#edited for better grammar and structure

[homunculovers]

Sometimes I get this idea of Dean actually marrying Sirena as he got her pregnant. A disaster for Dean’s budding sexuality, his relationship with Hank, Sirena’s independence, and the Ventures' relationship with the Ongs. And yet...

I picture a scenario where nobody’s happy with the situation but they make it work, not necessarily out of love. Sirena would return to her studies shortly after giving birth, trying to be a good mom as best as she can. Dean would be the one to shine as the stay at home dad; he had always wanted to be a husband. This would create initial friction between him and Rust, as he’s effectively throwing his plans of super science out of the window.

Hank would reveal himself to be the dark horse, being a good leader for VenTech even if not necessarily a scientifically inclined person. He would consolidate his bond with Brock by getting his advice on how to establish good enough relations with both the OSI and the GCI, incarnating the “men of hope” heritage of the Venture family. Eventually the truth of their birth would be revealed to Dean, as Rust shows him how to care for a baby. They could then finally bond over something true: the need for a warm, normal life.

Sirena, feeling supported, would go on to become a scientist out of personal passion, and she would pass it to her little girl. The pressure of the Venture legacy shaken off his shoulders, Dean would return to science as a hobby, speculating on climate change and actually coming up with some solid solutions. Hank would implement them, as it would give him the status of big tech’s Robin Hood, hindered by his peers but loved by the common person. Brock, and by extension the OSI, would have a field day protecting him from the government; but they’d do it happily, as Hank has a better standing than his father’s in Hunter’s book.

Rust would slowly but surely be pushed on the side. He’d protest, but gradually accept it, possibly with gratitude. The pressure of his suffocating role finally taken from him, he’d relax, have fun screwing around with science with his best friends, possibly accept therapy— under the guise of having someone to record his memoir. I like to think he’d be a good grampa, finally able to be curious about a child, to engage in play. He’d discover his artistic side by sitting down with her to draw with crayons. He’d get his sketchbook back. He’d draw in parks, metro stations, coffee shops. He’d rediscover the passion for adventure, the curiosity for people; what was there so long ago, constantly beaten out of him. Being more open, he’d be able to connect meaningfully. His final years might have him know love.

Nurtured by a family that truly believes in both personal ambition and human relationships, the kid would pick up a passion for space travel later on. She would work at it all her life, up to the point of organizing a mission to explore Jupiter’s orbit, to test how far humanity could go— and she would succeed.

A very, very old Rust would see her departure. He would hang on, waiting to receive her first communication after the long, long space radio silence. As soon as she confirmed they made it he would go, a glowing satisfaction on his last smile.

[krytus]

looking into some self-publishing options..... because i’m Insane.

[orcelito]

Ok there r some pretty big things I wanna fix with the first chapter of ITNL, but I don't rly have the brain for that. Putting it on the backburner.

Might fuck around with chapter 2 tho. Just maybe.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Self-Editing

Editing writing draws upon different skills than creative storytelling, which makes self-editing difficult for many writers. If hiring an editor isn’t an option, you will want to improve your own editing skills to increase your writing’s readability and overall quality.

Tips for Editing Your Own Writing

Print it out. Reading your words on the printed page can help you find spelling mistakes, sentence fragments, and run-ons more easily than trying to track them down on a bright computer screen; you can even change the formatting of the text if that helps you look at it differently. Use a red pen (or any other vibrant color) to track changes or edits along the way.

Read aloud. Hearing how your writing sounds can also help you listen for lines that don’t sound right, like wishy-washy sentences, overuse of particular phrases, and unnecessary words. Sometimes a writer doesn’t realize that their sentence structure is poor or that their main point isn’t clear until they hear it read aloud (you can even use a text-to-speech program or ask someone else to read it back to you while you jot down things you notice).

Take a break. Walking away from your writing project for a period of time and coming back to it with fresh eyes can help you gain a fresh perspective by creating an emotional distance between you and your work. If you’re finding it hard to be objective, give it space—when you return to your own writing, you may find yourself with an entirely new outlook.

Keep your voice active. With active voice writing, the subject of a sentence is performing an action. That action is represented by a verb, which is the part of speech that anchors all complete sentences. While passive voice isn’t completely forbidden in a piece of writing, it’s usually a good idea to keep your tone energized, as it keeps your readers reading.

Edit line by line. A good editor will systematically go through a piece of writing line by line, and that is what you should do as well. It may take time and be a painstaking task, but if you’re editing your own work, you’ll need to look closely at the words you’ve written to find any outstanding issues like grammatical errors or typos.

Get familiar with style guides. Professional editors may come equipped with extensive editing skills, but it’s possible to learn what they know. Look up which writing style guide applies to your writing (if you’re copywriting, you’ll likely want the AP style guide, whereas fiction writing will use the Chicago Manual). Follow the proper guidelines laid out and add them to your editing checklist: Are all the commas where they should be for this particular piece? Are words properly italicized or quoted? Knowing what to look for can not only expand your editing experience but help you become a better writer.

Avoid clichés. While they appear in good writing every so often, clichés are mostly boring unless you have a unique spin on them or can integrate them in a way that doesn’t seem tired.

Embrace re-reading. Editing isn’t a one-off process, and chances are you’ll need multiple read-throughs in order to find all of your weak sentences, grammar mistakes, punctuation errors, and spelling errors.

Mind your syntax. Be on the lookout for issues with grammar and word choice. Certain words can change the whole mood or feeling of a piece, and using weak verbs and weak adjectives will only exacerbate that. Make sure your writing feels strong and clear, and use a thesaurus with caution. If you’re not exactly sure how to use a word, don’t.

Save the proofreading for last. Whether you’re copy editing for content marketing or writing the first draft of a memoir, proofreading is the very last step you should take when self-editing. As you go through your piece, you’ll be re-writing sentences and paragraphs, so searching for grammar errors or doing a spell check before your final draft will only waste more time. It’s okay if you spot errors along the way (you don’t have to ignore them), but don’t make it the first step you take when tackling your own editing.

Source ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Editing ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[trensu]

Steve had always wanted to be a skilled fighter. The schools that churned out the best fighters all happened to be schools for holy warriors. It was possible that Steve maybe sort of lied a little (with the help of his friends Robin and Dustin) to get into this school by claiming he was full to the brim of religious fervor but hadn’t decided who to pledge his sword to yet. It shouldn’t have worked, if he were honest with himself, but by some stroke of luck it did, and he finished his training as one of the top combatants. 

