#just need my editors to check for continuity and grammar and such

[nevaronn]

she is off to the editors

10.2k words, 25 pages in a google doc and weeks of my life have finally brought Chapter 1 of my slowburn to a close.

Chapter 1 of my slowburn fic titled "Tangled Up [Branches In A Flood]", will be posted tomorrow. TUBIAF is part 1 of a 3 part series that will take us through life of Ikkaku Madarame and Yumichika Ayasegawa before, during, and after the main Bleach series. I am estimating the entire series to be ~80 chapters.

I look forward to bringing this story to you all, it's gonna be a long, wild ride :)

Do enjoy this small snippet in the meantime~

[shiny-jr]

Hi shiny! I'm so sorry for disturbing but i need your opinion on this... so far i have been writing with ai... but slowly i've been distancing myself from it but still use it occassionally (for grammar checking now, not writing content)...

Oh, I'm surprised y'all would ask for my opinion on this. I didn't think it would be brought up again, but I don't mind discussing it. First, let me clarify, I do not know everything about AI. I'm still learning about it as most of us are, but the more I actually learn about it, the more my distaste for it grows.

It really depends how you use AI and what your view on it is. As mentioned in one of my posts a day or two ago, I firmly believe that no one should actually write with AI. And by that I mean, people shouldn't be inputting prompts just to make the AI churn out the story for them. Frankly, that's just lazy. Not even lazy writing, just lazy.

HOWEVER, there is a clear difference between using AI explicitly for the purpose of just writing your entire story for you versus, say, using it as an editor, organizer, etc. Currently, I'm still unsure if this is okay, because as I said, I'm still learning about AI. But, this is all my opinion.

I'm certain some of y'all will agree on this point that some AI use seems(?) okay, others will say it isn't good at all, some may not know too (my opinion may or may not change as I learn more). Overall though, I do believe it's a good idea to distance ourselves from AI. People wrote without it before, and people can still continue to write without it.

[nat-reads-books]

Book: The Stars of Ember by G.B. Knight

Rating: 1/5

Review:

The Stars of Ember is the second book in the Night Lore series, and the fifth book in G.B's catalogue. The book follows Ronan, an 800 year old vampire, and Atreya, a Fae woman and the Queen of Ember. The unlikely pair are tasked with travelling the continent in an attempt to escape Atreya's abusive husband, King Ramses, and get to the safety of Solaris and the Rebel King, Eldra.

The cover of The Stars of Ember is gorgeous, and having a warning page at the beginning is a really nice touch to help make sure the reader knows what they're getting into.

It does, however, seem to go downhill from there. There are formatting errors, grammatical errors, continuity errors… and that's just the bare bones of it. The premise of the book seemed like it would be right up my street and everything I like in a novel, but it was poorly executed and genuinely a really difficult read. The action scenes didn't seem to have any pacing, and by action I mean both adventure and spice, but particularly with the fights– there always seemed to be a flashback or a side conversation that ruined the tension that the author was trying to build.

At one point, towards the end of the book, characters were being called the wrong names, paragraphs were being repeated mere pages apart and words were missing from sentences. Throughout, the author seemed to forget what the characters are like, constantly flipping Ronans body temperature from burning hot to ice cold. His heartbeat was also up for constant debate. Sometimes it was silent, dead, and other times it beat slowly, unlike the other humanoids of this world. The book seemed to take twice as long to read as I kept having to flick back and forth to check that it wasn't something that I was confusing, rather than actually being in the text (spoiler alert: it was almost always in the text).

Overall, it was a disappointing read in both the way it was written, and the fact that it wasn't as good as the blurb led me to believe. The author needs to take a good look at her characters and the lore that she's built around them and their races, to make sure they're consistent throughout the book. A good editor to look through and help with grammar and continuity would also not go amiss.

[gallagherwitt]

Authors, let's talk about editing!

Because it's everyone's favorite part of writing. *sobs*

I've seen a few posts recently from newbie authors struggling with how to handle their edits. Can they reject their editors' recommendations? Is it an acceptable practice? Is there room for negotiation? What if you and the editor just don't get along?

So, I want to address all these things as an author who's learned a lot of it the hard way. These are my recommendations after 16 years, 200 books, and at least 20 editors.

1. LET YOUR INNER TODDLER READ IT FIRST.

One thing I strongly recommend is to just read through all the editor's comments before you start accepting/rejecting. Let your ego off its leash and let your inner toddler throw a tantrum. Read the comments and allow the "WHAT?? NO! YOU'RE WRONG!!" to flow. Just get it out of your system. IDGAF how long you've been doing this -- sometimes those comments hit sensitive spots, sometimes they sting, and there's nothing wrong with letting your emotions do their thing before you get to work.

Then take a few deep breaths. Put the manuscript away for an hour or two. Take a few more deep breaths. Now go through it again, this time reading the comments objectively and with the understanding that your editor is trying to make your book better. They're giving you feedback as a reader who isn't privy to your internal thought. Put the inner toddler down for a nap, pull on your big author pants, and get to work.

2. TRUST YOUR GUT BUT CHECK YOUR EGO.

If an editor's recommendation doesn't work for you, don't just accept it and move on. Stop and think about it. Is it your ego refusing to allow someone to tweak your Golden Words? Or is your gut telling you that, no, this is wrong? When in doubt, ask a beta reader or two.

Not long ago, an editor recommended a massive overhaul of one of my books. I rejected it pretty quickly because the suggestions were, quite frankly, not the story I had set out to tell. I ran it by another author to make sure it was my gut and not my ego talking, and ultimately, I kept the story the way it was. The result is my bestseller of the past five years.

3. GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION ARE NEGOTIABLE... TO A POINT.

I'm not going to tell you that everything you write must strictly adhere to formal grammatical rules, nor am I going to unpack all the problems with those rules. If your book is mostly in MLA style but there are a few things that are more CMoS, your readers really aren't going to care.

What I WILL say is that you SHOULD be mindful of grammar and punctuation for the purpose of CLARITY.

Is your editor tweaking your punctuation and sentence structure to adhere to formal English? Or is your sentence, as it's currently written, difficult to read? Does the reader need to reread it multiple times just to catch what you're saying? If so... adjusting the grammar and punctuation for clarity is in your best interest.

Don't get into a pissing match over commas and quotation marks. Unless the "correct" version screws with the rhythm, voice, and readability in a way that hurts your book, just accept the changes and move on.

4. TALK TO YOUR EDITOR.

For one, communication is key in any relationship. If you don't feel like you can speak up and discuss edits, rethink whether you want to continue working with this person.

But also, sometimes explaining the issue to your editor will lead you to a solution. You are absolutely allowed (assuming your publisher hasn't said otherwise) to just say "STET" on an edit you wish to reject. It means "let it stand," which is a nice way of saying "I'm rejecting your edit."

You CAN do that. But I've had publishers who required explanations for STET comments, and there have been SO MANY TIMES where I've been writing out that comment to my editor, explaining why I disagreed with their recommendation... and I talked myself right into why they were actually correct. Sometimes that meant talking myself into accepting their solution, and other times it meant talking myself into a completely different but effective one. I'm not suggesting you do this for every tiny tweak, but if there's something you really, really don't want to do... spell it out to your editor. You might just find an even better answer in your explanation.

5. YOUR LEEWAY AND VETO POWER DEPEND LARGELY ON WHAT KIND OF EDITORIAL ARRANGEMENT YOU HAVE.

If you've hired the editor yourself versus if the editor is assigned to you by a publisher. In EITHER arrangement, if you feel like you can't push back, discuss changes, reject changes, etc., that's a problem. The author-editor relationship is a collaboration, NOT a teacher telling a student "this is wrong and that's final." If you've hired the editor yourself, approach them directly or just move on.

If you're working with a publisher, approach them, and if the problem persists, go to your agent or the senior editor. If it becomes truly untenable and you don't think you can continue working with that editor, speak up. Sometimes people just aren't wired to work with each other, and that's okay. I've had some excellent editors who I won't work with anymore just because we don't click. They're not doing anything wrong and neither am I -- we're just not compatible.

6. YES, YOU REALLY CAN FIRE YOUR EDITOR.

There have been three separate times in my career when I've gone to a senior editor and said, "This is not working. I would like to work with a different editor." Don't be an entitled diva about it, but don't just quietly suffer either. Sometimes you and an editor simply aren't compatible. Some editors can be outright abusive or just terrible editors (I've had editors ADD errors to my manuscripts).

I know it's excruciating for some of us, but SPEAK UP if you feel like you and/or your book are not being treated right. Edits aren't fun for a lot of us (I hate the revision process, personally), but if it feels like actual torture, there's probably something wrong. Don't just quietly suffer.

7. WHEN IN DOUBT, ASK ANOTHER AUTHOR.

Is this editor a problem, or am I just being a snowflake? Are the rewrites they're suggesting bad for my story, or am I listening to my ego? Am I overthinking this?

When in doubt, always always always talk to someone. If you don't feel like you can talk to your editor, talk to another author in private first. A lot of us have been there, done that, and we might be able to show you that there really is a problem with your editor OR that you're seeing something that isn't there (don't worry, you wouldn't be the first).

8. SOMETIMES THE RECOMMENDED SOLUTION IS WRONG, BUT THE PROBLEM IS RIGHT.

An example: many years ago, an editor commented, "There isn't enough tension in this scene. You need to cut 1,000 words."

I tried and tried, but there was no way to cut even 200 words without the scene unraveling. So I stepped back and reconsidered her comment. The problem wasn't that 1,000 words needed to be cut -- it was that there wasn't enough tension.

I eventually solved the problem by ADDING 1,000 words.

So if your editor is recommending a solution that you just can't work with, focus on WHY they're making that recommendation. Focus on what PROBLEM the solution is meant to resolve. Maybe their solution is wrong, but the problem they're addressing can be dealt with in another way.

Along the same lines....

9. IF AN EDITOR REWRITES SOMETHING, ASK YOURSELF WHY.

I've had some editors who, rather than making a comment, will just rewrite a line (with tracked changes, of course). Very, very often, I've ended up rejecting their suggested version BUT revising the line.

For example, a line that was in the passive voice (which IS fine). My editor rewrote it to be more active. I didn't like HOW they rewrote it, but reading their version made me realize this particular line would work better in the active voice.

So sometimes it's really just a matter of...

10. UNDERSTAND HOW YOUR EDITOR COMMUNICATES.

Ideally, discuss this beforehand, but sometimes you end up learning it on the fly. Do they prefer to highlight a sentence and write out a comment explaining why they want to change it? Or do they prefer to change the sentence to illustrate how it could be better? Sometimes it's just a matter of figuring out what your editor is trying to say and how they communicate that; understanding those things will make it a lot easier to differentiate between "they're just trying to show me the issue" and "they're mowing over my voice and massacring my words."

11. IN THE END, IT'S STILL YOUR BOOK.

This is a double-edged sword. At the end of the day, especially if you've hired the editor for your self-published book, you get the final say of what happens in YOUR book.

