#don't try to open that draft in another tab and write up your reply and post it

[daemondaes]

sometimes i find things in my drafts

[vuulpecula]

2. How do you stay motivated when writing? Do you have any tips? 6. Do you have a process of approach when writing, or do you gravitate towards whatever you or your muse is feeling? Do you mind sharing what your process looks like? 7. Are you a plotter or a pantser (someone who wings it)? Why are you one more so than the other, if applicable? 8. What do you think your best writing quality is? 9. Do you visualize scenarios in your head while writing? 10. Do you prefer character development and relationships, or plotlines / story progression? 13. What is a way in which you handle or acknowledge stress / burnout / writer's block? 14/ What is a song that brings you joy? 17. What are some of your favorite tropes? 20. What is your favorite positive trait or habit you have given a character?

✖ marvelous munday meme

answers below the cut ! apologies in advance, they got kind of long !

2. how do you stay motivated when writing? do you have any tips?

as someone who struggles a lot with imposter syndrome, staying motivated can some times be really difficult. even opening my drafts or the webpage itself can be intimidating, but i find that when i'm really excited about something: a setting, a plot idea, a genre, that gets a lot easier. music also helps a lot! it's sometimes less motivation and more of a focus tool, but every little thing helps. my biggest tip would be to write what you love. if you aren't writing something you love, its going to add another layer of struggle, so i always try to throw something in, even if its small, so that i'm more likely to look at it and find the muse so to speak. For instance, i love writing setting and atmosphere, but i really struggle when it comes to shorter replies or just dialogue, they just don't spark as much joy--but if i can add just one or two lines describing what is happening around the characters, that helps motivate me and suddenly i'm building a world where before i was stuck staring at an un-moving, blinking text cursor.

6. do you have a process of approach when writing, or do you gravitate toward whatever you or your muse is feeling? do you mind sharing what your process looks like?

if we're talking specifically roleplay, i would say i have a loose approach that encompasses both a little bit of structure and a little bit of doing whatever my muse is feeling. if we're talking drafts/answering things, i typically have 3 tabs open--one with the most recent drafts, one with the oldest drafts, and one with the inbox & i try to do 3x3x3 of each, which doesn't always work, but it gives me a little more structure to look at. When it comes to writing itself, i usually try to somewhat match length ( i know that isn't something anyone has to do, i just find it helps me with pacing and keeps me from over-writing? ). and the rest is just whatever flows through me writing as fox. i usually go down or up chronologically, but if something isn't sparking joy or i'm just not feeling it, i still usually give it about 5 minutes of focus and if i still can't think of anything after that 5 minutes, i add it back into the pile. i'm a little bit of a packrat so it's hard for me to get rid of anything lol

7. are you a plotter or a pantser (someone who wings it)?

a little of both ! i really like plotting, especially if that plotting involves putting our muses in terrible situations lol but i'm also completely open to wing it and see where the story develops. that is the great thing about rp, in my opinion, because the person you're writing with could take things in a direction you never imagined and fosters such a creative atmosphere when things really click.

8. do you visualize scenarios in your head while writing?

YES ! i do the same when reading, idk, does not everyone do that? i'm a huge settings person, as i mentioned above, so being able to see the whole world around a muse or the actions, even if i don't necessarily write them, i can see them--if i can't see them, those are the threads that usually i don't enjoy quite as much or that really don't spark creativity for me, which is okay. not every thread has to or needs to be, that can get exhausting too.

10. do you prefer character development and relationships, or plotlines / story progression?

hm, i would say both. especially if they go hand in hand. sometimes with rp it is harder to get to a point where you achieve character development in a single thread, so stretching them out, talking about the before and after with a partner and the plot that fills in in-between is a good way to bridge the gap. either way, i really prefer at least one or the other (ideally both) in threads, but sometimes that can be hard when you've first writing with someone and sometimes it can be hard after too. i try not to push it too much in either direction because i know not everyone writes the same and as a classic people pleaser, i'm more than willing to go with the flow.

