#<- my tag for blank google document posts

[69shrimp]

[mapsthewanderer]

Caffeine, chemistry and Caleb XIII

Synopsis: The café was supposed to be just another coffee shop. For a law student who enjoys her morning coffee and a shy newbie still learning the ropes, it should have been nothing more than part of the daily routine… But then there’s Caleb.

Details: 3000 words (amalard I’m sorry but the fluff got me). Non-MC!Reader as the law student. Listen, this is my magnum opus of fluff. I giggled the entire time writing it, and I truly hope you’ll enjoy this fluff bonanza as much as I did. Expect: newbie energy, a bit of retrospection, exam vibes, cuteness overload (in my humble opinion), and Caleb being an absolute dumbass snack from start to finish.

Parts: initial, part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10, part 11, part 12

Tags: @gavin3469 @unstablemiss @i-messed-up-big-time @mipov101 @zukini-01 @ariakamil @zaynessdarling @gojosballsack69 @moon-cakei

Post-it precedents | Pt. 13

You don’t even get your shoes off.

The door clicks shut behind you, and before your coat has hit the hook, you’re powering up your laptop like it holds the answers to life, love, and whatever the hell tonight was supposed to be.

Browser. Blank search bar. Cursor blinking like it’s judging you.

You type:

can you be in love with someone who gives you emotional whiplash

Backspace.

feelings vs. fact

Backspace.

how to get over someone you maybe kissed but who also maybe called you his girlfriend in front of witnesses but also had the audacity to be sweet and confusing and a little bit perfect

Too long. You erase that one too.

You settle on:

emotional clarity post-situationship

Google doesn’t help. Obviously.

You pace the room once before collapsing in front of your laptop again, cracking your knuckles like this is just another research session. Just another case file.

Spoiler: it’s not.

You open a blank document. Title it:

——————————————————————————

Exhibit A — Reasons to Move On

He is emotionally irresponsible.

You were not informed of the terms and conditions before agreeing to this emotional rollercoaster.

Friend-date sandwich.

Said friend used to live with him. That’s not nothing.

Emotional chaos is not a love language.

——————————————————————————

You stare at the list.

Then open a new document.

——————————————————————————

Exhibit B — Reasons to Stay in It Anyway

He held your hand.

He called you his girlfriend.

He looked sad when you tried to give the necklace back.

He put a Sour Patch Kid between his teeth and looked at you like you hung the moon.

You might actually like him. A lot.

He said he wanted to get it right.

You kissed him. You. Because somehow, against your better judgment and legal training, you bought his defense. Full emotional acquittal.

——————————————————————————

You close your laptop.

Bury your face in your hands.

And say—into the quiet of your room—

“Oh no.”

——————————————————————————

Four days later, and you still haven’t fully recovered.

Not from the horror movie. Not from the post-horror hallway. And definitely not from the moment Caleb—resident menace and human Sour Patch conspiracy—called you his girlfriend in public, while still being the most confusingly sweet person to ever exist on two legs and a caffeine addiction.

You told yourself you needed a bit of distance. Emotional clarity. Instead, you let him make you coffee the very next morning.

To be fair, he texted first.

Dumb Barista: Morning, Counselor. Black w/ oat milk? Or do I need to bring you emotional recovery foam art too?

Dumb Barista: Also: sorry again for the cinematic trauma. Hope you’re sleeping off the gore

You’d stared at your phone for a full minute before replying:

You: Emotional foam art required. Extra cinnamon. No ghosts.

And so it went.

Four days of coffee drops, texts that made your breath hitch, and study sessions that somehow weren’t sessions at all—just moments. Quiet. Warm. Laced with something new. Something soft.

You’d been back at the café once—just once—when Caleb was off doing something probably aviation-adjacent. It wasn’t your first time grabbing coffee there, but it was the first time you lingered. Stayed. Let the cup warm your hands instead of rushing off.

Newbie had taken the stool across from you with the gravity of a therapist and the caffeine levels of a cryptid. And then came the dissection. Of Caleb. Of this. Of your stress-cracked brain and the mess you might’ve walked into with both eyes wide open.

They listened. They sipped. They judged. Softly.

“Okay,” they’d said, eyes narrowed. “Emotionally speaking, he’s a golden retriever with abandonment issues, a hero complex, and the social calibration of a vintage iPod.”

You blinked. “That’s your analysis?”

“It’s clinical.”

You told them about the necklace. About the movie. About the friend sandwich.

Newbie shook their head slowly. “You’re not supposed to date someone with main character energy if you’re also the main character. It creates a feedback loop.”

You stirred your drink. “So you’re saying… I should walk?”

“I’m saying…” they paused, face softening. “You should do whatever makes you feel safe. Not whatever makes you feel impressive. Or interesting. Or like you’re trying to prove something.”

That had stuck with you.

Because the truth was—despite everything, despite the chaos and the awkwardness and the mortifying sandwich of it all—being near Caleb had started to feel… safer. Not like a free fall. Not like some shiny thing you’d have to keep chasing.

But like a maybe. A real one.

And maybe that was enough to keep trying.

But the final exam of the semester loomed like a final boss. Caleb, for all his distractive tendencies, had offered to help.

Dumb Barista: Final prep tomorrow, right? I’ll bring snacks. You bring that scary legal brain. Deal?

Dumb Barista: Also I’m making flashcards. You will respect my pedagogical craft.

You’d laughed when you read them—partly because you were too tired to cry, partly because it helped. And luckily for Caleb, you still lived by your mom’s golden principle: Whatever you haven’t learned the night before the exam, you were never meant to know anyway.

It had gotten you through high school and hellish semesters of law school. Why stop now?

It was the rule that made you close your books, even when panic begged you to keep reading. The one that got you to make a real dinner instead of inhaling dry cereal over a textbook. The reason you went for a walk, let yourself breathe, let yourself sleep.

Because whatever you hadn’t learned by the night before the exam—you were never meant to know.

And somehow, that belief had carried you this far.

You repeated it like a mantra as you closed your casebook and let yourself trust—just a little—that flashcards, snacks, and a dangerously charming barista might not boost your GPA, but at least your serotonin.

And now?

Now his head is in your lap, and somehow, the world hasn’t ended.

In fact, it’s never felt quieter. Or better.

You’re trying to stay passingly focused while surrounded by a battlefield of empty coffee cups, law textbooks, and a half-eaten cookie you both gave up on hours ago. The café is technically closed—sign flipped, lights low, chairs stacked—except for your table. Your island of academic chaos. Equal parts study session, procrastination ritual, and excuse to be near each other.

His weight is warm and solid against you, like he belongs there. One arm draped lazily across his chest, his bangs slightly mussed from the hood he shoved off earlier. He shifts now and then, cheek brushing your thigh as he peers up to read the next question, eyes half-lidded and infuriatingly pretty

You try not to think about how nice it feels. About how your hand keeps drifting toward his hair. About how he looks so relaxed, like being tangled up with you is just another Thursday. Like it’s nothing. Like it’s everything.

And it’s not just the way he fits against you.

Because somehow—over the time you’ve known him—he’s managed to pick up enough law to make makeshift flashcards for you. Just from glancing at your notes, asking casual questions, stealing your textbook when you weren’t paying attention during longer stops at the café.

Like when he quoted Cicero back at you out of nowhere and you had to pretend your jaw hadn’t dropped a little.

You never asked him to. He just… did.

You hadn’t asked for any of it.

He just… wanted to help.

You try not to melt. Fail miserably.

‘Cause post-it notes cover his hoodie like armor. His chest. His sleeves. One’s stuck halfway up his cheek. Another stuck on your braid. A few flutter on the table between you. They’re all labeled: contract law terms, obscure Latin phrases, doctrine names.

Caleb’s system is simple: for every right answer, you get to stick a post-it wherever you want on him. For every wrong one? He gets to stick it on you. Somewhere inconvenient. Somewhere you’ll notice. He claims it’s to “help you reflect on your legal blind spots.” You claim it’s harassment. Neither of you stops.

It’s not an objectively fair reward structure, but Caleb is wearing it like a badge of honor.

Because you have the advantage here—being the actual law student.

He may have charm, snacks, and that annoyingly good memory on his side, but you’ve got years of outlines, caffeine-induced anxiety, and a terrifying grasp of Latin maxims. This is your turf.

Still, the fact that he’s even trying—offering up his hoodie as a post-it battlefield like it’s a group project he volunteered for—makes something warm and stupid bloom in your chest.

So. You’re sitting there with a human study guide sprawled across your lap, feeling like your bones are made of soft light. Like you never knew law could feel this good.

He mumbles “wrong answer” and reaches for your braid, and you almost let him—just to see if he’ll do it gently.

Because somehow, impossibly, this is real.

And it feels like peace.

“Alright,” he hums now, voice lazy from the comfort of your lap. “Final question. High stakes. If you flub this, I will declare moral victory forever.”

You squint. “Define ‘moral.’”

He grins, doesn’t answer. Just lifts a hand, one last neon post-it between his fingers.

An inhale.

He asks: “What is the difference between a unilateral and a bilateral contract?”

Your mouth opens. “Easy. Bilateral is when both parties—wait. No. Uh… One party—”

He raises an eyebrow.

You point at his forehead. “Don’t you dare smug-post-it me.”

“I’m ready,” he sing-songs.

You glare. Think. Close your eyes, shake it off, regroup. Then say, crisp and clear: “Unilateral contracts involve one party making a promise in exchange for performance. Bilateral contracts involve mutual promises from both parties. Boom.”

Caleb blinks. “Well well.”

You pluck the post-it from his hand and gently stick it to his lips.

“There,” you say, smug now. “Legal silence.”

He narrows his eyes, lips curved beneath the sticky. Then—because of course—he nudges up slightly, chin tilting. Waiting.

You roll your eyes. “This wasn’t in the terms.”

He just raises his brows. Makes a muffled sound that’s either a plea or a flirt.

You cave. Lean down. Kiss him gently over the paper.

He beams. Victorious.

And you?

You’re smiling into it.

——————————————————————————

The street is quiet when you leave the café. Lights low, air crisp, your heart beating with the steady rhythm of pre-exam delirium and possibly-in-love denial.

Caleb walks you home. He’s warm beside you, close but not overbearing, one hand gently tucked into yours. Every few steps he bumps your shoulder like he can’t help it. At your building, he doesn’t let go right away. Just pulls you into the kind of hug that feels like a bookmark—like he’s saving his place in your story.

“Thanks for letting me help,” he mumbles, voice tucked near your ear. “Even if I turned into a human flashcard stand.”

You laugh, tired. “You volunteered.”

