#writing tumblr has a treasure trove of advice if you need more (just make sure you're looking at the right blogs)

[starsh0cked]

Do you have any tips on writing fanfics? And also what's your favorite trope that you see in fanfics?

ooh, fanfic writing tips! i have quite a few, really:

reading books is quite useful! everyone has their own writing style, and if you want to develop or change yours, figuring out what you like most in the styles of other writers can help you decide what you want in yours.

for larger, longer works, it helps to have a decent idea of what you're writing! and when i say 'decent idea,' i mean a vague concept of the beginning and end of your fic. even if you don't entirely know where you're going, as long as you know where you start and end, you should be able to work out the rest of the fic.

planning beforehand is super good, too! this mostly applies to chaptered fics, but if it's something long, it makes sense to take your start and end and slowly flesh out the body of your fic.

make sure your spelling, punctuation and grammar is as correct as you can make it! and use paragraphs correctly! no large, chunky blocks of text, or having two different people talking in the same paragraph. while slip-ups are fine, poor paragraphing and incorrect use of punctuation and weak grammar make the fic harder and somewhat unpleasant to read.

having fun is important! i've noticed that a lot of passion goes into fanfiction - if the author is enjoying themself, the readers (usually) are too. if an author isn't enjoying themself, it's best to take a break and come back to it later. that way, you can return with a renewed drive and the same passion as before!

these are the ones i could shake out of my little head at the moment! of course, these shouldn't be taken as law, but these are some of the things i apply to my fics when i'm writing.

as for favourite tropes, i wouldn't say i really have any? i have a spot reserved in my brain for characters acting like idiots outside of canon, but i'm fine with most tropes!

[theroomofreq]

“Are we on a date right now?” Chapter 2

So I had planned on this being a one-time tumblr prompt, but @whiffingbooks left me a kind comment that gave me the creative love I needed to keep going. Thank you so much!! This isn’t exactly what I planned it to be, but I ended up really liking where it went, I hope you do too. 

And a special shout out to @narukoibito who is a treasure trove of writing advice, and was so kind to give me some guidance on this fic. I couldn’t have done it without you :’) 

AO3

Ginny held the door open for Harry, a small smile on her lips as she looked back at him. As he walked through the door he wrapped his scarf tighter around his face, whether he did so because of the January cold or to hide his excessive grin was up for debate.

It isn’t like he could help it really, he’d just spent the entire afternoon with Ginny. The thought of her brought his eyes to her form, she was keeping a steady pace beside him while Demelza, Luna, and Adeline walked ahead laughing. 

They fell into a steady rhythm together, hanging back from the others as they walked to the castle. It felt so natural to be alongside her and their silence felt comfortable. There was something about her quiet confidence that made him feel at ease, maybe even made him feel -

“You know Harry, I would’ve thought that the boy who lived would be better at getting out of a tight spot.” Ginny started to dig into him with her signature smirk. 

“Well Voldemort’s usually casting spells at me, not giving me cheek.” Harry retorted quickly, “Honestly, Gin. I didn’t think you were going to give me a break back there.” 

“Actually, I went pretty easy on you. I could’ve been a lot worse.” She sent a wink his way, and Harry felt something flip inside his stomach. 

“Merlin,” his voice came out choked, “Remind me to always stay in your good graces then.” 

Ginny laughed, “Aye aye Cap’n.” She said as they started up the castle steps. 

Harry followed closely behind her as she reached the doors and made her way into the entrance hall. They’d made it back to the castle a bit too quickly for his liking, he wondered if he should invite her to sit with him at dinner or if she would just follow him anyway. 

“Oi! Harry, Ginny!” Ron’s yelling pulled Harry back to reality. Ron was walking toward the two of them with Hermione in tow. 

“You two get everything sorted then?” Harry asked as the four gryffindors converged in the center of the hall. 

Ron scoffed as Hermione began to explain, “Well, it all seemed to be in order until we got back to the castle, and then Jacobsen tore off running-”

“And Hermione wouldn’t let me levicorpus his arse-” 

“Ronald!” 

