#I like the act of writing as much as I like publishing and getting feedback

[bornforastorm]

3, 4, 5 for the writer asks??

thank you for the ask!!

3. What’s your favorite fic that you’ve written? absolutely impossible question because I write mainly for an audience of Me in the Future so I like all my own fics a lot lol. But on that note I am really obsessed with my pre-Mission Impossible 1 Ethan/Jack fic, March, which I wrote for an audience of me. That thing carries so much of my heart and headcanons that are true to me. Jack Harmon ilu so much

4. How many WIPs do you have right now? my google drive has 52 wips in it 🙃 I am actively working on like... 10 at any given time probably 🙃

5. What’s a fic idea you’ve had that you will never write? Almost every idea I've ever had I've at least scribbled a few lines down, even if I don't pursue them much further than that. Some of these I've actually written like, thousands of words for but I'll never publish them so I think they count for this question. A few of those include: - Perry Mason time loop - Philip Marlowe reincarnation au/Altered Carbon au - Philip Marlowe marlowe sees Terry fire a gun and gets really riled up about it - Saw 1 adam takes one look at lawrence post trap and is like, what the fuck is wrong with you rn - Stephen King's IT everybody lives, yes everybody, even Stan through the power of belief - Ironside dear detective ed brown is jewish and mark calls him out for hiding it and then they make out -MASH hawkeye keeps having nightmares about trapper dying so he goes to Margaret to be assured that trapper in fact went home, instead of died and hawk repressed it - MASH hawkeye isn't on R&R when trapper gets his orders - MASH hawk and BJ start hooking up but hawk's like, "eh he's not trapper though, is he"

[theliteraryarchitect]

Hi! I wanted to say, I read that you are a professional editor, and think it's amazing! You also give very logical and well explained advice. I was wondering; would you say being an editor is a job you can support yourself with? I actually aspire to become one someday, but I'm not exactly sure if it's a good plan.

Thank you for your time, and I hope you have a good day/night

Hey there. Great question. It's totally possible to support yourself as an editor. I've done it, and so have other editors I know. However there are a few important things to consider before choosing editing as a career path.

Your chances of being a self-employed freelancer are extremely high. The number of in-house editing jobs in publishing are low and getting lower. While being self employed can give you a certain amount of flexibility, it also comes along with a lot of hustle and hassle, namely fluctuating income, a stupid amount of confusing tax paperwork, and the need to constantly promote yourself to clients in order to maintain steady work.

You probably won't make as much money as you'd think. Editing is one of the many skilled jobs that suffers from market saturation, which has sadly driven down the price the average client is willing to pay for editing services. I can't tell you the number of overqualified editors I know charging barely more than minimum wage for their work. Personally I've stuck to my guns about charging what I'm worth, but I've sometimes suffered by not having as much work as my colleagues who charge less.

Robots have already chipped away at the future of editing as a human occupation, and will continue to do so at exponential speed in the years ahead. They will never obliterate the job completely, as there will always be humans who prefer to work with humans instead of machines. But the outlook will become ever bleaker as more humans compete for fewer gigs, which in turn will drive down prices even further.

If you are also a writer, editing may adversely affect your writing. I don't mean that you'll become a worse writer, quite the opposite. My editing work has brought new depths to my writing, and I'm grateful for all I've learned by working with my clients. However, editing takes time, uses creative energy, and requires staring at a screen (or paper), and personally the more I edit, the less time/creativity/screen-staring capabilities I have left for my own writing.

If you mention you're an editor, someone will troll your post for a typo, grammatical error, or misused word, and then triumphantly point it out to you in the comments. This is mostly a joke. But it does happen every single time.

I hope this hasn't been too discouraging. If you feel a true passion for editing and really enjoy the work, none of the above should dissuade you. However, if you think you might be happy in any number of occupations, I'd honestly advise you to explore other options. Choosing a career path at this point in history is a gamble no matter what, but the outlook for editors is especially grim.

If you'd like to work with writers and aren't attached to being an editor, there are a few jobs (still freelance) that I believe will survive the coming robot apocalypse. Do a little Google research about "book coaches," "writing coaches," or "book doulas." These are people who act primarily as emotional supporters and logistical helpers for writers who are trying to get their book published or self published. Some of them do actual editing, but many do not, and due to the therapeutic nature of their work I believe they will flourish longer than editors in the coming robot apocalypse.

If you do explore editing as a path, the further away you can lean from spelling and grammar (e.g. proofreader or copyeditor), the longer your skills will be useful when competing with robots. AI still struggles to offer the same kind of nuanced, story-level feedback that a human can give. (Speaking from experience here--I'm a developmental editor and have yet to see a dent in my workload because of robots.) They'll catch up eventually, but it could be a while, and as long as there are human readers, there will always be humans who are willing to pay for a human perspective on their writing. Human spell checkers maybe not so much.

Hope this helps!

[directdogman]

Hey dogman, idk if you answered this

Who, out of both DSAF and Dialtown, was your favourite to write and/or create?

It's very hard for me to pick favourites with my characters because I don't tend to give characters a lot of screen-time unless I find a character interesting or fun to write. You've caught me in a talkative mood, so warning, there's an onslaught of text coming!

DSaF: Dave was the most fun to write for, as I remember it. I mean, the guy is the walking personification of chaos and even when he's being constructive (eg, rigging robots to do insane stuff), it's usually in a destructive capacity. Dave will do LITERALLY ANYTHING but contribute to society in meaningful/valuable ways.

In terms of what character-writing I was most 'proud' of, I was also pretty happy with Dr Henry Miller, as a villain. Namely the research he embarked on, described in his logs in DSaF 3 (which the fandom evidently agreed with, as I got really strong feedback on those logs.)

One issue a lot of people (including myself) have with canon William Afton is that he's this kind of mad scientist character but his research doesn't really seem to be... idk, going anywhere? Other than using remnant (soul nectar?) to make kids possess robots, it's kind of a mystery how he got to this point he did from running a bad fast food restaurant. William gets fleshed out motivations in TSE and even then, it mainly revolves around his relationship with Henry Emily, iirc. It's actually pretty accurate to how real serial killers think, imo, but there's a pretty wide berth between this kind of serial killer and becoming a sci-fi fast-food mad scientist... So, I decided to try to bridge that gap.

DSaF Henry's logs actually mention where the idea for his research came from, namely the fact that he existed in a world with normal scientific rules just like ours and seemingly discovered something supernatural, and he approaches it like an amoral scientist would - trying to figure out how to figure out more about the fabric of reality using the newly discovered phenomenon of possession. The 'joy of creation' phrase people pulled from Golden Freddy's phone call in FNaF 1 is given context - Henry is trying to find out what's on the other side (and eventually, how existence itself formed.)

There's other aspects to his character that make him more interesting too, like the implication that his research is partially an excuse for him to act on an underlying sadism (with scenes implying that he inflicts damage on others than can't be justified as assisting with his research.) His background as a dissident/quack laughing-stock scientist (thanks to pushing his soul theory in a best-selling book, which is considered pseudoscience) BEFORE he embarked on his journey to become a fast food tycoon also makes it less farfetch'd that he'd be capable of y'know, harvesting human souls intentionally to continue his research?

I had more for the character on paper that people haven't seen but some of it wasn't revealed due to it feeling a bit too disturbing to publish. None of the contents would've been all that controversial, more just too tonally disturbing when written about in detail (like a omitted part from his backstory/lore post where he managed to pick up a hazy audio of his wife + son's crying from the radio of the car his wife/son drowned in and reacted with genuine elation upon realizing he'd discovered a new scientific phenomenon (as this was the first time Henry witnessed soul-possession.)) Yeah.

I don't feel much of a need to revisit Henry as a character because as a series villain, he was pretty thoroughly-written and he did his job effectively... And his fate was well earned! (He even got an epilogue short-story a few years back, further cementing his fate!)

