#HTML Italic Tag

[ckret2]

Hey. I’ve been looking at your posts about posting your fic on Ao3, and I just wanted to be sure— you do know that you can post your fic without having to use HTML mode, right? Like you can post it without having to type a “<p>” and “</p>” before and after every new paragraph, or use “<em>” “</em>” to make sure something in italics is recognized by the website as italics? Just look for a button on the left right above the box you’re going to be writing in that says “Rich Text” and press that. It should be right next to the button saying “HTML,” which is the default button selected, but you only have to press Rich Text to change that.

And none of your work is lost if you switch buttons. But Rich Text mode gives you a version of the posting box where you can write normally and just press the return key for a new paragraph like normal, and there’s a little menu on the top where you can choose if you want to write in bold or italics or change the spacing or whatever. I just felt like you ought to know in case you missed it and had to write the hard way.

I can't do that because the site I write on and store my fics on strips the formatting out of the document—italics, bold, etc—if I copy/paste it anywhere I've tried (all my other word processor apps, other websites, and yes, AO3's rich text editor) EXCEPT FOR tumblr, for some bizarre reason I don't know. Copy/pasting from the site I use into tumblr and copying tumblr's text to paste into AO3's editor is the only workaround I've found for this issue aside from reformatting every italicized/bolder word by hand. And I use a lot of italics.

I could copy/paste the rich text off tumblr and paste it into AO3's rich text editor, but since tumblr's stupid-as-hell post editor only allows you to select one paragraph at a time, my options are: copy/paste one paragraph at a time; manually force past tumblr's stupid-as-hell inability to select more than one paragraph by selecting the first paragraph and manually scrolling all the way down to the bottom to select the whole thing; selecting the whole chapter by going to the finished post and scrolling down to select the whole thing (which is finicky as hell if you're on a tablet, which I am); or, using select-all in tumblr's HTML format and then just quickly deleting the author's note when I paste.

As you can see, using select-all in HTML format is the fastest and least human-error-prone way to transfer text from tumblr to AO3

Every time I post a new chapter I paste the text to AO3's HTML editor and then switch to the rich text editor to insert that chapter's art.

[amtrak12]

OMG it's already after 8 pm and I still have a quarter of this chapter to edit 😭

[riacte]

hi! i love reading your fics but i specifically love the social media shenanigans in dearly beloathed. i was wondering how you would feel if i took some inspiration from that for a fic of mine because i would love to write something that's very similarly formatted but i wanted to make sure you were fine with that (cause i'm assuming it took some time and effort to come up with) before i did. anyways your writing is awesome and i love reading it

Yes sure of course! I took inspiration from ao3 fics (F1 fandom in particular is stunning at formatting, I have so much respect for their dedication), such as this one (I basically took the formatting from this) and this Twitch streamer AU. If you're posting on ao3, there's the option of playing with HTML/CSS for a more "realistic" socmed interface, for example this one for Twitter which is magic to me. This one is an extremely impressive Discord mockup. An Unauthorised Fandom Treatise is a nice look into mid 2010s Superwholock era fandom whereas F1 rpf and indeed mcyt / streamer stuff is more "modern". Anyways yeah there's a lot of potential in this genre of fics and loads of stuff to check out on ao3 if you wish :) I love scrolling through the Unconventional Format tag because people are just so creative. Good luck with your writing!

[stained-glass-cicada]

the silly little sayerfic formatting is fun and cute when the chapter is one thousand words.

but as it turns out when the chapter is six thousand words it's a nightmare

[mitraki]

i have a love hate relationship with spam reblogs (of one post)

on one hand, its cute to see the enthusiasm

on the other had, if you are following mutuals who all do this, there is a non-negligible amount of time spent scrolling, particularly if its a long post

on the OTHER other hand, it does make me go to sleep and stop doom scrolling

[strictlyquadrilateral]

is there a good way to remember when im supposed to use italic tags vs emphasis tags in html, because ive definitely looked this up like 5 times and cannot get it to stay in my head. is there a mnemonic. send help

[html-tryhard]

HTML Fic Event Week

Prompt Sheet Generator | AO3 Collection | html tryhard on AO3

HTML is a markup language used to tell a web browser how to display content. You might be aware of simple uses of HTML, such as bold and italics but HTML can be used to do so much more! Do you like r/AITA stories? Have you ever been interested in including realistic text messages into your fics? Did you like choose-your-own-adventure books as a kid? HTML can be used for all of these things and more!

