#enjoy my crappy edits haha

[literallyjustanerd]

Hello there!

Was at Supanova Melbourne this weekend, felt so good to cosplay again after so long. Worked for weeks sewing the costume and making props and it was all worth it!

[sweet-cream-puff]

currently reading: bl manga #02

my shelf of BL has increased a lot over the last few months... and already looking to get some new volumes hahaha. looking at the japanese volumes of ask and you shall receive* vol 3 and natsume-san ga hokorobitai*!!! but here are some recent reads!!!

happy crappy life* vol 1-2 by harada

heard this was hilarious as hell online and saw it on hoopla and in stores, so I decided to just get the first two volumes and go in blind. and wooooow it's so good. I'm excited to get the rest of the series haha. love to see "and they both were bottoms" in a story... the main charas are idiot for idiot and it's just plain fun!!! I love the print with the removable covers like they have with japanese manga... def want to pick up some more kuma publications.

a home far away* by yatsuda teki

speaking of kuma publications, also heard good things about this one so I read it on hoopla!!! it was just as emotional as I saw people say online. definitely not for the faint of heart as it touches on some real topics... but the art and story is gorgeous and oh so bittersweet. I don't want to spoil it but uhhghgjgk... I hope yatsuda sensei's other work sleeping on paper boats* also gets licensed... the premise is intriguing!

daisy jealousy* by tanaka ogeretsu

coming from a CG background, this one was fun to read because of that setting... I'm actually a sucker for jealousy stories where one pushes the other away because of their combined love and jealousy toward the other who just is terribly in love with them. like idk there's something just so good about it!!!! I also didn't realize the tanaka sensei did yarichin bitch club* which I only read a bit of when I was younger lololol. I also want to read their work happy of the the end*

the genius puppeteer loves the holy knight fiercely* by kogarashi hatoba

honestly I wish this was a multi-volume work... the premise and story is interesting but the single volume pacing didn't make it shine!!! I wanted to see more and honestly it would have paid off more... the world itself was really cool too like I want to know more about the war and backstories of the characters!!

breathless momentum by sumiya zeniko

so I actually bought these volumes in japanese since the english translation is digital only!! I'm currently on vol 2 so far but heheh I'm enjoying shizuki and yano's story~ I love their dynamic of going from fwbs to actual lovers hehe. yano really loves shizuki and it's adorable!!! vol 5 is coming out next month so hope to catch up to that!

edited: 2024.09.04

[incorrect-ikevamp-quotes]

Horrible Vlad^TM

[soft-persephone]

1. Deserve // Doug Renetti x OC x Tina Lewis

AN: This is the start of my series of loosely connected on shots of everyone’s favorite couple and my OC. This chapter is just to get a feel for how they met.

Word Count 2.5k+

Rating; Mature ( no minors, its minx but still warning for safety.) 

I made this crappy edit for my fic, but its my crappy edit, damnit

Doug and Tina’s relationship had a solid foundation. The rhythm that flowed every time they encountered had a hypnotizing effect on Angelina.  Each one leaving her dizzier than the last, intoxicating her. From every hazy night when she slept to every waking moment where she stumbled around dazed and lightheaded until she could bask amongst them once more as they lured her into their piper’s song.

 She couldn’t tell if it was enriching or ruining her life. 

“Angel.” Doug snapped his fingers in her face and gave her one of his signature smiles. 

“Did you hear me? We’re starting Naughty Schoolgirls today at 11:00 and then you’ll have to squeeze in time to finish up Milky Mom’s before Ebony gets here?”

“Yeah,” Angel made a mental walk through of her day to day, figuring out what she may need to do more of and cut out to get everything done on time, “okay.” She replied softly.  

“Okay.” he matched her tone. The Doug that was always accused of being up to something was no more, and in his place an ordinary, kind, and caring man who looked like he wanted to hug her at any moment.

She hated that. 

He was so kind and understanding when he wanted to be and genuinely endearing. 

She tried her hardest to push all the feelings he brought out of her away. It's not fair and it wasn’t right.  

She didn’t have time to figure out or deal with her feelings for Doug because she was too busy trying to figure out the feelings she already has about Tina! 

It wouldn’t be fair to either of them.

It was only right she figured it out before she messed things up and turn out with no possibilities instead of two. It was best she focused on her job while she could be here, and keep it professional until whatever happens, happens.  

Besides. . . Angelina enjoyed working here. 

The models weren’t airheads or entitled.

 They were interesting people from so many walks of life. The people behind every photo were just as if not twice as interesting as the people in the photos. Everyone and every part of this job held a genuine atmosphere of everyone being on the same page and working together for the same thing. They  were genuinely glad to be at their jobs and kind of. . .nice.

She  wasn’t  going to  fuck this up. 

Not Doug and Tina and not Bottom Dollar.. 

“Someone's got the weight of the world on their shoulders.” A familiar face rudely interrupted her. 

 “Are you coming across the answer to end the Vietnam war all on your own at the moment as well as makeup prep? Should I call the news down here, so they can tell the world of your amazing service to your country?”

“Haha, you're so funny Richie.” Angela put on her everyday cheery face. She prayed to God he couldn’t see her own thoughts eating her alive. 

Richie silently watched her work, and she ignored him. 

“You don’t have to do that.” 

 “I guess I'll bite.”  She sighed and put down what she was working on. “Do what?”

“You drew this line between you and us. There's only so far you’ll get close to the line, but you keep yourself from crossing it.”

Angelina did not like where this conversation was going.

“Richie, if you're trying to imply something, don’t beat around the bush and just say it. I’m a big girl! I'm sure I can handle it!”

“You can allow us to get to know you and you are allowed to get to know us.”

He placed his hand on her shoulder. 

“Let loose girl!”

They laughed and all seriousness evaporated.

“Stop being so intense in the morning, Richie! The day hasn’t even started yet!”

“I’ll stop when you go out with us for drinks tonight.” Grabbing his camera he sashayed away.

“No excuses!” he shouted back without turning around. 

Doug slammed the phone back on the receiver and groaned while wiping his hands down his face.

“What is it this time?” Tina asked without looking up from what she was reading.

“Russians asked for another favor due in maybe tonight or this weekend.”

Tina instantly looked up and put what she was reading to the side. 

Doug did his best not to smirk at the action despite the conversation they were about to have. 

There’s just something about those little things and small gestures. 

“But we already did something for them last week!” They said this was a once-a-month kind of thing!’ She scoffed. 

“Look,” he quickly thought it over and made a decision, “this is good.”

“It's good., ” Tina deadpanned. “your one more favor away from getting caught up in something that could ruin us forever if you land in jail or worse, and it's, I don’t know.. . just good now.”

“We get in good with the Russians, and we have people on our side that will always be  good for business.  Who would fuck with us when we have Russians on our side?”

“Alright.” she said with finality. 

Doug sighed. “Tina, without the Russians we wouldn’t be in the back of this laundromat. We’d still be doing this out the trunk of my car.”

