#I'm looking to write something very specific to scratch a brain itch but I don't know what that is rn

[biteghost]

So I just reread BACKLASH after seeing new stuff on the cast page, and I wanted to drop by and say how much I frickin LOVE your comic!! Your characters have been scratching an itch in my brain since high school. I love how expressive your writing and your art is- both in the snark and sass and funny moments, and the serious and impactful ones. Your dialogue especially feels very natural to me- in every interaction, every character feels like a Person with a complex personality and a much deeper life than what we get to see on the page, even the side characters. And your planting for future events is so well done! I love the way you drop hints about future characters and show off the connections between existing ones. It's especially cool to reread after becoming more familiar with your other work and listening to those episodes of Blueshift you had up a while back- there are so many little background cameos to catch and so many small details about the world that make it feel real and fleshed out when you know what to look for. Your writing and characters and art were a huge inspiration to me when I first came across your work, and they remain so to this day. It's cool seeing some of your work again, especially after you've gone so quiet here on tumblr. I'm really looking forward to reading more Backlash someday, whenever that may be.

This is such a kind and thoughtful ask that I can't really put together the words for how it hit me, but I'll try to stream something along here.

At the end of the day all my stories, characters and comics are made for myself. I make them because I love to make them, and because I have fun doing it. But if that were purely the case, I wouldn't have an online gallery at all. I share my work online for the potential enjoyment of others, too. The two truths are 1) I make what I want to as ways of expressing myself, sorting through my own life, feelings and experiences 2) I think that perhaps my own experiences, though unique to me, might have a relatable core that could help others like me feel seen.

My creative energy and artistic output fluctuate with the highs and lows of my life. The amount that personal tragedy (no matter how large or small) effects the mind, body and spirit always surprises me, even as it proves true again and again with the passing of the years. The older I get, the more road traveled I have to look back on. A lot of times I am really upset by what that road looks like to me.

Frankly, I've had a pretty hard couple of years and 2025 is shaping up to be a roller coaster too. Despite therapy and working on myself, I've felt a very strong disappointment. It feels like I've missed the opportunity to tell my stories effectively because of how long I've taken to make them. Surely anyone who was interested in the stories I weave have long hit the road for other stories with more consistent updates.

I'm not really cut out for an internet that 'requires' constant posting anymore. I either have things to share, or I don't. I'm either on, or I'm off. I'm so burnt out and unable to function at times that it's a miracle I get out of bed (shout out to my partner for flipping me out of bed like a pancake when it's that dire lol).

So all that to say that, it really does cheer me up to hear that you've gone out of your way to re-read my comic that hasn't updated since mid 2023. It makes me excited that upon a re-read you've been able to pick up on the little details I've sprinkled throughout earlier chapters. (I looove the feeling of "IT'S BEEN THERE THE WHOLE TIME" when I revisit a work, so I wanted to try making a series with that aspect to it, too. Really happy it's started paying off even if we're not even finished yet!) A lot of the specifics here are things I've purposefully tried to accomplish in my work, and it's very heartening to hear someone praise those things unprompted. It's like, woah! Someone noticed the effort! Yippee!

Thank you for your support and for taking the time to express that to me in ask-form. It lifts my spirits and encourages me to keep working through the low days! I'm not going to let BACKLASH go until the story is finished, even if it takes until I'm 70 years old, haha. (Hopefully it won't - it's only supposed to be 20 chapters long, but you get my point haha).

Long response is long - thank you again for your kindness and for reading!

[edgepunk]

hi Viki! do you have any Insomniac Spider Man fic recs? or spider man in general honestly I just don’t really read mcu. Idk if you also write on ao3 but if you do I’d love to read your stuff because your spidey takes are great

Hi there! I'm gonna be honest, I'm very picky with fics and so far I haven't been very lucky with SM fics so I'm constantly looking for something that would interest me

I only have THIS spideytorch fic which converted me into a spideytorch shipper and reignited my interest in the F4. Honestly, anything spideytorch by this writer is worth it. But that specific fic scratched an itch in my brain and I slurped it up in one sitting. Might re-read it sometime soon

I don't have anything else, like 80% of SM fics on ao3 are movie-related and I'm not interested in that. even if I filter the hell out of it, it's hard to find fics that would scratch my brain and while I do write fics in private, I don't feel confident enough to post them publicly (and also bc they're not finished lmaoo)

[autumnslance]

Writing To Yourself

(Mileage may vary, I'm not your mom nor your teacher--unless you're working for a specific state healthcare service, anyway.)

