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thefearandnow · 1 year

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Happy New Year! 🥂

I've had this post saved for a while because since coming back to tumblr I've found it to be a really great space for setting myself accountable creatively. I've had a lot of ideas for goals I want to set for myself in 2023 so I'm gonna pin this post and keep coming back to it with progress/check ins. I'm also gonna queue this post for every month so I don't forget to revisit my list. Some stuff has to do with creating and some stuff are just personal things ✨

💀🎙 Write and produce monthly episodes of The Fear and Now

For my graduate degree I produced an analysis podcast about horror in fiction podcasts and part of changing my tumblr to The Fear and Now was partially to motivate me to make new episodes for the first time in more than 2 years. I'm basically going to reboot it entirely because I've become a much different producer since I started it but I'm excited to start working on it again. First step will be to relisten to the old episodes which is honestly what I'm most avoiding but I'm excited to do more analytical writing, research and use my improved editing skills to give it a facelift.

0/12

🎧 Write and post at least 25 Audio Drama Sunday posts

I've really been enjoying using tumblr as a way to recap my listening and get through my backlog of podcasts I want to listen to. On top of that it's been a great way to find new podcasts and support creators so I'm hoping to stay on a semi-weekly schedule but I'm also trying to set the expectation a little low 😅

1/25

🦉🌶 Finish writing the fiction podcast I started (8 episodes)

In 2022 I started writing my first ever fiction podcast, something I'd been wanting to do for years. It's been on hiatus for a few months but I want to come back around to it and at least get all the episodes in rough draft from.

2/8

✏️ Try NaNoWriMo for the first time

I discovered National Novel Writing Month (through a discord I'm a part of) this year and was a little too late to the party to try it myself but I'm really drawn to the idea of trying it November 2023. Of course, I think I'm gonna need to practice a lot to get myself prepared so I'm going to start setting daily word count goals every month.

Jan: 500 words | 75%

Feb: 500 words

📖 Read at least one novel a month

In 2022 some friends started a book club and it's really helped me get back into the habit of having structured reading time. Looking forward to reading more and keeping track of the new books I'll read in the new year!

1/12

💻 Give more feedback to writers/creators on tumblr

I've started following a few different writers on tumblr whose short stories I really enjoy and I want to get more into the habit of reaching out and telling them what I love about their work. It's one of those things that I've only recently spent much time thinking about but I think often I'm a passive enjoyer of content and want to actively be more involved as an audience member in 2023.

🎶 Self publish a mixtape of instrumentals

In 2022 I got into a routine of posting quick little sample-based sketches and beats. In the new year I want to take the best of those sketches and make them into a proper mixtape/EP that I'll publish via Bandcamp. I'm not really sure how to track the progress on something like this but I know I just want to have what I consider a finished project by this time next year.

✏️ Try NaNoWriMo for the first time.

Jan: 500 words

✨ Explore my hair/gender expression

This one is literally impossible to quantify but it's something I want to reflect on and be more actively engaged with this year. So much of my life I feel like I've tried to ignore thinking about and exploring my own style and gender and its only recently that I've felt some regret about it. I want to buy new clothes and try new hairstyles and feel more comfortable in my own skin and I think I've found that for me I need to write it somewhere if I actually want to do the damn thing 😅 so this is me doing that lol

#pinned post #new years resolutions #2023 goals #writing goals

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ciceroprofacto · 2 years

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Well it's putting the cards on the table time apparently. I heard once about a rumor that basically said that you didn't do the research for soa, nor did your wife. That some Tumblr user(s) actually made ("an important") part of the research. I think the ones that told me that hate you or something.

So I just wanted to know - is that true? Because well, even i sometimes thought that it was almost impossible to make that amount of research by oneself. Or even two people. Both in so, so busy careers and being successful in those careers.

Look, it's not as if I believed it's completely impossible. I mean, I've been building a world with my bf for some years now, and just a month ago we discovered that its political laws are incredibly similar to spartan ones... without any of us having ever studied ancient politics before.

So anyways. Have a nice day!

ugh. I've seen this one (or a variation of it) before and I have some questions.

what's this 'important part' of the research that I didn't do?

and if not me...who's doing it?

seriously- who? I'd love to call them up. I was begging for help when I first started- what do y'all think that obnoxiously-long timeline post (made January 9th 2017) was? it's literally titled as a call to action...and it barely got feedback at the time. it took 6 chapters for @madtomedgar to pick me up and help with editing until I got my footing and then @denialandavoidance picked me up. if anyone can be credited with helping me, it's them- which is why they are credited on those chapters. but, I will say, and they could attest (though this is so far below worth our time...), the legwork was always there on the details. I just needed touch-ups, fact checks, and proofreading.

on that- did we just...scroll past the years of posts where I was discovering details for the timeline and sharing them...some of that process was pretty public? unfortunately, a lot of it was also just in my notes and on the chapter drafts because I was more worried about writing the story than showing my work...because it's a fanfic. I couldn't imagine anyone would need me to prove that I'd researched.

which- what is the bar here for citations? the closest thing I've done to a bibliography has been the recent meta posts I'm making on the reread, but the idea of including that on the work itself is nightmarish. even my meta post leaves a lot out, and you'd end up with ~2k words of notes on each chapter. that ruins the immersion, distracts from the plot, and worst- adds extra effort on my part. I just won't do it. sorry. I'm not making money off this, I'm not being graded on it. it's a fanfic.

even if I tried, a full-bibliography isn't going to have all the records for every nitty-gritty detail that's included in the story. I wasn't adding footnotes on my drafts as I went along. I just wasn't. my method was to keep it as simple as possible, and a bibliography wasn't the priority, just getting the information. I basically just had a timeline that was like an agenda for each day and I was backfilling it with details from all the books and journals and primary source documents I was reading. anytime a date would come up in a source, I'd add it to my notes. anytime there was a gap or I had specific questions, I'd dig around until I could fill it (or I’d make something up because it’s fiction). though most of my sources were publicly-accessible (we stan Wiki in this house), I don't even have access to everything I used back in 2015-18. I was in college and had access to academic databases, my library, and @john-laurens was also still in school with similar accesses, and towards the end of 2016, started helping me find specific details. google could get me 90% of the way there, but the really detailed day-to-day stuff was in letters and journal entries.

it seems a lot like how someone might research to write a biography, they'd just be more thorough about annotating their sources since their goal is to publish...I might not be doing it for the same reasons, but why is it so hard to believe I could?

anyway- no. that's not true. I've had contributors. the people I've mentioned above have helped me directly and they're credited in the work because of it- though I would still emphasize for the context of this question, their help has mostly been as editors, occasionally fielding specific questions or giving me source recommendations. any contributions other than theirs would come from posts that are public on this blog, but I truly, genuinely, can't think of any that have already been incorporated or would warrant recognition...

if someone feels like I've missed something they gave me, they're always welcome to take it up with me.

#my process feels so simple I don't understand the disbelief #it's just...read books. take notes #that's it #that's literally it.#anon #long post #answered

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wintersoldeer · 2 years

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i feel like i should make this my pinned post:

whenever i’m not reblogging anything: i have not abandoned my tumblr nor am i on hiatus... i just keep forgetting to actually post things instead of just saving them on my drafts and keeping them there for a few days..weeks...months....

AND/OR

every day i feel like tumblr is making it more difficult to use it on any of my devices, so if i ever do disappear completely: do know that it wont be by choice

edit: AND

my ipad is haunted by a very annoying ghost (well. no actual ghosts, just a broken screen that gets its signals a bit mixed) , who at best keeps liking posts on my dash and following random blogs and at worst makes it impossible to use the tablet at all. yes i should buy a new tablet or a computer or a phone.... but i dont wanna......

#i say

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englishstrawbie · 7 months

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NaNoWriMo (ish)

I don't usually participate in NaNoWriMo because it's has the opposite effect when I put myself under pressure, but I have - for a reason unknown even to me - committed myself to writing two Christmas fics for two fandoms*. The only way I'm going to achieve this before Christmas Day is by having two rough drafts ready for editing by the end of November**. So if you see my talking and posting about Christmas in early November, it's because I need to get inspired. Fortunately, I have ideas - they just need execution.

*I have no-one to blame for this but myself.

**Disclaimer: just because I talk about it, doesn't mean I'm going to actually do it.

I'm using NaNoWriMo to keep me motivated. Well, NaNoWriMo (ish), because I'm not committing myself to writing every day. Some days (like tomorrow) are impossible. But those days when I do have time, I need to make the most of it and make progress***.

***So if you see me spending too much time on tumblr, feel free to yell at me.

My biggest challenge is balancing two projects at one time. I'm not usually good at that. So... wish me luck!

#nanowrimo 2023

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btranmuses · 1 year

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NaNoWriMo 2022

Around a month ago, I made a post introducing the Impossible Wreck project, for the first time putting it out there to the world. I also set some goals for myself going through NaNoWriMo 2022, with an aim to make some progress on the book through the event.

What did I aim to achieve?

The draft back then was at 18,648 words at chapter 8.

Main Goal I want to finish Act 1, or 25% of the draft, by the end of NaNo. For the 100k word count goal that will be 25k words, and for the 120k stretch goal, that will be 30k.

Stretch goal Should for some reason the above goal goes exceptionally well, hey, then I want to be half-way through Act 2.1 (the Midpoint). That means 50% of the next 25% of the story, or ~40% of the draft. So for the 100k goal the stretch goal will be 37k words, and 120k

Community goals

Regular progress updates: on this blog, on Tumblr, and on Twitter. At least 3 times a week.

Participate in Discord writing servers. Speak out, engage, join activities. At least 3 times a week.

Where am I at now?

The draft is currently at 29,414 words at chapter 12. I've covered all the plot points I wanted to in Act 1 at that word count, meaning the draft goal is now at 120k! I did not meet the stretch goal, but I did meet the main goal! I had been making weekly tumblr posts updating my progress week by week as well.

