#i need to write more expository stuff

[danisnotmyname]

Fandom: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)

Rated G, 3k words

Summary: Lilith, Empress of Hell, tells her concubine Sabrina a secret about her father, and it changes the course of the worlds—literally.

*** “I have always assumed that you took Lucifer’s divine source—” “I don’t need his celestial powers to rule,” Lilith snaps, “it was a symbolic gesture, and so is the decree of his banishment.” “I understand,” Sabrina quickly apologizes, “pardon me and my insolence, I don’t mean to offend you." “Stay ignorant, Sabrina, for it’s what makes you brave, and if I’m that easily offended I would not have survived my first day of rulership here.”

[kianamaiart]

Do you think “Moon Sailor” was a bit, on the nose?

it was intended to be! i made the pilot while keeping in mind that the magical girl genre is actually somewhat niche

i wanted to make sure people like my parents or my girlfriend's law school peers or people who don't watch anime at all could easily follow and understand what's going on. if i asked my parents to name a magical girl anime, they'd be like "what is that" but if i asked them what sailor moon was, they'd be like "oh yeah i've seen those characters before!" sailor moon undoubtedly iconic and people IMMEDIATELY know what it is upon hearing it. "moon sailor" is VERY OBVIOUSLY a parody of that so it's easy to get in that one second of time i have before moving on.

the tricky thing about doing a pilot is the setup and the trickier thing about doing a SUBVERSIVE pilot is that you have to set up what you're subverting on top of everything else. that's why zira's dialogue and language is also a bit expository and on the nose during the "gasp" part. there are people watching who don't know the magical girl genre and its tropes! like how is someone supposed to know that aika anticlimactically poofing into her magical form was a joke if they didn't even know that a magical girl transformation was SUPPOSED to happen? i thought i spelled out hoshi's whole thing pretty well or didn't really need to go that into it but i saw a lot of people confused about what they were and why they were there at all (until zira tells us that they're a magical mascot).

back to "moon sailor," it's a silly one off joke meant to quickly signal to the audience that zira likes manga/anime and the magical girl genre specifically as well as circumvent copyright. i also personally just like on the nose bits hahaha. like on big city greens whenever we parody a brand we usually just put a "B" in front of it. one of my favorite being "blego blocks"

this turned into unsolicited writing advice and definitely more than what you asked for but i hope its helpful to anyone out there looking to make their own shows!! clarity, spelling stuff out and sometimes handholding is important especially in a pilot. even though it can feel stilted sometimes, it's better than completely losing your audience or leaving them with questions. but now that the pilot's done it's job, any following episodes i might make will be unburdened by too much expository language haha

[wanderingmind867]

If I were to make a Batman TV Show, I'd bring us all back to that priceless era of time: 1983 to 1986. The years just before/during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. We already have Batman: The Brave and The Bold and Batman 1966 for Silver Age greatness. I could do with more revivals of those shows, but they've still had their moment to shine. Now we need to cover the last great era: the bronze age. Right before comics went to hell with absolute darkness, edginess and cynicism.

This show would be about Batman and Robin II (Jason Todd). I'm not sure how to start the show, though. I had two ideas on that front: either a 15 to 20 episode Season One, designed to introduce viewers to all the characters besides Jason, or just cutting straight to an almost 2 hour opening movie about Killer Croc and Jason Todd. I'm leaning towards the expository first season route, though. Probably because I want an excuse to showcase some of batman's biggest rogues before we move to Croc and Jason.

If Season One has twenty episodes, ten of them have to star Batman. The others can feature Batgirl, Robin I (Dick Grayson), Jason Bard or Man-Bat (the pre-crisis batfamily). In the twenty episodes, i'd also want to show off some of batman's biggest rogues: The Joker, The Penguin, The Riddler, Catwoman, Two-Face, Harley Quinn, etc. That way, when Killer Croc comes to Gotham and starts muscling in on their territory, we'll have a good amount of villains to lead the charge against him.

So yeah. We'd have our one season of pure exposition. Then we'd have either a 2 hour movie or a 6 part miniseries or something. Something suitably big to show off Killer Croc coming to Gotham, us learning his origins, Jason Todd becoming Robin and losing his parents, Batman stopping Croc, etc. Because despite Croc being a parent killer, i still wanna keep his sad backstory as an emotionally abused mutant of a man.

And as much as I love when Croc has a Cajun accent in media, I think he has to be from Florida. Gerry Conway had him being from Florida, apparently. That was probably because the only crocodiles in america all seem to show up in South or Central Florida. So i'm guessing that means Louisiana just has alligators. Not crocodiles. So waylon jones kinda has to be from Florida for his crocodile stuff to make sense. That being said, i'm sure there's some kind of accent we could give him.

Oh, and I'd have Jason Todd with Red hair (or maybe blonde hair? Idk). Why? Well, because I think pre crisis jason todd was the best thing ever. I think that mostly because post crisis jason died very quickly, so he never had a chance to be fleshed out. At least pre crisis jason had like 2-3 years! And he didn't have Jim Starlin trying to kill him with AIDS! So pre crisis Jason is best Jason. This Jason does not die. He does not. I would not write a show where I killed a child who's even a supporting character. I'm not that sick.

But now that i've got all this written down, i'll turn it over to discussion once again. What characters would you want to see in this show? How would you want to see them used? Should we feature Alfred's french daughter, Julia Remarque? She was a pre crisis character. Should we have an episode where Batman and Robin meet Blue Devil and Kid Devil (to parrallel that comic where Kid Devil and Jason Todd become friends)? All ideas are welcomed. Including ones about introducing post crisis characters into this show. If you want to tell me how to add Tim Drake into this show during it's, i don't know, fourth or fifth season, feel free to share.

PS: I tagged all four of you to my first post in this vein. And now i'd feel weird if i didn't tag you. So here. @billybatsonmylove @conundrumrespeculis @the-fyre-flie @one-of-batmans-orphans

[wordsmithwhumpsandfluff]

Overworked male character of your choosing got stomach flu when he's at work please? Thank you ♥️

Anon: Can I request a story where one of the characters got the stomach flu and got it really bad. They have a really high fever and are out of it and negative, and they don't want to eat or drink anything and they just want comfort, but everything that touches them hurts them and they're just emotional and in pain. P.S. LOVEEEEE YOUR WRITING ❤️

Oml, y’all have no idea how long this second request has been in my inbox… Since last YEAR!!

Kinda ironic that the ask attached to this fix is my most recent 😅

Anyway, enjoy this lovely mix of my oldest and newest requests!!!

————————————————————————————————-

All day, Oliver had been feeling. . . off.

From the moment he woke up, he just felt weird.

He was too tired to put together one of his simple-yet-cute outfits. He wound up—for the first time since high school SAT season—simply putting on a t-shirt and his largest pair of sweatpants. He even threw on a hoodie because he just felt chilly.

He still went to class, despite how he was feeling. He just had too much work to do and couldn’t risk skipping classes just because of a bit of tiredness.

Thirty minutes into his professor’s lecture, his head started pounding. His brain throbbed in his skull during all of his classes.

His last class was expository writing, and he wanted nothing more than to fall asleep in his seat.

Oliver was the last one out of the classroom. His backpack was full and heavy on his back, so he was carrying three of his books. He was practically swaying on his feet as he walked out of the building and to the parking lot.