Tina walked over to him and leaned over the edge of his desk facing the majority of the space they used for photoshoots. Leaving only enough room for this one desk table and chair in the small corner they were currently in.

“I just really hope you know what you're doing.”

“Don’t I always?” he smiled. 

Tina bit back a grin.

“Hey,” a voice interrupted Angelina from finishing adjusting several different shades of brown foundation, “you got a second?”

Angel turned around and fought the urge to smile too much as well as the butterflies erupting in her stomach.

Tina was walking to her , and she . . . she looked serious. 

“Would you mind helping me with something tonight?” She paused for a heartbeat, “only if it's no trouble. I know some people were planning on going out tonight.”

“No, its ok.'' She played it cool, mentally pinching herself to sound as calm, cool, and collected as possible. She fought the anxiousness rising in her. She was going to say yes, but she takes the bus everywhere. 

“It's no trouble at all.” 

It's not like the buses don't have a night shift. She just never rode the bus at night before. It can't be any different from the daytime. She’ll figure it out later. God forbid she has to ask Tina for a ride home.

Oh God, she’ll have to ask for a ride home. 

“You have no idea how much you're helping us out,” She smiled. I’ll make sure we make it up to you!” 

Angel could have sworn Tina looked down at her kips for a short second before smiling at her, but it was so fast, and she wouldn’t dare ask anyone else to verify.  

Tina was gone before she could hardly react to what supposedly might have happened.

Clearing her throat, she picked up her make-up brush and continued touching up the model in front of her. She had faint spots on her skin that were slightly darker than others. She color corrected those spots to make her skin look more even for the camera. 

She’d find some time to go swoon over the fact she’d get to spend some time with Tina alone later.

“You know Tina a while before you started working here?” Shirley, the model, nonchalantly asked.

“No, not really.”

“Mhmm.” Shirley looked her up and down, giving her a look.

Angelina bit her lip and ignored her. 

It was a familiar look and sound she hated as much as many girls growing up hear time and time again. 

It was the same response you’d get from your mother when you tell her you're going to your friend's house tonight, before she’d send you back to your room. The response you get when you pick up a certain skirt and say, it's the same one everyone wears at school before she’d tell you to put it back.

“Well, if that is indeed the case. You might be foolin’ other people around here, but not me.”

“It's not what you–”

“--so you're saying you don’t have a crush on Tina.’

I don’t.” Which was a lie that wasn’t a lie. 

It was a truth that wasn’t exactly the truth because she  was head over heels for Tina. Very deeply and madly in love with her– and Doug, so it's the truth, but also not really. 

“Hmm.” She gave her another look. “I’ll let you say that.”

Today was  definitely going to be a long day. 

 And it was.

Shirly is not the poster child for keeping secrets.

 Before the end of the day, all the Ebony girls were teasing her about Tina, and someone figured out she might have a crush on Doug too which resulted in someone else asking who she didn’t have a crush on. 

Her night was much better. 

 Angelina had the simple task of sorting through mail using the system Tina already invented while she did something Doug usually does.  

“Why couldn’t Doug do it tonight? Was it an emergency, is he okay?” 

Tina’s eyebrows knit together before she looked up, huffing out a quick laugh of bafflement.

“Doug is fine.” she lowered her voice and brushed her hand between Angelina’s shoulders. “Don’t worry about it.”

A sudden warmth spread from Tina’s fingertips, spreading to her toes and every hair on her head. 

She forced herself not to freeze up or shudder. 

“Does everyone call you Angel?” 

Tina took a seat across from her in the other wiry fold up chair at the old flimsy table that used to be as a desk, nothing between them but  the books  and a typewriter.

“Not until I started working here.”

“No?” she asked. “Not even family.”

Angelina broke eye contact and looked down before looking up, fiddling with the pen in her right hand. 

“They call me Lina.”

“Oh” Tinsa’s mouth formed a small O before breaking out in a smile.

‘Why’d you never correct anybody?”

“Its funny.” she smiled at her brightly.

Tina made a face and she suddenly felt hot. 

“No, my uh,” she giggled to herself, “I’m sure my Dad would say that it’s a stripper’s name somewhere. He always says stuff like that because of the life I live and the things I do for work.”

“And that’s funny?”

“He’s not judgmental! Or disappointed in me! He just has this ongoing bet with himself that it's only a matter of time until I end up working in a strip club!” she laughed. 

“Your father jokes about you becoming a stripper?”

“Not being a stripper, just working with them.” She defended her father with a smile. “Basically the same job I'm doing now but with strippers.”

“I hate to burst your father’s bubble as well as yours, but you are working with strippers. Just not in a strip club.” Tina said in faux seriousness. 

“In that case,” she played along. “Let's keep that fact between me and the people here because I'm sure that would freak my family out. They joke about it, but I know it would actually  freak them out if I told them, it was true.”

“Well,” Tina looked up in thought, “your secret is safe with me, but if it gets to Shirley it’s only a matter of time before your family tries to drag you out of here.”

They both laughed.

Oh fuck!

 Did someone tell Tina about  ‘her crush’  which was really childish, but now Tina would probably think she was childish. Tina was already kinda probably with Doug. 

Now she’s gonna get turned down and embarrassed because she couldn't hold it together for five seconds. 

At least there wasn’t an audience. 

“Are–”

Tina was interrupted by the clank of the front door slamming shut. 

Angelina turned to see a very worn down and tired Doug.

His pristine navy polo was now crumpled and wrinkly, some of his curls were looser than they were this morning and morphed into a fluffier more unruly state, he often runs his hands through his hair and that certainly doesn't help, but Angelina doesn't think he could look more perfect. 

“Angel!” his smile gave her stomach knots.

“What are you doing here? We don’t pay you overtime do we? We pay no one overtime!”

“I'm good for it.” she prayed her voice was loud enough for anyone to hear it. 

Wasting no time, Doug stood directly behind her and started picking up stacks one at a time by color of the sticky note on top. 

All the greens went in the trash, the yellows were skimmed through to be saved again for later, and the pink ones he read each word carefully before telling Tina to either make note of something or put it in his schedule. 

 While doing so, his absent hand drifted onto her shoulder, making her yelp.

 Doug laughed through his nose but didn’t stop reading. 

His touch was different from Tina’s. Instead of situational and comforting, It was deliberate and riling. His fingers trailed from her shoulder to the nape  of her throat, climbing up the column of her throat and tracing absent minded  patterns from her collar to her chin. 

It made her warm in a way she did not want to be feeling at the moment. Not with Tina watching her like she was. She was watching so closely. She didn’t miss a thing. 

It was all too much.

Tina's gaze. 

 Doug’s touch. 

She wanted to cave in on herself and run away from it all. 

After a few moments of silence as Doug continued reading, she talked herself up to doing something. What? She didn’t know.

She had to do something. 