The issue now was that he had to pick a god whose crest to carry. There were all sorts of gods. Gods of water, gods of air, gods of agriculture, war gods, cat gods, plant gods...the list was endless. And while Steve was one of the best fighters around, he was most definitely not one of the best researchers. Thankfully Dustin and Robin were very clever and knew where to find details about the many gods in existence.

“So what kind of god do you want to follow? Maybe we can start there,” Robin asked.

“Uh…a good one?”

“You’re no help at all, you know that?” Dustin grumbled.

They suggested a local god known as Carver who stood for righteousness, but Steve turned that down. It didn't feel like a good fit. They suggested a love god by the name of Chrissy, who valued love of all kinds, romantic, platonic, familial...Steve had been tempted, very tempted, because Steve had always carried an excess of love in his heart. Robin had vetoed that one stating that Steve was already too reckless with his love and she wouldn't stand by and watch him break his own heart over and over again.

Dustin suggested a god of knowledge, Clarke, who blessed and guided those with curiosity, imagination, and a knack for invention. Steve shot that one down immediately. He was never one to be overly imaginative or curious; he preferred to deal with concrete things. Out of their quickly dwindling list, Robin reluctantly suggested Hargrove, a war god favored by a nearby kingdom, but if Carver was ill-fitting, then Hargrove was outright repellent to Steve.

"C'mon, Steve, you gotta pick someone!" Dustin huffed in frustration. 

Robin thunked her head against the table in the library where they were looking up deities. She was obviously at her wit's end too. Steve, however, just dug his heels in with a particularly stubborn scowl.

"I can't just pick anyone!" Steve said. "If I'm going to pledge my sword to someone, it has to be someone...someone good. Someone that, I don't know, someone I can believe in, even when--no especially when things go wrong. That’s the whole point!"

"Yeah, I get that," Robin sighed, a mix of fond and annoyed, "but this is the eighth book we've gone through and the only one left here is called the King of Darkness which is hardly going to--huh."

Robin paused mid-rant to look at the page more closely. Steve and Dustin both huddled around her to peek into the book as well. Dustin also made a sound of curiosity.

"That's weird," Dustin said.

"Right?" Robin asked enthusiastically.

"What? What's weird?" Steve didn't get what caught their attention.

"This god only has a couple of sentences," Dustin explained, "And they don't really make sense. Something about dark creatures and the undeserving? The grammar and structure is all weird though."

"It looks like a half-assed translation," Robin added with a nod. "We should find the original text."

"Yeah! And if we can make a better translation, we could get it added to the next edition and they'd have to put our names on the book," Dustin said excitedly. Robin's eyes lit up at the thought and they both rushed off to the stacks to track down any original sources.

"Guys! Guys, what about my..."

The librarian hushed Steve, irritated. Steve groaned in defeat.

"...godly choices. Yeah, fine," Steve slumped back on his seat. "I need to find non-nerd friends."

Two days later, Robin and Dustin finished translating a slim, dusty book. They were nearly vibrating in their seats as Steve reviewed their notes on what they found. Dustin gripped his arm and gave him a shake.

"So? What do you think?" he asked excitedly.

Robin slung her arm across Steve's shoulders. With more tenderness than Steve expected, she said, "I know it doesn't seem like it, he doesn't really fit with your whole style, but it could work."

"Yeah," Steve said with a hopeful smile. "Yeah, this feels right."

--

It took longer than Steve would've liked, but eventually he managed to track down a small, crumbling shrine. It was an alcove carved near the entrance--no more than a crack in the stone really--of a cave at the edge of a lush forest. He almost missed it, it was so drowned in overgrown crawling vines and weeds. It bore a modest statue, no bigger than Steve, standing atop an equally modest plinth. There was a spot that obviously held a plaque once, but it must’ve been dug out by thieves at some point.

The sight of it made something in Steve's chest twinge; a strange pang of melancholy at seeing a god so forgotten and abandoned. It surprised him as he had never been particularly religious, but there was just something about this one that drew him in.

It was the middle of the day, so Steve quickly made camp and took advantage of the light to begin clearing the shrine. He started where the plaque had been, scrubbing off the dirt and moss that had filled the indentation. He knew a good smith; he could commission a new plaque to be made. After that, he weeded the immediate area around the plinth where worshipers would typically lay their offerings and pray.

By the time he finished that, it was late afternoon and he decided that was good enough for today. He had to eat and get a few hours of sleep so he could be alert once night fell. When he curled up on his bedroll, he couldn't help the grin that spread on his face. He was going to offer himself to his god tonight, and with any luck, his god would accept him.

--

He woke to a multitude of high pitched squeaks and the sound of many, many flapping wings. The sun had just fully set, and the stars that could be seen through the canopy burned brightly. Steve took his time to fasten on his armor and scabbard properly, and fixed his hair so not a strand was out of place. He took a few deep breaths to calm an unexpected bout of nerves before going to the shrine and kneeling.

His god had no official prayers. Or rather, the prayers for his god were forgotten. Robin and Dustin did their best to find anything prayer-like but it had been in vain. They suspected that most of the god's holy items and lore were purposely lost. Lacking that, Steve decided it was best that he introduce himself.

"Um, hi," he started and immediately winced. "Sorry. I'm not used to...this. I couldn't find any of your…holy words? Prayers? The right ways to speak to you, I guess.

"I'm Steve. Steve Harrington. I'm a fighter. I finished my training a few weeks back. I was the top of my cohort when it came to combat. I'm good with my sword and I know how to take a hit. I can turn just about anything into a weapon if it's needed."

Here Steve paused for a moment, straining to hear but there was nothing other than the typical sounds of a night out in the woods. Steve took a breath and plowed forward.

"I want to be more than a fighter, though. I don't want to just wave a sword around for nothing. I want it to...to matter. So I spent a lot of time trying to decide who to wield my sword for. It took me a while, but I found you. I want to be your shield and sword, if you'll have me."

Steve stopped again to listen. Nothing. Robin warned him this might happen. Gods didn't always accept warriors who offered themselves to them, and forgotten gods weren't always reachable. It was fine, though; he’d try again tomorrow night. Steve turned in just before dawn, eager for night again.