Didn't exactly meet the community goals, but eh.

I didn't set crazy goals, so to be honest, there was no like, big emotional highs for meeting the goal. However, it did prove to myself that I can actually maintain a sustainable writing habit, and making tangible weekly/monthly progress. That alone is an experience I value very much.

Currently I've come up with a BUNCH of questions I had for myself regarding the various characters and worldbuilding aspects after going through Act 1, and I think I'm gonna spend the next 2 weeks working through them and building out my current notes on the characters and lore. It's… taking time away from progressing the draft, and to be honest, looking my average daily word count dropping for the past week not working on it is… scary, but I need to get these details down to make the story foundations more solid for the rest of the draft. It does motivate me to get through these questions more quickly tho cracking whips

What did I learn?

Make use of writing sprints. It can be as simple as setting a timer and do not stop writing until the timer stops, and I've also seen quite a few websites floating around for that. I myself write using Obsidian, and there's the Word Sprint plugin that does just that! I broke through quite a few periods where I dreaded writing just by doing a sprint. Definitely a technique I'm keeping around!

Make regular progress posts. I've decided to keep doing weekly tumblr posts and monthly posts on the main blog. I don't get much engagement from them, but the act of reporting… publicly… to an audience, even small, helps me with accountability.

I struggled with not editing, especially when earlier in the draft when I had around 10k words. I kept going back through them and editing again and again. Now that the draft is at 30k, doing that is simply… not feasible anymore. So I guess a tip for over-editing is just keep pushing through, especially in the initial stages; it will eventually be too big to try lol.

That's it for this update. I'm aiming to keep doing weekly tumblr posts, and a monthly recap on the main blog.

#nanowrimo #writing progress #impossible wreck

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daemadness · 2 years

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Felt like making a post since I've gained quite a lot of new followers on this blog (as well as on my main, most people being the same on both), as well as lots of reblogs which is GREAT too since the fandom here is already way too tiny!!! And I'm aware that I haven't been too active on this side of Tumblr in a long time.

I haven't had the queue running since the last spring, simply because I started to run out of blog to reblog from. I feel like I have already had everything in my blog, and I keep finding older blog and reblogging from those has its own problems. At least when I last time added stuff to my queue and drafts, I had to use the old XKit for adding stuff directly from blogs because using the regular system is nerve-racking. On top of all that, reblogging old posts means the HTML code of those posts looks different from recent posts, which is why adding tags, also, got extremely frustrating. I use quick tags and tag bundles exactly for the reason that I don't need to type every single tag there myself, and that I don't need to open every single post individually for adding tags. Well guess what - old posts did not support the quick tags anymore. It just kept saying there was an error, and I had to type everything down myself. Often several times. (And not tagging just is not an option for me!) Plus, Tumblr often likes/liked (not sure if it's already fixed) to refresh the queue/draft page so that it got just pain in the add to click and edit individual posts only to scroll down the drafts/queue every single time, and then do that like. 70 times in a row. Which is far from fun.

Adding stuff to queue just got too overwhelming. Tumblr freezing my browser when opening several tabs of a blog at once. Then quick tags and tag bundles stopped working and posts breaking because the old HTML code doesn't match the current HTML code. And the queue/drafts refreshing itself every single time cos you can't use quick tags.

But I feel like I need to start going through blogs again. I feel like I owe that to my old as well as new followers. Hopefully adding stuff to the queue won't be as enraging as it used to be. At some point even the beta editor changed somehow and I had to use the old one because in the new one you no longer could arrange images so making gifsets or photosets was impossible. And you can't arrange them in the old one either, unless you open it on the app, but where you sometimes still can't arrange them because the desktop code doesn't match the mobile code. And if you can open them on mobile, then you might not be able to open them on the desktop anymore cos Tumblr says it was created on the app. Besides, this web beta editor still doesn't work perfectly. I wonder if it ever will.

The last issue then is of course: the like-reblog ratios. This is not Instagram. If you only like and never reblog anything, you can be sure that I will block you in an instant. ESPECIALLY if you don't have a blog title and use the default icons. Then I will assume you're either a bot, or "spying us for (dä) content" which is not acceptable, at least not in my eyes. Go make your own content and don't steal what others have worked on hard, sometimes for hours. Which leads us back to like-reblog ratio: reblog art, please. And reblog creations. Reblogging IS NOT reposting, and reblogging is very very very much encouraged! (If you're new to Tumblr, it's that arrows symbol that looks like recycling symbol.) So please please please, reblog creations! Our tiny fandom is already tiny enough so when everyone's here just watching and not sharing and interacting (by reblogging! writing stuff in the tags!), I assure you that the Tumblr fandom WILL die out eventually. In fact it used to be way more active before, and it's been horribly inactive over the past 2-3 years. Also I used to post my art, edits, memes and videos here but recently gave up on that because there's just no interaction whatsoever anymore. So I don't see any point in sharing MY content to others if others don't care to look at it. So, I'm creating for myself and also keeping it all to myself, then. Maybe sharing it to some friends + my Instagram followers since IG seems to treat artists a bit better than Tumblr.

Alright, I guess that's enough. I'll try to get back to keeping this blog active, but finding "new" content is so hard nowadays, and I already explained the problems with the older posts. (I also started school a month ago so that will take some of my time, but I'm still spending time on Tumblr as if my life depended on it so it hasn't affected my Tumblr time that much yet.)

#madness rambles #non-dä

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safrona-shadowsun · 5 years

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Send me a face claim and I will use that face claim to make an NPC in my muse’s life, as well as talk about their relationship, connection, and feelings towards my muse.

Faceclaim: Zachary Quinto

Name of Character: Novak.

Connection and Relationship to Safrona: A smuggler and hedonist often painting himself to be better than those playing the same game, the human half-breed only known by the name of Novak was a supplier of many operations, including the infamous Vermillion Pearl of Booty Bay, a den of earthly pleasures offering certain services to any that could sport the coin. It was here that he would meet a particular Warlock with certain addictions to feed, fashioning her and her succubus as the mysterious Siren of Booty Bay and right hand of the Vermillion’s covert operations. Novak was a man that enjoyed power, above all.

The seedy underground of the Vermillion Pearl and Novak’s ring of slavery, prostitution, drug and weapon trade no longer exists today, however, the entire operation falling upon itself as key contributors vanished, including Novak himself. Shortly after the fall of the den of debauchery, a warlock found her way much more subtly, taking up the mantle as a private courier under the guidance of one Madame Goya.

Feelings toward Safrona: In the time knowing the then Siren, he saw her uses and impressed upon them, but had much more of a personal attachment to her “companion”, Lina. Though the Warlock made herself useful, he saw her as everyone else he involved himself with: replaceable. If he made off with the lovely Lina as a consolation prize by proxy, Novak only saw himself in a win-win situation. His arrogance would be his downfall.

{ Thank you for sending this, @veneficca! Also tagging @thefirstperished for some reference, who aided in the character’s creation.}

#Faceclaim Prompts #NPCs #About Safrona #Safwriting #The past #Love this prompt #but tumblr keeps making it impossible to edit and post my drafts -.-

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winterhawk-olympic-bang · 3 years

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How To Edit Your Writing

Guest Poster: Chronicwhimsy

Here is our final Writer Workshop post, written by Chronicwhimsy. Have a read and then head over to the Discord Server where we have a channel for you to take part in a discussion based on the post, with chances to share your own ideas too.

Editing: a drive-by guide

Hi, my name is Claire, and I’m an editor.

(Hi Claire)

I’ve been asked to give a quick guide on tips for editing your stories, as I’ve been a beta/editor for various fanfic writers over the years. I’m a professional editor, working for a publishing house in the UK, and I offer independent freelance editing too, via my website. I’ll be on the Discord server answering questions this evening, but I’m also happy to chat to people either through my website or even if you wanted to drop me a line on tumblr.

The key thing to remember about editing is that the end goal is to make your story the best it can be, and make sure your initial idea comes across as clearly and purely as you first imagined it. It’s about ensuring that the lines of communication between you and your reader are 100% open.

To do that, you need to have finished your story, because you can’t fix something that doesn’t exist.

Then you edit.

What now?

So, you’ve finished your Winterhawk Olympic Bang Fic, and you’re wondering what to do next?

The very first, and most important thing you should do? Celebrate. I mean congratulate the hell out of yourself, pat yourself on the back, and have some cake. Finishing stories is hard. Getting through a first draft is one of the trickiest parts of writing, so you should be proud of yourself, and proud of your story.

Because in a short while, editing is going to make you hate both.

I mean that in the nicest possible way of course, but you absolutely are going to be thoroughly sick of this whole thing by the time you’re done, and you’re going to question everything you’ve ever written. You’re going to get a close-up view of all your narrative bad habits which will make you think you’ve never had any skill at all, and you’re going to re-read your work so many times that it’ll feel trite, old, uninspired. This is normal and it is your brain lying to you. If you remember nothing else, remember that!

“The writing itself is no big deal. The editing, and even more than that, the self-doubt, is excruciatingly impossible.” Jonathan Safran Foer

Don’t lose faith! Editors and editing exist for a reason, no first draft is perfect. You’ve done something amazing in finishing, and now you’re going to make it incredible.

Before You Start - Take a Break

You know the phrase “can’t see the wood for the trees”? It could just as easily be “can’t see the story for the words.” It’s never recommended to go straight into editing as soon as you finish writing, and part of the reason for that is because you’re too deep in the story to be able to assess it objectively, or to catch things that are missed out because you know they’re there, but the reader wouldn’t.

“Once it's done, put it away until you can read it with new eyes. When you're ready, pick it up and read it, as if you've never read it before.” Neil Gaiman

Most writers and editors advocate putting a story away for a month or so before returning to edit, so you’re looking at it with fresh eyes. Obviously, with a Big Bang (or other fic event) this sort of time is usually at a premium! Try and make as much space as you can while still leaving yourself time to edit.