Dialtown: From the characters/writing that the fandom has seen? Tough to say. I genuinely really like every DT character. Gingi and Mayor Mingus are two of my favourite characters to write for because they're both really insistent and react to adversity in a really comically indignant way. Mingus is more like Gingi than she cares to admit in very specific ways, which is the core hypocrisy of her character - she's one of the most abnormal things IN Dialtown, and spends the game on a quest opposing abnormality that she, herself, can't stand.

Many absolute rulers have debilitating physical and/or mental cruxes and despite that, usually have the final say on what is/isn't okay, often guided by arbitrary preferences. It's funny to remember all of the ancient kings and emperors who dictated how others should act, talk and even think, when very many of them themselves were anything except a good reflection of their own subjects! It's an irony I quite enjoy and leads to a fun character to write for!

My favourite DT writing is probably some of my Callum Crown speech drafts. I have a definite bias here since Crown's character is based on many figures I've encountered in my own reading (and his story relates to topics I enjoy reading about.) A lot of that is real nerd shit that wouldn't be interesting to 99.9% of DT fans (like a long conversation where Crown + Milt discuss a campaign speech Milt wrote for Crown and they bicker about if the wording/arguments used are truly honest.) Again, not super relevant to Dialtown-proper, but it explains a lot about why the world of DT ended up the way it did.

Realistically, the story of Dialtown itself is basically a weird little epilogue to a story that ended decades upon decades ago, centered around a bunch of small-town nobodies circling around the carcass of the last surviving main character of the old story.

I'm also very happy with Gingi's character partially because I know more about Gingi's past/future than you guys do. Gingi has such rotten memory that Gingi's backstory before DT's story begins is basically a complete mystery. Thanks to Gingi never getting close enough to any humans before laying its eggs, there's nobody in Gingi's life that can fill in the gaps. Companionship means so much to Gingi because prior to meeting The Gang, Gingi is aware of a massive and unknown block of time that's a complete mystery precisely because Gingi had nobody in its life. To Gingi, this time was basically akin to being non-sentient or dead, and Gingi would never go back.

While I was making DSaF, I drafted a ton of other stories on paper. I considered making most of them, but decided not to for various reasons, despite getting some solid feedback from collaborators. Bits of almost all of those project ideas made it into DT, with Gingi having traits from several other main characters I prototyped years and years ago. This includes where Gingi came from and what exactly Gingi is. I don't want to mislead people into thinking Gingi is more important than it is, like Gingi is the key to unlocking DT lore (I promise there's a LOT of aimless scuttling/devouring in Gingi's past and relatively little else!) BUT: Of everything from those old scrapped projects, Gingi is what I decided deserved to survive the most. And that has to count for something.

One day I'd love to make sequels to DT and perhaps explore some of the stuff I've described above, like why the hell the world of DT is the way it is or maybe where the hell Gingi spawned from. Thanks

[sixteen-juniper]

killing your darlings and all of that

I saw a post on here about what the writing advice 'kill your darlings' means. it made me really think about the book I'm working on currently and how that phrase relates to this project. (the reason my fic/all my fics are on hiatus) And also kind of like how I think about revising a manuscript in general and all the things I've learned since I started writing books. (and yes this is why my fic is on hiatus, gotta grind!)

I've always been a novelist first, I guess, like I came up through traditional publishing and creating my own works/worlds. Which, this all taught me a lot about writing and rejection and how to just keep going. I am still a novelist, obviously, writing fanfic was something I came to much later (with Rose and Rot) and I know even after I'm with fanfic I'll always be a novelist. I don't think I can stop the itch for writing books, making my own worlds and characters from the ground up even if I tried. I love the way a book is like a puzzle and painting at the same time.

Back to the point at hand, which is the idea of kill your darlings, and how sometimes in order for you to make a book be what it's supposed to you have to literally kill so many things. I'm working on this massive overhaul of my current manuscript right now and by massive I mean I have literally rewritten 98% of this book. And it's not only rewriting all of the scenes to adjust language or fix character motivation, it's a full scale pulling everything out and putting it back together, in a way I haven't done since maybe my first queried book. And even that book didn't go far enough, I should have changed more.

I had already thought I'd removed enough from this book. Earlier feedback had the first act feeling overstuffed and the world underbuilt. I killed two characters and two plotlines. And I thought I built out the world, but it was being made in the wrong direction. And even that didn't go far enough.

So here I am at draft 6. And if this is a house, I've removed the walls and plumbing, because just rearranging the furniture hasn't done enough.

With this one draft it's been really fascinating to me because the SHAPE of the book has remained the same. The story I want to tell about my main character remains that story, and her internal journey remains the same, but a lot of how I get there has completely changed. I don't want to get into details, but it's like I've taken my camera and decided to focus its lens on parts of the story that were only mentioned in passing, blow them up, make them bigger parts of the whole, while removing almost everything that had been in earlier drafts.

I didn't do this on my own, to be clear. I sent this book to a trusted person in publishing, believing that it was literally done and ready to go out. Their feedback was 'this feels like a first draft' even though it was literally my fifth draft. And the feedback I got and what resonated with them was really surprising. What I learned about this book was that it is literally impossible to have both a cozy cottagecore fantasy AND a dark and creepy story where your main character eventually learns to accept her necromancy. It doesn't work, and if it does I am the wrong writer to make it work. I was told to play into my strengths, and those strengths are dark and sad.

Which is why I had to remove so much and change so much. I can't even lie some of those changes HURT. I lost a character (her little fox familiar) that I loved because he didn't add to the story at all. And including him just made the pacing lag. The character added nothing and worse detracted from what I was trying to do. A key scene at the end, I swear my favorite scene in this entire project, had to go because it simply didn't fit. The pacing, the world, the events leading up to this scene no longer supported it being included. And yeah, it sucks. I haven't even gotten to the ending which will also need to be streamlined, but the book is stronger for all of these changes. I really believe it. I love this project and everything it's become even more on the 6th draft than I did on the 5th or the 2nd or the 1st.

Gonna wrap this up! Because it's already too long! I was never this wordy until I started writing on here. Moral of the story! Sometimes you really need to be brave and commit to just letting go of what you thought your story was in order to make it what it needs to be. Which for me is legit terrifying, because I'm such a hoarder, but it's the right thing to do!

[bindeds]

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 100 FOLLOWERS ! — i genuinely can’t believe i’ve come this far with posting my brainrot for hazbin. it has and will continue to be such an honor to keep posting for you guys, and to celebrate you guys i’ve prepared a little something for you guys, hehe!

requests.

i am willing to do any requests you guys might have which includes art, gifs, character ships (radioapple, huskerdust, etc) and of course character x reader ships despite generally being an x reader blog. though of course as any sane person would, i am not entertaining angel x val.

some fics along the way …

i have been cooking up something specifically for lucifer though nothing is confirmed yet except for the fact that i want to make a longer fic for him (AT LEAST 10k words long), but i’m kinda having trouble for the plot so this kinda connects to the first thing which if you have any ideas for me to write i am implore you to hit up my askbox, please! i’m gonna need all the help i can get! i’ve also gotten a radioapple worm in my head and the premise is too good not to act on though i will say it will be shorter than the lucifer fic. because of this both of these will be on my ao3 so stay tuned!

selfships.

i thought it would be cool for you guys to tell me a bit about yourself and then from there i pick a character from hazbin/helluva (depending on which show you prefer) that i think you would like/be with romantically (or even queerplatonically for the aro/aces out there)!! i’ve seen other people do this as well and they do 3-pic moodboards sometimes and i’d love to do that for you guys! or if you guys wanna go in depth i could also make short fics dedicated to you personally upon request!

get to know me + qna!

besides all the stuff that’s stated in my pinned, i’ve been writing since i was 10 (i am 18) and i’ve wanted to be a published author for the longest time, though as i grew older i realized there’s a lot of other ways i can get my stories out to the world, like screenwriting, animating (or being both the creator and writer of my own show AHEM totally not talking about hazbin) so i’m not really sure of things yet, but i will say i’ve learned a lot about writing since i first started and even though i know this is all for fun, i take the way i write things seriously, so any constructive feedback you might have will be valuable to me! anyway, i have A LOT of opinions on everything hazbin/helluva so you can ask about those or more about me! i’m a very open person so i like to give in depth responses. but yeah feel free to ask about my opinions on helluva/hazbin as well as my personal life too!

another thing i wanted to disclose about myself since i feel comfortable after having met such wholesome people after starting this blog, is that i have been through abuse very similar to angel dust’s meaning his character meant a lot to me and he was my favorite character when the pilot first came out so yeah! definitely ask me about angel too if you have anything to ask!

