#will give a rambly description in a reblog but i wanted a simpler post just for it

[swasdoodles]

Ol' Platan

;wherein during an unfortunate camping season, a gathering of ponies begin to vanish and trust and conflict bring forth secrets from the past.

Link to Index

Book-length horse OC story?

Yes, book-length horse OC story.

[fanartfunart]

..Ok I wasn't sure whether or not to send this to you buuuut since you're reading it, that means I did it! First of all, I want to say that I *adore* your work, I think half of all AUs I follow might be yours and everything you draw is just sssoooo soft and pretty and aaaaa. Second (and the thing I was anxious about sending)... I have a (vague) idea for a Sanders Sides AU I just came up with and already got attached to. Problem is, I'm.. not all that involved in the fandom nor do I have (1/2)

enough of a plot in mind to write it as a full-blown fanfic. The next thing that came to mind was an askblog, which would probably work best but I’m scared nobody will notice it/send in questions/I won’t be able to maintain it for longer than a week or so/I’ll get too caught up in trying to make art for it I’ll barely post anything. Main point of my question is.. Do you maybe have any advice to spare? Sorry this got so long and rambly ^^“ Thanks for reading this far! (2/2)

First things first, Congrats on being brave enough to send the message! (and glad you enojy my work!)

As for your askblog idea, I’ve certainly got some suggestions to spare! My first being, have fun with it! Explore your idea, know your limits, do your best and you’ll probably be ok!

((rest under the cut))

I’d certainly suggest giving yourself a back-log of little one-shots/doodles/ect if you’re scared of not posting often or regularly. You can make it your safeguard.

Maintenance, is a bit more iffy, and really depends on what’s going on in your life, (I’m terrible at maintaining things) But, I’d say feel free to answer questions via text when you can/appropriate, take advantage of the queue, (I found out that you can press the alt/option key (on mac at least) on an ask and you can save it to the queue/drafts, which has become a lifesaver) and maybe keep to a simpler style for asks, especially if you get a lot.

For getting people to ask questions~

First, make your initial post. This can take a LOT of forms and shapes, but, the key point is that it needs to introduce your main characters, their current relationships, the setting, and your key plot motivator (ie: daydream au, I had Roman (initially just implied) running away, and subsequently meeting, and reacting to meeting, Patton, Logan, and Virgil (and them reacting to him in return)) With that:

A: don’t give them all the answers! (Should be obvious but I can’t believe how often I see people just giving away everything.) You should leave your readership with enough information that they know what’s going on, but just enough left out that they’re like, ‘hey! what about this!!!?’

B: give your askers a place in the story. Either literally or figuratively. You’ve gotta have your characters interact w/ the askers somehow, give them some staying power.

C: Give your askers information about the characters that they don’t know about each other/their situation! it’ll engage your readers and make them go ‘hey hey hey wait, we’ve gotta help them figure this out!!’

D: let your characters lie to the askers! Let them exaggerate! Let them disagree and interact! (just make sure that you portray it as them actually doing so. if a character isn’t prone to lying, make the character nervous about it. If a character IS prone to lying, and is good at it, make sure the reader knows it, and maybe have the characters who know better call them out.)

In the end, you should be guiding your askers to the key plot points, and your askers will guide you in return. And, if you’re stuck or don’t have many asks in the askbox, post a comic or fic or something to get the ball rolling again!

Now, for the whole noticing thing:

A: tagging, use the tags for everything that applies. The key ones for a sanders sides au would be: [au name: ie Daydream AU], Sanders Sides and/or Sanders Sides au, [Character(s) involved in post/ask: ie Patton Sanders], [particular character traits important to au/post/ask: ie Unicorn!Patton, Shapeshifter!Patton, ext (I… don’t think the ‘!’ is super important anymore, but it’s a habit for me)], TS Art and/or Sanders Sides Art, [type of au (if applicable): ie Fantasy AU], [your personal art tag: ie Fanart’s fanart], [trigger/squick warnings if applicable], [other story-specific tags: ie hurt/comfort, angst, fluff, ect.]

put your most important tags in the first 5-ish tags. Do Not tag Every character unless they’re all there. Also, if you’ve got Deceit as a character (even if he’s a minor character), there’s been a Sympathetic Deceit, Villain Deceit, and Manipulative Deceit tag set-up, so I suggest using those as well as applicable (and, tbh, I’d say use the villain/manipulative thing for any of them if you happen to have that)