Join us for HTML Tryhards 2025, where we bully our friends (and you? 👀) into making fanfiction super extra shiny using the power of HTML.

AO3, a fanfiction hosting platform, supports the use of HTML, and that's where submissions for this event should be posted. We have a collection for you to post to, but please use the tag #HTML Tryhard on your work as well!

On Tumblr, @ this blog or use the tag #htmltryhard2025, and we'll reblog your posts.

Prompts

There are two (optional) prompts per day, one to influence the format and one to influence the story. You can generate your own custom prompt list here. Use as many or as few of the prompts as you like.

Rules

All fandoms welcome.

Submissions must include a significant portion of HTML. We'd prefer the entire work be HTML, but mixed prose and HTML is also acceptable.

Submissions MUST be HTML and not images or screenshots of text logs/tweets/etc.

There is no required minimum word count, but the suggested minimum word count is 500 words.

The prompts are OPTIONAL, use as many or as few as you'd like.

HTML/CSS guides are accepted (and encouraged!) as submissions.

Submissions should include the #HTML Tryhard tag on AO3.

Submissions should be added to the collection on AO3.

You can start posting submissions January 13th. The last date of the event is January 17th, though if you're running behind you can still post to the collection after that date.

Follow us!

If you don't know how to use HTML but it's something you're interested in, give us a follow! In the days leading up to the event, we'll be sharing works that have utilized HTML, as well as helpful tutorials. The difficulty of these tutorials will vary, and we'll post things we hope will be helpful for tryhard veterans and beginners alike.

You can also send us your HTML questions and we'll do our best to help you out!

[sgdlrexchange]

Guide to Optional Details

The Link Click/SGDLR Exchange is several participant’s first exchange on AO3! We wanted to compile some basic points to help sign up and which might help your creator write/draw something for you that you’d like to see.

While leaving a mostly-blank sign-up is an option, we’d like to make sure everyone’s familiar with how to elaborate on that if they so choose.

Preliminary notes:

To make your sign-up look cleaner, you may want to include dropdowns or formatting! AO3 allows basic HTML in terms of bolding and italics, and you can use the <details> and <summary> tags to include dropdowns.

A typical way to divide details in your sign-ups is to split up the text into sections for general likes, fandom-specific (in this case, character/relationship-specific) likes, and DNW. These can be split further into SFW and NSFW (e.g. SFW likes and NSFW likes), and can include a section for different mediums such as art likes/prompts.

You may want to look through some other exchanges to get ideas of what sign-ups should typically look like, or or steal ideas for your likes/DNW. Scrolling through the most recent rounds of Candy Hearts and Trick or Treat (two of the biggest multifandom exchanges) can help with this, if you’re curious.

We'll be splitting this into three different posts to avoid running too long!

Links: 1. Guide to Optional Details // 2. DNW (Do Not Wants) // 3. Likes/Prompts

[minimalsizeconspiracy]

No-Google (fan)fic writing, Part 5: Obsidian

Storytime

In terms of how long I’ve been using Obsidian, well. Currently, a little more than a week ^^ And I’ll be honest, I’ll probably only use it for writing fic sporadically, because it’s proprietary software and I prefer Open Source (and I also love LaTeX too much, but that’s a different question).

The reason why I decided to give it a try in terms of writing fic was that I’ve been talking with others about moving to Markdown, Obsidian is Markdown-based and I’d been playing around with it in a different context for a while already. So, out of curiosity, I decided I’d try to write a story in Obsidian and see if it could live up to my demands.