[queer-crusader]

I think people forget a lot of these things we do in fandom spaces such as writing, painting and discussing and analysing works are hobbies that spark joy. The world we live in should not revolve with every breath we take around consumerism. Yet we describe what we create as content, and have discussions about whether one is allowed to give criticism on these works, with the argument that people want only positive comments because it's all made to be consumed and we live on praise (referring to this tweet and of course several discussions floating around Tumblr).

AO3 is a platform used by many different people in many different ways, who all may have differing approaches (hence this discussion coming up so often - there probably isn't a definitive answer that defines everyone!). But I think what's most important is that at the end of the day, it is free content (HATE the word content btw) that many people create as a HOBBY. The same goes for works here on tumblr. There is no obligation for it to hold quality, and people aren't necessarily looking to improve or be star writers, artists or video/gif editors! Of course we want praise, but that's not necessarily because we have made content for consumption - it's because we're having fun with a hobby. If it wasn't an enjoyable pastime, we wouldn't do it, and we'd certainly not pour hours, days, months or even years into works. (You do put that much time into something to create quality sometimes (sometimes just because life gets in the way or you work slowly in general), but you cannot keep that up if you don't enjoy what you're doing.) You don't shit on someone's hobby. You also don't go "here's how to improve" unprompted. You just go "that's lovely, thank you for sharing, I'm sharing your joy for what you created or the source material it's based on! And here's potentially a detailed account of things I enjoyed or noted!" (At least, I think you should)

Now on the other hand, there ARE also people on AO3 who may want to be professional authors (hi, me!). But a commenter CANNOT distinguish without asking or without seeing an author's note that this is the case. So I think because of this that the default approach to AO3, from a commenter's pov, should be to assume something was published by a hobbyist who wants to share joy and get positive feedback rather than someone looking for criticism UNLESS EXPLICITLY NOTED OTHERWISE. Like I said, I would love to be a published author someday! But I personally actually don't really want criticism on my AO3 fics. I write those for fun/as a hobby. The act of writing them IS hugely beneficial for me as a way of exploring and developing my writing skill, don't get me wrong! But that's because the act of practice itself already does a lot for that, and because I re-read what I write a TON. So I catch mistakes. Sometimes I correct them even after having published something, if I think it's important. If I want critical feedback, for someone to look at my writing and tell me about good and bad and opportunities for growth, I will ask. Until then, leave me alone with that and just tell me you enjoyed the work. And if you didn't, there's literally no need to tell me. You can just find something else you do enjoy, like I will start a different work if I no longer enjoy what I'm working on. I made that bc I wanted to. And another author may approach this differently again; they may want to use betas or refuse to re-read their stuff, they may want to use AO3 as a platform to gain feedback with which to grow their skill. Like I said, my approach doesn't equal someone else's. But I think it makes it that person's responsibility to then declare that on their work, simply because so many people will be doing it as a hobby rather than a pure skill boost. As I said - if we didn't enjoy it, we wouldn't do it. We always create with a love for the material and a love for the craft. Everything else is extra.

So no. I personally do not create things as a transactional item for which I demand payment in praise (if not money). I create because it makes me happy. Getting feedback makes me happier, and makes it more likely for me to keep going with that project. But otherwise I'll move onto another. You may consider that a transactional thing, but I don't think it should be considered so at ALL. Because it isn't, not to me. And I suspect it isn't for many more people. So let's ask ourselves instead: why do we define happiness as a transaction? Why can we no longer exchange joy without sticking a label of consumption and price on it? And why must everything created be of quality or strive for improvement?

Let's shift the narrative back. Let's consider hobbies and creative endeavours for what they TRULY give both us creators and audiences alike: joy.

[writingquestionsanswered]

How do full-time novelists in the USA get healthcare? Is there a union to join, like WGA? Thank you!

Healthcare for Full-Time Novelists in the USA

There is a writer's union (the National Writers Union), but while one of the benefits of joining is "help with health insurance," I do not believe they actually provide it. My understanding is they have a partnership with an organization that is dedicated to helping people find coverage through the healthcare exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act.

Most full-time novelists in the US get their coverage through the ACA or through their domestic partners. And honestly, this is one reason you don't see a lot of full-time authors in the United States. Half of all traditionally published authors in the U.S. get an advance of $25k or less. And half of all published authors (including self-published) earn $2k or less a year on royalties, pre-tax. When you take into account that insurance through the ACA costs roughly $5k to $8k per year for one person, a roughly $30k income isn't much to live on.

And, of course, 50% of traditionally published authors get advances that are more than $25k, and make more that $2k per year on royalties, with the top 10% making roughly $275k per year. So, it's not impossible to make a good living being a full-time author, it's just uncommon.

This is why many full-time authors also have a writing-related side gig to boost their income, such as doing editing work, hosting paid courses and workshops, or doing writing-related vlogs for ad revenue.

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[idrellegames]

This isn’t a question as much as it is an agreement with your last ask (talking about how romance is both looked for and expected from IFs). I’m personally pansexual and love a good harem, but it is growing more and more evident that that is what readers/players are expecting from our stories/games. Maybe it’s a maturity issue with the fans begging for more romance options and the anger when a plot point doesn’t play out the way they want; but you also see that with grown adults in other fandoms—namely Star Wars or A Song of Ice and Fire.

I enjoy writing romance and I do write it, but that is not the only thing my stories are about. It gives me anxiety when my readers expect more than what I’ve promised. And I always gaslight myself into thinking that I should be giving them what exactly they want instead of writing for myself.

I suppose I do have a question: how do you maintain fan expectations in your IF and stay true to your vision with/without worrying about their opinions? <3

Unfortunately, there is no way to stop your audience from having expectations that don't match up with the story you want to tell or where you want to take your characters. This is a normal part of writing fiction--everyone is going to have an opinion, everyone is going to want different things, and some people are going to be disappointed when you don't follow through with the thing they imagined in their head.

And, as an author, it can be a lot to handle.

Managing feedback--whether it's criticism, wildly off the charts expectations and assumptions, hate messages, or actual constructive critique--is a skill. It takes time to learn how to manage it without feeling like you're attacked and need to go on the defensive. It can also be really hard not to sit with all of this feedback and want to change your whole story to fit your audience's demands.

There's no easy way to get used to this. I think a good starting place is to have a dedicated beta group--either your playtesters, an editor, a few trusted friends with whom you share in-development things--so you can get genuine feedback before you put it into the public eye. It's really easy for writers to isolate themselves because it's a one-person job, but you need to have people with whom you can safely share the unpublished stages. Once something gets published, it's a free-for-all and you can't control how people react to your work, positive or negative. You cannot rely on that for the kind of feedback you would get from a beta group.

Furthermore, you are not writing for one person, regardless of how many times they ask (if they want something personalized, they can commission you). A lesson that was stressed to me in grad school is how fragile a playwright's new work can be when it is in the workshop/staged reading stage. People are giving you their opinion constantly. You make changes, you make edits, you come back one day with a whole new draft of Act 2 and the actors have to adjust. It's really easy to want to make changes to the characters so they better suit the actors originating them. Sometimes actors make demands because they had an idea about the character they are playing and they were really excited about it and they come to you with questions. The fate of a play is that it will be performed multiple times by many actors, not just the first one.