--

Steve worked on clearing the vines tangled around the statue's legs and feet. He yanked out the thick, scraggly vines, and carefully picked apart the prickling thorny ones. There was a particular gnarl of vines that didn't seem like they had a stranglehold on his god's statue. They were healthy and strong, and the way they curled and grew looked more like a caress than an invasion. He decided to leave those on, though he gently rearranged them while removing the more invasive vines so they looked more decorative.

When night arrived with the sound of squeaks and wings, Steve went to kneel at the shrine. He introduced himself again, gave the same spiel as the night before. Still he heard nothing. He scratched the back of his neck in mild insecurity.

“I guess I should tell you I didn’t find you on my own. My friends Robin and Dustin helped me. They’re way smarter than me, you know? Total nerds. I can swing a sword like nothing, but books and research? Yeah, that never works out for me, so they helped me look up all sorts of gods.

“There’s a lot of them. Way more than I thought. Dustin and Robin both recommended me ones or vetoed others. They were getting frustrated with me because I kept rejecting the ones they gave me. 

“Then Robin found you. Kind of by accident, to be honest. But she did her research thing and I knew that I wanted to carry your symbol. It took me forever to find this shrine. Robin said this was probably the only shrine you had left, so I had to find it. 

“Dustin kept saying it was on the other side of the forest, but obviously he was wrong. Not that he’ll ever admit it, the little shit, but whatever. I’m sorry your shrine was abandoned like this, but I promise I’ll fix it up. I’m good with my hands, I can do it.”

There was no response to his admittedly disorganized ramble. It was fine, he told himself. He needed to be patient. He’d come back the next night.

–

Around the statue’s waist there was another tangled mess of vines, except these vines had died and rotted to dark sludge. There was fungus growing on it, and it reeked. It was gross. Steve scrubbed at it for hours because the rot had stained the stone. He was able to get rid of the rot and most of the stains before going to catch a few hours of sleep in the afternoon.

Night fell and Steve was kneeling for the third time. He repeated most of what he said the previous two nights. There was still no response. He thought maybe he was pushing too hard. He’d never been the super talkative type anyway. He could share the quiet night with his god, if that was what his god wanted.

A few hours passed when he was startled out of his near meditative state by the sound of snapping twigs. He leapt to his feet, hand on his scabbard. Someone–a man by the look of it–stumbled out of the woods. He was pale and dark haired, dressed in ragged clothes that were probably awful even when they were new. He looked like a vagabond. 

Steve stepped in front of the shrine, protectively. The stranger grinned at him and Steve could already tell he was not going to enjoy the conversation that was about to happen.

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” Steve asked firmly, cutting the man off before he could speak. The smile only grew wider.

“I could ask you the same thing, sir,” the man said, adopting the annoyed huff of a wealthy lord. Steve scowled.

“I asked first.”

“I asked second!”

“You didn’t ask me anything,” Steve responded, somewhat smug. The man paused and then snorted a laugh.

“Yeah, okay.” He raised his hands in mock surrender. “You got me.”

“So?”

“So what?”

“What are you doing here? Who are you?” Steve repeated shortly. The teasing grin was back, and Steve felt his scowl deepen.

“Nothing and no one, m’lord,” the man bows mockingly.

“I’m not a lord.”

“Huh. Could’ve fooled me. You’re certainly as demanding as any lord I’ve ever met.”

“Oh fuck you,” Steve snapped. “I’m a holy warrior.”

The man laughed at him outright.

“Well that doesn’t sound very holy warrior-ish. Are your type allowed to swear?”

Steve grinded his teeth and decided it was not worth it to continue this conversation for much longer.

“Look, if you’re here to steal, I’ve got nothing on me.”

“That’s exactly what someone with something to steal would say.”

“Well, I don’t! I’m on a pilgrimage and I don’t want to spill blood on holy ground. So.” Steve wrapped a hand around the hilt of his sword. “Leave. Please.”

“Holy ground? Here?” the man barks out a laugh. “Don’t you know what this place is?”

“Yes,” Steve says shortly, placing himself more firmly between the shrine and the man. “Please leave. There shouldn’t be violence done here.”

“Oh, it’s far too late for that. This place used to belong to the King of Darkness. It’s said he was so evil that nothing grew here until he was run out and defeated by the god of righteousness. You know the one. Really plays up the holier than thou thing by making his hair all gold and glowy? Gotta say, you could give him a run for his money though.”

“You’re wrong.”

“No really! Your hair is great. Way better than Carver, even with the glowy thing.” 

“Not that!” Steve said in frustration. This guy really liked the sound of his own voice and Steve was starting to get a headache. It was near dawn and all he wanted was to spend the last hour or so in the quiet night with his god.

“So you agree your hair is better than a god’s?” The man tsks at him. “That’s pretty blasphemous. Are you sure you’re a holy warrior?”

“No! I mean, yes. Wait,” Steve growls at his own bumbling. “No, I’m not better than any god. But I am a holy warrior. Kind of.”

“Kind of.”

“Look, I’m working on it so I need you to leave. You’ve insulted him enough already.”

“Your god is the King of Dark–”

“Call him that again, and I will draw my sword,” Steve said, voice steely. “He’s the Lord of Night, and I won’t let you insult him at his own shrine.”

The man goes quiet for the first time since he showed up. He looked almost surprised, his mocking grin gone. His eyes flicked over to the dilapidated statue and then back at Steve.

“Lord of Night doesn’t sound much different than what I called him,” the man said lightly.

“Well, it is,” Steve told him. “Now, will you please leave?”

The man stared at him for a moment before shrugging. “Yeah, alright.” And then he left as suddenly as he had arrived.

The tension that had built up in Steve’s shoulders drained away. He went back to kneel in front of the shrine again when he noticed the barest hint of sunrise on the horizon. He cursed under his breath then was hit with a wave of embarrassment at cursing in front of the shrine and the whole situation that had transpired.

“I’m sorry about that,” Steve said, abashed. “It won’t happen again, I promise.”

–

It happened again.

now with an additional snippet here and here

ps: i do not do those reader tag list things. if you'd like to keep up with my stuff, follow my writing tag: trensu tells stories

[sfstranslations]

what's your process on TLing? like how do you do it? I've always wondered what its like TLing stuff

Disclaimer that it's probably different for everyone, obviously, but for me it usually goes something like this:

(Got long, so under a cut. Minor bonus at the end for My S-Ranks fic writers!)

