#i love writing using mostly dialogue; it's like a script

[transingthoseformers]

Loyal subscribers! It is I, Lor- Commander Starscream! We are back to our biweekly addition of the Goodies Podcast, filmed from the quarters of yours truly. Let us check on last time's emerald infused crystals.

Hmm... yesss, the gems are looking quite good. *camera pans over to an especially green cluster*

>dashattack070! : //Ooh! Great! Will these be on the shop?//

And yes, @dashattack070!, these will be on the online shop tagged in the description box.

Now, today's recipe once was the rarest of luxuries: potassium tempered silica wafers! One of the few benefits of this pathetically organic planet is an abundance of potassium and silica crystals, known by the fleshies as quartz. *sets a block of elemental potassium, seven quartz crystals can be seen nearby on a sheet*

Now, the tempering is a delicate process, necessitating careful measurements of H2O, yes there's copious amounts of that dreaded compound on this 'Earth'. If you don't watch closely, you will miss the rea- *faint Rock can be heard from the stream, causing Starscream to jerk in place*

>lsk4owo29 : //what's up with the music?//

>fwl-0123 : //I thought SW put an end to that. @lskowo29 the GC will explain.//

@fwl-0123 is correct; I too thought SW had solved that little problem. I would rather not explain the music currently, lest it ruin our appetites. Now, may we return to-

B̸̧̨̨̢̡̛̤̟͙̻̙̲̼̪̲̠̰͙̞͔͖̭̬̙̻̹̞̖̘͙͚͉͉̟͕̲̗̣̮̭̬͎͇͍̙͐̿̈́̃͒͛̄̀̿͛͛͑̈́̉̏͑͗̓͌͆̀̀̾̇̓͂̅͗́̃͐͌͑̽̊̊͆́͛͒͐̇̓̂̏̌̋͛͛̿̀̚͘̕̕̕͘̕͜͝͝͝͝͠ͅͅͅƠ̴̢̞̟͔̲̖̫̼̖̹̰̜̥̖̞͎̖̘̟̭̜͖̟̼̯̣̮̫̯͔̫̝̫̦̲͕͇̰͔̤̪͔̪̥̜̙̣͙̝̯̑̽͑̿̇̎̅̒͌̐̈̋̄́̌̿͛̊̔̒͋̚̚̕͘͜͜͠ͅͅƠ̴̧̢̢̧̟̤̜̪̥͙̙̞͈̪͈͇̭̮̠͈̬̭̗͕͓͉̙̦̘͇̪̞̽̎́͌͂̀̑́͗̐͋̓͆̀̽͆͂͆͆́̐͛̓̊͑͋͌́̋̈̄̈́̅̆̊̓̃̎͊̓̅̏͗͂̇͒̉̈͑͂͂̄͊̉̓́̿͗̂̄̓̔̈̊̈͊̉̚̕̚͝͠ͅͅM̶̢̢̧̡̢̛̛̛̛̪̥̭̝̹̹̜͈̝̖̰̠̱̜͚̰̤̞̙̼̙̝̹̙̺͓̩͚͎̥̙͇̤̬̲͇̬͇̗̩̻̬̪͍̘̜̹͎̫̫̹͕̙̥͓̙̠̘̝͎̭̼̠̘̄̉͛͋̃̒̈́̈́̆͋͂̈́̓́̑̈́̅͌̐̈́́̈́͆̓̆̇̌̋̔̇̀̓̀̌͑̽̎̋͋̏̈́̀̽̇͒̍̈͑̄̀̎́̿͊́̏͐̀͂̀͆̕͘̚̕̚͘͜͜͜͝͠͝͝͝͝ͅ

>fwl-0123 : // Damnnnnnn mech!//

>justalittleguy99 : //The slag was THAT???//

>bigbluebeauty : //Screamer what the fuck was that//

>53an-203 : //had to join stream quick, sttationed in the engine room. We heard that 'cross the ship lol.//

>slenderman3rd : //Starscream: Explain.//

>slenderman3rd : //Starscream: Explain.//

>slenderman3rd : //Starscream: Explain.//

Soundwave! Ah, yes, you do not need to spam the chat; message received. That, viewers, is an example of particularly violent chemistry. The humans consider potassium to be a rather reactive element. I apologize, my servo must have slipped and spilled the water. @therealsoundwave, and no, there is no damage besides of the ego.

*footsteps and a habsuite door can be heard slamming open in the backround* sTARSCREAM WHAT DID YOU DO

And that marks the end of our stream! Remember to like, subscribe, and activate notifications! Remember, if we reach the $50,000 goal on the high command GoFundMe, we can afford to purchase new medical supplies from Swindle! *click*

[zhongrin]

— a short and casual genshin impact otome game.

⟣ 𝕕𝕠𝕨𝕟𝕝𝕠𝕒𝕕 𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖 ⟢

┊ (Windows 🪟, Linux 🐧, or Mac 🍎 only!)

◇ 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬? ◇

Just a simple something I had in mind for a Genshin otome game... I have 0 attention span, 0 time, and 0 knowledge to write and build a full-fledged 3D game with intricate stories, plot, and mechanics. This is just a simple visual novel with a streamlined plot and partial voices. You should be able to complete everything in like... 30 minutes long in total. Might be less, even.

◇ 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐬 ◇

The game will contain the following: established relationship, FLUFF, comfort, lots of pet names, suggestive themes, lots of kissy sounds on some routes, implications of violence (not towards player), a sprinkle of protective behavior

◇ 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬 ◇

Zhongli, Xiao, Childe, Diluc, Kaeya, Itto, Kazuha (Zhongli is selected by default because who doesn’t love geo daddy???)

◇ 𝐰𝐡𝐨'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫? ◇

This is a very self-indulgent project, hence the dialogues were written with fem!player in mind. It will contain suggestive themes, so please be aware of that before downloading / playing!

◇ 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲? ◇

Yes, it's totally free - in fact, I do not accept payment.

◇ 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲? ◇

Click the link to download the appropriate file based on your OS. Only Windows, Linux, and Mac are supported. No, I won't release it on other platforms.

Open the game, and you’ll find that it’s pretty straightforward. Customize your profile, select your love interest, then start the game.

There are no wrong answers and the love interest can be changed anytime (just go back to main menu and select the character’s picture on the right side).

◇ 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐢 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬? ◇

You can personally send links to this post / the game’s itch.io page to your friends via DMs, but outside of that (reposting), NO. For example, posting about this on Reddit is prohibited.

◇ 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞? ◇

This is a super casual project.

Scripts are not proofread. Probably lots of grammar mistakes.

Novel format without narration (full dialogs).

There are no actual sprites, just official art and something akin to a speech bubble to cater to the characters’ changes in ‘expression’.

There are voices, but only partial - mostly just grunts, chuckles, kisses, and stuff. I’m using JP voices EXCEPT for Itto because Max Mittelman is a gem. No, I will not add other languages' voice versions.

Sound cues and voices are quite important for this game so I recommend using headphones.

Depending on when you open the game (morning, afternoon, nighttime, midnight), your currently selected love interest might greet you differently.

To reiterate, there are no wrong answers.

Selecting all talk/act options for a character will unlock a small event where they'll give you unique gifts.

I lowkey have so many ideas on how to expand on this in terms of gameplay and options but let’s be real here it probably won’t happen lol why can’t my brain be this creative when it comes to work

◇ 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐮𝐬??? ◇

No... That said, anyone can literally say that. Please be responsible for your own actions.

I have also released other games on the same itch.io profile, so this isn't my first rodeo. Feel free to check the reviews on those before making your decision if you're wary about downloading!

◇ 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬 ◇

hyv please don't sue me i gain 0 dollars for this and i just wanna simp in peace

⟐ 𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚝𝚜 🄸 𝚒𝚝𝚌𝚑.𝚒𝚘 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚏𝚒𝚕𝚎 🄸 𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 ⟐

© zhongrin | 2022 ◆ do not repost or share without permission. reblogs much appreciated. feel free to reach out to submit suggestions, feedback, comments, or if you just want to talk!