My supervisor told me: "Don't write the role for the actor--their job is to play the character you wrote, not the other way around."

And I think this can be applied to IF. Be clear about the direction of your game from the beginning. If players want something that isn't part of your vision, it's OK for them to voice that--but they may also have to accept that this isn't the type of game for what they want.

At the end of the day, you need to let your audience have their opinions on your work. That doesn't mean you're obligated to listen to them.

[stomach-bugg09]

omg thank you for doing my request!!! i absolutely adored it, dw im from the east coast myself (new york specifically). if it’s okay, i’d like to request more modern day sullys and fali? i just love your take on them.

a/n: ahh !! thank you so much. ( east coast gang rising up !! ) anyway , yes i actually think the modern au is just so simple but so cute and fun to write , which is also why i'm publishing this request before some of the older ones. i want to be able to keep feeding you all while i develop ideas and fics for the other ones. hope you enjoy !! reblogs + feedback is always appreciated !!

tags: @liyahsocorro @bonnibuckets @wxnderingthoughts @pinkhotdogsfr

modern au headcanons for the sullys + fali

general

one of the most chaotic families out there

trust me when i say this

when any of the kids have friends over, the guests are always shocked to find out that they ever manage to get anything done

there's always someone being a problem ( lo'ak )

tuk is the "do it all" child

like soccer, lacrosse, dance, school plays + musicals

she totally ate as an oompa loompa in charlie and the chocolate factory jr.

the older siblings all took a picture with her while she was in costume

[y/n] has an epic 0.5x picture of her from that night and is saving it for her graduation

[y/n] has the most baby pictures and "baby's first christmas" ornaments / type stuff just because she was the first child

neteyam has a good bit, so does kiri, but lo'ak and tuk have barely any

you can tell that they gave up on parenting tuk because she's such a menace

the whole entire family is banned from pizza hut

they refuse to speak on the topic

after neteyam and lo'ak played jv basketball together, kiri and [y/n] worked together to rewatch all the film and make a compilation of all their funny moments

tbt to when lo'ak completely missed the basket during a free throw

to present it, they gathered the entire family into the living room and pretended it was serious

but as soon as the video started, the two girls could not hold up the act and ended up on the ground in tears as they laughed at the entire thing

lo'ak and neteyam were not amused

jake was totally losing his mind

he loves making fun of his kids ( affectionately )

you can always tell neytiri's mood based on what she's listening to when she cooks dinner

a podcast means she's feeling good, feeling productive - sad music means she's, well... sad - classical music means you must stay far away from her

kiri, [y/n], and neytiri have their periods sinked up

it's complete hell for everyone else

once jake came home from work late and saw them sobbing on the couch to an episode of how i met your mother

sometimes the siblings will all sit down and have tuk paint their nails as she just talks the most amount of shit about every kid in her class

it's literally the funniest thing

she has some serious issues

kiri and [y/n] both like reading but the difference between the two is that kiri actually reads and [y/n] has five different books sitting on her bedside table

when she does have a random burst of energy to read, they always swap books

the head boys lacrosse coach is the biology teacher and he loves the sully family

he also teaches forensic science

not only is [y/n] dating his star player, but she manages the team

plus neteyam is on his team

sometimes, during their lunch period, fali and [y/n] just roll up to his class ( the same period that lo'ak and tsireya have bio )

ao'nung also plays basketball, so him and lo'ak were literally always beefing until they randomly just became friends

and then it was chill!

[y/n] and fali also drive tsireya and ao'nung around quite a bit, but they don't mind

everybody trusts fali and [y/n]

they're the type of people that you call if you need anything ever

kiri and neteyam have definitely called their sister or fali during a party after realizing they needed to get home

once neteyam's old friends left him there with no ride and he was... not all that sober

fali was at the same party because lacrosse team!

this boy did not hesitate to leave with neteyam and bring him back to his house

neteyam called his parents and pretended he was sleeping over with ao'nung ( who helped cover for him ) and ended up sleeping in fali's guest bedroom

every day kiri collects random ideas for her future speech as [y/n]'s maid of honor at her and fali's wedding

[y/n] still doesn't know

neteyam has an entire shoebox full of memories with his big sister that he plans to give her before she moves out

panic ensues the household when they reach june / graduating month

they do not want to think about their first baby leaving the nest!

neytiri is such a sad frantic mama

just wants everything to be perfect for her baby

jake ensures her that it will be

moving on to more happy stuff!

neytiri is totally a swiftie

like a very serious very loyal swift or that knows every single song and every single album and every single word

owns her ugly merch but it's okay because it makes her happy

tsireya's favorite candy would be watermelon jolly ranchers and she always has them in her backpack and stuff

lo'ak started to also keep watermelon flavored things in his backpack when he first started crushing on her

he would give her some during bio

her smile was always worth it

[y/n] and fali have the cheesiest and cutest way of reminding each other that they love each other

and that would be by giving each other their last piece of something

like they would give each other their last oreo, their last piece of gum, their last hershey kiss, his last name

it's just a silent exchange of their infatuation for each other

everybody else watches as they contemplate leaving because of how lonely they make them feel

kiri makes the silliest birthday posts

like she absolutely exposes every single one of her siblings by posting their ugly pictures on her instagram story

and she isn't even nice enough to keep it on close friends

lo'ak and [y/n] have a super long streak on snap chat of like 600+ days

and they are constantly scared of losing it

tuk takeover happens on a rare occasion in which, every few months, one of her older siblings allows her to do their streaks

she usually manages to post something stupid on their stories or something, but all of their friends have learned to look forward to it

fali and [y/n] were friends for a year before dating, but half of that year was spent with them absolutely crushing on each other

their first kiss story is so embarrassing and they refuse to tell anyone about it

fali wears bracelets that [y/n] makes for him

he always wears the bracelets that tuk makes for him and they're the cutest things because it's just a random assortment of beads

fali probably has a like single piercing on one of his ears after losing a bet with his friends

but he's grown to love it

he always has to take it out for lacrosse because the helmet is a pain

[y/n] buys him cute little earrings that he refuses to wear because they're always silly

like, "no, [y/n] i'm not wearing a singular waffle earring."

the only earring from her that he wears is the earring that matches the ring he gave her on their one year anniversary

she gave him that earring for his birthday

he almost cried

[communistkenobi]

Only tangentially related to the post you made but I think the reason I find the dual attitudes of fanfic being the same as classic literature but also impossible to critique in good faith so funny is because they really seem to think that classical authors were never, like, challenged or censored or edited. It would be one thing if they were discussing fanfic which had gone through critics or editors, or had been in the works for years and undergone significant changes, but fanfic writers will knock out 200,000 words of the worst first draft I've ever read and then act like THAT'S of equal artistic merit to Dante's Inferno. It's very good

I think the most productive definition of fanfiction for this discussion is that it is a particular type of relationship a fan can have to art that is enclosed by intellectual property law. fanfic is “knock off” “unofficial” artistic articulations of a fan author’s interpretation of a text, which only makes sense in the context of privately owned and enclosed art. It’s not that amateur hobby writing has never existed, it’s not that people have never written derivatives of an original text before - those things have always existed. fanfiction is only historically noteworthy in the sense that it is constructed by a particular relationship an audience has to media IPs.

So like, yea fanfic is real art! that is a given. It is also not the same as professionally produced and edited work, which is good to remember when both criticising it and praising it. the only response fic tends to get is reactive - that is, there is no standard feedback mechanism that happens until after fic is written and published (betas/editors do exist but they are not universal or even common). and because of general hostility to critical or constructive feedback of any kind in the comment sections of AO3/FF.net (framed commonly as “well it’s too late to bitch now I already wrote it! What are you complaining about, you got free art!”), fic authors enjoy a very tight bubble of overwhelmingly happy, positive responses to their writing. Which is FINE, I don’t post fanfiction with the intent to get an essay back from people about what needs to be edited or changed, I wrote it for fun like everyone else, but that also means it exists in a very different social environment from commercially/professionally produced art, and as a consequence I’m not going out and proclaiming that I’ve written the next great western epic in the form a star wars fanfic, and if I were to do so I would be asking for a much larger public audience, an audience who is not going to consume my work as fun hobby writing but instead as serious literature, and respond accordingly

[sunset-a-story]

Writeblr Intro

Hello, Writeblr. I joined to connect with other writers, especially folks who write/are into LGBTQIA+ sci-fi/fantasy stories. I’d love to connect with writers looking to hype each other up!

