that?

and if you don’t, then… why not? i’m not judging, just asking. are they new, and you haven’t had time to get to know them yet? do they come with baggage because you’re worried about them being “cringe?” [if so, cut it out. remember what i said about shame.]

or maybe you just haven’t found the key that will open the locked door of “knowledge of how to write them, and the fondness that comes with it.” every character, to me, starts out with that door, and the key is different every time - a personality trait, an item of clothing, their dialogue voice, something that happened in their backstory, etc. for some characters, the key is much harder to find than others. i don’t know why. but if you haven’t found it yet, don’t worry. keep looking.

here’s the theory that i like: people can tell when you care. if you’ve made something with love, that shines through, regardless of your skill level. if you get excited when you think of a new idea for their story, write it with the same amount of glee you get from envisioning it. if you’ve had the character for so long that it’s become a fictional companion to you, those nuances you’ve learned about them will show up in the writing, just like a real old friend.

sadly, i can’t promise you that doing all that will result in a huge reader turnout or tons of feedback. i wish it did. it doesn’t always. you can work hard and do your best, and it still might not translate to a high level of engagement. but just because the internet is weird, fickle, and cruel doesn’t mean you won’t end up with a cool story that you should be proud of. i’m not saying that should be enough to satisfy you. we all want people to read what we write. we’d be lying if we said we didn’t. i’m just saying that if you write an OC fic from start to finish, you will have achieved something. don’t think it being fanwork diminishes it.

some extra parting thoughts:

for what it’s worth, i’m glad to see the mary sue thing is - at least in places - in its death throes. because, honestly, it’s 2019. it’s time for us to move on. and, look, i’m not a fool. i’ve been engaging with fan content since i was a preteen. i’ve seen OCs where i didn’t buy what the creator was selling me. maybe their visual design didn’t mesh with the main cast. maybe they were a weird choice for their canon-character love interest. maybe they were handed too much, or maybe they lost too much, or anything else from that grab bag of mary sue mortal sins that really live or die on the execution, not the concept.

did i get invested in their stories? no. is that a problem? of course not. i still hoped they had fun and kept working with them, because fun leads to practice, and practice - eventually - leads to skill. brushing all that off as “lol its a mary sue it sux” is intellectually lazy, and also beside the point. the point was for the creator to have fun with a piece of media they enjoy. if they did that, my opinion that an angel vampire with natural pink eyes might be a strange match for sherlock isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.

#anon #asks #writing

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tothedarkdarkseas · 5 years ago

Note

For fanfic writer ask meme: E, J, K, M, P(for any fic or all your fics), R, T, X, and Y. (If that's too many questions, then you can split the answer into multiple posts. Also, no need to answer if you already answered these questions before.)

Thank you so much! I’ll put these below a cut just to account for the length, and I pray Tumblr works like it’s supposed to this evening! I appreciate you having an interest!

E: What character do you identify with most? Is there a certain fic of yours that captures these qualities particularly well?

I really do not identify with Gorillaz characters and thank god for it, or most characters I tend to prefer! Haha, I know that might sound a bit strange, but I can think of very few characters I’d call “my favorite” that I also felt were a reflection of myself in a major way. Of course that isn’t implying that representation isn’t important, but just speaking for my own personal relationship to media– I live with myself all the time, I like people who live very different lives! Having said that, of the characters I write (all two, possibly three of ‘em) I’d say I identify with some of Stu’s worst qualities over anything else: being unambitious but craving reward, self-centered yet lacking in a concrete sense of self, dumb about mostly everything, overcompensating (to be fair, this is Murdoc as well) and so on. Despite picking fun at him I definitely have an affection for an unlikable guy like Stu, I do have sympathy for being sorta pathetic because I feel like I can access that.

J: What’s your favorite fanfic trope? Have you written it?

Hmm! That’s hard to say! At the risk of being an absolute knob, I don’t tend to be a fan of tropes, or at least what I think is meant here by “fanfic tropes” like uhh… the heat goes out and we have to share a bed, or that kind of thing? Is that what this means, the sort of repeated setups for fics? There’s of course a place for everything so I’ve got no real beef with more innocuous stuff, but I wouldn’t say I ever pick to read something because it’s got a “classic” trope. I’m definitely rife with tropes in the broader sense though, I’m rife with things I like and clearly just repeat, haha. I do not smoke pot, but I have a real affinity for characters who do, and this is evidenced by having like… half my stories feature that, haha. If a scene where two characters creep up to being intimate via sharing a joint/bowl/bong counts, that’s definitely a trope I’ve done and would probably do again.

K: Do you have a guilty pleasures in fic (reading or writing)?

Does the above count? I’d certainly call myself self-indulgent, haha, I like what I like and I don’t stray very far from it. I think unsatisfying or incompatible intimacy is really interesting and I honestly never get tired of reading or writing that. (Er, as much as I “don’t get tired” of writing anything, which is not saying much as I’m very bad and undisciplined.)

M: What’s the weirdest AU scenario you’ve ever come up with? Did it turn into a story?

The only AU I’ve written is Coffin Dancer, which is a story set in the early 1900s about Murdoc being a reanimated corpse and Stu being a gravedigger who buries/exhumes him. Sexy, I know, nothing hotter than… long paragraphs about digging. I think the occult element makes that one a bit weirder than anything else I’ve come up with. I’ve kind of entertained other AU ideas but they tend to be a lot more mundane, to be frank I just really like the characters as they are and I don’t want to change their dynamic too much. As a joke I once suggested something about a riverboat casino (Stu working there, Murdoc trying to pull a money laundering scam via currency exchange, potentially convincing Stu to go in on the scam with him) and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t still think about it sometimes and question how to make it work, haha. I think it might be fun to do an AU again, but I think there’s just too much of a gap between what I’d want to do or be capable of doing, and what people actually want to read.

P: Where did you find the most inspiration for your story ?

Oh gosh, this makes it sound so important and I feel like the biggest jag going to pretend I’ve made anything that great or with particularly impressive roots, haha. A couple came from prompts, so that’s a fairly straightforward answer.

I first began planning Coffin Dancer because I was playing Graveyard Keeper on Steam at the time, haha. If you load up this game, you’ll quickly see there is next to no plot and it is simply a crafting sim. I just sorta… liked the setting, I guess? It is the 1900s and it does follow a graveyard keeper! Following that, I decided it would be a story about Murdoc’s skin turning from tan to green as it does in canon, but giving it a bit of a morbid tint, as opposed to the vague canon handwaves of Murdoc being “immortal” with no clear explanation of what that means.

Ampersands was mostly inspired by me being a big Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan and thinking it’d be fun to show a dynamic similar to Angelus/Drusilla/Spike, but heavily reworked to fit our characters. The first scene I imagined was the shoelace-tying one which has some resemblance to a shot of Angelus knelt at Spike’s feet while still mocking him, and that ended up being the very last scene I wrote (and probably one of the weaker ones.)

On Oysters and Black Water was actually the story that required the least research from me, as I already had an interest in oyster filtration and oyster reef restoration. By no means am I an expert nor is this story a genuinely educated look at this process (I am Genuinely Educated on zero things) but I definitely knew when planning a PB story that I wanted oysters to be used for a filtration system on the island, just as a little nod to something I find neat!

R: Which writers (fanfic or otherwise) do you consider the biggest influence on you and your writing?

This really puts me at risk of sounding knobbish, so to start with: I’m not really a writer. Fanfiction writer is already not the most impressive title, but even that I feel is a little generous for me. I’ve written things, but I struggle far too much and have too little dedication to pretend it’s something I feel “cut from the same cloth” as these folks to do. The writers I admire have “influenced” me in the sense that I’ve wished I could write that way, and I’ve probably/definitely ripped them off.

