#the story is in the same order so all the scenes paragraphs lines dialogue etc are in the same order

[hanzajesthanza]

Do the witcher books have a website like that one ASOIAF site where you can look up any text from the books,because I’m convinced you must have access to something like that

i looked it up since i didn't know what you were talking about, i am very impressed with a search of ice of fire! not only for its funny pun name, but wow! sadly, i don't have access to anything like that for the witcher. and i'm not sure how you would be able to do something like it without getting sent a cease-and-desist from orion/gollancz. (i mean, i worry just posting excerpts on here sometimes lol, though it is fair use as i'm contributing my own commentary).

something similar which may help is if you have the books on e-book/PDFs, you can search for specific words. this helps me sometimes, but also kind of fucks me because my initial exposure to the witcher was via fan-translations... so how i remember a phrase is not always how it was officially translated. (for example: angouleme saying: "good friends," but it was, officially, "solid mates").

so most of the time, it's faster to just remember where a scene happened, grab/pull up the book, turn or scroll to the page, then grab the specific quote you were thinking of.

[restlesshush]

4, 7, 19, 20, 23 for the writing thing

4) Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like)

It’s not quite a sentence, but I love the understatedness but also weight behind “and cas holds him through all of it” as the closing line of my god!jack fic when jack’s crying his godhood away. I was pleased when I came up with that one – I like the simplicity in contrast to everything going on around them and the matter-of-fact-ness hopefully feels very “of course. Of course cas would do that for him”.

7) What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree?

I’m not really sure – I think I’m maybe quite focussed on what I want to be talking about, which could be either a good or a bad thing, in different places. Like I’ve noticed that I tend to do description to set the scene less than other people often, instead just bringing in details when I feel like they’re relevant, which on the one hand avoids extraneous stuff, but also might be kind of jarring, if I’m just plopping my readers somewhere without explaining it, effectively. Not really sure would other people would think of this, but yeah that’s the main contrast I’ve been noticing.

19) Is there something you always find yourself repeating in your writing? (favourite verb, something you describe ‘too often’, trope you can’t get enough of?)

I know I make people cut themselves off in dialogue quite a lot in order to try and convey emotion / thought processes, and am never quite sure if I’m overdoing this. Also a lot of breathing commentary to the same end – skimming through my god!jack fic just now, cas let out a breath twice in two paragraphs (one was “shuddering” and one was “shocked” and “little”). Oops.

20) Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

Okay so very fun to me is that the (hopefully reasonably poignant) water motif in my god!jack fic is actually directly prompted by a clichéd throwaway buckleming line in 15x19. Like how I ended up writing the fic logistically (as opposed to why it’s the way it is and where all the thoughts come from) was thinking along the lines of “oh so Jack’s every drop of rain now? That doesn’t sound very fun” and thinking about what that might be like, and then we get into “oh well tears are water too” and eventually linking it to crying away godhood, which itself was an idea I’d had for ages. Like what the fic itself is about is godhood as a culmination of everything Jack’s gone through, and his self-destructiveness and how he rationalises everything to himself etc, but the vehicle for exploring that did come from a pretty lazy buckleming line, and this tickles me greatly.

23) What’s the story idea you’ve had in your head for the longest?

It doesn’t really gel anymore with how I think about planning stories, but a thought I was playing with for a while from when I was a late teenager was someone who was a mindreader being used by a malevolent government/corporation to read the minds of people opposing them – unwillingly – and then having to deal with the guilt and trauma of that (possibly partially inspired by angel btvs iirc? Dealing with guilt for something that wasn’t your fault. And then obviously now I realise that’s also cascore). But yeah, “put a person in a situation and see what happens” is never something I got all that much mileage out of as a story writing approach, and isn’t how I really think about things anymore, so I’d have to find some different angle to actually do something with it, but there could be interesting potential there.

Fun meta asks for writers

[bending-sickle]

For the 'Weird questions for writers' ask, bc I liked that one: 3, 11, 22, 32, 40. (I know you're away at the moment, so I'm not expecting you to get to this one soon!)

3. What is your writing ritual and why is it cursed? - tucked away in bed with the laptop at night while everyone is asleep. cursed because i, too, would like to be asleep. i also tend to reread a good few pages of Previously On... to get the brain back into proper gear, which eats away at my writing time.

(back when i had a working ipad but not a working [read: non-flammable] laptop, i'd write in the notes app with no line breaks ever. this was double-cursed but resulted in great workflow.)

11. Do you believe in the old advice to “kill your darlings?” Are you a ruthless darling assassin? What happens to the darlings you murder? Do you have a darling graveyard? Do you grieve? - not really. wanton murder of characters for the sake of killing them and not because the plot Requires it seems a bit much. but if the story needs it? kill them dead and make it count.

i'm not quite that ruthless, or i wasn't last time i thought about Required Character Death, back when i was writing a Time novel* and considered killing one darling. i couldn't do it. i wanted a properly happy ending, damnit. (but then again, i did write into being a character as Already Dead and then fleshed him out with flashbacks into a Real Proper Character and i felt so bad about him always being dead. sorry, kid.)

...hang on, i just googled the thing and:

You kill your darlings when you decide to get rid of an unnecessary storyline, character, or sentences in a piece of creative writing—elements you may have worked hard to create but that must be removed for the sake of your overall story.

oooh.

in that case... sometimes i do surgical removal, sometimes i do rewriting and absorption. mainly for sentences, paragraphs, imagery... once a whole scene that never really vibed (i have it saved in a document, a.k.a. scene purgatory). i also have a lot of dialogue and even whole scenes written out in notes or fully-fleshed-out form that i try to include into the main text but if it doesn't fit, it doesn't fit. they might get a showing as a "deleted scene" at the end of the story, or if i can rewrite them, keeping some elements or turns of phrase, then great.

i don't do it for storylines or characters, because i weigh that as i write, generally. (or, as i'm doing now, i write an AU of the Established Story once it's done and go hogwild. everyone dies now and it's all horrible, woohoo!)

22. How organized are you with your writing? Describe to me your organization method, if it exists. What tools do you use? Notebooks? Binders? Apps? The Cloud? - when it's short-form, i just write it out in one sitting. for long-form, like with the AU of the Time novels, i have:

word documents of scenes, snippets, and ideas written years ago, in vague chronological order. i would love to have these printed out so i can move them around and get a good grasp of what's going on but, alas.

word document of current work (now divided into 50-pages-each documents because it was starting to get too big) with scene breaks. chapter breaks and titles to be added upon posting.

word document with current snippets and ideas in bullet points, some colour-coded to group same events together

notebook with scenes, snippets, and ideas, which are transcribed into the main text or the notes document when they're being incorporated into the story

old receipts with snippets and ideas kept by the bed, scribbled in the dark, to be transcribed into the notebook

my brain, with swiss-cheese memory of good bits i need to write down because it all goes away forever

very many tabs open during Actual Writing, mostly involving the thesaurus and dictionary, and so many google searches where i try to find out what Obscure Thing is called (car engines and gun parts, my beloathed) as well as some maps.

32. What is a line from a poem/novel/fanfic etc that you return to from time and time again? How did you find it? What does it mean to you? - if we're talking fanfic, there's only one line that has been seared into my brain since...2002, i think:

At his first thrust, Obi-Wan opened to him as if welcoming him home.

^ Darth Maul vs. His Imagination by Darth Grey over on The Sith Academy

i found it while reading the entire Sith Academy archive during my "zomg Darth Maul ngh yiss" era. Context is Lovers Reunited After Separation (with bonus Repressed Emotions) and, i don't know why, that second half hit me in the feels and just never let go. something about love and finding home in other people and physical expression and *gestures vaguely* it still comes to mind a lot.

if we're talking poem, then living rent-free in my brain since...mid 2000s (?) is the line:

If it cries to you that it hurts, / if you can, / ease its pain.

^ "Instructions" by Neil Gaiman

which i probably came across in his blog. it just, as the kids say, vibes with me. (or rather, it's how i try to live. that if line is important, though.)

if we're talking novel then...i got nothing. (aside from dearly wishing to erase the extremely visceral sensation that reading a passage of Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns produced. it's where a character is forced to chew rocks until her molars break. because it's been years and i can still feel it.)

40. Please share a poem with me, I need it.

"The Purple Cow" (1895) by Gelett Burgess:

I never saw a Purple Cow, / I never hope to see one, / But I can tell you, anyhow, / I'd rather see than be one!

*series of novels i wrote for NaNoWriMos.

[hood-ex]

Dude, I love reading everybody's fan works, but I myself cannot write for my life. I have so many ideas but it just seems impossible to actually put any of them on paper past a couple of notes. Do you have any tips for getting any stories done, even if it's just a really short one? (Also, Happy New Year!!)

Happy New Year! 

Sure, yeah! I’ll list a few tips for ya! 

If you haven’t written a lot/at all then consider starting off with either a drabble (100 words) or a one-shot (typically 1000+ words). The action here is supposed to be fast. You won’t have to worry about super descriptive details and things like that. You can just get out the main points of the story. 

I’ll give you an example of something I’ve written that’s only about 200 words or so. This fic is very short but it still manages to tell a story because it follows a very basic plot structure. 

The paragraph that builds up to the action is very short, and this paragraph is the entire exposition of the story. It introduces the main character (Dick), and it tells us what Dick is doing. This sets the scene so the reader can now picture Dick sitting on a couch with his pizza.

The rising action is Dick describing the pizza he got, and the reader getting a sense that something about the pizza is wrong based on the way Dick freezes at the sight of it. 

The climax is Dick realizing he ordered the wrong pizza. He got Damian’s pizza order, and this is where the reader realizes that Damian is dead.

The falling action is Dick putting the pizza away in the fridge next to all his other untouched meals. This is the effect from the climax, and it lets the reader know that Dick is still grieving over Damian. 

The resolution is Dick going to the shower to cry. The fact that Dick is going to the shower to cry tells the reader something about his character and gives him a little more depth. 

Notice how I stick to the very basics. There is no long, descriptive introduction that builds up the scene like you might see in other stories that start off by describing the gray clouds, the pouring rain, all the Gotham residents bundled away in their homes, etc. There are no lengthy descriptions about what Dick’s apartment looks like or what he’s initially feeling. Nope. It’s just Dick sitting on his couch to eat his pizza because he’s hungry. Super basic, right?

This is kind of what I mean when I say that sometimes I just jump into a scene and write. It’s the same as starting a story with dialogue rather than a descriptive paragraph. Dialogue immediately throws you into a character’s conversation, and dialogue is much easier and faster to write than wordy paragraphs. 

This fic of mine is an example of a story that is essentially just dialogue. Sure, there are a few descriptive sentences here and there to help the reader visualize the scene better, but most of the action is the dialogue. And we can apply the same basic plot structure to this story as well. 

Exposition: The Titans are in the car. Dick is tired. 

Rising Action: The Titans think Dick is going to fall asleep during the movie they’re going to watch. Dick says he’ll be fine, and he asks what movie they’re going to watch. 

Climax: Gar complains about the movie Kory picked for them to watch. Vic suggests watching another chick flick. Gar is not happy about it. 

Falling Action: Dick confuses Dinah with Diana. Donna gives him shit for it. 

Resolution: Gar thinks Dick is adorable and asks if he can be like this more often. Dick says something to make Vic and Donna laugh, and then Dick finally falls asleep. 

The plot structure is something we learn in school that we usually associate with novel length stories, but you can see in my examples that the plot structure can also be used for very short fics. Personally, the rising action and falling action are things that I don’t really plan out. They kind of just occur naturally when I’m writing. The exposition, climax, and resolution are usually the things that stick out in my mind the most (and it’s totally normal to just picture one or two of the three before you start writing). 

As a beginner, filling out the plot structure with the few notes you have will help you turn your notes into full sentences and dialogue. Let’s test this out just by filling in the plot structure starting with very little information.  

For example, let’s say I want to write a fic and all the notes I have for it consists of:

Jason (as Red Hood) is crying

Dick (as Nightwing) comforts him

Alright, well now I need to build a scene around those two notes. So now let me fill in some information for the plot structure. When I’m filling it out, I want to keep things like the characters and setting in mind. 

What I end up with is: 

Exposition: Dick and Jason are being held as prisoners on an alien planet. Dick and Jason are in a cell together. The cell is small and cold. They don’t know why they’ve been taken in as prisoners. They can’t understand the alien’s language. All they have is each other to rely on. Dick is keeping watch while Jason leans against him, asleep. 

Rising Action: Guards come to Dick and Jason’s cell. They are really fucking big. Way bigger than humans. Jason wakes up, startled and disoriented. He sits up. The guards start speaking. Dick has no idea what they’re saying. He tenses in anticipation.

Climax: All hell breaks loose. The guards make a grab for Jason. Jason defends himself. Dick attacks the guards to protect Jason. The small cell makes it hard to fight. The guards crowd Jason and harshly restrain him, making Jason cry out. Dick tries to free Jason. One guard uses a device to shock Dick in the head. This causes Dick to have a seizure. Dick can hear Jason going ballistic. Jason’s screaming for him and cussing at the guards. But then Jason’s voice gets further away, and Dick is left to ride out the seizure on his own. 