[elisaintime]

Woah, I must have missed something, why are people jumping down your throat?

From what I can gather at this point, it seems like they feel like anyone who likes Anne Rice herself and the books better than the show=automatically racist. Even if they ALSO enjoy the show and support the race change of the characters and all the racial conversation the show incorporated into its adaptation.

Personally, I think it does a disservice to the fandom to assume that the only reason one could like the books over the show is because of racist reasons. Anne's books speak to so many people in so many ways, especially those who have ever felt like outcasts or apart from mainstream society, and many fans have extremely personal connections to the books for a huge variety of reasons.

Like I said in my videos, I was excited and intrigued to see this AU version of the story (I love AUs!) but my complaints with the writing of the episodes mostly came back to when the show was trying to stick TOO MUCH to the books.... Because the show was really making its own thing with its own versions of the characters and all these new ideas, but then suddenly it would shove in a scene/dialogue straight out of the books which would contradict or make no sense with everything else the show had already worked to set up with the new direction it was taking itself.

Critiquing sloppy/weak writing does not mean I or any other fan who feels the same is doing it for racist reasons. Much of my criticism was about how the scripts changed Lestat's character to make him so much worse than he was in the books (which would be fine, it's their story, whatever--except the show runners told us over and over again that the whole reason Louis was doing a second interview was so that this time we could see the real version of Lestat and how Louis felt about him instead of the mean, insulting version he gave in the first interview). There was a lot promised by the showrunners about what their adaptation would be like that was not delivered ("closer to the books than the 1994 movie," "true to the spirit of Anne Rice" etc). The entire reason I made my videos was to evaluate how well the show measured up to those promises.

Worse than making Lestat so irredeemable, the way the first season ended in a way that made so many fans believe that Louis might have been lying about everything didn't sit well with me at all--it's a harmful stereotype to make the black man a liar, especially when it comes to abuse. I know the "the DV didn't actually happen and black Louis was lying or mind controlled by his evil non-white boyfriend" became a running fan theory, but I personally don't believe it one bit. But I can see why so many fans do--again, sloppy/weak writing on the show's part.

Like I said in my video, the only thing Louis actually lied about in ep7 (and he was lying to himself, not deliberately lying to Daniel) was the depth of his love for Lestat at the end. And that's entirely canon for Louis to deceive himself about--admitting how much he truly loves Lestat always came hard for him. I personally don't think it's going to turn out that anything Louis told us in season 1 was a lie. I think the show would have revealed that at the end of the season, not waited another season (or two or three) to reveal that. And the theme of season 2's promotional material has all been about memory, not honesty. I don't think Louis could mistakenly remember getting dropped from a mile in the sky and the months/years of recovery afterward, so I personally think all those memories were real.

The first three episodes of season 1 made Louis's struggle with race its primary focus, and the series description began with how Louis was chafing at society as a black man. But then from episode 4 on, the focus of the show shifted entirely. Obviously racism still existed in Louis's world, but the show pushed it all entirely to the background with little things, like segregation on the bus, and we saw the characters quietly taking in stride, not making any plot out of it. Suddenly all of Louis's character-driving moments weren't about that anymore and we were in a whole new story, when his battle against racism had been the entire theme of the first three episodes. This was something I noticed and pointed out in my videos--I didn't say it was a bad thing (after all, seeing people be racist to Louis on screen, while "realistic," isn't exactly fun for anyone, and we'd already seen plenty), but I did think the sudden dramatic shift in story focus weakened the show's themes and throughline.

Again this comes down to writing, and the premise/script was written by white people. I think they could have done much better with much more non-white involvement on the writing level. I think the show could have been stronger with some more care taken to create consistency and smoother transitions between episodes (like when they take Claudia out to feed in episode 4, suddenly all the race riots are gone, when everything was on fire 2 hours ago). It's common for shows to have each episode written by a different person, even though they all collaborate in a writer's room, but to me it felt like the show lacked efficient script supervision to make sure all the scripts flowed into each other without any contradictions or inconsistency.

When I talked about these things in my videos, when I said I would have liked the show to do better with the way it missed the mark sometimes in handling racial aspects (even though other parts I commended as being great), and the way I critiqued the inconsistencies and contradictions, some people took that to mean I hated the show entirely. The point of my videos was to see how well the show measured up to Rolin Jones's promises that it was so faithful and respectful to the spirit of the books and that all he wanted to do was honor Anne's work. I know the books back and forth, enjoy having a ND hyperfixation that gives me near-encyclopedic knowledge of the texts and Anne as an author. So people ask me questions about them all the time, especially in comparison to the adaptations. Who better to make videos evaluating how well the show measured up to RJ's promises and claims of faithfulness? But some people took me comparing the show to the books to mean I thought it was a bad thing that they weren't the same, and I hated the show entirely for not being the same as Anne wrote it, and therefore that meant I (and anyone else who loves the books) was racist 🤷

[bruciemilf]

I really love your Bruce writing! I love when you talk about him being a father and how tragic it is ("tears of the father are wept by the son"?? Are you kidding me?? This line made me lay awake at night). And the most recent Bryce snippet? Wow! I love how you use the environment (like the knockoff cigars, oregano...), and how you write their dialogue, and when you write Bruce's uncle's??? Wow, I'm just in love 💕

Saw you recently posting about atsv! Didn't know you watched it! Was wondering if you have an Miguel-centric Headcanons? That's another man I'm unhealthy about

Thank you so much 💞

– @unfortunately-obsessed

THANK YOU!! to this day it’s pretty incomprehensible for me, when I realize, huh… People like my writing? My words? Oh wow oh wow ohwowowowow—

I appreciate you saying so!! Sadly, I severely neglected my blog/fanfics because of my job, but, I started working on a crossover fic between atsv and dc :) I just adore spider bat, so why not?

Also, some Miguel headcanons:

Layla sends Gabriel videos of Miguel falling, tripping, web breaking, etc, just flopping in general. If he annoyed her particularly hard, she’ll send some to Miles

SPEAKING OF MILES??

He picks him up from school when Rio and Jeff can’t make it, mostly for spider business, and the staff assumed they were related bc Miles called him Tio (WHICH IS SO CUTE BTW)

Whenever Miles needs a permission slip for places he knows for a FACT his parents won’t sign —

(because it’s outside New York, — and I actually think it’s super adorable they wanna be around him so much. Ik some see it as overbearing, but when you see so many parents actively hate their kids being around..)

He’ll get Miguel to sign it. But he’s equally as protective as Rio. “Who are you going with, Who’s that? I never met them. Address, phone number, and mother’s maiden name. When are you gonna be back? 2 days? No. “

He eventually signs it because Miles’ puppy eyes, man.

Still celebrated Gabriella’s birthday; He makes her her favorite dessert, buys something she would’ve liked, and lights up a candle for dinner. If he feels particularly alone, he’ll swallow up his hesitation and invite the spider kids over

This man breaths and bleeds work; You can’t think abt your mental illness if you can’t think about anything at all!!!

Obsessed with control; He needs to know every detail, every amount of information available, he has routines and scripts and gets irritated if they’re not followed

I think he actually did pay attention to Miles since he became Spiderman; I think, deep down, he knows HES the original anomaly. But it’s easier to break than fix. Especially when canon is involved.

Can dance like a mf

I know he technically has no favorites since everyone annoys him equally- it’s Mayday.

And Miles, strangely enough. But it’s hard to tell. Miles genuinely thinks this grown ass adult hates his absolute guts and made peace

But Gwen is like omg you asked for a shift change and he didn’t throw a drone at you?

[the-stress-express]

Attention Hazbin Hotel Fanfiction Enjoyers!!

I have a snack for y’all!!

I’m in the process of writing the first chapter of my new Hazbin fic and I wanted to give you, my Lovelies, a sneak peek of the dialogue. (Although, it looks more like a script at the moment). Eh, whatevs.