“I volunteered,” he repeats with mock solemnity. “Because I’m trying. I want to be better at this… thing. So—” He pulls back just enough to meet your eyes.

“So trust me tomorrow,” he says. “After the exam. I want to celebrate with you. Just us. No distractions.”

You arch a skeptical brow. “You’ve planned a post-exam celebration?”

“Calling it ‘planned’ might be generous,” he admits, sheepish. “But I want this... Want you. So… say yes?”

You sigh like it’s a burden, but you’re smiling. “Fine. I trust you.”

“Text me when you’re done?”

You nod. “If I survive eight hours of brain-death in an overheated room with zero windows and the collective stench of anxiety.”

He chuckles. “There will be air where we’re going.”

“You’re very confident about that.”

“I promise,” he says. “Lots of it. Just for you and me.”

He winks, then starts to turn. You linger at the door, watching him go.

——————————————————————————

Later, you brush your teeth and stare at yourself in the mirror, toothbrush dangling from your mouth like a white flag of exhaustion. You think about the exhibit list you wrote. The reasons to stay, the reasons to bolt. Maybe your sunk cost analysis wasn’t entirely off. Maybe Exhibit B is starting to look more like evidence… and less like a mistake.

You pad back to bed, already halfway cocooned in the comforter when your phone buzzes on the nightstand.

Dumb Barista: Good luck tomorrow. I believe in you, Golden Girl.

You stare at the screen, heart tipping sideways in your chest.

Then you smile. Just a little.

And tug the comforter tighter around you like it might hold the words in place.

——————————————————————————

It’s hell.

Hours of fluorescent lights, recycled air, and every law student in a five-mile radius typing like their lives depend on it. Your chair squeaks. Your neighbor coughs. Someone behind you is definitely crying through a question about promissory estoppel.

You are five questions in and sinking.

It’s not that you didn’t study. You did. You practically ingested your notes. But now everything is blurring—contract clauses and legal principles swimming in a haze of exhaustion and Caleb’s stupid grin.

You start spiraling.

Maybe if you hadn’t wasted so much time flirting. Maybe if you hadn’t spent your final study night turning Caleb into a human post-it board. Maybe—

And then you remember.

His head in your lap. The post-it notes. The lips.

A question you couldn’t answer yesterday… is the one right in front of you.

The one you’d argued (fondly, and with great dramatic flair) over for ten minutes—half of which were spent debating whether the post-it should go on your wrist or his forehead. You’d gotten it eventually, sort of. But only because Caleb had slowed everything down. Had walked you through the precedent like it was a story, not a ruling. Had said, “You’re overthinking it—just think like a person, not a professor.”

You’d rolled your eyes. Called him infuriating.

But now—now, with your pulse still buzzing and your mind clawing for anything that makes sense—you see it. The same structure. The same ruling. The same exception buried inside that outdated case, now the star of your exam’s final curveball.

And just like that, you solve it.

Because of Caleb.

Because of that dumb argument.

Because of that one post-it you ended up sticking to his hoodie in triumph.

You almost laugh out loud.

Instead, you write.

Like you’ve never written before.

You write like you have a closing argument to win and a future to reclaim. Your fingers fly across the keyboard—citing precedent, building logic, painting your way out of hours of legal hell. Around you, the exam hall is a battlefield of stress: Harv is hunched two rows over, blinking like he’s forgotten what words are; someone coughs like they’re about to expire; the AC is definitely not working.

And still, you write. You finish.

“Dumbass,” you murmur under your breath, “beautiful, helpful, post-it-lipped dumbass.”

The words barely leave your mouth before another thought sneaks in—uninvited but annoyingly true:

Your mom always said that anything you hadn’t learned the day before an exam, you were never meant to learn. That last-minute cramming was for the weak-willed. And yet—

A single post-it note—and another, kissed onto lips you probably shouldn’t still be thinking about—just saved your GPA.

So, sorry Mom. Apparently, one barista with decent penmanship and devastating timing can prove a whole philosophy wrong.

Then, one final period. A breath. A click.

Done. Wrapped in 7.5. Miracles happen.

You nod toward Harv as you gather your things—he’s still sweating, chewing his pen like it might give him answers. You smile, quiet and almost smug, and slip out into the light.

It’s afternoon now. The sun hits like forgiveness. You blink into it, half-dazed, and the world feels… okay. Maybe even good. You should be headed to beers or a party or some post-exam brain-wipe. That’s what past-you would’ve done. Let the trauma of legalese drain out through overpriced IPAs and shitty dance floors.

But not this time.

This time, you have different plans.

This time, you trusted Caleb—just a little.

So you pull out your phone and text him:

You: done. barely survived. brain is mush.

His reply comes immediately.

Dumb Barista: i know. i can see you.

You stop walking, heart skipping. You glance around the parking lot—scanning.

Nothing.

You: ???

And before you can type another word, your phone rings. You answer with your shoulder, rummaging in your bag with one hand and trying to reapply lip gloss with the other.

He laughs. That familiar, low sound that hits you right in the spine.

“Is that the shiny one? The one that tastes like candy?” You can hear the smirk. “You’re cruel, Golden girl.”

The applicator freezes mid-swipe. “How do you even know I’m—?”

“Ouch,” he says, mock-wounded. You can practically hear him clutching his chest. “Do I really look that different without the espresso machine in front of me?”

You shift the phone against your ear, tiptoeing slightly to look over the lot.

“I’m hurt,” he deadpans. “Deeply. Is it the car? Is the car too cool for me?”

“You—wait, what?”

And oh.

You walked right past him.

Because apparently, your favorite barista-slash-bad-idea just completed a full evolution.

There he is—leaning against a Lamborghini. Actual. Lamborghini. Black bomber jacket. White t-shirt. Cool jeans that should not fit that well but absolutely do. Sunglasses. Iced coffee in hand. The kind of vision that makes you feel like you accidentally walked onto the set of a cologne commercial.

You nearly drop your phone.

Your law-student-on-the-verge outfit suddenly feels like a crime against fashion. Your sneakers feel like clown shoes. You approach, trying to salvage your dignity. “Let me guess,” you call out. “Couldn’t land the jet from aviation school, so you rented a four-wheeled spacecraft instead?”

He grins.

“I’ve always wanted to drive one,” he says, not even pretending to play it cool. “So yeah, I rented it. Bucket list vibes. Also, figured you deserved a proper post-exam getaway vehicle.”

Caleb kicks off the sleek black Lambo like it’s no big deal—like this isn’t a wildly impractical flex for someone who still owes you a coffee punch card. White t-shirt stretched perfectly over his chest like the universe aligned just to test your willpower.

Then he holds out the massive takeaway cup. “Made this before I left work. Triple shot, splash of sweet cream, caramel drizzle. The ice hasn’t melted yet. Thought I’d reward the future top-of-the-class. You’re welcome.”

You blink down at it.

“This is a trap.”

“Trap or love letter,” he says, tugging open the passenger door, “depends on your interpretation.”

You climb in—still stunned, still short-circuiting. The interior smells like new leather and impending bad decisions. You take a sip. It tastes like heaven and pure irresponsibility.

Honestly? He could’ve skipped the emotional sandwich labyrinth and just done this from the start.

But then again… Maybe this version of him, this date, this moment—only exists because of that chaos. So you lean back in the seat and smile. It’s summer break. And this? This is what investment in emotionally confusing men apparently yields.

Your sunk cost analysis? Not bad. Not bad at all.

Caleb pulls on his seatbelt—then pauses. Glances over at you.

One arm crosses over your body as his hand finds the seatbelt. His fingers brush your side—just barely—but it’s enough to steal your breath. You freeze, hyper-aware of everything: his closeness, his calm, the way his brow furrows in quiet focus as he pulls the strap across your lap.

The nylon drags over your skin. The metal buckle clicks into place like a gavel. But he doesn’t move. His face is still there. You could count every freckle. Every eyelash.

And then the scent hits.

Clean metal. Cedar. Something darker—his cologne, probably—but it’s softened by what’s unmistakably him: espresso, cinnamon, the ghost of caramel. The smell of all the coffees he’s made you. The smell of the café, your table, every moment that led to this.

His fingers rest lightly on the strap for a beat too long. Then he leans back, like he’s peeling himself out of orbit. And when he finally glances at you?

“There,” he hums, voice low. “Safety first, Golden Girl.”

Familiar. Infuriating. Unfairly good.

“Sooo,” he says, casual, breezy, entirely too cool for someone who just rented a Lambo on a Friday.

“You like the beach?”

——————————————————————————

Well, are you gonna dance on the line with me?

You know it's not a game or a fantasy

And I don't even know who I used to be

But nothing is the same and some things have to change now

——————————————————————————

Part 14 tbc…?

——————————————————————————

Writer’s note: IIIIIIHHH AAAAA we’re so back, aren’t we?! I’m seriously so excited for golden girl right now. Yes, yes, I know Caleb was a total dummy, but LISTEN!!! I’m having way too much fun mending their relationship, and suddenly my original plan of dddducking it all up is making perfect sense again. I really hope it clicks for you too, dear reader, because I absolutely love the dynamic of two people trying, failing, and choosing to be better for each other. Anyway! Let me know if you want more, I’m already sketching out the next arc huhuhu. I think I’ll be dabbling a little into possessive/protective territory with our dear fictional man, hehe. Have a lovely weekend, and I’ll shut up now 🫶🏻 this arc was fueled by fall for me and past self by ST. You’re welcome lol.

[riddlerosehearts]

WIP Game

Got tagged to do this by @ranger-jahen, thank you!

Rules: post the names of all files in your WIP folder regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell us about it.

okay, here's what i've got in my google docs right now lol:

(to the moon) the stars pleaded: stay

blackstaff ball flashback fic

five times elenion performed to protect himself (and one time he didn't need to)

starweave wedding fic

Untitled document (very descriptive, i know)

technically only two of these documents are for actual things that i'm actively working on!! which... is still two more fics than i ever expected to actively be working on haha. but the other three have at least a couple of story-like scenes and dialogue snippets in them and are things i very much want to start seriously working on at some point so i included them in here as well.

Tagging: @ignistigator @waterdhaviancheeses @optimisticgrey @rdekarios @window-on-the-west @nerdallwritey and anyone else who writes, not just for bg3 but other fandoms as well, and wants to do this! i'm sure there's more people i could tag for this who i'm leaving out because my mind is blanking haha.

