#Writing talk

[princessfbi]

Fuck It Friday

Tagged by @homerforsure

Those sky blue eyes peered up at him as if sensing him, or maybe he heard him but either way, Tommy’s heart threatened to shatter into a million at the sight in front of him.  Evan was on the floor with his knees drawn up to his chest and his eyes so wide that he looked smaller than Tommy had ever seen him. A bloody towel was being held to the side of his head without the birthmark and Tommy didn’t believe in God but if he did, he’d thank whoever for the simple miracles that his kissable bullseye had been spared.  Evan blinked up at him like he didn’t quite believe what he was seeing and Tommy dropped to his knees in a graceless heap.  “Hi,” Evan said, his voice a warble as something flashed across his eyes.  “Let me see,” Tommy said. He tucked gentle fingers under Evan’s chin and tilted his head up before he slowly peeled back the damp, cold towel away from Evan’s head.

Tagging @devirnis @bigfootsmom @mellaithwen @letmetellyouaboutmyfeels @buddie-buddie

[youcouldmakealife]

Are there any characters where you've thought: in another universe, if these two had met first, they might have been interesting to write about?

There are a few, honestly. Every time I write Robbie and Willy interacting, I'm reminded that they get along famously. (Not surprising, really, considering Willy and Georgie have a lot in common with each other), and Robbie/Matty was genuinely considered. I could be convinced to ship Jared Matheson with half of his friends if Bryce hadn't been so clearly it for him.

And of course, it's a setup was originally intended to be Joey/Owen. It genuinely was. But then Scratch started talking and his banter-y chemistry with Joey was so compelling and fun to write that it changed the entire direction of the series.

Growing up in fandom, I'm pretty mellow about pairings (not an 'OTP or death' shipper here), especially with small fandoms where you can't be picky or you'll have nothing to read.

In fact, back in the day, when I was feeling stuck on what to write I'd write a bunch of names on strips of paper, separately do the same with some prompts, pick a couple names, a prompt, and boom, there was my fic writing exercise for the day.

Some combinations really didn't work, and the writing was deleted at the end of the day. Some surprisingly did, and became proper fics. Either way I had fun, wrote more than I would have otherwise, and usually learned something new about the characters.

I think that exercise would apply itself pretty nicely to the YCMAL 'verse, especially since, with very few exceptions, every character already has a pretty major thing in common. Well. Two. Hockey and also, with even fewer exceptions, being completely unreasonable people.

[tobyfoxmademeascaly]

The fun of Ishgard is that whenever i need a name i just gotta boot up Fantasynamegenerator’s Renaissance-Era French option to give whatever random extra the most Obscenely French name I can find. So now not only was this poor bastard attacked by a dragon. Now his name is Poncellet. Life isn’t going too well for him.

[the-modern-typewriter]

God, I love when a character's strength is also their flaw. It's just *chef's kiss*!

[theajaheira]

it is so honest to god fucked up and despicable that in order to write a multiple chapter epic fic project with intimately intertwining plot threads and romances, i have to like sit down and write it

[ghostlightfic]

working with isat swears is so funny by the way because ill be sitting there like ok so i have stars and moderately stronger stars above but i need something More. and then ill just come up with some bullshit and nobody can stop me

[domini-porter]

Since the writers are out with our begging bowls pleading for interaction again (hi!), to mangle what the dude said about planting trees: while the best time to add a minute or two to the time you spend consuming someone’s work to leave a comment—work that they’ve created in their spare time to appeal to your specific interests and have made freely available to you forever—was yesterday, there’s always today. We make and share stories and art and music because we’re participating in the fan culture just like you, and every single one of us is wishing and hoping and praying this time it turns out to be a two-way street.

In my experience, both personal and talking with/listening to other creators, nobody’s grubbing for compliments (even though everyone agrees compliments are very nice). Personally, it’s more like having a realization about how far the shift in how the writer-reader relationship works has pushed the dynamic of fandom and fanfiction in particular—collaborative and reciprocal to a place that’s much more reflective of starkly passive consumption, at least over the 25 years I’ve participated as a creator in fandom culture. And it’s not just my fandom, or your fandom. It’s systemic.

