#or fucking WRITING ADVICE

[tide-locked]

i feel like people forget that sometimes characters in fic are written like that because it's a reflection of real life.

people have sex without setting boundaries. people have unprotected sex without talking about their sexual histories or producing recent sti tests. people play with kink without discussing it ahead of time or establishing a safeword. they have anal without 'enough' prep or lube—they may even prefer it like that.

and none of this is really a fantasy. it's all pretty normal. you can feel that it's inappropriately normalised, and you'd probably be right! but it is normalised: one study found that 58% of female undergraduate students on the campus studied had been choked during sex. 20% of those students said that they'd never been asked if it was ok; another 30% said they'd only sometimes been asked if they consented. fully half! (non-paywalled journal article on choking during sex here, including these numbers.) despite a rise in stis of all sorts, condom use is declining. (pdf link to the full text of this study about declining condom use in the us; aidsmap article about an australian study with similar results.)

even when people do talk about things—sex or anything else—they communicate imperfectly. 'yeah, but don't go too far' is consenting and setting a boundary, and also relying that the person you're talking to has the same metric for 'too far' that you do. for some people, 'the trash needs to go out' is a neutral, factual observation; for others, it's a request that the person they're speaking to take out the trash.

even when people understand each other perfectly, people react unpredictably to things sometimes! we behave irrationally! people laugh uncontrollably at funerals, or get angry at the straw that broke their back rather than the enormous load they were already carrying. they get scared and lash out at people trying to help them. when hurt, most people do not instinctively reach for therapy-approved grounding exercises and 'i feel' statements.

pretty much any bad choice that characters could conceivably make is a choice that people make in real life, on purpose, all the time. people do things that can have catastrophic, life-changing effects because it felt like a good idea at the time, or they're leaning into the vibe, or they just didn't think about it all that much, or an infinite number of other reasons.

fiction isn't intended as a guide on the best, safest, and most responsible ways to live your life, and fanfic isn't any different. it's not a narrative flaw to let characters do things that are messy or harmful or downright stupid—it's a reflection of what people are actually like, and not something that authors should feel they have to apologise for.

[gaywizardemporium]

*taps mic*

Fuck NaNoWriMo

It's always been a shit way to write a book. Slamming through fifty thousand words in a month leads to burnout and a garbage draft you'll spend more time unfucking than if you'd actually just paced yourself.

I'm proposing Novel Outline November

Start with your idea on November 1st.

Write something for your novel every day. The only unacceptable amount is 0.

Attempt to complete the plot in 50K words. Stick with that as a limiting factor so you focus on what's most important to your story.

When it's done it's done! Everyone is a winner!

You will

Develop good writing habits

Challenge yourself to write long form

Create a base that can be expanded into commercial fiction (70-100K) or genre fiction (100-110K)

Happy writing!

[includedisco]

I'm popping up this random Tuesday to share a few reminders with my fellow fanfic writers

Even your favorite authors had to work hard to get good. We are all awful writers until we decide to improve and take steps.

Every day is an opportunity to be a better writer than you were yesterday if you put in a little work

The love for your works must start with you. Be your own biggest fan

You're allowed to write at your pace.

its okay to embrace some "imperfections" in your writing. Imperfection is part of art because it makes you unique.

It's okay to let go of the writer you were yesterday. Change is normal and it's okay. You're still awesome and your new work will still have an audience. It's okay to look fondly upon a past you perceive as your "glory days" but don't let that make you insecure. Your heart of a writer and your creative talent remain true. Embrace the writer you've become and confidently run with it

Any story you come up with, and your writing style are both special and precious because it's your art

its okay to crave validation and compliments for your fanfic-writing. You poured your blood, sweat and tears into it like any other artist.

No matter how you feel about your writing, it is special because no one can do it like you.

It's okay to be satisfied with just being a fanfic writer. Having amazing writing talent doesn't mean you must force yourself to write original works or to be published.