[strixamans]

WIP folder ask game

Since @alwaysmauria [update: and now @dramaticchimpmunk] tagged me, I might as well admit that I don't have a "WIP folder" so much as an assortment of documents strewn between two google accounts and my notes app. But! I will list the ones that correspond to current or future WIP's (a couple of these docs are blank, and some are chapters of larger works).

rules: make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous and tag as many people as you have WIPs. People send an ask with the title that most intrigues them, then you post a snippet or tell them something about it!

Wild Earth, Where We Made Love

Jury duty 5

jury duty 7 - verdict- song of afternoon

Certified Public Accountant

Fucking Your Friends

The Owl Sings at Night (tbd)

Closing Shift (@vakariansyndrome 😏)

Solarium

devour me

I'm pretty sure some of you have already been tagged in this, but whatever. @dramaticchimpmunk @schuldigkun @shandoratheexplorer @deadly-diminuendo @katywuethrich

[dan-whoell]

thank you for the tag @antiadvil

WIP TAG GAME 🌿

rules: make a new post with the names of all the files in your wip folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have wips

ahhh okay, so, i don't have a wip folder as much as i have about a billion half formed things floating around in my google docs. there's also a total mix of fanfic for multiple fandoms and original fiction. but the last 10 wips ive worked on are:

you were the one thing i got right

stars

dog

It starts with an overcrowded train and a Jansport backpack.

birthday

the start of something new

fairway conversations

LOST LETTERS TO PAST LOVES

chyan- workplace?

The B-Plot- Chyan

a couple of these were just Untitled Documents but i went with the first line as a title. also like half of these are hsm fics but it is what it is. i love that i can tell the exact moment i really started writing phanfic, bc it becomes only that at the top, especially with the two finished ones i omitted.

uhhhh i know i should be able to think of ten people to tag but my mind is so blank rn, so im just gonna say whoever hasn't been tagged and wants to do this!

[vattasref]

Xkit Rewritten settings across devices?

just a v quick little guide (with pictures!) for people who don't know how to transfer their XKit rewritten settings across their devices easily

(putting it under a cut because I've added alot of images and it takes up alot of room)

this is a pretty beginner guide, all you need to know/be able to do is to sign in across devices with the same account to access bookmarks or Google Docs on both devices, or just manually copy the Pastebin link

alternatively, you can use this basic recommended setup I made for a friend, to save you a little time, and tweak the settings to suit your needs

I'm running Google Chrome, but there's a Firefox version of XKit Rewritten too, and this should work the same

I've tested this so far on a Windows laptop, Chromebook and a Steam Deck, and all are working perfectly

here's a tutorial on getting Google Chrome on the Steam Deck (and getting it to open in Game Mode if you prefer that)

here's a tutorial on a workaround to use XKit Rewritten on mobile Firefox browser mode

I'm currently writing up my own tutorial on getting XKR to work on mobile, along with Chromium based browsers

(XKit Rewritten = XKR for simplicity)

my XKR backup is too long to paste into in a new Text Post and Save as Draft, which is usually my go to for saving/hosting things for Tumblr, and trying to check if I can add it to a new page on my blog crashes the tab/Chome entirely on both my Chromebook and my Steam Deck, so neither of these options are viable

On the Exporting Device

go to your addons bar, select the XKit Rewritten "X" icon, backup, then "copy all"

Pastebin method:

open pastebin, "+ paste", paste the code/text log into the box, and "Create New Paste". you don't need to add any tags or be signed in for this. you can leave everything blank

bookmark this text file and save it as something obvious like "xkit backup", for example. save it to a bookmark folder or just your bookmarks bar. not important as long as you can find it again

on the device you want to import the settings to, open the bookmarked page, then select all the text by selecting the "raw" option, click in the text somewhere and hit CTRL+A, CTRL+C. this will highlight all the text and copy it

Google Docs method:

open Google Docs and log in with your Google Account. hit the big "+", "Create a New Document", and paste your code/text log in here. Save as something you'll remember like "xkit backup" for example

(you can bookmark this Doc for ease of finding, but it will be the last file in your list until you add more Docs)

on the device you want to import the settings to, open the Google Doc, Select all text either by selecting "Edit", then "Select All", Right click, then "Copy", or just hitting CTRL+A, CTRL+C

On the Importing Device:

open the XKR addon tab again, "Backup", this time "Import", then paste the text into the box. When you hit "Restore" it'll say "Successfully restored"

refresh your Dashboard and you should have all your settings restored!

Remember if you're transferring to a different blog, such as between RP Blogs, you will have all the tags and filters from your other blog, so you may need to go in and fiddle with those, but overall it's easier to import your existing settings than to start over from scratch!

[sorcerous-caress]

hope this isn't weird to ask but how long have you been writing and how old are you? did you ever take any courses related to writing or have you been improving through writing as a hobby?

Hey it's not weird at all, I'll happily answer!

I'm 20 years old, and I have been writing non-continuously since I was 12.

My first fic was written with colon punctuation for spoken dialogue instead of quotation marks bc I didn't know what those were at the time. For example:

Bob: nice weather we're having today (he said with a smile)

Bob2: I signed the divorce papers, they're on the counter. (Sighing at the other's stubbornness)

I posted it on wattpad.

Afterwards, I never wrote anything else, but I learned about Ao3 and kept enganging in fandom spaces. At 14, I joined roleplaying group chats, which made me think and write faster to keep the rp going. Eventually, it became one on one rp with another person where we would take our chat history log, freshen it up a bit, then post it as a fic.

By 16, I joined a fandom server with a semi serious writing subcategory in it. People more experienced and much older than me would beta for other's story. It's where I picked up the habit to write drafts in google docs so I can easily share the link for a beta reader to add suggestions to.

I still haven't written another fic by then, not by myself, at least. I got very insecure at the time about my writing and lack of knowledge. Mind you, I joined the server, not knowing what punctuation was. It took several beta readers adding punctuation for me until it finally clicked that I should use it.

It felt like I was an outcast in a way? Sure, everyone treated me just as nicely as others there, but I noticed the little things that added up over time. Like how no one would react or talk about the stories I post, but if someone else shares theirs, then the entire server gushes over it. Or how one time I reacted to my own story with an emoji, only for someone else to mention how it's me who clicked it and I shouldn't do that. It was a very unhealthy environment for a 16-year-old surrounded by 30-20 years old, but I stuck to it because I wanted to improve my writing.

Even if I was ignored, they'd still beta for me as a chance to offer "constructive criticism." Artists can be very petty when a low skilled person joins them.

My skills improved, and I posted my second fic! It was nothing remarkable, but it felt like the first stone into the stairway of improvement, yk? I loved that fic, it was my crowning jewel.

But as a result, I started to hate writing. It was a struggle, I'd spend hours on two sentences while others on the server were bragging about their 50k fics. I hated my own inability to perform better, to write better.

I got sick of reading my own writing from the number of times I'd rewrite it in an attempt to format it better. I couldn't even bare look at other's writing or read fanfics on AO3 because I'd always compare their writing to mine. Break their style down and analyse it in an attempt to spot what I'm doing wrong.

I left the server eventually, abruptly too. It was for the better.

I swore off of writing.

For two years, that was true. I gradually came to reading fanfics again, but just looking at a blank document was enough to get me nauses.

By 18, Aot happened, and the boom in x reader fanfics.

Everything I've written up to this point has been ships. Not once did I consider the idea of an x reader. For a while, I used to scoff at it and label it as cringe, as if the ship fanfics I was reading wasn't cringe either. Elitism, I tell you.

I saw these request blogs and how posting on tumblr seemed less intimidating than AO3. How intimate it felt to have an anon talk to you about your own fic that you wrote for them, to have people discussing your writing and stories with you! And they ask for more!

Sign me tf up.

I started my first writing blog, and I didn't know shit. I learned as I went. The new formatting, the tumblr tag system, creating a masterlist.

How important presentation is in here.

In AO3, your fic has the same chance of being read as any other one. Only your description is there to judge it by. But on tumblr? The shiny bookcover was almost as important as the material inside. In here, you have to market your own fic, present it with a lovely bow on top, add a pretty eyecatching header, and all the right trending tags.

Luckily, it clicked easy for me. I used free domian paintings from past centuries to make my covers, and they stood out amongst the anime cover galore. It was a little pretentious, I admit, but I also was a little pretentious, so it's alright.

I played my cards right, answered requests enthusiastically, and delivered fics at a fast rate. Paid attention to what styles worked best and what genres attracted more attention. At that point, it was a numbers game for me. Play marketing right, and you'll win at capitalism.

It felt very degrading and dirty.

My personal style fazed out, and my fics had a sanitised safe for mass consume feel to it. It was written to appeal to you rather than written out of any real love or passion.

It was soulless garbage.

Not to mention at the time I still used the same unhealthy and needlessly convoluted writing method I learned from that server. Yes I cut ties with them but I still didn't have any other alternative writing method to use.

What's that? Just write however I want? Are you crazy? What like my 12y old self wrote on wattpad? My 18y old self would rather die than actually be true to themselves.

I was extremely insecure and afraid of being labelled as "cringe" I completely ereased any stray stains of personality that managed to trickle their way down into my writing. Not once did I write for myself during that time, and not once did I actually enjoy a single piece I made.

I hated all of them, I couldn't bear to even read the fics I wrote. But I still made more and more to appease the requesters, still forced myself to sit and write each morning for hours on end.

A tight timeline, an exhausting production and no friends or hobbies to fall back into and relax. It was a fucking nightmare.

What ircked me the most was how people would just keep requesting more without a thank you or even a fuck you afterwards. It's like it's a fast food drive-through and I should be grateful for any attention I get.

But I never said a word. I never complained because complaining drives away people and engagement. No, I needed to keep my happy chill imagine and never show any emotion or talk about my struggles in real life or writing.

Instead of realising I hated my writing because of its lack of essence and soul, I convinced myself instead that it's because my skill level is still too low.

So I searched online. I found writing courses I couldn't afford, and neither could I ask my family for money for anything at the time because of personal reasons.

So I put on my pirate hat.

Apparently, people don't bother uploading the scam writing tips courses to pirate websites. That's fair.

Instead, I pirated books from famous authors talking about writing. Read them and tried to apply their methods, ignored my own preferences, and wrote to fit their subjective standards of what good writing is.

I signed up for free trials courses that didn't require a credit card and copied every single file into my hard drive before the trail ended.

I had so much material to study. I watched youtube videos about writing. I really really tried everything I could.

But I still loathed every fucking word I put down on these pages.

And I hated how a general advice in writing was to "follow your heart" what is that supposed to mean? I can't do that. Others do not like my heart, It has been proven many times before so how about you just give me some useful advice instead you useless wrinkled piece of shit book?

.

..

...

You can't force or fake creativity.