Word/Google docs versus Obsidian

Again, Word and Obsidian do not work in the same way. If anything else I have described here so far can be compared to the way Obsidian works, it’s Zettelkasten. The same principle of “one note for one idea/scene/thought” also applies to Obsidian. Also like Zettelkasten, Obsidian relies heavily on connecting these notes by way of links, using tags to categorise/find specific notes and it also has the same feature of using folders for collecting “sub-notes”, which can be used for structuring in the same way the virtual desk is used in Zettelkasten. Actually, I would say that the main difference between those two is that Obsidian uses Markdown and a folder-with-subfolders structure, whereas Zettelkasten has its own file format and relies on XML behind the scenes.

Cost

The personal use version of Obsidian is free, so technically +1 for that. However, Obsidian is not Open Source. It is not free in the same way Writer, LaTeX, Zettelkasten and Markdown (= many MD editors) are free, the code behind it is proprietary. This does not have any impact on the cost, at least not at present, but there is a chance that at some point, the developers might choose to charge for private use of it. I think it’s unlikely, but. Just so you know.

File formats

Unlike Word, however, Obsidian relies on Markdown as its file format and stores every “note” as a separate .md-file in a folder. The “notebook” where all notes are collected is called a “vault” and it’s just one big folder with lots of subfolders. In other words, even if the software is proprietary, the files can be read and used without needing Obsidian itself. Which is really great, because again, it means you have plain text .md-files with your ideas, scenes and stories, and they wil be readable even if Obsidian as an app disappears.

+1 for that!

Features

What you need Obsidian for is the features. And of those, there are many. I’ll save words and say, read about Markdown features like bold, italics etc. here, but I really do want to talk about other features Obsidian offers that plain Markdown with an editor does not.

Firstly, an important feature that I talk about a lot is the export function. AO3 needs either HTML or RTF, fanfiction.net ODT or DOC(X). Obsidian can export to all of these, provided you install the Pandoc plugin. This is not the same as installing Pandoc on your computer; you need to install the plugin in Obsidian itself to use it. But as long as you do, you can export to whatever you like.

+1

Another feature very important for me when I tried Obsidian was whether outcommenting would work (again, I’ve talked about this here). Basically, what that means is that parts of the text are not exported when you export the rest of the note – such as comments to yourself, notes on what you still need to write in a scene or simply – as I use it frequently – stuff you wrote and don’t want to delete, even it doesn’t fit anymore. Much to my delight, it works in Obsidian as well, again because it’s Markdown and it works in Markdown. [text you want outcommented]: # will do the trick.

+1

Lastly, another plugin I would recommend is Smart Typography. It “[c]onverts quotes to curly quotes, dashes to em dashes and periods to ellipses”, as the description says, and that’s really useful if you use a regular keyboard layout to write, where you get the standard ' and ".

+1

Installing both the Pandoc and Smart Typography plugins is easy. Open the Obsidian vault settings (the little wheel you can see in the left lower corner, to the right of “example”, which is the name of the vault), Third-party plugins (which you need to enable) and then browse Community plugins by name and install and enable them. Done.

Now for the most important part: putting together a story.

If you want one big vault containing all of your stories, you need to create “folders” for every story and then store the single notes for that story in that folder. Personally, I prefer to have one vault per story, because I find it a lot easier to focus on working on one story at a time if I don’t have several other stories in the same vault. This, I want to note, is different to how I used Zettelkasten, where I generally had one big Zettelkasten containing all of my stories for a specific fandom. I don’t know why that’s different with Obsidian, it’s just that way.

In any case, the following examples are for when you have one story per vault. In this case, I’ve decided that I’m going to write a story involving the POVs of three different characters. I’m going to keep their respective pieces sorted by character, so I always know who’s talking right now. Every scene where that character is the main narrator gets its own note within the respective character folder.

This, in theory, is no different than what I do with regular Markdown. What is very useful in Obsidian, however, is that Obsidian offers the possibility to “embed” notes in other notes.

And that, in turn, means that just like with Zettelkasten, you can use one note to put together the whole story and move around scenes without ever having to worry that you’ll accidentally delete and lose texts while copypasting.

