#or fucking WRITING ADVICE

[hel-phoenyx]

He loves the drama.

if i were famous i would be a menace because i would actively endorse and read my own rpf. i'm giving fanfic recs on Instagram live. i'm making a separate ao3 acc for my public persona. i'm commenting "lmfao i've done that before" and "inaccurate i've never had sex". PR teams hate me, the fandom has mixed feelings and i've been cancelled 30 times in the past 8 months for reading rpf.

[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!

[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

[a-memory-a-distant-echo]

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.

[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

[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!!!!!!!!

[denjjisgf]

JUST LIKE THAT (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧ s. gojo x reader

nsfw 18+ oral (reader receiving), afab reader

the metal stall wall shakes when your hand twacks! against it, attempting to keep yourself steady. tasting tequila and sickly artificial strawberry, you glide your tongue over the flat of the stranger’s and groan. wild hands dance over your body, tugging awkwardly at your shirt and under your waistbands. a frustrated leg spreads yours. dextrous fingers pop the button of your jeans and finagle the zipper down. your head tilts back as a hot tightness coils, burning the skin at his fingertips. a sigh tumbles from your lips and he catches the back of your neck to bring you to a kiss. the cold porcelain of the dirty bar toilet grazed your leg and you flinch, breaking the mirage of sexual tension the ivory-headed stranger cast over you. 

how did we get here?

･*:.｡. .｡.:*･

“what are you having?” you twist in the stiff bar stool, positioning your back to the voice. conveniently a five-minute walk away, you were in your favorite spot at the small pub near your apartment. it reeks of spilled beer and the grainy tv constantly rotates the sport of the season for the older regulars; this isn’t the type of bar you go to find people to take home. the last thing you want is to be hit on by a man three times your age or resembles your friend's dad. so you sip from your drink and ignore. “ah— i see," he's moved to face you and smiling, wildly, and you roll your eyes. "you’re already drinking. well. bartender!” you hear the swish of fabric fly and he’s waving his hand. “hi, yes, i’ll have whatever they’re having.” 

persistent, you think. letting it go, you take a closer look. to your bewilderment, it’s in fact not a man the retirement age nor your friend’s father. pleasantly, he has a handsome look to his features, his nose long, slender, and balancing thin rectangular sunglasses. soft lips curl into a flirt, a tight lipped smirk, his tongue swiping to wet the bottom one. from over the lenses, you just barely catch a glance of gorgeous cerulean blue.

･*:.｡. .｡.:*･

you gasp as he throws your thighs up, holding you tight atop the flat of his forearms. your legs are restricted, help taunt by the stiffness of your pants, bunched at the ankles. your shoes dangle, helplessly, and flop in the air as he buries his head between your legs and pops out at the crux of your pretty pussy. you've rested your arms over the edge of the bathroom stall, precariously holding onto the weak plastic siding and metal rod, screwed to the ceiling. from here, anyone walking in would get the sight of you: perched like an angel, mouth agape in an 'o' and the stranger's black laced, leather dress shoes peeking from the bottom of the stall's door.

he sighs and spits a string of slurs, whining and pecking gentle, wet kisses into the fat of your thighs, gripping at the plushness of it all. he nuzzles his head and the scratchy grit of his undercut tickles you. you drop a hand down to guide his head closer and his hot breath fans over the dewy wet patch on your underwear. you feel safe, stable in his arms, thick veins protruding as his biceps flex. you feel ticks as he readjusts— the blood pumping thick through them when he moves closer, pushing you in a mating press.

your knees fold and the dirty heels of your sneakers dig into his shoulder blades. your fingernails scratch the skin behind his ear as you nudge him closer, whining and pleading sexy little 'please' s he can't resist. so he licks, first from the bottom, over your panties and up till his lips clasp around your clit, then he sucks. gentle pops! and groans float up to your ears and your face flushes with embarrassment and arousal. his fingers dance to pull the damp fabric to the side and he dig his nose into the tufts of hair at your groin. he teases shapes over the throbbing ball of nerves and laps his tongue at the entrance of your hole. he does straight lines, back and forth, up and down, granting you just enough stimulation to get the knee jerk reaction he wants and hear the high pitched gasp catch in your throat. his tongue dips in, slurping up the sticky, cream pool collecting and swallow it down with a gulp. 