You can fake an elegant writing style, you can copy interesting lines from famous books and apply them to your own writing, you can include every trendy word in all the right places.

But you can't fake creativity.

I wished I was 12 again. Writing fics on wattpad, where my style was worse than garbage, and yet I loved it. People loved it.

Because it was garbage with a soul, a garbage that had empty chocolate milk bottles and spilt sprinkles. A garbage that showed personality and where my priorities were. With kids' fingerprints in colourful paint and a toddler's fridge artpiece.

A garbage that mirrored my love for the art.

And I ruined it. I traded it all for stupid punctuation that I didn't even care for.

I was happy.

Like every other probome in my life, I ran away.

I hit my breaking point. The requests were never ending, the studying and writing books were getting more and more pretentious and contradicting themselves. I barely had time to eat, I don't talk to people or go outside.

I do not have the time for anything, I missed having friends.

I left the blog. I stopped writing, it was too anxiety inducing.

I got into videogames again, I enjoyed the text heavy ones. I chose to ignore what that implied.

They were so...beautiful.

And fun!

I made some friends, I was happy for a while.

Then, one of my favourite characters in my video game mentioned missing their parents, how hard the funeral was.

It hit home.

I'm not writing, I convinced myself with a lie, I'm just gonna put down my thoughts on them...in a google document.

See just around 1k words, easy peasy. I AM NOT WRITING. It doesn't count.

But I did write it. Not with any calculated formula or method. I wrote my thoughts like how I hear them in my head and what I felt, what I imagined the character would feel.

Then, I added some dialogue, trimmed the corners, and sprinkled in euphemism.

It was simple and bare, vulnerable.

I posted it. It never got much traction.

But I was happy, I liked it, even loved it and kept rereading it.

I was 19.

I nervously showed it to my friend. They mentioned how much they can't stand reading books or fics because the words overwhelm them courtesy of their ADHD.

But they managed to read mine. Very smoothly.

Because my style, my own personal style that is set to my preference, makes me write in small paragraphs and straightforward. I never linger on details or focus on one thing for too long, I always give breaks and seperate events from each other.

And it clicked for this one person who struggled with reading, a style that will get criticism in any serious writing circle for being too simple or childish.

They liked it.

I hate needless convolution.

I just turned 20 years old, I asked for Baldur's Gate 3 early access as my birthday gift.

I received it, I played it.

I fell in love with its writing.

Then I made this blog, and I promised myself not to follow rabbits into any holes again. To reject the requests I don't want, to write because I love to, because I find it interesting or fun.

To never feel obligated to any thing or person. Only write if I want to, only post it if I want to. And if I don't want to? Then I simply won't.

And yes this blog gets much less attention than my first one but the people in here, the anons and my readers, they interact much more with me and my writing. It feels much better to have a handful of people genuinely excited and curious about your stories than a hundred people who would only leave likes and leave.

I have never touched a writing course or a helpful book since then. I block every writing tips blog, I see. I hate each and every single post about writing tricks and immediately skip past it.

I don't care if I improve anymore. I don't care if people don't read my stuff. I do not care if my style degenerates so much and reverts back to wattpad. All I care about is the fact I love writing and I enjoy it, I plan to keep it this way.

-

It's also funny that I'm writing in English since I when I first started writing at 12 it was in Arabic. My first fic? In Arabic.

And I was willing to go down that road yk. Keep true to my heritage and culture, write in my own beautiful language.

But. I wrote about queer topics and stories. Homophobia is still a massive thing in our society. My story was more infamous and taboo than famous and beloved.

I had so many people coming to my dms to "educate" me about religion and sin. How what I'm doing is wrong and the message I'm spreading is haram.

It was funny at first especially when it was the quran that made me want to write in the first place. Because it's actually a collection of poems! It just loses its rhythm when translated to English. It was so beautifully written, I'd listen to it always as a kid.

But then those dms became unbearable and I decided to learn english to join the western fandoms instead. A 12y old just deciding to fuck it and learn a whole new language to write gay fics.

A lot of my struggles in writing at 12-17 was because I was still learning English at the time.

This was fun. Thank you so much for asking this, anon! I had the chance to reminisce about the past.

I made so many mistakes. But I'd rather having made them and reached this point of content with myself than not having made them at all.

[emeraldlupin]

How to Format on AO3

Random thought that popped into my head, but sometimes, when I read stuff on Archive of Our Own (AO3), I see stories with extra lines between paragraphs. Have you ever seen that in your own work, those huge gaps? You don't need them, and it adds excess space to the work.

If you have seen them, then there's an easy way to get rid of them, and add a little polish on your story's readability. Here's how.

You'll need is access to Microsoft Word, whether it is the program you use to write your work, or if you use writing software like Scrivener where you can compile a Word document. Whether Google Docs works out with this method, I don't know.

Once you go to Post New Story/Chapter page of AO3, fill out everything you need, and then go down to the Work Text section. Then follow these steps.

Make sure the Work Text section is set to Rich Text Editor.

Copy your story's text from Word into the Work Text section. Do NOT post the story yet.

Switch from the Rich Text Editor to HTML

Select everything in the Work Text section (now in HTML form) and cut it out.

Open up a blank Word document and paste the text there. You will notice that between each of your story's paragraphs, there is a set of empty paragraph tags, or < p > < / p >. I had to put extra spaces inside the angled brackets to keep it from being invisible. I think there IS a space between the opening and closing tags. Copy one of these sets just to make sure you have it exactly.

In Word, go to "Replace" (You will find it on the top right). Use it to find all instances of those empty paragraph tag sets and replace them with nothing.

Copy the text and paste it back into AO3 (still set to HTML).

Those empty paragraph tags are automatically generated by the site. Once you get rid of them, you will reduce those excessive space between paragraphs into normal spaces, presuming you put a single empty line between paragraphs, which YOU SHOULD.

I know it sounds like a lot, but it's really quite simple and easy. It literally takes a minute or two. Trust me, I've done this a lot.

I should also add that there could still be a hiccup or two. Paragraphs that end in italics can result in a set of empty paragraph tags mixed with an italics tag, so you should give your story a quick readthrough to see if there are still any extra spaces between paragraphs, and fix those manually.

That is all.

[beatrice-otter]

22, 40, 73!

For the record, I really prefer when people quote the meme, because I do not always manage to remember that I need to open it in a tab so that I can go through and reference it and figure out what they're asking. It's all good this time, because I did remember to open it in a new tab and it's this one, but for future reference!

22. describe your writing process from scratch to finish.

That varies depending on the story. Let's go with a fairly common writing process when I'm writing fic for exchanges, which I do a lot of because if I don't have a deadline I rarely actually ... finish anything.

My first step is reading through their signup to see what we matched on. If I'm lucky, they'll have given prompts, at least one of which will resonate with me. (Lists of tropes they like are pretty much useless to me; I have never once gotten inspired by a list of tropes.) If they haven't given any prompts, or haven't given any that I groove with, I will let things percolate for a while, going back to re-read the signup.

When I have an idea--and it's usually pretty vague at this point--I copy the stuff from the signup sheet into a blank document and delete the stuff I don't need (DNWs I would never write, prompts I'm not interested in, that sort of thing). With the deadline in bold at the very top. This way I have it all in one place and it's easy to check things. Then I start writing the story, mostly based on vibes at this point.

Usually, once I get actually started writing, my hindbrain will engage and give me stuff to write. Often times in the form of things that have to happen near the middle/end of the story. I will write a skeleton form of those--usually a brief summary of any scene that comes to me--down at the bottom of the document in italics, in the order things need to happen in the story. Once I know where I'm aiming at, I can usually get there with minimal problems. As I get to stuff in my summary/outline, I delete it because it's no longer necessary.

When there's stuff I need to research or decide--names of OCs, canon details I've forgotten, rl stuff I don't know off the top of my head--I put that in brackets and move on, so I don't get stuck. So instead of trying to figure out a name, I just write [CHARACTER1] and then when I'm done with the story I can take the time to pick a name without it derailing me from writing, and then do a replace-all.

When I'm done with the story and have gone back and filled in everything set aside with brackets, I send it off to betas if I can. There's rarely any major changes needed, but sometimes there will be fandom specific stuff (pronouns in TGE fics my beloathed), and also, by this point I usually hate the fic and/or think it is the worst fic anyone's ever written, so I need the reassurance that it's actually fine. Also, I have a problem with endings. As in, my natural tendency is to stop without wrapping things up very well, so I can never tell "is this a decent ending, or does it need something else to tie it together."

Then once I've gone through and made the changes suggested by my beta, I save the fic as a .txt file and do an advanced find-and-replace in Word to put in the html codes and copy-paste it into the AO3 Work Text box (HTML, not rich text). Here's a tutorial on doing html code by find-and-replace, it works with most word processing software except google docs.

Then comes the agonizing part, choosing a title. And usually it stops me cold and I spend hours going through poetry websites and quote websites and hitting refresh on a couple of title generators until I come up with something that I don't hate with the passion of a thousand burning suns. (Sometimes I give up and go with something I hate.)

Then I tag the fic, using this checklist to make sure I don't miss anything important.

Then I hit post!

40. best piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten.

If you mean feedback as in "writing advice" I have no idea. If you mean feedback as in "comment left on a fic" the one I remember most clearly the joy of receiving is this one.

73. how do you visualize scenes? do you see it like a movie in your head, or do the words just flow?

I do not visualize anything, like ever. That is not how my brain works.

I hear the scene--the dialogue--and will pace back and forth saying each character's dialogue in turn. Or lie in bed telling the story to myself, mostly in the form of dialogue.

When I started writing, one of the things that was hardest for me was to learn how to put in the visual things that other people need--scene descriptions, facial expressions and body language, you name it. A very early beta once told me that she felt like the characters were disembodied voices in a featureless white space, and this would not work for most people. They were right.

[au-drayton-shenanigans]

//(warning for unreality. this blog posts like it's from another world. ask for other tags. things can get dark around here too) Do not spam like please. Ran by @protokirby pinned post last updated: 7/21/2025

Hello rotomblr! It's the Drayster here, but my friends who are other Draytons call me cloak guy! Most of us are still technically named Drayton. We use nicknames to be less confusing. Ever wonder what kind of chaos would come from multiple Draytons existing near each other? Well wonder no more! We're in the "dimension travel is an everyday technology" part of the multiverse!

Right now, there are 25 of us including myself. We will make ourselves known by emojis. Here's a quick list!