He was driving back to his apartment, when he suddenly remembered he’d left several important assignments at Isaac’s place.

He groaned as he turned his car around. He wanted nothing more than to go home and fall asleep, but he needed to finish those assignments and turn them in. He had so much to do and so little time to do it all.

Isaac’s place wasn’t far from campus or his apartment, so he got there pretty quickly.

When Oliver got to Isaac’s apartment, it was late (the price of Oliver’s last class being a very late one) and he had no idea if Isaac was asleep or not since Isaac sometimes decided to sleep early. When he unlocked the door with his key and saw that the place was completely dark, he realized Isaac was asleep.

He thought about just getting his stuff later, but he was here now so he might as well just grab it and go.

Oliver shut the door quietly behind himself and tried to be as silent as possible as he made his way to Isaac’s living room where his stuff was.

As he was gathering his papers into his arms, a wave of dizziness hit him so hard that he had to lean against the couch to keep from collapsing.

Suddenly, his stomach felt like it was churning. Knowing what was about to happen, Oliver stumbled away from the couch, dropping his stuff on it, and ran to Isaac’s kitchen where he bent over the sink and retched loudly before vomiting.

He puked once. Then twice. And suddenly, the lights came on.

“Olive?” Isaac said. He was in his pajamas, but he didn’t look like he’d just been woken up.

When Isaac realized the state Oliver was in, his eyes widened and he cursed, hurrying to the kitchen and Oliver’s side. “Olive, what the hell—?”

Oliver dry heaved a couple times before spitting into the sink and mumbling, “I came over to grab my assignments. I thought you were asleep.”

“I was brushing my teeth,” Isaac said. Then he brought a hand to cup Oliver’s forehead, and he cursed again. “You’re burning up, baby.”

Oliver sighed as he closed his eyes and leaned into Isaac’s touch.

“Have you been sick all day? Did you go to your classes?”

Oliver opened his mouth to answer, but he only ended up puking again, bending further over the edge of the sink. The marble pushed against his stomach and brought up another stream of bile.

After puking for what seemed like forever, Oliver was finally empty. But he still felt nauseous and continued to dry heave.

“Olive, you’re done. You’re empty,” Isaac soothed, rubbing a gentle and steadying hand between Oliver’s shoulder blades.

“‘M sorry,” Oliver groaned.

Isaac smiled softly. “Don’t apologize. C’mon, let’s get you to bed.”

Oliver finally looked up at his boyfriend. “I should get home,” he said. “I have to finish a lot of work, and I have to study and— and—” He couldn’t finish the sentence before another wave of dizziness crashed into him like a bus, and he swayed dangerously on his feet.

Isaac quickly steadied him and wrapped his arms around him. “Yeah, hell no. You’re staying here tonight.” And with that, he bent down and hooked an arm under Oliver’s knees, picking him up bridal style. Oliver was as small and skinny as ever. He was light and Isaac easily carried him over to his bedroom and laid him on the bed, tucking him under the sheets.

“Isaac,” Oliver groaned. “I’m serious. I have a lot of work to do, and—”

“You have plenty of time to do your work, Mr. Perfectionist. Right now, you’re sick. Hold on, I’ll be right back.”

Oliver watched his boyfriend run out of the bedroom. When he came back, he had an armful of stuff.

“Okay,” he said, setting the stuff down on his bedside table. He picked up a thermometer and sat on the edge of the bed, looking down at Oliver. “Under the tongue,” he said, holding the thermometer up to Oliver’s mouth.

Oliver opened his mouth and Isaac slipped the thermometer in. He stroked Oliver’s hair sweetly until the thermometer beeped. He took it from Oliver’s mouth and sighed when he saw the high number. He put the thermometer back onto the side table and grabbed a bottle of water and some medicine.

“Here,” he said, holding up the two pills and the water. Oliver sat up and swallowed the pills with the water before lying back down. Isaac set the water bottle down before going around the bed and climbing in next to his ill boyfriend.

Instantly, Oliver scooted closer to Isaac.

In response, Isaac pulled Oliver close to his chest. He could feel the heat rolling off him, and he worried even more, but he didn’t say anything. It didn’t take long for Oliver to fall asleep. Isaac fell asleep soon after.

— — —

At 2am, Isaac woke up freezing.

It took him a minute to realize all the blankets had been pulled off of him. It took him another minute to remember that Oliver was there.

He sat up and blinked sleepily at his shivering and pale boyfriend. Oliver had taken all the blankets, but he was still trembling.

Isaac pressed a hand to Oliver’s cheek and drew back instantly from the raging heat of his boyfriend’s skin. He was on fire!

“Shit,” he whispered, getting out of bad as quickly and quietly as he could and hurrying out of the bedroom. “Shit shit shit!”

Isaac got a hand cloth from the kitchen and wet it with cold water. He hurried back into the bedroom and carefully peeled the blanket away from Oliver. Then he gently but hastily shook Oliver’s shoulder. “Olive, baby, c’mon—baby, wake up. Wake up.”

Oliver groaned, but his eyes opened into thin, blinking slits.

“Hey, baby,” Isaac whispered.

Oliver wined and curled up onto his side in response. “My head hurts,” he mumbled in a weak voice.

Isaac sat on the edge of the bed again. “I know, baby. I know.” He took the hand towel and draped it on Oliver’s forehead. Oliver let out a pained whine in response to the sharp coldness.

“It’s okay, Olive,” Isaac whispered. “You’re okay. I know it feels uncomfortable, but the cold will help.”

Though Isaac didn’t think it was possible, Oliver started to shiver even more, despite the fact that it felt as if his skin had been lit on fire.

Isaac had no idea what else to do but wipe the cold cloth along Oliver’s face and neck. Isaac had to re-cool the towel a few times.

It was too late at night to call Keiko, which was the usual go-to option he and all their friends had when one of them was sick or hurt.

After re-cooling the towel for the fifth time, it was morning. Sunlight was just barely starting to peek through his blackout curtains, and Isaac quickly shut off his phone because he knew his alarm would go off any minute and he didn’t want to bother Oliver with his loud alarm that plays “Party in the USA” when it went off.

Oliver’s hair was damp and plastered to his sweat-slick forehead. The cloth didn’t seem to be doing anything, and Isaac only had one other idea of what to do.

“Baby,” he whispered, gently shaking Oliver awake again. “Baby, you need to get up. I need to get you to the bathroom—your skin is way too hot.”

Oliver groaned and tried to bury his face in his pillow, but Isaac was pulling him up into a seated position.

The world felt like it was tilting, and Oliver couldn’t even support his own head up. He was vaguely aware that he was moving, but he wasn’t walking, was he?

No, he definitely wasn’t. Someone was carrying him.

Suddenly, a light came on and Oliver winced, even though his eyes were closed.

Before he knew it, he was set down on a very cold tile floor. He opened his eyes and looked up at the person still supporting him even though he was sitting. “Isaac?” he mumbled. “What’s happening? It’s cold—”

“I know,” Isaac said, crouching down and peeling off Oliver’s sweaty clothes. Being naked only made him shiver uncomfortably. “But your fever is really high, and I need to cool you down.”

Before Oliver could completely register the words, he heard the squeak of the shower handle, and he couldn’t help but cry out in pain when the cold water hit him.

