chaosbrewing

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help i’m not prepared for them to read it

i. i sent my novel prologue in for my uni’s weekly creative writing club’s workshop, and i am simultaneously excited for feedback and terrified holy horse hockey people will be reading my writing

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I am genuinely considering opening fic commissions mmm

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chaos-brews-within-my-mind >>> chaosbrewing

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hey hey hey! if anyone would like to join the discord for my novel/the writings of my novel universe, let me know and i’ll dm you the link!

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mmm i hath aged another year

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August 21st is Fanfic Writer Appreciation Day  💕

Let’s be honest - we all forget to leave a comment sometimes. We don’t always go out of our way to click the “come talk to me on tumblr” link on AO3 to scream about the fic in the author’s inbox. On August 21st I encourage you to take a moment and show fanfic writers that you appreciate them!

How can you do it?

leave a comment and kudos on every fic you finish reading. Doesn’t matter how short. Doesn’t matter if you’re just repeating what other people have already said. Just be kind! Keysmashing, Caps Lock, and live commenting appreciated! (Bonus points if you leave a comment on every chapter)

ideas for what to put in a comment: one | two | three | four

floaty review box for ao3 (super useful for commenting as you read + it has a ‘review tips’ button if you feel stuck)

reblog ficlets, drabbles, fics, fic rec posts, etc. Put a nice comment in the tags. Remember that likes, while appreciated, don’t give the writer any exposure, meaning the posts don’t reach more people

go to your local fanfic writer’s inbox and talk to them about their fic of your choice. Let them know how long ago you’ve read it and what story point/sentence/scene still makes you smile when you think about it

send thank you messages to fic writers. In a world where you have to pay for almost everything, they’re supplying you with countless hours of free entertainment. It can get quite lonely without getting messages acknowledging the hours they spend writing stories - let them know their time and effort is appreciated

make fic rec posts and @ the authors whose fics you’re recommending! (believe me, fic writers love to see their stories in these posts)

create something inspired by a fic! You can draw fanart, make a moodboard or aesthetic post, or even write a song for the fic you love. Whether you’re a beginner or a pro doesn’t matter - the thought alone is what counts more than anything <3

buy the writer a coffee if they have a ko-fi page and you have some change lying around c: Caffeine keeps most fic writers awake when they struggle with a particularly slow draft or a difficult scene. More coffee, more content.

These are only some ideas out of the sea of possible ways to appreciate fanfic writers. On August 21st show the writers in your fandom(s) some love <3

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okay I know I haven’t posted in ages BUT

I’ve been busy working on a new project! I’ve started actually planning out my novel, and hopefully I’ll be able to get some good work done on it this year. I know the characters pretty well, since I’ve been developing them for a while now (4 years?? I think??), so I’m rather excited!

Anyways have a tag yourself meme I made with some of the characters and tell me who you are 😂

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VERY BELATED UPDATE:

When I was initially making these, I applied the paint right over the decal on the Converse. I discovered that this can lead to peeling/impermanent/cracking paint, which is obviously something nobody wants if they’re trying to make a project permanent!

My solution to this was to take some nail polish remover (acetone) and rub it around the edge of the decal; I pried up an edge using a blade (be very careful if you do this!) before pulling the whole decal off. I applied more acetone underneath as I pulled it off, just to help. The rest of the painting and sealing process went just the same, but I had no need for the pink paint! In my opinion, the final result was much better!

Making the Eye Shoes!

At some point, I stumbled upon this post by the amazing @chickpeamcb, with Elias sporting some phenomenal pink footwear. Naturally, I had to have them for myself (and who wouldn’t want them? I mean, seriously, those shoes are awesome). So, I went on a hunt for the right shoes!

I don’t typically do a lot of craft projects with shoes, but I’m absolutely thrilled to try with these. I consulted a few friends and we finally settled on a certain color for the shoes—leading us to...

Step One: Acquire the Shoes.

I ordered them a few days ago, and when I came home today...

They’d arrived! I was quite excited to open the box, and even more excited to see the actual shoes!

I’ll keep updating this as my little shoe project progresses, if anyone’s interested in seeing my progress! I can’t wait to see what these are going to look like!

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Coming into a fandom late

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Took me enough time to figure out how to post this! My other series is a bit different and I’m still trying to figure out how to like...explain it and or edit it, but for now take a lonelyeyes fic!

Words: 1605

Chapters: 1/1

Rating: Not Rated

Summary: Elias and Peter have called it off again, and Elias is thrilled to have won this round—but perhaps he isn’t as happy as he convinces himself he is.

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Sometimes I’m internally like “How is that a trigger?, ” then I realize other people have different life experiences from me, they don’t owe me their story, and I move the fuck on.

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“Getting” yourself to write

Yesterday, I was trawling iTunes for a decent podcast about writing. After a while, I gave up, because 90% of them talked incessantly about “self-discipline,” “making writing a habit,” “getting your butt in the chair,” “getting yourself to write.” To me, that’s six flavors of fucked up.

