#but these ppl take perfectly good beautiful old houses and make them look like shit!!

[weirdchurchgirl]

i hope every real estate company/landlord that buys a house built before 1965 and unnecessarily guts the inside to turn it into a greige marble countertop open concept plastic “wood” floor one gas fireplace no crown molding bright white LEDs everywhere stainless steel appliances boring two-tone exterior paint job ripping out all of the foliage on the land zero built-in spaces outside of the kitchen and closets “style” dies slowly and painfully when their time comes or perhaps even prematurely

[zeroconnectionn]

Some ppl might not like this and thats perfectly fair and u can totally ignore this but um,, Wintershieldshock in a The Handmaid's Tale au, anyone? Also no powers/superhumans in this AU. 

Darcy is June, Bucky is Nick, and Steve is Luke. Not sure who from the MCU could be the Waterfords tho

more plot and who-would-be-who under the cut (edited bc the tags were limited)

I see Jane as Emily/Ofglen and Nat as Moira. And like Moira, Nat escapes and lives with Steve in Canada, hopefully cooking up plans to get Darcy back and destroy Gilead with the information she has. I also see Wanda as Erin?

I can explain why Bucky would be part of Gilead/Sons of Jacob. I wanna say that maybe Bucky and Steve were in the army together and were discharged from service pre-Gilead. War hardened them both, Bucky lost an arm, Steve can’t forgive himself for it, and things just weren’t the same after they got back. While Steve tried to get better, Bucky was getting worse, mentally and financially. This leads to him getting recruited by SoJ (which is, if you think about it, HYDRA), a terrorist organization that has no qualms targeting angry and vulnerable war vets like Bucky who lost their sense of purpose. They offer him benefits he can’t refuse, namely a new arm that works just as good as his old one, if not better (It’s God’s gift to him, they said) and a new direction in life. He starts working for Commander Pierce as a spy. 

Steve goes for therapy to cope with his trauma. One day, he meets Darcy, they fall in love, get married, and later have a daughter named Sarah. Steve tells Darcy about Bucky and everything they’ve been through. Every year, they invite him for holiday celebrations with the Rogers but he seldom attends them. Since his first visit, Darcy decides she doesn’t really like Bucky but she can see how much Steve and Bucky care about each other, and Bucky is Sarah’s favourite uncle who spoils her rotten, so she plays nice when he’s around. Steve thinks the ice between them is funny, his best pal and his best girl at odds with each other despite being eerily similar. 

The two men eventually reconnect and catch up on the years spent apart, sharing their personal and very different struggles coping with life after the war. Everything was going well until Bucky confides in Steve about his association with SoJ. Steve begs him to leave but Bucky’s stubborn, firmly believing that SoJ could make the world better. It’s the final nail in the coffin of their childhood friendship. But even then, it’s Bucky’s name that Steve still cries out in his nightmares at night. As she holds him, Darcy finds herself hating Bucky, hating him for hurting Steve like this, hating him for ever leaving them, his family.

Then shit goes down in the US. Bucky warns Steve about Gilead going military, about the coup in the white house, he tells Steve to get his ass to Canada with Darcy and Sarah ASAP. But Steve doesn’t listen, not at first, still blinded by his disgust that Bucky is working for the SoJ but also because he stubbornly believes America can win this fight, that things will get better. They don’t. After that, it’s a race to get past the border. Unbeknownst to the Rogers, Bucky tries to help,and while he’s not there to do it himself, he calls in for a few favours. The plan goes sideways when they’re intercepted by a group of Guardians. Steve gets separated from his wife and kid (who are taken elsewhere) during the chase, gets heavily injured, but manages to cross the border with the help of a few friendlies. Meanwhile, Darcy gets sent to the Red Centre for handmaid training, thinking Steve died and that Sarah is gone forever. (So basically what happened to Luke, June, and Hannah in the flashbacks.)

During the training, she reunites with Jane and Nat. When she gets assigned to the Waterfords, she’s surprised to see Bucky as their Guardian and driver. Their reunion is not sweet, Darcy can barely look at him and has to restrain herself from lashing out at him in the presence of the resident Martha and the Waterfords. Bucky’s equally stunned, all this time he thought Steve and his family made it to Canada. He feels heavy with guilt but puts that aside, understanding now what he’s meant to do, what he was supposed to do. He vows to protect Darcy, to find Sarah, and to get them both to safety, even if she hates him along the way. 