Fuck AI

[so-many-ocs]

practical writing advice part 2

part 1

get used to carrying a notebook around with you. or get used to writing on your phone. you will not always have access to your computer, but it’s much easier to take something compact with you to quickly jot down ideas. also i have chronic illness and sometimes my bones feel like lead and going upstairs to get my laptop is a herculean task, BUT i can write on my phone lying down instead of just scrolling through my camera roll and being miserable. which brings me to my next point:

if you have to choose between writing unconventionally or even unproductively and not writing at all, choose the writing. i’ve said before not to create a habit of writing in bed, but if it comes down to writing in bed or not writing whatsoever, i’ll write in bed. i just try to stretch before and after (which you should also do!!!).

you’re not wasting time or being silly by making playlists or moodboards or memes of your characters and environments. having fun with your stories outside of writing them is a good way to stay motivated.

i like to stop my writing sessions in a place where i know exactly what i want to write next, so when i pick back up i won’t be left hemming and hawing over where to begin. HOWEVER, if you’re absolutely locked in, don’t interrupt that flow state. it’ll be harder to find it again later—instead, wait until you find a natural place to stop where you haven’t run out of ideas.

“why do i have a headache 3 hours into my writing session?” because the last time you had a sip of water was 4 hours ago, you dingus! keep your drinks near your workspace while you write. and i do mean, like, a full bottle of water at least. if you’re like me, things stop existing when they leave your line of sight, so keep these beverages where you can see them and refill during bathroom breaks.

uhhh try not to think negatively about your writing while you’re doing it because when i do that i just get bummed out. “this scene is terrible” -> “oh yeah fuck it up oh yeah fuck it up” (positive reframing)

ok thanks bye

[queenie-ofthe-void]

Whether it's long or short fic, doesn't matter. It's whatever you consider a normal story for yourself, as an author.

[seaglasswrites]

I see a lot of people advocate for the use of AI/AMs in writing as a tool for when writers are stuck; The main selling point for these people seems to be that, when facing writers’ block, a writer can just plug their story into one of these tools and get “help”.

It’s a similar idea to a lot of writing posts I’ve seen on here, complaining about the “in-between” - “I’ve got this wonderful beginning and this heart-wrenching ending, but no idea what to put in the middle! Writing sucks!”

These people don’t seem to realize, though, that without the author figuring that out for themselves, there is no story.

Sure, you can have a basic idea for a plot; Let’s use 1984 as an example: A man lives in a hyper-surveillance society under an authoritarian dictatorship, and rebels against it by joining a secret society that turns out to have been the government all along.

That’s a great plot idea - and it’s sure to do great with both publishers and readers alike! But it’s not 1984. It’s a plot summary of 1984.

If George Orwell had plugged that prompt into ChatGPT and asked it to do the rest for him, we would probably still have Winston Smith (or someone like him), but we might not have Julia, or O’Brien, or the scene with the rats, or the melancholy ending at the café, or a whole host of other important characters and plot points.

Why? Because here’s the thing - Orwell came up with those ideas because he actually thought about the premise he had imagined. What would people act like in such a society? What kind of torture methods would their government use?

Even the ending scene where Winston sits at the café can have a million different things said about it when it comes to Orwell’s thought process when he wrote it. What would this government do with its victims once they were done torturing them? How would they make a public example of the power it had, without actively televising said torture? How would “normal” citizens treat these victims? What would their short remaining lives be like?

If you put the basic details into ChatGPT, though - “dystopian government, surveillance, torture, betrayal” - It wouldn’t give you the same result.

Every decision you see in a book, movie, or other piece of media that you love is there because the author got stumped at one point and had to think their way out of it.

Ask any famous author about their writing process. Read or watch any interview. There will always be a point where they had no idea where to take the story next, and some of the parts about those stories that are the best are the ones that came about from writer’s block.

Writing is all about getting stumped, and confused, and not knowing where to go next. It’s okay to not always know what you’re doing. But you do actually have to think your way out of it. Otherwise, you’re not writing.