Okay, yes—I see why we might want to “make writing a habit.” If we want to finish anything, we’ll have to write at least semi-regularly. In practical terms, I get it.

But maybe before we force our butts into chairs, we should ask why it’s so hard to “get” ourselves to write. We aren’t deranged; our brains say “I don’t want to do this” for a reason. We should take that reason seriously.

Most of us resist writing because it hurts and it’s hard. Well, you say, writing isn’t supposed to be easy—but there’s hard, and then there’s hard. For many of us, sitting down to write feels like being asked to solve a problem that is both urgent and unsolvable—“I have to, but it’s impossible, but I have to, but it’s impossible.” It feels fucking awful, so naturally we avoid it.

We can’t “make writing a habit,” then, until we make it less painful. Something we don’t just “get” ourselves to do.

The “make writing a habit” people are trying to do that, in their way. If you do something regularly, the theory goes, you stop dreading it with such special intensity because it just becomes a thing you do. But my god, if you’re still in that “dreading it” phase and someone tells you to “make writing a habit,” that sounds horrible.

So many of us already dismiss our own pain constantly. If we turn writing into another occasion for mute suffering, for numb and joyless endurance, we 1) will not write more, and 2) should not write more, because we should not intentionally hurt ourselves.

Seriously. If you want to write more, don’t ask, “how can I make myself write?” Ask, “why is writing so painful for me and how can I ease that pain?” Show some compassion for yourself. Forgive yourself for not being the person you wish you were and treat the person you are with some basic decency. Give yourself a fucking break for avoiding a thing that makes you feel awful.

Daniel José Older, in my favorite article on writing ever, has this to say to the people who admonish writers to write every day:

Here’s what stops more people from writing than anything else: shame. That creeping, nagging sense of ‘should be,’ ‘should have been,’ and ‘if only I had…’ Shame lives in the body, it clenches our muscles when we sit at the keyboard, takes up valuable mental space with useless, repetitive conversations. Shame, and the resulting paralysis, are what happen when the whole world drills into you that you should be writing every day and you’re not.

The antidote, he says, is to treat yourself kindly:

For me, writing always begins with self-forgiveness. I don’t sit down and rush headlong into the blank page. I make coffee. I put on a song I like. I drink the coffee, listen to the song. I don’t write. Beginning with forgiveness revolutionizes the writing process, returns its being to a journey of creativity rather than an exercise in self-flagellation. I forgive myself for not sitting down to write sooner, for taking yesterday off, for living my life. That shame? I release it. My body unclenches; a new lightness takes over once that burden has floated off. There is room, now, for story, idea, life.

Writing has the potential to bring us so much joy. Why else would we want to do it? But first we’ve got to unlearn the pain and dread and anxiety and shame attached to writing—not just so we can write more, but for our own sakes! Forget “making writing a habit”—how about “being less miserable”? That’s a worthy goal too!

Luckily, there are ways to do this. But before I get into them, please absorb this lesson: if you want to write, start by valuing your own well-being. Start by forgiving yourself. And listen to yourself when something hurts.

Next post: freewriting

Ask me a question or send me feedback! Podcast recommendations welcome…

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Saucy Thing: when Character A threatens Character B with some kind of weapon and Character B just leans tf into said weapon to show how edgy-spooky and unthreatened they are.

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Anon or not tell me why you followed me

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42 character development questions!