Some will find this laughable, but I’m a fan of Joey Comeau’s writing style. I’ve enjoyed every book he’s published, in particular the short novels Malagash and Lockpick Pornography, and especially his… err, non-novel collection of cover letters Overqualified. (I think I’ve read Overqualified more than anything else on my bookshelf, but this is saying very very little as you can sit down and read it in about 30 minutes.) The darkly comedic way he presents these ideas, how he’ll expand on these very offbeat details and veer so far from the topic, then take sudden sharp turns into something uncomfortable is just enjoyable to me.

Also somewhat cliched now, but Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn is a beautiful book to me. Beagle’s writing style is ideal for the fantasy setting, the poetry in his prose does not tip over the “purple” line for me (but I’ve always been unclear where the line is, obviously) and I’d really… feel like I’d accomplished something if I could say anything half as powerful as this book.

Shirley Jackson, (famously) the author of The Lottery and (less famously) We Have Always Lived in the Castle springs to mind as well. The latter in particular has a gothic tone, an at times strange sentence structure and an unreliable POV, which probably influenced Coffin Dancer stylistically and everything else I’ve done in perspective/structure.

But as far as influences, nothing more directly influenced me than @elapsed-spiral‘s writing and characterization. Old drum I’ve beat before, but it’s simply the truth. I would not have tried to write fanfiction again (after… many, many years) if I hadn’t found Danni’s stories and felt that excitement of reading something truly special. Now, it’s important to note that Danni is British so they’ll come out in hives if I praise them too much, but sincerely nothing in recent years has made me feel a “passion” for reading or writing like Yearz did. The oneshots Fairy Vale and Beside the Sea also deserve special mention for just being goddamn phenomenally good character studies. “Influence on your writing” could be misleading, in the sense that Danni’s biggest strengths (namely Being Funny, Being Realistic and Knowing What You Are Talking About) are among my biggest weaknesses, and I don’t feel that stylistically we’re all that similar; on the flipside though, I think so much of my “improvement” is really owed to Danni, aaaand I don’t think you��d ever look at something I’ve written and miss the fact that it’s ripping off Yearz in one way or another.

T: Any fanfic tropes you can’t stand?

Ahaha, alright, this jogs my memory and I do remember stepping on eggshells to answer this before! I mentioned above that I’m just not a big fan of tropes in general, but that means nothing as I don’t… have good taste. I never have. Famously bad taste over here. I don’t have any interest in raining on anyone’s fun or policing fan content, but I think we’re all perfectly fine just co-existing without feeling obligated to anything. More than anything else, in Gorillaz specifically I’d say there are some portrayals of their relationship that I find a little dodgy and I tend to avoid, but I recognize full well that many people may feel the same way about me! I also just like the characters to be compelling and to be themselves, whatever your version of them is. Of course my characterization is bonkers and mostly made-up and I have no expectation that someone else’s should resemble mine, but even if we have different ideas, I don’t like to feel you can slot them out and anyone else in? Which is why standard tropes like “coffeeshop” or “fake dating” don’t tend to be my favorite. Oh, I’m also a fuddy-duddy and I don’t love the nicknames, haha.

X: How would you categorize your fanfic reading? Are you a voracious reader? Do you carefully pick and choose? Something in between?

I’m not a very big reader these days! I’d like to offer you a good excuse here, but I’m just picky, truth be told.

Y: What are your thoughts on your personal satisfaction with something you’ve written vs. the popularity of your stories? Do you tend to be most satisfied with your most popular stories?

In total honesty, it takes all of about a month to become completely unsatisfied with anything I’ve written. That’s not like, a plea for sympathy, it’s just being objective. I write comparatively little and comparatively slow, so whatever growth that may happen is still pretty limited and it’s a little disheartening, even if it’s also my own fault for having poor discipline. I would not call any of my stories “good,” at best “good for what they are.” There are definitely some I wished did better, I wished with a stupid amount of sincerity would hit some magical validating number that would Suddenly Mean It Was Good… but after a little distance, I can always understand why they wouldn’t.

Hoooowever, some are undeniably worse than others. Based on both hits and kudos, my most popular story is my first one (I Couldn’t Feel, So I Would Touch) and this is truly baffling as it’s garbage. I mean, with no exaggeration I just think this is bad writing through and through, it’s truly just the worst thing I’ve written over the age of 20. I hoped I’d get this question purely because of this, haha, I feel such shame every time I see this story at the top of my statistics page. If we consider that to be the “most popular,” no, I do not tend to be most satisfied with the most popular story. We could define that differently though; for example, I think the story that got the most notes here and I received spectacular fanart on (a thing I just… can’t believe can happen, how nice is that?) was Oysters, and at a time I did consider that my favorite, I was incredibly proud of it when I posted, and even if I’ve grown exhausted by my overwriting too much to read it again I do still rate it pretty favorably compared to the others. So it depends on what constitutes popular! But if we’re just talking hits and kudos, sadly my stats page puts some of the worst stuff at the top.

#i've got to head to bed so i apologize if there are any glaring errors in this answer!#Anonymous #thank you very much for the letters! that's a kindness!

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hermannsthumb · 7 years ago

Note

i'm having a bad day you got any newmann headcanons?

sure thing my guy! i’ll literally just list any i can think of, most of these i work into my own fics most times lol

-after newt and hermann help save the world get happily married get joint positions at the same university move to a little cottage etc etc (uprising don’t interact with any of this post) newt starts, like, intensely gardening. and it’s mostly all weird plants too, but he likes making hermann little bouquets and leaving them around the house. he grows berries too....-.....which hermann the secret amazing baker (mildly inspired by this ask) makes into various desserts-hermann is a fantastic knitter and enjoys making his husband scarves. it’s actually a clever ploy to get newt to dress appropriately for the weather, because newt loves wearing stuff hermann makes him (and likes to point out loudly and frequently that his husband made it for him)-newt can’t drive. hermann can drive, but is absolutely terrible at it, so they’re both big proponents of taking public transport everywhere-they kept every single letter they ever wrote each other-(they also were each other’s first loves, like, they were twenty-three and twenty-four when they started writing to each other, they were so young! absolutely first loves)-newt would tell everyone hermann was his Long Distance Boyfriend during their letter days. the plot twist is that hermann did the absolute same thing when he told people about newt-hermann is absolutely 100% charmed by newt playing the guitar for him, even if newt’s not exactly the most skilled vocalist (hermann secretly loves hearing him sing) and newt makes up little songs about hermann all the time to play-on the flipside sometimes hermann reads aloud to newt when they’re Cuddling in bed together and newt LOVES it-they adopt a cat but they can’t agree on a name for it so it just. doesn’t have a name. they just call it The Cat-their drift mixes and blends most of their personal tastes and makes them a lot more lax with personal space: they take their coffee and tea the same way after they drift, for example, and basically just pick off each other’s plates when they go out to eat places, and steal each other’s clothing all the time. they’ll also sometimes respond to each other’s names....-....which the fact that they just hyphenated their last names when they got married because they couldn’t agree whose to take (newt wanted to take gottlieb, of course, and hermann wanted to take geiszler) doesn’t help. realistic in the world of academia? probably not. cute? yes. my city? it is now -they alternate who the big spoon is every night or so because newt loves being held in his husband’s Strong Arms and hermann loves being held in his husband’s Warm ones-relationship trajectory imo: head over heels in love as pen pals but had their falling out. had a enemies-slash-lab-partners with benefits dynamic in their shatterdome days and hooked up a bunch, both refusing to admit they cared about each other in a romantic sense. hermann realizes he (still) loves newt after he finds newt half-dead after his first drift, newt realizes he (still) loves hermann after hermann offers to drift with him, they make tender love into the night after the war clock stops-u all know i stan secret romantic sap hermann, and youd think this entails that hermann would be the one to propose but it’s not. hermann fully intended to propose and make a whole romantic thing out of it--he had it planned for exactly one year following the breach closing/their drift and wrote a whole little speech about newt completing him etc etc etc--but newt, on a complete whim, is just like “hey let’s get married” not six months after the war’s over when they’re like watching hgtv one night. hermann happy-cries.-they both cry during their entire wedding-the entire time-definitely not inspired by recent events but newt goes grey first and hermann thinks he’s just the absolute handsomest distinguished-looking bastard ever. hermann eventually stops keeping up with his undercut and lets his hair grow out and it gets really curly and newt LOVES it-legend has it that sometimes they slow dance in their kitchen on lazy evenings-i could go on but this is already. long

#newmann #ask #maria's headcanon tag #long post /////#Anonymous

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allisonilluminated · 7 years ago

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The Seven Sins of Fanfiction

Hey all,

This blog is primarily focused on helping newer writers (and maybe some older ones) improve their fanfiction and increase their views. Since that’s the case, it’s important to understand exactly what not to do when you’re writing.