But that also means that your name and reputation are going to be attached to it. Your editor is most likely trying to help you create a BETTER book, and more often than not, it's wise to listen to them. Even if you don't take all of their suggestions, at least consider them and try to understand them. You want to put forth the best book you can, not the one you'll look at 10 years from now and think "omg I should've listened to my editor."

12. TREAT YOUR EDITORS LIKE THEY'RE WORTH THEIR WEIGHT IN GOLD.

Even if you and an editor don't click, unless they're outright abusive and nasty, treat them well. They're doing a very tough job for you, and the vast majority really are just trying to make your book the best version of itself.

This doesn't ONLY mean being professional in emails and comments. It also means pay them on-time. Respect their time. Don't send manuscripts late or cancel without notifying them. Don't expect them to turn around major in-depth developmental and line edits in the time it takes you to write a blurb. They're people, they're trying to make a living, and like anyone in any business, deserve your respect and patience.

Editing, revising, and rewriting are not easy parts of this job, but they're necessary parts of it. Take it seriously. Remember that it's a collaboration between you and your editor. Editors are not infallible and neither are you.

As I said at the beginning, trust your gut but check your ego. You'll be glad you did when you have a finished, polished book you can be proud of.

[shizucheese]

Hey everyone! So I hadn't posted about this previously because I was working out the logistics and getting all of my ducks in a row, but I lost my job at the end of January and I decided to take it as a wake up call that instead of continuing down the path of working a mindless corporate job just for the sake of a paycheck and benefits, I should actually put that degree I worked so hard for to good use and and do something that I'm actually passionate about.

So, Writers of Tumblr, do you have a book or short story you're looking to get published? DMs of Tumblr, do you have homebrew content you're planning on publishing on DM's guild, Patreon or elsewhere? I am a freelance editor available to hire!

My Qualifications: BA in Creative Writing from Knox College

Poynter ACES Certificate in Editing from the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. My Services and Rates:

Proofreading: $10.00/ 1,000 words (or $0.01/ word)

Combing through your work to check and correct spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Copyediting: $15.00/ 1,000 words (or $0.015/ word)

Combing through your work to check and correct spelling, grammar and punctuation

Ensuring tone is consistent throughout your work

Ensuring that your work complies with the style guide you designate

Fact checking

Developmental/ Content Editing: $20.00/ 1,000 words (or $0.02/ word)

Feedback on narrative structure, characterization and world building

Notes on dialog, voice and tone

Highlighting any plot holes

Creation of a style sheet to ensure the spellings of names and locations in your story are consistent, as well as any other word use that might be unique to your story.

If you're interested in making use of my services, please dm me!

If you don't have anything that needs editing right now, or you're not a writer, but still want to help, I'd really appreciate it if you could signal boost this. It would really mean the world to me. Thanks so much everyone!

[billconrad]

Spotting Bad Grammar

    From an early age, writing proper English was a huge obstacle. Spelling, sentence structure, and crazy rules all messed with my young mind. Why did they make English so complex? Why don’t we write the way we speak? I had no idea.

    The bad news was that English never got more straightforward, and even after college, I struggled. What did I do? I decided to become an author even though I knew my English foundation was made from dryer lint and bubble gum. Words now dominate my thoughts, and I endlessly toil over choosing the best ones. Side note: My readers would likely point out the vast need for improvement.

    Since I began this unexpected journey, I have experienced a significant upside. My English improved. Really, it did. My spelling, speech, and grammar have all improved. I even think better. However, there was an unexpected downside. I now notice awful sentences everywhere. For example, the book Reamde by Neal Stephenson was loaded with glaring flaws. What the heck? He is one of my favorite authors and uses a top-notch editor. Apparently not.

    This reminds me of a class of people I dislike. The grammar mongers. They endlessly complain about lousy grammar in advertisements, books, and movies. Why just this morning, I noticed the advertising slogan on a medical diagnostic company van, “Because doctor’s care.” While this sentence is mostly correct, it made me want to yell, “Who the heck asked this question? Doctors are supposed to care. It’s their job. You guys are not even doctors!” I would not have given that van a second glance two years ago.

    In the afternoon, I read this sentence in a newspaper article, “Cost-conscious farmers are looking for bargains, and tractors from that era are well-built and totally functional, and aren’t as complicated or expensive to repair as more recent models that run on sophisticated software.” Do their tractors fuel up with run-on sentences? Are the editors for the Minnesota Star Tribune on strike? Is there a place to complain? Or boycott future articles?

    Wait a minute. Who wrote that? This is Bill here. I am the undisputed king of run-on sentences. Did I somehow become that grammar hater? Have I switched sides? Is this going to be my new thing? “Stay tuned for epic bad grammar rants.”

    Yeah, no. I have learned the hard way that long-winded rants into esoteric topics do not lead to “buy it now” clicks. Will I suffer in silence? Perhaps a future article will have my top ten lousy grammar finds. Will any of my sentences make the cut? I think we can count on that.

    PS, March 04 is National Grammar Day.

    You’re the best -Bill

    December 14, 2024

    Hey book lovers, I published four. Please check them out:

    Interviewing Immortality. A dramatic first-person psychological thriller that weaves a tale of intrigue, suspense, and self-confrontation.

    Pushed to the Edge of Survival. A drama, romance, and science fiction story about two unlikely people surviving a shipwreck and living with the consequences.

    Cable Ties. A slow-burn political thriller that reflects the realities of modern intelligence, law enforcement, department cooperation, and international politics.

    Saving Immortality. Continuing in the first-person psychological thriller genre, James Kimble searches for his former captor to answer his life’s questions.

    These books are available in soft-cover on Amazon and eBook format everywhere.

[omg-im-such-a-masochist]

THE PEACE MAKER

Prompt: Requested, by the lovely @banks4life

Thank you so much for your request babes, I hope you’ll like it 😉

Word Count: Bitch, grab a snack, ‘cuz this is LONG

Pairings: Roman Reigns x Reader x Seth Rollins

Warnings: +18, smut, threesome, anal sex, rough sex, car sex, dom x sub dynamic, name calling, DP (double penetration), fingering, oral sex (female receiving), angst.

Tag: @ziasaph , @marlananicole , @akiko-tanaka , @wickedsunfire , @sassymox , @nicolewoo , @saccreigns , @drewmcintyrekoccsrocbwdgfan , @mindofasagittaruis , @reigns-5sos , @auawdo , @lustyromantic , @babydee17 , @yungbludjazz360 , @theworldofotps , @new-zealand-chic

Notes: This was something people 🥵💦. I have some exciting news! 🤗 From now on I’ll have an official editor. How cool is that? This means no more misspellings for me and you get to enjoy a fic with a nice flow and correctly grammar 🤣 My editor is the incredible and amazing @rheacanbreakme , Annie is the one responsible for helping me with my writing and she is an INCREDIBLE writer as well! So please, if you can, make sure to check her out, you won’t regret it 😉 You can check out my previous fics on my Masterlist, if you’d like. Now, let’s get the fun started, shall we?

Sighing in relief, I placed my bags underneath the stairs and ran quickly towards the kitchen when I heard the commotion coming from there.

The loud screaming and cursing almost made me deaf.

“What is going on in here?” I asked

“Shut the fuck up, fool! You can’t make her cum like that, not even if you tried hard to!” Roman yelled at Seth, completely ignoring me.

“What the fuck did you just say?” Seth ran quickly towards Roman, desperately trying to throw a punch at him

“HEY, HEY, HEY” I yelled as loud as I could, stepping in between their bodies and placing one hand on the chest of both of the men

“C’mon, bitch! I ain’t afraid of you!” Roman teased Seth

“ENOUGH!” I pushed Seth away, making him finally look at me

“You’re choosing his side, Y/N?” Seth asked in disbelief

“I’m not choosing anything! I don’t even know what the hell is going on!”

“It’s pretty simple: Lover boy here was sniffing around my stuff, opened a computer folder called ‘Private’ and found some of our sex videos, did not like what he saw, even though he was the one snooping through other’s business, and now he wants to pick a fight with me because of it” Roman explained

“Seth, why did you open the folder?” I asked

“Because I wanted to see what’s up with it, since he keeps it to himself like it contains the keys to heaven or something”

“It is heaven! As you saw” Roman smirked

“I’m gonna rip your fucking head off!!” Seth ran, and I stopped him

“Seth, don’t!” I pushed him away “And you” I looked at Roman “Stop teasing him”

“He did that shit on purpose, Y/N!” Seth said

“No, I didn’t” Roman defends himself “I was showering, I left it open because I was gonna watch it after! Then you sneaked into my room and decided it was a good idea to open MY personal folder that was in MY MacBook in MY bedroom!”

“Seth, is this true?” I looked into his eyes

“I thought it was pictures or videos of him with another woman! A side chick or something”

“Bitch” Roman scoff “I don’t need a side chick! I CAN keep it in my pants, unlike some other people” Roman measured him with his eyes from head to toe

“ARGH” Seth roared, trying to attack him again

“Goddamn it, STOP!” I grabbed Seth’s face and forced him to look at me “Please, stop” I begged, and he closed his eyes, taking a deep breath

“That was low” I narrowed my eyes at Roman

“What? I didn’t lie” He said, shrugging

“Stop talking, please! You’re not helping at all!”

“Are you gonna defend him, even though he’s wrong?” Roman asked, slightly shocked

“You two, stop with this defending bullshit! I’m not picking anyone’s side! THERE ARE NO SIDES FOR ME TO PICK!” I yelled exasperated, took a deep breath and looked at them “I’m just trying to make sure that neither of you do anything dumb”

When I have both of their attention I continued

“I just got home and instead of having a welcome home kiss I almost got a welcome home punch in the face! Seth, you shouldn’t have invaded Roman’s privacy. We’re supposed to respect each other’s personal space in this house and we all know that personal belongings are off limits and the bedrooms too, unless the owner of the room allows us in. Isn’t that right?” I asked and he nodded

“Good. And Roman, I thought we were all adults who know better than to tease the other person like if we were in 8th grade when that other person is extremely nervous” I looked at him and he mouthed a ‘he started’ and I just stared at him harshly

Roman sighed “Yeah, you’re right”

After a few minutes of silence Seth says

“I have a night class at Black and Brave, so I’m just gonna head off” He whispered to me

“Ok, babe” I caressed his bearded cheek, knowing that this was his way to calm down, even though his class doesn’t start until 3 hours from now.

Seth hugged me tightly, pecking my lips

“I missed you. I’m glad you’re back home” He smiled softly

“Yeah, me too, bubba” I kissed his cheek

“See you later, baby”

“See ya, and be careful!” I followed him to the front door

Seth winked at me as he grabbed his duffle bag, and waved at me once he reached his car, which is when I closed the door

I returned to the kitchen and looked at Roman, who was sipping on a beer bottle

“Did Mrs. Soft Feelings leave already?” He asked

“Ro, that’s not nice! Don’t talk about him like that, you know I don’t like it! But yeah, he left”

“Good” He placed me on top of the kitchen island, completely ignoring what I just said “‘Cuz I’ve wanted to do this ever since I saw you”

Roman’s lips teased my own. Kissing me sensually, taking every chance to nibble at my lips.

