ashokad2

[ashokad2]

i lobe them

[ashokad2]

to blue, raff, ash, coni, aurie, and all the other amazing and incredible people I've met throughout my little journey here in the hermitcraft and life series fandom! you guys are amazing and my fics wouldn't even exist without your support of me! you are all such incredible people with so many incredible talents and I am always overjoyed to see your names in my notifications <333

@the-bluepoet @raffi-cat @ashokad2 @conivolos @kittylordaurie

@the-bluepoet + @raffi-cat + @ashokad2 + @conivolos + @kittylordaurie !!!

[ashokad2]

I want to talk to people but if I bother anyone they'll kill me. And I'm pretty bad at starting and continuing conversations

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I was talking with my dad today and he mentioned his buddy has a ranch. A ranch. Literally had to try not to blue screen and respond like a normal person who's not obsessed with Minecraft block men.

[ashokad2]

I hate the sound of babies crying, but I can't hate a baby. They've been here for like five minutes and approach this situation with an unhesitant attitude of "my needs are unmet and I am going to make it everybody's problem", and I respect that.

[ashokad2]

Thistles are the new rebel grass, you heard it here folks

[ashokad2]

every year I post this meme and every year people get more mad at me than they did the previous year

[ashokad2]

I have rot in my brain :3

[ashokad2]

@noko12

[ashokad2]

How do you decide what’s important enough to put in your story/chapters? Or, how do you make filler.. not filler..? Something I struggle a lot with in multi chapter fics is how to move along the plot without either rushing through the slow burn or ambling along aimlessly (and running out of steam + ideas on the way)

Everything you write seems so thought out and purposeful. Like, it’s crazy. I can’t even imagine the story going any other way? They’ll do or say something, and I’ll be like “of course they’d do that!” Like it’s so perfect … dies. You make the characters feel alive. I think that’s really what drew me in to your work. They feel real, like they’re breathing through the words and actually feeling every emotion you toss to them. It’s amazing.

Also how do you not lose track of exactly how they’d react, come any situation? Relationships, especially complicated and overlapping ones like in MoE, are sooo tough to capture without just making everyone behave like the plot demands. The way you incorporate their flaws and quirks and make it affect the story is so… real. Gah.

Sorry for the scrambling thoughts, it’s nearly 5am and to be brief I’m goin through it lol. Your posts, wips, extensive rambles and enthusiasm are definitely a highlight rn. Keep being you dude! 🦃

Hi turkey!!!

Okay, this is such a tough question. I'll try my best to answer in a way that might help you. I think there are two major ways I write. 1) It just happens. It comes out of my brain that way and it ends up working great! 2) So. Much. Thinking. I mean like I never stop thinking about it.

So! Lets talk about it!

When you're writing a scene you always need to ask yourself its purpose. There really is no such thing as filler if you plan it right. Going into a scene, ask yourself the questions, what is happening? Why is it happening? How does it effect the character?

Let's take MoE chapter four for example. The first scene of Fire Line is actually a set of three scenes that flow into eachother (this will happen in chapter five too). the first is Tango and Etho arriving, this happens before Tango enters the kitchen. The prupose of that scene is to establish the chapter. It sets up the place the characters will reside, the characters the will be there, and the general tone of the chapter. How does this effect Tango? It makes hims nervous. He's excited to see Jimmy, and he feels like he's intruding on a FAMILY event where he is very much not family.

Now what if a scene doesn't have doesn't have a narraive purpose? MoE chapter three scene one, the whole Snail conversation. This doesn't mean SHIT to the general plot and I could have cut it all together. I forced a purpose on it by establishing an emotional purpose. Tango has some pretty big realizations about Jimmy in this scene. he starts to understand that he's crushing now, not just flirting for fun.

I think it's easier to for MoE to feel very purposeful because it's an emotional story. The plot IS the ranchers relationship. sure, some other things happen along the way but all those events happen the way they do because it's lead by their relationship. I think my other fics struggle because I'm looking for an emotional plotline when I really need a physical one.

So how do I pick a scene? uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I'll be so honest a lot of my ideas for MoE came from like, yapping with people. I talk about my story and I make some haha funny jokes/headcanons and eventually a scene is there. Like, chapter five only exsists because I wanted to make a joke about the hat rule. I kind of make challenges for each chapter, that the ranchers have to overcome. I really have no clue how I came to the plot I did. just a lot of thinking.

How do I know/keep track of how my characters are feeling and how they might react? I DON'T. okay I do, but like it takes many many many drafts to get the point across sometimes (ugh chapter five is one of those). The first thing to do is to look at your guy and try to understand why they're doing something.