These are the worst things you can do while you’re writing. I can guarantee everyone reading this post has done at least three of them, and probably all in some shape of form. This is the sort of thing that makes you want to click away immediately, that you cringe at when it’s in the first paragraph or laugh at how bad it is. These things that make you stop reading other stories, just think about it for a moment. What if fewer people are reading your own work because you’re making the same mistakes?

Yeah. If you want to improve, you gotta know what you’re doing wrong. Number Seven is the least worst, then the list descends to Number One, the worst thing you can do in fanfiction.

Note: This is a subjective list. There are people who disagree with some of these points (especially the non-grammar ones), so it’s important to remember that these are the things I find most degrading to the quality of the story being written. As a writer, you have the creative liberty to write whatever you want.

#7 – Bad Romance

“Wo-o-o-o-o, o-o-o-o, o-o-ah, caught in a bad romance fanfiction but it’s the only 100k fic for my OTP so I’m like contractually obligated to read it.” - Lady Gaga, mostly

We’ve all been here. You know that moment when two characters meet, then suddenly decide to kiss, and the next thing you know they’re screwing on the patio with some kinky ass BDSM shit. What about those cringe fics where suddenly Harry is spouting some creepy possessive stuff like “my only” or “softest light of my life” to twelve year old Ginny. You know what I’m talking about.

Good romance is an art. It’s about flawed characters (later) coming together in a beautifully intimate way (later) to make something even more beautiful. There is so much bad romance on FFN and AO3 that it just blows my mind.

Giving tips would take an entire post, so here’s a good article on the absolute basics you need to write a good romance: https://www.nownovel.com/blog/romance-writing-mistakes/

#6 – Bad Dialogue Tags

“No!” he howled.

“Yes,” she growled angrily.

She retorted snarkily, “Well, screw you.”

“Fuck you too,” he scowled sadly, before gratingly mumbling “I still love you though.”

Alternatively:

“No!” “Yes.” “Well, screw you.” “Fuck you too. I still love you though.”

There’s a glorious word in this social construct we call English, and it’s “said.” Use it.

You don’t need a fancy word for every tag. You don’t need a fancy word for almost all tags. Eighty percent of your tags should be said, exclaimed, and asked, and more of said than the others. Maybe a whispered or a yelled for some flavor.

Adverbs are your enemies. I struggle with this, but you should use them extremely sparingly.

On the flipside, if your reader doesn’t know who’s talking, your dialogue is meaningless to them. Also, use line breaks every time there is a new speaker.

The trick is finding some happy medium between the two examples. A handful of fancy tags, a lot of said, and if there are two people talking back and forth you don’t even need to tag every sentence.

#5 – Bad Messaging

I don’t want to put down an example for this one, because I think writers feel liberated to write some really awful shit in fanfiction because it’s “not a serious medium” or “it’s the internet, I have free speech.” Let me say this right now:

Stories that make rape a positive thing are not okay. Stories that portray suicide in a glorified light are not okay. Stories that show slavery, or torture, or all of the other horrendous things human beings do to each other in a romanticized or glorified manner are not okay.

I don’t care if it’s your fetish. I don’t care, it’s just not okay to write about these things in a positive light. The only reason this is so high on this list is because these stories aren’t as common as the rest, and are mostly marked M/Explicit so you can avoid them.

#4 – Overdescription

Hi my name is Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way and I have long ebony black hair (that’s how I got my name) with purple streaks and red tips that reaches my mid-back and icy blue eyes like limpid tears and a lot of people tell me I look like Amy Lee (AN: if u don’t know who she is get da hell out of here!). [[I’m not related to Gerard Way but I wish I was because he’s a major fucking hottie. I’m a vampire but my teeth are straight and white. I have pale white skin. I’m also a witch, and I go to a magic school called Hogwarts in England where I’m in the seventh year (I’m seventeen). I’m a goth (in case you couldn’t tell) and I wear mostly black. I love Hot Topic and I buy all my clothes from there. For example today I was wearing a black corset with matching lace around it and a black leather miniskirt, pink fishnets and black combat boots. I was wearing black lipstick, white foundation, black eyeliner and red eye shadow – My Immortal

Oh boy.

Writers, let me introduce you to this wonderful thing called your profile. Assuming you aren’t drowning in copypastas, this is the perfect place for your character descriptions. Alternatively, have you heard of Tumblr? Literally, stick them anywhere except the middle of your story, and I can guarantee you the readers that actually care will find them if you mention them in your A/N.

Show, don’t tell is one of the fundamental principles of writing. When you’re describing a character, you probably don’t need more than three adjectives and a one sentence description of their outfit. Yes, that applies even if your character has a special non canon outfit. If we must know, work the details into the story. Info-dumping description is telling, and is one of the worst world building and characterization mistakes you can make. Period.

#3 – Epithets

The blond girl walked to the door, and started as a burly man opened it. “May I help you?”

“Yes, I’m here to get a consultation,” the graying businessman said as he ran a hand through his oily hair.

The youthful therapist nodded as she shut the door behind him. Rummaging on her desk, she asked, “Why are you here?”

“Well,” said the jaded economist to the buxom woman. “This author thinks they’re being clever by not giving out names, but they’re ruining this story.”

The best way to get someone to leave your story is epithets.

Epithets do not create mystery. Epithets are not a good substitute for proper nouns. Epithets will not make a clever opening, or add variety to your dialogue.

Epithets will ruin your story, and should not be used.

They come in varying degrees of horror.

The noun. You might be able to get away with saying just “the woman” or “the child” under certain circumstances. This is almost an excusable offence.

The noun with one adjective. This is already unacceptable. If you though you were going to solve Sin #4 by doing this, you’re digging yourself an even deeper hole.

The noun with one modified adjective. Because they can’t just be sexy, they have to be shockingly sexy.

The noun with multiple adjectives. This is automatically overdescription on top of being a horrible thing to subject another person to.

The noun followed by a relative clause. Because there’s always a way to make it worse. “The girl who was now holding his hand” is absolutely disgusting, and so is “The girl that was sitting across from her” or especially “the girl she knew had a chocolate bar somewhere in her pocket.

The noun followed by a relative clause with adjectives. Put it together and what have you got?

Compound Epithets. Oh. My. God. This deserves its own sin. Even if your character has blue hair, you should never ever ever call them a bluenette. Ever. Ever ever ever. AAAAAAAAH!

The author has made her point.

#2 – Bad Grammar

I find bad grammar extremely agitating, mostly because there are a lot of great tools and easy fixes to solve the problems. Most word processors have a built in spell checker, and a lot of them check for grammar as well. If you need an alternative, grammarly.com has a good free version that’ll catch a lot of mistakes. Of course, proofreading your work before posting is always a great idea. Here’s a quick list of some of the most common grammar issues you should be on the lookout for:

A new paragraph for a new idea.

A new paragraph for a new speaker.

Dialogue formatting

Periods

Commas

Run on sentences

Using line breaks

Spelling

Capitalizing starts of sentences

Capitalizing proper nouns

Choosing CONSISTENT capitalization for canon terms (Pokemon vs pokemon, for example)

Repeated words.

