muse-write

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the first law of tragedies: the end is already written and inevitable. the second law of tragedies: your actions are all your own and you can choose to get off this ride whenever you want. the third law of tragedies: we both know that you are never going to do that.

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So I had to return a book to the library today and I came straight from the horse farm. I went to the front desk because it was an item on loan from another library and I wasn’t sure if it had to be checked in differently. The librarian said no, it could get returned in the normal slot but she could take it and check it in right away.

It was only when I got back to the car that I realized I had walked into the library covered in dirt from head to toe and handed back a book about grave robbing.

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You can and should write fanfiction that isn't perfect. You can and should write whatever fanfiction you want. You can and should write fanfiction that brings you joy even if it's silly or goofy or weird.

Except for me. My fanfic has to be perfect and read like a novel and ruin at least one person's sleep schedule.

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"Where the scullery boy’s quest is to find his rightful identity as king, Maia has been forced into an identity as emperor that he feels is wrong, and his quest is to find some way of making this external identity match his interior sense of self." — Katherine Addison, The Emperor and the Scullery Boy: Quests and Coming-of-Age Stories

This is such an interesting conception of coming-of-age, and I feel like there's something here about the discomfort of receiving a new identity — both the negatives of things that are bad for you in it, and the positive discomfort of growing into something that proves good and right. Even, perhaps, a hint of Philippians? Living up to what we have already attained? (Though in that case, the adjustment is all on our side, not the identity's, since that particular identity is only composed of goodness and rightness.)

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i actually never ever want AO3 to be censored bc nothing is more fun than reading the tags on a fic and going “huh. didn’t know there was a market for that.”

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There's a whiff of the 2000s from this Dante costume.

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#Job interviews

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Historical context is of course very useful for important things like Politics and Science and everything, but will also open your eyes to things like, uh... the way the clothing/textile/crafting industries try to use the word "natural" as an excuse to sell shoddy and bad quality goods and make you think that's normal.

God knows there are worse things going on in the world, but it really pisses me off when I see companies advertising "Real Shell/Pearl buttons!" like that's supposed to be some upscale selling point, and the buttons in question are the thinnest, roughest, most crudely-made buttons in existence... 🙄😒 "But they're made from Natural Materials! You can't expect Natural Materials to look refined and consistent like synthetic ones!" They are lying to you. THEY ARE LYING TO YOU! And I know this because I've seen "real shell buttons" from 100 or even 50 years ago. And most of them are sturdy and smoothly polished, of a consistent thickness, and sometimes even finely carved. The buttons on nice men's dress shirts? Those are the cheap, plastic IMITATIONS of what people expected actual mother-of-pearl buttons to look like! "Natural" isn't an excuse! Your product is cheap and badly and lazily made! And I'm so sick of this, because I see it EVERYWHERE. "Linen-look" has become shorthand for "coarsely woven fabric with visible slubs" and that drives me CRAZY because do you KNOW what kinds of linen I have seen??? Antique linen so light and fine and smooth you can't even SEE the weave unless you magnify it!!! A fragment of a linen damask tablecloth so smooth and glossy, it looks like SILK? 😭 (On that note, "dupioni silk" is so roughly woven that it would have been considered hardly fit to sell a century ago) "This fabric is woven of Natural Materials, so imperfections will be inevitable!" 🙃 No! 😀 You just made it cheaply and sloppily, and that was your choice! 😊

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Tried out a new skill; bookbinding! I did a fanbinding of my lovely friend @eirianerisdar’s Where The Blade Cuts The Deepest, a Horizon: Forbidden West Kotalloy fanfic.

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you bewitched me

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For the fic writer asks:

🙊Your coworkers or classmates stumble across one of your fics, but don't know you're the author. Do you fess up? Or keep quiet?

🙌What's a line or paragraph of yours that you're proud of?

🦉Is there another author that helped inspire you to write?

Thanks for asking!

🙊 Oh, such a fun question! I’d keep quiet, but mostly out of morbid curiosity as to what they’d say. I don’t hide the fact that I write fanfiction (I literally bring my notebook to write in during my breaks sometimes), but I don’t go around telling everyone either. If they stumble across one of them online and start talking about it, I’d be hard-pressed not to start laughing in wonder and simple amusement at the situation, but I’d let them talk for a while. Depending on their attitude I might tell them later, and they can believe me or not.