Sunset, a serial fiction in three arcs (Sunrise, High Noon, Sunset) is posted weekly. (Patreon members get issues one week earlier plus extras!)

Sunset Vol 1. Sunrise (Posted)

Patreon | AO3 | Wattpad Dramatis Personae page Playlist Audiobook version

Sunset Vol 2. High Noon (Releasing now)

Patreon | AO3 | Wattpad Dramatis Personae page Playlist

Content Warning List

@touloserlautrec is my amazing co-writer and artist behind the Sunset artwork.

When asked to sum up Sunset badly, I usually go with: Telepaths ruin everything.

An actual blurb:

SolCorp was founded to hide the existence of knacked people and their myriad of superhuman powers from the world, keeping humans safe from out-of-control knacks and keeping knacked people safe from human intolerance. So when they discover that one rogue Sol scientist had generated 25 babies with a defective Probability Manipulation knack and abandoned them out in the world fourteen years ago, it's up to SolCorp to find them and bring them back. But maybe their knacks weren't so defective after all because as three of the Venus 25 grow into adulthood, improbable things start happening that will change SolCorp and the world forever.

Sunset is a slow-burn of mounting tension and stakes that only get higher with expansive worldbuilding and a majority LGBTQIA+ ensemble cast that has something for everyone from espionage to adventure to romance and even a dash of monster hunting.

Extras on Patreon include things like exclusive deleted & bonus scenes, Baguette updates, early access to art and fiction, correspondence from LAHQ, and gift packages of merch.

Vol 1: Joey sees the history of everything and everyone he touches as translucent blue ghosts acting out the past all around him. And this includes his own past, which is how Joey knows he wasn't born, he was made. Made and thrown away. What he doesn't know is that the people who made him, SolCorp, are actively working to find him and bring him "home" to be with others that have supernatural knacks like Joey. Neither one has any idea how much that will change them both forever.

Vol 2: And then nothing was the same ever again.

Current Stage of Writing Process:

Sunrise (115k words/250 pages): Posted

High Noon (325k words/717 pages): Releasing now

Sunset: (~1,200 pages so far): Drafting in progress

If you're interested in being on the taglist for Sunset, please let me know in a comment/dm!

Worldbuilding Posts

SolCorp Pharmaceuticals "A pristine pharmaceuticals office park where everything that happens is always in everyone's best interest."

Entropy Games Inc. (our Big Bad) "All games have winners, and all games have losers. Not all game pieces are made of plastic, and the warehouses have seen all of them."

The Church/The Children of God "Sanctuary will be given freely, no questions asked. There is just one edict--Fell the Dogs."

I also offer Alpha/Beta Reading Services!

Details below!

If you're looking for someone to put eyes on your original WIP and offer helpful but gentle feedback, message me!

Why me? I have a degree in Creative Writing. I was gainfully employed as a professional writer for 6 years. I have been published in literary journals and was a founding editor of a literary journal that I helped run for years. I have a 1,800+ page serial, and I just plain love stories. As far as pricing, I charge a $40 flat rate for pieces under 10K words and $0.004 USD per word for pieces over that.

[bearhugsandshrugs]

Bearhugsandshrugs Update – April '24: Discord, beta reader match ups, WIPs, book writing!

Hey all, it's been a while since I shared an update!

TL;DR: Updates on fics, community things, and my life!

Last time I told you about the book proposal I wrote for my agent, and I managed to complete that and submit it! Even better news was that she liked it. So I will refine parts of the story I wrote to incorporate her feedback, and then in a month or so it'll go out to publishing houses in the hopes that someone buys it! Keep your fingers crossed for me so your girl gets published :)

Admin: Discord Server, Community, Pinned Post

In case you missed it: I launched a discord server where we hangout to talk about Gort and writing. Last week we finished the first writing buddy match up, where I paired six writers with a buddy so they can beta each other's fics. It made me super happy that the community came together in that way!

There will also be a super cool event coming soon that @littleplasticrat came up with, I'll share more on that next week when I have more headspace to give this the hype post it deserves. Just teasing a bit: it does involve Gorty and fashion :3

I also published a new lore & theory masterlist for BG3 and I'm working on compiling the drabbles and headcanon lists, too.

WIPs

In March I already told you that I was moving all WIPs to May, maybe even June. Since I'll be traveling in May, I might or might not have time to work on the WIPs.

Worthy Chapter 3: Structure is drafted. ETA hopefully in May

Folie Chapter 7: I scrapped the entire structure. While I'm motivated to write Raph and Haarlep again, I'm not particularly fond of my original idea so I have to redo the last chapter, ETA probably June

Durgetash series (concept linked) and Raphael series (concept linked): on hold for now. Neither of them grabbed my attention long enough for me to do more with it.

There's one fic/art trade I'm going to write for @tatterings and it's likely either going to be Astarion or monster fucking. So keep an eye out for that.

Series

Both MAD and Gorsimp are continuing! I'm sketching out Act 3 for MAD which we're about to enter. Due to life stuff I changed to posting schedule to every two weeks for MAD, while Gorsimp continues to update 1-2x a week (mostly thanks to @bloodlessbhaalbabe's incredible discipline on keeping us on a schedule).

And in more MAD news, I made a playlist for that fic! Give it a listen if you want to cry.

Other stuff

I'm slowly coming back online after a few really bad months of physical and emotional health turmoil. I'm okay for now and I've been taking care of myself, creating some distance from the fandom to protect my peace of mind, and I'll probably continue to take it slow for a while.

Last time I said I'd do another giveaway when I hit 1k followers. Since I've barely been on I haven't made much progress – it's about 50 followers or so away, but this blog isn't really growing right now. Guess I'm getting a much needed break from taking on too many WIPs :D anyway, I just wanted to say it's still on my mind, but I don't particularly feel the need to promote it because it'll happen when it happens.

Something cool to celebrate in the meantime: Folie à Deux hit over 1,000 kudos on AO3! Crazy to me!!! Thank you all so much. I can't believe that many people pressed the kudos button on my unhinged monster fucking fantasies <3 And to give you a peak behind the curtain here are the non-public stats for that fic:

Last but not least: If you do want to show me some love consider tipping me on Ko-fi? I promise for every coffee you buy me I'll share a pic of that beverage on here or the discord!

Hope you all take care of yourselves!

– Em

[webbo0]

*Cowboy voice* “I Ain’t Quitting You”

Holland March x Jackson Healy

AO3 link

Length: 2,183 words

Summary:

"In my psychology class, we talked about something called an Oral Fixation; Freud made it up. Maybe you just need to have something else to like, chew on and stuff." "Sweetheart, we’ve talked about this —" "Oh my god, Dad, just get some gum or whatever!" AKA 7 things Holland March tries to help him quit drinking, plus the 1 time Jackson Healy helps him out. AKA Holland does NOT have an oral fixation, Thank you very much

Content/Warning: Idiot to lovers, Oral Fixation, Kissing, Friends to Lovers, First Kiss, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Smoking, Sobriety, Quitting Smoking, Post-Canon, chosen family, 5+1 Things, technically it's 7 + 1 things, slight angst, Mature Content, implied/referenced sexuality

Authors Note: This is actually the first fic I ever published back in September '23, but I never posted it to Tumblr, so here ya go!

