#this is so much fun kdsjs

[hide-in-imagination]

Hiiii <3 I love your fanfics, okay "love" is a very weak word, I'm literally obsessed with your ff. That's why I want to ask, I've been thinking for a long time about the fact that I'd also like to write a fanfic about Ámbar and Simón, because I'm not okay and in my free time I think about different situations that could have happened between them behind the scenes. I tried to write something, but either it was very short and by that I mean extra short, or I ended up thinking that it was horrible and decided to delete it, so to get to the whole question, how did you start writing fanfics and how do you do it in general that your stories are always soooo perfect? Do you have any advice for people like me who want to start writing? Aaaaanndddd one more time, I really adore your work, please keep doing what you're doing, every time I get a notification that you've released some update both here and on ao3, I'm like a little girl who was allowed by her mom to buy candy, I mean, it always makes my day 1000% better 💞🩷❤️💜

Hi!!! Oh my god, you're so sweet, thank you 🥹🥹 ❤️❤️

I'm so honored that you would ask me for advice. I'll do my best, but, honestly? I'm my number one critic! I don't feel like I have the right to be advising anyone kdsjs. You say my stories are perfect but I don't believe that. I'm constantly frustrated by my lack of ability and depressed when I compare myself to my favorite fanfic authors.

But this leads us to our first lesson: You will always find someone who likes what you do. So don't worry too much about your first fics being too short or not being good enough. They're your first creations! You'll grow from there! And someone will like it. I mean, look at my first drabbles! They were- what? 300 words long? That's very short, but people liked them!

How did I start writing fanfics? I just did. I got an idea and I started writing it just because I thought it was fun. That idea was 'What If'. Hell, the whole concept was in the title, I'm not that creative 😂 And it wasn't supposed to be more than a fun oneshot! But then I thought "What could happen after that?" and I got more fun ideas, and people were asking for more anyway, so I wrote them.

Now. While I don't regret it by any means, because, as I said, you gotta start from somewhere and it was fun at the time... I do wish I had taken more time to think things through. If anyone's ever wondered why I used to write fast and now it takes me months, it's because now I worry about a 100 different things I did not think about when I first started. I usually just wrote the first thing that came to my head. And again, it was fun! People loved it! But, there is sooo much that I learned later. So many things that could've helped me make a better narration. So many things that I wouldn't have to go back to and change years later if I had taken the time to consider them the first time around.

So. For the sake of helping you and any other person who might want some advice, here are some things I would encourage anyone to do or don't do when writing a fanfic.

No matter what anyone tells you, there is nothing wrong with using the verb "Say." "He said, she said, they said"-- It's fine. You don't need to use a different verb every time. Different verbs are a great help when you want to add an specific edge to it. For example, if you say "he spat" the words, that immediately implies he was angry. You could also say "He said angrily" and it would convey the same message, but "growled" or "hissed" or "snapped" add a different image to it. It's all about preference and nothing is right or wrong.

Having said that- Don't ever use the word 'orbs'. Never. Please just say 'eyes' sdkfs.

Don't use the phrase "their tongues battled for dominance" because it's a fanfic meme by this point 😂 (I didn't know this when I started and I wish I had! I'm sure I used it somewhere 😂)

Similar to the whole 'Say' debacle, there's nothing wrong with repeating words if the context calls for it! For example, if it's a hot scene, you can use 'moan' more than once, there's no need to look for 8 different synonyms. (Sorry for the example, it was the first that came to mind skdf)

(Actually, I might have a whole list of Dos and Don'ts specifically for smut scenes, but I won't go into that kjsn)

Try to keep all the five senses in mind: sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste. This is something I personally struggle with a lot, I forget most of them knsf. This does not mean that you need to mention all of them in every single scene, jesus no, that would be too much 😂 Personally, it just helps me when I want to add more to an scene. I think of what sense I haven't mentioned yet and go with one that fits.