That's how you garden. Tend the plot. Plant a million seeds, reap a thousand blooms. The rest? Compost for the next crop. -@biot08 / @driftward

During a Discord convo, I thought about why so many fandom writers catch “writer’s block”, and some of it goes back to self-care and taking in new media, getting inspiration and knowledge, covered in this post. But much of it?

People think everything they create has to be publishable for others’ consumption. That is Not True. Too often we don't want to write things just for the sake of writing them, falling into the trap of thinking it needs to be perfectly polished and shared, but No It Really Doesn't.

Folks talk about “writing for oneself” but in terms of posting finished pieces of the kinds they want to see. If everything feels like it “has to be” publishable, it can start to put too much pressure on oneself. And then there’s your block, especially if the type to worry about how others Perceive you and your art.

Try simply writing anything and deciding later if it's something you want to share. I have pieces I wrote cuz my brain suddenly said it wanted to, but that writing isn't posted anywhere. Usually it’s random lines; out of context sentences, scenes, or bits of dialogue. Sometimes just incoherent character rambling. Ideas for situations and what ifs. Misspelled, typos, not grammatical, redundant wording, passive voice, bad POV, too many adverbs, not enough active verbs, not enough description, too much description, etc. All in notebooks or doc files. I’ve shared the (now out-dated) deep nests of my WIPs folders and the multiple, unfinished, unpolished pieces within them. Most will never be completed nor seen by the public. 

For instance, I've a random smut fic of a Highlander Warrior of Light and the popular antagonist of Shadowbringers. I'm not usually a villain liker, but one day it hit my brain, so I wrote it. I have notes and outlines for the rest of their story and how it plays out, though I'll probably never write more. I scratched the writing itch, stretched some skills, considered things from a different angle, and now it sits in drafts (I did post a couple decent-ish smut lines to my private Twitter once).

Mostly, it's practice. Even if it's junk and janky.

“But I have (professionally) published X or Y…”

Still gotta exercise the writing muscles! Still gotta scrawl off something utterly unusable now and again for the heck of it!

All those random lines, descriptions, scenes, rambles? Maybe I'll use them someday. I wrote them down to feel the pen in my hand or keys clacking under my fingers, to see the words pop onto the page or screen, to play with word choice, sentence structures, and “how would they say that?” For my own satisfaction, no one else’s.

When I get bored or stuck, or need a screenshot or writing prompt response, I might poke at those lines, pages, rambles, and see if they hit now or spin off to something else. They often don’t. But sometimes they help inform other things I do post to the public later. Even if that’s just a Question of the Day prompt response on Twitter.

(That also counts as writing and creating btw; you’re still coming up with something to share about your characters and I think that’s very creative of you.)

If the mood strikes, write. Even if it's just a vague idea--especially if it's any bits of dialogue or description, if it's something you think that you actually do want to write when off work or out of bed or whatever.

Even if you never post it anywhere public. Even if it never gets out of crummy first draft, unfinished pages form. It might feel like pulling teeth and look rough, especially if it’s been awhile.

But still write it. No one else has to know or see. Not until you want them to.

Maybe parts of it will inform something you do finish later. Maybe two years from now another prompt will hit just right and you’ll dig out that draft and finish it for posting. Maybe you’ll cannibalize aspects of it for an entirely different piece. Maybe you’ll even use it in a few more years to see how far you’ve come as a writer.

In many cases? That's how you actually keep writer's block away. Keeping ideas around to steal from yourself, letting yourself write nonsense, unpublishable bits and pieces, maybe even whole pages, just for the heck of it, if writing is something one enjoys and wants to stick with as a hobby (or professionally). If you don’t enjoy writing for fun? Don’t force it; do little character prompts and blurbs as they feel right, and find the ways to share creativity that work for you.

And seriously, don’t forget to take in new media, experiences, and information. This is How You Lose the Time War got me writing on an original story I shelved last autumn. The stories aren't at all alike! But seeing new words in new ways helped shake something loose in my brain. So try to make some time for that, too.

Write to yourself, not for others’ consumption. Public posting is great for validation and encouragement, for when we feel the urge to share due to pride or just wanting to gush about our faves. But also let yourself remember why you liked creating worlds, making up stuff about your characters, and writing at all to begin with, without the pressure of public posting. Give yourself some grace, and let it all be messy, unhinged, misspelled, ungrammatical, incomplete, and make no narrative sense.

Write to yourself, for yourself. Then let the rest follow.