Falling Action: Dick’s seizure passes. His head is foggy, he’s got a horrific headache, and his body feels sore. The more time passes, the more tired Dick feels. He’s in and out of sleep, his anxiety for Jason’s safety keeping him from sleeping fully. At some point, the guards return with Jason slumped between them. He’s still conscious. The guards dump Jason on the ground. Once they leave, Dick crawls to him. He starts to ask what happened, having a vague idea that torture was involved based on Jason’s demeanor. He stops after noticing that there are tears on Jason’s cheeks. Jason looks away and his shoulders are shaking. 

Resolution: Jason hisses through his teeth when Dick tries to gently sit Jason up against the wall. Jason mumbles that he’s too sore for sitting and he just wants to lie down. Jason uses Dick’s thigh as a pillow and curls up into himself. His shoulders are still shaking, and Dick hears him sniffle. Dick tries to comfort him by rubbing small circles into Jason’s back. Jason lets out a shaky breath and falls quiet. Dick keeps doing it until he starts to nod off, completely drained from the seizure. They both fall asleep in pain, but with the knowledge that at least they’re together. 

Okay so see how I was able to flesh out the two original notes into something more in-depth that turned into actual sentences? That’s something you can do with the notes for your stories. Put all your ideas for each part of the scene into quick, short sentences. 

Filling in the plot structure like this helps you flesh out those brief notes into an actual scene that you can build off of. And if you look at what I wrote, you’ll notice that there are sentences I came up with that I can actually use in the story when I’m writing it.

Does that make sense? Basically what I’m saying is just come up with short sentences to describe each part of the plot structure. These short sentences will form the bigger picture of your story. Then you want to use those sentences you wrote to help you build the beginning, middle, and end of your story. 

I think that part of what makes writing a story so hard is simply just starting the scene. For me, it’s usually always the hardest part. You can make it easier for yourself by jumping into a more action filled part of a scene or by starting the story off with dialogue. For example, if I want to start off the Dick and Jason prisoner story then I can be like:

“You made my arm fall asleep,” Dick mutters under his breath. 

Jason, who’s currently treating Dick’s right side like a damn body pillow, answers with a soft snore. Between the cold floor of the prison cell and Jason’s body weight slowly crushing him, the snoring is just the cherry on top of this whole shitty situation.

The dialogue allows me to introduce the characters and the setting. Just from the first line, I know that Dick is in this story, he’s uncomfortable, and someone else is with him because he said the word “you.” This gives me the perfect chance to introduce Jason as the person Dick is with. It also gives me the chance to explain the setting by letting the reader know that Dick and Jason are in a cell. Now are prison cells usually pleasant? No. So I made sure to mention that the cell is cold. Now the reader knows Dick is uncomfortable, cold, and he’s stuck in a terrible situation. 

And the story just keeps building and building from there. 

Tbh, a big part of this is just having the will to start writing. You just have to make yourself type something even if it’s shit. And it’s totally fine to play around with sentences! Just try it out by writing maybe three sentences. Don’t like it? Erase. Tackle the scene from a different angle. Change the dialogue. Start the story from a different location or with different characters. Don’t like it? Erase.

Keep practicing. You’ll eventually come up with something that’ll just click in your brain, and before you know it, you’ll have typed a paragraph of two. And your brain and your hands will work together, and you won’t have to think so hard about what you’re writing. Your hands will just go once you’re in a groove.

But yeah, dude, that’s all I got for you right now! I hope that was somewhat helpful to you! Lemme know if you have any other questions!  

[dickwheelie]

Hello! No pressure to answer, of course, but I recently decided I want to start writing fanfiction, but I don't really know where to start lol. And I've always really loved your work, so do you have any pointers on how to get started? 💖

oh wow this was an unexpected message! I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone ask me for advice on fic writing before but I will do my best. (and wow thank you for the kind words lol)

I guess the short answer is that fic writing is like any kind of writing (for me at least): you get an idea, you write it down, and you do your best to make it sound good. Which is super unhelpful but the thing about writing is that you can kind of do whatever you like, there are no rules. Lots of writers and listicles about writing will try to tell you otherwise, but they’re wrong, because there are no rules.

Fanfiction is especially nice because there are like. Super no rules. You can take other people’s characters, worlds, etc and put them in a sandbox and play with them as much as you like. And you can feel totally free to be self-indulgent. Honestly in my opinion most writing, original or fanfic, is self-indulgent (even for “serious” published authors), but writing fanfic seems to be more freeing for a lot of people. So feel free to write without shame, which of course you should always do, but fic writing especially should be fun and guilt-free.

“Where to start” is going to depend on who’s doing the writing, but in my experience, if you have a fic you want to write, Just Start It. And yes this is frustratingly unhelpful. If I Just Started every fic I wanted to write I’d be golden. But the fact of the matter is if you don’t Just Start It, in some capacity, it’ll never get written.

At the risk of sounding like the hypocrite author of one of those listicles, here are some of my tactics for Just Starting the damn thing:

1. Start small. This is my number one go-to for when I’m staring at a blank word document. Narrow in on a character’s pov, do some inconsequential dialogue, describe something specific in the scene. I like to write fics in chronological order, so this structure helps me take a small moment or scene and build on it, widening the scope gradually as the fic progresses.

2. Outline. In the past I’ve never been a fan of this one but recently it’s really saved my bacon. If you have a big idea in your head, this is a good way to deal with it. Start a bullet point list of things that happen in the fic. Don’t make it sound good, or polished, don’t even use capital letters or punctuation. Don’t worry about blanks in the story or sections you need to fill in later. Just write the stuff that you know has to happen. I can almost guarantee you will end up writing paragraphs worth of descriptions of scenes once you get into it, which will help when you sit down later to fill in the blanks.

3. If you only have a single line, or a tiny idea, or a moment you want to capture, take that and write it down. Just put it on paper, and turn it over in your head until you can build on it. Sometimes I end up writing short little ficlets that are just moments between characters, looking at their thoughts or feelings in a specific moment. They’re not gonna be super long or win any awards, but they exist, which is more than I can say for the stuff I didn’t bother to write down.

I will also say, again hypocritically, that you shouldn’t put too much pressure on yourself in terms of writing quality. Like I said, fic writing should be fun, and I know from experience that if you’re second-guessing every other sentence you put down because you’re not sure if it’s good enough, you’re never gonna get anything done. It’s not a college admissions essay, it’s not a grant proposal, it’s not gonna be a published novel. Just put Something down, and if it’s not amazing, either you’ll make it better later when you edit, or you won’t. Or maybe you won’t edit at all! Again, no rules. Sandbox. Have fun with it! (Meanwhile I will sit over here and try to take my own advice in future.)

Of course take all of this with a grain of salt, because your writing habits might be completely different from mine. Sometimes these tactics don’t even help me! I’m going through a dry spell as we speak, and who knows how much longer it’ll be before I can manage to get started on something in the pipeline.

And I’m realizing now that my fic writing advice is similar to my regular writing advice. I’m not sure if any of this is really what you were asking for, but for me writing is writing. Doesn’t matter if it’s a fic or an original piece, I tackle it pretty much the same way.

Tl;dr: It’s a cliche, but it’s a good one: Start It. Start small, start with an outline, start with a scene you have in your brain, but Start It. Be self-indulgent, shameless, and do everything wrong. It’s fanfiction, it’s supposed to be fun, so have fun with it!

(I hope this was helpful, like, at all lmao, but feel free to send another ask if there’s something specific you wanted to know that I missed as I was rambling on. Also if you do write something and post it please send it my way!! Happy writing!!)

[peachcitt]

fanfic year in review - 2020

hey laddies i was tagged by both @miabrown007 and @strangerahne to do this, so without further ado here we go!

1) List of fics completed this year in the order they were finished: 

Bone Tea (march) // All These Selfish Feelings (march) // Doomed from the Start (may) // Wouldn’t it be Nice (may) // my favorite set of stairs is the one up to your room (may) // screw the classics, and screw you for believing in them (june) // Friendship Bracelets (june) // Those Benevolent Stars (june) // the dark and the stained glass watchers (july) // Bloodsucker (july) // Messy Advances (july) // Happy Endings, the Sun, and Other Steps to Madness (july) // Guessing Game (august) // Passion Fruit Sunset [zine piece, currently unavailable] (september) // Home Coming [zine piece, currently unavailable] (november) // here (november) // bread and oranges (november) // clarity (november) // burgundy, near black (december) // About Emma Martin (december) // cherries (december) // falling, flying (december) // aloe-infused fuzzy socks (december)

23 fics??? okay well looking at it like this just makes me feel ridiculous

2) Number of words written:

219,184 words (which includes my unfinished fics on ao3 and the wips i haven’t posted)

again looking at it like this just makes me feel ridiculous

3) Your most popular fic:

friendship bracelets - the first in the series of my homoerotic college au zukka fics. honestly? i can’t even say im surprised

4) Your personal fav:

MAN this is hard. okay it’s gotta be a four-way tie between bone tea, those benevolent stars, home coming, and screw the classics and screw you for believing in them but really i could be lying because i wrote so much this year (i guess now last year?) that i was really really proud of 

5) Your fav scene:

okay i have a lot of favorites but for right now i’ll say: the scene in chapter 3 of those benevolent stars when adrien and marinette are sitting on the banks of the seine and they talk about their favorite colors and adrien’s soulmate - it’s such a quiet and gentle moment, and because you know that their favorite colors are based off each other’s eyes but only marinette knows that and because you know adrien is talking about his soulmate to his soulmate and she knows it but he doesn’t. it’s full of such beautiful, tragic dramatic irony that i just love so so much

6) A fic or scene that challenged you:

hm okay the last few chapters of bone tea were definitely challenging not only because of, like, the big fight scenes (which, im not really comfortable writing fight scenes) but also because i had take all of the mess of emotions in bt and wrap it all up into a conclusion that needed to be satisfying. the same could be said about happy endings, the sun, and other steps to madness (minus the fight scene part)

writing impure - my changeling jim au fic - has also been a fun challenge because i basically watch trollhunters episodes as i write, examining each line of dialogue and each character interaction and seeing how that scene or relationship would be changed by the fact that jim is a changeling. it was also a little challenging to keep everything fresh and new - especially at the times when the dialogue from the show stayed the same in the fic, but so far, im really really happy with the way the fic is going

7) A line of writing you’re proud of:

off the top of my head are these two lines, both from screw the classics:

It was the ‘Daisy, Daisy, Daisy’s, over and over. Like her name conveyed some sort of deeper meaning that she expected Daisy to be able to understand. Like if she repeated it enough, it would become a sort of prayer that God would listen to, that He would enact to make Daisy put her fists away for once in her pitiful life. It was just “Daisy, Daisy, Daisy” over and over until her name stopped sounding like a name, like a word, and it was just a sound to fill the silence so that neither of them would have to talk about the way Basira’s touch lingered each time she wiped blood away or the way Daisy would always sit so that her knees touched Basira’s even though they were on the floor and there was more than enough room for them to breathe different air.

and

But sometimes Jon was easier than Basira. He didn’t have any of Basira’s softness - he was all edges and sharp lines. His elbows were basically knives, and his hips were edged with broken glass.

the first paragraph i really love because there’s almost a rhythm to it - like poetry - and i love the sound of it and all that it means in the context of the fic. 

the second little bit i just love because every so often i think about it and i love the imagery and metaphor and the way it fits jon - in canon and in this fic. in this fic, they’re all in high school so jon is gangly and skinny and bony and in general, he’s just abrasive and a little rude. this description of him i just love (and the way i described him from martin’s pov in doomed from the start; “Jonathan Sims looked, even from a distance, as if he was perpetually smelling something awful. His features, just left of handsome, were marred by furrowed eyebrows and a distasteful frown.”)

8) A comment that touched you:

LITERALLY SO MANY????? the comments on the final chapter of bone tea, telling me that the story was something that they loved and found comfort in, the long comments on any of my fics detailing their exact favorite parts, the comments that were just short jokes that made me laugh out loud - literally i can’t pinpoint one. im just so thankful to have written things that people respond to with such kindness and love

9) Something that inspired your writing:

music!!!!!! i found myself making playlists for a few of my fics this year or listening to specific old playlists of mine for the right mood for a fic, and it’s really inspired me to write

also, as always, my own personal experiences. i thought and felt a lot this year, and i think in every single one of the fics i posted this year, you can probably find a central thought or feeling driving it that no doubt comes from my personal life

10) Your proudest accomplishment (that one scene; finally finishing that one fic; posting your first fic; etc):

finishing bone tea and tying the title to the fic!!!!!!!! finishing happy endings and also tying that title to the fic!!!!!! getting accepted into two different zines and working with two different amazing artists and completing those fics!!!!!!!! literally writing anything at all!!!!!!!!!

