solacium - Tumblr blog

[solacium]

"You need to stop writing self-insert nonsense if you want to be published!"

The thing about self-insert stories that writers often fail at doing, when trying to bring their stories to a wider audience is unfolding the fantasy.

In a self-insert story, yes, all the characters think the self-insert is fun and witty and nice and interesting, because it's a self-insert story. It's inherently wish-fulfillment. All you need to do is to unfold the fantasy. Take more space, not less. Show me WHY your self-insert is seen that way. Give them opportunities to be witty and fun and nice and interesting. Let them take up more space, not less!

When you don't, the only people who will be interested in your story are people who have similar fantasies and wish-fulfillment to yours.

When you unfold it and showcase it, you can sell that fantasy to people who would otherwise be uninterested.

All that to say, all fiction is inherently self-insert-y in some way, and yelling at people who are upfront about what they like to write to make yourself feel better or seem more impressive than you are is profoundly sad.

Write whatever the fuck you want to write, someone out there will be into it.

[solacium]

Give yourself permission to write garbage.

This is the best writing advice I have ever received. Ever.

Anytime I either find myself intimidated by writing something or I simply can’t seem to get words moving, I use this. It’s great for the run of the mill perfectionist, as well.

Giving yourself permission to write garbage means letting yourself do something imperfectly. I always use this when I can’t seem to find a place to start, and I set out to write the “worst version” of whatever I’m writing. Not only do I give myself permission to write badly; I ask myself to. Instead of writing something eloquent like “the banisters were carved straight out of Queen Victoria’s past” I’ll write “the banisters were fancy-looking and stuff”. Or rather than coming up with the beautiful world building of the setting, I’ll just start with “they’re outside and it’s pretty” and move on.

Every time I do this, perhaps the first line or two will be a little worse for wear, but as a whole, never comes out “bad”. You’re just giving yourself the opportunity to write a “first coat”, if you will, and then add onto it when you edit later. And often I just need this advice to write the first sentence, and then I’m in the flow again. For me, at least, if I didn’t do this when I needed it, I’d just sit paralyzed at my computer staring at a blinking cursor. I’d rather just type some garbage that I can edit later than have nothing at all.

It’s simple and it’s silly (and sometimes cringe-worthy), but it gets you writing and that’s all that matters.

[solacium]

site that you can type in the definition of a word and get the word

site for when you can only remember part of a word/its definition 

site that gives you words that rhyme with a word

site that gives you synonyms and antonyms

[solacium]

my art may never be as good as i want it to be, but i have hands and a pencil and i will make that everyone else’s problem

[solacium]

No stronger urge to write than when you have to do other stuff like work

[solacium]

I feel like a fair deal has been said about Eddie being a monster fucker extraordinaire, but can we spend some more time considering how much of a... something else the Symbiote is for falling in love with a human? And I don’t even mean the obvious aesthetic differences, that from the perspective of a sleek, half-liquid, glimmering symbiote would still (I think), despite their shapeshifting abilities, make us read to them as trypophobic centipede nightmares.

The difference I’m more interested in focusing on here is that the symbiotes as far as we know from the times multiple scientists in comics and other Marvel media examined them, have no additional bacterial flora of their own, no parasites, no well… nothing. All symbiote’s cells are symbiote’s cells. The  human cells are outnumbered by the bacterias living among them 10 to 1.

Oh, imagine loving a haunted city.

The city that protects and hides you. The city that gives you life and shelter. Its citizens surround you, you feel them passing around you. You feel them passing through you. They do not see you. They do not hear you. They go about their life, mindless and blind and voiceless. Only the city talks. But only to you. Their carcasses fall on the streets, to be swallowed by the concrete, the concrete you worship. The city cares not for them, only for you, its only citizen with a voice. It loves you, and you love it back. You love its buildings, growing endlessly, each room filled by a blank face. You love the avenues, crowded, yet deadly silent. Each beautiful graveyard.

Oh!! Imagine loving a haunted city!!

[solacium]

Genuinely 90% of historical fiction would be so much better if more writers could get more comfortable with the fact that to create a good story set in a different time period you do actually have to give the characters beliefs & values which reflect that time period

[solacium]

writing fanfiction is kinda like when you’re at karaoke and you’re like ‘who’s gonna sing this one song? no one? oh ok FINE i’ll do it’ and then the mic is forced into your hands and you wow the crowd with your secret singing abilities

[solacium]

Friendly reminder that you should

Write that fic

Draw your OC

Redesign that blorbo

Plan that comic how you want

Create the content you want to see

Be cringe

Be free

The only thing that matters is you having fun! Not what others think!

[solacium]

my dad likes to call the stretches of time where you’re not creating “dreaming periods” and says that they’re meant to allow you to absorb all of the beauty, life, and inspiration from the things around you so that when you’re able to create again, you will have fanned your spark back into a flame. sometimes its hard to see those moments as anything but stagnation, but he always says that they’re natural and healthy and needed—things that should be embraced rather than feared.

[solacium]

[solacium]

“What’s your writing process for fanfictions?”

Me:

[solacium]

forever and always insane about the fact that haunting means "heimsuchen" in german which literally translates to "homeseeking". a haunting is a search for a home you can never return to

[solacium]

[solacium]

I just discovered foodtimeline.org, which is exactly what it sounds like: centuries worth of information about FOOD.  If you are writing something historical and you want a starting point for figuring out what people should be eating, this might be a good place?

[solacium]

writing is the most insane hobby it's like,

is it easy? no

is it fast? also no

but is it fun? well,

[solacium]

Dialogue Responses

"Please, come back to me."

"Always."

"I will. I promise."

"Please wait for me."

"Nothing I want more."

"I will fight for it. For us."

"I can't promise you that."

"I'll be back before you know it."

"I don't want to give you false hope."

"Nothing could keep me away from you."

"I can't wait to hold you in my arms again."

All the Dialogue Responses can be found here.

If you like my blog and want to support me, you can buy me a coffee or become a member! 🥰