#writer's woes

[mysteroads]

Writer's Woes, MHA Fanfic Edition:

The moment when you realize the stupid UA dorms don't have STAIRS... and you've been writing stairs this whole time.😑

They should have stairs. It's a safety hazard to NOT have stairs, right? Rights??? But I can find no sign of stairs! Just an elevator. My conclusion:

Welp, too late now. Guess they have stairs, cause I ain't changin' it!

[valiantlyannoyingbread]

good news: i just wrote the best work of my life, with truly some of the funniest and most touching dialogue i've ever written

bad news: it's a high school musical fanfic

[ominous-feychild]

That's right, I'm calling out YOU GUYS especially, @honeybewrites @fantasy-things-and-such .

(but I also get the impression that Crow's a lot of people's favorite 😎😭)

Okay, to be fair, I admit that Crow is a GREAT character. I handcrafted them to be obnoxiously lovable and sly. Aaaaand I admit it's hard to show the cool parts of Gene without spoiling things, especially because a majority of the cool stuff IS spoilers and the poor boy barely talks. Istg he's my best character though. He's not the golden child, I swear (partly because he's too invisible to everyone else!) 😭

[pherryt]

my daughter kept sending me humans as space orcs and humans are deathworlders posts and that made me start looking up fics on ao3 and now i want to write a Witcher version.

i've been thinking about it for DAYS. already have a (long ass) title and everything but telling myself NO, don't do it. DO NOT start this, you have a ton of OTHER fics to work on.

so of course i just spat out 350 words. i don't even have a PLOT, wth. Just two characters i know i want in it.

why am i like this?

[scifrey]

I left.

The USB KEY.

With THE most UP TO DATE VERSION.

OF MY NOVEL.

PLUGGED INTO MY.

WORK COMPUTER.

[andauril]

Every time I write smut, I wanna hide and all my confidence as a writer leaves me.

My ace, perfectionist brain has to second guess everything lol.

[toodelusionalforreality]

I wrote a bunch of snippets for my OC's backstory that will never make it into the chapters. Now I want to cry because they are so good and no one will ever get to know my OC like I do.

[nimata-beroya]

When you're writing and you want to kill a character because it would make the chapter shorter and easier to write, but you can't because you need him for exposition dialogue

[deckof-dragons]

I was supposed to upload chapter 2 of my Aperture AU HLVRAI fic tonight but gosh, I just don't want to. I sat on that fic for so long because I was too busy with other stuff to upload it and the whole time I kinda thought people would be interested in it when I posted it. Like when I finished writing it I had a 'it sucks I can't post this right now because I like it and I'm excited to share' feeling about it.

Portal's popular so I kinda just assumed the fic would land well with the HLVRAI fandom. The fact that it hasn't is fine of course. People just aren't interested in what they're not interested in. It's certainly far from my first time being into something that isn't popular with the rest of whatever fandom I'm writing for. (I've long since learned my lesson about catering to what's popular in fandom after doing so made me actively dislike a fandom fav character I'd liked before who still haunts me to this day because it's a big fandom.) So I don't need the attention and most of what I post I don't expect it these days but in this instance I did think and expect more attention and even hoped for some engagement. In part that expectation was based off the performance of my other HLVRAI stuff, which in hindsight was a bit presumptuous; different vibes and all that. So I am very much not excited to post future chapters. I still will of course (just not today) because I like the fic and to get my total word count up just that little bit more. Also, the fic is done and only needs editing so it would feel like a waste to just leave the rest of it in my docs.

I can't rightly complain too much though. My 'WeverTF Benrey Is' and 'Gordon Swap' fics got far more traction than I ever would've expected. (Even if those fics being anomalies did contribute to my too high expectations.) So it's not like I'm bereft of interaction in my current fandoms. I just needed to vent a little to the void of Tumblr because feels bad, man.

[commehter]

Tui and Zu-Ozai's Life Changing Field Trip

I started the current arc of SToFLO thinking it would be a fun/interesting diversion for 2-3 chapters, but it took that long just to confront Hama and its only kept growing from there. I'm actually starting to get irritated with myself for how long it's dragging out. I feel like I'm spinning my wheels on something that should be more concise, but every time I think I'm getting close to the wrap up I realize there's something else about the situation needs to be addressed (because Hama is a problem without a good resolution) or a character decides to have feelings over it. That would be fine on its own, but I'm starting to doubt my grasp on Tui's character and that's causing all kinds of issues.