His teeth chattered and he shook horribly from the icy temp. Isaac continued to whisper soothing words while he touched Oliver’s cheeks and neck with cold, wet hands. The cold felt painful to Oliver. He even started to cry. Horrible, heart-breaking cries.

“It’s okay,” Isaac whispered. “I know it feels horrible, but it’ll be over soon. Just a little longer, baby.”

Oliver’s small sniffs turned into full on sobs and Isaac pulled Oliver into a hug, despite the cold water that started to pelt him and his clothes as well.

When Isaac turned the water off, they were both drenched, but Oliver was more soaked and shaky than Isaac.

Isaac grabbed a towel and wrapped Oliver in it. He dried off Oliver’s face and hair. The long, black strands stood at different, odd angles when he pulled the towel away.

Oliver was still crying softly. He was still sitting on the floor of the shower, so Isaac scooped him up and sat him on the toilet seat to finish drying him off as much as he could.

“I’ll get you some dry clothes,” Isaac said, crouching so he was at eye level with his boyfriend. “I’ll be right back.”

Oliver didn’t want Isaac to leave him alone, but he didn’t say anything as his sweet boyfriend left the bathroom.

It was only minutes before Isaac came back with fresh clothes in his hands. He helped Oliver out of the wet clothes, cooing as Oliver started trembling like a kicked wet puppy. The poor boy was still too out of it to even blush at the fact that his boyfriend was seeing him naked for the first time ever.

Once Oliver was in a clean t-shirt and shorts, Isaac once again lifted him. Oliver shut his eyes, trying to hide his face in the blonde’s chest as he was brought out to the living room. Isaac set Oliver on the couch, smoothing wet hair away from his face. “I’ll be right back,” he promised. “I just have to change the sheets real quick.” He left, and Oliver closed his eyes. He still felt awful, and his head wouldn’t stop pounding.

Isaac came back after several minutes, accidentally startling Oliver just as he was starting to doze off. Isaac, instead of picking Oliver up again, sat beside him on the couch, petting his hair with a concerned look. While gone, he’d changed out of his wet clothes too, and was wearing a different pair of pajamas, this one with pineapples printed all over it.

“Hey,” the blonde said softly. “Want some pomegranate tea? I’ll put extra honey in it, just like you like it.”

Oliver shook his head, eyes lowering to the floor. He leaned into the hand petting his hair, prompting Isaac to start gently massaging and scratching his scalp.

”What about soup instead? Or some fruits? You threw up quite a lot last night. You should eat something if you can hold it down.”

Again, Oliver shook he’s head. 

Isaac frowned leaning forward, and pressing a lingering, loving kiss to Oliver’s forehead. He was also checking how warm Oliver was, and though he didn’t feel as bad as he did before, it wasn’t much better. He pulled back and put his palm over Oliver’s forehead instead. “You’re still really warm. Maybe at least chew on some ice for a bit? It could—”

”Stop,” Oliver sighed, leaning to rest his forehead on Isaac’s shoulder, pressing his cheek against Isaac’s chest. Isaac realized that he was still shivering horribly.

Isaac let out a sigh, reaching for a blanket draped over the arm of the couch and forcing Oliver to sit up for a second so he could wrap it around him. Isaac pulled his cocooned boyfriend back against him, hugging Oliver tightly.

For about thirty minutes, Isaac stayed like that, hugging his feverish and sleeping boyfriend. 

Finally, when Oliver stirred awake, he pulled the blanket off of his head and looked up at Isaac. “Hey” he said in a sleepy voice.

”Hey,” Isaac replied softly, smiling a bit with his brows still slightly pinched. “How’re you feeling? A little bit better?”

Oliver nodded a bit, blinking heavily. “What time is it?”

Isaac pulled his phone out of his pajama pocket and read the time. “7:59,” he said.

Abruptly, Oliver’s eyes widened, and he seemed to fully wake up. Even though the feverish glaze never left his eyes and he was painfully pale. “Crap. I have to go,” he said anxiously. “I have, like, three assignments due today, and my first class is in thirty minutes. . .” Oliver tried to free himself from the cocoon, but between his exhaustion, his fever, and Isaac not letting go of him, he was forced to stay put.

“Whoa, chill,” Isaac said gently. “You’re not going to class today. You’re way too sick.”

Oliver looked at Isaac with wide, anxious eyes. “But—”

“Olive, you work too hard as it is. Don’t push yourself like this; especially not through such a nasty bug.”

Oliver felt his cheeks starting to heat, and he pouted. “My workload isn’t too bad. I just need to—”

“Baby, you’re taking eleven courses. And you’re on the college’s newspaper. I’ve told you before that you need to lighten your load; you work way too much, and you stress yourself out. I know you’ve always wanted to be one of the greatest journalists of all time, but you need to let yourself relax before you drive yourself crazy. And you need to relax now so you can get over this bug.”

Oliver didn’t deny anything Isaac said, because he knew it was all true. But he had to work hard. He wanted to be a writer at The New York Times. He wanted to become famous for his articles. He had to work harder and harder. He had too much to do and not enough time.

“One day, Olive,” Isaac said, running his fingers through his boyfriend’s longish black hair. “Just let yourself relax for oneday, please. After that, we can stress about your insane workload together. We can study together all night, every night, and not get any sleep while we work like our lives depend on it. Okay?”

For a moment, Oliver was silent. Then he smiled and laughed. Something about Isaac’s words just seemed so funny to his fever-cooked brain. And then Isaac started to chuckle, too.

When they both finished laughing, Isaac leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Oliver’s lips. “I love you,” he said.

Oliver pulled back a bit. “Don’t kiss me on the mouth; you’ll get sick!”

Isaac grinned, rolling his eyes and using the hand still tangled in Oliver’s hair to pull him forward for another kiss. “Like I care.”

[txttletale]

I really agree w/ all your Hades opinions! I played that one first and then went back to all the other SG games, and was surprised at how much better the storytelling was in Transistor and Pyre. Hades is really fun and clearly high quality, but its world and characters feel so much shallower compared to its predecessors, and I really despise Hades himself, so the "reconciliation" stuff falls flat for me. Since you like Pyre, I wondered if you would maybe want to talk about your general feelings on it a little bit--what you like about it, what you don't? It's the least popular of SG's portfolio, which is so sad to me because I think it's the weirdest and most interesting one of the bunch, both story-wise and gameplay-wise (even though my personal fave is Transistor, which is still excellent, I think Pyre does more things I admire).

pyre is one of my favourite games of all time so i would love to talk about it! i mean. where to begin. i love its world. i love the very clever decision to make all the proper nouns and fantasy stuff hoverable hyperlinks so that you, the player, can be filled in on important background information about the world without the need for stilted expository dialogue:

i love the world of pyre. it's genuinely beautiful, it's my favourite of any of supergiant's worlds: the downside looks genuinely unique, it looks at once forbidding and electrically pretty.

like god damn. but what i love most about pyre is the story and characters, and how they're both not just communicated to you through the traditional methods this game employs (dialogue, flavour text) but in a way that's woven into the gameplay.