It works like this: [[name of note]] establishes a link from one note to another (useful if you want to connect different ideas). If you add ! before the brackets, like so: ![[name of note]], it means that the whole text of the linked note will now be embedded in the note with the link. Which will give you this:

And, because you’ve installed the Pandoc plugin, this will now allow you to export the note named “complete story” to HTML, ODT or whatever, and all of the linked notes will be exported into that file. You need to change the order of scenes or move one scene from chapter 1 to chapter 2? Just delete ![[name of note]] in chapter 1 and put it in chapter 2. You can also insert horizontal rules, by the way, which I have done here. These will also be exported.

If you need your story structured in chapters rather than as a whole, the process is analogue: one note per chapter, where you !-link all the scenes that belong to the chapter in question. Then, if you want it as a whole, create a note where you !-link the notes for the single chapters, done. Export at your leisure.

Embeds are hands down in my opinion the best feature Obsidian has. They offer a distinct benefit over other Markdown editors like Ghostwriter, KATE or Notepad++, because Markdown, other than LaTeX, does not come with a feature that would make it easy to include “child files” in a “parent Markdown” file that only includes the header and the child files in the order in which they should appear in the final output document. Thus, none of the three editors I like to use for Markdown can show me the whole story if I decide to create a separate file for each of the scenes, and that is really annoying, because it means that I’m back to cutting and pasting pieces of text from one part of my Markdown document to another. Which in turn increases the probability that I will lose something, and well. See Zettelkasten as to how I feel about that.

So that is definitely an extremely useful feature deserving a big +1 because like with Zettelkasten, it means you can move the order of your chapters and scenes around without running the risk of losing the actual text.

Interface

Something I find quite enjoyable is that there are a lot of “skins” made by the community that can be applied to Obsidian. This is important to me because, as the previous instalments have probably shown, I’m a big fan of simple, clean, customisable interfaces. I’ve tried several of the community-made skins already, and my current favourite is Cyber Glow – but there are also others I’ve found quite nice.

Again, skins can be installed via the wheel/settings button, and just to show it, the below is the vault from above with Cyber Glow enabled.

Syncing

One of the big benefits of Obsidian is that it comes with a syncing service. Yes, you don’t need anything else, you can just create an Obsidian account and your notes will be synced across your devices, even on mobile devices. And file versioning is an option (I’ll get to that in due time). And that is really great, because it’s a one-in-all solution.

If you don’t need or want that, you don’t have to sign up for it. You can also continue syncing your Obsidian vaults with your preferred service (Dropbox, OneDrive, GIT, USB etc.). But you can and it’s at least nice to have the option. Downside: sync is a paid-for service, starting at 4$/month for 1GB of storage. Which isn’t a lot generally, except you’re writing plain-text/Markdown, so your files are Kb-tiny in most cases, and it takes a lot of Kb-sized files to fill up 1GB.

Personally, I will say that I’d much rather pay 4$ a month and know that my stories are not going to be scraped for AI, but it’s really a decision everyone has to make for themselves. Just remember – if you aren’t paying for the product, you are the product.

Ease of use for Word/Google doc-users

It’s not intuitive in the same way as moving from Word to LibreOffice Writer is. At least having a look at some Markdown guides (linked over there) is important if you are going to use Obsidian. But as I wrote there already, Markdown takes you about half an hour to learn, if you don’t know it already. And yes, you’ll have to wrap your brain around the concept of “one note = one thought/scene/idea” as well, but honestly? In terms of cost-benefit ratio, Obsidian is probably one of the most rewarding transitions you could make if you’re looking to get away from Word/Google docs. My only gripe with it is really that it’s proprietary software, but otherwise? Definitely recommended.

Read No-Google (fan)fic writing, Part 1: LibreOffice Writer

Read No-Google (fan)fic writing, Part 2: Zettelkasten

Read No-Google (fan)fic writing, Part 3: LaTeχ

Read No-Google (fan)fic writing, Part 4: Markdown

[sandcobangevent]

FLASHBANG PROJECTS ARE DUE TODAY

It's the 26th and by midnight your projects are due! Please submit as stated in your assignment email in one of the three following ways:

To submit via Tumblr: Go to the Sherlock & Co Flash Bang Event blog -- Sherlock and Co Flash Bang Event Blog -- and click the meatball menu at the top of the page and then click 'Submit'. It'll take you to the "Submit your Flash Bang Project Here!" page (or click here). This page is just like posting on tumblr and submitting an ask at the same time. Just create a post like you normally would and it'll go into my queue for review and posting on April 30th.