Sometimes less is more! Don't worry if your writing style isn't as detailed or flowery as others you've seen before. Some people thrive describing settings, for example, and they might write 3 full paragraphs about the exact shade of the leaves on the trees and what kind of trees they are and how the sky looked and what the wind tasted like. If that's not you? It's okay! Sometimes, just saying "they were at a park with lots of greenery" it's enough. Hell, you could just say "they were at a park" and let people imagine it! Don't force yourself and just write what makes sense to you <3

It's okay to repeat characters' names! This is also something I wish I knew right away. Don't say "the Italian and the mexican" just say "Matteo and Simón". Same thing with "the brunette" or "the blonde". Those are fine sometimes, but I try not to use them either. "Girl," "boy", "woman," and the like are fine too sometimes.

Play with subtlety and try to make it feel human. AKA: try to avoid the melodrama. I've unknowingly fallen into it before so I know that it's hard. Hell- some people like it! And if you do, by all means, go ahead, I can assure you you'll find readers who love it. But if you want to avoid it, like me, just... try to avoid anything that sounds like it could be on Wattpad?? LJDKSF I don't even know how to explain this😂 The only example I can come up with is that, if someone is sad, they don't need to fall to the floor sobbing. How many people do you know that do that? Reserve any big displays of emotions only for huge emotional blows (Someone died, someone is dying, huge betrayal, someone is or could be sent to jail and it's innocent, apocalypse AU, stuff like that).

Also, try to avoid anyone being 100% right or 100% wrong. Real life isn't like Disney. People usually have reasons why they think or act a certain way. A girl might start acting cold to her boyfriend because she thinks he doesn't love her anymore. The boy might be confused and hurt by this because he does love her. If they talk about it, it would be wrong of the guy to just say "Well, you're wrong, I do love you" and leave it at that. We should focus on why the girl thought that. The girl might be "wrong", but feelings are never wrong; they just are. (And she should've talked to him instead of acting cold, they were both wrong in this scenario. See? No one's 100% right)

Personally, I see scenes in my head as if it were a movie or an episode and I describe in words what I see the actors do. That might help you or it might not-- Everyone is different! For thoughts, I just go with what I imagine they might be feeling based on what I know of the characters. Sometimes I have to reign myself in and not make them too self-aware though 😂 They haven't watched all the youtube videos on human psychology and couple's therapy that I have! 😂

That's another thing that might help you! Especially if you'll be writing romantic stories. I was first introduced to the concept of Couples Therapy because of this duo of therapists. They have some YouTube videos and a Podcast on Spotify if you wanna give it a listen. Recently, I've been watching a looot of Cinema Therapy. I totally recommend them! They're very fun and I always find something I can relate to Simbar bc I'm insane

Of course, I research so much because I don't have any personal experience, but if you do, draw from that! Whoever said that you shouldn't put your own stuff onto the characters is a liar! Simón talking about what he missed about México? I was thinking about what I missed while I was away from my own country. Ámbar not knowing that bowling balls have different weights? Literally happened to me- I wanted the blue one! The important thing is to keep in mind what the character is like and not just force your own beliefs on them. For example, I hate Luna with a burning passion, but I don't make the characters hate her too because I know that's not them. My friend Chiara has asked me multiple times why I haven't just killed Luna off in a fanfic. My answer is always the same: Simón would be so sad!!

You can also draw from experiences your friends told you about, or something that happened to your family, or you can read people's experiences on Reddit-- Anything works!

And since we're on the topic, I think one of the things that have helped me the most is just: Read. If you want to write, you have to read, that's just how it works. It helps you a lot to discover what kind of narration you like, what kind of narration you don't like, what phrases you like, what words you like. You can start analyzing what this specific author does so well that makes you love their stories. You can start realizing "Oh, I was liking this so much until they wrote that, I better not do the same thing." It's not about copying word for word, it's about trying to capture the essence and then shaping it onto your own style. (But C, what's my style? What is a style? I don't know! I don't even know what my own style is but I'm sure I have one. If you have your own brain, you have your own style, it's that simple. Everyone thinks differently after all!)

Lastly, but very important in my opinion, once you've written something: Check your spellings and grammar. There's this cool Chrome extension called "Grammarly" that I always use. I didn't know it when I first started and now it's a life saver!