Original Notes:

Welp. I finally did it. Almost a decade in fandoms and it was Ryan fucking Gosling that made me cave and finally write fanfiction. Shoutout to the Goosecord for the motivation/encouragement to write this and for the feedback, especially @sandpapersnowman for helping me format this for AO3!! Y'all are the best!!

Anyways enjoy!!

***

"March, we gotta talk."

Holland jerks up and immediately regrets it when his head pounds and everything tilts about 270° too far to the left. He groans and falls off the bed. Bed? He doesn’t remember getting there. Or undressing, apparently, because looking down, he quickly realizes he’s wearing nothing but some embarrassingly old boxers. And Healy’s standing above him. Holland scrambles back into bed and covers himself in a blanket.

"Stop pretending I haven’t seen you half-naked before. You’re acting like a Victorian duchess."

"A man must preserve his — hrrk — dignity," Holland retorts back in a bad British accent, having to pause and suppress a wave of nausea halfway through his sentence.

Healy scoffs

"Dignity, my ass! Holly found you passed out on the diving board. You could’ve gotten hurt! Again!"

Holland feels suddenly defensive. "And why do you care? What are you, my fairy drunk-mother?" Not your best comeback there, March, he thinks.

"You’re my business partner; I have a vested interest in having an income, so forgive me if I want my co-detective alive to work with me. You need to stop drinking."

Holland rolls his eyes. "I’ve got it under control, Healy. I’m a big boy, y’know?" God, he wishes he could take a nap right now.

"March, I’m serious; you’re going to do permanent damage to your liver. Plus," Healy hesitates as if he’s trying to figure out a way to finish his sentence without sounding like an asshole, "it’s not fair to Holly. You’re the only family she’s got left; you have to be there for her. She’s a teenager now and needs someone to guide her through adolescent idiocy. You’re her dad, you owe it to her."

That wakes him up. He’s always pushed down the guilt he has over his behavior, but when Healy lays it all out in front of him like that? He knows he’s deluded himself for years into thinking Holly wouldn’t notice, but she’s not a kid anymore. And the thought of her as an impressionable teenager following in his footsteps makes him nauseous for a whole different reason.

He sighs.

"Alright, alright, cut my balls off, why don’tcha? But fine, I get it."

"Thank you," Healy looks relieved.

"I can’t just quit cold chicken, though, withdrawals can be dead—"

"Turkey"

"Hm?" "The phrase is cold turkey."

"No, I’m pretty sure it's chicken."

"Why would it be — never mind. And yeah, it would be pretty dangerous to just stop altogether. What if we cut it down to one drink a day?"

"One? No way, pal, three a day minimum."

"Three?! There is something seriously wrong with you, March."

"Hey!"

An hour of negotiations later, they settle on a begrudged compromise.

That was a month ago, and Holland was regretting ever saying yes to the whole stupid plan. To substitute for the flask he always took a swig from whenever he needed to calm his nerves, he kept an extra pack of cigarettes, so he was smoking twice as much as usual. And Holly isn't a fan of his new habit. It’s a Monday morning, and Holland sits at the table, sipping his coffee, while Holly gets ready for school. Healy had stopped by to drop off some paperwork for their latest case, and now, for some inexplicable reason, is making them all pancakes. He bites back a comment about him making a great housewife and instead turns to Holly, arms out for a hug. She had a big test today and has insisted on the Mandatory Good Luck Hug before tests since kindergarten. She makes a face at him.

"Ugh, Dad, you smell gross!"

Tchk. Teenagers. "Holly, it’s rude to say that to someone’s face."

"It's true, March, you smell like an ashtray had sex with another ashtray," Healy comments from his place in front of the stove, not even turning around.

"Yeah, and then their house burned down." Holly adds, "You do know those will kill you one day, right?"

"Pfft, no way! Doctors used to give these to you! My own father had a prescription for a pack a day!"

Healy turns around. "Didn't he die of lung cancer?"

"Yeah, why?"

Healy pinches the bridge of his nose. He looks like he has a headache brewing.

Holly waltzes into the kitchen and steals a pancake from the ever-growing stack.

"In my psychology class, we talked about something called an Oral Fixation; Freud made it up. Maybe you just need to have something else to like, chew on and stuff."

"Sweetheart, we’ve talked about this —"

"Oh my God, Dad, just get some gum or whatever!"

She still leans in for a half hug while wrinkling her nose, because tradition is tradition. As she walks to the bus stop, Holland considers her words. Was he obsessed with things in his mouth? He took a sip of coffee before anyone could notice his face flushing a lovely shade of magenta.

The first thing he tries is Holly’s initial suggestion: gum. He gets a shit ton of flavors to try to find one he won’t get tired of. He settles on Bubblicious watermelon wave. The idea is largely effective, and Holland's smoking is cut down to what Holly decides is a "normal amount."

Unfortunately, Holland has the manners of a barn animal, so after only nine days of chewing with his mouth open non-stop, Healy is about to strangle him.

"March, buddy, I’m glad this is helping with your ‘mouth thing’," he starts. Holland opens his mouth to protest before Healy quickly cuts him off to finish. "But we have to figure something else out before I make the ‘arm incident’ look like a harmless prank."

Holland shuts up. No problem, he’ll find something else. He was getting tired of the gum sticking to his teeth anyway.

Holland’s next plan; a toothpick. More similar in shape to a cigarette and they last much longer. Bonus points: Holly thinks he looks “far out”. This plan lasts about 3 seconds before he gets a splinter in his gums. Toothpick is out.

Plan C is to just chew on the end of his pen as he works. Holland thinks it makes him look distinguished. Healy’s just kinda grossed out. Everything is fine until he finds a break in their case, jumps up in excitement, and promptly inhales the pen cap. Healy has to use the damn Heimlich maneuver on him, frantically grabbing him and squeezing harder than Holland thinks is necessary. But what does he know? And, wow, he definitely isn’t thinking about how Healy's strong arms feel around him.

When Healy silently hands him a teething ring meant for fussy toddlers, Holland almost punches him (attempted sobriety has him more on edge than usual). But hearing Holly’s muffled hysterics around the corner instantly dissolves his irritation. Something about Jackson and Holly working together just makes his heart flutter.

And sometimes, when he’s sure no one is looking, he’ll hold up the ring on a chain around his neck to his mouth. Softly, not biting or chewing, just letting it rest between his lips. And no matter what Jackson softly asks him one night, tears are not falling down his face. Those are the nights he really regrets cutting down on his drinking.

It’s when he starts keeping a lollipop in his mouth most of the day he notices Healy acting… Different. When Holland’s doing his work, going over papers and poring over phone books, he lets himself loosen up. Often he’ll tap his pen in random patterns, or jiggle his leg up and down (which drives Healy crazy), or more recently, he’ll hold his lollipop between his fingers like a cigarette and slowly lick circles around it. It’s a mindless behavior that helps him concentrate, but for some reason, Healy doesn’t like it. March can tell. He notices Healy glance at him and then darts his eyes down as if it weirds him out just to witness it. It hurts; Healy knows how much Holland is trying to be better, why would he judge him for how he’s coping? He tries to brush it off, wondering why it bothers him so much; he should be used to people not getting him by now.

They’re sitting next to each other on the couch in Holland’s living room, working on their latest case. It’s late at night and Holly is sleeping at a friend’s house for a birthday party. Holland is losing himself in the details of this case (who kidnaps a pet snake??) when he senses Healy’s attention on his mouth, which he currently occupies with a new blue raspberry lollipop.

After the fifth time Holland catches Healy staring at his mouth he snaps.

“I know I’m a fuck-up and everything but can you at least try to hide how much you —"

He’s cut off when something covers his lips. Oh. When Healy covers his lips. With his mouth. Oh. Holland’s brain takes about three seconds to catch up with what’s happening. Jackson’s kissing him. Holy shit.

Holy shit.

Jackson must’ve taken his frozen state as rejection because he quickly pulls back. Holland almost whines from the loss of contact.

