#Start with re-reading books you already finished! then it really isn't a problem to miss stuff

[inkskinned]

hey it's nanowrimo. i have tips bc i've done it about 34 times.

Don't edit. Ever. Stop it. If you just decide to start a new project half thru this one with all new characters, no problem. pick up and keep writing as if you'd already written the first half of that.

"but i spelled it wrong" whatever. "but the grammar" whatever. make it exist first. no time for sense. think like you're working on a typewriter. no backspace. only forward go.

Don't re-read further than a paragraph or two backwards. "did i mention the gun before?" listen - it doesn't matter. if you need there to be a gun there, the gun is there. put it back in once you finish the book.

"i forgot the specifics of X thing i already wrote" whatever. change it, make a note/comment to figure it out later, and just write what makes sense for the moment. "no raquel it's legit the characters name and origin" idc that character is now reborn as Claudius from Elsewhere. it's fine.

only you see your mistakes. nobody else knows. one of the ways writing and dance overlap - only you know the choreography. nobody else will know if you miss a step, so just keep dancing and pretend you meant to do it like that.

it's an illusion that you need to write linearly - from point A to point B to point C. Nah; that's just timeline propaganda. I've written a LOT of books out of order and just reordered them once i've finished. if you have a scene you'd LOVE to write but can't get there yet because of plot, just fuckin write the scene. I've always found its easier to establish "point F" "point J" and "Point A" and then wiggle my way between those scenes.

write what you WANT to write. 230 pages of smut? of well-researched discussion on bread? whatever. the point is to strengthen muscles however you can.

if you miss a day, a week, whatever. not the end of the world. we all have dry days. also time is a myth so u can do this challenge whenever u want.

as soon as you try to write for a specific audience, you kill your voice. you are writing for yourself. stop thinking about how people will take ur book. it don't matter. what matter is u, enjoying writing. i luv u.

play to your strengths. i have characters talk so much because i don't know how to write a plot if it kills me but i'm really good at dialogue so.

i love a flight of fancy. write a poem in there. shift tactics and write in code. keep it fun for yourself.

see what happens if you shift something major about ur main characters - gender, wealth, superpowers. or if you change point-of-view. or if you kill everyone in a big explosion. do NOT edit anything before this or after it. often these little weird one-off exercises teach me what interests me about what i'm working on. it is never what i thought. plus it is a fun way to add like 1k words.

stretch.

it's for fun and for practice. stop doing that project if it's giving you anxiety. once my nano was literally 50k words of half-started stories. just things i tried and tried and tried and wasn't able to flesh out. oops. but i am now 50k words of a better writer.

add dragons?

read books/listen to books on tape/etc. people often make the mistake of "buckling down" to just write. you need inspiration. you need to like. fill up on words. you need to remember how it feels to lose yourself in a story.

i don't have the time or space to really talk about this in this post but a lot of creative people turn to drugs/alcohol because it can help you be more creative. this is harmful, and walking a blade that only cuts deep. if you notice you and your loved ones are turning more to substances, please know i love you and i hope you are able to get help soon. i feel like this almost never gets mentioned because it's kind of a hazy underbelly to art. you are always more important than the work.

on that note. drink your fukin. water.

don't talk about a story until you've finished it. once you tell the story, it exists already, and isn't about discovery. i usually have a very canned "haha we'll see" response.

grapes :) tasty snack.

i love you be free.

[deliahscrush2003]

Is there anything you do when you don’t have motivation or ideas? Lately I’ve wanted to write more stuff on my characters, make more art, and work on my novel, however, anytime I start, I have no idea what to do. I tried looking at writing prompts, but the same things keep happening. It’s been happening for the past few days and it’s just been really demotivating and makes me feel just generally bad. So, if there’s any advice you have, I’d appreciate it so much <3

Sorry it took so long to answer @apollothe-sungod !!

Thank you dearly for this ask and I hope it really helps with your motivation/inspiration drought. I know all of us have faced that problem too many times for our liking and anything advice I can give that can get you back on the wagon, I'll happily give!

I hope you have a happy 2022 with heaps of inspiration and motivation for your works and wish nothing but good things for you and your loved ones in the future!

What To Do When You Have No Motivation and Need Inspiration?