This is all I can think at the moment. I'm sure there's more advice that could help, and I'm sure I'm not a paragon of wisdom, so, I invite you to google writing tips if you like, or you can search for that tag here on Tumblr too if you want some more profesional insights.

My main message to you is to just enjoy the love you have for these characters and let it inspire you. Fantasizing about your favorite ship is very fun! Let that fun be your guide ❤️

Lots of love, Anon. I hope you have a great week^^

[bitegore]

Hey, I’m just dishing out the tough facts. Megatron was forged for heavy labor in the mines. That’s what he’s good for in IDW2. The fact that he pretends to be a senator won’t change his nature as a violent hunk of metal. He’s not worth sh*t and honestly, deactivating him would just be like throwing away a toaster oven or a broken alarm clock. He’s an appliance and that’s it. In fact, IDW2 proved that he doesn’t even have feelings. He’s a mindless robot without a spark.

1 - He’s not pretending to be a senator, he is a senator. Or is Optimus Prime also pretending to be a senator? IDW2 hasn’t been incredibly clear on how senatorship works, but it’s very clear that they aren’t sparked for it. Optimus was an archivist first, as you see with Codexa. 

2 - being a public policy maker (eg: a senator) doesn’t make you nonviolent. False equivalency. He can be a violent hunk of metal and a senator at the same time. Come up with a better way to phrase that or drop that part of the argument.

3 -  At the very least, he’s a decent public speaker. He’s the public face of the Ascenticons. If you want to argue that that’s Termagax, tell me how many times she’s given a speech- Megatron is the face that’s attached to the movement. She even says so herself.

(Image source: edited together from panels in issue 8)

They wouldn’t be such a big movement if he were good for nothing but mining, because no one needs a poetic or talkative miner. Having your nearly-nonsentient drone inspire the other nearly-nonsentient drones to rise up and kill the people holding their chains is the last thing a mine owner who needs nearly-nonsentient mining drones wants to happen! 

4 - “deactivating him would just be like throwing away a toaster oven or a broken alarm clock“ lol i don’t even know how to explain that throwing away the public face of your movement would be a bad idea. Even if he’s just a puppet, which he’s clearly not, you’d have to be a moron to do that. At the very least he has use as a senator and therefore an infiltrator of the government the Ascenticons are trying to change. Nonetheless, he’s not actually useless. He is shown as directing the Ascenticons and the Rise both. 

(Image source: issue 10)

Sure, he’s coming over as a mercurial dick here, but you don’t speak to your boss like that. Shockwave is clearly taking orders, as much as he dislikes to admit it. He’s operating within Megatron’s plans and working the way that Megatron wants him to, and Megatron came here to yell at him for going off the playbook, not to ask him to explain what the plan is or something. He’s not stupid and he’s not just playing along- he’s actually writing the plans. 

(Image source: issue 10, one page later)

Oh, yeah, definitely just a broken appliance. 

5 - “ In fact, IDW2 proved that he doesn’t even have feelings. He’s a mindless robot without a spark.“ 

This point breaks down into a few parts. 

I - you can’t just take the story at it’s word. If a character is consistently shown acting on emotion, going “they have no feelings” is kind of, and I wish i could put it more kindly but I can’t, really fucking dumb. The on-page text is really just dialogue and imagery, as this is a primarily visual medium. The dialogue that is used as world building is therefore unreliable, as it’s coming straight out of biased characters’ mouths. Megatron is shown snarling, arguing, using aggressive body language- signs of at least one emotion, anger. You even mention it yourself! He couldn’t be a “violent hunk of metal“ if he didn’t have the capacity to get angry and therefore violent. That’s kind of an important thing. He’s also shown playing people fairly well- that doesn’t necessarily mean he has emotions but it definitely means he has the ability to understand and manipulate them, making him not mindless. This is just basic reading comprehension skills. 

II - Secondly, a spark isn’t equal to having feelings. I’m not going to pull out things from IDW1 and RID/The Transformers where they go into that kind of thing because it’s a different continuity, but even in IDW2 there’s no real evidence that sparks are linked to or made of emotions. It’s just never mentioned lmao. 