If you really don’t have any time, one trick that can help is changing your location. If you write in your room, can you relocate to your kitchen? Or a café (if you can safely)? Could you print it out? (Printing Top Tip: if you do print it, try and do it double-spaced - this makes it easier on the eyes, and gives you room to make notes. Also, serif fonts can often be easier to read than sans serif fonts, as it gives stronger distinctions between different letters.)

The Filter System

I like to think of the editing process as a series of different filters which, when used one after the other, produce a finely-sieved finished product. Each filter stage has slightly smaller holes than the one before it, as you look increasingly closely at your work.

Filter 1: Structural editing

Does the story make sense? Is the pace okay? Do all the scenes work where they are, or would they be better elsewhere? Do some scenes need to be there at all? Is the characterisation consistent? Does anyone change names halfway through? Did you forget what time of year it was set halfway through?

Filter 2: Line editing

Is this phrase as tight as it could be? Have you repeated yourself anywhere? Does this sentence add anything or does it throw the pace off? Have you gone overboard with adjectives and similes? Have you been too sparse with them?

Filter 3: Copy editing

Is your style consistent? Did you start writing in present tense and switch to past tense? Could this scene transition be snappier? Are there any bits that you want to tidy up? Have you left any half-finished sentences because you got distracted before you could end it?

Filter 4: Proofreading

Is everything spelled correctly? Have you caught all the strange grammar mistakes?

Some of these things might be picked up by your beta reader if you have one. Different beta readers have different styles, and also they will work based on their relationship with you and what you prefer. Some may stick to proofreading and consistency-checking, others may be more confident to dive right in and look at structure, pacing and characterisation. Some may work through the process with you as you write, others may only look at the story when it’s complete so they can get a full overview. There is no right or wrong answer, and having a conversation with your beta about your respective styles at the start can help you work better together!

Filter 1 - Structural Editing

For this stage, you want to read your whole story through from start to finish, and resist the urge to tweak anything to begin with! You will want a way of making notes as you go through because as you do, you’ll make yourself a cheat-sheet to help you with your line edit. Things to keep track of:

Character name spellings

Character ages

Character relationships (drawing a relationship web can be very helpful to visualise this!)

The time span of the story - the date it starts, the date it ends.

As a subset of this, I find it can be very helpful to set up a spreadsheet with a timeline of what happens in the story, and who is involved. Doing this both chronologically for the characters and in order of how it happens in the story can help you keep track of what characters know when, and also when the readers find out certain information. You might have one of these from when you were planning your story (as detailed in Sara Holmes’ workshop). If you’ve kept it up to date with changes to the plot and structure as you’ve written, this will be super helpful.

At this stage, you’re looking to see if everything works as a consistent story. You want to check to see if it feels like it’s the right pace, or if there are bits where it drags or rushes through the action. Why is this? Are there scenes which aren’t adding anything to the progress? Could they just be referred to in passing, or removed entirely without impacting the story? Are there other scenes which need to be added to provide more detail and growth? Is there anything that you as a writer know that is essential to the story, but you forgot to actually put in the text?

“Crafty writers...don't allow Exposition to form Lumps. They break up the information, grind it fine, and make it into bricks to build the story with.” Ursula K. Le Guin

You’re also looking to see if the characters feel true to themselves all the way through. Do the relationships spark? Do they sound like themselves? Can you hear them in your head?

Some people recommend doing several structural edits, with a different focus each time. One pass to look at the pacing, one pass to look at the characters, one to look at the story arc. You’ll work out what floats your boat, but you will be re-reading this story a lot of times before you’re done editing - which is why it’s very important to write what you love and want to read! You’ll go through many stages of hating this story before you let it go, and that will be even harder if it wasn’t something you enjoyed in the first place.

Filter 2 - Line Editing

So you remember I told you to make all those notes during your structural edit? Here’s where you’re going to use them. Now’s the time to go through your story line by line and check that the details in your cheat sheet are correct all the way through the story. I’ve written a novel that I initially set in November, but by the time I finished it, I’d decided it was taking place in early May. I had to go back and fix all the dates and weather descriptions to make sure the action hadn’t actually been yeeted forward six months spontaneously in the middle of a conversation.

Arguably, the line edit will be the most painful part of editing. At this stage, you will be taking a fine-tooth comb to everything you have written, examining it to within an inch of its life, and casting judgement. You’re going to find every stylistic tic you have (for me, everyone is constantly quirking their eyebrows and smirking like they’ve got cramp in their facial muscles), and you’re going to get rid of them (a person only has so many eyebrows, and they can only quirk so far). Now is the time to kill your darlings - don’t hang on to anything unless you feel it’s really doing a job to further the story and the characters.

“Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler's heart, kill your darlings.” Stephen King

If you have ever worried about the unbearable sensation of being Known, the line edit is where you will experience that with every word, and you’ll be doing it to yourself. This is when the doubts will really start to creep in and you will maybe feel like everything you write is unoriginal, derivative trash and unfit for human eyes.

Here I’ll reiterate what I said above:

This is a normal feeling, everyone experiences it when editing. E V E R Y O N E.

It’s a lie. No-one else will ever read your story in this state, no-one else will ever read your story this closely. Of course it feels obvious and uninspired to you - you wrote it. It’s your idea, and you’ve read it several times, it holds no surprises for you. (I may be projecting my feelings from every time I’ve edited something here, but…)

You’ll also be catching any ELEPHANTS or whatever your mammal of choice for placeholder text is that you’ve stationed throughout the story as a flag for you to come back and add in a name, or a food, or a song title later. You know, the things you decided were a problem for Future!You. I have bad news, the future is now.

Top Tip: if you have changed someone’s name halfway through, DON’T for the love of Mike, just do a straight find and replace to correct it. Because that’s when you suddenly find out how many other words actually contain names (Mark became Bill? That’s great, until your characters are going to the superBillet to buy groceries). Some word processing programmes have a “whole word” option which is your friend, otherwise ensure to put spaces either side of the word when you search. If you don’t, you’ve just made another horrible job for yourself...

Filter 3 - Copy Editing

Once you’ve made it out the other side of the Line Edit (and given yourself a nice treat to congratulate yourself because that stage is HARD), we get onto copy editing. This is basically the set-dressing stage. You’ve built the house, you’ve decorated the room, and now you’re just making sure every bit of furniture is in the right place for optimal feng shui.

Here’s where you go through and go, do I really need a dash here, or could I just use a comma? Could I use fewer commas? Could I go in and move all of @kangofu_cb’s commas around because I’m the sort of person who will come into your house and change how you hang your toilet paper or where you keep your ketchup.

Now is the time to be as picky as possible, like you’re an interior designer for the most demanding client in the world and the ornament must be exactly equidistant from both ends of the mantlepiece and facing precisely south-west. Things that may have just survived your line edit will be measured again, and if they’re found wanting, then they get binned.

“Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very’; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.” Mark Twain

Another thing you might like to do here is check that all your features and things are correct. Did you make a wild claim about the lifecycle of salamanders, or the average price of corn and then never go back to verify this? Take a second to just do that now. It may be that you decide it’s not a problem (I received one copy edit note saying that an idiom used in a book wasn’t recorded until 200 years later, and I made the editorial decision that no-one would care), but for bigger things you may want to make sure you’re accurate.

If you google it (as I just did, to make sure I was definitely giving you the right information), copy editing is often conflated with line editing, and that’s because in reality a lot of the elements of copy editing actually wouldn’t usually be done by the author, and are probably irrelevant to fanfic. The copy editor is responsible for ensuring the book has a consistent grammatical style in line with the preferences of the publisher (em-dash or en-dash, curly quote marks or straight ones, how you deal with acronyms, what needs to be italicised, etc. etc.), which isn’t necessarily required for fanfic. In reality, for fanfic I’d use this stage as a second, lighter line-edit to see where things can be tightened up in phrasing, as well as perhaps a preliminary proofread where you start to mark up any spelling errors.

Filter 4 - Proofreading

By this stage, you’ll be exhausted, and sick to death of the blasted thing. But the end is in sight! Now you’re onto the proofread. This is another close read, where you go through and check for spelling errors, typos, missing full stops, strange formatting stuff (which probably will be less of an issue as AO3 basically makes everything uniform anyway).

Before you even start this, change your font.

We’ve all been there, thought we’d caught every spelling error, every weird typo, only to spot six immediately after posting. That’s because after a certain point our brain becomes used to the font we’ve written in, and will automatically correct things that aren’t right. AO3 has its own unique formatting - colour, spacing, font - and the minute your fic appears on there in this new format you brain wakes up and is like “oh shit, yeah, that’s not how it should be.”

By changing the font before you proofread, you preempt this step.

Another thing to remember: it’s unlikely you will ever catch every mistake. Published books regularly go out with a smattering of typographical errors throughout the text - how many first editions of books are valuable because of misspellings that slipped through the net? You’re only human.

“Connie's other job was proof-editing which she did very badly. Transferring the author's corrections to a clean sheet of proofs was something Connie was unable to do without missing an average of three corrections a page, or transcribing newly inserted material all wrong... she put angry authors' letters about the mutilation of their books under the cushion of her chair to deal with later.” Muriel Spark, A Far Cry from Kensington

Often, spelling errors and things you would look for in a proofread are things that a beta reader will pick up as they go, as they’re the easiest things to spot, but it’s also worth looking over yourself for anything your beta might have missed.

Whether you decide to follow any or all of these steps, always do the proofread last.There is no point carefully spellchecking a chapter you are then going to delete, or proofreading the whole thing, but adding loads of new paragraphs later that either don’t get looked at or mean you end up having to proofread twice. That’s the only hard and fast rule when it comes to editing, and it will save you a lot of unnecessary work!

FREEDOM

And then, finally, unbelievably - you’re done. Your literary child is ready to leave the nest. Resist the urge to keep re-reading and tweaking. Instead, click “publish” and give yourself a nice little treat. You’ve earned it.