Get the raws (obviously, LOL).

When I start a TL session, I usually read back a little just to get the context of what's going on, because otherwise you risk getting some of the contextual information wrong.

Time for the actual translating! Read the sentence.

Break it down as best as I can—pick out grammar structure (is XYZ the subject or object etc.), pick out what words I know, cobble together a partial sentence from that. Ends up something like, "Character A {??ed} loudly and lifted their {right? left?} hand."

Look up the words I don't know in the KR-EN dictionary (usually Naver, but also Wiktionary as a backup, both English and Korean) and fill in the blanks. My Korean vocabulary is minuscule so I have to do this for at least one word almost every sentence… I also like to double-check the meanings of some words I'm not fully sure of (see right/left dilemma above 😅), or to see if there's other verified translations that would fit the sentence better if the one I think of doesn't flow well.

Addendum to the above point: If there's a word that doesn't really fit the scene or means some random off-the-wall thing, go on a research spree to figure out why it's showing up here. If this takes longer than 5 minutes, put a pin in it to come back to later and move on; otherwise I risk getting distracted or burning all my energy on research instead of translation, and sometimes the next few lines help me figure out what was being said anyway. Generally I mark these with the {???} from the example above, with a note on what confused me about the bit in question. (These are usually the things that require footnotes!)

If I completed the sentence, read over it to check that it actually makes sense. Sometimes it doesn't and I have to go back over grammar to redo it. Subject/object/topic markers my beloathed

Then once the meaning of the sentence is worked out, check that it flows with the rest of the scene. (If it doesn't, 70% chance it's a quote or reference to something, in which case, again, research or put a pin in it for later.)

Rinse and repeat until the end of the chapter.

First pass complete! ����

Go back and do all that research I saved for later :( (Chiyul is niceys to me and only uses odd or flowery wording that I can work out given enough time, but Geunseo is so mean about this. Stop referencing poets from the Tang dynasty who don't have easily accessible online translations for their works. What the hell) (Sometimes they'll reference something obscure and then make an oblique reference to THAT reference instead of the source material because they loooove having characters use injokes which I do love. But it is also majorly harshing my groove. Please have mercy)

Read over the chapter again, Korean then English, paragraph by paragraph, to make sure the translations actually line up and I didn't mess anything up during the first pass. Also for English editing purposes—grammar, punctuation etc. So combination quality-checking and editing.

Pass the baton to other team members for a second round of combination QC/edits; sometimes gets skipped, it depends

Clean the chapter (i.e. deleting all the Korean and running some final checks via regexes for miscapitalizations and the like)

Pick a good excerpt, tag all featured characters, and post! Aaand back to the grind for the next chapter. (…Bit of a simplification. What I actually do is just keep translating until I run out of energy/thinking power for the day. Chapters get cleaned and prepped for posting in batches of 10 only when the last batch have all been posted; e.g. we're on 390-something for S-Ranks right now, so when I'm about to post chapter 400, I'll edit and clean 401–410, and so on.)

Some more notes I wasn't sure where to fit in, below.

Besides quotes/references to external media and language/culture quirks, I also sometimes add footnotes when characters quote other characters from chapters that were posted quite a while ago. This is in part because it's probably helpful to readers but largely because it's helpful to me specifically (I have a terrible memory 😔) (if I don't do it then when I'm rereading the chapter for editing/cleaning I always end up going "they literally didn't say that though…? Is that a mistranslation?" and then it turns out they did say that but it was more than a chapter ago so I forgot. Sighs.)

Disclaimer that I don't translate from MTL anymore!! Quality is worse than translating by hand!! But sometimes if a chapter is really confusing then I'll slap the whole thing into Google Translate so I have an English version I can skim for the context. It's helpful because Google Translate gives extremely bad TLs in terms of English readability so I don't adopt its phrasing into my own TL, but it also gets juuuust enough right that I can identify what the gist of events is. Like if a chapter cold opens on a fight scene and only five paragraphs later clarifies the location of said fight, then the rough MTL lets me know whether I should be translating something as a wall (indoor fight) or barrier (dungeon fight), for example. Also helpful for pronouns, since Korean doesn't use those the way English does; if the character isn't named right off the bat, I don't want to be writing every sentence like "[PRONOUN] looked at [PRONOUN]self in the mirror, noting the dark circles under [PRONOUN] eyes", then have to go back to fill in the blanks 5 minutes later, you know?

I also make style guides for every story I'm translating, which I refer back to while working so I can keep the translations consistent. Whenever we're in a new setting or something gets brought up for the first time, I add it to the style guide for future reference. There's a lot of stuff in the guides that's probably only mentioned a few times, but at least I don't have to translate from scratch each of those few times!

The general style guide has stuff like number/unit formats, honorifics, and notes on spellings I mix up often (I try to use American English for consistency, although personally I prefer a combination of American/Commonwealth spellings (USA you are just wrong about worshiped, it's worshipped!! Do you say shiped?? Huh????)).

The story-specific style guides let me keep track of special names—places, characters, and more—but also things like system message formats. For My S-Ranks, I also have separate sections for the regions with lots of unique terminology (the VR dungeon and China so far, more to come).

Below are some examples from the general style guide and the S-Ranks-specific one.

Oh, one part of the style guide might also be helpful to any S-Ranks fic writers out there—here's the special characters I've been using for system admin messages such as "η๐┰ ሃ๐∪ዩ բმ∪┗┰" from chapter 53. (No replacements for B, J, K, M, Q, V, X, and Z because those haven't been needed so far. Added those in anyway for future-proofing!)

A: მ

B: ß

C: င

D: Ð

E: ∈

F: բ

G: ₲

H: ዞ

I: 𝔦

J: ຽ

K: ƙ

L: ┗

M: ៣

N: η

O: ๐

P: የ

Q: ዊ

R: ዩ

S: ડ

T: ┰

U: ∪

W: ￦

X: ㄨ

Y: ሃ

Z: ☡

Anyway! Hope that sheds some light on the translation process, at least the way I do it. Let me know if you have any more questions or requests! This was fun.

[writing-with-sophia]

Writing a novel: Step by step

Most writers aspire to publish at least one book in their lifetime, but writing a novel is not easy. From new writers to experienced writers who have published hundreds of books, everyone must follow a step-by-step process to create their work. These steps are based on the wisdom of famous writers, so while they may not be entirely definitive, they will certainly be helpful to you.

