#there are more draws but I'm divvying them up by list

[self-shipper-snowdrop]

I have been doing many a doodle this month because those [x]tober prompt lists are very fun! SO here's some from one prompt list, not caught up because I'm doing three at the same time ^^; stress drawing and all. They are the below, they're from 2024's inktober prompts [the list kinda sucks but I try to match]

Prompts vs characters, in order [note some are more metaphorical interpretations of words]:

ROW 1 Backpack - Rosaire / Discover - Masae / Boots / Ruby

ROW 2 Exotic - Sola / Binoculars - Hella / Trek - Mercy

ROW 3 Passport - Mayu / Hike - Sitri / Sun - Mike

ROW 4 Nomadic - Dawn / Snacks - Arseni / Remote - Lucian

ROW 5 Horizon - Anastasia / Roam - Atreus / Guidebook - Wednesday

ROW 6 Grungy - Arete / Journal - Axel

[prezine]

Announcing: PreZine, a fanzine for the Precure series!

Hello, tumblr!

I don't wanna waste anyone's time, so I'll cut to the chase: I'm trying to put together a Precure fanzine with community contribution. You can find a submission form here, with plenty of detail about what I'm looking for. If you want more detail, keep reading.

My name's Nick, and I'm a huge fan of the Precure series. Each season varies in quality—there are some I love almost completely, some that disappointed me immensely, and a lot somewhere in between. I've watched on my own, introduced friends and family to the show, have the soundtracks on my phone to listen to, I've bought figures and other merch while visiting Japan... I like it a lot.

I've never actually interacted much with the fandom, though. I'm awkward when it comes to joining new communities, and tend to lurk more than I actively contribute. Recently, though, I had an idea. See, I love analyzing things I like. And things I don't like. And Precure is full of both of those things. I've also been mildly interested in webzine culture and the idea of creating some of my own. The writing is fun, and I've wanted to get better at layout work, so doing a little Precure fanzine could be quite a lot of fun!

But... it's not really "interacting" with the community if I'm just writing my own thoughts and throwing them at you, telling you to read them. I'd rather get folks involved! Details can be found further down, but the gist of what I'm doing here is that I want to gather volunteers for a free fanzine I'll be publishing. It might wind up being a single issue, or keep going for some time—we'll just have to see how things go. The zine will be freely available and not behind a paywall, but I will have a ko-fi set up to take donations. Proceeds will go towards paying contributors first, before I touch any part of them. I don't expect a high volume of donations or anything, but whatever I do get I want to go towards the continued success of the project, and that means making an attempt to fairly compensate those who contribute.

To that end, any contribution—whether it be an article, piece of visual media (art, cosplay, etc.), or something else I decide would be a good fit—will provisionally be worth $50. If we get enough donations on Ko-fi to fully pay those tabs, then they will be fully paid. If we get less, then each month I'll divvy up the money based on percentages of contribution, up until (hopefully) all contributors are fully paid.

To be clear, once again: the zine will be completely free, and I have no budget for this at the moment, so any and all payment will be dependent on folks donating us money. I strongly desire to pay every contributor, but at the time being it's best to view this as a volunteer passion project with payment as a distant possibility.

Now, what are we looking for? Well, all of the information below will also be found on the linked form for submission pitches, but...

Articles

I've already written first drafts of two articles, which I've linked as samples down below. What you write doesn't have to be in the same style or vein as mine, but at least that can give you a bit of an idea of what's guaranteed to be included already. Currently, what I'm looking for specifically are:

Characters that have influenced you

Musical analysis

Original Precure fiction

If you have ideas for things not on this list, you can also pitch those within the form.

Visual Media

I have no art at the moment. As this is a zine about a property I do not own, I am absolutely going to avoid using official art. I can decorate with other images I have the rights to, but to give it that actual Precure aesthetic, having visual media submissions would help a lot.

For the time being, I'm looking for:

Drawings

Cosplay photos

As with the articles, you can also pitch stuff not on this list.

