#stuff that I write

[shimmershae]

“Stay awake.”  (a Walking Dead drabble, Caryl).

Oh, look.  I actually do remember how to string words together (badly, lol).  Sorry for this.  I opened up my prompt list and this is what came pouring out.  I guess you could say I needed to purge some feelings or something.  ;)

Season 10.  What if they both went back after the cave collapse?  What then?  Just a dash of Caryl angst for your Sunday morning.  Please do enjoy.  

Her head lolls like a ragdoll against his shoulder, her breath nothing more than a faint puff against his neck.  

 She’d gone back. When the despairing group had moved on. When he’d left her, crumpling beneath the mountain of her own self-hatred.  His shattered trust, his silent, tearful recriminations.  

 She’d gone back and now it’s a race against time because he can feel her fading away, could see it in the unfocused blue eyes that had briefly pierced the dirt and the grime when he’d found her.  

 “Stay awake. Need you to…”  

  (pierced his guilty heart and soul).  

 “Need you.”

[minyicho]

starting a collection of my favourite AO3 author’s notes

honourable mentions

[abbielauren2024]

Reblog if you’re grateful for your commenters <3

[charbroiledchicken]

if it's good enough for you, then it deserves to be made. don't let anyone else decide if your story is worth it or not.

[kriz-smthn]

[artemisdesari-blog]

A writer friend told me something that broke my heart a little bit today; they're going to quit publishing their fanfic.

My instant thought was that they had been trolled or attacked or that something terrible had happened in their life because this person is so passionate about their writing. It wasn't any of that. Engagement with their works has been going down, as it has for many of us. Comments are like gold dust a lot of the time, and just looking through the historical comment counts on old fics on ao3 demonstrates this trend very clearly. It was not simply the comments dropping off which caused them to decide to stop posting, however.

My friend came across a discord server for their fandom (I should point out here that their fandom interest and mine diverged a couple of years ago, we stay in touch but don't currently read each other's posts because I'm not into their fandom and they would rather gouge their eyes out with a wooden spoon than read anything Star Wars) and specifically to share fic in that fandom. They joined, because we all love a good fic rec, only to discover that their latest multichapter fic, which has almost no comments and very few kudos, is being hotly discussed in this server as one of the best stories ever. Not one of these people has bothered to say this to them on the fic. When they asked, none of participants could see the point in telling the author of the fic they apparently loved so much that they love it.

This discovery has absolutely destroyed my friend's love of sharing fic. They share because they love seeing other people's enjoyment, and fic writers do that through comments and kudos/reblogs/likes because we don't get paid. There is no literary critic writing a blog post/article about how amazing the story is for us to copy and keep/frame. There is no money from royalties. All we have are the words of the people reading our works.

Those people on that server could have taken five minutes of the time they spent gushing about how amazing my friend's story was to other people and used it to tell the one person guaranteed to want to hear that praise how much they loved it. They could have taken a moment to express their opinion to the person who spent hours upon hours plotting, writing, editing, and posting those chapters. Instead, they deprived my friend of thing that keeps them sharing their writing, and in the process have killed their love of it. My friend now feels used and unmotivated.

I won't be sharing a link to their fic, they said I could share their experience but not their identity. I know they plan to post one final chapter. I know they intend to express their hurt at being excluded from the praise for the thing they created, and I know they intend to announce that as a consequence they will not be posting for a long while, if at all.

So please, I beg you, don't hide your love of a story from the writer. It's just about the only thing we have.

[noodles-and-tea]

Icons, truly

[valtsv]

being someone who's passionate about their interests when you're a horror fan really is a special layer of hell because every interaction you have with another person where the conversation turns to your hobbies and personal entertainments is a trial where if you show too much unrepentant glee at getting an opportunity to talk about your preferred subject you get to watch them mentally move you onto their list of untrustworthy individuals to avoid in the future in real time

[linkcharacter]

Some personal design notes I made for comics speech bubbles and on dialogue!

Conclusions were drawn from their dialogue sounds and manner of speech in general in addition to my personal flair and interpretation.

And here's an incomplete list of mental notes on actually writing dialogue for characters:

Curly

expresses genuinely what he feels and what he means, though he's reserved and leaves a lot unsaid

casually playful and whimsical when talking to others or commenting on things

smooth talker

speaks delicately and de-escalatory when faced with a stressful situation

using british slang on occasion, yeah?