Lets look back at MoE 3, Southern Hospitality. In this scene Jimmy is very defensive and it happens in a snap. Tango says something that sets Jimmy off and the reader is sent into a spiral with him. Why does he do this? becasue he's hiding something. A person that's hiding something is going to be defensive about it, especially when they feel secure in that secret. Tango figured out Jimmy's birthday with no prompting, and that was threatening to what Jimmy has built. So whats the natural progression from that? for Jimmy, he keeps his secret. he feels out what Tango knows and is able to calm himself down when he see's the threat isn't real.

I think the big thing with character choices is to remember where they're coming from and what the most realistic response would be. If someone hits you and gets you kicked out of an important game you wanted to play--you're going to be mad. Now how do you feel that anger? do you yell? do you cry? do you keep it all bottled up till it spills out and you hookup with the guy that hit you?

I spend A LOT of time thinking about my characters and what they're going through. I mean like...all of my time. I really don't think about much else. I talk it out with people and get their opinions. I sit down and look at their goals, morals, and their limits.

I can talk a little more about it when 5 comes out. but Tango has a big scene in 5 where he looks at his morals and his goals and decides where his limits are...or finds out where his limits are. He's pushed up to the edge and has to make a choice.

I do a lot of writing something and then not being able to use it because it just doesnt fit the character anymore. tango's choice has changed about four times and I'm still not happy with it yet.

the hard part here, is when they're being unreliable narrators. characters, in the pov I have set up (limited pov, third person, present tense), don't know what the other is thinking. They make inferences and have thoughts about other peoples actions. their perpective might not be the same as the others.

for example, aough and I love this bit I'm so proud of it. In chapter three, Jimmy does the "he hates when tango looks at him like that" bit? To Jimmy, in that moment, the face is seeing too much of him. It's Tango knowing something that Jimmy doesnt want him to know. and he explains that he's seen the face before and thought it was cute, how tango knew little things about him. This is too much though, now it's threatening.

in chapter four, tango makes the same face and we get to see it from his pov. To tango, the face is disarming. it's reassuring and trying to show Jimmy he cares.

Jimmy recoiling at the face, doesn't make sense to Tango. he doesn't understand it. but as the reader, we know that Jimmy is feeling seen, too seen. When Jimmy wuickly bounces back, Tango is confused how he's able to do that so fast. If we, the reader, compare what we know from chapter 3, we can assume Jimmy is rationalizing, talking himself down and forcing the thought away in favor of the present. we could also assume that he's pushing it down...something something he hopes they’ll die before he has to deal with them again.

so it's really fun to play with!! to decide how an action presents itself to a character vs the intention behind the action. ohhhh humanity is so much fun. again, its all thinking and talking and writing till it feels right.

Thank you for thinking my work is so put together! I promise it's really not ToT. My writing is a total shit show up and through beta reading. When MoE 5 comes out, and if you wanted to chat about that more in depth, I would love to make a little post about Tango's internal thoughts and why he makes the choices he does. It's really sweet that you view my writing this way turkey <3 I'm not classically trained or anything, I took a few CW classes but I never finished the sequence. I think art is just what you make it. I keep saying it, but MoE is my love letter to writing and I'm really having fun exploring all these aspects of humanity and how they work together.

okay! I have yapped enough my goodness. Hope this helped, nothing about my process is offical. it works for me but might not work for you!

Take everything i say with a grain of salt <3

[ashokad2]

I wish I could write original content with the fervor and tenacity with which I write minecraft fanfiction

[ashokad2]

thank god for the mythbusters though because it used to be that whenever i knew i had insomnia i’d just kind of accept it and stay up doing whatever until my morning classes and spend the day feeling like shit

but then they did an episode where they established that even just fucking laying there for a half hour, not even sleeping just laying there and not even for an hour, makes a significant difference and you’ll feel way better

it has made a huge difference in my life to know that it’s okay if i can’t fall asleep, it takes a lot of the pressure off and ironically helps me fall asleep better

[ashokad2]

I found a TikTok of a lady bedazzling her boyfriends tools and it just reminded me of MOE ranchers

I can’t not share this

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdfRGjvN/

~ :D

In coming ask spam!!

OUGH!! This is so cute he's so nice about it ToT. Yeah, I think you're right. Jimmy would do something silly and Tango would only be able to look at him fondly.

[ashokad2]

[ashokad2]

Brought to you by my intense love of k.d. lang's version of Hallelujah (originally by Leonard Cohen).

[ashokad2]

👀👀

:D (For the End of Year WIP Meme)

Have an excerpt from the first chapter of the Dirges Sequel!

