#this was a delight from start to finish

[deadhaven]

Especially the lies.

[raspberrywiskey]

i love ethan so much. so dog motif he is the dog

[nothinggold13]

found Classic Who on Tubi so I’ve just got to say: I love you long hallways that are obviously just painted walls I love you miniatures that look like plastic children’s toys I love you props that look like paper I love you shaky camera shifts I love you Thals I love you ridiculous 60’s space costumes I love you media that was clearly never meant to be seen on an HD big screen I love you Ian Chesterton I love you fade-in teleportation effects I love you Classic Who theme I love you I love you I love you ❤️

[lemonsrosesandlavender]

Do you have any writing advice for a new aspiring writer of smutty tiefling fanfiction? I just want to smash my barbies together and share the results with the world!

First things first, I’m very flattered to be asked for writing advice! Thank you so much ❤️ And smut in particular? Hell yeah.

Before we proceed: all of this advice is given with a heavy dose of what I like to write and read, so if you think “but I like stories that do that!” then that is entirely valid. I can only speak from my own perspective.

Disclaimers out of the way, let’s get started!

1. First things first, and perhaps most vital: write what turns you on, without apology. When I started writing Sharp Teeth, I felt kind of embarrassed about how dominant I (and thus my reader insert) felt towards Rolan. So I hedged. After writing that Tav wanted to pull Rolan’s hair, I wrote that she wanted him to do that to her too; when I wrote her wanting to throw Rolan on a counter and fuck him, I appended that she wanted to be possessed by Rolan too. Looking back on it now, it’s a testament to how much more comfortable I’ve become talking about my kinkiness, but it definitely diluted the vibe of what I was truly wanting to portray, and readers could probably tell it was half-hearted. I wanted Tav in CONTROL damn it.

(Note: before this comes off as “don’t write switching”, that is not at all what I mean. It goes for all flavours. If what you want to write is soft sensuality, don’t get embarrassed, feel like it’s too sickly and shove in a “take it, slut” or whatever. If you want to write your pairing switching like mad, do that and don’t water it down! Basically, listen to your own feelings. Embarrassment will try to creep in and hold your fingers from the keyboard at just the moment you find most exquisitely hot, because sharing that is vulnerable. Notice it, and write the thing anyway - delete that diluting sentence about how she only wants to pull his hair gently, if you want her to pull it hard!)

2. Horny daydreams baby. If it gets you off, write it down. What’s the moment in your fantasies that makes you feral? That is MATERIAL. (This is a beneficial loop: daydreams beget writing beget daydreams. Whether you ever think about anything else again is up to you.) It doesn’t have to be a complete story, just the moment that makes you go… nnnhhh. This is kind of just an addendum to the previous one but truly, this is just how my process works. Prompts are harder to write than the contents of my own fantasies, in my experience.

3. In terms of planning/working on an idea: I tend to have a “climax” point in mind for my smut, then work out how this scenario is kicking off in the first place, and then fill in the gaps. (That’s just the planning though, I write fairly linearly).

Somewhere between the flirting/lead up to sex and the sex itself, there will be a point of no-horny-return, and if you try to take the tension down a notch after that point the story will lose its sizzle. Fortunately, this is usually easily fixed by moving bits around!

(This happened to me in Combat Training C2: it was a fic with a lot of sparring and role play, but I returned to “serious” sparring after turning the tension way up and the scene immediately fell flat on its face. But with a little reworking, I managed to both convey the character beat (that Rolan and Tav had learnt from each other and would be more prepared for their next battle) and dial up the sexual tension smoothly.)

4. Beware of writing overly mechanically. I’m saying this because I have totally done it! Yes, you generally want to avoid the “three hands” situation that gets joked about a lot (where you haven’t accounted for a character’s limbs and suddenly it seems like they’ve got an extra one). But sometimes it’s ok to just mention them flopping onto a bed or chair in a room without accounting for the fact that it’s there first, or simply say that a character has undressed if you don’t want to linger on them stripping. You don’t need to write in specific limb movements if they’re not super sexy (but technically happening), and you don’t need to write a character picking something up before they use it. Context can do a lot of work!

(… if they’re out in the forest, THEN you need to explain where that bed came from).

(Although I will say, trying to picture the scene in more accurate detail than you’re writing can create some juicy inspiration. Wondering if Rolan’s horns would allow him to rest comfortably in that position? What if they rip the sheets or scratch the floor or catch his lover’s cheek?)

5. Related to “write what you want”: Do not feel like you have to write sex correctly. Smut is gloriously untethered from the bounds of real life, and if you love a bit of cervix pounding, stomach-bulging filth, have at it and don’t apologise. You don’t need to care about contraception and safe sex unless you want to: this is not a sex ed class. You do not have to write SSC BDSM: this is not a sex ed class. Tag and go forth.