Miscellany and Disclaimers

These editing stages are ones that would be applied to a published novel. An author would probably do this several times - once on their own to get it ready for submission, then perhaps again with their agent, but the really heavy work would be done with their editor. The structural edit would be done under the advice of an agent or editor where the author looks at their comments, rejigs things accordingly, and lather, rinse, repeat until everyone’s happy. The editor would undertake the line edit, and the author would decide what they wanted to keep or change. The copy edit and proofread would be done in-house or sent to freelancers, with queries and changes wafted past the author for clarification or approval.

Self-published authors will often hire freelancers to help at various stages to get feedback and advice.

Very rarely would an author go from draft to final published piece by doing all their editing alone. Because it’s hard fucking work, and because your brain will get exhausted.

In light of that, you need to remember:

You’ve written a fanfic

The editorial standards of fanfic are significantly less stringent than published books

Editing by yourself is really hard work that many people are often paid to do for published books

No-one is paying you for your fanfic

Fanfic is supposed to be fun

Some published authors will edit and rewrite and edit and rewrite again and again. At a panel I attended, Joanne Harris said that if she didn’t rewrite her work at least five times she was being too easy on herself, while Joe Hill said he usually aimed for three rewrites - Joe edited as he went along, going over the previous day’s pages before continuing, where Joanne completed her manuscripts before editing. Elizabeth May has talked about her stages of drafting, starting with her Trash Draft, then her Clean Draft, and then rewriting and editing after that.

These are people who are writing professionally, getting paid for their work, and so the time they put in has monetary results. If you want to write original fiction, their advice is extremely valuable.

For fanfiction, it’s a large time investment for something you’re doing as a hobby for free. If I’m strictly honest, I’m fairly lax with my fanfiction editing. I do structural discussions and tweaks with my beta reader as I write, and then a spell check. I’m also aware that my fanfics aren’t narratively complex, nor do they seem as polished, rich and deep as some of the other works out there. That’s fine by me. You simply need to find the level you’re happy at, where you can still feel proud of your work but you’re enjoying the experience.

In the end - it’s all for fun!

Resources:

Online

Curtis Brown Creative: An Editor’s Guide to Editing Your Novel

Joanne Harris: Ten Tweets About Editing

Joanne Harris: Writing Resources

NerdsLikeMe: Beta Reading vs Proofreading vs Editing

Books

Stephen King - On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Ursula K. Le Guin - Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew

#winterhawk #winterhawk olympic bang #whob #writer workshops #writer workshop: editing #guest post #chronicwhimsy

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ofmermaidstories · 3 years

Note

Tbh you bring up some rlly great points in ur response to that asker abt chonky chapters! but first, I will always jump into askboxes to remind people that their writing is for them first and foremost. if a reader finds longer work more intimidating, then it's on them to either brace themselves and read it anyway or look somewhere else. the benefit of the BNHA reader insert community in particular is that there are MANY other places to look! nobody's limited if they prefer longer fics or little drabbles, there's so many out there that it's impossible to read them all even if u absolutely refuse to read one type or another. And it goes the other way too! dont pressure urself to write more bc its what you think your fanbase wants—youre providing absolutely incredible work for free, write it how u wanna. anyway! all that out of the way, bc I also have some original fiction/manuscripts that I'm working on, and also bc comparing fanfic & fanfic writing to "real"/"traditional" fiction/publishing is a rlly cool topic that I enjoy discussing, i have some Opinions abt what you talked abt with bad writing habits. bc the BIGGEST thing that sets fanfic and "real" fiction apart is editing. simply put fanfic is never edited with the same vigorousness as a YA manuscript might be, even if you have many beta readers and you feel like your edits are massive. editing in traditional publishing is primarily the work of other people—an editor who is being paid to do so, sometimes even a team of them; beta readers and sensitivity readers who are also being paid to do so (the paid part is important, bc even tho we care about hobbies we arent doing them professionally!)—and v importantly, theres something you hear a lot from writers that from rough draft to print their work practically became multiple different books along the line. it's rigorous, it's practically half the total work & time put into working on a book these days. fanfic doesnt have that! i guess my point is that you're thinking that, like fanfic, the pressure of what to cut on the chopping block will come to you if/when you do make the jump to "real" writing, but it likely won't. you'd have editors to say "these parts dont matter as much, chop them" or "this is lengthy, cut it down" so your job is to do the work they tell u n trust them lmfao. ofc if you become a diva writer who bitches n moans n refuses to edit that's a different story (and frankly one that's becoming more common as fanfic authors start to break into the traditional publishing world, and writing esp in ya is v much suffering as a result imo) but. well. i dont believe thatll be a problem for u merm JKBAAKJHFS esp considering ur already thinking abt it as for accessibility...... first off one of the benefits of posting on ao3 as opposed to tumblr is that ao3 has a ton of scripts for users that can help with that. but you can always leave a little note in a chapter saying "hey, this is a good time for a break!" or something. or break it up differently! s'all up to you

either way ik ill eagerly read anything u put out 😌 whether its 10k or 30k or 100k, fanfic or original <333

Omg, Pluvi, i love you LMAO sdkjsdklfjh okay okay hang on, lemme squint at this for a bit.

I’ve always wondered if like, this unedited freedom is what’s given rise to the whole, worship-culture of long fics?? Okay, worship-culture isn’t the right term for what I want, but we’re gonna keep it for now — idk, because unless you’ve got a guaranteed audience to sell to or an editor who REALLY goes to bat for you, most publishers are gonna be leery of like, things over 100k???? The chonky-ass book trend has only been a relatively recent thing!!! I remember Tamora Pierce (one of my favourite childhood authors!!) saying that Harry Potter/Stinker (derogatory) really opened up the door to publishers being more willing to print big books, because it was proving that there was enough kids out there who would read them.

And on one hand, I feel like fandom sort of proves that that can be true for a general audience, too. Because you’ll come into a fandom and there’ll be someone going, “omg read this super popular Dramonie fic!! it’s 300k and will take a solid week off your life but it’s sooooo good!!!” (i am not a dramonie fan personally but that has also not stopped me from reading some of the single most popular fics in that ship — mostly because i was listening to a podcast one day that was like, two hours long and was an interview with a really popular Dramonie author who’s fics I kept seeing on tiktok being book-bound???? idk, it was interesting! She talked about how she would finish a chapter in a week (jealous) and then send it off to her army of betas and then post it via her phone while in service at Church LMAO dslksdkljdfk anyways). But then I wonder, like — is it less about length, and more about what you can explore when given the freedom to write whatever you want? And people just confuse length with that freedom? Because I have read some long, long, long fics that I can tell you right now were better off stopping like, 50k in LMAO. And I think being a storyteller (which we all are, really) means knowing when enough’s enough (i say, like my dumb ass isn’t planning an interconnected trilogy sdlkfjsdlkjf).

The fanfic-author-to-pubbed-author pipeline is FASCINATING lmao, because I always think of 50 Shades of Gray :’) Our Twilight-loving friend really said, “replace Edward and Bella’s names and hit print money” and it WORKED LDSKFJLDKSFJ. I guess… more so because it was just blatant erotica? I feel like fanfic is a really good example of the power of hornee LOL. But also that people… want it???? I dunno, the overlap is fascinating. I think a really interesting like, case study in the power of an editor/beta is the Caroline Calloway story, who is like, very, very, micro-ly infamous for like, being an early instagram “influencer” — she likes to say that she pioneered the “long caption” trend, because she (as an American citizen) went off to Oxford University and started using her instagram to like, chronicle the magic of those days — rowboating with Titled peers, spending a weekend in Italian with aristocrats and eating squid-ink pasta at midnight. She would have these long, long captions that were poetic and charming and she gathered a bit of a modest following because of it — and ended up scoring like, a 200k book deal from it? A book deal that she then reneged on because she couldn’t deliver the finished product — because her friend, Natalie, was ghostwriting said book, after editing the instagram captions for her. They’d had a falling out during the process of writing the book and it’s proposal though — so obviously, Natalie wasn’t ghostwriting anymore, and Caroline, under the influence of an addiction, couldn’t deliver. To this DAY, Caroline is STILL promising a book that she’s trying to self-publish, but she’s been promising (and has opened pre-orders) for it since like, 2019 LMAO. Okay, you know what, that actually has literally nothing to do with what we’re discussing here right now LMAO but idk.. it’s fun so I’ll leave it in sdlkfjsdlkfj. A neat little detour!!!

writing’s hard. :’) and i think i personally find it harder than it might actually be because — I worry about it like it’s my job, instead of something i do for fun LMAO. and, ultimately, i am a people pleaser at heart!!! i will only ever write the things i like, but i want the people who read them and like them too to like… idk, have fun doing it, LOL. it’s fine, this is fine. It’s interesting, because I didn’t have this pressure working on my manuscript — I just wrote the story I wanted to, and then the strictness came when I sat down to edit it the first time. I was on my second round of edits when i fell head-first into BNHA and haven’t looked back since :’) but it does need an overhaul; especially at the beginning. I just dread…. going back and doing it, lmao, because idk where to start with it. but i do need to do something with it, since i did love this idea, once, and believed in it pretty whole-heartedly!!! but also: My Hero Academia 😩 Bakugou. 😔 Bakugou, my beloved.

#ofmermaidstories-asks #pluviophile and the sun shower 🌧💫🍂#pluvi coming in CLUTCH with the straight up facts #also yes please publish original stuff because i will eat it UPPP

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rpbetter · 3 years

Text

Reblog Etiquette (and ships)

At this point, we all know about “reblog karma” and “reblogging from source.” Though, I say that...and am questioning it. You should fucking know this by now, but in the event you don’t, let me define that shit for you.

Reblog Karma: the RPC’s oldest attempt at keeping people from clogging notifications and using others as meme resources. Essentially, don’t reblog a meme from a mutual unless you are sending them something from that meme first. Not all blogs practice it, or practice it the same way, please see their rules.

