janeiteoftheslums

[janeiteoftheslums]

“First and foremost I’m writing for myself,” I hiss through my teeth, resisting the urge to refresh my email for an Ao3 message for the 100th time.

[janeiteoftheslums]

I am not a "content creator" I am a writer and artist. I do not make the works that an audience demands, or that I think will be popular. I make the works that I'm passionate about, when I'm passionate about them.

[janeiteoftheslums]

tips for beginning writers

I've been writing for about three years now, so I don't proclaim to be an expert or anything, but I do know what it's like to be just starting out and what kind of mistakes you can stumble into. So here's how one might avoid them!

Keep the verb tense consistent. A problem I notice way too often is a writer switching between past and present tense in the middle of the story, seemingly at random. This is disorienting and can really pull a reader out of the story, so try to decide on a tense at the beginning and stick with it.

Don't make the prose too flowery. Real people's internal monologues don't contain a metaphor in every sentence, and likewise, real people talking don't include a detailed explanation for every part of what they just said. Sometimes, less is more. There's definitely a line between being realistic and just making it unpleasant to read, though, so experiment and find your own happy medium.

Try not to stress about word count. Not everybody starts out writing 200k-word beasts on their first go, and that's okay. Writing long stuff is a skill that takes time and practice. I used to be really worried about how I could never write anything over 5k even when I tried, but as time went on, my writing got longer and longer, and now I'm writing a 40k+ fic that feels like I'll have to beat it with a stick to make it stop. You will get where you want to be eventually.

Use spell-check. It doesn't have to be perfect, but repeated spelling and grammar mistakes are another thing that can turn a reader off your story pretty quickly, so just run it through your built-in spell check or something like grammarly before you declare it finished.

Use the advice that works for you, and discard the rest. Some people will tell you to outline everything beforehand, while others will say to make it up as you go along. Some will tell you to write every day on a schedule, others say you should write only when the mood strikes you. Everyone is different, so experiment and figure out what methods help you the most.

The only way to get better at writing is to keep doing it. You've got this! Happy writing <3

[janeiteoftheslums]

Reading my own fanfiction is basically just a rollercoaster of emotional whiplash.

20% of the time: “Hold on. I wrote this? This is fire. This is emotionally devastating in the best way. This scene is dripping with tension. I’m a literary perfectionist. Someone give me a book deal.”

80% of the time: “Straight to jail. Immediate prison. Why is everyone’s breath hitching?. I used the word ‘gaze’ three times in one paragraph like I was possessed. Did I think 'his eyes darkened' was profound? Why is everyone clenching their jaws? Why is someone whispering 'their name like a prayer' again?? No one talks like this. What is this dialogue. Why are there so many weird metaphors and em-dashes…”

[janeiteoftheslums]

Zack's deep connection, Love and Devotion for Aerith has been showcased and expanded throughout the game to the point that it's unacceptable for his character to have an outcome that will completely put him in a losing end.

Even Nojima & Kitase know that Zack's story is quite unfinished so they aim to create a conclusion to his story and to fully bring it home in this Remake.

Allowing fans to understand Zack's worth & importance not just to Aerith but to the whole story.

[janeiteoftheslums]

you're not turning your fandom hobby into a job are you? giving yourself deadlines and quotas that you have to meet? focusing on the numbers instead of your enjoyment of the act of creation?

[janeiteoftheslums]

Sometimes a guy in a fanfiction has the ability to read someone's gaze with the same level of detail a wine taster can taste the wine

[janeiteoftheslums]

hey if you're the type of writer that's like me where you tend to write specific scenes first that vaguely weave together into a plot, you might like using obsidian as a writing app.

my frustration with other writing applications is that i will write my scenes out of order and it's hard to move things around and rearrange them on a regular document.

but with obsidian there's this canvas feature where you can just write all your scenes and plot moments on these little cards that you can freely rearrange. you can color code them and connect them too.

here's the canvas i've created for my current multi-chapter fic: (if you zoom in you can see all the text in each card this what it looks like zoomed out)

as you can see, i color code them based off chapters and will group them next to a document card with the working title of the chapter. anything not color-coded are scenes that don't have a proper place quite yet or it's just world building references. this app can also be good for note-taking and collecting research!

best of all, it's FREE!!! the only downside is that if you want your stuff to sync across devices, you do have to pay for that. i constantly hop between my laptop and desktop so i pay for the syncing. but if you write on only one device it's completely free!

i typically use it for organizing my thoughts for a first draft. once i get all the scenes arranged and mostly written out, i will copy and paste them into ellipsus (also free & highly recommended as a google doc alternative) so that they're all in one document that i can edit.

[janeiteoftheslums]

don’t know who needs to hear this but AO3 comments section is not Letterboxd. giving unsolicited criticism to a fanfic writer does not make you a “fanfic critic” because there’s no. such. thing.

giving unsolicited criticism to a fanfic writer just makes you a spoiled, rude, entitled asshole at best, makes the author stop posting their works altogether at worst.

a reminder that it’s always okay to just stop reading and quietly click away from a fic if at any point you feel like you don’t like it for whatever reasons. unless specifically asked, there’s no need to tell the author, whose work you read for free, how you dislike something they wrote for themself for fun.