To submit by email: All stories submitted by email MUST have HTML-tags for any special formatting such as italics or bold-face; there must also be a blank line between paragraphs. Submit your story in .doc/.docx, .txt or .rtf format. Stories that haven't been HTML-tagged will be posted without italics and related formatting changes. Art can be submitted in .jpeg, .gif, or .png.

To submit via AO3: Please go to the collection -- Sherlock and Co Flashbang April 2024 | Archive of Our Own -- and click "Post to Collection," then post your story the way you normally would on AO3. When you click post, it will enter the community queue. I will reveal the work in coordination with a post on tumblr and Discord.

SUPER EXCITED TO SEE WHAT EVERYONE MADE!

Edit: Midnight Anywhere on Earth (AOE) translates to the following for different timezones: 4/26, Midnight AOE would be 5:00 a.m. Saturday 4/27 PDT or 8:00 a.m. Saturday 4/27 EDT or 1:00 p.m. Saturday 4/27 BST or 3:00 p.m. Saturday 4/27 EEST or 5:30 p.m. Saturday 4/27 IST or 8:00 p.m. Saturday 4/27 AWST or 10:00 p.m. Saturday 4/27 AEST

[emiplayzmc]

started making the Ao3 post.

was doing pretty good with the tags i think

but then i realized i don't know how to make text italic/bold/underscore/strikethrough

help

OH NOO </3. Yeah I had to figure that out as well, it's confusing

I always put my documents into Rich Text to format easier bc I don't know HTML commands, I'm pretty sure it's the same on Web AO3. Rich Text gives you more of the typical text formatting options :D

[amtrak12]

Doing my final pass through of chapter 5 before posting and just have to brag:

(Maze who wasn’t her roommate, but a demon now. Had always been a demon, and wasn’t that a kick in the pants: all of her closest friends turned out to be creatures from Hell.)

*applauds* Good shit good shit. Nice addition when I completely rewrote this chapter intro last weekend. Way to go past!me!

I also like my narrative insert about the bullet necklace in the middle of Chloe and Lucifer’s argument, but it doesn’t quote as well out of context. It’s like trying to quote Seanan McGuire’s Middlegame: sometimes it’s not what the quote says but the way the quote fits into the rhythm of the scene that makes you lose your mind.

[freyito]

Frey...

ᴍᴜʟᴛɪ-ꜰᴀɴᴅᴏᴍ | ꜱᴘᴏɪʟᴇʀꜱ! | ᴍᴀʟᴇ ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ ʙʟᴏɢ [ꜰᴛᴍ & ᴄɪꜱ]

ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ⨟ ʀᴜʟᴇꜱ ⨟ ᴍᴀꜱᴛᴇʀʟɪꜱᴛ ⨟ Qᴜᴇᴜᴇ ⨟ ᴀᴏ3 ⨟ ​​​ɴꜱꜰᴡ ʙʟᴏɢ ⨟ ᴋᴏꜰɪ! ⨟ ꜱᴛʀᴀᴡᴘᴀɢᴇ

𝗥𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝘂𝘀

closed ♡

𝗖𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗛𝘆𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗶𝘅𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

Honkai Star Rail & Elden Ring & Twisted Wonderland [I prioritize asks & fics for these fandoms!]

Boothill, Mydei, Gallagher, Phaino, Leona and Idia Asks tend to be answered quicker than other characters requested.

𝗧𝗼 𝗗𝗼 ⨟ 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝘆𝗶𝘁𝗼'𝘀 𝗠𝗮𝗶𝗱 𝗖𝗮𝗳𝗲

◛ Kiss Me Goodbye [Boothill x Reader]

◛ On The Clock [Moze x Reader]

𝗨𝗽 𝗡𝗲𝘅𝘁 (𝗔𝘀𝗸𝘀, 𝗛𝗖𝘀, 𝗗𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀, & 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲)

◛ How He Knew You Were The One [Boothill, Gallagher, Mydei, Phainon, Anaxa x Reader]

◛ Nice Pillows [Mydei, Phainon, Gallagher ver.]