🦉Cloak guy.ㅤ🦊Beast.ㅤ🦇Bat.ㅤ🐛Wizard.ㅤ 🐀Voidray.ㅤ🐟Fish.ㅤ💜Drayka.ㅤ🎃Nightmare.ㅤ ⭐️Abra-Star.ㅤ💻Draystermon.ㅤ🐶Drayteon.ㅤ🐱Lucky.ㅤ ❔notyarD.ㅤ🩸Draycula.ㅤ🐺Howl.ㅤ💥Atomic. ❄️Minty.ㅤ🪐Murph.ㅤ🦖Nocturne.ㅤ💡Plague.ㅤ 🦂Sting.ㅤ💎Tanzanite.ㅤ🐮Taur.ㅤ🐌Woe.ㅤ 💫Drazy.

//More info about the au Draytons under the keep reading. Their personalities don't always align with canon. //This is a multi-muse blog. If you don't specify who an ask is for, I may choose randomly or go by vibes. Usually cloak guy. //mun has poor social skills and is tired a lot. I'm trying my best so please be patient with me and let me know gently if i do something wrong. I like using pink text for describing actions. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please check this google doc for rules: (https://docs.google.com/document/d/10DS3jk183gpAq0T-OH6K2QOIP45Yea5A8BPQpB1luqQ/edit?usp=sharing) There are other things there too, but the only thing required to know are the rules.

List of sillies:

Cloak guy 🦉(image) Unpredictable and mischievous, though he has a secretly strong sense of justice. He tries to keep any helpfulness secret if he can. He has his reputation as a horrible monster to uphold after all. He has plenty of enemies he intentionally made around the multiverse and sometimes he has another scar that wasn't there before. Doesn't know how to shut up sometimes. Often spouts nonsense for fun

~~~~~~~~~

Beast 🦊(image) Very chill, extremely friendly. Nearly impossible to upset him at all. Often has a blank stare. Thinks math is fun (ew) and has a photographic memory to a seemingly impossible degree. His weakness is how much he cares about cloak guy.

~~~~~~~~~

Bat 🦇 (image) An apocalypse almost-survivor who has died at least once yet lives on because cloak guy did something. Bat is similar to a vampire though he isn't one. Anything other than blood, bones, or raw flesh is toxic to him. He feels guilty that he has to eat at the expense of others. There are folks who care about him and offer their wrist for him to get a small drink from but if he's in one of his moods, he'll even refuse that. He is married and has children.

~~~~~~~~~

Wizard 🐛(image) Snobby rich high elf who's at the top of his class in magic school even though he's doing nothing just because he has a rare and powerful form of magic with various unique abilities. One of those abilities lets him freely shapeshift and his favorite transformation is a giant centipede.

~~~~~~~~~

Voidray🐀(image) Voidray is his real name instead of a nickname. A tiny weak imp with too much anger for his size. Imagine something like a really vicious chihuahua dog. And he's remarkably stupid. He has venom he can inject using either his claws or his teeth. Can temporarily turn into an ink creature to become stronger and to match the size of the average Drayton.

~~~~~~~~~

Fish🐟(image) A merman who's playful and mischievous, but he means well. Tends to be rude by accident a lot. He isn't always aware of what could be taken the wrong way. He's often seen napping in the water, either floating at the surface or curled up on the floor of whatever body of water he's in.

~~~~~~~~~

Drayka💜(image) A girl version of Drayton. Drayka is her real name and not a nickname. Although she can easily be influenced by cloak guy's chaos and is likely to join in, she's pretty normal when she's in her home universe. She can't use magic like most of the others.

~~~~~~~~~

Nightmare 🎃(image)<-blood warning on that. An isekai victim who went through the horrors. Now known as the sovereign of nightmares and lives in a universe where "nightmare type" pokemon are a thing. He is dead in his old universe and lives on in another, supernaturally locked from going home. But whether or not he's actually alive is a mystery. Scared easily.

~~~~~~~~~

Abra-Star ⭐️(image) (fanfiction) A superhero with the powers of an abra due to being experimented on. Some days he sleeps as much as an abra too. Hero-ing is hard work ya know ^w^

~~~~~~~~~

Draystermon 💻 (image) Someone who got transported with a group of friends to the digimon world. He met a digimon called Dorumon and had to save the digital world from a threat alongside it and his friends.

~~~~~~~~~

Drayteon 🐶 (image) Dragon type eeveelution. A normal Drayton previously, he got pokemon mystery dungeon'ed into an Eevee but had an unexpected evolution.

~~~~~~~~~

Lucky 🐱(image) A Drayton with Meowth ears and a tail. He can turn into a Meowth and loves money and shiny things.