Step 1: Generate ideas

Start by generating ideas for your novel. This can involve brainstorming, keeping a journal of potential story concepts, or drawing inspiration from real-life experiences, books, movies, or current events.

Once you get an idea, hone it.

Step 2: Create characters

A novel cannot be successful without unique and charming characters. Create compelling and well-rounded characters for your novel. Develop their backgrounds, motivations, personalities, and relationships. Consider their strengths, flaws, and how they will evolve throughout the story.

Remember, the more realistic the characters, the better the novel will be.

Step 3: Build setting

Establish the setting or world in which your novel takes place. Whether it's a real location or a fictional world, provide enough descriptive details to immerse readers and make the setting feel vivid and believable.

Step 4: Define plot and make an outline

What is your story about? How will it unfold? How does it begin, develop, and conclude? What and how many scenes will be included? Make an depth and very depth outline, even going so far as to outline every chapter.

Step 5: Write

Begin writing your first draft. Don't worry about perfection; the goal is to get the story down on paper. Embrace the creative process and let the ideas flow. Please remember, don't go back and make changes. Just write!

Step 6: Revise and edit

Once the first draft is complete, take a break (for 3 days) before revising and editing. (This will keep you from overediting or not editing enough.) Then, read through your manuscript with a critical eye, focusing on plot holes, inconsistencies, pacing, character development, and overall storytelling. Revise and rewrite sections as needed.

Step 7: Get beta readers

(You must) seek feedback from trusted individuals, such as beta readers, writing critique groups or your friends. Their input can provide valuable perspectives on areas that may need improvement. Consider their suggestions while maintaining your unique voice and vision for the story.

Step 8: Polish and refine

Polish and refine your novel based on the feedback received. Pay attention to sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and overall prose. Ensure clarity and coherence in your writing.

Step 9: Publish

You can research different publishing options, such as traditional publishing or self-publishing. Remember to evaluate the pros and cons of each approach and decide which is the best fit for your goals and circumstances.

That's all. I hope you success in publishing your novel!!

If you want to read more posts about writing, please click here and give me a follow!

[letstalkaboutvids]

Submissions open for Issue 2 of Let's Talk About Vids!

Let's Talk About Vids is a zine for talking about vids - otherwise known as fanvids, AMVs, edits, etc.

It was partially inspired by the regular Anatomy of a Vid panel at the VidUKon convention, in which vid watchers choose a vid they enjoy to analyse in depth.

I felt like there was an appetite for more analysis of vids, more detailed discussion about the artistic process of making vids, and more places to share vid recommendations. This zine is focused more on the artistic side than the technical side of vidding, but of course sometimes the latter will come up as part of the conversation!

The first issue of Let's Talk About Vids is available HERE.

The second issue of Let's Talk About Vids will come out sometime in the next few months. It will be a PDF e-zine!

The content of the zine will be made up of submissions from folks who want to talk about vids! The zine is seeking:

quick vid recommendations, for vids both new and old (from 1 sentence up to 100 words)

responses to a discussion prompt (1 sentence to a few paragraphs)

longer pieces that explore a specific vid in depth, whether a close reading or something else (200-1000 words)

vidders' reflections on their artistic process for a specific vid they made (200-1000 words)

longer pieces that explore a specific vidshow in depth, either by the VJ or by someone else (200-1000 words)

If you have an idea for something else not listed here, get in touch! Also these word counts are guidelines to give a rough idea for folks who prefer to have parameters, definitely not a hard and fast rule.

Before you make your submission, a couple of things to note:

1) If you are writing an in-depth piece about a specific vid or vidshow, please do your best to get in touch with the vidder or VJ to ensure they're comfortable with it first.

2) While this zine is a space to talk in detail about vids, right now I'm not up for hosting and moderating conversations about what vids got wrong or could have done better. Submissions should be focused on what you think the vid/vidshow does well, what is interesting to you about it, and how it gets its point across.

3) There's no requirement for any particular level of: formality/structure, vidding experience/knowledge, spelling/grammar, etc - if you've got something to say about vids, say it in whatever way works for you! I may lightly edit for spelling and grammar if needed.

4) You can submit ONE longer piece, ONE discussion prompt response, and UP TO THREE quick recs.

You can make submissions HERE until Sunday 20 April.

[morallysuperiorlips]

Fanfiction Taught Me 90% of What I Know About Writing

That’s the gods honest truth. And I’m saying that as someone who has a literal college degree in writing.

I took SO MANY writing classes in college. All genres. Creative. Playwriting. Screenwriting. Editorial. Journalistic. Business. Technical. I’ve been writing since I could hold a pencil correctly, and really started to pursue it in 2nd grade when every teacher following gushed about my writing skills. I can confidently say I’ve been honing my craft for over two decades.

However, I didn’t really git gud at writing until I started really writing fanfiction. Like, joining a fandom and actively writing an ongoing fic for it.

Again, I’d taken years upon years of writing classes. I learned story structure, grammar, theming, POVs, tone, etc. all throughout school. I learned how to receive feedback and edit my work a little more down the road. I learned from professionals in the field. I worked with mentors.

However, none of that helped my skyrocket my skills like writing fanfiction did.

Fanfiction taught me how to actually write deep, nuanced, and compelling characters. I never once filled out a 200-question character sheet for any character I wrote on some silly school assignment. I never knew how to really know my characters until I was writing OCs for a fandom.

Fanfiction taught me the value of being concise. My schooling had drilled the concept of long, purple prose into me over time and in writing for a fandom for a children’s game, I unlearned that real quick.

Fanfiction really taught me the concept of “show, don’t tell.” I never really knew what a penchant I had for info dumping until somebody pointed out to me most of my headcanon’d lore drops happened in exposition and not in action.

Fanfiction taught me how to worldbuild. Eating the canon of my preferred fandom gave me a lot of time to strengthen my chops while I came up with my own answers to canon lore I hated.

Fanfiction taught me consistency. In school, I mostly wrote short stories. I hadn’t really bitten off a longer project until I started writing a longfic, and in doing so, I learned how to keep my characters, plot, and world consistent for a prolonged period of chapters.

Fanfiction gave me a close-knit community to consistently bounce my ideas off of, and give me feedback that actually served me in terms of bettering my skills and the story I was writing. Not just for the sake of meeting the measures of a grade or rubric given by a teacher.