[janeiteoftheslums]

don't judge a fic by its stats

[janeiteoftheslums]

Rating: T

Words: 1.6K

His heart rate may have shot to record heights mere minutes ago, but Cloud had no reason to be anxious about anything inside the Tonberry Suite when he pushed through the door. The insistent thrumming of his nerves had everything to do with something outside the room.

Still, anyone would have found the sight of that pint-sized, deceptively cute creature with a chef’s knife clutched in one green hand, coupled with a sound like a giant chainsaw, a bit disturbing.

Read on AO3

[janeiteoftheslums]

Hardest part of writing is accepting that some people will not fucking get it & you just have to like cope with that because over-explaining it just makes it worse

[janeiteoftheslums]

Spinning Into You: Chapter 2

Rating: T

This fic is COMPLETE. Total word count: 10.2K

Safe inside at last, Tifa Lockhart collapsed against the door of her room at the Haunted Hotel with her hands clutched to her cheeks. Her head was spinning. Breathing didn’t come easy.

The Eligor Suite was a weirdly apt setting for her inner turmoil tonight. She had a rather personal beef with the vile creature who fed on fear, harvesting the sorrow and misery of lonely children. It gloried in the suffering of those who wandered alone, who had lost all hope.

As a child, when her mother had died, Tifa had fallen to what had nearly been her death in an ill-fated quest to escape the reality of her loss. She had been all alone with her grief at the time… or so she’d thought.

Turned out someone had been there for her all along.

Cloud had given her a piece of the puzzle she had never understood until now. But it hadn’t been enough to unravel the painful conundrum she carried in her heart.

And now he’d gone and kissed her.

Read on AO3

[janeiteoftheslums]

Ride This Moment

Chapter Seven: Feels Like The First Time

Rating: M

This fic is COMPLETE. Total word count: 50.2K

At the edge of the dappled shade of the oak tree, ostensibly on the lookout for fiends, Cloud stood at a distance and watched Tifa pack up the leftover bits of sandwich, the grapes, the bottle of wine. The pair of deer who’d interrupted their moment of passion had sniffed the air in disdain and scampered away, apparently disappointed that the salacious show was over. Even the nosy rabbits had found other diversions.

She knelt on the ground, bent over at the waist, that tempting strip of skin gleaming between her tank top and the low waistband of her jeans. As the wind stirred up tangled strands of her sable hair to twist and tumble across her back, her ravishing beauty stirred up his blood in hot, churning waves.

He unzipped his sweater all the way to his navel, fanned himself vigorously, and zipped back up before she could see.

Read on AO3

[janeiteoftheslums]

Spinning Into You

Rating: T

Words: 4,519

Virtual reality could be a real downer sometimes.

Most of the time, it was pretty fun. You could engage in epic battles of titanic proportions, hack and slash at the most freakish fiends from all four corners of Gaia, even grapple with the gods themselves and emerge without a hairline scratch. But it was the biggest letdown imaginable when you desperately wanted it to be real.

Cloud Strife, ex-SOLDIER, First Class, knew how it all worked. He had gone through the most rigorous training available, supplementing it at various points throughout his journey across the planet. Here at the Gold Saucer, though, it was different. Now a dry, sterile voice whispered prompts in his ear, telling him exactly what to do.

He was in the middle of what amounted to a private performance taking place inside his head while he sat in an auditorium full of theatergoers, all experiencing the same thing—but not, he dearly hoped, with the same people.

No one else better have their hands on Tifa. Not even in their imagination.

Read on AO3

[janeiteoftheslums]

Ride This Moment

Chapter Six: Faster, It’s Alright

Rating: M

“Hey, Tifa. Time to get up.”

Tifa woke to the sharp scent of peppermint. The soft voice was one she never heard this early in the morning—except it wasn’t early. Sunlight flooded the room, so bright she had to blink a few times to get used to it. And the face in front of her shone even brighter.

Cloud was leaning over her, smiling so broadly she thought she was having some crazy dream. She could see his full top row of teeth, and he hovered close enough for her to count all his freckles.

“It’s Monday,” he said in hushed excitement. “I gotta finish getting ready.” On top of the toothpaste, she caught a whiff of his shampoo and hair wax as his lips brushed her cheek. Then he scampered off.

Tifa sat up, rubbing the sand from her eyes. The large numbers on her phone told her she had an hour before it was time to walk Marlene to school.

Read on AO3

[janeiteoftheslums]

Ride This Moment

Chapter Five: Always On My Mind

Rating: M

It took him a little longer than usual this time, but Cloud had eventually come to the unsurprising realization that he was the biggest asshole on the planet.

An insecure, jealous, emotionally constipated asshole. And useless, so damn useless.

What sort of boyfriend—if he even deserved that paltry title—would consistently be out of the picture when his woman was in trouble? He’d been gone the night Robbie and Dax had duked it out last month, and he’d been gone when she had to go to the store Saturday night, got herself and Marlene trapped amid gunshots and police sirens, and Jerome, of all people, had been the one to save the day.

Even worse, the whole situation could have been prevented if he’d just remembered to put the damn baking soda on his list. He knew she was running low; he always checked her inventory. He’d just forgotten. Again.

Read on AO3