~~~~~~~~~

Everyone added on April 1st 2025 (❔notyarD, 🩸Draycula, 🐺Howl, 💥Atomic, ❄️Minty, 🪐Murph, 🦖Nocturne, 💡Plague, 🦂Sting, 💎Tanzanite, 🐮Taur, 🐌Woe) Imgur: The magic of the Internet

~~~~~~~~~ Drazy 💫 (Post I made for him) A dragon-fairy who's very mischievous :)

I have a discord server for roleplay

[shadowgast-recs-weekly]

Reccing Blog Tools

I figured now would be a good time to share what we use to make posting recs each week less of a pain in the hopes that people will copy what we do here.

THE SHORT VERSION: Google form -> Google Sheet -> Mail Merge to a markdown format -> copy and paste to tumblr.

The long version is long mostly because the google suite doesn't have native mail merge, so I wrote my own. Plus some small formatting/fiddly bits.

There's four documents involved:

1) A google form. Here's a copy of what I use. But honestly, this part feels pretty intuitive.

2) A google sheet with all the responses. Here's a clean, commented copy of what we use. I'm storing all of themes and a script to execute the mail merge. This is the one that's got all the bells and whistles in it.

3) A google doc with whatever formatting you want to use. Here's a copy of what I'm using. If you're doing mail merge a different way, you might not need this one.

4) A second google doc that's going to hold the output from the mail merge. It's a blank google doc. Just open up a new one and save it something you'll remember in the future. (used for mail merge, might not be needed if you do it a different way).

Okay, what's this about mail merge?

So the mail merge is used to help save a lot of time with formatting - by taking the responses in the spreadsheet and plopping the information as specified in the formatting document above (3).

I'm usually a word user, so I didn't realize that mail merge isn't really a thing in google docs. There's extensions that you can do to use mail merge, but a lot of them seemed to be assuming one would be using mail merge to send email, so I thought it'd be faster for me to just write my own version. It's in the spreadsheet, under the tab that says 'script'. Feel free to use an extension! It'll work just as well.

Note: You'll have to copy the script into the google sheet (under extensions). The first time you try to run it, google will send you a warning that this is an unverified script - go under advanced options and then read the fine print at the bottom. If it makes you feel any better, here's a youtube video that explains the entire script from start to finish.

So what are the actual steps?

Put this week's theme in both Question 1 of the google form and Themes!F2 in the google sheet.

Send out the form, let people do recs

Go over to the formatting tab on the google sheet. Make any changes needed.

Run the mail merge script.

Open a tumblr post, click on the gear on the top right and make sure the text editor is in markdown.

Paste what's in the second google doc (doc #4 above) into tumblr.

Preview, add graphics, tags, post

Choose the next theme from Themes!C3 and we're back to #1

So go forth! Make your own! Improve on this, and make it work for your own communities!

Special thanks to the reccers on AiFL who submit recs every week, and @professor-rye who does the graphics, as what they do on a weekly basis probably takes more time than running this every week.

[spockandawe]

😍 I’ve been scrolling through your blog all evening, your work is BEAUTIFUL! I had no idea you could make books look so gorgeous. I’ve been interested in book binding for quite a while, but have been intimidated to take the first step. How did you get into it? Did you take classes, or follow something online? Or, do you already have a post where you talk about that? Seeing your work makes it seem so worth it, even if it seems intimidating to tackle 💖💖

Oh my goodness, than you so much!!! Sometimes I feel like I have a long ways to go, but then sometimes I take a step back and say, hey, this IS fairly rad, isn't it!

But I completely know what you mean about the craft seeming intimidating. I am here to tell you that the way it feels too overwhelming to get started is one of the main speed bumps about this craft, including for leveling up while inside it. I've got a number of projects I'm wrestling in terms of intimidation right now, even though I know I've dealt with this before, and what I do is probably going to be just FINE. Books are such, like.... iconic objects, it's hard to look at a fancy one and decide that you can totally do that too. But this is honestly a craft where I have an easier time encouraging beginners than many of my others, and I've got resources for you.

Where I got started!! It was honestly super trivial stuff, my dad doesn't love reading documents on his computer for work, and he showed me how he was printing off booklets and folding them in half and doing a line of stitches down the middle, and I was like '...........SO IF I WANTED TO PRESERVE A WEBNOVEL--' and things WENT from there. I started with what I could scrounge up on google, but there are better options, and a LOT of them, and a thriving ficbinding community which is pretty good (on tumblr at least) about sharing resources with each other.

So, what I'm about to go into here is largely focused on ficbinding and webnovels and other books with CONTENT, I know some people have a great time making blank notebooks, but my mind has always slid off those. If you're intimidated by the steps involved in formatting text for printing, that may be something you enjoy!!

I think I've got a few asks about this in my spock-replies or my bookbinding tag that go over similar information in different form, but this was the first one I tripped across, with my personal rundown of what I would use to get started with a casebound book (which is most of what I've done. If you're intimidated by a full hardcover with a covered spine, then a coptic bound book will provide similar function, with different construction and an open spine, but I still haven't gotten off my ass to do one of those yet, so I don't have resources on hand. I found my footing using Sealemon's videos, not just the one linked but some of the others as well. I tend to make beefy books that aren't suited to decorative binding styles, but I want to try that, someday. But I also have like ten projects in progress and things are kind of oh-god-let-me-off-mr-toad's-wild-ride, so... not yet.

After I got comfortable with Sealemon, I dug into the DAS bookbinding channel, which is a DELIGHT. The guy who runs the channel is incredibly chill and soothing to listen to, and he knows so much and has SUCH an archive of different techniques and styles. I still haven't gotten super adventurous, and honestly this is still a channel where I get intimidated about trying something new, but there's material that's not an intricate four-part series, there's things like doing a pamphlet binding. Other youtube channels with bookbinders tend to be very helpful as well, and some like annesi binding tackle cool topics that can be hard to find elsewhere. Part of the trouble with bookbinding is that a ton of cultures developed similar ideas independently and riffed on them for CENTURIES, so there is unimaginable variety in the creative space. Video works better for me to understand how it goes than written accounts do, but it's a huge space to find a comfortable nest in.

And!! In the middle of all this, i was pointed at @renegadepublishing, which is a community largely focused on ficbinding (but also open to other endeavors as well), and just a lovely place that's been so helpful to me. There are resource documents that I believe are in the sidebar, and I think there's a dreamwidth community as well where I think they've been crossposted. I know some people involved in that community also post on r/bookbinding, though if you're more interested in binding fanfic, there's also an r/ficbinding community that may be more tailored to your passions. I'm delighted that you liked my books, but renegadepublishing regularly reblogs things from other binders that leave me absolutely starry-eyed, and it's fantastic for inspiration as well as education!

Okay, I think that's what I've got for now. That was basically the slippery slide I fell down, where I just desperately wanted to preserve mxtx's books in english, before there was any hint of an official license. That directed me down a path of learning how to make Big Books, and my own attention span drove me to figure out how to do it fast. There was a long youtube spiral while also using the renegade resources to give me a second bonus perspective that helped me understand WHY i was doing certain things. Part of what helped me out is that I have a stubborn thing where 'what do you mean i can't buy X? fine, then i'm going to MAKE X.' and that served me well here. But also, I can't undersell the excitement of holding a book you made from a piece of beloved fanfiction for the first time (no matter how crooked it is!) and opening it, and seeing the words on the page, physically, and shaped like a real book, and that thrill has carried me forward through a year and a half of this nonsense.

[critterfloozy]

Rec Blog Template Creator (For General Use)

A lot of the appeal of hosting a rec blog with other people is sharing the work. I don’t have to spend more than five to ten minutes a week writing anything up, and I automated the formatting, so that’s another five to ten minutes.

But it occurred to me that I could just, like, fill out a single-user version of the google form and just publish it when I got enough responses, or once a month, or something else. And if I filled it out at the same time I wrote a comment, I wouldn’t really have to spend much time thinking about what to write.

So, I modified the google docs I created for @aeor-is-for-reccing​ to be suitable for one person (taking out the themes randomizer, removing some of the duplication work, and adding a pairing field), and I thought I’d share it with everyone else. You can see the original explanation here (or just go to aeor is for reccing, you can see it).

Short version remains: google form -> google sheet -> mail merge to now-html format -> copy and paste to tumblr

We still need four documents for this:

1. The Google Form. This is a copy of the form I use, you can create something that looks like it.  Just go to google drive and create a new form.

2. A Google Sheet with all the responses. The easiest way to create this is to make a copy of this sheet into your own directory, then under google form, select Responses.  There should be an option at the top right to connect or link to a sheet, and then select an already existing sheet - the copy of this sheet you made onto your own drive. You’ll have to reconnect all of the formulas onto your own responses sheet, but there’s an explanation of all of the formulas in the explanation tab to make this easier.

3. A google doc with whatever formatting you want to use. Here's a copy of what I'm using. If you're doing mail merge a different way, you might not need this one. 

4. A second google doc that's going to hold the output from the mail merge. It's a blank google doc. Just open up a new one and save it something you'll remember in the future. (used for mail merge, might not be needed if you do it a different way). 

The Scariest Part - Formatting

I’m formatting these using mail merge, and I wrote my own code to make it work. You can use extensions that do the same thing! I just don’t know which google office suite mail merge extensions are actually designed for creating formatting and not sending mail, and it was faster for me to code than figure that out.

You can find the script under the script for mail merge tab in the google sheet. Copy your forms’ ID where appropriate (it’d be the part after /d/ in the URL - for example the sample google sheet’s ID starts with a 1 and ends with an 8), make any other changes you need to, and then copy the script into the pop up window that shows up with Extensions -> apps script.

The first time you try to run it, google will send you a warning that this is an unverified script - go under advanced options and then read the fine print at the bottom.  If it makes you feel any better, here's a youtube video that explains the entire script from start to finish.

Once it’s set up, how to use:

1. Set a category - doesn’t matter what, into both Question 1 of the google form and Formatting!B2 2. Fill out the form for a while, just when you comment or bookmark on something, whenever you think about it. 3. When ready to post, open up the google sheet and run the mail merge script 4. Open a tumblr post, click the gear in the top right and change the formatting type to html 5. Paste what’s in the output google doc (doc #4) into tumblr 6. Add tags, any graphics you want, a cut, ect, and post! 7. Repeat step 1 with a new category

And that’s it!

[serendipitous-magic]

What is your writing advice for young people who want to write fanfiction and original stories in the near future?

If this is just Way Too Much, skip to the end (#16). My most important piece of advice is there. I also happen to think #5 is pretty good.

-_-_-_-

1) Literally just write. Write whatever you want, and do a lot of it.

_-_

2) You don’t have to post everything. In fact you don’t have to post anything. You can, don’t get me wrong, but it can be intimidating to sit down and think “I will now write something that other people will see and read and judge with their eyeballs.” Because that’s probably gonna lead to nerves and writer's block. Just write down the ideas that you have, the things you want to write, whatever’s in your brain that you want to explore and expand upon and make into something. And then if you want to, share it. Or don’t share it. I have plenty of half-baked ideas and documents and random story chapters and shit hidden away on my Google Drive that will never see the light of day, for a whole number of reasons. I wanted to write it but it wasn’t ~Spicy~ enough to warrant posting, or it’s only like an eighth of a good idea, or it’s like one scene with no story around it, or it’s just something incredibly self-indulgent I just wanted to write for my own enjoyment.

Point being, don’t write for other people. Don’t write so that other people can read it; write what you want, write for yourself, and then if you want to share it, do.

_-_

3) You can pretty much ignore any and all of these for fanfiction. In fact, you can ignore pretty much any rules or guidelines you want for fanfiction. Fanfic is a sandbox. You don’t have to be a “professional writer” to post fic. No one expects you to be Stephen King or Margaret Atwood. Fanfic is just for playing in a fandom and having fun. If you wanna write a 50 chapter slow burn with very little plot aside from the OTP slowly getting to know each other, and no real stakes or central conflict, I guarantee people would read that. Really, fanfiction is the Old West of writing: lawless, wild, unpredictable, and free.

However, here are the rules you must follow:

-Separate your paragraphs. (I’m sure you know this already, but I’m gonna say it anyway just in case.) Do not post one big block of text. Make a paragraph break when someone new is talking, when the characters are in a new place, when a new event occurs that changes the scene, when a chunk of time has passed, and when there’s a major change in subject.

-I know it’s obvious, but... grammar, punctuation, and capitalization. They exist to make writing easy for readers to read, and more people will read your stuff if they don’t have to stop and try to figure out what you meant.

-Use tags and labels, as is possible with whatever site you’re using. Especially if you include possibly triggering content in your story. Again, I know it’s obvious, but it’s common courtesy. Bonus: tagging the themes and content of your story helps readers find it and read it :)