trembling, his fingers reach his mouth and wets them, watching with hazy eyes how the thick remnants of your cum and his saliva draw strings between his milky white fingers. repositioning again, he inserts one, slowly, and just to the first knuckle. he’s teasing. pushing in and out at an agonizing pace, barely deep and missing your g spot and just enough to have you reeling. your hips buck subconsciously, mindlessly grinding to push his long fingers in farther. he returns to suck on your clit, this time with more intent. he hums and flicks his tongue, quick and consistent, while you ride his fingers messily. as you pull back, preparing to push forward and grind back onto his hand, he sneaks a second finger in and holds you flush to his face. like this, he takes more control, dragging them along your walls and bringing you closer to bliss. your spine feels cold and he’s pressing down just where you like it. his tongue is hot and your hearing dulls to a fuzz as he works you open on his fingers.

like a vignette, your vision narrows until it’s just the graffiti, stickered walls and spikes of white hair. every hair is raised on your body when he spits viciously on your pussy and buries himself once again. he’s overstimulating you in every manner possible, and you moan for him, louder and desperate as ever. “just like that,” you whisper, a thin string of drool spilling from your mouth as you look down and lock eyes with those pretty blue ones. you can’t see but know he’s smiling from the crinkle in his eyes; they roll back to his skull and he sighs with heady satisfaction. “sweetheart, i could stay like this forever.”

[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^

[abiteofhoney]

do you ever get so tired of seeing those “don’t do this in your writing/readers don’t like this” posts like what the fuck should we write then? what would make u happy? do u enjoy anything?

[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.

[katapotato55]

how to make your writing be remembered forever and possibly be well loved.

(incredibly stupid and silly fanfiction line at the end of this post) I know that title is incredibly daunting but listen, its very simple. you ready?

MAKE STRONG CHARACTERS

"but kat! surely its not that simple! " nononono listen. bear with me. I want you to think of your favorite thing. Now ask: what do you remember the most about the thing you love? I will go first:

I love team fortress 2. and guess what: this game has been around since 2007, and was in development hell since before I was even born. The game has been around for 16 fucking years. And guess what? in the strong year of 2023 team fortress 2 Is STILL getting memed about. and do you want to know the crazy part? the character designs to the naked eye are not special at all. ok sure from a designer standpoint, these are very well designed characters made so that you can easily tell who they are based on their silhouette. but from the average joe.... tf2 is iconic but overall it looks ok. it doesn't seem special to a stranger to tf2. look at this completely random and arbitrary example of a game in the same genre:

I don't know shit about the characters in overwatch. Yeah i have a BASIC idea on what their personality is like based on voice lines and some videos i guess... but in-game they just exist. these characters are brightly colored, they have beautiful unique designs, hell they have even more diversity such as robots and people from other cultures! but i don't remember shit about these characters. Maybe I remember the ice lady and tracer, but nothing else. and yeah part of overwatch struggling right now is incompetant development, BUT: The characters in team fortress 2 are SO remember-able because the characters have such a vibrant personality. I am an orange box owner, its been a decade and a half and I am still remembering this game and enjoying art about it.

"but kat! that is a comedy game! Overwatch is a very serious game! are you saying comedy is needed to make a character more noticeable?" no. though I think allowing your characters to lighten up every now and then would humanize them. Not full on goofy, just give them something that makes them likeable. and if you cant do that, you can STILL make a compelling character even though they are mostly seriousness. I have an even more awfully thought out example:

kung fu panda is a masterclass in making a serious comedic movie somehow work. Master Oogway.... he isn't a comedic character at all. Yeah we made memes about him, but ignoring that, he is a wise and resourceful person. He is at calm and has faith in this intuition. there are a lot of characters like this. What makes Oogway stand out is that he is also a little bit kooky and sassy.

this youtube clip sums up what I mean. It is a funny line, it fits the character, and It doesn't ruin the seriousness of the moment. Some of the most successful series in history have something about them that has appealed to people. In my opinion: characters with strong personality and interesting traits is always a good way to ensure your writing is successful. The second most important is the characters bouncing off of each other in terms of their chemistry with each other. There is a reason why I spent years playing the first Destiny game and all of the DLC, but I remember fuck all about the characters. I think I maybe remember the bootleg star lord robot guy.

A writing exercise

here is an exercise to get you in the spirit of character making. step 1- get a random character from a random bit of media. In this case let me bring you master Oogway. Step 2- Get a completely different character from a completely unrelated series. I am going to give you Scout from team fortress 2. step 3- write a random ass thing about them interacting. Think about how the characters would react to each other and why. Think about each characters values in life and think about how they would bond and conflict with each other. Think about characters similar to the character they met in the past and how they reacted then, and if they have never interacted, make something interesting with it. Step 4- keep experimenting. Once you get into the spirit you can apply this to any new character you could want to make anyways thats it byeee- "arent you going to do that ?" do what? "make a writing thing about oogway and scout. " ........

