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things they should teach baseball players as soon as they go pro:

how to manage your money so you aren't broke at 40

sometimes your soulmate is a man

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just a heads up to my fellow writers out there that AO3 is currently fighting off bots commenting on people’s works to tell them that AO3 will delete their fics “due to the works being deprecated”, and the deletion will affect their accounts unless the authors delete the fics themselves first. IT IS A SCAM. AO3 will NOT delete your works. please do NOT fall for these bots!

I’ve been told the reason why these bots are doing this is due to copyright infringement issue where they’re trying to steal your works (possibly to train AI but this is just a guess) ‼️‼️‼️and once you deleted your fics, it will be either very difficult or impossible for you to claim ownership of your own fics when they were already deleted.‼️‼️‼️

a reminder that AO3 will never contact you through your comments section (in case they claim to be one of the moderators). AO3 will only contact you through your email address which you use to register your account, and it will be from AO3’s official handle. not some sketchy ass @

so if you get a comment telling you you should “delete your works to protect your account because AO3 is doing blah blah blah” report that comment. don’t delete your works.

PLEASE DO NOT FALL FOR THESE SCAM.

AO3 IS NOT DELETING WORKS.

DO NOT DELETE YOUR WORKS JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE CLAIMS THEY KNOW SOMETHING.

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Buy on gumroad

It's finally done!! Yay!! I hope you enjoy part one of my first murder mystery.

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Epic the Musical but the characters actually have their motif in their design Part 1

I dont see people using a hawk for hermes, so I thought I might as well hehe

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this might be weird to ask, but how do I critically look at another person's writing and implement what I like in their writing in my own writing? I've been having trouble improving in my writing, and frankly Im not sure how to go about doing that, even. It's easy to see what I like about another person's writing, but hard to pinpoint exactly why...

THIS IS NOT WEIRD TO ASK. It is, in fact, the most important question EVER.

How to Read Like a Writer

Re-read. If you get halfway into a chapter and think, Wow this chapter is super creepy–I wonder how they did that. Or get to the end of a book and think, I feel the poignancy of the fragility of human life in an inherently volatile economic system–I wonder how the writer made me feel that way… Go back and re-read that shit.

Read slowly. When you read like a reader, you read pretty fast. When you go in for your second, or third, or fourth re-read of a passage, chapter, or book that you want to know more about, read it slowly. Really. Slowly.

Read for technique, not content. Readers read for content (”In this paragraph, Damien gave Harold a classified envelope.”). Writers read for technique. (”In this paragraph, the writer made me feel curious about the contents of the envelope by giving sensory details about its appearance and weight.”)

Ask the right questions. They usually start with HOW: How did the writer make me feel? How did they accomplish that?

Read small. Did a chapter make you feel sad? Find out WHERE EXACTLY. What paragraph, sentence, or WORD did it for you? Was it a physical detail? A line of dialogue? A well-placed piece of punctuation? Stories are made of words and sentences. Narrow it down.

Practice. Reading like a writer is a skill that takes time to develop. Over time, you’ll get better at it!

How about y’all? Anything to add to this list? I made it off the top of my head so I’m sure I’m forgetting something. What have been your experiences with learning to read like a writer?

Hope this helps!

//////////////

The Literary Architect is a writing advice blog run by me, Bucket Siler. For more writing help, check out my Free Resource Library or get The Complete Guide to Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. xoxo

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Been playing three hopes with my sister (I never played three houses haha) they keep putting this poor girl in the front lines

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Im sorry but it is so funny how people outside of tumblr view us. Like why are the tiktokers treating tumblr like some professional ass website you need to do extensive prep before you begin posting on. And the follower farming advice is so fucking funny to me when this is the website where people actively hate getting new followers

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I just want to talk about the power of commenting on fics for a minute.

I have my main fandom, but when I read in other fandoms, I don't know many of the writers. So I usually just find fics by looking through the tag I want. And if it's a tag I'm really interested in, I'll read every fic in the tag. And if there's a fic I really liked in there, I'll start reading everything by that writer.

So what this means is I'm sometimes reading fics or writers that don't have tons of hits/kudos/comments on their fics, but I found them through some obscure tag I wanted to read. And so I'll get back some really incredibly sweet replies to my comments.

But then, something even more incredible started happening. I'd be reading WIPs by some of these writers and they'd literally start writing the rest of the fic for me. They started asking me what I hoped to see happen or if I had any requests. And when the fic was finished, one of them said the only reason they kept writing the fic was for me.

Sometimes there can be such a lovely connection between the writer and the reader just because you decided to leave a comment. And sometimes you as the commenting reader can become the lone reason why a fic makes its way into the world for all the other readers who come after you.

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people: do you like (character)?

me, a little unhinged about said character: He’s fine. He’s alright.

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Reblog this if you support your fellow writers, even if they don’t get much attention

Gonna piss an anon off in my inbox who sent me ‘ Delete your tumblr. Its not worth posting your writing when nobody will see it or care about it ‘

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Yep. Found out last night that it's way more common on FF.net, but it's now been migrating to AO3. Which is hilarious, since what fanfic writer has money?

Hey ao3 writers!

There are many, many bots on ao3 that will comment on your fics with vague complements to try to commission bait you. This is not a human being: this is a bot.

This is one of many examples out there, but this is an example from a recent fic I dropped. The commenter will complement your work in vague terms and 'offer an idea'. Notice how they never said anything that pertains to character, content, etc.

They also do not specify prices, only saying 'keep their prices fair'. Again, this is another obvious tell we were working with a bot.

I know many of you are aware of this, but not everyone is, and I was recently reminded about this scam from this comment. DO NOT indulge these people: simply delete the comment, and move on. If it persists, unfortunately you might want to consider turning off guest comments for a while. Again, I know this is an obvious scam, but scam bots like this are increasingly common on ao3, enough that a smaller account like my own is receiving them.

Feel free to share this around, I just want to make sure more people are made aware of this happening, and what to do about it.

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Saw a screenshot reposted on insta and had a vision

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Hey ao3 writers!

There are many, many bots on ao3 that will comment on your fics with vague complements to try to commission bait you. This is not a human being: this is a bot.

This is one of many examples out there, but this is an example from a recent fic I dropped. The commenter will complement your work in vague terms and 'offer an idea'. Notice how they never said anything that pertains to character, content, etc.

They also do not specify prices, only saying 'keep their prices fair'. Again, this is another obvious tell we were working with a bot.

I know many of you are aware of this, but not everyone is, and I was recently reminded about this scam from this comment. DO NOT indulge these people: simply delete the comment, and move on. If it persists, unfortunately you might want to consider turning off guest comments for a while. Again, I know this is an obvious scam, but scam bots like this are increasingly common on ao3, enough that a smaller account like my own is receiving them.

Feel free to share this around, I just want to make sure more people are made aware of this happening, and what to do about it.

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