She reached to stop Doug’s hand, but before she even touched him, he grabbed her by the throat, right underneath her chin. He wasn’t rough, he didn’t squeeze.

But the shock of it all made her gasp. She took a deep breath and exhaled shakily. 

What was happening?

Hand now under her chin, he raised his thumb to stroke her cheek. 

It was so. . . warm. It was warm and reassuring.

Against her nature, she leaned into it, into him Letting him stroke her cheek, letting him pull her into a some form of embrace against his chest as he stood and she sat, basking in his warmth.

A softer hand stroked the other side of her face.

“Do you have a ride home?”

She shook her head against Doug’s stomach. “No.”

“Let us take you home, Okay?”

Doug's hand was now at the nape of neck, burying her face against him. He wasn't doing this for her but for him.

She doesn't know how she knows for sure, but she did. . .

. . .and she’d let him

[silenceofthecookies]

Can I get a scenario (modern au) where one of the Straw Hats pull a prank on Sanji and put semi-permanent black hair dye in his shampoo? The next day is suppose to be his one-year anniversary with his girlfriend but he feels too insecure about the impromptu hair color change that he avoids her for a while? Its cool if you don't want to do it! It was just a funny idea haha 😅❤️

Hi anon! I had a good laugh when I read this request, but it turned out a bit more angsty than funny 😅 Sorry! I hope you still enjoy it though! ❤Honestly, your request reminded me of that scene in Howl’s moving castle where Howl’s hair turned black. I bet Sanji would be just as much of a drama queen about it as Howl. I did get curious about Sanji with black hair though, so I made a (crappy) little edit for it, which is in this request as well! Enjoy! 

Warnings: slight angst, hurt/comfort, happy ending

You had no idea what was going on, but you were crying your eyes out nonetheless. A few days ago, Sanji and you would’ve gone on a date for your one-year anniversary. The both of you had been looking forward to it a lot, or so you thought. You had spent hours planning it out to make it the cheesiest, most romantic day ever, giggling at all the cringe the two of you would probably be giving yourself from the horrible clichés.

Yet, on the very morning of your anniversary, Sanji told you something came up and he didn’t show up. You were shocked. When you asked him for an explanation of what came up that could possibly more important that your first anniversary together, he told you he’d explain later and hung up. After that, you had tried to reach him several times over the span of a week, trying to get a hold of him to get an explanation. He never picked up anymore, simply sent you texts that he couldn’t talk right now.

He was going to break up with you, you were sure of it. There was probably some other woman. Someone prettier than you, probably. The mere thought made you cry even harder. You loved him so much, why would he fake it? And if he wanted to break up with you, why not just say so? Why ignore you to death? Fine. You’d play his game. Grabbing your phone, you started angrily typing him a message.

‘I get the message, though I wish you would’ve just said it straight to my face. Good luck with your new girlfriend.’

And send. That was it. You were now single again after a year. You sighed and decided to grab some comfort food. Your phone started ringing as you left the room. Probably Sanji. You just continued to walk and ignored your phone. He ignored you for a week, certainly he didn’t expect you to pick up your phone for him now?

Your phone continued to ring for a good while, even after you returned with your snack. With a small grin you put your phone on silent and put on a movie you liked. It felt good to give him a taste of his own medicine, though you couldn’t help but feel sad about the whole situation. No matter how it had ended or for what reason, you truly loved Sanji.

Your doorbell rang, disturbing you watching your movie. It was probably the deliveryman with your parcel. After putting your movie on pause, you headed to your front door to open it. The doorbell rang again, and you yelled you were coming. Damn impatient mailman. Once you opened the door, you were shocked to see it wasn’t the mailman.

But Sanji. With black hair. You stared at him for a few seconds, mouth wide open. Sanji stood in front of you, face red, though his eyes didn’t tell you he was angry. He was embarrassed.

“Can I come in, please? Let’s... talk about this.”

Dumbfounded, you nodded and stepped aside, letting him into your house. Sanji entered your home as he had so many times and headed straight for your kitchen. The kitchen table was always the place where you’d talk about things that bothered you, or where you sorted out arguments. It had kind of become a habit. The two of you sat down and Sanji started talking.

“I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have done this to you. I just… Let’s go back to the start. I was taking a shower the day before I’d head over to you. Once I stepped out of the shower and saw my hair, it was black. Apparently, Zoro and Luffy thought it was funny to put paint in my shampoo. It was just semi-permanent, they said, so I tried washing it a few times but the colour stuck. I tried to get an appointment with a hairdresser, but they were all booked already. And after missing our anniversary… well… I just… couldn’t face you. I’m sorry, Y/N.”

Suddenly it all made sense. Zoro and Luffy, Sanji’s roommates, often pulled shit on him. Luffy loved harmless little jokes and Zoro joined in on anything that would embarrass Sanji. Of course Sanji would tell them he’d be going on a special date with you, and of course they’d want to mess with him somehow. There was just one question that burned in your mind though.

“Why didn’t you just say they painted your hair black? Sure, it looks different, but we still could’ve gone on that date.” “Y/N, I… I couldn’t let you see me like this… it looks terrible, I feel like some kind of delinquent. I don’t want people to see me like this. And on top of that, you shouldn’t be seen with me like this. I should look like the prince you deserve…” “Sanji, you are my prince. Blonde or black hair. It doesn’t matter. Your personality makes you you, not your hair colour. Your hair could be all colours of the rainbow and I’d still love you. You could be bald and I’d still love you. Because no matter what you look like, you’re still the charming gentleman I fell in love with.”

Sanji stared at you in disbelief for a while, before the tears finally started flowing.

“I’m so sorry, Y/N. Because of me, we didn’t do anything for our first anniversary…” “It’s ok, I forgive you. However, next time something like this happens, just give me a call, ok?” “I will.”

You smiled at Sanji and got op from your chair, walked over to his and put your arms around him. He leaned into your embrace and closed his own arms around your waist. You felt his tears land on your shirt, but it didn’t bother you. Right now, you were being overwhelmed by the relief that he did not dump you for another woman. Closely after though, followed another, somewhat meaner feeling.

“So, Sanji, how are we going to get back at Zoro and Luffy for painting your beautiful blonde hair black?”

[ratanslily]

Both fandoms, since you're active in both :)

ah okay!

so duration:

for choices: I've actually played choices when it only had limited stuff like TCTF/TF. but chris bored me alot so i quit the app (my irl friend lowkey experimented w her sexuality via this app btw. she romanced kaitlyn, who happens to be a lesbian and later came out as a lesbian herself, so good for her <3). I kept joining n leaving the app. but i think I've played bb3 with the fandom..because i discovered TE, which quickly had me in a grip. then blades and rest you know.. we're still here haha. I miss the earlier fandom. my old choices friends were here, there were crappy and funny meme edits.. videos and the fandom felt together and alive. the tag was full of life. art, fics and edits were being reblogged. posts were reaching 1k notes, we were trending (I've the fortune of my posts appearing in the trending tag. like omgg shit was different then!!)

for rc: i played sitf, and loved the horror elements. unfortunately i lacked gems :( i tried to play HS too but my fav wig was paywalled so i said bye to the app. then later, choices started disappointing me, so i had to move over to rc in 2021, no regrets ngl. my fantasy hungry self is having a field time. so i havent been in here long to judge but i think ppl are cool here, but need to learn how to take other's opinions in a respectful manner and not bootlick the app or authors. you can enjoy an app and still criticize it.