I’m sure people have their reasons and explanations and justifications for not letting creators know the ways their work has benefited or impacted them, but at the end of the day, I only know you value what I’ve added to our little shared universe if you tell me. I’m glad people are consistent readers, and the ones who reach out are the ones I’m writing for, but it’s hard to pretend the other 97% of you aren’t there too, lurking in the shadows, watching and forming silent opinions. It makes me second-guess myself, and my writing, and whether or not it’s a waste of my time like it is yours (this is what my self-criticism and imposter syndrome lick into my ears, not necessarily what those people who click on every chapter to the bitter end are thinking)(I hope). It makes me feel like a faceless content creator, and not a person who makes things and shares them freely out of love and excitement. It makes me feel like I’m not a welcome participant in my fandom, sometimes.

Anyway. I’m so deeply curious as to why there seems to be such a weird, insurmountable gulf between writers and readers; the readers are the only ones with the boats to get across it, and I really really really wish you would. Nobody’s going to be mad or icked that you let them know you like something they spent time on. We will develop gnawing neuroses and self-doubt and decide maybe it’s just not worth it any more after enough silence, though. Which is such a bummer, and it really, really, really doesn’t have to be.

Support the care and feeding of your fellow fans (and the health of your fandom overall): leave a comment on AO3 (or wherever your writers are found) today.

[gatzbright]

writing [love]; dream, a writer.

Dream: I like writing. I like writing poems; I like writing songs; I like writing everything. I like storytelling—I just like storytelling. Storytelling in general is fun. I do a lot of storytelling through, like, my videos, through my video editing ... that's my favourite part of writing.

Dream: So, it's [love is] special, you know? You can't really explain it. Um, you know, with your mum, your dad, your—your sisters, your brothers, your cousins, your—your friends that you've known since you were a kid. Your friends that you just met a year ago that you are absolutely in love with as a person.

Dream: 'Have you written stories as well as songs lately?' Yeah—I mean, well ... I feel like songwriting is very—it's like, you just take stories—like 'Roadtrip' was, like, essentially a poem, and a story, that was turned into a song. And I feel like that's with a lot of stuff. 'Mask' is the same; 'Mask' was a poem turned into a song.

Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott | Dream Subscriber Twitter Space April 30th, @/dreamwastaken | It's Been A Long Day, Spacey Jane | Dream's Tiktok 'love is scary', @/dreamwastakenwastaken | Photograph in the studio from Dream's Instagram post, @/dreamwastaken | The Story of Mary MacLane, Mary MacLane | Our Beautiful Life When It's Filled With Shrieks, Christopher Citro | Johnny Cash’s handwritten to-do list, 1969 | Tweeted screenshot from Dream's notes app, @/dreamwastaken | Anne Carson interview, 2016 | Dream and George on the Dream Panel at TwitchCon Las Vegas 2023, TwitchCon VOD | Tweeted screenshot from Dream's notes app, @/dreamwastaken | On Writing, Stephen King | A fan's Tiktok of Dream and George at emo nite, @/angstboycam | Dream explaining 'Spotlight' in the 'to whoever wants to hear' lyric booklet, Dream | Your Song, Elton John | Fan photos of Dream and George at Dream's tour

Dream's 'Kind Of Love' speech LA concert night two, @/milktea_grn | The Power Of Love, Frankie Goes To Hollywood | Fan photos of Dream and George at Dream's tour | You Are In Love (Taylor's Version), Taylor Swift | Dream explaining 'Paranoid' in the 'to whoever wants to hear' lyric booklet, Dream | Dream and George on the Dream Panel at TwitchCon Las Vegas 2023, TwitchCon VOD | Words, Gregory Alan Isakov | Dead Poets Society, dir. | Dream Subscriber Twitter Space April 30th, @/dreamwastaken | Sweet Nothing, Taylor Swift

Fan photo of George recording Dream at his concert | Addressable Thou, Chase Berggrun | Bright Star, dir. Jane Campion | George smiling at Dream in IRL DREAM TEAM IN MADRID, Sapnap VOD | Endymion, John Keats | Dream and George on set: Everest – Dream & Yung Gravy BEHIND THE SCENES, Dream Music | [brIght], E. E. Cummings | George and Dream in IRL DREAM TEAM IN MADRID, Sapnap VOD | Sand and Foam, Kahlil Gibran

[graffic17]

My biggest pet peeve in Post-GM fics is when they have cults to Khepri. This due to one simple thing that all of these cults have; they're too damn organized.