Graphic Design

This isn't on the form, but if you've got any graphic design experience... well, you can see by looking at our Twitter or the avatar for this blog that graphic design isn't my passion. I think I do okay when it comes to layouts, but covers/avatars/timeline pics... not so much. PM me, here or on Twitter, if you wanna take a crack at addressing any of our graphic design needs. You will be compensated for your time in the same way as all other contributors.

So, if you're interested in contributing, here is the submission form once again. You can also check out my two samples, found here. They will be edited, so this isn't their final form, but they are roughly what I'm contributing in terms of writing.

And lastly, our Ko-fi can be found here.

If you have any questions I haven't addressed here or in the form, ask away!

[invinciblerodent]

I feel like as the release draws near, I should update my Rook concepts a little bit, post a bit more about how they've been taking shape in my head... (no visuals of the designs yet- while I have loose ideas, I'm also undecided, and kind of going back and forth on many things, lol.)

Divvying them up by class, the warriors are gonna be:

Verbena Mercar, main Rook

the Idealist, who likely wouldn't really be in this mess if it wasn't happening right on her doorstep (and ngl, fully thought she was just taking this job for like, a month at best), but someone has to do something, and it might as well be her. So far what I know about her is that she has a good head on her shoulders, a strong sens of justice, and few scruples about breaking the rules to do what's right, and she will trip over her knickers the first time she sees Davrin.

She'll be the first character I play, a human sword and board warrior- she's had a first name since roughly 2016, and I can't wait to explore her personality more. For now, I'm kind of torn whether on her appearance I'll want to lean more into her being from Minrathous (so stealing Dorian's color scheme a little bit), or her being distantly related to my Inquisitor Trevelyan (so kind of resembling Ray)(and Kate Bush)(I can see her looking more like Ray's sister than his actual sister, that'd be fun)- but either way, the one design thing I'm firm on is that she'll have some really interesting steel-grey eyes. (I'm calling them her dagger-greys in my head, and I love the thought of them looking cold and almost colorless until there's something for them to reflect- like the warm light of the fire in Davrin's room~)

Tristan Thorne

the Professional, who is Totally Not A Zombie or a Wandering Spirit looking for Purpose, but maybe, just maybe, saving the world will be the way to finally find it. (maybe it's somewhere in Emmrich's pants, who knows, he'll need to investigate.)

For him, I've a short snippet of his backstory as a very normal 17-year-old human Fereldan boy who once took up arms to fight for his village, and "died" in the Battle of Ostagar, so I hope to kind of lean into the "undead" angle a bit more.

I know regardless of what the CC actually allows, he'll have a number of tattoos chronicling his life (and death) all over his body, partly as a way to reclaim ownership of it, and I'm hoping that in the background, I can kind of start off what he'll have going on with Emmrich underscored by a ~purely clinical~ interest. (until the pierced nipples on a wide, hair-littered barrel of a chest come out, which is when all scholarly sense goes out the window.)

(I'll need to see the CC for him most I feel, because no picrew I've found lets me make burly greying gentlemen with appropriately sad and haunted eyes, lol. But I'm thinking fairly low-maintenance short hair, maybe a touch lighter than the black I had planned initially [so he'll not look like a knockoff Blackwall], pale skin, and eyes that are a shade of brown that look unsettlingly red if the sun hits them slightly wrong.)

The rogues:

"Tanner"

(or Nalinda Bramunt, Elena Firavanti, Loseck Brovo, Stéphane Rousselot-Poincaré, and honestly, who even knows how many more, the list goes on and on- but as far as anyone is concerned, Laidir will do), the Daredevil: adventurer, treasure hunter, poet of some renown, spy more than just incidentally. She's an Orzammar-born dwarf and ex-Inquisition agent enamored with the ocean, she's 500 pounds of whoopass in a 120 pound bag, she likes knives a bit too much, and she's here to sweep Harding off her feet and get paid.

I'm thinking a butch/futch lesbian(? unsure on that, could be bi, she'll have to tell me herself) dwarfette with dual daggers, I'm thinking blonde and sea-tanned, I'm thinking pierced lip/tongue, I'm thinking tattoos ("gaatlok-spots", as a reference to gunpowder-spots of actual sailors), and I'm thinking her having more trouble confessing her actual first name to Harding than she'll have confessing her romantic feelings. (She smokes. She 100% smokes. And if there's at all a chance for her to have a poly romance with Harding and Taash, she'll TAKE it.)