[on-a-lucky-tide]

I got tagged by @in-love-with-writing002. Thank you, lovely.

I debated doing this because of overwhelming imposter syndrome in the face of some very good writers doing it (and a comment on a work this morning that left me feeling crappy), but you know what? Yeah, I’m quite proud. I’ve written a million words since January. Here are my favourite couple of k.

Rules: it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 (ish) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

1. Piece Me Back Together, Dear Heart (102k)

This is possibly the most well-known work of mine (I say that, there are thousands of people in this fandom, so it’s a niche). It’s a post canon “fix-it” - but not really - where Jaskier travels with Eskel after breaking up with Geralt. Geralt dies early and comes back thirteen chapters later (via game canon). I really wanted to build a realistic, loving polyamorous relationship that felt... well, real. I really enjoyed writing the series and I still have two more parts planned out to finish it off - one set in Hearts of Stone, the other in Blood and Wine. It’ll follow the trend of filling in gaps around the main three characters, and weaving/warping game events. I’ve learned a lot more about lore - and the Witcher in general - since writing Dear Heart, but still I’m pretty proud of it.

2. If These Scars Could Speak (100k)

Modern AU study of the abandonment of heroes once they’ve stopped being “useful”. I drew on a lot of the themes for the Witcher and tweaked the characterisations for amusement - i.e. Lambert is the best cook out of all of them, haha - but worked hard to stay true to who the characters were at their core. It started in response to media using the “hero” rhetoric for people being forced onto the frontline of the COVID-19 crisis. Not because they’re not, but because people used it almost as an excuse to not give them proper protection, or look after them in any way. “That shop worker hasn’t been given a mask... that nurse is working sixteen hours without PPE...” Oh, but they’re heroes. To be a hero, you’re meant to sacrifice and then when you’re sick, or unable to do ‘heroic’ things anymore, you get abandoned. That sucks. So yeah, that work took me a while to get my head around.

3. Petrichor (93k)

It’s A/B/O time. It’s light touch as all hell (it was my first look at the trope, and there were lots of bits that I was not okay with). It was the first big thing I wrote. It’s fluffy and full of love. Jaskier, Eskel and Geralt get married. They retire to Corvo. They sing, they dance, there’s a lil’ bit of angst. It was just fun to write, okay?

4. Cabinet of Curioisities (151k)

My collaboration with @round--robin! It started off as “hey, what if we look at some of the unpleasant parts of Jaskier and whack it up to twelve?” It then grew a plot, became 150k words, spawned the Vipurr (Letho/Gaetan) ship and made her love Letho (mwahaha). It was really good fun, and I learned a lot about someone else’s writing process, and a bit about what I could do better to improve.

5. Sonnet X (20k)

The first one. I’d never been part of a fandom before, or written anything for public consumption. My friend read it through for me. I was so nervous posting it, but I’m glad I did. It was pure Geraskier too! It was a very blatant study of grief/depression and what it does not just to the person suffering, but also the collateral damage to those around them. Geralt is literally almost consumed by the poison from the monster, which is spawned from the grief of a mother who has suffered the most harrowing loss. I was still dealing with a loss in my own family and it was damn cathartic - low and behold, a coping mechanism is born.

I tag: @cylin-aka-ankamo; @round--robin; @goldandlights; @tumbleweedtech; @stardustlupin.

[slade-neko]

Music Tag! 🎵

Thanks for tagging me @sasukay-kunn! (I hope there wasn’t an expiration date because this has been sitting in my drafts for approximately 16 weeks haha... ha.) 😅 Rules: list 5 songs that you will never get tired of, and tag people

This was really hard for me because I listen to A LOT of music that I don’t seem to ever get tired of. Picked some of my favorites from my Top 25 playlist according to my music player. I’m also including short descriptions just for the heck of it (mostly because I love talking about music!)

Dethklok - Awaken

Starting this list off with a real (head)banger (oof that was horrible.) This song got me into Dethklok’s music and Metalocalpyse as a show. Not gonna lie, I also have used this song as my wake up alarm.

GLORYHAMMER - Hootsforce

Uhh probably the catchiest power metal song I have ever heard in my entire life. Gloryhammer’s music never gets old. Pretty sure this song is a daily play for me. Not to mention the music video about space submarines fighting an evil empire in SPACE? Yeah...metal music is great!

Orden Ogan - F.E.V.E.R.

Love the unique sound to this band. The edits they do to the vocals really stand out and sound so cool. I’ve got a lot of favorites by them, but had to bring it to a tie between this song and Gunmen. Plus the first few notes of this song sound like a Black Clover opening, so bonus points for that.

Beach Boys - Wouldn’t It Be Nice

I love the Beach Boys and this song is a big “feel good” song for me. Always cheers me up when I’m down. My Sims game is littered with the Beach Boys on the Summer Strut station haha. Bonus points for being featured in a Fallout game (even if that game is Fallout 76.) Fallout actually opened my eyes (or ears) to a lot of oldies music and made me genuinely enjoy and appreciate them. 

Brand New Animal - Ready to

And of course I am going to put at least one anime opening on this list! This is a newer song, but one I’ve found myself playing a lot. I was torn between Ready To and Night Running (the ending theme of BNA.) Went with the opening theme because its more upbeat and fast-paced, more my tempo. Plus it’s incredibly weeby and its fun to annoy the crap outta my brother for over playing it!

Thanks again for tagging me, Sasukay-kunn! I had way more fun than I was probably supposed to have doing this. I’ll go ahead and tag anyone who wants to do to this too. If you’re having a crappy day or just want something fun to do then check it out!

[pynkhues]

tossing and turning! lumpy pillow! restless!

Tossing and Turning: What parts of the writing process are you most comfortable with? Least?

Answered here! But have another one. I’m really comfortable writing dialogue, and I’m really comfortable (see also: enjoy) pivoting dialogue and growing it for a scene. I’ve included an example for the next question! 

As for uncomfortable, I’ve been slightly uncomfortable writing the kids a little older in the C&C ‘verse? I think though that’s mostly because I’ve still been getting used to writing them as teenagers and young adults more than anything else.

Lumpy pillow: What is the editing process like for you?

Probably a little weird? I generally sort of write like someone might layer paint – I knock out a base coat, then add an overall layer, then fixate on perfecting edges, or finishing a wall, or getting that edging right around a powerpoint (which is to say I do it out of order, haha). 