Watch Movies or TV- Shows ||

If your struggling with motivation, re-watch canon (for fanfic) or stick with genres that are the same or similar to what you're writing (for more original ideas). If you are missing a certain aspect of the narrative, watch movies and tv-shows of that genre or with that theme.

If you're struggling with what your character's mannerisms, behaviour, dialogue - think. What canon characters in film and television are most alike to your character? Watch their films to get inspiration!

This is what I spend a lot of my down time doing when I'm not writing.

Read fanfiction/Books ||

Same thing as movies except books and fanfiction can show you how to describe action, suspense and worldbuilding. You can really get inspiration from others narrative style and techniques. Also, it just really helps when you see the motivation and the ideas of these fantastic creators and it just really pushes you and gets you into this mindset of like, "Hey - I want to do this with my own story."

I'll said it once and I'll say it again - fanfiction writers are one of my biggest influences for writing.

Go for a walk/drive/sit outside ||

I have the best ideas when I'm outside - which is ironic, because I hate leaving my house. Even just going with your parents to the grocery store or just sitting on your driveway, you can get so much ideas for scenes and possible stories.

There's this really dark, long lane near where I lived and we always had to wait facing it when we were stopped at the traffic lights and to this day, I remember the little story that I made up of 'Murder Lane' and the mysterious, charismatic people who lived down it.

Hell, we were driving out of our street once and I looked out the window and saw a small gecko (lizard) on an electrical box and I was just like 'Huh, wouldn't that we a weird scene starter?)

There's this hill near where I live that looks over the entire town and the beachfront, and when I used to pick my sister up from dance practice, I would always play INXS "Never Tear Us Apart" and now I have an entire prologue inspired from that one moment already planned out to the very last detail.

Just go somewhere new. Get outside. Sit on the driveway. The pavement. The road (if there isn't any cars, of course). Visit the river, or the forest at the back of your street. A hill, a valley, a meadow. Night, day, dawn, dusk, midday, morning.

Whenever. The point is - a chance in scenery can really do the trick.

Listen to music & Make a playlist ||

I would like to correct myself. I listen to music and make playlist when I'm not writing, and that's how I come up with most of my storylines/plotlines. I'm usually home alone, so I just put on Spotify and connect it to my speaker, and play my music really loudly to get it so it's feels like a movie.

I'm literally right now listening to "Hunger" by Ross Copperman and singing along while I write this (quite sloppily, I should add). I finished a new playlist for my Jurassic Park fic, The Chaos Theory yesterday and now I have really gotten a good grasp on how the romance plotline is going to go when before I had a really vague idea which really held me back from approaching the fic.

Music is such a big inspiration for writing. Most of the music on my a more savage narnia (than the one you left) playlist helped me picture ballroom scenes and helped me understand some of the emotional moments I plan for some of my characters to have.

I have found that asking other creators for their playlists and song inspiration have really widened my own range and taste of music, allowing me to get more inspiration from themes and genres outside of my comfort range, so asking others for their playlist might help.

But listening to music can also help with your drawing also. I was listening to my True Blue playlist while drawing my Pacific Rim OC, Indianna Taylor.

I'm working on a playlist for My Hero Academia fic, As the World Caves In if you're interested! Mind you, if you want to request playlists for different fandoms, I can certainly make them for you and anyone else who also struggles with inspiration/motivation?

Browse through Tumblr, Pinterest, Tik-Tok etc ||

If you have these social media platforms, they can be really good source material for aesthetic and little ideas that people like to see. Tik Tok has admittingly some amazing and underrated creators with super cool edits and artworks. Pinterest is a great source for aesthetics and creating your character's personality, attitudes, outfits, voice, behaviour and beliefs.

And you also have our very own Tumblr! Look through the tags of the fandom you're writing for and look at the latest news, artwork, headcannon and analysis of canon characters and plotline to get ideas on how you can approach your story/fic from a new angle!

Ask your friends, parents, siblings for ideas ||

Now, I know what you're thinking. What if my friends/parents/siblings aren't into fanfiction or OCs or stories. Well, you don't actually have to tell them what you're asking your questions for.

See, I used to play a game with my sisters when we went to the shopping centre late at night. It was a huge mall and it was mostly empty at night, so we would sit at the bottom and I would ask them, "Quick! Think! What would you do if the zombie apocalypse happened right now and one came right through that door!"