Sentence fragments

Tense

#1 – Bad Characterization

“What?” you’re probably asking yourself right now. “How is bad characterization possibly worse than poor grammar? Than epithets?”

Allow me to explain.

When an author writes a story, a good story, they are creating characters who act like people. They have wants, needs, hates, motives, and a concept of who they are, even if they’re only fictional. The author gives them life, spirit, a spark that keeps you reading and wanting to learn more about them.

That sense of identity is what makes them real to us. Why you binge a show on Netflix, or read a novel in one night. Reading is a connection with these characters on a deeper level than you might realize, and this connection brings them to life.

Take that away, and your story is dead.

Your gray OOC Gary Stu overpowered Ravenclaw Harry who grew up with Snape and has a goblin half brother AU is not a story about Harry Potter. It’s a story about an OC named Harry Potter, and Harry loses any integrity he had as a character in Rowling’s books.

That’s why there are fics with horrible grammar and massive following, alongside fics with incredible grammar and sentence construction but no followings. Unless you maintain a basic level of your character’s identity, the essence of what makes them empathetic, you’re not writing about that character. This is the worst sin, because even with all of the others in play, if there is good characterization you can still create an incredible story.

Just by fixing these seven problems, your fic can instantly jump from bad/meh to incredible in the way people perceive it. Hopefully this list can help you determine things to either go back and revise or work on for future chapters. When have you committed one of the seven sins? What other sins do people make all the time in their writings?

Thank you to all of the amazing people who have followed, Allie

Support Me: Fanfiction.net - Archives of our Own

#fanfic #fanfiction #seven sins #writing

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dansedan · 3 years ago

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tagging @seadem-on because I was looking back over your fics recently and they are a joy :^))

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

24! God that feels like a lot considering the time

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

87114—somehow that makes me feel long-winded jajaj

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. avec le geste drôle desdébutants

2. One Last Ride

3. dans la démission de vieuxamis

4. Static Contact

5. Wrapped in Orange Firelight

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to! I can take a long time to digest nice things being said about my work jaja recently Syb has ended up replying to almost every comment we get on our collab^^;;; a saint

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Huh, the real worst ending might be stolen from D actually, the one time I wrote a short fic for their ‘Darkness Before Dawn’ au-of-an-au, but as far as my own work or stuff published on my Ao3 maybe demissions? I don’t write a lot of angst ^^;

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

On the flipside, a lot of my catalogue is fluff! Probably Firelight, or anything from the Tio Tuco series takes this spot.

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I am very bad at being consistently interested in more than one piece of media at a time—uh, maybe the dollars triplets AU I was using as the basis for the Blondie diners fic counts well enough? jajaj

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Maybe? Syb and I got a really weird comment on our collab recently, but there’s a 50/50 chance it was just some bad internet-brained kid trying to give a compliment. I think in general I’m too small, in too small fandoms.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

An embarrassing amount all things considered, and I’m not sure how I’d categorize it by kind? I guess most of it is generically affectionate or at least, like, romantic in the sense of being driven by romantic sentiment y’know. I suppose nowadays a lot of the DE smut I write is quite domestic.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope!

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope! I wish I could translate more fic myself, but I never seem to fall into big enough fandoms to justify it. Oh well.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Co-writing one right now :^)

13. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

I didn’t really ship at all before I started writing fic for GBU, so maybe I *have* to give it to the trio jajaj

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

Ah, a lot of things. The Blondie diners fic, the series that was going to go with Demissions and Geste Drole, maybe even the Writer Harry AU I fiddled around with for DE considering college stuff on the horizon…

15. What are your writing strengths?

People tell me they like my prose, which is nice! I’ve heard a lot about like, imagery and long sentences in comments and quips from friends. People seem to like the smut and jokes too.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Had postmodernism bro disease and now I can’t describe an action in a straightforward way ever for some obscure reason. Also I fully write trans characters in half my fic and writing and yet I am physically incapable of saying the words “trans” or “srs” or “top surgery” or anything else that isn’t aggressively vague for some reason. Also I too do not think I… ever ever pass the Bechdel test. Oops.

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

Please please please get a native speaking beta. Or at least your high school language knowledge. Please. Last week I read a fic with such bad Spanish that for the rest of the week I was convinced that the English word “come” had the implication “to arrive from a destination from another” and the Spanish “venir” had the implication “to embark towards a destination from another” (which now I’m like, wait that’s debatable it could totally be a direct translation even though the fic incorrectly used “llendo” as its euphemism, when that verb is actually a bathroom euphemism and not a sex one?) and stuck on the etymological question of the differences in euphemisms and BASICALLY yes if anyone needs Spanish translations. Please. My DMs are open.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

If childhood counts, uh, Cirque du Soleil actually? I very stupidly deleted the file out of embarrassment in middle school so it is lost forever.

19. What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

Oh man, it’s very hard to pick. To this day I’m still quite proud of “On the long-term effects of half-smoked cigars; or, To make a man unkillable”, but I’m generally really happy with the work I’ve done on my DE prose fics ^^

I almost missed this, thank you so much to @gaeadene for tagging me!

I tag @believerindaydreams and @suppuration

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Well, currently I only have three. Once upon a time I had ten, but most of those were because Learnin’ the Blues was broken up into multiple parts. Actual total now is 12

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

Currently the total for all the fics I ever posted (before purge and after) is 311,595, but as soon as I finished posting the current book it’ll be 365,124!

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

This is almost like cheating since most of these are from the same story

1. No Light (122)

2. Which Way Are You Going (86)

3. Talking In Your Sleep (83)

4. Arizona and How Did You Love (61)

5. Twisted (54)

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to! Sometimes I get busy and honestly just overwhelmed, because a comment will be so touching that I don’t know what to say. I can only send so many pictures of people weeping into their hands with love and gratitude!

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

No Light, hands down. Everyone loses!

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

as I pause to debate whether any of my fics can actually be considered to have a happy ending Jokes aside, I do think it’s Learnin’ the Blues. It’s a dark ending, but everyone got what they earned, and in the end, mercy and forgiveness won out over hate.

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Nah, my hyperfixations tend to be monogamous

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

ha ha ha ha haaaah ahahahaahaha

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes and it’s the bad kind

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Many, many times!

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope!

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nah, I work alone, too invested in my own vision and seeing it through exactly the way I want it. I prefer to do art for collaborations

13. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

The Ever Given

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

I don’t really have one. I think about the No Light sequel a lot because I love the ideas for it, like Joshua ghoulifying and the lives of Nephi and Jerusha, but I know I’m never going to have it in me to sit and write it because it would most likely be a 500k word doorstop of a novel.

15. What are your writing strengths?

I’ve been told that my writing is concise and evocative, that it tends to make people feel like they’re really living it, which is tremendously huge praise <3

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

According to my beta, it’s overuse of the phrase “once more” and too many loving descriptions of Joshua Graham’s pale blue eyes

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

Fantastic if it’s done well and not some weird parody/mockery of whatever language is being used.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Fallout!