Reblogging from Source: another effort to stop being used as a meme/aesthetics resource. Many RPers would like you to reblog quotes, aesthetics, and memes from their source (original post location or the meme/aesthetics/quotes resource blog they got it from), even if you are sending them a meme. This is especially applicable when not interacting with the RPer.

Okay, that’s out of the way.

There is more to Reblog Etiquette than this!

And, when that etiquette is nonexistent, it almost always deals with a RPer’s ship. Mentioning ship partners and/or tagging ships on a reblog from another RPer, not removing that RPer’s mentions or tags, and even dropping a mention or outright RPing in the comments of another RPer’s reblog.

Don’t reblog from another mun and tag your ship or mention (@) your ship partner(s).

Don’t reblog a post with someone else’s mention still stuck to it.

Don’t reblog a post and leave the previous mun’s tags still in the tags.

Don’t go into the comments on someone’s post and mention your ship partner(s).

Don’t roleplay in the comments of someone else’s post.

None of this is alright, I have no idea what would make anyone think this is appropriate reblog etiquette, but it very much is not. It’s incredibly rude and lazy. Because I know that many people have similar ship aesthetics and so on, I’m not saying you shouldn’t reblog something for your own ships that a mutual has for theirs. (That’s a whole other in depth conversation we’ll have later.)

I’m saying that this is how you should be going about it:

Reblog from the source.

-What if there is no source because it’s deactivated, or there is another reason why I can’t access it?

Go into the post’s notes. At some point, damn near every post that could be used as an aesthetic, quote, or prompt for a ship (and RP in general) has been reblogged by at least one source blog. Look for RP meme, aesthetic, help, and other resource blog urls. If you cannot find one of those, look for urls that are general resource-style blogs. Personal blogs reblog aesthetics etc. as well, and there are many such resource blogs out there. -If you’re uncomfortable reblogging from a personal, that’s tough shit; I hate to break it to you, but most of your resources came from personal blogs. Deal with it, or don’t reblog anything you can’t find filtered through a RP specific resource.

-- “But this takes time/effort lol I just want to use it for my ship.” Again, tough shit. Sometimes, it does take energy not to be rude and do the right the thing. In all honesty, it’s fairly rare that doing the right thing is effortless, even when it’s something as simple as RP. Grow up.

--- You went through the notes, but there’s no appropriate blog to reblog from, now what?

Just because it’s a rare occurrence doesn’t mean it’s impossible. I know this one isn’t, I’ve had it happen too! My choice was to not reblog it at all, I just sent the link to my ship partner privately instead. If you don’t have that kind of friendship, you really wanted it on the dash, or another reason, you are now left with one option, and you’re not going to like it. Message the mutual you want to reblog from. Politely, explain that you’d like to reblog the post for your ship, and ask if they’re comfortable with it. No guilting, begging, or general, weird ass rudeness. If they decline, accept it just as politely, thank them for their response. If they accept, thank them, and especially if this isn’t a mutual you interact with much, be sure you’re showing them continued support on the dash by reading and liking/commenting on their headcanon posts and other appropriate material. (You should be anyway.)

Remove any mentions present (@’s)

Seriously, this is incredibly rude! Yet, with the typical lack of self-reflection and awareness of others in the RPC here, I see it multiple times a day on my dash. Not just with RP-blog-to-RP-blog interaction either, I also see RPers reblogging from personals and leaving their mentions attached. (I see it the other way around too, but I’m not here to school personal blogs.) For all the excessive emphasis RPers put on appearance, you’d think they’d want to get rid of something that looks this sloppy, but no. Not if it takes one extra second of effort!

-I know that xkit’s editable reblogs tends to break whenever tumblr gives us a new, exciting, hideous, insulting, limitation, I mean update, but come the fuck on. It is also one of the quickest things to regain functionality, so, maybe you should save the reblog to drafts, be following xkit’s blog for updates, and edit it once there has been a patch. If it’s worth it to you, it’s worth a short wait. When it’s working, you can easily remove that mention with editable reblogs.

--If you’re going to use being mobile as an excuse, or if you don’t want to wait on it/don’t use xkit, again, go to the source. And, also again, if that isn’t an option, you can find where it has been reblogged by an appropriate blog at some point in its history, sans mentions. Reblog from there.

Do not reblog someone else’s tags (#)

Some people have their xkit set up to reblog automatically with the previous poster’s tags. While that can be useful in some situations, I can think of, very literally, no situation this is appropriate for an RPer to use. If you have this set up on your personal/resource blog/wtfe and your RP blog is a sideblog (or you are using certain methods of having your browser open to two separate blog accounts where your xkit settings are transferring over), it’s up to you to delete the tags on these posts.

-It takes maybe one full second to click in the tag field and hit your delete button a few times to clear it. Do that. It’s never, ever, appropriate to keep someone’s ship, muse, verse, or other personalized tags attached to a reblog.

--If you are a personal blog reading this somehow, maybe you’re wanting to get into RP, please take note of this. This is one of the many reasons why most RPers will not interact with personals. We don’t like you reblogging an aesthetic post and keeping our tags on it.

In the case of both situations, not only is it rude and lazy, it’s fucking with someone else’s tags and privacy. Most RPers don’t want their content showing up in generally searchable tags, it’s one of the reasons that personalizing tags came about. Furthermore, if I’m on my dash and click a mutual’s custom tag for aesthetics, verses, ships, and so on, it’s now going to come up with instances of those tags on someone else’s blog as well.

Delete the fucking tags if they auto-populate. Don’t use someone else’s custom tags of your own volition either.

“Subverting” reblogs to mention in comments is a hard no, too

-So, you don’t want to reblog the post, but do want to @ your ship partner(s) in it? There’s no way to do that without being rude and strange. To be honest, this is even worse than just reblogging and tagging your ship.

I may not be the OP, but you came onto a post on my blog, one very likely tagged for my ships and/or having my ship partners mentioned on it, and commented on it mentioning your ship partner. It’s every bit as offensive and more so than someone reblogging from me and using it for a ship I’m not a part of. I don’t know what’s worse, when that other mun is a ship partner, casual mutual who doesn’t interact, or a writing partner but not ship partner. It’s all deeply fucked up. No one’s RP blog is here for your use like this!

--You’re also not subverting anything. I think the idea is to be polite or go unnoticed. People seem to lack a basic grasp on how tumblr works; you get notifications on reblogged posts you are not the OP of when someone comments on them just like you get a notif when someone likes it. The only way to genuinely be secretive about this would be to comment on it from the source or a resource blog. They will get the notification.

If you are commenting on, liking, or reblogging a post you see on the dash, the person having reblogged it, putting it there for you to encounter, will be notified of your interaction with it.

---What I’m saying, just in case it isn’t abundantly clear, for the third time now: you’re not being slick. Your mutuals will see that you weirdly @’ed someone in a comment on their reblog. They know.

----The appropriate behavior is to do just as advised in the above points: GO TO THE SOURCE. If no source exists, find an appropriate resource blog in the notes. You may then, and only then, give that mention in a comment.

Frankly, it’s still weird, and I would recommend you just reblog it from the source to interact with it. There is always the option of sending it to the intended party by way of tumblr’s messenger or linking the post in an off tumblr messenger like discord.

I say this because it hasn’t escaped my attention that the only time I have this issue on my own RP blog is when the imagery or text is fucking filthy. As in, Other Mun didn’t want something that sexual, kinky, violent, and so on to be posted to their own blog. You need to grow up if that’s your deal. Like writing smut or violence, if you need to do it in private only, you’re obviously not adult enough to handle the topic.

Keep your roleplay where it belongs; in your inbox and threads

-It’s not appropriate to start up RP in the comments of another RPer’s reblogged ship aesthetic. (Or anything else, this just happens to be the most common.) It’s incredibly odd and offensive to look in your notifications and see that a mutual and their ship partner are flirting, or outright fucking, in the comments of a post you reblogged for your ship.

It’s just as awkward feeling and offensive when someone reblogs the post and begins full-blown RP on it. It’s one thing when it’s a post originating from an RP resource blog, or when it’s kept to something like a mention and a short line that your writing partner can start their original post in inspiration of. But...

--You know how I said above that auto-copying tags thing is one of the reasons why RPers are iffy about personal blogs? Well, this is one of the reasons why personal blogs think RPers are exceedingly weird members of fandom that need to be excluded and devalued. It’s odd, especially if you’ve never encountered RP, to see someone reblogging your quote, moodboard, or other original post and RPing on it.

Listen, we all need to RP some crack and commentary sometimes, but it’s best left in the tags or put into a new post.

---Instead of RPing (not sorry, especially if it is smut) on that post, link the image to show in a new post, and go from there.

Please remember to be polite about artists, including photographers and gifers, when you do this! Tumblr automatically gives the source of imagery when you use a link to display the picture, that’s why I recommended doing that instead of saving, then re-uploading the image as though it is your own. If you’re going to do that, even if it’s just silliness going on, give mention of the artist, photographer’s blog/site, or gifer’s blog in the tag or below the image.

Tumblr is deeply unfriendly to artists of all sorts, don’t be fuel that. When you upload artwork for the sake of RP, again, even if it’s just crack, that’s literally violating what artists ask people not to do; you’re reposting their art without permission and credit.

#rp better #reblog etiquette #rp advice #rp help #psa #rp psa #mun behavior #ships #tumblr rpc

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lostinfantasies38 · 3 years

Text

Fic Writer Meme

Name

Fandoms

Most popular multichapter

Actual worst part of writing

How you choose your titles

Do you outline

Ideas I probably won’t get around to, but wouldn’t it be nice?

Callouts @ Me

Best writing traits

Spicy Tangential Opinion

Name: Jordie is what everyone calls me and my username on Tumblr and AO3 is Lostinfantasies38, so I’m easy to track down

Fandoms: Over the years there have been many fandoms I’ve held dear, but my recent work is in Dragon Age and Dear Evan Hansen. I have temporarily left DA for some fresh air in DEH and have been doing very well there.