It means that the story sort of builds up over time. What’s most important to me really is getting the intent right in the base coat, and making sure what I want a scene to achieve is on the page, even if it’ll change a lot between that first draft and what I post. This even goes so far as dialogue. 

Like, okay, an example! There’s a scene in the first chapter of the pirate au where Beth and Annie run into Turner and Noah at the markets, and this is a scene that really starts to introduce broader conflicts and establishes that Beth and Turner don’t like each other (and that Turner doesn’t rate Beth or her family). My initial write-up of the scene had Turner insult Annie for having a baby out of wedlock in a way that basically made Beth mad. I wasn’t beholden to this dialogue, but I knew that I wanted Turner’s insult to be felt deeply, I wanted it to be aimed at Annie but hit Beth by proxy, and I wanted it to set the tone for their dynamic.

So here’s the extremely crappy first draft version of the exchange:

“Surely you must know by now that I am married,” Beth replies. “And to the very man who equipped this city with its court carriages no less.”

Governor Turner looks at her for a moment, before he rocks his head from side-to-side, his gaze fixing back on Annie.

“Of course, not that marriage ever seemed to be much of an issue for all of the Marks daughters.”

Beth stares at him.

That was never really going to stay, but it was a placeholder for what I wanted the characters to feel in it and what the intent of the overall scene was.

As I layered up the story, I added a lot more nuance to character histories and dynamics, and a pretty major throughline where the Marks’ were an old money family in decline, before Beth was ‘rescued’ by new money Dean marrying her. Annie as a result has a diminished family name and is further mistreated due to being an unwed mother, and that is frequently used less against Annie, and more against Beth, because she’s the one who still has social power at this stage of the story.

So now the final version of the exchange goes:

“Governor,” [Beth] replies, tilting her head in his direction in greeting as opposed to invitation, although he seems to take it up as the latter, quickening his stride towards them. Internally, Beth sighs as Annie huffs, stepping a little sideways in the hopes not to be seen.

“What a pleasure to see you grace the streets of our fine city,” he says when he gets to them, his expression bright even as the cut of his mouth looks sharp, and Beth shifts her weight, tries to ease the tension pulling in her chest when she sees his gaze slide sideways to Annie. “Oh, and with Miss Marks too, I see.”

“Lady Marks,” Beth corrects curtly, and the Governor just hums.

“Of course. Lady Marks.”

He bows his head slightly in put-on apology towards Annie, and Beth doesn’t even have to look at her sister to know she’s burning with humiliation beneath the blue lace trim of her dress. It’s enough to make Beth square her jaw, something biting low in her at the Governor’s deliberate mistitling, but before she can say a thing, he steps slightly sideways, revealing a wiry, younger man. Pale, with small, brown eyes and thin lips, a head of gingery-brown hair, and if there was something lynx-like about Turner, there was something decidedly squirrelly about this man, or - - not squirrelly, Beth thinks, pursing her lips and holding her basket back towards herself.

Weaselly.

“I believe your lady sister knows my new deputy, Lord Huntington, but I’m not sure if you’ve made his acquaintance yourself, Lady Boland?”

Beth’s gaze does dart back to Annie at that, seeing her sister’s face flush as she avoids Lord Huntington and Governor Turner’s looks – the former uncertain, twisting a gold ring on his thumb, the latter amused – and well, Beth thinks, pushing her basket to one arm, and bending her knee into the slightest curtsey she can manage.

It’s doing the exact same thing – Turner insults Annie in a way that makes Beth loathe him – but instead of being so blatant, it’s more insidious (he mistitles her, then makes it clear he knows she slept with Noah) in a way that (hopefully) feels truer to Turner’s character and more nuanced and subtle overall. 

So yes! Editing for me I guess is adding coats of paint (and sometimes stripping it too), haha!

Restless: What are your writing goals? What are you striving towards?

I guess my ultimate goal is to make a living from my writing? I sort of do that now through working in operational writing, freelancing and having a (very) modest income from my creative work, but in a fantasy world, I’d be writing creatively full time. 

In terms of creative goals though, I’d just like to keep growing. I don’t think learning about writing ever ends, and it’s one of the things I love about it. I think of storytelling like a living thing, and it needs feeding and nurturing and care and rest, but also if you want it to be better, you need to keep challenging it, educating it, talking to it. I see writers in my real life who view ‘good writing’ as some sort of point they get to, and I think when I was a baby writer, I used to think that too. I’m forever grateful it’s something I grew out of naturally, and I love that I can learn as much from people new to writing with different perspectives as I can from seasoned professionals! It makes it such an enriching world to live in.

Can’t Sleep Writing Asks

[ellovett]

Get To Know The Mun

I was tagged by @permanentlyexhaustedowl @sidecharacter965 and @not-twisted-enough !! Thank you guys, this was certainly fun to fill out! :0

-----------------------------------

1. What do you prefer to be called namewise?

Either Ello, Raven or KC is fine :) KC is what everyone called me back in amino so it kinda stuck with me ^^"

2. When is your birthday?

Oct 8 :)

3. Where do you live? (You don’t have to give city, you can give the state if your USA or country if you are overseas)

The Philippines!

4. Three things you are doing right now?

Typing this in my notes, trying to hide the fact that I'm still using the phone at 4 am while also trying to sleep 🤡

Edit: haha mom caught me and put me to sleep rip so right now im listening to music, typing this and reading fanfiction x)

5. Four Fandoms that have your peak interest right now? 

  Black Butler, Twisted Wonderland, Rupaul's Drag Race and Disney Genderbent, specifically the villains!

6. How has this pandemic been treating you?

 It's pretty normal. We don’t have school anymore so there's a lot of free time. Not so different from my everyday life besides the going to school part, since mom works at home. I was hoping to use this summer to actually plan something with my friends for once. We actually planned to just go to this arcade and play games the day before they announced the quarantine thing so rip

7. A song you can’t stop listening to right now?

Probably Backstabber by Kesha and Just My Type from Saint Motel. Both are hard bops you should give them a listen.

8. Recommend a movie

Movie? I don't often watch those,,,uhhhh OH OH OH! THE WILLOUGHBYS!! IT'S REALLY FUCKING GOOD AND MADE ME CRY AHSHBS you have to give it a watch! It’s so dark and fun to watch and it has a hella good yet sad story

9. How old are you?

 I am 13 years old :)

10. School, University, Occupation, Other?

School, going onto 8th grade. 

11. Do you prefer heat or cold?

Cold, always. I'm kinda allergic to heat, my nose gets runny and I get rashes so I would prefer the cold 10x more.

12. Name one fact about you that others may find unusual

Uhh, I like gore and all kinda of gory stuff! I love it! If you'd meet me in person, and mention it even once, i wouldn't shut up about it. 

13. Are you shy?

 y e s . v e r y

It takes a lot for me to be extremely comfortable with someone, and you have to be my bestest friend in the whole world for so many years before I'll be fully comfy with you. But don't worry internet friends (you know who you are)! I still love you guys and I enjoy talking to yall x0

14. Do you have preferred pronouns? 

 She/her !