(And it’s true. She can’t stand him. How detached he is from this fucking nightmare. How obedient he is to Mr. and Mrs. Waterford. How he guards himself and his secrets, she doesn’t even recognize anymore. But mostly, how tender and gentle he is around her when they’re alone, how apologetic he is, how he smiles at her and cracks jokes to cheer her up like Gilead never happened, like he never had a fucking hand in what transpired, the fact that Steve was right, they were very alike and it was still so easy to banter with him despite all these years, despite everything, but the thing she can’t stand the most is how much he really, really reminds her of Steve.)

But things aren’t as simple in Gilead, even when you’re an Eye. It gets more complicated with Mr. Waterford being sterile. Mrs. Waterford eventually takes things into her own hands and asks Bucky to impregnate Darcy. Unfortunately, he can’t say no. When it’s done, he stays away from the Commander’s home and avoids her, unable to talk to her, look at her. Steve’s girl. Sarah’s ma. What has he done? What did he get them into? 

A few nights later, Bucky wakes up to Darcy knocking on his door. It’s the first they’ve seen each other since that night, like properly seen each other and it’s her 2nd time in his room. She doesn’t say anything as she steps in, just closes the door and starts undressing. He’s calculating the risks in his head, the punishment for a handmaid caught with a guardian, but he’s too distracted by what’s happening to stop this. He can’t stop looking at her. He can’t stop wanting her. And Bucky would admit, he’s always been captivated by her beauty and strength, always wondered how Steve could get a dame like her. Fuck, he really shouldn’t be thinking of Steve right now.

When she moves forward to press her lips against his, he stops thinking and allows him to only feel. In the dark of the night, they’re given a choice, one they both offer to each other, and they take it.

A few weeks later, Bucky escorts the Waterfords on their diplomatic trip to Canada. He meets Steve and they have a very, very long conversation.

Cue angsty romantic triangle, depictions of trauma and survival, coping with grief and loss, and finding happiness in a fucked up world! And an OT3 I normally wouldn’t ship

[writingquestionsanswered]

I cannot for the life of me decide the best way to open my novel, and it's making me feel like such a failure. I really prefer the "normal life", "I'm an interesting character even before shit goes down" start, but comments say they aren't matching my novel synopsis with what's happening in the first chapter (normal life, shit happens, MC copes). My MC doesn't hint to the "gee I wish I could find true love" (the overall theme) until chapter 5. So I'm not sure what to do here. #1

#2 With 3rd limited I can’t just weave in hints to what will happen in those opening paragraphs (“She would never expect that love was just around the corner!”) or some such omniscientness. I DO strongly hint that MC isn’t happy. I am starting to think that the comments center around seeing MC interact with ppl who aren’t her husband as the throwing-off factor but it isn’t clear. MC should be able to interact with the world… Anyway, I’m disheartened and confused and lost at this point.

Betas Unhappy with MC’s “Normal Life” Before Inciting Incident

This is one of those situations where it’s hard to know exactly what’s going on without being able to read it and see exactly what the betas are saying. I wish I could do that for everyone, but it’s just not possible. I do have some thoughts, though, and hopefully something here will help somehow.

Before I get started though, I just want to say this is a normal part of writing a novel. If every story fell from our heads perfectly onto the page, writing would be super easy and everyone would do it all the time. The reality, however, is that writing a novel is taking a shapeless lump of clay and working it over and over again until it closely resembles the thing in our head. It takes a lot of shaping, smooshing, re-shaping, smashing, tugging, shaping again… it’s a lot of hard work. So, you’re not a failure for experiencing this,

YOU’RE A WRITER!!!

When betas are saying, “Your opening chapters don’t match your novel’s synopsis,” I can think of three potential things that may be happening:

1) It’s Not You, It’s Them

Beta readers aren’t perfect, and depending on who they are and where you picked them up, it’s sometimes possible to just get a bad batch. I know a romance writer who did a little contest to choose several fans to beta read the first three chapters of her next novel. Most of the beta readers were great and had helpful feedback, but a few just seemed mad they weren’t getting a completed romantic arc in three chapters. Whether they just didn’t understand what they were signing up for or had unrealistic expectations, who knows? But, it just goes to show that it’s possible to get a bad batch of beta readers. If your gut instinct is telling you their feedback doesn’t make sense, try looking for another batch of betas someplace else and see if the feedback changes. Alternatively, you can put together a short, clear survey to try to get to the bottom of the feedback and ask the betas in question to fill it out. It may help you better understand where they’re coming from and whether or not their feedback is worth considering.