Most Popular Oneshot: I actually have a tie for this one and surprisingly, they are from separate fandoms.

Permanent Ink from DA: Origins, featuring Alistair and my male Warden OC Zane Cousland is quite spicy and tender. If you like pining bi-Alistair and schmexy love interests, this one is for you.

For You I Could Be was my very first DEH fic and it’s taken the fandom by storm, which still shocks the pants off me. It’s a deviation from canon and focuses on Evan and Connor realizing they have feelings for each other. Read the tags though since triggering content is mentioned.

Most Popular Multichapter: I’m sure you’re all tired of hearing about Sun Touched and Find Me Well Within Your Grace, but they are tied yet again. Sun Touched is my Dwarven Warden novelization of DA: Origins with Sirra Brosca and Alistair. Find Me Well is a head-canon fueled prequel of DA featuring young Cullistair at the abbey.

I won’t bore you all with the details, but I am very proud of both fics. I hope to come back and finish them once I’m the right head-space to devote the time to them that they deserve.

Actual Worst Part of Writing: The plot and staying on target. I tend to get side tracked by character development at times and that can derail an entire story if I’m not careful. I’m also incredibly careful to not lose a character’s voice while trying to flesh out a whole new side of them in my work. It’s a delicate balance. I want to do them justice, so while playing with them in AUs is fun, I still want them to sound like “them” and not caricatures.

How You Choose Your Titles: Through blood, sweat, and typically numerous tears and hair pulling sessions. I like my titles to reflect the story, but not sound too fucking cheesy, and sometimes that feels like an impossible task. I try to avoid using song lyrics personally, but I have done it once or twice in a pinch, I won’t lie.

Do you outline: FUCK NO. I have tried and I can’t stick to them. I’m also the type that once I write it out, even in an outline, I lose interest in that particular piece. I need the scenes to be fresh and literally banging on the door of my brain so they flow properly. Everything is fixed/cleaned up in editing, but if the emotion is missing in the initial draft it takes a monumental effort later to keep it from ringing hollow. Sometimes the drafts can’t be saved, period, after outlining and I’ve scraped entire stories/chapters because of it.

Ideas I probably won’t get around to, but wouldn’t it be nice: I have an entire folder of shelved DA stories in the wings that I’m not sure will ever see the light of day now. I’m hesitant to say “never,” but truthfully the more time passes the more likely that word becomes.

They include: (1) a modern carta/cop AU ft. Sirra/Alistair, (2) part 2 and 3 planned continuations of Find Me Well following Alistair and Cullen through DAI, (3) Varric/Charise Trevelyan DAI story full of intrigue and the House of Repose, (4) world weary veteran Grey Warden Alistair/Rylie Trevelyan DAI, chock full of dashing heroics and a swooning damsel in distress, (5) Cullen/Eryka Cadash DAI with lots of tension/angst due to the Carta & Commander angle causing friction [interpret that how you will, lol!] (6) a modern color soulmate AU with a unique twist ft. Cullen/Alistair (7) a Siren!AU ft. Sirra/Alistair and a cutthroat island of traitorous bitches (8) and finishing my incomplete DA stories. As a bonus, (9) there is a football AU for DEH that I started during NaNo, but it may end up in the scrap pile, too. I’m still picking at it, but meh, we’ll see.

Callouts at Me: Guilt.

Honestly, I know we do this for free and we have no obligation to write/complete these stories, but we all do it because we love it. Yet with each incomplete story, coupled with my rather abrupt departure from the DA fandom, my guilt has grown exponentially.

However, I can’t allow it to hold me back and continue to eat away at my soul. It keeps me from being productive and having a hope and a prayer of finishing what I started. If this means that I play in a new fandom for a while, then so be it. I wish I had more familiar faces to follow me there, but I understand it’s not for everyone and I would never make demands. Though, that doesn’t mean I don’t miss my usual readers and the comments I looked forward to, but I have relocated and I have to accept that. Just know that I still love you all and miss the fuck out of you.

Best Writing Traits: Emotionally evocative prose and creating realistically flawed characters are what I’m best at. My characters are not perfect, because who the fuck can relate to perfection? Who would want to? They are flawed, broken, dealing with a shit ton of trauma as best as they can, and generally bumbling through life. Yes, they may have a LI, but they are not “cured” by love. They are supported by an equally flawed person as they continue to stumble through life, though with fewer face plants than before because they have someone to (hopefully) catch them whenever they aren’t overwhelmed with their own crises. And making all the pain and growth as lyrical as possible is my favorite part.

Sometimes I nail dialogue, too, but more often than not that’s simply luck after hours of talking to myself and laughing/crying so hard I had to include it in a fic.

Spicy Tangential Opinion: Every single kudo, like, reblog, or comment is special. I know it’s easy to focus on the “quantity” of them - but each one represents a real person that one of my stories has emotionally resonated with. Every day we write and post we’re affecting real people behind our stats, which means we can treasure every single one. Talking about the numbers and engagement erases that fact, and I wish more people treasured every individual interaction for the meaningful gesture about their work it is. Each one is a little spark of ‘you are loved’ in the world. {Keeping this Manka because you summed it up beautifully! Bravo!}

Throwing this out into the world! Tag list below (authors only this time, sorry my lovely artist friends) but feel no obligation to do so! Also sorry if you already got tagged!

@kittimau @jennserr @jellysharkbat @fandomn00blr @bigfan-fanfic @blarfkey@darlingrutherford @herald-divine-hell @cassandra-pentughasst @c-e-c-r-o-p-i-a @river-of-asgard @giraffesanddietpepsi @pikapeppa @simper-fi

#fic tag meme #dragon age #dear evan hansen #long post #cullistair #sirrastair #treebros #evan x connor #alistair x brosca #zanistair #alistair x cousland #alistair x inquisitor #varric x charise #culladash #deh

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vesperstalksclones · 4 years

Text

Wrecker x Mando Femme OC

The Naked Truth

(18 +) explicit

So this is a gratuitous smut snippet of a Wrecker centered Bad Batch story, post Order 66. But of course, I'm writing the juicy parts first lol. I wanted to post because who knows if I'll finish it, and tumblr needs some Wrecker smut! So, following is unprotected sex, a difficult first coupling, ample fondling, and one surprisingly gentle guy, which is still pretty rough since he's built like a draft horse.... and hung like one... 😳

Quick synopsis:

(OH please pardon my lazy editing, I forgot to go spell check my Mando'a, so I kriffed up a few things 🤨)

The crew have been hiring themselves out to make $$ to fuel the Maurauder, buy supplies, etc. They take a job as armed support for a Mandalorian cell on a rather obscure outer rim planet, who have been clashing with the local crime syndicate. He meets Kessa-Lan, a stoic female warrior with a knack for explosives and an excellent rifleman. Of course our big goofy boy is smitten instantly, but her voice! Its all husky and full of pepper (think like Demi Moore) and he is going to die from loving it. But.. she refuses to take her helmet or armor off in his presence, but not because of strict code; Kessa was injured badly several years ago when her village was attacked by several of the crime family's enforcers. The burns resulted in the loss of her right arm, and her neck, shoulder, and face on the right side are terribly scarred. She has no ear on that side, and half her face is covered by cybernetic skin, with a replacement eye as well. She grows her hair in to thick braids, woven with beads and mementos, so that the locks can hide some of the disfigurement. She is ashamed and afraid that he wouldn't be so enamored if he saw her properly. So some stuff happens… pew pew, boom, pew, etc,etc. Wrecker ends up captured by the crime syndicate's local cell, with a few of Kessa's Vode, and he recognizes their sigil as the group who destroyed Kessa's village and harmed her so terribly. He manages to trick them into bringing him to a meeting hall alone, so they don't use the others as human shields to keep him in check. He taunts the leader in to a one on one fight (they think he's heavily sedated) and when they've uncuffed him, he visits some terrible hell on the three odd dozen elites, but suffers serious injuries in the process. The Bad Batch finds him and rushes off planet to an old friend with a bacta tank and the medical skills to save him. Upon returning, the Batch proceeds to obliterate the criminals and Wrecker seeks out his love interest, hoping she is at least a little bit happy to see him.

OOOOO Here's the good stuff OOOOO

Wrecker Circled her silently, looking her up and down with a quiet intensity. A few times he stilled, and she felt the calloused pads of his fingers ghost over a scar or a patch of freckles. Stopping behind her, his hands came to rest on her shoulders, thumbs caressing for a moment before they slid to her wrists and gently lifted her arms to the air. She felt him shift, no doubt examining them as he had done the rest of her, running his fingers along the lengths, assessing the differences between the one, flesh and bone, and the other, cold cybernetics.

"Beautiful." He whispered so low she could barely make out the word.

"Hmmm?"

"Beautiful, Mesh'la." He reached for her wrists again, raising her arms higher and positioning them around his neck, "You're a dream come to life."

She leaned against him as his lips brushed her undamaged shoulder, nibbling a gentle path towards her neck.

Retracing the path along her arms, he splayed his fingers wide and his great hands smoothed along her sides and over her hips, climbing up over her abdomen and ribs in slow circuits. When his lips reached her cheek, she turned her face, catching them with her own, and he wrapped his arms tightly around her torso, pulling her as flush against him as he could manage. He sighed into her mouth, kissing and licking at her softly.

For a moment Kessa was able to appreciate that no matter how brutally strong this behemoth may be, he had an inherently gentle heart. She had half expected to be flung down and ravaged by Wrecker the moment she bared her skin to him, as eagerly as he had flirted with her and as hungry as his eyes always were. She certainly hadn't expected this sensual caressing as he savored her in his arms. Despite the tautness of every muscle she could feel against her back, and the slight tremor in his hands, he held himself quiet and steady.

He broke away from her, turning his gaze back down her body, thoroughly enjoying the view. He slumped backwards, leaning against the crude table, hands full of her breasts as he arched her against him, and she hissed as he toyed with the dark peaks of her nipples. He experimented for a few moments, weighing her in his hands, varying the force of his grasp, rolling and pinching at the buds until he found just the right movement to make her whimper.