And we would sit there and come up with escape plans and stuff, and it would turn into a whole 'then after I steal a school bus, I'm going to this military base and than I'm going here after' and BAM! I got a half-decent story idea coming up.

Just asking hypothetical questions like 'what would you do in a zombie apocalypse' or 'how would you win the hunger games' or ' how would you go about in a horror movie' can help you understand how other people think and soon enough, their responses become the plotlines for side characters.

Fun Fact: most of the sibling characters in my fics like Seiren and Tora Blanche from my Agents of Fate fic (Fairy Tail) were actually inspired by my real-life sisters.

Also, a lot of the dialogue from the earlier chapters from my Teen Wolf fic Breathe for Me was inspired from stuff I heard my parents say (mostly my Dad because he's hilarious).

Sometime you get sick of hearing yourself over and over again, so go listen to someone else! Go look on reddit even, message your friends, ask your siblings/parents random questions, hell - feel free to drop a random hypothetical in my inbox for my own response!

Talk to other creators ||

Most importantly, talk to us!

Feel free to come to any of your close mutuals or anyone who has opened their ask box for your convenience as we are always up to talk about OCs, exchange tips and advice, help with inspiration and recommendations as well as helping to round and develop your OCs and plotlines if needed.

All the creators in the OC Community are very friendly and approachable in my experience but I understand that it can be a daunting and anxious experience to talk to new people, even on the internet.

So, to any OC creators, fanfiction writers, and original writers who are seeing this, please let us know by reblogging or commenting below if you are free to chat!

My inbox and my messages are always open to any and all if you want to talk OCs 😊

-

TAGLIST: @lokitrasho || @foxesandmagic || @wordspin-shares ||

[perfumedpages]

October 8th, 2022

I'm writing to you from my desk with a steaming cup of Sleepytime Tea in front of me. I would like to note that it is in my new favorite mug; large and pink with white hearts scribbled all over it. It's very cute. It's very me.

Anyway, I have finished my midterms and I made from 74 to 81.5. Not great, but it's okay. I took my latest exam with a sinus infection so I've already forgiven myself for it.

What I want to improve on

I want to alter some parts of my studying. First and foremost I want to finish my programming projects early. I get started on them early, but I only finish them like an hour before they're due. So I'd like to finish them earlier just for my own peace of mind.

I'd like to pre-read for my geology class. I won't be taking notes, though. Just reading and maybe underlining and highlighting.

For my history class, I want to rewrite my typed notes. I think that's going to be helpful for me to better understand the material and really to fully grasp it.

Finally, I think I should make a study group for my American government class. I know plenty of people in the class who are confused and don't understand the material, but I understand it somewhat and want to help other people, but I really need help getting my notes correct. The only problem I have is that my notes end up messy and missing information.

So that's one thing I have to work on for each class. I think that, outside of class I'd like to be more active. I'd like to get into the gym for weightlifting MWF and then 12-3-30 TTh.

What I want to maintain

So for now I think my notetaking style is working for me. I also think that re-writing my notes within 48 hours is helping me tons.

Outside of school check-in

I have been fighting a sinus infection for three days and I've almost finished it, I think. I'm going to try to go to the gym tomorrow and do a walk just to get some exercise in after laying around for three days. I've also become thoroughly addicted to teas. I bought an electric kettle and it has been worth every over-priced-cent. Otherwise, I'm 2 books away from my goal for the year!! I'm gonna finish Men Who Hate Women and then hopefully find some cute little fun book that isn't about psychology or anything terrifying.

Also, I made a linktr.ee to connect all of my accounts so if you want to find me on other sites, look there!!

Good luck to all of you on your midterms <3.

[fly-pow-bye]

Powerpuff Girls 2016 - “Splitsville“

Written by: Haley Mancini, Jake Goldman

Written & Storyboarded by: Phil Jacobson, Sofia Alexander, John West

Directed by: Nick Jennings, Bob Boyle

Does it split sides, split opinions, or should you split?

The episode starts with the Powerpuff Girls fighting a giant monster. In fact, it’s the same giant monster from Princess Buttercup that keeps showing up randomly. He was even in Silico’s backstory as the monster that crashed into his house, destroying his toys. Either the Powerpuff Girls have not kept their promise to be more careful around residential areas, or this was the event. I'm going with coincidence.