𝗟𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗙𝗶𝗰𝘀 (𝗪𝗜𝗣𝗦)

◛ Blessed Are The Peacemakers [Boothill x Reader]

◛ Summer Sun [Arthur Morgan x Reader]

◛ Strawberry Season [Gallagher x Reader]

◛ Can You Hear Them Sing? [Mydei x Reader]

𝗠𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸

↺ Extra Dose Of Lovin'

𝗠𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝗶𝗱 𝗖𝗮𝗳𝗲 𝗘𝗻𝘁𝗿𝘆

↺ Odd Customs

𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗼

✶ the maid cafe event is now closed while I work on the requests!

✶ works that are italic & bold are the ones im currently working on

✶ requests are not 'first come, first serve', i work on what i want to at my own pace, including requests and my own ideas. this blog was created for MY indulgence.

✶ all of my finished pieces + my rules and what not are tagged with #⁺◟freyito. my rambles/whatever thoughts/random posts are tagged with #freyposting.

𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗿

✶ dni: proshippers (as in: those who ship pedophilic, incestuous, and other ships that glorify things such as rape, grooming, sexual assault, and more), zionists, racists, transphobes, homophobes, terfs, advocates for ai, ai bot creators, if you use ai/chatbots/art/etc.

✶ i block freely.

✶ the headers for my about, rules, etc. are REDRAWS! they are my art, however they are redraws of this ending for chainsaw man! please do not reupload my art or use it in any way, shape, or form! for more examples of my art, please see my commissions tab!

© freyito, 2025, HTML organized by © amorphous

[lennyfromvinci]

Tagged by @ofspacecrafts for this writing meme and i love memes and hate doing actual work so lfg

What's one story you've written, you're the most proud of?

Should we say just about starving tonight? Let’s say that. It was a whirlwind of writing, that’s for sure! It was supposed to be 4k but I had a lot of feelings.

What's one story you wished you had expanded on, or spent more time writing?

The elephant graveyard that is my in prog folder. RIP Morgan and Sasha from Nobody Wants This handcuffed together! Goodbye, goodbye you were bigger than the sky! Alternatively: all the typos in everything I somehow catch a week after I post, despite several rounds of betas and reviews. Jfc how does it always happen?

There is a universe where still counts is 20k longer and deals with Robby realizing that Samira and Jack are definitely hanging out without him — hanging out how? That’s for him to melt down about -- and also includes his Heather-induced damage projected onto Samira but I’m happy I cut bait on all that and kept it tight instead.

What's your favourite trope of all time?

Like Lucille Bluth, I love all my children equally. (Accidental marriage where they then have to pretend it’s real, for reasons. Secretly dating. That list of reverse tropes like accidental old person acquisition (Samira’s life story) and government assigned nemesis/soulhate (Langdon v Santos) and abstinence pollen (everyone, just imagine it). Amnesia. Road trips where there is probably one bed.)

If you could be the main character in one of your stories, what one would it be?

I was gonna say the pythons on the limbs, the (lady) Ghostbusters x Thor crossover, and then I realized that meant I’d probably have been snapped. I’m still gonna say that, but know that I considered it and decided it was worth it.

Do you think you'll ever stop writing for the fandom you're currently most active in?

Statistically speaking, yes.

You've been given a book deal. What story are you publishing from your collection?

If none is not an option, take the adventures of Barry & Kayla and make that an expanded universe. The serial killer and his demanding agent, that’s something, right?

Top writing tip for others?

Because I fear we are losing the recipes: if you hand-code your italics using html tags in gdocs, you won’t get the annoying double line-spacing error or the error with the space before the period when you post to ao3. Barring that, idk, write what you want to read, not what you think other people want to read.

[thevalkyriesshadow]

Writing tag game by @bonecarversbestie !

Describe your writing process from idea to posting/publishing?