like, pyre isn't a game about fighting, it's a game about sports. it's a very high-stakes sport, but it's a sport -- for those who haven't played it, the plot of pyre is that you and your band of wacky misfits have been banished to a secret underground world. from time to time, the stars align and one person can escape this exile by winning a game of fantasy baskebtall -- and because it's a sport, the game's happy to let you lose. you can lose and that can just be part of the story. on two different occasions, i chose to throw plot-critical matches in pyre--once because an NPC on my team asked me to and once because i felt like the other guys deserved to win more than the protagonists did. and the game treats that as a valid choice, a valid thing to happen in the story! it lets the game explore opportunities and feelings and situations that a more traditional game where the player 'has' to win in the 'canonical' ending isn't capable of and it does it really well

and similarly there's something very very clever done with the character writing. getting to know characters better -- finding out why they were exiled, what's at home that they want to return to, why they want to get back to the surface -- is the same process as improving that character's stats and skills in the basketball games. the result of this is that the characters you know best, the ones you're most emotionally invested in getting to escape exile, are also the ones who you've been relying on to win your basketball games! it's by far the best iteration of the 'switch up your playstyle or else' mechanic that supergiant obsessively puts in their games because it ties directly into the emotional stakes of the story and can make it a genuinely difficult choice to liberate someone who's an essential part of your team but you've just learned has a desperate need to escape before something terrible happens to their loved ones outside.

also its got the best romance route of any supergiant game. i dont give a shit about meg or thanatos when i've got sandra the unseeing

<3

[the-oracle-of-the-lost]

okok i finished Joy to the World here are my thoughts (spoilers under the cute)

i will admit to be being biased towards liking Moffat's style of writing, particularly his Christmas specials which are almost all dear episodes to me in one way or another so as much as i think dw desperately needs new writers, i was excited he was writing this vs RTD.

and i wasn't let down! it was a good episode and had all the great marks of a Christmas special being a little cheesy & over-sentimental while still maintaining a plot with the Time Hotel being a super cool setting that definitely should be used in the future

turning That Weird Hotel Door into an episode plot is the most Doctor Who plot we've had in a longgggg time.

something i've been a little critical of dw in recent years has been how it's dealt with one-off characters and how it either seems like one-off characters get ALL the focus of an episode (and almost none on the main characters) or one-off characters only exist to give some expository dialogue and then stand around like cardboard cut-outs and i'm so pleased that this episode had three new one-off characters (Joy, Trev, & Anita) who were all memorable (i mean seriously. i remembered their names without even trying which i almost never do) and had clear arcs while the Doctor also had some very strong & clear characterization regarding his loneliness carrying on from last season.

speaking of the Doctor – that scene with the two Doctors getting stuck in the loop and the young Doctor taking out their frustrations on their older self was so good in terms of writing and acting. plus seeing it from both the younger & older Doctor's perspective.... ouch. Ncuti Gatwa you deserve the world.

there was an excellent mix of comedy and drama. a few moments (jokes and drama) fell a little flat for me but there was plenty of good stuff to make up for it.

the whole scene with the Doctor trying to make Joy angry to break the briefcase's control was predictable but still a classic. her getting angry about her mom dying on Christmas during covid when she couldn't even visit and the hypocrisy of the government for partygate was great tbh. i've been quite passively interested with how recent media has or hasn't been incorporating the pandemic into the world and i thought this was quite a good way to do it for Doctor Who with someone expressing rightful grief and anger over something so many people prefer not to even talk about. (on a personal note – i was watching the episode with my mom who worked on covid units during 2020 and saw a lot of her patients die alone and have last conversations through ipads and the grief that caused and she at least was quite affected and touched by the episode including that. okay sorry for the downer, back to fun stuff.)

the Doctor buying TARDIS merch online to decorate his room was such a fun little way to add to the fourth wall arc of the last season. i'm still a little unsure of where it's going and if the ending will deliver but the gags do please me.

the running theme with Villengard has me kinda 50-50. on one hand i love to expressly make weapons manufacturers into clear villains! on the other, i feel like the episode never really got into how Villengard wasn't going to exploit the Joy-Star as was their original plan (and really what their original plan was about other than a vague "creating infinite energy"). but as this is the second time Villengard has popped up as the villain behind an episode, i feel hopeful that we'll explore more of their villainy in the future.

that said.... creating a new star for infinite energy.... you mean like Gallifrey.... you mean like the Eye of Harmony right. (i don't really have anything to talk about but just rotating the parallels to the EU idea of one of Gallifrey's suns being artificially constructed.)

i'm also kinda eh on the last stinger of the Joy-Star being at Jesus's birth. it wasn't explicit (just a location & time stamp at the end) so i think i'm good with it and it's kind of a funny bit, but i am always a bit wary of weaving in aspects of actual religions to Doctor Who & shows like it because it can often be handled poorly. that said i'm not religious in the slightest so i don't really think i can be the one to judge that.

the one thing i didn't love so much about the episode, and i think i noticed it more because i did a double feature watch with The Church on Ruby Road but... there's something in the way other characters interact with the Doctor that just feels a bit same-y. like with Trev, Joy, and Anita (and Ruby in The Church on Ruby Road) – they all never really questioned the Doctor (particularly Anita. and like. i do love characters who simply Roll With It but this was a little too much) and all had the "wow this is the most wonderful man i've ever met" expression on their face after 5 minutes of knowing this guy. and. i get it. that's part and parcel with most of new who and it's wonderful that Ncuti Gatwa, a Black man, can have those moments of being the cool amazing hero that everyone loves but... eh i personally prefer Doctors who can take awhile to warm up to and the constant "i've known this guy for 10 seconds and i'm going to risk my life for him" can be a bit grating for me. but again it's nothing that wasn't constantly done during Ten's era so it's not the worst thing, just not my personal tastes.

the ending was too cheesy for me i'm sorry. i like the bittersweetness of Joy dying to turn into a star but the over-emotional goodbye with her floating up into the sky without really having a solid plot reason for what's happening. i thought the Earth was going to explode and then 30 seconds later, Joy basically says "oh don't worry, i took care of it" like??? sorry i know this is extremely soft scifi but i need a little more explanation. her pointing out the Doctor's loneliness was welcome as was the montage of people looking at her star but. i need a little more.

um. i'm probably forgetting some other stuff but this is already so long at this point that i'm going to stop and watch Husbands of River Song and cry.

all in all – nice episode! definitely one of the better Fifteen episodes for me. a few moments i thought were a little too cheesy or annoying but plenty of great stuff in between. i'd give it an 8/10.

[izzythehutt]

Do you have a lot of deleted scenes and scrapped ideas, or do you incorporate most of the things you plan/write?

What's your thought process for deciding which things to keep?

Is this about a specific story, or just generally as a writer?

I'm usually pretty good at self-editing in my mind before I start, so I don't tend to spend a huge amount of time writing something that doesn't get used. I'll recycle or repurpose ideas. I tend to have a lighter first draft (often written in longhand), stuff gets expanded in the type written draft, and ideas get expanded upon or cut back in the edit. But it's usually not whole scenes/subplots.

My thought process is often literally, "Is this interesting to write? Is it fun to re-read?" For more expository information, it'll be a question of pacing or whether the story makes sense with or without this backstory. I tend to be a very character and dialogue-driven writer, so that's what I'm focusing on in a first draft, and it becomes a question of "how much of the world and story needs to be explained beyond this?"