——————

It’s going to be mostly centred around Lucifer, Michael, Sera, and Emily (although, other Hazbin characters, both canon and non-canon, will be in it as well).

For example, I will be including God in this fic. And I will say right now that my characterization and representation of God is NOT meant to be taken as religiously accurate or anything like that. You don’t have to like it, but I do ask that you please remain respectful in voicing your opinions.

Anyway…

Once I have most of it (or at least a few chapters) finished, I will be posting it on Archive Of Our Own (Ao3). I may also post it here for those who don’t use Ao3.

But without further ado, you can find my sneak peak under the cut. It’s a bit long but I hope you guys like it.

Enjoy, Lovelies!

START OF PEEK

Sera: Come now, Michael, pick up the pace. We mustn’t be late.

Michael: *Groans and yawns* Sera, where are we going again? Why are we going anywhere so EARLY? Heaven’s not even awake yet.

Sera: *Sighs quietly* I told you five minutes ago, Michael. This is the third time you’ve asked me now. *slighty raises an eyebrow with a frown*

Michael: Oh… right. *Looks down at the ground, looking a bit crestfallen*

*Sera turns back away from Michael as they continue walking, seemingly oblivious to his saddened state.*

Sera: Michael, this behaviour cannot continue. You must improve your listening. As Father’s Angel of Justice, one of His most important angels, someday you will be part of the Heavenly Council, the ones who are responsible for keeping Heaven safe and balanced. So, you need to take your role seriously. You should know that by now.

Michael: *frowns and stops walking, feeling embarrassed* I was listening. I just… kept forgetting. I’m sorry. *tears form in his eyes as he fiddles with his sleeves* I-I do take my role seriously, Sera. I r-really do.

*Sera’s eyes widen as she realizes what she said to him. She had forgotten how sensitive he could be when it came to criticism and how much he often took things to heart. How could she be so blunt? Yes, he would need to learn to take criticism, but was still just a young child.*

*But most of all, how could she forget? She knows what Michael is like. Other than God, she’s been the one mostly raising him.*

*A couple tears begin to trail down Michael’s cheeks as he looks to the ground in shame. A frown washes over Sera’s face as she kneels down in front of Michael.*

*She sure feels guilty now. She made him cry. How dare she.*

Sera: Oh, Michael. Please don’t cry.

*She cups his face in her hands and wipes away his tears with her thumbs.*

Sera: Shh, it’s okay, honey. It’s okay. I’m sorry for getting upset at you. I didn’t mean to be so harsh. I just want you to be prepared to help govern Heaven in the future.

Michael: *sniffles* I know…

Sera: *Sighs* But even so, that is no excuse for accusing you of not listening and being careless on purpose.

Michael: *sighs and sniffles as he looks at the ground* I try act mature like you and the other angels. I try to listen when you all tell me things. I want to listen, but… I’m just too stupid.

Sera: *Gasps quietly* Oh… no, Michael… Michael look at me. Please. *He looks at her* Don’t say or even think anything like that ever again. That train of thought stops this instant. You are not stupid. You are smart, determined, and caring.

*Sera sighs slightly shamefully and closes her eyes*

Sera: You are also quite mature for your age, and I sometimes forget how young you are. That as much as you’ve grown, you are still a young fledgling.

Michael: *eyes widened* You forget things, too?

*Sera opens her eyes again and looks at Michael with a small, reassuring smile.*

Sera: Of course. Angels are some of Father’s greatest creations… but even we are not flawless. As much as we may try to avoid it, we will make mistakes. That’s just how it is. However, what’s important is being able to admit to our mistakes and to do our best to fix them. That is true divinity.

*Sera takes Michael’s hands in hers.*

Sera: So, again, I’m sorry for what I said and for getting upset. It was not your fault and it was not kind or fair of me to be hard on you and make you feel less than. You’re a child. You deserve to be treated with patience and dignity and shouldn’t be expected to behave as if you were an adult.

*A smile quickly spreads across Michael’s face as he finishes drying his face with his sleeve.*

Michael: That’s okay, Sera. I forgive you. *Jumps into Sera’s arms for a hug*

Sera: *smiles* Thank you, Michael.

*Sera hugs him back.*

Michael: Thanks, too. I’ll do my best to make Heaven proud.

Sera: You’re welcome, my little angel. I know you will bring honour to us all.

*More hug I guess lmao*

Michael: I love you, Sera.

Sera: I love you too, Michael. *breaks the hug with a smile and strokes his cheek lovingly before standing up* Now, come along. Father is waiting for us.

*Sera holds out her hand, offering it for Michael to take, which he quickly does. Realization then dawns on his face as his wings flap excitedly a couple times.*

Michael: Oh, yeah, that’s where we’re going. Father wants to show us something, right?

*Sera looks down at Michael with an endearing smile and nods.*

Sera: That’s right.

END OF PEEK

[archandshri]

9th feb '24 - [arch] characters, interactions and emotion - making a mini webcomic

Gahhhh Shri this has been an absolutely crazy couple of weeks!!!! Hope you are doing well :)) First of all, WOW! You have a lot of goals, and I’m sure you’ll get them done! I’ve worked a lot on my graphic design during the process of making Winter Wellbeing. If you wanna see a blog post dedicated just to that, I can do so! It would be cool to compare notes on the approaches we take for graphic layouts. If you wanna share your knowledge of camera skills when you build that up that would be awesome 😭😭

It’s been a tough few weeks, art wise. I have been reflecting on my process, motivations to create, the ego and all the baggage that’s lumped into the creative process for me. It turns out there’s a lot. I took some space from my illustration practise (literally for a weekend!) and began to realise how dysfunctional it is. I’ve been writing a lot about that so there may be a larger piece of writing coming about that at some point (no promises!!)

But for now, let's talk about little successes!

I’ve been playing with some characters for a while but I’d hit a bit of a block with the plot. I realised the expectation of having a finished project of high quality soon is unrealistic, and an unhealthy expectation to put on myself. I rarely give myself time to play with concepts for a long time and let the characters, plot and interactions evolve naturally. Maybe this in part came from sticking to the short university module turnaround. I noticed that that short turnaround was causing a lot of block, so I have decided to bench it as a comic for now and focus on using it as a playground - falling in love with the characters, creating stories and drawing them for fun. Maybe years down the line I’ll make them into a comic - we shall see! 

I *tried* to do hourly comics day this year and it didn’t quite work for me. I think I made 3 comics? And then got distracted with a bigger project that ended up taking a week or so to complete. Let’s have a look at it, shall we?

[you can find the full version here]

First of all, it’s based on an unfinished fanfiction I started a couple of months ago, which was mostly bad, but there was one nice scene that I liked and wanted to expand on. I started by having a look at the script I wrote and thumbnailing on the iPad. I’m away from home at the mo and usually would prefer to do most of my artwork traditionally, but because I don’t have access to a scanner, the whole process was digital this time. A lot of the pages got scrapped because the dialogue wasn’t necessary, and I’m not drawing pages that aren’t necessary.

some more development screenshots

I thought a lot about posing during the process, acting the scenes out in my mind and sometimes physically, really understanding the emotions of the characters, why they’re saying what they’re saying, their tone and how to convey that though their body language and expression (i find grian really annoying normally [affectionate] but I want this grian to step on me).

Pearl was hard with this because she’s quite erratic and unpredictable in this series, so I wanted her to switch from raw explodey anger to playful jabs at Grian. I’m hoping this comes across as somewhat insane, rather than tonally off and inconsistent. I did super enjoy drawing her and her explosive nature though, especially in comparison to Grian’s coldness.

I played with levels and monotone colour too - I’m not working with multiple colours much at the moment so I’m able to focus on things like values composition, characters and backgrounds. My skills limit the kind of stories I can tell currently, so I’m working to improve those foundations. Maybe when I’m back in the riso studio I can play with colours a little more.