19. What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

You can’t ask me to choose between my children! My three books mean more to me than just about anything, because they cover so many different challenges and struggles I’ve had in my life, as well as finally achieving my dream of writing. But, if I had to choose one that isn’t those three, it would be Twisted. For a one shot, that hit harder and more emotional than I thought it would, and looking back on it with the perspective from coming out as a trans man, that fic just SCREAMS closeted transsexual, so it too has a lot of significance to me. It was also pretty hot 😌

#thank you for the tag D!#bleeding...... unironically changed my life which is like insane aksdjnf #the fanned fiction...... so weird

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disarmingly · 8 years ago

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fanfic asks i’m going to post answers in numerical order as i got some numbers asked twice which is cool but i definitely am the idiot who will lose track if i don’t do it in number order! also i’ll throw it under a read-more bc i tend to get rambly and so it all gets quite long! like seriously i apologize i wanted to give it my all but like i may have written too much >_<;;;

i'm gonna preface with: i was confused by these first two because i thought is this the same question but then figured maybe 3 was ff and 4 is not ff? T_T;;;;

3 [ name three favorite writers ]

the truth is i admire a lot of people and not all of them actually post their work unfortunately. however, xiajin ( @j-ungah) is one who does, for which i am very grateful. it's easier though for me to say the THINGS i like best i.e. i really admire people who do humor in…how do i say it? ah well it's best for me when it's fluid within other feelings -- like the lightheartedness makes the punches and ups and downs of other aspects of their stories just shine? i am fairly unskilled with lightness/humor and i am repeatedly and eternally in awe of people who weave that facet of the heart into their narratives so believably. ^^;; i also admire what i think of as a seven-sense experience -- which is to say something about a writer whose descriptions dialogues and everything in-between??? create a thing i feel hear smell taste see, yes, but also a thing i dream, i thing i wake up to or from….that kind of suspension of my reality. ^^;;; which just smacks of escapism i know hahakjsfsdlfds OTL but it is what i like! some other part of why i don't have a lot of names rn is that when i'm focusing on writing i don't read as much fic? and on the flipside when i'm not trying to write then i read like everything under the sun thrice over ^^;;; but i've been in writing/trying to write-mode since i posted This Time Around so…yeah!

4 [ name three authors that were influential to your work and tell why ]

this is really hard! but i left out one writer on my past book rec list so i'll mention him here. john steinbeck! i know that most people/schools/etc tout him for grapes of wrath T_T;;; but like….i tried really hard to like it for a friend who is basically married to that book and i just…couldn't? i tried with of mice and men too but that book is like being beaten up by the written word and no one to patch you up afterward. but. BUT! let. me. tell. you.

east of eden

this book is falling apart like i've read it until it's shreds and i don't wanna give up the copy i have because like…i have so many notes in it? i have dates written down and things i don't remember ever writing or what they reference but getting a new one would be like…idk i can't do it yet. i'll have to soon just bc i carry it around everywhere and i need it but..this book, warrants steinbeck being mentioned in and of itself. if you haven't read it, i cannot rec it enough. like i am not honestly a huge fan of anything outside of fantasy or science fiction but this is my exception. no amount of applauding is going to do it justice. but suffice to say he's got this wickedly good balance of ideas, execution, emotion, and rationale and i just feel so much it is a book that HURTS and yet i kind of…what's it like? it's like if it took me years and years to climb a tree just to see what i can see from the top, then learning to climb back down. sitting under that tree. feeling…like a conversation happened?

T_T i ramble but yeah. john steinbeck's east of eden.

other than that: diana wynne jones, CLAMP (cries forever), cs lewis

6 [ how did writing change you? ]

before i wrote i drew and i painted, which i find hilarious now because lolololol what IS visual art, it’s hard work and talent hybridized with quality hearts (me: /stares at all my fave fanartists for real) kdsfdsfdlsfjlds but yeah uh writing happened because i loved reading. i thought: these things make me feel less displaced in the universe, if only a little. ah well, more to the point, writing in and of itself changes me in every day life almost to a fault: i think a LOT about what i say, even when i’m perceivably rambling. i over-think it too. writing in every-day life makes even the most awkward cat potato (me) better able to hold a normal conversation, which come to that isn’t the MOST important thing, but it is a thing that changed because before writing i basically stood still and tried to hide in my own shadow (unsuccessfully btw.) now i stand very still, hope no one talks to me, but am able to at least talk back if they do ^^;;

if this question means how did ff writing change me otherwise...is it stupid to say on several times, writing ff has saved me? is it melodramatic? probably. i think it does though. i’ve said several times i don’t do wonderfully in-person (ability to converse even so) and it’s painfully true. i don’t know that i believe i ever will. i’m in plainest terms, too afraid. ff writing has given me opportunity to connect with people despite my shortcomings in this way though. sometimes someone says they related to a certain thing or they feel content or a familiar sadness but not in a bad way and that is So Much to me. like can you imagine being in complete darkness and seeing a small light in the sky or the ground or the sea suddenly? that’s what those are.

so writing is helping me change, i hope, from someone who has had the growing fear of being lost forever, to being a little less lost, a little less unworthy. to be fair, writing in and of itself for me is often a lost feeling but those sparks of Found are irreplaceable and whether they happen when i write or when someone responds to the writing, i carry them with me to the best of my ability. because they’re precious. because i need them. and i’m grateful.

writing separate from ff is something i also hope will change me, but i have yet to figure out a way to share that and for now i have a lot of stories on my Intentions to try to actualize, so my side poetry is a sidecar project and that’s okay.

11 [ do you listen to music when writing? ]

yes! in fact i tend to make playlists for my stories when i’m done usually consisting of what i listened to….even if that's a silly thing to do ^^;; i think about sharing them sometimes haha but it’d be linking a bunch of youtube links so idk if that’s dumb sdlkedfsoijlefdjoslk sometimes it’s bangtan and often it’s movie scores i.e. ghibli stuff ....oh and video game osts too!!! a hodgepodge!

12 [ favorite place to write ]

home because i need as much control over my environment as possible. i honestly don't understand how people can get any writing done outside in the city because it's like one massive attention-deficit lmfdlsfdsfkdsjl but kudos to the people who can…!

13 [ hardest character to write ]

LMFSLKFUOIJWFLSK gosh um…i think for me the way i would phrase this is that the character i am most nervous writing??? yoongi. he features predominantly in my writing because i find his transparency about his journey(s) relatable and something to always be grateful for. unfortunately being relatable presents the ever present pitfall possibility of projecting onto someone, which i don't want to do. even when writing him as a character, i still want him to resonate true to the real deal in as much as possible in the world created or the canon suggested. i want to do right by him, very badly, and for better or worse that means i can almost never enjoy writing him because i'm so worried the whole time. the moment of peace is when i either post or delete, but both leave an uneasy feeling if i'm honest, and perhaps that's always going to be true -- with my favorite people and my favorite ideas i guess.

14 [ easiest character to write ]

like 13 i'm cheating and changing this to the character i'm least anxious writing and that would be namjoon. i love him a lot but for whatever weird reason i'm not having heart palpitations every time i have to write a line of dialogue for him. is it because i've watched and read everything of him the most? not really. i think i've re-visited more kookie things out of all of the ot7, but namjoon has a vibe i get, a wavelength i'm on almost all the time and i can't quite explain it since it's not like i'm talking about a person i personally Know. but what i mean is, i feel like i do? he makes me feel comfortable with him at the colloquial level both verbally and emotionally so i don't overthink him as much as i do say yoongi, jungkook, and hoseok -- all beloved but also sharp points of vulnerability for me.

17 [ favorite AU to write ]

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh….well. the way it's phrased it feels like it means ongoing AU??? which would be time and again drabbles supplementary to This Time Around (the initial oneshot).... (even tho from hereon out everything else will transpire BEFORE the current chapter up lololololol way to be confusing right) but if it just means like what universe, period, huh gosh. all your stars are my stars too au probably.

20 [ favorite character to write ]

i CAN'T pick

21 [ least favorite character to write ]

i don't have one unless you count 'difficult' as leas favorite but that's really not true for me s-so...

22 [ favorite story you’ve ever written ]

?_? ahhh the story closest to my heart? tie between all your stars are my stars too verse, and this time around verse. haha i keep picking those two but honestly despite being two very different worlds the pulse is actually the same.

23 [ least favorite story you’ve ever written ]

so far away

still disappointed in myself because to this day i don't know what i can do to make it better i just know it could be and it's so specific i just don't look at it anymore. it is by far the one i've revised the most and i'm sure that's weird haha...but it means so much to me...if it was a friend in my past, this story would be the friend i should have done more for, didn’t, couldn’t, and will regret until i can either come up with an answer or just have to square with said regret and say we don’t always get it the way we want it. hm. i admit when i posted it i hoped i’d be less disappointed with myself over time, but apparently not so.