15. Biggest pet peeve?

When people don't take me seriously, or when I eat and I accidentally bite my lip, and then I eat again and bite on the sAME GODDAMN SPOT. Also when I can’t sleep even though I took my pill, sometimes I’d sleep for 3 hours, and then the next day I get..12 hours.

16. What is your fave ‘dere’ type?

Dandere's and Hinedere's! I love the development between them and their love interest and it's interesting to see how their often shy/cold exterior slowly breaks! Yandere's are cool too! When done right of course.

17. Rate your life 1-10, 1 being really crappy and 10 being best it could ever be

I'd rate it a 7. It's pretty good but it does have it's downsides.

18. What is your main blog? 

 My main blog is this one :) Ellovett

19. List your side blogs and what they are used for 

 My side blogs are ravensayselloh and ellohitsme, personal and writing blogs respectively.

20. Is there anything you think people need to know about you before becoming friends with you?

Okay so, please know, that I am very awkward. And if you send me a message and im not replying too fast, it's because I'm trying to think of what the fuck i should say without sounding uninterested or rude so please bear with me im not the most social person :) also please be really honest with me, if you feel uncomfortable talking to me then just please say it ;; spare my dignity and yours,,and I roleplay, so if you have any staff ocs you wanna rp with you can always go to me! :D

Now I shall tag... 

@the27th, @shoujoqueensstuff, @treasureoftheseas, @julie-fandom-artblog @lawlessofdusk @noeyebunnynobunsu @twisted-monarch @tawmatore @wondersbeyondcompare @3rdgymbros @fumikomiyasaki

[miramizar]

Catch up tag!✨

I was tagged by the lovely @xiusoomygod, thank you Dee~ 💕

1. what do you prefer to be called name-wise?

I’m happy with anything that has to do with my name, like Miri~

2. when is your birthday?

Let’s just say I’m a winter child~

3. where do you live?

In Sweden 🇸🇪

4. three things you are doing right now?

Uploading/editing fanfics on AO3, watching today’s episode of Gaki no Tsukai and writing here~

5. four fandoms that have peaked your interest?

I have way too many fandoms haha (^^;) but right now it’s Japanese things in general, a series of unfortunate events (the book series), kpop and fairy tales overall~

6. how has the pandemic been treating you?

Things haven’t changed that much in some ways, I still spend most of my time being indoors and stuff, but the general stress and being worried all the time has made me super tired... I’m trying my best to stay positive though 💕

7. a song you can’t stop listening to?

At the moment it’s “Always come back to you” by Natasha’s Brother and  Rachele Capelli 🎵

8. recommend a movie?

I haven’t seen that many movies lately, can I recommend a drama instead? If you’re into dark stuff with a hint of humour and like heartwarming scenes then you should watch Psychopath diary! (>o<)💕

9. how old are you?

I’m trying to not feel bad about how old I am (^^;)

10. school, university, occupation, other?

I’m taking a break from university now and instead I’m working part time as a music teacher.

11. do you prefer heat or cold?

Cold! I’ve never been good at dealing with heat and snowy winters (when they happen) are like a dream ❄️

12. name one fact others may not know about you?

I don’t know... maybe that even if I desperately need new clothes I don’t enjoy looking for/buying them one bit (>^<)

13. are you shy?

I am... You may not notice it in the beginning since I’m pretty good at functioning and being proper&kind but I’m bad at opening up and worry way too much over small things I’ve said and done... I get more comfortable the more we get to know each other though ♡

14. preferred pronouns?

She/Her

15. biggest pet peeves?

Loud chewing!! And people talking over me (>_<)

16. what is your favorite ‘dere’ type?

Maybe dandere?

17. how would you rate your life from 1-10, 1 being crappy and 10 being the best it could be?

I would say... 6.

18. what is your main blog?

This one! I have an artblog and two other blogs dedicated to certain famous people but I’m mostly here 💖

20. is there something people need to know about you before they become friends?

I tend to give 150% as soon as someone responds nicely to me so I may seem like I’m overdoing things... I’m getting better at taking it easy these days, but please bear with me and my worrying (>^<)💖 I’m just happy to talk to nice people~

I’d like to tag @cottonhyun​, @youngk-hun​, @xiuminscheeks​, @ladyliliah​, @your-sophie18 and anyone who wants to do this! (you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to 💗)

[carpisuns]

thank you

it’s american thanksgiving so i just wanted to take a minute to be really sappy lol and share how grateful i am for all of you! i’ve been here for just a few months but i’ve gotten to know some of you and i’m really thankful to know you. 

miraculous has come to me at a time when i’ve been feeling pretty bummed out about my life circumstances and have lost enthusiasm for things i used to love. this stupid show about a cat boy and a bug girl has made me genuinely excited about something when i haven’t had a reason to be excited for a while. 

but, being almost 25, i felt a lot of shame about getting so invested in a kid’s show that a lot of people my age would look down on, and I haven’t been open about it with the people i know, even those who are close to me. so i can’t tell you how relieving and wonderful it’s been to find a group of passionate, talented people who love something I love and want to share their feelings about it. so here’s to all of you!

to my discord peeps/mutuals/anyone i’ve been chatting with pretty regularly: i hope you know how much i love and appreciate you! getting to know you has been awesome and i love chatting and hanging out with you. thank you for making me feel so welcome in the fandom. it means a lot and i am very grateful for you 💕 you are all awesome people!

to the artists: i can’t tell you how much your work has made me smile. i’m honestly amazed at the amount of artistic talent in the ML fandom. sometimes i think, “these artists are SO talented and they’re sharing their work for us to enjoy for free??? AMAZING.” each of you are a blessing and i feel privileged to see your work. the beautiful art i’ve seen has even inspired me to learn how to draw. i have a long, long way to go but the fact that i’ve even picked up a pencil and tried is a big deal for me and it’s because of you. so thank you for sharing your work with all of us ❤️

to the fic writers: do you realize what your words do to me??? they’ve made me laugh out loud, scream, gasp, and feel so much i thought i might explode. thank you for taking me on a journey with your wonderful stories. and thank you for getting me to READ again. i have a habit of thinking that reading fan fiction doesn’t count as reading, but i have read more words of fan fiction in the past few months than i have read of books all year lol. your writing is good, it’s inspiring, it’s genuine, and i love it. i am a writer and editor by profession and i am so impressed by what you do, all because you love something and want to share. i haven’t written for pleasure in a long time but now i’ve been inspired to write fics because of your amazing stories. thank you!

to the gif/edit/video makers: i notice you! i support you! your work is important and i love seeing it! i know how much time and effort you put into your work and i so appreciate it. honestly sometimes i see an edit and i think the creator must be a wizard or something because it is pure magic. keep doing what you do—i love you for it!