11) Do you have any writing goals for the next year?

i think mainly i just want to write, you know? i want to stop putting so much pressure on myself, because this past year i put so much pressure on myself that i was constantly feeling like i was underperforming (which was, like, super untrue, but you know how it goes) so when i wasn’t writing i felt like i was wasting time. i mean, don’t get me wrong, i had so much fun writing and creating all of these things that im so so proud of, it’s just the space in between writing sessions that i want to let myself breathe in. i don’t want to dread thinking about writing for fun anymore because that’s not fun

besides that, i think my other goals are to just continue forward with my unfinished projects - impure, the new wave, the bone tea extras - and to officially start the other two long fic ideas i have for mlb that ive been really excited about for a long while. this past year i wrote a lot of one shots (like. so many. oh my god) so maybe this year i might focus on long projects. who knows though definitely not me it’ll be a surprise for all of us

=

anyway that’s all!! thanks mia and strangerahne for tagging me!! ive been needing a lot of reminders lately that i have, in fact, written this year, and having to, like, do math and scroll through my ao3 page and all my google docs has been really enlightening so thanks so much for this

i tag: @lnc2, @chatnoirinette, @deinde-prandium, and @rosekasa! y’all don’t have to do this, but i’d love to see how y’all felt about your works this year and also to see y’all love yourselves very much because you deserve it. also literally anyone can do this you can just say i tagged you i don’t mind it’ll be our secret - i highly encourage it because it’s very sweet and very fun to look back on all you’ve accomplished this year

<3<3<3<3

[out-of-jams]

Rea’s Writing Tips

Okay, I’ve been writing for the past twelve years, and over the course of this time, I’ve learned a lot of things. I still am learning, because I don’t think there is a such thing as perfecting a skill. What have I learned, might you ask? Well, I’m going to compile some of them into a list for you! So buckle up and sharpen those metaphorical pencils!

#1) Show don’t tell.

This is a staple rule when it comes to writing and always, always stays at the back of my mind. When you’re writing descriptions or world building or even putting together a dialogue scene, you want the reader to be able to see it in their minds’ eye. 

If you simply say, “I picked up the pencil. Then I wrote my paper, but I didn’t know I was doing. And then I got up and left.” That’s boring. And that’s Telling the reader what is happening. No one wants to read through a bulleted list of what your characters are up to. Keep in mind that you’re writing a story, not a kitchen recipe. 

So instead, use descriptions and answer these questions: What is your character thinking when they’re doing these things? What are they writing? Why are they writing it? What else is going on around them? What does it smell like? Is it hot or cold? Can they hear the air conditioner running? Are there other people in the room, if so, what are they doing? 

An example of Showing would be something along the lines of: “The pencil was heavy in my hand as I dragged it across the sheet of paper. Hopefully the teacher wouldn’t be be able to tell that I was completely bullshitting every word because I couldn’t afford to be docked another letter grade. Whatever. I’d just write what I could and hope for the best.” 

Show what’s happening without being obvious about it.

Don’t bore your readers to death with a laundry list.

#2) There is absolutely no need to go crazy with caps lock and punctuation.

When writing dialogue, if your character is shouting something, don’t put it in all caps. For example:

“I said, DON’T TOUCH THAT!

This not only takes away from the seriousness of the scene, but it also doesn’t look very appealing to read, does it? Instead, try playing around with italics or adjectives/verbs/descriptions/show don’t tell. For example:

“I said, don’t touch that!”

“Don’t.” You spat through gritted teeth, fingernails digging half-moons into your palms. “Touch. That.”

Not only does this look more professional and appealing, but it helps the reader to visualize the scene a lot more than just going crazy with the caps lock. This also goes with overusing punctuation. One question mark, or one exclamation point is all you need to get your point across. There’s no need for more, the readers will understand without them, I promise. 

The crazier you go, the crazier you’ll look!!!??!!!

#3) Writers block isn’t because you don’t know what to write next. It’s because you subconsciously don’t like where your story is going.

You’ve experienced writers block. I’ve experienced writers block. That old lady at the supermarket down the street has experienced writers block. It’s not the end of the world, but it does put a damper on things, doesn’t it? You could be on a roll and spawning out 1000 words per minute and then bam! you hit a block. Where do you go from there? How do you overcome it? 

Simple. Delete a few paragraphs and then try again. Still not working? Delete more. And more. Until you find another route to take. 

Remember, sometimes roads close, you just need to find the detour.

#4) The rule of “why.”

A simple word can help you to build a word, a story, a universe, a character. The rule of “why” is what keeps your metaphorical world turning and helps prevent plot-holes. Say you have a character who is a painter. Ask yourself, why are they a painter? Why do they paint the things that they do? 

These questions will help you fall down the proverbial rabbit hole and into the subconscious of the character that you are creating. Okay, so they paint because their mother was a painter and she died. Why did she die? Why does the character feel the need to take up their mother’s torch? 

This also goes for world building too. Oh, so your character has a soulmate in your universe? Why do they have a soulmate? Why does the world work that way? Does everyone have a soulmate? No, why not? Etc. 

Always keep the question why? in the back of your mind and you’ll be able to answer the reader’s questions before they even think to have them.

#5) Pick a tense and stick to it as if your life depends on it.

Your story will either be in past tense, or present tense (excluding future because no. And the complicated past perfect, present perfect shit. We’re making it simple).  

Reading a sentence that says: “I walk to the door to leave, but bend down to grab my purse. The strap slid down my shoulder as I closed the door behind me” is jarring. Why? Because it is set in both past and present tense. The first sentence is present tense, while the second is past tense. If you aren’t sure what tense a word is in, pop that bad boy into google and it’ll let you know.

You can’t have both at the same time. So pick one, you whore. 

#6) Be the sponge.

It’s taken me twelve years to find my writing voice. Twelve, people. Some people may find it sooner, others later. Whatever side of the spectrum you’re on, don’t stress over it. I found my voice through reading. What about some author’s work did I like? What did I not like? It took some time, but I figured it out. And you’ll find yours too. So play around with different styles and figure out what you like. 

And what you hate.

#7) Become the angst.

How the hell are you supposed to properly write emotions? How can you make a reader cry, laugh, fume with anger, hold their breath in fear? The answer is actually quite simple.

Insert yourself into that frame of mind first. 

If you want to write a scene that is sad and you want people to be able to feel the emotion flying off the page, then become sad. Put yourself in the shoes of your character and write from the heart. If pretending to put a smile on your face in real life doesn’t fool your friends, then it won’t fool your readers either. 

I can’t even begin to tell you the amount of times I’ve put myself into a certain frame of mind or emotion before writing a scene or a fic or whatever. Music helps to set the mood too. I mean, look at your favorite actors. One thing I’ve always been taught in acting classes is that you have to feel the emotions that your character does.

If you feel it, I can guarantee that the readers will too.

#8) Take a breath, damnit!

Have you ever read a sentence so long that you felt out of breath, even though it wasn’t even read aloud? Yeah, me too. Sometimes it’s hard to know when to end a sentence and start anew or whether or not to just throw in that comma and call it a day, well there is a very simple, easy way to be able to tell which one of these you need to do and you just need to follow this rule in order to do it.

You just took a deep breath after reading that sentence, didn’t you?