Then, some people also have tags for the askers, (I personally just have a ‘answered asks’ tag ((that I often forget))

B: if you think you can maintain it, I suggest using a tag-list and/or a master-post ((the master-post got hard for me to maintain personally, but it was helpful in the begining)) The taglist will notify people when you update, and will keep them coming back! the master-post will help people navigate the story, and will introduce newbies pretty nicely. However!! you can also use a chronological link if you’re using a blog purely for the au! this is the set up:

your-blog’s-url-here.tumblr.com/tagged/whatever-your-au’s-main-tag-is/chrono

Linking in bio just type in:Insert Link Here”> insert whatever you want the link to read as here .

into the description. (note, you MUST have the quotes around your link)

(you can’t copy-paste into descriptions (which is plain annoying), and spaces will have “%20″ instead of a space and if you put it as a link in your description it won’t work, which is something I learned the hard way.)

C: self-reblog. Reblog back to your main/most popular blog, do time-zone reblogs, do night/morning reblogs, whatever, just get yourself out there.

…. I also touched on this subject a while ago too (tho less in-depth cause I wasn’t on my computer), and that’d likely be tagged as ‘ask blog’ or ‘advice’ so idk, maybe look at that too, I might’ve missed something here that I touched on there.

Hope this helps, sorry it’s so long!

[norcumii]

Reblogged from the prior tumbl, originally posted 02/04/2016. Question submitted by @makiruz. Slightly reformatted to avoid a readmore cut and whatnot.

In Full of Sith, they always ask new guests how they got into Star Wars. And you know? That's a good question, how did you got into Star Wars?

HEH. Oooh, that’s a bit of a loaded question. So I’ll give you the short answer, which I suspect would fit the thing you mentioned what I haven’t heard of; and then because I’m a wordy bastard what overshares, the long answer which is more accurate and has content warnings for self harm and suicide.

SHORT ANSWER

It was the 80’s. I was young, in single digits, though I couldn’t tell you exactly what age. I was already dealing with an irregular sleep cycle, though all I knew was I had a flashlight, a pile of books near/on my bed, and a thick pound puppies duvet to read under.

I don’t know if I was in my room or on my way to/from the bathroom, but I could hear my parents watching something downstairs. Swooshy noises, a shrill screee, and some thwoom bzzts.

Of course I went downstairs.

I don’t know if it was episode 5 or 6. I’ve a fondness for 6, but carbonite left a HUGE fucking impression on me, and my parents have always approved of muppets, so Yoda.

I knew I loved it. I didn’t have any toys, though I think somewhere there was a print edition of A New Hope running around. I do recall multiple sleepovers at my grandmother’s place – a tiny house on acres and acres of woods – and she’d sometimes pull out Return of the Jedi and we’d watch it together on her tiny TV. Later on I’d be in bed, staring out at woods and trees that I knew, but seemed huge to a little kid, and I’d dream of Ewoks.

RotJ was Gram’s favorite, and for many years mine, too.

I like Ewoks.

VERY LONG ANSWER

TW: mental illness, depression, self harm, suicide, abuse

In late elementary, early middle school, my brother and I were basically reading ANYTHING we could get our hands on. He sometimes dove into books that didn’t interest me, so I’d read the first of something and then be bored and he’d keep going.

Star Wars EU was one of those. It was too grim for me. I think I didn’t run into any of the really good writers. It was all Han and Luke and Leia on the covers, so take that for what you will. There also was no Wookiepeia, so I was depending heavily on the writers’ abilities to convey things to someone very visual, yet pretty impatient with descriptions, so it never took.

I was in high school when The Phantom Menace came out. Mine honorable brother was off at college, so it was with great excitement on my part, and bemused tolerance on my parents’, that they and I went off to the theater.

On the one hand, I was dazzled.

On the other, there was Jar Jar. There was the fact that I hadn’t been impressed with the re-release of the OT – Han shot first. FITE ME. There was the fact that TPM didn’t feel like Star Wars, which was darker and grittier and…simpler to me.

So I wrote it off. Packed Star Wars away as “one of those things” that I’d been into, but felt like I was moving past. I was obsessed with Gargoyles, I was looking at going to college, and I would keep m’damn ewoks without needing to try to extend that vision with gungans.

College sucked. I went in, not sure if I wanted to go into English, for writing, or Psych, because I had always been what I’d now call The Mom Friend. I met a nice guy who tried, but things never really clicked between us, and there was an interesting bit that he was mad about Star Wars and insisted that I read the Rogue Squadron books.