My ideas: I'm often inspired by moodboards, pinterest images, writing prompts I see on tumblr, movies and shows I watch...inspiration is everywhere! I also try and write things I'm familiar with or things I have interest in. It makes the research part more entertaining and engaging! Once I get an idea I play out the story in my head for a few days before I'm sure I like the possibilities of the story...if I really like the idea I get right to writing, even if it's a part of a scene or a small intro.

I LOVE THE RESEARCH ASPECT OF WRITING

I know, the boring part, but I learn so many new things and I like my fics to be accurate to a degree...of course at some point I just have to be like "Debbi, it's okay if it's not possible for your character to survive a fifty foot drop -- you're doing it for the angst!!!!!"

Writing/Editing: I keep everything I do to Google docs! I can access it anywhere from my phone and I love the outline tool. As soon as I get an idea, I make a new doc and add the idea or outline.

I will write at home, on the bus, on my break at work, anywhere! I'm shameless so I don't mind writing smut next to strangers on a bus or in a cafe 😅 I like to write a chapter out without really focusing on editing, and if there's a moment where I'm struggling to find a way to phrase or talk about something or a word to use, I just bold that section and keep going. Then I'll go back and edit it.

I'll admit, I'm an awful editor LOL I'll go back through and make sure it makes sense (I like to try and find creative ways to get what's in my head on paper and sometimes it just doesn't sound good LOL)

I only recently had people start reading my stuff before posting and I always feel so bad for the grammar of mine they have to endure (To my beta readers, I love you and you're awesome! 💖)

I just have to remind myself that Stephen King had horrible grammar, but incredible stories. That keeps me going hahaha

Posting/Publishing: I am too lazy to go back through and type in the html, so I just hope and pray my italics make it through while copying it to AO3. So far it's cooperated. I've only had to go back and add in italics two or three times.

I like to promote my stuff with sneak peeks before posting fully, and recently I've been addicted to making playlists on spotify for my fics, little collages for when I post a new chapter on tumblr, creating ways for my readers to engage with the story by letting them choose certain things that happen next.

Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Both! 😅

Thirty Moments I planned out. I did have a thirty day OTP prompt I had written for merthur back in like 2014 so I followed that and changed it up a bit to go with acotar/gwynriel, and I knew I wanted the prompts to tell a story as they went along rather than them being one-offs so that required planning. That was my most extensive outline. My other outlines are quick little notes, like a basic idea of what's coming next...some times I follow that and some times it derails completely and I go off course!

BB, NH is very much pantsing. I went into it deciding that's how I'd do it because I wanted to try the method and I really like pantsing!

I think it really depends on the fic for me and how much bandwidth I have for the fic.

What do you listen to when you are writing?

Spotify playlists that fit the vibe of the story, or the playlist I created for the fic!

There's also a guy who plays the trumpet in the park I live next to, so sometimes I'll just listen to that as I write 🤣

What’s your drink of choice (while writing)?

I find my best writing happens in the morning so I'll usually have coffee or tea. In the afternoons if I'm writing it's kind of whatever I'm drinking; water, seltzer, wine...I don't have a specific drink I stick to when writing.

Promote yourself! What’s your favourite thing you’ve written?

Um, all of it? hahahaha no but I really loved Thirty Moments Tell A Story. It was my first major (published - I wrote something right after reading ACOSF and it was basically word vomit, but word vomit with potential so I'm currently editing that lol) Gwynriel fic and I loved the themes I explored.

Share a fic of yours that you think is underrated/deserves more love.

I'm going to shamelessly share FOUR of my one shots that deserve more love:

Please...Stay (because I love some angst with a happy ending)

The Priestess Listened (because Azriel just needs someone to listen to him)

Song of the Shadowsinger (what I think happened *HOFAS spoiler* when Azriel returned without TT)

Getaway Car (I got this idea when driving through Philly...it's the wild west in these mean streets)

Do you have any advice for new writers?

From the inspirational words of Shia LaBeouf: JUST DO IT

Seriously. Write the awful stories. Write the ones you can't get out of your head, or the ones that you only gave a minute of thought to. Writing anything helps you to hone your craft and meld it to what you want it to look like.