(Relatedly, these topics are also make or break for character and vibe sometimes. Health-anxious character in cute first-time fluff? Probably going to want to use protection. Two lovers fucking the night before they think they’re going to die in battle? Probably do not care, and it will spoil the reckless, feral vibe if we stop for a PSA about condom use.)

Consent is often implied through context and subtext. It can be made very explicit, if you want, but it’s also fine to simply show how into it your characters are, how they tease each other and nod and offer up suggestions. If it’s an established relationship, this goes double; it’s easy to infer that this is something the characters have done before without explicitly discussing that! (This is also assuming you’re writing consent; the long history of ravishment in published romance speaks to the fact this is not required lol).

6. Back to more mechanical-level writing stuff: linger in a mood, moment and action. A smut fic can encompass several different moods and sex/kink acts, but pay attention to how you transition between them. If you're oscillating between sweet and nasty ever other sentence, you probably want more consistency. It's an oft-repeated writing tip, but the five senses are your friends, and get specific. The gentle give of ridged skin beneath probing fingers; the sweet smell of campfire smoke; the gloss of tears over jet-black eyes and the taste of red wine on someone else's tongue. (… don’t necessarily do ALL the senses at once but you get what I mean!).

7. And finally one more: feelings. Give this filth feelings. How long have they wanted this? How hot do they think their partner looks right now? Are they feeling romantic or sadistic, feral or cuddly? Did they expect to feel this way, and what do they think it says about their relationship? New love and pent-up tension is obviously great and popular, but I also love exploring shame and conflict, illustrating characters taking risks, trusting each other, exploring new things…

Sex sits at a nexus of all sorts of beliefs our characters have about themselves and what they want. How do they react? Does the sex reinforce those beliefs or change them? It is possible to write hot smut without much of this at all but generally, give your readers a reason to care. (YES this spanking is an expression of Rolan’s character arc, goddamn it.)

Those are my best tips, I think, abstract and rambling as they may be. I hope this was helpful; the no1 writing tip of all time is, of course, to JUST DO IT. Good luck!

[aqua-phantasy]

Is tvd turning into one of my favourite books? Yes

Did it take me over a year and more to read through it? Also yes

Am I going to finish it these days? Most likely

Am I scared to do so? YOU BETCHA

[zhnnveuxpasdrmir]

Just finished Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

loved it!

[edsbacktattoo]

can’t believe i missed it. happy belated birthday to my first born!

they grow up so fast 🥹

[aquitainequeen]

I should clarify that I saw this happening in the notes of another person's post; but for simplicity's sake let's say that:

Me: *reblogs a post*

Person: *reblogs the post to complain about the subject matter*

Me: *reblogs that reblog with additional commentary about why the subject matter isn't as simple and black/white as that person thought, complete with evidence and links to more information*

Person: lol that's too long I'm not reading all that

Me, reaching through the internet to take that person's face gently between my hands and inexorably bring them close to my own face, so that I might whisper: Then perish.

[orcelito]

Ended up adding that third row of double crochet, but now...

I think I can safely say I'm done. All that's left to do is tie it off, weave in the tail, and then trim a few imperfections, & then it'll be complete.

Compare this to the blanket Without the border ^ and it really does look much fuller now.

It's *very* big, and it's very heavy, but that's its purpose. It's essentially a weighted blanket. But crocheted entirely by hand. By Me.

Hefty. It does take up a lot of space, but it folds up quite nicely. I enjoy how uniform the crochet pattern of it is.

And with how big the overall blanket is, I don't think the third row of double crochet border looks strange. In fact, I like the texture of it all together. Very uniform & wonderful to run my fingers along.

And, most notably, this entire thing was finished in exactly a week. I'll take that as a real accomplishment.

[yousaytomato]

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WATCH THE LATEST TOMSKA VIDEO

[rowenabean]

.

[fate-defiant]

wips are going great

[lemonadeslice]

wooo another one!! i have been thankfully feeling this way for a while now, but i am so happy with the direction my art is going. it doesn’t really show in this reflection, but i’ve been trying lots of new things stylistically, and it’s been so refreshing. this year was the busiest i’ve ever been by far but drawing has been such a relief, which is good, because i was secretly terrified that an art degree would kill my love of casually making art. it did not. i still really, really like drawing. so imma keep doing that. happy new year, everyone 💙

[mrs-luigi-vargas]

Lately during work I've been playing Backyardigans episodes in the background and its been really fun — I've gotten through most of season one so far — but also I've had to restrain myself multiple times from making a spreadsheet about it, lmao. It would be pretty cool, though! I have quite a few ideas for what data to collect…

Regardless, its been a nice trip down memory lane! This show was one of the first things i remember really being "obsessed" with; it might have been late elementary school/early middle school, maybe? I used to scour the library for DVDs all the time, determined to watch all 80 episodes of it even though I'd been pretty sure I was too old for the show, haha

[herbertwest]

Killer Klowns from Outer Space...what a film

[naisaa]

ough maybe its bc i rly didn’t expect it but i kind of hate that good omens s2 ended with a setup for another season 😭