“I missed you so fucking much” Roman sighed, hugging me tightly

“I missed you too, big dog” I squeezed his ass cheeks, making him chuckle

“So, our old videos, huh?” I asked

“I missed you. I needed something to ease the pain, you know? I couldn’t get you out of my head”

“Which head?” I giggled

“Both heads” Roman winked

“I think I can help you with that” I replied, dipping my hand inside his sweatpants

“Oh, please do” Roman moaned once my hand closed around his erection “Fuck, it feels so good” Roman rested his forehead on mine “Hmmm baby, just like that...Fuck I missed this”

Roman opened my button up shirt, sinking his head down to the top of my breasts, sucking, licking and biting.

“Your skin is so soft” He whispered against my breasts “Specially your tits. Always drive me insane”

“Roman” I moaned and he grabbed me in his arms, taking us to the living room, where he placed me on the couch before leaning back

“I wanna fuck you so bad” Roman panted, quickly removing his clothes as I did the same.

I moaned loudly when he entered me.

“Isn’t it so good to be home baby girl?” Roman chuckled, mocking me

My walls squeezed around him, making him groan loudly

“That’s so mean of you” He half moaned uncontrollably

“That’s what you get for mocking me”

“I could never!” Roman pretended to be offended, and began to pound mercilessly into me

“You’re so fucking wet...I can tell this pussy missed my cock, didn’t it baby?”

“Oh yes, daddy. So fucking much!”

“That’s it, baby. Scream for daddy”

Roman and I both screamed in pleasure as we came.

“Wanna take a bath?” Roman asked playfully

“Sure, I fucking need one” I giggled

.......................................................................................

“You’re going to sleep with him tonight?”

“Ro, please don’t start with me...You know he has the odd days this month”

“Can I persuade you into forgetting that and staying with me instead?”

“You know that’s not fair”

“Well, I think I should have some type of reward don’t you?”

“For what?”

“Not knocking his teeth down his throat for touching my stuff without permission”

I laughed “Roman, you’re a grown ass man! Please, behave yourself”

“He still deserves a punch!”

“Babe” I said as I sat up on his lap “Please, help me out?! Look” I sighed “You know I’m not one for comparison, but we both also know that it’s no secret you’re way more mature than Seth in some aspects, so I’m begging you: Please don’t do this to me! Don’t stick your head up your ass and become as childish as he is, please? I need someone to deal with the situation as an adult and I know that’s not gonna come from Seth but I do hope it comes from you” I give him some puppy eyes for an extra effects

Roman sighed “Fine. You won! I’ll be the mature one”

“Thank you” I squealed, hugging him tightly

“Yeah, yeah” He chuckled “But I’m already letting you know that the next time he touches my stuff I will break his teeth AND his fingers!”

“Noted!”

…………………………………………………............................

I was waiting for Seth, laying down on his bed, when his bedroom door opened.

“Hey bubba” I smiled, opening my arms for him

Seth smiled widely, jumped on the bed and hugged me tightly

“Ah, I missed this” He said, inhaling the perfume on my neck

I giggled, asking “So, how was the night class?”

“Good, but I know what can be better” He smirked, pinning me down on the mattress...

The next morning I had an early class at college so I was the first one to wake up, followed by Seth

“What are you doing up so soon?” He asked, hugging me from behind as I waited for my toast to be ready

“I have an early class”

“Come back to bed” He mumbled against my shoulder

“Bubba, I can’t!” I chuckled softly “You know that”

“But we miss you” Seth pressed his hard on against my butt cheeks

“I know but I really can’t” I turned around and softly kissed his neck “But we can fix that later if you‘d like” I winked at him

Seth sighed heavily “Fine” He murmured, slightly upset

“C’mon bubs, don’t be like that” I hugged him tightly “I need papa waiting for me when I come back home” I smiled when his eyes shifted to his Dom mode, which often happened whenever I called him papa

“Are you gonna let me make a video with you too, so I can have my own?” Seth asked, with a raspy voice

“I’ll let you do whatever you want with me” I leaned forward, reached his ear and whispered “Papa” Giggling, when I felt the pressure of his grip around my neck

“We’re going to have so much fun when you come back” Seth laughed coldly

“Hmmm, I can’t wait for it!”

.......................................................................................

As soon as I got home, I opened the front door and felt a forceful tug on my right arm

“Ouch, Seth what the fuck?” I asked

The only reply I received was being tossed on his shoulder as he ran to his bedroom.

From the couch, Roman just stared at us until our figures disappeared up the stairs.

Seth loudly shut his bedroom door, soon after saying “Take your clothes off, now!” He quickly set up his phone upon the night stand and he took the lube bottle out of his bedside table

I gave him a questioning look and he said

“I’m about to fucking explode! I really cannot endure foreplay. Not right now!”

Seth squirted some lube on his length and rubbed his cock all over my folds, making me moan loudly.

Soon after, we heard the front door open and close forcefully.

“Uh, somebody must be having a bad day” Seth laughed, amused

I slapped his shoulder lightly “Don’t talk about him like that”

Seth’s eyes grew dark and suddenly I had one hand around my neck, choking me hard and another hand rubbing my clit in fast circles.

“Since when do you hit me like that? Have you forgot who’s in charge, princess? Does papa have to remind you about that?”

I can feel my eyes closing from both pleasure and pain, and my mind going numb from the choking.

Seth quickly loosened the pressure around my neck and lightly slapped my face

“No no no, you’re not gonna pass out on me now, are you?” He laughed deviously “I love when you get like that, speechless...whenever that happens, you become my favorite play toy! Just laying there, all pretty and quiet, just waiting for me to fuck you...use you as I like” Seth bit my cheek “Don’t you like being used, baby?” He asked, staring at me

“Yes, I love it” I panted

“Of course you love it!” Seth licked from my chin to my lips “You love it because, you’re my filthy little whore” He chuckled and quickly began to fuck me until I was screaming uncontrollably

……………………………………………………..

It is the next day and I’m leaving the main building on campus when I heard someone honk, and then call for me. I turned around to find Roman

“Hi, baby girl” He smiled widely

I leaned on the driver’s window to give him a kiss

“What are you doing here?” I asked, surprised

“Well, I just left the gym and I remembered that you leave college earlier on friday’s so I came to pick you up” Roman winked

“Are you leaving already?” He asked

“Yep!” I answered, giving him my books and backpack so he could toss it on the back seat, while I made my way to the passenger’s seat

“Why didn’t you let me know you were coming? I could have waited for you in the front building”

“Nah, it’s ok. I didn’t take that long to find you” He cackled “And also because I wanted to surprise you” Roman took my hand in his, intertwining our fingers and placing a soft kiss on the back of my hand

“Well, I’m happy you came to pick me up” I leaned forward and placed a kiss on the side of his full lips

“C’mon, really? We haven’t been together in two days and that’s all I get? An ‘I’m a virgin, please be gentle’ kiss?” He laughed

“What?” I played dumb

“Baby...c’mon, show your man some love, will you?” Roman placed one big hand on my thigh and squeezed

“Ro, you’re driving. We can’t do that!” I pretended to be in shock with his request

“You really gonna make me stop the car and fuck you in the middle of the street? Because you know I will!”

“Of course you wouldn’t!” I teased, knowing that would make him park the car and fuck me senseless.

Roman quickly pulled over, next to an alley and turned the car off. Unbuckling his seatbelt, Roman said

“Take off your panties and straddle my lap” He pulled his half hard cock out of his pants, licked his palm and began to stroke it to complete hardness.

Just the sight of his rock hard member was enough to make me damp. I straddled his lap and Roman teased me with the tip of his cock, rubbing up and down my folds, from my clit to my entrance.

“Daddy, please” I begged

“What do you want, baby girl? Tell daddy”

“I want you to fuck me, please...Please fuck me good like only you can do” I pleaded

Roman finally stopped teasing me after my last plea, and entered my core.

“Fuck daddy...so deep” I gasped

He grabbed me by my hair, pulling me forcefully to him. Kissing my lips like his life depended on it

“You like me buried deep inside of you, don’t you baby?” Roman panted

“I love it! I love it so fucking much” I moaned

Romans thrusts were vigorous and merciless. Even though we didn’t had that much space in the car, he still managed to find the perfect angle to make me feel dizzy.

“Fuck, look at that” He pulled the front of my dress up, so he could see his dick going in and out of me “Look how well you take me, baby. How you take every fucking inch...You’re so fucking perfect” Roman said, pulling my face to his and kissing my lips, while he grabbed two fistfuls of my hair, to keep me in place….

…………………………………………………………………………

Saturday’s night are always low for the three of us, not much to do unless we decided to chill on the couch and watch some tv. But since finals are coming, I was finishing one of my reports in my room when I heard the beginning of an argument coming faintly from the living room.

I rolled my eyes before making my way downstairs, to see what the problem was this time, which happened to be the fourth time today I had to settle an argument between the boys.

“What the hell? Can’t you two stop fighting for one goddamn second?” I screamed

“He started it” They said at the same time

*I swear, it’s like living with children* I thought to myself

“What is it?” I asked, briefly

“He ate my greek yogurt” Roman said

“I was hungry! And I didn’t see your name on it, pal” Seth answered

“I’m the only one in this house who eats the fucking yogurt!” Roman yelled

“Well, I was in the mood to eat it and so I did! As far as I remember, the food is for everybody who lives here, isn’t it?” Seth asked, placing his hands on his hips

“But the yogurt was mine!” Roman roared

“Enough!” I screamed “Shut the fuck up the both of you, now!” I tugged at my hair in exasperation

They stared at me speechless and I used that moment to let my anger flow

“I can’t believe that two grown ass men in their thirties are fighting over yogurt! You have got to be kidding me! I can’t understand how me, in my 21 years old, have to intervene in your stupid and pointless baby level of immaturity fights! I’m tired of being the only adult in this fucking house and as far as I’m concerned, you two can literally kill each other from now on, because I DON’T GIVE A DAMN ANYMORE!” I yelled and returned to my bedroom.

One hour later, I heard a knock on my bedroom door, but decided to ignore it.

The knocking persisted, until I yelled

“What?”

“Can we come in?” Seth asked

“No!” I answered

“C’mon baby girl, please? We just want to apologize to you, that’s all” Roman said

“Yeah? What for? Just so you can begin fighting again 30 minutes from now?” I spat

“Babe, please hear us out? We’re begging you” Seth said

I opened my bedroom door and found them standing there, with matching guilty looks on their faces

“Fine, but if you start arguing again-“

“We won’t” Both responded in unison

I made my way to my bed and they both entered the room.

“Talk” I said, when I sat at the edge of my the bed

“We would like to apologize to you, for all the bickering and fighting” Seth said

“Yeah, we realized that it senseless and uncalled for” Roman began

“And stupid, childish, annoying, ridiculous” I interrupted him

“True, it’s just that, we ended up getting caught up in the stress of everything, letting the pent up anger out on each other, and didn’t even realized how much stress we caused you by acting like we did” Seth said, coming closer to the bed and sitting by my side “Do you forgive me?” He whispered

I sighed heavily “Yes, I do, bubba” I pecked his lips

“And what about me?” Roman asked, now also sitting by my side

“Of course I forgive you too, handsome” I also pecked his lips

“Would you let us make it up to you?” Seth whispered in my ear

“Yes”

I gasped when Seth’s lips began to kiss my neck, while Roman quickly grabbed the hem of my oversized t-shirt and pulled up, revealing my naked body underneath it. Wasting no time, Roman sucked one nipple into his mouth as Seth turned my head towards him, so he could kiss my lips.

