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The most dangerous moment for a writer is when you're looking for a fic with specific content but there is not enough of it on Ao3 or not quite the right thing and, as you are digging deeper and deeper into the archive, you can hear the devil whispering into your ear "Oh, if only someone interested in this specific thing could write it... Oh wait, is that a keyboard I see under your fingers?"

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ᴛɪᴘꜱ ꜰᴏʀ ᴡʀɪᴛᴇʀꜱ [ꜰʀᴏᴍ ᴀ ᴡʀɪᴛᴇʀ]

don't let your skill in writing deter you. publishers look for the storyline, not always excellent writing. many of the greatest books came from mediocre writers—and also excellent and terrible ones.

keep writing even when it sucks. you don't know how to write this battle scene yet? skip ahead. write [battle scene here] and continue. in the end, you'll still have a book—and you can fill in the blanks later.

find your motivation. whether it's constantly updating That One Friend or posting your progress, motivation is key.

write everything down. everything. you had the perfect plot appear to you in a dream? scribble down everything you can remember as so as you can. I like to keep cue cards on my nightstand just in case.

play with words. titles, sentences, whatever. a lot of it will probably change either way, so this is the perfect opportunity to try out a new turn of phrase—or move along on one you're not quite sure clicks yet.

explain why, don't tell me. if something is the most beautiful thing a character's ever laid eyes on, describe it—don't just say "it's beautiful".

ask for critique. you will always be partial to your writing. getting others to read it will almost always provide feedback to help you write even better.

stick to the book—until they snap. write a character who is disciplined, courteous, and kind. make every interaction to reinforce the reader's view as such. but when they're left alone, when their closest friend betrays them, when the world falls to their feet...make them finally break.

magic. has. limits. there is no "infinite well" for everyone to draw from, nor "infinite spells" that have been discovered. magic has a price. magic has a limit. it takes a toll on the user—otherwise why can't they simply snap their fingers and make everything go their way?

read, read, read. reading is the source of inspiration.

first drafts suck. and that's putting it gently. ignoring all the typos, unfinished sentences, and blatant breaking of each and every grammar rules, there's still a lot of terrible. the point of drafts is to progress and make it better: it's the sketch beneath an oil painting. it's okay to say it's not great—but that won't mean the ideas and inspiration are not there. first drafts suck, and that's how you get better.

write every day. get into the habit—one sentence more, or one hundred pages, both will train you to improve.

more is the key to improvement. more writing, more reading, more feedback, and you can only get better. writing is a skill, not a talent, and it's something that grows with you.

follow the rules but also scrap them completely. as barbossa wisely says in PotC, "the code is more what you'd call 'guidelines' than actual rules". none of this is by the book, as ironic as that may be.

write for yourself. I cannot stress this enough. if what you do is not something you enjoy, it will only get harder. push yourself, but know your limits. know when you need to take a break, and when you need to try again. write for yourself, and you will put out your best work.

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Don't you sometimes get an absolutely extrodinary, mind blowing, such an awesome idea for a story, but you just don't have enough skill level to pull it off?

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Pro Tip for Writers

If you want a great spelling check website, all you have to do is hit the "post/publish" button and all your mistakes will become abundantly obvious to you through the magic of absolute mortification

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"i would die for you" this, "i'd walk through fire for you that"

what about "i'd live for you" romances? what about "i never thought i'd be worth the work it would take to piece myself together"?

what about "i don't believe i'm worth it, but for you i'll try"

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Mesmerizing ✨

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instructions unclear if he should look cool or pathetic, while covered in blood

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it must be said that i simply love to watch a character destroy all their relationships in an attempt to get what they think they want only to achieve their goals and be lonelier and more depressed than ever. and to realize they can never go back and are trapped at the top of the hill playing their part. its the dream you never wake up from!!

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“everyone is going to hate it” someone will love it. someone will reach out to you and tell you it changed their life. someone will hold it close and treasure it forever in a way you can’t even understand. keep going

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You, a fool, when characters state different or contradictory things about backstory events or how the world works: This is a plot hole!

Me, wise, enlightened: Not so, neophyte. Have you considered all the exhaustive possibilities in which one of these characters simply has no idea what they are talking about, or better yet, is a fucking liar?