Look into the history of any religion and you'll see it took them decades to solidify together into a central, unified belief. Making a holy book everyone will approve of? That also takes decades. Central features we now consider commonplace, such as the Catholic belief in Saints? That took decades as well - also it began due to the Roman oppression of Christians, starting as the Cult of Martyrs. Look it up if you ever have a chance, it's pretty interesting.

The exception to this is irl cults, like the Manson family or the Peoples Temple, but that's for a very simple reason. They're centralized around a singular authoritative figure for all of their existence that define every last feature of their belief structure which most religions lack - a feature shared by the Fallen and their leading families that the different sects are named for. Something that none of the Khepri cults in fics, which I've seen, ever have.

Obviously they don't need to follow how irl religious movements work, but doing so could add further dimensions to the fic's cult.

Simply having a central figure, or group, using Khepri as a figure to create a power structure with them at the head would be interesting (maybe even using one of the alternate spellings of Khepri as a cape name). Or having multiple capes, or even non-parahumans, with differing beliefs on Khepri (considering a true transcendent deity, a figure of true parahuman power worth aspiring towards, a monstrous example of the terrible power parahumans have over the normal people, the woman who sacrificed herself to save everything and is worth respecting, etc) could add so much to the concept.

I find the concept of cults to Khepri genuinely interesting and plausible (we've worshiped weirder things irl). I just wish I could enjoy them with my inner history nerd getting weirded out by the way they're written.

[spotofmummery]

Mun Writing Ramblings

Finally, after two and a half years, I've nailed down my headcanons around my version of Amon and the whole Fandaniel predicament. I've found a logical way to skirt known canon and massaged it to fit something I'm more content with in terms of the story I was writing before things changed.

This basically means... I can finally proceed with Amon's story because I now know the answer to the questions he's searching for. Poor guy. I've left him in a state of limbo while trying to figure this out, and the answers turned out to be far more simple than what I was making them out to be. Pretty typical.

All this to say, I'm inspired to get some writing done!

With this blog's 6th anniversary next week, some new writing would be lovely! ♫♩♪♫

[discet]

What made you want to team up Anne with Valerina instead of Grime & the Toads? I really liked that when 1st reading AWIW, it was refreshing twist from most swap AUs. Same goes with Sasha & Yunan.

Oh yeah! That's a fun question

Honestly it pretty much formed as a cornerstone of the AU since it was a loose collection of thoughts and ideas. At the time I was really interested in Valeriana as a character and thought having Anne get more insight into the larger mystery ahead of time would be really interesting. Plus thinking about how her character would shift to be slightly more Rogue-ish without losing her good natured self. Basically embracing some of the things she was uncomfortable before coming to Amphibia.

It was also a fun opportunity to contrast their response to being threatened and surrounded on all sides. Sasha assesses her chances and decides to bide her time and wait for an opportunity. Anne bolts on instinct and ends up getting hurt.

Once I was actually drafting the outline for the series, I also was keeping in mind the trios different qualities and strengths as characters. And I believe that one of Sasha's strengths is her resilience in the face of adversity. I think that's why she was able to not only survive but thrive in toad captivity. When I imagined Anne in the same situation, I don't think her personality really survives that much hostility.

Sasha and Yunan was also a natural fit after I went back and rewatched the Sasha-centric s1 episodes. Sasha's first priority when we get to prison break is to find her friends. Grimes was a means to an end at first. So landing in Newtopia I figured she would not be side tracked by any promises that it was better to stick around and wait for Anne and Marcy to find her. "Oh, sure, great. If they show up send someone to tell me. Till then I'm gonna keep looking."