“Fuck. Fuck! I shouldn’t have done that, I’m so sorry, Holland,” Jackson runs a hand through his hair, clearly panicking, “You’ve just been such a goddamn tease with the fuckin’, whatever it is you’re doing with those lollipops and I couldn’t hel—”

This time he’s cut off from finishing his sentence by Holland grabbing his face and kissing him so hard he’s distantly worried about breaking Jackson’s nose. Holland’s hands rest on the side of Jackson’s face and cup the back of his neck, bracing himself in a desperate attempt to hide how much he’s shaking. Jackson’s lips are firm and his 3-day-old stubble is rough against his skin; one of his hands automatically threads into Holland’s hair, and the other hovers over his side before settling on his hips. He squeezes and the feeling goes straight to Holland’s dick. He lets out a wet groan into Jackson’s mouth who responds with a deep rumble.

“Fuck, you have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do this,” Jackson growls, pulling away from Holland to let him catch his breath.

“Tell me,” is all that Holland responds, dipping his head and latching his mouth to Jackson’s neck, drawing out a strangled gasp.

“Since the day you fell asleep on my shoulder during that stakeout, and grabbed onto me like a fucked-up koala. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of you,” Jackson is visibly struggling to keep his composure as Holland's fingers move to the buttons on Jackson's shirt, frantically undoing them and pushing his hands under the cheap cotton. Holland moves his mouth down his neck, biting and sucking and doing things with his tongue that must be good because Jackson is making sounds that frankly should be illegal.

“Maybe Holly’s right, you really have a fixation on —”

Jackson yelps before he can finish his thought because Holland bites down hard into the soft skin of Jackson’s shoulder.

“Please don't mention my daughter while I’m giving you hickeys, it’s weird,” Holland mumbles while sucking what is sure to be a large dark splotch into Jackson’s collarbone.

“What I’m saying,” Jackson starts, as he grabs Holland's hair and jerks his head up to look him in the eyes, pupil’s blown. Holland would’ve whined from the loss of contact if he wasn’t moaning from Jackson’s hand tugging against his scalp.

“What I’m saying, is that maybe you just need to be doing something useful for once with that pretty little mouth besides drinking and talking non-stop.”

“And smoking, can’t forget all the smo—” Jackson shuts him up by shoving the thumb of the hand not tangled in his hair into Holland’s mouth, pressing down on his tongue. He moans around his hand in a way he knows must sound obscene. Jackson curses as Holland simultaneously starts sucking his fingers like it’s his job and fumbling with the buckle on Jackson’s jeans.

“God, you are something special, Holland,” he murmurs softly, and Jackson says his name with such reverence that if Holland doesn’t get the other man’s pants off immediately, he might explode.

He drops to his knees between Jackson’s thick thighs, because if everyone and their mother were so insistent he has this ‘mouth fixation’ or whatever, he might as well blow their expectations out of the water.

Heh, blow. Good one March.

He stares at the crotch of Jackson’s jeans, already starting to drool.

___

After that night, Holland sticks with the lollipops (now sugar-free, because his dentist nearly had a conniption when he last went in for a cleaning). No longer worried about Healy’s judgment, he loosens up and allows himself to fidget weirdly in peace. And if he and Jackson are alone on the nights when needs a little help with his mouth thing (because fine, yes, he might have a little fixation. Sue him), and he’s having a particularly hard time not turning to his vices? Well, that’s between him, his gag reflex, and Freud.

***

Hope y'all enjoyed!!! You get bonus points if you find all the other Ryan Gosling movie references Again, this is the first full fic I've written so any and all feedback is welcomed!

[thelaurenshippen]

I'm just a starting writer, I did a little nanowrimo this year and wrote 39k words about a vampire gamer, I've always been a vampire girl, but here's the thing I don't know what to do with it.

Currently I'm unemployed for a variety of reasons but I'm lucky enough to have a partner who has a salary that can support us both.

But also I love writing, all my life I just wanted to write and being unemployed this year during nano gave me the opportunity to try and do that.

And now I'm curious is there a way to get paid to be a writer? Not as a marketing copy writer but a fiction writer, or essayist?

So what does one do?

Should I just publish whatever I wrote on a blog and put up a donation button?

Should I just publish on Tumblr?

Should I do it on AO3/Wattpad?

I'm at a loss.

I also don't have social media only use Tumblr and a little BlueSky after twitter exploded, and I really don't want to go and "build an audience on TikTok and booktok" (please gods no).

ah, yes, the eternal question: "how do I make money as a writer?"

I wish I had a good answer. I wish I had any answer. and I would love for other writers on here to chime in with their perspectives, because I am constantly struggling to answer this question for myself!

to answer the specific questions first: there are websites that post jobs for writing gigs - fiction, essays, etc. the one I'm most familiar with is upwork, though I've never gotten a job myself through there so can't speak to the experience. I will say that writing jobs tend to be in high demand and writing in general can be quite competitive, so working on your resume and improving your craft is an important thing to do whether you're just starting out or have been writing professionally for years.

self-publishing is absolutely an option! if you do, I would recommend getting a beta reader (or just a few friends) to read through your manuscript before you publish - it's always good to get feedback and to get other eyes on your work, no matter how complete or polished, for typos/grammar/formatting/etc. I'd also recommend reading about the best ways to self-publish - again, I can't personally speak to this as my three novels were traditionally published, but I know that folks publish through Amazon a lot and there certainly have been successfully novels (and especially graphic novels!) that have started out as blog posts/blogs. I don't recommend publishing an original story to ao3 or Wattpad if you're hoping to make money (if you're publishing for fun, go for it!) - ao3, my beloved, is an archive and therefore does not allow you to link to any kind of patreon/kofi/etc., so can be difficult to monetize. I'm less familiar with Wattpad, but I do know that they are actively trying to get into the publishing game themselves and sometimes pluck stories from their site to bring up to trad publishing, which I've heard can be....a mixed bag.

but there are a lot of authors on here and on their personal websites writing about self-publishing, so there's definitely better info out there about how to do it and how lucrative it can be!

a very good rule for self-publishing imo - whether that's through a site like amazon, your own blog, a podcast, a webcomic, whatever - is always give people the option to pay you. so, yes, put that donation button up. it doesn't matter if no one has read or listened to your thing yet, just making sure the option is there from the start is a good thing!

that's about the extent of the straightforward answer I can give you. if I were to give you a step-by-step guide of how I got to a place where most of my income comes from fiction writing, it would look like this:

write your own fiction podcast, get some actors from acting class to come over to your apartment and record for free, and produce the whole thing yourself

publish said podcast and then spend the next 2 years spending as much time on social media, at conventions, conferences - anywhere there are fiction podcast fans and creators - as you can talking about your show, all while writing and producing the show for free

get lucky and have the show take off. start to get some ad money that allows you to pay your collaborators. watch the show get better as a result. see the show take off even more. keep grinding away at social media

get a cold email from a book agent who wants to talk to you. convince that book agent to represent the YA novel you want to write in the world of your podcast

expend whatever leftover energy you have on ensuring that when people think of fiction podcasting, they think of you, even if other names are coming first. be everywhere. talk to everyone. keep grinding away at social media.

get a cold email from a fiction producer in England who wants you to write on his show. convince him to let you co-showrun it with him.

use your growing network of audio friends to get an agent and manager. use those people to get a pitch to marvel. convince marvel to let you write a podcast for them.

finally quit your day job, after doing 4 seasons of a successful podcast and selling spin-offs to a tech company, getting a 3-book deal with a major publisher, being hired to co-showrun a big budget mystery, and selling a show idea to marvel. then make all of those shows.

finish the podcast you started with, now seven seasons long. try to pitch out other ideas to all the people who wanted to buy that podcast off of you. watch them say no to anything new.

get lucky and sit next to a netflix exec at a dinner. convince her to let you write a stranger things show.

keep pitching. use the money from your other jobs to fund your indie shows. sell one show. lose another halfway through development. have your ideas optioned for television over and over and get used to hearing no's when you go out to pitch. produce and direct as much as you can to pay the bills. keep grinding away at social media.