Colours - despite the simple pallete it gets a bit nerdy here.I stuck to specific flat percentages for most of it - Pearl’s hair and Grians jumper are 60%, Grian’s hair and Pearl’s cloak are 20%. Then I added a 14% layer for shadows, using a ahrd blend eraser tool for highlights, making the images quite dark. I fill a layer with texture from Forystr’s riso brush for procreate, and turn it into a 40% opacity colour dodge layer. This gives it some much needed texture and makes the lighting feel low and nighttimecore. It also pushes the values to look really nice - I tend to be too scared to push them by myself.

I tried a few different colour layers to get a *vibe* but settled on a low percentage riso blue in a colour layer. All layers besides the riso blue are in a riso black, colour picked from a riso colour pallete. I learnt these tools - using percentages to get good values - from working with risograph. I really recommend having a look at these techniques and doing some monotone work. It's really improved by character designs, page layouts and compositions.

That's all from me today, though I have had MANY other thoughts over the past two weeks about creating, but perhaps we'll dive into them another time. If you (or anyone else) has any questions, hit me up with a reblog or an ask and I will get right to it. Lovely to hear from you! Hope your art is going great too :)) Arch :)

[folklore-girl]

WILDEST DREAMS (hana’s version)

word count: 1.1kish?

a/n: so “hana’s version” means that i’m writing this heavily based on taylor’s music video, but also with my own hcs. also this is purely for entertainment purposes, though mostly just a writing practice for me since i haven’t written since ages. also, thanku @trashmeowcan for helping me warna i would’ve still been overthinking abt this ILYSM. gif creds to @komhacoustic !!

warnings: too many taylor references and lots of cringe too teehee

hope you enjoy!

[ lights , camera and ... action !! ]

he was so perfect.

his eyes were such a startling shade of grey—that if you look closely, you’d see the emotion twisting in them, swirling behind those dark clouds. his lips tasted like the cigarettes he smoked and his voice had been frequenting  my dreams lately. all of him, his face, his jaw, his shoulder—he was the most beautiful sculpture i’d ever seen.

he whispered to me, “let’s get out of this town, drive out of the city, away from the crowds...”

i was screaming internally, thinking of the implication of his words in a wordless script when the director yelled cut.

of course we were pretending.

of course, none of it was true.

. . .

we were shooting in the african deserts, and it was a short film about the magic, madness, heaven and sin that was love.

on the day we arrived to the location, the director had explained the script and the portrayal of love that this film wanted to show, the same as she had done on the phone call. she explained how our chemistry would be the magic, the madness would be evident when both of us would be ready to leave the life we knew to start a new one with each other, heaven would be when he’d touch me and sin because our love was forbidden in the script—he was a pilot, and i was an actress. the entire film had no dialogues or as the director said, our expressions will “say all that is needed to know”.

it was two week’s work and then we’d be out of the scorching dry deserts of sahara. that was the plan. at least until i met him.

after i did, i knew i’d gladly burn in this heat for a few more weeks —or even an entire lifetime— than letting go of him. i’d risk it all smiling.

it was absolute madness.

. . .

our characters were crazy in love.

he, the pilot, had flown miles just to see the actress for a few hours everyday, while she worked on her new movie. the pilot is tall and handsome as hell, while the actress is beautiful, and has such an irresistible charm that the pilot cannot help but fall for her humor and wits.

we were the perfect casting, although the others kept saying it would be fairly difficult to show it all in expressions, no words at all.

but for me, it proved to be fairly easy. i was lovestruck, and there was no hiding it from him because he knew it. he had to, from the way he smiled and the way he touched me, or maybe i was simply delusional.

probably the latter, but oh well. it was all a pretend anyways. none of it was real.

it could be though.

. . .

it was pure magic.

the way he looked at me, the way he held me close and how my knees felt weak after our first kiss onscreen.

i felt every moment of it. goosebumps on the back of my neck whenever he whispered in my ear. his fingertips grazing my skin, and when he held me close, his hand on my waist.

i lived those moments a thousand times and i’m sure he did too, he must have.

so i took my chance and said, “no one has to know what we do,” and no one did. what we did in my tent at night was no one’s business, and nobody had the slightest clue.

all i know is that i woke up with his clothes in my room, and the vague memory of his hands in my hair, his body on mine. i knew heaven was a place on earth, with him, in his arms.

. . .

we were lying on the bed, our bodies a tangled mess and the clothes thrown on the ground in a hurry. his hand caressed my waist and i peered through the tiny window of the tent, at the nighttime stars and thought.

i thought of the dangerous game i was playing and how one week is no time at all. blink, and it would all be over.

but oh, he was kissing my neck and i couldn’t think straight. he was definitely going to be the death of me.

. . .

“ready for the last scene?” he took my hand and whispered to me.

“yes,” i smiled a little. “are you?”

he gave me a sad smile and said, “maybe..”

and the camera started rolling. the actress was in a stunning red dress, with her hair pinned up masterfully by her movie stylist—she’d sneaked out of the movie set to meet him—and the pilot was in his uniform, all ready to go. the sun was slipping down the horizon, and the clouds were streaked in a beautiful mess of warm colors in the sky whilst the moon rose, accompanied by the barely visible stars, scattered like peppers.

his face changed ever so slightly, as he conveyed that he needed to go but didn’t want to. he tucked a loose strand of my hair and i knew what it meant—he loved me too much to give what we had away willingly. i stared painfully at him, then at the ground. the actress didn’t want to let go of her lover either.

a few moments later, he smiled and lifted my chin, conveying that the distance would just create fondness between the two. their love is stronger than anything and the actress knows too, so she smiles back, sweet and soft.

they have their very last kiss and the actress worries if her lover would remember her, the memories they have together and this very moment. and so i spoke with my eyes, “say you’ll remember me, standing in a nice dress, staring at the sunset, babe...”

she made him promise they’ll meet again, and that would be soon.

“red lips and rosy cheeks, say you’ll see me again, even if it’s just in your wildest dreams ah-ahh…”

. . .

it was the premiere night.

i was in my vintage off-shoulder, sparkling silver with a heavy white scarf and my hair up in an updo similar to my hairstyle in the short film.

i was dressed as my character, the enchantress.

the moment i arrived at the red carpet, cameras were flashing and i was smiling. i was seeing him again tonight, so the smile was genuine. at least until i saw him, with her.

we talked a little, and he introduced his new girlfriend and i smiled wide. and when she complimented my acting in my past movies, i smiled even wider and thanked her.

little did she know, what she was about to see wasn’t me acting. not even close.

we entered the cinema hall and the short film began. it was a 90’s romance, all black and white.

halfway through the movie, i realized i was done smiling. i leaned ahead in my seat and we made subtle eye-contact before i turned and left the hall, murmuring about a sick stomach.

the moment i stepped out, i felt something wet on my cheek and ran as fast as i could wearing a vintage dress, my heels clicking furiously. i knew he was following me, trying to stop me from leaving and i knew that but by the time he’d reach me, he’d be too late.

in the backseat of my car, i wondered about how we were built to fall apart.

hope u liked it!! also i’m writing after, like, 6 months or more so i promise i can do better than this shit lol

likes and reblogs are appreciated !! <3

tagging ppl who might be interested:

@cordelia-street @born-to-be-suburban-legends @indiansapphic @girlatreus @tiredandcaffeinated @prembharidhun @maya-why @carelikeribbonsinyourhair @shefollowedthestars @folkloregurl @doyouknowwhoyouare13 @manjulika-fanblog

might make a taglist too later so we msg me if u want to be tagged/removed xx

[kay-elle-cee]

Thanks for the tag, @annabtg!

🍓 how did you get into writing fanfiction?

My babysitter 😅 The summer OotP came out, she introduced me to fanfiction while we waited for the book to come out, and helped me start writing my first fic after we each read OotP!

🍇How many fandoms have you written in?

4 if we're not counting RPF (I'm SORRY)

🍈 How many years have you been writing fanfiction?

Off and on for 21 years (jesus christ). My biggest break was between early college and 2022, where I went about 10 years without writing fic (though would still occasionally read). To be fair I was mostly writing screenplays, and aren't spec scripts a type of fanfiction? (I'd argue yes).