PHYSICAL PRESENCE AND GESTURE. 1. How do they move and carry themselves? Pace, rhythm, gestures, energy? 2. How much physical space do they use, active and at rest? 3. How do they position themselves in a group? Do they like to be the center of attention, or do they hang back at the edges of a crowd? 4. What is their size and build? How does it influence how they use their body, if it does? 5. How do they dress? What styles, colors, accessories, and other possessions do they favor? Why? 6. What are they like in motion–in different environments, and in different activities? What causes the differences between these? 7. How do they physically engage with other people, inanimate objects, and their environment? What causes the differences between these? 8. Where and when do they seem most and least at ease? Why? How can you tell? 9. How do they manifest energy, exhaustion, tension, or other strong emotions? 10. What energizes and drains them most? 11. How are they vocally expressive? What kind of voice, accent, tones, inflections, volume, phrases and slang, and manner of speaking do they use? 12. How are they bodily expressive? How do they use nonverbal cues such as their posture, stance, eyes, eyebrows, mouths, and hands? DISPOSITION AND TEMPERAMENT. 13. How do they greet the world — what is their typical attitude towards life? How does it differ in different circumstances, or towards different subjects? Why do they take these attitudes, and why do they change? How do these tend to be expressed? 14. What do they care deeply about? What kind of loyalties, commitments, moral codes, life philosophies, passions, callings, or spirituality and faith do they have? How do these tend to be expressed? 15. What kind of inner life do they have — rich and imaginative? Calculating and practical? Full of doubts and fears? Does it find any sort of outlet in their lives? 16. Do they dream? What are those dreams like? 17. Are they more shaped by nature or nurture — who they are, or what has happened to them? How have these shaped who they’ve become as a person? 18. What kind of person could they become in the future? What are some developmental paths that they could take, (best, worst, most likely?) what would cause them to come to pass, and what consequences might they have? What paths would you especially like to see, and why? CONNECTIONS WITH OTHERS. 19. How do they behave within a group? What role(s) do they take? Does this differ if they know and trust the group, versus finding themselves in a group of strangers? Why? 20. What kind of individual relationships do they have with others, and how do they behave in them? How are they different between intimate relationships like friends, family, and lovers versus more impersonal relationships? 21. What kind of relationships do they tend to intentionally seek out versus actually cultivate? What kind of social contact do they prefer, and why? 22. How do people respond to them, and why might these responses differ? 23. How do they respond to difficult social moments? What makes them consider a social situation difficult? 24. How do they present themselves socially? What distinguishes their “persona” from their “true self”, and what causes that difference? 25. What do they need and want out of relationships, and how do they go about getting it? 26. How do they view and feel about relationships, and how might this manifest in how they handle them, if it does? ACTIVITIES AND PREFERENCES. 27. What do they strongly like and dislike, in any category? Why? 28. What are they likely to do if they have the opportunity, resources, and time to accomplish it? Why? 29. What kind of activities, interests, and hobbies do they have? What significance and impact do these have in their lives, both positive and negative? 30. What is their preferred level of activity and stimulation? How do they cope if they get either too little or too much? 31. Is there anything that counts as a “dealbreaker” for them, positively or negatively? What makes things go smoothly, and what spoils an activity or ruins their day? Why? 32. Do they have any “props” that are a significant part of their life, identity, activities, or self-presentation somehow? What are they, how are they used, and why are they so significant? How would these props’ absence impact them, how would they compensate, and why? THINKING AND LEARNING. 33. How do they learn about the world–what is their preferred learning style? Hands-on learning with trial and error? Research, reading, and note-taking? Observation or rote memorization? Inductive or deductive reasoning? Seeking patterns and organization? Taking things apart and putting them back together? Creative processing via discussing, writing about, or dramatizing things? 34. How do they understand the world–what kind of worldview and thought processes do they have? Why? 35. How and why do they internalize knowledge? What effect has that had on them? 36. How much do they rely on their minds and intellect, versus other approaches like relying on instinct, intuition, faith and spirituality, or emotions? What is their opinion on this? 37. Have they had any special education or training that colors their means of learning about or understanding the world? Conversely, do they lack some kind of education considered essential in their world? What kind of impact has this addition or lack had on them? 38. Is there anything they wish they could change about their worldview or thought processes? What, and why? 39. What sort of questions or thoughts recur in their lives, either specifically or as a theme? Why are these never answered, or answered permanently to their satisfaction? 40. What do they wonder about? What sparks their curiosity and imagination, and why? How is this expressed, if it is? FREE FOR ALL. 41. What associations do they bring to mind? Words or phrases, images, metaphors or motifs? Why? 42. I have a question of my own!

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Hey so I’ve seen too many exclusionists/aphobes get into TMA and firstly NO I’m not going to name ppl bc I try to immediately block them from my conscious and also I don’t care to start drama here but I wanted to just make a post to ask:

If you’re an aspec or aspec ally and you like The Magnus Archives can you like and/or reblog this so I and other fans can follow you without any worry?

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I wonder if one of the reasons that it’s so hard for content creators (especially fic writers) to get comments is because of the tumblr culture of like���

how dare you make a comment when you reblog. how dare you.

Like, we all know that right? Like, this whole culture of commenting directly in the comment box when reblogging is seen as heinous and awful and YOU SHOULD COMMENT IN THE TAGS INSTEAD. Especially if it’s seen as “unnecessary” (as in not adding to a conversation, or it’s just like “THIS” or “YAY” or something).  

I mean, I’ve been on Tumblr since 2011, and I know that got burned into my brain. I still struggle with it, whether in feeling irritated when I see someone comment on a post “unnecessarily” or by feeling weird about commenting or even by staying in the tags to comment.

Literally that whole talking in the tags thing is a byproduct of that culture. 

Obviously this is tumblr-centric but like, come on, I would imagine that viewpoint would stay with someone and they would avoid commenting on other places (like FF.net or AO3) as a result. We’re all afraid of somehow committing a faux pas because tumblr is… well, it’s unforgiving. 

This is just a thought, to be honest. I don’t have a solution except that I think it’s a good idea to ignore that toxic opinion of Commenting on Posts is Bad and You Should Feel Bad. Just ignore it.

I’m here to tell you that it’s okay to reblog and comment on fics. The content creators would be really happy if you did. They won’t yell at you. They’ll be so happy you did. I promise.