Try and write a little everyday. Even if it's a sentence, editing, an idea...anything to keep the juices flowing.

Take your time. Don't rush it.

This part is easier said than done, but don't be hard on yourself. Write because you like to do it, not because you're expecting a million hits or comments or kudos.

Talk with other writers and get their advice.

Read, read, read...seeing other writing helps to fuel and inspire yours!

Take breaks and remember to be kind to yourself!

What is a writing style/technique that others do really well that you'd like to get better at?

I like my smut, but I think I could do better at making it less telling and more showing.

Is there a character you were surprised you enjoyed writing as much as you did?

I like writing about the other Valkyries and giving them personalities. I liked writing Azriel’s mother as well!

I also have Balthazar as a beta in my Valkyrie appreciation week fic and I've only written one line for him so far but I'm already entertained by him 🤣

Thank you for tagging me @sadiegirl2021

No pressure tags: @captain-of-the-gwynriel-ship @oristian @shadowsxgwynriel @foreverinelysian

[57basilochre]

"She had no knowledge when the day was done, And the new morn she saw not: but in peace Hung over her sweet Basil evermore, And moisten’d it with tears unto the core." — Isabella or the Pot of Basil by John Keats

basil: an aromatic��annual herb of the mint family, native to tropical Asia.

ochre: an earthy pigment containing ferric oxide, typically with clay, varying from light yellow to brown or red.

My name is Basil Ochre!! It's a double name, and therefore is my full first name, no matter how lengthy people find it. It's only four syllables but perhaps that's plenty? My name is a poem, plant, and color, all shown (?) above!

I am thirteen going on fourteen, and I go by she/any pronouns, and I am a lesbian!! I play violin and I write things every so often. I like A Series of Unfortunate Events, All the Wrong Questions, Yellowjackets, and the Hunger Games trilogy the best, but I do like other things as well, though I might not post about them as much. I also like coding and HTML but I'm a beginner!!

I like to think I am like Lemony Snicket when he was young and simply just not as good as he was when he wrote ASOUE but I come to realize that I am just cringe.

Fandoms in No Particular Order

bold + italic = fav!! bold = i like it a lot italic = i like it but not super duper plain = i just like it normally

A Series of Unfortunate Events All the Wrong Questions The Hunger Games Yellowjackets The Good Place Anne with an E / Anne of Green Gables Bridgerton (don't worry i skip all the inappropriate bits) Peanuts (the one with snoopy not the nut) Ace Attorney Derry Girls Bee and Puppycat

Ships by Fandom

(I will only be adding ones from my most prominent fandoms and I'm skipping ATWQ entirely cuz I am unsure who I ship there yet)

bold + italic = fav!! bold = i like it a lot italic = i like it but not super duper plain = i just like it normally strikethrough = I HATE IT A Series of Unfortunate Events:

Lemony Snicket/Beatrice Baudelaire Violet Baudelaire/Quigley Quagmire Klaus Baudelaire/Fiona Widdershins Kit Snicket/Dewey Denouement Klaus Baudelaire/Isadora Quagmire Violet Baudelaire/Duncan Quagmire Violet Baudelaire/Count Olaf

Yellowjackets:

Lottie Matthews/Natalie Scatorccio Jackie Taylor/Shauna Shipman Taissa Turner/Van Palmer Misty Quigley/Natalie Scatorccio Lottie Matthews/Laura Lee Travis Martinez/Natalie Scatorccio i literally cant think of any other ships idk i just like lesbianism

The Hunger Games:

Annie Cresta/Finnick Odair Katniss Everdeen/Peeta Mellark Haymitch Abernathy/Lenore Dove Baird Annie Cresta/Johanna Mason Haymitch Abernathy/Effie Trinket Katniss Everdeen/Finnick Odair Katniss Everdeen/Gale Hawthorne Haymitch Abernathy/Maysilee Donner

tags: #basilochre #ochrewrites #ochreasks

DNI: Basic DNI criteria, nsfw accounts. I interact with older people but I block immediately if you're weird. BROTHR IM 13