[duran-duran-less-official]

(Spoilers)

Steven Moffat decided to ease back into writing for Doctor Who by giving us a ton of different stuff we've seen from him before, all in the one episode.

DNA immolation mines as an upgrade on the Hand Mines from The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar.

Ambulances as instruments of destruction from The Doctor Dances.

The companion being fatally shot because violence is the only language that stupid idiot character knows, from World Enough and Time.

Anglican Marines from A Good Man Goes To War.

Actual people's souls being used as AI voice interfaces, from Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead

Invocation of complicated space-time events, from Flesh and Stone

Machines offering meaningless, emotionless platitudes, from... everywhere, take the antibodies from Let's Kill Hitler as an example

(insert any others that I missed here, to be caught on a 2nd viewing)

And of course, fish custard from The Eleventh Hour

To be clear I don't think any of this is bad, I just find it funny how Moffat clearly has a brand, made up of favourite tropes and character traits, and he's fully committed to it.

I think it's even funnier how nobody else wants to touch any of Moffat's worldbuilding because Davies in particular doesn't seem to like writing about war. Like, yeah, Anglican Marines ARE a cool (and sickeningly objectionable) enough concept to bring back for future episodes... but Davies would literally rather write about a pig wearing a suit than attempt to construct a battlefield scenario.

(not that Chibnall's any better. He seems to find war a necessary component of his stories, but only grudgingly. The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos quite infamously contains no battle, and the wars mentioned in Resolution and Survivors of the Flux are entirely expository and/or take place offscreen.)

4/5, not perfect but I enjoyed it, and it seemed weirdly short for 44 minutes, like the stress was actually making the episode go faster.

(as a criticism, I will say that for the scene where Ruby and The Doctor are negotiating how to give The Doctor a counterweight, I could fairly easily imagine 12-era Clara in Ruby's place. Having said that, Millie does need more development, there are a lot of ways in which I'm not super sure who her character is yet. So I can't entirely blame Moffat for falling back on old habits when deciding what to do with her. I mean it's almost as if he picked up on Ruby's resemblance to Clara in some ways...)

Actually, you know what, no, I am going to talk about this. Russell T. Davies stole one of Moffat's most hated character tropes, gave it to Ruby Sunday, and nobody batted an eye. How do we feel now about women whose entire lives are seemingly governed by coincidences that seem to link them to The Doctor? A walking narrative device, designed entirely to evoke an air of mystery? Anyone?

This is just The Impossible Girl arc again, but with snow themed memories.

Moffat's unappreciated genius with Clara was, having been forced by circumstance to start her story in a way that inextricably linked her with The Doctor for both present and all past incarnations, he then ended it by making her explicitly The Doctor's equal. Functionally immortal, stealing a TARDIS and running away from Gallifrey. If Davies doesn't have something equally special planned for Ruby Sunday, we the fandom should probably start writing our apology letters.

[mannatea]

All or Nothing, a Fire Emblem 7 fanfic

Words: 1,499 words Summary: Ostia is going to war. Pairing/Character: Oswin/Serra with mention of Hector/Florina and other characters. Extra Info: This was originally posted on January 18th, 2012 as “practice writing” and was 855 words long. Warnings: Mention of character death and the death of children. Rating: T Genre: Angst, romance

Thank you to @trash-god for the beta work again. MWAH!

Notes:

This story ranked #2 in the last “What should I rewrite?” poll, so after rewriting the winning story, I decided this one deserved its time in the sun.

Also, @serrafew took the time to comment on that poll to say they were rooting for this story, and that blew my mind, so this rewrite is for them (sorry, I don’t know what your AO3 username is to dedicate it properly)! What’s truly wild is that, even though they said they’d been searching for Serra/Oswin fic for years, it didn’t really click for me until I went to AO3 to check: there are literally zero ‘fics on AO3 for this couple. I thought they were just saying they were hoping to see new stuff for the first time in ages—not telling me that there just wasn’t anything at all! ☹

Then again, considering Sain/Fiora only has five stories in the tag on AO3, I shouldn’t be surprised.

The original version of this story garnered 7 whole reviews, which may not sound like a lot, but even in 2012 it was an unprecedentedly high number—especially for an uncommon ship. I tried to keep all of the original comments in mind when rewriting this.

Per the comments: Serra was very convincing and in character and the reality of the post-war world was excellent (some didn’t make it, communication failed), but the story needed a little more fleshing out emotionally to feel complete, and there were a couple of expository lines of dialogue that needed to go.

--

As you can imagine, the original story was pretty bare bones and so in this rewrite I (once again) crafted a whole backstory for these characters and the life that they’ve been living since the war. It worked so well for “Waiting for the Rain” that doing the same thing here just felt natural.

The two biggest changes in this rewrite were:

There was a headhop from Oswin into Serra’s head right in the middle of the original story. This was intentionally done but made me feel batty on a reread (even though it did read as well-placed), so I switched the whole story into Oswin’s perspective.

The end of the story was originally Serra’s “Whatever would you and Lord Hector do without me?” line. A lot of reviewers mentioned how much they liked it so it felt bad to change, but the story changed too much to keep it in its original form. Instead, when Serra says this line it’s more subdued (almost a rhetorical question) and she follows it up with a question that helps echo the title of this story: “You know I will give it my all, don’t you?”

The original story felt a little meaningless from Oswin’s perspective; it was like he was there to deliver the bad news and listen to Serra be sad about how much she specifically has lost (and then we see that she just can’t take being left behind again and tells him how it’s going to be). While the foundation of their relationship felt pretty solid, and I love Serra-taking-charge in general, I knew I could do better in a rewrite by simply ensuring that one of the losses was something they ended up grieving together.

It's hard for me to explain what I think this added to the story, but I hope it made Oswin feel more compassionate and real, and that it made Serra and Oswin feel closer and more united. He understands some of her grief intimately and all the rest of it he witnessed in real time; he knows her parents abandoned her; he knows how she feels about being left behind and how she worries and this is what compels him to allow her to join him on the battlefield again.

Due to the backstory I concocted, I had the same problem I had with “Waiting for the Rain”: there were a few things I wanted to add to this story that I couldn’t find room for, and it was especially disappointing to not be able to find space to talk more about the loss of the children and how Serra and Oswin must have grieved (separately and together) or about the fact that Oswin should very well have been able to retire comfortably soon (at his age).

Alas.

The real tragedy here is in knowing the turn the war takes. Even if the two of them don’t die, we know they will be forced to grieve again soon.

[a-student-out-of-time]

You know, while i like Dra a bunch more than it's sequel if there's one thing that bothers me about the game is the dialogue, quite a few times the characters will reiterate stuff that's just been said or shown a little while ago and it leaves the dialogue feeling quite unnatural at times, it's like the game constantly feels the need to remind you of what's happening. And it gets kinda annoying + it's the main reason why one of my friends just couldn't get into the game when he tried.

But that's not a writing problem (not saying Dra doesn't have them) and likely stems from Linuj being way younger and less experienced as a writter by the time he was working on the game

//Yeah, I get what you mean. It can feel pretty clumsy and repetitive, and while I don't mind longer dialogue scenes, a good rule of thumb to follow is not to repeat yourself constantly.

//I think the problem is also part of the reason why "the sixteenth student" thing became a meme, because DR1 relied so much on flashbacks to reiterate its plot points that it almost felt like the writers didn't trust the audience to retain the information.