Comma ≠ an excuse to continue a run-on sentence. If you aren’t sure whether or not you’ve just written one of these, read it aloud. If you have to stop to breathe, then throw a period somewhere in there. Starting a new sentence won’t hurt you. But a run-on sentence will surely kill you from asphyxiation.

~~~~~~~

This is all I have for now. But if you guys have any questions or want advice for specific things, please feel free to reach out! To quote my least favorite movie of all time: we’re all in this together!💜

[ilkkawhat]

All the numbers. (If not all then pick and choose a handful to answer).

lol you’re really going for it anon, huh?? 😂 bless your heart. I’ll do all of them and then idk. if anybody wants to send any again, I’m sure I can have a different answer

(I did just answer 7 & 22 so I’ll leave those out. rest below the cut)

1) is there a story you’re holding off on writing for some reason?

I guess if you count all of my active WIPs that have been sitting dormant for months or years, there’s those since I like. I know what I’m doing in pretty much all of them, just as I know what I’m doing in some of my unpublished WIPs, but I think I just need to be in a certain mood/energy to do certain ones (ie, Agony esp is a very heavy fic so I gotta be able to Deal with that)

2) what work of yours, if any, are you the most embarrassed about existing?

I deleted those 😂😂😂 but some of my reeeeeealllllly old stuff is still out there and I cringe thinking about that and though I could easily delete those too, I’m keeping them just since the harddrive that has the docs for it is corrupted lol

3) what order do you write in? front of book to back? chronological? favorite scenes first? something else?

Just all over the place these days tbh. Even chapter to chapter it’ll change, I’ll write snippets in future chapters--and I’m talking like three or four chapters ahead--just to get it out there. But then there’s other days where I’ll sit and just write and not stop.

4) favorite character you’ve written

Nick Stokes, of course 💜💜💜

5) character you were most surprised to end up writing

Any of the Macgyver characters outside of Jack. Cause though I’ll claim not to all the time, I do know that I know the CSI characters (though I’m surprised I’m able to write in their POVs outside of Nick.) I grew up with them. I have a bond with them. The mac characters? I’ve only known for like. two years now and not even that well anymore since I’ve stopped watching the show. 

6) something you would go back and change in your writing that it’s too late/complicated to change now

Expanding on details. Almost every fic I write, I’ll read it again later and be like “ah shit I should have run with this idea...” but I guess that’s how I can do a sequel/missing scene

8) favorite genre to write

hurt/comfort (emphasis on the hurt, really I mean we’re talking like borderline horror)

9) what, if anything, do you do for inspiration?

See I haven’t really honed in on any one particular thing that inspires me to write. It comes out of nowhere, and the following list of things doesn’t like, always work. When I’m listening to a song. When I’m driving in the car. When I’m watching something unrelated to the source material (totes got some inspiring vibes watching Falcon and The Winter Soldier yesterday tbh lmao) When I dream. When I go on a walk. When people send me asks and I just go the fuck off and suddenly ten chapters later I’m writing a fic that they probably didn’t even want (coughSpecimenStokescough)

10) write in silence or with background noise? with people or alone?

I think the last couple times I’ve like, really written it’s been in silence. Definitely alone. Don’t got people to write around, really lmao (unless you count my parents being in other rooms with obnoxiously loud televisions and tablets)

11) what aspect of your writing do you think has most improved since you started writing?

All of it. And I’m sure it’ll keep improving.

12) your weaknesses as an author

Dialogue. I don’t know how people talk 😂

13) your strengths as an author

Detail, description, and I also like to think--emotion? but idk. It’s hard for me to assess my strength tbh

14) do you make playlists for your current wips?

Oh YES! At least for the longer WIPs like Last Breath or Agony. And listen to it on a loop when I’m trying to brainstorm or write if I want to write with music on. I’ve been starting to link the playlists when I’m doing with the fic (which is not many so far)

(I think Hellbound is the only one-shot I made a playlist for that I didn’t share)

15) why did you start writing?

I honestly can’t remember, cause I think I’ve been writing stories (fan fiction or not) ever since I was in middle school?? Maybe even elementary? But I do feel like I had gotten more encouragement for it than drawing from the few people in my life that did actively cheer me on, and there’s just something about writing that is so...fulfilling? Esp since I can’t like. Just manifest the images or make the “movie” in my head, at least I can write them down and hopefully convey what I see/feel in my mind through words.

16) are there any characters who haunt you?

All my neglected OCs lmao. I did and I guess on some level still do want to make an original series.

In a chilling way Veronica also haunts me cause I realize how much of that like, darkness in myself I put in her. 

And Nick, well, he’s just always on my mind.

17) if you could give your fledgling author self any advice, what would it be?

Just fucking go for it! Don’t give a shit if anybody will read it or not. Take your time, flesh out those details. Describe what you see, what they see, what they feel. 

If you think you’re going too far...you’re not. 

keep going

18) were there any works you read that affected you so much that it influenced your writing style? what were they?

I mean any fan fiction I read in the past has probably influenced me on some level. I know that when I came back to CSI in 2018, reading all of kristen999′s nick whump def encouraged me cause I was like “oh...there’s others like me who like to see him hurt!?!?” and I do think that maybe sometimes after I read a fic, I might like. Try to incorporate those styles I see. The way words are described, sentences constructed. Not like, copy of course but I feel like a long time ago my writing wasn’t really idk, novel-like? very short, almost read like a script whereas now, since I’ve seen the way people write their stories (some novel length stories, too), I flesh mine out a lot more.

19) when it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, ect.?

I don’t 😂 Thinking of my bigger projects like Agony, I do just kind make up some of it as I go with a rough outline although sometimes it is a bit more detailed--like First Flight actually has a super detailed outline but I know that once I start writing, something might come up, some twist I didn’t think of before--or even one that somebody suggests to me, but idk I feel like I do have a way of tying everything together regardless? Cause especially with those bigger WIPs I will try to go back and re-read if something seems familiar or if I’ve forgotten a detail, or if I’m planning on diving back into it after a long break from it. 

20) do you write in long sit-down sessions or in little spurts?

Depends. I feel more accomplished with the long sit down sessions so I target that, but lately it’s been little spurts with maybe one big dump at the end of the week.

21) what do you think when you read over your older work?

Mostly cringe, but there are times I’m like “holy shit this is really good???” 

like I remember recently I re-read Agony and loved it, when I wanted to delete it maybe like. a week before that. I think it honestly depends on my frame of mind, and why I’m going back to read the fic? Cause I’ve had times where I’m like “wait what was this one?” and then I read it and laugh at how bad it is, but then other times where I’m like, “I wanna read that one fic I did...” and then I do and it makes me happy.

But, I will always kinda criticize at the same time--”aw, I could do this better, I could have expanded on this,” etc

23) any obscure life experiences that you feel have helped your writing?

My life is suuuuuuper boring so. not really lmao. One of my earliest CSI fics that actually created what I consider to be my number one OC (she’d be the lead in that original series I mentioned earlier) came out of me sitting and staring into a campfire lmao. 

also there was this teacher I had (one of those good IRL supports) that told me a story of something that happened to her (or was it her daughter?) and I turned it into a story (back in my teen days) so. I guess there are somethings. 

24) have you ever become an expert on something you previously knew nothing about, in order to better a scene or a story?

Expert? No. But I will do numerous google searches to try and figure some stuff out and get lost in a rabbit hole of “research” for a while and hope that when I do write it, it comes off as I know what I’m doing when really, I do not lol.

25) copy/paste a few sentences or a short paragraph that you’re particularly proud of

haven’t really written much in this past week, and certainly nothing to be proud of, but this line hit me like a ton of bricks for Specimen Stokes and I’m in love with it:

“Because, my dear specimen, I wanted to see if you loved the danger...or if you loved me.”

[procrastynol]

I wasn’t tagged, but I’ll take the invitation from @theghostcaptain and just hop on the train to answer some questions about my writing. So, I guess thanks are in order? 😉❤️

AO3: @Procrastynol

Fandoms

Currently I’m trapped in the MDZS hell (focusing on songxiao, but pretty much everything else is also go, wangxian, 3zun, anything) with a side of SVSSS and FF7 (mainly tsengru and/or turks centric). I’m still working my way through the huge load of danmei, so maybe things like TGCF, 2HA or SPL will soon join the list.

Other things I can’t seem to let go of include FF15, Mass Effect, Dragon Age and a hint of Marvel and Star Wars. If you want to go really far back, you can add LotR and Hobbit to the pile.

Where You Post

You can find all of my fics on AO3 @Procrastynol

​I rarely use tumblr anymore, mostly for keeping all the links to my fics organised in one place - and to read meta that will shred my poor heart. My main social media is Twitter, so if you want to yell at me, please go over there and feel free to do so.

Most Popular Oneshot

Conflict of Interest (FF7, tsengru, domestic fluff and dogs)

I started this one on a whim in August 2020 because A) the hype for FF7 Remake was real and B) plague times, yay! It got me back into writing fanfiction after not having done so for several years, and I’m still surprised how positively it has been received among the people who read FF7 fanfictions. A follow-up is currently in its early drafting state.

Most Popular Multichap

None (so far). But I have something brewing for my songxiao gang, so I’ll just be a little tease and tell you to stay tuned for more until Summer 2021. 😉

Favourite Story You’ve Written So Far

Untethered (MDZS, songxiao, character study xxc)

That is my November/December/Christmas-procrastination baby, which started out as a midnight word vomit I wrote in a desperate attempt to find sleep. It only grew from there, and it has become my first deep dive into the character of Xiao Xingchen and the canon setting of MDZS. To this day, it just blows me away how well this story is received despite its length and the rather limited songxiao bubble. I’m really proud of what I did here, and it has been a while since I could say that about anything I have written.

Fic You Were Nervous to Post

Frostbloom Flowers (MDZS, modern songxiao, flowershop AU)

This was my absolute first fic for the fandom, and my second fic in total after the unexpected “success” of Conflict of Interest. I was so scared to get the characters or the setting wrong, even more so since this was a prompt fill for the songxiao Secret Santa event. It has done surprisingly well, so well actually, that I have turned this into a series that I will continue this February.

How You Choose Your Titles

They either come to me or the don’t. Really, there is almost nothing in between. Sometimes a poem, a line, a lyric, an image, SOMETHING sparks my imagination and the title is the first thing I have.

If it is the other way around, the idea usually revolves around a certain dialogue, scene, setting, etc. that I want to explore and I really struggle finding a title for it once the fic is finished. There are rare instances where a title comes to me simply while working on a fic, but mostly it’s hit or miss. If it is the latter, I usually sit in my room and decide to name stories after the first thing my eyes land on 5 minutes before posting them. 😅

Do You Outline

90% of times I do. Especially larger works or multichaps need an outline. I sometimes try to write non-chronologically, and I have a really hard time doing it, so the outline becomes my LIFELINE. It allows me to skip over parts I find hard and just put the famous [get there] in certain spaces, knowing I can come back later to flesh them out because the outline guides through this process.

For oneshots, I sometimes freestyle, but even then I usually write down a few lines for the scenes/dialogues I really want to include and put them in the corresponding order, so I have a goal to work towards to and don’t start meandering around.

I hate doing them, though, even though I largely depend on outlines.

Complete

All of my fics are complete at the moment, but I have two on-going series that I’m feeding with new entries in irregular intervals.

In Progress

I have some WIPS, but none of them are in the process of being published right now. But there are a few things I’m working on, so follow me to the next paragraph if you want more details on that. 😁

Coming Soon / Not Yet Started

Curiosity killed the Cat [WT] - which is a MDZS multichapter fic I have started working on last December. I really wanted to try writing a case fic for once, something more than just drama and romance (although drama and romance will still be very much part of this). Plotting a murder mystery is really new to me and sometimes exhausting, but so far I’m having a lot of fun doing it. I don’t want to spoil the details, but it will definitely focus on pre-canon songxiao and a mysterious haunting/murder they encounter during their travels.

Another thing would be the continuation of the Egret Flower series. Currently I’m finalising the second part, writing on part three and four has already begun. Part two will feature songxiao going on the date that has been teased in the first part, Frostbloom Flowers, and part three is currently giving me a hard time because I decided to include some wangxian - we’ll see how it goes.

I’m also trying to feed the Shinra fandom a bit, since it got me back into writing literally days before I got swept away by MDZS and danmei hell. But tsengru still holds a place in my heart, has done so for years, and so Conflict of Interest has now also been turned into a series, It’s me or the Dog, and the second part for this series is also outlined already and just waiting for me to flesh it out.

Upcoming Work You’re Most Excited About

Curiosity killed the Cat [WT], definitely. I have only ever finished one other multichap in my life, and I plan to complete this one before I start posting it, to feed my lovely songxiaoists in regular intervals (and to make sure this entire case fic works and does not go up in smoke halfway down). But since this involves so many new things for me at the same time, I’m equally excited and anxious to finish it and start posting it.

Tagging

Since I’m pretty much inactive on this platform I find it a bit hard to tag someone. I think @wangji-string might have something to offer, at least if they haven’t participated already (although if you don’t feel like doing this, please feel free to ignore me). I’ll just leave it open to the rest of you whoever read this and may find it interesting - if you want to do this, please, feel free to do it! 😉

[spongeaddict]

Fanfiction Year in Review!

Fanfiction Year in Review

Thanks for the tag @xxiamaclichexx! Spoilers, obviously, for all my fics that I’ve written thus far.

1. List of fics completed this year in the order they were finished

Two For The Show -- longfic, started in January 2020, completed in May 2020

Anniversaries -- twoshot, started in June 2020, completed in August 2020

Three To Get Ready -- longfic, started in May 2020, completed in December 2020

My God, I wrote literally all year long. Twelve months straight, from January to December. Holy cow.

2. Number of words written

TFTS: 91,025

Anniversaries: 6,009

TTGR: 87,078

Total: 184,112

WHOA

3. Your most popular fic

TFTS had over 8400 views this year, but it still comes in third place over all, behind Scooby Doo and the Mysterious Tape (over 11k views, finished in 2010), and One For The Money (more than 53k views, finished in 2019) 

4. Your personal favourite

How do I choose between my children?!

I think overall, I’m going to say TTGR was my favorite this year. It had all the things I love -- secret romances, jealousy, betrayal, angst, a creep factor, and even a little bit of humor! I don’t usually write angst, but I had a good time with the chapters where it was present. I also got to do some really interesting character work in TTGR, which was super fun and exciting for me. 

5. Your fave scene

I mean...I just love that scene in TFTS where Tony catches Shaggy and Velma making out in the practice room. I did a lot of nervous-laughing on behalf of everyone involved while writing it.

