#same goes for writers

[doctorsiren]

Artist tip: You never have to suffer alone because you can make characters suffer with you

[definetelynotavampire]

Hi Garlic, just wanted to say I love your artworks (and the ramblings)!

I just wanted to ask for some art advice/opinions. I’ve only recently started posting online and all of my artist friends sign off their artworks. I never feel confident enough to do that, even though a lot of people tell me they actually like a signed artwork. What are your thoughts on signing off/watermarking your pieces?

Hey!! :D hmm... thats a difficult question bc I don't have the best or most consistent habits ._ . But generally speaking I always sign my art, even if I end up not liking it for whatever reason. If u decide to do it I'd recommend creating a watermark/signature once and then just copy it to every work. It's also a good idea to use ur @ so ppl can find u easier and put it in a place where it's more dificult to erase. I'd say try some stuff out, especially if ur just starting to post online. Consistency and confidence comes with experience :)

[bixels]

What did/do you like about Pharah?

Uh, gameplay-wise, I really love characters in shooters who rely on three-dimensional movement techs. Chaining together hover and jump to stay in the air for as long as possible and keep momentum is so satisfying, and picking enemies off from the sky made me feel like a bird of prey. I was a good Pharah main.

Story-wise, there unfortunately isn't much to canonically go off because Pharah is so underutilized and neglected. Her personality's pretty boilerplate "heroic hero" (she's literally inspired by Captain America).

But it's the crumbs/bits and pieces that I really latched onto. Pharah's a confirmed lesbian; her short story with Baptiste implies she harbors a crush on Mercy (fucking thank you.). She's biracial Egyptian/First Nations. She has major mommy issues, having grown up both admiring and resenting Ana. She's the bridge between Old Overwatch, inspired by the idealized heroes who surrounded her childhood, and New Overwatch. She's one of the only inter-generational characters in the cast; someone whose experiences span the gap, which is why I seriously believe Pharah would make a great main character.

There isn't much to go off of, though; she's a very uncomplicated character (she's a soldier for a private military corporation, lol.). But that just means she's a blank slate character, so I've seen fanfic writers run wild and create some really interesting takes on her. My favorite interpretation of her's a dense, herbo gym-bro type (a lot of her liens are about work outs, exercising, and playing sports) who's easily excitable under her seemingly self-serious, armored visage. We see how she tends to gloat and hype herself up when she's on a streak too, so Pharah definitely has a competitive and boastful side under her more professional and militant performance.

Now Mercy? Mercy is a real complex character.

[badasscoffeemug]

my general policy is to Not screenshot others’ posts just to talk about them because all it does is create unnecessary drama. that being said. i’m so sorry but this showed up on my for you and it’s just so funny to me. what do you mean “queer coding in tommys character that doesn’t exist”. he gets called gay in his very first episode.

[mayabishopgold]

Can you just stand next to me? This helps. I think this is what I need right now. Maya & Vic | Station 19 - 1x07

[algrenion]

"Blake Lively is so annoyi-"

shhhhh shhh hush now baby... is girliepop complicit in the adaptation of It Ends With Us into film, ultimately spreading extremely toxic messaging about what constitutes as a healthy, acceptable, or worse yet romantic relationship to the masses...? yeah....... yeah she is, baby, Blake is complicit but shh... let's save that Grade-A Rage to build the anti-Colleen-Hoover laser so this never happens again... bc It STARTS With Her....... Blake is just the trimmings!! okay......? okay ;-))

[imminent-danger-came]

A hypothetical scenario where MK was the one to kill the pilgrims in a past life, and what a conversation post that reveal might look like.

[treasure-goblin]

Hi hello uh if you've ever made art ever at all I just wanna say um I love it and you're amazing ok bye <3

[swissyyroll]

i don’t think anything could compare to opening up your relationships / favourites tags on ao3 and seeing new / updated fics. genuinely there is no other euphoria, it’s so special to have people share their wonderful words about characters you’ve invested into, whether it’s a very active pairing or perhaps an hidden gem that’s not so frequent.

it just gives me serotonin like no other!