to the analysis writers/headcanon makers: what you do is one of my favorite parts of the fandom. i love when you point things out that i didn’t notice or make me see things in a different way. i love when you take me on a journey that absolutely blows my mind or makes my heart explode with feelings. i love hearing your ideas about what could have been or what might happen next. it’s all so fascinating to me. keep sharing your thoughts—i appreciate them!

and finally, to anyone who has followed me, sent me an ask or a message, left a kind reply on my posts, or just keyboard smashed in the tags: THANK YOU. it honestly means more than you know. when people tell me “i like your blog” it just makes my entire day. i read all the replies and i often lurk in the tags too haha. thanks for saying nice things about my crappy beginning art because it inspires me to keep trying to be better. thanks for leaving me kudos on AO3 or commenting on a fic because despite writing for a living I am actually super insecure about my work and i never know if it’s good or terrible asdkfjadslja so the support is everything to me! i remember your kind comments. i think about them days and weeks and even months later. your words mean a lot to me. thank you.

basically, i am grateful for all the wonderful things the ML fandom has brought me over the past few months—but especially for you, the fans! you are what makes the fandom great. i love your ideas and passion and positivity. thanks for making this fandom a wonderful community to be a part of ❤️❤️❤️

(i wanted to tag like 400 people to let you know how grateful i am for you but i figured it best that i didn’t lol so hopefully you know who you are)

[jensungf]

Okay im really talkative, like i initiate the first move always,, i love to put in my earphones to get lost in the chaos i live in,, i love high waisted pants HAHA i draw and a sucker for paintings and dirty sketches, and oh, i dont drink coffee but im a chocolate addict,, im always down for deep 3am conversations, and im curly hehe

hi hannah!!!!!! u definitely give me hyuck vibes for some reason like both of y’all are the type of ppl who radiate chaotic energy and def create the mood for whoever y’all are at and enjoy a lot of pleasures in life (live it to the fullest) but also can get lost in the chaos and find yourselves thinking seriously when the time needs be and are able to hold rly introspective convos at 3am !!! y’all give me the type of vibe where you are definitely extroverted and beautiful ppl who enjoy talking to other ppl but there’s another side to you that is kind of the opposite ??? but only a few ppl can see it hehe i’m not 100% sure with this but this is what i got so i hope u don’t mind if it’s inaccurate bub <3

send in a description of yourself and i’ll tell you which dreamies vibes i get from you (but like rly crappy leyna edition)

[meandmyechoes]

Author's Notes for the untitled Ahsoka & Maul interlude that will stay untitled, for now.

EDIT: I think I have a (working) title for their story arc after all, finishing the fic this day, 28/7 5am: Blood Nevermore

okay so this is something i'm really slightly prouder of. I worked on it for A MONTH, way longer than any writing project of mine should take. The skeleton remains unchanged since the first draft but I got dragged on in little spaces connecting the scenes. Also like all my writing, it starts off in excruciating details and ends up in skippers. I hope I ended this one strongly enough, at least to keep the tension steady throughout, if not rising. This is, more than anything, a study on character and exploration of some non-detachable ideas. (and cheesy one-liners)

This started because I want to write a description of clothes.

Ahsoka's kimono/yukata colour is crimson/maroon with a fade to dirty pink at the broad sleeves' end. Idk her obi colour, gold/proper yellow maybe, boring. While I did want a darari/long sash knot in her final design, in this story, because it's a crappy disguise prepared by Maul, it's those dollar store clipped-on ribbons. (But his own will totally be a luxury brand lol) …and that is where I got the idea of him stuffing explosives "down that tiny pillow behind your back"

It's also a minor retcon (?) because my intuition said 'MIZUIRO' (i.e. not unlike my drawing, still not final though) but i don't wanna get any more ambiguous with the colour and coined it red. Also in my very first (actual) fever dream it was a cherry furisode however unfitting it is for her.

The complete lack of names is entirely intentional. I meant for it to be enjoyed as simply a story between two grudging characters and wished it could be enjoyed outsid the fandom, haha. I also don't wanna particularly pinpoint any party so to further their isolation. It's a secluded world between the two of them and it's a poorly-kept secret. I/we, the narrator/reader, is barely granted a peek of their true intentions. (?)

There IS a reference to another clothes-inspired story at the end of this piece.

What's most difficult for it is writing the dialogues. I am not the most proficient in Maul's lexicon, and just wanted to give them playful banter at first. I didn't really went very deep in motivations or backdrop. This is a snippet of a scene from the first few weeks of their team-up. It's set roughly a year after the finale and they are looking for their respective Jedi's… Maul still has criminal ties (which will pop up more in and if, in subsequent chapters). Ahsoka is in the monkey boots outfit… that's it.

When I actually penned this, it was for the unlikely encounter (as well), but I realized it was actually more fitting for the sketch. Also their dynamic is probably what presented in the first Maul-Ahsoka team up art, though I heavily suspect I delievered.

Anyway, I'm nowhere near the comedy gold this partnership deserves. All I have are shitty toku plots like household appliances starts attacking them or Maul grows a beard. Or they can only defeat MOTW through the power of aerobic dance for a kindergarten. Or a (temporarily) de-aged 'Soka would be fun to write.

more from a phantoms meta.

P. S. a whole new page on Maul's use of we/our. 😏 (Most of it is manipulation technique but to think he thinks in terms of royalty 😏)

[paninimaker]

I love looking at those really crappy edits with the swinging pictures

And there's one YouTuber get it I really enjoy seeing (not gonna give his name because tumblr wants to cancel everything and this guy is my favourite YouTuber rn)

And to give you the rundown of this guy, it's a 24 year old guy playing roblox and annoying kids, stopping them from online dating, fucking around with admin and looking at roblox mysterys (the Smiles Family, the Cult family, etc)(also if you know that youtuber please dont say who it is) .The only catch is, he's fucking insane. He's broken things out of anger over tiny things, spit, filled a tuba with water, and is genuinely hilarious, and its all on camera, because it's all a big joke of 'haha 24 year old play roblox but he still acts like a kid' and go on can tell it's a show.

But a lot of people don't realise it's a show

And a lot of people enjoy making those previously mentioned shitty edits that are usually found in Instagram of him

So I'm giggling because this guy (his online personality) is literally the worst in the best way possible, yet I'm seeing edits being like 'oh hes so cute'

And this isnt a dig at the people that makes those edits, I actually enjoy them, but like

Why make them about him? He literally calls his fan base stupid rats with small brains

[eloarei]

About the process of creating a book (the not-writing part)

I was asked recently about if making a book was easy or tedious or whatever, and I realized that was actually something I’d like to talk about. I’d never done it before (and still I only have a little experience), but I’ve been teaching myself and it’s been... fun?  Behind the cut (that’s still a thing, right?), I ramble about formatting, PDFs, fonts, and some other stuff. (Also pictures, though most of them are the same as the ones I posted yesterday.) 