//I'm also glad LINUJ really stepped up his game after Chapter 1, because the first murder is the weakest out of his games.

//Personally, the reason I think DRA is stronger than its sequel is because the story is a lot more focused and directed toward the ending twist it sets up. It doesn't try to stuff more and more plot twists and reveals in on top of that just for the sake of it. The awkward dialogue, while it's not the best at conveying information, at least helps us get to that end.

//I feel like I write dialogue that's more based on how people would actually talk or convey information, rather than through dry exposition or cliches like saying "as you know." The easiest way to avoid that is just to have characters not know things and thus the audience learns alongside them

//Characters don't have to be stupid for them to ask questions and dialogue doesn't need to sound unnatural or expository for it to convey information. If there's something we need to know, have it also be something the characters need to know and then work to find ways to have them share it in a natural manner

[evesaintyves]

Curious about writers' methods! What's your strategy for getting through scenes that you find tricky or boring to write?

put it off for six months, start 350 other projects, spiral, quit writing forever, open and close google docs 373626827 times, spiral again, take too much sudafed at the airport and suddenly finish it in 20 minutes

for real though i am probably not a person who should be giving writing advice but here are some things that help me

take a break for a few days, don't even look at it, then come back with fresh eyes. i've seen people advise that you skip the hard scene and write an easier one, then come back later; i'm sure this works for some people, but i have never been able to do it. even in a nonlinear/nonchronological narrative, there's just a certain momentum, tension, whatever that builds through a story and if i skip around i feel like i'm disrupting that. howEVER, sometimes it helps to work on a different project or not work on anything for a while just to clear my head

if it's boring to write, it's probably gonna be boring to read. sometimes you might have to write expository dialogue or set something up for later, but you can make those scenes do double-duty for you: set a mood, reveal a character dynamic, break things up with some action/comedy/horror, play with your running motifs, get weird with it. there are ways to make boring stuff seem incidental to something more interesting

i read somewhere that writers who think visually tend to get bogged down in unnecessary description of the way characters move through space and how they're interacting with the setting. i don't know if this is true for everybody but it's 10000000% true for me and i think it's the main thing that makes scenes difficult and dissatisfying to write. when i first started writing i thought it was really important to follow through on things like characters putting down what they're holding, moving from where they were to where they are, etc. it is not that fucking important. i have to remind myself all the time. the reader will put together why the character is over there now or has a hand free. there are reasons to describe that stuff when you're setting something up or keeping a certain pace but it's just not always necessary and a lot of scenes really benefit from having the blocking, setting description, etc stripped out to focus on what's actually happening.

think about the point of the scene: why do you need it, what's the idea you're trying to put across, is there a certain emotional core or a mood you're building? what's necessary to accomplish that and what can you lose? is the scene even necessary or can you get by with a brief summary of what happens? i've written so many scenes with a whole dialogue interaction, scene-setting, time markers, etc, only to replace the whole thing with "they discussed it, and..." or "after the party, they...." or whatever. it is infuriating when this happens but learning to let that shit go is incredibly freeing.

skip the setup/preamble/transition, start right before or in the middle of what's happening and backfill what you need via dialogue, flashback, just saying what happened, whatever. sometimes even starting after the main event and focusing on the aftermath works. this kind of goes to the previous two points: you just don't have to tell the reader everything that happened, you can focus on what's important and fill in whatever background as needed.

just get through it and take comfort in the fact that if it's bad you can start over. i often just start by writing whatever shitty version of the scene i can manage: just the beats or the dialogue, or a rambly boring disorganized digressive draft that sucks. then i delete it and rewrite it. i have written so many things twice (or more) because i had to get the shitty version out first before i could figure out how i actually wanted to approach the scene or the story. a lot of times the things that are really important to communicate or give the story its heart don't become clear to me until i've written a first draft. i have a roughly 10k fic sitting around right now because i like the idea but it just sucks and needs to be rewritten from scratch. it's ok. it's not wasted effort, it's part of the process of refining your thoughts.

thank you for the question anon!!!!!!!

[spookfished]

media roundup june 2023

hey guys guess who just went "oh its the 4th of july. that means that its july" here im going to talk about things i read/watched/played last month! i didnt read as much but did finish a couple books that ive had checked out Forever. ok actually i read a lot woops

books/comics/written media:

fake dates and mooncakes by sher lee: fake dating (obv) premise between a cooking boy and a rich heir! book that made me realized im honestly just not that interested in ya romance anymore LMFAO. pretty sweet and a decent read, but landed more heavily on the expository end of uhh i guess diaspora fiction? than i really prefer. i think i picked this up bc the author got mega cancelled on tyk twitter lol??

bird by bird by anne lammott: book about how to write. i love to read about how people do stuff :3 some of the advice applies pretty universally to creative efforts i think.. made me want to write more too

john dies at the end by jason pargin: DNF. comic/horror about this loser guy who discovers stuff. sigh i tried so hard to like this book its supposed to be pretty 'mecore'...talked about this with alena a bunch but its like hm... i know the sort of casual offensiveness sort of goes in hand with being poor and white and in the midwest and i appreciate how its like that creates its own doomed narrative or whatever. but also i feel like the protagonist would call me slurs or something. also the lowgrade but pervasive orientalism is kinda offputting. probably fun for some other guy! i did enjoy the horror elements though

the goldfinch by donna tartt: literary coming of age about a boys relationship with a painting (the goldfinch). also he flops a lot and its sort of homoerotic i guess? a movie was made of it. so something to note is that ive had this book out on loan since literally december. neil kept on being like hey man just stop reading it LMFAO. thoughts cp'ed from discord:

why does the goldfinch feel like a 600 page leadup to the actual book which is 800 pages

idk at this point im kinda sick of pathetic lovelorn self obsessed semi literary men. like toku men are also sopping and pathetic but i think its more appealing when they are also kind and can be vulnerable. this guy is just annoying and kind of incel coded. like does a grand gesture to make up for the fact that he killed your dog while dogsitting

i actually did enjoy the parts post timeskip but i still think the first two thirds could have been cut or Greatly compressed or interspersed w the present or Something, yk? prose was nice though

the bodyguard by katherine center: romance novel about a woman bodyguard who lives for her job. fresh from a breakup, shes given a new undercover assignment with a handsome actor, recently withdrawn from society. will they be able to break each others' shells....? my mom recommended this to me LMFAO we kind of have different tastes in romance.. ive read a book by this author before i think her platonic scenes are very strong? i wish there had been a couple more of those. also i like how she always includes a life affirming section at the end about how important it is for us to open ourselves up to love etc etc cute but not especially memorable

kiss quotient by helen hoang: (reread) a shy, autistic econometrician decides that she needs to get better at sex, and so hires an escort. helen hoang is one of my faavorite romance authors i really enjoyed this reread although i kinda forgot that both leads say, think and do some pretty embarrassing things. but you know a little embarrassment is endearing and all that.. i still prefer her other book (the bride test) but this one is pretty good too. vivid characters 👍

sisters of dorley hall by alyson greaves: web fiction - a trans woman infiltrates a secret force-feminization program. ok im just cp'ing my thoughts from discord again but i enjoyed it a lot:

