#random writing thoughts

[scrambledsigil]

Ok ok ok but art dumps and fixating aside... Silly writing talk rq. You can have your "hiding injuries/illness" or "didn't realize they're injured or ill" type things where the Stubborn People dont crack because that's tasty. I get that. But what's even tastier (imo) is when the Stubborn Person *voluntarily* asks for help because it is that bad/they're that afraid of the situation... Or trying to actually show some trust to the person involved. "Didn't wanna worry you" yeah, ok, but what about the vulnerability of "I can't do this by myself."

[allegedlyiwrite]

Nothing like a halfway decent incomplete fanfic to crawl into my brain and lay eggs. At some point between now and when I die, I will be writing some sort of paranormal situation, forever peeved that I didn’t come up with this world building first and can’t just rip it off because morals.

[dirty-dirty-muggle]

Marriage and/or pregnancy and/or children are not the only things that qualify as a happy ending for your romance story.

[the-ellia-west]

Calling all Writers

You are valid. You are beautiful. Your words hold so much meaning, they are a piece of you and every piece of you is beautiful.

Cherish your words no matter how cringe. Change them, have fun with them, do anything you like to them. Whatever you create will be a masterpiece because you are a masterpiece and everything you touch is beautiful.

If you think it's bad, it's not. Everyone is at different stages of their journey and every stage will feel wrong at different parts. You will never be perfect, but you will be awesome no matter what.

LOVE YOURSELF AND YOUR WRITING BECAUSE IT'S ALL FANTASTIC FOR YOUR SKILL LEVEL!

[misshoneyimhome]

Oh, I absolutely love writing fanfics 💕

The amount of research you do to bring a vision to life – it’s amazing how much inspiration and knowledge you pick up along the way!

One minute you’re checking bus routes in a city, and the next you’re almost buying a holiday home in Europe 🌺

What a world!

[e-louise-bates]

I discovered Catherine Aird’s Calleshire Chronicles this winter and have been enjoying working my way through them. I had a bit of a shock, however, when I started reading Inheritance Tracks this weekend (Book 25, published 2019), and realized she must have been working from the same mystery story prompt that I did when I wrote Diamonds to Dust, the second Pauline Gray novella. Not a bad shock—after 24 books I’d be surprised if Aird didn’t occasionally need to rely on writing prompts to kick-start an idea—but I just didn't expect a well-established mystery author to use the same prompt as I, a not-well-established mostly-fantasy author who dabbles in mystery, used. I don’t know why, especially as it was a particularly intriguing prompt, but I didn’t!

She is, of course, taking it in an entirely different direction than I did (one of my favorite writing games is giving one prompt to a bunch of writers and seeing the vastly different takes they all have on it), and I’m gonna be honest here and say that even just a couple chapters in her take looks way more creative than mine (I was not at the top of my creative game when I wrote D2D, though I am proud of how it turned out in the end—but it took more editing than almost any of my others books to get it there)—but it’s fun.

[divinekangaroo]

Lizzie x Tatiana still calls to me deeply

[mouthtapedguy]

lions are very mean and like jellyfish

[pnglove]

png from this post

[redstarfish-art]

Me: Awww man, I haven't written anything for over a year now. It's been so long, I should really get back into it before I forget how to write. Me: Let me check Ao3 really quick to see when was the last time I wrote something. Ao3: March 2024. Me: ...Oh.

[mugchild]

omfg so i have a gift planned for louis, but it's not done yet and his birthday is literally tomorrow. so i guess it will be a belated birthday gift. also arthur's bday is literally the 12th. and i have nothing yet for him. NOOO

[dirty-dirty-muggle]

I want to talk about how authors approach canon characters in our writing, because if you’ve been reading fanfic for any length of time you know there’s a lot of versions or interpretations. People often emphasize the importance of writing canon-compliant characters (there’s even fandom awards for “most canon-compliant depiction” all over the place). I see lots of complaints about authors writing characters “ooc” or saying they don’t understand characters because of how they’ve chosen to write them.