I moaned softly when Seth’s fingers began to rub my clit and Roman’s lips took over kissing me passionately.

“You like this, don’t you babe? You’re so fucking wet” Seth moaned, dipping two fingers in me

“What do you need, baby?” Roman asked as Seth’s fingers moved at a frantic pace

“I need your mouth on me, daddy. As papa’s fingers fuck me” I said, making Roman smirk

He leaned down and began to suck my clit as Seth finger fucked me.

It didn’t take me long to reach my orgasm, cumming hard.

“Who do you want where, baby girl?” Roman briefly asked

“I want you on my pussy first” I answered

Roman positioned himself on my entrance as Seth stood behind me, with the lube on his hand

Roman buried himself deeply and waited for Seth to enter my puckered hole before they began to thrust, finding a rhythm that could be pleasurable for the three of us.

“Oh, just like that” I moaned when they found the perfect pace

“Hmmm, baby you’re even tighter” Roman moaned “Do you like when Seth fucks your ass while I fuck your pussy, baby?” He asked

“Oh yes, I fucking love it! I feel so fucking full!” I panted

“You love being full with dick, right baby?” Seth whispered softly

“So fucking much!” I giggled

“You ready to switch?” Roman asked Seth

“Fuck yeah!” Was his answer

They switched and I felt even fuller. With Roman now in my ass and being thicker than Seth, he pushed my walls tighter, making it difficult for Seth to enter me

“Fuck, fuck, fuck I’m gonna cum” Seth moaned loudly once he finally entered me

“Don’t you fucking dare” I screamed, moaning

Roman began to move and so did Seth. The feeling was so good, I was literally drooling all over myself

“Fuck babe, you’re drooling. You look so fucking hot!” Seth said in awe

“Are you drooling because it feels so good, baby girl?” Roman asked

“Yes, daddy” I squealed

“Roman, she’s gonna cum...fuck, she’s so tight” Seth said as he began to cum, triggering my own release

Roman quickly pulled out and came on my ass, moaning and panting

The three of us crashed into the mattress, giggling and sighing.

“This was fun” Roman said

“Yeah, it was really hot” Seth laughed

“Would you like to do that again?” I smirked

“Fuck yeah!” They answered

As one bearded face moved to my breasts and the other one roamed down to my...

Please if you’re comfortable with it, let me know your thoughts on this? Feedbacks are always appreciated 🥰😘

[sozzay]

Looking for editors!

Hey guys! It’s been a while, but I've finally finished writing the script for my SDR2 AU: Danganronpa MK2! As I start drawing the art for it, I'm interested in having some people step in and give the script a proofread. 

What is Danganronpa MK2? 

During the early stages of SDR2′S development, the DR creative team decided to backtrack and reassign Hajime's role to Mahiru. The resulting game is Danganronpa MK2 (or MK2 for short), where Mahiru takes centre stage!

MK2 will be told via a fake liveblog (think orenronen's SomethignAwful liveblogs) meaning the script has been set out like we are playing the game. The majority of CGS and screenshots that will accompany the liveblog are not yet included in the script, as they are currently being made by me and @bitesizebird​!

 What will proofreading entail? 

Just the usual stuff: 

Checking grammar and punctuation 

Making sure the script flows well 

Reviewing the general story beats  

Making sure everyone is in character 

You don't need to be a professional editor or even have a background in editing, all you need is a critical eye!

Other things to know 

There will be new trials and mysteries to solve. 

This au is around the same length as the original game.

It is a bit of a slow burn.

Contacting me/The process 

If you're interested, you can contact me here on Tumblr or via Discord (preferred). My discord handle is sozzay#6295.

To start off, I'll link you the Google Documents for the Prologue and Chapter 1 (including the trial). These can serve as a taste test for you guys, and if you're interested in continuing I'll send you the next chapter! 

I think that should be everything. If you have any further questions, feel free to dm me or ask!

Edit (18/11/20): Happy to say I’ve amassed a line-up of editors that could rival the justice society of america, so I will no longer be accepting offers!

Thank you to everyone who showed interest I love yall

[afipiafelis]

Finding an Editor: Part 3

Hiring an editor is proving to be an exercise in patience. I am glad I started looking now. I'm using Fiverr for the moment to identify potential candidates within my budget (eg - $200-300 for 70k words).

Yeah. I know. You get what you pay for. A "real editor" should cost $1000+. Welcome to the world where not all of us are Times Best Sellers and don't just have $1000+ laying around. Guess what? It's either in my budget or I edit it myself and leave tons of errors. (≡ε≡；)

When your story is likely going to be rejected by any logical publisher, you do your best.

Let's be honest, I fully expect I will lose money on this story if I indie publish. The fact is there is a very tiny audience that will want to read it. If I get 2-3 books sales I will have exceeded my expectations. I'm not trying to throw a pity party. This is the nature of what I want to do. ┐(´～｀)┌

Niche audience = not a lot of people = not a lot of profit (if any).

The first editor I contacted is a line editor and proofreader which my dyslexic butt needs badly.

Her skills are listed as: Typographical Errors, Grammatical Mistakes, Run-On Sentences, Tenses Issues, Subject-Verb Disagreements, Sentence Fragments and Lengths, Spelling, Logical Flow and Sentence Structure

She responded to all my questions straight away and finished the reading and editing well within my time frames (48 hours for the first edit and then 72 for the revision). She gave me very useful advice about doing some transitions between the scenes.

"To be honest with you, the story was a bit difficult to follow because there were a series of stories trying to fight for space. Even if there is an interference with another story at some point, at another point, I feel the other story should have a continuation for easy comprehension of the whole story put together."

I admit I didn't fully understand what she meant at first. When I took a guess and added some transitions between the scenes it came out really awesome. She completed the revisions well within my time frame.

The one trouble I have is that she really wants me to give the "you character" the last name which I was trying to avoid. I mean it's technically "your" late husband's last name so I suppose it doesn't ruin the immersion that much.

The other huge advantage to this editor is that she is a woman of color. I'm white AF. My story has characters of every skin tone from freckled redhead to dark brown/black. A sensitivity reader seemed like a great fit. I straight up told her I wanted her to call me out on anything that would alienate people who don't have my skin tone out of the story. That means no "knuckles blanching" or "blushing pink" or "ran his hands through your silky hair".

Overall I'm really happy with her services and grammar. I left her a tip and a very good review which she deserves. All the same, I'm still checking to see how the other two editors go.

[heywriters]

Hello there, first I want to thank you for this amazing blog! It has helped me a lot in my writing process. So, thank you so much! I do have a question, English is not my mother tongue but, for some reason the first time I started writing I did it in English and haven't stopped since then (Almost ten years ago). I know my English still needs work, but sometimes it is rather complicated it when I see so many grammar rules and vocabulary, any advice about how can I approach these on my writing?

Write simply and to the best of your ability. In places where you're not sure how to describe something, insert your own language in brackets [ ]. Continue practicing grammar and punctuation rules as you write, but tell yourself they are not as important as what you write.

You may also choose to focus on one grammar rule at a time. This should help you get used to each one you may be having trouble with. It's also good to read with these rules in mind so when you see them in writing you'll recognize them.

When you've completed your entire story, go back and write your second draft which will be when you change parts of the story, fix plot holes, etc. Save grammar and punctuation fixes for draft three or four, and translate those bracketed sentences too. It may take more drafts than it would a native speaker, but with each one you'll get better at the language. Make sure to read ESL grammar/punctuation lessons online as you revise or when you're not writing.

Lastly, have a native English reader, preferably one who has a good eye for grammar and punctuation and who you trust, check your writing for errors. If they find many mistakes, you may feel bad, but it's okay! I emphasize finding a reader who is good at grammar because many of us are sadly very bad writers in our own language. Knowing two is a strength, even if it is a struggle.

If you are just posting a story online, it's okay to have more mistakes. Many ESL writers post wonderful stories that we enjoy despite a few grammar mistakes.

If you want to publish this story as a book someday, after rewriting it a few times you should also try to find an editor who is used to working with ESL books. Especially look for someone who may know your language as their second language.

Your ask is well-worded and I'm sure your writing will be too. I have #esl #grammar #vocabulary tags that may help, and I hope this answers helps!

Since I've never attempted a writing project in my second language, is there anyone who has who might have some extra advice?

—

+ Please review my Ask Policy before sending in your ask. Thank you!

+ If you benefit from my updates and replies, please consider sending a little thank you and Buy Me A Coffee!

+ You can also find HEY, Writers! on: AO3 - Wattpad - Unsplash - Pinterest

[todaydreambelieversfic]

Author Spotlight : Caramelcoffeeaddict Day 3

Author @caramelcoffeeaddict​

How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

I'm constantly editing & revising as I write. Once I've completed a draft, I will read through the whole story at least twice before I post it. But that's mostly looking for typos and grammar errors, as well as making sure there is continuity throughout the fic. I don't usually do any major revising to a fic once the story is fully drafted.

If you were to revise one of your older fics from start to finish, which would it be and why?

That's an easy one! "I Know What I Need". I have very mixed feeling about this fic. I feel like the ending was rushed. It's the only fic I have written that I'm not 100% proud of. I've even contemplated orphaning it before. I've just never gotten into the right headspace in order to attempt to revise it though. I'd much rather concentrate on writing new fics.

What do you look for in a beta?

I've only ever used a beta when I've participated in writing challenges that require one. (@tchrgleek has been my beta on both of those fics because she is awesome; also @random-klainer0100 did an early beta read on one of those stories too). Basically, what I ask them to look for is spelling, grammar, continuity, and plot-holes. If they have any other thoughts or opinions they'd like to share with me, I'm open to hearing them. But for the most part, I just need a SPAG editor.

If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?

Nothing specific is jumping out at me.

Do you take liberties with canon or are you very strict about your fic being canon compliant?

I mostly write AUs, so I take TONS of liberties with canon. 

Talk about a review that made your day.

Any positive review I get makes my day. I am always so genuinely thankful and appreciative when people say they liked something I wrote.

Do you ever get rude reviews and how do you deal with them?

I've had a couple of comments where the person strongly disagreed with my characterization, interpretation, or portrayal of something. What I did was reply with a polite explanation of why I wrote it the way I did, then I put the comment out of my mind and moved on. But I thankfully haven't gotten any comments/reviews that were hateful or aggressive in any way.

What advice do you have for people just starting to write?

Write what makes you happy. As long as you like what's on the page, it doesn't matter what other people think.

Which fic do you most like to discuss with other people? Why?

I'm genuinely happy to talk about any of my fics. My comment section and my ask box are always open if you want to talk! But the fic that most people want to talk to me about, however, is "Desperate Times...". Probably because it is my most popular fic; but also because there are layers to it - it's not just a smut fic. There is a story woven into it with an honest and sincere relationship between Kurt & Blaine.