[nondelphic]

fuck colleen hoover. all my homies hate colleen hoover. if she can get movie adaptations (yes, PLURAL) of her fucking horribly written toxic ass WEIRD ASS BOOKS, so can anyone else.

like, her writing being bad is the least of her problems. if i publish my work and y'all go "aight this writing sucks" AT LEAST I DON'T MARKET FUCKING DOMESTIC ABUSE TRAUMA PORN AS ROMANCE.

FUCK COLLEEN HOOVER!!!!!!!!

[avon7ade]

Saying goodbye pt 1. :)

Better late than never?

[problematic-tip-centre]

I saw a post recently about showing the ugly sides of your oc’s trauma and allowing them to lash out and be enraged at people and I thought I’d give some tips on it.

Reasons a traumatised character can lash out at someone else:

•Releasing pent-up tension

•Direct anger at their past traumas to someone else

•Misinterpret something the other did as a threat

•They are reminded of their trauma and displace their fear/anger

•They don’t believe they are worthy of love/are unused to love (due to their trauma) and thus lash out to not receive it

•To test if someone will stay or abandon them (esp if they have abandonment fears)

•They believe it’s a way to show love (rare (I think) but possible)

•They feel/are vulnerable and lash out as a way to protect themselves

•The other abandoned them during an hour of need (esp if they left them in a traumatic situation)

What could happen when they lash out:

•Short and cutting remarks or temporarily giving someone the silent treatment (isn’t really lashing out but can be a sign of trauma)

•Shouting or speaking harshly

•Using insults or weaponising past mistakes in an argument (my favourite thing is if the other accidentally triggered their trauma in the past)

•Throwing or smashing objects

•Shoving or grabbing someone (and yelling at them)

•Hitting or striking someone

•Serious assault (if the character is physically strong and/or they’ve been severely triggered/have severe PTSD such as a war zone or severe child abuse)

•They use any weapons that they have erratically

Potential consequences:

•They feel extremely guilty even though the recipient understands/forgives

•Fear or discomfort in the recipient

•People may grow less willing to support them if they repeatedly do it

•Some may retaliate physically

•Recipient feels remorseful esp. if they in/directly played a part in the other’s abuse

•In severe cases, the recipient dies.

My personal favourite scenarios are:

•A lashes out at B because B left them at the mercy of an abusive family member (bonus points if B is remorseful for it and/or A reconciles with B).

•A lashes out at B because B showed them a film which accidentally triggered their trauma.

•A retaliates at B because B raised their voice.

•B is unable to forgive A for lashing out at them (bonus points if they want to but can’t).

•B lashes out at A because A lashed out at B and B was unable to forgive them.

[includedisco]

Fanfic writers, as we walk into 2025, let's remember and embrace these facts;

1.Our writing matters. The evidence is in how we all suffer meltdowns when ao3 is down.

2.Fanfic-writing is a hobby that should be done for fun.

3.The decision to go the extra mile to write awesome works should be a personal choice, not inspired by an ungrateful audience(hateful comments on your writing).

4.We are not paid to write, so we reserve the right to be comfortable in our writing(choice of writing style, writing pace, type of stories we write, what fandom to write in etc).

5.It's okay to write exactly the way you write. There is an audience for every sort of story.

6.It's okay to want more kudos, comments and hits. Why the fuck not? You worked hard on your story

7.We don't owe anyone an explanation for writing/reading any kind of fanfiction.

8.Writing has a lot of pain attached to it as we all know, but don't forget that there is just as much joy in it. Don't let the negatives take your happiness from you.

9.Let 2025 be the year in which you finally write that story idea you think is too silly; post that story you think no one will like; try to join that fandom you've admired for a while, leave a comment for an author you love; try something new with your writing.

It'll go well, I promise. If it doesn't, it's still a win because the challenge will help you get out of your comfort zone and grow. We can't win every day but we will win some days. Next time will go better

10.Be your own biggest fan.

11.AI and Satan are the same thing.

[ancharan]

Ur so good at writing and images also. What is ur secret…

the key is to realize that no one can stop you

[corpium]

Ansur!Tav fic in which Ansur reincarnates as Tav and slowly realizes his dream guardian is awfully familiar in the worst fucking way. This could be a horribly dramatic, tragic story.

however, I propose instead... comedy!