24 [ favorite scene you’ve ever written ]

T_T no idea … do you have one, anon? /waves white flag/ i guess i'm just cheating through all these asks OTL forgive me but i guess a favorite would be any scene that a reader feels connected with them/resonated personally or moved their feelings into a place or shape they didn't expect but are okay having?

25 [ favorite line you’ve ever written ]

sjflkfesdipokleds /covers face/ im really sorry i just don't…have one…ah...i can’t look too closely...but i always appreciate when readers have favorite lines and copy paste them to me any given time like it’s so nice? ;_; it’s so nice ahhh

26 [ story you’re most proud of ]

since i kinda hard passed the last two with this one huh like i guess if i can qualify this as 'story i consider deleting the least often' that would actually probably be my ONE vmin fic i wrote so far -- sidereal -- lmfdlskfdsfjdsl sidereal -- and it's not that i think it's especially good but more so that i know/ don't question what i'd change about it because it came together start-to-finish very naturally…and that's funny since i had never written them before.

27 [ best review you ever got ]

listen. every review is the best review T_T seriously every review, every bookmark's notes, every ask….(well as long as it's not mean!) ah is a use of someone else's time they did not have to give me but they did and that? that's huge. fanfic is interesting bc it's a thing done for pleasure but unlike say, fanart, there is no readily apparent way to make it marketable? so i think of those words left as review or ask or whatever… as a manner of wealth, if it makes sense, a currency of kindness motivation/encouragement and hope -- that even if i dislike my writing/ find majority fault within it at the end of the day….. there are people out there who don't dislike it too, which is amazing and a relief.

28 [ worst review you ever got ]

hmmm well tech it wasn't a review but like i have gotten a LOT of asks regarding ... .- ...- . -- . + stardrop that range from disappointment that i wrote/published stardrop at all [i knew it would garner some of this but i have haha had more than i thought] to just flat-out regret for having read any of them in the first place. now, as someone who doesn't see any time in the near future where i'll like my own writing, having someone use the words 'regret reading' are….it's upsetting. i feel silly for how much it gets to me but i'm a weak spiral of a person in many ways, so asks like that send me running to hover over the delete button all the time, not just on that story but every story. but i know LOGICALLY it's just an extreme reaction of mine so i don't follow through but yeah my fight or flight response is very much flight lolololol OTL

as for not that uh probably the smattering of asks that came through when i posted 'follow' …one of which asked why i portrayed jungkook so stalkery (as far as i'm concerned, i didn't. he admires namjoon same as some of us admire our own internet idols or whoever)

32 ... .- ...- . -- . [ alternate title for (insert story title) ]

IN fact i almost called it 'equilibrium' but while relevant that seemed too vague...

33 ... .- ...- . -- . [ alternate ending for (insert story title) ]

jungkook wakes up. jungkook wakes up and he's raining, brings his hands to his eyes and can't stop, can't speak, can't anything but rain. jungkook wakes up, curls on his side, and cries cries cries until he falls back asleep.

a moment later, the door to his room slides open. two pairs of eyes worry after him into the dark where they recognize three things: 1. jungkook may never forgive himself; 2. there is nothing either of them can do about it; 3. when the captain named namjoon and the mechanic named yoongi forced jungkook into an escape pod at just the last second, their intention was to save him but the result is not so simple.

with unpredictable caution, taehyung enters the room, jimin's hand at his back, doesn't bother to speak quietly, well-acquainted at this point with how deeply jungkook dreams, how desperately. biting the inside of his cheek, taehyung shakes his head. "what are we gonna do?" after a moment, he glances to his right as jimin brushes past him to draw jungkook's blankets up more securely around him, combs soft fingers through his sweat matted hair and says,

"the best we can."

38 [ do you reread your own stories? ]

other than to proofread? no! i'm still very immature as a writer so the reality is if i go back to read something i have a 99% likely will delete because i see all the flaws and things i want to do better but don't yet have the skill to achieve??? but i know i can't or shouldn't literally wipe everything away Just Because, so…@_@;;;

40 [ which one of your stories would you most like to see as a movie/series ]

time and again drabbles or this time around

46 [ share a scene of a story that you haven’t published yet ]

the night of taehyung's sorting, jimin jumps out of his place at the table to go meet him but a hand circles around his wrist, holds him there. when he looks down, he finds taemin, all calculated cat expressiveness that reminds jimin of yoongi except taemin has a contradictory warmth about him. yoongi is cool to the look the touch and everything until you get inside him; then he's warmer, jimin would dare say, than he himself is, but so few people know it it's hardly worth mentioning. he blinks. frowns.

"i'm going to say hi."

"no."

jimin pulls. taemin sighs.

"do you think for a second they won't use him against you."

it's not a question and for good reason. jimin sits down again, quiet. hollow, learns at age twelve about thinking ahead and expecting the worst.

if only to protect the very best.

truth be known, he doesn't mind being a slytherin. it's easy to just say no one is trustworthy than to say everyone is. but the history of his family creates a whole additional spectrum of uncertainty. 'park' is so common a name one would think it wouldn't be so obvious except jimin's family has been in and out of the wizarding world papers for quite some time. try as they might to undo a history that predates them by decades, it's hard -- no, impossible. slytherin is one thing. heir is another. wealth. jimin is twelve but the world is much older and his so-called peers fall somewhere in-between.

anyway.

what he wants: to say hello to his dearest friend.

what he doesn't want: to bring said friend trouble, no more than he already has.

jimin looks over at taehyung, watches as hoseok helps him with his baskets and...swallows.

it hurts.

around the middle of the second month taehyung goes missing.

it's yoongi that lets jimin know, which makes jimin feel guilty all over: i should have already known.

"did they say when they last saw him?" he asks, rushing around more than he knows yoongi prefers but yoongi is loyal and yoongi is yoongi; he rushes with him, this way and that.

"hobi says yesterday, supper."

biting his lip until it bleeds, jimin experiences what a person always experiences when he knows this might be all his fault: wrenching self disgust, fear, anxiety that crawls around in the chest and twists around the heart like a curse. but feeling bad won't do anything; feeling bad won't find his best friend (who might not want to be your best friend anymore, his heart whispers and it's cold, it's distant, it's terrifying.) yoongi's hand in the sleeve of his robe jerks jimin to a stop so fast he almost trips, except yoongi holds him up while muttering a spell under his breath, the tip of his wand a sharp tap against jimin's strawberry pin (a thing he wears every day in the knot of his tie.) it lights up briefly, blue.

"if i find him before you, that'll happen."

then yoongi is gone in another direction. it makes sense. the school is offensively massive and jimin has never detested it more in his life.

growing up, jimin lived by the sea and taehyung came to visit him every other summer. they collected seashells and named all the fish they happened to find and made castles they planned to live in one day when they were older.

"this one's your room."

holding up a piece of sea glass shining aquamarine, jimin held it over the sun, turned back to face him and said, "then it's yours too."

the room of requirement is for any given thing. for taehyung he needs a place to be found and for jimin, he needs to stop losing.

it takes him two days to find the boy whose sleeping patterns he knows by heart, the boy whose dreams felt often like his own dreams when they were much smaller; it takes him two days and seven hours and forty-one minutes. but he finds him.

when he opens the door, it's some god sized gift to have taehyung meet his eyes.

it's a human sized gift to receive a careful smile.

and it's everything else to crush him in his arms and breathe him in and keep him there, everything to say,

"i'm sorry."