That was a Good Decision. Dating him, not so much.

I had a huge assortment of Life Issues. Got into an abusive relationship that would end up lasting 14 years. Transferred schools. Got the fucking Psych degree, though literally only by the grace of a professor who didn’t want to see the kid not graduate just ‘cause she couldn’t numbers and I did go in and try. Talked to him and still couldn’t with the maths but the effort was there to bump me a few points above failing.

I was burnt out. I was depressed. I tried killing myself a few times – not very good at it, as you can see. Took up self-harm as a coping mechanism. Failed in the still never successful search for a decent therapist in Pittsburgh. Got a job slinging food, because needed some kind of income, and people without pressure was nice. The keeping on a schedule thing failed, leading to an average of 4 hours sleep a night. Losing contact with family and friends because I couldn’t stand the pressure of “how are you?” and “what’s going on in your life?” Clinging to Warcraft because repetitively farming was better than clawing open my back or neck again, and the people there were ok with some rando dropping out of sight on a dime, and only a persistent few had the grace and spirit to make it past some serious defensive issues of mine.

I stopped writing. Stopped caring about Gargoyles, stopped being able to see into that AU I’d made for myself of a crazy clan and the weird human who survived cancer with them.

Stopped going on IM, for the same reasons I stopped talking to people.

I still kept track of some folks via LiveJournal. A handful of the Gargoyles folks who were determined, gods know why and thank you, since I know several are here on the tumbles and I genuinely love you to bits.

I quit my job after five years, because enough was enough between the fact that it had all the hallmarks of an abusive relationship and I was fucking tired of being a manager without any actual authority, and the endless hamster wheel of hiring and people quitting because it was a nice, but highly dysfunctional place.

I missed the customers, though. Several of them are here too, and it’s kinda funny ‘cause I know in at least one case I talked to them about Star Wars. I still hope they’re not too shellshocked that I kinda went down the rabbit hole pretty deep.

Started getting more sleep. Not less anxiety, not less depressed. Tried out a few depression medications, with very mixed results.

Then one day @dogmatix came into the LJ area I still hung out in. Enthusiastically recommending to all and sundry that if there is even a shred of interest in Star Wars, THERE IS THIS THING YOU SHOULD READ.

She drew a Wookiee. That was a character?

I’d always liked Wookiees.

And I needed something to read.

Star Wars was one of those things, from back in the day before things went to shit. Low investment, since if I didn’t like it or didn’t care, then eh. Whatevs.  Dogmatix was one of the Gargs holdouts still in my circle (or whatever it is that I was hovering at the edges of), and in the past I’d liked her recommendations more often than I disliked them.

I’m also endlessly weak to her art.

Wookiee.

So I did that thing. That so many of us here have done. It took me about 2 weeks to get through Re-Entry. It had trouble taking root in the depression, but Obi-Wan going crackers was something I could empathize with and appreciate.

There was the hope that had been missing from the EU novels I’d tried reading back in the day.

There was Wookieepedia, which meant I could stop and see what a Nautolan was. I had tabs open for DAYS so when someone named Adi or Gallia who were apparently the same person? I could see who that was. I got stupidly distressed that Abella didn’t have an entry, until I twigged and checked for a Chitanook, and holy shit I could never tell what character was going to crop up as canon, obscure EU character, or home brewed.

I honestly expected to set it aside, get updates as they happened, and gradually step away because that’s how things were going at the time.

But I still needed something to read, to stave off empty hours when my brain was too full of screaming.

On Ebon Wings. I’d loved The Crow when I’d seen it back in high school, and that story tapped into the powerful visuals and the lovely message I’d adored and in ways I still don’t quite understand it somehow validated that I could be mad and still be ok. Maybe. Maybe not now, but someday.

Maybe.

So I gave in and got a Tumbl. I’d been a stubborn holdout, regularly checking the same half dozen feeds daily because dammit, I don’t wanna go through the trouble and I was close to giving up on LJ and another journaly thing? That was stupid. But I wanted to follow Flamethrower and Dogmatix, and it made it infinitely easier to follow several blogs (and oh GODS one of those is a mutual and holy fuck I swear I screamed the day that happened and it’s still a high to realize).

Dogmatix wrote Möbius and Accidental Timeshare, wherein Venge goes universe hopping. That’s also a weakness of mine.