“Would an offendo trip jinx have been more appropriate?” Harry tried to phrase it as an honest question, but Hermione still sent him a look that made him wither. 

“You two are incorrigible children, I don’t know how-”

“See you three around then,” Ginny cut in on Hermione's tirade, for which Harry felt grateful for, he didn’t exactly feel in the mood to be lectured before dinner. Then, Ginny turned her sparkling eyes on him, “And do let me know when our next date is Harry.” 

As Harry felt the color drain from his face he decided he wasn’t so grateful she’d cut in any longer. 

“What did she just say?” Ron’s words rushed out all too quickly.

Harry turned ever so slowly to his best friends, he had only moments to look at them before the assault started. Hermione had what seemed to be a mix of smugness and surprise across her face, while Ron’s mouth was just a gaping hole . 

“It’s about time honestly.” Hermione seemed to recover quicker than Ron did, “Although I thought it would be another couple of months, still I am very-”

“A date? With Ginny?” Ron looked positively gobsmacked. 

“Err, not really,” Harry ruffled his hair, “See the thing is, after you lot deserted me-”

“We were doing our civic duty, Harry!”

“Yes, that. Well when you left me to fend for myself,” Harry chose to ignore Hermione’s scoff and just continue on, “Romilda found me and I panicked. But well Ginny was there, So I err, pretended to be on a date with her to get Romilda off my back.”

Hermione’s eyes narrowed, “And what exactly did Ginny do?” 

Harry thought back to the way Ginny’s eyebrows flew up as he begged her to save him. The way she smirked as he struggled to find an excuse and the way her lips- 

“Harry! This is crucial information here.” 

“Sorry right, She err didn’t let me get off that easy. Shot down every excuse I lined up, and even went so far as to say we snogged. And that’s what really buggered Romilda-”

“SNOGGING. If I catch you with your hands on her like Dean-”

“Oh finally Harry! Did the two of you really kiss?”

Ron and Hermione had both reacted very differently but with equal enthusiasm and at the same time. The two of them whipped their heads around to glare at the other, Harry felt the storm coming before it even started. 

“What do you mean finally?” Ron said fiercely, “Ginny gave up on Harry ages ago.”

“I wasn’t talking about Ginny,” Hermione rolled her eyes, “I was talking about Harry.”

Ron’s eyes grew large, “Harry? Harry doesn’t fancy Ginny? Are you daft?”

Hermione’s laugh was nothing compared to the pitiful look she sent at Harry. “I’m daft? Ron, don’t tell me you haven’t seen it.” She pointed a finger and Harry, “He has been pining after her for months now.

So this was his life now? He, Harry Potter, the chosen one, who was tasked with recovering important information about Voldemort, and uncovering Draco’s secret plot, was standing here watching his best mates bicker over his feelings. Surely this could not be happening, but indeed, it was. 

“I would’ve noticed if my best mate had taken a fancy to my little sister.” Ron barked. 

“You’re about 7 months late! Haven’t you noticed the way his eyes follow her, or how he perks up when she walks into the room?” 

Perked up? Was he really perky around Ginny, that didn’t seem the right word.

“They are friends ���Mione.” Ron rolled his eyes, “Don’t you think I know Harry well enough to know when he’s after a girl?”

“Friends don’t get hit by bludgers at quidditch practice because they are too busy staring at one another, and friends don’t sit nearly on one another’s laps at your mother’s house over the Holidays.”

Alright that was a step too far. “OI” Harry shouted, pushing between his friends who had been standing awfully close during their bickering, “Do we really need to have a round table about my love life?” 

His outburst seemed to snap the two back to their senses. Ron’s ears burned red, and Hermione started to twirl a section of her hair. The two muttered their apologies while Harry shook his head at them. 

“Excellent, now that’s over with can we eat now?” Harry gestured toward the doors to the Great Hall and the three of them set off. 