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Could you reblog this if you enjoy seeing your writer friends ramble about their wips on your dash?

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sylvain and petra never really got to interact in any of the games :’)

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Best one shot I've ever read lmao

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🍃

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thinking about Faerghus's first and last lines of defense

Thinking about these two fathers who call out for their king as they die, and their children who swear they will somehow achieve what their fathers could not

thinking about these two who were failed by their fathers in the face of great tragedy, returning to fight by their sides to the very end, calling out in helplessness as they fall, and their fathers having only vengeance to offer in return

thinking about these two who have been failed by their fathers in the face of great tragedy, seeing another tragedy and choosing to turn against their fathers as if that can somehow correct the past - only to cry out to their fathers in the end

I'm soooooooo normal about them

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I’ve been thinking about Felix and Dimitri’s relationship a lot over the last few days (bc working on a silly little fic where it comes up in the background) and have come up with some Takes(TM) on Felix as a character in general, so I’m subjecting you all to them.

the abstract for this very professional research paper:  Felix has been a clingy little bastard the whole time

Now going super in-depth, saving Dimitri for last (brace yourself):

The Tragedy:

The Tragedy of Duscur destroyed his entire perception of goodness, imo. He was only 13 when it happened, but somehow he and Dimitri were the only ones to see it for what they believe it was, which was cruel and senseless slaughter regardless of any sense of duty or pride. Not only was he forced to confront the reality of the cost of chivalry, but all of his friends changed and his father betrayed his trust by prioritizing a glamorized view of Glenn’s memory for the sake of his own pride rather than allowing Felix to grieve the way he needed to. That attitude completely disgusted him, and he was somehow alone in that feeling. Again, this boy was only 13 years old.

Sylvain abandoned any sense of responsibility he may have still kept through Mikklan’s abuse and stopped taking anything seriously, but to an extreme. Ingrid threw herself entirely into trying to honor Glenn’s memory, not unlike Dimitri and Rodrigue. Though we don’t hear much detail about it, the way Felix was treated by everyone else also changed drastically and probably also didn’t allow him any time to grieve; he was thrust into the position of heir to his house, and House Fraldarius is arguably expected to be more committed to their chivalric duty (specifically their servitude to the king) than any other house. Because of the way everyone around him focused on this idealized version of Glenn and glorification of death, no one was willing to help him deal with it the way he needed to, so he just hid all his feelings for the next, like, 10 years.

Because he suppressed all that, the new people he meets at the monastery don’t really get the chance to understand him in a meaningful way, save Byleth and Seteth. He literally tells Flayn that he fears losing his sense of purpose, and her response is, “It’s not like you to be afraid of losing something,” which is completely untrue, as we’ll see from his relationship with Dimitri in the next section, and shows that she doesn’t actually understand.

It’s also worth noting that there are little things - very simple things - about him that his close friends don’t seem to know about. His supports with Annette and Dorothea show us that he loves music; he asks Annette to sing for him and gets excited at the prospect of going to see Dorothea’s opera (pretends not to tho, obviously. tsundere.). Bernadetta spends their entire A+ support trying to find things to make him smile because she wants to see him happy. Lysithea puts real, actual effort into finding a cake he’ll enjoy. These are tiny things, and none of them are about his pride or sense of chivalry; they’re about the fact that he’s a human with feelings who deserves to enjoy the little things, and these four are willing to give him that. There’s little indication that any of his other friends have bothered trying to find out.

Dimitri:

Speaking of Dimitri, after the Tragedy happened, he in particular was the biggest betrayal among the people Felix loved, imo. Because of his attitude towards it and his willingness to see the Tragedy for what it was, Dimitri seems to be the only person who acknowledges Glenn’s true personality before it all happened. The sense we get from everyone else is the glamorization of his chivalry, but Dimitri alone ever points out to Felix that he’s actually so similar to his brother - he says that while Felix is actively lashing out at him. I think Felix learned that attitude from his brother, not just his own grief. His desire to get stronger than Glenn had been isn’t just about his regret at not beating him - it’s about how he sees that Glenn was failed by everyone around him after his death when they refused to remember him for who he truly was. Dimitri understands that.

