speculative fiction writers i am going to give you a really urgent piece of advice: don't say numbers. don't give your readers any numbers. how heavy is the sword? lots. how old is that city? plenty. how big is the fort? massive. how fast is the spaceship? not very, it's secondhand.
the minute you say a number your readers can check your math and you cannot do math better than your most autistic critic. i guarantee. don't let your readers do any math. when did something happen? awhile ago. how many bullets can that gun fire? trick question, it shoots lasers, and it shoots em HARD.
you are lying to people for fun. if you let them do math at you the lie collapses and it's no fun anymore.
and is your shame helpful? is it inspiring goodness and change? or is it keeping you frozen in time unable to move on and be everything you have expanded to be?
top five most important things you can give a character. 1. bisexuality. 2. autism. 3. so much negative rizz it loops around into irresistibility. 4. so many bad events. 5. a coping mechanism that’s cute and silly provided you don’t think about it too hard
the thing about the way people go on and on about how smut and shipping ruins the ability to think about character or worldbuilding or whatever, is that this is inherently a skill issue. nothing better to tell you about a character and their most important internal neuroses (personal, social, cultural) than discovering how they like to fuck and who they want to fuck and the why of it all. such complainants should, rly speaking, read better smut.
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Do you ever think about how “adorable” means (to most people) really really cute, but the verb “adore” has an almost religious connotation that’s much more serious?
“You’re adorable.”
“I adore you.”
Very different sentences. Both sweet, but with such different meanings.
Your purpose in life is not to love yourself but to love being yourself.
If you goal is to love yourself, then your focus is directed inward toward yourself, and you end up constantly watching yourself from the outside, disconnected, trying to summon the “correct” feelings towards yourself or fashion yourself into something you can approve of.
If your goal is to love being yourself, then your focus is directed outward towards life, on living and making decisions based on what brings you pleasure and fulfillment.
Be the subject, not the object. It doesn’t matter what you think of yourself. You are experiencing life. Life is not experiencing you.
i will finish this fic. i will finish this fic. i will finish this fic. i will finish this fic. i will finish this fic. i will finish this fic. i will finish this fic. i will finish this fic. i will finish this fic. i will finish this fic. i will finish this fic. i will finish this fic. i will finish this fic. i will finish this fic. i will finish this fic. i will f
if winter is for rest then summer is for being absolutely unhinged. swim in dubious bodies of water. sweat through every shirt you own. drink an unadvisable amount of iced coffee. chase after ice cream trucks. go wild at night when the sun goes down. fight mosquitos to the death. get heat rash. make fire.