🍎 Do you read or write more fanfiction?

Definitely comes and goes in waves. I'd classify myself as writing more at this moment in time. I'm trying to get myself back into reading.

🍌 What is one way you've improved as a writer?

I think my dialogue sounds a lot more natural than it used to 10+ years ago! (I hope)

🍑 Do you have any bad habits as a writer?

So many. Using the same words over and over again, getting tangled up in my brain and not fully extrapolating on ideas I really want to write, taking on too much, etc.

🍍 What's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

I've definitely answered this before but Semaphore Signalling, and I didn't even USE it!

🍉What's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work?

Someone screaming at me (in a positive way) is always fun. Live reacts are the creme de la creme but obviously that's way intense and I never ever ever expect that from anyone, but it's always such a nice surprise.

🍐What's the most fringe trope/topic you write about?

Oh god, I don't know that I write anything fringe? I feel like everything I write is pretty mainstream/standard. Maybe my Newsies AU?

🥭What is the hardest type of story for you to write?

Long-fic plotting is proving to be really daunting.

🍏What is the easiest type?

Angst :)

🍑Where do you do your writing? What platform? When?

On my couch in Google Docs. Sometimes I'll type stray ideas/sentences into Notion, but typically it's always Google Docs (or directly into Tumblr if I'm feeling wild).

🍋What is something you've been too nervous/ intimidated to write, but would love to write one day?

Okay since I'm actively working on the First War AU I guess I can't say that. I recently got an idea for a Time Loop fic and I think that's rather intimidating.

🍇What made you choose your username?

If you say it fast it sounds like "Kelsey" (with a bit of a twang).

Tagging @ghostofbambifanfiction, @eastwindmlk, @alittlebitofeverything23

[wetcatspellcaster]

Hi! Sorry to bother you again, I'm the one who asked you a while ago if it was okay to ask for some tips on writing dialogue. Thank you so much for your availability and time 🙇‍♀️ I'm mostly curious about how you structure your dialogues and how you manage to build chemistry between the characters through banter. Do you follow a particular set of rules or does it just come natural to you? You write so many ideas and cool dialogues, how do you manage to come up with so many? In general, if you have any tips for a fledgling "writer", they are super welcome. No pressure, of course, I really don't want to intrude/steal your time. P.s. I forgot last time to tell you that I also really loved your AU fic, Party Favours. I was hooked from the first lines and I had so much fun reading it. It was a really comforting and entertaining read, like drinking a hot chocolate in winter. Honestly, thank you so much for gifting us with such a warm and funny story. 🥰☕

Hey! Thank you for being so nice about my writing and the strengths you think I have - I didn't know I had them, so it was interesting to see my work from someone else's perspective.

And also don't worry, it's not a bother to answer this question. Although I'm not sure how helpful I'll be as I have no formal training and that might mean my explanations aren't useful!!

I'll try to answer as best I can :)

I don't really have rules for chemistry, I'll be honest, but my favourite dynamic (as is fucking obvious from many a fic I've written) is overconfident flirt/straight-laced practical killjoy. Luckily for me... there are a lot of these in media (Howl/Sophie, Tamaki/Haruhi, certain flavours of Buffy/Spike, Jude/Cardan from The Cruel Prince, Labyrinth fanfiction, whatever was going on with Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries)! So I guess, if I was to give advice on that... I'd say if you really like a certain dynamic, go and look for examples of how they work elsewhere. Work out what it is about the pairing that makes your brain itch, or examine how these characteristic interactions play out, if there's any kind of formula to them - for instance, in Party Favours, the bit where Astarion is actively and overconfidently faking while talking to Threnn while Rose gets more and more flustered, was based partly on a fake relationship episode of Buffy lol. Like I didn't copy it word for word or anything, but it was an idea I saw elsewhere that I knew would be good for the pairing. .

Coming up with ideas... again, idk how idiosyncratic my process is. I maladaptive daydream a lot, and I really like scripting arguments (see above about what dynamics in fiction work for me, lmfao). i just love to hallucinate bickering, apparently. If I have any lines of dialogue that occur to me in any situation, I tend to put them into my notes app on my phone, to revisit later. If I have a scene with a particular purpose, I might look through my dialogue on my phone and try to find a series of quotes that work. Other times the maladaptive daydream for a few days might be the scene, and I'll write down any notes on what I want to happen and let it percolate for a few days before I actually write it. Sometimes pieces of dialogue will come to me before the scene does - Astarion's speech in chapter 7 of pieces happened before any of the rest of the fic, and then I was like "fuck. well. now i've got to get myself there." Mostly, this seems to just be a result of having these people live in my head rent free, but I'm also pretty autistic and so I script conversations a lot in social interactions anyway. .

Dialogue. I think dialogue comes naturally to me (see above comment about autism) and as such, I don't really follow any strict rules, I'm afraid... but these are some things I do formally try to do-

If a person is talking at someone (again, see how much I fucking love writing people bickering), you need to make sure it's not just a wall of text. Adding in paragraph breaks, even if it's a monologue, is kind of essential (speaking as someone who did not do this in the beginning, and it shows, particularly when you're reading my earlier fic on mobile rather than desktop). Often I will break it up with a one sentence interjection, a false start from the other person trying to get a word in edgeways, or a stage direction. I had a problem with one pairing I wrote for where one of the characters just would never speak... I needed to engineer lines for him to say even if it was completely superfluous. Sometimes, now I look at my writing, I feel like these are obviously fake and unnecessary... but they help break up the text and give the reader pauses. So they must be helpful, even if they're kind of just... there. it makes the dialogue a dialogue, with two people involved and reacting to each other. -

Similarly, speeding stuff up can be useful when creating banter, to keep pace and avoid people monologuing at each other. The key ways I tend to speed stuff up is usually a) characters finishing each other's sentences (derogatory or affectionate), b) interrupting each other (you'll notice my repeated 'Astarion-' is often used to get Astarion to just talk quicker and at more length and in more detail until Rose loses her goddamn mind), c) quicker back and forth where you don't need dialogue tags or stage directions bc characteristic voices will make it clear who is speaking. -

I read everything aloud as I post. This is how I proofread. Reading aloud helps me find spelling errors/sentence errors, but it also means that I have to speak all my dialogue aloud to my own wall like a crazy person. If I'm speaking it aloud in a different way, like the phrasing changes subconsciously to what's more natural in my mouth, I will often edit the dialogue to reflect that. I speak it, to see how it is spoken. -

Second to the above point, if you have a character who's voice you struggle with, listen/watch clips of their voice. I do not think I can write Lae'zel (or Gale tbh, and I'm now writing a whole fic from his pov so I clearly hate myself). I watch back clips of them all the time, and then I go to my dialogue, and see if I can hear it in their voice. If I can, I keep it. -

...Be brave enough to tell jokes. I genuinely can't tell you how much I don't think I'm funny. Every joke I write in my fic, I have no idea if anyone else will enjoy it, or if it only makes me laugh. But I put it in there, for me. I'm lucky, bc now some people tell me they found a joke amusing, and I'll know it landed with someone else other than me. But you tell jokes with your friends, presumably, and you're playful with them. So allow your characters to joke with each other, even if you're scared that no one else will 'get it'. If no one else finds it funny, at least the characters are having fun! -

Anyway, those are my main 'tips', I don't know if any of them are helpful!!

My other one main piece of advice is... read. Seriously. Even if the media you want to write for isn't a literary novel, read other people's writing, and I do mean both fic and published books, because published books (if they're good) have an editor. I read a lot of books/webtoons/manga before I ever wrote a fic... like for 12 years or something. I was a big reader, and reading good writing is useful - it's inspiring, it's also just technically helpful. These writing tips might be useless, because lot of what I've done in my own writing I've learned through osmosis - just by reading a fuck tonne of books, good and bad. I'm not saying you have to read 60 books a year or w/e, but read like, a few good books!