Let the companions suffer through them constantly bitching at each other. Maybe somehow Ansur is still an undead spirit posessing Tav so Emps is like "who's the abomination now??" and Astarion's like "now wait just a second, there's nothing wrong with being undead" and Minthara's casually dropping super wise truth bombs on them about their relationship and Karlach and Wyll ship it

[beneathsilverstars]

i love themes. i love when i'm writing and i'm like ughhh i have to come up with some filler bullshit details to go here because it's necessary to the rest of the plot but not actually very relevant to it, and then i'm like wait. i know how to make it relevant. i just have to make the details echo the overarching themes of the piece. and suddenly it stops being filler bullshit and starts being, like, foreshadowing or allegory or some cool shit like that ^w^

[seaglasswrites]

If you’re intent on using tools like ChatGPT to write, I’m probably not going to be able to convince you not to. I do, however, want to say one thing, which is that you have absolutely nothing to gain from doing so.

A book that has been generated by something like ChatGPT will never be the same as a book that has actually been written by a person, for one key reason; ChatGPT doesn’t actually write.

A writer is deliberate; They plot events in the order that they have determined is best for the story, place the introduction of certain elements and characters where it would be most beneficial, and add symbolism and metaphors throughout their work.

The choices the author makes is what creates the book; It would not exist without deliberate actions taken over a long period of thinking and planning. Everything that’s in a book is there because the author put it there.

ChatGPT is almost the complete opposite to this. Despite what many people believe, humanity hasn’t technically invented Artificial Intelligence yet; ChatGPT and similar models don’t think like humans do.

ChatGPT works by scraping the internet to see what other people and sources have to say on a given topic. If you ask it a question, there’s not only a good chance it will give you the wrong answer, but that you’ll get a hilariously wrong answer; These occurrences are due to the model pulling from sources like Reddit and other social media, often from comments meant as jokes, and incorporating them into its database of knowledge.

(A major example of this is Google’s new “AI Overview” feature; Look up responses and you’ll see the infamous machine telling you to add glue to your pizza, eat rocks, and jump off the Golden Gate Bridge if you’re feeling suicidal)

Anything “written” by ChatGPT, for example, would be cobbled together from multiple different sources, a good portion of which would probably conflict with one another; If all you’re telling the language model to do is “write me a book about [x]”, it’s going to pull from a variety of different novels and put together what it has determined makes a good book.

Have you ever read a book that you thought felt clunky at times, and later found out that it had multiple different authors? That’s the best comparison I can make here; A novel “written” by a language model like ChatGPT would resemble a novel cowritten by a large group of people who didn’t adequately communicate with one another, with the “authors” in this case being multiple different works that were never meant to be stitched together.

So, what do you get in the end? A not-very-good, clunky novel that you yourself had no hand in making beyond the base idea. What exactly do you have to gain from this? You didn’t get any practice as a writer (To do that, you would have to have actually written something), and you didn’t get a very good book, either.

Writing a book is hard. It’s especially hard when you’re new to the craft, or have a busy schedule, or don’t even know what it is you want to write. But it’s incredibly rewarding, too.

I like to think of writing as a reflection of the writer; By writing, we reveal things about ourselves that we often don’t even understand or realize. You can tell a surprising amount about a person based on their work; I fail to see what you could realize about a prompter when reading a GPT-generated novel besides what works it pulled from.

If you really want to use ChatGPT to generate your novel for you, then I can’t stop you. But by doing so, you’re losing out on a lot; You’re also probably losing out on what could be an amazing novel if you would actually take the time to write it yourself.

Delete the app and add another writer to the world; You have nothing to lose.

[rjalker]

you can still have gender in a species that's monoecious, reproduces asexually, or even is just physically incapable of the normal means of reproduction, you people are just fucking obsessed with biological essentialism and the white supremacist ideal of gender.

[nondelphic]

capitalism is just a poorly written villain. it’s not subtle, its motives don’t make sense, and its plan is somehow both convoluted and repetitive. unfortunately, it’s the antagonist we all got stuck with.