(myesh i knoooow that there's a Sister Tanner agent in Redcliffe and a Tanner in Bull's first Skyhold friendship scene, I figured it's both a spy's profession name and a fairly common unisex name in Ferelden- I was thinking about tanning leather, because I wanna call her and Harding "leather and Lace" in my head.)

Coris de Riva

the Cynic who'd like to correct all in the rumor that she once dispatched a mark by tearing his still beating heart out of his chest with her teeth. (He actually bled out when she bit through his windpipe- she only cut his heart out afterwards, upon the client's request.) A pretty surface dwarf with a checkered Chantry past, enough arrows in her quiver, more than enough resentment in her heart, and no small desire to force the First Talon to his knees- if only he'll then actually look her in the eye.

Her plan is going to be to live out her grudge deeper than a Titan's asshole against the Crows by making herself the Lady Macbeth whispering in a Dellamorte's ear, and she'll be very pleased to have the more favored grandson that was believed dead (she had her doubts on that one) dropped into her lap. Except she'll not expect to realize that, along the way, he'll actually worm his way into her cold little shriveled up heart, and suddenly, pushing him to take over the Crows and then stabbing him to take over herself doesn't sound like that fun an idea anymore.

The mage:

Marcus Ingellvar

the Scholar with more talent, curiosity, and compassion (and excellent sideburns) than good sense, who's not really had a conversation longer than 20 minutes with a living person in more years than he can count, and will likely feel his very core turn into warm vanilla pudding the first time he lays eyes on Taash.

I'm toying with the thought of fucking with gender a little bit on him, but I'm unsure what that means for him. I'm getting a Vibe, but I'm wondering if it's just that he'll have an interesting approach to masculinity (which sounds like heaps of fun to explore and contrast a little bit with Ray's fairly traditional masculinity), some flavor of nonbinary-ness, or if this guy is just... trans, and that's it lol. But for him, I'm really thinking of an appearance that's rather tall and lanky, and... kind of if Rezaren from DA: Absolution was both very, very tired, and a semi-starved Victorian urchin child. (With, again, excellent sideburns.)

Either way, my goal is that people will look at him, and immediately want to feed him warm soup. I hope Taash will need to physically pull him from danger and carry him to safety more times than either of them can count, and I think he'll be very, very pleased with that. (And let's be real, no matter who happens to be wearing the penis at the time, she'll be the one topping.) (And again, he'll be very, very pleased with that.)

Undecided:

Syl Aldwir

the Double Agent who, after having worked with the Friends of Red Jenny as an Orlais-born elf (long story), joined the Veil Jumpers in hope of connecting with her elvish roots, but wound up with her butt planted firmly on the ground between the two proverbial chairs she could have landed on.

Her design is the one that varies the most wildly in my mind, but my inspo for her is a certain piece of Tabris concept art, so she'll probably look either a bit like that, or like Cid, the Tabris I had played once.

I'm planning for a lot of sapphic yearning with Neve, but depending on her relationship with her elvishness, I can see it ultimately being Bellara too- it'll need to unfold during the gameplay (hoping for a love triangle type of thing, or some jealousy-dialogue, if there is any in the game), but personally I'm leaning towards Neve- partly as a rejection of the elves' clinging to the unclear ancient past, and partly because, well, fucking look at her lol.

(She'll either be an archer rogue or a sword and board warrior, depending on which type of gameplay I enjoy more.)

[raayllum]

I've a plot bunny about a Rayllum zombie apocalypse AU, but I'm not sure how to plot or outline a multi chapter fic. What advice do you have for new writers wanting to try tackling a project that's more than a one-shot?

The main difference between a oneshot and a multi-chaptered fic is honestly Pacing. You can have an idea and stretch it out over 6k or 20k and call it a oneshot. You can also have an idea and stretch it out over 20-30k (or hell, even just 12k) and and have it be a multi-chaptered fic. I have read some very long oneshots and some very short multi-chaptered fics, but both worked because of the pacing.