I could go on and on, but tl;dr, I owe my current skillset and understanding of writing to writing fic. I wouldn’t be at the level I am without it. Honestly, I wouldn’t even be writing my current WIP without it.

So, to anyone who might have told you that fanfic is a waste of time, they are just objectively wrong. And if you’re reading this thinking for yourself that fanfic is a waste of time, well, you’re stupid and also objectively wrong :>

Fanfiction is valuable. Don’t underestimate it.

[neil-gaiman]

Hi Mr. Gaiman, I'm not sure if you'll read this in time but I thought I'd try anyways. I'm not sure how familiar you are with US government and bills, but there's one that Congress is looking to pass that is only bad news.

It's called KOSA (Kids Online Safety Act) and the basis is that it's censorship and for people to use social media sites they will have to upload their government ID or drivers license to shows that they are over 18.

It gives the government unprecedented control over the internet. I'm sure you can see the consequences of this as it would endanger kids trying to escape unsafe environments, identify theft would skyrocket because all of this sensitive data can be accessed easily, this bill would also allow parents of minors to see everything the kid does online which is obviously not good and can be deadly for the child.

This bill would also affect people globally since any company from the US would have to Comply or be sued, so this isn't just a problem for people in the US.

Also fun fact! Tumblr is a US company.

I thought I'd try reaching out to you since you can reach more people than I can and I really admire you. With that being said, sorry if I made your day worse with this news.

I just feel like not enough people know about it. I've also included 2 links, one is a petition to stop KOSA which you can sign even if you're not in the US or are a minor. The other is a link to Bad Internet Bills, which provides more information on KOSA and other bad internet bills. The second link provides much more information, so you can understand it better. Also sorry if the links don't work, Tumblr didn't want them to be links.

Stop KOSA

Bad Internet Bills

I hope you have a wonderful day or night or whatever time you're reading this. Also how are doing? And do you have any advice on editing a piece of writing? For context I'm used to writing shorter pieces but I wrote a long one and I'm editing it but I'm not sure how to go about it since it's a long piece for me and I get stressed every time I try to edit it.

P.S. - Please ignore my bad grammar and sentence structure.

Thank you for the information.

[diy-languages]

Free Korean Learning Courses! : Part 1

-> These are some free resources I used or heard about a lot to learn Korean and what they include, there's probably way more! I'll make more parts in the future. There's also ratings and pesonal notes about each one, but again they're 'personal' so it might not be the same for everyone! That's why you should always try it yourself first.

-> These resources are or were fully free when I used them, if anything changed and they're no longer free I do not take any responsibility for possible accidental purchases, I recommend to always check first before processing with it.

Here we go:

GoodJobKorean — Full free Hangul Course, 12 Lessons, Videos (with pronunciation, etc) + Pdf Practice sheets (with some vocabulary) + Quizes to see if you understood each lesson.

Rating: 100/10 I tried and loved it, easy to understand and explained nicely. Really useful for beginners learning hangul!

A/N: You may have to rebuy it after a month (not sure because I finished it in less then a month and never logged back in) but It's still free (if not you can always just make another account to get it free again)

GoldenKeyKorean: Free Hangul course, pronunciation + 2H long master course (advanced and basic levels) with 2 pdf books

Rating: I personally did not try this one, but I'm pretty sure it's fully free (at least that's what I've seen), but he often does limited editions/limited time special free courses so it's better to check if the offer is still active and follow his instagram for future updates and courses.

Now Korean Class: Fully free 9 Korean courses with different levels (1-9) with multiple videos for each, explains sentence structures, grammar, counters, numbers, and way more.

Rating: 100/10, It really is free, multiple levels, sooo many different things to learn I absolutely loved it!!

A/N: You just have to rebuy it after a month but I'm pretty sure it's still free (if not you can always just make another account to get it free again). I recently lost acess to it, idk why I think my phone is lagging... It tells me something went wrong to try again later, lol, just in case some content changed etc I wouldn't know.

Koldoristudy: 3 different Free Korean PDF study sheets, 1 Hangul, 1 Vocabulary and 1 winter study, includes Grammar, stroke order guides and syllable blocks,

Rating: 10/10 Loved it, I thought it would be just some pdf files to boringly write hangul/words but It's actually way more! it explains grammar and some useful language rules!

Talk to me in korean: Multiple free podcasts on different platforms + PDF with grammar and vocabulary explained for different levels of learners, 7 days free trial with possible cancelation

Rating: 9/10 It's really good, I'm just not a big fan of podcasts as I have a short attention spawn LOL. I personally didn't try the 7-days free trial but they do have LOTS of different lessons and videos that seem to be amazing and useful.

A/N: personally I find their website really confusing, to make things easier you can try things like just typing "Talk To me In korean (Pdf level _)" on google and the first link should be the free pdf file, etc etc.

Loescen Learn Korean Website: Free Interactive web-based learning, important vocabulary, pronunciation beginner to intermediate level, basic conversation courses and dialogues

Rating: 8/10, so good!! It surprised me, I just wish it went more in deep about things like sentence structures and grammar instead of blindly learning dialogue lines or words without breaking them into steps for deeper understanding of the language.

A/N: works for other languages too!!

Live Lingua: Multiple free ebooks and audio files lessons, grammar, vocabulary, hangul, etc, beginner to advanced,

Rating: 9/10 Covers up a lot of different things like I said, grammar, vocabulary, etc etc, but AGAIN each course covers many subjects and it quickly feels heavy and too long/complicated/takes too much time (personally for me, as an individual with ADHD)

How to study korean: LOTS of grammar and vocabulary, beginners to advanced, multiple lessons, linked YT videos to reinforce lessons, PDFs, etc

Rating: 100/10 explains really well, SO MUCH STUFF, different levels, it's really awesome! Lessons are available in multiple languages and not just English!! However again I find it a bit intimidating as it really has LOTS of things to learn which make it seem hard and heavy...

A/N: Personally I find the website complicated to navigate 😭 just type "how to study korean lesson _" for easier access if you want and It should be the top results

Udemy TOPIK grammar through 100 patters: TOPIK vocabulary, grammar and conversations, 100 grammatical patters koreans use a lot

Rating: 8/10 really good, well explained, but again personally it feels pretty heavy and long, videos in Korean with English subtitles, however there are no English subtitles for "example sentences" which sucks, you need to know some basic vocabulary to really understand the example sentences used there.