What's one aspect of writing fic that gets you really excited?

Envisioning the story and seeing it play out in my mind. Knowing I have a fully-realized concept for a fic, and not just a few scattered ideas that need to be pieced together. When there is a clear idea of what needs to go on the page, that's when I get excited to write.

*** Check out Caramelcoffeeaddict’s Fic

The Bet -  New transfer student Blaine Anderson has caught the attention of a few of his female classmates. They make a bet to see who can get Blaine to kiss them first. The results are not what they are expecting.

I Know What I Need  -  Kurt and Blaine are college roommates. Both boys have girlfriends and think they're straight. One night, after both of them suddenly find themselves single, they get drunk and turn to each other to abate their sexual appetites.

Surprise Visit -  Cooper wants to surprise his little brother for his birthday, only he gets the apartment numbers mixed up, and barges into Kurt's apartment instead.

[turtletotem]

Folks, I am officially hanging out my shingle! Shelly Greene, aka TurtleTotem, editor for hire. Need a professional pair of eyes on your novel manuscript? Preparing to self-publish? Willing to seriously invest in your fanfic? I’m your girl!

Qualifications: 

I have three novels and two novellas published (under Shelly Greene and Elizabeth Belyeu)

I have experience with small presses and with independent publishing, working with and without an agent

I worked a six-month editing internship at Astraea Press (now CleanReads), where I was described as thorough, detail-oriented, and easy to work with

Specialties:

Romance, including LGBTQ

Fantasy

Science Fiction

Young Adult

Rates:

For developmental edits, 2¢ per word

Developmental editing is an in-depth analysis of the structure and content of your story, focusing on things like theme, tone, and the plot as a whole. Big-picture editing.

For copy editing, 1.5¢ per word

Copy editing involves correcting spelling and grammar errors, inconsistencies, fact checking, continuity, and making sure the story is cohesive and coherent on a sentence/paragraph level.

For proofreading, 1¢ per word

Proofreading is the final polish of a manuscript, checking for typos and technical errors without worrying about story content.

To engage my services or ask for more information (all questions welcome!), message me on tumblr or email me at turtletotem1@gmail.com. (Note the “1″ there, just turtletotem is someone else.)

Even if you’re not looking for an editor right now, please reblog and help me spread the word to people who might be!

[missmaxime]

17! 18! 30! 32! 38! <3 <3 <3

Thank you for these! 🥰 17. How obsessively do you sit and stare at your fic after you’ve just posted and wait for feedback? I don’t. Well, not immediately. I try to distract myself for at least half an hour to an hour after posting because by the time I post I’ve already gone mental from finaFinalreRerereadFiNaldefDEFDEF.def x34 and I need to calm down. But after that I compulsively refresh AO3 (for the Beth/Rio tag) and depending on the time of day I start replying to comments or wait for it until morning. I don’t re-read my own fic until at least the day after (and inevitably fix some v obvs spelling mistakes I got blind for during edits). 18. Do you have a WIP that you keep telling yourself you’ll eventually get back to, but deep down you know that’s probably a lie? A little while ago I would have maybe said Wild at Heart, but I recently started editing the new chapter and now I’m feeling that story again (I got a bit lost with it over season 3, and it’s a long fic I’m not really used to writing – I had no oversight in my notes and outline and ugh). I think when I do publish it might have a bit of a different tone, especially because I think I progressed a lot over the past six months as a writer. But I have by now accepted that I will never re-write those earlier chapters, so I’m just going to move on and continue the story. BTW. If someone can recommend a/their Word Processor to get a better oversight in longer WIPs, please do! There’s no published WIP I won’t get back to from what I see now. I have a few in my WIP-folder that are a lost cause, main reasons are either because I either forgot I wrote it to begin with, or because I don’t like my style or plot anymore. 30. Post a snippet from you’re a current WIP without context - no more than 300 words. From a WIP I definitely won’t abandon, but one that’s also taking me crazy long to write (because world-building):

Annie swallows everything down, but keeps the bowl of candies protectively close to her chest. “I can’t believe they reached out to you twenty years later,” she says, plopping down next to Beth. “I can’t believe they subpoenaed me.” Annie sits up. “Technically they summoned you—” Beth gives her a look that immediately shuts her up. “You know, it’s good they did. They probably got a notification that you got rid of your Dean-shaped baggage and thought: Presto Matcho, and let’s go!” “Maybe I don’t want to be matched up.” “Relax, sis. Just go out on a date, get those cobwebs cleaned out if he’s a seven or up, and move on with your life!” “Annie!” “You’re right, maybe don’t be that picky, make it a six.” Beth’s all fired up to blow a gasket when a man with a bird tattoo sprawled on his neck enters the waiting room, accompanied by a dark-haired woman in a suit. They’re in a heated discussion, going through a pile of papers that’s full of marked segments and bookmarks. Beth’s getting a bit lost in thought, looking at him when she feels Annie leaning her head on her shoulder. “I served him too,” she whispers in Beth’s ear, pulling her back into reality again. “You!” she hears the guy say, pointing at Annie, who immediately throws her hands up in defense, totally forgetting she was holding the candy bowl which immediately tumbles onto the ground, scattering its contents over the floor. “Hey, I’m just here for my sister, don’t come at me bro!” she tries to laugh it nervously away. He doesn’t think it’s funny. But his gaze lingers on Beth a longer time than might be appropriate before turning his attention back to the woman beside him. 32. Copy and paste your top three favorite lines/jokes/sentences you’ve ever written. What fics do they come from? I can have different favorites varying on the week / day. It usually changes when I post a new fic. Sometimes I’m not even super in love with a line when I post it, but it grows on me when I re-read later. So just three random ones: Regardless of his repeat observation of ‘you’re so tight, baby’, she’s definitely not going to indulge him with the Snoozefest Saga of her sex life of the past decade.  – from Stuck in the Middle It’s a decision he almost immediately regrets. Apparently, Elizabeth is very convinced of her (faulty) navigation skills. And mind you, he has an essentially AI-worthy navigation system build into his (“Is this what you drive? Don’t you think it’s a little… out there? Like, surely you don’t really need something so preposterous to arrive in?” she had laughed cutely after that, but he felt slapped in the face – and not the kind he might be paying her for) G-wagon. – from The Girlfriend Experience “Yeah,” he smiles. “We real good friends too, aren’t we?” he says suggestively. (It’s just, he can’t help it, knows it’s dumb and petty but ugh. He’s suffered through Mick’s eye-rolls enough after returning from a No Elizabeth Murder Night again. The other guy casually looking up from polishing his custom ninja throwing stars - don’t start about it, it’s a whole thing, and Rio’s convinced the man can’t even get them into a wall a three feet away if he wears that one jacket - waiting for Rio to cock his head and ask: “What?” “Nothing,” he had replied, dipping a cloth into the jar of polish. “’Nothing’?” Rio had repeated – a little more petulant than he intended. “What are you, my wife?” Ever so slowly, the corners of Mick’s mouth had turned upwards. “Heard spot’s taken.” Rio may have keyed Mick’s car that night.) Beth smiles back stiffly. - from I See Your True Technicolors I don’t know, I really like doing these kinda scene-in-scene (or sentence) things, I don’t know if this has a name. 38. What does your writing process look like? How chaotic is it on a scale of 1 (very tame) to 10 (you can’t handle this kind of chaos)? Hmm that kind of depends what part of the process we’re talking about. Let’s roughly break that up in three parts: 1. Working out the idea (8/10): Really, really chaotic. This is just days or weeks of just flashes of ideas and plotpoints and lines of dialogue shooting through my brain. Haphazardly writing those down in various docs, on paper in between my work notes, or in the notes on my phone. When I finally know the rough outline of the story I go into; 2. Writing the fic (4/10): I’m a super chronological writer, I really move from scene A to B to C until I finally arrive at Z. But when I start writing I often only really know A, D, E, J, O, Q, Z – the rest will just grow or appear organically as I write. Sometimes it does mean I won’t write for a few days because I circle back to step 1 for a certain scene. A good example is the Artic Hunter Fairytale Beth tells Jane in Chapter 2 of  I See Your True Technicolors. I knew up front I was going to write a scene where we would see how this seemingly unweighted moment for Beth – she’s just telling a nighttime story – had a massive impact on Jane. There were some themes and motives I felt like needed to make an appearance: the more tangible reason of Jane’s quest, how young kids often hold their parents’ word as truth, and I needed it to be a true heartfelt moment between Beth and Jane. But before I wrote the first line of that scene I had no idea that would be the scene that it became.  So I do outline a bit, but I need to create enough room for myself for moments like that to happen. It’s one of the things I enjoy most about writing. It’s a bit of an organized mess within a tighter frame/outline. 3. Editing (7/10): I’ve really been perfecting my Editing skills over the past 6/7 months  – it’s not perfect, but you live and you learn. I spend more time working on the fic after I ‘finished’ it, really ramped up the spelling and grammar checks (I love you Word editor, but I also hate you), and take more and more care to make sure that all my dialogue feels IC ánd distinctive enough per character (especially the latter I feel like lacks in earlier WAH chapters). So, work in progress, but I feel pretty confident in this one.   Again, thanks for sending these! <3

[tsarinastorm]

Season 7-Adam Sackler/Reader-Chapter 2

Word count: 3.5k

Ratings: Explicit.

Chapter 1

Adam watches you walk away stunned, and he is fuming at Jessa. He feels like breaking something. Right now. Fuckin’shit. He gets up to leave, pushing his chair out aggressively, once outside he screams. He turns arounds and sees the last person he wants to be near right now: Jessa.

“She was a fucking bitch. I did you a favor. It never would have worked anyway,” she says as she cools takes a puff of her cigarette.

“No, Jessa you’re the fucking bitch here! You only think of yourself and you need to make sure that everyone around you is just as fucking miserable as you are! Dammit! You destroy everything you touch!”

               He punches the closest brick wall, and his hand begins to bleed. That is going to hurt in the morning, he thinks. Jessa throws the cig down, and grabs his injured hand with one of her hands, then touches his face with her other hand.

“Listen, Adam. We have a connection, something that no one else has or understands. That has to mean something, and you know it.”

“Jessa, the only connection we have is common unhealthy behaviors, Hannah-hating, and fucking. The only thing we’ve had left out of those for a long time is fucking and now we won’t have that! You’ve humiliated me, which tells me everything I need to know about how you really feel about me!”

Jessa looks like she’s trying not to cry while simultaneously being infuriated. Adam stalks off thinking to himself that he’s blown his chance with his dream girl. Jessa runs after him saying, “Adam, come back!”

“I should have said this long ago: I never want to see you again Jessa!”

Apparently the last comment was enough to stop Jessa from trailing behind him. He hadn’t been this tempted to drink in years. He reminds himself that he has auditions coming up and he can’t risk his career, or it will all be worth nothing. He’s sure him becoming a drunk mess won’t help him win over Y/N.  Imploding the rest of his life won’t fix the situation. He then remembers that he has Y/N’s number, and he smirks. He won’t call Y/N tonight or tomorrow because she probably needs time to cool off, but he will get a hold of her, hope is not lost.