(also, just write a bunch. I am only becoming a 'read' fic author on my 11th project??? basically??? so I've had a lot of practice at this point, and grown in confidence. The more things you finish, the more ambitious you get. I couldn't have conceived of Pieces when I was writing my first fanfic, bc I thought plot was my main weakness... now I'm writing an almost entirely original premise and that's bc I've learned a lot since I started writing!)

[performativezippers]

Hello :)

I am sending this ask regarding what you recently wrote:

"(If you want to get nerdy with me about thought strands, beat changes, and action beats/dialogue tags, send me an ask and I'd love to get into it)"

I would really appreciate your sharing and getting nerdy!

*cracks knuckles* yeeeeee let's get nerdy! [note omg i'm so sorry this is the longest post in the world. tl;dr: write descriptions within your dialogue when the speaker's thoughts or feelings change so the reader gets the emotional impact you want!]

SO. Something that's really important to me when writing is to remember that very little of what we communicate (in in-person interactions) comes from our words. What I teach in my conflict transformation workshops is that body language gives us 80-90% of what we take in, and the words spoken are the other 10-20%. So what means is that when I'm writing dialogue, I'm mostly writing body language and responses to body language, as well as responses to spoken words.

To use an example of scene that I think is beautifully acted by both Yasmine (dark hair, plays Lucy) and Tori (blonde, plays Kate), but especially Yasmine, take a look at these gifs. [GOD BLESS THE GIF MAKERS, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH] For non-Kacy folks, they're on a date but their relationship is Under Wraps because Kate (blonde) isn't out and they work together. This happens:

I think a great writing exercise to explore these beats is to take a scene like this, where there is so much happening unsaid, and try to write out as detailed a version of the scene as you can. What would it look like to try to perfectly capture this scene in writing? How can you get the reader to feel what Yasmine gets the watcher to feel?

The actual script for this section in the scene is very very short.

Kate: Thank you for caring about how I feel about all of this. Lucy: I very much care. Kate: But I think maybe next time we could go to a normal restaurant. Lucy: Where someone could see us? Kate: *nods* Lucy: Wow. I'm super excited about that. In the interest of full disclosure, I'm almost certain everyone in my office knows what's going on, but they're on my side, so they'll pretend that they don't.

Okay, so. There is so much nuance in this scene that isn't captured by these words on the page. Look at the gifs between "Thank you for caring about how I feel about all of this" and "I very much care." Lucy goes on a fucking journey. Those are all emotion beats, and if you run through the words quickly, you miss them. Even if you write Lucy twists their fingers together and smiles. 'I very much care.' that doesn't hit all of the beats.

Yasmine gives us several different beats there and I think she's a masterclass in acting right here. There's also a long shot of her face that I don't have a gif for before the handholding. The way I would write out this scene for an exercise is to mark each place Yasmine/Lucy has a different thought.

Kate holds out her hand for Lucy's and says "Thank you for caring about how I feel about all of this." Here's what I think happens:

Lucy is surprised that Kate is willing to hold her hand in public

Lucy is surprised that Kate says this, because Kate rarely expresses herself openly

Lucy knows that she's always the one that loves harder, and this is the first time Kate is indicating that maybe she's as deep into this as Lucy is

Lucy tries not to be too excited though because it's still new and she's trying not to be too much

Lucy is often worried about being too much

She tries not to smile as big as she can

She ducks her head down to hide her excited face

She twists her fingers with Kate's because she wants to be actively holding onto to Kate, not just resting her hand in Kate's

It feels really intimate

She tries not to say too much, but she feels so much

She looks right into Kate's face and it's almost overwhelming how much she feels

"I very much care," Lucy says. It's an understatement and it's okay but they both know it.

So all of that is to say that if I were writing this scene into a fic, it would be SO MUCH longer than the script, because I would want to get into each of those beats/thoughts between the time Kate says her line and Lucy says hers.

Okay, then let's drop down for the second example in this same moment. Kate says "Next time maybe we could go to a normal restaurant." This is shocking, right? Lucy clarifies "Where people could see us?" and Kate nods. And then look what happens. Lucy has several lines back to back. When you write it out, it's: "Wow. I'm super excited about that. In the interest of full disclosure, I'm almost certain everyone in my office knows what's going on, but they're on my side, so they'll pretend that they don't."

Let's break that out by delineating emotional or thought changes with a /.

Wow. I'm super excited about that. // In the interest of full disclosure, I'm almost certain everyone in my office knows what's going on, / but they're on my side, so they'll pretend that they don't.

In more detail:

[disbelief] / [surprise] / [oh my god] / [she's willing to be out with me] / [this changes everything] Wow [I didn't know if she'd ever get here] / [I want this so badly] / [Don't make a huge deal out of this though] [Don't spook her] [Act natural] / [Don't be too much] / [Holy shit though] [This is the best thing I've ever heard] [I like her so much] I'm super / [Don't say in love with you] [Don't be too much] / [But show her I want this] [Show her I can see that she's trying] [She's trying so hard] [She's so brave] [Fuck I like her so much] excited about that. // [Oh but shit] [Fuck] [She thinks people don't know and my whole team definitely does] / [I need to be honest with her because honesty is very important to me] [She's being so brave but she's wrong] / [Fuck I hope this is okay, I hope she's not mad] [I love her so much and want her so much] [Please please please be okay with this] In the interest of full disclosure, I'm almost certain everyone in my office knows what's going on, / [it's okay though! they're nice] / [they won't tell your boss] [they haven't told your boss] / [they don't hate you anymore] [they're happy for us] but they're on my side, so they'll pretend that they don't.

So if I'm writing this in a fic, and I say: Lucy grins at her. "Wow. I'm super excited about that! But, okay, in the interest of full disclosure..." I'm asking the reader to intuit the emotional shift from excitement to fear through that space between the two sentences. That means the reader isn't likely to pick up on the depth of the emotions in either beat--won't feel the high and won't feel the low, because you as the writer need to linger there exactly the way the camera lingers on Lucy's face so we can see it all happen.

So that's where I would make sure to use description and an action beat (collectively what I'd call "inner life") to help the reader go on that journey. Something more like:

"Wow." Lucy tries not to react too big, to not shout or jump up or leap over the table to kiss Kate. "I'm super excited about that," she says, which is the understatement of the century, but she's pretty sure Kate can see the truth in her eyes and she's not mad about it. She wants Kate to know that Lucy sees her, sees how hard she's trying, how much she's willing to risk for Lucy. Kate is fucking brave and Lucy is a goner for her, but god damn it, it's only been a few weeks and Lucy's trying to play it cool.

But then something occurs to Lucy, and her heart sinks a little bit. Kate thinks no one knows, but that's not true. Ernie had clocked them within five minutes, and Jesse had only taken another two. Tennant probably knew before Lucy did, honestly. Shit. Okay. Lucy takes a deep breath. "But, um, okay, in the interest of full disclosure?" Lucy swallows hard, trying not to notice the way Kate flinches back a little. "I'm almost certain everyone in my office knows what's going on." Etc.

So anyway, this is a very very long way to say, when there's a change of emotional beat, give it space to breathe. Take your reader on the character's journey. Practicing it on canon scenes might help you get the feel for it, and then you can do it on your own dialogue as well.

Some things I recommend doing if you want to try this:

Read your dialogue loud and do your best acting. Notice when your voice changes, or your face changes. Mark that down as a place for a beat change.

Scroll through your document and notice when you have big chunks of dialogue. Search them for changes in thought or emotions, and then break them up where it works. If there are no changes but it's long, check it for repetition. Maybe you can cut something.

You can use an action tag instead of a dialogue tag to do this efficiently if you're feeling like you've used Lucy said too many times recently or the action is related to the words. For example, instead of "Wow," Lucy said. Her jaw dropped as she took it in. You can try: "Wow." Lucy's jaw hung open as all of the implications crashed into her at once. "I'm super excited about that."