Tomi Korean: Free PDF with 430 basic korean vocabulary (words, verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc) with audio files, free PDF Worksheet for hangul learning

Rating: 8/0 Love it, really nice for useful vocabulary but you'll have to willingly study the words cause the pdf only makes you write it once and it's really just Korean-English translations, but it has images so its good for visual learners too! Personally I also found it takes a lot of storage to download everything lol.

A/N: I did not check the hangul worksheet as I can already write and read hangul but little personal opinion/tip; I think GoodJobKorean is the best option to learn Hangul here, specially compared to this one. Yes I did not try this Hangul Worksheet but I believe GoodJobKorean offers more variated content and help (videos, quizes, etc) than what a PDF sheet has to offer, that's my opinion.

That's all so far!

Many of these courses have social media accounts where they post different content and tricks to learn, I'll be making a post about those in the future too!!

If anything changed since I first used these resources or if there's any misinformation in this post, please let me know!

[yanderenightmare]

do u have advive on making ur writing flow beautifully? Or how to put the vision into worde? Whenever I read ur work I just go "wow it's so beautiful, how can i write like that?"

Also, do u plan ur work beforehand or do u just go with the flow?

On Writing Vision & Voice

Thank you! And splendid question!

♡ How I Get Started

Usually, I’ve had an idea beforehand. It doesn’t have to be anything big, just a teensy little daydream, or something I’ve seen or read that’s inspired me. 

For example, for PIECE OF CAKE, I simply had the thought of a yandere forcing the reader to eat cake. It wasn’t much on its own, but then I got started on creating a narrative around that, filling in the gaps of why he would do that and how they would come to that. And voila, I suddenly had both a fleshed-out character and a plot going on.

Other times, I suddenly get this entire dialogue sequence out of nowhere. This usually happens when I’m lying awake in bed, or sitting in my thoughts on the train for longer periods, or anywhere where the only thing I have to occupy myself is daydreaming. Here, I usually just jot down the dialogue and whatever tiny cues I picture in my head, and leave it for later. Then later,  I fill in all the actions, thought processes, and scene descriptions whenever I’m better situated to write it all out.

You can really tell when one of my works has been based on dialogue first or simply an idea, as those texts based on dialogue are very dialogue-heavy, whereas those based on lone ideas rarely have any at all. 

Take, for example, GAMER-RAGE, which was based on an idea I got from watching a YouTube streamer called Asmongold. It has little to no dialogue, even though it’s one of my longer texts. Then take this fic called Loose Screws. You’ll notice it’s almost purely dialogue from start to finish, and that’s because it essentially started off as a script.

Other times, when I’m all out of ideas or dialogue, I’ll kickstart myself with a prompt, typically just a word or concept, like VIRGIN BOY or BRUISER BOYFRIEND, where I’ll just sit and see what comes to mind. 

Here’s a General Prompt List you can check out, and here’s another NSFW-oriented one. There are dozens of others out there for you to use when you’re feeling a little sapped for inspo.

In this edition of the Helpdesk, I write a bit more on getting inspired: On Ideas & Inspo.

♡ My Writing Style

How to make things flow? 

Well, it’s a complicated question since it boils down to quite a few things. Wording is one, sentence structure is another, then there’s point of view, and my authorial choices of what to include as well as when, where, and how I include it.

I explain a bit about wording in this previous Helpdesk edition called Vocabulary Tips & Tricks. I also explain a few things about point of view and authorial choices in this edition, On Focal Points & The Power of Persuasion, and this one, On Scene Descriptions. More on point of view is also discussed in this edition, On Reader Inserts.

All these things factor into how the entire text flows. But I suppose I can give a few tips on flow overall.

The first and easiest tip is to write straightforwardly from your head—don’t get hung up on spelling or grammar in the first run, just write what you instinctively see of the scene in question. This way, you’ll only be including what stands out and is important. It’s not important that the text is understandable or even readable to others; all you have to focus on are the core elements of the scene. Not to be confused with the core plot points, core elements can be anything you want to focus on, from a certain emotion, a certain action, a certain dialogue sentence, a certain angle, or whatever the idea rests on.

In the next round, you read and implement other things you think should be included. Here, you should assume the position of an unbiased reader. So, anything anyone wouldn’t understand, you explain by including more descriptions, such as actions, thoughts, and surroundings.

In the third round, you reread and start to change things up. Here, it can be helpful to mark things in red. This would be anything you feel disrupts the flow. Is there anywhere in the text where the vibe is off, or anything that reads as boring, anything that stunts the action where it shouldn’t? Anything at all where something sticks out or does something to the reading experience that it shouldn’t, mark it as red. This also includes anything you just don’t like, obviously.

And then, in the fourth round, you work on fixing those things. See if they can be deleted, or if you can move them someplace else, phrase it differently or more concisely, leave it to be read between the lines instead. 

This can be hard. Sometimes I’ll write descriptions that I really like, but end up needing to scrap them because they don’t do anything for the text. Rather, the opposite, they disrupt the flow.

This type of self-editing was referred to by William Faulkner as Kill your darlings. And it basically means that you have to erase parts of your writing or certain ideas that stand in the way of the big picture, even though you hold love for them.

What I like to do though, to make the process easier for myself and so that I don’t feel like I’m actively throwing parts of myself into the furnace, is to save all those things I cut from the text and store them in their own document so that I might make use of them differently some other time.

But anyway, back to the process.

At this point, you should just repeat rounds three and four until you feel you’ve achieved a nice flow.

After doing things for some time, it integrates itself into your writing method, and you start doing it instinctively without thinking. As I work now, I simply write and reread a few times, making changes as I go. But if I were to break it up, then this four-step routine is essentially what I do.

Hope it helps!

♡ NIGHTMARE'S HELPDESK

[azus-reyan]

Your ear. Use your ear to write better.

Writing happens with your hands, and reading happens with your tongue. Both are necessary for good writing and play a role in creating effective works.

But there’s a neglected sense that's as important, if not more: hearing. 

After finishing a draft, you’ll probably look it over, you may or may not like what you see. Either way, you'll probably do some editing. A change in the story, in the structure, and of course the grammar. 

It might need heavy editing or a glance. You do the work, settle the details, spit on it for good measure, and send it out to the world. All done. 