It had been four days since your explosive conversation with Adam. For the first two days, you had heard nothing and that was oddly comforting. The silence allowed you to work on forgetting how you had felt about him, and gave your attraction to him time to cool. All of that was lost on the third day, when he began calling you. You know it was him because he’d now left you eleven voicemails asking to talk, or for you to call him back, both requests were accompanied by streams of curse words and the sound of things breaking in the background.

There is a part of you that wants to breakdown and reach out to him, to see where this connection goes. But the rational part of you refuses to go down that road. If he could do that to Hannah, he could do that to you. You know tons of details about his relationship with Hannah because of her writing, and you know it was full of issues. Then there was the apparent soap level drama of Adam and Jessa, then throw Hannah into the mix, and you’d be asking for a load of headaches. You also considered just hooking up with him because you had never felt such a raw desire for a man, you tried to convince yourself that you could fuck him and get it out of your system. You subsequently reminded yourself that you’d likely not be able to stop at just one time, and you’d be directly inserting yourself into that mess. You could be just friends with him, but you knew you’d likely only feel stronger about him than you already did and you’d end up getting hurt.

You put your internal dialogue aside as you adjust your skirt, and make your way from your first meeting of the day: your editor. The conversation went as it did typically. She had suggestions for your work that is about to be published, and you made notes from her grammar checks. Now to meet with your agent, even though you knew what that meeting would consist of: planning the new book tour, promotional schedules, paired with strong hints for you to immediately start writing your next work.

“Y/N! Y/N” You hear and turn around to see Adam following you. Great, guess there goes your whole plan of ignoring him and continuing to repress your feelings. He catches up to you easily.

“Are you stalking me? How did you know I’d be here?” you say in an annoyed voice. You’d read Hannah’s works and you knew all about how he would just turn up in places she’d be. Now you think that you must be his new target. How were supposed to ignore him and move on when he refused to give you space.

“I googled you and I found out who your agent was, and figured there was a good chance that you’d be around her office.” He says as he keeps walking with you, your attempts to outwalk him fail because his long legs make it easy for him to keep pace with you. He keeps on talking as you say nothing.

“Look, I am so sorry for what Jessa did. That’s a bad situation but it’s over now. It has been over for a long time. I should have told you who I was to begin with, I’m sorry for that but I was afraid you’d shut me out. I was right about that part.”

“Adam, I really don’t want to be involved in your melodrama. It’s not my thing. It has never been my thing, and it will never be my thing. You must know that this can go nowhere, I’m friends with Hannah, and I know way more about your relationship than anyone should. I guess I’ll see you when I see you.” You walk away. Once you’re a reasonable distance away, you look back and notice that he stopped following you. You feel bad and you kind of wanted him to keep following you, but you know it’s for the best.

After being pushed away by Y/N, Adam goes to the only person he thinks can help. And one of the people who doesn’t want to get involved: Hannah. He figures maybe Hannah can give him advice, console him or something. Now, he’s sitting her apartment again watching as Grover plays with some baby blocks. Hannah hands him a glass of milk and sits down.

“So, are you going to tell me what’s going on, Adam? Or do I have to guess?”

“Hannah, I really fucked things up with Y/N. I saw her today and she couldn’t get away from me fast enough.”

“Having one of your ‘exes’ drop bombshells on her in a public place is probably not a good way to start a relationship.  I’m sure she’ll cool down with time. She’s really guarded, I’m her friend and I never know what she really thinks or feels. I’ll get hints from her writing but aside from that, she usually keeps it all to herself.”

“I know if I could just get her to talk to me, or really listen, things could work. Hannah, I know I’ve only known her for a short time and only scratched the surface, but I already feel things for her that I never thought I could feel. I’m going fucking insane here.”

“Look if you want to talk to her, or more precisely, talk at her: we have writing group tomorrow. Just stop by after. I’ll be there and maybe that will make her more agreeable to hear you out.”

Adam nods his head and thinks that may work, or it may make Y/N think he’s more a stalker than she already does.  He supposes that’s a risk he’ll have to take. He can’t get her off of his mind.

“But before we agree to go through with this, are things really over with you and Jessa? Because I’m not going out on a limb to get my friend to give you another chance if you’re going to run back to Jessa in a few months after your first fight.”

“It’s really over, I let it continue for too long anyway. I told her that we had no real connection and I never want to see her again. I’m pretty sure she’s skipped town like she always does when she’s fucked things up.”

“I’m holding you to that Adam. I’m doing this because you deserve to be happy too. I meant that when I told you at my party. I also think you and Y/N could be really happy together, but she is very stubborn so you’ll have to deal with that.” Adam can’t help but laugh at that. Both Hannah and Jessa were extremely stubborn and so was he. He knew he could work with stubborn.

You pull your jacket up closer around your neck as the wind blows and gives you a slight chill. You listen to Hannah go on and on about her current life dramas (something about a girl she knew from undergrad who’s been published, you think) and about how she worries about Grover. At least being around Hannah gets you out of your own head for a while as you were instantly sucked into her issues. When you look up, you see Adam walking your way. He must really be stalking you. You grit your teeth in response. Hannah speaks first.

“Hi, Adam!” Adam grumbles something in response to her as he focuses on you instead.

“Y/N, will you please just listen to me. We can talk over dinner or something. Whatever you want to do. If you never want to see me again after that, I’ll stay away.” Adam begs. You desperately try to look away. You can feel Hannah watching you, and you wonder why she is being so quiet about this. It’s her ex-boyfriend, begging you to spend time with him. Her silence is then broken as she turns to face you.

“Look, Y/N, just go to dinner with him. Even if you don’t want to, it may be the only way to get him to leave you alone.”

“Are you sure it’s okay with you? It’s not weird for you, or anything?”

“It’s totally fine. Adam and I are friends now. You and I are friends. I want you to go. Go, and have fun.”

Hannah waves you away and she goes in the other direction, leaving you and Adam alone. You look at Hannah as she walks away, then set your gaze back on Adam, “Fine. One dinner. Take me to a place that still serves breakfast. Breakfast food is my favorite, in case you care to know. And you have to promise to leave me the fuck alone after this if I ask you to.”

“Pinky promise.”

Adam nods, and offers you his pinky. You shake your head and start walking. Every time you think you have him figured out, you learn something about him that throws you for a loop. You and Adam make your way to a small diner in his part of Brooklyn. Neither of you talk along the way, but the tension can be felt in the air. The diner is certainly not what you were expecting at all. Adam said it’s one of his favorites, and you could see why. It looked homey, like the type of place you could find in any small town in America. It was a nice change from the normal tempo of New York’s restaurants. You order coffee, and a breakfast platter of bacon, and pancakes. Adam orders biscuits and gravy. When the waitress goes to the next table, you raise your eyebrows at Adam and say, “So start talking. Make me understand your past relationships and why I should give you a chance. Because I really don’t understand this insanity.”

He recounts his history with Hannah, the start as fuck buddies, and how that blossomed into a relationship. You’re shocked to learn that he was hit by a car while trying to get away from Hannah after she decided she didn’t want him to move in and blindsided him with the news at Jessa’s surprise wedding. She had left those details out of her writing. He talks about a girl named Natalia that he briefly dated who called him out in public but he probably deserved it, the next tale is him helping Hannah with her OCD, followed by his first role on Broadway, and Hannah’s unilateral decision to go to Iowa. Then he gets to a woman named Mimi Rose from Hannah’s time in Iowa and how she dumped him, and he gets to Jessa. You ask him to sum up his emotions for both of them. You can’t help but worry that he’ll one day go back to Jessa or Hannah, and if you’re going to move forward in anyway, you need to know his feelings. You sat and listened to quietly until now, and you were entitled to one question.

“Can you tell me how you feel about both of those relationships now?” You finally ask in a voice that’s soft, not combative.

“What Hannah and I had was real and intense. Because of the intensity, I think we both held on longer than what was healthy, or at least, I did. I assumed what if it was real, it meant it was forever. I liked that she needed me, and she’s a bit self-centered so as soon as I did my own thing, she checked out. We both were attached to ‘us’ for the wrong reasons and ultimately kept each other from growing.”

“I actually understand that. It’s easy to think that because you feel something real it can’t go away or change. And it’s understandable that the intensity of your feelings can blind you to reality. Happens to people all of the time.”

“Has it happened to you, too?”

“Since you’ve been honest about this, I’ll be honest too. Yes, there was a guy I fell for, hard. We were on-again, off-again. It was real love: passionate, poetic, and raw, et cetera. It didn’t work out, we were always on different pages, but for the longest time I thought it would somehow last, that somehow it would all work out in the end. Then once I was outside of it for long enough, I realized it wasn’t healthy and you can love someone deeply and they can still not be the love of your life, or the one you’re meant to end up with. Tell me about Jessa.”

“Jessa and I bonded over our addictions right after Hannah dumped me. We understood each other and we both wanted to screw over Hannah. We encouraged each other’s bad habits; it was like when two fucking hurricanes meet. Or fire and powder as Shakespeare would say. I mistook our similarities for compatibility. It was like seeing yourself in another person and it seemed right for a while, but I was really seeing all the worst parts of myself being reflected back at me. I ended our relationship a long time ago but she would turn up at my place, and I would let her stay, regret it, then the cycle would repeat. I let her stay because it was easier than finding something real, or something good with someone else.”

“And it was easier than being alone, right?” He looks at you and nods. You feel the warmth of the back of his hand gently brush yours. Still feels like electricity as it had when he touched your knee that night in the bar. You find your hand moving towards his without permission. The waitress then sits down the check in between you and that action breaks the spell, you move your hand away swiftly.

“So what are you guys now then?”

“Nothing now, we’re completely over. I told her I never want to see her again that night at Hannah’s party after what she did. She’s skipped town like she normally does once she’s ruined someone’s life.”

“How do you know that you won’t end up in the same cycle again with Jessa or Hannah?”

“Because I only want you. I know what better is now.”

“Well my opinion is still the same. I don’t want that drama and I won’t ruin my friendship for a man. But maybe one day it will work out. I’ll stay open to that possibility, just not now. I mean we can still talk and stuff, just no relationship.” He walks you back to your apartment, your shoulders can’t help but bump into each other along the way. He begins singing some ridiculous song that he said he had to sing once at an audition. When you arrive at your building, you turn back to him and give him a weak smile.

“See you around, Adam.”

“See ya around, kid.”

You’re running later than what you’d like, but it’s a Saturday morning so you decide that it’s not that big of a deal. As you exit your building, you see a tall, broad shouldered man with dark hair leaning against the gate. You think he looks a lot like Adam from behind but you think it can’t be him. Adam would have no reason to be here. The man turns around when he hears you approach.

“Adam, what are you doing here?”

“I came to see you, obviously. What are you doing today?”

“Just errands…what is your deal? Why are you doing this?”

“Doing what?”

“You know what. Waiting outside my building to see me.”

“I happen to really fucking like you and I want to spend time with you. I want to know more about you and you said we could still talk,” he informs you in an exasperated voice as he moves his hands to emphasize his point.