[burst-of-iridescent]

people who say zutara can't be canon because "they only became friends in the last five episodes!" irritate me so much like my dude are we watching the same show? zuko and katara’s arcs mirror each other from book 1, they share parallel after parallel and have layers upon layers of symbolism, their backgrounds and personalities and morals are so similar that we the audience can see how compatible they are and how well they would understand each other even without explicit interaction between them, so that by the time the southern raiders rolls around, it simply serves as proof of what we already know about zutara.

tsr, eip and sozin's comet are, narratively speaking, the culmination of zuko and katara’s arc together, not the beginning! they're the fruit that’s borne from the seeds that were sowed since the very first season, and naturally viewers would pick up on that! of course people who love these two characters would see the connection between them and the similarities they share and the thematic significance of their relationship, and then the show itself validates this audience interpretation in the catacombs, in tsr, in the finale! that’s what zk shippers mean when we say that zuko and katara were meant to be together, because their relationship is threaded so deeply into their own personal narratives and that of the show overall that they don’t even need a lot of screentime together for the audience to know that a) they would be a good couple and b) the direction of the story was naturally leading to a romance between them.

zuko and katara’s relationship extends above and beyond their moments of direct interaction, so that their scenes together after they become friends are really just the payoff for the buildup of the past three seasons - because the narrative foundation for zutara was laid all the way back in book 1, not in the southern raiders or any of the episodes that followed.

[lxvvie]

*le sigh.*

I don't include specific physical descriptors in my content (and even if it's targeted towards a certain demographic, I keep it general anyway) because I aim for inclusivity. As the reader, I want you to be as immersed as possible in the stuff that I write.

I am an African-American woman who is rocking a bald fade (yes, I know I look like I could be part of the Dora Milaje). I came up reading fanfiction and didn't see much if any representation in it. I don't know how many people (black people especially) coming across my blog would find it relatable if I tailored the reader to fit how I look into my content.

I say this to say that just like black women (and black people) aren't a monolith, so, too, are the people who come across my work. They are from all walks of life be it race, ethnicity, sexuality, body type, nationality, etc., and the list goes on. Vibe wit it, babes. ❤️

ETA: This is just what I do with my writing. Everyone's approach to fanfiction is different so if what you're doing is working for you, keep at it.

[runawaymun]

Have you ever just stared at an idea and couldn't write it? You want to buy it's so you tailored that no one will read it, in fact your scared that people who ship the rare pair might be disappointed with it.

If so how do you deal with it because I am struggling. I lost a lot of my creative drive because I feel like no one wants to hear my stories. Has that ever happened to you?

Sorry to come in and like have a big sad in you inbox but I love your work and I always wonder if other people with such amazing work feel this way too.

Ah, nonnie, you sent this in a little while ago and I was laid flat, so I'm so sorry that it has taken me this long to reply!

But yes, this has happened to me! I think it's very natural. The only way you can get past it is by saying fuck it tbh. Write what you want to write; write what makes you happy!

I thought Stars was going to be way too hyperspecific to me. I hadn't really seen anything like it, and platonic OC & Canon Character fics as a whole rarely see any popularity, but I wrote it with my whole chest and surprisingly it resonated with a lot of people. That happened with Brimbrond (there were like, I think three people who shipped it at the time I started writing Partake), and now with my Zhongli x Baizhu fics, Genshin is such a large fandom and it is such a rarepair. Zhongli is attached to one of the most popular fics in the fandom and Baizhu is simply rarely ever written about. But I love them. And I feel that way about Dehya and Baizhu, too, and plan on writing stuff for them and making art.

Truly the only way to get past this is to write what you love. You don't even have to post it. Write what you want to read. It helps if you can find even one other person who ships the ship and likes your work, and the two of you can scream about it together. I know it really sucks when it feels like no one's reading your work. I've had flop fics myself, and it happens especially with art since people just don't reblog as much as they used to. It can be really discouraging. But you have to do it for you.