🙌 Honestly I spent a fair amount of time searching through some of my recent writing and couldn’t find anything I was particularly proud of. My prose has been serviceable more than elegant, to my chagrin. However, in the spirit of positivity about my writing, I’ll go with this section from a Devil May Cry WIP:

…and he very much wanted to feel and touch and grip and know that it was real, so he lifted the Yamato in its sheath and played its gold sash through his fingers and rubbed against the worn leather and slid a finger down the blade’s gentle curve. The actions calmed him, and he felt his breathing begin to steady. It was just him, and the Yamato, as it always had been.

And Lady. She had lowered herself gently down into the spot she’d abandoned and was making a concerted effort to pay him no attention. Vergil leaned his head against the headboard and closed his eyes, feeling like a child scared of monsters in the dark—but maybe, despite his decades of experience, he had never actually grown up from that 8-year old boy running through the night away from his burning house. He had certainly had enough experience with real monsters in the dark to know that they were always out there.

🦉The entire community of writers I’ve discovered here, directly or indirectly. Some of the specific fanfic authors I’ve been inspired by from reading their works are @clawedandcute @eirianerisdar @hollers-and-holmes and @brievel. IRL I’m kind of on my own when it comes to writing (though I’m lucky enough to have close family members who support my writing, even if they don’t always understand its unique challenges, or the appeal of fanfiction). As for the author who inspired me to write in the first place years ago, I’m not certain; it must have been someone like Erin Hunter or Kate DiCamillo or Marguerite Henry, authors I read when I was a kid.

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Okay, guys. I am looking for a word that can be used to describe a person who puts weight or importance in something that is ultimately meaningless or insignificant.

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Fanfic Writer Emoji Ask Game Part II

💖 Which of your fics is your pride and joy? 🎥 Pick a fic and I'll tell you the song I imagine playing during its movie trailer.

📝 How many words do you have posted?

🤩 What's the most meaningful comment you've ever received?

🔮What's your favorite plot twist you've ever written?

👄 Your OTP are having their first kiss. What song do you imagine is playing?

🎭What genre of writing comes easiest to you?

🙊Your coworkers or classmates stumble across one of your fics, but don't know you're the author. Do you fess up? Or keep quiet?

🙌What's a line or paragraph of yours that you're proud of?

🦉Is there another author that helped inspire you to write?

👶Fankids: How you do you feel about them? Would your OTP have kids?

🐗How do you handle trolls?

🟥How long do you spend in edits?

🏡What is your perfect writing envrionment?

💪What motivates you to write?

🚿Where do your best ideas seem to strike?

🌠What are your top three most commonly used tags on AO3?

💻What do you write your stories on? Laptop, phone, paper, etc.

🤔What are some words or phrases you find yourself overusing?

📕How do you feel about people printing your fics?

🤷‍♀️What's a fic you didn't expect to be popular, but really took off?

🍎What's something you learned while researching for a fic?

🥘What wip are you most excited about?

🦗Do you write in sequence or jump around?

👀 Would you ever accept requests or commissions?

😱What's your greatest fear as a fanfic writer?

☕Coffee or tea while you write?

📈Which are your top three most popular fics by bookmarks?

🎬One of your fics gets turned into a TV series. Which one is it and what network is it on?

🛌 What's a trope you haven't written, but want to?

🐸 If you incorporated your OTP into a Disney movie plot, which would it be?

👩‍🎓 Do you have an 'official' creative writing background such as a degree or previous experience publishing?

⏳If you could go back in time and tell your younger writer self something, what would it be?

💯 What rating do you write the most? Gen Audiences, Teen, Mature, or Explicit? How many fics at that rating do you have?

😁What makes you happiest? New fic comments, kudos, bookmarks, user subscribers, story subscribers, or Tumblr asks?

🐎 Would you ever do a medieval or pirate au?

👩‍🏫Pick a character and I'll tell you their favorite season and why.

🎵Do you make playlists for your fics?

🌷What's one of your fics that isn't as popular, but you hold dear?

❓Insert your own question here!

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Every time I see the phrase "Chicago Pope" I have a solid three seconds where I'm just thinking "these NBC primetime dramas are getting out of control"