Unbelievable, he was hit one time by a bludger during practice, and it was only because he was coaching. He was meant to be watching Ginny’s play, he wasn’t distracted by her. And there were a lot of people at the Burrow this Christmas, he had to sit close to Ginny so there was enough room for everyone else. And what was Hermione talking about, 7 months? He shook his head at himself as he sat down on the bench next to Ron, had he truly been so obvious?

“Harry?” 

“Yeah, mate?”

“If you need to ogle Ginny at all, she’s just up there.” Ron pointed directly at Ginny before dissolving into a cackling fit. 

“Oh bugger off” Harry muttered while shoving Ron. 

----

Harry assumed that his days would get back to normal rather quickly after the previous day, true to form, it did not. It seemed Ron and Hermione’s reaction was a direct indication of how the rest of the school would behave. 

Despite having broken up with Ginny 2 months prior, Dean was now sending him glares every chance he could. A pair of younger gryffindor boys asked him if Ginny was a better kisser than Cho on his way to breakfast, while Ron buckled over laughing. As he walked to potions a charmed note informed him that he was leaving a trail of broken hearts by taking Ginny as his lover. 

It was at dinner, around the fifth time someone congratulated him on finally asking Ginny out, that the the grin on Hermione’s face was just too much for Harry to handle. 

“That’s it.” Harry slammed his fist on the table, “I’ve got to find her.”

“At least give us the map!” Ron shouted, “We’d hate to walk in on the two of you!”

Harry threw him a rude gesture over his shoulder as he marched out, which only seemed to make Ron laugh harder. 

As he stormed away from the Great Hall, Harry whipped out the Marauders Map to locate Ginny walking out of potions. Harry increased his pace, only focused on Ginny as he made his way to the lower levels of the castle. Finally, he rounded a corner and came face to face with the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor 5th years. 

Immediately his eyes zeroed in on Ginny and her glinting copper hair, he pushed through the crowd and stopped in front of her. She had been in the middle of a conversation with Demelza, before quirking an eyebrow at his sudden appearance. 

And dammit, he was really starting to like that look on her. 

“We need to talk,” Harry’s voice came out heavy and low, which pulled Ginny’s eyebrow up higher on her freckled face. 

A chorus of wolf whistles sounded as her peers walked around them. 

“Go easy on her Cap.” Demelza said, patting his shoulder as she walked away with the crowd. 

Harry gestured to an empty classroom on his left, Ginny gave a small bow and headed through the door. Once Harry walked through the door he flicked his wand and the door slammed shut. 

“A bit eager this evening, aren’t we Mr. Potter?” Ginny was leaning up against a desk with a smirk and that damn eyebrow up again. 

“Now is not the time, Gin.” Harry shook his head, they were in a right mess. 

“Can we reschedule then?” 

Harry felt his jaw slacken at her words, did she just? He searched her face and found her eyes dark and deep on him, his mouth fell a little further. A bit of a strangled noise came from his throat, Harry quickly shook his head again. 

“Ginny, I..

“What is it you wanted to talk about?” Her arms crossed over her chest as her eyes took on a guarded glint. 

Harry looked at the floor before willing the courage to talk to her again. “The whole school is gone barmy! I’ve been accosted all day, blokes want to know what it’s like to kiss you. I’ve been asked maybe a hundred times how I asked you to be my girlfriend, and the whole team is on me about it too. I feel like I’m going mad.” 

Ginny laughed, an actual laugh that started deep in her stomach and radiated out through her lungs and mouth. Harry felt like he missed the joke. 

“Sorry, It’s just” Ginny said between fits of laughter, “You’ve gotten yourself into a real predicament Harry.” 

“Me? You’re the one who told her we’d snogged for ages” Harry felt his neck flush as he alluded to kissing Ginny.

“True, but you are the one nearly knocked me over for a fake date.” Her eyes were still full of mirth as she turned the blame on him again. 

“Okay fine, it’s both of us. But what are we going to do now?”

“What do you mean?”

“I just,” Harry rubbed the back of his neck, “I dunno, haven’t people been asking you things to?” She nodded. “What did you tell them?”

“I haven’t told anyone anything, have you?” She asked him, Harry shook his head in response. “Well then, what is there to do?”