13. what is a way in which you handle or acknowledge stress / burnout / writer's block?

so, i heard recently that writer's block is a symptom of imposter syndrome and that you don't get imposter syndrome unless you're actually already doing the thing you think that you can't. that really opened my eyes in the way that i thought about writer's block/imposter syndrome as a whole. like if i wasn't already writing and getting the feedback (no matter if i feel like a fraud or not), imposter syndrome wouldn't even be there...if that makes sense? so for writer's block, i try to remind myself of that. i also approach writer's block with grace, maybe i feel unmotivated or uncreative, but if i can write one word that turns into a sentence that turns into a scene, even if its meaningless in the end, that can help a lot to get over the hump of the block itself. when it comes to stress and burnout, on the other hand, i have a tendency to disappear. both in writing and out of writing. i isolate myself, which isn't always the most helpful, but in that isolation i usually do other things or hobbies that bring me joy that maybe i was avoiding because all my focus was on writing. usually it's reading or watching tv/movies or playing video games and those always bring me back to writing in the end--even if sometimes it is months later. i'm trying to get better about communicating that, but with the isolating, sometimes communication also feels like the hardest thing to do in a day.

14. what is a song that brings you joy?

there are so many ! i tend to listen to a lot of, what people classify as "sad" music, so it took me a moment to find one that is happier and brings me joy for that reason. i got engaged over the holidays so anything recently that reminds me of my love and are more lighthearted have brought me a lot of joy. I Could Drive You Crazy - Sierra Ferrell

17. what are some of your favorite tropes?

disheveled bride with a gun ! ( think fallout ep. 1 or more importantly, Ready or Not ), sunshine/grumpy, action bomb, arrow cam, back-to-back badasses, one bed, any trope that's in the rain, mental decay & madness, tbh any southern gothic tropes--the list could go on forever tbh.

20. what is your favorite positive trait or habit you have given a character?

fox can see the beauty in anything and everything. she chooses not to allow the world to get her down and instead focuses on the good or the growth it offers (somethings that has helped me heal a lot when it comes to personal trauma/issues). there was something i wrote a while ago where she's looking out at a field of dandelions and to a lot of people (at least around where i've grown up), they're just a bunch of weeds, it means someone is going to have to mow the grass soon, but she looked out at them and saw it as a field of wishes not yet wished. there is something in there to be said about kindness, gentleness, and optimism, but i'm not the best at pulling the words of meaning into something cohesive enough to explain it?

thank you for sending these in !

[asksoldieron]

SO-1: Here We Go Again!

If there's a lot of engagement on this, this post is liable to get real long, beware before you expand.

I'll edit in the real art once I make some!

Welcome to the Engagement Lounge, for This Seems Familiar (SO-1) an instalment! Short comments can go in the replies, but there's a 475 character limit. Longer ones will need a reblog. Remember to @asksoldieron if you're reblogging someone else's reblog, so I can see it too!

Woo. It's been a while since I posted this one now. As of this writing it's still lacking an illustration, but I went through and edited for continuity. I don't think this one changed much. (Mainly I needed to add the gumballs, and that's not until later. It's very important about the gumballs. Why? You'll see 😁.)

There may be a little quality loss here, but I'll need yet more distance to see it. The main thing is that I wanted to pen an opening that wouldn't be too confusing to new readers, or too boring to old ones. That's tough! And I don't have any beta readers who aren't already familiar with the story.

I should say, I didn't. And now I don't again! But earlier this year, I joined a group for autistic writers and... Ohhh-kaaaay. That was an experience I will not repeat.

I got fed up and finally cut ties when I found out they were affiliated with a local group that offers ABA for autism. You'll still find a lot of "favourable" articles about it on the internet, including from our "friends" at Autism Speaks! People just love it because it makes autistic kids stop acting autistic! Not "being," no, it just trains them not to act that way and inconvenience the rest of you. Often with punishments! Ha-ha, yeah. That's fine. This is fine. A disability is just like any other antisocial behaviour, you can just cut that shit out!

But I didn't know that about them, and I've been trying to make friends and connections. A group of autistic writers? And we don't have to meet in person? Sign me right up!

It was more a group for one particular autistic editor and her longsuffering friend, and the editor had all the inflexible dogmatism media tells you to expect from people like us. "I think everyone should stop masking because it's hard for me!" she said (I'm paraphrasing) once. "If we all just stop doing it, there won't be a problem!" Ha-ha. Yeah. They kill people like me when we don't behave up to a standard. Maybe not like her, because she's small, feminine and white, but people like me and my family.

That's the level of insight I was getting, but I stuck with it because I'm a people-pleaser!

We only had "time" for a couple pages of the first draft of this instalment (even though not many people were there and not all of them wanted to read words aloud, my god) and I got pressured into sharing first, having never been there before with no idea how I was meant to act. She proceeded to critique it as if it were a short story (not true) and as if that were all, or almost all, of it (clearly not true, I was sharing my screen at the time). I dunno if you wanna open it in another tab and look, but I began with Erik in the first draft. 1000 words into that is 1/5 of a standard instalment length and you've barely met him by the end.