"That's right Sugar, sing for me so I know what you like…." he growled low in her ear, his voice growing impossibly deeper. One of his massive paws had crept to the juncture of her thighs, and he traced the crease thoughtfully. "Spread your legs, Dala. I want to touch you".

She obliged, wiggling her hips as she did so, feeling his hard member ride up against the small of her back. Wrecker hummed in appreciation, as his fingers crept into her warmth and, finding her slick and eager for him, dove right in. Seeking out the bundle of nerves at the front, he stroked with two fingers, trapping the delicate flesh and sending marvelous tingling sensations through her belly.

"Remember… my tongue was here before…" he whispered, ".. but you hid the rest of you then, all tucked away in that armor and that helmet… killed me to have to listen to you through a moderator." The two fingers flexed and curled, and then plunged inside her, and she clamped around them with a ragged moan, her jaw dropping open from the sudden intrusion. " Kriffing hell! That's nice!" he gasped into her neck.

He thrust into her eagerly, dragging his thumb across her clit each time, spurred along by Kessa's mewls and cries.

"Fuck! That voice ad'ika! Just listening t'ya could finish me!" He scraped his teeth along her jaw, and she could feel him trembling against her, his breath warm and moist at her ear. "So many times, all I could think was what you'll sound like when you take my cock."

She squirmed, rocking her hips and riding his hand. "Ah.. Wrecker! I want you inside me cy'aire, please!"

"Not yet, doll. Ladies first, then we'll see what happens." He couldn't ignore the burst of sensation brought on by her plea, begging for him to stuff himself between her thighs, and he couldn't help but to roll his hips against her, finding small satisfaction in rutting against her lower back.

"So tight, love. I'm giving you another…" he ground out hoarsely, before adding a third thick finger to her besh, groaning in satisfaction as she arched against him with a sob. "I'm so 'fraid I'll hurt you."

He felt her relax after a few thrusts, her slick running down the back of his hand. Her sounds were growing more frantic, and she was moving against him with purpose… "Are you there Sugar? Give it to me doll, come for me…let it go..." he pleaded gently.

She pulled his hand roughly to her breast, and he massaged and plucked at her roughly, causing Kessa to yelp and tighten around his knuckles. He stroked her only a few more times before she stiffened and shuddered, giving a broken cry. Wrecker watched in awe as the climax washed over her features, feeling her body contract around his fingers, her nails scraping at his shoulders. He could have wept at the sight, her lashes fanned over her dark cheek… the slight chatter of her teeth as her head lolled against his shoulder.. She drew out such profound feelings in him, his beautiful, pepper voiced, warrior goddess… that is if he wasn't so insanely desperate to pound her 'til her bones rattled.

Chest heaving, Kessa made to move away and he withdrew carefully. She turned and plastered herself against his chest, beaming up at him, one soul-less cybernetic eye blazing red, the other an explosion of green and gold and brown, a swirl of starlit colors as stunning as the glowing gas nebulae he had seen in his travels.

"Now!" She gasped, breathless still, "I want you on top of me!"

"Hmmmm.. mesh'la I don't dare."

Her eyes widened in confusion.

"Kess'ika, there isn't a soft surface anywhere in here; I'd beat you to hell darlin. I know my strength and I know how stupid I'm gonna get."

He rose from where he leaned against the rough work table, considering it carefully.

"But this'll do, I'll break this instead!" He shoved it back hard against the wall with a soft chuckle and turned to reach for her. She came to him eagerly, and he scooped her up, grinding her against him a few times with a satisfied groan, and he deposited her on the surface.

"You're ready for me?" He asked, drawing himself close between her legs.

"Um-hmm. Wrecker, take this off." She demanded gently, tugging at the skin tight black shirt he wore. He obligingly peeled it upwards and felt her hands on his skin before it cleared his shoulders. Flinging the garment away he admired the look on Kessa's face as she explored his chest and abdomen.

"These look terrible." She whispered, her fingers ghosting over the newly healed blaster wounds.

He gently butted his head against hers. "They're worth it if it means you sleep better at night." He grinned as he kissed her; she framed his face with her hands, deepening the kiss, and when he opened for her, Kessa's tongue brushed over his, making him see stars.

He jerked his trousers down his thighs and pressed her backwards upon the bench. Wrecker grasped her knees, spreading her wide before him and rolled himself against her, gliding his rigid cock through her wetness for good measure. She pushed up on her elbows, watching him thoroughly wet himself, before fisting his member and aligning himself with her opening.

Seven hells, he was big, well proportionally correct anyway for a man the size of a mountain, and she realized his purpose in using his fingers first... it would have been difficult without some preparation. He pushed against her, gritting his teeth with strain. Her jaw fell slack as he stretched her, his rounded head easing its way in.

"Is this alright cy'aire?" He hissed. "Hurts?"

He paused, shaking against her as he struggled with his overtaxed libido.

"Yes, love, I'm alright," she held his gaze, wanting him to see clearly that she wasn't lying for his benefit. She groped for his hands where they held her hips tightly, clinging to them for stability. He continued to push in to her, pausing to withdraw and return to claim another inch of her space. Her muscles burned as she took him, but it wasn't unbearable and each gentle motion felt better than the last.

"Give me all of you, Wrecker. I'm ready," She gasped.

He watched her for a moment, sweat beading on his forehead from the tension, and then flexed his ass and plunged forward, landing flush against her thighs and she wailed under him.

"Fuck! Kessa, I'm sorry! I'll stop…"

"No! Wrecker don't you dare!" She dug her nails into his wrists. "Just hold still a moment." She drew a deep breath willing her protesting muscles to relax, as he gently kneaded her hips.

"Kessa, we don't have to do this, love..."

"I'm ok cy'aire. It's just.. it's been a long, long time, and you're… well… you!" She gave a tug at both arms.

"Again, just start slowly, I was made for this, you know."

"To be mated by a bantha??"

She burst out laughing, and his eyes rolled back in his head from the contractions it caused around his cock.

"Jengo's bones woman! Kriffing HELL that feels amazing!"

"You said before you liked my voice enough to get off on it," She quipped, a coy look settling on her face.

"No doubt."

He stooped and kissed her hungrily, before bracing his palms on the table and tentatively moved his hips against her. Gradually he withdrew and then returned, filling her to bursting. She felt him drag against the most deliciously sensitive places, and each one sent hot electricity up her spine. Catching his honey brown eyes, she nodded and he quickened his movements, breathing raggedly from the sensations.

"Kessa… " he uttered her name again and again, like a prayer. " Oh… Kessa... Gods… you feel so good, woman.. I can't… I can't believe .. you let me … touch you like this!" Wrecker gasped, punctuating his words with sharp thrusts. "Wanted you for so damn long. Want you for myself… keep you… My woman.."

"You'd better ruin every other cock for me then" she replied, the words turning in to breathy moans.

With a sound somewhere between a groan and a snarl, he roughly gathered her up in his arms, his kiss pressing her into the table, his thighs slamming forward harshly against the wooden edges - and they were vaguely aware of the sound of something breaking. She mewled into his mouth, clawing at his back and neck, desperate to pull him closer than he already was.

"Are you going to come on my cock, love?" He growled. She couldn't do much more than whimper. "Come on mesh'la, scream for me. Wanna feel you!" He reared up, cradling her hips in an iron grip as he rammed into her, feral noises curling from deep within his chest. Kessa dug her nails against the table, watching his member disappear within her again and again, shining with her slick. She knew that she only ever wanted him. No other man should ever have her this way.

"Wrecker… I love you cy'aire, only you.. I'm yours however you want me.." she cried as her tension built, her release looming. "Come inside me cy'aire, I want you to…" something shattered within her and her climax washed over her. The world turned upside-down and the stars exploded in her eyes, and she screamed, just like he'd asked..

Seeing Kessa coming undone beneath him, her hot tight muscles contracting around him proved his undoing. A hard thrust, and another, and the third had him surging into her, her cries ringing in his ears; a more beautiful sound he had never heard, and his own climax claimed him, drawing blackness across his eyes.

He didn't quite faint; he was still sailing on the ripples of the best orgasm he had ever had, and his vision slowly came to focus. Kessa was watching him with a look of immense satisfaction, like a proud loth-cat who had just eaten the proverbial song bird.. He was trembling still, with the occasional harsh shudder as she continued still to tighten and relax against his softening cock.

He reached for her chin. "Kessa, did I hurt you sweetheart?"

"Yes." She groaned. "It was amazing. Do it again."

He wasn't quite sure what to make of that, when she grabbed his neck and pulled him down for a wet kiss.

"I meant what I said. Wrec."

He grinned crookedly and kissed her back. "We need to find a proper bed darlin'.

Pretty sure this pic is by Mollo101; whose Star Wars art is AMAZING!! Sorry so dark and melancholy, but there is a lack of Wrecker fanart out there!

#clone wars #bad batch #wrecker #clone wars smut #smoke show mando lady #wrecker deserves some good puss puss #stand at attention sir

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peachnewt · 3 years

Note

So I was thinking about starting my own vore series, but I've never been great at anything more than a short story. Have you got any tips on writing more lengthy stories?

Hoooooh boy. Lemmie try and channel my old writing professors and then half of writing tumblr/twitter, which kinda negates half of what I learned with the professors. This is gonna be a meandering mess.

Please note that this is coming from a hobbyist writer who has done a total of 6 books over 11 years. I'm not the fastest or most organized of writers, but I hope what experience I have as a writer in the vore community will help.

- If you already have experience with a short story, then you have a good start! You know how to do a beginning, a middle, and an end. Not every book in the series needs to be novel-length. A series can consist of short stories linked together. You decide how many words are needed to get the story across.