Harry looked at her for a moment, his head spinning. The whole school thought he was dating Ginny Weasley, which on the one hand was brilliant. Wasn’t this what he’d wanted? To be closer to her, to have someone mention their names together, to be someone she would want to snog? 

“What if we just carried on,” He began tentatively, “Just let them think we are together, and we could act the part?” 

“Are you saying we should pretend to be in a relationship?” Her brows furrowed and her arms came to rest at her sides. 

“Well what’s the other option? Just ignore them? Come on they’re relentless.” Harry pleaded with his brain to not let any true feelings slip. “Stage a break up? They would talk about it for ages, it would be almost worse?” 

Ginny watched him explain with a collected expression on her face, Harry felt nervous all over again under her gaze. She took a step closer to him, bringing her close enough to embrace.

 “Maybe it’s the only way, to erm, pretend?”

Ginny’s eyes roved along his face, but her expression was completely blank, the moment began to last too long. Harry shifted uncomfortably on his feet. 

“Could you really do that?” Her eyes pierced him as she posed the question. “Do you really think you could fake being in a relationship with me?” 

Harry opened his mouth to reply but stopped at the sight of Ginny shaking her head. “You couldn’t, it’s not like you.” 

Harry felt his brow furrow, of course he could, it’s what he wanted? To be around her constantly, to be the one went to Hogsmeade with, to walk hand in hand around the castle, and run his fingers through her deep red locks. 

She took a half a step forward before looking him carefully in the eyes. “The Harry I know, would never. He is either all in or all out. This fake dating scheme? That's only half in, it would kill you.” He felt her eyes scan his face again.

“You know that right? You have to know that it wouldn’t be good,” her eyes fell quickly to her hands before coming back up to his eyes, “not for either of us.” 

Harry took in her gaze, the way she was staring at him was paralyzing his body. He could barely breathe with her this close to him, her flowery scent was overpowering as she continued to search his face. He knew she was right, he couldn’t do it. How could he be with her unless it was 100% Ginny? Putting on a face in front of everyone else, and then what? Nothing probably, it would be torture. How was it she knew him better than he knew himself?

He must have taken too long to respond because she started to back away from him, her eyes down cast. 

“Ginny, wait.” Harry took three large strides toward her again, easily bringing them back to their previous closeness. “Could you do it? Would you be able to pretend to be with me?” It was his turn to survey her face for anything, any semblance of emotion. 

Her face was calm and cool as she looked back at him, ever so slightly she shook her head. “No, I couldn’t. You mean too much to me to even, It’s just, you’re one of my best friends, I can’t…” Her words slowly drifted off. 

Harry nodded slowly too, now hyper aware of how close they were to each other. Ginny’s eyes took on a steely glint as she turned around and walked to the door. Her hand touched the door before she turned around.

“If anyone asks, I’ll tell them it was just a one time thing. We’re friends.” Her words were calculated. 

Harry nodded, “Friends” he murmured as the door closed softly behind her. 

[breelandwalker]

So... I want to be witchy and practice the craft but I've honestly no idea where to begin. I also don't really have the money to afford supplies like candles and crystals and herbs and stuff (high school student here...) so I'm not even sure if I could practice effectively because of that. I have a couple books, but I'm not sure if the authors are credible or not, so I'm afraid to practice from them. Do you... have any advice or tips?

-big warm smile- Sweetie, come and sit by me. Let’s chat.

First of all, welcome to the community! There’s a lot to learn and a lot of complications and it might take you a while to find your feet, but there’s plenty of folks around who are willing to help. We’re glad you’re here! :)

Now then, supplies and budget concerns. There are SO many witches out there working on a shoestring budget or no budget at all, and they practice just fine.

One of the things that gets fed to us a lot by popular literature and media is that in order to be a witch you need lots of rare herbs and fancy crystals and enough candles to set a small village on fire. Not so. Basic spells can be done with whatever you have to hand. It’s all a matter of working creatively and thinking outside the occult-store box.