my thoughts are that the first like, third? is really really good. it like idk takes the very real trans fears of like discovery and passing and all that and fictionalizes them a bit. but like its still grounded and swag. sooo tense once The Reveal happens n things w steph are pretty normal it gets kinda meandering? which i dont really mind bc i love interpersonal drama even if i miss how tense and scary it was. but also theres only like two major plot threads going on rn and theyre both pretty slowburn. a timeskip would probably benefit tbh like the point rn is kinda like. the 7 year meteor? yeah sorry

like it used to be sort of psychological thriller? and now its sort of more character focus and also surprisingly fluffy.. im surprised that the author has said they have a complete outline bc it doesnt feel very focused atm? but also like i suppose things are snowballing a bit re: revealing the sisters to the outside world

an unauthorized fan treatise by lauren james: a fangirl trying to prove her rpf ship is real uncovers a greater conspiracy. to me if something is able to capture a specific age/vibe from the internet its automatically pretty good. however more and more people are learning how to do that so maybe i should change my standards... i was never involved in All That re: rpf or even fandoms of live action shows until kamen rider? but like i definitely knew people in hs that were sort of like this LMFAO so it felt very familiar. i appreciate the author trying to make that $$ but i dont know if it really needs an expansion/sequel.. the ending is better off with some ambiguity imo

impossible us by sarah lotz: literary romance? a man and a woman fall in love online, but encounter difficulties when they try to meet. ok im just pasting my thoughts here again (spoilers btw):

ok that was a lot of stuff. onto movies/tv:

xo kitty: kitty goes to a school to connect with her online boyfriend, but all is not well. yall this was not good. i guess my standards shouldnt have been that high but to all the boys ive loved before was so cute!! (havent watched/read the others). but like.. the writing was bad and the main actress just wasnt very sympathetic or charming? characters waste time saying "i can explain" until time runs out for them to actually explain, additional (and nonsensical) romance plots are added for no reason, and the male lead isnt even that hot. sorry. also kitty deciding to move to korea to connect with her mom but not bothering to learn a speck of korean and insisting that everyone else speak to her in english really sucks honestly. not even my mom liked it so thats how you know its bad 👎

succession season 1: yesss succession. greg is my favorite cant wait to see him become evil. makes me stressed

shin kamen rider (hideaki anno): reboot of the first kamen rider by the guy who made evangelion. this guy kinda makes the same thing over and over but it looked sick as hell so i wasnt complaining. like stella obstinaterixatrix said, kinda more introspective or even insular to the point of kinda ignoring the usual kr theme of justice but it was still very fun :3 kinda want to watch the original now

ready player one (movie): my parents made me watch this movie. aggressively mediocre.

kamen rider revice and live and evil and demons: pretty fun if you have the disease that makes you think revice is good, but mostly made me miss revice. i think they should have gone more into the clone thing but i always think that so

kamen rider juuga vs kamen rider olteca: two-parter special for kr revice. i forgot what happened in this pretty much immediately after but karizaki was hot

roman holiday: a princess touring in rome escapes her duties for a day, and meets a dashing young reporter. classic romance!! i actually liked this so so much like it actually is very romantic and funny and like deserves the hype. didnt expect it to be in black and white even so audrey hepburn is really hot. (spoilers) more romances should have bittersweet endings though like it hit

kamen rider ryuki: a young man is inducted into a battle royale between those fighting for their deepest wishes, and decides to try and stop the rider battle once and for all. hey guys ryuki is so fucking good for those who have watched madoka magica a lot of it is very heavily based off of/inspired by ryuki! but ryuki does it better. pretty much The kamen rider has so much to say about justice and love and what it means to be a hero and sacrifice and *runs out of air and falls over* also it made me cry. if you ever try kamen rider try this one <3

EDIT OH i forgot about across the spiderverse 100/10 obviously groundbreaking in animation nice take on generational trauma and also like the nature of adaptation and being in a multimedia comics franchise and all that. really hope the sequel doesnt get crunched too bad. oh but copaganda not great 99/10

video games:

twisted wonderland: gacha game where random disney villains are bishie high schoolers instead. ill play chapter 3 sometime soon i swear. gameplay is terrible as with most gacha games but the characters are cute? i feel terrible guilt for being involved with a disney franchise. honestly pretty compelling character writing sometimes though sorry

apico: stardew-like about raising bees (in beta). sooooo cute and the devs obv care about bees a lot in real life. the gameplay loop + breeding systems are a little bit punishing right now though i really hope it gets adjusted. took over my life during finals (woops) and i got like half the bees and then burnt out. multiplayer is fun though!

legend of zelda tears of the kingdom: the next zelda game, now featuring building + vertical elements. yeah this took over my life for two months like it did for a bunch of other people i finished the main story a couple days ago! i might go back to do a couple more of the shrine puzzles, but other than that i think im done. LOVE the vertical elements and also all the little sidequests there are to do and how the world has changed since botw. dragons tears was really good and OMG PROVING GROUNDS. would be a 10/10 if zelda was the protag stop damseling her you guys cmon

paper mario origami king: newest paper mario game, which is a spinoff of the main series where theyre all paper (duh). im about halfway through this, i think? tried it out because of the dunkey video lol and also bc it was free at my library. very charming and inventive, has a really good soundtrack and really funny writing! i know the gameplay was controversial, but im enjoying it a lot (and theres a lot of room for error). might 100% it

it feels like this month i tried a lot of things that i didnt really like LMAO. also a lot of romance. im very happy about finally finishing the goldfinch! the only holdout on my libby is slaughterhouse 5 :P i did find some things that i really liked though! anyways this one feels a bit more scattered but if you got to the ending, congratulations! thanks for reading :3

[chaotic-on-main]

Hi Sky! I’m so excited to get to you as a writer (and read more of your stuff). 💕 3,10,19 for the ask game.

Hi Sailor!! Thank you so much for dropping in my ask box! I'm really excited to get started on your request, it means a lot that you would trust me with it. I hope you're having a lovely day/evening wherever you are in the world! ☺️💕

3. What makes you love writing?

Truthfully I just love writing because I love spending hours penning down my daydreams. Sometimes just imagining isn't enough, I need to have it memorialized in writing. I don't usually go back to reread my fics so I just assume I enjoy the process of getting to create that world and that story with my own fingertips and moving on to the next.

10. Which patterns keep popping up in your characters/projects?

I am a very expository heavy writer. I like dialogue, and I don't think I'm bad at it. Snarky fun quips and surface level conversations are great! But I find I prefer to describe the surroundings as well as the characters actions in as much depth as possible to make you really feel and understand the setting. This is an ongoing theme in pretty much everything I write (even some hcs).

You can see this in Unspoken Words. My reader is mute, and I think it's because I subconsciously wanted to focus on the actions and thoughts of the reader instead of dialogue heavy scenes. Not to mention I always see Levi as a man who shows his love through gestures, looks, and intentions. It just works out for me. ☺️

Also I do tend to either go for a shy, sweet reader or a sarcastic, fun reader. Hm, also eyes and mouths! I do like to focus on facial features especially the eyes and mouths.

19. Do you plan out your projects? If yes, to what level? How well do you stick to your plans?

Oh man. If you asked me this a couple months ago I would have said, "I don't really!" Deadass I used to just jot down basic notes like "reader and Levi go on a drive" and "it's late at night" and "they kiss on a cliff somewhere" and then call it a day lmfao. You'd be surprised but 80% of my writing is off the cuff.