Don’t get me wrong — length undeniably matters in a multi-chap — but it’s really just a matter of spreading out ideas. Chapters are just an elongated collection of scenes (or even single scene, sometimes) in which something has to be different at the end than it was at the beginning, even if it’s something small. I write my scenes with a similar mindset, which is: What is the Point of this scene? Of this chapter? What has to be communicated? Why is this scene or chapter here?

It’s why often times in multi-chaps, I’ll have a metaphor in the back of my head for a chapter that is like, my guideline of what I’m working towards. I lean more on this technique when I know the way the story is changing - character, plot, or relationship wise - is some kind of epiphany or turning point, like a character strengthening their resolve.

Which is to say there are three types of chapters:

Establishment: set up, setting, daily routine, building a dynamic and letting it stagnate for a while

Transitionary: The in betweens, similar to set up, but strengthening that dynamic or plot beat or character arc and usually doing set up for

Change: the realization or decision, even if it’s just two characters realizing they’re becoming closer, or that they need to figure out a plan (if it’s a cliffhanger) or figuring out the plan

These chapters can all overlap - as typically a oneshot actually has all three of these in one - but a multichap tends to repeat this pattern over and over again until the work is complete, hence why they’re longer and are divvied up into different chapters in the first place. And speaking of length...

My biggest tips in terms of elongation is considering

Action: the Thing that happens (a fight scene, a choice, a realization, aplot beat, etc.)

Reaction: breathing room for characters to process and reflect and react to what’s just happening to them, how they feel about something they’ve done or realized (or what someone else has done or said)

Typically I try to stagger these with every Action having a Reaction. They don’t have to be equal in length (i.e. the reaction can be Short) but is important to have both there, especially if you want to draw something out. 

Tips for Outlining (+ Plot?)

I try to know the gist of my beginning and my ending. Neither has to be something specific, but whether I know I want a happy ending or a bitter ending is important to my outlining (pacing & plotting) process. My idea for the ending, even of the emotion I want it to have (say bittersweet) can change over time (like to happy, or sad, etc.) and that’s totally normal and fine. But having some idea, even if it changes, does keep you from getting writer’s block because you’re not sure where you wanna go.

I always make a list of like the ideas or concepts I know I wanna include in a work. It could be a line, or a scene (something angsty, a love confession, etc.), or even something vague like “this character gets hurt at one point and other character gets worried about it.” It could also be super specific or really vague. But what my little (or long) brainstorm list gives me is a blueprint I can then use to build a plot outline, i.e.

Characters meet in a zombie apocalypse: do they get off on the wrong foot, fast friends, or a matter of convenience? [Establishment & Action + Reaction]

Characters bond however I want them too, or maybe they still don’t get along [Establishment + transitionary, Reaction]

Something happens to shift their dynamic, maybe “something angsty”? [Action + Change]

They think about the shift and how it’s changed them [Establishment + Reaction]

no clue what happens here!! you don’t have to know and can build as you go for however many lil bullet points as you want

Then, Character A gets hurt and Character B worries about it [aka Action & Establishment, possibly even Reaction + Change if one of them realizes that they would die for each or something]

another large stretch of “????” bullet points if u want

Chapter ??: love confession

??

ending?

One of the benefits of having a list (and ignore what’s in the square brackets, that’s just an added demonstration) is it gives you a bunch of little points and wishes to connect, so instead of going from Point A to Point Z, you can go from A to J to P to Z, etc. The rest of the gaps get filled in while writing, I find. It also means I won’t forget little or big things I wanted to include, like headcanons or ideas or stuff like that. Outlines save your life and brainstorming sessions just mean exploring what you think is interesting about the idea, all the different places it could go, and keeping what you want to keep and throwing out (or reconfiguring) what you don’t. 

TLDR; when it comes to writing any work, but especially a longer work, a sense of direction has been personally what’s guided me through multi-chap fics and longer original works (my 156k first draft of my second book, i’m looking at you). I hope it will help carry you through yours and that this was helpful in some way <3 Happy writing/brainstorming!