And Andrias isn't stupid enough to let her just wander his kingdom unsupervised, so Yunan is the natural candidate to keep an eye on her. Skilled enough track Sasha down if she tries to dip, and loyal to the crown to not be charmed by shallow flattery.

I also liked when pairing up her with a mentor to contrast to Grime. Grime was in many ways an exaggerated mirror of Sasha's worst qualities. Meanwhile Yunan felt like a mirror of how Sasha saw herself and could admire in a way. Then over time seeing places where she didn't quite measure up.

[princessfbi]

Kisses + 16 + Bucktommy if it sparks joy 🫶

16. Kisses Meant To Distract The Other Person From Whatever They Were Intently     Doing + Bucktommy

“Evan.”

Grunt. That was about all Tommy had gotten out of his boyfriend in the last three hours. Grunts and shrugs and an occasional huh that Tommy never quite knew if they were directed at what he said or at the disaster that had taken over their living room.

Their living room. A place Tommy had once avoided at all costs because every time he sat in it, he felt too big in a too small space that was way too empty. Now it was their living room because the last of Evan’s boxes had finally been delivered and all of their things were mixed in a chaotic mess that did things to Tommy’s heart he was too embarrassed to think about.

“Baby.” Tommy tried again.

Another grunt. There were days Tommy couldn’t get Buck to shut up about whatever hyper fixation his beautiful brain had latched onto and it was one of Tommy’s proudest moments when he realized Evan saw him as the person he was most excited to share those with.

But all Tommy was getting were grunts.

Buck blew out a breath between his lips that was too heavy and too stressed to be classified as a sigh.

Okay. That was enough.

Tommy was not going to let laundry of all things break his boyfriend. They were supposed to be in the honeymoon stages of living together. Bumping into each other in the morning because they were getting used to the new life they were sharing. Dinners warmed in the oven when their shifts went over. Sex in the kitchen because they could!

The mistake had been when Tommy had left Evan to organize their closet. Tommy hadn’t wanted Evan to feel like he was fitting himself in Tommy’s space. He wanted Evan to make the space a space that belonged to both of them.

Tommy hadn’t thought anything of it when he heard the washer and dryer started. But then lunch had passed and dinner had been delivered and the grunting had started when he found Evan surrounded by piles of laundry in the living room.

Tommy crossed the distance between them and tangled his fingers in the wild curls on top of Evan’s head. He tugged lightly, tipping his head back, and smiled at the way Evan’s eyes crossed as he stared up at him. Tommy waited until those eyes focused on him.

“Hi,” Tommy said, “It’s time for dinner.”

Buck grunted. “I’ll be right there. I just—”

Tommy tugged on his curls again even as Evan tried to curl back over the pile of t-shirts. He knew he caught Evan by surprise by the kiss but those were some of Tommy’s favorite kisses. The ones where Evan inhaled before he relaxed beneath the weight of Tommy’s lips, melting against him. Tommy let go of his curls to cup the back of his neck, sweeping his thumb across the soft skin behind his ear.

Evan didn’t even notice when Tommy took the t-shirt from his hands.

“Sorry,” Evan mumbled against his lips. “I didn’t want to mix anything up but then—”

Tommy kissed the apology away, their noses nuzzling against one another as he shook his head.

“I told you,” Tommy said as he bent down, “What’s mine is yours.”

Evan exhaled, that sweet smile of his making an appearance as he pressed into Tommy’s hand.

“Besides,” Tommy mused. “The idea of you in my clothes is kind of hot.”

Buck’s eyes lit up. “Oh really?”

Tommy hummed. “Oh yeah.”

Thankfully a pile of socks cushioned his back as Evan tackled him.

[youcouldmakealife]

Do you ever mix up names? I love your stories, but I am shit at names and as your pantheon/league grows I find myself increasingly turned around by all the north american dude names (first, last, AND hockey nicknames!!!). I can usually keep track of the on-going series names and names that are less common in North America (Kiro, Sven), but if I'm reading, say, an ask or rereading I usually have remind myself who is who first.