I know this isn't the question but my writing process involves me envisioning the scene/story like a director behind the camera lens. I'm just dictating where things go and how they happen as I see it. So I don't really have planning, things just happens as I write.

It is to my detriment as I am a very slow writer because of it, not to mention the overwhelming anxiety of it.

LATELY I've incorporated my own messy way of @humanitys-strongest-bamf outline technique. I'll literally write a short sentence for each paragraph/couple of sentences to convey what I want to happen and then move on to the next as I'm visualizing the story. It has helped my writing TREMENDOUSLY. Who knew preparing something would make your life so much easier? 😅

For example for my elevator kissing scene, I'd write something like: "Levi looks at you before pushing you up against a wall" and then move on to the next scene.

send me a writer's ask!! 💕

[benjineedssleep]

ahaha heyyyyyyyy

i’m gonna ask you Many Things bc i want to see the inside of your brain

24, 27, 40, 65?

after reading over 100k words of my writing i wonder how much deeper you can get LOL but whatever let's go let's go let's go!!! XD here's the og post btw -> Get to know your fic writer!

send more asks (/nf) i love these

24. Worst writing advice anyone ever gave you?

i have the memory of a snail and nothing has bothered me enough to remember (i take most concrit and stuff with a grain of salt) but i hate the pushing of show not tell. i just think it's detrimental to the growth of a new writer the way it's taught. no one ever goes into the nuances of it, they just go "your readers want detail! don't tell them your character is crying! show them the tears streaming down their face, their skin turning red, them hyperventilating! be descriptive!" and it's like no. sometimes you just need to say a character is crying. not everything needs to be overly described as i think it takes from the beauty of what is described, y'know? prose shouldn't all be poetry. you should have moments of poeticism because that is what'll stick with a reader, not the shade of green the grass was.

so basically my opinion on show and tell is: if it doesn't set the scene, if it doesn't matter to the story, tell it. that's very much oversimplified but i think you get the point.

27. What is your most and least favorite part of writing?

this is kinda loaded for me because it really depends on the day. generally speaking tho i loveeeee a good exposition/scene setting moment. this includes both description (like a room, clothing, etc.) and stories. in my long fic i have plenty of expository bits that can almost be entirely removed from the fic itself and still stand their ground. i've even posted some of them here (like this one about seb's birthday). overall i just fuck with description like crazy and could write an entire story with that and internal monologue and i wouldn't have much of a struggle. conversations are important and i've grown to love dialogue over the years, but i'll always be a description lover at heart.

as for my least favorite part? time and pacing. i already have a complex relationship time irl so this is like,,, even harder for me. and it sucks because i do a ton of research on things to make them accurate to the story timelines and even have notes about when things occur to help me keep track yet i still mess them up. i think time is one of 3 big reasons i haven't posted my long fic yet and won't until it's 100% done. i just don't catch things in the initial draft sometimes and also change around ideas as i get to know characters and storylines a bit better.

40. If someone were to make fan art of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

holy shit dude if anyone made anything based on my writing i would fucking explode??? already kinda did after this post knowing they got brainrot from me and my samalex fic-- generally speaking though, i think you can tell exactly what bits mean a lot to me in my stories. they're described in very particular, very vivid ways and tend to have a lot of movement.

i think if i have to give specific examples here though, one of them would be That ™️ scene with sam/seb on winter 10, the scene with welwick on winter 17, anything from the flower dance (y2), and something i haven't written but know very well, a scene from summer 20 (y2). none of this matters to anyone but you though because it's not out LOL

(but for future reference... winter is my favorite season of the entire fic and it spans from spring y1-fall y2. so like,,, anything from there would send me to the MOON)

65. Tell us what you're most looking forward to writing -- in your current project, or a future project.

i'm working on a couple of things right now so i'll answer accordingly.

in my long fic (baby seasons change, but people don't) i'm most looking forward to summer 20 (y2). it's sam's 21st birthday chapter and it's been rolling around my head for about six weeks now. it's just SO FUCKING FUN DUDE. top three bits of the fic for me and i haven't even written it yet XD

in my current short fic (late dawns, early sunsets -- a zombie apocalypse au fic) i'm most looking forward to a particular argument that happens at the end of chapter 4. the entire thing is whump so i'm not... super happy or excited per se, but the scene is very complex emotionally and i feel like i'm gonna make sam come to a few realizations in that moment. there's only 6 planned chapters so this is very much the turning point. him and seb are also very drunk so there's that added layer of complexity.

i have a few of ideas for future projects that aren't just sambastian. i fuck with that ship heavy but i also have some pretty layered ideas for another samalex kinda thing, a different samalex fic that i'm contemplating making a samsebalex thing, and to cope with whatever the fuck i did to sebalex in my long fic, i might conjure up something for them too. i also wanna write haley/abby into my fics a bit more because they don't get nearly enough time to shine and i love love love their dynamic. so maybe i write a short story for them to satisfy those brain worms. we'll see.

ANYWAYSSSSS

that's all i've got for you lc. i feel like i wasn't speaking to you directly for like 90% of the time but it's fine lmfao.

if anyone wants to ask me anymore questions i fuckin' love yapping so hit me with them. here's the list again :3

[obimaya]

Writer’s Portfolio

Everyone says just publish your stuff on a blog, but I do not have a narrow portfolio, it is a hot mess of expository, technical and creative writing. Do I need to three blogs? I already have a technical writing blog and one for fun, do I need two more?  

[giraffeter]

First Drafts and the First Pancake

In a first draft I tend to do a LOT of expository writing. Since my writing style is usually a very tight POV narration, I find myself writing paragraphs and paragraphs of the POV character's thoughts about other characters, their relationships, how they feel about events from canon if that's applicable, etc. I used to then try to go in and polish up that exposition during the editing process, and I still do that, but I also end up deleting a lot of it and trying to find ways to show those thoughts and feelings in other ways. For a while, I was trying NOT to write like this (why spend time writing text I'm just going to delete later?) but I found that even though a lot of that text doesn't make it in the finished draft, it's helpful to me to articulate those thoughts and write them out — it's how I figure out what's going on in the character's head.

So instead of trying not to do it, I now think of this stage of writing as "the first pancake."

If you make pancakes a lot, you know that the first pancake is always wonky. Usually it's because you got excited and the pan wasn't hot enough when you started, but it could also be because your batter needs fine-tuning, or sometimes just the ineffable will of the kitchen gods. Sometimes, the first pancake is so bad that you end up feeding it to the dog or tossing it in the compost. My point is, you'll have a lot easier and more fun time making pancakes if you think of the first pancake as a "sacrificial" pancake. If it doesn't need to get thrown out, great! But if it does, that's okay, because you never planned on keeping it. That's not what it's for. The important thing is, you can't make the second pancake, or the pancakes after that — the good stuff, the stuff you're going to keep and enjoy — until you've made that first pancake. It can't be done. The first pancake has its use, even if that use is to be thrown away.

So now when I get carried away with too much exposition, instead of thinking "ugh this whole story is terrible and clunky, nobody's going to want to read this," I can get those thoughts out knowing that the purpose of that text isn't necessarily to be read — it's to clear the way for the good stuff that will follow.