“I’m not interested in anything romantic. I just can’t do that. I can’t sacrifice who I am. But we can be friends, I suppose. And I did say we could talk… You can join me if you promise to behave.”

“Scout’s honor”

“Were you even a scout?” He laughs and shakes his head no. The two of you begin your day. You go to the grocery store where you learn that he really loves milk for some reason, and you tell him that you have no domestic skills at all as you pick up some microwave dinners. You buy yourself a bouquet of flowers, then he pulls out one bloom and puts it behind your ear so it rests against your hair. When you’re looking around at a market, he mentions again that he can make furniture. You sit down at a little café and you each grab a quick sandwich. Then he asks you why you ghostwrite when you’re already successful.

“As a matter of fact, I happen to ghostwrite because it gives me a change of pace, and a way to get out of my own head for a while. It’s a great cure for writer’s block. It also pays well and I happen to like the supplemental funds in my bank account…Now I can ask you about your career since you opened up the door.” You say as you take a bite.

“That is how a conversation typically works, Y/N…SHIT! They put mustard on my sandwich.”

You ignore his outburst and continue with your question, “How do you choose your roles? You clearly don’t do traditional or mainstream.”

“I look for something that makes me feel something, something that’s real. You know the kind of thing that people can watch, feel it deep down, and it stays in their minds for a while. For me, that is art, and isn’t that the point of it all?” You ponder that answer for a minute before moving on.

“What’s your biggest fear?”

He thinks about his answer for a minute he leans in towards you as he reveals, “To live a life that’s meaningless, to sell myself out.”

Wow, you weren’t expecting him to go that deep, you lean in, putting your elbows on the small table in front of you and look at him to decipher if he was being a sarcastic ass or being serious. His hands shake your arms and he looks you straight into your eyes with his amber ones as they bore into you, he adds, “What’s your biggest fear, kid?”

“Kid? Are you ever going to explain that nickname? I fear failure more than anything. I also fear that one day I’ll wake up, be old, and realize that I’ve never did all things I wanted to do and it’s too late.”

“Then make sure you do all of those things now.”

You slowly make your way back to your apartment building as the two of you chitchat the whole way, you don’t want the conversation to end. You enjoy Adam’s presence more than you would ever openly admit. Today was a really good day. When you get to your door, Adam catches you off-guard by leaning in and gently kissing your forehead. He then turns and walks away. You’re half infuriated that he kissed you, thereby breaking the friend thing you’d agreed on, and the other half of you wanted to melt into him or chase after him for a real kiss. Instead, you turn the door into your apartment.

You feel Adam’s cock thrusting into you from behind, his pelvis grinding into your ass, while you’re on your hands and knees below him. His finger crush into your hips so deep that you’re sure that you’ll have bruises there for the next few days. Then as one hand remains on your hip, the other hand slaps your ass with a whack! You can’t help but moan and ask for another one, harder than the first. He switches hands and slaps the other side of your ass. You can feel your orgasm building as the pleasure increases and you feel your hips buck back into him as his hips slam into yours, forming a rhythm. You hear him groan in your ear, and it sounds delicious. He reaches his hand down to play with your clit, and you moan loudly and place your hand over his as you rock into his cock and hand. Your climax is moments away and you can feel your muscles clench, and you swear you can taste the pleasure.

Then you wake up, alone in your bed. You’re dripping wet from your dream, and you have your thighs pressed together for some friction.

Jesus

, you think, you need to get this out of your system. Isn’t it enough that Adam has taken over your waking thoughts, but now he’s taken over your dream conscious as well? You knew you shouldn’t have gone to dinner with him, you knew this would happen. You were falling for him, and you couldn’t stop yourself.

@og-selene @shesakillerkween

[the-quiet-winds]

Between Angels and Demons (part one)

[The newest AU by me and @ichlugebulletsandcornnuts. TW for mentions of abuse for the most part (if more warnings are needed, please tell)]

[Part 1: Queen of Nothing at All]

Jane Seymour had taught Advanced Year Twelve English for long enough to recognize how the year will play out on the first day of school. 

Because of this, she bites back a sigh at the uninterested, bored, wish-it-was-still-break faces staring back at her.

There is, however, one exception. seated in the middle of the second row was a tall, slim girl with dark hair with pink ends, looking at her with a quiet excitement.

"Good morning, class, I'm Miss Seymour, and welcome to advanced english. I'll start by taking roll."

She calls out the names on her list, hearing monotone 'here's and lazy flicks of hands.

"Katherine Howard?"

"Here." 

The girl from the second row gives a shy smile as she makes eye contact with Jane, who holds it for an extra second and sends a small smile of her own before moving on with roll.

Jane begins the lesson in the usual way; going through the admin on what they’d be studying over the course, the set texts that they needed to read, and the upcoming assessments they needed to prepare for. She’d printed all the information on a sheet of paper that she passed around to everybody too, knowing that the kids tended to let their minds wander off during this part, but she was pleased to note a couple of students taking notes on what she was saying. Listening most attentively was the same girl in the second row, Katherine, her pen flying across the paper in front of her.

"If anyone has any questions," she says after finishing her explanation, "now is a good time to ask them."

There’s not much of a response, but Katherine's hand shakily raises from the second row. 

"Yes, Miss..." she pretends to check her roster, as if 'Katherine Howard' hadn't already ingrained itself in her mind. "Howard?"

"The books...will they be provided?"

"For the most part, no. It’s expected that students provide their own reading materials." Jane can't help but notice the red tint appearing in Katherine's cheeks, as well as the assorted snickering from around the room. "But if it's a financial issue, you can speak to me after class, Miss Howard."

"No," Katherine protests, although Jane thinks that wasn't the end. "I was just wondering."

Jane notices Katherine shrink back in her seat slightly and stare down at her notebook as Jane fields a couple more questions. She doesn’t even look up when Jane announces the next exercise; a simple book review of any book the students had read over the summer. Jane liked to start with that, as it gave the chance to see the level the students were working at in their writing, and the book they wrote about tended to tell her something about the child.

Jane begins to slowly wander the room as they start their writing, and she keeps a soft eye on Katherine. It takes the girl an extra minute or two to begin writing, but soon Jane can see how fast she works.

She gives a curious glance at the title of the book, and something resonates in her. 

Katherine was writing about ‘The Glass Castle’, a memoir Jane herself had read recently. It wove a tale of girl with an alcoholic and deranged father and a fairly absent mother. It was a fantastic read, in Jane’s opinion, and it intrigued her that Katherine had also read it.

Soon, the end of the class arrives and Jane asks the students to hand in their papers as they leave.

Most of the students rush out, eager to chat with their friends, but Katherine lingers to the back slightly. When she hands in her paper Jane gives her a smile, and Katherine returns it with a nervous one of her own. Jane turns back to her desk to organise the papers, and after a few moments she realises that Katherine is still standing by the doorway.

“Is  there something you wanted to talk to me about?” Jane asks kindly.

Katherine looks incredibly embarrassed, nearly fearful of speaking to Jane. 

“I just...I-“ she tries, but no coherent thoughts appear in her head. she berates herself for being so useless, as always. “No,” she finally says in a small voice. “Nothing, Miss.”

“Are you sure, Katherine?” Jane makes her voice as soft as possible. She’d only known the girl for an hour, but she seemed the skittish, run-if-someone-raised-their-voice type.

“I-I'm sure,” Katherine stutters. “I should get going to my next class. Um, thank you for the lesson.” With that slightly bizarre statement, Katherine disappears out of the door and Jane turns back to the papers on her desk.

If there was something wrong, she hopes that Katherine will soon be brave enough to ask whatever is on her mind. If it’s about the books then Jane would soon find out; they would be starting work on their first book project next week.

The rest of the day is an odd sort of blur to Jane. she begins to sort names and faces in her remaining classes, but none stick as clearly in her mind as tall, pink-haired Katherine Howard. 

She sees another Catherine when she arrives home that night - her roommate, practically her sister, Catherine Parr, editor and novelist. 

“Hey Parr,” she says as she lets herself in that night. 

“Jane! how was the first day?” Parr asks, interested although she doesn’t look up. 

Jane shrugs. “The usual. No one wanted to be there. But there was this one girl...” she trails off as Katherine Howard pops into her mind again.

Parr knows that look and she raises an eyebrow. “Did she stand out in a good or bad way?”

“She just seems very nervous,” Jane sighs. “She wants to do well, but I think there’s something else going on.”

There’s a few moments of silence as Jane wonders about the girl, before Parr speaks again.

“I'm sure if anyone can help her in class, it’s you.”

“I hope so, Parr,” Jane muses. “I hope so.”

Jane settles onto the couch and starts to read over the short answers most of the kids provided. Some wrote about novels, others about biographies, and even some about religious texts. Most answers were somewhat bland and uninspired, while a few stood out for their originality and prose. 

Then Jane reaches Katherine Howard’s essay. Katherine has written far more than other students, taking up a full front page and half of the back, and Jane was startled at the girl’s writing voice. When she speaks about the author, the story’s protagonist, she is blown away at the layers Katherine is able to perceive and dissect.

It just leaves her with more questions, though, about Katherine’s story, and she can’t shake it from her head.

Jane writes her usual feedback comment at the bottom of the essay, praising Katherine’s writing ability and offering her agreement with some of Katherine’s opinions. Underneath, she puts a small ‘well done’ sticker; it was something she liked to do for students who did especially well, despite how juvenile it might seem to give the students stickers.

She continues marking the essays until she realizes that it’s about time for her to start making dinner.

She grades the remaining essays after dinner, but the one about ‘The Glass Castle’ doesn’t leave her head. 

The next morning, her class begins to trickle in around ten minutes before the bell. 

Katherine Howard scurries in merely seconds before it rings, ungracefully dropping into her seat, looking winded from running. 

Jane pretends not to notice and begins class by handing out the essays. She also pretends not to notice that, as Jane drops hers on her desk, the deep red that flushes her face at the praise on the back. 

“Now I think we should do a ‘get to know you’ game,” Jane says, leaning on her desk once all the essays had been distributed. “This class will be a lot of teamwork after all. When it’s your turn, stand and share somethings about yourself. who would like to go first?”

The entire class stare at their desks, not wanting to volunteer. Katherine is among them, although she dares to flit her gaze up for just the briefest of moments. When she makes eye contact she looks down straight away and Jane glances around the classroom.

“No volunteers?”

There’s silence again, and Jane sighs. She hates having to pick on students to get them to answer, but she always has to near the beginning of the year.

“Katherine Howard, would you like to start?”

Katherine feels every eye in the room fall on her, and her hand rises to nervously scratch at the back of her neck.

“No thank you,” she says quietly, slipping further into her seat.”

Jane doesn’t want to push her, but feels a gentle nudge could help. “The first person to go doesn’t have to try to impress anyone,” she says wisely. Katherine looks up, and their eyes catch for a half-second. 

Katherine swallows hard, but stands up. “Well, I'm Katherine Howard,” she says in a shaky voice.  “I like to read and write, I used to do music,” that word catches awkwardly in her throat, and Jane notices. “but now I mostly just focus on school.”