First of all, I had to pick a Print-On-Demand (POD) website. That was easy for me, because finding the website was actually what made me want to make the book. I used Lulu.com, which has worked very well for me the two times I’ve used it. (It has a bunch of bad reviews, but honestly I got just what I paid for both times. They apparently offer editing and marketing services; I can’t vouch for those because I only used the POD service. But personally I wouldn’t trust anyone to edit or market my book, let alone some randos on some website. They’re a POD site. That’s what they’re good at, so that’s what I use.)  It would have been almost too easy if they just let me copy-paste the text to them, but understandably they wanted a PDF. PDFs are kind of the bane of my existence, but I downloaded a template from them (for a 6x9 inch novel, with appropriate margins) and then copy-pasted my fic into it using LibreOffice. (I’m so-so about LibreOffice, but it does create PDFs reasonably well.)  From there... well, then I had to go through the process of reformatting it. I’d copied the text from my AO3, and that meant that it had spaces between every paragraph and no indents, which is how AO3 fics are typically formatted. It was a lot of Tab-Left-Down-Down-Down-Backspace-Backspace-Enter-Repeat. For 140k words, it took a few casual days.  After the bulk of that was done, I realized the indents/tabs looked... weird? They were too big. ^^; Luckily there was a setting in LibreOffice to change them all automatically. I almost cried at the thought of having to do it manually haha.  Adding data to the headers and footers came next. I chose to only add the page number to the footer, and nothing to the header. Normally people will have the author’s name on one side, and the book’s title on the other, but I skipped that for the time being. Not sure if I’ll do it for the ‘official’ release.  (Somehow my footer ended up being too small, so that’s something I need to look into.)  Next I had to pick a font and a font size. I decided to do something a little gimmicky: I have alternating chapters that take place in modern and historical times, so I chose different fonts to represent those chapters. For the historical chapters I chose “Century”, which is a serif font (meaning that it has little embellishments, like “Times New Roman”), while for the modern chapters I chose “Verdana”, a sans-serif font (meaning that it is sans/without the embellishments, like whatever font Tumblr uses).  It’s typically agreed that novels are best in serif fonts, because it’s easier to read them for a long session. The embellishments make the letters blend together into visually recognizable words, which is apparently how we read, as opposed to looking at every letter individually. However, because I wanted to be quirky, more than half of my book is in sans-serif, which I’m just hoping doesn’t annoy people.  I used Verdana size 11 and Century size 12. Even so, the Verdana still looks too large to my eye, so I’ll probably change it again.  After that was mostly aesthetic formatting, which was the actual fun part. I tabbed down I think about 10 spaces at the start of every chapter, then went back up a space or two, increased the font size and changed the font to something slightly fancier and wrote the chapter title (which for me were just “Chapter Five”, etc).  (UPON FURTHER SCRUTINY, apparently not all of my first chapter pages are tabbed down the same amount. ugh. ^^; They’re close but not identical. How messy.)  Under the chapter titles, I simulated “drop caps” on the first phrase of the chapter, because I didn’t have a good drop caps font. I just did this by retyping the whole phrase in caps, and then changing the first letter to a slightly larger font size.  Next were a few easy things: a title page, a few silly “praise for” pages of reviews I got from online readers (these probably won’t be in the “official” version; they just make me smile), a mock-up copyright page (mock-up because I don’t actually have a copyright or anything yet), a short dedications page (mine was just one sentence), and then an empty page so that the story text starts on the right, which is standard. I have bought another self-published book which otherwise looks pretty good, but it starts the story on the left page and it’s just so jarring.  At that point, the PDF was pretty much done. I added a few other little touches, like some little fancy dagger icons during in-chapter scene transitions. I ended up with the “the end” page being on the left, which, again, is really awkward, so I found a chapter that only had like two lines on the last page, and went back in and deleted a handful of words in the chapter so that it would end on the previous page instead.  THEN came the fun but agonizing part, as I’m not as much of a graphic designer as I sometimes wish. I had to make a cover. The other self-published book I bought looks really nice with a beautiful illustration on the front, but the spine and back had just tiny white text, and didn’t even include a synopsis. So I downloaded a template for a 6x9inch wrap-around cover, tossed it up in Photoshop, paint-bucketed it black, and went to work. I pasted in my synopsis in off-white sans-serif font about the same as my internal font, and bolded some of the key words for... ease of skimming and/or funsies? At the top I added a short dialogue exchange from the first chapter that I thought represented the story as a whole, chose a different font that stood out, and gave it a red shadow so it would stand out more. For fun I added some faint red blood-splatters behind the text.  For the front I chose a big bold block-letter font in off-white, then gave it a red and a yellow shadow so it would stand out. I rasterized the font (turning it into a picture), and then used the tool to highlight the letters, and splashed some red blood-splatters on them. I did the same for the spine. (Though really what I should have done was copy the logo from the front and resize it. Silly me. Now the two logos don’t match.)  I used Unsplash.com for a few free photos that I quickly manipulated into a passable cover art. Ultimately, I would like to have something either professionally photographed, edited, or drawn, but what I found was vaguely similar enough to what I wanted that I figured it’d do for now.  Maybe the last thing I had to do (besides uploading it all to Lulu) was decide on a pen-name! I ended up going with L.A.Rayborn, instead of my legal name. I used my legal first two initials, but chose my birth surname (which is twice removed from my legal name, since I was first adopted and then married). To be perfectly honest, the reason I chose not to use my legal name is mostly because I don’t want to associate my in-laws with possibly-sensitive content that they probably wouldn’t like.  SO. Then it was done, and I uploaded it to Lulu, and chose a few options on the site, such as cream pages instead of white, and matte exterior finish instead of gloss. (I highly suggest the cream for novels, but the matte is really just personal preference.) I paid them (I ended up getting it printed and shipped to me for under $20), and then about 2 weeks later I had the 400 page darling in my hands, ready to be eviscerated with a set of neon hi-lighters!  After this current round of edits, I already know there’s a ton of stuff I’m going to have to fix (and this is to say nothing of the story).  1. The font is slightly too large, but could probably use a 1.5 or maybe 1.2 spacing between lines. I’ll have to fiddle with it, and see what others do.  2. The back cover text is too close to the edges to really look good.  3. The page numbering just looks odd for some reason.  4. Figure out how to get the page numbers to stay off the copyright and dedications page, etc.  5. MORE THAN ANYTHING, I need to change the... I’m not even sure what to call it? I need to make the text space out evenly so that it creates a block on each page, rather than creating messy ridges on the right margins. I didn’t even think of this until I got the book and started comparing it to professional books I’ve read and enjoyed. It seems like a very rookie mistake. 

(lol I’m in the process of changing the main character’s name, which is why the crappy MS Paint edits.)  PHEW, that was long. But hopefully my journey was at least a little insightful. Please do let me know if you have any thoughts, questions, or suggestions about how I could better format the book for the “real” printing!