You can add body language tags, including observing the other person's body language, to break it up even if there isn't an emotion beat change. For example: "Wow," Lucy said, her brain going too fast to process. The little muscle in Kate's jaw was twitching, like she was trying not to smile as big as she wanted. Lucy wants to see her beam, though, because Lucy's so fucking happy right now and she hopes Kate is too. "I'm super excited about that."

This is WAY TOO LONG and I'm sorry but in my defense, I said it would get nerdy! Anyway, tell me your thoughts! What strategies do you use? How do you like to do this? What do you disagree with?

[barrenclan]

do you have any advice on comic-making / executing a story? i have one all planned but idk where to start now that its time to actually write / draw it out ;;

Sure! Here's some excerpts from a script I wrote awhile ago about making a comic, especially a Warriors-based one (though it mostly applies to any comic project).

"Off the bat, and before you make any bold moves, I do recommend a good amount of planning. But since you've already got that part done, the real best place to start is to just start. It sounds easy, but working up the nerve to really begin your project is what stops 99% of people from any creative endeavour. Don’t worry about quality, perfection, readership when you start your comic - those will come along the way. You should form your structure and lay down your foundation, but at some point you just need to start.

I am, at heart, a writer. I love and enjoy art, but writing comes easily and quickly to me, and I have years of practice at it. So for scripting, I wrote individual chapter summaries and a full script before I started TDS. But I know some comic artists who write the script as they’re going along! Generally, if you’re someone who wants more structure, you’ll probably want a full script. If you’d rather be more loose with your comic, chapter summaries and ideas with dialogue on the day would be for you. It can vary from project to project, too; for PATFW, I've written out full summaries for each issue, but I don't write the story itself until I begin to work on the issue in full.

Motivation is a tricky question, because most of creative motivation is intrinsic, and that is simply not something that you can gain in any easy way except real passion. It’s that feeling you’ll have if a story connects with you in a meaningful way, one that can’t just be rushed into. But I think extrinsic motivation can include things like setting reasonable and achievable goals for yourself. Promising to yourself that you’re going to upload one page every week, or do all the lineart for a batch of pages on Sunday, or that you’re going to write one sheet of your script every time you have an hour of free time, can help you stay on track and get used to the rigor of committing to a large project.

Lastly for this post, I cannot stress HOW important a buffer is. For those of you who don’t know, a buffer is just an amount of pages you’ve completed prior to posting your current page. For example, when I would post page 50, I would have already completed pages up to 59. Buffers are critical because they allow you to make room for unexpected or time-consuming events in your life without sacrificing your comic. They help you maintain a schedule, which as I already discussed is important for motivation and consistency. There is no “correct” amount of pages for a buffer, either. I personally work about ten pages ahead. I know people who work entire chapters ahead of posting. There are some people who only have a few pages in the hopper before they post. There are even those who finish their whole comic before posting any of it! It’s all up to you and how much you decide to do."

I hope any of that was helpful!

[yeyinde]

I found your COD works on ao3 and there is quite literally NOTHING else that makes me ascend higher than your writing AAAAHHH your prose is incredibly seamless and blends so beautifully together that i find myself on the ground afterwards because EXCUSE ME?? They didn't tell us you could do that with words?? (youre the reason im researching a game ive never played before in my life at 3 am) how you are real

Anyway!!! I dont know if this was already asked, but i wanted to know about your writing process and how you got to where you are now

Thank you for always giving us your best work!! 🩷🩷🩷

it's only Thursday and here i am. just bawling my eyes out. this is incredibly sweet, and you are being way too nice to me, honestly!!! 😭 thank you so much!! and i'm so glad you've been enjoying what i write so far 🖤

i did my best to actually answer this in a way that was somewhat coherent but it's really hard to type through the tears.

i don't have much of a writing process, tbh! i mostly just shape things around a concept or a scene i want to write about, or one that i kinda picture in my head. the rest is mostly just filler to get us there.

i think i spend the most time on words—the placement, the meaning, the sound, and the way it looks/flows with everything else. i'm very particular about the ones i pick. i know a lot of it might seem like regurgitating a thesaurus (which it def is, tbh!!!), but i really love etymology. everything has a purpose. even though a lot of what i write is just gratuitous smut lmao

i also really love scripts. i don't write multiple drafts. what i end up posting is usually the first draft with minimal editing (because i am egregiously lazy and also hate re-reading my own work), but as i write, i like to make the outlines for scenes in the same style as a script. i think it gives me more flexibility to really dig down into what i want from a particular moment by framing it like a beat from a movie or play. it might not be for everyone, but it helps me focus on what i need to do—especially with dialogue.

as for how i got to where i am now: i definitely got much more confident in my particular style, which i think is obvious if you read my earlier stuff to now. i was very worried about how i came across in writing (like using rare words, dabbling in wordplay, going on very obscure tangents and making strange metaphors), but i'm a lot more willing to experiment with things than i was before. i also don't take myself seriously at all. everything i do is for the fun of it, so i've never felt pressured to stay within a certain genre or style. i just do what i want, mostly!

[illicien]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Tagged by @hiddenxplaces-blog

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

52

2. What's your total ao3 word count?

1,098,853

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Marvel. Specifically TFATWS at the moment.

4. Top five fics by kudos:

Time-Lost (IronStrange) Fathomless (IronStrange) Scribbles On Our Souls (DrPepperony) Heart of Gold (IronStrangeFrost) Persistence (IronStrange)

5. Do you respond to comments?

Almost every time. Sometimes I get a bit caught up or delayed, but typically I respond to comments pretty regularly. I love chatting with readers!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't think I've actively posted the fic with the truly angsty ending, yet, so I think the closest is probably a bittersweet ending with Still Here. (IronStrange / Stephen & Peter)

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Well this one took a sec. Keeper (IronStrange), probably?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Oh not typically to my face, no.

9. Do you write smut?

Yep.

10. Craziest crossover:

I don't really do crossovers, so really the only crossover I can think of plainly is the DRoP/IronStrange fic we did, Heart of Gold.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I've seen so far.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! A fair few of them. 💓

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yep. A few!

14. All time favorite ship?

"All-time"? Time hasn't ended, I could hardly say. 😏

15. What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

At this point? Embraced. And I'm so sorry to everyone who was waiting for more.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Wait you want me to say nice things about myself? Goddamnit. I used to think dialogue was a weakness of mine, but I think I've improved a lot over the last couple of years since writing scripts necessitated writing solid dialogue, so I'm pretty confident in that, now. I'm also fairly strong where creating lore and histories are concerned; you want me to explain the magic in a universe? I've got you. You want to know the history of a region? I've got that down, too. World-building in general is my bread and butter.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Does "actually finishing a story" count? The reality is, I lose motivation really easily. I function best when I have someone to consistently bat ideas and things back and forth with, otherwise I get severely in my head about things to the detriment of whatever I'm writing. I also rely more heavily on degree modifiers than I should, and while I'm aware of it I still suck at minimizing it.

18. Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I find it highly dependent on whose PoV the story is in. If the PoV character doesn't speak the language, I love being just as confused as them by not knowing the language. If the PoV character does speak the language I can be a little more picky about it, unless it's simply a singular word of endearment or something, because those can be difficult to translate even if you know both of the languages. But I have a love of and fascination with languages.

19. First fandom you wrote in?

Uh.... Yu-Gi-Oh!, I think?

20. Favorite fic you've written?

What an excellent question. I'm actually really proud of (Loss Of) Control (WinterBaron). I set out with some really specific goals for what I wanted to accomplish with it, and I mostly succeeded. There's definitely a section that's weaker than the others, but I pushed myself outside of my comfort zone and made an effort to tackle a trope I'd never written in fic, and to tackle an element of that trope that I felt like I wanted to see handled more in depth. And I'm proud of the result.