I went back and added Miss Doubek (whom I was going to save for #6) at the beginning, so you could see the world through the eyes of someone a little less impaired. Because this writer group and editor convinced me y'all needed me to hold your hands a little tighter or you'd nope out.

"I don't understand what's happening" is like a kick in the groin to me. Growing up, I did not have a big enough vocabulary to express my big stories and big thoughts, so I heard that a lot. I still do sometimes! I'm overly specific and complex, especially when I'm upset, and I get aphasic and shut down. But, no, they didn't understand. The editor's poor friend was willing to hazard that there was obviously something wrong with Erik and she was beginning to suspect he was being held against his will - as one should. I solve that little mystery for you by the end. But I didn't get to read the end. I didn't even get to John coming home.

The editor told me (and, if I ever die of an aneurism, it will have been these words in my brain that killed me) "People don't say 'I know.'" That shut me right down. I was expected to keep talking and I probably did, but... Wha? Buh? I say "I know" all the time! One of my top ten ways to sort out my thoughts or rephrase and repeat what someone's trying to express so we're both on the same page. "I know [this], are you saying [that]?" But I removed it, and I don't think I put it back. (I think I ended up referencing the brain damage earlier instead, because I thought you needed to see a reason Erik might bit a little off, even if that's not the real one.) I'm still feeling self-conscious about using that phrase, in text and IRL!

By the grace of god, I didn't have a total meltdown and gut everything, but I wrote poorly and without joy for a long while. Trying to meet the standards of someone who had no idea what I was doing and didn't care to learn. She was an editor! I always wanted access to one of those!

Yeah. This helped solidify my now-militant belief that 1) Traditional publishing is not for me and 2) Stuffing art into a tiny box will kill it, so 3) Maybe we should be a little more grateful that people share the things they love with us.

I am clueless. I have sinned. I have issued unsolicited criticism on the internet, with the best of intent. But I am gonna try like hell not to do it anymore. Y'all don't need to be ruin your week. Unless you say you want help (and I will take you seriously, even if you don't mean it, so be careful!) or you're hurting others, I will back off and accentuate the positive. Even if the best I can come up with in the moment is "You made a thing!" (Ha-ha, nonverbal blues.)

Wow, that came out kinda sad. But I'm OK now! Tired of website glitches, but loving the writing part. I'd rather write another instalment than do any of this other stuff I got on my plate, but that's not in the cards for a few more days...

[Back to the Site?]

[merrock]

ISSUES WITH ACTIVITY!

Mornin', Merrockites! Taking a small break from talking about volunteer week to address the activity notifications. This isn't a glitch/bug, but rather something that Tumblr recently changed (another post here!) -- hopefully with enough feedback, they will see that this is actually detrimental to a lot of people who use their site and change it back, but! Essentially notifications were ... jumbled, to say the least.

In the meantime, we are just asking you guys to be vigilant and careful with replies. If you notice someone has missed something, reach out to them, but also be responsible on your own end! Some things we suggest:

check dash when you can, and draft replies from there. we know that everyone does not have the time to do this all day long, but sometimes even five minutes can catch you up on a day's worth, and help you not miss anything.

subscribe to threads you are a part of, to get notifications. (this method supposedly works!) but please note that the admins have not had a chance to try this out -- I'm not sure what other notifications you might get! this might work best for closed/private threads, more so than opens with others replying.

tag the character you are replying to so that if they check their activity tab, they have a notification! you might not get the pop-up notification, but it should show in your activity feed. (for the time being, if you want to be doubly sure they see it, this might be your best option, and is the most recommended by others!)

track your threads somehow. whether it be with a thread tracker, bookmarking them so you can browse through (ex: bookmarking your writing partner's tagging system for that thread so you can see if they've replied), or just jotting down somewhere who you have threads with.

While we very much so want you guys to reach out to each other and give gentle nudges, I also want to discourage players from throwing in the towel and solely relying on everyone to come to you. But if we all make an effort to just try to keep track of where things are, and implement some of the above methods / ideas, I think we will be just fine (and who knows, maybe Tumblr will fix the situation). Have patience with one another, and please have patience with us, as your admins, as we work hard to help you guys with this.

As a sidenote, we will not be doing an activity check this weekend as planned, as we want to give you guys the chance to mess around with things, get adjusted, see if you need to make any changes to make life easier for you! If you have any questions, concerns or on the flip side, have any ideas to help out, or hear anything through the grapevine, don't hesitate to come drop a bug in our ears! xx