Jimmy wanted to swear, too. He wanted to shove John Bender off the road and order him to draw. Wanted to put a slug in him for everyone who had died—Durango citizen or otherwise—thanks to his callousness and the target he’d put on the town.

Instead, he drew back and raised an eyebrow.

“I wouldn’t,” he said, his voice as cool as he could manage when it wanted to come out red-hot. The words were clipped, as prim and proper as Grian had taught him to be in an argument outside of the family.

“Wouldn’t what?” Bender said, his hand still wavering in the air between them.

“Thank me.” Jimmy said simply, “I didn’t do it for you. I did it for Flint, and for Bill, and for every man and woman who got caught in the crossfire that night.”

Bender dropped his hand, his brows coming down low over his empty eyes.

“And frankly, Mr. Bender,” Jimmy said, the words getting away from him, “I think it would be best for everyone involved if you cleared out of Durango. You’ve got more than enough time to take your business with the Goldstone gang elsewhere.”

The words hung in the air for a moment before Jimmy realized what he had done. He didn’t let the sudden self-recrimination show on his face, but internally he swore at himself. It was more likely than not that the people of Durango would be the ones to suffer for Jimmy’s words, if Bender took offense.

A cold smile replaced the affability from a moment before, and Bender spat again, this time closer. Jimmy didn’t dare flinch as the projectile landed somewhere between his feet. As close to a threat as the man could get without drawing his weapon.

“That tin star’s giving you airs, Englishman.” Bender said, his voice low, dangerous.

The man who had spoken earlier—Jimmy figured he had to be Bender’s second-in-command—shifted his stance. His hands didn’t go to his holster, but one landed on his belt, while the other came up to scratch at his ragged beard thoughtfully.

“Y’know, John, I hear they plate ‘em in silver up north, on account of they’re swimming in the stuff.”

Jimmy realized, a beat too late, that they knew a lot more about him than he was entirely comfortable with. The words ex-lawman and up north echoed cavernously in his head.

“That so?” Bender said, sounding for all the world like he was pretending to be surprised. “Well, in that case, maybe we ought to pay your old haunt a visit. See what about it makes you think you’re so high and mighty.”

Perhaps it was the exhaustion, perhaps it was the image that popped into his head of John Bender trying to threaten Grian or Scar, but in a moment, the bubble of fear in him burst, and all that was left was laughter.

He walked up to John Bender, hearing men fumbling for their holsters behind him, and clapped the man on the shoulder.

He slid a grin towards the outlaw, half threat, half promise, and spoke with all the amusement he could muster, “I’d like to see you try.”

[ashokad2]

just here to say im rereading dirges for like the 5th time (literally peak in all senses, i especially love how much research went into making it historically accurate) and i just LOVE the tailoring scene of scott intentionally trying to make tango jealous

the switch up between "youre clear as glass" to "ive changed my mind, you've been clear as mud" is just too good

although on the reread i swear i remember getting tango's POV of that too but i cant find it in the fic for the life of me and im starting to think i dreamt it up LOL

anyways all thats to say i love your writing and how much detail youre able to fit into every character interaction no matter how small, its incredible!!

AHHHH hi!! ty 💖 highkey the research has consumed my life, I know SO much about the old west now that it leaks into irl conversations XD I am so glad other people enjoy that aspect of it as much as I enjoyed doing it!!!

AHH Oh I'm SO glad you said that!! it's one of the lines that made me giggle when I put it on the page and then every edit after!!

and GOSH that was a scene that I had a vision of WAY back at the very start. I love a good sprinkling of a jealousy scene, and in my mind the only person who would do something like that in Dirges was Scott.

Hilariously I think the very very first draft of that scene (the one in my head, not on paper RIP) was from Tango's POV! I know that there's a callback to it in a later chapter, when Tango's thinking about Scott giving him that nudge when he goes back into the shop, and Stiggy knows that I have their dialogue loosely written out in a comment in the All Chapter doc so I knew what happened once Jimmy was left standing in the street (LOL)

Actually...

Boom, straight from the All Chapter doc

Now, if I'd written it from Tango's POV that dialogue might have been subject to change, but I wanted to at least have a little idea of what was happening in there while Jimmy was left alone XD

The callback is this line here:

but alas it sounds like the Tango POV of the tailor shop scene exists only in our minds XD I'd love to hear how you envisioned it!

Thank you for sending this! :D and thank you for reading (five times!!and if I cry over that everyone pretend not to notice 😭) the character interactions are highkey my favorite bits to write so!! ahh thank you <3333