I don't mix them up between themselves and other characters in either a similar name way (James vs Jake, say) or roles (mixing up say, Wheels and Craney and Matty).

(This got so long and off topic, why does this always happen)

What I do mix up is sort of more of a...muscle memory thing, maybe? I'm writing the word, say, gorgeous, and I have to delete georgieous first, because my fingers apparently have become a phone's autocorrect function. I actually did write James as Jake a few times when I was deep deep in editing BTT, but again, it was just sort of like...an autofill error between my brain and my fingers.

The names themselves I'm pretty good with, though I do worry about whether I'll continue to be as a) the pantheon continues to expand (I love this by the way, and now I'm probably going to spend the rest of my evening mentally assigning characters places in the pantheon) and b) I get older. And both things seem pretty inevitable to me.

Unfortunately, the two things I appear to have in common with Leo Tolstoy are brevity and 'these people have three names, and I'm going to use them all interchangeably'. (ie Vinny is Thomas to himself, but Vinny to literally everybody else including me. And sometimes Tommy but only to Anton and his parents and only sometimes. Anton's alternately Anton, Petrov, Tony to Vinny and teammates, or Antosha to his family.)

I'd honestly apologise for it but it's one of those things that's really inextricable from the sort of...falling into a perspective way that I write, the same way I write in American English for American characters and Canadian English for Canadians, or use Christian (and specifically Catholic) references in Robbie or Georgie's POVs but never, say, Mike's or David's, unless we count Mike's very liberal usage of the word goddamn (and it's lowercase with him, but it'd be Goddamn to Robbie.)

And the different vocabularies extends to names. Like William Dineen is William to Robbie, he specifically asked to be called that when he was a teenager who wanted to feel more adult, and Robbie respected that then and continues to now. Georgie respected it in another way -- he was Willy to him, and now he uses Will, which William is fine with, but only with immediate family.

But in the text itself Georgie would never use William, because it'd feel distant to him, and Robbie would never use Will because he'd consider that disrespectful after William specifically requested to be called that, and me choosing one or the other wouldn't be in character, so he's Will and he's William, but never Willy (that's Tate Williams).

I make this all sound like a much more conscious process than it is. A lot of this stuff I've only figured out via metacognition of my writing process, which is, by necessity, done in hindsight.

My original answer to questions like 'why did you do _____ that way?' is invariably '*shrug* felt right', and people tend to find that...unsatisfying, so I often investigate further, and the answer becomes 'felt right because of <this reason I was in no way consciously aware of during the writing process>'. As I've said to my poor beleaguered editor, a lot of my writing process is 'just vibes'. I follow good vibes. Bad vibes tell me something's not working, and I adjust accordingly. I think a lot (I cannot tell you how many times I've been accused of overthinking things), but when it comes to writing, most of it's happening beyond my own perception, so instead it feels more like gut instinct. (which is, indeed, what gut instinct often boils down to: pattern recognition going on beneath one's conscious awareness)

[the-modern-typewriter]

Hi, I really love your writing. It’s actually incredible how you can write people of the same pronoun and still make it easy to discern the two characters. I was wondering if you have any tips on how to do that without using phrases like “the short one” or anything like that.

1. Use the character's names

I often use 'the protagonist ', 'the antagonist', 'the hero', 'the villain' on tumblr. However, functionally, I use these like names and/or titles.

Using a character name allows you to periodically clarify who is talking or doing something when the reader would otherwise get confused. I know some people take this a step further by actually using 'Hero' 'Villain' as names more literally/directly, but I don't personally like doing that. It jars my brain.

I think 'the hero' etc works as an indicator where 'the short one' doesn't because it's neutral/not providing new info. Traditionally, we often only use physical descriptors when we don't know who a character is, so it creates distance/can jar when used in the middle of a scene. If you are in first person or limited third, there's just not necessarily a reason why your narrator would think of the other character in that way, which is another reason it can feel odd.