Writing a series is juggling a short term story goal or character arcs in a single story, but then the overarching theme/goal is what goes throughout the series. A bunch of small beginnings-middles-ends within a bigger beginning-middle-end. Usually the small B-M-Es contribute to furthering the big B-M-E. Or some really tiny bmes for smaller character arcs.

Look to any favorite series you already follow for examples of story arcs; tv series, movie series, manga series. See how they do it and use it as a guide until you find your own way.

-A lot of writing a series is planning. Or at least having a vague list of things that need to happen to get to the end of the series as you imagine it. You'll prolly have a long list of things you need for the end. It will grow as you write, some things get cut. Not every book is going to cover a lot of things on that list, they might end up like a fluffy filler episode. That's fine as long as you have fun with it; make it an opportunity to do some world-building or character building/backstory.

-There is such thing as over-planning; when you get so bogged down in details that writing the actual story seems impossible. Best thing I've found is to start small. A small event, or action, or discovery that propels the story in what seems the right direction, and then go with it. Write all of the chaos you discover as you go with it. Even if it's not necessary.

When you go back and reread what you've done, make another list, write what important things happened in that scene, and the next scene, and the next scene. You now have a list of events to focus on when you go back and edit and it'll help you figure out the bme. If you need to keep track of individual character arcs, color-code your list for each character.

I had to do this a lot with getting back into writing Spilling Guts; I had written myself into a corner and need a map out of the minefield. I ended up separating the POVs by coloring the font in my world document. Will - Blue. Louis - Red. Megan and Teegan - Green. Etc.

Big note, not all editing is "cutting". Just because something doesn't add to the story as a whole doesn't mean it needs to get chopped. Is it fun? Does it add flavor to the story or character? Keep it but refine it so it'll fit better. It might be useful later in the series. ^_^

-There are some series where each book can stand independent of the rest of the books in the series. That's cool. Then there are books that are so interconnected with the books previous that to understand it on its own requires a dive into a fandom wiki. That's cool too.

-Fun fact: I posted the first book of the Getting In Deep series with no beta reader an only a vague list of things I wanted to happen in the series. It was a "first draft". Ten years later I'm still trying to rewrite it so it will flow better with what the series has become. I still have no beta reader, but I welcome commenters to point out any misspellings, corrections, or possible plot holes.

Your first draft will prolly suck. You will have to accept that.

People will read your first draft and not like it. You will have to accept that.

People will read your first draft and absolutely love it despite you seeing all the flaws. You will also have to accept that. Don't negate their positivity! You done a good! Accept that fuzzy feeling you get when someone praises what you did.

We grow and evolve as writers. What we think of as clever or impactful when we first write it will seem awkward and clunky later when we get more experience. That's fine. Also, there is never "enough experience".

-The best way to overcome any haters (people flaming for no reason other than they want attention/validation) is to delete their comment and keep writing and enjoying what you do. Give them nothing. Fight with spite and glitter in your stories. Do not apologize for enjoying what you write.

Imma leave you with links to professionals in writing:

Caity Schmidt - she has a youtube series called "Keysmash Edu" about plots and story arcs. Lotta informative graphs. Also she's in the middle of writing her own series; The Wanderer's War. ^_^

Kate Cavanaugh - a writer having fun with different styles of writing, motivation, and occasional live writing sprints. ^_^

Malorie Cooper - Author of a long space opera series, and does live writing sprints on the daily! Sometimes in cosplay! ^o^

ShaywiththeHobbies - Writing, mindfulness, and crafting. Always important to do things other than writing to enrich your mental space. ^_^

tldr - Have fun. Start small. Don't stop. ^_^

#writing advice

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deardragonbook · 3 years

Text

Oppida Institute for Reformation (Act 1 - Chapter 1)

Chapter 1

"A fairy mafia exchanging souls for loafs of bread." Improbable but not impossible.

"A rogue group of centaurs releasing tame horses into the wild." Probable, plausible, not important enough for Henry to care.

"A village blaming the mages for a lightning strike." Improbable, possible. Henry made a note to look into it.

"A boarding school specializing in problematic children rumoured to be abusive." Henry tapped his fingers and sat up straighter. The place was relatively new, opened just four years ago. Private schools weren't really a thing, not since the education reform in Year eight of Dalayla's reign. This was the exception. It promised a safe place for problematic children before things got worse. It promised twenty-four-hour attention away from parents and guardians.

These were all mere rumours. A nice and orderly list composed for Henry by his men. Most would be ignored. But where children were involved Henry would rather not take any risks.

He highlighted the rumour before standing up from his desk.

He opened the door to his office; the light rudely invaded his eyes making him squint as he stepped into the hall locking the door behind him.

The two guards that stood outside his door nodded politely.

Henry nodded back, "keep up the good work," he mumbled as he walked down the hall towards the throne room. He didn't spare a glance for the guards on either side of the thick wooden doors, he didn't knock, he pushed the doors open and entered at a fast pace.

On the very farthest end of the throne room, standing still and staring out the window at the palace ground was a man in regal clothing and a crown. The king with his dark brown hair and matching beard turned to look at Henry.

"Where's the head of security?"

"What's he done this time, Henry?"

Henry rolled his eyes, "nothing. I have a job for him."

"Nothing? Your tone would lead any person to believe he assigned a known Corevire spy as my personal bodyguard."

"Wouldn't surprise me," Henry snorted. "He should be here guarding you."

"Free time is a rarity with you filling every waking moment with meetings, I told him to leave me be. Can a man not enjoy some alone time?" No answer was expected. None would be given.

Henry looked out the window at the new recruits who were training. "Anything promising?"

"They're all promising. They made it this far after all."

"I'm sure they will all go on to serve this Kingdom well..." Henry's eyes moved through the garden, "there he is." He turned on his heels and walked towards the door.

"Yes Henry, you're excused. Goodbye. I hope you too have a lovely day." Philip mumbled with his hands behind his back and eyes on the garden.

Henry walked through the garden in large strides, dodging a couple of distracted new recruits in the midst of a sword fight. "Frederick!" he called for the head of security and captain of the royal guard.

The man turned from his place, talking to Tristan who was managing this years apprentices.

Frederick was a large man; muscular, he had a military style haircut and a nasty scar just visible on his collarbone above his uniform. Intimidating to most. Not Henry. "There are rumours."

Frederick raised a brow, "aren't there always?" seeing Henry cross his arms he pursed his lips and tried to sound serious, "what can I do about it?"

"I want a full investigation on Oppida Institute for Reformation."

He looked taken aback before tilting his head. "That private boarding school for rich spoilt kids?"

Henry was about to respond but lucky for Frederick Tristan stepped in, "troubled children." Tristan was a good head shorter than Frederick; his golden hair was in a neat ponytail, but a few locks fell over his shoulder. He twirled the loose locks in his left hand. "It's expensive, so it is true a lot of kids who go there must have well off parents, but at what cost? First sign of trouble and their parents send them away..." he shook his head, "a pity. Why is an investigation called for Henry?"

"Rumours," Henry uncrossed his arms finally. "No evidence, probably nothing. But I want to be sure."

Tristen nodded, "of course. You can never be too safe."

Frederick didn't look thrilled, "we are going to waste resources and time on rumours? Are there not more important things we should be attending?"

"More important than the safety of the kingdom's children?" Henry stared Frederick dead in the eyes. Green eyes met grey. Daring him to say anything.

Frederick shrugged, "I'm here to follow your orders Sir."

"Good. Remember that." He turned to Tristan, "any promising new recruits?"

Tristan smiled, "many. The apprentices this year are all applied, relentlessly so. I have to force them to take breaks and even then I sometimes catch them studying protocol. Oh, you must come down one day to meet them, I am certain you will be pleased."

Henry smiled and nodded, "good. I will have to find the time. Will you be able to place them all?"

"I'll find a way, I must. They're too good to lose. That was what me and Frederick were talking about before your arrival."

Henry nodded, "of course. Well, I should leave you two to it then. I expect a report soon," he warned Frederick before taking his leave.

"Eavesdropping?" Elizabeth crossed her arms.

Jack turned in one swift movement, so he was facing his fellow apprentice, "no." But he was fooling nobody.

Elizabeth looked past Jack at the adults, Tristan, Frederick and a stranger. "Who's he?"

"You don't know?" Jack looked dumbfounded, "you're kidding."

Elizabeth raised a brow, "not all of us have parents who work in the palace." She reminded, "tell me," she ordered, her voice stern.

"Sir Henry Brown, he's the king's right-hand man, the second most powerful man in the kingdom."

"Really?" Elizabeth scrunched up her nose, "he doesn't look powerful."

"He is," Jack reaffirmed, "and he had high expectations. Let me make a recommendation, don't draw his attention."

Elizabeth grinned, "you see Jack, there's the difference between you and me."

The boy raised a brow.

"You're scared of what that man can take from you, but what's the point of being good if people of power don't notice you?"

Jack looked down at his sword, small, a training sword. "Perhaps when I get better."

Elizabeth pulled out her own training sword, "then what are you waiting for? Fight me."

Before Jack could agree Elizabeth's sword was swinging and he had to pull his sword out to block it. He mumbled something too low for her to hear.

"Say that to my face," She stepped forward powerful and well-trained swing, "or better yet," she blocked his strike, "to my sword."

Author’s Note

This is a prequel series to my book Dear Dragon.

Read the first 18 chapters (entire act 1) on my wattpad, I updated every Tuesday. It’s not as polished as my main book as it has always been intended to be free on the internet, however, it is still properly outlines and about three drafts long!

Which, leads into the fact I’ll probably be writing a post soon about my different editing methods I use for different mediums.

Also, last but not least, shootout to @physicsgoblin who just started editing there first draft! Took a look at their blog and they have some really interesting content. Sorry I didn’t reply to your note, this blog is actually not my primary one as I decided to create a new one and not mix my personal ramblings with this but I didn’t realise Tumblr limits social interactions on none-primary blogs!

So I guess I’ll also take this chance to say that if anybody wants me to respond to them you have to use the ask button or I think private messages also work (not too sure, sorry).

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