If it's really bothering you, then maybe take a step back and just don't post anything. You don't have to post it at all. Write it without posting. Let it be Bad, even. Put your whole chest into it, write whatever tropes you want, skip around. If you're bored then don't write it. If you aren't having fun, don't write it. Skip all the uninteresting parts and just write the shippy nonsense you want to read.

I guess what I keep wanting to say and keep repeating ad nauseam is that you really, really cannot be writing for others. Again, believe me, I know it's disheartening when something flops and you feel like no one wants to read your work, but that's where you have to decide that you're going to write for you.

And if you're burnt out and absolutely nothing is fun, then take a step back and just read. Like, fanfic sure, but I mean a physical book. It'll exfoliate your brain. Read for fun. If you aren't enjoying the book then don't be afraid to DNF it. Play a good story-based video game if that's your thing. Watch a show or a movie and really pay attention to it. When I'm lacking inspiration and everything Feels Bad sometimes I just need to get some input. As it was described to me years ago: your writing brain is like a well. You have to pour good stuff into it. Nothing is written in a vacuum, and if you're struggling to make anything come out it may be because your well is empty, and you just need to top it up a bit.

Anyway, yeah. Enjoy some good fiction. Kill the critic inside your head. Write for you. I am pretty much terrified 100% of the time when I am writing and posting that it won't be good, it'll flop, no one will like it, etc. etc. But you absolutely cannot let that paralyze you into not creating. Don't let the critic in your head win. Tell yourself it doesn't have to be good. Repeat that over and over. It's okay if it's bad. It's okay if it's bad. No one even has to see it.

Plus, when it comes to rough drafts --- accept that it is going to be bad. You are just shoveling sand into a box to build castles with later.

If you want to post, please try to remember that it is a gift to the community. It is a privilege that we get to read other people's work. For FREE. For FUN. And make friends doing it! You do not owe anyone anything. At risk of sounding like a broken record: please, please, please write for you and no one else. If you choose to share it that is up to you, and the rest of us say fucking thank you. The inner critic never goes away. That fear never goes away. I'm so serious. But it's fake. It's so fake. It doesn't matter. Imagine it in a silly, stupid little voice (mine sounds like a whiny kylo ren or sometimes like Donald Trump, and then it's easy to dispel). Tell it to shut up. If it's like 'this is awful' then say 'that's okay. I'm having fun', and if it's like 'no one will read it,' then say 'that's okay, i'm writing it for me,' and then write what you want to write, because you like it and want to read it. Fuck it you ball.

[eyrieofsynapses]

good evening, all. it is May the 25th. our lilacs are blooming, just as the ones at the Watch House did. and I am thinking about remembrance of the fallen, and GNU, and the love in commemoration.

y'know, I read Night Watch… oh, maybe a year ago and some months ago. and the lilac symbolism, the remembrance of the Watch, has always struck me with the depth of the emotion of it, the tangibility of it in the flowers. but I wasn't aware that today was the day until I saw commemorative posts, all that gorgeous artwork and more, on my dash.

I was also not aware, until now, that fans commemorated the day not only because of the book reference, but in support of Terry Pratchett and of those with Alzheimer's. which knocked me over a bit because of course, of course the group that would use GNU to honor him would do that. and… I've been thinking about GNU a lot, lately, and this caught me again.

I read Going Postal a bit ago, and reread it recently. both times, the parts about GNU made me tear up. this idea of the names, the memories, the lives of the clacks workers who dedicated themselves to ensuring that people heard each other's voices—all those names spoken again and again and again by that which they poured their souls into, winging along in the air as they could not, an eternal reminder that they were loved—how could that not touch a person's heart?

when I found out that fans online used it to memorialize him, I damn well cried. hell, I still tear up just thinking about it. do you know, there's a code for an HTTP header "X-Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett" written by Reddit users to put in webpages, where it goes unseen by the average user? and in 2015, when Netcraft took a survey, there were eighty-four thousand websites using it? it's eight years later—how many thousands upon thousands of websites have this now, do you think? how many little cables of light has his name flown along, now? how many times?