“Thank you, Katherine,” Jane smiles encouragingly. “And thank you for going first. Who would like to go next? You’re all going to have to go eventually, so you might as well get it over with.” She accompanies these words with a small laugh and to her relief, another student volunteers.

Jane listens to every student, but she can’t help but notice the way Katherine takes subtle yet deep calming breaths, closing her eyes momentarily in a way that seems practiced, as if she’d done it many times before.

Once all the students have gone, Jane has enough time to start the first lesson.

“This class,” she explains, handing out worksheets, “will be more than just essays and books. You will also explore poetry and creative writing. but before we get into that, understanding proper grammar and phrasing is key.”

She gives them till the end of the period to work on the handout, focused on punctuation, capitalization, and sentence structure. Only a handful finish before the bell, the rest having to finish it for homework. 

Katherine Howard, of course, turns hers in. 

“Miss Howard,” Jane says as the girl stands to leave. “a word, please.” 

The girl pales dramatically, but shuffles obediently towards Jane’s desk. “Yes, Miss Seymour?” She asks timidly, head down, as if feeling she was about to be reprimanded. 

Jane gives a half-frown and pulls a jar out of the bottom drawer of her desk. “Would you like a sweet, Miss Howard?”

Katherine looks taken aback, unsure of what to say.

“Um,” is all she manages, and Jane places the jar on her desk.

“Help yourself if you’d like one,” she says encouragingly, although without any pressure behind her voice. Katherine slowly reaches over and takes a small wrapped sweet from the jar, before bringing her hands to clasp together in front of her, not unwrapping the sweet.

“Thank you,” she says quietly.

“Of course,” Jane says, then lowers her voice. “You deserve it after that wonderful analysis of ‘The Glass Castle.’” she hesitates for a moment before speaking again. “Say, Katherine, where do you usually have your lunch?”

“The cafeteria,” Katherine says quietly, fiddling with her sleeves. 

“Well, if you’d like,” Jane says, voice gentle and smooth as she can make it, “you’re welcome to come here during lunch and we can discuss the book further if you’d like. It’s up to you.”

Katherine looks slightly uncomfortable and she shuffles backwards the tiniest bit. She opens her mouth as if to answer, but then closes it again. Jane takes the opportunity to add a caveat to her statement to hopefully make Katherine less worried.

“Of course, if you’d rather spend that time with your friends then that’s perfectly fine. It’s your choice.”

Katherine nods once, rocking ever so slightly on her heels.

Jane cocks her head slightly, giving the girl a kind look. “I did thoroughly enjoy your essay,” she says. There has to be something to bring Katherine out of what Jane is suspecting to be a perfectly crafted façade. 

But praise isn’t it. 

“Thank you,” Katherine says politely, looking slightly downward. 

A flicker of a frown passes over Jane’s lips. “You’d better run along, don’t want to be late.”

Katherine nods, then grabs her bag and books it out the door.

Jane sighs and gets ready for her next classes. 

The pass in a breeze, and suddenly the lunch bell is ringing. 

Her room falls silent for several minutes, Jane settling into her chair with a book and her lunch.

Suddenly, quiet footsteps grab her attention. 

Katherine Howard is standing in her classroom door, holding her book and an apple, giving Jane a slightly hopeful look.

“Katherine,” Jane smiles. “Come in, take a seat”

Katherine hurries forwards and sits down in the chair opposite the desk. She places the book on the table and shifts, adjusting her legs until she was sitting cross-legged on the chair. Jane stifles a gentle laugh at the unconventional sitting position and glances down at the book.

it appears to be a library copy, well-thumbed and slightly battered, with a scrap of paper sticking out acting as a bookmark.

Katherine takes a nervous bite of the apple in her hand and starts to flick to where the bookmark is, several chapters in. 

“Did you have something in particular you wanted to discuss?” Jane asks carefully, gauging the girl’s reaction. 

“There was one part,” Katherine says, still hunting for the elusive page, her voice sounding much more thoughtful and freer than this morning. “This.” she passes the book to Jane without hesitation, and Jane fights to keep neutral at the preferred paragraph. 

It describes, in a rather artistic telling, the first time the narrator was ever abused by her father, drunk and storming. 

“What about this part, Katherine?”

“I wanted to...” Katherine shifts slightly, thumb absently tracing over the words, “um, talk about the language the author uses to describe what happened.”

“And what do you think about it?” Jane asks encouragingly, trying to coax more words out of the girl.

“I think it’s really effective,” Katherine says, very quietly. “Using such lovely words to describe something so horrible. The contrast works really well.”

Jane nods in agreement. “What in particular?”

Katherine teases one of the pages, as if she were able to turn the page to flee this conversation. “When she discusses him coming in, comparing it to a tiny storm on the empty sea...” She swallows hard, and Jane’s eye follow her hand as it returns to the back of her neck, like it had in class. “But by the end, it’s a hurricane and she’s a tiny desolate town.”

“You’re right, Katherine, it’s a wonderfully written section,” Jane says gently, and Katherine visibly relaxes at Jane’s approval. Katherine takes another bite of her apple, a bigger one this time, and Jane takes the opportunity to make a start on her own lunch. She asks Katherine a few more questions about the book, slowly coaxing linger and longer sentences out of her.

By the end of the lunch period, the conversations are less coaxing, more actual, fluid conversation. 

The bell rings, and Jane could swear she sees a flicker of disappointment cross Katherine’s face. 

“You’re welcome to come in after your last class, if you’d like,” Jane offers. 

Katherine pales dramatically, visible even under the harsh fluorescents. 

“If you’d rather not, then I'll see you tomorrow morning in class. It’s really up to you, love.” The term of endearment slips out without Jane thinking about it, but it’s one she usually reserves for her ‘favorite’ students (although she’d deny the claims) much later in the year, but Katherine had already arrived there now, on the second day.

“I'm busy after school,” Katherine says in a rush, followed by a hasty, “sorry, Miss Seymour,” When she worries she seemed rude in her response. Jane gives a gentle nod, trying to seem as calm as possible so not to startle the girl any more.

“That’s absolutely fine, Katherine, don’t worry.”

“I should go,” Katherine says, picking up her book and the discarded apple core from the desk. “Thank you, Miss Seymour.”

With that, she disappears around the door, leaving Jane alone.

Jane leans back in her chair to contemplate the enigmatic girl, and barely recognizes her next class trickling in until the bell rings, and she gets to her feet and continues her day. 

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[halliewriteshockey]

Proofreading/editing services available!

Do you love to write but you’re not always sure of the right word to use? Romance is your jam but action is difficult for you? Need help with snappy dialogue and witty banter? English is your second language and you’re not sure if that phrase translates properly? No matter what you write, I’m here to help you make your work stand out!

I’m a published author with four books available for purchase and two more coming late 2019 and early 2020. My novel Broken Halo was nominated for Best Book of 2017 in the Indie/Digital Erotica category by RT Book Reviews. I have immersed myself in the writing world for over a decade and I’m ready to share that knowledge with you! Email: greymichaela@gmail.com. Twitter: @greymichaela. Tumblr: http://greymichaela.tumblr.com.

Proofreading ($3 per 1,000 words)

What I will fix:

Spelling

Capitalization

Punctuation

Formatting

Grammar

If the work needs to be rewritten so sentences make sense or flow better, or there are more serious issues that require fixing, you need more than just proofreading. That’s where copyediting comes in.

Copyediting ($5 per 1,000 words)

What I will fix: 

Everything included in proofreading, plus:

Word choice

Sentence structure

Continuity errors

Plot points

Fact checking

Things that just don’t make sense

Your work is dear to you and I know that! I’m not here to rip it to shreds—only to lovingly polish it and help it become the best version of itself. I believe people work best with encouragement and constructive advice, so nothing is ever offered in a meanspirited way but only in the interest of helping you and your work improve.

(More details and peer reviews below the cut.)

The nitty-gritty

I will read anything. Yes, anything. Got a Final Fantasy/Wario fanfic crossover you’re dying to unleash upon the world? I’m your girl. Polyam/OT3s/filthy smut/no smut at all—bring it on. Action, romance, genfic, meet-cute, in any fandom or your own original writing, I will give it all the same thorough care and consideration. (Note: for my own mental health reasons, I will not read more than 1K of Supernatural fandom per week and I cannot read anything regarding harm to a child, be it physical, mental, or sexual. This is subject to change as needed to keep myself safe and stable.)

I am not a sensitivity reader. If you have questions about how race or gender or disabilities are portrayed in your story, I can put you in touch with someone who can help, but I’m not the right person to make sure they’re done properly myself. The one exception here is if your writing has to do with asexuality or being on the spectrum—that I can help with.

Reviews:

I’ve been beta’d by Michaela for the better part of five years, and I couldn’t have asked for a better working and personal relationship. Not only is she herself insanely talented, but she uses those talents to make me a better writer than I ever could have been otherwise. I’m tighter, faster, and less clumsy an artist than I was five years ago, and there’s no one else I could possibly thank. She catches everything, from plot holes to poor word choice to that time you used the wrong homonym and she never lets you live it down, Michaela. Ahem. Working with her is an absolute dream – Michaela is honest, but never unkind in her feedback. You’re gonna get the big sister author talk you never knew you needed, and you’re going to love what it does to your finished product. - Aaliya

Michaela has really gone above and beyond to help me with my writing, and she’s had a really noticeable, positive impact on my work. She’s extremely skilled at the minutiae of typos, grammar errors, and spelling. More than that, she has a great grasp of tone, pacing, and characterization, and her suggestions are consistently ones that improve my writing and push it to a new and better level. Beyond that, she’s also extremely friendly and easy to communicate with! She works extremely hard and very quickly. I would recommend that anyone have a beta like her, but that would be impossible – she’s already the best there is. - Sebastian

"GreyMichaela is everything an author could ask for from a beta reader. Being a professional and published author, she can not only provide insightful, blow-by-blow pointers on story structure and pacing, but she has an incredibly helpful knowledge of the nitty-gritty technicals of writing. I thought I had a competent grasp of grammar and punctuation until the first time she took a look at my work, and (very kindly) showed me how to properly format speech tags. Most importantly, she is a wonderful beta reader because of how supportive, positive, and encouraging she is to all burgeoning and established writers. I cannot recommend her skills enough!" - Joe

Michaela is a phenomenal editor. She helped me with everything from big picture plot points to narrative flow to catching tiny overlooked typos. I highly recommend her to any writer, especially those working on novels. She will help your writing shine. - Ariel Bishop (author)

GreyMichaela offered her beta services to me when I was hopelessly stuck with my manuscript. She went over what I had written and provided me with a lot of feedback on the "small" things (such as phrasing, grammar, etc.) as well as the "bigger" things (plot, structure, pacing). She has been incredibly helpful, supportive and encouraging. I felt like she knew what story I wanted to tell, and helped me get there. She embraced my voice as a writer, and helped me make it clearer. She took care to understand both me and the story, as well as what I wanted help with, and based her feedback off of that. I'm really happy with how my manuscript turned out, and I will gladly recommend her to both new and experienced writers. - ljummen

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