Basically, it's a bit like how we don't notice 'said', but would really notice if someone was uttering/shouting/mumbling in every dialogue tag.

2. Use proper paragraphing.

New character doing something, new line. New person talking, new line. New idea/point, new line. Shift in time or setting, new line.

3. Don't be afraid of easy beats

What are easy beats, you say? They are the moments of action or thinking in between dialogue. Body language. Whatever. Even if you don't use 'he/they/she said', because that can get repetitive. They are a way of providing context and variety to your writing, that can often do double work making it clear who is doing or saying something.

Example:

''So this is dialogue," they said.

"Right."

"And you didn't need to say you were talking next, because it was obviously someone else because it was on the next line. And now it's obviously me again. Hi!"

"All well and good until we've been chatting like this forever."

"Well." They stretched out, lazily. "That's what the easy beat that just happened was for. Did you catch me stretching in the middle?"

"But now I'd need a name or some kind of indicator," Character B replied. "Or it feels odd. Too many theys"

"It's all about balance, my friend. The instinct comes with practice."

Character B wrinkled their nose. "But what if I want to talk for a really long time?"

"Well," they said. "Then you can often start with a pronoun use or a character name to establish. Then you make your next point. Try and keep it relatively easy to follow. After that, try to have some kind of easy beat or action happen so the whole thing isn't talking heads." Character A rose towering to their feet, waggling their fingers in another hello. "And, if we're lucky, we never need to say 'the short one said' again, because we can flow our descriptions more naturally into the action.' Now." They sauntered closer, stopping in front of Character A with the worst smirk that B had ever seen. "Shall we ask the audience which of us is taller?"

[write-stuff-if-you-wanna]

Soulmate au

But the soulmate isn’t actually your soulmate, and is just some ashole tricking you.

String au:

Cuts your string and his string to make it seem like your both soulmates that somehow got cut of

“Hey! You”

“Me?”

“Yes! Your strings cut!”

“WHAT!?”

“Mine to, some ashole just cut mine earlier!”

“…omg. Omg….”

“We must be soulmates then!”

“…are we still soulmates if its cut?”

“I think so, but if not, id like to be anyways”

“…oh, um thank you…me to”

Or if strings cant be cut

“Your soulmate doesnt love you, its been 30 years and you cant find them yet? Please they hate you! Look at you, your fat, ugly and in debt, they probably saw you and ran, but i love you, i love you soo much”

“……….”

“Stay with me instead, maybe the gods made a mistake, you’re clearly meant to be with me.”

“….i….idk..”

“Ill be there for you in your darkest hour, I’ll harm anyone who makes fun of us, ill help you out of debt, i want you to be mine.”

“…oh..okay….ill…ill be with…you then”

Your first words about your soulmate show up on their arms au:

Step 1. Stalk them, till you can read what it says in there arm

Step 2. have your arm tattoed so the words look like a part of the tattoo or to hard to read, or bandaged up so they cant see it

Step 3. then Wait, till you can walk up to them in a non creepy environment and say the words of their arm.

Step 5. Then after you get the words they said have them tattoed onto your arm. And show them the next time you see them.

Your soulmate can magically send you money/control your life:

Gate-keep, gaslight, manipulate, control, and helicopter aka just be a gaslighter, lie.

“Oh yeah i sent you that cash cause i love you”

“It says you got into a car accident!?”

“Oh it was a very minor one, i was unharmed theres some light scuff to the car tho..” when the victim is distracted go and damage the car a bit, then make them pay you to fix it.

Bonus points if the real soulmate

Wonders why this fake soulmate person or victim and them share the same words on there arm./ also has a cut string/Knows victim is their soulmate but doesn’t know how to convince them to be with them.

Finds the victim attractive and longs for them not understanding why.

Doesn’t know victim is there soulmate but has been friends for years

Thinks victim and fake soulmate are actually soulmates

Or

Saves victim from fake soulmates abuse/toxicity.

Give me your own thoughts and ideas! Id love to hear them!

[ghostlightfic]

writing is the devil. never forget this