III - I can’t even find any point where it would be shown that he doesn’t have feelings. I think you’re just projecting your distate onto the character, but if it’s not backed up by canon, you don’t have a reason to claim it is. Don’t tell people who read the comic that you know better than they do, if you don’t seem to be able to read it yourself.  

6 - Being that Functionism literally isn’t a thing and has never come up in the entirety of IDW2, I have to conclude that you’re using the IDW1 definition, which I’d like to point out was a very thinly veiled metaphor for racism, classism and sexism. I just wanna point out that you’re endorsing that. Just wanna point that out. Maybe you can restate your stance but I’d be realllll fucking wary of taking the side of “fantasy racism is good because I dislike this one character”, personally. Makes you kind of sound like a douchebag. Just a little bit. 

In conclusion: you don’t seem to understand this comic or Megatron’s role in it very well. Try harder.

(Note: I do actually like IDW2, but you have to also take into account that this is the very beginning of the war. Of course no one’s all that competent yet. They don’t have the experience they need. And I would agree that Megatron is foolish and incompetent at this point- I just wouldn’t argue that there’s anyone else in the entire comic that isn’t, therefore making it completely irrelevant.)

[angelicistics]

💋 for the writing style ask!

hmmm love this <333 and this is going to be a bit long kdsjds but yeah 

for the love-hate relationships (that I LOVE to write), I kinda always start with them already knowing each other and already hating each other and I usually don’t reveal the reason right at the start, but it’s usually not something THAT serious (like bullying, for example... seriously, don’t do that ever because it usually doesn’t lead to a healthy relationship), usually it’s more like a bad first impression, competition or something, and I make sure there’s a reason why they start talking and they still hate each other when they do so, because it’s always fun to write characters who are always bickering kjsdjks. But then, I make them become friends before something romantic happens (there are exceptions hehe) and it usually involves the two characters understanding each other somehow or talking about what made them hate each other in the first place. I believe this involves a lot of character development, really, so it’s always super fun for me to write.

now for the friends to lovers relationships (which I don’t write as often), I make sure that I present their friendship with detail before I start developing anything romantic about them. Like, how and why they became friends, then the aspects of their friendship and I make sure the reader understands just why and how much the characters are comfortable with each other before it gets awkward because someone starts catching feelings kdsjs and I also feel like it’s important that it’s not super sudden that they start feeling something for each other, but it’s gradual and you can notice it as the story goes on? and then there’s the “omg i think i like him/her wth” moment and when they realize they like each other back (or not??)

(also, the non-romantic part of this is mostly how i develop friendships) 

and then there’s also the relationships in which the characters don’t talk to each other that much until for some reason they start talking and interacting quite a lot and it can usually go in different ways, like, love-hate relationships, friends to lovers relationships or kind of an attraction that won’t be revealed so soon (because I like slowburn kdjsk) and it can be one-sided in the beginning? (i’m kinda really dying to write something like this kdjsj)     

[uwulix]

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*soft bias tag*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

uhh okay i was tagged to do this by maria aka @s0ftminho and ilysm!! <3 before i do anything i’ll tag @likem8stopprocrastinating @pwark-jisung @hyuinjin @bangchrisgf @straykidsjpg @minboondles @ultrasoftstraykids @s7g @strayboys @strayykiddos @felixmahdork @doublekn0t @jikseuand @saussieline!!

prepare for intense uwuing and keysmashing

*♡ ｡･ﾟﾟ･ 1. Who is your bias?

felix aksjfzj

*♡ ｡･ﾟﾟ･ 2. What made you notice them?

well uhh it was in grr when i was in utter shock from all the other members and then hE CAME ON WITH HIS SATANIC VOICE and i was ?? confused because he had an absolutely adorable face dijskdjsuwu oh my god and i fell in love with him and well. yes

*♡ ｡･ﾟﾟ･ 3. What’s your favorite thing about them?