Scout: let's go turtle you got nothing on my speed- Oogway: The one who first resorts to violence shows that he has no more arguments. Scout: that sounds like chicken talk! come on tough guy let me have it- Oogway then proceeds to make scout eat shit before vanishing in a cloud of cherry blossoms and dust from the desert. If this post isn't popular I want you to know my dignity was lost for nothing.

[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.

[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.

[flowerandblood]

I don't like many of the authors' decisions here – sometimes their tropes, sometimes their choice of how they present events, dialogues, sometimes their characters, relationships between them or their appearance. It's not a bad thing. I have a right to feel this way.

But I would never tell them about it. Not because I don't have the courage to do it but because it would give them nothing, nothing good. You criticise when someone asks for it – when someone doesn't, then you should keep quiet.

Why? Because perhaps someone does not want this criticism and it's their right too. I, for example, don't care and I don't want to know how much someone dislikes something in my work. I don't need the fake appreciation of others, just as others don't need mine.

If I don't like someone's stories, I just leave them alone. God bless all of them! Write and be happy.

No one here is an oracle or judge, and some people feel that way. If you don't like what the authors are writing and their choices, give them a holy peace or else all you'll achieve is that they'll be discouraged from writing – they'll think: maybe nobody wants to read this after all, look at my characters, maybe it's pointless, maybe everyone thinks about me and my writing this way.

Sowing doubt and passive humiliation is very popular here for some reason and I find it incredibly annoying. People don't know when to shut their mouths and when their private opinion to which they are, after all, entitled hurts others, making them uncomfortable.

Our right to free speech should not cut someone's wings and mock them. This is an expression of disrespect and basic culture.

Not everyone has to want to change, to develop if it is not their profession but a simple hobby.

Anonymity does not make malicious gibberish sound any smarter, and a large audience or reactions under posts does not make anyone entitled to post an opinion in which they criticise works of others for their choices.

"Why do you write with only small letters? It's so annoying. This character would never do this, are you dumb? Aemond would never betray his family! Oh nooo, next Visenya on a big dragon? Why these OC's are so boring? Reader insert is just for you because you are desperate to fuck. Why do your OC is fat? Why do your OC is slim? Why do make your OC look like this, why won't you try something new? Why do you put Alys in your story as a third wheel when she is Aemond's real love interest?"

Shut. The fuck. UUUUUUP. GOD.

You say – you don't agree, don't read, I have a right to my opinion. Well, I say: your right does not absolve you from thinking about the feelings of others.

You are hypocrites. You cry and make a hiatus when someone sends you a nasty anon writing that you write crap, but you devote 2,000 words on your blog to why a certain trope doesn't make sense, why other authors don't have a right to make their OC's look the way they want.

What you write is not private, it's public. Who are you writing it to? Is it an expression of your frustration? Those you write it about can read it. They may feel very, very bad about it, they can think to stop writing at all or make themselves to do something against their will. But that's not your concern anymore, right?

Taking responsibility for your own words only when it's convenient for you is an expression of immaturity and that's what I see in this fandom – most people here are afraid of adulthood and the clash with it. Because in adulthood everything we do has consequences to face.

But it's easier to say that we simply have the right to express our opinion, no matter how hurtful and unfounded it may be.

I want to be clear – I will see anyone reblogging or write this kind of posts – I will block them. Even if I like you, if you are with me for a long time. I don't want to see this kind of toxic behavior on my wall ever again. Enough is enough.

[merakiui]

thinking,,,,,,,, darling who has a cryptic pregnancy....... [insert twst character here] reacting to it,,, maybe you and floyd and you're both a little dense because neither of you could have ever guessed. T_T

"what do you mean you were pregnant this whole time???? i thought shrimpy just got softer. :D" - floyb mindset.

in floyd's defense, he has no idea how human pregnancies work. he slept through that part of land boot camp!!! fell asleep the minute the professor started droning on about how humans don't lay eggs like mers do. jade can only chuckle (maybe he knew, but in classic jade fashion he won't tell because it's much more entertaining to sit back and watch everyone slowly figure it out) and azul is shaking his head in disbelief. had he known, he would have prepared well in advance to lend a helping hand. and you're just so amazed because maybe you were told you're unable to get pregnant, but somehow it happened and you had no idea all this time.

thank you to floyd and his mer virility for doing what was thought to be the impossible!!!!!! <3

[questionable-idea]

I'm bad at giving writing feedback so instead I write my thoughts in a note file as I read a friend's writing, like live commentary, and send that. it's so fucking funny to read and also surprisingly useful