Anya

often encouraging or reassuring those she talks to

teasing, witty and playful with anyone not named jimmy

stutters when speaking to those named jimmy but outside of that, speaks smoothly with enthusiasm

speaks with implications, basically says iconic deep meaningful shit in a non-direct way

Swansea

mean, harsh, sarcastic and taunting

like anya, he says some deep shit but in a poetic and direct way

reminds me of Disco Elysium dialogue in terms of vibes

speaks grandiosely

" ain't, goin', el capitano, downstairs longnose, hear hear, ol' codger, rumb-a-tumblin' " very fun to write

Daisuke

unfocused, emphasizes words, informal

speaks at the same time as he thinks, most of his dialogue feels like a stream of thoughts

filler words like, totally like everywhere man

Jimmy

dry, spiteful and bitter remarks, always sounds like he's annoyed at everything

no whimsical or heartfelt comments about anything

uses metaphors and veils his words, spinning them in ways to fit his goals. twists his own words as well as others'

steals phrases from others

persuasive

[trekkerac]

Stanley's revival was a very sudden thing because no one wanted to check up on how the revival was going

[luna-azzurra]

Habits That Reveal Deep Character

(A.K.A. the quiet stuff that says everything without screaming it)

❥ The “I Always Sit Facing the Exit” Quirk They don’t talk about their childhood much, but they always know where the exits are. Every restaurant. Every train. Trauma has muscle memory. Your job is to notice what it’s saying without needing a monologue about it.

❥ The “I Can’t Sleep Until I Hear You Lock the Door” Habit It's not controlling. It's care shaped like paranoia. They say “Goodnight” like it’s casual, but they’re counting the clicks of the lock like a lullaby. Let that show more than “I love you.”

❥ The “I Keep Everything You’ve Ever Given Me” Thing Not just gifts. Receipts with your doodles. The crumpled note you wrote when you were mad. Every bit of you that felt real. It’s borderline hoarder behavior, but also? It’s devotion.

❥ The “I Cook When I’m Sad” Pattern Their world’s falling apart, but suddenly everyone has banana bread. It’s not about food—it’s about control, about creating something warm when everything else is cold. And they won’t say it out loud, but they're asking, “Will you stay?”

❥ The “I Practice Conversations in the Mirror” Secret Before big moments, hard talks, or just answering the phone. They're rehearsing being okay. They're trying to be the version of themselves people expect. That’s not weakness—it’s survival wrapped in performance art.

❥ The “I Fix Other People’s Problems to Ignore My Own” Reflex Everyone calls them “strong,” but no one notices how fast they redirect. “How are you doing though?” they ask, one heartbeat after breaking down. Let your reader see how exhaustion wears a smile.

❥ The “I Never Miss A Birthday” Rule Even for people who forgot theirs. Even for exes. It’s not about being remembered—it’s about being someone who remembers. That’s character.

❥ The “I Clean When I Feel Powerless” Mechanism That sparkling sink? Not about hygiene. That’s grief control. That’s despair in a Clorox wipe. Let it speak volumes in the silence of a spotless room.

❥ The “I Pretend I Don’t Need Help” Lie They say, “I’m fine” like it’s a full stop. But their hands shake when they think no one’s looking. Let your other characters notice. Let someone care, even when they don’t ask for it.

❥ The “I Watch People When They’re Not Watching Me” Curiosity Not in a creepy way. In a poet’s way. In a “who are you when no one’s clapping” way. They love the in-between moments: laughter in elevators, fidgeting before speeches. That's who they are—observers, not performers.

[shimmershae]

I miss writing Waltzing's for Dreamers so much. Like, of all my WIPs (I will not call them abandoned, they are just in some kind of weird stasis while I beg and cajole my muse to reawaken from her self-protective coma), it's the one I miss writing the most.

Followed by Counting Stars and The Wonder That's Keeping the Stars Apart and all the rest of them, because I have so damn many.

Anybody got any advice to send a shock to the uncooperative muse's system?

[http-tempted]

when you listen to a song and it gives you inspiration to daydream an answer to the plot hole in the story building inside your head

[adhdwannabewriter]

Bad news, y'all

You really gotta write the damn book to become a published author

[charbroiledchicken]

"you're the writer, you control how the story goes" no not really. i wrote the first sentence and then my characters said "WE WILL TAKE IT FROM HERE" and promptly swerved into an electrical fence.