2) Too Much Normal 

Another possibility is that you’re spending too much time in your character’s normal life prior to the inciting incident. Some stories can get away with an inciting incident that doesn’t happen until much later, but not all stories can. Stories that can get away with it tend to be genre fiction with lots of world building and the necessity to familiarize the reader with the story’s world as much as to show the protagonist in their normal life. But if your story is in a more normal setting, like a contemporary romance or historical fiction romance, you really don’t want that “normal period” to drag on too long before the inciting incident occurs. 

3) Irrelevant Build-Up

You mention that during your protagonist’s “normal period,” shit happens and they deal with it–and that’s good, but the shit that happens has to be relevant to the story somehow. Whatever that inciting incident is going to be, you have to find ways to drop in subtle clues about what’s coming, even if the reader will hardly realize hints are being dropped. 

Because it’s an easy example, let’s take a look at Twilight. Spoilers if you haven’t read/watched it. The story begins with an epigraph from Genesis about the tree of knowledge, and then there’s a “preface” containing a brief flash forward to a critical moment from the novel’s climax, but let’s pretend neither of those are there and focus on how it opens. In the print version, we get 17 pages detailing Bella’s arrival in Forks, getting settled at her father’s house, and starting her first day at Forks High School. On page 18 she lays eyes on the Cullen “siblings” for the first time and is drawn to how unusual they are. They’re pale with dark eyes, have old-fashioned names, and are “inhumanly beautiful.” Not only are the Cullens themselves relevant to the rest of the story, but their appearances are subtle hints as to who and what they are. On page 23, Bella has to sit next to Edward in class and he’s obviously very uncomfortable with her nearness. He tenses when she sits down, he leans away from her and behaves as though she smells bad and sits with his fist clenched as though struggling for control of some unknown situation. Then, when the bell rings, he bolts out of his seat so fast it practically leaves Bella’s head spinning. These are more clues, because we find out later they relate not only to what Edward actually is, but to a more specific connection he has with Bella. The actual inciting incident doesn’t occur for another 33 pages, near the beginning of chapter three, but there are a few more interactions between Bella and Edward prior to that which continue to drop those kinds of clues.The point is, those 56 pages don’t just show Bella in her “normal life” and set-up the inciting incident, they’re actually laying the groundwork for everything else that is to come. The reader may not be openly aware of that, but all those little hints and details are building up in the back of their minds, so it all feels like it’s moving toward something, and it’s the something that was promised in the book’s blurb. If your betas aren’t feeling that connection, you may need to do more to not just build toward the inciting incident, but also to drop hints that lay the groundwork for the future.Best of luck with your story! Let me know if you need more help. :)

[imaginingit]

crush!jungkook

happy valentine’s day mothafuckas ;)

i love jeon jungkook are u bitches ready

you first met jungkook when you heard the sound of a moving truck beep its way into the driveway next to yours 

now u were always a child of adventure 

ur parents worked a lot so it was basically u at home with ur grandparents and they were the most chill motherfuckers on the face of the planet

and the front door of ur house always seems to be unlocked so u were the poster boy/gal of “adventure is out there!!!”

cue me ugly crying that movie kills m e 

u loved the outdoors and being adventurous 

u were so tomboy and reckless it was hilarious

u drove every single member of ur family insane 

they got called into school one time to u staring at the ground in the principal’s office next to a kid with a missing tooth and bloody nose 

“he tried to hug me” 

to summarize, u loved causing trouble, but have fun in the midst! 

and yes, meeting new ppl!!

and at dinner, u would hear ur grandpops and grandma talking abt the couple moving in next door 

and how they have also have a 6!! year!! old!! son!!

and u could barely keep ur head on the pillow that night bc omg! you can’t wait to have a new friend the same age as u! 

so on that beautiful sunny saturday morning, at exactly 7am sharp, with ur scabby knees, bruised legs, ripped shorts, mismatched socks, run-down light up sneakers, and ur older brother’s hand-me-down power rangers sweatshirt, you marched on over to the driveway to meet your new best friend

and u see a middle aged man and a beautiful woman trying to carry in a couple boxes together and u guessed those were the parents 

and as u were marvelling at how pretty they were, “man, if they look that good, how good does their son loo--”

“MOM, DAD, HELP IM STUCK IN THE SOFA!!” 

u have no idea what came over u but u almost tripped over the tall weeds trying to get into the truck and find the source of the voice 

you went straight to the yellow, flower-y sofa resting in the middle of the truck, with little boy limbs sticking out from under the cushions

u ran up and ripped them away and low and behold, u laid ur eyes on the most beautiful 6 year old there ever was 

and from then on, ur heart decided to plant its FUCKING BOTTOM with jungkook forever

from the first day he met u he literally believed u were the weirdest person he’s ever met 

but without a doubt, you became childhood friends 

like best friends

u saw him naked for the first time when u were 8 and just bursted into his shower at like 8am in the morning 

“Y/N WHAT THE FUCK GET OUT IM NAKED?????”