"me too." a pause. "those strawberries were for you," and the way taehyung says it isn't a guilt-trip. it's just him being genuinely regretful he couldn't give them to jimin the way he wanted to but this makes it that much sharper.

jimin bursts into tears.

that summer they go to taehyung's home and jimin eats every strawberry taehyung offers him, which means he gets fairly sick, but he disguises it as something else as best he can and almost doesn't feel so sick at all anyway when taehyung, wide-brimmed straw hat a halo on his head, laughs a sunrise sound and sings a sunset song. it's very windy during their visit, so jimin lays a charm on taehyung's hat to keep it from flying away.

49 [ writing advice ]

1. don’t give up. -- which for me and i guess a lot of people whether it’s art or just life, is truly the hardest. but i am constantly attempting to apply to writing what i try to apply to my livelihood: this idea that the most contemptible thing to do is to surrender. i was thinking about lord of the rings the other day and trying to figure out who i hated the most 8D;;; because my train was stuck and i was viciously trying to not freak out....anyway i kept thinking of denethor...and he’s not you know out and out a villain but he’s just so vile to faramir and on top of that he has clearly given up. he’s got this twisted saccharine doom about him that is somewhat because he’s lost his mind but he lost himself first.

i know this is a really dramatic mental deviation but it’s what i think about ^^;;; the temptation to give up is constant, it’s not a thing that goes away -- which is why i wrote ‘begin’ to address this idea that sometimes the hardest thing is to start, and then to continue in the face of a trouble that has no permanent cure. the moment you give up you lose you, and of course you lose your art. what’s that cliche??? you can’t get something for nothing. i hope that doesn’t come across condescending or bad. i just know for me i have to yell at myself all the time about it, so that’s why it’s first on the list OTL don’t give up, or in the words of bangtan: no no no not today! ^^

2. i used to believe you couldn’t force writing but i think what the more accurate way for me now is to think: i can’t force Right Writing, like it isn’t necessarily good as i throw it down initially and sometimes that’s as good as it’s going to be until i reach a point in that piece that helps me rebuild/recreate/reword the first parts that i KNEW at the time weren’t very good but couldn’t do more with...like perspective within your own narrative i guess, which can’t be gotten without pushing ahead.

so for example, i disliked everything i had with call and answer from the beginning to the end but the only way i got it all done was to write something every day a paragraph or two maybe, just to get draft one done. then i could look at it the next day to proof-read, put one part before another part, etc, etc, the things that went into making it something i could bear to post. ah so basically if it comes a little naturally that’s awesome but i know for me the most frustrating thing is not being able to control when that happens or why, and since i still want to write, this was my ‘solution’ so to speak -- write it, don’t delete it, look at it in an hour or the next day but move forward even if you’re not 1000% sure with it. like i know this doesn’t work for everyone but it is what has at the moment, kept me afloat. it’s not fun but for whatever reason, it is a method i have employed time to time. 3. write what YOU want to, not what anyone else wants you to (unless it’s like a request you’re fulfilling which case that’s up to you of course!) but in general like....i think there’s a misconception that to write big you have to write for everyone but you can connect to a lot of people by telling a very specific story -- they may not dive into every part, but if there is even one aspect of a story i feel recognized by (a moment, a turn of phrase, the resolution, the problem, whatever) then that’s often enough for me. it’s like with people, we don’t get every part of each other -- even the best of friends, or lovers or whatnot -- but the parts we do get mean so much. same for me with stories.

4. give better advice than me lmfdslkf omg

feel free to send other numbers or if i missed one let me know........omg but you probably wouldn’t want to after this huh? lmdsfijfoklfeds ^^;;; wow if you read all that uh....thank you but also i’m sorry ;; lmfdsojklefds T//////T!!!!! <3 ;3;

#haku shut up #fic asks #save me #this time around #so far away #begin #asks #stardrop #time and again #did any of this make sense #i feel dumb but i spent all this time on it hhfdskf #so i post it #OTL #t///t #hakufail #a potato cat #someone take my tags away from me

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tenscupcake · 8 years ago

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skyler10fic replied to your post “skyler10fic replied to your post “i’ve finally compiled my thoughts...”

good point about it being a show/fic people are really into. So on the other end, as authors, how can we make our fics more compelling? I know about leaving hooks/cliffies at the end of chapters, but since I don't really write long fic, do you have any tips for how to keep readers interested? Most of the TV shows I drop off weren't doing anything wrong. I just got to where I didn't really care about what happens anymore. How do we avoid that as writers?

ah! i, too, have quit tv shows because they went off the rails or otherwise started to disappoint me. take doctor who, for instance...

but here we’re getting into a whole other issue, i feel. how to prevent the real time readers you do have on a wip from losing interest, regardless of how quickly you can update.

i’m not sure i’m the most qualified person to ask, since i’m still a fairly amateur writer and trying to figure out how to do that myself (i’m only on my second multichap ever, after all). but i can offer some insights based on what i’ve experienced so far.

(this is going to be geared towards romance-centered fanfiction, since this is the only genre i’ve ever written.)

five pointers, in no particular order:

keep the focus on the ship.

fanfic is unique in that if a reader opens up your story, it’s because they already love the ship you’re writing. the relationship is what they’re reading for. as such, they will lose interest if there are too many side plots detracting from /their/ story, or too many/too much focus on original characters. side plots and original characters can be great additions to stories, but always bring it back to your main characters, and how the events of the story affect and/or enrich their relationship.

conversely, if you know ahead of time that a non-relationship-related plot is central to the story, or an original character will play a major role, be sure to devote the proper time and effort into developing it. help the reader care about that plot or character. show (don’t tell) them why it’s important. treat the story or the character as though it had to stand on its own, then show how it weaves into your main characters’ storyline. readers will be much more likely to embrace the presence of a unique plot or character in a story if it’s properly introduced AND tied together. poorly constructed or disconnected plots or oc’s will only serve to distract from the ship and bore readers.

be original.

and by that, i don’t mean that you should avoid tropes or prompt sites. or that if someone else has written a fic on your proposed topic, you should choose something else. rather, i mean to find some way to tell a story that’s been told a thousand times (this is what the world of fanfiction is, after all) in a new way.

find some unique element that you can add to their relationship that no one else has done before. introduce a conflict you’ve never encountered in your reading before. start your story somewhere in the canon timeline that’s less common. create new context for canon events, or explore the time between episodes or films in new ways.

remember that as a fic author, you have the advantage of people already being invested in your main characters. at the end of the day, readers will happily read about the same tropes and story arcs over and over, as long as they’re told from a fresh new perspective or in a unique style.

use cliffhangers - with discretion.

it’s definitely okay to make use of cliffhangers, and they can be very effective! but don’t abuse this feature, either. having terribly rude cliffhangers on every chapter could deter some readers.

a better way to think about this would be to ensure that, at the end of each chapter, the reader has something to look forward to. some unanswered question, some unresolved tension. you never want a reader to feel like all the current conflict has been resolved by the end of a chapter (save that for the end of the story). you want to keep them wondering what will come next.

whether or not you include smut, do it wisely.

it’s every author’s decision whether or not to include explicit content in a fic. and tbh, 99% of the readers i’ve encountered don’t care if a fic has smut or not. however, most do like to be informed ahead of time which it’s going to be, so they know what to expect (or what not to expect).

but if you are going to include smut, don’t do it just for the sake of smut itself. one-shots are the appropriate place to put ‘pwp’, so to speak. any sex should feel right to you - and your characters - and come into the storyline at the right time for them and their situation. otherwise, it doesn’t belong. if you do decide that your characters will get physical at some point, keep in mind that if any ust you’ve built between them is resolved too quickly, that can often cause interest to evaporate.

on the flipside, if you decide to go smut-free, great! there are a multitude of ways your characters can show affection and become more intimate without sex. nice, fluffy, romantic smut-free fics are fantastic in and of themselves. you can challenge yourself to build a romance without using sex as a crutch. explore an asexual headcanon. tackle a relationship issue that’s independent from the physical.

that being said, please be polite to your readers by not leading them on. they’re going to get excited right along with your characters. stories with thousands of words of UST and detailed foreplay but no follow through are downright maddening. if you tantalize readers with descriptions of kissing and touching and undressing then fade to black, just be aware that many people won’t endure that kind of teasing.

be very mindful of characterization.

thoughts, actions, dialogue, all of it. put yourself in your characters’ shoes. crawl inside their head. for every word they say, every decision they make, ensure that it’s true to their personality. that it makes sense for the stage of life they’re in, the state of mind they’re in, and the person they’re with (especially if it’s the other half of your ship). know canon very well, and use it as a guide. don’t hesitate to think to yourself: ‘can i hear this character saying this?’ or ‘can i see this character doing this?’ you don’t ever want a reader to say to themselves ‘... x character would never do/say that.’

fanfic is a double-edged sword in a way. i mentioned earlier that it’s to your advantage that readers are already attached to your main characters. it can also be a disadvantage, at times, because it also means they expect the characters to behave and speak a certain way. and if you don’t deliver /throughout/ the story, it can send a reader fleeing very fast, even if the story is already half finished.