Also (I know I’m cheating here) I love the scene at the end of TFTS where Fred tells Daphne he loves her kind of off-the-cuff, and Daphne, who’s been trying for the entire story to work up the nerve to tell Fred that she loves him, bursts out laughing. It was so easy to picture Daphne trying to come up with the perfect, heartfelt way to share her feelings and then Fred, being so genuine without realizing it, just says “I love you” like it’s the easiest thing in the world.

6. A fic or scene that challenged you

For whatever reason, any time I needed Marcie and Velma to interact in TTGR was a challenge for me. I think I got too much in my head about the whole thing, and it seemed like nothing I had them do or say was organic. I rewrote the guest-room-at-Tony’s-party scene a bajillion times before I landed on something that I liked.

7. A line of writing you’re proud of

I know this says “a line of writing,” but I’m gonna cheat again and do like, a paragraph for each story I published this year. Don’t tell me what I can’t do! 

TFTS, ch 14: Fred took a deep breath, apparently steeling himself for a difficult confession. "I've always had a fear that the people I love will all leave me one day," he told her. "I didn't even realize I felt that way until I was thirteen and found that letter my mom sent to my dad. I mean…if my own mother could leave me behind like that, what was stopping my dad? My friends?" He exhaled and looked into Daphne's eyes. "It even happens in this play. Diana leaves Dan at the end. Just like my mom left my dad. Just like she left me." He shook his head. "You and the gang are the most important people in my life. And when Shaggy's dad said that thing at the end of the summer, about how one day we'll all go our separate ways…I started to panic." He swallowed. "I don't want anyone in the gang to separate, but I'm terrified of losing you the most."

FRED IS SO SINCERE protect him at all costs

Anniversaries ch 2: Shaggy grinned and pulled her closer. The wind was starting to pick up, and he was starting to regret the ice cream just a teeny tiny bit. But having Velma snuggled up next to him warmed him throughout.

"Besides," he said. "It's not like we have to worry about it right now. Why worry about things that like, haven't happened yet?"

Velma snorted. "Says the guy who goes into a fetal position anytime Fred even suggests investigating a haunted house."

Shaggy nudged her playfully with his shoulder. "My point is," he told her. "We like, already made it one year. Who's to say we won't make it another?"

"That's true," Velma conceded. "And it's been a pretty good year."

"The best," Shaggy agreed.

They pressed their foreheads together and closed their eyes. Velma sighed contentedly and murmured her favorite line from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.

"But for now we are young, let us lay in the sun and count every beautiful thing we can see."

Shaggy opened his eyes and gently tapped her once on the nose. "One," he murmured.

Is it arrogant of me to swoon at something that I wrote?

TTGR ch 12: Velma left the practice room first, eyes stinging with more unshed tears. She forced them back into their ducts as she made her way to her locker. I can't let Daphne and Fred see me like this, was all she could think to herself. She couldn't let them know that anything was wrong. She had to get a hold of her emotions. She needed to seem apathetic. Detached. Even though it felt like her chest was ripping open and everything inside her was screaming in agony.

Back in the practice room, Shaggy could feel his heart pounding like a drum against his ribcage. His pulse reverberated through every muscle in his body, and it seemed so loud that he was sure other students could hear it out in the hallway as they walked past. He leaned against the concrete wall and tried to steady his breathing.

He couldn't believe it. Velma had broken up with him.

Or had he broken up with her?

Regardless, they had broken up.

They were broken up.

I have to go, he realized. He couldn't stay in this room – he'd need to face the real world eventually – and besides, Scooby was almost certainly wondering where he was. With another shuddering breath, he wiped his eyes and steeled himself to leave the practice room.

Their practice room.

The thought had been automatic. With a sharp gasp, Shaggy clutched his middle, as though physically trying to hold in his anguish. How cruel it was that their relationship had ended in the same place it had begun. He had always thought of this place as theirs, ever since last year. But now, there was no more their anything. They were no longer a they. It was him and her, separate, apart. And now it would be forever.

His chest seized up and his throat tightened, burning. I can't stay in here, he told himself, even as his heartbreak surged. I need to leave this room.

But he allowed himself a short, muffled sob before swallowing and finally bracing himself towards the door.

I’ve always felt more comfortable writing dialogue than descriptions, but I felt pretty good about this paragraph about the aftermath of a breakup.

8. A comment that touched you

Oh come on!

Every single review means the world to me, and I’m lucky enough to have a handful of consistent reviewers who always read my work carefully, and their comments truly reflect that.

Though I will say, the comment that made me truly feel like my writing did its job successfully was from a pal of mine in Discord who, after reading a breakup scene, said, “I feel like I just got broken up with.” (Sorry again @complikated1)

9. Something that inspired your writing

Lord, so many things. My whole life and everything I’ve ever read. But mostly Scooby Doo.

10. Your proudest accomplishment (that one scene; finally finishing that one fic; posting your first fic etc.)

I mean, I essentially wrote two novels and two short stories this year. I’m pretty proud of that (and so is my husband...so much so that he outed my accomplishments to my whole family, who are similarly proud.

11. Do you have any writing goals for next year?

Several!

Start - and finish! - the finale, Four For The Road

Finish this got-dang Fraphne oneshot I’ve been promising to write

Begin writing ~what comes next~ (IT’S A SECRET, SO NO SPOILERS)

[queermediastudies]

Call Me By Your Name: A new attempt for queer movies

Call me by your name is a queer film directed by Luca Guadagnino, starring Timothy Chalamet, Amy Hammer, and Michael Stuba, in January 2017 It was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in the United States on the 22nd. The film is adapted from the novel of the same name by Andre Acimon, and tells the story of a 24-year-old American doctoral student Oliver who met 17-year-old Elio in Italy, and the two developed an ambiguous relationship. In November 2017, the film won the Best Picture of the 27th Gotham Independent Film Awards; on November 29 of the same year, it was selected as the top ten films of 2017 by the British "Empire" magazine; in December of the same year, it was awarded the 2017 Tenth Film Institute Best video. On February 12, 2018, the film won the American Screenwriter Guild Award for Best Screenplay in the category of film; on March 5 of the same year, it won the 90th Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay. The story takes place on the Italian Riviera in the 1980s. The sudden love is like a wild beast running out of the forest, grabbing the body and mind of 17-year-old Elio. He fell in love with Oliver, an American doctoral student who was 6 years older than him and came to Italy to travel. The two were fascinated, hesitant, and tempted towards each other, allowing their passions to burst out, and they achieved a first love that lasted only six weeks. This beautiful summer love left an indelible mark on the hearts of the two. The performance that really stood out in the film came from 21-year-old Chalamet. He played Elio has many "firsts" in the film. He doesn't have too many lines, but Chalamé uses his own facial and body language to transform this character into a character that everyone can understand at a glance. people. The last few minutes of the film without a line of dialogue is a rare close-up shot of Elio in the film. This shot is very attractive. The chemical reaction between the men is obvious, but more importantly, the two actors can convey the complex feelings, expectations, and ideas between the characters without opening their mouths. This movie is one of my favorite movies all the time. After learning some queer theory and LGBTQ knowledge, I think I can analyze and deconstruct this movie from a more professional perspective.

After watching this movie, the first thing I thought of was the intersection of culture and queer issues. Sexuality does not exist alone. It is integrated with society, culture, religion, education, etc. It involves different content of knowledge and social factors. Intersectionality helps us understand the diversity and complexity of identities, and allows us to examine issues more comprehensively. Just like Ahmed mentioned in 2006: "After all, both queer studies and phenomenology involve diverse intellectual and political histories" (p.5). Although the whole film does not describe how homosexuals are discriminated against, Struggling with one's own sexual orientation, there is no race, and the shackles and constraints of the social system need to be broken, but the cultural background that the director vaguely expresses through the lens language is differently ignored. One of the most direct is that Oliver wears a six-pointed star pendant around his neck: a symbol of Jews. Here, the freedom from the United States collides with the conservativeness of Italy. As we have shown, the queer problem is impossible to put aside everything that exists independently, even without political and social factors. In addition, the film also incorporates the question of queer into the discussion of the family framework. In the film, Elio has a pair of enlightened parents. The mother's understanding and father's enlightenment made this ignorant and beautiful relationship not a shadow in Elio's heart, but a treasure in his life. I like his father’s words at the end of the film the most: "How you live your life is your business, Just remember our hearts and our bodies are given to us only once." Elliot is happy, and his mother knows what he wants, What he likes, his father knows his inner struggle and suffering, and he lives in an open family. In the previous class, I remembered that in the video Mia showed us, it was mentioned that many queer groups lived carefully in the last century and did not dare to let friends or family members know their "secrets". From this point, we can compare the importance of family in the queer problem, which is an issue about understanding and tolerance.

Another point I want to focus on is not the content of the movie itself, but the market and audience that the movie faces. "However, within television, audiences matter – a lot. In particular, the imagination of audiences matters because demographics determine which advertisers might be interested in shilling their wares in the spaces between the narrative" (Alfre & Martin, 2018, p.1) The film is a sophisticated work. The director has mastered his own high-speed editing and eye-catching close-up style. The rhythm of the film is very suitable for the hot Italian summer in the film. The details of the film are very special. The trust and power of the characters in the film will make ordinary audiences who are not familiar with it feel very rich. It is this kind of film craftsmanship that will let people know that the film can create resonance from an almost spiritual perspective. According to Doty (1993), "Queer" is a practiced mass culture, which is accepted and shared by different audiences to varying degrees (p.2). This film is not limited to LGBTQ groups, it is more like a movie of the same kind A new attempt to allow a more diverse audience to find a microcosm of their own life from the emotional development of the protagonist to the regretful ending. It is not only that the audience group is not defined, it is a diversified process from production to presentation. "'Queer'" can be used to describe an authorial voice, a character, a mode of textual production, and/or various types of representation practice. Filmmakers, forms, and audiences-not necessarily identified as gay or lesbian-can rather be understood as queer" (Benshoff & Griffin, 2004, p.2). As this sentence says, this movie is no longer a queer main movie in its own sense. What it wants to present to the audience is just a paragraph A beautiful and slightly regretful love story.

And in the following part, I would like to share some of my personal views and comments on the film.Before I saw this film, I only felt that the title of this film was very sentimental. Although I knew it was a story about the same sex and had won numerous awards, I was not particularly interested this time because I was disappointed in Carol first. I thought, alas, maybe another film won the award by relying on the same sex stunt.But after watching the movie, my heart was calm for a long time.Should this relationship in the movie be called sweet or regrettable?It's sweet because you have a wonderful and romantic time together.Sadly, it was clear that the relationship was not going to last, as Oliver's holiday was over and the couple were likely to be separated for the rest of their lives.Alas, sad romance ah.In the scene at the train station, the director handles it with great restraint. The two men don't even speak, just a deep hug. Then Elio smiles and watches Oliver get on the train.Elio struggled, and his grief manifested itself when he finally called home, crying and asking his mother to come pick him up.Seeing this paragraph, I already shed tears.People in love generally hope to be together all the time, but separation, often bring is tore heart crack lung pain.In the film, Elio's pain was also restrained. Maybe in front of his mother, Elio had to restrain his emotion, but because of the pain of separation, he could not cry, but could only twist his face into a lump. I have to say that the director showed the character's emotion perfectly.I want to say, Elio was still very happy, he came back home, my father said to him the meaning of a passage, it is the world 90% of the parents could not have said, he told Elio, do you have a wonderful friendship, perhaps more than friendship, you may now pain, sad, but don't let this feeling disappear, not to mention there have been happy.What a waste it is for us not to feel in order not to feel.I think it was a great comfort to Elio that their relationship was validated, that it was real, and that even though they weren't together, the joy they had would make this summer memorable.This reminds me of a sentence we learned at that time: "Het Culture think of itself as the elemental form of human Association, as the very model of inter-gender relations, as the indivisible basis of all community,And as the means of reproduction without which society wouldn't exist "(Warner, 1993, p.21).This film shows us that the beauty and simplicity of relationships should not be mixed into the so-called mission of reproduction.Love this abstract thing is unrelated to gender, just a warm attraction between two people.

"Do you mean what I think you mean?" The tone of the whole film is like these dialogues, full of ambiguity, whether day or night. Two shy people fell in love and started a classic couple life. However, there was no banquet that would never end. Oliver had to go. The night before parting, Elio saw Oliver dancing with the stranger on the road, squatting down and vomiting violently. Vomit is not only because he is unable to drink, but also because he is about to part with you. He sings and dances with strangers to his heart's content. You are like an outsider. The person you love deeply, like Mount Fuji, doesn't belong to you, and then the miserable heart quickly vomites out. The next day, the platform whistle, two people smile goodbye, the train left, take away your favorite person, you finally can't help but wipe a tear, crying in the place he can't see. At this time, he called his mother to pick her up. His mother comforted him in the car. When he got home, his father boiled chicken soup for him to drink. He felt sorry for his parents. Father's several bowls of chicken soup, the child immediately stopped crying, and even lit up hope, the professor is really not a fuel-efficient lamp. Two years later, on Hanukkah, it was winter in the small town. Frozen ponds, withered fruit trees, and heavy snow all implied the tragic fate of the hero. Elio received a phone call from Oliver, like an old friend, "I'm going to get married." then there was a classic blessing. I was numb to see. I didn't know that the screenwriter even asked Elio to say "Elio" six times. I admit that A few words almost tears, and then Oliver's soft call "Oliver", I knew the story began to point. There was a light in the eyes of the boy by the fire, but I believe he was happy at that moment because I felt the same. "Queerness is not so much a stable, clearly defined sexual orientation as it is a way of seeing and experiencing the world" (Ruberg&Phillps, 2018). This film gives me a totally different way of experiencing and seeing events. If Jack in Brokeback Mountain is warm and cheerful, and Ennis is is silent, two people forced by life fall in love on Brokeback Mountain, and eventually Yin and yang are separated. This is the real world. Then Call Me By Your Name is more like a hazy poem in the sunshine. It is a new attempt to integrate queer and the film industry. It makes people ignore the cruelty of reality and social system, and only devote themselves to the beautiful world brought by movies.

References:

1. Ahmed, S. (2006). Queer phenomenology: Orientations, objects, others. Duke University Press.