that alone is absurdly and unimaginably lovely in its own right, but… there's something else to it. there's something about remembering with the lilac sprigs every year, just as Vimes and those who were there remembered their dead. something about how, when we take up our lilac sprigs, we carry a little piece of the characters in our hearts, too. I kept trying to put my finger on why that makes me tear up the way it does. the conclusion I came to is this:

what greater way to honor a writer is there, but to honor them the way they did the characters they poured their heart and soul into? what better way to say we know you and you are not forgotten and your work and words and gifts to the world are held in our hearts forever than to remember them by their own words, their own vision? how else could we say you embodied all the good you believed in and wished to see in the world, but to memorialize them after the little pieces of their soul they wrapped in ink and put upon the page?

it is a knowing of the writer, to remember them in their way. it is not a worn-out faceless platitude, but a reminder that their work has been read and will continue to be, that the characters and world they loved enough to bring to life last just as their name does. such remembrance is warm and loving and delights in their memory even as it grieves.

and now Pratchett's name has been written in his tradition, over and over and over, across the vast plane of the Internet, where it will—with any luck—continue to fly for generations to come.

there is no way to truly express the beauty of that… but perhaps we can catch a glimpse of it in the lilacs, both ours and the Watch's.

[logically-asexual]

so these frames gave the idea that there was some love triangle going on there (mostly because of nathalie’s shocked face in the second memory) while there actually wasn’t, because we later find that gabriel and emilie were already together then and not only falling in love. but here’s how i make sense of them:

in my head the timeline is that gabriel got together with emilie when they were like in their early 20’s. emilie left her family and gabriel began his business soon after and then they decided to have a child at around 25, but they couldn’t so they began their hunt a few years after. maybe gabriel is like 30.

this is when they meet nathalie who despite being very young is super talented and knows a lot so she’s perfect for the job and she’s like 21-23.

and the thing about this age is that. you’re kind of swinging back and forth between feeling like a teenager and feeling like an adult. so, like a teenager, you can still get these kind of naive crushes on older people, which aren’t actually love but infatuation, but as an adult, you start seeing these older people more as your peers, actually, so things can get confusing.

so this is what happens to nathalie when she feels attracted to gabriel. and sometimes her subconscious forgets that this isn’t college anymore, where someone having a girlfriend/boyfriend didn’t mean they couldn’t be available at some point later. she has to actively remind herself that she can’t have hope because he is married.

but she’s a romantic and one day there’s this moment when it’s just the two of them and they work so well together and rational thought goes out the window for a while because there’s a connection. and in her heart something shifts and for a moment it gets convinced that it’s possible, she and gabriel. but soon enough it all comes crashing down when they come back and she’s like oh right. emilie exists. and we’re adults. and they’re a literal married couple.

but still that little thing that shifted that day perseveres, even as she grows up and matures. her feelings that began as simply idolizing gabriel evolve to the constant background love she has no option but getting used to. and then they resurface when she’s helping him get the miraculous, when she can’t dismiss them as a childish admiration anymore.

[itsscottiesstark]

For those of you that don't like reading fics if they're not completed, I have one thing to say to you: Giving feedback (kudos, subscriptions, COMMENTS) while a work is slowly being written and posted chapter by chapter is the easiest and most effective way to help the writer complete that fic asap. Fic writers don't get paid, they don't have people breathing down their necks for the next chapter, they're doing this for themselves and the fandom. If they think we don't care, they will stop caring, too.

Give feedback. It's free. And tremendously quick. Not to mention unbelievably important.

[songmingisthighs]

dear "creators" who depends on ai

how does it feel to be so absolutely lazy and useless as a human being ?? how does it feel to have a functioning brain but can't use it properly ?? how does it feel to be so absolutely incredibly dull and uncreative that you can't muster 200 words to convey your ideas ?? how does it feel to have to face the fact that you suck so damn bad and you have to live with it ??