“omg it’s so smALL?”

he didn’t speak to you for two weeks after that 

your grandparents would always have him over for dinner 

you guys played make believe together and took naps in ur power ranger blanket together 

but it’s also a lot of bullying 

LOTS OF WRESTLING 

taking turns making ugly faces, whoever laughs first has to go and tell ur grandma they pooped their pants and needs help changing it 

“accidentally” slapping each other SUPER hard in the face

“you had a fly on ur cheek sorry!! couldn’t help it!!”

literally the purest and most innocent friendship ever ever ever 

everyday in first grade, when you had reading time, he would be in the seat behind you and fold a tiny little paper plane with a sticky note and throw it at you 

would keep folding them and throwing it at you until you noticed and turned around and yelled at him and got in trouble by your student teacher 

“i hate u jeon jungkook” 

you didn’t really

but it wasn’t until the third or fourth time he kept doing it that you realized there was a message on each of them 

and they weren’t really anything cute

they were just like 

“hey notice me”

“your hair looks greasy from the back” 

“what book are you reading”

“don’t ignore me”

“am i being annoying?”

“yea? good.”

but your favourite was

“i’m glad you’re in my class” 

because he would rarely ever show affection to you because your relationship was made up a lot of the “we don’t need to say anything to know it”, meaning you never needed to straight out express your gratitude to each other for the other to know that you’re appreciated 

main point is you grew up together 

however, after like the fourth grade

you both somehow decided that you were too cool for each other despite the fact that your crush on him was still there 

there was something so mesmerizing about the fact that 

he never truly ever demeaned you as a person??? like yes he was a tease and you guys always did those things to each other

but for a kid, he was always somewhat of a gentleman and would never make fun of you to deliberately hurt your feelings 

unfortunately doe, in middle school, your group of friends completely changed

and although you guys sort of had the same status in school of being popular but very, very laidback, and your groups of friends acquainted with one another, your interactions would be saying hi, making small talk when you were with a handful of other people and smiling at each other as you pass by the halls 

back then, you would walk home together every single day and spend time doing homework in the bedroom of one of you two 

but as the grades went on and the workload increased, you found music and student council and volleyball whereas he found track and basketball and dance

his family went through troubles and he found it difficult to talk to people at times 

and you were so busy with finding a job and saving up for post-secondary that you spent after school with your clubs or in the library studying

timing and interests for you guys were extremely unparalleled and eventually, things just grew apart before high school began 

and oh dear

high school

periods? check. acne? check. hormones? check. grOWTH SPURTS? check.

now, reader, entering high school, you only had one rule: forget. about. jeon. jungkook.

and it wasn’t like he was being a dick or anything to you, you just didn’t find any way that you guys would work out anymore

despite being best friends and literally showering together when you were 7 and your parents are best friends, you just never ever have proper conversations anymore, and things just naturally got awkward

and also life lesson for u guys omg so philosophical what it wasn’t anyone’s fault, you guys just happened to no longer have the same interests or the time to notice each other anymore - people drift apart. it happens. 

and you were so okay with coming to terms with that 

until

“oh my gosh is that jeon jungkook?”

“he... grew muscles?”