2. Doty, A. (1993). Making things perfectly queer: Interpreting mass culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

3. Alfred, L. & Martin, Jr. (2018). Pose(r): Ryan Murphy, Trans and Queer of Color Labor, and the Politics of Representation. LA Review of Books. URL: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/poser-ryan-murphy-trans-queer-color-labor-politics-representation/

4. Benshoff, H. M., & Griffin, S. (Eds.). (2004). Queer cinema: The film reader. Psychology Press.

5. Warner, M., & Social Text Collective. (1993). Fear of a queer planet: Queer politics and social theory. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

6. Ruberg, B., Phillips, A., Pozo, T., Stone, K., & Youngblood, J. (2018). -Queerness and Video Games Not Gay as in Happy: Queer Resistance and Video Games (Introduction). Game Studies, 18(3).

[zachscarroll]

Final Thoughts on Paper Mario the Origami King with some major spoilers

I thought this game overall was incredibly charming and worth your time if you are a fan of the classic games like the original Paper Mario 64 or Thousand Year Door. It was leaps and bounds ahead of Sticker Star, and overall I thought it was better paper Mario game than Color Splash ever hoped to be.

Even though I'm pleased with playing it through it does have some glaring issues. Right out of the gate, this game is being held back by some sort of executive decisions from Nintendo and it shows tremendously especially within the first few hours of the game. I know nothing about the development of the game, but there are defiantly some things that seem either out of place or rushed which is strange.

Practically the first 3-4 hours of the game is nothing but tutorials, which they do need to explain stuff but not this much oh my goodness. They truly took a lot of the challenge out of the game and made it "very, very young kid oriented" and I'm not looking for the most challenging game out there--I usually play most games on easier difficulties so I can enjoy the adventure instead of having to be annoyed with redoing things. Olivia pops up way too much. I liked her character for the most part. Between Huey, and Kersti, Olivia was a very good one. Huey was a little bit more funny, but Olivia had a lot of charm and multiple emotional arcs. I know saying that sounds silly for a Mario game but she does grow as a character showing that she's still worried about whether or not she can really stop her brother. However, she pops up every time something happens. It's too much. I can see something has appeared Olivia. It's okay--but I'm getting off topic that's exactly what Huey did too in Color Splash. I hate to say it but when she leaves your party by being crushed by a boulder it felt like a classic paper mario game then. You had Bobby with you and he would add his own flair as the helper character.

Bobby truly was a great partner, and even if he's only with you for like maybe 2 or so hours I enjoyed having him around. I'm extremely glad they had partners return even if they felt more like story related. I liked having more than just Olivia with me. All of the partners except Professor Toad were really cool. It kinda sucks that Professor Toad is so forgettable because he is the only partner who has an over world ability. I think it would have been cooler if he was like a Monty mole or something instead of just a Toad with a shovel, there's just so many Toads in the game that an archaeologist Toad could have been cool, but I don't really know where they were trying to go with the character. He was like a scaredy-cat kind of character but also made weird like college references like about his thesis. At the very least he had an unique outfit? I don't know I'm reaching for Professor Toad. Why not just have Captain Toad who's an already established character and an explorer? Anyway, I found it kinda weird that no one else had an over world ability, and they could have done some more interesting puzzles if they had given Kamek or Boswer some. I loved having Kamek join and how he talked about being self conscious and lacking self esteem because Bowser never listened to him. Bowser Jr. was cool too, he wasn't as bratty as I thought he'd be. He was written like a tough kid. Both Kamek and Jr. have satisfying reasons for leaving your party. I liked how they put Mario first in order to save the whole kingdom. It made me as the player feel like "these bad guys know that Mario can save them." I know it's silly but again just a nice touch to the story. Of course you get Bowser to join you right at the very end which is just so great. He even talks about his parenting practices. Luigi also have a shockingly hilarious and "key" role to the story. I'm so glad to see these classic characters have great writing behind them, and really show off that these partners are pretty vital to paper Mario. Especially Luigi and Bowser when in the previous two titles had maybe like 8 lines between the two of them. Yes they don't do much in battle, but they are vital to the story. If my paper Mario games have a fun and unique story then that's all I really want.

Bobby was my favorite. If you haven't seen the one big twist involving Bobby, I'd skip this section and pick back up at the next paragraph. Anyway, Bobby sacrifices himself to save Olivia. While you can kinda piece things together and see it coming after a while you don't expect Bobby to just like straight up die. I remember when it happened I was like, "they really did this in a Mario game?". They even have a cute moment later on in Bowser's castle where Olivia thinks she see Bobby again. Overall he was amazing. That whole area of Shogun Studios felt the most reminiscent of classic Paper Mario games. I had a grin on my face pretty much the whole way through.

The one big gripe I had with the partners is other than Bobby any time you wanna go back to Toad Town or other areas they're just like "yeah okay i'm gonna stay here see ya later". Why? Why not let them come with you? The writers don't have to write any additional dialogue and if they did that would have been cool. Why wouldn't Professor TOAD wanna go back to TOAD town? There's an extra area where you can take Bobby at one point to get photos taken with him in Shogun Studios. Why not do that with other characters as a cool little Easter egg? Truly I didn't understand why they couldn't travel with you. I know in that infamous interview floating around with the directors and producers saying they only wanted one partner at a time so it didn't cause any confusion for swapping them out but that's so stupid.

Back to the game being held back--there were times I could see the designers desperately wanted to make a unique character better, or give something else a personality but they weren't allowed to. It hurts a lot when the original paper Mario games could give toads fun little names like  "Zess T." or "Fice T." and now we have "Professor Toad" or "Battle Lab Toad". There are two toads in Toad Town that both say something like "where's Purple Toad?" or "Where's Blue Toad?". Stuff like that takes me out of the enjoyment of the game. It's only when you go and look on the around on other sites that you find out that the Origami Craftsman man is actually Theofold. Yes, we did have captain T. ode, but like. That's just "Toad". Back to that interview from the producers of the game where they say they can't really alter Mario characters anymore like give them age, gender, etc. But come on. I'm not really sure why they can't give the toads proper names. I know that's an extreme nitpick, but that's definitely something that takes me out of the game and reminds me "oh yeah we can't do this anymore". Even Bobby, will constantly remind Olivia to call him "Bob-omb" It just feels like a slap in the face. Bring back Toadsworth? An established character who has been MIA for like years now. Just please. Please make the Toads different they did a very good job here with a handful like, the sea captain, captain T.ode, Professor Toad, and the Shangri-spa Toads. I remember those toads because they were dressed up differently than the other ones. I even remember the Toad who told you where the heart ups were because he was in a completely unique pose then the other ones. Please Nintendo I'm begging you just make them look more unique or don't rely on them as a pillar of a character. They are all the same. Just do more colors of Toads! There's red, blue, yellow, green, and purple.Make an orange Toad or something please. I liked finding the Toads in the different areas and they would unfold from origami, it gave me some korok seed vibes. Do more stuff like that!

Concerning the game's overall story, I liked it, but it could have been so much more. There were multiple key moments where I was like "why wouldn't they have a cut scene for this as like a flashback?". The first one was right at the beginning of the game. They instead of showing you in the actual game like a cut scene, they show a small slideshow of Toads setting up for the Origami festival with Princess Peach on the logo screen which I guess is okay, but I'm not a fan. Personally, I would have liked there to be a sort of storybook intro that the previous games had being like "every 100 years the toads in toad town set up a festival to honor the proud technique of origami" and then cut to Mario and Luigi getting a mail call from Parakarry (like the previous games) and then being like "the festival is today we hope to see you there." and then bam they're driving to the festival. I know that seems kinda dumb but why not show that in your game instead of Luigi being like "can't wait to get there" while he's driving his cart from Mario Kart. It's a little weird to me. The biggest moment like this happened when you first meet the origami craftsman (who yes is just a Toad) he explains these unique origami techniques he used to fold King Olly to make him come to life, but like brushes past it real quick. And then at the very very end (skip ahead if you don't want spoilers) Olly talks about this 1000 crane origami wish thing that was never brought up before by anyone. If he had mentioned it when he dropped the boulder on Olivia that would have been acceptable but it just kinda comes out of nowhere. If you're going to bring these things up then like at least mention them once before or have some type of set up and pay off for it. It just felt kinda rushed. The ending was cute though, and I remember liking Color Splash's ending a bit more but this one was surprisingly beautiful with how it ends with floating lanterns it reminded me a little of Tangled.

The other big thing people are complaining about is no experience. This has pros and cons. pros: the battle in this game a lot of them are scripted or can be ran past no problem. However if you want to buy better weapons or accessories (this game's subtle nod to the badge system) you need a lot of coins. A lot of them. You use the coins in battle to let the Toad audience help you or use coins to buy more time to line up your foes properly. I like this system. While I could have gone for a little more incentive to battle I found myself using my coins even if I had thousands of them. I thought it was a pretty good balance. I don't see why they couldn't have thrown in a little more to make the battles worthwhile though. Why not after ever 10 battles let you pick a stat? Mario's running speed in the over world could be faster, Mario's first strike can be stronger, It doesn't cost as many coins when using them in battle? These are just thoughts I've had if they don't want to use a traditional style stat system. They had max up hearts that raised power and health it's just kinda strange why they don't want to have stats improve or give you another reward for battling other than money.

I will say while backtracking to get missing collectibles I avoided battles outright. If I got into a battle while backtracking I would sigh. I knew there was nothing left for me to spend my coins on so I would try to run from the battle but nine times out of ten I would fail running from the battle. At least the battles go by quickly, but it would use up durability on your consumable weapons. I'm very glad that they brought back permanent weapons and no stickers or cards. This weapon system is a littler underutilized though. I feel like if the designers went in they could have come up with three or four more weapon types. Why not use more Mario related power ups? Why just the fire or ice flowers, tail, and pow block? Why not have a jump move that hits in a 4x4 area like the hammer? They have a hammer item that works like the jump move! Why not have the frog suit back from sticker star or color splash that you can use to dodge unavoidable damage if you don't line up the monsters in time? I loved the battle system a lot more than Sticker Star and Color Splash but it seems like they only scratched the surface of the attacks Mario could do. If you're going to have different weapons that break why not have 10 or 20 unique different weapons as opposed to just more powerful versions of the same 5 weapons? Same with the healing items. Why only mushrooms, when in Toad Town you can get coffee that speeds you up or slows you down? Especially when you find a handful of coffee shops in the game, why can't I buy those coffees there? Why not bring back the cooking in the game from the first two? I know it'll never happen, but near the end of the game you get a spot to cook one item and I really got my hopes up.  I know I'm presenting a lot of questions, but this is all I thought about when doing the battles. If they do an "origami king 2" or something that reuses this battle system I feel like there is a lot of room for improvement and a lot more unique encounters. I also feel like they did this because they didn't want to over complicate things. They wanted the battles to be simple after you did a puzzle section. Also the battles are super snappy. Lasting two turns if you get the right line up and can be more if you don't. I think that's a really good way to make the player really learn the right way to move the board. That being said there were many times I didn't see the solution and would brute force my way through making some of the battles a bit of a slog.

They do flip the script a lot with the boss battles. First off "The Legion of Stationary" is great. While it took me a while to get used to them, they were some of the best fights in the whole game. The Tape boss was extremely cool and used an element that I wished more games could use. They let you get comfortable with the battle system then the tape is like "no you can't move stuff around, or you have to move the 2 rings around at once." This was such a cool battle and it really did make you think. I will say it was a little weird that the bosses were real life objects like colored pencils or a bunch of rubber bands, but I thought it was more comical. I know a lot of folks did not like them at all. They were set up and referenced though because all of the tools were mentioned in a bookshelf in the origami craftsman's library. This is how set up and pay off is done correctly because Olly would have seen him using them and so he'd use them against the toads and Mario just a nice little touch really. If you missed the book in the library scene they really hammer it home by showing you the legion of stationary was on the origami craftman's desk. I've looked around online and apparently a lot of the bosses can be beaten differently, they don't all end in 1000 fold arms finishers which is super cool.

Also the two other big mechanics for this game were the 1000 fold arms and the paper macho bad guys. The 1000 fold arm thing was fine, it felt right at home in a game like this which focused on origami. That being said the paper macho characters felt tacked on. They did not belong in this game, They were the other side of the battles being in real time and defeated by Mario using his hammer on them. The reason why they had to have these were if Olivia was not with you like on the cruise ship you had a way to take down a boss without her help, because she's needed for the 1000 fold arm technique. Cool idea, but felt wrong for this game which focused on origami it's like they really really wanted to make this a Zelda game and have action style battles to contrast to the puzzle ones. Again, I could see them being used in another game.  

If they do make another Paper Mario game, and I hope they do, I hope they keep pushing the needle forward.Every game since Sticker Star has been a HUGE improvement, and if we're not going back to the original games I hope each game makes an effort to address all of the glaring issues that all of us Paper Mario fans have.

[zorilleerrant]

look when people ask what they’re “supposed” to write, they mean what do readers generally like, not what is, like, ethically defensible to feel like typing into a text box. which means:

people are generally fine reading original fiction in either first or third person. in fanfic, mostly people like third. you’ll need a special reason to write in second, but it can be done

people are generally fine reading original fiction in either present or past tense. in fanfic people insist it’s one or the other but they disagree which?? I have never seen something in future tense that worked, only occasional sections set in a work mostly in past or present

no one minds said. if you’re saying said every line, though, people are going to start getting annoyed, especially if the spoken part is short. instead of using “strong verbs”, which often do annoy people, trying interspersing action