After successfully defeating that monster, you’d think they’d be celebrating. After all, giant monster battles usually end with Monster Punch, Girls Down to the Reboot Puffs. Instead, each of them complains about how long it took. First we have Donny whining, then we have Buttercup whining, and now all of the reboot Puffs are whining this time. It sure is happening a lot this season!

While this is happening, all of their cellphones go off. Wait, so is the Mayor calling them all at once, or are they now taking calls from the public now? I really shouldn't care; we have two scenes once common in the original that are super rare in this reboot: monster fighting and getting emergency calls. Usually, they're too busy doing ordinary human things like messing with time machines and hanging out with jerk unicorns.

They challenge each other: whoever does their deed first gets to pick the movie for movie night. This episode really hammers in the girls' personalities, which, given the choice between having those personalities and having two characters play the same role, is not bad. It helps that they're closer to the original Puffs than being Urkel, Patrick Star, and Bart Simpson. Relatively speaking, of course; Reboot Blossom still loves those spreadsheets!

I have no nothing against the movie choices, either. Bearnado is a clear refence to Sharknado, but even to people unfamiliar to it could conclude that it's a movie parody so over the top, that it couldn't possibly exist. I could question a joke about a movie called "Cuddle Bunny" being banned in several countries, a continuation of a gag Buttercup said about her movie, but I'm not so sure that wasn't intentional.

Buttercup's mission is to fight a slime dog. This job was made for her, because it involves fighting a giant monster, someone only Buttercup can do in this series for some reason! She even shows off her strength beforehand by flexing them into exaggerated beefy arms. Sorry to say, that is not going to be a gag exclusive to this episode.

Buttercup tries to punch the slime dog, but it splits into two. Buttercup says it's no problem, and punches one of the dogs again, spliting it into two. It keeps going and going until she's surrounded by slime dogs ready to tear her apart.

Even though it's a creature that can't be hurt by such actions, we can't see Buttercup actually make contact with it with her fists or her feet. It's a wonder if this is the fault of the toymakers, the writers, or Cartoon Network's higher-ups. I hope it's not the latter, but how every new show on Cartoon Network has a TV-Y7 rating after years of TV-PG shows makes me think it loudly.

Bubbles' mission is to help a farmer, his goose, his fox, and a bag of seed across a river. This job was made for her, because it's about cute animals! This segment is a reference to the famous fox, goose, and bag of beans puzzle.

Of course, she can't just move the fox, because the goose would eat the seed. She can't just move the seed, because the goose would roughhouse the fox! I didn't think they were going to play it that straight, so it's not exactly unexpected. It's a running gag with the goose. Bubbles is still at square one, and it's only going to get worse.

Blossom has to go to a library and fight a brain robot, who is tearing it apart reading every book in it. The robot does this in the most destructive and loud way possible to justify a beating. This job was made for her, because she's a nerd who likes libraries. In her own words, "swish."

Because she's the plan girl, she decides to come up with a plan. It boils down to her tilting a laptop screen, using her eye lasers to cut a rope holding a giant chandelier that happens to be directly over the robot. One may wonder why cut out the middle man and just aim the eye lasers at the rope, but that wouldn't be convoluted enough.

Before she was even finished with that plan, the robot throws the chandelier at her. Robot Punch, Girl Down. Of course. It may not be that, as the robot knows so much from all of that added knowledge, that he can predict her every move! Huh, sounds familiar. He then tells Blossom that she'll be bored of the Dewey Decimal system as he pelts Blossom with decimals. Add that to the Powerpuff Girls new weaknesses.

Meanwhile, Buttercup is still in trouble. She tried punching, kicking, punching harder, kicking harder, but nothing seems to work. It would have been more creative if she kept trying different things, but all she really did was punch and kick. This would have been a good time for the aura powers, which don't even show up.

She yells at the dogs to stop, and to her surprise, they stop. Buttercup is confused until she realizes that the slime dogs are dogs. She tells them to sit, they sit. She tells them to roll over, they roll over. She finds this adorable, in a scene that should be out of character, but is actually hinting towards the point of the episode.