#skyler10fic #replies #woah #did i just give writing advice???#i have never done this before #i feel like a real adult rn tbh #what tag does this belong in #writing #is the general one #'writing stuff' is supposed to be for posts about or relating to my own fics or writing endeavors #i put the posts from yesterday in both but this one is pretty removed from me personally #there's a fine line sometimes #it looks like i also use the tag #fanfic #when talking about writing or reading fanfic specifically #i need to be better at remembering my own systems sometimes

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allisonilluminated · 7 years ago

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[A/N] A Comprehensive Guide to Author’s Notes

Hey all,

After doing a lot of writing, I realized that I really enjoy talking about writing too. Hopefully these nuggets of wisdom I’ve gained from being a fairly established author on FFN will help somebody out in their own writing.

Anyways, I wanted to talk about author’s notes because I posted on Reddit about it and I’m lazy because they are misused so often. I’ve made almost all of these mistakes myself. Having good A/Ns can be the difference between a reader reviewing/commenting on your story or not, so here’s the most comprehensive guide on what to do and what not to do (A Lot) when you’re talking to your readers.

What to do in your starting notes:

Disclaimer (First Chapter Only). Does it give you legal standing? No. I still do it anyways.

Trigger Warnings (First Chapter and Relative Chapter). I know you with your dark kinky fic. This is more specific to FFN since there aren’t archive warnings, but dear god, if there’s going to be brutal death or noncon or something else horrifying, tell your readers.

Title, Publish Date, Author Name, Chapter Title. Putting some combination of these four things at the top of every chapter with the same formatting gives your readers consistency. Also, it’s interesting to look back at publish dates and monitor your progress.

Acknowledgements: Betas and Cover Artists, along with any other special thanks, should probably come at the top.

What to do in your end notes:

THANK YOUR READERS! Small step, massive difference

Talk about your upload schedule. This doesn’t necessarily mean a date, but your readers want to know when they’re getting more. This includes talking about how close you are to finishing major sections and giving a good idea about story length.

Briefly summarize the chapter. This might seem counter-intuitive at the end of a chapter, but it helps your reviewers out if you remind them of all the awesome things that just happened. Something like Ruby did that. Also, Yang gets something special. This is where any clarifying details on the chapter go, and it’s more important the longer the chapter.

Personal life. Connection is good, so feel free to share something about your life, like a birthday or your educational/professional life or deaths. A lot of people enjoy feeling like they know the reader. Remember that this is only good in small quantities, nobody wants to know what you ate for dinner or what your cat is doing.

Sign off. This can be a catchphrase, just your name, whatever. It gives your readers a sense of connection and finality after a chapter and before a long wait.

Mark your edits. Date them too. If you have at least a medium sized following (50+ followers) then I wouldn’t be surprised if one of those people really loves your story and wants to know what’s changing when. In new chapters after an edit, you should refer to the edit here as well.

Humor: This is the hardest to do right, but if you can make your notes funny or witty readers will be much more lenient and positive to your fic.

What not to do (A Very Long List):

“I hate this chapter” "This sucks, I’m sorry" "If you’re still here" "I suck at writing" “I don’t really like this chapter.” If you tell people your writing is bad, they might take your word for it!

Please review! Please follow! Please favorite! Please kudo! Please bookmark! Please comment! I think we’re all guilty of doing this one at some point, but it really only hurts you. It’s hard not to stick one of these in, but they really don’t do anything but make you seem desperate/needy

Spoilers/plot details. If you need several paragraphs of A/Ns to tell me wtf is going on in your story, you’re not putting enough detail into your writing, and you will lose me. Most people won’t read your author note, will be confused, and will drop your story Also, it spoils the surprise and tension, so what the point of writing more after that?

Responding to reviews in the A/N. This is what PMs are for. One reviewer may ask a spoilery question. You shouldn’t answer directly, but an indirect answer may still be considered a spoiler by another reader. Don’t take that risk.

Daily question/Polls. I’ve done both, and it’s tempting. DQ’s can be fun, but it’s technically banned on FFN and it leads to a lot of reviews not actually talking about your story. For polls, a story driven by the readers will not be a cohesive work. Don’t let your creativity be overtaken by your reader’s desires

Fighting with reviewers. If multiple reviewers call your character a Mary Sue, then that reader thinks she’s a Mary Sue. Duh. Everyone’s going to read your story differently, so it’s a waste of your time and effort to try to convince them to change that.

Middle of the story A/N. Don’t. You sound stupid and destroy the integrity of your work.

Mid-chapter song suggestions. Nobody will click off in the middle of your chapter to play this song and come back. Do it at the top if you must.

Detailed top A/Ns. Your beginning A/N should not have a lot of content. Warnings are the only things that should ever really go at the top. If you’re way late to update, acknowledging that at the top isn’t a bad idea either, but that’s about it.

Preaching. I have done this, and I very quickly got overwhelmingly negative feedback. So you’re queer, or a minority, or some other disadvantaged identifier. That’s great, and your identity is valid. There’s no way to get readers to click away faster than to start explaining diversity and identity to them. It sounds condescending. NEVER do this one. If you’re trying to make a point about it, do it with your story, not your A/N.

No A/N. It feels really impersonal and honestly kinda spammy. We’re lucky to have platforms to connect directly to readers, so take advantage of it.

Full chapter A/N. On the flipside, people read for your writing. If you don’t have anything for them, don’t waste their time with a full A/N chapter. Stick it on the end of your last chapter and make a note in the summary if you need to take a hiatus. Post a drabble or something. It doesn’t really matter, just don’t do this one.

Rants: Like, it’s okay to be mad occasionally. Just give me a concise paragraph, not a wall of text.

Talking about new episodes/books/movies: Going back to spoilers, just don’t give them. If you must do this, be vague, for all of our sakes.

Holding your fic hostage: Do I even need to explain this one?

Editing your A/N: Add a new one if you need to, but let your words stand. It��s just the honest thing to do.

Bragging: Your readers don’t really care about you, so don’t make it about you. Talking endlessly about your stats is a huge turnoff for a lot of people

Talking to your characters: Do I need to explain how weird this is?

Stories with great A/Ns:

Ashes of the Past by Saphroneth (Pokemon, T) has some great concise A/Ns.

Locked Away by N-I-N-T (Pokemon, T) is a good example of a longer A/N; some summary, some detail, and some interaction.

While there aren’t notes on every chapter, Harry Potter and the Metheods of Rationality by Less Wrong (Harry Potter, T) is a fantastic example of how to use A/Ns to start a first chapter and end a last chapter.

Finally, a wonderful example of how not to format an A/N is My Immortal (Harry Potter, NSFL)

Well, that’s a lot, but that’s the formula I find generates the most positive and constructive reviews/comments, as well as making it a better reading experience. What’s your experience with Author Notes? How do you connect with your readers?

Signing out, Allie.

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#fanfic #fanfiction #writing #author note

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