50,000 words is generally where people put the length of a novel, though many people will perceive something as a novel with as few as 30,000 words, assuming the storytelling is dense. genres such as romance, cozy mystery, or horror are often shorter than that. sf and fantasy are notably often much, much longer. if you’re writing literary fiction you probably want a length of 60,000-65,000 words. if you’re writing longform fanfic, you probably want 20,000-25,000 words, as there’s more room for density at a lower word count. otherwise, you should aim for around 80,000 words, and make it longer or shorter in editing.

a chapter should be 1,000-3,000 words. at 1,000 people will read at a nice brisk pace and feel like the chapters are easily digestible. at 3,000 people will read it as a satisfying chunk but still not a huge time commitment. if you want people to sit and become deeply immersed over the course of a chapter, aim for closer to 10,000, though this only really works for much longer form stories. if chapters don’t make sense to you, your chapter breaks probably also won’t make sense to the reader, so don’t use them, or ask someone else to break them up for you.

if you’re going for a relatable main character, you should also try to make them likable. this is important if you’re writing in first or close third person, but in a more distant third person, especially with an ensemble, it’s less necessary. however, if many of your characters have no redeeming traits (even just being interesting to read about, in a trainwreck sort of way), it’s going to be alienating to the reader. doubly so in fanfic. but all characters should have both positive and negative traits that are easy to identify by pointing to passages in the text if they’re supposed to be fleshed out.

in-jokes and references to other works should be something that people who get it will immediately get it, and people who don’t will gloss over it without realizing they missed anything

watch out for tone whiplash. yes something can absolutely have both funny and dramatic scenes, but you should be careful about how you order them, and you should be careful to maintain a consistent narrative voice. writing the dramatic parts in a very serious way and the funny parts in a very silly way can work, but only if you’re trying to make it seem like two different perspectives shifting back and forth

it’s morally fine to write about self-inserts and author OCs in fanfic, but most people don’t want to read those except about their friends. there’s more wiggle room in original fiction, since you can build a world that makes your OP main character make sense, but give them too many powers, not enough faults, or not interesting enough conflicts, and it will make readers not want to continue

bigotry exists whether you write about it or not, and there are implications in your writing whether you write about it or not; that’s the thing about it being systemic. so, yes, include queer, nonwhite, disabled, etc. characters regardless of your own identity. just do your best about it.

you need more women in your story. women are like half of people. that means half of main characters, half of secondary characters, half of support characters, half of background characters mentioned in one scene. half of hero characters, half of villain characters. half of the people who lead, half of the people who follow, half of the people who get the fuck out of dodge. also please make some of them not related to or love interests of any of the other characters.

your interests and knowledge base are skewed towards modern Western culture. this is because of colonialism. be interested in what you’re interested in, write about what you’re interested in, but be prepared for people to say it’s too white/Western/colonialist. this is inevitable and not a personal attack. the complaints are doing the brunt of the work without requiring a response from you.

each time a new person speaks, you should make a new paragraph. actions should be in the same paragraph as the dialogue of whoever performs the action. dialogue should not be more than two or three sentences long per line, and shorter if the sentences are long.

paragraphs in general can be longer than that, but don’t be afraid of making more of them. people prefer short over long paragraphs, but they won’t mind the occasional very long paragraph if most are shorter.

yes, please use spellcheck. capitalization and most punctuation are unnecessary to fluent reading these days, but you still need to make sure it’s clear where sentences start and stop.

if you found a cool new word you like and want to use, go for it. most of the time more common words are better, so you should really only pepper in thesaurus words as a garnish.

unless your work is intended for a multilingual audience, use italics to indicate that a different language is being spoken rather than writing out both languages. it’s less effort for the reader and tends to make the story flow better.

“in this genre, the characters usually -” “the folklore this is based on suggests -” “the original canon says -” leave it! the problems come from people not knowing what the creative dialogue has said already. if you know, feel free to ignore or concentrate on whatever you want. people will still be able to follow.

yeah, absolutely include that element of a different genre/form/canon. it spices up the writing

okay and for all your “but what if...” then go for that! this is general advice not a magical contract forcing everyone to write only this way forever. pretty much every book I’ve ever really loved violates at least a few of these, but if you’re just looking for tips, here’s the more specific answer than “write whatever you want! whatever moves you!” to edit your story around.

[shaonsim]

Thoughts on the writing of itv!!! What kinda show would you writeee

My friend. My hero. Thank you for sending this in. Thank you so much!! You gave me such a wonderful opportunity to blab about stuff.

THANK YOU ❤️❤️❤️❤️

The writing of ITV, you ask? Hang on my friend, this will be a WILD ride. A wild ride. This will be loong and wordy and a little incoherent, jumping from one point to another, but this will tell you a lot about how I feel about the writing of ITV.

And yes, this will read like a letter to the CVs because I am totally incapable of abiding the rules of grammar and I don't want to edit all this.

And I apologise for the out of context references that seeped in with time. Sorry, couldn't help it. I will gladly expand upon any of the references.

The main thing with writing (according to me, but I don't like repeating this disclaimer since by asking the question you already know that this will be my personal opinion, but still, for safety purposes)...The main thing with writing is that the core concept can be summed up in one single paragraph, and then you add words for emphasis.

You write in a thousand situations, in different styles, only for the message to hit home.

Look at our Epics.

Ramayana can be summed up as the Ram-Ravan conflict in a good Vs evil way. Lakshman is the devoted brother, Hanuman (ji) is an ardent devotee of Ram-Sita.

Mahabharata is basically another story of good Vs evil, where Duryodhan is the evil guy , Shakuni is an evil mastermind, 99 Kaurav brothers (+ Karna) the sidekicks, and the rest of the Kurus (+ Drona and Kripa ) as the silent voices of reason.

And almost every event emphasises these points. Because that's the story.

Look at Harry Potter. Three kids (young blood/new generation ) fighting against the big bad and pointing out and fixing the mistakes of the past along the way.

Look at Kalpurush (I read it during the quarantine and I am in love ❤ ) , where the main theme is that a mother worries whether the circumstances will lead to history repeating itself, whether a son will follow his father's footsteps, and whether she would be happy if he did turn out to be like that.

Technically, it is the same with shows.

Sasural Simar Ka began with the concept of the deep bond between the sisters, then moved on to supernatural forces interfering with the Bhardwaj family. The theme changed, but it didn't vanish.

Swaragini began as a show revolving around the sisters, and it stayed like that for forever, even when the plot went sideways and the sisters were pitted against each other.

Kumkum bhagya is a show where the leads battle kidnapping, murder attempts, misunderstandings etc and come out longing for each other and dreaming about happier times (the same was the theme of Pavitra Rishta too, if I remember correctly. But with less kidnapping.) And now the show has taken a leap with a love triangle between the kids (look, another similarity between kkb and pr. Go Ekta)!

KZK2 *cringe cringe* is all about AnuPre who love each other but don't end up with each other because of various reasons.

ITV has this thing down pat.

But it fails to come up with proper events to highlight their core concept and of course, they fail to choose an interesting theme for the show, but heyy, human mind and relationships is a gold mine for ideas. It is fascinating, and quite enjoyable, if it is done right. Am I biased because it is my favourite genre? Yes of course.

But the point stands.

Another important part of writing is that in order to come up with plot points that will reinforce your main idea, you need to come up with a cast of interesting characters, and develop their background to give you an ample opportunity to create the above mentioned plot points. The spectators, onlookers, the influencers need motivation - reasons for their actions.

Think about Karna. Think about Drupad-Drona. Think about Bhishma-Amba. Think about Jayadrath and his boon.

Sub-plots, side-plots. Parallel storylines.

For the most part, ITV fails in this department. The characters or stories they introduce are a) boring (either because we fail to understand their motivation or because they are diluted versions of the leads) or b) annoying because of their over enthusiastic and blind favouritism for the lead character they support.

^ Casting and acting also plays a major part in this (ugh Chandni ), but most of the time, it can be solved with focusing on the actor's strengths and weaknesses and changing the dialogues based on that. A writer can change things.

That's their job.

If your side characters are not interesting enough to deserve a story of their own, you aren't trying hard enough. That said, if you can't weave in their story in your main story, do not focus on the side plots. No one is interested in seeing your hodgepodge of TWO (or more) stories. It should all come together in the end, it should become one BIG story. Bring it all together!!

But do focus on the side plots, because there is only so much you can do with your leads, especially in the romance/family (whatever you call it) genre that occupies 90% of tellywood (and for good reason too!!)

A good plan is to create events with one of your main character and a group of characters (how small or big a group is for you to decide). If you force the audience to look at two/three supporting characters, no body will be happy.

Use your leads!!!!

Also, PLEASE use the show Vs tell method.

You want us to know that the male lead is adored by his sister? Show us. And by that, I meant scenes where we can see the bond they share, NOT dull monologues where the sister sings praises of her brother (a few monologues are fine though). You are an audio-visual medium.

ACT LIKE IT.

Monologues are for written things. Where we only have the words and our own imagination. Here, you have the tools to present us with the pictures, with the words they speak to each other.

Don't waste it.

In the same vein, do not repeat dialogues. Not word to word (don't repeat the same thing with different wording multiple times in a single episode or a week of episodes). Switch it up, and if you have to, have to repeat stuff, use an actor who has decent facial expressions and voice modulation. If the actor is stiff, robotic, then don't use that actor to parrot your lines. Seriously.

<< Not to hate on anyone in particular but Prerna's 'Anurag Anurag Anurag' is very annoying, for reasons that are better left unspoken >>

Hey, hey, you know what else is an integral part of writing? Research. Making a show on doctors? Police? Engineers? Lawyers? Chefs? Do your research. And if you want to take the short cut and go with the convenient business men/women trope, by all means, go for it. GO FOR IT. But show them working, and no, not because of tracks revolving around the business, but always. Running a business is a full time responsibility. Show that. I repeat, show that. Show that the character isn't home 24x7, show late night meetings, show files neatly stacked (or strewn about, your choice). Show the products or materials involved in the business. Show your characters being exhausted with the amount of work, show their involvement in their work. Or don't, if that suits the story and your character is neglectful, or if you have a proper reason to have them take some time off. Pay attention.

Time for a checklist.

Central theme? ✅

Side plots (+ characters)? ✅

Edit things because of the actors? ✅

Show Vs Tell? ✅

Research? ✅

How much DRAMA is too much drama? ❔❔

Now, this is a product of my curiosity (+ me posting the Fic Which Must Not Be Named), but I think this fits nicely with the rest of this answer. I wouldn't explain this in detail because the original post does a much better job (and I need validation, so go read that post) but to think, that ITV tells us stories of other people, and whether it is this very question, this doubt, that leads to the numerous kidnappings and accidents/fire/misunderstandings we see in 90% of the shows.

Okay, time to return to the checklist.

Oh. Oh! I forgot my favourite part.

The influences of the audience. Every writer has a story to tell. And while it is difficult to think that the ITV creatives know what they want to do with their story, I would give them the benefit of doubt. Besides, as a writer myself, I know that 80% of writing is having no clue as to where you want to take the story. ANYWAY, back to the topic at hand. I think, if everything was written and shot before telecast, we might get cohesive writing. As it is, the creatives put out some content, look at the reaction, and try to maintain the highs or fix the blunders, by hook or crook.

And the story suffers.

Complete revamping of tracks, characters behaving worse than pendulums, repeat of romantic scenes, bringing in new characters out of the blue - I believe, most of these things occur in a rush to fetch (or maintain) ratings.

Now, let's talk about copy-pasting tracks without bothering to look at the bigger picture. What works for one show, works only because it goes with the past and future events of the show. You can't grab xyz from show1 and throw it into show2, because S2 does not have the background of S1. It wouldn't work, because the characters are different, their motivation is different, their past is different, everything is different.

Also, can we talk about how two people of opposite genders can be friendly and helpful to each other without secretly pining for the other person? It doesn't always have to be romance, although it can be perceived as that, if you want a jealousy track. Character A and B both know there is no romantic feelings, but Character C is seeing green because heyy, DRAMA!!

((This is one thing that disastrous Bajlo tomar alor benu did right, in respect to Minu and Rudra))

Another important thing - people can (and should, if you want it to be realistic) be morally grey. There is a phase between liking someone or hating them or wishing them to be dead or actually killing them. Also, not everyone has access to criminals and goons. I REPEAT, not everyone has a criminal connection, or the mental capacity to actually execute the plan to the T.

Thinking of murder, planning murder and straight up plunging a knife in someone's chest are different things. Remember the difference.

USE THE DIFFERENCE.

And while you are on it, learn the difference between attraction, appreciation and love.

We might be attracted to a particular quality - a physical attribute, a skill, a specific philosophy etc. We might appreciate that quality in a fellow human being. And we might be attracted to and appreciate the person with those qualities, but that doesn't mean that we would love them.

In the ocean of unnecessary romance angles and third wheels, this core difference is often brushed away in a bid to gain trps. Please don't do that.

Another checklist.

Ratings changing the story? ✅

Copy pasting tracks ✅

The world is grey ✅

Less criminal activity ✅

Not everything is love ✅

Would you look at that! I covered so many things. Fear not, I still have a lot to say. Mwahaha.

Not going to go into detail about my opinions on in-laws on ITV, because that is already covered here, but let's talk about the actual family.

The parents, siblings, cousins, relatives. Again, I am going to repeat myself and tell them to use the show Vs tell method. And actually focus on the dynamics because although the equations will change after marriage (for the male lead, the female lead will be cut off from her family 80% of the time), these relationships set the foundation for your character. Their personality. Motivation.

If you are going with a character who is distant, then by all means, do so, but do NOT ignore the family. Show that the character doesn't care.

Show it. Don't gloss over it.

That said, limit your exploration of characters and back stories. There is no hard or fast rule, but if it feels like too much focus, then it is too much focus. Go follow your basic INSTINCTS.

Okay, now is the time to come to the business side of writing for ITV. Bringing in popular characters, giving them smart dialogues and promoting them to the High Heavens. Wonderful trick. But do it in a subtle way. We will gladly let you play us, but only until we realise that we have been played. Subtly manipulate things. Subtly.