Minutes later on Bubbles' side of things, she still can't seem to figure it out. Not helping is that it turns out the goose was keeping out annoying tourists as well. With this and the Yeti subplot of Snow Month, the show seems to have a hatred for outsiders. Instead of thinking, Bubbles tries a different strategy: doing a dance across a bunch of rocks across the river, and tell the others to follow along. Eh, it fits her character.

Bubbles: Way to go, guys! Mission Bubbles-complished!

Ugh, this show’s puns are Butter-terrible. It’s about as good as that one! Unfortunately, none of the people, animals, and seed follow her. The farmer outright tells her that she needs to use her brain for this puzzle. Yeah, good luck with that.

Meanwhile, Blossom tries to do another plan by trying to catch him off guard by trying to attack him while he's distracted by her chit-chat. Silly Blossom, that only works on Reboot Puffs! She gets taken down by being buried by books, and getting hit by a punch...card. Because libraries. Another thing to add to the Powerpuff Girls' new weaknesses!

This is my least favorite of the three segments, which is sad because Blossom is my favorite of the three reboot Puffs. Granted, that's mostly by default. This segment will get worse from here.

While Blossom and Bubbles are nowhere near solving their assigned crises, Buttercup seems to be doing just fine. She trained them well enough to make them form. She then says that "Bubs will love this!", subtlely giving a clue on what is happening. She tells them to play dead...

...and Buttercup gets covered in rainbow blood. It took me a while to realize what happened, and when it hit me, I found it kind of clever. I blame the show not using the right sound effect. I am reminded that, if the blood was red, this would have had to be on Adult Swim Toonami. That's an article for another time.

Meanwhile, Bubbles is still trying to figure it out as more and more people have to get across the river. A Dick Dastardly guy shows up, the Townsville Women's Basketball Team shows up, Sherlock Holmes shows up, and a raptor king shows up!

Bubbles gets an idea from her mentor in her head: Buttercup, who tells her she's not her mentor. In a bit of comedy, Bubbles acts like Buttercup actually told her to act like Blossom. While Buttercup's scene slightly hinted at the point this episode was trying to make, this part outright says it.

I guess she had to be told to think, as she does, and she instantly knew the correct answer! She brings everyone to the other side of the river except for the Dick Dastardly guy, who is left on the raft to careen over a waterfall to his persumed death. Bubbles doesn't seem to mind, and neither does anyone else. I guess he was that awful.

Blossom also gets an idea from her mentor in her head, which happens to be herself. Honestly, with Patrick Star and the rascally little green princess, I’d be my own mentor, too. Buttercup didn't get a scene like this, she just figured it out on her own. They sure favor Buttercup over everyone else; she's usually the one that has to save the other two. Good news, this is not one of those episodes.

Since Bubbles figured it out the Blossom way, and Buttercup figured it out the Bubbles way, it makes sense that Blossom figures it out the Buttercup way. Of course, that means she gets to have a fight scene. And, oh boy, here comes the bad news.

Blossom gives the robot a furious beatdown in the most exaggerated way possible, much like Mojo Jojo did in Forced Kin. They even decided not to do hit flashes for this scene, but it's hard to notice because...what am I looking at? Did they forget they were supposed to be rebooting the Powerpuff Girls, and decided to reboot The Brothers Grunt instead? I really hate to think that this scene is their response to people criticizing this show for its lack of violence. It wouldn’t surprise me.

They go back home at the same time, crashing through the walls. That seems like a minor thing to put in a review, but it's another aspect that happens so rarely in this reboot. They then decide to watch each other's movies, but can't decide on which sister deserves to watch their movie the most. It's a cute ending, and it's something deserving of a "so once again the day is saved", but we don't get one. I have my own theories, mostly based on the last episode, but I don't want to say them.

Does the title fit?

The Powerpuff Girls split, but there’s really no reason for the “ville”. They live in a place called Townsville, and they usually get calls from the mayor of said Townsville, so it could fit?

How does it stack up?

Outside of that one scene, this episode is actually decent. None of the characters are unlikable, the situations are mediocre at worst, and it fits the superhero narrative the show should have. I would put it among the episodes of the original's Season 5 and Season 6, and not one of the worse ones at that. That might be mediocre, but by this reboot's standards, that's pretty good!

Keep it up, but don't get too comfortable.

Next, we go fishing!

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