his cheeks in general !! i love his freckles so much it’d be even better if their stylists stopped covering them because !! they are !! the most precious adorable beautiful thing on earth !! kjfks and i also like how his cheeks look when he smiles uwu kdsjd i just ?? want to squish them and JSJDJDK i don’t know oh god i just love his cheeks and his small little hands theY’RE ADORABLE

*♡ ｡･ﾟﾟ･ 4. Who would initiate skinship more?

well you know i’d like to initiate skinship but i’m actually too shy kdjsdk so i think he’d initiate it more

*♡ ｡･ﾟﾟ･ 5. Who would hog blankets more?

most probably me

*♡ ｡･ﾟﾟ･ 6. Who would be more clingy?

again. probably him because i’m too scared to disturb his personal space or stuff like that aah i’m just too paranoic but you know i love clinginess

*♡ ｡･ﾟﾟ･ 7. Who would say ‘I love you’ first?

him kdjskd i think i’d be too shy to even say i like him

*♡ ｡･ﾟﾟ･  8. Who would be more easily flustered?

ME ME ME oh god i blush so easily djksj my ears turn red

*♡ ｡･ﾟﾟ･ 9. What cuddling position would you two have?

uhh okay probably ?? reversed spooning dksjdk i don’t know what to call it basically dkjsjds shit shit shit like,,, burying my face in his chest shit shit shit uwu let’s move on this is too much for me

*♡ ｡･ﾟﾟ･ 10. Which colours remind you of them and why?

something really peachy and cute and soft dksd

*♡ ｡･ﾟﾟ･ 12. Which season would you like to spend with them?

probably winter because i’m all about eating take out djksjkd and being cuddled up and stuff dkdksjd oh god

*♡ ｡･ﾟﾟ･ 13. Who would bake the cookies and who would steal the batter?

i’d try to make cookies and probably almost burn down the kitchen and we’d both steal the batter tbh

*♡ ｡･ﾟﾟ･ 14. Which one of you would make bad puns and how would the other react?

oof he’d make bad puns and i’d just get flustered jddjsn and uwu oof i have a weak spot for bad puns :’)

*♡ ｡･ﾟﾟ･ 15. Who would want to adopt 50 dogs and cats?

i think both?? i love cats and dogs equally

*♡ ｡･ﾟﾟ･ 16. Which one of you would nearly burn down the kitchen try to microwave a pop tart and who would come to the rescue?

i’d be the one almost burning the kitchen down and felix the one coming to the rescue dkskds

*♡ ｡･ﾟﾟ･ 17. Who likes to lean over tall railings and who pulls them back?

uhh okay i don’t know if i answered this correctly but i’m TERRIFIED of leaning over stuff on tall objects and felix would probably lean over something and i’d start screaming and pulling him back thinking that he’ll fall djsk

*♡ ｡･ﾟﾟ･ 18. What would watching a horror film with them be like?

I LOVE HORROR FILMS and i have a strange obsession with them so i think he’d scream and i’d just comfort him and hug him

*♡ ｡･ﾟﾟ･ 19. Who would be the cheesy flirt and who would be the smooth flirt? 

i’d be the awkward flirt lmao i don’t know how to flirt at all and he’d be the cheesy aND smooth flirt :’)

   *♡ ｡･ﾟﾟ･ 20. Who is more competitive? 

i’d say both because i can be really competitive when i want to and i think felix would just try to compete with me to annoy me kdsj and just to have fun

   *♡ ｡･ﾟﾟ･ 21. Who would have to be given constant reminders? (Remember to eat, don’t forget to your keys, etc) 

me me me i constantly forget to eat/drink water and at some moments i feel like a dying plant djskj now nd basically he’d remind me to not die

*♡ ｡･ﾟﾟ･ 22. Who sends memes and who sends cute ‘I miss you’ texts at 3am? 

oof i’m not sure about felix but i’d definitely have sudden love attacks at 3am and i’d just send loving kermit memes and some reALLY REALLY weird memes and cry of happiness yes i do that and sometimes the i love you messages because it’s actually sometimes really hard for me to tell people i love them so yes, on some occasions maybe and i think that felix would be a mixture of memes and i love you messages