This post has been swirling in my head for a while, because there does seem to be this juxtaposition of enjoying characters written 1000 ways yet at the same time viewing canon-compliance as the ultimate goal as a fanfic writer.

Because here’s the thing: As a writer, ensuring characters are canon-compliant often isn’t my goal and sometimes I even purposefully write them “wrong”. There are a lot of reasons I choose to portray characters certain ways, and most of the time I know that’s not how they’d act if they were their 100% canon selves and sometimes they bear little relation to whom I picture in my head, but that doesn’t mean it’s not valid character exploration or that authors who write similarly are somehow less knowledgeable or less skilled than ones who stick to canon closely.

Sometimes I want to write close to the canon characters as I see them and explore their intricacies and motivations in different contexts.

Sometimes I want to take a tiny piece of their personality, break it off from the rest like a square of chocolate from a bar and let it melt on my tongue and savour it, until I can’t taste anything else.

Sometimes I want to imagine who they might be given time and different circumstances.

Sometimes I want to give characters what I wish they’d received in canon but didn’t as an act of my love for them.

Sometimes I want to explore how other people view them just to see how it might work, even if I don’t agree with them.

Sometimes I want to explore particular ideas or themes and I will pick the parts of a character I need to make that work.

Sometimes I want to have fun and be horny with my favourite characters and I don’t care if they’re not acting exactly as I think their canon selves were but don’t care because it’s fantasy and I’m having a good time.

Sometimes it’s several of those things all at the same time.

The best part of writing fic for me is exploring characters beyond what I see on the pages. Like, canon is already there; I don’t really want to recreate it, because that’s boring to me. That’s what meta is for imo. Other writers might feel differently. I think both approaches are valid and beneficial.

It’s also okay if readers don’t enjoy when writers don’t write to their preferred version of a character. As a reader, there are versions of my favourite characters I don’t like to read too (mostly when they get turned into personality-less mary sues that are flatter than a paper cutout). I think it’s important to understand and explore who characters are in canon, but that’s the foundation for me. What gets built on top can be anything I want and I love that freedom.

What’s canon can be interpreted so many different ways to begin with, and I don’t know… I think it’s unfortunate when people judge an author’s knowledge of a character or try to make them feel less than for not being “canon compliant” enough. Like, a lot of us know and that’s just not the story we want to tell.

Regardless of how I choose to portray my favourite characters in fanfic, it’s always coming from a place of genuine love for those characters. It feels like playing pretend with my best friends except my best friends are imaginary too.

Curious how other writers feel about this!

[thewaitingluna]

I’d like to disappear for a while. I don’t want to talk to anyone. I don’t want to know anything.

[the-ellia-west]

Writing - Encouragement!

Writing is hard. It's difficult. A skill not many will master and not many can. It is an art, but it is not an art of the eyes, it is an art of the mind. Words on a paper that create an image in your mind not in your eyes.

Writing is difficult and you, lucky you, can do it.

You think your work is Bad? At least you are trying. Some wouldn't make it even that far. You think it's not good enough? There's no line you can cross where it will ever be good enough, so draw that line yourself and let me tell you that it is good enough.

If you keep working, keep writing, keep hoping, keep dreaming, you will reach. Because every dream and every word brings you one step closer to the stars. And no matter how long that ladder to success may be, no ladder can truly be infinite.

A Masterpiece is not some hidden standard you must reach. A Masterpiece is what you make it. The Masterpiece is you.

Go on, climb that ladder. It's not moving. It will always be waiting for you, and no matter what or who you are, it will stay firmly rooted in the ground as long as your belief in yourself.

You can't keep climbing forever, take some time to rest every now and again. You've earned it no matter how far you've gone, one step or one million.

Go get em you Masterpiece.

[ncutii-gatwa]

really makes me laugh seeing some people complain doctor who is gay now. babe THIS aired in 2005. doctor who has been gay a long damn time get with the program

[randomnotebookthoughts]

I am truly a giggler. A laugher. A chuckler. Just somewhere in the background snickering.