Tagging -> @descaladumidera @atypical-snowman @amethyst-noir @jeromesankaraao3

@the-elle-kat @kiki-shortsnout @turtleoftheabyss

[crazybutgood]

20 fic writer questions~

I'm procrastinating and feverish and in pain, so I figured I'd distract myself and finally do this,, thanks for the tag lovelies @the-francakes (x) @lumosatnight (x) and @orange-peony (x)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

44 including origami, fics, a mixture of those (all mine and also collabs), and podfics

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

Noo this would be a bitch to calculate

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I used to write for the HP fandom

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

You Light Me Up

I Just Want You to Know (collab with @sugareey-makes-stuff)

Language of Love

[FIC & ART] Heart on Your Sleeve

Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try!! But I often fail. Reasons: Partially sometimes I get overwhelmed and/or am too shy and dk what to say, but mostly it's because I am so so incredibly burned out

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Damn,, idt I have one. I do HEAs! At least in fics, and so far

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

All are happy I think,, and omg how does one quantify and compare happiness?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not yet

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Nope! Like reading it, actually incapable of writing it

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I haven't! Idk if I will! There is one published novel one that I want to read tho omg ;-; ok sorry going off track

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I sure hope not :') But to my knowledge no

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yeah with Krissy! Linked in question 4. We didn't even know it was each other haha cos it was an anonymous epistolary exchange but ye it was fun

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Don't ask me that!! There's lots of ships to love, and idh the same ride or die (or any, tbh) feeling for my previously main one anymore. Goes to show that it just changes with time (maybe this current answer will too!)

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

SIKE I don't start things I know I won't finish (involves an elaborate planning procedure, ask @getawayfox ) and once I start them I push through it even if I have to drag myself crying (I'm insane I know)

16. What are your writing strengths?

I love writing dialogue, and some people have told me it's nice, so I shall go with that!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Ohh loads I reckon,, I'm going to stick to sharing run on sentences and can't write long plots. Cos I have to do lots of academic writing and copywriting, and that's going pretty steady, so idw to break that and spiral by thinking too much about this :') esp cos idh much time and energy to write fiction rn

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Yes if done right! Like you do things to make sure you don't throw off those who don't know that language and like make it part of the flow. And/Or footnotes! I've done dialogue in Hindi in my fics, and I've written an entire one in a script play format in Hindi too for @curlyy-hair-dont-care

19. First fandom you wrote for?

HP

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Listen :') I have mixed feelings about my writing, so I genuinely can't answer this

Tagging @andithiel @curlyy-hair-dont-care if you wanna do this, and anyone else who hasn't and wants to as well!!

[lovesickletters]

Hi! I'm very shy about requesting this sort of thing especially since I'm arospec and my romantic feelings only flare up passionately for a few handful of characters... but could you perhaps write more for the Narrator from TSP? I like me some big smart bois who use big smart words.

I get very protective over my FCs (not that I harass anybody of course! it's kept to myself); the thought of the Narattor reciprocating that is very soothing to my mind. if you could keep it gender neutral that'd be great, sometimes feminine language makes me dysphoric

of course, there's no pressure to do this if you aren't up to it!

Love,

🍷

💜𝒯𝓇𝒶𝑔𝑒𝒹𝓎💜

Hello!! I’m glad you enjoyed the yandere Narry💜 I completely get it, (I’m acespec myself!) so here’s your protective Narrator💜 (I wasn’t sure if you wanted another loveletter or general writing so I went for general, hope that’s ok!)

A chill ran down your spine at the soft chuckle the Narrator let out as you hit the button to shut down the machine and leave the facility. Up until now he had been well put-together, orderly in his commands as you followed his script almost to a T. And yet here he was, with a laugh laced with sadistic humour. His voice boomed throughout the mostly empty facility in a lower tone, leaving you weak. “Actually. You know what? No.” Before your eyes the various screens lighting up the rooms wall-to-wall switched off one by one with a fizzling noise that left your heart in your stomach, leaving you in complete darkness aside from the steady glow of the button your fingers still lingered on.

This wasn’t right. You pressed the right button, you were sure of it. Why was the dialogue changed? This was supposed to be the escape ending.

“You don’t get to leave. After all these years, you still seem to think you get to choose what happens in my narrative, don’t you? That I’d simply let you have your Happily Ever After for following a few simple instructions, meddling through a few pathways. After everything else we’ve been through you want to leave like that?”

You took a few steps backward, just as you heard the slam of the doors shut tightly behind you. The Narrator let out a thoughtful sigh. “Oh darling. You’re in for quite the disappointment.”

You felt breath on the back of your neck as two arms wrapped themselves around you from behind, pulling you close to whatever was holding you in the darkness. Rather than speaking from the air around you, this time you heard the Narrator’s words from directly behind you.

“This is not some cliché fairytale. This is not a triumph. It’s a tragedy. You finished playing and wanted to move on from this game; that’s fine. But this game isn’t quite finished playing with you.”

[tallangrycockatiel]

Fic Writer Interview

Tagged by @sinni-ok-sessi!

How many works do you have on AO3? 12

What’s your total AO3 word count? 108,695, the vast majority of them being written in a single fic, last year

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

All that is mine to me, all that is yours to you,

Not alone, maybe lonely,

A Nice Cup of Tea,

Off-Script,

and John's Turn.

All of those are for Malevolent except for A Nice Cup Of Tea, which is Rusty Quill Gaming and also the first fic I ever published on AO3, so I kind of love that it's still up there. Not Alone and John's Turn are Malevolent/Venom crossover, but I don't think they get much interest from people who are into the massive fandom and not the tiny one, there.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I mostly don't, because I never know what to say and don't want to end up just spamming "thanks!" to everyone? Feels like it would just come across as awkward and insincere. I'll respond if someone asks me something, or if someone comments on something specific that I had Thoughts and Feelings about.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? Let every knee be bent and every tongue confess, by a country mile. Everything else finishes somewhere between bittersweet and straight-up happy. That one's tagged as "emotional hurt no comfort".

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending? I too write quite a bit about learning to live when you don't really want to, and the all-around happiest ending has to be All that is mine to me, all that is yours to you. A lot of the others don't have endings so much as leaving-off points - which is intentional! - but I comfort-read the last chapter of ATIM semi-regularly.

Do you write crossovers? Yeah, Bodysharers Anonymous, the not-marked-finished Malevolent/Venom crossover series. I have two other ideas to add to this. Maybe I'll even write them someday.

Oh yeah there's also the extremely cracky Sailor Moon/Ouran High School Host Club crossover I wrote nearly a decade ago, maybe I'll dig that up and publish it some day for laughs.

Have you ever received hate on a fic? I have had one person kinda sorta imply that they thought I was plagiarising, then walk it back.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yop. 99% of it is unbearably soft they're-in-love-your-honour kind of stuff, and the other 1% is, uh, tentacles.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? No - why would anyone do that, I write for teeny fandoms only.

Have you ever had a fic translated? No, again with the teeny fandoms I guess.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? No but I think that could be fun!

What’s your all-time favorite ship? My brain has been majority Arthur/John thoughts by volume for the last year or so; I can think of plenty of other characters that have consumed me this strongly in the past, but no other ships come to mind.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? Only Fear Me Not is probably never going to get finished, but I don't have the heart to mark it as abandoned.

What are your writing strengths? Character voices, and I think I'm pretty good at tension and pacing as well.

What are your writing weaknesses? I will use the same verb ten times per paragraph if I am not physically stopped, and they will all be held together by several hundred semicolons.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? I have done, for exactly one line in Choose Your Words where Albert Einstein swears in German, as part of a conversation about swearing in different languages. I'm not strong enough in any language other than English to do more than that, I think.

What was the first fandom you wrote for? Sailor Moon, it's somewhere way back on my tumblr blog but you know how that goes. Again, might put it up on AO3 someday.

What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to? My brain keeps sneakily suggesting that I write something for The Goblin Emperor series, because I do love a sad wet eldritch detective, but there is so much worldbuilding in those books and I'm scared. I also have wips for like five other fandoms that I might get around to one day.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written? The more I think about this the more my answer changes, I love them all for different reasons, but All that is mine to me, all that is yours to you was The Achievement of my 2023 and I am so goddamn proud of it, and I hope I always will be.

tagging: @docholligay