Tui is a spirit. Tui is a spirit with human memories messing with her head. How human should I be writing her as a result? How much emotional whip-lash can I really get away with giving what amounts to a spirit of serenity dealing with PTSD of all things? Tui. Tui, I created you from the barest threads of canon. You're practically an OC. How are you giving your author this much of a headache?

The core of the problem is actually Hama, of course, and she's not even conscious at this point. I started this arc thinking I knew what was going to happen to her, then worldbuilding happened and suddenly those old plans were infeasible. There's no way the characters involved would allow it to happen. So, here I am, scrambling as much as Tui and Zu-Ozai are to find a solution and everything is getting messy. Because Hama is horrible and makes an enemy of everyone she meets while having successfully guilt-tripped a great spirit into trying to save her.

I'm not sure if Hama got a nat 20 or Tui rolled a 1, but either way, this campaign has officially thrown a wrench in my storytelling plans and I'm irked with my characters.

I'm going to have to workshop some things more than I'm used to doing, including going back to make sure Tui isn't vacillating too much in her motivations. I can only use "non-human emotions/motivations" and "spirity reasons" to hide so much of a hack job. I need to take another look at Zu-Ozai, too. He has plenty of reasons to be feeling all sorts of conflicting emotions, but it needs to be brought back to something at least semi-cohesive at some point.

Anyway, back to untangling the mess I've made for myself. See y'all next chapter. If things go well on my end, it should be out in the next few days.

[mysteroads]

🔥It's Nice Here in Rare-Pair Hell!🔥

I feel weirdly accomplished!😎 It's as if I have evolved to a higher level of fanfic authordom. 👑 Did a search and my fic was the only one on the site with this ⬇ particular pairing! (Mr. Compress/Lady Nagant)

Does this mean I get to pick the ship name? 😉

On that note, just for kicks and giggles, if you have a good ship name, put it in the comments! 🚢

(I already talked a little in a previous post why I decided on these two as a ship, but if you want to know more, look past the break for my explanation with gifs!)

Alright, so, cliff notes on my series "It Doesn't End Here.": Tomura Shigaraki died, which he decided was no excuse not to hang out and party with his friends. All the rest of the League except Mr. Compress (because he was safe in prison), ended up getting invited to Tomura's after-death party.

Which, you know, sucked for Atsuhiro Sako, aka, Mr. Compress.

But I wasn't about to let the poor guy live a crappy life in prison. So, as per the MHA tradition, he gets involved in villain reform! Also, as the only beneficiary of Tomura Shigaraki's will, who in turn inherited All For One's fortune (completely legally, with a team of lawyers to boot), he decides to put the money to good use and creates the largest non-profit in Japan.

I REALLY wanted him to embrace all aspects of his new life, so I wanted him to find a significant other and a kid. I really don't like to write OCs to pair with major characters, so I had to find a canon character. Also, important: Compress mentioned once that someone in each generation of his family had a quirk that was good for theft! So I had to include that in my calculations. Then I had a thought:

That would be VERY useful for stealing things, wouldn't it?

And WHO ELSE in MHA has magical hair? That also happens to be purple and pink? And who would be considered a villain, and also consider herself a villain for all the lives she took? Gee... I wonder...

Now THAT'S a woman. I figured they'd also get along, since they both hate corrupt governments and spent time in villain prison, they'd have a starting point to become friends, and things would progress from there.

If you read all this, A thousand blessings be upon you, starting with my favorites: May your pillow always be cool, May inspiration come upon you often, and May your pets live long, healthy lives.

Drink water and have fun ya'll!

[cinnabon-sweetroll-tiramisu]

My mind is telling me "finish your wip babe" but my stomach says "eat chocolate and forget about it" lol

[ominous-feychild]

I went into the second chapter of SaS just to edit it, but basically rewrote everything except for the very beginning LMAO.

[fuckwhoeverpickedallthefunnyurls]

The unbearable weight of naming one (1) character

[deansmultitudes]

must a story be written? can't it just be a neatly organized and ever growing collection of outlines, notes and scene fragments?

[nervousladytraveler]

I just spent the last hour updating, clearing caches, deleting data, and closing many of my emotional support open tabs, so now everything is faster and I can write without frustration or delay.

And now I have to get dressed and go to work.