????????

profit

that's obviously a simplification of my journey but I'm currently in that ???? stage. I don't say all of this to freak you - or anyone else - out. being a creative is hard. it gets easier in some ways and stays just as hard in others. I'm better at my job than I used to, so making shows is easier, but getting jobs and getting audience feels as hard as ever, even if I am several steps ahead than where I started. I thought I could build off the success of @thebrightsessions to make my other originals instant successes and that's just not how it works at all. you're building from the next step up after every success, not the top of the staircase.

but, like I said, I'm not trying to scare you - the thing that's positive in my weird crazy journey is the reality that there is no one right way to do something. there's a million different ways to make a creative career, especially in the age of the internet. which means that my advice to anyone who asks me how to start a career in audio fiction specifically is: just do it. don't wait for someone to give you a budget, don't try to cater to what you think the AD audience wants, just tell your story as you want to and get it out there. the best job application is being able to point to your own original work that's already garnered an audience.

I have no idea if that could as readily apply to prose writing/publishing. that is definitely beyond my knowledge base, but I'd say if you want to get a taste for what it's like to be a freelance creative, apply to jobs on upwork or similar sites, work on your original work, and find a platform that works for you on which you could potentially build an audience. and then get to know as many people as you can in your given field - I would not be where I am at all without folks like Gabriel Urbina, or Jeffrey Cranor, or Jenny Turner Hall. making friends in audio drama from the start who could recommend me for jobs - and being sure that I do the same now that I have more power - is vital. make friends with your peers (also bc they're great and you'll learn so much from them).

finally, I want to pass on advice that my uncles gave me when I was a teenager wanting to go to broadway--both of them work in musical theater (one conductor, one musical director, they are quite the power couple and my heroes) and when I was growing up, they told me "if you can think of anything else that will make you just as happy, do that instead". it sounds like harsh advice, but it's good advice. people don't pick creative careers because it's easy and stable--if there's anything else you're equally passionate about that could make you money and be more stable, there is absolutely nothing wrong in pursuing that and then writing for the love and joy of it, without the pressure of making a living. and that doesn't mean that that won't eventually lead to you being a successful full-time writer! but choosing to pursue writing full-time because it's what you want to do with your life is a very particular kind of path.

anyway, I've gone on way too long. I hope some of this was helpful - the last-last thing I'll say is that a) I obviously have a very limited perspective so nothing I say here is the be-all-end-all way of viewing things b) I had a very stable data entry job while I was making my first show that was very flexible and work-from-home (oh, to be able to get that job back now...since the pandemic, those types of jobs are obviously in high demand) and c) I got lucky. luck and timing are, unfortunately, a huge part of success in creative careers. if anyone tries to sell you on the idea that there's a guaranteed path to success that you can control if you work hard enough, they are lying to you and probably want you to buy something.

finally-finally, a vampire gamer story sounds so fun!! I love that idea!

[slippinmickeys]

Hello I was wondering if you can give me advice to publish a Fic .. I am new on this and and I have no idea how this works or if I need to tag somebody... I also heard about beta's .. what Is a beta? Any feedback you can provide It will be much appreciated .. thanks!!

Hi! How cool that you have a story you’re willing to share. I’m so happy for you and those of us who’ll get to read it.

Before you publish, let me first answer your question about betas. A beta reader is kind of like an editor; it’s a person who reads your work before you publish it. Most betas will catch typos and grammar issues, as well as plot inconsistencies, etc. A good beta will point out instances when your characters are acting out of character, or when you’re not following canon (if you’re trying to follow canon). But fear not! Betas also highlight stuff they love and make you feel very warm and gooey. (There are also plenty of betas who will give you a read and just give you encouragement. When I beta — something I sadly rarely have the bandwidth for anymore — I tend to ask what kind of read the writer is looking for; deep dive pick-it-apart beta? feel good beta? typos only beta?) Beta readers are, in my opinion, absolutely essential to putting out good fic. And most of them are absolutely dear people who are only pointing out your mistakes because they want you to put out the best work possible. Don’t take anything personally. (A thick skin isn’t necessary, but helps.) If you don’t have a beta or two, get one. And if you don’t know where to find one and would like help, feel free to send me another ask, and I’ll reblog to help put out the call.

Now, onto your other question. How does publishing a fic work? I can only speak to how I do it, but goes a bit like this:

Once my story is finished and beta-ed, the first thing I do is publish it to AO3. (If you don’t have an account, get one! This process may take a few days.) I assume you read fic, so you’re familiar with tags, ratings, etc. Next is formatting. Use Rich Text rather than HTML (there are buttons at the top right). If you’re publishing from a Google doc, you will annoyingly need to remove extra spaces. You’ll get a feel for it.

Once it’s on AO3, I copy and paste from there to Tumblr. My advice is to use the desktop version rather than mobile—you won’t have to reformat. I don’t usually tag anyone, but blogs like @today-in-fic are great to get more eyes on your work.

From there I also post a link to the story on AO3 to Twitter, but that’s only because I have a fic/fandom specific account.

Let’s see, what else. I hope that was helpful. If you feel like I skipped steps or you’re more confused than when you started, I’m happy to clarify. Good luck and happy writing!

[adverbian]

29, 36, and 79 for the fic asks!! <3

29. What’s something about your writing that you’re proud of?

Oh this is a very healthy challenge for me today. Hmm. I am proud of the way I write smut, honestly. I draw on long-ago acting classes: connect to past experiences and try to inhabit the scene in my own body, with strong awareness of physical sensations at each moment — as well as what emotions/thoughts are provoked by those sensations.

It means that writing smut can be a slow process for me. I pause to fully experience each moment in my mind and do an imaginary body scan. And then grasp for the right words to express the sensations. And then let that moment tell me what the POV character wants for the next moment.

I got one delightful comment on AO3 (on Christmas morning!) that said “I like what you do with the sex: the moment-to-moment detail, not clinical or filthy but vivid and multisensory,” and that meant so much to me because that is what I strive for.

36. What fic are you proudest of?

Set Me as a Seal Upon Your Heart — an Ineffable Wedding (and wedding-night) fic. The whole of the Auprès de ma blonde series is about marriage — how I experience it and think about it: not only about the joy of private commitment, but also about the power of having everyone around you recognize and validate your commitment. And that fic is the most about marriage. It has so many threads about ritual, and belief, and love that doesn’t have to hide anymore, and joy.

Writing it was such an unexpectedly delightful process, too. It grew and transformed and coalesced. Brief vignettes opened up like flowers. I delved into the perspectives of other people around the Ineffables, and that was so surprisingly rich and satisfying.

79. Do you have any writing advice you want to share?

Tbh, the smut-writing process in my answer to question 29 is advice I love to share! Writing smut can be so hard — it can feel so awkward, self-conscious, or even detached, like you’re just reporting an observed sequence of events. I think the “method acting” approach helps a lot to get at that juicy internal experience.

Other advice:

It helps to become aware of patterns in your emotions as you go through the process of writing, revising, getting beta feedback, more revising, and publishing. I go on an entire emotional roller coaster every time. It’s less scary now that I know what to expect.

For example, I always go through a phase during initial revisions where I feel like my fic is hot garbage and I am a trash writer. It’s temporary. It usually means I am really starting to get at the main ideas of the piece, and realizing where I need to do more to explore/express them.

I always go through a phase of feeling Very Delicate when I get beta feedback, no matter how kind and helpful it is. I just have to let the anxiety pass (which can take hours or days), and then I will be able to feel good about people being awesome and helping me make the fic better. (I am always scared that this will make people afraid to beta for me. I truly feel love and gratitude for everyone who beta-reads for me! You are helping me! You are not responsible for my weird brain reaction!)

And I always go through a stage of high anxiety right after I publish a fic, terrified that maybe this time everybody will hate it.

It’s useful to recognize these emotional stages, and know that they will pass.