You’re a student, yes? So in your accoutrements for school, you’ve got things like paper, pens, tape, maybe some markers and things, right? And your home kitchen, that’s probably got a spice cabinet with some cooking herbs, right? And you’ve got access to the internet (obviously) and a blog.

So…good news! You’ve got everything you need to start your practice.

No candles? No problem! You don’t really need live-flame candles unless you’re working a spell that requires something to be set on fire. You can use LED candles, or a picture of a candle, or a flashlight, depending on what the symbolic need for the item is. Or, if you want, you can skip them altogether.

No herbs? Check that kitchen cabinet. Amazing things can be done with the seasonings that are probably already in your home. Some of my go-to herbs are Basil, Rosemary, Sage, Thyme, Cinnamon, Cayenne, and Ginger, to say nothing of good old salt and black pepper. The spice aisle is a treasure trove for witches on a tight budget, and even more so if you have a local dollar store that carries cheap generic seasonings. You only need a pinch or so of an herb for full effectiveness; a little bit goes a very long way!

No crystals? Again, not a requirement. Some witches work extensively with stones and gems and such, but as with candles, unless you’re working a spell that specifically revolves around the use of a crystal, you don’t really need them when you’re starting out. If you do feel a draw toward crystal magic, small quartz points are easy enough to find as decorative items or jewelry and they tend to be less expensive than most other minerals. (I recommend checking this shop for crystals and such. The owner is a fellow witch and her product is very good quality and very reasonably-priced.)

With paper and pencil, you can work on creating your own sigils, make paper charms or poppets, practice writing spells, or take notes on things that interest you. Blogs are a great way of doing this as well; plenty of witches have blogs that function as digital repositories for their magical learning.

As for the other stuff (i.e. cauldrons, jars, besoms, statues, incense, etc), all that can wait. The most important thing that you can do as a beginner witch is research. And not just with books either. The internet can be a great source of information, so long as you don’t mind exercising those critical thinking skills.

Witchy tumblr has taught me a whole slew of things that I never would have learned from books; some stuff about the community you can only learn from other people, and it largely deals with social awareness and etiquette. Generally, if you follow Wheaton’s Law (“Don’t be an asshole”), you should be fine.

Getting back to books…yes. There ARE pagan authors who are very popular and very problematic. The only two that I recommend avoiding wholesale are Silver Ravenwolf and Raymond Buckland, due to the rampant racism and misinformation found in their rhetoric. There are others that should be avoided for other reasons, but those are the two you see in bookstores most often. (My post on other authors and their issues is here.)

EVERY pagan author is problematic in some way (including me) because there are so many viewpoints in the community about what is and is not acceptable in the craft. Generally, you want to avoid (or at least heavily fact-check) anything that tells you the following:

There is only ONE WAY to be a witch / practice witchcraft (wrong)

There are only Certain People Who Can Be Witches (fraud)

Christians are evil / stole our holidays / burned millions of witches (lies)

It’s perfectly okay to cherry-pick whatever you want from other cultures and traditions and cobble it together however you please (NO)

You can’t do magic without deities / witchcraft is a religion (try again)

You can only do magic for pure good / for the good of others (haha no)

In order to be a witch, you must join a coven / undergo initiation / be trained by a person of certain rank / perform certain rituals / own certain objects / work your rituals naked / follow (or not follow) a certain religion / make vows to a certain deity or set of deities (nope nope and uh NOPE)

Whatever you end up reading, definitely supplement that learning with research on practical history (that boring stuff you learn from dusty old tomes) and a good dose of practical botany or herbology (knowing which plants do what so you don’t accidentally give yourself an allergy attack or a dose of poison).

If you’d like a place to get started, I do maintain a website with lots of free information on plant-based cottage craft (the way I do it, anyway) and advice for beginner witches. I also have a book in the process of being published that you might find useful. My two collaborative projects, The Sisters Grimmoire and The Witches Cupboard, are available on Amazon in print and on Kindle.

And if you have more questions, feel free to ask. :)

(Wow this one got away from me. But I hope it helps!)