Until someone complains about this or that. About unnecessary sentences. About missing quotation marks and about entire forgotten sections.

You wrote with your hands. You might have read while writing or after; most do, but did you hear yourself read?

Read out loud!

It isn’t that difficult. Take a chair, go somewhere no one will interrupt, and read your work out loud. You don’t have to scream, but try to extend yourself to hear yourself.

This is best done when you've finished everything. I like to do it every so often; the more the better. 

The amount of errors you’ll catch will be astounding. They’ll mostly be small, missing punctuation or something like that. The important thing is to read as if to someone else.

I like to imagine someone listening to my recitation, someone who won’t harshly criticize but will listen with care. For you, it could be anyone, even a real person will do it. In fact, that might be better.

Your ears are as much a part of your body as your hands. Use them to their maximum benefit. 

Until next time. 

don’t forget to leave a heart and hopefully, a reblog as well.

[taylor-titmouse]

Hi, I’m a big fan of your writing! I’ve been wanting to enter into self-publishing erotic works as well with one of my artist friends. I currently have a 22k “book one” written, and was wondering if it was worthwhile to get it professionally edited.

The issue is cost. I don’t imagine there will be a big RoI for this first book. How much do you normally pay for such a service? I’m assuming R/L Monroe does that for your stories, so the going rate on their website is the place to look?

Thanks for your time and all that you do for the smut writing community ☺️

okay So. this is my feeling on editing

it is worth getting it done at least Once. it will be expensive, and you probably will not make back as much as you spent with the one book. but it's better to think of it not as an investment in this one particular book, but in your skills as a writer in general. whatever you learn and improve upon from this one edit, you will be able to carry with you to the next project. you know better for the future.

i learn something new about writing every time i get my work edited. sometimes it's that i do this one particular grammar or structure thing over and over without realizing (and now that i know, i can avoid it). sometimes it's being told what my story is actually about, and how to make it more about that rather than incidentally, and i'm better positioned to think about that ahead of time for the next one. things like that.

it's almost like a personalized writing class. for me it feels like getting the sponge treatment. i get set in my way of doing things and after an edit it's all fresh and new and i can see a clearer way forward.

that all said it will cost you hundreds of dollars depending on the length and type of editing you're getting. you can do the math yourself with the service guide pdf you can download off r/l's site if you're thinking of going with him. i think it's worth it! and everyone i've pointed his way has been super happy with his work.

though i'll tell you he's busy until like. march lol.

[doodles-of-a-nerd-kid]

So this is something I completely made up

From my recent poll I've become aware that at least one of you is interested in things in relation to headcanons; so for the first I felt that I should post an explanation for my Misery and Kazuma dynamic here:

↓

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SzQkS8Ii9zngYw3jz_s9rBeBLA6zD2RKi5fklnXIEuU/edit?tab=t.0

I know this is quite questionable at a distance but trust me it's sort of interesting to think about--

If you have questions or thoughts after reading this my ask box is always open ^^

I' ve actually written quite a few of these types of documents; I tried to polish this particular one up the best I can but I'm sure it can be better in relation to grammar or structure but lol and also lmao

[haru-dipthong]

Ep 13 of my Utena fansub is out! (end of the first arc)

Since this is a summary episode that’s essentially a clip show, there isn’t too much for me to comment on translation-wise. I did notice while I was copying lines from older episodes though, none (or almost none) of the recorded lines in this episode are recycled from older episodes. They say the same words, but they’re all alternate takes. I wonder why it was done like this… surely it would have been easier to just recycle the exact clips. Sometimes they don’t even say the same words! On my first watch, I remember being surprised that I didn’t feel bored watching this clip episode, and I think that might be part of the reason - none of the audio is exactly the same as the actual episodes.

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ついに彼女は七番目の試練、自分という名の決闘にも勝ち抜いたわけだ。

It seems she has passed the seventh trial, the Duel by the name of Self.

I find the phrasing of the Japanese in this line a little bit strange - the grammar という is often used to say that something is called a particular name, but when translating to English it sometimes makes sense to ignore this particular grammar and just say “the X of Y” or something similar instead of “the X called Y”, which can sound a bit verbose at times. In this case though, the verbosity is warranted, because Akio is literally saying that the duel is titled “Self”, with the word 名.

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勝てば官軍、負ければダボハゼ、歩く姿は百合の花！

The shadow girls are having fun with proverbs here. They’re intentionally getting the proverbs all mixed up and wrong.

One of the original proverbs they’re referencing is 勝てば官軍、負ければ賊軍 — literally “if you win, you’re the loyalist army, if you lose, you’re the rebel army”. Or as we say in English “history is written by the victors”. They substitute 賊軍 (”zokugun” lit. rebel army) for ダボハゼ (”dabohaze” lit. goby, the species of fish, which is also an insult like “worthless”) for a gag and to indicate that they’re not remembering the proverbs correctly.

The other proverb they’re mixing up is 立てば芍薬、座れば牡丹、歩く姿は百合の花 — “When she stands she’s like the shakuyaku (Chinese peony), when she sits she’s like the botan (tree peony), when she walks she is as the lily”. If you can read Japanese, you can see that these two proverbs have a similar structure and ring to them which makes it plausible yet funny that the girls have crossed a war proverb with a poetic line about beauty.

So, when translating this, how are you meant to do it? Well, one option is you could translate everything literally.

If you win, you are loyal. If you lose, you are a goby. And if you walk, you are as the lily!

or

The victor writes the record, the loser is a flop, and when she walks she is as the lily!

But I don’t like this approach. The actual meaning of the proverbs isn’t the main point of this line. The point is that it’s funny that they’re mixing up two very different lines, and that the references to proverbs are meant to induce a particular feeling, rather than a particular meaning. In order for it to land, the audience needs to be at least passingly familiar with the references, and they definitely won’t be familiar with a foreign proverb translated into English.

I decided to use Shakespeare, since the girls often reference theatre tropes and are themselves “on stage” within the narrative. I took two lines from Romeo and Juliet:

These violent delights have fishy ends. And a rose by any other name would smell as sweet!

This fulfils my requirements, and it even keeps the flower references in the second half (and I got to make it a ROSE instead of a lily!!). I spent an hour on this bloody line so you better appreciate it! T_T

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Thanks as always to @dontbe-lasanya for their editing!

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