-If possible, limit the use of all-caps and exclamation marks / question marks. 99% of the time, one ! or one ? will do. If you overload the page with a lot of all-caps and long rows of exclamation marks or question marks, it hampers readability.

... That’s literally all I can think of. And, like I said, it’s all pretty basic stuff. You were probably rolling your eyes like, “Uh, yeah, Gwen, I know.” But that’s literally it. You can pretty much do whatever you want in fanfic.

That being said, here’s my advice for both fanfiction and original work...

_-_

4) A quick and dirty rule for coming up with a plot, starting a story, keeping up pacing, or maintaining tension: figure out what dreams, desires, and goals are nearest and dearest to your main character’s heart (see #16). Then set up the main conflict to be directly in opposition to that goal. It doesn’t have to be in a tangible way, though it could be. But, if your main character wants more than anything to reach the ships on the southern coast of your world and sail to a new life, make sure the main conflict immediately prevents them from doing that - in fact, make sure to send them north. If your main character just wants to keep their loved ones safe, kidnap the loved ones. If your main character just wants to date their best-friend-turned-crush, make sure they think they have no chance - or, make them cocky about it, and make sure it makes Person B determined not to ever like them. You get it. Figure out what your character most wants, and then keep them from having that. Boom - your conflict now ties in with your character's motivation. It's like instant yeast for plots.

_-_

5) If you’re anything like me, you want your first draft to be Good, despite all that advice about how the first draft doesn’t have to be good and it’s just to get words on the page, yadda yadda. And if you’re somewhat of a perfectionist (like myself), it’s easy to get stuck looking at a blank page because you don’t have The Perfect Words, and you want what you write to be Good the first time.

Here’s how I cheat that:

Instead of trying to write a Good First Draft from a blank page, hit the enter key a few times, skip a little down on the page, change your ink to red (or blue, or whatever - just something immediately identifiable as Not Black) and just thought vomit. Write whatever the hell you’re thinking, exactly as you think it. Don’t worry about it being readable, don’t worry about narrative flow for now, don’t worry about covering all the details, don’t worry about anything except either a) getting all the details of your idea out onto the page, whether that’s a lot or whether it’s just a sentence or two, or b) if you don’t have an idea yet, finding your way there.

Because this method is also very good for finding your way to ideas when you’re stuck in writer’s block.

Because of how human brains work, getting this stuff out onto the page - in all its messy, stream-of-consciousness glory - will likely spark more thoughts. As you write your original idea about the scene, it’ll likely spark more ideas. Creation begets creation. If you just start thought-vomiting your ideas onto the page, chances are you’ll think of more things as you go, and you’ll start filling out description or dialogue or tone or action or whatever, and pretty soon the scene starts writing itself.

Not sure where you’re going with the scene or which ideas you wanna use? Use a lot of ambivalent language in your “thought-vomit draft.” My pre-writing notes are chock-full of the words “maybe,” “perhaps,” and the phrases, “At some point...” and “...or something like that.” In this way, I don’t tie myself down to one idea; it’s just an idea, and I’m keeping it on the page in case I use it, but I might chuck it in the trash or change it or whatever.

And then, once your ideas for the scene (or story, or chapter, or whatever) are on the page, then go back to the top and start translating them into a “real” first draft. Use black ink, and start copy-pasting chunks of the thought-vomit up into the top part of the document and translating them into Draft 1. Separate out paragraphs where paragraph breaks should be. Add the correct punctuation and whatnot. Change “describe the lobby here - include potted plants, fancy carpet, blood stain, etc.” into an actual description of the lobby. Flesh it out, or condense, or whatever it needs. And if you’re still stuck, change back to red ink and ramble some more until you find a path that feels right, then plug that in. This keeps you from looking at a blank page, and it allows you to generate a kind of Draft 0.5, somewhere between a plan and a first draft.

You don’t have to use every idea. Like I said, jot down whatever comes to mind, put a “maybe” before or after it, and keep working. If the idea grabs you and you wanna keep expanding on it and exploring it, cool. If you just wanna jot it down so you don’t forget it and then move on, also cool. Red-ink draft / “thought-vomit draft” is your time to jump around in the timeline, add or finesse details at whatever point your brain moves to, etc. Don’t try to do it exactly in story order, because you will get tangential thoughts and ideas, and you will not remember to write them down five pages later when you finally get to taking notes on that scene. Trust me. On that note...

_-_

6) Write everything down the moment you think of it. Seriously.

“I’ll remember it when I get around to writing that scene in a couple days / weeks / months (/years).”

You won’t.

Write it down.

Phone, journal, google docs - hell, my family regularly laughs at me for grabbing a napkin during dinner and scribbling thoughts down alongside pasta sauce stains.

And then, once you have it written down somewhere...

_-_

7) Consolidate your writing ideas in one place.

Maybe this isn’t really your style, and that’s totally chill.

Buuuut, if you’re Type-A like me - or if you tend to be somewhat unorganized and you know you’ll lose track of your writing notes if they’re scattered across multiple notebooks, journals, napkins, phone notes, etc. - having one consolidated document of notes is a life saver. I keep mine on Google Docs so I can access it, add to it, and look through it for inspiration anywhere at any time. When I have one of those Shower Thoughts that I jot down on my phone or on a napkin during dinner, I set myself a reminder on my phone to type it up in my Story Ideas document later.

(Or, if the idea I had was for a story of mine that I’ve already started planning / drafting / whatever, I put it in the document for that story instead of the Big Random Story Ideas doc. You get it.)

_-_

8) Have other ways to collect and save writing ideas, besides just writing stuff down. If you like Pinterest, make pinterest boards of your characters or stories or settings or whatever. If you’re big into playlists, make a playlist for your character / setting / story / etc. Or both. Or something else. I’m not good at drawing, but maybe you are, and maybe you like to draw your ideas. Whatever form it takes, having another way to save ideas and think about your stories is invaluable.

_-_

9) Some writers can just start writing with no idea where the story is going, and they just kind of figure it out as they go. I envy those writers. And I do that sometimes for fanfiction, where the stakes are somewhat lower and the audience is reading more for scene-to-scene enjoyment (and to see their OTP kiss) than for a Driving And Compelling Narrative.

But here’s the thing: especially if you’re just kind of starting out, writing without some sort of plan is really, really hard, and will likely lead you into a slow, meandering narrative that will likely frustrate you.

Even if you think you’re someone that just can’t write with a plan (and again, I have the highest respect for pansters out there - I don’t know how you do it, you crazy bastards, but you keep doing you) - even if you think “I can’t work with plans, they’re too prescriptive, I just want to write and see what happens -”

Try at least making the most skeletal of plans.

Even if you have no clue what 90% of the story is, yet. That’s fine. But you need to have some idea of what you’re building to, even if that’s nothing more specific than a feeling, or a turning point for your character. Even if your entire plan for everything beyond Chapter 1 is, “At some point, Charlie needs to realize that Ed was lying to her.”

This is where those Draft 0.5 notes come in handy. Because, more than likely, working on your current scene that way will spark ideas for later scenes, which you can put down at the bottom of the document and save for when they become relevant. In my experience, the line between planning ahead and making a Draft 0.5 is exceptionally thin. One can quickly turn into the other.

If you’re really, really resistant to the idea of planning ahead, that’s okay. It’s not everybody’s style. But for the love of all that is holy, write down your ideas for future scenes, even if you’re a person that doesn’t like to plan and writes only in story order, because you will not remember that idea once you get to that scene.

_-_

10) You don’t have to write in order.

Here’s the thing: I’m a person that can only do my Draft 1 in story order (meaning, chronological order). I just have to be in that flow; I need to write in story order for me to best channel where the character is at from scene to scene, both narratively and emotionally.

But my Thought Vomit Draft is another thing entirely. By using the brain hack of putting my notes in red (or another color, it doesn’t matter) and going down to the bottom of the document / page and taking notes there, and then integrating them into whatever plan I have, and then translating them into Draft 1 once I get there in the story - by doing that, I can get my good ideas onto the page (and expound upon them and let my muse carry me and ride that momentum while I’m in the moment of inspiration) without writing out of order.

Maybe that’s just me. But if you’re a person who really prefers to write in story order, that could be hugely helpful to you. It is to me.

_-_

11) Emotion and motivation will do more for your story than technicalities of plot.

If your characters really care about something, and their journey through the (shaky or weak) plot is emotionally engaging, it will be a much more compelling story than a story with a “perfect” plot and unrelatable or unmotivated characters.

If your characters care about what they’re doing, and it means something to them, and their goals and actions are driven by dreams or fears or emotions that are integral to who they are, your audience will care too. If you have a perfectly crafted plot that hits all the right beats and has high stakes and fast pacing and drama - but your characters don’t connect with what’s happening in a way that’s deeply meaningful or emotional for them? You’re gonna have a hard time engaging readers.

When in doubt, prioritize character emotion and motivation over plot. Emotion is what drives story.

This power is highly exploitable. (Just look at pulp novels and shitty but entertaining movies.) You can even use it to glaze over plot holes or reinvigorate a limp narrative. Use it that way sparingly, though. It’s a band-aid, not a surgery. 

_-_

12) Evil villains are hard to write - mostly because there are very few truly evil people in the world. (There are a few. Billionaires and several big name politicians come to mind.) But by and large, there aren’t that many evil people. There are plenty of bad people, but bad people have some good in them, somewhere in there. Trying to write an evil villain is hard, because they often turn very cartoony.

Here’s a tip: it’s much easier to write antagonists who aren’t evil. Even if they’re bad people. Of course, there’s no reason you can’t write a villain that’s just truly evil - a serial killer, or an abuser, or a billionaire, or someone who legit just wants to hurt people or blow up the earth or stay in control of an oppressed population, or whatever. But chances are, it’s gonna be really hard to make them feel real, and even harder to create a plot around them that doesn’t feel forced or contrived.

Instead, try writing an antagonist / villain whose motivations and goals directly clash with your protagonist’s - but not because they want to take over the world or see people suffer. Write an antagonist who’s chaotic good, but whose perception of the situation is completely opposite from your hero’s. Write an antagonist whose only desire is to save people, and who will do anything to achieve that goal - anything. Write an antagonist who believes in the letter of the law, and will hinder and oppose the hero’s methods even if they agree with the hero’s motivation. Write an antagonist who got in way over their head and did some things they regret, and now they don’t know how to get out, and they’re doing their best but whatever they set in motion is too powerful for them to stop now.

Write villains who are human. Write a killer who thought they were doing the right thing by taking their victim out of the equation, who vomits at the sight of the body and sobs over the grave they dig. Write a government leader who truly believes she’s doing what’s best for her people in the long-term, even if it might hurt them in the short term, and is willing to endure the hatred and belligerence of the masses if it means securing what she thinks is a better future for her people. Write a teenage bully that thinks they’re the one being picked on by the world, and they’re just fighting back, standing their ground. Write a scientist who will break any code of ethics and hurt anyone he needs to - in order to bring back his baby sister from the grave, because he promised her he’d protect her and he failed. Write an antagonist who is selfish and self-centered and capricious - because in order to survive they had to look out for Number One, and that habit ain’t about to break anytime soon.

Write villains who aren’t even villains. Write antagonists who oppose the hero because of moral differences. Write antagonists who are trying to do the right thing. Write antagonists who treat the heroes with kindness and dignity and respect and gentleness.

They don’t have to be good. They don’t have to be Misunderstood Sweethearts who “deserve” a redemption arc. They can be cruel and nasty and dismissive and callous and violent and etc. etc.

Just hesitate before you make them Evil-with-a-capital-E. Because evil is hard to write, and honestly, boring to read. Flawed human beings with goals and motivations that directly oppose the main characters’ are much easier to write and much more interesting to read.

Ask why. Why is your villain trying to take over the world? What does that even mean? Are they trying to create a Star-Trek-like post-capitalism utopia, but they know that won’t happen in a million lifetimes, so they’re trying to do it by force? Are they actually super in favor of human rights, but they got very impatient waiting for the world to do anything about poverty and war, so they decided to take it into their own hands? Are they determined to fix the world - no matter the cost? Are they terrified and overwhelmed, but committed to see it through to the end? Or - maybe they’re just doing it on a dare. Maybe they don’t really give a shit about world domination, they were just a mediocre rich white guy who decided to fuck around and find out, and now he’s kind of curious how far he can take this thing. And now he’s kind of an internationally-wanted criminal, so he’s kind of stuck living on his hidden private island in his multi-billion dollar secret base, strapping lasers to sharks’ heads for the hell of it. Gross, selfish, uncaring, and dangerous? For sure. Evil? Depends on your definition. See, now we’re getting somewhere.

_-_