I’d been kvetching IRL about the treadmill and wanting something to watch, and someone mentioned in Dogmatix’s feed The Clone Wars – which conveniently was on Netflix. So I figured what the hell. I was disinclined to like clones – ‘cause yeesh, they’re the reason the Jedi all died, and yeah, ok, the Order was SERIOUSLY FUCKED UP, but.

I still had never seen Episodes 2 or 3.

I turned on the Clone Wars movie, and within ten minutes I nearly fell off the back of the treadmill due to crying.

THIS was the Star Wars of my youth. THIS was what I remembered. A little grim. Lots of quips.

That sound. Lightsabers igniting. A-wings rumbling overhead. Blasterfire, and that music.

I had to stop and calm down and for the first time in ages WRITE [, because I just had to ramble about how it all hit me in the feels]. I had no idea I’d missed this.

By the end of the movie I’d decided ok, I wanted more. Wasn’t sold on these clone fellas, and damned if I could tell one set of armor from another (this is ALSO due to the treadmill screen being calibrated to be a compromise of a very short person – me – and a very tall person, which means neither person gets a decent view but that’s not what the treadmill tv is for).

I’d been told there was an order to the episodes, but I didn’t care. Continuity is for those who think about the future, and I was still regularly suicidal.

So the first episode I watched was Yoda romping around a planet, playing with droids while three clone troopers tried to babysit his mad little ass.

They had me, all in one episode. I loved these guys. They had individuality, I could tell them apart by the voices (which is sometimes just as important to me as visuals) even if I couldn’t name them, and the personalities –

They were loyal. Their primary concern was old batty Yoda which I had adored as a child because MUPPETS. They were willing to die to keep him safe and there was this lovely reciprocity in taking care of each other and all of them, clones and Jedi alike were doomed to extinction and I don’t think I knew yet HOW the clones were except they weren’t in the OT so there was shit going down.

Tragic figures, loyal found family, incredible voice acting, Batty Old Yoda who OH YEAH FUCKING KICKED SO MUCH ASS I COULD NEVER GET ENOUGH.

I wanted to keep those three clones. I was willing to keep them all.

Final blow, that knocked me into the fandom so hard I’ll be surprised if I ever leave?

THIS.

The origins of Balance. This is the post that started a simple notion, to try to write something when I’d gone….anywhere from 7 to 10 years of not writing A SINGLE. DAMNED. THING of substance – and that was after thinking I might try to get a degree related to it.

Darth Wraith was a tentative idea. I was scared @deadcatwithaflamethrower would be irked I wanted to play in her sandbox (oh my gods I was inserting myself into a conversation with her this amazing person who wrote blindingly well and so damn much and how the FUCK was I daring to speak up about a silly half DREAM I’d had because once again I couldn’t sleep).

Then, because I was trying to break out of the depression, the cycles of mental ill health, and if I was on this tumbls thing, fuck it, I’d try the IM thing again.

I’d been gone long enough that pretty much no one on my contact list was still there. That…was ok. There wasn’t the pressure.

And Dogmatix popped on, asking if I wanted to share details about this Sith Qui-Gon thing.

I had A SCENE. ONE. SCENE. And she was spinning it off into this EPIC, which at first I was gleeful because she had neat ideas and I couldn’t wait to see what she would do with it and then wait, she’s not talking about writing it herself, this is more about something WE could work on.

Thank gods it was IM, because I had a little panic about commitment to a project when I regularly was sure I wasn’t going to see tomorrow and if I didn’t wake up one morning that’d be MORE than ok.

Still. There was that itch. The visuals in my brain. The characters I’d started to like in Flamethrower’s universe, which had formed my mental voices for them.

The only sound in my head for so long was just screaming.

Writing down that scene in Knock On Effect, where Venge meets Wraith – that felt good. It never changed much from the first draft to what was posted. The rest grew, and quickly. It was clear if we were doing this, then there were multiple stories, spanning in universe years.

And then there were spinoffs. Wonderful ideas and plots spiraling away from this one notion, and gods I wanted to write about those glorious clones.

How’d I get into Star Wars?

Chance. One strange little step at a time, and a bunch of miracles and horrors that kept me bleeding but not dying. Damn good fic. The kindness of friends. The generosity of strangers.

The tragedy of a once great order of space monks, and their allies-forced-to-be-betrayers clones.

One little picture, of Qui-Gon Jinn with Sith eyes.