“giRL HIS HAIR”

“puberty hit him like a freight train???”

the morning of sophomore year, after a whole first year of properly avoiding him and being absolutely sure that he wasn’t going to get hot (jungkook is juST A LATE BLOOMER OK LEAVE HIM ALONE), you turned your head to the front doors and felt the wind get knocked out of you 

bc walking in with his friends, with the school uniform seemingly perfectly snug and hugging every one of his curves

was jungkook

and for some reason

yes he looked more mature and yes he got fucking MANLIER

but you were instantly reminded of something that clicked in you when you saw that 6 year old boy stuck in the sofa on the very first day he moved in next to you

was it that innocence? was it the charm? was it the hair-swept-away-from-face thing? you diDN’T KNOW 

but girl you were gone again 

and listen 

you dated people in freshman year and guys liked you, but you were never the type to chase or to fawn

you were just different from other girls like you would much rather be the type to be the one playing ball than the one in a miniskirt cheering on the team on the sidelines

that’s just who you are, heck you fucking punched a dude that wanted to hug you and say thank you, broke his nose and chipped his tooth like kk y/n

it was just difficult for you to grasp feelings, truly, but for some reason, this guy has just got you so weak???

and for some other reason, jungkook and the reminder and memories of you guys as kids just hits you like a truck and you’re already head over heels once again

and you go into first period to shake off the thought of him but ofc!!! he’s!!!! in!!!! ur!!! first!! period!!! literature!!! ihml!!!

so you take the seat diagonally in the front of him to make sure you don’t get sidetracked in ur favourite class and drool at him the entire time

oNE DAY

you were taking notes from the board, analyzing and reviewing the literary device and short stories before delving into the actual stuff in literature when you dropped your pencil and leaned down to grab it 

when you saw an arm reach down first 

and hand it to you 

you looked up 

and you guessed it 

biTCH IT WAS JUNGKOOK AND he had such a warm and friendly smile 

and you could barely say anything 

because on one hand you were like oh i’m glad he still remembers who i am??? like ffs? but your other side is like oh my god oh my god oh my god 

so weeks go by and every single day you feel such a burning sensation at the back of ur neck like fufufufuffufufu he’s RIGHT THERE

and jungkook isn’t that type to be extremely boisterous and loud and obnoxious even if he’s hot shit 

so you weren’t worried about him bothering you whatsoever after that like that was a fluke, he was being nice, whatever, it’s done 

a couple weeks go by and you’re starting to feel better now, thinking you’ve got this crush thing under control

until

silent reading time 

you were just assigned a new book by your favourite author! and you couldn’t wait to begin the book reports on these 

so you dove into the world of fire-breathing dragons and mystical knights and creatures beyond reality

when you felt a poke on your neck

and you had no idea what it was? you were so engulfed in the story that you just scratched and left it, not thinking twice

and then you felt it again

it took you a second, but it hit you

and it hit you hard

you turned your head around slowly and your heart was beating so fast

your eyes fall on a small pink sticky note, folded into a plane, dropped on your shoulder

you don’t even DARE LOOKING BAC K AT HIM BC U KNOW UR HANDS AR E SHAKING TOO HARD AND IF YOU SEE HIM YOU MIGHT ACTUALLY DROP DEAD

so you open it, careful to make no noise in the silent classroom

and on the single sticky note it read:

“it’s good to see you again. i’m so so glad you’re in my class.”

you sneak a tiny glance back at the boy behind you, your face flushing with heat and memories 

and from behind his book, he looks up and gives you the tiniest, warmest smile you’ve ever received 

you folded the paper once more and fit it in your pocket and returned to your dragons and knights and witches, all the while smiling like a fool to yourself because maybe, just maybe, you didn’t really drift apart that much at all 

hi guys!! so sorry for the late update, hope you enjoy thisssss:)

also side note: just because it’s valentine’s day (i mean i dont celebrate this) doesnt mean that you need a significant other! buy yourself some hershey’s, make some tea, snuggle up with a teddy bear and a blanket, and switch on some netflix. today is any other day, so don’t demean yourself and your experience with this day because of your status! 

alsoooo don’t wanna get a little preachy but, in this au i kind of hint at the fact that the y/n or reader is someone very tomboyish and doesn’t really seem to find herself chasing after boys. in no way am i trying to vocalize the fact that just because you’re of a certain nature, your personality towards boys reflects that. this is just a fictional work of how one might feel (presumably me lolz) when realizing feelings for someone they truly loved at one point. just because a woman who is normally tougher on the exterior has a sudden soft spot for a boy does not indicate that she’s lost sense of herself or that she succumbs to a boy. just because a woman is a certain way because of a boy that makes her feel different doesn’t mean she is any less of a woman herself. everyone is obligatory to their feelings, and how women choose to express themselves sexually or emotionally to a man they love is their own personal choice as long as they are within consent and are safe. everyone’s decisions and behaviours in love are consensual and their own - that does not demean them as a feminist in any way, shape or form. remember that. 

have fun, y’all, uSE PROTECTION, and i love u!!!