13) It’s tempting to let the plot control the characters. It’s easy to drop your characters into a situation and see how they react. But here’s the thing: that doesn’t drive plot. In fact, it bogs down pacing. Instead, try to build you plot off of your characters’ actions and decisions. Let your character build their own situation. Not to say it should go they way they wanted it to go; in fact, usually, their grand plans should go to hell very quickly. But having the characters take action and make decisions, and letting the plot develop based on that, is much easier to make compelling than making a rigid series of events and then trying to herd your characters into them.

_-_

14) Having trouble justifying a character’s actions? Consider having them make the opposite decision, or having them approach the situation in a different way. For example: you need your character to go meet the bad guy, for plot reasons, even though there’s no way it’s not a trap. If the character goes, readers are gonna be groaning with their head in their hands, because c’mon man, that was really fucking stupid. But he’s gotta go, because the plot needs that. Two ways you might handle this: a) He knows it’s probably a trap. He decides not to go. The plot conspires to get him near the villain anyway. Or, b) He knows it’s a trap. But he needs to go, for (insert reasons here). So, he approaches it in an unexpected way. He brings backup, recruiting a side character we met earlier in the story. Or he arrives on the back of a dragon, because ain’t nobody gonna fuck with a dude on a dragon. Or he goes - early, and ambushes the villain. It may work, it may not. He may get himself kidnapped anyway. But it moves the plot along without having Stupid Hero Syndrome.

_-_

15) This is a legit piece of advice: if all of this sounds overwhelming, literally just ignore it and write what you want. For real. Writing should be fun, and every single writer operates differently. If you’re sitting here like “I’m getting stressed just reading this,” just flip me a good-natured bird and get on with your life. I promise I won’t take it personally. Same goes for literally any other writing advice you see. Lots of rules and guidelines can very quickly make anything thoroughly un-fun. Just write. If you’re passionate about it and you do it for long enough, you’ll start figuring out the tips and tricks on your own.

_-_

16) Here’s the best piece of advice I can give you: know your characters. More importantly, know what’s important to them. Build their personality and decisions off of that, and build your plot off of their decisions.

I see a lot of character building sheets that ask a shit-ton of questions like “What’s their most prized possession?” “Do they like their family?” “What’s their favorite food?”

And while these are good questions, my problem with this type of character building is that if you start there, with the little stuff, you’re building on nothing. IMO, to make a truly strong character (not strong like Inner Strength, strong like effective), you need a strong foundation.

Here are the things you must know about your character:

a) What are their greatest fears / deepest insecurities? And I don’t mean “wasps” or “heights.” I mean the deep shit. I mean fears like “living a meaningless life,” or “turning out just like their parents,” or “that no one will ever love them,” or “being powerless.” You may say, “But they’re really scared of wasps! They fall into a wasp nest when they were little and got stung so much they almost died!” Great! That’s a fantastic bit of backstory. They should absolutely be afraid of wasps, and that should absolutely be an impediment later in the story. But dig deeper. What about that event actually scarred them? Was it the helplessness? Stumbling around, swatting at the air, not being able to do a single thing to stop what was happening to them? Was it that they were alone, and no matter how loud they screamed, no one was coming? Was it the bodily horror of feeling themself turn into an inhuman creature as they swelled up from the stings, unable to move their fingers or face normally anymore?

And don’t forget insecurities, because those factor in, too. Are they deeply insecure about their identity? Do they believe, deep down, that they’re ugly? Did they grow up poor and they’ve always been really touchy about that? Why? Dig deep. Figure out what really, really bothers them.

b) What are their hopes and dreams? What do they truly want out of life? What do they consider the most valuable to their experience here in this thing called life? Is it the freedom to forge their own path and be independent? Is it the approval of their family or peers? Is it a home? Is it knowledge, or understanding? Spiritual fulfillment? Is it deeply important to them that they contribute to their community, or protect those they love? What do they need in order to feel truly and deeply fulfilled in life?

Figure out those two things (each one encompasses several things, btw, you don’t have to stop at just one for each), and then use that to inform how they behave and the types of decisions they make within the story. 

It also informs character behavior and personality. 

Let’s say we have a character who’s afraid of helplessness. They’re probably gonna be the person that always wants to do something, try something, no matter how hopeless the situation seems. They’d despise just sitting and waiting, probably, because it makes them feel powerless. They might even be the person that makes rash decisions and acts impulsively and puts themself in danger unnecessarily, because in their mind it’s better than being at the mercy of fate. This is one way you could use a character’s personality to inform their decisions, which in turn helps to inform plot.

Or, let’s say we have a character whose greatest fear is being left behind or forgotten. We may have a chatterbox on our hands. They might be obnoxious. They might love the spotlight, constantly vying for attention no matter the situation, because deep down they’re so afraid that they’d be forgotten otherwise. Or, it may go the opposite way. They may be so afraid of people leaving them that they’re terrified of bothering people. They don’t want to do anything that could annoy people, anything that might give people a reason to leave them. They might be exceedingly polite, quiet, accommodating. A push-over, really.

These are two nearly opposite types of personalities, both stemming from the same core fear/insecurity. You can go a lot of different ways with it. But if you build on that strong foundation, you’ll have a strong character, and a stronger plot.

Likewise, the structure of your story can and should inform the design of these character traits. If you need your characters to team up near the end, it may be impactful if you give your main character a deep fear of commitment, an insecurity about being unwanted or left behind, and make them highly value independence and freedom. That could make their team-up for the final battle very meaningful. Conversely, you can use your character’s deepest fears and desires to help design the plot. Is your character deeply insecure about voicing their opinions or taking a stand, because of trauma they faced in the past? Make them face that. Build that into the climactic third act. Give them the big inspirational speech where they stand up and talk about what they believe to be important, what they think the group should do. And then design that character arc to run through the story, giving you more handholds and stepping stones, more pieces of foundation on which to design the plot.

In this way, character should inform story as much as story informs character. It’s a feedback loop.

Bonus: if you build your character and your plot off of each other in this way, it automatically starts to build in the foundations of that emotional investment I mentioned earlier. If your character’s decisions are based on what they most want and do not want in life, you basically have your character motivation and stakes pre-built.

Note: you need to know these things about your villain, too.

-_-_-

I’m genuinely sorry about the length of this, lmao. But you did ask.

Best of luck!

Edit: I forgot an important one:

17) Start when the scene starts and end when the scene ends.

What do I mean by that?

If your notes say “Danny asks Nicole out after school and majorly flubs it,” start the scene when Danny approaches Nicole after school. Better yet, cold-open the scene on “I was wondering if, you know, you’d wanna. You know. Hang out some time?”

Don’t start that morning when Danny goes to school, unless you’re gonna cover the school day in like one or two sentences. Don’t spend whole paragraphs going through the school day, unless it’s to cover other plot points first (in which case apply these same guidelines there), or if the paragraphs are there for a specific reason, like to illustrate how stressed he is and how it seems like every little thing is going wrong. Even then, trim the fat as much as possible. Expounding and describing everything Moment-to-moment is for the meat of the scenes, not the leading-up-to and coming-away-from.

Here’s my rule of thumb: study how and when movies cut from scene to scene. Movies have exceptionally strict, limited time for storytelling; they’re excellent examples of starting a scene when the plot point starts and ending when it’s over. If you can’t picture a movie showing everything you showed, start the scene later and end it earlier.

[spice-honey]

The Fanfic Editing Process

Hello everyone! Today I've decided to share a few tips on editing your chapters, for anyone who is new to writing or would like to improve their writing. Editing is a skill in itself. For me, it takes longer than writing the actual damn chapter. I think good editing takes stories to the next level and it's worth taking a moment to do it, instead of just eagerly hit the 'Post' button

First, what is editing? You assess the text for grammar, spelling, sentence and detail clarity along with plot development. Editing is often rewriting, moving paragraphs around, switching scene orders, adding or deleting characters, and changing POVs (if applicable). It requires a lot of "rounds" before it's ready. Each step below is a round in itself. Remember: you cannot edit a blank page. If you hate your writing, remind yourself this is your first draft - you will edit it later to make it better or different. But you have to write it first.

I use google docs. You can easily share it with your betas/friends, and keep track of suggestions and modifications they make. They can leave comments on specific passages and words, to which you can also reply. Google docs also has a chat function to edit and discuss live.

Google docs has spelling and grammar check (it's under Tools) that will scan the document below where your cursor is. So if you just want to spell check past chapter 7, go to chapter 7 and use the tool. It will skip anything before it. If you want to do the entire document, start up top.

Crtl + F and look for the specific words that are commonly overused such as that, really, very, just, then, literally, thing and dialogue tags. You don't have to write them out entirely, but if you used 'that' 7 times in a paragraph, you might want to rework some sentences to 5 take out. Readers get tired of repetitive words. You also don't have to banish every single dialogue tag, but when it's a conversation between 2 people you should use them to indicate tone or action. 'Said' is not necessarily dead, but you can omit it 95% of the time

Avoid long sentences. Run-on sentences are okay if grammatically correct, but stick to one idea per sentence otherwise it can be tiring to read.

Adverbs ending in -ly. 'She runs quickly' can be 'she sprints'. 'He walks quietly' can be ' He creeps'. Choose descriptive verbs if you can.

Pay attention to verb tenses. If you are writing in the present tense make sure you don't slip into past tense when it is not appropriate and vice versa.

In your own notes write scene summaries explaining to yourself why this scene is necessary (I use bullet points in the comments). What information or situation is being presented in each passage that is important to the plot in the long run. It helps you to keep tabs on your outline (if you have one). It's okay to just have scenes that don't actually add anything to the story other than the joy of reading them whatever they may be. But if you are struggling with your plot, make sure your story doesn't have a lot of those.

Italics. Depends on your formatting, of course, but if it is to bring emphasis on a single word, my personal rule is to do it once per page. When I copy and paste my chapters into Ffnet/Ao3 it comes without any formatting (bold, italic) so I have to add them back in manually on my final read-through. Surprisingly, I end up adding a lot fewer italics in the final edit than in the original script

The Final Read-through: it is done in your browser, at the document editor of ffnet/ao3. You will catch a lot more errors/weird sentences there despite having it read 100 times on google docs. Your brain just gets used to - visually - to the text and it will skip words as you re-read without you noticing. Having a different font and background will make your brain read it as if it's the first time. I tried tricking myself on google docs by changing font and colour but I didn't find it super effective (it may work for you, I don't know). Grammarly is also good to use here. I disable it on google docs because it slows down my browser. I like it mostly for punctuation.

Read it out loud. Yes, you'll have to disable the cringe factor but you will catch so many clunky sentences and missing words. Make sure narration sounds like narration and dialogue sounds like dialogue. I usually do Step 10 and 11 at the same time.

Any questions, my Asks are open! And if you have tips you'd like to share I'd LOVE to hear it.

Happy editing!

[adamsvanrhijn]

RULES: post the names of the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! Tag as many people as you have WIPs.

tagged by @dnickels. like the last time i did this: i am not sharing all of my wips + nor tagging as many people as i have WIPs because we would be here all day. not even sure i follow enough people. ie i am going to limit it to my tga ones because there are fewer of those.

tooooo many basic bitch lyric titles incoming, INCLUDING at least one that is not even a song i like much but the lyrics spoke 2 me for blorbo, i posted about that one a while ago. i bet you can guess. i used to have good taste idk when i lost it (2020). also several untitled where it took the first lines of the document. such is the way of google docs. this feels deeply embarrassing

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(your love was) handmade for somebody like me

[we were somewhere else]

1.01

1.09

5 times

1875 Adams gives the usher two dollars

at dinner parties i'll call you out on your contrarian shit <3

Boston (like it could be love)

d

drafting

first at oscar's

first meetings

hands

hold me in your humble grace (i can feel the sun on you)

home first time

house hunting

i keep a close watch on this heart of mine

incomplete list of men experiencing "college age man" syndrome

lunch bank holiday

moving in together something something

no working title 1.09

politics etc

post Newport

stargazing

we were a fresh page on the desk (filling in the blanks as we go)

.

he's been in ~europe~

mirror

noisy

Oscar catches him by the wrist, gently

vamp

you could be the one that i love

i can still make the whole place shimmer (i'll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror)

"So soon

tagging: @likehandlingroses, @votsalot, @madeline-kahn, @javert, @whartonists, @effervescentyellow, @shortcrust, @sinceremercy, @marschallin, @torturelabyrinth