And, talking about that, let's also talk about how consistency is really important. Dumping black (or white) paint on characters would not wash away past grievances. It wouldn't remove the impression we already have. So if you want to portray someone in a positive light, work up to that point. Same with negative portrayals. Ease us into the change in perspective.

((Bajaj track in KZK2 is the perfect example of how the writers totally FAILED to follow this rule))

Also, if you are writing comedy, please hire good actors. Comedy is incredibly difficult, and if the performance isn't up to the mark, then it falls flat. And bad comedy is very annoying.

Another thing. If you have a social message, as in if the central theme is a social issue, do NOT forget your theme. And do not shove it down our throats. Don't make it preachy. Strive for balance.

And here, let me remind you that you do need a central theme, that's a very important part of your story. So pick a theme. And stick to it.

Think of your story like a human body.

Skeleton is the theme. The concept.

Blood is the undercurrents, the 'vibe'.

Organs are the characters.

Veins and arteries are the relationships.

Flesh is your plot.

Skin is the sub plots and side plots.

AND TOGETHER, THEY MAKE A STORY.

TOGETHER, THEY MAKE A STORY.

See how I repeated myself for emphasis? That's what you have to do, in a more subdued and complex way. I know you have it in you.

And because I wrote so much about adding sub plots and side characters, let's talk about what you shouldn't do, with me quoting myself:

Even CID, a show I loved to watch because it was a crime drama but less gruesome than what you would expect, could not escape tellywood’s clutches and turned into a chaotic mess with too many new characters and a massive shift in focus - in its last days, it was more of a romantic drama with the crime sprinkled in, and because there were so many new characters (who were boring 70% of time and annoying for the other 30%), I had ZERO interest in the series. The crimes have always been similar, what kept me hooked was the way they dealt with it and their group dynamics, which was ruined by bringing in a hoard of characters who contributed nothing to the story. And the Shreya-Daya track was a bad one from its conception, there was no need to drag it until my mild indifference turned into a major annoyance. And they could have avoided all of this. There was no need to ruin a perfectly good show with lazy, uncreative writing.

^ Bolded are the parts I consider important.

Also, let me take this opportunity to talk about shows similar to CID, in which every episode deals with a mini-plot and it is only the characters that remain the same. Crime dramas, medical dramas (although one the most popular ones on ITV - DMG was less about medicine and more about Jerk!Armaan and his jerk-ness and got rid of this problem in an innovative way that deserves an essay of its own, but I digress).

If the only thing remaining constant is your characters and their group dynamics, then do NOT throw in twenty new characters at once. Introduce them one at a time and limit the number of characters you will use. Keep the same cast for a decent chunk of time. Please. And do not add in multiple sub plots. The storyline is already a little blurry, jumping from case to case, so too much drama between the characters can be either too much to handle or just very, very boring. The focus is on the cases. Keep it there.

A show that did it quite well, was Goyenda Ginni, what with the overarching plot of a homemaker balancing housework and her passion for solving crimes. And because it was always about a family, with limited characters (bringing in spouses for the unmarried characters), it wasn't crowded.

Before I forget, here are some of my common issues with ITV and their writing department ⬇️

EK and her love for the child!track

Portrayal of marriage and relationship

^ And I must add that the Fic Which Must Not Be Named came into being because I couldn't accept the marriage trope for the two characters from the show that has become my latest obsession, even if the trope is shown in a negative light and the people in it are called out and they realise how wrong they are. #shaonHatesDealMarriages

The year 2020 and tellywood marriages

For the most part the last two links say the same things, but the wording and examples and the object of focus is different (this is how you hammer it home, CVs, write long posts on the same thing until the world learns about your hatred for said things. You're welcome 😎)

Also, something I remembered while writing the little note about forced marriages - acknowledge the wrongdoings of your characters, EVEN if they are the leads and you want people to love them. Glossing over the misdeeds wouldn't help, but accepting the truth, pointing out the flaws and then adding the reasoning behind the actions, and later on, writing in the realisation and apology for the act, is a much, much better idea. It is easier to forgive someone if their misdemeanor isn't shoved under the rug. But don't go overboard with the accusations. Repeating the truth multiple times only serves to annoy us.

Have I covered everything? I don't know. Feel free to ask me specific things in case you think I didn't comment on something. It is easy for me to forget about things while writing an answer as long as this. Not to mention, that I framed the first two-three paragraphs in my head while I stood under the shower, so in the rush to jot down everything I had thought of, I might have missed some stuff. Happens to the best of us, eh?

Coming to the second part of your question, I must admit, I am not the best at coming up with original premises. I like to dwell on the thoughts of the individual, delve deeper into their minds and do stuff - as evident in my love for the romance/drama genre, and why I love that ITV has so many shows in this genre. Why my writing (the drabbles I wrote last week), is more about the people than the plot. That's just who I am.

That said, I think I would do good with a team. Together, we can write a lot of things. ((Someone agree to do a collaborative fun writing project right now, I love those. We can make full use of all this free time and write a story of our own)).

No, seriously.

I love writing as a team.

[sugaxjpg]

care to share what is your step-to-step writing process? thanx! love u

Sure thing! I’m kinda horrible when it comes to explaining my writing process, but I’ll try my best. I organized this into bullet points because I think that is better to understand, and I also added a few examples on some past works. Sorry if this got a bit long, but I wanted to be as precise as possible.

Planning: This goes from getting a general idea of the plot, to brainstorming scenes, and building the characters. More importantly, I figure out how to take my story from point A to point B, and what I’m trying to accomplish. Often I start out by coming up with a title, and then constructing a story around that theme. I don’t really write this part down, I just let my mind run free, since I discovered that it’s better than putting out every single detail I think of, since that can be a bit overwhelming.

For instance, for Fireflies, I thought about the title, then I combined it with this old idea of Punk!Taehyung that I had in my drafts. It actually catalyzed my plot, and it made me come up with the final scene, which I had been struggling for some time.

On that, one thing that I find very helpful is sometimes combining two or more plots/ideas. Makes your stories more original too.

Outlining: Okay, this is the part that my friends can’t really understand when I tell them, so I’ll try to be as clear as I possibly can. My outline is done by dialogues: as I’m picturing the scenes, I write solely the character’s sentences, and then I come back later to fill them up with ambient descriptions and characterization. This is basically the “skeleton” of my story. It’s very raw, but it works for me, and it helps me ruminate on the same parts of the plot again and again, without it being exhausting.

I write everything out of order, and I often start with the ending, then I come to back to the beginning (usually I call it the “pre-cut” scene, which is the part you see before the “read more”), then the middle scenes are all scattered around my doc, until I find a way to connect them. If you see sudden switches of pacing during my story, like, even from one paragraph to the subsequent one,  it’s because of that.

Sometimes I have random ideas of metaphors, and I throw it in the middle of my doc, with like a huge ass space between scenes so I know that it should be added somewhere else lmao

Writing: As I said before, I go down, often out of order, just filling in the dialogues, and connecting the scenes. This is the part in which I change the order of scenes, or delete some altogether, because I notice that my brainstorm was too filled with unnecessary aspects. I basically read the outline over and over and, as I’m picturing the scenes, my brain just starts constructing the atmosphere.

Devotion is the clearest example of this: there was no other description besides lines upon lines of dialogues (which I wrote in a fucking marathon of ideas) and then, once I came back to fill it in, I just started with the scenes that I was the most inspired to write. I believe it was the final one, then the “dungeon” one, then the murder one. Finally, I wrote the first scene, and went down my doc just writing in order and connecting what I had thus far.

I often leave the smut scene for last because I’m never super inspired for that lmaooo

Revision: I read over the things I already wrote, but without actually editing. Just checking if it makes sense, maybe adding some extra information. This is the part in which I make sure every idea connects well, and that the plot is consistent.

Editing: The most irritating part of writing IMO. This is the point in which the story is already done, I’m tired of looking at it, and now I have to go down changing repeated words and checking the grammar. The longer the fic, the worse it is and, quite frankly, sometimes I just give up halfway through. Sorry.

Drafting: I make the post: title, summary, cover, warnings, etc. Sometimes I do it at the “planning” phase, but it’s not as common.

Posting: It’s done, and I’ll never look at it again. I probably hate the final product, but I worked too hard on it to just forget about it. Also the time I realize my editing was horrible, and I let a billion grammar mistakes pass by. Forgive me.

I think this is it? Probably forgot about some things, but this is the foundation of my writing process. There is a lot of listening to music in the dark of my room and coming up with mental MV’s for my stories, but no one has to know about that.

Hope it helped! Feel free to ask me for further clarification in any of these points.

[licieoic]

11/11/11 meme

I was tagged by @lacylu42 , thanks sweetie! The rules are: 11 questions answered, 11 questions given, and 11 people tagged!

1. Have you had to “kill any darlings” from your current WIP, ie: quotes, characters, scenes, etc. that you LOVE but don’t fit and have to be cut? Please share.

Not from my current WIP, but from My Fair Baron, yes. Originally, in the fic, I had Rose choose between Ten and Jack and then Jack stayed on to help when she chose Ten. I was told there were too many characters so I had to cut Jack, I gave most of his lines to Donna and the more scintillating lines I gave to Ten. However! In my current WIP, I brought the Jack character back in a minor way that has the potential to be more later on. Nothing is truly wasted!

2. What is your favorite genre to write in and why? Is it different from the genres you like to consume?

I love writing historical romance because I adore the research. I love learning when things were invented, what people were eating and how it was prepared, and what people were wearing. But I write and read a lot more than that! Honestly, the genre is secondary to the story in what I choose to read.

3. Do you consciously study existing works by other authors to improve your own writing? If so, what types of things do you look at?

I do! I read as much as I can. When I feel stuck, I read something to inspire me, but it’s almost always fanfic. I like to read stories with strong women personalities, so Rumbelle and Doctor/Rose stories are great for that.

4. Have you noticed any patterns in your own writing, ie: you always have a certain type of character, like to explore a certain type of story, etc.?

I’m not sure. I mean, I always write romance and very seldom have an unhappy ending, but I’m not sure I have any other hallmarks that say “THIS IS A LICIE STORY.” (Unless it’s a BDSM story. In which case, you can tell it’s mine if it feels like a fantasy but still very much based in reality, something you could conceivably see happening in real life.)

5. Do you do most of your world building before you write, while writing the first draft, or during revisions?

All three! A story evolves as it’s being written so I will have some initial ideas during story planning, I will get more as I do the first draft, and then I refine things during editing.

6. If when your WIP hits the bestseller list, where would you like to go or what would you like to do on a book tour? Is there somebody you’d like to be interviewed by?

I want to go everywhere and do everything, it would be especially cool if I could meet the friends I’ve made here on Tumblr and AO3 during a book tour. As for someone I’d like to be interviewed by... Is asking for David Tennant too much? I guess I’d settle for one of my favorite talkshow hosts like Graham Norton or Steven Colbert, though I doubt they’d want to interview a romance writer! LOL

7. How do you approach setting the scene in your work? Are you into lush descriptions or giving the bare minimum and allowing the reader to fill in the blanks?

I like being descriptive and that’s where having an editor comes in handy. I had like, 5 or 6 paragraphs describing a masquerade ball and she advised me to condense it to 3. People can fill in a lot of blanks on their own, there isn’t a need to describe every little detail, just enough to paint a watercolor picture and the reader can fill in the rest.

8. Do you follow a set structure (ie: hero’s journey, 3-act structure) when plotting out your works, or fly by the seat of your pants?

I generally try to outline a story first because I have WIPs that I didn’t do that for and they are just... SITTING there driving me crazy because I don’t have an ending. But other than that, a story can change on its own, characters can sometimes lead you places you didn’t think you’d go, so unexpected things happen. Other than that, I have a basic “inciting incident/meet-cute, main action, complication, overcoming adversity together, rinse/repeat, big moment, then big conflict, leading to the resolution” structure. With sex sprinkled in there like pumpkin spice. ^_^

9. What does your revision process look like?

I hand my draft to my editor and she gives it back to me with notes. The most important part of revision is this - if the editor has a question, the reader may very well have the same question, and it is my job to make that part make more sense. And if she says I should cut something or rewrite something, it’s important to know that it doesn’t mean the writing isn’t good, it means it doesn’t fit the story and should be changed.

10. Please share a bit of dialogue from your WIP that shows us something important about the character’s personality.

“That bloody bastard, that, that… pigeon-livered ratbag! Oh, there isn’t a word bad enough for him!”

“Isadora, please calm down—”

“I will not!” she snapped. “Do you know, the single most toxic thing men are taught to believe as they grow up is that being a good and proper adult with responsibilities and everything means doing all of it completely alone, completely without help. And it’s bollocks! What they should be learning is where and when to ask for the help they need in order to function at their ideal level. Everyone’s level of need is different!”

11. Please share any jokes or funny bits from your WIP of which you are ridiculously proud. ;)

Euphemisms for peen utterly amuse me, so I wrote this - 

Sidling over to him, she traced her fingers up his arm to his shoulder to drape her arms about his neck. “Master Longfellow and I are intimately acquainted, or did you forget?”

His cheeks blazed. He had definitely not forgotten.

11 New Questions! To be answered by (if they feel like it): @kelkat9 @suchadearie @leftennant @toppbanana @ktrosesworld @worryinglyinnocent @abovethesmokestacks @lostinfic @theoneandonlylittlebird @pipertennant @charlotteashmore13

How do you attempt to avoid day-to-day distractions?

What’s the difference between procrastination and pre-writing?

I often have a fantastic idea for a new book when I’m halfway through writing the current one – how do you keep yourself motivated to continue when that happens?

How long should a writing session be? Is longer better or does productivity go down the more you keep at it?

I use the Stephen King method of writing - try to get to 6 solid pages of work every day. Do you have a method or structure you use?

Can writing groups and/or courses become their own form of procrastination?

Have you ever collaborated on a story? Was it difficult to mesh your style with someone else’s?

Any tips on managing the admin of writing a book, for example, the marketing or research needed alongside the writing?

How do I overcome a writing block? Do I keep the same routine to change it?

What is your weirdest idea for a book that you have yet to write?

Right now, I’m writing about someone overcoming depression and it mirrors my own journey in mental health. How do you connect your emotions to your story?