But ultimately, Dimitri turned away from his friends and himself by descending into the obsessive pursuit of revenge to assuage his own guilt for all those who died, and Felix was the only person to see and acknowledge this. I think that’s because they were each other’s closest friends but also because everyone else was blinded by their respective senses of duty.

Dimitri lost himself to grief while also being the only person who would have been willing to understand how Felix felt, but Felix still won’t give up on him, even if he says otherwise. He wants to get Dimitri back. He wants to have a friend who understands. The incident when they were 15 (only 15!!!!) was probably when he finally realized just how tall an order than was - the Dimitri he knew and needed was completely gone - but Felix still didn’t really abandon him. When Dimitri is falling apart at the seams during the last chapters of part 1, Felix is the one who notices first and Felix is the one who asks for Byleth’s help doing something about it. Felix spends the entire time skip searching for his friend, and his first dialogue with Byleth after it is asking them once more to help get his friend back from the brink.

But despite the way his trauma changed him, I don’t believe Dimitri truly abandoned Felix, either. I think the subtext of their supports is that he wants Felix to understand him and accept him and forgive him.

But arguably, Felix doesn’t need to forgive Dimitri except for how he shut him out. He doesn’t blame Dimitri for his sorrow. Proof of that is that when Rodrigue died protecting Dimitri, just like Glenn, Felix never blamed Dimitri. In their A-support, he doesn’t say he wonders why Glenn died instead of Dimitri. He’s kept awake at night wondering why Glenn died instead of himself. I think he feels the same way about Rodrigue’s death, even though he doesn’t explicitly say it. When Dimitri dies in Verdant Wind or Silver Snow, he blames himself for failing to save him.

Like Felix says to Byleth, his bond with Dimitri was forged before they were born, because of family ties, but I don’t believe that bond ever broke. In their paired ending, they overcome the fraying rope, never leave the other behind, and when Dimitri dies, Felix grieves openly in the way he probably wanted to for Glenn and Rodrigue but wasn’t given the grace to do so. They just love each other so fucking much, and not necessarily romantically. (I 100% get why that ship is so popular, but I personally see their bond as brotherly, for exactly that reason.)

Who are you and what have you done with my little bastard lad:

The biggest part of all of this, the number one indicator of his growth and character arc, is what he says to Ashe during their B-support (for context, they’re talking about Ashe’s own regrets over the death of Lonato):

Ashe: You said it yourself. Be more moderate in your passions. To me, he always seemed like a knight out of a story. And I was so caught up in my ideals. I turned a blind eye to his sadness, his hatred...even when they were right in front of me. I guess I'm pretty far from real knighthood, huh?

Felix: Perhaps. Yet knowing someone well does not mean you know how they feel. Whether family or friend. To know someone's sorrow and turn blindly from it... That is the act of a fool. But pursuing your ideals is not foolish.

I think in this line, he’s referring to both Rodrigue and himself more than anyone else. He can see that Rodrigue (and all his friends!) were wrong to turn away from Dimitri’s and his own grief in favor of their ideals, but he also knows that he himself was wrong to turn at any point turn away from Dimitri’s grief and the grief of his friends (and also his own, tbh). He knows he was also wrong to blame his friends’ commitment to their own ideals for his pain (which he learns from Seteth in their B-support. Again, growth.). He knows he was wrong to refuse to see any element of choice in both his brother and father’s deaths - he may still disagree with their ideals, but he knows now that they weren’t wrong to do so, and his friends and father honoring Glenn’s memory by acknowledging that wasn’t them disregarding who Glenn truly was. Rather, they were honoring a different part of them than what Felix had known or understood.

It’s so important to acknowledge that this line shows he doesn’t just change his attitude. He accepts that he was wrong and selfish the entire time and that he was hurting people because of it.

At the end of the day, he never truly abandoned any of his friends or values, even as he pushed them all away and hurt them, and I think he understands that he doesn’t have an excuse for hurting them. A huge number of his max supports with people are him admitting how much he cares, and as he comes to terms with that, he realizes that he can also love the parts of them that he doesn’t understand. And honestly? He’s as clingy as ever.’

In conclusion:

Okay i’m done now. love u bye

-

(p.s. they did him dirty with that S-support. it sucks and ignores literally all of his character development smh)